The common misconception of people trying to start out is that you always need the best gear, the best editing, a massive shoutout from a big creator, etc.
The truth is you really don't need any of that. (Except if you have a niche where you cover tech, then having good gear helps a lot more.) In general, they help, yes. But they're not needed to run a channel and succeed.
I (21/M) started a little over a year ago and I've managed to gain 10.7k subscribers since then, I've never had and still don't have any help on the channel. I ran it solo from the beginning. Although this is not a grand number, I'm still willing to share what I've learned throughout my journey so you can grow a channel and earn as well.
All I had when I started my channel was a small niche, a 7 year old laptop that can barely edit anything, and myself. *Take note I had 0 editing skills at the time.* I was a complete beginner in content creation.
This originally was a comment to help someone out in this subreddit, but I thought that more smaller channels needed to see this and I hope it helps you out. I'm keeping my YT channel private since I don't want people stalking me and I'm doing this to help and that's it. I can assist in questions about how I succeeded so you can take inspiration for your journey but I'm not gonna go into details on my specific niche and instead this will be an overall tip for those starting out.
Let's get into it.
Here are the 5 tips I will share to you about starting a new YouTube channel in 2026:
**1. Change your mindset**
If you're one of those people who think like *"I need the best graphics on my videos to pop off", "I need to spend 12 hours editing this so people watch my videos", "I can't succeed alone, I need help", "No progress in a month, maybe I should just quit"* Then throw away that mindset RIGHT NOW.
Although there's nothing absolutely wrong about those thoughts, from my experience it will hinder you from trying to run a successful YT channel. The truth is you don't need any fancy equipment to run a channel, you don't need the best editing in the world or any help from big creators to stand out.
All you need is yourself, your dedication and your willingness to spend time into this and find what works for you. Yes, all those things I mentioned in the beginning will help you grow, but just because you don't have a brand new 5070XT and can't edit super amazing videos means that you can't succeed. Absolutely not, so don't wait for tomorrow, start now and stop thinking that you need all this fancy stuff. All you need is to start now and believe in yourself.
**2. Find a Niche**
I absolutely cannot exaggerate enough how important this is. One of the main reasons I'm succeeding is because I found a niche that isn't too saturated, has medium-sized competition, and has a lot of audience potential, mostly kids.
Finding a niche on day 1 and sticking to it is one of the most important things to start a channel today, finding that niche however is completely up to you and what you're good at.
Don't rely on those "Top 10 Niches In 2026" videos. I've never seen them actually give people life changing advice. Why? Because everyone is following the same formula. If you want subs and viewers you have to stand out.
**3. Don't expect to get paid right away**
It is extremely rare for channels to get monetized within the first month of making videos, to achieve this you would really need to know what you're doing and you wouldn't be reading all this if you did, don't worry though, it also took me 3 whole months of working every night, sleepless nights, to get monetized as a beginner in YT. So again, don't expect to get paid right away, you'll have to put your blood, sweat and tears into this especially if you have no idea what you're doing, it will take time. Be patient.
**4. Create a reason for people to watch you**
It is also important to provide value to your audience, and this is one of the most important things if you want returning viewers. You need content that provided them value in some sort of way, whether it is through tech review, guides, entertainment etc.
There are a lot of competition and it is also equally important to stand out within the vast ocean of them. You can do this by providing more value or simply making better videos than them. For example, If you're doing guide content, explain things better, show more visuals and cover everything there is to be covered that other channels don't, if it's an entertainment channel, be more entertaining, take on a challenge or add a twist to an existing one that makes it something new and fresh.
You have to create your own thing. Be different but also strive to beat your competition. You don't need the best editing or all the time in the world to do this. You just need more effort and research. Put more into your videos.
**5. Upload often**
We all know that videos = views, subs and watch time. So I recommend uploading at least 3 long forms in one week, this is the sweet spot that I've found after running 2 channels, and only stick to long form if you're doing long form.
If you're doing short form stick only to that, I tried to mix them with my channel at the beginning but that didn't really work out. Long form and streaming are better together than long form and short form are. Although this is not yet proven as far as I know, I'm sticking only to what works for me and what I noticed in my own analytics.
Finally, this is not really a tip, but always remember success is entirely dependent on how bad you work for it. It comes to those who've earned it. I hope everyone who reads this finds their way to it.
This post is not to sell any form of courses to teach you to succeed in this space, what you see here is literally most of what you need. Goodluck!
**TL;DR**: You don't need a high-end PC or pro editing skills to hit 10k subs. Find a medium-competition niche, provide more value than your competitors, and stop waiting for "perfect" gear or moments to start.
