How to Start a YouTube Channel in 2023 (Step-by-Step Guide)

Every video Alston makes on this channel says the same thing: if you want life-changing money online, you have to create unique original content. But until this video, he never showed the actual step-by-step path to get there. This post closes that gap. Whether you have zero subscribers, zero equipment, or zero idea where to start, you will have a working blueprint by the time you finish reading.

The example Alston uses throughout is a gaming channel built around PGA Tour 2K23, a game he just purchased. But the same exact steps apply if your niche is accounting, cooking, pet care, personal finance, fitness, or anything else people spend money on. The framework does not change. Only the niche does.

What You’ll Walk Out With

How to pick a niche small enough to win but specific enough to build a real following
The alphabet keyword trick that surfaces video ideas large channels have already missed
The exact equipment you need to start without overbuying or falling into rabbit holes
How to set up brand colors and channel art that make you look like a real business from day one
A five-question video creation framework that solves viewer problems every single time
Three monetization methods that work before you hit 1,000 subscribers
Not sure which online income model fits your current situation? Take two minutes at finder.platformproof.com to find out.

Step 1: Pick a Niche, Then Niche Down

The first move is choosing a niche. A niche is simply the area you will create content around. Anything counts: bees, accounting, video games, cooking, real estate, home gym setups, language learning, personal finance. The problem most beginners run into is not that they fail to pick a niche. It is that they pick one that is too wide.

Say you decide to cover video games. That is not a niche anymore. It is an industry. Thousands of channels already own every corner of it, and most of them have years of content and millions of subscribers. You will spend months producing videos that get buried on page ten and never find an audience. Alston’s example makes this concrete: he just bought PGA Tour 2K23. He is not starting a “video games” channel. He is starting a PGA Tour 2K23 channel. That single level of specificity changes everything about your odds of getting views in the first six months.

When you are at zero subscribers, you need to compete in spaces where small channels are already winning. The keyword research section below shows exactly how to find those spaces. For now, the principle is this: you should know your niche well enough to identify subtopics inside it. If you struggle to come up with ten video ideas off the top of your head, the niche is probably too broad or you do not know it well enough yet.

Not sure which niche to pick? Alston gives a practical starting point: look at your recent purchases and products you have been researching. What did you buy in the last three months? What do you spend hours looking up on YouTube before you even buy it? That intersection of curiosity and spend is usually where your niche lives.

One more thing worth understanding: niche focus is most critical in the early stage. Once you have a few thousand subscribers and consistent views, you can start broadening out. At the million-subscriber level, people follow you as a person. Your opinions, your voice, your face become the draw. But in the early stage, the topic is the draw, and the more specific the topic, the better your odds.

Step 2: Get the Equipment You Actually Need

Once your niche is locked, get the basic gear in place. You do not need to spend weeks researching this. Alston links to a full equipment list in his video description, but the core items break down into three categories:

Video editing software: DaVinci Resolve is free and professional-grade. Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro are paid options with broader capabilities. Either works at the beginner level.
A microphone: This is your most important early investment. Bad audio loses viewers faster than anything else. A USB mic in the $30 to $80 range is enough to start. Invest in audio before you invest in video.
A webcam or camera: Only needed if you plan to show your face. Many niches, including gaming, software tutorials, and cooking, do not require a face cam at all. Check what the existing channels in your niche are doing before you buy one.

There is a long list of other gear that people will tell you that you need: ring lights, capture cards, stream decks, green screens, acoustic panels, shotgun mics, DSLRs. Most of it can wait. What matters in the beginning is getting content out. Upgrade your setup as your channel generates revenue, not before. The gear does not create the audience. The content does.

Step 3: Choose Your Brand Colors

This step surprises people, but it pays off more than it looks like. Alston’s brand colors are blue, black, and white. They appear on every thumbnail, on his channel banner, and on his website. When a viewer sees that color combination, they recognize the content before they even read the title or the name.

You do not need to finalize your palette before you upload your first video. But you want a working idea before you build your channel art, because redesigning everything after you have 50 videos up is a significant time cost. A fast way to find your palette: search “Canva color palette” and browse the swatches. Canva generates full combinations (primary, secondary, and accent) and gives you hex codes to keep your colors consistent across every asset you create. Pick something you will not get tired of looking at for the next several years, because you will be looking at it a lot.

Alston makes a point in this section that is worth writing down: being just a YouTuber is dead. That era ended about ten years ago. When you start a channel today, you are starting a small business. Brand colors are one of the first signals you send to viewers that you understand the difference between a hobby and a business.

