How to Become a Full-Time YouTuber in 2021
In this video, I break down the 7 keys factors you need to do in order to grow your channel and build long-term success.
I have been making YouTube videos for over 4 years now and it’s been my full-time job for over 3, so whether you’re looking to start a YouTube channel or take your current channel to the next level, I’m going to cover 7 things you need to do to be successful.
Passion / Niche
This first tip sounds obvious, but I’m not sure it is. Pick a niche that you are passionate about. After I posted a video about the different Adsense income my different channels generate, a lot of people were curious to know what the highest CPM niches are for YouTube. But here’s the thing: if you create a channel on something you aren’t passionate about just because it has a high CPM, you won’t be successful.
It requires a lot of dedication to build a business of any kind, and a YouTube channel is no exception. If it’s something you’re only mildly interested in, making every video is going to feel like a massive chore for you and if your channel doesn’t immediately take off (which it likely won’t), it’ll be very easy to want to quit.
Instead, find a niche that you truly love – something that you’re really passionate about. Taking my and my wife’s channel Mango Street for example, we love photography, and it’s something we enjoyed as a hobby before it became a job. Even though we love it, after 4 years of making photography-related videos, it can feel draining at times – so just imagine if your channel was covering something you didn’t truly love. It would suck.
With this channel, I love personal finance topics and exploring ways to make money on the internet. It’s something I’ve been experimenting with and learning about for years – so even though it’s a lot of work, I look forward to making new videos and have a lot of fun doing it.
If you’re worried about ad revenue rates, you shouldn’t. Our AdSense earnings are really nothing to write home about. Instead, brand deals have been the main way we generate revenue. You know a lot of the names like Squarespace, Skillshare, Audible, NordVPN – even brands related to our niche like camera, smartphone, and computer companies have all done deals with us which more than makes up for a less-than-stellar AdSense amount.
Differentiator
Here’s what you have to ask yourself: “Why are people going to watch my channel over the thousands of other channels out there?” If you have unique insights, or a unique personality, or even a unique way to present information, that alone can be enough to separate you from the crowd. But ideally, the more differentiating factors you can implement in your videos, the better off you’ll be.
Let me give you another example. Before Rachel and I started Mango Street, we looked around at some of the most popular photography YouTubers around at the time – and back in 2016, there weren’t nearly as many as there are today. We found a few things that we thought were missing in this niche that we could bring to the table.
For one, most videos were too long. We found ourselves fast-forwarding through them or just bored – which leads me to the next issue – editing. It was clear most of these photographers were not really video editors, so the pacing and rhythm weren’t amazing. Both Rachel and I have a background in video editing, and we knew we could keep the pacing tight in our videos.
Third, we didn’t see the style of photography that we shoot being represented. Some may call our style moody or weird or whatever… but we didn’t see other people on YouTube shooting and editing like us, so we knew that would be a differentiating factor.
Fourth, since I have a background in motion graphics, I knew I could implement that element to help give the videos a little bit more polish.
So while we don’t necessarily have that on-camera YouTuber charisma and big personality that so many others do, we did have other things working to our advantage.
And while the Youtube landscape is more saturated than ever and it may be harder to find how you can stand out, take a deep dive into your chosen niche and see what you can bring to the table better than everyone else.
With the online business and personal finance space, I noticed it was pretty crowded with gurus pushing their courses or products and just an overall lack of transparency. I wanted to have a channel that explores different ways to make money online without an ulterior motive. Without anything to sell. Just information and experiments.
Remember, you have to give people a reason to be a regular viewer of your channel if you want to have success. Next let’s talk about the three Cs for running a successful channel.
Content
You can forget about a great title and thumbnail and every other aspect of this video if your content doesn’t deliver. While a title and thumbnail are super important and maybe you could lure in a few thousand people with clickbait, if you don’t actually have a good video inside, you will not have long-term success and you won’t transform viewers into subscribers who care about what you create.
The saying “Content is king.” is a saying because it’s true. When you start developing your video ideas, either script them out or at the very least outline them with what you want to include. If you’re teaching or informing people, make sure you’re well-researched. Think about the devil’s advocate position for your topic and try to think of how a viewer may respond to what you’re saying or what questions they may have. If you’re providing entertainment, try to look at it from an outsider’s perspective – someone who doesn’t know who you are and doesn’t think you’re funny just because it’s you. Why are they going to click on your video and subscribe to you instead of the #1 person in your niche?
For Mango Street and this channel, I try to find a combination of information and entertainment. I try to keep the pacing of the video moving while making sure to hit all of my key points.
The content of your video should be what you spend the bulk of your time working on. Tying back into my previous tip on having a differentiating factor, if something has already been done by someone else in your niche, don’t make the same video as them. Ask yourself – how can I do that better or how can I take that idea and add my own twist to it to make it my own?
