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A common question faced by many YouTubers when starting is deciding if they should begin with one channel and put all their content into it, or split it up and have multiple Youtube channels, one for each topic.
The problem begins when the new YouTuber is thinking up ideas for content. They find they have many interests and lots of great ideas.
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Their favorite hobby is Motocross racing, and they can produce some jaw-dropping footage. They eat a plant-based diet and can’t wait to post videos of their favorite recipes.
And they make a living in personal finance and have excellent tips that are sure to garner great reviews and generate subscribers by the thousands!
In fact, they have something to say about just about everything.
Multiple Youtube Channels
Solving the dilemma begins by asking one question: is this for business or pleasure? If it’s for fun, then it doesn’t matter much.
Start one channel and dump everything in! But if your goal is to monetize your Youtube channel, you have some important decisions to make and planning to do before you even write that first script.
To monetize your youtube channel with ads, you will need a decent base of subscribers.
Do you think there are enough potential subscribers to achieve YouTube’s minimum requirements for subscribers and viewing time: currently 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time in 12 months.
How much quality content do you expect you can create?
What would your content creation calendar look like?
Producing quality content is work. It takes time and a great deal of effort. Coming up with the idea is just the first small step.
Before the next award-winning video goes viral, creators need to be writing a script, setting up equipment and lighting, shooting and editing, not to mention promoting the finished product. Although this can be incredibly fun and fulfilling, it still eats up time.
Establish a level of commitment before starting to set up channels.
Make a list of those ideas for each topic. Frequently, creators find that they only really had a couple of good ideas for many of those topics.
Remember, it takes dozens, if not hundreds of videos to create a robust channel.
Time to do some serious cutting. You may have some great ideas about some of these topics, but do they justify a whole channel.
Will combining it with another topic dilute the content and put off some subscribers who don’t want to be inundated with irrelevant and distracting content recommendations?
Three Approaches to the YouTubers Dilemma
There are three general approaches to a channel strategy. The final one is the best for most cases, but each one has its own applications.
The Mixed Bag
What is your Brand? If you believe that your personality, good looks, and charm will get you all the success you need, then the mixed bag may be the way to go.
The host of the channel becomes the brand, and what they talk about may be secondary.
Are you the next Oprah? For most people, that won’t be the case.
But if you’re a known brand, you may get away with the mixed bag approach with a large following already.
The Combo Order
With this approach, one main channel is highly focused on a niche combined with another channel that is the mixed bag.
This way, most of the attention goes to the main channel, but there’s still the opportunity to share that idea that just can’t be suppressed.
And it doesn’t distract the primary audience.
Bullseye
The Bullseye means one channel, one topic. Most often, this is the best choice but arguably the most difficult to commit to.
It satisfies a lot of the requirements for a successful channel.
• The channel does not become diluted with irrelevant content.
• Subscribers aren’t lost when they are annoyed with recommendations.
• A more unmistakable brand identity is maintained.
• It will be much easier in terms of time and effort to produce enough quality content.
• You will more quickly hit the numbers and viewing time requirements to allow monetization of the channel.
Many YouTube content creators have failed to make these choices early in the process and suffered the pain of fixing the inevitable problems later.
Each YouTuber must decide for themselves and their unique goals about what approach is best. The smartest ones will make these choices early on before committing to a less than ideal plan.
