
What’s your ultimate YouTube wish for 2022? For the aspiring entrepreneurs out there, we have a pretty good hunch. 

Eventually go full-time and start a business

Want to Make YouTube Your Full-Time Job? Master These 5 Skills

, we interview a tech creator who reached that milestone: Jacklyn Dallas of 

 (NBT). In seven years of filming, her channel has amassed 166,000 subscribers. That’s an important figure to note because most people think you need a million to be successful.

Of course, Jacklyn reveals the truth about 

: Creators need a mix of problem solving, community building, and innovative thinking – not just subscribers.

Your channel can become so much more than an entertainment hub. While no viewer thinks, 

, most people appreciate anything that helps them succeed in life. Take a look at the last 10 videos on your channel. Do they solve a concrete problem millions of people share? That’s the first sign your YouTube channel can support a larger business.

 because she was already solving tech problems. She had an audience of one at the time: her grandmother. But after Jacklyn recorded several videos to help her out – tutorials on resetting an email password or downloading an ebook – she knew she had something special.

“I would just send a 30-second video, and she found that really helpful,” Jacklyn says. “And I kind of thought, ‘I like explaining tech stuff. I may as well post it on YouTube.’”

Now that Jacklyn is a full-time YouTuber, one thing is clear: Coming up with solutions is the crux of any successful business, online or not.

2. You’re Making Enough Money to Justify the Effort

Starting any business (and growing it) depends on your ability to make money. YouTube is no different, and you need a justifiable income to manage a channel full-time. Otherwise, you could run out of money and end up quitting before you’ve started.

7 Lucrative Ways to Make Money Beyond YouTube

Are you ready for that challenge? If you have multiple streams of income that cover your lifestyle, we’d say you are.

3. You’re Willing to Invest Heavily in Your YouTube Channel

Most creators invest in their channels by making one-off purchases. They’ll buy a 

 or an external microphone to get crisp audio. But chances are, you’re past that stage if you’re thinking of starting a business. You exit the “basic upgrade” phase and enter the “long-term investment” phase.

invest 90% of YouTube revenue back into the channel

 rather than spend it. That’s what a thriving startup would do. In fact, that’s what 

“I don’t think people think of it as a company…. When you see insane numbers like, MrBeast makes 'X' amount, it’s like, no," Jacklyn says. Jimmy doesn’t make 'X' amount, the overall structure makes that amount, and then that goes to salaries and videos and things like that.”

Jacklyn follows this principle, too. She didn’t take a salary for years so she could invest in things like:

A camera that meets the quality standards for a tech channel

4. You Push the Boundaries of What’s Possible on YouTube

We mentioned the power of income diversification above. Well, this tip goes hand-in-hand with that philosophy. Sometimes it’s not enough to collect money from different sources and call it a day. 

The best businesses are innovative and take calculated risks.

 Look at Jeff Bezos, Amazon, and the race to space that spawned Blue Origin. Think of Elon Musk’s company SpaceX and its mission to design and launch rockets into space. 

Some might argue we have bigger problems to solve here on Earth, but innovation clearly drives wealth.

Embrace the same mindset when growing your channel. You don’t have to follow the monetization template YouTube created. Do something bold.

6 Signs It's Time to Make YouTube Your Full-Time Job

Jacklyn took this to heart when she partnered with Dive Tap, a company that creates info-sharing cards that activate when you tap them against a phone. It allows people to share contacts, files, links, and more.

Jacklyn pitched the idea of an NBT x Dive Tap collab, which included:

Custom card designs her audience would resonate with

A way to switch out the links on every card

“I want to always be pushing the boundaries a little bit,” Jacklyn says. “No tech creator had launched a tech product yet. I was like, ‘This is the perfect opportunity. Why not make it? Why not try to do this?’”

5. You’ve Built a YouTube Community That Trusts You

Having a strong YouTube community means your channel is on track to become a business. To be clear, this isn’t about how many subscribers you’ve gained. It's not even about the followers you’ve amassed on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Discord. This is about connection and engagement.

We’ve seen creators under 100,000 subscribers, such as social media expert Desiree Martinez, 

. While they don’t have the largest audience, they do have engaged followers who support them monetarily.

