How to Start a YouTube Channel: A Beginner's Step-by-Step Guide

To start a YouTube channel, sign in to YouTube with a Google account, open Settings, choose Add or manage channel(s), then Create a channel. Pick a name, a handle and a profile picture, and you’re live. After that, take 30 more minutes to verify your phone, set your audience and write a description, then post your first Short.

Here is every step in order, with the settings beginners tend to miss.

Step 1: Decide who owns the channel and who can help

YouTube gives you two ways to create a channel:

You don’t need a Brand Account to get help. YouTube’s channel permissions let you invite people by email as a Manager, Editor, Subtitle Editor or Viewer, and remove them at any time, all without sharing your Google password. A Brand Account still makes sense when a business needs more than one owner. One Brand Account can hold only one channel.

How to create it

1. Sign in to YouTube on a computer or the mobile site.
2. Click your profile picture, then Settings.
3. Under Account, select Add or manage channel(s).
4. Choose Create a channel (or create a Brand Account channel from your channel list).
5. Choose a profile picture, enter your name and handle, then click Create channel.

If you use YouTube with a supervised account, you may not be able to create a channel.

Step 2: Pick a name and handle

Your channel name is what appears on your videos. Your handle is your @name and your channel URL (youtube.com/@yourhandle). They don’t have to match, but it helps viewers find you.

Handle rules from YouTube:

• 3 to 30 characters for most languages.
• Letters and numbers, plus underscores, hyphens and periods, but not at the start or end.
• Not case-sensitive, and it can’t look like a URL or phone number.

What makes a good name:

• Easy to say and spell. If someone hears it in a video, can they type it?
• Hints at the topic or is simply your name. “Sam Bakes” says more than “SB Productions.”
• Not too narrow. “iPhone 17 Tips” ages badly. “Phone Tips with Ana” doesn’t.
• Same handle on every platform if you can get it. Check TikTok and Instagram before you commit.

Step 3: Verify your phone number

New channels start with standard features: uploading videos and Shorts, playlists and posts. Phone verification moves you to intermediate features, which include:

• Videos longer than 15 minutes
• Custom thumbnails
• Live streaming on a computer
• Creating a podcast

Advanced features need phone verification plus either enough channel history or ID or video verification. They include pinned comments, chapters, clickable links in descriptions, adding a Related Video to a Short and applying for monetization.

Check where you stand in YouTube Studio under Settings > Channel > Feature eligibility. Do this on day one so nothing blocks you later.

Step 4: Set up branding and your About section

You don’t need a designer. You need three things done well enough.

Profile picture

Your face (cropped close) or a simple logo. It shows small, rendering at 98 x 98 pixels, so avoid text. The file must be 15 MB or smaller.

Banner

Optional on day one. If you add one, YouTube’s minimum is 2048 x 1152 pixels (16:9), with 2560 x 1440 recommended, at 6 MB or smaller. Keep important text in the middle, since the edges get cropped on phones.

Description

Two or three sentences that answer: who is this for, what will they get, and how often? Example:

Quick budgeting tips for people renting their first place. New Shorts every Tuesday and Friday, plus a longer breakdown each month.

Add a business email for contact and links to your other profiles. Our free YouTube description generator can give you a draft to edit.

Step 5: Set your audience and basic settings

These are easy to skip and annoying to fix later.

• Audience. YouTube requires every creator, in every country, to say whether their content is made for kids. Set the channel default in Studio under Settings > Channel > Advanced settings, and you can also set it per video. “Made for kids” means content directed at children, not just content kids might enjoy.
• Upload defaults. Under Settings > Upload defaults, set a default description footer (links, a short line about the channel) and category so you don’t retype them.
• Country and keywords. Under Settings > Channel > Basic info, add your country and a few keywords describing the channel.

Step 6: Upload your first Short

Don’t start with a trailer or an “introducing my channel” video. Nobody is subscribed yet, so there’s nobody to introduce yourself to. Start with a useful short that answers one question.

What YouTube allows

• Shorts made in YouTube’s Shorts tools can be up to 3 minutes long. More on that in how long YouTube Shorts can be.
• Upload vertical video. YouTube accepts Shorts at up to 1080p.
• Titles can be up to 100 characters. Keep yours to about 60 so it isn’t cut off.

How to post one from your phone

1. Open the YouTube app and tap + (Create), then Short.
2. Record, or tap the gallery icon to upload a vertical video you’ve already edited.
3. Add text or a sound if you want, then tap Next.
4. Write a specific title, set visibility to Public, set the audience, and tap Upload Short.

A first-Short checklist

• First line spoken within the first second, no “hey guys.”
• One point only. If you have three tips, that’s three Shorts.
• Burned-in captions or on-screen text, since many people watch muted. See how to add captions automatically.
• A title that says what the viewer gets: “Fix a squeaky door in 30 seconds,” not “Door hack!!”

Short videos are faster to make than long ones, so they’re a good way to learn. If you already have long recordings, such as a podcast or a livestream, you can cut Shorts from them. Short.now does this automatically and its free plan adds no watermark, or you can do it by hand with the steps in how to make Shorts from long videos.

Step 7: Plan your first 10 videos

A new channel grows by publishing, not by tweaking settings. Write down your first 10 ideas now. A simple mix:

Post on fixed days, two or three times a week. Check each video at 48 hours in YouTube Studio: look at views and how much of the video people watched. If you add long videos later, verify early so custom thumbnails are ready; our YouTube thumbnail size guide covers the specs.

Common setup mistakes

• Sharing your password with an editor or agency. Invite them in Studio > Settings > Permissions instead, with the lowest role that does the job.
• A handle full of numbers or underscores. Hard to say, hard to find.
• Skipping verification. Then wondering why you can’t upload a custom thumbnail.
• Leaving the audience setting unset. YouTube requires it.
• Spending a week on the banner. Nobody visits a channel page with zero videos. Post first.

What’s next

Your channel is ready. If you’d prefer not to be on camera, read how to start a faceless YouTube channel next. It covers formats that work without your face, and the monetization rules that faceless channels most often run into.