8 Things to Know to Grow As A YouTuber and A Poet
Growing a YouTube channel is no small feat. Sure, you can have one video go viral and gain a lot of followers from that. But if you’re not prepared to maintain your channel and retain the audience, that following will go away.
So how do you do this and do it right?
We talked with Kendryk Youngblood, from the YouTube channel “Youngblood Poetry,” to learn how he’s doing it.
As of January 2021, Kendryk had 200 subscribers and was giving it his all. Then his videos hit the sweet spot and as of April 2021, he’s almost at 7,000 subscribers and retaining that audience.
How?
Here are the 8 things you should know to help yourself grow as a YouTuber and a poet.
Find your niche content and get comfortable
Parse through the comments for constructive feedback
Know the copyright laws and YouTube guidelines
Learn the rules for monetization
Do your best with what you have
Put in the time to create quality content
Understand what works for your channel
Don’t forget about Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Let’s dive a bit deeper into these tips and see how Kendryk applies this knowledge and how you can too.
1. Find your niche content and get comfortable
One of Kendryk’s main goals is to make poetry as mainstream as the music industry or movies.
“At the end of the day, if I can get people who are into music, rap, or movies to start seeing the value and contributions of poetry, then I’ve done my job.”
But “poetry” is too broad of a topic for a channel. You still have to be known for something.
Kendryk started doing tutorial videos on things like how to improve your rhymes or how to take criticism, and he really enjoyed reaction channels. Then he learned, no one seems to be known for poetry reaction videos.
You know what he did?
He says, “I started looking at how some of the best ones were doing it, where they put the video they were reacting to in their video, how they position their chair, what the lighting would be like, how often they pause it — because you don’t want to ruin the flow.”
Another thing he learned to do to best fit this type of niche content was getting comfortable with it.
Kendryk says, “I did my best to be comfortable in front of a camera. You can get comfortable, relax, stretch out, be yourself behind the camera and in front of the camera.”
Being yourself and being comfortable makes videos that much more entertaining to watch.
2. Parse through the comments for constructive feedback
It’s only natural that negative comments will come. It’s an unfortunate reality of the internet, so it’s best to prepare yourself to get those comments and to not let them affect you.
What you should do, though, is parse through those comments and find the ones that are actually helpful to growing your channel.
Kendryk’s experience has taught him just that.
“You can definitely tell the difference between constructive criticism and people just being mean. There are some people who are very genuine like, ‘Hey, you should try this…’ And getting feedback from my subscribers has done a great deal in growing my craft.”
Your loyal subscribers will tell you what you need to do to improve, even if it’s not explicitly spelled out. Pay attention to what they’re saying and adapt.
3. Know the copyright laws and YouTube guidelines
The last thing you want to have happen is a video of yours get flagged for copyright infringement. Be sure to pay attention to the copyright laws and YouTube guidelines.
Kendryk learned this as well:
“If I break things up into small enough clips and incorporate enough of my own original content, usually YouTube won’t flag it [for copyright]. And usually the original content creator won’t claim my content — which I wouldn’t want of course because that means they get all the revenue from my videos.”
“But I have experienced copyright claims before, and it was completely justifiable. I knew when I was making the video that I was using too much content. It wasn’t a copyright strike, but I was notified before I uploaded the video.”
4. Learn the rules for monetization
Along with learning the rules of YouTube, learn the rules of monetizing your YouTube channel if that’s the route you want to go.
According to Kendryk, “In order to get monetized, you need to have a thousand subscribers and to have made 4,000 hours of watch time within a 12-month period.”
Two rules seem simple, right? While the sentences are simple, the tasks are not.
There’s a lot of effort and consistency that go into growing your number of subscribers and creating good content that reaches the minimum watch time and abides by YouTube’s community guidelines.
5. Do your best with what you have
Creating quality video content doesn’t have to be just a professional video editor’s job. You can do it too. You just need to learn and do what you can with what you have.
Kendryk says, “At some point, I realized I didn’t have money to pay an editor, so I’d have to learn on my own. I went through YouTube tutorial after YouTube tutorial after YouTube tutorial.”
This doesn’t mean you have to spend money on a video editing software either.
“I’m not using a high quality editor, just a free one called Shotcut. I did the best with what I had, and it worked out.”
Video production goes further than just editing too. There’s equipment to think about.
“I think what a lot of people think when they start a YouTube channel is that they need to have the best quality equipment, the best microphone, lighting, tripod,” Kendryk says.
“I just use this little tripod right here. My microphone is a clip on that I clip onto my shirt below where the camera can see. My editing software is free. But my subscribers tell me that they love how I edit. You don’t need the best quality stuff.”
That doesn’t mean you have to stick with what you have forever. If you get to a point that you’re able to upgrade, go for it.
Kendryk says, “Of course, eventually I do plan on investing into it. But the equipment isn’t an excuse for not growing.”
6. Put in the time to create quality content
Kendryk is going to school full time and working two jobs. And he was even able to quit one of those jobs after monetizing his YouTube page. Talk about goals!
A step to getting there? Putting in the time to make your channel work. When we asked how long it takes to create a video, this was Kendryk’s response:
“It depends on how long the video is. If I’m giving a poetry tutorial, it might take two hours max. If i’m doing a reaction, it could take seven or eight hours. I know with better editing software, it might be faster, but I like to include a lot of memes and stuff. I like to make videos that I would enjoy watching.”
How does he have the time with all else that he’s doing?
If he’s taking a break from homework or on a break at work or whenever it is. He finds the time. He even has a voice recorder so he can talk while driving if an idea pops into his head.
Equipment isn’t an excuse, and neither is time. When you enjoy something enough, you’re able to make the time for it.
7. Understand what works for your channel
Taking the time to look at your analytics will tell you what videos are performing the best. Knowing this will help you plan out your content.
Take Kendryk for example:
“I know certain videos that work for my channel, such as the rap analyses and reaction videos. I make sure to do every other video as one of those. Then I’ll be teaching maybe how to get your poetry published in literary journals. I have my videos staggered that way.”
Why does he stagger his videos? He knows what works for his channel.
“The reaction videos make me the most money,” he says, “and then people also get to know about my other stuff. That’s my main strategy.”
Give the people what they want (as long as it’s related to your niche) but also a variety of content within your niche.
8. Don’t forget Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
YouTube is the second most popular search engine.
There’s a lot to know about SEO in general, and it’s no small beast. Like every platform, YouTube has an algorithm that you’ll want to learn about to optimize your channel and get ranked in search.
For starters, YouTube wants people to click on a video and stay there. Your job is to make that happen.
Try not to stress too much about all the SEO tips and tricks right off the bat. Start small, and start with what you can do right now.
Here’s what Kendryk focuses on:
Spend almost as much time on a thumbnail as editing the video
Optimize the video description with keywords
Look at trends and subscribe to many poetry channels and hop on their rapidly growing videos
Use the incognito tab to see where your videos are ranking in search without having your own search history impact the results
That’s a lot of tips and details we just shared. Starting and growing your YouTube channel can be overwhelming at first, but if you break it all down into manageable pieces, you’ve got this.
Be sure to listen to or watch the full episode to get even more detail on Kendryk’s experience growing and maintaining his YouTube channel.
Kendryk Youngblood is a former member of UH's Poetry Slam team called UH Coogslam, which won 4th place in the Collegiate Unions Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI), in April of 2019. Kendryk has his work published in Shards magazine, Defunkt magazine, and Poet's Choice. He teaches, shares, and celebrates poetry through his YouTube Channel "Youngblood Poetry" and documents his poetry journey on Instagram @kendryk_youngblood
