From Novice to Pro: How to Evade the Most Critical 8 Mistakes on YouTube

8 Mistakes People Should Avoid as a New YouTuber

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

In the ten years that I’ve been a YouTuber, I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I learned from those mistakes and have helped many new YouTubers start their own channels. Here is a list of eight common mistakes that new YouTubers should avoid, along with tips to do things in a better way.

1. Failing to have a long-term vision

One common mistake that a lot of new YouTubers make is failing to have a long-term vision. Without a long-term vision, you’re more likely to poorly brand your YouTube channel, drop your YouTube channel activity in busier times, and, midway through, change the type of content you create and upload. None of these are good for your channel!

If you can think of the kind of content you’ll love to consistently create and share in the long-run, you’ll not only be able to narrow down your brand and effectively communicate to your audience who you are and what your channel is all about, but you’ll also have a better idea on what to put out next.

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### 2\. Choosing an ineffective custom URL

Another mistake I made with my first YouTube channel was choosing an ineffective custom URL. Because my last name is Kim, I wanted to make my custom URL “YouTube.com/kimagination.” But it wasn’t available. So, I took “kimaginati0n” with a zero where the “o” should be. I thought it was a good idea back then but it was a terrible idea.

Choose a custom URL with words that can’t be confused with other similar-sounding words. For consistency across all your different social media accounts, try to choose a custom URL that matches the usernames of all your other social media channels. If the username you want isn’t available, then keep on trying to come up with a good name that is available. When you’ve secured the same username across all your different social media channels, you can then very simply promote yourself and all your social media channels by displaying just the social media icons followed by your one username.

3. Coming up with titles that won’t get searched

Many new YouTubers make the mistake of titling their videos in an ineffective way. Rather than coming up with titles that more people might search, they either come up with titles that summarize what the video is about as a whole or title their videos the way big YouTubers do.

Big YouTubers can take advantage of non-searched, curiosity evoking titles like “You won’t believe what just happened…” because they already have a huge following. Their channels aren’t depending on getting discovered through search. But yours is. So come up with titles that people are actually searching.

As an example, let’s suppose you vlogged your time backpacking around Europe last summer. Don’t title your YouTube video “My Summer Backpacking Trip.” Instead, title it “Going Up The Eiffel Tower | Beautiful View of Paris!” This way, all the people who are curious about visiting Paris, the Eiffel Tower, and seeing what the view is like from the top of the Eiffel Tower might find your video.

4. Failing to have a thumbnail strategy

New YouTubers tend to think about their thumbnail images after they’ve finished editing their videos together. This is way too late in the process for something that is so incredibly important in getting views.

Even before filming, you should think about how you’re going to title your video to get the most views. After that, you should then try to picture, in your head, a thumbnail image that matches your title and creates curiosity and excitement. When you go into filming, you can then make sure to include some footage of you recreating that image.

5. Making weak intros

After you’ve managed to get someone to click on your video through your effective title and thumbnail image strategy, the next challenge is to keep that person watching your video without closing it too early. A typical viewer on YouTube decides within the first ten to fifteen seconds of landing on a video whether or not he or she will stay or leave. This short window of time is so important to set the tone of the rest of your video and build excitement and curiosity in your viewer with an effective, high-energy intro.

New YouTubers often make the mistake of having weak intros. Starting at the beginning of a story makes sense, right? The beginning, however, is not always the most exciting. Consequently, new YouTubers lose their audience’s attention too early on.

To read more on how some of the most successful YouTubers effectively do their intros, check out my blogpost on “How To Edit YouTube Videos Like a YouTuber .”

6. Forgetting to engage with subscribers

An important thing to do as a new YouTuber is engaging with your subscribers. Some new YouTubers, though, are so focused and busy with the production side of things that they forget to do the community side of things, including responding to comments. By not responding to comments as a new YouTuber, you hurt your potential to get more comments consistently from your subscribers. If your video’s comments section is very active, YouTube ranks your video higher in the videos it recommends to viewers.

Connecting with your audience shouldn’t just be limited to YouTube either. Use your other social media channels to connect with your audience as well.

YouTube isn’t the only social media platform that people are spending their time on. People are spending their time on all kinds of different social media platforms, like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The more content in all of these platforms that you create to promote your video, the more potential your video has to be seen by their users.

New YouTubers sometimes forget to promote their videos and channel using other social media platforms. Consequently, they miss out on the opportunity to get views from multiple sources of social media.

8. Spamming comments

Commenting on other YouTube videos is another way to get your channel discovered from people reading over comments. If your profile picture and comment appears interesting enough, out of curiosity, people just might click your username to have a look at your channel.

But rather than leaving interesting comments that are related to the video, rather than adding to the conversation, some new YouTubers desperate to get more subscribers make the mistake of spamming videos with “check out my YouTube channel!” comments.

Spam comments annoy YouTubers. It would be much more beneficial to your channel to build good relationships with other YouTubers to possibly collaborate on a video together in the future.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Unlocking the Secrets Behind YouTube Shorts Success

YouTube is one of the most leading social media platforms attracting a huge number of people each day. Recently YouTube has launched a new concept known as YouTube shorts which is a short, crisp 60 or fewer seconds of video content. YouTube shorts has been successful in attracting viewers to the platform. Along with the video the platform allows you to write a text which is a YouTube shorts description to give some idea about your video to viewers.

Let’s talk about in YouTube shorts description in detail and learn ways to write on the platform.

Part 1: What is YouTube Shorts Description?

YouTube shorts description means a simple text or a message written below to your YouTube shorts giving an idea about the uploaded YouTube shorts video to the viewers.

Such a YouTube short description helps viewers in getting some hint about the video and to decide whether the video is what they are looking for or not. Also, we can also add additional information such as relevant links and hashtags to the video.

Source: adweek.com

Part 2: Why is YouTube Shorts Description Important?

YouTube shorts description plays an important role in attracting viewers and growing your channel. There are a few reasons behind is such as

It gives a simple idea and context about your video to viewers.

Attractive and appealing YouTube short descriptions would easily catch the attention of viewers.

It let viewers decide whether the YouTube shorts video is what they are looking for or not.

You can add relevant hashtags to your video in the description as well to gain more views.

Part 3: How do you Write a Description on YouTube Shorts?

Let’s talk about ways to write a YouTube shorts description with easy to follow steps:

Step 1: At first you need to open the YouTube homepage and select a Library in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Step 2: Once you do that now click on any of your Videos.

Step 3: Then after pick a YouTube shorts video where you want to add a description and click on the three dots beside it. You would find a menu where click on edit.

Step 4: Now you can add the relevant YouTube shorts description and tags. Then click on save and you are all done.

So you can follow above mentioned easy step guidance and write the most iconic YouTube shorts description on your channel.

Part 4: Tips for Writing Effective YouTube Shorts Description

There are some of the key points to keep in mind while writing a YouTube shorts description. All these tips would surely help your videos gain more views.

1. Be specific

While writing a YouTube shorts description is very important that you are well aware of which keywords to use. Here your choice of keywords will play a key role in ranking your videos up.

2. Do keyword research

If you are not aware of the right keywords about your YouTube shorts then you could take online help of an online keyword planner. You must be including the right keywords on your YouTube shorts description to make it more searchable.

3. Know where to place your keywords

You should make sure to put your primary keywords on the first three sentences only and the reason is that users always would notice on the initial part of your description.

4. Track the keywords

Always keep an eye on knowing which keywords are working and which are not for you. It would help you decide your YouTube shorts description in that manner and generate more traffic.

5. Find other interests of your audience

Along with your video content have a look at what other things are attracting your audience. You can always check out that and based on that plan and deliver your upcoming YouTube shorts.

Conclusion

Thus YouTube shorts has become already successful in catching the eye of users and allowing the platform to grow. Along with the video, the platform allows users to add YouTube short descriptions to appeal audience in a right and effective manner. We have talked about YouTube shorts description and the importance of it in growing your video channel in detail.

Now it is time for you to pick the right YouTube shorts description for your video and get a maximum number of views on your channel.

02 Why is YouTube Shorts Description Important?

03 How do you Write a Description on YouTube Shorts?

04 Tips for Writing Effective YouTube Shorts Description