Turning your channel into a business is no joke, so if you’re ready to earn more, give YouTube brand deals a shot. Here are 10 pitching secrets to help you land one.

If growing a YouTube channel feels hard, turning one into a business must seem impossible. Still, you may be further ahead than you think.

Is Your YouTube Channel on Track to Become a Business? Here are 5 Positive Signs

Choosing a YouTube niche is a big decision. Viewers look at the overall theme of your channel and ask one question: 

But that’s just one end of the spectrum; after that, you have to think about 

. It will analyze your channel’s genre and attempt to serve your videos to people with similar interests. If your content is all over the place, you might get fewer recommendations than someone with a focused channel.

 about how to choose a niche for YouTube. On his channel, Jeff transitioned from general tech videos to reviewing personal audio, such as earbuds, headphones, and speakers. That strategy was a huge success, and now Jeff has more than 80,000 subscribers.

A creator's niche refers to the genre or subgenre they explore in their content.

There are many types of niches on YouTube:

Ready to find the right niche for you? Here are five ways to pick a topic that speaks to you creatively and grows your channel.

On YouTube, the more specific your content is, the better.

Let’s say you plan to launch a comedy channel. That's a tricky task because while everyone loves to laugh, people are amused by different things. So it's not enough tell jokes or create skits that appeal to a broad audience. You need to reach your ideal viewer by niching down to specific moments that 

 be funny: being the new employee, leash-training a hyper dog, working in customer service, etc.

El Jefe Reviews takes this concept to the next level. He has a niche within a niche 

 a niche. There are three levels to his content that get narrower the closer you look.

A tech channel that reviews personal audio.

A tech channel that reviews personal audio, specifically wireless earbuds, headphones, and speakers.

“I thought general tech was the way to go until somebody sort of educated me and let me know, like, ‘Hey, that isn’t it. You need to laser-focus on a niche, and if you can find a niche within that niche, then that’s really going to be where you find your people,” Jeff says.

To find a focused niche, ask yourself two questions:

Does my niche have an interesting subgenre?

Is there an underserved subgenre I could make content for?

2. Choose a Niche That Gives You the Most YouTube Views

Why does El Jefe Reviews focus on personal audio instead of general tech? It’s simple: One topic got more views than the other. 

More importantly, Jeff didn't dismiss that phenomenon as fluke. 

 and realized his audience was interested in personal audio, not general tech.

“When I did my first headphone video, it outperformed my other content,” Jeff says. “I was lucky to get 50 or 60 views on a video before that, but this headphone video was pushing 300, 400, 500 views. Maybe two videos later, I did a video on a set of earbuds that had just been released. That video ended up pushing 1,000 in the first week…. I noticed a pattern there.”

The moral of the story? Don’t be afraid to experiment. It's OK to make a bunch of different videos and see what works best.

Quantity Over Quality - The One Thing New YouTubers Should Focus On

3. Check Out the Competition for Your Niche

Choosing a niche isn't as easy as picking up a weekend hobby. What if millions of other creators are getting billions of views for the same topic? You'll be starting from zero, which makes it hard to stand out on YouTube.

Now you have a tough decision to make. Do you fight your way through the crowd or choose a niche with less competition?

We’re not saying the first option is impossible. But it’s easier to 

 when you choose the road less traveled. 

A small creator should never try to compete (at least not directly) with an influencer pushing 1 million subscribers. Making videos about topics your competitors 

“There weren’t that many [channels doing personal audio] when I was doing it at first,” Jeff says about his own competitors. “At the time, there were maybe three or four of us back in 2017, 2018. Now there are 40 or 50.”

The lesson? If you have a unique idea, take it seriously before someone else does. The best YouTube channel niche is one no one's paying attention to, but you know viewers want to see.

4. Choose a Niche that Provides Endless Video Work

In this podcast episode, our co-host Dan asked Jeff an interesting question.

“Do you ever feel like there are only so many headphones, and you’ve reviewed all of them?” Dan asked.

“No,” Jeff answered. “There has been a tidal wave – a tsunami if you will – of wireless headphones and earbuds since 2016-2017, and it has not slowed down. Even the [computer] chip shortage [during the pandemic] barely made a dent in what’s going on here…. If anything, I have too much work.”

