How to Start a $45K/Month YouTube Channel (2023)

According to Backlinko, over a billion hours of YouTube videos are watched each month and successful YouTube channels make $3 to $5 per 1,000 views. If you want to diversify your revenue stream and make some extra cash, you might want to learn how to start a YouTube Channel.

We have talked to some of the most successful YouTube (YT) channels to find out how to start a successful YouTube channel. We’ll share advice from: 

• Cameron Anderson: Blacktail Studio makes more than $15K per month with 1.69 million subscribers and more than 100 million views. He teaches woodworking, sells furniture, and sells detailed instructional videos.
• Reyes The Entrepreneur: Reyes’ YT channel makes between $15K to $20K per month talking about profitable side hustles. He has nearly half a million followers and 10 million+ views.
• Serge Belous: UpFlip is one of the fastest growing YouTube channels about starting a business, and I got to pick Serge’s brain about his strategies. We have over 550K subscribers, more than 41 million views and are making $40K to $50K per month with the channel. He’s a private person, so this is a big deal!

We’re going to share their secrets so you can create content that will attract viewers from across the globe and build your authority as a master of your trade. Get ready to learn how to start a YouTube channel and make money.

YouTube Channel Ideas

You’ll need to decide what to talk about before creating a YouTube channel. The YouTube community has successful influencers in every category of content, but some are more profitable than others.

A good place to start is by looking at what you’re good at and what you are passionate about. If you own a business, just create video content around your business. There are always opportunities to show what to do and what not to do. 

If you don’t own another business, check out some of the video ideas that people watch most.

What is Popular Content on YouTube?

People love watching YouTube content, especially the following categories. If you don’t know what kind of content to create, consider starting a new YT channel about one of these:

• Shorts (under 30 seconds)
• Singing
• Teaching
• Tutorials
• Fashion Advice
• Make-Up Tutorials
• Cooking Videos
• Pet Videos
• Comedy Videos
• Tech Videos
• Product Reviews
• How To Tutorials and Guides
• Video Game Walkthroughs
• Vlogs
• Celebrity Gossips
• Unboxing Videos
• Comedy or Sketch Videos
• Shopping Sprees
• Prank Videos
• Parodies

Next, you’ll want to look at what successful YouTubers are doing to produce quality content.

Research What Leading Influencers Are Doing

You have to create quality content to get enough views to qualify as a YouTube Partner. The best way to do that is to establish what the best content creators are doing. 

Serge told us:

Find 40 of the best YT Influencers in this blog by Influencer Market Hub. Pay attention to things like their banners, logos, descriptions, titles, and content length.

Create a Customer Avatar

Create a visual that helps you easily remember who you make the videos for. People watch what they enjoy, so if you upload a video that doesn’t interest your target market, it can hurt your channel and receive negative comments.

Make Your Channel Similar––but Unique

You don’t want to copy what someone else is doing, but you want to take notes on what works and find ways to do something similar. Just make sure to let your personality shine through your work.

Step 1. What Makes a Successful YouTube Channel?

• Be consistent:  Starting a new YouTube channel can be a lot of work. At UpFlip, we have six or more people working on YT to bring you high-quality content.
• Build a community: People tend to be more attracted to communities than content. Plus, most computer algorithms highly prioritize engagement. Always respond to comments to provide more value.
• Make a series of videos: Series tend to do well. Use a trick from many successful TV shows and end each episode with a cliffhanger so the viewers want to know what happens in the next episode.
• Collaborate: Creating videos with other creators helps expose your content to new audiences. Partner up with someone who inspires you. That’s what we did in the video with Blacktail below.

Serge attributes 18,500 new subscribers to this collaboration. 

• Optimize for search: You’ll need to make sure headings, titles, tags, and thumbnails all have keywords that people will search. That means you’ll need a great tool for YouTube SEO.

Next, we’ll walk you through starting a YouTube channel.

Step 2. How to Start a YouTube Channel

Setting up YouTube to be a content creator is a six-step process. You’ll need to:

1. Sign in to YouTube.
2. Create your channel.
3. Name your channel.
4. Add a channel description.
5. Upload a cover photo and profile picture.

How to Make a YouTube Account

The first thing you’ll want to do is sign into your YouTube account if you aren’t already. All you have to do is click on the upper right corner where the “Sign In” Button is. 

