It’s the question on every filmmaker’s lips: “how to be successful on YouTube?” This conundrum is a difficult one, given all the different ways it can be done. Not to mention the ever-changing nature of the platform that can make it feel like the goalposts are moving every 6 months, along with the fact that seemingly everyone else is also trying to become a YouTube video creator. The most recent example is the latest update to the YouTube dislike button.
YouTube is more popular than ever before yet, despite your worst fears, it’s not too late to jump on board and start uploading. There’s never been a better moment than right now to start that channel! Of course, new YouTubers will be prone to mistakes – it happens to everyone when starting a YouTube channel. This might be something that’s holding you back, so below, we’ve put together 8 simple, easy-to-make mistakes that you can avoid when starting out. Of course, we don’t necessarily have every answer for how to be successful on YouTube. Still, we certainly know how not to be successful.
Chasing the numbers
When it comes to YouTube channel advice, I always start with this. This is one of those Youtube beginner mistakes we all make, but I’ll say it anyway…do not focus on the numbers. The minute you do that, the minute you resign yourself to a joyless experience of mediocrity. Yes, YouTube analytics are crucial, and yes, we are all interested in how to monetize your YouTube videos. Still, they shouldn’t be your main focus when starting out. Becoming obsessed with views, subscribers and whatever other numbers YouTube serves up to you puts you at risk of becoming distracted from creating the very best content possible.
Top tip
In the early stages of your channel, it’s far more productive to focus primarily on the creative element and ensure you’re creating high-quality YouTube videos. So rather than looking at the numbers, spend time analyzing and asking yourself: are your videos good? How is the visual and audio quality? What could you do better?
To avoid the numbers game, you could even go as far as deleting the YouTube Studio app off your phone, which makes it a little harder and more inconvenient to check the stats.
Comparing yourself to others
When you’re paying too much attention to the numbers, you’re essentially comparing yourself to others, right? It can be very easy to fall into the trap of looking at other people’s channels (particularly those doing something similar to you) and worrying about how they’ve got more subscribers, views and likes. Unfortunately, this won’t help you improve in any way. It’s not how to make a successful YouTube channel. It’s difficult, but ignore what others are doing and focus on your own channel. We all have our own path and journey to undertake on YouTube.
Top tip
To avoid this comparison game, consider how much time you spend on YouTube, as well as what you’re watching. If it’s not benefitting you and making you feel bad about your own content, then it might be worth stopping!
Doing what everyone else is doing
How to be successful on YouTube? First, don’t do what everyone else is doing. That’s a quickfire way to ensure you probably won’t be discovered by many people. While it’s tempting to copy someone else who’s had success on the platform, you need to bring some originality to the game. Casey Neistat didn’t take off because he was doing exactly what everyone else was doing. He brought originality to the platform. You need to do the same.
While it’s okay to be inspired by other YouTubers (we all have our favorites) and take ideas from them, you won’t truly find success on the platform until you create something unique and true to you. It’s all about finding your style.
Top tip
To help find your own style and voice, try and tell a story that’s unique to you. It could be a family ski holiday, or something as simple as a trip to the supermarket. Experiment with the different ways you can tell this story and showcase your personality and creativity.
Again, I’ve found it can be useful to cut down on how much YouTube I watch. The more I watch, the more I’m influenced by other creators and potentially more likely to create something that’s similar to them.
Not replying to comments or engaging with your audience
This is a huge mistake. We’ve discussed it numerous times in other articles looking at how to be successful on YouTube, and how to grow your YouTube channel. Engagement is vital – it’s one of the key metrics the YouTube algorithm uses to determine where, when and how your videos appear on its platform. If you’re not replying to every comment left on your video, you’re doing it wrong.
Furthermore, when you’re just starting out, there’s no reason why anybody should yet care about who you are and what you do. So the fact that even one person may choose to watch your video AND take the time to leave a comment is actually a big deal. So be nice and take the time to thank them for doing so. They’ll appreciate it, and it may just help build your YouTube community.
Top tip
Use the tools in YouTube studio to filter and view the comments “I haven’t responded to”. This is a great way to keep on top of all the comments across your channel, ensuring you don’t miss somebody out.
Spamming comments
I confess. I’m guilty of this one. Back in the day, I would head over to other people’s videos and watch, then leave a very generic, spammy comment such as, “Wow, this was great. I also make travel videos. You should check out my latest one :).”
Don’t be me. It’s spam, and nobody likes spam on the internet. Also, It’s rude and inconsiderate. I liken it to walking into someone else’s art exhibition and exclaiming very loudly, “wow! Nice paintings. ANYWAY, I have some really great work just down the road at my gallery. Would you like to check it out?”
Nobody will appreciate this move, and it’s one of the classic YouTube mistakes out there. I’m sure you’ve seen examples of this yourself.
Top tip
If you are going to comment on other people’s videos, do so sincerely. Don’t come with the motive of wanting them to come and visit your own channel. Watch their videos, leave a comment of support, letting them know what you enjoyed about it, then move on.
If you can’t be bothered to watch someone else’s videos or don’t have the time, then don’t comment.
Going off-topic
Having a strategy and goal in mind is key in cracking how to be successful on YouTube. When you start off with your channel, make it really clear who you are and what you’re creating. Like I mentioned previously about finding your style, you need to go really niche. Pick a topic (it could be anything – travel, filmmaking, makeup, football, surfing) and stick to it.
If you stray from this topic in the early days, your emerging audience will become disillusioned and may not return for future uploads. So stay focused and on track.
Top tip
Before you start your YouTube channel, it might be a good idea to generate a list of ideas and topics that you can cover. Make sure there’s enough material in one topic to keep creating different videos and build a channel around. If not, it may be worth looking at something else.
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Being inconsistent
This piece of YouTube channel advice is right up there as the most important thing. When starting out, you need to be consistent with your uploads. If it’s one video a week, stick to it. The algorithm recognizes patterns and schedules, and so does your audience. If they know there will be a new video from you every Friday, they’re much more likely to keep coming back and tuning in. On the other hand, if you upload erratically, they may miss uploads, and any momentum built on your channel will fade away. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but it’s vital for new YouTubers.
Top tip
To help stay consistent, draw up a content calendar so that you know your upload schedule and can stick to the deadlines. It’ll also help to make sure the videos you’re creating can be achieved and uploaded by these deadlines – you want to make sure they’re easy enough to create that it can be done consistently over many weeks and months.
Avoid burnout
Wondering how to be a successful YouTuber? It’s certainly not by overworking yourself. Closely linked to the idea of consistency is burnout. A lot of YouTubers this year have been quitting or taking a break, citing burnout as the reason for doing so. You really need to find a working process and groove that’s sustainable for the long term. Yes, you need to be consistent…but it can’t come at the price of your health. When you’re running on empty, your ideas simply won’t be that great and the channel will suffer for it.
Top tip
To avoid burnout, build a schedule that’s realistic and leaves space for other things in life. Time off is important – you need to still have space to exercise, see friends and family, indulge in hobbies and other things. Set yourself boundaries and stick to them.
Using copyrighted music, footage and SFX
Another one of the classic YouTube mistakes. Before a channel has even gotten off the ground, it may receive damaging copyright strikes because of copyright issues. As tempting as it may be to use whatever you want in your videos, you need to ensure that you have the rights to do so. And in fairness, it has never been easier to stay on the right side of the rules.
Top tip
With Artlist, you’ve got access to thousands of incredible royalty-free music that will suit any video you’re creating, not to mention the brilliant SFX and stock footage available. Sign up today and you’ll never have to worry about any copyright issues on YouTube.
Don’t be afraid to make YouTube mistakes
As new YouTubers, we’re all afraid to make mistakes. That’s why you’re reading this article, right? Ironically, the final piece of YouTube channel advice I want to give on mistakes to avoid is that it’s actually okay to make mistakes. The exception would be using unlicensed content because this can deliver a killer blow to your channel. But otherwise, don’t be afraid to get creative and try new things.
Starting a YouTube channel is about experimenting and figuring out what works for you. Not everything will work, but all good creative work requires mistakes to learn and improve. The more mistakes you make, the quicker you learn and the better your work becomes.
Top tip
As you naturally improve over time, you’ll find that you may not like your older videos as much as you did when you first started out. I’ve found it useful to go back and watch my older work, analyzing them for mistakes and figuring out how I can improve going forward.
Neglecting SEO
I know it’s not the funniest part of the job, but figuring out SEO on YouTube is really important. Optimizing your video titles, descriptions and tags with relevant keywords can improve your video’s visibility in search results and increase traffic to your channel. When you’re just starting out, you need all the help you can get. So yes, it’s important to ignore the numbers for your own sanity, but it’s also common sense to follow good SEO practices from the beginning that will help you build.
Top tip
Try out a YouTube analytics tool like TubeBuddy. This handy browser extension is packed full of tools that’ll give you a much deeper insight and better understanding of your channel. With features such as keyword explorer, you can identify the best titles and video descriptions for your content.
Overlooking thumbnails
When it comes to YouTube SEO, just as important as the keywords, titles, descriptions and tags are the thumbnails. This is the very first thing a potential viewer is going to see when they’re browsing YouTube, so it has to be good in order to get them to click and watch your video. While it can be tempting to just pull a generic frame from the video and use that (this can occasionally work depending on what’s in the video), it’s usually far better to create a custom thumbnail from scratch.
Top tip
Read up on how to create a YouTube thumbnail so that you really understand the craft. Sometimes, you can try A/B testing. If you have an audience on other social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and X, create multiple thumbnails and ask them which one they’re more likely to click on.
Impatience
This is perhaps the number one mistake made by people starting YouTube. You have to understand that this is a long term process. While it does happen from time to time, overnight YouTube success is a rare thing. Play the long game and build brick by brick, video by video. It’ll be more rewarding this way.
Top tip
Focus on doing YouTube because you want to do YouTube. If you’re starting a YouTube channel because you want to be rich and famous, then chances are you’ll be pretty impatient after a few weeks or months. If you’re creating videos purely for the enjoyment and creativity of it, then you won’t mind so much if the channel doesn’t immediately take off.
Wrapping up
So, those are the mistakes new YouTubers can look to avoid when starting out on the platform. Of course, there are plenty more for you to make, but these are some of the most common ones, and if you can avoid them, you’ll be well on your way to success!
Remember – the secret of how to be successful on YouTube is the combination of many things. You need to ensure you can make a YouTube thumbnail, create a killer YouTube channel trailer, a YouTube banner and plenty more. When you master all of the small individual skill sets and then bring them together, your channel will thrive.
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