With digital transformation at its peak, starting a YouTube Channel for kids is one of the hottest topics of discussion. That’s because YouTube is one of the most influential social media platforms hosting 500 hours of video every minute. It has become a source to make money online and earn fame, both a kid would wish for. Also, there is no doubt that kids these days are smarter and go-getters by nature. And access to YouTube has allowed them to express their talent to the world. Here are some key stats pertaining to Kids YouTube:
Interesting Kids’ YouTube Stats
- 75% of children between 6 and 17 aspire to become a YouTuber
- 3/4th of millennials and Gen Z say YouTube is their desired career
- Over 34% of kids want to be YouTubers, and over 18% want to be a vlogger/blogger
- 50% of millennials and Gen Z want to create social media content and earn.
- 53% of parents say their kids watch YouTube videos every day
- Over 70% of kids relate to YouTube influencer than celebrities
- Smartphones are the most preferred medium to access YouTube for kids
- Videos featuring children under 13 receive three times more views than without.
- 76% of Indian parents prefer YouTube for their kid’s animation content consumption
Source: PewResearch, OmniCoreAgency, FinancialExpress
The number of kids YouTubers is growing exponentially and counting. If your child wants to be a content creator on YouTube, make sure you get some questions answered. Why do they want to create a Youtube channel? What kind of content do they want to upload? How much time will they spend on this platform? What do they like and dislike about the platform? Once satisfied with the answers, it’s time to learn how to create a YouTube Channel for kids. Here are some things to follow to make a successful YouTube Channel for kids.
How to Make a Successful YouTube Channel as a Kid
1. Get the Basics Right:
You need to know specific guidelines and basics of YouTube before getting into it. YouTube doesn’t allow users below the age of 13 to create a channel, so if a child is below 13, they have to use their parent’s email Id to set up an account. However, children from 13-17 can create their channel with parental permission, and the channel should operate under parental guidance. As parents, when you think of starting their YouTube journey, you should get some things off the platter by educating them ahead.
Children are innocent and curious creatures, and how you shape them from the beginning is vital in cultivating their thought processes and emotions. Before you roll the camera, talk to them about Internet safety. Undoubtedly, the internet is a safe space to some extent, but not always. Now, the most critical job of a parent here begins after the channel has started and the child is invested. Children also consume content and often see other child creators getting famous and making big numbers. Parents must act as their child’s counselor here, telling them not to count on the numbers and instead enjoy the process of being a YouTuber.
Things to consider
- Before starting the YouTube journey, ensure they know some ground rules regarding YouTube and how much time they will spend making videos.
- Train your child never to disclose their nicknames, surnames, the area where they reside, school information, and any such information you think can be Googled and tracked.
- Mute the comments under every video. People are more actively bashing creators. Muting comments will keep your child away from negative vibes.
2. Pick a Niche Preferred by Your Kid
One of the ways to ensure that your child’s YouTube channel will be on a path to success is to decide what niche to choose. Ask your child about their passion which they are comfortable showcasing to the world. Take suggestions from them like what they think might interest other kids, if they have any other ideas or if they will be able to make videos on that niche, etc. All these questions will give you an idea of which theme to pick.
Guide your child if they are confused. Do your research, and you can suggest some trending niches, like dance, storytelling, coding, games, lifestyle vlogs, art, and crafts, toy reviews, and DIY video (to explore their creative side). Remember to provide a nurturing and supportive environment to your kid. Of course, don’t impose your ideas on your child; instead, let them decide after all that the YouTube channel you will create is for them to show their talent, interests, and thoughts. And the best thing about letting the kid decide about the theme is that they will thoroughly enjoy creating content and won’t go much in the number game.
Things to consider
- Gaming, unboxing videos, family vlogs, and DIYs are some popular niches for kids’ YouTube channels.
- With 35.1 Million subscribers, Ryan Kaji is the most popular and richest kid YouTuber. His niche is reviewing children’s toys.
- A niche chosen by the kid will naturally have them perform better than a niche selected by the parents; let the kid decide.
3. Create a “Made for Kids” Channel
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined YouTube and Google a hefty penalty of $136 million for violating children’s online privacy policy as it could not filter mature ads and videos. After this, YouTube added a “made for kids” category to clean its house. COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) requires YouTubers to create a label for their videos or channel as “made for kids” to set their primary audience as children. This policy categorizes a channel/video as only appropriate for children and applies worldwide. If a child hosts any video, the intention of making the video is for children, or your channel is for children, make sure to tick the “made for kids” in YouTube settings or while uploading videos.