Step 4: Set Up Your Channel Art

Channel art means two things: the banner across the top of your YouTube channel page and your avatar or profile icon. Both should reflect your brand colors and communicate at a glance what your channel is about. A blank banner and a default gray avatar tells a new visitor that you are not serious. That first impression costs you subscribers who would otherwise have clicked the follow button.

You have two practical options to get this done. First, build it yourself in Canva. Canva has YouTube banner templates, icon templates, and a free plan that handles everything a new creator needs. Second, hire someone on Fiverr for five to ten dollars to build a professional banner and icon set. Either path works. The goal is to have something in place before your first video goes live, not after your first hundred.

Once your channel art is up, it compounds quietly. Every new viewer who lands on your channel page sees a branded, intentional presence instead of an empty placeholder. That difference is small on day one and meaningful at 500 subscribers.

Step 5: Do Keyword Research Using the Alphabet Trick

This is where most new creators either do too little or get stuck in theory and never act. Alston walks through a specific and repeatable approach that works especially well when you are just getting started: the alphabet trick.

Here is exactly how it works. Go to YouTube search and type your niche topic followed by “how to.” Then go through the letters of the alphabet one at a time. “How to [A]…” “How to [B]…” and watch what the autocomplete suggests. Each autocomplete suggestion is real search behavior from real people. Those are actual queries being typed into YouTube right now by viewers who want answers.

Using PGA Tour 2K23 as the working example: “how to improve swing PGA 2K23” surfaces a channel with 6,000 subscribers that is pulling 18,000 views on that single video. “How to play as Tiger Woods PGA 2K23” shows a channel with just 215 subscribers pulling 4,800 views. These are not flukes. These are patterns. Small, focused channels are consistently outranking large, general gaming channels because they are answering specific questions that those large channels are not bothering to cover.

Alston also recommends building a keyword list of 20 to 30 terms before you publish your first video. That way you are not interrupting your production schedule every week to research a new topic. You sit down with the list and start filming. The thinking is already done.

One additional tip from the video: look for new products and services launching within your niche. When a new game releases, a new software version ships, or a new tool drops, there is a brief window where search volume is rising and competition is still low. A new channel that shows up in those early search results can pull thousands of views before established creators even realize the opportunity exists.

The broader principle Alston outlines is worth keeping. Within any niche, there are health, wealth, relationship, and technology categories. Within technology, there are mobile devices, computers, and gaming. Within gaming, there are specific games. Within specific games, there are specific mechanics, characters, modes, and strategies. The deeper you go, the less competition you face and the more targeted the audience becomes. That targeting is what lets a 215-subscriber channel pull five-figure views.

Step 6: Create Videos Around the Five W’s

Once you have a list of keyword topics, it is time to make the videos. Alston’s framework for structuring content is built around five questions your viewers are already asking when they click play: who, what, when, where, why, and how. If your video answers all of these for your specific topic, you are solving the viewer’s problem. That is the entire job.

Take the keyword “how to improve swing in PGA Tour 2K23.” A viewer searching that wants to know: what the problem is (bad swing mechanics), why it matters to fix it (they are losing), when to apply the fix (before their next round in the game), where in the settings or gameplay to make the adjustment, who this applies to (beginners, specifically), and how to actually do it step by step. A video that walks through all six of those angles will outperform a video that only covers the “how” by a wide margin, because the other five questions are the ones viewers actually care about.

On video length, Alston is direct: a YouTube video should be exactly as long as it needs to be to fully answer the question and not one second longer. He notes that this particular video will run fifteen to twenty minutes because it genuinely takes that long to cover the ground. But the video he uploaded the day before was four to five minutes, because that topic was done in four to five minutes. Do not pad content to hit some arbitrary length target. Viewers who feel their time is being stretched leave early, and early departures tank your audience retention rate. Lower retention tells the algorithm your content is not holding attention, which reduces how many people it gets shown to. Short and complete beats long and bloated every time.

Step 7: Design Thumbnails That Get Clicked

Your thumbnail has one job: get the click. The title and the thumbnail work together to convince someone to watch your video instead of the eleven other options on the screen at the same moment. If either one is weak, the video does not get watched regardless of how good the content is.

The best way to learn what works in your niche is to look at what is already working. Search your niche keyword on YouTube and study the top results. What do the thumbnails have in common? What colors, layouts, and text sizes are appearing repeatedly? What is the one outlier that looks dramatically different from everything else?

For gaming content, Alston notices that in the PGA Tour 2K23 space, most creators are not showing their faces at all. They are showing gameplay screenshots, score cards, and in-game images. Only one creator in his example search uses a face cam. So for that specific niche, matching the market convention makes sense, at least in the beginning when you are building credibility.

