10 disadvantages of starting a YouTube channel?

Hey, there its Praneeth here.

In this blog, I am going to present to you 10 exact huge reasons not to start a youtube channel.

In case if you are looking to start a youtube channel and start uploading content out there, you should probably be aware of these top 10 reasons before starting one.

Every reason is backed with facts, real-life stories, and examples with it so that it gets easy for you to understand the reason much better.

Let’s start with one by one.

Without further ado, let’s dive right in.

Here is a 30000-foot view of the blog.

You are neither patient nor determined.

Patience and determination are key to success in places and platforms like Youtube.

You know Youtube is the second largest search engine after google.

There are millions of people worldwide who are dependent on youtube for livelihood.

The amount of content that gets uploaded on youtube every MINUTE is humongous.

Here are some interesting facts about youtube, then we will discuss it.

1. Around 300 hours of videos are uploaded on youtube every minute.
2. 1.3 Billion people which is 1/7th of the total world population uses youtube.
3. 6 out of 10 people prefer watching videos online than on television.
4. 5 billion videos are watched every single day.
5. 30 million people visit youtube every single day.
6. An average person spends more than 40 minutes watching videos on youtube.

Now that you know the facts about youtube.

You know, the world’s second-largest search engine will not be an easy thing for you to crack in.

The journey of youtube going to be difficult.

There will be times when even if you put extreme work, energy, and time, you will barely get views and others will rarely click on your videos.

You know there are content creators of all types you can find on youtube, you know the competition is extreme as well.

The initial months of your youtube journey will be smaller than linear growth.

In that case, having patience, looking at the BIGGER PICTURE in mind is the only way you can succeed on youtube.

But.

If you are not that guy who is not patient, who wants things to fall in place as you wish quickly, Youtube is the wrong platform for you.

No matter how kind/sweet/helpful you are, hatred is inevitable.

Yes.

This is a hard truth to accept on the youtube platform.

If you are that guy who starts crying when people speak something unusual like criticize or ignores you or scolds you.

Youtube is not the correct place to hang around looking for a career for sensitive people.

To be a youtube creator you got to be tough, I am not talking about physical toughness, its about mental toughness.

You have to be mentally tough to be able to face the following things on youtube.

1. Trolls.
2. Memes.
3. Hatred.
4. The chances of getting misunderstood by the audience are easy.
5. The audience will get offensive quite easily.
6. Not getting support from other buddies of youtube in trouble times.
7. Abusive language usage in the comments section.
8. Threat calls from those who are upset with you.
9. Copyright strikes from big dads of youtube if you speak things against them or fake copyright claims.
10. Not convincing all people with your jokes and content.
11. Gossips and rumors against you.

If you can’t/don’t want to face all these things you should probably shift some other place, Youtube is not for you.

The chances of being misunderstood on youtube are very easy.

The average age of consumers of youtube is around is 16-24 years old.

These aged people do not have critical thinking.

Very small things like

• Cracking a joke.
• Using the wrong word in sentences.
• Wrong body language signals.
• Wrong idea/topic of content.
• Using wrong images or other multimedia in videos.

These are things on youtube which appear small when you look.

But these small things create a big difference and can backfire against you.

Youtube is the place of thick skin and mentally strong people who even with a lot of hate and bad allegations, bounce back and prove to them what’s right.

Example:

There was a famous controversy in India on the internet in recent times.

It was called youtube vs TikTok.

A creator from TikTok with a following of 3 million followers on TikTok criticized a bunch of Indian famous YouTubers who run roasting channels.

In return, India’s famous youtube roaster called Carryminati created a video that blew things up.

This guy amir Siddiqui got massive hate and trolling you can’t imagine, maybe he does not deserve that much.

But that is a perfect example of talking about the hatred you could get if things go wrong on youtube.

Learn more about the controversy here.

Because once you get some hate and misunderstanding from people, if you don’t bounce back you will have the sticker of hate the rest of the time.

There are a lot of things which we need to address especially like copyright strikes.

Misuse of Youtube policies/copyright claims.

If you are not aware of what these things are.

A copyright strike is an act of punishing a youtube channel that used the property of other creators youtube property without giving credit or notice to the creator.