Next, choose which account you want to use. It expects you to have a Google account. If you have one, input the information. Otherwise, select “use another account” and create an account.

Next, input your password (current users) or specify whether the account is a personal or business account. You can find more information about signing up for YouTube on Google Support (YouTube is part of Google). It has directions for desktop, iOS apps, and Android.

Next, you’ll want to create a YouTube channel.

How to Create a YouTube Channel

For those wondering how to start a YouTube channel from scratch, you can follow this process:

1. Go to the top right corner and click on the circle for your Google profile.
2. Click “create a channel.”

Next, it will take you to a screen that asks for your name and picture. We’ll discuss that in the next section.

Name Your YouTube Channel

Your new YouTube channel is going to need a name. Do you already have a business name? If so, just use that. If not, think of a name for it. For mine, I’m calling it BB’s Vegas Adventures because I’m getting a GoPro and going to start recording the mischief I get into. The picture below shows the screen.

I also uploaded a picture. Mine is silly, but for most people, you’ll want a headshot or a business logo. I’ll describe that more next.

Upload a Profile Picture and Cover Photo

Remember to add a profile picture before you click “Create Channel.”  The photo should be no more than 800 x 800-pixel png, jpeg, or gif (no animations). Check out some of the easy YouTube Photo makers to find one that you like. Here are the photos Reyes The Entrepreneur, UpFlip, and Blacktail Studio use. 

After you’ve uploaded your profile picture, click the “Create YouTube Channel” button. It will take you to a screen that looks like the picture below.

To edit your banner image, click “Customize Channel” and it will take you to the YouTube Studio. This is where the magic happens. You can adjust the:

Layout

The layout has places to add:

• A channel trailer for non-subscribers
• Featured video for returning subscribers
• Up to 12 Sections

I’ve included a screen recording from Reyes The Entrepreneur channel where he uses both the featured video and 10 sections. Check it out below:

Branding

The YT Studio Branding tab includes the ability to edit:

• Your profile picture: The image should be square, bigger than 98 x 98 pixels, less than 4 MB, and png or actionless gif.
• The banner image: The image needs to be a minimum 2048 (long) x 1152 (high) pixels and no more than 6 MB.
• The watermark: This will go in videos. It should be 150 x 150 pixels and less than 1 MB. Acceptable files are: PNG, JPEG, GIF (no animations), or BMP.

You’ll want to change the banner image in this section. Check out the three brand banners below. Each takes a different approach but includes the same information: the name of the company and their social media. Notice that UpFlip adds the time we post and our mission in the banner. That helps subscribers know what to expect and when to check it. Which do you like best?

You might also want to add a watermark to your YT videos. Check out two ways to watermark YT videos.

Add a Channel Description

Next, go to the “Basic Info” tab to add a description, which includes:

• A place to change the channel name: Be careful about this because you’ll have to update your branding.
• The description box: It allows a maximum of 1,000 characters. Make sure to do keyword research before writing your description. Keep your keyword density around 1% or 2% to avoid penalties for keyword stuffing. We’ll discuss tools to help with this later in the blog.
• Links that will be shared with your viewers: Add social media, websites, blogs, etc. You can choose to include the first five links in the banner, so organize them well.
• Contact Info: Include an email that can be shared publicly with viewers.

The picture below shows the page for you to add a description of your channel.

The description will show in the section about the channel. The most detailed of the three sections is UpFlip’s. It tells what we do and includes the keywords:

• Businesses
• Aspiring entrepreneurs
• Business secrets
• Interviews
• CEOs
• Entrepreneurs
• Business owners
• Your own business
• Own a company

Then shares information on how to be featured, how to find our services, and how to reach out for sponsorship opportunities. You can see the “About” section of the channel below:

YouTube channels for kids and YouTube channels for gaming have some specific requirements we need to cover.

How to Start a Kids YouTube Channel

If a younger child wants to start a YouTube channel, you’ll need to assist them because the YouTube kid policies require users to be at least 13 years old, unless they are under a family account. Monetization requires someone to be over 18, and you must follow all local laws. Make sure to review the content policies if you plan to market to kids. Paid product placements are specifically excluded from the YouTube Kids app.

