Grant Thompson, YouTube's 'King of Random', passes away in a paragliding accident

The first step is to have a YouTube account — you can either use your existing google account or sign-up for a new one. Consider setting up a new account for your YouTube Channel because you can separate your personal emails, Google Drive storage as well as video history. Head to www.youtube.com, tap the big Sign-in button on the top left and follow the steps to create a new account.

Once an account is set up, you can now create a YouTube channel. Click on your profile picture on the top right and select ‘Your Channel’. You get to give a name to your YouTube channel. If you click on the ‘Customise Channel’ button, you can add a description, channel art as well as your profile picture.

After you sign in, click on your profile picture and select YouTube Studio option. This is where you can upload videos and choose whether they will be public, private, unlisted or scheduled for a specific date/time. You can even import existing videos from Google Photos or go live on YouTube. While your video gets uploaded, you can add information like the title, description and add relevant tags (so that the video is easily searchable). Advanced settings include the option to allow comments, choosing a category, enabling age restriction and so on. After uploading, you will get a short URL to share the video.

Once your video is published, YouTube Studio helps you keep track of how it’s doing using a dedicated analytics section. You can view details on how many views you got, total watch time, number of subscribers, top videos, realtime activity, traffic sources, impressions, top videos as well as a breakup of viewers on the basis of gender and age. In the comments section, you can view and respond to comments on your video. YouTube will show you which comments have been held for review and which ones are likely spam.

Camera

This is not too important if you’re just getting started. You can either use a camera or your smartphone. A good DSLR or mirrorless camera will give you better quality and is always recommended if you’re serious about it. Also, try to record and upload videos in 4K resolution for wider reach (but 1080p should be the minimum).

Tripod

Your camera/phone needs to be kept rock-steady while recording video and the best way to do that is with a tripod. There are various types of tripods available today starting Rs 300 onwards. You can start with one of the Amazon Basics tripods — they give you tilt and swivel motion, adjustable height and come with travel bag.

Lights

While recording a video, be it a product or if you’re shooting your own vlog, you need to have good lighting. One way to solve this issue is to shoot in daylight, but if you are shooting indoors, you need to have a good light setup. Start with LED video lights which can be mounted on a table or to your camera. Prices usually start from Rs 1,200.

Microphone

Good quality audio is as important as the video and that’s why it is best to get a dedicated microphone. You can get a lavalier or lapel mic to start. This will clip on to your shirt and gives you much better audio quality (with reduced ambient sounds) compared to the mic on your phone/camera. Prices start as low as Rs 199. Rode and Shure make the best mics but if you’re on a strict budget, consider the Boya BYM1 (Rs 849).