On his main channel, Alston uses large readable font and includes his face in most thumbnails. That works there because the channel is a personal brand where his identity is part of what viewers are following. Your own situation may be different, and the right call depends on what your specific audience responds to. There is no universal answer, only what the data in your niche already shows.

Two things that work across almost every niche: high contrast and large text. If your thumbnail text cannot be read on a phone screen without zooming in, your click-through rate will suffer on mobile, and most YouTube consumption happens on mobile. Design for the smallest screen first.

Step 8: Stick to a Consistent Upload Schedule

Alston recommends aiming for three to four videos per week when you are starting out. That frequency gives the YouTube algorithm enough material to test your content across different audience segments and learn who is most likely to watch and stay. It also builds your video library faster, which means more chances to show up in search results.

He is clear that three or four per week is not possible for everyone. If you are working full-time, raising children, or dealing with anything else life puts in front of you, one or two per week may be your actual sustainable rate. That is fine. What matters more than raw frequency is consistency over a long time horizon. One video per week every week for a year without missing builds a stronger channel than five videos per week for two months followed by a three-month burnout break. Algorithms respond to steady signals. Subscribers respond to predictable schedules. Both rewards go to the creator who shows up consistently, not the one who sprints and collapses.

Step 9: Share Your Content Across Social Media

The YouTube algorithm alone will not build your channel fast, especially in the beginning when you have no performance history for it to work from. The fastest way to accelerate early growth is to push your content to other platforms where people are already paying attention to you or your topic.

Alston recommends TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest as the primary distribution channels. The approach on each platform is simple: create a short video or post saying you just uploaded something new about your niche topic, and direct people to the YouTube link in your bio. Something like: “I just posted a full breakdown of how to calibrate your swing in PGA Tour 2K23. Hit the YouTube icon in my bio.” Short, direct, specific. It does not need to be more complicated than that.

One important distinction: do not only post “go watch my video” content on social media. Post standalone value on those platforms too. Tips, short clips, commentary and observations specific to your niche. Build a presence that gives people a reason to follow you on that platform, not just a redirect service that only exists to funnel people somewhere else. When someone follows you on TikTok because your content is genuinely good there, they are far more likely to follow your YouTube channel and actually watch when they get there. That cross-platform trust compounds faster than any single-platform strategy.

Step 10: Make Money From Your Channel

Alston lists seven monetization methods in the full version of this breakdown (linked in the video description). Here are the four most actionable ones for a new creator who has not hit 1,000 subscribers yet:

Affiliate marketing. This means recommending other people’s products and earning a commission on each sale made through your link. It is the easiest monetization to activate immediately because it has no minimum subscriber requirement. If you are in the gaming niche, your affiliate list might include gaming chairs, monitors, laptops, accessories, and the games themselves. Alston recommends making a list of ten to fifteen products your audience already needs and dropping affiliate links in every video description. You earn when viewers buy through your link, and you do not need to create a single product.

Brand deals and sponsorships. These typically start appearing around 5,000 to 10,000 subscribers, according to Alston’s experience. Brands pay for access to your audience because your viewers are already pre-qualified buyers. A gaming channel that covers PGA Tour equipment and accessories is a very easy pitch to a golf peripheral brand. These deals can range from a few hundred dollars for a mention to several thousand for a dedicated video segment, depending on your niche and how engaged your audience is.

Your own digital products. If you develop genuine skill in your niche over time, you can create and sell a tutorial, a written guide, a template, or a short video course. Alston uses the example of creating a guide to leveling up your character fast in PGA Tour 2K23 and selling it for $15 to $20. The product could be a PDF or a short video series hosted anywhere. No inventory, no shipping, no overhead. The margin on a digital product is close to 100 percent once you have covered the time it took to create it.

Your own website. Alston calls this optional but recommends it strongly. A website is a base of operations that you own. No algorithm change, no account ban, no platform policy shift can take it from you. He makes this point directly: if TikTok or YouTube shut down your account tomorrow, a website with an email list means you can reach your audience again within days and rebuild much faster than starting from scratch. Without one, you are starting from zero. The website also gives you more control over monetization: affiliate links, product pages, ad revenue, and email capture all run through your domain, under your rules, on your timeline.

Which income method is actually right for where you are right now?

Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com. Answer a few questions about your skills and schedule, and it will show you the path most likely to produce your first $3,000 online.

Honest Drawbacks to Starting a YouTube Channel

This video is encouraging, and rightfully so. The opportunity is real. But there are real difficulties that do not get covered in most “how to start a YouTube channel” content. Here is what to plan for:

Early growth is slow. Most channels spend their first three to six months making videos that almost nobody watches. That is normal. The algorithm is still building a profile for your content and figuring out who to show it to. The discipline is to keep producing consistently and trust that the compounding starts eventually. Creators who quit at month four are often the ones who would have broken through at month seven.

