Guest Post: Starting a YouTube channel for founders and creatives

Guest post from David Stack

Aug 07, 2024

Hey I'm David Stack, I've been part of the Tiny Empires community for nearly 5 months. I’m writing here today to share what I learned about starting a YouTube channel with zero prior experience.

I don’t want to be an influencer. I'm too introverted for that. Rather, my goal is to build a relevant audience on YouTube for my (soon to be released) AI meditation creator, Elora.

This writeup details the start of my journey and how my experience might help you find success on YouTube.

Since the middle of May, I’ve posted a new ~10 minute meditation video on YouTube every morning. That’s nearly 80 videos. Every day. For close to 3 months.

Here are the numbers so far:

May 1st: 0 videos | 0 subscribers | 0 views
June 1st: 19 videos | 6 subscribers | 89 views
July 1st: 49 videos | 13 subscribers | 747 views
August 1st: 80 videos | 49 subscribers | 2.3k views
Today: 85 videos | 61 subscribers | 2.8k views

This is what nearly 3k video views look like after 3 months of work. It’s a whole lotta nothin’ - until it isn’t.

Before getting to my 7 tips for getting started on YouTube, I want to provide a bit of context…

I've been a member of Tiny Empires community since the very beginning, and a business consultant for over a decade. I’ve been in the trenches of multi-million dollar online businesses doing everything from web development (I’m self taught) to email marketing, paid ads, no-code integrations, and more. While my clients have seen incredible success, none of my own (dozens of) failed projects have yet to truly take off.

That’s why I joined Tiny Empires: to learn from a community of other solo-founders and share what I’ve learned on my own journey.

Now, to the YouTube tips...

Think of every video you upload as an experiment. There's a lot to learn and you (probably) suck, so just accept that and be open to the process. Quantity > quality in the beginning (this goes for everything, not just YouTube).
Watch time is THE most important metric on YouTube. Most new channels have a huge drop off in the first 5 seconds, so nailing the intro is key. I'm still working on mine.
Chances are YouTube IS showing your videos to people (see them in the dashboard: Analytics >> Content >> Impressions), but if your impression click through rates are low (like mine were), it's either your core idea, title, or thumbnail. Updating my thumbnails increased my CTR from <1% to over 4% for some videos.
Besides the title, video description is important for SEO. It helps YouTube figure out what your content is about and show it in search. While this isn't important for every video (some will not be designed for search), it's still important to add a solid description. The first 60 characters or so are shown to people on the view page and this helps them decide if they should keep watching or not.
Thumbnails should be simple without too much text (2-3 words max). The text itself should complement the title, not repeat it (I'm still working on getting this balance right). There are tons of videos on YouTube just on thumbnails, so don't overthink it. I use a free template I tweaked from Canva and it’s working great.
Having used VidIQ for a couple weeks now, I can say with confidence that it’s a game changer. The title and thumbnail optimization alone are worth it. But the browser extension is the real secret. Installing it adds a ton more data to the YouTube interface so you can deeply dig into your competitor’s videos while making your own that much better. Pro Tip: I discovered that if you're under 100 subscribers and click the "Upgrade" button in the main navigation (not "Boost"!), you can get a 50% off lifetime discount for being a new channel.
Be clear about who your audience is. But don’t let that stop you! Imperfect action and constant iteration are key. I’ve updated my channel description at least a dozen times already. Don’t obsess (too much) over this, but it’s okay to keep refining. A more concrete example: I was originally posting meditation videos about managing climate anxiety (climate solutions are another interest of mine), but I quickly pivoted to more general meditations to attract a larger audience. However, I realized this was probably too broad - at least when starting out - so now I’m creating morning meditations for fellow creatives and founders. This was a pretty recent pivot, so I’ll let you know how it goes 😉

Overall, my biggest takeaway is you just need to start making a ton of content in the early days so you can get data to iterate with.

This helps you figure out:

Your voice (what you want to make)
Your audience (who is resonating with your content)
The ins and outs of YouTube (e.g. what makes a "good" thumbnail for your audience)

One of my mentors used to say that you need to commit to doing something for 90 days before you decide to pivot or proceed. When I started my channel that was the only goal I had: publish a video every day for 90 days.

Given the results so far, I’m choosing to proceed.

I encourage you to proceed (or pivot!) with your own project as well.

But if you’re feeling stuck, know you’re not alone. Entrepreneurship is as much a mental game as it is a practical, hands-on one. It’s all too easy to get lost and end up doing nothing (sometimes for months - I’ve been there). So commit to taking one small action today and showing up for you.

You’ve got this.

~ David Stack
davidstack.io

Connect With Me
Did you find this helpful? I’d love to hear about it! Feel free to hit me up in the Tiny Empires community and I’ll be happy to answer your questions or dive deeper into anything with you.

Morning Meditation
If you’re interested in daily morning meditations for clearing mental clutter, zeroing in on what matters, and letting your creativity flourish, then check out my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@EloraMeditation.

Bonus
Here are some additional resources I found helpful when starting my channel:

Boost your views and subscribers: https://vidiq.com/davids (affiliate link)

Excellent overall tips: