I always wanted to start a YouTube channel when I was younger, but I never got to it. Now that I’m in college, I did a lot of research to figure out whether I should start a YouTube channel in college or not. So should you start a YouTube channel in college?
You should start a YouTube channel in college because it is a productive way to spend your free time, learn new things, and get out of your comfort zone. Learning how to grow a YouTube channel will also give you business skills you never had.
There’s a lot to think about when starting a YouTube channel, such as the type of content you’ll be uploading, how often you should upload, and so on. Keep on reading to learn everything you need to know about starting your own YouTube channel.
Starting a YouTube channel in college is a great way to be more productive
Without a doubt, if you decide to start a YouTube channel, you are going to be more productive than you already are. Why?
Because starting and growing a successful YouTube channel requires a TON of work. There’s a lot you don’t know about YouTube if you’re reading this blog. For starters, did you know that there are over 1.9 billion active monthly users in over 91 countries on YouTube? With this many users, it’s obvious that there are far too many YouTube channels to even count.
If you start your own channel, you’re going to have to think outside the box and consistently put out great content to grow your channel. Of course, there’s still a lot more you have to do to gain a following. I’m just letting you know that you’re going to have to treat your YouTube channel like a full-time job if you want to get anywhere with it.
You can’t just upload a few pieces of content that you think are good and just leave it there. Odds are, nobody is going to see your videos. So, get ready to be productive and learn everything you can to start and grow a YouTube channel.
I’m not trying to discourage you. I’m just trying to give you the truth. I’ve created many videos in the past that have gotten nowhere. I know now a lot more than I did before, and that’s why I’m going to start uploading videos again. Feel free to subscribe to my channel if you want to follow along!
You’ll have a lot to share in college
Being a college student alone is a great reason to start a YouTube channel. Everyone’s experience in college is different. Your experience from high school applying to college, to actually being in college was different from someone else’s.
You’ll know some things that others don’t, and vice versa. As a college student, you are constantly learning things, and this makes for great content. People love hearing about real-life experiences. It’s relatable, realistic, and interesting.
And no, you don’t have to only post content about your life as a college student. You can always focus on creating content that’s based on things you’re passionate about. Believe it or not, no matter what you’re passionate about, there will always be an audience waiting to listen.
You probably already know this, but if you go on YouTube, you will find weird videos that get millions of views. A great example of this is HowToBasic. This channel revolves around making false How To videos. Rather than teaching you how to make banana bread, this YouTuber will throw a bunch of bananas, bread, and eggs at a wall, and then start to smush everything together. Warning: it can get gross.
If you decide to watch the video, don’t say I didn’t warn you. The point is, a channel like this has over 13 million subscribers and 2 billion total views for all his videos. Even though I wouldn’t necessarily say this is a passion, it’s proof that you can grow a channel with any type of content.
Sit and think
Take some time to think about what you’re passionate about. What do you love so much that you believe you could grow a YouTube channel from? If the first thing that comes to your mind is “Nothing,” you didn’t take enough time to think about it. Everyone has something they’re passionate about. Check out this huge list of video ideas for some inspiration.
You’ll gain valuable business skills
When you start a YouTube channel in college, you’re going to gain valuable business skills that you’ll carry with you forever. It doesn’t matter whether you have an interest in business or not, once you start and grow a YouTube channel, you’re going to have to learn a thing or two about business – particularly internet marketing.
At first, you’re not going to know what you’re doing. The only thing you’re going to focus on is creating great content. After a couple of months and a lot of research, you’ll start to learn a lot about internet marketing.
I’ll tell you now that if you upload a random video with no target audience in mind every three months, you’re most likely not going to get anywhere. Your YouTube channel will be what I like to call a ghost town. There are many business practices you’re going to have to learn and apply, including:
- Market research. You need to know everything you can about your audience. The more you know about them, the easier it will be to plan and execute your videos.
- Developing a content strategy. Once you know who your audience is, you need to create a strategy for your content to be appealing. You want your audience to be excited for your next video. The goal is having your viewers watch your entire video with skipping through.
- YouTube search engine optimization (SEO). YouTube SEO is the process of optimizing your channel and videos to increase viewership in both search engines and YouTube itself.
- Promotion. The work doesn’t end when you publish a YouTube video. You need to learn how to effectively promote your videos to increase your viewership and expose your brand. Promotion is just as important as creating high-quality content.
- Copywriting. When you publish YouTube videos, you have to add a title and a description. Unfortunately, if you don’t learn how to write compelling copy, people aren’t going to click-through to your videos and links in your descriptions.
- Networking and social media. The best way to grow any business is finding the right people to help you grow it. When you start publishing videos, you’ll want to find people through social media (including YouTube) to help scale your channel.