Choose a niche that gives you plenty of videos to make. There's nothing worse than 

5. Pick a YouTube Niche You’re Passionate About

Does your niche motivate you to wake up, film videos, and actually be excited about the process? It takes time to build a YouTube channel, so that passion has to come from you and only you. Make sure you’re on YouTube for the right reasons, which should be a combination of passion, community building, and, yes, even 

Once you've found the right niche, it's time to think about money. Are you trying to earn more 

 revenue or build an income through brand deals, affiliate marketing, and products? 

If the answer is AdSense, it helps to know which YouTube niches have a high CPM (cost per mille, or in other words, the cost advertisers pay per 1,000 views).

How to Make $200K a Month From YouTube AdSense

Here are the lucrative niches to look out for:

All of these niches have CPMs between $14 and $21, as shown in the graph below. This data is from a global study by 

So how does this affect your revenue? If you're from Australia and have an investing channel, for example, you could

 just by allowing video ads on your content. 

Now, let's say you have a goal to make $100 per video. With a CPM of $21 per 1,000 views, you would only need 5,000 views per upload to meet your goal – which is totally doable.

CPM rates fluctuate with market demand, seasonality, and even your audience type on YouTube.

To learn more about CPMs and how they affect your revenue, read this post outlining the major factors.

The best niche for you is one you’re passionate about and builds a following on YouTube. Here are some tips to find your channel’s focus once and for all.

How to Choose the Best Niche for Your YouTube Channel


On YouTube, few milestones are as satisfying as getting 1 million subscribers. After years of filming and uploading, watching your channel go from zero to hero is 

. It’s even better than gaining your real first subscriber (who isn’t a robot or sub4sub operative).

But what does it take to grow your audience and 

receive the infamous gold YouTube plaque?

, we share tips to help creators of all sizes hit 1 million subscribers. Regardless of your niche, Vyyyper (vidIQ executive producer), Daniel Holzhauer (social and community manager), and Rob Wilson (YouTuber-in-residence) share the secret sauce for rapid growth. And guess what? We used these same strategies to grow the 

First, Break Your Million-Subscriber Goal Into Smaller Chunks

One million is a big, intimidating number. To reach that many subscribers on YouTube, you should break the figure into mini-goals that are easier to process.

For example, you can plan your growth as follows:

From there, aim to reach 20,000 subscribers; 30,000; 

Chunking it out this way will keep you focused and motivated. Instead of thinking, 

I must reach 1 million subscribers as fast as possible

, you free yourself from lofty expectations.

11 Strategies to Reach 1 Million Subscribers on YouTube

Increasing your subscribers on YouTube is surprisingly formulaic. While some creators grow their audiences using different topics, one thing remains constant: 

You must hook viewers, deliver the value they’re craving, and convince them to return.

 Do these three things, and you’ll turn casual viewers into loyal subscribers.

Here are 10 actionable tasks that make the journey easier.

Your channel needs a clear niche regardless of the content you upload. It’s hard to accept, but people won’t subscribe if you keep switching your channel’s theme. In fact, they may never return if you switch from lifestyle content to sports commentary to gardening to cryptocurrency. They’ll wonder, 

Where are the videos I subscribed to see?

On the vidIQ channel, we hit 1 million subscribers by finding a niche and sticking to it. We were all about YouTube education, and people subscribed because we constantly shared YouTube advice, tutorials, and news.

“We were the first channel to really talk about hashtags as a new search traffic driver…. [YouTube] sent that video to the top of the search rankings, and its been there ever since,” Rob says. “That was a catalyst for us to think about how we could be the primary resource for all sorts of basic YouTube education.”

We sort of stumbled into the YouTube education lane, but don't hesitate on your own channel; declare a niche as soon as you're ready.

2. Create a Service-Based Channel That Helps Viewers Succeed

The more you serve your audience, the bigger your channel grows on YouTube.

It sounds like a cliche – an obvious statement that makes creators say, “Duh!” But thousands of people skip this important step.

So when you create your channel, ask yourself a brutally honest question: 

What is the specific value I’m providing viewers?