Here’s a kid’s book on starting a YouTube channel. Make it fun for your whole family:

NEED A LINK

How to Start a Gaming YouTube Channel

Gamers share tips and tricks with people on YouTube frequently. YouTube policies specifically mention how to make a YouTube channel for gamers in several sections including the monetization and copyright sections. Check out the list of resources for gaming YouTube videos.

Next, it’s time to create your first video.

Step 3. Create Your First YouTube Video

Creating new videos will require:

Let’s start by looking at the equipment you’ll need before creating your first video.

Get Your Tools

You’ll need to have video equipment, software, and other tools before you can post your first video on your new channel. YouTube channels will typically want to have the following tools to produce quality content:

• Camera (cell phone is okay at first)
• Microphone(s)
• Laptop
• Photo and video editing software
• YouTube & Search Engine Keyword Planner
• Social Blade, analytics software
• Other social media accounts

Camera and Accessories

Cameron told us:

Meanwhile, Reyes told us:

You’ll need a camera and accessories for content creation. You can make videos for your own YouTube Channel on a phone or with a computer’s internal webcam, microphone, and the lighting in the space you are recording. That might cause bad audio or video, plus it could require a lot of work in post-production. To make videos that are easy to watch, there are a few ways to go about choosing the right equipment.

Microphone(s)

I would suggest trying your built-in microphone to see if you are satisfied with it first. If you have poor audio There are a ton of different options for mics, but they typically fall into the following categories:

• Wireless single-direction lapel microphone system: Best for presentations where you need to catch your voice while you are in motion.
• Cardioid microphone: Great for live music, interviews, streaming, gaming, and more. There are different types, so research which one is best for your needs.
• Shotgun microphone: Best with DSLR cameras. If you are shooting with a DSLR, consider this type of mic.

Check out this list of 40 sites that help people choose the right mic. 

Let’s discuss laptops next.

Laptop

YouTube creators use a lot of software that works best on a computer. While you can use a cell phone or tablet, the desktop version works better. Because of that, you might want to buy a laptop. When doing any kind of video or photo editing, you’ll want to consider:

1. Quality of the screen: Apple Products tend to stay true to color best, but there are screen calibration tools you can use.
2. Storage space: 1TB+ SSD
3. RAM: Typically 16 or 32 GB
4. Video card: 6-8 GB
5. Software specifications: Check the video editing software you’ll be using.

For instance, here are the specs for Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe has some of the more resource-intensive requirements for software, so if your computer meets their specs, you might be okay. I have had some success buying computers from Amazon Open-Box Deals for drastically reduced prices.

You can skip a more powerful computer if you plan on hiring a video editor to help with your new channel.

Next, we’ll look at the photo and video editing software you’ll need when starting a YouTube channel.

Photo & Video Editing Software

If you plan to edit videos yourself, you’ll need post-production software for making videos. At UpFlip, we hired an editor for our video content but specified the requirements for the post-production process.

Some popular video editing software includes:

• Adobe Products
• DaVinci Resolve
• CyberLink PowerDirector 

Check out PCMag reviews on editing software.

YouTube Keyword Planner & Analytics Software

YouTube analytics tools help you plan content for your YouTube channel, analyze competitor channels, and monitor how your videos are performing on YouTube. This is a must-have when starting a YouTube channel. Check out these tools:

• Social Blade: Recommended by some YouTubers
• VidIQ: Preferred by UpFlip
• Ahrefs: Used for writing and search engines but also has YouTube utilization

Script

Depending on what kind of a channel you are creating, you might want to have a script. UpFlip writes several intros and a list of 40 questions to ask the business owner. We also use a guide that specifies what we have found the viewers enjoy watching and what loses the audience.

Cameron told us one of the best suggestions he’s ever heard is to come up with the title and thumbnail first and work from there. That’s especially helpful if you are learning how to start a YouTube channel. For Beginners, you’ll want to simplify the process as much as possible. I definitely think it helps to start with the SEO emphasis and go on to create the rest of the content.

I’d suggest looking on Google Trends for the top searches on a topic before you start making videos.

