Starting a Gaming YouTube Channel: Essential Tips and Tools

Kato shares essential tips for starting and growing a successful gaming YouTube channel.

### Starting a Gaming YouTube Channel: Essential Tips and Tools
* 🎮 In this video, Kato shares valuable tips for starting a gaming YouTube channel, particularly focusing on **Animal Crossing content**, while also offering advice applicable to **any gaming niche**.
* 📝 The first step is to choose a **unique channel name** that reflects your content but allows for **flexibility in future topics**, ensuring it's **consistent across all platforms** like YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter.
* 💡 Once the name is set, brainstorming content ideas is crucial to establish a niche, which can evolve over time, as Kato emphasizes the **importance of having a clear focus** when beginning.
* 💻 To start a channel, you will need a **Nintendo Switch** (not a Switch Lite), a capable laptop or computer, and a capture card, specifically the **Elgato HD60S or HD60S Plus** for Mac users.
* 🎤 Kato recommends investing in a microphone for better audio quality, sharing that they initially used a **built-in laptop mic** before upgrading to a **budget-friendly Blue Snowball microphone**.
* 🖥 The video production process includes using **game capture software from Elgato**, Audacity for audio recording, and Wondershare Filmora for editing, all of which Kato found **user-friendly for beginners**.
* 📸 For creating thumbnails, Kato highly recommends Canva, highlighting its **versatility and ease of use**, which can help in **branding your channel effectively**.
* 📈 To grow your channel, Kato advises being **consistent with uploads**, staying **authentic to your personality**, and focusing on **quality content over numbers**, while also **engaging viewers during live streams**.

[Music] Hey everyone, it's Kato, and in today's video, we're going to be discussing my tips for starting your own gaming YouTube channel. All the things that you need, the programs that I use, and just some tips overall for getting your channel started and growing your channel. So, if you're interested in content like this and you want to see more in the future, I'd appreciate it if you'd like and subscribe. But let's get right into it. So, first things first, if you're just stumbling across this video and you're not already subscribed to my channel, my channel is mainly focused on Animal Crossing content, but I do have some other content on here as well. But in general, these tips can be applied to any type of gaming channel that you're trying to start. So, the first thing I want to talk about is creating your channel, and I have two main points here that I want to go over. The first thing is coming up with the name for your channel. You obviously want to come up with something that is unique to you.

that you like or something that's applicable to the content that you're trying to create. But also, some things that were important to me were I knew that I wanted to start my channel as an Animal Crossing channel, but I didn't necessarily want to pigeonhole myself into any particular content. And your name doesn't always have to define you in that way. If you have something that is game-specific in your name, that doesn't mean that you can never branch out of whatever game it was that you initially started playing. But just for me, I wanted to make sure that my name was just something original that didn't necessarily have to do with any game in particular. Another thing that was important for me was I wanted my name to be consistent across all of the different platforms that I wanted to be present in. So that just meaning I wanted it to be the same name on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch, all the different places that I wanted to be active. So each name that I would come up with or consider, I would go test it out on each different

platform and see if it was available. If it wasn't available on one of the platforms, then I wouldn't even consider it. This is another thing that is just personal preference. You don't have to do this. You can always have a different name on everything. I just think it's easier if someone finds me on YouTube as Console Kato, then they can go search me on other platforms and find me pretty easily because the name is the same everywhere. Once you have your name picked out, the next thing you want to do is start brainstorming some different content ideas that you have. What is going to be the focus of your channel? That's something that's really important to figure out so you have some kind of direction when you're starting out. I think it's important, especially early on, to kind of have a niche that you're going to focus on, and then as your channel grows, you branch out from that niche if that's something that you want to do. For example, my channel was focused mainly on inspiration. It still has that focus, but

