I don’t claim to be a new YouTube star (although…). But there are some crucial steps that I recommend you take in order to start a channel and gain subscribers.

According to the YouTuber Alisha Marie, the first thing to starting a YouTube channel is “doing it because you love it”.

Being a YouTuber, I agree with this a lot. Do not do it for the money (because you will not get that for a very long time), and definitely don’t do it for the fame. It’s common sense to know that starting a YouTube channel for those reasons isn’t right, but people still do it.

Next, according to many YouTubers, you need a DSLR camera. Although I can see why YouTubers say this, it is not necessary. In the competitive world of YouTube, everyone strives to have the best quality videos to make them appealing. But take a look at Jenna Marbles, for example. She started off with filming on a laptop. One of her videos went viral, and she became famous. Bam. It’s not so much about the camera quality of the video as it is about the QUALITY of the video, the topic, what you talk about.

The next most important thing is lighting. You don’t want to film in the complete dark where no one can see you or your face. Many YouTubers use ring lighting (the white circles in their eyes — they’re not possessed!), but I would strongly suggest you use natural lighting. Filming some time in the morning or the day is the perfect time. Of course, you may buy professional lighting if it’s a total need, but why waste $200 on lighting when you have the outside light?

Topic. Topic, topic, topic. It’s important that your channel has a theme. My first channel didn’t have a theme, really, and it was kind of all over the place. My current channel has a specific theme, so my subscribers know what to expect from me. Of course you can always try something different with your videos, but if you’re a beauty guru, don’t randomly start posting the next 50 videos about you going fishing — that’s just going to confuse everybody.

Editing is not a must. I know many YouTubers who don’t really need to jump-cut their videos because they don’t have those “um…” moments. For me, I tend to pause for 30 seconds and look off into the distance because I don’t know what to say next. This is why I need to edit my videos to make them shorter and to get the uh’s out of the way.

The last thing is to just have fun with it. It’s really complicated at first, and you might feel unmotivated because it has been 2 days, and you haven’t gained a subscriber. But the key is “to keep going and to never give up,” according to Ryan Higa. All the things I listed may seem difficult, and the truth is, they are. Making YouTube videos is hard to do, so you really need to stay committed and be hard working. Never give up and just have fun with it.