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I used to think that if I could just get one video to go viral, all my creator problems would be solved. But after years of creating content online, I learned that it’s these tiny changes I made to my videos that really made them pick up speed and actually grow my YouTube channel. 

I’m a mom in her 30s, and I grew this whole business with a baby on my hip. I never had dreams of becoming famous. I just wanted to be able to not work a 9-to-5 so that I can be more flexible around my kids.

In this article, I’m sharing the steps I would take if I were starting my YouTube channel today and wanted to make it my full-time focus. Content creation can be hard and sometimes feel like a lonely journey—but it doesn’t have to be. And I think that’s why you’re here.

Keep reading below or watch the video:

4 steps to grow your YouTube business

Step 1. Address the struggles

I think there are three main struggles when we get started as YouTubers. And you might have experienced one or all of them. Let me know in the comments if that’s the case. 

The fear of being cringe

I think this is the first struggle that we have as YouTubers, and I did for sure. I was a lot more of a people pleaser and just worried a lot about what people thought about me. Which is why, in the beginning, I didn’t tell anyone I had a YouTube channel. My husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, was the only one who knew. And he actually helped me with the tech side of my website and things like that. 

We often carry this fear of judgment—what friends or family will think if they find out. And as your channel grows, they probably will. And that can feel terrifying when you’re just getting started, because you worry you’ll be cringe, or that they’ll think this or that about you.

But when people did find out for me, nothing really happened. Most people thought it was a cool or brave thing to do. At least that’s what they said to my face. And honestly, who cares what they actually think? When you’re starting a YouTube channel or a content creation business, there’s usually a bigger goal behind it. It’s not just about making videos.

Maybe you want to quit your 9–5, have more time with your kids, or create more flexibility so you can build a life you genuinely enjoy and work on something you’re passionate about. Those whys have to be bigger than the fear of judgment or the fear of being cringe.

And the truth is, putting videos online feels cringe—until it starts working. It’s a hard fear to move through. But the only way to get to the other side is by doing the thing anyway. Even when you’re scared.

Not having a niche

This is the second struggle most of us face when getting started—and something I battled with for years.

For a long time, I felt like I didn’t have a niche, or that I wasn’t specific enough, or that I needed to narrow it down even more. I spent a lot of time brainstorming what my “perfect” niche might be.

What I eventually realised is that my niche evolved in time. I didn’t wake up one day and say, “Okay, this is my niche, this is what I’m posting,” and then my channel grew. It happened the other way around. I posted a lot of different things. And then I started noticing what actually performed well—what my audience wanted to see. That’s what slowly guided me into my niche.

My main YouTube channel ended up being about my decluttering journey. That’s what snowballed everything and eventually became my niche on Instagram, too. But in the beginning, I posted about motherhood, cleaning, and all kinds of random topics. Then one thing started to stick, and I doubled down on what was working.

Sometimes it really is about putting out a variety of content and seeing what people connect with most. Of course, you can do research and look at what’s performing well for others. And it’s important to create videos on topics you actually enjoy talking about and are passionate about. If one of your videos gets 500,000 views, the people who subscribe because of that video will want more of the same. That’s why they followed you.

If you suddenly switch to posting completely different things, it’s harder to build the kind of engaged community a successful channel needs. But if you’re just starting out and have no idea what your niche is, don’t stress. Just start posting. That will get you much further than overthinking the “perfect” niche.

Trust me—I’ve spent hours trying to come up with the perfect one-line bio. And then I realised… it doesn’t matter nearly as much as we think.

Being discouraged by low views

When you start your YouTube channel, low views can be part of the process for quite a while. This applies to my second channel as well. It’s a newer channel for me, and I’m still growing it.

Remember that a big part of growing a YouTube channel is simply getting better at a skill you might not have yet. This work actually requires a lot of different skills. You have to script the video, film it, edit it, and learn things that probably don’t come naturally at first. They definitely didn’t for me. Feeling confident on camera, crafting a story or script that keeps people engaged—those are all skills that develop over time, and they only come from repeating the process again and again.

If I were starting right now, I wouldn’t focus so much on the view count. I’d focus on improving my videos, making sure they’re genuinely valuable, and putting in the reps. That means creating more and aiming to get just 1% better each time. That’s always my goal—to make my videos a little better each week or month.

I’m constantly learning how to do that. Sometimes it’s improving audio quality, sometimes it’s working on cinematography or storytelling. All of these things help, but I can’t work on everything at once.

Growing a YouTube channel is about small, steady improvements—unless you have a big team supporting you, which most people don’t. Then it’s just about making those small improvements, and that can take time.

If you want support as you start, I have a free YouTube growth checklist you might find helpful.

Step 2. Improve the TTI

For the second part of your YouTube journey, three things matter if you want to get more views on your YouTube videos: the title, the thumbnail, and the intro. Or TTI for short.

And you might think, well, that’s just the packaging of the video, isn’t it? Yes—that’s exactly right. Just like in a shop, where we’re drawn to a product because of its beautiful packaging, the same thing applies on YouTube.

Sometimes we put so much time and effort into creating a video—scripting it, filming it, editing the whole thing. And of course, that’s all part of the process. But these three things make a huge difference in how many views a video gets. The topic itself matters, of course, but the packaging matters just as much.

For me, once I learned how to optimise my titles—making them searchable or intriguing enough that people want to click—and how to improve my thumbnails (which honestly weren’t great in the past), I started to see a real difference. I genuinely feel like I’ve improved a lot, and I think that’s a big reason why my videos are getting more views now.

And the third part of this rule is the intro—the first 30 seconds of the video. Improving that and clearly communicating what the video is about, in a very succinct way, makes a huge difference.

