How to find your true self:

The process of finding yourself can last forever regardless of the sphere/area you are in. We can come to something specific in a certain period of life, and then change our views and set off to find new answers.

• The first rule for YouTube creators: it's important to accept that you will always be in the process of searching.

The search process will remain after a hundred subscribers, and even after a hundred thousand subscribers. Relevance, trends, and our values tend to change - it is impossible to remain the same all your life. Thus, it is useless to treat this as a crisis.

Prodvigate regularly receives questions: “Could you please tell me what I should make videos about or what kind of channel I should start?” The answer may seem rude and displeasing, but ... maybe you shouldn’t start a channel and create videos then? It will be hard to create content when you feel like you always have to squeeze topics out of yourself. Let’s assume we did give you a niche, for example cooking.  Perhaps you don't even know how to use a burner. And what are these "burners"? Therefore, let's be honest: vlogging is something that does not suit everybody.

Full-fledged YouTube vlogging is just like any other job. This implies…

• The second rule for YouTube creators: any business should be a pleasure.

You can be a highly-qualified lawyer but that doesn’t mean you will enjoy creating video content. If you hate scripting, constantly working on optimization, and don’t feel like working with a camera at all, you should find a different format for your branding.

• And the third rule for YouTube creators: before you create a channel, you should clearly identify its purpose.

If you’re creating a channel for yourself, or friends, then throw caution to the wind and just film. Enjoy the process and don't look for ways to improve, just promote your channel.

YouTube is a business development platform, and every major creator here is a brand. Therefore, we will answer the question “How to find your best self while creating YouTube content” for those whose goal is clear and transparent: income, popularity, promotion of their own ideas and products, etc.

Easy steps to choose a niche and topic of your channel

What helps the channel to be successful and remain exciting to both the YouTuber and the audience for many years?

• The passion that the creator experiences for what he does and infects his viewers with it.
• Expertise, because even if you run a channel with short funny videos, you should understand as much as possible about your niche.
• Profit - if you are good at something, never do it for free. After all, spending time and effort from year to year on pure enthusiasm is simply impossible without financial support.

Passion is something that pleases and excites, an impetus that will forever motivate you to create content. It will be what drives you and the audience's curiosity.

Here you have to answer the questions: what do I want and what does my viewer want?

This is why you must understand what motivates you to create. The answer may seem to be very trivial. For instance, you like movies and want to talk about them. But what exactly? And whom will you talk to? And what kind of movies will be relevant and what kind of audience will they bring?

So give yourself time. Note down interests and hobbies you do during the day. What are you good at or what do you want to understand? Review your notes during the evening and you will be able to re-read your list and understand what’s inside your soul.

And make sure you don’t forget your audience. Explore what motivates them and what search queries drive their interest. Try to identify the problem you are solving with the help of your channel.

The issue on the channel is as important as the climax in the movie. Actually, everything is created for the sake of this. If you are trying to overcome constraints through a channel, talk about it. Your problem will attract people who are going through the same as you. And both the viewers and you yourself can solve the problems through your channel.

Share your expertise.

Only you know what areas you excel at. No one but you knows what skills you have. If you think that you are better than others in specific areas, then studying your competitors will help you decide.

A simple example: for an artist to get into trends, he/she inevitably needs to follow the trends. What song do you think will hit the top today - dubstep, disco, or dance tracks for TikTok? The third option is a no-brainer. Dubstep was ripping up the charts in the 2000s, and disco left behind when we stepped into the twenties, but rhythmic dance tracks with a set of the simplest rhymes are still popular now.

If you don’t study competitors on YouTube, you will end up with a stagnant channel. You will not be placed in trends, lose relevance, and get lost among channels that flounder and never grow.

What should you do if you suffer from impostor syndrome or if you think you are jack-of-all-trades? Ask your friends or family to answer the question: what kind of business would they pay you for? In what area do they consider you an expert and most useful? Their answers may surprise you and showcase some of your skills that you may have overlooked. 

