How to Grow your YouTube Channel: Interview with Christina Doukouziani
Welcome to the online interview of the amazing YouTube Video Content Strategist Christina Doukouziani, on How to Grow your YouTube Channel.
How to Grow your YouTube Channel – Christina Doukouziani’s Interview on Joanna Vaiou.com’s “When Top Leaders Speak” digital column.
1. Hello, Christina, and welcome to my leadership column where industry leaders share their wealth of knowledge and expertise! Can you share some information about your background?
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Hi Joanna and thank you for your invitation, it’s an honor to be your guest.
As a YouTube Certified video content strategist, Online Educator, and Speaker, I specialize in helping business professionals, personal brands, and entrepreneurs to thrive on camera and build their authority and community through YouTube.
Through workshops, training, and 1 to 1 sessions, I’ve trained hundreds of professionals on:
- how to captivate their audience on camera
- how to become the go-to expert in their niche, and ultimately
- how to attract new leads for their business through YouTube
2. What inspired you to become a professional YouTuber, how did you make that decision and how long did it take you to build such a YouTube community of over 43K+ loyal subscribers?
Haha, I don’t consider myself to be a professional YouTuber. In the sense that I am not earning a living through YouTube. For me and for my students YouTube is a powerful business tool that accelerates your business growth. Being the second largest search engine in the world after Google, and owned by Google, YouTube has great results in building trust and promoting your own services.
Long before YouTube, I did a master’s degree in Management Information Systems and started my career in the online communications sector of a multinational company in Switzerland. That was a job that a woman in business was supposed to love and be proud of. However, I didn’t feel fulfilled and decided to take the long journey of discovering my passion.
Two of the many things that excite me are:
- Exploring new ways of doing things
- Sharing knowledge
YouTube seemed to be the perfect place to host both of my passions.
My channel, Make Video Greece, was born in 2017 and it is the first Greek educational channel for video creators. In 4 years we’ve grown to 43.000 subscribers and 2.6 million views, as of now (June 2021).
Most importantly, I am honored by the trust of hundreds of professionals I have collaborated with, to help them be confident and comfortable in front of the camera and to increase their own income through YouTube.
3. How many streams of income can a professional YouTuber have?
- First, YouTubers can become members of the YouTube Partner Program and be monetized when they’ve reached more than 1000 subscribers and more than 4000 hours of watch time on their channel. Your earning potential varies according to your views, the location of your viewers, and the niche you cater to. YouTube Partners have access to multiple income streams, not just ads. They have access to YouTube Premium subscription fees and features like Super Chat, channel memberships, and the merchandise shelf.
- The second stream of income applies if you’re an entrepreneur first and video creator second, which means you probably already have a product or a service and you can design your YouTube marketing strategy to promote your products and services through your channel. This is a great way to earn money through your channel by leveraging the power of YouTube to create a powerful lead magnet for your business.
- The third income stream is sponsored content. If you can offer brands a large and/or engaged audience and your content is relevant to their target market they want to work with you. You can negotiate directly with the brand, and they pay you directly. This is a popular way for YouTubers to make money.
- The fourth income stream is affiliate marketing. You can make money on YouTube by including in your video descriptions links to products you review or products you suggest to your viewers. Those links will track a purchase. If someone makes a purchase using your affiliate link, you receive a small commission for the sale.
- The fifth income stream is crowdfunding. You can create a project and promote it for crowdfunding through your YouTube channel. Platforms like Patreon, Kickstarter, GoFundMe are amongst YouTube’s list of approved crowdfunding sites to choose from.
4. To all the people who are knowledgeable or passionate about a topic, but have no idea how to share their wealth on a YouTube video, what are the pieces of advice or steps to follow that you would give them, to start using the YouTube Video marketing platform and build their own community?
That’s a great question.
First of all, it’s important to remember that growing your YouTube channel is more like a marathon and not a sprint. It will take time to improve your skills and build your community. So don’t get discouraged if you’ve uploaded just five videos on your channel and they haven’t become viral. 🙂
Second, consistency is a key component. By consistently sharing value on a specific topic you become the go-to authority in your niche. It’s not gonna work for you if you upload a new video every 6 months. Also, you’re gonna struggle if you upload too many different topics within your channel. (i.e sharing cooking recipes, mathematics, and guitar tutorials). People are more likely to subscribe to channels that have a very specific value proposition.
Third, overcome perfectionism. One of the reasons why many people never start sharing their knowledge and building their own community, is they feel they are not ready yet.
If we wait until we’re ready we will be waiting for the rest of our lives. Most people are not ready to be bad at something until they become good!
I invite you to visit the YouTube channels of your favorite Youtubers and check their oldest videos. You will be surprised to see that when they started they were not perfect, they hadn’t figured everything out, but they kept learning and improving with every new upload.
5. Who is not YouTube platform appropriate for? What types of people would you not encourage to use the platform to promote their personal or other brands? Not all people are “video” people ☺.
I don’t believe that there are types of people that are meant for YouTube and types of people that are not meant for it. It all depends on how much you want it, how much you are passionate about it, and how much you are ready to put in the hours of work to make it happen. Building your YouTube channel has a lot to do with your own mindset.
Many people believe that YouTube is for extroverts, however, you will be surprised at how many YouTubers are introverts who thrive on the platform, and feel that it’s a safe means of communicating with the outer world in the comfort of their own homes.
I encourage everyone who feels the urge to get out there and share their message with the world to start experimenting with YouTube, one step at a time.
6. What type of digital products or services do you offer to your audiences?
- YouTube Success Program
For coaches, trainers, doctors, and other experts who want to learn the full methodology on how to grow their YouTube channel without wasting their precious time, I am offering YouTube Success, which is an on-demand e-learning program. Currently available in Greek.
You can access it next: YouTube Success Program
- Talk with Confidence on Camera
For those who are looking to learn how to overcome the inconveniences of talking to the camera and put themselves in front of the lens to connect with their audience and build a tribe of fans, I am offering the e-learning course “Talk with confidence on camera”. Currently available in Greek.
You can access it next: Talk with Confidence on Camera Program
I am also offering corporate training and coaching services on how to navigate with confidence on camera in the virtual world.
7. Who do you help with your YouTube video and community-building expertise?
My clientele includes personal brands, business owners, experts, and corporate employees.
8. Where can people reach out to you online? Thank you for your insights! It is a pleasure to know you and share your story with the world!
Thank you very much, Joanna, it has been a great pleasure talking with you!
I can be reached via email at: [email protected]
And on social media:
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-doukouziani/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/makevideogreece
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinadoukouziani/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makevideogreece
End note ~ Joanna Vaiou
I hope you all enjoyed Christina’s insights, if you liked the information, Christina has a YouTube playlist in Greek with YouTube tips for beginners.
Enjoy Christina’s tips next!
