Should I start a second YouTube channel 2024? Think twice!

Should I start a new YouTube channel or keep my old one?

It is primarily a consideration that has to do with your audience and your content format.

Here are some questions that might can help you decide to start a new YouTube channel instead of keeping your old one:

Is your channel topic different?

When your YouTube channel is about making money from home, and you want to upload videos about keeping chickens, your audience is probably not into that.
In that case it is smart to start another channel.
Keep YouTube channels on-topic, YouTube channels that are not focused on one topic tend to do very bad.

Is your format different?

Your audience subscribed to you for a reason.
They like your video style, way of presenting and the form you bring the content.
When you deviate too much from your standard formula, they might not be interested anymore.

If your topic is the same but the format different, it can be useful to start a new YouTube channel.
For example: if you normally do long-form content like live streams, you could make a channel with the most important clips.

If you do tech related videos, you can have one channel with reviews and on the other you do tech news.
The topic is the same (tech), but your content type is different.

Maybe you could use the second channel as an extension of your main channel or as a creative outlet
A type of content that doesn’t fit on your main channel.

Is the demographic different?

If the demographic of your audience is different, it is worth starting a second channel.
Your audience might be younger, older or from a different part of the world and doesn’t speak the same language.

For example: the YouTube channel for this website is in English, but if I want to upload videos in Dutch, I’m better off creating a separate channel for that.

Not getting the views?

When you don`t get views, it generally doesn`t help to start a new channel.There is probably an underlying problem.

Try to figure out what the problem is.
The most common reasons I see for the lack of views with my coaching clients is:

Not understanding your target audience properly (demographics).
Not understanding the pain points, fears and motivators (psycho-graphics) of your target audience properly.
In other words: you don`t know what makes viewers click.
Not understanding how to come up with good video ideas.
Not understanding how to create thumbnails that viewers really want to click on.

My video training Viral Strategy helps you step-by-step with your target audience.
My video training Thumbnail Secrets helps you with creating thumbnails that viewers WANT to click

Examples

Example 1:
Old audience: Djing
New audience: YouTube advice.
Advice: start a new channel
There is not a big overlap between an audience interested in DJ-ing and YouTube advice.
Both channels are very niche and therefore, there is minimal cross-over.

Example 2:
Old audience: Gaming
New audience: Pranks
Advice: pivot
A gaming channel is largely based on personality.
Viewers mainly tune in because of who the creator is.
Because gamers probably are into pranks too, I think you can pivot.
You are switching from a niche audience to a broad audience.
Switching from niche to broad works better than the other way around.

Example 3:
Old audience: YouTube advice
New audience: Daily vlogs (not about YouTube)
Advice: start a new channel
Although you are switching from a niche to a broad audience, viewers come for the YouTube advice.
They are not getting advice, don’t return, so the algorithm thinks the content is bad.
This can take a really long time for the algorithm to understand that it should look outside the YouTube advice space for your audience.

I advice YouTube creators often on the pivoting or starting-a-new-channel question.
I can personally take a look at your channel to advice you on the best course of action, you can book a consult here.

When you DO start a new YouTube channel …

You need to start over

Be aware that when you start a new channel, you need start completely from scratch.
You start with 0 subscribers and 0 channel authority.

When you have leverage this might be a relatively smooth process.
With leverage I mean traffic from another YouTube channel, an email list, a website, other social media, … or anything else that can bring in traffic
But if you are targeting a brand new target audience with no leverage, please think twice.

Can you remember when you first started out?
No one watching your videos, how incredibly frustrating that was?
I know it’s going to be different this time, because you learned a lot in the meantime.
But YouTube is still hard.
It will take a long time to get where you are now with your current channel.

Twice the work

If you are planning to maintain two YouTube channels, you need to invest twice as much time to keep those channels filled with content.
You also need to work hard to break though on YouTube, is that something you have the time and energy for right now?

If your answer is “yes”, you can also put that time and effort into making your current channel better or increasing your video release frequency.
You can also put that time into creating your own (digital) products that will increase your paycheck at the end of the month.

If your answer is “no”, consider if a different release frequency for one of the channels is an option (once a month instead of once a week).

Refer to new channel

You can always refer your existing audience to the new channel.
This way only your real loyal fans are coming over.

However, I`ve experienced in practice that not a lot of viewers jump over to the new channel.

When you do NOT start a new YouTube channel ...

When you keep your old channel and decide to rebrand or refresh content, don`t switch content immediately.
Switch content gradually, so viewers have time to adjust.
But also the algorithm has more time to adjust to find new viewers that best fit the video.

You can test if your current audience is into your new content by mixing in two or three videos in with your regular videos over time.
If you don’t get the clicks, that is a huge hint that you shouldn’t make that content for your current audience or start a second channel.

When you switch content, expect a downfall in views and angry comments.
It can take some time (6-12 months) for viewers (and the algorithm) to adjust.

Should I have multiple YouTube channels?

Here are some reasons why YouTubers have two channels:

spread risks. If views start to decline, you have another channel to even out the losses.
Especially for trend sensitive channels like gaming content, this is very important.
you can gain more views in total around different channel topics compared to 1 channel.
This is because the algorithm knows better who to suggest new content to.
experimentation: for example with new content, way of presenting etc.
reusing content: present the same content in a different form. For example: cutting up livestreams into long-form video on demand YouTube videos.

Some related questions

Can you have 2 YouTube channels one account?

Yes, you can have multiple YouTube channels in one Google account.
Just log in to your Google account as usual and create a new channel.
On YouTube you can switch between the channels by clicking on your avatar in the top right corner and choose: switch account.

Every account has also its own YouTube viewing history and when you comment on a video, you will comment as the channel that is currently logged in.

Can you move videos from one YouTube channel to another?

No you can’t.
You can reupload existing videos, but YouTube regards each channel as a separate entity.
When you are serious about YouTube and want to take it to the next level, take a look at my video training program: Viral Strategy.
The program takes you step-by-step through the process of getting views, subscribers and going viral.

For new creators I included a module that guides you step-by-step through the process of starting, creating and setting up a YouTube channel.