I do other things now on top of that, but the general underlying theme is providing inspiration through my content. Whether that's by designing an area myself, touring someone else's island to give inspiration, or searching for different codes for inspiration, that is definitely my main focus. There are so many other things that you can focus on. If you're someone who has an outgoing personality and you just want to focus on your comedy or what you can bring to the table as far as your personality goes, that is great. If you're someone who likes to review products, that's something you can do as well. Maybe you have a different take on content that already exists in the space, and you want to put your own twist on it. So, kind of start writing down some ideas, start brainstorming, figure out what it is that you want to do with your channel, and then go from there. Next up, I'm going to talk about what you need to start your YouTube channel, and really, it is not too many things. I'm going to be speaking to

specifically people who are playing Animal Crossing or other Switch games. So, if you're going to be using an Xbox or PlayStation, you're going to want to research what other things you might need separately from this. I will have everything that I talk about in this video linked down in the description if you're interested in checking anything out. So, obviously, you're going to need your console, which is your Switch, in order to capture content. You do have to have a regular Switch; it cannot be a Switch Lite. The next thing you need is your laptop or computer, and you're just going to want to make sure that it's powerful enough to handle the game capture and editing software that you're going to be using. The last thing that you need is a capture card. I use the Elgato HD60S. If you're going to be using a Mac, you need to make sure that you get the Elgato HD60S Plus. Or if you're going to go with a different brand, then you're going to need to research and make sure that it's

going to work with the Mac or PC, whichever one you're going to be using. I would just do your research. There is an extra piece of equipment that you might want to get, which is a microphone. I will say, when I first started recording videos, I did not have a microphone. I just used the microphone that was built into my laptop, and then I used an audio editing software to kind of add some filters and make the audio sound a little bit better. It still wasn't great, but it was good enough for starting out. Once I bought a microphone, I went with a more budget-friendly option. I got the Blue Snowball microphone, which I do like. The one disadvantage is, if you are going to be streaming, this microphone does not have an on-and-off button on the actual microphone itself. That is the biggest negative about this particular microphone for me. But when I first started, I just wanted the bare minimum that I needed, which was the Switch laptop and capture card, and that is what I started with. Next up, I want to talk a little bit

about the programs that I use for my videos, and I'm going to kind of go in the order in which I use these programs. So, first thing I use is the game capture software that came with my Elgato, and this is just the software that I use to capture the video footage. So, I will have my capture card plugged in, my Switch running, and I just capture the footage this way. It's super easy to do. All you have to do is hit record, and then once you're done, you stop recording, and it saves for you at the same time. I will also have another program open called Audacity, and this is the program that I use to capture my audio. I like this program because the more that you look into it, the more that you can adjust your audio. You can add some filters if you have some background noise. You can use this program to kind of edit that out, which I really like. So, I will have those two things going. I'll record my audio and video, and then once I'm done, I will save both of those and upload.

them into my editing software, and I use the program Wondershare Filmora. This was just the software that I found early on. It was pretty budget-friendly at the time. I think they were running some kind of promotion that it was fifteen dollars for your first year. I think now it's something like forty dollars for a year, which still, in terms of editing software, is very affordable. With a lot of computers nowadays, there are editing softwares that come pre-built in. So, if you're using something like a Mac, then you at least have iMovie. I'm sure there are other editing softwares as well that you can download that are free to use. I would just kind of make sure that before you start using them, you can tell if they have a watermark on them or not. I feel like Filmora is super easy to use. It was really easy for me as a beginner. I had never edited anything in my life, and I just kind of jumped in and hoped for the best. And I haven't taken the plunge to dive into something

more advanced because honestly, I'm still learning with just this program. So, I think I'll probably wait on that for a while until I am 100% comfortable with this, and then maybe I'll go into something more advanced. So, once I have my video all edited, I have everything added that I want, I will export the video, upload it to YouTube, and that is the time when I create my thumbnail. The website that I use for that is called Canva. Canva is one of my favorite websites that I use. I use it every day, all the time. I use it for my thumbnails. When I first started, I used it for all of my artwork, my headers and banners on all my different social media and YouTube. I just created something super simple to start out with, and then later on, once I had a little bit more of an idea of how I wanted to brand my channel, that is when I started commissioning things. But Canva is great. There are so many templates, so many design options, even with the free version. I do pay for

