With the advent of the Internet, now is the time to become a video star. And when these videos of you start piling up and gaining popularity, they need a home. So what’s better than your own branded YouTube channel?
It’s quite simple to make and completely free. Today we’ll take a look at my page and show you all the elements that go into creating a YouTube channel page.
First time page setup
When setting up the page for the first time, you need to sign in with your Google YouTube account. When you are logged in, look at the top right and the dropdown menu. Select “My Channel”.
Now you will be asked what name you want to see the channel under. You can change it later if you like, so don’t worry if you get it wrong the first time. The photo can also be changed instantly.
After entering the name of the channel, click “Create Channel”.
The above is what you will see next. Basically, this is a blank channel page that needs to be created. So click on “Customize Channel” and let’s start customizing things the way you want.
Starting at the top and bottom
Profile photo
If you want to change the photo, hover over it and a small pencil icon will appear. Click on it and click the blue edit button that appears. The photo is in your Google account, so you will be redirected to https://aboutme.google.com/u/1/#profile_photo, where you can select an existing photo or upload a new one.
Channel design
This is the banner displayed at the top of the channel page. For example, here’s a book by Stephen Colbert.
At the top of the page, you will see a download button for yours.
This is the only thing that annoys me as hell because I can never get it right. The official size of the channel art is 2560 x 1440 pixels, but you need to match it to view on desktop, watch on YouTube TV, and watch on mobile devices. And it just doesn’t work very well for me. So this is something that you need to work on constantly until you get it right.
The best website for creating channel covers is Canva, where you can create custom-sized templates and drag and drop covers and text onto them.
Channel description
Next is the description of the channel, which is very important to get it right from an SEO point of view. This is how people can potentially find you, especially if your channel is about a niche. However, there is a limit to the number of characters, so don’t go crazy and start writing like Leo Tolstoy or anyone else.
Channel Settings
It’s accessible via the small gear next to the red subscription button. Here you will find various settings that you can turn on or off depending on your preference.
The only thing I would personally change is “Keep all my saved playlists private” (uncheck). You want visitors to watch your playlists, as they are the ones that make people watch your videos for too long.
If you do not know a foreign language, do not touch the “translation of information” section.
“Customize the layout of your channel” is an important question. In this section you can:
- set the country where your channel is located.
- set SEO keywords so people can find your channel.
- Link your Adwords account to your YouTube channel to promote videos.
- Link your Google Analytics account to your YouTube channel.
- Whether or not to display the number of subscribers on your channel page.
If you go to this page now, you will see more features to enable or disable.
If it says “not included” or “unacceptable” it means that you cannot use this feature right now. Even though the Monetization tab says “enabled,” you are not really eligible until you have at least 1000 followers and other factors. If what you need is not yet offered, click on the Learn More link to find out what you need to do to qualify.
Downloads
Back at the main channel page, it’s time to see how your videos will be presented when you start uploading them. So click on Add Section, but remember that some of these sections will not appear on your page until you upload the video.
You will receive two menu windows. The one on the left is for different types of content that you can display on your page.
And on the right is the type of positioning in which you want to place the content – vertical or horizontal.
This is how the playlist section looks horizontally on my channel page
But if I flipped it upright, now it would look like this.
So, you need to decide what works best for your page.
Another good section is an introductory video for those who are not subscribed and a video for people who are already subscribed. An introductory video for non-subscribers might just be a short greeting and a description of the benefits of a person subscribing to your channel. Instead, I chose a homemade promotional video for my books.
Interesting channels
On the right-hand side, you can link to channels that you think might benefit your visitors. Maybe channels that are similar to the ones you’re talking about, ones that you personally enjoy, or channels that belong to your work, friends, family, and so on.
On mine, I refer to channels of a writing and book nature.
Now upload some videos!
Your channel page will always be under construction: new album covers will be uploaded, channel descriptions will be constantly changing, etc. So the next best tip is to just start uploading some videos! Pretty soon, your channel will fill up and we hope subscribers start pouring in!
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