Making money on YouTube is the goal for most budding brands. So it’s important to review the profit potential of your chosen topic.  It’s an important aspect when choosing a niche. 

If you already know what you want to share on YouTube, then determine the profitability of the niche. This shouldn't be the deciding factor when creating a channel, but believe me, over time, you'll want to get more than just positive comments, even if you're a very cool expert who loves what you do.

However, there is one thing we need to point out about making money on YouTube. If you start a channel and your focus is mainly: “I wish I could get rich quicker”. You will most likely end up disappointed. You still must have a passion about the content and be looking to fill a void in the YouTube echosphere.  Monetization is just one important piece to the YouTube puzzle and it should be considered at the start of your journey but it should not be your only driving factor. 

If your business doesn't make money, it's a very expensive hobby and not a business. When choosing a niche, you need to think carefully about how profitable it can be after some time. 

Which options for earning are available: monetization through the YouTube Partner Program, affiliate marketing, and developing a physical or digital product?

After going through each of the above steps,  you will understand which recipe you need for success. The perfect combo: the topic makes you happy, can be profitable, and of course, you are an expert or someone who plans to become one.

Vlogger must always:  test ideas
It's that simple. And there is no more efficient way to check whether it will work or not. You can reflect, and look over the channels of competitors or discuss in chats of like-minded people.  Keep in mind the following; someone else's success or failure story will not tell you anything about you. Someone invested in bitcoin and became a millionaire, others went bankrupt and lost everything. Even though the sequence of actions were similar, the end result was not the same.

No one will give you a ready-made checklist of videos you need to upload to your channel. This doesn't work like that. YouTube experts can tell you how to analyze and select topics, but there is no guarantee that it will work specifically for you.

You may think it’s best to get someone more experienced and authoritative to make the decision for you. We see this all the time in the comments on the Prodvigate channel. There are hundreds of requests asking,  “how do I make this better, is it worth it, and is it necessary?”.  But to be honest, we don’t know. No one knows your story, the exact situation you are in, analytics, experience, and thoughts. Therefore, any advice is half baked and may result in failure. If we give out advice under these circumstances and it helps you, the adviser will immediately be praised as a saint, and if not, he will become your mortal enemy. In order not to blame anyone for your successes or failures, test your ideas and only trust yourself. After all it's your opinion and actions that matters most in your journey.

The only true tactic is to start doing what you have come up with as soon as possible.

The real development of your channel occurs only by trial and error. So test all your ideas. No matter how crazy they may seem - try it. Often, cases that result in success on YouTube depend on very subjective factors. The appearance and voice of the vlogger, their manner of presentation, and the design of the studio. You won't know how the audience perceives you until you show them your content and they share their impressions.

When will I see the first results?

A lot of YouTubers can’t decide what their channel is about, who is their target audience, and in which format they want to deliver the information. They may spend what seems like an eternity releasing content without any set direction. That is why time on YouTube may seem like a very ambiguous concept.

For viewers, time flies quickly: they are hooked on a new creator and deep dive into the abyss of his content. But for the creators, this same period seems like an eternity. We have been waiting for months for analytics to start showing us movement, for YouTube to start recommending videos to other viewers, etc.

It is important not to measure success in days, but in months or even years - this will help shield you from disappointments and false expectations.

There is rarely overnight success on YouTube.  Profit may be delayed for months. However, during this time you learn to present yourself, study, and hook the audience with your videos and ideas. You improve yourself in public speaking, screenwriting, and even shooting, and editing skills. This time is definitely not wasted.

Concentrate on the process, not the result. Otherwise, you will be disappointed and eventually burn out.

So how long does it take to achieve “success” on YouTube? To understand if you’re doing everything right? The answer is simply,  as much time as you need. It all depends on the quantity and quality of your work. Your content output will demonstrate how much you’re interested and invested in the process. Do not look at others as any measurement of your own success, even though it is difficult not to do so. Remember that each vlogger has his own pace of development, do what you can - your work will always be rewarded.