How and why start an online business including Youtube

Let’s see how and why to start an online business that includes YouTube. If you don’t start now, you probably will not achieve your dream. Or you will regret not starting sooner, like me today. This is both my lesson and my confession. 

I decided to finally go deeper and focus on the online creator business trend. I decided to just jump into it because I realized that I either miscalculated with my plan or was quite too perfectionist about it, and that attitude stopped me from starting for some time. This content is a way for me to break the ice, or a starting point, and my invitation for you to join and do the same.

Don’t be your obstacle 

Every eyeball is at the same time an opportunity for validation or appreciation and a risk of being misunderstood, or even worse ignored. Staying in your comfort zone, and not sharing your thoughts online is not being known, in a certain way, but being ignored is being known and neglected, avoided, and eventually forgotten. And sometimes this is exactly what we fear: 

• What if people don’t like my content? 
• What if my friends and family members stumble upon what I share? 
• What do I create content about exactly? 
• And many other objections. 

Let me tell you today: none of these matters. I will explain this to you while sharing my own experience.

What if people don’t like your content? 

First, how do you know the audience does not like your content? If it’s because your content does not have a higher number of views, comments, likes and shares, just understand that this may happen because the content has not been properly optimized to either get found or to receive the desired engagement. 

These metrics are not the most important things, but you need to pay attention to them because they help the algorithm understand whether people are interested in your content, or not. Remember that the platforms want the best experience for their users, and this includes recommending to them the content they are most likely to be interested in. 

Now let’s see one quick example about my own experience. Instead of “How to start a YouTube channel” I titled this exact piece of content “How and why to start an online business including YouTube”, and in the thumbnail and featured image, it is mentioned “Now, or regret it later. Here is why”. After you’ve clicked on the video the first thing you faced was me making a decently bold statement: “If you don’t start now, you’ll probably never achieve your dream. Or you’ll probably regret not starting sooner, like me today. This is both my lesson and my confession.” If you think these are just some coincidences, let me tell you right now: no, they are not. 

I spent some time trying to understand the online business and content creation ecosystem. And what I just illustrated for you reflects some key elements to consider when you write for an “internet audience”. There is so much content online that to have any chance of reaching your desired audience you have to be able to: 

• Catch attention (exactly what I did with the title and the thumbnail); 
• Hook or make people curious (exactly what I did with the first few sentences); 
• And provide good and authentic content that reflects your personality and helps your audience relate or connect with you (exactly what I am trying to do in general). 

By the way, if you find this content helpful and have some specific thing that’s stopping you from starting your channel or online business, please let me know in the comment section and make sure you subscribe so you can have a better chance of accessing my next piece of content.

Now, it’s also a good thing to sometimes ask people for their engagement and feedback, which I just did because some people need you to ask them to take action before they decide. 

These tactics are worth considering on top of the high-quality content you share so that your audience can go and start implementing right away to see the results. But, you don’t want to abuse them because they may not work every single time, besides the fact that sometimes you will just speak your mind with no script. And if they do not work now, you just need to keep going; you’ll get better over time. 

What if my friends and family members stumble upon what I share? 

The real question is: why would it be a problem if your friends and family members stumble upon your content online? Is there any clear and specific reason for that or do you just feel somehow shy and wouldn’t like them to see you expressing yourself (assuming the issue is not related to your morals, because otherwise you don’t want to do anything morally questionable because of the fear of friends and family finding out, but because you should not do what you don’t think is right, in the first place)? 

I have a personal note on that. After I tried dropshipping and failed because of a lack of consistency since 2017 I wanted to start writing online and be part of the creator economy. Doing that required me to share my opinions. I was ok with that, but I did not want to do it anonymously. And since I was working as a diplomat I chose to follow my discretion, or my professional obligation at the time.

If you ask me now I would tell you I am not sure this was a great decision, and there is a reason why (more on that in another post). The point is I had a more, I would say professional reason that kept me from starting. So, if you have a clear and defendable reason you can decide for yourself if it is worth the wait, because sometimes it can be better to change your career (this is not professional advice by the way). 

