Many of you have asked us about best practices to build a loyal and engaged audience on YouTube, and we want to answer your questions. Please join us for a live Hangout on Air about Audience Development on the YouTube Partner Support channel.

Kate Rushworth from the Audience Development team will be leading a presentation showing basic tricks and tips on creating better content, programming, publishing, and interacting with communities. This is a unique opportunity to discover everything you always wanted to know about Audience Development.

Make sure to tune in to see what Kate has to say during the live event:
Date: Monday, 3 September, 2012
Time: 5 PM GMT+1 (London) / 12 PM ET (New York) / 9 AM PT (San Francisco)
Web address: www.youtube.com/partnersupport

We look forward to seeing you!  

The YouTube Team


Introduction:

Please tell us a bit about yourself. What is your name, your channel name? Where are you from, your fanbase?


My name is Bastian, I am from Lübeck, Germany and I run the YouTube Channel Wohnprinz.

History:

Please tell us how it all started. How and when did you start creating videos? When did you decide to be active on YouTube and become a partner? What was your first video on YouTube?


I opened my Channel in January 2010. Previously I had only a regular Blog but at some stage, I thought it would be easier to use videos to work on my topics. My very first video was my channel presentation, followed by a video where I talked about housing trends. After a few months I became a Partner.

Channel:

Please explain your channel. What's the story behind your channel? How did you come up with your channel concept?


As already stated, I only ran a Housing-Blog but I thought it would be much easier to give tips in form of videos. I love the topics around Living & Lifestyle and it is my enthusiasm, I want to share with other people! I didn’t expect to be so many people out there who share my passion. I talk about topics related to housing trends, my favorite furniture, decoration tips, tests, and also a lot about lifestyle.

We have loads of partners across Europe that are taking advantage of the YouTube Partner Program, and becoming highly successful on YouTube. We've asked some of these partners to share their experience on YouTube and within the program, and shed light on how to best utilize the platform. This month featured partner is Wohnprinz, please read on for their story and best practices!


Introduction:

Please tell us a bit about yourself. What is your name, your channel name? Where are you from, your fanbase?


My name is Bastian, I am from Lübeck, Germany and I run the YouTube Channel Wohnprinz.

History:

Please tell us how it all started. How and when did you start creating videos? When did you decide to be active on YouTube and become a partner? What was your first video on YouTube?


I opened my Channel in January 2010. Previously I had only a regular Blog but at some stage, I thought it would be easier to use videos to work on my topics. My very first video was my channel presentation, followed by a video where I talked about housing trends. After a few months I became a Partner.

Channel:

Please explain your channel. What's the story behind your channel? How did you come up with your channel concept?


As already stated, I only ran a Housing-Blog but I thought it would be much easier to give tips in form of videos. I love the topics around Living & Lifestyle and it is my enthusiasm, I want to share with other people! I didn’t expect to be so many people out there who share my passion. I talk about topics related to housing trends, my favorite furniture, decoration tips, tests, and also a lot about lifestyle.




YouTube Partnership:

Please share your experience of being a YouTube partner. How has being a YouTube partner helped/changed your business and personal life? Were there any surprises? What are your plans for the future of your channel and YouTube partnership?

I still remember that day. While still in bed, the first thing I do every morning is to grab my IPhone and check my emails. That morning I received an email from YouTube telling me I was a partner! WOW, I was so amazed! Shortly before my application had been rejected and now I was receiving a Partner Invitation from YouTube! I hadn’t seen it coming at all so it really took me by surprise! Through the Partnership, I can make longer videos, design my Channel and have the opportunity to make money from my hobby. My entire professional career has been changed by my YouTube channel!



Success: How do you define success? How did you become successful on YouTube? What were your goals for your channel, and how did you achieve them? What would you recommend to newbie partners to be successful on YouTube? Success. Good Topic. My biggest success is to have the chance to share my passion or hobby with so many people! I count over 3.3 million hits on my videos. Just imagine 3.3 million people were standing in front of me. Unbelievable, isn’t it? I think that maybe my concept is so successful because I don't really have one? Or do I?  I am who I am, I do not need to play someone else and make my videos mainly at home. It is real and authentic and this is what my audience appreciates.  My advice to new partners would be not to play someone else. Have fun on what you do, try to be somehow different and up front: Be YOURSELF. Do what you do best and let people participate! Be open to your audience and interact with them!


Creative inspiration: Please tell us what inspires you. Do you have a particular creative aesthetic? Are there other YouTube channels you watch, creators you admire? I get my inspirations from everywhere. From movies, while out walking, from shop windows and my travels. You just need to pay attention to things. When you do it you’ll see that you can get the inspiration from almost everywhere! I mostly enjoy watching YouTube Channels from other countries. What are their trends at the moment and what could I possibly like?


Key Takeaways: Anything you want the YouTube audience to know about you, your channel, or being a YouTube Partner?


I only do videos on things I can support 100%. It is important to stay authentic. On my channel everyone, young and old, can find something for themselves: inspiration, support and above all one thing: Zest for life! Sometimes you need just a little push to be able to decorate or design rooms. I am trying to share my thoughts and inspirations.


Wohnprinz, YouTube Partner, recently watched “Sophia Grace & Rosie Do Tea with Taylor Swift!”





Since YouTube announced that we are giving more creators the opportunity to become partners, we have seen a flurry of creativity. We’ve asked some of our new partners to share their experiences of using our platform and resources to grow their audience, increase views and take their channel to new heights!


This month, we look at Caroline MiLi Artiss, a born and bred Londoner, who absolutely adores cooking. Her YouTube channel, Carolineartiss, is all about helping people all over the world to cook.


“Since making videos for my Youtube show so many wonderful things have happened in my life. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t put my videos here on Youtube”

Caroline started creating her YouTube videos because she always loved food and cooking and she wanted to teach as many people as she could how to cook.

“I started making my own cooking tutorials for Youtube because so many of my friends and family wanted my recipes”. Despite her lack of filming and editing abilities, her videos had immediately great response and now Caroline is a complete advocate of social media.

People are now contacting her directly for work. She has her own Malaysian Cookery show called “Simply Caroline” which is being aired in October 2012 and and a new web show called “Super Busy Chicks” that they film and produce themselves. She is also an Ambassador for Malaysian Kitchen! Not to mention that Caroline was recruited to be a contestant for a new reality TV cooking show in the USA called Chef Race which will be aired in October 2012 on BBC America.  

Picturing the future, Caroline would like to keep her loyal fanbase satisfied by making fun and easy to follow cooking tutorials that inspire people all over the world how to cook. Her talent took her a long way and now she wants to keep building on that.

“The beauty of Youtube is that you don’t need any fancy equipment or a big budget to get started. In these harsh economic times it’s getting harder and harder for people to get a good start in life. Youtube is a fantastic platform to get yourself and your business talked about.  All it takes is fresh ideas. Using Youtube has brought so many exciting new opportunities my way and I would encourage anyone with a special talent or useful information that they want to share to get filming and uploading videos”.

To become a YouTube Partner now, visit: www.youtube.com/partners, and get ready to take your channel to the next step! For more information on optimising, visit: www.youtube.com/creators

 The YouTube Partnerships Team