How to start a successful gaming channel

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Whoopeepoop

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#1  Edited By Whoopeepoop
Member since 2018 • 12 Posts

Hey guys, my name is Whoopeepoop and I am a starting YouTuber. Video games are my passion since I was a little kid and they still are a huge part of my life. I really hope I will help some of you because I know the struggle with the very beginnings is huge.

Recently I started to upload more videos and they are getting more views every single day. Currently, I have around 660 subscribers and 14 000 views. Last month I had only 350 subscribers and 8 000 views. I tried many things and some are working better than others. I want to share with you the knowledge I gained over the last month and I hope it will be helpful.

1. Produce content on a regular basis

This may sound a little too obvious but it is super important to make new videos at least 3-4 times a week. The best you can do is to upload every single day. The more content you have, the more people will eventually find out about your channel.

2. Make custom thumbnails

Another basic stuff. Imagine you are a seller and the viewers are buyers - they will choose the product with nice design over the mediocre one. When it comes down to thumbnails, it´s super important to make them "stand out". There are tons of gaming videos on youtube that have the pre-generated thumbnail and they are lost among each other. Make it special.

3. Clickbaity title

The same rule applies here. If you name your video "Pubg gameplay part 1", no one will find it interesting as there are thousands other videos with the same name. Try to stand out. Try to attract people to your channel. Don´t make your titles way too long. Which one would you click?

1. Grand Theft Auto 5: Multiplayer part 15 gameplay with live commentary

2. Best Multiplayer Moments in GTA 5! #15

4. High-quality content

You want your videos to look good right? When you are recording and editing your video, try to make it as good as possible. Use cuts, transitions, texts, sound effects, play with the zoom and much more. Upload videos at least in 720p. You need to know the basics of the software you are using. You may find hundreds of guides of YouTube and they are super-easy to watch and learn.

5. Use your persona to your advantage

This may sound a little weird but you have to be entertaining and unexpectable. Use various forms of humor, funny facial expressions, imitate voices and don´t forget - be yourself. Be louder, make the viewer know he is there for you and if you provide him a good time while he is watching the video people will start to like you and they will want to come for more.

6. Get good quality equipment

Now, this is a great way to make a high-quality content. Save up some bucks and buy a good quality mic or headset and at least some mediocre camera. People want to see your face and they want to hear you clearly. Don´t mumble a few words here and there but try to speak fluently.

7. Make a good use of Tags and Description

Use tags that you think that might generate you some traffic. Mostly, you don´t want to use tags as "game, games, video" and so on.

8. Use various forums but don´t spam

People hate spam and they will rip you apart if you try to self-promote everywhere. Use forums to create informative posts and help others. Every subscriber you get is unique and each one of them is a huge + to a starting YouTuber.

Imagine a thing where you spend 1 minute to help someone else and he, in return, subscribes to your channel and starts watching your daily content. This 1 minute can grant you hundreds of watch-time minutes and you can make friends. This 1 guy who you have helped may tell about you to his friends and they may subscribe as well. By spending 1 minute of helping someone else may result in a far greater value.

Also, avoid posting your let´s play gaming videos without any given value on forums like Reddit or sites where no-one gives a shit. You had an idea to post your let´s play on Reddit, great, the same idea had 1000 people before you and forum users hate it.

9. Communicate with other creators

YouTube is a community. There are creators from all over the world who are making various content. You will find small and huge creators and you want to be a part of that community. Comment on their videos, write them a message that you like what they are doing, give them a feedback or tell them that you love what they are doing. You can make friends with bigger YouTubers than you and they may eventually help you out sometimes.

10. Make your first few seconds catchy

This is SUPER IMPORTANT and I can´t recommend this enough. Viewers click on videos and then there is a few seconds gap in which they decide if they are gonna watch your video or skip to another. Try to grab their attention. Make your intro great. Put something funny at the beginning of the video or do whatever you think might grab their attention.

11. Don´t be that Sub 4 Sub guy

This is not beneficial for anyone. In the first month, when I started my youtube channel, I joined a few Facebook groups for Sub 4 Sub. I was doing this for 2 days and then I realized what I was doing was simply wrong. It gave me like 20 inactive subs that eventually unsubbed. You don´t want that. Ever. It is better to have 5 active subscribers than 500 inactive. And trust me - all Sub 4 Sub subscribers are inactive. If anyone writes you a comment saying "I subbed, now you sub" - just ignore them.