the pro version just because I wanted all the additional features, but the free version is great and gives you so many options if you're just starting out. I totally recommend it, so I will put together my thumbnail, add that onto YouTube, and then my video is done. The last thing I want to touch on, and this is something that I get asked about a lot, is how do you grow your channel, how do you get more followers, and I do have a few tips for this. So, number one is be consistent. Whatever it is that you're doing, whether it's creating videos, streaming, doing both, I would do your best to create a realistic schedule for yourself and stick to that schedule. When I first started out, I think I was doing two or three videos a week, and then as I got more comfortable, I started adding on to that, and then I started adding in streaming. I would just say try to come up with a schedule that you can manage, but also maintain high-quality content, so don't sacrifice the quality of your content to put out more content if that

makes sense. The next thing, and this is gonna sound totally cheesy, is to just be yourself. Be authentic. Don't try to be someone that you're not. When I first started out, I was really nervous because a lot of people that I watched were very outgoing and extroverted, and that was just not me. I'm a super calm, laid-back person, and I just wanted to stay true to that. And I feel like in the long run, that was really beneficial for me because I don't have to try to be someone that I'm not. The people who enjoy calm and laid-back content are the ones who come and watch my content, and I totally appreciate that. So, I definitely recommend just being yourself, and the right people will eventually find you. The last thing, as hard as it is, try not to stress about the numbers. Try to solely focus on putting out the best content that you can, and the numbers will follow the content. In regards to streaming specifically, I always recommend that if you have a few friends that you

can invite to your streams so that you have someone to talk to while you're streaming. I feel like that is always super helpful, and that way if anyone comes into your stream, you are talking to whoever's there, you're engaged with them, and you're not just sitting there silently playing the game because people are more likely to come in and then leave if that's what you're doing. So when I first started out, I would invite a few of my friends who would come and just hang out. I did mainly focus on my YouTube content first as well, and then I started streaming later on once I had a decent amount of subscribers on YouTube. So that is always a strategy you could try as well, maybe focus on one or the other and then start implementing whichever one you didn't do first, but just keep at it, be consistent, put out the best content you can, and that is the best way to grow your channel overall. So that is kind of an overview of how to start your channel, what you need, and a few tips for me on

how to grow your channel. If you have any specific questions, definitely leave those down in the comments below, and I will do my best to get to as many as I can. Or if you have specific questions on a specific program that I use or something like that, and you want me to do a dedicated video to that, I would be glad to do that as well. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. If you did, I'd appreciate it if you like and subscribe, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye. [Music] [Music] You

How To Start Your Own Gaming YouTube Channel

consolecaito

Tips for Starting a Gaming YouTube Channel

Creating a unique and consistent channel name across all platforms is crucial for building your presence.

Brainstorming content ideas and having a clear focus or niche is important for direction, especially in the early stages.

As your channel grows, you can gradually branch out from your initial niche.

Starting a YouTube Channel for Animal Crossing and Switch Games

The main focus of the content creator is to provide inspiration through various means, such as designing areas, touring islands, and searching for codes.

To start a YouTube channel, the essential items needed are a regular Switch, a powerful laptop or computer, and a capture card.

Additionally, a microphone can be beneficial for better audio, with budget-friendly options available for beginners.

I use the Elgato game capture software to record my video footage and Audacity to capture and edit my audio.

For video editing, I use Wondershare Filmora, which is budget-friendly and user-friendly for beginners.

Finally, I create my thumbnails using Canva, which offers a variety of templates and design options, making it easy to brand my channel.

Being consistent with your content schedule is key to growing your channel.

It's important to be authentic and true to yourself, as this will attract the right audience.

Lastly, focus on creating high-quality content and try not to stress about the numbers; they will come as a result of your efforts.

Tips for Starting and Growing Your Streaming Channel

Inviting friends to your streams can create engagement and prevent silence, making it more likely for viewers to stay.

Focusing on one platform, like YouTube, before transitioning to streaming can be a helpful strategy.

Consistency and producing high-quality content are key to growing your channel.