Get concrete tips and strategies for how to start and develop an art YouTube channel. Hear about how to harness your artistic skills to create a lively and engaged channel through various forms of content.
Discussion led by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artist Jordan McCracken-Foster.
Video Walkthrough
- YouTube is a long game, it takes a lot of patience, willingness to experiment, and time.
- Look at other art channels, and see how they run their channel and what kind of content they produce.
- You can get great ideas from other art channels, but don’t copy their content just because it looks trendy or successful.
- Don’t pretend to me someone you’re not, you don’t have to be glamorous and young to have an audience!
- Decide whether you want to show your face or not.
- Channels where we can see the artist’s face tend to do better because your audience will find it easier to engage with you.
- People want to have a connection with you as a person, and showing your face is a big part of that.
- You have to make bad videos, that’s the case for every single channel out there.
- Making bad videos and not obsessing over making the “perfect” video is how you grow and improve your channel.
- No YouTube channel has “perfect” videos from the beginning, you have to start somewhere!
- Reply to every comment you get; people always notice when you reply, as most channels don’t reply to comments.
- Don’t count on YouTube being a big source of income.
- Getting monetization on YouTube can take a while, and even when you are monetized, the amount you make is not much.
- Your income on YouTube can fluctuate a lot, depending on the ads.
- There are tons of hidden features on YouTube that takes time and research to find out about!
- There is a lot of software that is very useful running your channel: OBS, Tubebuddy, and Streamyard are terrific to use.
- Custom thumbnails are what will literally make or break your channel.
- When you search for videos, ask yourself which thumbnails you click on, and why? Was it the design, the text on the thumbnail?
- Ask yourself which thumbnails you skip, and why.
- You can have an incredible video, but if no one clicks on the thumbnail, it won’t do well.
- Design consistent themes and visuals so people can recognize your videos.
- Assume when you are making the video, that the viewer knows nothing about your channel, and that this is the first video of yours they are seeing.
- You channel banner is important, add information that will help people figure out quickly what your channel is about.
- Key words in your title are helpful so that people can find your videos when they search.
- Search for videos that are on the same topic: what do people want to know about that topic? What key words are in those videos?
- Consider both live streaming and edited videos.
- Editing can be time consuming, even a 30 second short can take time!
- Live streams are great because they are spontaneous and people enjoy seeing art being made in real time.
- Live streams can be trimmed after they are posted, but know that you will lose the live chat.
- A diverse range of video lengths is really helpful, people will/won’t watch videos based on the video length.
- A short video is often what pulls people into your longer form videos.
- YouTube is constantly changing, there are updates and new features being introduced all the time.
- Watch channels like VidIQ and Nick Nimmin for updates.
Software mentioned
YouTube channels mentioned
Prof Lieu’s Tips
People often think that critical comments will hurt the most, but actually, it’s when people have nothing to say that is the most upsetting.
There’s a phrase in the art world “as long as they are talking about you.”
I guess similar to that phrase that there is no such thing as bad press. (not sure I agree, there are plenty of situations where I do not envy the press people get)
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