12. Play different games

We have all seen thousands of Minecraft, GTA or Happy Wheels videos. Viewers want to see the new stuff. New game releases. Don´t be that guy who puts limitations on himself for 1 video game - Clash of Clans for example. You will build only a community of people who are slightly interested in this particular game and once the trend is over, so are you.

13. Make playlists and use ending cards

So you managed to get someone to watch your video until the very end. Great. Now you want him to check your other videos. You want to keep the viewer on your channel for as long as possible. He will start to like you and he will always want to come for more.

14. Watch other bigger YouTubers

This might be more important than you think. Watch their videos and see what they are doing and decide what you like and what you don´t like. Try to do things in a similar way but be yourself as much as possible. This might be quite hard cause you may be hardly influenced by them. I still find myself doing things that I saw on other channels but the more videos I make, the more I am being myself.

15. Use separate recordings

When I first started my channel I was using one recording software for everything. I ended up with one recording where I couldn´t edit the volume of background sounds and my voice sounded terrible. I use Audacity for my audio recording, Fraps from my game footage and OBS for my face-cam. Then I edit my stuff in Adobe Premiere Pro and I use Photoshop for creating my thumbnails.

16. Ask for feedback

Send your videos to your friends and ask them to give you a feedback. Tell them that they need to be as strict as possible. They are YouTube users as well and they might help you to make a better content.

This might be it. When I find something else that might be important I will edit and update this topic. I hope that the information you have read here was at least a little beneficial to you. I wish you the best luck with your channel and I hope you will grow bigger and bigger.

If you are interested, here is my channel:

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Justgaming13

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#2 Justgaming13
Member since 2018 • 125 Posts

Thank you, this is gonna help alot

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Whoopeepoop

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#3 Whoopeepoop
Member since 2018 • 12 Posts

@justgaming13: I am glad you liked it :)

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Tazimo

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#4 Tazimo
Member since 2018 • 16 Posts

Some great information there :) Thanks for taking the time to write it, I only just started making "Let's Plays" (I have 2 videos LOL) and I really want to learn how to be as good as I can so its great that people take the time to write hints and tips on how to improve :)

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gamingwithrey

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#5 gamingwithrey
Member since 2018 • 19 Posts

Thanks for the info!! I just started my YT gaming channel and will definitely follow your advice. This post should be pinned...

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Whoopeepoop

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#6 Whoopeepoop
Member since 2018 • 12 Posts

@gamingwithrey: I am so glad it has helped you at least a little :)

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BeardedRico

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#7  Edited By BeardedRico
Member since 2018 • 15 Posts

Sound advice there mate. I should definitely use audacity more ;). That’s impressive too I’m on 213 subs and have 23,000 views.

SkillzRico’s GamerTv

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Whoopeepoop

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#8 Whoopeepoop
Member since 2018 • 12 Posts

@beardedrico: 2 months ago I had only 40 subscribers so I don´t have that many views - I took a long break from youtube and I started uploading only recently :) I am gonna check out your channel :P

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BeardedRico

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#9 BeardedRico
Member since 2018 • 15 Posts

@whoopeepoop: that’s awesome mate 9 months ago my channel was going nicely. But then I stopped uploading until just recently as I changed jobs and stuff. But I’m back on it now. I will check your channel in a bit too :).

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Thee_Gamemaster

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#10 Thee_Gamemaster
Member since 2018 • 33 Posts

Thank you so much for this information @whoopeepoop. My new idea to help grow my channel is to embrace my inner weird so to speak. People didn't like me because I was weird in the real world. But in the Cyber world people love weird. So I will take this information you have given to heart and do what I can for my channel. Thank you so much for this information and I hope you make it big on YouTube. Good luck.

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ANTICS_

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#11 ANTICS_
Member since 2018 • 12 Posts

Much appreciated:)

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VoodooRocker13

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#12 VoodooRocker13
Member since 2014 • 38 Posts

Thanks for the tips, also a youtube creator here and stuff like that goes a long way to generating interest in a channel. I'll make sure to keep these in mind. Best wishes on your channels success.