Saturday 16 April 2022

N is for Name #YouTube #AtoZChallenge

N is for Name - YouTube - What they Don't Tell You

YouTube - What they Don't Tell You
N is for Name

"We write our names in the sand: and then the waves roll in and wash them away." — Neil Gaiman

My AtoZ theme this year is my YouTube journey with my new fiction channel, and all that I have learned - plus some free fiction - scroll down to the embedded vid for that.

Every author out there knows, titles are important. Now the name of your channel is something like a title. We've taken all this trouble to decide what our channel is about, who our audience is, and now we need to convey that in our title.

Now there are some channels out there that are just the names of those who run them. If you're bringing a big audience with you, e.g. you're an author with fans already, this could be the way to go. In that case you're looking for people to find you, so your name is important, it's your brand.

However, what we also need to think about it YouTube in general. There are millions or people on YouTube who have probably never heard of us, and a person's name does not tell casual viewers what a channel is about. Like the title of a book, if the name of the channel does not grab them, they will not click.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 


While the description of a channel will help the algorithm serve it to those searching on a topic, we still have to convince them to choose us from the search results. Hence the name should reflect us and the content of the channel.

For example, I could have gone with
  • Natasha Duncan-Drake
My name is unique – type it in at google and up I pop. Thank you hyphenating when I got married. However, it says nothing about the content of my channel.

My channel is all about short fiction, so I wrote down all the words I could think of that mean fiction:
  • Fiction
  • Stories
  • Story time
  • Tales
  • Chronicles
  • Novelette etc
Tales leapt out at me, because I've never met an author that didn't appreciate alliteration, and so Tasha's Tales seemed like a good idea.

Then I searched YouTube. And lo and behold, someone was already using that one.

So, I tweaked it, took inspiration from Drawing with Jazza (the previous name for the wonderful Jazza's channel) and came up with Tales With Tasha.

I am sure many of you are far more creative than me, but you can see the process.

Look around at other channels in your niche too, see what works for them, but do remember, some of the older channels were working with different parameters when they were named.

If you were starting a YouTube Channel, what would you call it? or What did you call your channel and why?

Current YouTube Episode


April's Theme - Ghost Stories
New story every week day at 4pm GMT
Please subscribe to never miss a vid (it's free).


About the AtoZ Challenge

The A to Z Challenge happens every April. Bloggers from all over the world come together to post every day in April, apart from Sundays, inspired by the letters of the alpha bet. A = April 1st etc. Some of us have themes, some of us don't. Click the image below for more info and links to other participants.
#AtoZChallenge 2022 tribute badge

Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel

Tales with Tasha - YouTube

Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.
  • ๐ŸŽคMicro stories as YouTube Shorts Monday - Thursday - for fun quick viewing
  • ๐Ÿ•ฎA longer story every Friday - for story time, over coffee or before going to bed

Tasha's Social Media

๐Ÿ“šJoin My Newsletter๐Ÿ“š


Receive 2 FREE eBooks just for signing up and a free short story once every month on Free Fiction Friday.


Two books covers - one with a woman firing guns above the title "Assassin's Blood" the other with a woman screaming and glowing with the title "Curse of a Banshee"


List hosted on MailChimp, information will only be used for Newsletter contact, and we do not send spam.

15 comments:

  1. You know...I am good at finding names and titles for the stories I write. But, creating names for long-standing things like blogs or non-changeable profiles is SO HARD for me. Haha! I have no idea what I'd name a YouTube channel. I guess it's a good thing I don't have one. ๐Ÿ˜

    AnjelaCurtis.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always find titles for anything hard - I think sometimes I reach for too convoluted ideas ๐Ÿ˜‚. The only thing that is harder than the title is the blurb!

      Delete
  2. I don't have a name for my channel, and it's been years since I even uploaded anything. Trying to find a title for a book I have written was hard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Titles/names are just hard in general, I think. And it keeps getting harder when we have to think about algorithms as well as what our readers will like.

      Delete
  3. I like your naming process.. I only find it hard to name characters because I want the name to reflect their personality!

    Hopping in from the A-Z community,
    Dream
    https://thedreamgirlwrites.wordpress.com/a-z-2022/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will admit, I use google a lot when naming characters. I go look up what is popular for different countries and things like that ๐Ÿ˜‚.

      Delete
  4. Name is as important as the content - Tasha's tales is quite appealing I feel. Name is the first thing people observe!

    Dropping by from a to z http://afshan-shaik.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Names/titles it's all part of the same game ๐Ÿ˜‚. Publishers and social media companies have teams of people for these things and we're supposed to do it all by ourselves!

      Delete
  5. I don't really use my YouTube channel for much so I just leave it with my blogging pseudonym. But you're right about the importance of a name.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's probably the best way to make sure people can find you over there.๐Ÿ˜‚

      Delete
  6. Same thing applies everywhere even when you are selling groceries i believe... fancy names capture the first attention and are easier to remember too... since your name also has a T , Tales with Tasha has a nice ring to it ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. It really is all about getting people to remember, isn't it.

      Delete
  7. I think mine is just my author name, as I just use it for book trailers and some of my podcast vids... Like your thinking process!

    Ronel visiting for the A-Z Challenge My Languishing TBR: N

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like it is a name perfectly fit for purpose and on brand.

      Delete
  8. My channel name was originally Baryshnitsa (which I falsely believed means "lucky woman" in Russian), but I changed it to Ursula's Odds and Sods when I began making serious content in August 2021. My real middle name is Ursula, which I've always preferred to my first name, and my channel is an eclectic mix of odds and sods (though focused on books and writing).

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for reading. I love to hear from people. Please leave your comments below.