1. Devote 80% of your time to understanding your viewer

YouTube is user-driven and the second largest search engine on the Internet after Google. Yes, YouTube is a search engine, not a viewing station. When considering what your YouTube channel should be about, think in terms of your audience. What are they searching for to find your video content? How is your channel going to answer these questions? Otherwise put, how will your user use your channel?

The About question is your first question. Be specific and keep it simple. Do not do Beauty and Travel do Beauty or Travel. Answering what your channel is about aim for a pitch of around six words and consider your genre. The ten most popular categories on YouTube are as follows, know where you fit:

Comedy, Beauty, Gaming, Tech, Family (vlogs), Lifestyle (niche vloggers who discuss their personal lives, current events, and their interests), Fashion, DIY, Travel and Health and Fitness.

The spark which ignites every YouTube channel is when you think something which should be on YouTube isn't, because you believe there are gaps in what available channels are already providing or because you believe you can do the job better. Whatever the drive you have, that is your selling point, and you are selling, you're selling content.

To sell you have to know who you're selling to. You are your audience if you watch the content you want to create. Most want to create what they know. Believing your audience is exclusively your demographic is a channel annihilating move.

Know your audience's age range, their gender split, their knowledge level, how much time do they have to watch your channel? When are they online? The better you know your targeted audience, the more specific your content niche (the more specialist your videos), the greater your chance of getting found, ranking higher and beginning to build up those subscribers.

You don't want to compete with 5 million other videos, you want to compete with fifty thousand. Think less "Funny Cat Video" and more "Funny One-Eyed Siamese with a Purr Impediment" or more helpfully, less "How to Weight Train" and more "Deadlifting for Beginner Men with Disabilities.

There are demographic analysers available online. I can't find a free resource that hits the bar so I recommend the best, designed for YouTube: Vidooly. And if all you want to know is the demographic you're aiming for I further recommend signing up for the free trial and cancelling once you have the information you need.

Beyond your basics of age, gender and location, think about the results you get. What are their problems and what are their passions? What other content do they watch on YouTube? Who else are they watching? The more you know them the more you can cater to them from the start.

2. Establish what your content is and how it's distinct

Video content falls into three broad umbrella categories. Creation, original, genuine footage you filmed and edited. Curation, playlists of YouTube videos you've found, evaluated and organised. Collaboration or joint creation either with more established or pioneering YouTubers. Take into account with collaboration a video can only be associated with one channel so decide which content you'll own and which they'll use on their channel.

Knowing what your video will look like will be based on the pros, cons, and stylisation of content that already exists in your field. Some examples include livestreams and video on demand. Let’s play or walkthroughs where creators record their screen while playing a video game or using software with overlays of commentary. Behind-the-scenes and B-rolls allow you to get the most uploaded content from your time behind the camera. Unboxing videos and hauls. Lists of best and worst. Single product reviews. Vlogs, day in the lifes, lookbooks, recipes, montages, challenges and workout routines. Once you know what already exists in your genre, choose what you want to do and then brainstorm how you're going to do it differently.

Don't be afraid to be controversial, to disrupt the steady flow of repeated solutions, video formats and opinions - drama distinguishes YouTube as a social medium beyond a search engine or streaming service and viewers will flick between antiparallel streams of discussion feeding like cocaine hooked mice.

Be competitive and know your market. There are over 300 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute. Research the most active rival influencers in your genre and exploit their weakness by understanding their content. Note down when their content is uploaded. How many likes? Dislike? Understand their positive comments, negative comments and any trending formats and topics, hot keywords in titles and descriptions and inter-channel discussion. Know your playing field until you can predict the next upload of the big player channels. 

3. Find your audience and reel them back to your channel

To fish from YouTube itself become immersed in your community. Comment on other YouTube channels with a verified creator account. Covering gaps in competitor content by sieving comments for unfulfilled queries or demands. Regularly collaborate and feature other Youtubers. Create response videos for trending discussions in your niche. All are linking methods that increase the likelihood of traffic from footfall through the YouTube rabbit hole.

Like SEO, remember YouTube is a search engine, use relevant keywords in your title, description and when naming your video file. As well as your topic keywords ancillary phrase starters such as Test, Review, Walkthrough, How-to, and Review will be plucked more readily by YouTube. Think: what is my audience searching for? when your title, even when you construct the body of, your video.

As a side note when you go fishing from YouTube make certain you've done your house cleaning. Think hard about your channel art, is it up to date? How's your channel intro video looking? Upload high-quality videos, create attractive thumbnails ensuring they're mobile-friendly, add relevant tags and twitter links, include your social media links either in your description, in-video or both and add a call to actions for subscription or further videos on related, subsequent or expansion videos.

Reeling in an audience from outside of YouTube means knowing where the discussion is and again knowing your targeted audience. Are they on Quora, Reddit, fan forums? What social media are they using? Who are they following? Comment, participate and pitch on potential videos on these platforms to get your voice heard and your channel clicks.