Record

Cameron told us:

UpFlip focuses on providing content the audience wants to watch. We try to keep our answers under 60 seconds, but we focus on creating longer videos because we find it helps with the metrics:

• Watch time: Total monthly hours viewers spend watching our channel
• Average view duration: Watch time of each video divided by the number of viewers
• Clickthrough rate (CTR): People who watch the video divided by the people who were shown the video in search or through or other means

Don’t forget to record several intros and calls-to-action. Remember to ask them to subscribe to your channel, but always wait until after you really add value for your audience. They are more likely to hit the subscribe button then.

Edit Your YouTube Videos

This is a more advanced skill set for YouTube channels. At first, just focus on making useful videos. If you decide to edit them, outsource them. Both Reyes and UpFlip hire freelancers. We prefer using Upwork for our freelancing.

Cameron specifically advises cutting out all wasted space. When he sands a new table, he only includes enough to say, ”Next, you want to sand the table.” No one wants to watch a video where someone sands a table for 30 minutes. You’d lose your audience. Keep it to two seconds.

Step 4. Post Content

Now that you have an edited video, you’re just a few clicks away from beginning your YouTube journey. You can post new content from the mobile or desktop app. Just look for the “+” icon in mobile or the camera icon on the desktop app.

Mobile and desktop go through slightly different processes. I created a video on how to post a youtube video from your phone. Check it out below:

The desktop app allows a lot more functionality. When you’re ready to start uploading videos, you’ll want to fill out the following sections:

• Title: The title is one of the first things people will see. It is also one of the primary factors that impact SEO and visibility. It should include the target keyword or a variation of it. Titles are best at 70 -100 characters.
• Thumbnail: The thumbnail is the cover photo for the video. Under 50 characters works best and A/B testing should be used to determine which works best on YouTube.
• Description: The video description should start by telling the viewers what they are going to see in the first 200 characters, then include other information that further explains the video like links and  timestamps. Include relevant keywords and mention any sponsored content.
• Music copyright information: Each YouTube channel needs to create unique content. If the AI detects copyrighted material, it will flag the content and give the revenue to the copyright owner. To avoid this, carefully review YouTube’s copyright terms and conditions.
• Make your video shareable: Only public videos will be eligible for revenue and the more shares you have, the more people who can see it. Make sure to allow and encourage sharing of your YouTube content.
• Allow comments: Algorithms use comments to establish whether people are interested in the material. The more meaningful engagement, the better the channel is likely to do among the target audience.
• Relevant tags and hashtags: Hashtags in a description are a great way to see how your video is doing. They also help viewers find other videos on similar subjects. Check out this example for #cleaningbusiness. Meanwhile, tags are the basic building blocks for how YouTube indexes your video. Include all meaningful searches that you want your video to come up during. There is a maximum of 500 characters in the tag box, and only three tags can be shown above the title of the video.

Example: If this blog were a YouTube video, I would use the following:

Follow other YouTubers in your niche to establish what they are doing well and how you can add more value for your target audience. Creating content is all about which channels satisfy their audiences’ needs best.

Step 5. Share to Social Media

Sharing to social media can be as simple as posting the link and a description about the YouTube videos, or you can upload videos that are teaser clips for your YouTube videos.

Cameron told us:

Meanwhile, UpFlip approaches sharing the YouTube Channel on Instagram, by posting the thumbnail and a description, then linking to the YouTube in the profile.

Serge told us: 

Respond to Comments

Cameron loves responding to comments. He told us:

Your YouTube journey is a learning opportunity. If you get positive comments, thank them and note that the audience appreciated certain things. If you get negative comments, try to help satisfy your audience and learn about what they didn’t like. Both scenarios are a chance to connect with new viewers and gain insight into what people expect. We asked Serge about comments, and he told us:

Serge went on to discuss how to use comments in Facebook groups:

Let’s look at ways to optimize your channel and content after you upload a video.

Step 6. Optimize and Grow

There are a ton of ways to optimize your content after you upload a video, including:

• Create formulas
• Study YouTube Analytics
• Buy YouTube ads 
• Use other ad platforms
• Improve SEO
• Use the Community tab to improve engagement.

Serge told us: 

We’ll discuss each.

Create a Formula with Templates 

You can create elements in YouTube Studio to make end screens and cards easy to add to your videos. If you find that one template gets people to subscribe better than another, add it to other videos.