It is simply malpractice or stealing others’ content and using it on your channel without them being given a credit.

But on youtube, there have been several cases where big buddies on youtube have misused the power to slow down the voice of small creators.

Small and big creators here are divided on the basis of the following things.

• Subscribers.
• Views for each video.
• Popularity.
• Earning.
• Following and fan base.

Here are some examples of cases when youtube’s copyright policy is misused by bid dads of youtube.

Examples.

There have been some cases wherein countries like India, there is a famous youtube called Mumbiker Nikhil.

He is the second most popular vlogger in India, he has taken down the video of a few thousand subscribers creator videos.

The small creator was found to be criticizing vloggers not the mumbikernikhil alone but almost all who try to showcase their life full of positivity and no problems stuff like faking their life to the public.

This and many other cases like a female Indian youtube called Mostlysane found to be taking down a video of a small creator where the video was a kind of criticism of the work that big youtube did.

It is no surprise that these big creators take these things on their ego and take videos down and youtube gives them an upper hand to do that.

Take a deep look at the issue here.

The other thing is there are going to be fake copyright claims as well.

You will be getting fake copyright claims as well.

Youtube is very strict on its copyright claims policies.

Here are a few things you need to know about copyright policies.

• When you get a copyright on your video your video gets down.
• A copyright strike will affect monetization as well.
• If you get a copyright strike for 3 consecutive times you are subject to have only 7 days to resolve the issue if not say goodbye to your channel.
• All the videos you uploaded to the channel will be deleted.
• You can’t create a new channel.

Get to know more about the copyright things here.

There have been cases where people allegedly misused or fake copyrighted your channel, learn more about it here.

If things won’t get right properly, you will have many restrictions.

You are not openminded.

You can’t afford to be on youtube if you are not openminded.

Being open-minded is the ability to allow thoughts against your belief, idea, and opinion.

Here are things that come under being open-minded.

1. Being able to listen to other people.
2. Being able to take criticism positively without getting angry..
3. Being able to accept mistakes.
4. Being able to help people and show empathy.
5. Being humble and always striving to improve your craft.
6. Being able to ask and seek help when necessary.
7. Being able to take opposite views and opinions against your idea to improve the content.

If you don’t have these tendencies you should probably consider them and practice it.

Youtube is the place where being closed-mindedness fails.

How does being open-mindedness related to Youtube?

Here are 7 circumstances where being open-mindedness will help you a lot on youtube.

1. When you are creating videos, criticism, and people’s comments about videos will give you an understanding of your audience, their interests, etc.
2. When you want to expand your channel, you will need to take your video editing things next level, you then have to approach for help and build a team.
3. To get new ideas from your audience and team than taking all by yourself.
4. To be able to get to understand your mistakes, and learn from your failure.
5. To create better content than your past, to strive for improvement in your skills.
6. To build a loyal audience around our channel.
7. To increase your engagement with the audience better by showing them your personality.

Being open-minded is key to a youtube career.

Let’s move forward to the next reason.

You are obsessed with Numbers.

Look,

You need to understand terms like passion, interests, likes, and dislikes.

If you don’t find happiness in creating videos every day just for the sake of creating videos and helping others genuinely.

Rather you are working on youtube for that bloody numbers.

Let me warn you, Numbers will fluctuate, they are not constant, because the people are not constant.

For example, you like eating pizza every Sunday, that does not mean after a couple of years, you will guarantee to eat pizzas every Sunday, maybe your interests changed, no one knows.

The same goes for youtube.

The biggest mistake people do or think is of Numbers.

What numbers am I talking about?

These are,

• A number of subscribers you gained/lost past week.
• A number of people visited your videos.
• The average age of your audience consuming your content.
• Total watch time of your videos on a timely basis.
• A number of people joined your channel if you used it to monetize your channel.
• Percentage of people who stick on your videos till the end to those who bounce away.
• What is the click-through rate of your videos?

The numbers are there a lot.

Here are some screenshots of youtube analytics.

They either inspire you or confuse and dishearten you.

If you put your happiness, get anxious like most people do analyze and sticking on the numbers of youtube,

You have a high chance of getting depressed and losing hope as a whole.