There are many other business skills you’ll have to learn along the way. Remember, these skills are incredibly valuable in today’s marketplace. The best part is, when you start a YouTube channel in college, it doesn’t feel like work.
You’re not going to feel like you’re forced to learn things from a textbook. Building a YouTube channel is a lot of fun; therefore, you’ll want to learn these skills because it’ll help you grow as a YouTuber.
Getting out of your comfort zone
Without a doubt, starting a YouTube channel is out of many people’s comfort zones, especially college students. I’d like you to try something important:
- Take out your phone and start recording yourself. Try talking about yourself. Look straight at the camera and say your name, where you’re from, and what your hobbies are.
Believe me when I say a simple task like this is very difficult to do. It’s a whole different story when you’re talking to a camera lens. If you’re able to confidently complete this task, then you’re probably a natural born speaker.
For most people, it’s completely nerve-wracking and awkward. If you start a YouTube channel in college, you’ll learn how to get out of your comfort zone and try new things. And no, you don’t have to always point a camera at your face. There are other options, including:
- Doing voice-overs
- Creating animations
- Using speech bubbles or subtitles
- Recording videos from your POV
- Using text-to-speech technology
If you hate pointing a camera at yourself, those are some good alternatives to consider.
Getting out of your comfort zone is great for self-improvement. You’ll learn to take risks, become more alert, and increase your productivity. You’re also teaching yourself that you’re capable of more than you think, and this can lead to great opportunities in your professional career.
Most importantly, you’re giving yourself a chance to find something you love doing. There are many ways to create great content on YouTube. If you continue to try new things, you may eventually find something you love. Maybe it’s shooting and editing videos, photography, teaching, or public speaking.
Your YouTube channel can bring you success
Once you get to know more about how YouTube works, you’ll realize that it can bring you great success – even on accident. There are many people who started a YouTube channel in college who found great success on the platform.
A recent example of this is a YouTuber named Elliot Choy. Elliot has tried creating YouTube videos in the past but found no success. Recently, his channel has been ramping up. He gained over 100,000 subscribers in the last 7 months! There are many other YouTubers who also started a YouTube channel in college.
The point is, you never know where your journey on YouTube will take you. I highly recommend creating as much content as you can for a couple of months, and then see what happens. Don’t worry about your subscriber or view count, just keep on publishing high-quality content.
YouTube does a great job of testing videos to see whether people like them or not. All you need is one video to blow up. Afterward, anything can happen. You may suddenly find your YouTube channel gaining hundreds of subscribers a day!
A personal story to help encourage you to start
Like I mentioned at the start of this blog, I always wanted to give YouTube a try, but I never got to it. I finally got encouragement to create videos when three random videos of mine got me over 1000 subscribers and a million views. At the time of writing, I had published a music video with lyrics in the description, and two gaming videos from my iPhone.
I published the music video when I was a clueless 12 years old, so I never thought anything of the high view count. However, when I published the two gaming videos last year, they started to get tens of thousands of views out of nowhere! I’m especially talking about the video below.
I published the video on February 22, 2018. It was only getting 0-10 views a day up until November 1, 2018. From November 2, 2018, the video started to get hundreds and then thousands of views a day.
I get shocked every time I look at this video’s analytics. In short, I recorded myself playing a game on my phone, and it got me over 1000 subscribers, almost one million views, and $100 on YouTube. Just to be clear, I am not a YouTuber. I just found some luck that encouraged me to give it a try.
So what’s the point of this story? It’s to show you that YouTube is a real business opportunity. There are real dollars to be made. Yes, it can take a lot of time, and yes, it will take a lot of work. Get out of your comfort and start a YouTube channel in college. You don’t know where it can take you.
A final answer to should you start a YouTube channel in college
For those of you who were looking for a heading like this, yes; you should start a YouTube channel in college. As long as you’re not breaking any of YouTube’s policies, you have no risk of starting a channel!
To start, you should treat your YouTube channel like a fun school project. Your goal is to upload at least one video a week doing something you’re passionate about. After you create 30 or so videos, research some strategies to build your brand and then continue to create more content.
Once and if you get some traction, I guarantee that you will be more motivated than ever to take YouTube seriously. There are so many questions that nobody can answer, but that’s the fun part. If you find success, you will have an amazing story to tell. You’ll also have an amazing online business.
Conclusion
Even though YouTube has been around since 2005, it is still a world of wonders. There are people from all over the world who have created unbelievable careers from YouTube. As a college student, it’s the perfect time to learn and try new things.
Starting a YouTube channel is definitely one of them. Rather than wasting time watching random videos on YouTube, do something great with it. Give it a shot and share your experience with everyone else by leaving a comment down below. We’re dying to hear your story!
What did you think about this blog? Comment below! Also, subscribe to my newsletter for updates on new content, including videos on YouTube!