Consistency is harder than it sounds. Three to four videos per week sounds manageable until you are filming, editing, designing thumbnails, writing descriptions, researching keywords, and responding to comments all in the same week, while also working a job and living a life. Many creators burn out in the first ninety days. A sustainable output pace matters more than a fast start. It is better to pick two videos per week and hold it for two years than to burn bright for sixty days and disappear.

Monetization takes longer than most people expect. YouTube AdSense requires 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours before you can even apply. Affiliate income depends on traffic volume you have not built yet. Brand deals do not call you. You pitch them, and they mostly say no until your audience numbers are strong enough to matter to them. Plan to go at least six months without meaningful revenue from the channel itself. The income comes, but it comes later than the internet usually advertises.

Your first videos will not be good. This one is hard to hear but important to internalize. The only way to get better at making videos is to make videos. The lighting will be off, the audio will have room noise, the edits will be rough, and the pacing will feel awkward. That is the price of starting. The creator who posts an imperfect video today will be technically and creatively better in six months than the one who is still waiting to post because the setup is not perfect yet.

Find Your X

Starting a YouTube channel is one path to online income. It works well for people who enjoy being on camera or in front of a mic, who can hold a consistent production schedule, and who have a niche they can speak to with genuine depth and enthusiasm over months and years. But it is not the only path, and it is not the fastest one for every person depending on where they are starting from.

If you are not sure whether YouTube fits your current skills and situation, take two minutes at finder.platformproof.com. Answer a short set of questions about what you already know how to do, how much time you have each week, and what kind of work you want to be doing. The finder matches your answers to the income model most likely to produce your first $3,000 online given where you are right now.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many subscribers do you need before you can make money on YouTube?

YouTube’s Partner Program requires 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours to run ads. But affiliate marketing has no minimum. You can earn your first commission on your first video if someone clicks your link and buys. Brand deals typically begin around 5,000 to 10,000 subscribers, and selling your own digital product can happen at any audience size. Most new creators see their first affiliate income before they see their first AdSense dollar.

Should you show your face on YouTube?

It depends on your niche. Alston shows his face on his main channel because it is a personal brand where his identity is part of the content. On his other channels, showing his face does not improve performance, so he does not do it. The right call is to look at what the top channels in your specific niche are already doing. If most successful channels in that space do not show faces, you probably do not need to either.

How long should a YouTube video be?

Only as long as it needs to be to fully answer the question or solve the problem in the video. Alston says this directly. Padding videos to hit a length target hurts your audience retention rate, which is one of the signals YouTube uses to decide how many people to show your content to. Short and complete outperforms long and padded in almost every case.

What is the best niche for a new YouTube channel?

The best niche is one where you can generate at least 20 to 30 specific video topics without running dry, where you have genuine knowledge or enthusiasm to sustain content over months, and where subtopics exist that are specific enough that a channel with zero subscribers can rank. Look at your recent purchases and the things you already spend time researching. That usually points to the right niche faster than brainstorming in the abstract.

How often should you upload when starting a YouTube channel?

Alston recommends three to four videos per week if you can sustain it without burning out. If that is not realistic given your schedule, one to two per week with total consistency over a long period still builds a strong channel. The key variable is not frequency. It is consistency over time. Steady output beats a fast sprint followed by a long break.

Do you need expensive equipment to start a YouTube channel?

No. The most important early investment is a decent microphone. Bad audio loses viewers faster than any other production flaw. A $30 to $50 USB microphone and free editing software like DaVinci Resolve can produce content that is good enough to build a real audience. Upgrade gear as revenue allows, not before you have started earning it.

How do you find video ideas when starting a channel?

The alphabet trick Alston demonstrates works well: go to YouTube search, type your niche keyword followed by “how to,” then go through each letter of the alphabet and watch what autocomplete suggests. Each suggestion is a real search query from real people. Build a list of 20 to 30 keyword ideas before you start filming so you are never sitting down without a clear topic to cover.

Do you need a website if you have a YouTube channel?

Alston calls it optional but recommends it for anyone serious about building an online income. A website is a base of operations you own. Platform shutdowns, account suspensions, and algorithm changes cannot reach it. If your YouTube channel were shut down tomorrow, a website with an email list means you can reach your audience within days and rebuild far faster than starting from scratch without one. It also gives you direct control over how you monetize your content.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “How to Start a YouTube Channel in 2023,” YouTube (Gs7NrdMVV4I)
YouTube Help Center: YouTube Partner Program requirements
Canva: color palette generator, canva.com/colors/color-palette-generator
PGA Tour 2K23 keyword search examples demonstrated in the source video

Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.