Starting a YouTube channel is a lot of work. Not only do you have to spend time scripting, producing, and editing videos, but you also have to find a topic you’re passionate about and make sure it resonates with people.
To help inspire you, we found nine popular YouTube categories that you can start a channel about. Read on to learn why viewers love to engage with these types of YouTube videos, and start ideating your YouTube channel today.
YouTube Channel Ideas
- Comedy Sketches
- Web Series
- Music
- Tutorials
- Self Help
- Cooking
- Training and Fitness
- Style
- Travel
1. Comedy Sketches
When you’re in the midst of a two hour YouTube binge fest, you can probably blame the endless amount of funny videos that flood the platform. Some of the most successful YouTubers create comedy sketches, like Jenna Marbles, a blogger turned YouTube sensation who has over 19 million subscribers, and Jimmy Tatro, a college kid who made hilarious videos for fun, but ended up turning it into a career, amassing over 3 million subscribers to this day.
Jenna and Jimmy both built their YouTube followings with low-production videos, but they completely nailed the humor and storytelling in most of their videos, too. With this in mind, if you can write a funny script, building a successful comedy channel with a low budget is definitely possible.
2. Web Series
The human brain is wired to respond to well-crafted narrative. Neuroscience proves that storytelling is the best way to capture people’s attention, bake information into their memories, and forge close, personal bonds. We’re programmed to crave and seek out great stories -- that’ll never change.
If you can structure your YouTube channel like a season of television and weave your videos into a narrative-driven series, then you can get viewers hooked on your content -- just like your favorite Netflix show.
3. Music
Covers of songs are some of the most entertaining videos on YouTube. People love listening to aspiring artists’ personal twists on their favorite songs. So if you can sing or play instruments, consider covering your favorite, trending, or hit songs and upload them to YouTube. Who knows, maybe you could even get discovered and become the next Justin Bieber or Tori Kelly.
4. Tutorials
Whether they’re guitar lessons, beauty lessons, or how-to videos about making popsicle stick houses for your hamster, people love learning how to enjoy their lives more. If you can cover topics that people are passionate about and teach them how to get better at these things, they’ll be able to live better lives. This’ll grow your channel’s brand loyalty and sentiment, retaining your viewers’ attention and attracting their friends’ attention by way of word-of-mouth marketing.
5. Self Help
Another way you can grow your channel’s brand loyalty and sentiment is by helping people solve their personal problems. Whether it’s about their career or personal life, you can give people advice about common issues that you’ve experienced or that they ask about. But make sure you have extensive knowledge, education, or personal experience surrounding these topics. Otherwise, people will think you’re a quack and lose trust in you.
6. Cooking
Humans’ love for cooking is primal. I mean, we need food to survive, so it makes complete sense that people are always trying to master certain dishes and learn about new ones. To help them do this, guide them through your recipes, delve into the techniques you use, and show them what their food should look like at each stage of your recipe. This will help them make the best dish possible.
7. Training & Fitness
Personal trainers are expensive. Fortunately, though, you don’t need one to stay in shape. People are starting to resort to free personal trainers or yoga instructors on YouTube to stay active. So if you have a lot of expertise on weight lifting, yoga, or other fitness methods, consider creating workout videos for specific goals, like losing weight, gaining muscle, or improving cardiovascular health.
8. Style
Everyone wants to look good. And by evaluating new clothing, keeping people updated on new trends and styles, and teaching them how to always look their best, you can build a dedicated YouTube following. If your YouTube channel is popular, you can also attract sponsors who will pay you to review their clothing and offer deals to your audience.
9. Travel
Humans are biologically driven to investigate the world rather than respond to it. That’s why people love exploring so much. But before they shell out thousands of dollars to travel someplace they saw on Instagram, people like to do a little research first. So if you have the funds to travel, consider recording your adventures in destination cityscapes or landscapes. Your viewers can actually get an inside look at the location, helping them decide to take a vacation they’ll never forget or save money on a trip they’d regret.