Prominent Nigerian YouTuber Tayo Aina who currently has 760K+ subscribers on YouTube has shared 12 tips he learned from building a successful YouTube channel for creators.
They include;
1. Be in love with your craft
“You have to fall in love with making videos (Filming, editing, scripting, research, etc.),” Tayo said.
According to him, this was the most crucial tip as everything else fell under this.
2. Learning never ends
“Watch many YouTube videos in the categories you try to get into,” Tayo Aina said.
The YouTuber said he watched at least 20 videos a day when he first started, and still watches a ton of YouTube as he learns a lot from it.
3. Don’t expect support
For this tip, Tayo Aina said to bear in mind that your friends and family may not support your YouTube journey so this shouldn’t be taken too personally.
According to him, “Your litmus test is when strangers start to love your work.”
4. Define your focus
The Youtuber said your focus should be on creating value, eventually, the money will follow.
5. “The first 10,000 subs are the hardest.” – Tayo Aina
6. Get a regular job to be patient enough
Tayo Aina noted that because building anything on the internet takes time, taking a regular job may help you be more patient as this was vital.
7. Quantity at first, then quality after
Tayo Aina started by posting many videos, but gradually focused on quality as he grew.
The reason was simple. “Quantity helps you build skill and find your audience [and] enables you to build a brand and get more views per video.”
8. Your title could make or break you
“A great thumbnail/title can be the difference between 50K views and 5 Million views; how you package your video is super important.” – Tayo Aina
9. Ask for help
The YouTuber advised “If you need help with what to make, find an intersection between what you love doing and what an audience wants. A great way to do this is by making content about 3-5 different areas you are interested in and focusing on the ones that pop off. For me, it was real estate, travel, and business stories.”
10. Dream globally, start locally
According to Aina, “If you want to make travel content [on YouTube], start from your surroundings.”
He began with Lagos and scaled to Nigeria, Africa, and then Internationally.
Especially for travel and lifestyle YouTubers, he indicated from his observations that telling a story about significant constructions in any city worldwide always pops off. An example was one of his first YouTube videos about “Eko Atlantic” in Lagos which gained significant attraction.
11. “Start with Why”
The star said, “We all want to make money, but having that as the only reason behind why you do what you do might lead to quitting before you even begin…”
“Figure out why you want to make videos early enough.”
He recommended reading the book “Start with Why” by Simon Sinek.
12. Be Unique!
Aina’s final advice was to do and lean into whatever makes you different on YouTube.
“That will separate you from everyone else and help make your work stand out,” he said.