It is better to avoid youtube if you give over-emphasis on numbers and lose your peace of mind.

It is not numbers that have to drive you on youtube.

It is the passion and the desire to genuinely help people solve their problems and entertain them that has to be your driving force behind youtube.

If you are not in that category, maybe, just maybe,

You should reconsider your thoughts on youtube.

You want money quickly.

You should first understand how you are going to monetize your youtube channel.

There are a bunch of ways of making money with your youtube channel.

1. Placing ads on google.
2. Affiliate marketing.
3. Sponsored videos.
4. Doing consultation.
5. Asking people to join your group for exclusive stuff.

What’s the most common thing in all these things.

Trust and traffic.

If you are thinking of making money quickly through youtube, you shall reconsider the very thought.

You know, the initial months of your youtube will be lesser than linear growth, it feels like no growth at all.

Still, you need to bounce back and keep uploading unique content.

Still, you need to upload videos out of the box.

There is no replacement for the very thing.

Let me tell you everything that most people think of monetization of youtube through ads.

But, to get your Youtube channel approved through Adsense.

You need.

• 1000 Subscribers.
• 4000 watch hours of your videos.

It is pretty difficult you know.

Even if you get things done and get AdSense approval for your youtube channel.

Let me remind the very fact that,

You will not print dollars instantly.

Youtube income through ads varies a lot.

Here are a few factors that influence earning through ads.

1. Location of the audience.
2. Age of the audience.
3. Content-type and idea aka Niche.
4. Value and demand of the content in the market.
5. Length of the video and audience engagement with the video.

These things will influence your earnings, here are two important metrics you need to understand.

1. Cpc- cost per click which is how much advertisers are willing to spend when a user clicks on the ad.
2. CPM-The estimated earning out of 1000 views of the video.

Of all these factors, you get 68% of income and Google is going to take 32% of your share of ads.

The value is not big if you get more practical.

Even if you crack things, you will be disappointed with the figures and your current performance of your videos.

You are getting no traffic and no engagement, you want to earn money in dollars on youtube.

It is not going to work in any way possible.

I am not saying you are doing the wrong thing, but you need to have a good amount of traffic at the right age and the right location to make a decent amount of money through youtube.

You might say, I want to go with affiliate marketing, but let me tell you.

It is not easy at all.

Place yourself in the shoes of your audience and would you buy things just because some random guy on youtube whom you never saw told you something about the product to purchase.

Would you purchase it?

No.

Absolutely not.

Hence, earning money quickly on youtube is a failing motivation to start a youtube channel.

You don’t have complete control of your channel & content.

Remember.

You are using Google’s service youtube which is the world’s second-largest search engine with more than a billion people actively using it.

Google owns the service, not you.

This very fact tells a lot of things.

Here are a few things to know of what I mean.

1. If unexpectedly you get 3 consecutive false claims, copyright strikes, reports, your channel is gone.
2. Your videos get demonetized in some niches without your consent [yellow dollar].
3. Your AdSense share is cut and given only 68% of your income to you.
4. Sometimes in some niches without reason, your videos get age-restricted even if you have shown nothing like that.
5. You can’t guarantee the complete security of your channel like hacks.
6. There have been some cases where without reason and notice your channel gets deleted.

Now that you know some circumstances which can lead to serious circumstances on youtube.

Example:

India’s famous YouTuber Carryminati and many other famous small creators like thugesh channels found to be hacked by hackers and asking for bitcoins from people.

According to Forbes, around 23 million youtube creators were in danger of getting their channels hacked.

Unlike blogging, on youtube, you aren’t in complete control of the place.

Starting a youtube channel with no purpose and plan.

This thing is very important to be known.

Most of the people I see either just waste a lot of time thinking about whether to start youtube or not.

And there are few chunks of people who just start it without a plan and process.

Both of the things are pretty bad and it is one of the reasons not to start a youtube channel.

It is not having a clear purpose and plan of the channel.

What do I mean by purpose?

Well, I am talking about your WHY.

Why you want to start a youtube channel.

What is your WHY, your driving force, your motive, your reason for going in that way?

This thing is very much important, it has to be your burning desire.

