When you’re a content creator, it is easy to focus on a platform where you’re bound to come across potential followers. You will probably want to create online profiles on various social media networks to market your brand and your content. Creating your own website and integrating the video hosting and social media platform where your content sits is probably not in your list of priorities at this point.
More than once we have talked about how to be a successful Youtuber and how to create content that your followers will want to consume. This time, we will talk about why it’s important for an aspiring Youtuber - or even one who has already built an audience-base from creating video content - to create a website as part of becoming a Youtuber that’s not only highly-followed but also profitable.
1. Your personal brand needs a home
While learning how to upload a Youtube video that viewers will want to watch, you must have encountered the concept of branding at least once. Even when producing videos, creating a brand image is important. You use an intro and extro that is unique to your channel, you adopt a specific way of shooting clips and putting them together, you even create a logo that represents your personal brand. The one thing that’s missing is an actual home for this brand.
Now you might think that a Youtube channel might suffice at this point given that it provides you with a space where you can host your videos. The reality is that you are not the only content creator specializing in the kind of videos that you produce. You are competing with different Youtubers from all over the world and your content can get lost in that sea of similar content. You are also at the mercy of Youtube’s ever-changing algorithm so you don’t really know for sure when your videos will show up on the video hosting site’s search results. Having a website allows you to create a page for your work and market it to a wider audience - outside of the group that lurks Youtube for content. Building a website on Strikingly allows you to connect your Youtube channel with your page to ensure that you keep a cohesive web presence. When done correctly, web visitors will still continue to associate your site with your Youtube channel and will serve as another place where you can display your video content.
2. Your brand requires space to expand
A Youtube channel will forever be limited by the design specifications of the video hosting site. You have a co-branding setup with the video streaming site so you need to abide by its design standards.
Creating a website with Strikingly gives you a bit more creative freedom to create a page that will effectively represent your personal brand. You can implement your own color scheme, add a custom logo on a more prominent corner of the page and even get your own custom domain. It’s like having your own channel outside of the Youtube universe even though your videos are still hosted there.
3. Another way to monetize your Youtube content
Having your own website also provides you with another way to make money on Youtube videos. Embedding your content on a website gives you an opportunity to push your own ads and other products and services you want to promote. By adding Google Adsense, for instance, you can display sponsored ads on your pages. You can also earn money from affiliate marketing by creating blog articles based from the content you typically cover on your videos.
4. It’s good for SEO and for growing your channel
If you want to grow your channel, you cannot rely on Youtube’s algorithm alone to draw traffic to your videos. You need to market your content on other platforms - Facebook, Instagram, and your website. You want to rank on search engine results outside of Youtube to be able to attract a bigger audience.
5. It allows you to branch out to other businesses
Youtube content creation is sometimes a good starting point to introducing a new product or service into the market. Many Youtubers eventually move on to carry their own cosmetics line or clothing brand, or provide consulting services for stock trading, for instance. With your own website, you already have an infrastructure on which you can build a business later on. If you want to start selling products, for instance, you simply need to add Simple Store to your website to convert it into an ecommerce site.