“Made for kids” videos restrict some features like personalized advertising, comments, memberships, notifications, etc. The audience cannot save the video for later or to any playlist. They will only be able to play the video on full screen, and the videos won’t be playing in a mini-player, unlike other videos. However, “made for kids” videos are more likely to reach relevant audiences as they get recommended alongside other kids’ videos.
Things to consider
- Cocomelon is the most subscribed made-for-kids YouTube channel with over 139 million subscribers.
- COPPA has strict policies; for example, if a video includes a child even as a model or actor, that video is considered “made for kids”.
- Restrictions on the “made for kids” channels have made them face a low revenue generation compared to other media.
4. Focus on Quality and Consistency of Content
They say consistency beats talent, and that’s a fascinating fact. No success is an overnight process. Even for a YouTube channel, it is a daily grind that you have to follow. You must be consistent and post quality content that keeps your audience hooked and wanting more from you. While these factors might seem like a task, all you have to do is to be authentic on camera. YouTube kids’ audience loves the uniqueness of each creator; copying or faking may sway them away.
Proper planning of the content will go a long way. Sit with your child and list a few video ideas you both are okay doing. Think about which type of videos you want to do in your niche, how many times a week you can shoot, and do what is accessible to the kid. To keep the content engaging, be informative and entertaining with what you put in the video. The audience prefers easy-to-consume and digestible content. Also, for the consistency of the videos, try to teach a discipline and easy routine so that it doesn’t interfere with the kid’s day-to-day activities much.
Things to consider
- Try to be consistent with the content and make sure the routine fits your lifestyle.
- Quality can be refined by editing the video well, ensuring the video is easy to understand and shot in a clean and tidy space.
- Create authentic and valuable content keeping your target audience in mind.
5. Edit Videos Professionally
Of course, content is king but how your video looks takes away 70-80% of your audience. The audience generally draws towards what is pleasing to the eyes and what makes content enjoyable. A video that is shot and edited nicely. It would help if you had an edge in this department to make your videos watch-worthy. For that, you need an aesthetic recording area, so keep your background clutter free as a clean and tidy background boosts your creativity and keeps your mind at peace.
Camera and lighting are essential to a video; however, you do not need to spend much on equipment. For lighting, you can shoot your videos in natural lighting; that is the best. Or you can buy a ring light that is not too heavy on the pocket. And, if you want good quality videos, you can go with your smartphone’s camera, and nowadays, you get a decent camera on budget phones. Alternatively, you can check for Sony, Canon, and GoPro cameras if you want to upgrade. For editing, there is various software with free versions with good features. This software is simple enough to use by anyone and can give you professional-looking videos at zero cost. Here are the top 20 online video creation and marketing tools.
Things to consider
- Powerdirector, Inshot, and Canva are currently popular video editing software.
- Invest in watching video editing tutorials; you can find excellent free videos on YouTube and skillshare.
- Adding good music, title, texts, motions, and graphics to your video can give it an edge.
6. Optimize Videos Before Publishing
Often beginners do not recognize what influence optimization of descriptions, keywords, thumbnails, and tags holds for the audience. YouTube pushes videos with the most searchable keywords to the top of its recommendation bar. If your videos are optimized, they are searchable, as simple as that. After all, you want your videos to be discovered by your audience. You need to work on four things to optimize your videos. Your videos must have rich, relevant keywords, customized thumbnails, a great description, and video meta tags.
YouTube’s algorithm captures tags and descriptions well and makes it easier for your video to be discovered by your audience. The title is the first thing any user will notice about your video; keep them concise, keyword rich, and friendly. Pick keywords that are simpler to say and include what is trendy at the moment. YouTube allows 1000 words to write in your description, make the best use of it and add as many keywords as possible. Adding video transcriptions or song lyrics; will help capture the song in your video in a search query. For thumbnails, use clean and visible images of any character from the video; users will recognize it faster. Even though YouTube also adds a thumbnail by default, if you do not, customizing the thumbnail is recommended as it fetches more audience.
Things to consider
- 90% of the best-performing YouTube videos have customized thumbnails, so invest time in customizing video thumbnails.
- Do without clickbait in any form (title, description, tags). Any disguised/fake information may tarnish your image and get you banned.
- Use your target keyword to rename your video. YouTube picks up keywords from the video name too.
7. Sell Kid-friendly Merch
Another way of increasing revenue and becoming successful on YouTube is to sell personalized merchandise. Merchandising is a popular way to form a connection with your audience and an effective strategy for cross-promotion. Many YouTube content creators do it nowadays with a wide range of digital and physical products. Some good options for branded merchandising would be to sell coasters, t-shirts, toys, games, mugs, ebooks, stationery supplies, etc. These categories are famous among kids. However, “Made for Kids” does not allow creators to showcase their merchandise on merchandising shelves or videos. A way to work around this would be to sell their merchandise on off-platform e-commerce sites, like Shopify, Dukaan, WooCommerce, etc. Check out the top 20 eCommerce marketing tools to boost your online business.