How to Make the EXACT Videos YouTube Subscribers Want to See

There’s no right or wrong answer to this question. But just know that to gain 1 million subscribers, you need 

 sort of answer. You’re not making content to please yourself; you’re trying to solve a problem in the viewer’s life, whether that’s extreme boredom or needing to buy a single-family home on a tight budget. It all depends on your niche and the challenges people face. How can you help them succeed?

3. Master the Ultimate YouTube Duo: Video Title + Thumbnail

What if we told you viewers spend less than three seconds deciding which videos to watch? How would you make your content stand out on YouTube after hearing that?

There’s only one correct answer this time. To get more subscribers, you need attractive YouTube thumbnails and emotional video titles. Both items are the lifeblood of your channel, and together, they attract viewers before you’ve spoken a word.

“You’re just trying to get someone to see it and stop that scrolling action,” Daniel says. “It’s the same as when you’re looking through your Instagram feed; you’re looking through Twitter, you’re half reading, you see something – and boom. You stop, and you look at it…. that’s how YouTube is.”

4. Add a YouTube Subscribe Button to Your Videos

The easiest way to gain subscribers is to display a watermark that reads, “Subscribe” on all your videos. When viewers click this button, they have the option to…well, subscribe. Pretty simple, right?

Once you have an image you want to use as a subscribe button, all you have to do is upload it to the branding section of your channel.

Here’s how to add that watermark to YouTube videos:

Upload your image and choose when you want it to appear in your videos: at a custom timestamp, the end of your video, or the entire time.

And here are the image requirements for YouTube watermarks:

PNG, GIF, BMP, or JPEG files (1MB or smaller)

5. Use YouTube End Screens to Promote Your Videos

End screens help you get more YouTube views and attract subscribers. These interactive screens appear at the end of videos and allow viewers to click on extra content from your channel. So instead of someone watching one video, you encourage them to watch two – possibly three if the following video has 

YouTube End Screens - How to Make Cool Video Outros

As you recommend more content, viewers begin to understand the value of your videos. That builds a compelling case for 

 someone should subscribe to your channel. If you add a subscribe button to all of your end screens, that seals the deal too.

Instead of placing two or three videos on your end screen (plus a subscribe button), display just one video.

 who kind of teased this idea of having one very intentional end screen,” Rob says. “If you give someone more than a few options, they’ll have choice paralysis. Give them one option and be very explicit about why they should choose that option.”

6. Be Engaging on YouTube to Retain Viewers

If you want to grow your channel to 1 million subscribers, you should make content people crave. That’s easier said than done, but you can succeed by focusing on one YouTube metric: 

A video has three crucial “moments” for retaining viewers:

 How many people are still watching after the first 30 seconds?

 As you move from scene to scene, are viewers staying or leaving?

 Are people making it to the end to click your end screen and watch more content?

How to Increase Audience Retention on Every YouTube Video

The length of your video doesn’t matter as much if the whole thing is entertaining. To achieve that, 

slowly improve your average view duration

. This is a percentage showing how long viewers watched a video on average.

“Whatever length your video is, get people to watch that video for as long as humanly possible,” Vyyyper says. “I think that’s the real metric.”

Want to introduce your content to potential subscribers? 

 within your niche, then make videos about the ones that matter to your audience. If you include high-volume keywords that aren’t too competitive, your video could really take off.

You might see something like this in the YouTube Studio if that happens:

. Make sure the trend has some crossover between your current viewers and those excited about the trend. Both audiences should have similar goals – learning to cook, discovering new music, etc. – so new subscribers have a reason to watch non-trend-related videos.

“We did quite a lot of trend jacking and surfing two or three years ago when I was looking at the Pewdiepie versus T-Series subscriber race,” Rob says. “We got a lot of traffic from it and a lot of new viewers, but they weren’t necessarily interested in YouTube education. They were interested in the subculture of the subscriber race.”

This tip is pretty straightforward but easy to miss: Create an upload schedule and stick to it no matter what happens. Posting videos consistently will help you retain the subscribers you’ve gained on the road to 1 million.

If you slip up and become inactive on your channel, viewers will depend on another creator for their entertainment or education. That pushes you 10 steps backward when you’re growing a channel.

