The first thing you do when starting any YouTube channel is to decide on a niche
As a streamer, you obviously want that niche to be gaming
Gaming is a very popular niche with over 100 Billion watch hours in 2020 alone, but it is also a very saturated niche. Choosing gaming alone is not a good niche on YouTube because of the competition, but choosing a sub-niche is a great choice for the new YouTuber.
It is a terrible feeling to get started on something just to have it not work
So doing research on a niche before starting is wise
Gaming is a VERY large YouTube industry
It is also VERY competitive
That means that new people will struggle to break into the Gaming niche
The good news is that there is one major way to break in
If you are streaming already, I assume you already know what game you focus on
By taking that game and what you have to offer, you can find a sub-niche to specialize in
These niches are smaller but way less competitive
The golden combination is good traffic with little competition
What makes a good niche?
Good niches have a good amount of traffic but not a lot of competition
You can find out if a niche has traffic by checking the auto search on YouTube and looking at the views that other YouTubers have
If other YouTubers get 5k or more on many of their videos that are less than old, there is good traffic
Obviously more is better, but you need to make sure the traffic is worth your time
You can check for competition by doing the alphabet soup of questions and seeing how many people have answered those questions and how well they did
The alphabet soup of questions is typing part of a question with the niche and seeing what pops up
(Make sure you are not signed on for this)
Then start adding letters
Write down all the questions you think you can answer well
Then go to those searches and see if anyone has answered them
If there are a lot of amazing videos with big YouTubers answering the questions, that is high competition
If there are some small creators that have kinda answered the questions, that is low competition
If the question hasn’t been answered at all, that is no competition
Try to find a niche that has good traffic and low or no competition questions you can answer
The same process goes for statements people search for
9 Tips to start your gaming YouTube channel
Once you have decided that you are going to start a gaming channel on YouTube, there is a lot to learn and test
There are some basic tips that can give you a head start though!
- Choose one game and then choose a niche inside of that game
- Use the content you stream on Twitch (after the 24-hour old for affiliates)
- Do SEO research on YouTube
- Create on brand but unique thumbnails
- Test out different hooks and titles
- Pay attention to what works and test out new concepts
- Capitalize on your unique strengths
- Decide your target market
- Find gaps in the market that people are searching for
Not all of these tips will be a perfect match, but many of them are important for all YouTubers
Take what you can and don’t worry about the tips that don’t apply to you
Choose one game and then choose a niche inside of that game
We already talked about a niche but make sure you are solid on what you choose
YouTube recommends your videos based on what you post about and what people like to see
If YouTube doesn’t know what you talk about, they won’t recommend your videos consistently
You can not only choose one game to focus on but also one part of the game
You could post:
- Funny content
- Insane skills
- Character analysis and builds
- Quest walkthroughs
- And more
By focusing on one area until you have nothing else to post before moving on to another subsection of your game, you build authority with YouTube and get the algorithm to help more
Use the content you stream on Twitch (after the 24-hour old for affiliates)
If you stream on Twitch, reuse the content that you record on your streams as much as your can
This will save a lot of time, and you can send people from YouTube to your twitch stream
If you are an affiliate with Twitch, remember that you need to wait 24 hours before posting your stream videos anywhere except on Twitch
Do SEO research on YouTube
YouTube is a search engine, which means that SEO is an important element of being found
Many new YouTubers struggle because they create content that they want to instead of what people want to see
Use the alphabet soup (discussed above) to find out what people want to see and then create content for that
Then use the keyword that you found with the alphabet soup in the title to tell YouTube that you made content for those searches
Create on brand but unique thumbnails
Most people will not look at titles when looking for a video to watch
They will look at the thumbnail
Make your thumbnails similar enough that people will recognize you, but different enough that it is an obvious change for each video
This will help you build a brand without people thinking they have seen a video when they haven’t yet
Test out different hooks and titles
Hooks are important to keep people watching your video
Tell people why need to watch the video and follow through with the promises you make
Titles help people click and stay in the first few seconds of the video
Make your titles clickable and obvious why people should stay
Pay attention to what works and test out new concepts
The more content you post, the more numbers you’ll get telling you what people and what they don’t
Don’t be scared of analytics!
Impressions are how many times your video appeared in front of people
And clicks is how many times people clicked on your videos
If you have low impressions, you need to change your SEO and titles
If you have low clicks, try changing your thumbnails or titles
Pay attention to the videos will good watch time and look for what they have in common
Try to only change one thing on a video at a time so you know what change helped and what didn’t
Give your videos about a week before deciding to change something or not
Capitalize on your unique strengths
Use your strengths
I know how easy it is to see other people succeeding and try to copy
It doesn’t work
Be yourself and capitalize on your strengths
Decide your target market
The target market will help with the language you use
You will talk to a 12-year-old a lot different than you would talk to a 60-year-old
Decide who you connect with and who you help, then make your content for them
Find gaps in the market that people are searching for
I talked about this when I discussed finding out the competition of a niche
This process continues with all your SEO research
Find the searches that YouTube recommends without you signed in to see what other people are searching for
And try to find searches that don’t have anyone talking about that search or videos that don’t cover it well
These searches are gaps in the market and are perfect subjects for you to make a video on!