YouTube Analytics

Use YouTube Analytics to establish:

Learn about the expanded analytics reports to find your gems. 

Cameron told us:

Serge agrees but suggests using additional software. He told us:

YouTube Ads

If you really want to speed up the process, you can use paid ads on YouTube to connect with potential viewers. This is a high-cost way of getting viewers, but it can pay off if you are confident that your content is amazing. You’ll be spending around $2,000 for 100,000 ad views though.

Other Ads

You can also use ads on social media, Google, or Bing, but all of these are highly saturated, and you might spend a lot of money. Most truly successful YouTubers focus on SEO and engagement to help YouTube start generating revenue.

SEO Optimization

This is the aspect that all of the people we interviewed agree makes a huge difference. YouTube is actually considered a search engine, so anything you know about optimizing for Google, should apply to YouTube. That doesn’t mean it will be the exact same, though.

There are three ways to get organic traffic from YouTube internally:

1. Search: Uses search engine optimization. You’ll want to focus on this method when you first start.
2. Browse: Helps improve the visibility of your videos in the browsing functions of YouTube based on hashtags, tags, and other indicators.
3. Suggested: Helps to improve rankings in suggested videos.

Serge told us:

He also suggested checking out these videos to learn more about how YouTube works:

• vidIQ Academy: Free with VidIQ (some require Pro or Boost Plan)
• Ed’s Film School: Paid, but I am confident that when Serge says it’s worth the money, that it is. 
• How to Use vidIQ: The Complete Guide!: Free with VidIQ (some require Pro or Boost Plan)

Community Tab

All three of our featured YouTube channels use the community tab. This is where you can share surveys, other posts, and announcements. Each takes a different approach. Check out the overview of each below:

Step 7. How to Start a YouTube Channel and Make Money

You’re here because you want to know how to start a YouTube channel and get paid. Good news! There are a lot of ways to make money on YouTube.

The most common ways to earn revenue on YouTube are:

1. Affiliate Marketing: Refer people to products you love and get a commission. Some you can start immediately.
2. Outbound Links to Websites: Send people to your website to purchase products and services. Some features are available when you start your YouTube account, but there are YouTube Partner features as well.
3. Sponsorships: Add in paid promos and get paid for marketing to your subscribers. 
4. Become a YouTube Partner: Meet YouTube’s 4,000 hours of watch time and 1,000 subscribers requirements, plus some other guidelines. Follow the monetization process in the link above.

Cameron told us:

Reyes told us:

Take his advice and keep reading about the different ways to make money on YouTube.

Affiliate Marketing

One of the ways that any successful YouTube channel will make money is through affiliate marketing. In your videos, you might use a tool or mention software that you find useful. If you are using it, your viewers will probably want to know where to get it. So provide them an affiliate link that makes it easy for them to buy the product and earns you between 1% and 25% commission.

Cameron used to be nervous about using affiliate links, but he learned it saves him time and his audience appreciates it. He told us:

Reyes loves his affiliate links. Check out all of the ones in one of his top YouTube videos.

At UpFlip, we limit the number of affiliate links we use to only the essentials. Many videos only include the link to our sponsor as paid promotion, but we typically include around seven affiliate links in the blogs. There are eight main affiliate marketing websites you should join, but if you search “company name affiliate” you can normally quickly find where to apply easily.

Outbound Links to Website

Always link your YouTube Channels to your website and other similar videos you think your audience will appreciate. You’ll want to include links in several places like:

1. Your banner
2. Your channel’s “about” section
3. At the end of each video
4. In each video’s description
   1. Social links
   2. Home Page
   3. Relevant Content

Check out our interview with Reyes for more great information on how to make a YouTube video.

Sponsorships

Cameron gave us some great advice about sponsorships:

As you can tell, we take this to heart and only accept sponsors and partnerships that are highly rated, business-oriented, and useful for YouTube video viewers. Make sure to review YouTube’s sponsorship guidelines. You can’t accept these if you want to be in the YouTube kids app.

How to Charge YouTube Video Sponsors

The industry uses CPM to charge for sponsorships. First, find the average views for your last 10 videos and divide by 10. Next, multiply the views by twice your Cost per 1,000 Impressions (CPM). The industry standard formula will work like the following example:

• Average View Count: 218K
• Average CPM: $33.18  

During the early stages of acquiring sponsorships, you can multiply the CPM by 1.5  in Step 2 to give companies more incentive to invest in sponsoring you.