This desire and the reason will help you fight against all the odds in your youtube journey and keep on uploading videos on youtube.

Remember, I have spoken about, having no views and a negligible amount of subscribers of your channel.

Your WHY will drive you in these times of your journey when you are not seeing the results of your labor.

What do I mean by the plan?

Here comes the next most important thing.

Ask yourself one simple thing.

You know there are content creators of all types on youtube of all niches and types.

Why would anyone visit your channel amid the hundreds of channels and thousands of videos?

Your plan is your approach to getting things done.

If you have no idea of how to create a plan.

How to create a plan?

It all comes down to understanding your strengths and weaknesses.

1. Figure out your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Analyze other youtube channels who are your competitors, what are they doing, what kind of strategy are they using to keep the audience around the channel.
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors?
4. Target your competitors’ weaknesses.
5. Bring something out of the box thing on the table.
6. Add immense value to every video you upload.
7. Make sure the length of the video is neither too short or too long.
8. Make sure you are mastering the art of storytelling because stories help people get connected.
9. Give your audience a reason to stick around like giveaway or free consultation etc.
10. The monetization plan of your channel.
11. How are you going to create a business approach from your channel?

These are a few things you can do in your plan and have a schedule of uploading videos and stick on that.

You need to focus on things your competitors are not doing, where you can capitalize on.

Another thing is to have a vision statement of your startup.

Where and how do you see your youtube channel a year or two from now?

Keep goals practical and realistic to give you a reason that things can happen.

You are happy & fulfilled where ever you are in your life.

Maybe you are an introvert.

Maybe you have pursued your dream job.

Maybe you don’t want to invest money and put your life and career at stake.

It is totally fine and actually you better not create a youtube channel and risk your comfort in your life.

Youtube is not meant for everyone.

Of course, you don’t have to invest a penny to get started, you can start just with the camera of your phone to record videos.

That does not mean you should start a youtube channel as a career.

As we have talked in, the first couple of months and a year will be tough for people on youtube.

For the majority of people, it is going to be a filtering process,

You will feel like,

• I think no one cares about me.
• I suck.
• I can’t do succeed here.
• How can I even make this going with these tiny numbers?
• Maybe this is not meant for me.

You got a dream job, you are passionate about it, you don’t feel your work to be a burden for you.

You are enjoying your life, you have free time to spend with your family and friends.

You got financial security and not to worry about your perception of people and your work is getting improved every year.

It is totally fine not to create a youtube channel.

Because

If you turn around and choose youtube as your side hustle and alternative career option, you will have to face a lot of problems.

I have mentioned in hatred is an inevitable part, read that.

Here is a bonus reason not to start a youtube channel.

Higher the numbers, the higher the pressure, higher insecurities.

What do I mean by this?

Once you become a youtube, with a good amount of following and subscribers base.

You will have that content pressure and additional responsibility.

Your words will start carrying more weight and influence on others than before, you need to make sure you are not using your normal language in your videos so that it doesn’t get understood the wrong way.

You will have to meet and satisfy the expectations of your audience and most of the times, you got to fake your character and life to match the expectations of the audience.

The best example of this is the vloggers.

Not all but there are selective vloggers who shoot their lives as though their life is full of optimism and positivity and fake their lifestyle and their true character.

Another thing that’s bad with glamour on youtube is one small mistake can ruin your image and perception quite a lot.

Remember where I have spoken about hatred and offensiveness, trolling, memes, these things will be all over the place.

Ending remarks.

There you go, I have answered the top 10 reasons not to start a youtube channel.

Personally, I don’t hate youtube, it is actually a wonderful platform to create an audience but obviously, there are some serious cons too which I thought to address if you want to make a career on youtube.

Do let me know which reason for these top 10 you found an interesting one in the comments section below.

If you are interested in more of such informative blogs, check out my other blogs.

• Blog vs vlog, all queries answered.
• Pros and cons of SEO.
• Truths about starting a blog in 2020.

Please do consider sharing the blog with your family and friends and let them also know some secrets and reasons if they want to start a youtube channel.

You know sharing is caring.

I will catch you next time,

Till then, keep learning and keep growing.