After this, you can add your store links to your video descriptions and talk about them in your video. Even though your audience is kids (they are easily convincing), in the end, you have to convince the parents to buy your merchandise. So, talk strategically about the benefits and good things of your products and prices, so there is one less thing for the parents to worry about. Also, avoid mentioning or plugging your merch at the beginning of the video, and keep it to the end, so your watch time doesn’t decrease.
Things to consider
- Mugs, T-shirts, hoodies, and tote bags are some of the most popular merchandise on YouTube.
- Pewdewpie, the king of YouTube, earns the most (around $7000 monthly) by selling merchandise on YouTube.
- Use Canva (free) to create your customized merch. Canva has thousands of pretty designs and templates.
8. Try for Brand Sponsorships
Getting brand sponsorships is a great way to pocket a decent amount of money. Some “Made for kids” channels are racking up billions of views from their videos; for example, the “Baby Shark” video from” Pingfong has crossed 10 billion views and is one of a kind to do so.
There are two ways to have brand sponsorships. Either you go (pitch) to the brand, or they discover you and come to you. In both cases, you must tick all the criteria for a brand to be interested in you. You do not have to have millions of subscribers to get brands to collaborate with you. Great quality content, a similar target audience, and a brand persona will do.
Your brand persona is something you believe in and reflects in your work. You need clear branding that aligns with a brand to get their sponsorship. Making quality content will give you quality brands that have the same standards. No brand wants to collaborate with a YouTube channel that doesn’t cater to the basics of YouTubing — quality content. Now, a similar target audience is a brand’s second most important thing. Imagine a beauty blogger promoting baby feeding essentials; it will not fall. Sponsorship will only work best for either party if there is a similar target audience.
Things to consider
- Know what you bring to the table; never devalue that. Portraying good work with sheer confidence is what will get you, good sponsors.
- Channels with 100k or more subscribers make around $1500, and those with a million subscribers make about $7500 on average.
- Gaming and technology brands are the most paying niches on YouTube.
9. Share on other Platforms to Drive Audiences
Mere-making content and putting it on YouTube isn’t enough. It would be best to publish yourself to get people to find you. YouTube is not the only way to promote your videos. Your audience and potential brand sponsors are also hanging out on other platforms. Sharing YouTube videos on other platforms like Instagram, your WhatsApp circle, Twitter, and LinkedIn can help you gain visibility and drive more traffic. Blogging is still a thing; you can even start your blog with your YouTube channel and promote your videos there.
You can start publishing your newsletters and encourage your audience to subscribe to you. Promote videos through email marketing growth hack techniques, and put links to your videos smoothly onto your newsletters. It will help boost your reach and eventually spike your rankings on YouTube’s algorithm. Not only online, but you must also promote your videos offline to your family and friends as there are still many YouTube users who are not on other platforms.
Things to consider
- Actively indulge in YouTube challenges and trend videos, then promote them by teasers on other platforms. Also, make use of the YouTube community.
- Not just promote your videos; promote your channel. When people come to your channel, serve them with quality content.
- To save your video from getting removed from the recommendation feature, follow and respect YouTube’s community guidelines.
10. Let Them Be
Remember, the motto of creating a YouTube channel was always to let your child express their talent, enjoy the good side of the internet, and gain some confidence. It would help if you never stress about videos and never push them; instead, let them have fun. Also, while making videos keep your content as natural as it can. It is only achievable if you go with their interest and make them do what they love.
From time to time, take input from your child and let them be the director of their video. See what interests them, and maybe they want to create similar content. Acknowledge their suggestions and act accordingly. This way, they will enjoy making videos seem like any other game they can play.
Also, if you ever feel the YouTube thing is getting too much work for them, they need a break or even want to quit. Please respect their decision and go with the flow. Children are vulnerable, and there should be no stage in their life where they feel pressure to do anything. Somewhere or the other, everything hits their mental health; take good care of them.
Conclusion
Whether your kid becomes successful on YouTube or not, this platform is worth exploring. Being on YouTube is one of the most promising future job trends. With the support of parents, many kid YouTubers are gaining popularity and confidence, so if your kid wants to become a YouTuber, guide and support them through the process.
If you want to make the most of your kid’s YouTube channel, it’s time to take Sorav Jain’s YouTube Mastery Course. It is exclusively designed for people interested in learning various YouTube marketing strategies and generating revenues. Enroll now and get a handsome discount on the YouTube Mastery Course at Digital Scholar.