I used to start my videos with, “Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.” But most people stumbling upon my video and watching weren’t actually “back” to my channel—they were seeing me for the first time. Looking back, that was such an unnecessary way to start.

Now I open my videos by sharing the before-and-after transformation I’m going to walk the viewer through. What I used to struggle with, what I’ve achieved, and how I got there. If you look at my decluttering videos or the ones on my second channel, that’s exactly what I do in the intro. People want to quickly understand what’s in the video and how it’s going to help them.

If you can nail those three things, I really think you’ll start to see an improvement in both your views and your subscribers.

If you need extra help with your thumbnails, you can now grab my Thumbnail Templates and guide here.

Step 3. Create a flow

We’re on YouTube to create content. But that doesn’t just happen magically, and it takes a lot of time and effort. 

Make a content creation system

I’m a mom of two little ones, and I grew my entire business with pretty much a baby on my hip. I worked during nap times or after they went to bed at night. Without much time on my hands, I had to create a system that really worked for me.

And the only way I’ve found to do that is by creating a system I can rely on and making a clear plan for the week. Right now, I use Notion. There are so many time-management apps and platforms out there, but Notion is the one that’s worked best for me because it’s so flexible. I can use a calendar view, a table, a list, and really customise it to my needs. This isn’t sponsored, by the way.

Create a weekly schedule

In Notion, I map out my week and decide exactly what I’m doing each day. If I don’t do that, I’m much more likely to procrastinate or get less done. When my kids are at school, and I finally sit down to work, opening my laptop to a blank page with no plan and not knowing what I’m gonna be working on that day is stressful. I end up scrambling instead of actually doing the work.

But when I open my weekly calendar and see, okay, today I’m filming two videos, tomorrow I’m editing, the next day I’m posting on Instagram, everything feels so much easier to follow.

Right now, my main priority is posting one YouTube video per week on my main channel, which goes live every Saturday. I post on Instagram. And I also post on my second channel, but it’s not my main focus. I really believe that having one clear priority helps a lot. I learned this from the book The One Thing, which opened my eyes to how powerful it is to focus my efforts on one thing I want to build and grow instead of spreading myself too thin as a content creator.

So typically, I have one day for scripting, one day for filming, one day for editing—or sending videos to my editor—another day for coming up with future YouTube ideas, and a day for posting and scheduling an email that drives traffic from my email list to my YouTube channel. That’s my basic weekly workflow, and it’s what’s helped me stay consistent over the past year or two.

I’ve posted almost every Saturday, with just a few exceptions, and I really try to stick to that schedule so people know what to expect. I think that consistency plays a big role in growing the viewership as well.

Start with the gear you have

When it comes to gear, I don’t think you need the most professional setup. I definitely didn’t have that when I started. I’ve invested in better gear gradually over the years as my channel grew and made more money, but it’s not something you need right away.

If there’s one thing I’d recommend starting with, it’s a good microphone. I use the DJI Mic Mini, and it’s great—and not overly expensive.

Step 4. Set up to monetise

I think this is why many of us are here. A lot of YouTubers start with passion and a genuine love for creating videos, and that’s one of the things I love most about this community.

But we also want to make money from it, because this takes a huge amount of time. And learning how to monetise your channel—and understanding the different options available—can make a big difference.

I know I wouldn’t be able to do this full-time or create this many videos if I couldn’t earn an income from it. I’d simply have to go back to a traditional 9–5 to support my family. I’m very aware that being able to earn a full-time income from home is a privileged position, and I don’t take it for granted.

YouTube AdSense

One of the first ways to monetise is YouTube AdSense. I recommend signing up as soon as you’re eligible. In the beginning, when you’re only getting a few hundred views, it won’t bring you a lot of money. But as your channel grows, it adds up. On my main channel, AdSense brings in around $1,500 to $2,000 a month. It’s not a full-time income on its own, but it’s a really nice addition.

Brand deals

These are usually the biggest income streams for many creators. When your channel is still small, a good way to get started is through UGC—user-generated content. That means creating content for brands that they use in their own marketing, without you posting it on your channel. It’s more about creating assets than leveraging a large audience you don’t have yet. And it’s a great starting point to pitching yourself to brands and getting known.

Later on, as your channel grows, brands will often come to you directly. Most of my brand deals now come directly to my email.

Digital products

Digital products are another monetisation option I highly recommend—and one of my personal favourites. I wouldn’t call them fully “passive,” because they take a lot of work upfront: creating the product, building the funnel, and driving traffic. They also involve work afterwards in supporting customers or managing a community. But once they’re built, they require less ongoing effort and can be sold repeatedly without starting from scratch each time.

What I did, for example, is I took the areas where I have real experience—things I’ve learned, tested, and refined myself—and turned them into courses and digital products like ebooks.

This not only increases my income but also allows me to help my audience on a deeper level. A YouTube video can be helpful, but a course lets me go much more in-depth as it can cover more and often includes community and support, which makes a big difference. I can really help people on a deeper level, and I think that’s what makes digital products much more helpful than just watching a YouTube video. 

If you can include digital products in your monetisation strategy, it can help you increase your income, provide more value, and build a more sustainable business around your channel.

Affiliate income

For me, this isn’t a major part of my strategy nor the main part of my income—I see it more as a bonus. I do earn affiliate income from tools and services I genuinely use, like Flow Desk, my email provider, or ManyChat, the DM automation tool, as well as gear I mention. Your strategy might look different depending on your content and audience size, but affiliate income can be a helpful addition.

Monetisation doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. It’s about choosing the options that align with your goals, your values, and the kind of business you want to build around your channel.

Where are you in your YouTube journey right now? If there’s something you’re working through or finding challenging, I’d love to hear about it. I wrote this article to be genuinely helpful, and your questions and experiences help shape what I share next. I hope this article was useful, and thank you for reading it.