Become a YouTube Partner

This is where a lot of the real money from YouTube channels gets generated. When you become a YouTube Partner, a lot of opportunities open up that smaller channels don’t have. We’ll share the requirements to become a YouTube Partner, how to opt-in for monetization, and the Partner money making tools that are only available once you opt in.

Requirements

There are six requirements to be an eligible YouTube Partner Channel. They are:

1. Follow the monetization rules
2. Live in an eligible country
3. No active strikes on your YouTube account
4. 1,000 subscribers
5. 4,000 public watch hours
6. Linked AdSense Account

As long as you meet these requirements you get to join the YouTube community that gets paid for creating videos, but you have to actually apply if you want your YouTube channel to participate.

Opt-In

To opt-in and make money off the ads your viewers watch, you have to add 2-Step verification to your Google account (if you haven’t already). Next, go to the monetization tab in YouTube Studio. It will tell you if you’re eligible. If you aren’t, you can ask for an email notification when you are. Go ahead and ask it to notify you while you’re familiarizing yourself with starting a YouTube channel.  

You’ll also need an Adsense account. Go ahead and get an Adsense account if you don’t have one.

Your YouTube channel will automatically go into the queue when you’ve met all the requirements. Let’s look at the ways YouTube Partners can make money on the platform.

Options

Once your YouTube journey reaches this stage, you should have figured out how to create video content that people will watch. So YouTube gives you a lot of ways to earn more from your video including:

Let’s look at how you make money with each of these.

YouTube Ads 

YouTube shares a percentage of ad revenue with the Partners making videos. Most content creators will receive somewhere between $3 and $5 per thousand views (CPM) depending on the number of ads watched during channel videos. That’s why longer videos are so important. Serge told us:

That’s six times the average. Keep reading because we’re going to share a secret that hurts other creators’ CPM.

Channel Memberships

Content creators can offer memberships to their audience like:

• Contests and giveaways
• 1-on-1 meetings
• Member-only videos

These increase excitement and reward the audience for being loyal viewers of their YouTube videos. Check out more about the memberships. 

Merchandise

You can sell merchandise through YouTube videos without becoming a partner, but you have to send them off-site. As a YouTube partner, your channel can sell your merchandise directly on YouTube!

The bar is a little higher, but it can be an easy way to provide products seen in your videos. You’ll need 10K subscribers before you can connect shopping items directly in your YouTube videos. You can even have different products in Your channel store and video store. Find out more.

Super Stickers and Super Chat

A content creator can allow super stickers on their videos. This can be a great tool combined with sponsored content because Super Stickers allow the audience to pay to pin their comment on the top of the thread. If your sponsor wants to guarantee their comment is seen, they can renew it as needed.

Plus you get 70% of revenue from the Super Stickers. Check out the YouTube guide on stickers.

YouTube Premium Revenue Share

Partners share a percentage of the Premium memberships, too. It helps increase your view time, plus they can download your content to listen to or view it anywhere. All partners share a percentage of the revenue based on their total view time. So if your audience pays for YouTube Premium, don’t forget to remind them to download your videos so they can listen to them on road trips.

Here are the details on YT Premium.

If you create content that is really short, you’ll love the YouTube Channel ideas to make money on short clips.

YouTube Short Funds

Starting a YouTube Channel can be a lot of fun. If your audience is for funny videos, you can submit YouTube shorts. This is a chance to reach an audience similar to TikTok’s audience. You just upload a video under 30 seconds from your phone and it qualifies for revenue from the $100 million shorts fund. Learn more about shorts.

These are great for a new channel or a video channel that has a low retention rate, but Serge warns against these if your channel is doing really well. Here’s what he has to say:

What Success on YouTube Looks Like

Everyone has different ways they approach their channel. From channel art to asking people to subscribe, plan ahead when you create your first video. It doesn’t matter if you have a camera or phone with bad audio. Hit the upload button and start finding new viewers today. 

As you grow, you can invest in audio and video equipment. But like Reyes The Entrepreneur said:

What aspects of audio and video recordings for YouTube would you like to hear more about?