When starting or growing a YouTube channel you make mistakes that waste you or your viewers time. These mistakes can easily be avoided if you know what to look out for.
Mindset Mistakes
1. Unclear purpose
If you aren’t clear about why you want to set up a YouTube Channel you’ll soon lose interest and stop spending time creating videos. Instead pursue a niche that you’re passionate about so on days that you lack motivation you’ll still have the drive to keep going.
2. No goals
Goals are like a road map to your destination. If you don’t set a goal for yourself or for your YouTube channel you’ll take less and less action which leads to lack of results. For example your internal goal maybe to have an impact on as many people as possible in your niche. Your external goal maybe to generate 10,000 subscribers to your channel by the end of the year.
3. No target audience
If you don’t know who to target then you’ll create videos for people who aren’t interested in your content. For example if your niche is about running you want to create content that appeals to people who are interested in running.
4. Unappealing content
If your audience is not interested in your content, they are not going to keep watching your videos. One of the best ways to create content that people are interested in, is to type a keyword into the search box of Google or YouTube. You’ll get a bunch of suggestions related to your main keyword.
5. Channel Mistakes
Many beginner YouTubers forget to optimize their channel for their visitors. When people first visit your channel they want them to immediately know what your channel is all about. Therefore create a channel banner and add a channel trailer that reflects the content that you’re going to create. Include a description of your channel content on your about page. Also organize the content on your home page so it’s easy to find.
Video mistakes
6. Improper camera use
Most people these days just use their iPhone to record video but it needs to be high quality video that you record. For example make sure that your whole body takes up the frame in the viewfinder. Also make sure that your eyes are level with the view finder and look straight into the lens of the camera instead of looking off to side like this.
7. Blurry shots
You videos will be blurry if you don’t focus on the object. To prevent that from happening place an object in front of the camera and lock the focus of the camera. When you’re ready to go replace the object with yourself.
8. Poor lighting
Poor lighting in your video will give the impression you don’t know what you’re doing. When I began making videos, I just went outside to use the daylight. Later on I just pinned the bed sheet to the wall then purchased a few cheap lights to light up the background.
9. Lack of confidence on camera
If you speak softly and use a monotone voice you won’t keep your viewers engaged. When appearing on camera you lose a certain amount of energy so speak a little louder and vary the tone of your voice to keep your viewers engaged.
10. Not looking into the camera lens
If you look to the side of the l camera, it doesn’t look like I’m actually talking to you, however if I look straight into the camera lens, then it looks like I’m engaged with you.
11. Bad audio
When I first created videos I just used the built-in mic of my phone camera. This was a big mistake because I often got background noise particularly if I was outside. If I was inside the audio sounded echoey or metallic. If you use an iPhone I highly recommend the Rode SmartLav+ Microphone. It records great sound. Click the card icon to check out my review of the Rode SmartLav Plus Microphone.
12. Rambling
Avoid rambling in your videos. If you don’t get to the point quickly you’ll soon lose your viewers. Use the first few seconds to hook your viewers. For example you can say “in this video I’m going to talk about the YouTube mistakes to avoid and how to fix themâ€.
13. No call to action
If you want to attract more viewers and subscribers to your channel, include a call to action by using end cards and end screens. Encourage viewers to keep watch related videos by including them in your end screen.
14. Lack of editing
Don’t waste the precious time of your viewers by not editing out the ums, ahs, ramblings and mistakes made during the recording process. Use a video editor such as Screenflow for the Mac or Camtasia for the PC to edit out your mistakes or to spice up your videos.
15. Poor thumbnails
Don’t use the auto-generated thumbnails that YouTube produces. They won’t make your video listings stand out in the search engines. Instead create a custom thumbnail by using the free graphics editor such as canva.
16. Lack of optimization
Your video won’t appear in Google or YouTube if you don’t optimize it after uploading it to your channel. Make sure you include your main keyword in the title, description and tags so it will be found in the search engines.
17. Don’t copy other channels
Avoid copying the channel art, thumbnails, title, description and tags of other channels. Instead try to use your own unique voice and graphics to make your channel stand out from millions of others.
18. Lack of promotion
Don’t expect your video to go viral just by uploading it to your channel. Make sure you share it on your social media sites, embed it on your own website and also join other groups and forums where you can share your videos. Avoid asking sub for sub when commenting on other channels. Most people that do this are only interested in getting a subscriber to their channel but are not interested in your content.
19. Don’t buy subscribers and views
I often receive emails from companies who want me to purchase subscribers and views. YouTube frowns upon this practice and may suspend your channel so it’s not worth the risk. If you want to go the paid route, then it’s best to create an AdWords for video campaign which Google approves.
20. Lack of consistency
You won’t generate many views or subscribers if you only upload a video once a month. Try to upload a new video at least once a week on a consistent basis.
21. Not monitoring channel performance
If you don’t know how your videos are performing you won’t know how to improve them. Visit YouTube Analytics to see which videos are performing the best. You’ll be able to see if people are actually watching your videos all the way through, known as retention rate and what keywords they used to find your videos, known as traffic sources.
There you have it.
21 YouTube Mistakes To Avoid And How to Fix Them.
If you want to learn how generate traffic, leads and sales on autopilot become a member of my YouTube Marketing Course at TubeVideoBootCamp.com
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