What Are the Pros and Cons of YouTube?

There are over 2 billion monthly users on YouTube with over a billion hours of video available every day.

YouTube, the world’s largest video platform, not just for cat videos and makeup tutorials anymore. YouTube become a powerful marketing tool for businesses of all sizes. However, like any tool, YouTube has its pros and cons.

YouTube is a fantastic way to raise brand awareness, grow your business, and reach a worldwide audience. You can create promotional videos to promote products or services. Not only this, you can also make how-to guides or informative videos to solve the problems of your target audience and become a thought leader. There many other Ways To Use Youtube To Build A Business and stay ahead of the curve.

Perhaps you’re on the fence about signing up, and you want to figure out whether YouTube is right for you or not.

Sounds familiar? Luckily, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s discuss the pros and cons to see if it’s the right fit for your business strategy.

Before you find the best YouTube alternative, it’s important to understand what this platform offers. Then you can figure out whether using YouTube is for you. For instance:

Simple Setup

One of the top benefits of YouTube is that it requires little expertise or money to set up a channel. Regardless of your goals, you only need a laptop for editing and a smartphone to shoot.

Plus, you can easily scale your YouTube channel and increase the money you generate from ads into better or more equipment. It’s a win-win!  

Free Video Hosting

Looking for pros of YouTube?

Know the platform is free to use, and all content is hosted by the platform. This means you’re not burdened with monthly fees like you would with running a site. 

Easy to Share Videos

The beauty of YouTube is that sharing your videos is easy. You can either shoot links to your loved ones or share via social media. Or blog about your new video and embed it onto your site.

Can Monetize Content

An attractive aspect of YouTube is that you can earn money from it. But to do this, you’ll need to monetize your channel with YouTube partner program. Aside from this, you can also make money from affiliate links, sponsorships, and collaborations.

Welcomes Every Niche

YouTube welcomes every niche so anyone can reap its benefits. For instance, musicians can showcase their latest tunes, whereas budding actors can wow with their comedy sketches.

If you’re stumped for ideas, upload onto YouTube stories or post polls to ask your audience what they want to see. 

Helps Generate Backlinks

Creating a YouTube channel helps boost your SEO as you build backlinks. These are created when you add a website link or your social media channels within the video description.

Sprinkling these throughout your YouTube channel will then raise awareness and drive traffic to your site.

Video Length Isn’t Capped

A major advantage of YouTube is that there is no limit to video length. This gives creators freedom over the type of content they produce. For instance, you could post a two-minute ad or an hour-long webinar to promote your product. 

On the flip side, there are reasons to not use YouTube. So before making a decision consider these cons of YouTube. For example:

Maintenance Costs

If you want high-quality production, then you must invest in your YouTube channel. You’ll need a camera, an editing team, and lighting to produce great content. Eventually, you can dip into your YouTube payment, but it’ll be from your pocket initially.

Too Public

Although you can reach a larger audience, posting on YouTube makes you susceptible to privacy invasion. There are also issues with copyright, especially with music. And, it’s important to note, you must find royalty-free tunes so you don’t get penalized by the platform. 

Many Rules to Follow

Aside from copyright issues, your content must adhere to YouTube’s community guidelines. If you don’t comply with their terms and conditions, then your channel could get flagged or your Google Adsense account banned.

Because of this, be mindful of what you post and how your channel looks.

You Implicitly Advertise Your Competitor’s Videos

YouTube’s algorithm gives viewers the type of videos they want to see as it boosts ad revenue. The downside is that competitive content will be displayed in the sidebar while a prospect is watching your video. As a result, you’re unintentionally giving your competitors extra exposure.

No Guarantee People Will See Your Content

There are approximately 37 million YouTube channels, which proves competition is rife. It’s important to understand that simply having a YouTube account doesn’t automatically draw users to your channel.

You must find creative ways to drive prospects to your account by advertising on social media.

Zero Customer Support

YouTubers know how frustrating it is to have no customer support. So if you’re struggling with your video embedding, then you’re on your own. It’s wise to browse YouTube forums to see if anyone has had a similar issue.

There’s Never a Guarantee

You could spend $2000 in video production and only get 200 views.

On YouTube, there’s no guarantee that your content will blow up so keep this in mind. Know that there’s always a risk and if you’re not seeing desired results, then market your YouTube channel on your other social media accounts.

Hopefully, after weighing up the pros and cons of YouTube, you’ll know whether to take the plunge.

YouTube lets you share your content, engage with your audience, and generate backlinks to your site. But there is little customer support, you’re not guaranteed a huge following, and you must abide by YouTube’s rules. So, what do you choose?

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