Chapter 2 – Choosing Your Niche
By selecting a niche for your YouTube channel, you are one step closer to standing out from the sea of YouTube channels. When someone finds the channel that has the content they are looking for, they will likely view the other videos on the channel, and they may even subscribe to the channel to keep up-to-date with the new content published.
Choosing a niche is not only essential but can also be a difficult decision as well. It is always optimal to start off on the right foot, and selecting the niche for your channel is a long term decision. Even after you have chosen your niche, you will still need to drill down to specific topics. It is essential that you choose a niche that you not only enjoy but one that you are good at, as well as choosing a niche that is in demand.
Determining What You’re Good At
This is one of the most common methods for selecting a niche. This is the time to utilize your strengths. Take a look at your hobbies and what you like to do for fun. Perhaps you excel at playing video games, and you want to create videos showcasing your gaming prowess. Maybe you are a fitness buff and want to share your knowledge by creating how-to-videos on health and fitness. Whatever the case, you can convert your current skills into quality, compelling videos that people will want to watch.
A fundamental method for narrowing down your niche is determining whether you are looking to entertain or inform your target audience. It is also important to decide how long you want your videos to be. Addressing just a few factors will help you in choosing your niche. Even after you have selected your niche, you will still need to determine if there is enough demand for it, to avoid wasting time and effort. You want to make sure to choose a niche where you are not only confident in your skills, but also that there is enough of a market.
There are several categories in YouTube that you will need to consider. With such a massive collection of videos in their storage, YouTube has no choice but to classify those videos. When you start to review the categories, you want to try to imagine the kinds of videos that are commonly seen in each group. There are 15 different categories that YouTube's library of videos are broken into and include:
These categories, at first glance, may appear only to be useful for searching through the millions of videos in YouTube’s library.
However, take some time to look at the categories and consider what it would be like to pursue each topic individually, which can be an insightful practice for finding your niche.
Figure out what the most popular topics are today. You can do this by signing up for Google Ads Keyword Planner (https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/). Once you’ve determined your niche, you will need to figure out the most common problems or questions that people within the particular niche face. This is what you can base your videos off of, by solving those issues or problems with the videos you create. For example, many people are interested in learning about new technology and its future. If you are interested in the technology niche and want to delve into it, you can create videos that discuss the latest gadgets and prospective electronics. If you are already an affiliate, it would be strategic for you to implement a brief promotion for an affiliate product relative to the niche at the end of each video.
All that is required is to find a large enough market that is willing to spend money. After that, it comes down to drilling down to a specific niche and creating content that is relevant and that either solves a problem, serves to inform them, or entertains them.
If you are still having trouble choosing a niche, you may want to consider what is known as a desperate niche. When someone is in dire need of a solution to their problem, they are more likely to spend money. When people spend excessive cash to get rid of their problems, a desperate niche can often be a profitable source of income. If you notice an issue that people are desperately trying to rectify, this is an excellent example of a desperate niche. This is your opportunity to help them through well-constructed YouTube videos and make a profit.
However, you need to remember that even with a desperate niche, you have to enjoy the topic, or at the very least have an interest in it, or you will eventually grow tired of it and give up. For instance, if you never had a problem with your weight, you will most likely not be very passionate about starting a channel that is dedicated to weight loss. You need to ensure that your content offers value and isn’t just an attempt to milk the viewers out of their money, or you won’t get the results you want in the long run.
Determining your niche is an essential first step in creating a successful YouTube channel. Remember, you must choose a subject that you are, at the very least interested in, to ensure you'll stick with it in the long run.