Before you start on how to become a YouTuber, it’s important to ask yourself why you want to become a YouTuber. If it’s for the recognition, let us tell you it doesn’t come easy. If it’s the money, you should know it takes a long while before you can start monetising your content. If it’s for validation, it’s short-lived. So what’s the right reason to be one? Three of YouTube’s celebrated faces—Sejal Kumar, Ashish Chanchlani and Bhuvan Bham—tell you how they got here and how you can too.
Sejal Kumar
Subscribers: 1.28M Channel: Sejal Kumar
Content: Fashion and Lifestyle
She likes to call herself a creator rather than a YouTuber. In creations lies her salvation. A regular Delhi girl, studying at Shri Ram College of Commerce, stumbled upon YouTube and decided to try her hand at making videos. She got hooked and never looked back. Her web series, Engineering Girls, has now completed its first season and has been acquired by Netflix. The second season is under works and will release soon. Listen up to what she has to say.
1. Always remember that you won’t get a lot of views and subscribers as soon as you start your channel. Don’t be disappointed. It takes time to grow. Patience will help you succeed.
2. Understand who your audience will be and cater to them. Ask yourself which age group is your target? And then be relevant to them by getting to know their pulse.
3. Be true to your content and your audience. Never put out something you only half-heartedly believe in. Your content is your reputation. Don’t put up a video if you feel it’s not up to the mark.
4. Be consistent with putting up content. The more engagement you have, the better for your profile. Also, viewers like to see different sides of a creator.
5. Don't be afraid to take risks. Go wild with your ideas and implement them without caring about the result. Enjoy the process, give your 100 percent and leave the rest to your viewers.
Bhuvan Bam
Subscribers: 19.4M Channel: BB Ki Vines
Content: Humour
He rose to great heights and stayed there. Before his meteoric success, Bhuvan Bam sang at restaurants. He enjoyed that time too. But today is a different story. As he has established himself as a singer of merit and a comedian par excellence, he hopes, one day, to be the equivalent of Dharma productions of YouTube. Bam is a mega influencer who is remembered for his jokes, music, acting and most of all, his passion to share. But for now, he guides all those aspiring to be in his shoes.
1. Know that there is a place for you. Don’t look at someone else’s graph and set that as a benchmark. You need to find out a niche and stick to it.
2. Quality over quantity always wins. There is no way around creativity. Read, listen, watch… do whatever it takes to seek inspiration. Don’t force yourself to make a video just because you’ve not posted for two days.
3. The need to understand self-relevance is crucial. The content you create should not only be for your audience but also something that resonates with you. Make what you’d be happy watching.
4. Packaging and marketing are as important as your channel, your content and you too. The more content you create and share, the clearer you will get about where you stand.
5. Don’t let anyone tell you what to do. You need to be confident about your work from the get-go.
Ashish Chanchlani
Subscribers: 21.6M
Channel: Ashish Chanchlani Vines
Content: Comedy
As soon as he received his Civil Engineering degree, he forgot all about it and started his YouTube channel in 2009. By 2020, he became the third Indian YouTuber to reach 20 million subscribers. Chanchlani’s recent release, ‘Office Exam Aur Vaccine’, has been a record-breaker. It’s already crossed 27 million views on YouTube with 3.1 million-plus likes and 28 million-plus views on Facebook. With that kind of numbers under his sleeve, he tells us how one can follow in his footsteps.
1. Patience will be your biggest strength. Don’t expect to be a star overnight. Some times it takes hundreds of videos to be recognised.
2. Understand your uniqueness and be yourself. That’s the only thing you’ll be able to consistently show. If you’re looking at another YouTuber’s strength and making that the benchmark, you’re unlikely to succeed. If you don’t have a USP, it will be difficult to stand out of the crowd.
3. Your confidence will help you to execute your ideas and thoughts in the best way you can. This is a huge part of being a YouTuber.
4. Start updating yourself right from the outset. See what your contemporaries are doing. Learn technology. Be curious about new digital innovations.
5. The relatability of content is very important because the people watching you should identify with it.