My adventures as a “new YouTuber”

I am a wife and mother of three and I work a full-time job in a corporate office. Since March 2020, I’ve been working from home. This has allowed me some free time to dive into my favorite hobby for the past 10 years or so, YouTube.

Over the years, having different creative outlets has been wonderful for me and my mental health (we can, so freely, say this nowadays). And now, more than ever, YouTube as a creative outlet, has been amazing for my mental health. I am learning so much every day, and I choose to share some of it here in hopes that it will help others.

Goals

My first goal is to meet the infamous YouTube threshold which is reaching 1000 Subscribers and 4000 watch hours. Right now, while writing this, I am at 519 Subs and 1248 watch hours.

I’ve been watching a lot of YT advice videos and from what I understand, it is absolutely necessary to find a niche, or a personalized portion of a topic and concentrate on that. I chose my hair journey, more specifically, my adventures with my Sisterlocks. My second goal is to become as successful as other YouTube channels on the Sisterlocks topic and get between 5k and 10k Subscribers (or more – dare I say it). But how do I get there, concretely?

Post regularly

Of course, the first thing to do to grow on YouTube is to post videos. The posting schedule is up to you and your lifestyle. In general, most say the more videos posted, the better. I would agree with that. It is also said that if you are under 1000 Subs, quality doesn’t matter as much as quantity. So, post as much as you possibly can (while not burning yourself out) to build a following and some traction. The hardest part is finding what to post about. I also want to add, as a watcher, I don’t see the benefit of setting a specific posting day and time and telling your audience. I’ve never watched videos on the day and time decided by the creator. I decided when I watch my videos. I don’t even like to watch YouTube Premieres. I’m sure I’m not the only one… However, it’s good to follow a schedule decided internally. Following a filming day, a writing day and an editing schedule is very beneficial.

Stand out within your niche

But how do I do that? YouTube has changed so much since 2009, when I signed up. It used to be that people sat down in front of their cameras to talk as if they were talking to a friend. Now, I feel like YouTube is losing its lovely personalized touch and trying to rival television shows and movies. It’s a lot for small creators who are one-man shows and can’t afford to spend so much time on just one video.

My videos are usually talking head videos with a little b-roll here and there to illustrate what I’m talking about if necessary. I really get into it most of the time, and my videos tend to be long. My husband says I’m a talker. So, I guess, I’m an introverted talker. Nevertheless, this is what I’m the most comfortable doing and this is where I see my channel going. But how do I stand out?

So far, I’ve tried to look polished and presentable, but also real, so not taking it too far and getting away from myself just like when I go to work, but better. So, after a few trials and errors, I’ve come to the conclusion that my makeup and hair situation has to be natural. The extra dramatic eye makeup looks, and the heavy contour are not for me. And also, the hairstyles are simple and easy every time, just like I usually do it in real life. So, always the same, for the most part.

I’m plain Jane, but I’m authentic. So far, stand out only with my efforts in offering a good picture quality and great sound.

Also, when choosing a topic, I try to put myself in the viewer’s head. This can help me share points that are not necessarily often said. I do understand that usually people on YouTube watch many different creators talk about one specific topic. They, indeed, usually binge on one subject. I know I do. A way to stand out is to offer the opposite argument than the one everyone is discussing or if this is not applicable, offer a unique argument that most people have not thought of or develop each and every argument separately and make a whole post about them individually. To do this, it’s important to watch other creators in your niche, but you have to be careful not to copy or plagiarize other people’s content.

Grow into yourself

While you are growing your sub count, it is the perfect time to grow into the creator you want to become. I honestly share my hair journey because I love the subject of black hair and healthy hair and realize that social media is a great way to share your experiences to enlighten and inform your community. I discovered Sisterlocks because of social media. I learned how to take care of my hair and my daughters’ hair because of YouTube and blogs. There is definitely a need for community and social media.

However, I don’t just want to make content about my hair. This is why I also set up this blog, just as I decided to grow again on YouTube. I also want to be able to share about other things. Everyone as different things they want to talk about. But how do you translate that into content creation and grow and make money. Monetizing your hobby is always a dream for everyone. I started a blog years ago because I love writing and sharing my thoughts, and I heard that people were making money doing that. Otherwise, I would still be writing all of my thoughts in a journal, keeping it all to myself.

I don’t just want to talk about my hair, but it’s what I’m comfortable sharing right now. It is also what is getting me the most engagement. Slowly, I am sprinkling other types of videos that are getting me way less views than my Sisterlocks videos. But doing YouTube for money is definitely not the same as doing it for fun. The template used is not the same.

Understand your audience and also yourself

Most of the time the advice is give your audience what they want, give them what they signed up for. But a what cost? And really, who really knows what the audience really wants. We can speculate, we can consistently repeat video topics that we’ve done in the past. But that is not going to make us happy. Finding the balance between what make your audience happy and what makes you happy is much more important.

Doing it (whatever it is) for other people is never the best thing to do. Carefully evaluate, while your sub count is low, what your favorite topics are and what you want to talk about.

Up next…

Next, I will share how I reached 1000 subs and my experience leading to achieving this amazing milestone.