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If I Started a YouTube Channel in 2026, I'd Do This

2023-02-14 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 13:15 · watch on YouTube

Topic: YouTube, writing online and creators · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: His own products discussed, His own numbers, His medical past

Starting a YouTube channel from scratch, Ali would follow his three-level Part-Time YouTuber Blueprint: make three videos, commit to one a week, make seven more on anything to learn the craft, then treat it like a business by playing for click, watch time and satisfaction, defining a niche as target plus value and building systems to work five to ten hours a week.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — A three-part framework for starting a YouTube channel from scratch today

  • ★★★ Starting a YouTube channel from scratch today, Ali would follow a three-level framework he condenses from six years on YouTube and calls the Part-Time YouTuber Blueprint, after his course. — 00:00:00 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy, YouTube

00:00:29 — Level one, get going: the first three videos; choice one, a casual or a serious relationship with YouTube

  • ★★★ Level one of starting a YouTube channel, get going, is the first three videos: Ali would just make three, perhaps Shorts or unedited phone videos speaking to camera, and create a channel with channel art made in Canva. — 00:00:29 · YouTube
  • ★★ Ali suspects that what holds back people who have not yet started a YouTube channel is overthinking: about their niche, about why anyone would watch, about how people at work would react. (hedged) — 00:00:58 · YouTube
  • ★★ YouTube is a lifestyle choice, Ali says: taking it seriously means making videos every week for several years, so it is worth trying it for the first three videos to see how you feel. — 00:01:27 · YouTube
  • ★★★ After the first three videos, Ali would consciously commit to a serious relationship with YouTube, making at least one video a week, because a YouTube channel does not grow if you treat it casually. — 00:02:26 · YouTube

00:02:55 — Level two, get good enough: the next seven videos on whatever you like

  • ★★ Being a successful YouTuber takes many skills, Ali lists: titles and thumbnails, filming, talking to camera, structure and storytelling, public speaking or research, writing and animation, editing and analytics. — 00:02:55 · YouTube
  • ★★★ In level two, get good enough, Ali would spend the next seven videos improving the craft of making videos on whatever he felt like, without worrying about his channel's niche. — 00:03:24
  • ★ Over a channel's first ten videos, Ali says, you may also have to face your fear of what other people will think, judgement and self-doubt. — 00:04:22

00:04:52 — The ultimate choice, hobby or business; level three, get smart: click, watch time and satisfaction

  • ★★ After ten videos comes Ali's ultimate choice: treat YouTube as a hobby or as a business, on a scale from zero to ten where you may not pick five; choosing a hobby is fine. — 00:04:52 · YouTube
  • ★★★ In level three, get smart, Ali says YouTube cares about only three things for growing a channel: the click, watch time and viewer satisfaction. — 00:05:50 · YouTube
  • ★★ The first step to success on YouTube is earning the click, Ali says: titles, thumbnails and concepts must be intriguing enough that people click on the video. — 00:05:50 · YouTube
  • ★★ The YouTube algorithm tries to serve the right video to the right viewer at the right time, Ali says, so long watch time signals value and leads it to promote a video to similar viewers. — 00:06:19 · YouTube
  • ★★ Citing his YouTube partner manager, Ali says the algorithm increasingly weighs viewer satisfaction through likes, comments, surveys shown to some users and other signals, so viewers need not watch all of a long video. — 00:06:19 · YouTube

00:06:49 — Strategy: a niche as target and value; the market and your edge

  • ★★★ Ali thinks the question of a niche gets YouTubers focused on the wrong things: a niche is two things, a target audience and the value you give it. — 00:07:18
  • ★★ When Ali started on YouTube in 2017, his target was people applying to medical school in the UK and his value was helping them get in, a clear proposition that grew his channel in its early days. — 00:07:47 · YouTube
  • ★★★ To find a YouTube niche, Ali advises combining your interests, strengths and unfair advantages with the people you could serve into hypotheses, such as helping dentists run better Facebook ads. — 00:08:16 · unfair advantage, YouTube
  • ★★ Most YouTube niches, such as productivity and personal development, are crowded, Ali says, so to stand out you must understand the market, as someone opening an Italian restaurant would, and find your edge. — 00:09:07 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Ali thinks trying to be better than other YouTubers is the worst way to stand out, since better is in the eye of the beholder and takes more work; stand out by research, storytelling, editing, relatability or who you are. — 00:09:37

00:10:29 — Systems and leverage to do YouTube in five to ten hours a week

  • ★★★ With systems and leverage, Ali says, he can do YouTube in five to ten hours a week, thinking like a business such as McDonald's, whose systems give the same experience anywhere. — 00:10:59 · McDonald's, YouTube

00:11:28 — The final live cohort of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy and its scholarships

  • ★★★ The Part-Time YouTuber Academy will run its final live cohort in April and May 2023, the last time it runs live. — 00:11:28 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ Ali has run seven live cohorts of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy for over 2,300 students in about two and a half years. — 00:11:28 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ Ali is ending the live Part-Time YouTuber Academy cohorts because repeating the same material for three years has become a bit boring and his life is going in a direction where running live online courses no longer fits the other things happening. — 00:11:28 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ The Part-Time YouTuber Academy, which has offered scholarships to people in financial difficulty for three years, doubles its scholarship places for its final live cohort. — 00:12:26 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy

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Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: get going, get good, get smart · Part-Time YouTuber Academy · YouTube

Also: People: Austin Kleon

Works: Show Your Work!

Organizations: dbrand · McDonald's · Stabilo

Concepts: leverage · unfair advantage · watch time

Products: Canva · Palettes Collection

Also centred on get going, get good, get smart: How to Grow on YouTube - Live Stream with Ali Abdaal · How To Start a YouTube Channel - Beginner’s Guide to YouTube · How I Make $4 Million Per Year - The CBM Framework

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