Let’s see another aspect: what if your friends and family members see you in a TV show? You see, you probably would feel proud to be invited to appear in a TV show. The reason is that from the middle of the 20th century to now the first quarter of the 21st century, TV shows have had the time to mature enough and make people see them as prestigious. I was very interested in becoming a TV/radio show host (another story for another time). 

Today, social media is still a recent phenomenon, but it’s maturing so fast that probably within a few years so many people will regret they haven’t started an online creator business. Even the TV/radio show segments are shared on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, you name it. 

I would add to that the fact that people don’t care that much about you. People care about themself most of the time, unless you start creating the type of value they can benefit from. 

Now, “what do I create content about exactly”? 

This one is even easier: yourself, your experiences, and your interests. But, you need to do it in a way that can help those who have similar interests or are looking for the same solution you needed and found or created some time ago. I remember feeling so lost in the idea of niching down that most gurus talk about it in the wrong way. I’ve learned my lesson, and I can now tell you that what you need is to share your thoughts, your experiences, and the lessons you’ve learned up until now. You have to keep in mind that there is a good chance that someone else is also interested in that exact thing you’re so passionate about. 

I will create content about business, self-improvement, society, international affairs, and some philosophical topics because I’m trying to improve myself while questioning the things I want to understand better. There is a good chance that you want to do or are already doing the same thing, and that’s why you’ll subscribe if you haven’t done that yet. It’s as simple as that. 

If you’re still not sure, go learn a skill and come back to share what you learn at every step of the process, because writing and producing content can sometimes be a great way or a good reason to keep learning and improving. 

Other objections 

It may be the same thing for you, but I used to bring other objections like: 

• Should I open up myself to strangers on the internet? 
• Or am I good enough as a writer, director, cinematographer, editor, or audio engineer? 

Believe me, these people who will watch your videos and read your articles will not be strangers when your story will start to resonate with them, or when you’ll start to establish connections and get to know them. 

And for the technicality of the content creation process, make it simple. If you have a smartphone you can write your script or note new ideas in your notes, and film yourself. After that, you can use a free video editor to do the video editing. It’s not necessary to have fancy effects. Just speak your mind. Only make sure you have something to say and people will listen to you. Don’t even try to learn those complicated tricks because the technology is evolving so fast that in a couple of months, you may need to learn a new process. I took a few short classes in communication and audiovisual production but I always have to pay attention to some new way of doing things. So, you can quickly try to figure out the basics and just start. 

Get over the excuses, like me, and let’s grow together 

As we’ve just seen, you can and you should easily deal with most of the so-called popular reasons that prevent you from taking action. Don’t wait until you turn 35 like me, or worse, later, trust me. If you don’t start now you will be missing out on so many opportunities. Start now, or regret it later. 

There is more about that. By next year, the creator economy will become more competitive. It’s already almost a commodity to create content online now. If you read the news you may have heard that OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has announced they would shortly launch another product called Sora. It’s a text-to-video AI model that will allow anyone just to give a text prompt to the AI to get a video generated. Now think about the number of people that will use this technology to create a lot of faceless videos to share on YouTube and other platforms. 

The development of AI will create more competition for creators, with many more creators who will produce massive quantities of content with less effort. But it’s also an opportunity for you because you can use the same technology to create while putting on your face and building a strong personal brand with an actual connection to the community you will build in the process.

Most of those who will use AI will manufacture content with no authenticity and a personal brand attached to it. And since people love and trust people, not the AI (at least not yet), you still stand a chance. But you need to start now.

I started, and if I was able to do it, you can do it too and we can grow together. By the way, if you’re among the first people who get access to this content and you want to connect with me you can do so through my website davidcelestin.com, or just DM me on X/Twitter or Instagram. My username is @asdavidcelestin. 

This is how and why I started, and also how and why you need to start an online business, including YouTube. 

Show full profile David Celestin

David Celestin is a diplomat, creator, and entrepreneur with degrees in management, political science, law, research, and communication, sharing his life lessons. Book your free business consultation.