Asking yourself these types of questions will help you make better videos that give people a reason to subscribe to you.
Consistency
We often get asked about how often someone should post to YouTube and the answer we always give is a simple one: Post as often as you’re able to consistently make high quality videos. Some YouTubers might post once a month – because of the type of videos they put out – whereas other people may post several times a day. For Mango Street, we found that once a week worked well for us. Much more than that felt suffocating and would make us burn out faster.
With this channel, I started at once per week, but I knew going into 2021 that posting more often would help my channel grow faster, which is why I’m focusing so much of my time and energy here. I have started posting twice a week for the last few weeks, and I would love to keep that going if I can.
I recommend you find that happy medium where you aren’t burning out from posting so frequently, but you’re posting enough so that your subscribers know when they can expect a new video from you and the quality will be up to the standard that you’ve set.
Community
If you’ve figured out the previous four things, you’re probably feeling pretty good. But, if you want to have long-term success on YouTube, you need to also focus on building a community with your audience. This can be really simple, such as a hashtag they can use when they post or inside jokes, or merch that helps them identify with you and feel like they are a part of your community. I think everyone really just wants a place to belong and you can provide that by building your own community with your viewers.
This will also help you when you branch out into other areas. For instance, if we’re able to connect with our audience over dozens of photography tutorials, they’re a whole lot more likely to care when we post a vlog or a personal project, or even our wedding video. They’re also more likely to follow us on other forms of social media where you can keep in touch on a more regular and informal basis than YouTube provides.
You have to remember that at the end of the day, you don’t want all of your eggs in the YouTube basket, because you’re relying on a third party to host and show your videos to everyone.
When YouTube stops notifying subscribers when you post a video and they don’t actively check your channel or follow you on other forms of social media, well, it’s going to be tough to keep your channel alive.
If you can connect and engage with your viewers on a more personal level, they will be more likely to watch your videos when you post, buy your merch or sign up for your Patreon, or whatever it is you need to do to help sustain yourself.
Quality
Alright, so obviously the quality of the videos you’re putting out is important, but I do have it down at #6 on my list for a reason. I believe that there are really great videos with really useful information or super entertaining that aren’t the best quality. And you have amazing, highly cinematic videos that are absolutely boring and provide nothing new for the viewer.
From a technical standpoint, don’t let gear hold you back, but also improve where you can. I believe audio is one of the most important aspects to a good YouTube video, so I’d prefer watching a video shot on a smartphone with really good audio, to a video shot on a Red camera with trash audio.
You can buy lavalier microphones that plug into your phone for really cheap or even try USB microphones that will plug into your computer. If you aren’t talking on camera but want to add voiceover, hop into your closet and shut the door while you record audio. This will deaden the unpleasant reverberations found in most rooms and make your audio sound a lot better.
From a lighting standpoint, you can pick up something simple like a ring light for relatively cheap, but even try sitting next to a window for great natural light. Don’t sit with a window right behind you, because you’ll be backlit and it’ll look awful. To the side or in front of you will work much better.
From a camera standpoint, there are still great channels using pretty inexpensive gear, like You Suck at Cooking which seems to be mostly shot on a GoPro or something. So once again, don’t let not being able to afford a fancy camera keep you from making videos. Put effort into getting everything looking and sounding as good as you can, and you can upgrade along the way
Experiment
Last but not least, is experiment. If you’re having a hard time gaining momentum or getting traction, mix up what you’re doing. If you’re an artist and you’ve tried making tutorials but can’t seem to get more than 500 views, try doing a timelapse speed art video and see how that performs. It may take awhile to find what works well with your skillset in your niche, but play around with it. Perhaps the most prime example of this is Mr. Beast. He started off making Minecraft and Pokemon videos 8 years ago and made videos analyzing other YouTubers. He had a pretty wide assortment of video topics, experimenting and testing to see what worked. He started doing crazy challenges like counting to 100,000 or reading the entire dictionary in one sitting, which is where he started to get a little bit more traction. Then it turned into giving away money, and a combination of crazy challenges, and the rest is history.
Final Thoughts
For me, these are the 7 key things that I think just about every successful YouTuber has implemented. Of course, some people just get lucky with mediocre… everything, but for me personally, I’d rather have my set criteria and goals than rely on luck.
Nothing about making YouTube videos is especially easy, but it can be rewarding in a lot of ways and has helped me leave the 9-5 world and now i just work… well 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Worth it, I guess?
Another thing you’ll notice is all successful YouTubers will ask you to hit that thumbs up button on this video because at the end of the day, we are at the mercy of the YouTube algorithm, and we all need you, our lovely viewers, to help us out and tell YouTube that this video doesn’t suck.