YouTube Success Timeline: Where Are You in Your YouTube Journey? Plus Tips to Level Up

There are four distinct stages on your journey as a YouTube newbie to full time YouTuber. In this guide, I'm laying out the four stages of growth including features to identify where you currently are and strategies to help you move up to the next stage of growth. If you want to grow your handmade business or monetize your craft hobby with a channel, this is the guide for you!

Hey, everyone. Welcome to another edition of YouTube Growth Club, the space where you learn to create a craft channel that stands out, one that is impactful, optimized, profitable, and streamlined. Today we're talking about the four stages of YouTube success. I developed this framework to walk you through the beginning steps of creating video content for the YouTube platform – from when you first start out, all the way to the top where you are getting thousands of views and days of watch time from one video. You've monetized your channel through multiple streams of revenue and possibly even replacing your full-time income with your YouTube channel.

So today, as I walk you through the four stages of YouTube success, I want you to think about where you are and some of the features I'm talking about that'll help you identify. So today, as I'm talking about the four stages of YouTube success, I want you to figure out where you are in this YouTube success timeline. For each stage, I'm going to be talking about some qualities, some things you're going to be experiencing in that stage, as well as give you some helpful tips and strategies to help you level up from one stage to the next. All right, so that being said, let's dive in.

Deep Dive

First Stage

The first stage on the YouTube success timeline is the procrastination phase. This is where you've thought about launching a YouTube channel, but you haven't done it yet. Maybe when January hit, you thought,

Yes, this is the year. I'm finally going to do it. I'm going to start that YouTube channel.

If you're in the procrastination phase these are some feelings you might be having. You might be having some big time FOMO, that fear of missing out. You've seen a lot of other people launched their channels in the past year or two. You've seen them gain subscribers, approved for the YouTube Partner Program, and you thought,

Hey, I want to have that too.

But maybe along with that FOMO, you're experiencing a little bit of perfectionism. And it's easy to get caught up in perfectionism with YouTube. You know, you might be a little too hyper-focused on making sure you have the best channel name. Maybe you really are working too hard on thumbnails, making sure they look just right. You might be obsessed with getting the best camera and microphone, right? Obsessed with editing. I want you to not get too dialed into that perfectionism. It's not a great place to be.

YouTube, just like everything else in life, you got to just start. You got to get yourself out there, even if it's not perfect, but knowing that each video you're going to get better and better. YouTube, just like everything else in life, you got to just start. You got to get yourself out there, even if it's not perfect, but knowing that each video you're going to get better and better.

So for for the procrastination phase, again, this is if you've thought about starting a YouTube channel, but you haven't yet, because you're caught in perfectionism. Maybe you've got that fear of FOMO that you're going to miss out, but you haven't taken the leap yet. You also might be maybe a little stuck on the tech aspects of YouTube. I know ideation, scripting, film, editing, and publishing can feel daunting and frustrating. If you are experiencing any of these, the FOMO, the perfectionism, the tech frustration of the first phase, here are some helpful strategies and tips to get you out of this stage and into the next one. First thing I want you to do is really focus in on your ideal audience. Think about who is this YouTube channel for?. Once you can identify that, that'll really help you focus in on creating a name of your channel that's going to resonate with this audience. You want to let people know who the channel is for. This will help you with your profile picture and banner.

Again, what are some thumbnails that's going to resonate with your ideal audience? Same thing with your description, your playlists and your content. When you think about who your videos are going to serve. Are your videos primarly going to educate with craft tutorials or entertain with craft with me, day in the life, and behind the scenes? YouTube, unlike other social platforms, serves as both a growth marketing tool and a nurture marketing tool. Growth marketing happens through organic discoverability (search, recommended, homepage). Nurture marketing through subscription feed. Your video title is for SEO; your thumbnail is for SEO and capturing attention of current subscribers.