9. Don’t Be Afraid to Pivot Your Content

We have a confession that will transform your YouTube journey forever.

The videos that attract your first 10,000 subscribers are worthy of celebration, but they won’t attract your next 100,000. Furthermore, videos that help you reach 500,000 won’t take you as far as 1 million – and that’s OK.

On YouTube, viewers change their interests over time. You should explore new video ideas to attract subscribers and retain old ones simultaneously.

7 Tips to Craft Irresistible Video Ideas on YouTube

“Our target audience tends to be YouTube channels that are under 1,000 subscribers, and they are working toward monetization…. But there is so much more untapped audience out there – people who have monetized and want to turn their channels into businesses and full-time professions,” Rob says. “I think there’s also so much in YouTube culture that we just gloss over the surface of.”

No matter how well something is working on your channel, experiment. Test new video concepts to reach more viewers and get your channel discovered.

10. Outsource the Work You Can’t Handle Alone

Can you grow a YouTube channel to 1 million subscribers without help? It’s certainly possible. That’s what we did on the vidIQ channel. 

But imagine how many subscribers we would have if we outsourced our extra work. With a team of people editing videos, writing scripts, and creating thumbnails, we might have 2 million subscribers.

“I think the one thing creators struggle with is giving up control,” Rob says. “You get to a certain size of community and content and quality that you 

Once you have 500,000 subscribers or more, it’s time to audit your workflow. What’s the one thing stifling your productivity? Who could you hire to ease that burden?

11. Almost at a Million Subscribers? Live Stream the Final Moments

Let's say your channel is sitting at 980,000 subscribers and slowly creeping toward a million. There are two things you can do in this situation:

Let people subscribe at a natural pace (within a few weeks).

Live stream the experience to reach 1 million in a few days.

We chose to stream those final moments, and it paid off; viewers joined the celebration and started subscribing to help us reach our goal.

Here’s how we set up our million-subscriber live stream:

We ran a continuous stream on the vidIQ channel for a few days.

 None of us were talking or appearing on the stream yet, but we had a screen showing our live subscriber count. It was steadily ticking toward 1 million subscribers, so people knew the point of the video.

When we were close to 1 million, several creators at vidIQ hopped on the live stream.

 We continued to show the subscriber count, but now there was more discussion and intrigue. We talked about the journey to 1 million subscribers and shared YouTube growth advice.

Lastly, we displayed channel names as a free shout-out whenever someone subscribed.

 This really boosted our subscriber count. You can achieve the same thing using a plug-in from 

In 11 steps, you can take your YouTube channel from its current size to 1 million subscribers. Keep reading to learn how.

How to Reach 1 Million YouTube Subscribers In 5 Years or Less


Growing a YouTube channel is frustratingly difficult. It’s easy to create a channel, customize it, and make your first video. But everything that comes next is an extreme test of willpower.

Imagine posting for an audience of zero while earning 50 views at best. Or gaining one subscriber per video. That’s the kind of slow burn that makes creators give up before they’ve started.

But here’s the good news: Plenty of people 

making it on YouTube. Small creators grow their channels from zero subscribers to several thousand every year.

7 Beliefs You Need to Have to Grow a YouTube Channel

Rene Ritchie, a tech journalist who’s now a full-time YouTuber, says there are two keys to achieving this goal. First, you must understand how YouTube works. And second, you have to adopt the creator mentality.

, Rene shares powerful tips that helped him grow 

 to nearly 300,000 subscribers. Some of his advice will sound familiar to budding creators. But there are lesser-known tips – strategies people don’t explicitly think about – that make or break a YouTube channel.


When your channel isn’t growing, here are five things to remind you of what it takes to win on YouTube.

1. You Must Honor the Promise You've Made to Subscribers

When a viewer subscribes to your channel, they do so for two reasons:

They’re interested in your channel’s topic.

Gaining a new subscriber is exciting, but the real work begins after that. Viewers expect similar content of the same value, and it’s up to you to deliver that promise. That means you can’t go 

When your YouTube channel stops growing – or never even started – it’s time to identify your problem areas. Here are five things you could be overlooking on your channel.

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