18 YouTube Content Ideas to Grow Your Channel

As a YouTuber, you’ve probably heard about the importance of having a niche. Honing in on one specific subject matter is crucial if you want to attract your target audience.

However, having a niche doesn’t mean you should only be posting one type of content. In fact, diversifying your videos is incredibly important when it comes to keeping your audience engaged and coming back for more.

Your YouTube channel should still have an overarching theme—beauty, lifestyle or music, for example—but don’t be afraid to mix things up within that theme.

To help you get inspired, we’re sharing 18 creative YouTube video ideas you can try. They’ll help your content appeal to a broader audience, engage your existing viewers and maximize your channel’s growth.

1. How-To and Tutorial Videos

YouTube is not just an entertainment platform—it’s also a search engine where people go to find specific answers and solutions to their problems. You can help by uploading step-by-step how-to videos and tutorials on topics within your niche. Sharing your expertise will not only attract new audiences, but will also help you establish yourself as an authority in your field.

To make the most of this content type, aim to offer practical advice and share tips that come from your own personal experience. Make sure your videos are broken down into manageable chunks and are easy to follow. Use keywords in your titles and descriptions to help you get discovered.

2. Product Reviews and Unboxing Videos

We all rely on reviews to make informed purchasing decisions. Help your viewers do the same by reviewing products and sharing unboxing videos on your channel. This will bring in viewers who are searching for this type of content and help you build trust with your existing audience.

To provide the most value, try to cover as much information about the product as you can, anticipating any questions people may have. Share your honest opinion and talk about your own experience using the product.

3. Vlogs and Day-in-the-Life Videos

Give your viewers a peek into your life by sharing vlogs and day-in-the-life videos. This will allow them to connect with you on a deeper level and help you build a loyal community. Your videos can revolve around your routines, special events, trips or your regular day-to-day life.

To connect with your viewers, remember to stay authentic and relatable. You can experiment with storytelling and editing techniques to make your videos more engaging and entertaining, but it’s important to show your real self—that’s what will attract people to you and keep them coming back for more.

4. Reaction and Commentary Videos

People often turn to YouTube to keep up with what’s going on in popular culture. You can join the conversation by posting reaction videos. It’s a fun way to offer your unique perspective on current events, trending topics, popular TV shows and viral social media videos.

To keep your reaction videos engaging and entertaining, be sure to film your genuine reactions and offer insightful commentary. Spark conversations and encourage viewers to contribute their opinions in the comments section—the more people interact with your video, the more it will get recommended to new audiences.

5. Gaming and Walkthrough Videos

If you like playing video games, don’t hesitate to incorporate them into your YouTube content. Without a doubt, there are plenty of fellow gamers among your subscribers who’ll love discovering another point of connection.

Share walkthrough videos, live stream your gameplay or share tips and strategies that might help other gaming fans. Be sure to record high-quality video and audio to create an immersive viewing experience for your audience. And don’t forget to let your personality shine with engaging commentary.

6. Challenges and Prank Videos

Challenges and prank videos are fun, shareable and have lots of potential to go viral. If that’s one of your goals on YouTube, find a way to incorporate them into your content. Stay up to date with what’s trending on social media (especially TikTok!) and see if you can put your own unique spin on it. Get your friends and family involved, too! Just be sure to prioritize safety, be respectful and get consent from everyone involved before posting.

7. Educational and Explainer Videos

Provide value to your subscribers and new audiences by uploading educational content within your niche. This is different from how-to videos and tutorials—instead of teaching a skill or showing a hands-on demonstration, you can share information and break down complex concepts.

To create effective explainer videos, make sure your content is well-researched. You may already be an expert in your field, but it won’t hurt to supplement your own knowledge with additional information and verifiable data. Starting with a script can help keep your video concise, coherent and engaging. And be sure to include visual aids like diagrams and animations to keep the viewers interested and enhance comprehension.

8. Compilation and Time-Lapse Videos

Video editing magic can compress months (and even years!) of progress into just a few minutes. Use this to your advantage and create captivating compilation and time-lapse videos. They work with just about any niche. For example, for a beauty channel, you can create a make-up application time-lapse; or if you have a lifestyle channel, why not create a compilation of your favorite moments throughout an entire year?

To make your time-lapse and compilation videos fun to watch, use high-quality footage and add complementary music in the background. Most importantly, pay attention to pacing—if your progress or transformation is revealed too slowly, viewers may lose interest.

9. Skits and Parody Videos

If you love comedy and have a great sense of humor, have a little fun with skits and parody videos. After all, most people come to YouTube looking for entertainment and a few good laughs. These types of videos are highly shareable and have a high chance of going viral, so they’re great for the growth of your channel.

You can create your own comedy skits, trying your hand at script writing, directing and acting. Or why not film parodies of well-known movie scenes and trending pop culture moments? Whatever you choose, have fun with it and don’t take yourself too seriously!

10. Music and Dance Videos

Are you a talented musician or dancer? Show off your skills by posting cover songs, original compositions, dance routines and challenge videos. To maximize discoverability, try to sing or dance to songs that are currently trending. As people search for them, they’ll be more likely to stumble upon your channel.

With dance and music videos, high-quality audio and visuals are important, so prioritize these as much as you can. Be sure to engage with your audience—for example, take requests—to help create a sense of community and build a fanbase.

11. Live Streams and Webinars

Regardless of your niche and the type of content you usually post, your viewers would love the opportunity to interact with you in real time. It will help deepen their connection with you and strengthen their sense of community.

Every once in a while, put aside the scripted, edited, highly curated content and let them get to know the real you. You can do this by setting up live streams, webinars, interactive discussions and Q&A sessions. Make sure you have a stable internet connection so you can see and respond to the comments coming in.

12. Tech and Gadget Reviews

Before buying expensive new tech, people often come to YouTube to make sure they’re making the right purchasing decision. Some YouTube channels are dedicated entirely to tech reviews, but even if yours isn’t, you can still help by reviewing the tools and gadgets you use in your own work and hobbies. For example, if you have a photography channel, you can review camera gear or even the camera specifications of the latest iPhone. If you’re a singer, you can review a popular studio microphone.

When reviewing new products, be sure to review the technical specifications, the cost, the pros and cons, and who you think would benefit from this technology.

13. Hacks and Tips Videos

People love hacks and ways to make their life easier, so if you’ve discovered a shortcut for a common everyday problem, be sure to share it! This can be specific to your niche—for example, you can make a video about productivity hacks or share tips for keeping a tidy home. To provide the most value to your audience, make sure your hacks actually work and are genuinely useful. Explain or demonstrate them clearly and talk about how they’ve made a difference in your own life.

14. Podcasts and Interviews

If your goal on YouTube is to bring value and educational content to your viewers, you can certainly do this on your own. But you can take it to a whole new level when you seek out other experts in your field and invite them to be guests on your channel. You can conduct in-depth interviews, engage in expert discussions or live-stream Q&A sessions. As a bonus, once you film the guest interview, you can repurpose the audio into a podcast. The other great thing is, your guests will more than likely promote the interview to their own audiences, creating even more exposure for your channel.

15. Animated and Whiteboard Videos

Many content creators struggle with regularly uploading new videos because filming footage is time-consuming and laborious. But not all videos need a talking face or b-roll. Whenever you have a story to tell or a complex concept to explain, consider creating a whiteboard video instead.

These are simple animations that look like written notes and sketches are being drawn on a whiteboard. They are easy to create with tools like Animaker or Moovly and often do an even better job of keeping viewers engaged. Sync your animated video with a high-quality narration and upload—there's no need to pull out the camera for this one!

16. Q&A and FAQ Videos

Answering questions from your viewers is an important part of audience engagement, and live streaming a Q&A session is a great way to do this, but it’s not the only one. You can also collect questions in advance and respond to them on your own time with a pre-recorded video.

To do this, ask your subscribers to send you questions on another social media platform like Instagram, in the comments section of another video, through email or through a form on your website. When you record the Q&A video, you can give shoutouts to the people who submitted the questions, but be sure to respect any requests for anonymity.

17. Bloopers and Behind-the-Scenes

Without a doubt, as you’re filming content for your YouTube channel, you’re bound to experience slip-ups or unintentionally capture hilarious moments. Your viewers would love to see these! They’re just another way for you to show your true personality, authenticity and relatability.

Whenever you’re low on content ideas, look through your existing footage and create a compilation of bloopers, outtakes and behind-the-scenes clips. Sharing these will give your audience a glimpse into your production process and let them see the fun, human side of content creation. Most importantly, it will help them feel even more connected to you.

18. Compilation of Subscriber Content

A great way to deepen community engagement is to literally engage your viewers in the content creation process. Hand the camera over to them and ask for their contributions. Then, compile all the footage you receive into one video. For example, you can ask them to submit their stories, reaction videos, clips of them showing their art, singing a song, dancing a routine or doing a special viewer challenge. Be sure to give proper credit and show your appreciation to everyone who submitted, especially if you won’t be able to feature them all.

Grow Your YouTube Channel

Continue to explore new content ideas, push the boundaries of your creativity and pay attention to your audience's engagement and response. Maintain consistency with your upload schedule, and watch your YouTube channel thrive!

Written By

Sayana Lam

Sayana is a musician, writer and graphic designer based in Toronto, Canada.