Should you use your own name for your YouTube channel and social media accounts? Or should you create a brand name in order to put forward a more professional appearance? This is one of the very first decisions you'll need to make as a new creator. And one that has an extremely long lasting effect that can be pretty difficult to change later on.
So getting this decision right on day one is not only going to save you time later from having to rebrand if you do change your mind, but it's also going to help you speed up your channel growth. By putting forward a name that is more relatable and resonates more with your target audience from day one.
So in this episode of full time YouTuber, we're going to dive deep into this question. Should you use your personal name for your channel or should you create a brand name? If you're new here, Hey, my name is Ben Claremont and I'm a YouTuber and entrepreneur and I help new video creators. Start and grow their YouTube channels into a profitable business.
And I'm excited about this topic because this was a situation I found myself in when I first started my YouTube channel. And over the course of my YouTube journey, I did both. When I first started, I decided I was going to make videos about 360 cameras. So I named my channel life in 360. I don't really know what it meant.
It sounded cool. I thought maybe if I put enough effort and built enough great content around it, It would develop some kind of meaning but the name resonated with me so I went ahead with Life in 360. And it was only at the point that I reached around 50, 000 subscribers that I realized the name wasn't really having the effect I'd intended and I wanted to give myself more flexibility to feel out my topic a bit more and see where I could take my channel.
So I decided to change my channel name from Life in 360 to my real name. Ben Claremont. And from that point on until now where my channel is now at 190, 000 subscribers, that's what I'm known by. So I will start by saying that both methods can absolutely work whether you do want to use your name or a brand name.
But I will say that each of the two options works better for specific kinds of creators. So I'm going to start by giving a pros and cons list of each. Then at the end, I'll give my personal recommendations on what I think is the best strategy for you, depending on what your goals are for your channel.
Now, when we think about choosing a name for our channel, What this is, is a marketing decision as a creator, you are a brand and the name you associate that brand becomes your brand name, which one day might even become your product name or even your company name. So that's just something important to keep in mind is that you are marketing yourself to the world, no matter which name you choose.
Hence why this actually is a really important decision. And it's. It's absolutely worth taking the time to consider what the best option is. So let's start with a list of pros of creating a brand name for your channel. The first pro is that a good channel name can instantly explain what you're all about and what your channel identity is.
When people first discover you on YouTube, they won't know you from a bar of soap. The very first things they will see is probably the first video they clicked on, so the title and thumbnail of that, but then underneath that is the channel name. These three things form your audience's First impression of you and if you create a great channel name, let's I'm just going to invent one off the top of my head.
Let's say tennis tips. Someone's looking for tennis advice and they come across a tennis tutorial by a channel called tennis tips. In that name, you're instantly explaining what your channel is all about and the promise you're making to your viewers that you're going to cover tennis tips. Simple and literal is always a great way to go when branding a channel.
And this is one big advantage is that you can give it a very specific flavor from that very first impression. And in turn, this will attract target audiences. And when you can speak directly to their needs in your channel name, you're actually going to grow your channel faster. If you listen to the previous episode of the podcast, where I talk about choosing a niche, audiences have pain points and problems.
And as a creator, often you're providing the solutions to those problems. And if you can promise a solution in your channel name, You suddenly become instantly more subscribable, which probably isn't a word, but let's just roll with it. That's a big pro of choosing a channel name, is it's like you're making a promise to your audience that you're going to help them solve their problem.
Therefore, you'll be able to attract a more qualified and targeted audience from day one. Another pro is channel names when chosen well. can be more memorable. One naming convention that I'm a massive fan of is alliterations. And what an alliteration is, is using two similar sounding words one after another.
For example, tennis tips. They both start with the letter T, and therefore they roll off the tongue that extra bit better, And as a result of that, they're more memorable. So creating a unique brand name gives you the ability to be more memorable to a new audience. The next pro of creating a brand name is it gives you more privacy.
So if you're somewhat worried about sharing personal information on YouTube and on the internet, You don't necessarily have to give people your name or any details about you if you just want to stay purely on the topic that you're talking about. Choosing a brand name will maintain maximum privacy for you.
Although I will say that if you're concerned about privacy, why are you starting a public YouTube channel? But anyway, I digress. The final pro is that it has great growth potential around the topic that you've chosen as your channel topic. So if it's tennis tips, you can grow this channel to be the biggest tennis tips channel on the whole of YouTube.
So if you go onto YouTube now and type in tennis tips and observe what some of the bigger channels look like, how many subscribers they have, how many views per video they're getting. That is, in the realm of what you could potentially grow to one day. That is, unless you have this really good idea that could push the boundaries even more, but, if you're just getting started, the top channel that currently exists is probably the benchmark for the absolute most growth you could potentially achieve with your channel.
Now, for the cons of creating a brand name for your channel. The first one has to do with trust building. As consumers Anytime we see a YouTube channel that isn't run by a person with a real name, we tend to jump to conclusions that this might be a business or a biased source of information trying to push their own agenda.
And therefore, we instantly put a wall up until we get to know, like, and trust the creator further. Kind of like when you see awesome footage shot with GoPro cameras and it was posted on the GoPro YouTube channel. Instantly, you're just going to put up a wall and think that this content is biased because they clearly got professional videographers To film this amazing content with GoPro cameras and that this isn't actually what the end user would get if they were to shoot themselves with a GoPro.
And trust really can be a hard thing to earn online with so many fake reviews and biased companies trying to push their own agenda without legitimately acknowledging the downsides of their products. This results in the individual, aka some random person reviewing a product with an unbiased point of view.
Being even more trustworthy than the brand themselves, since brands often can have agendas, associations, collaborations, it's hard to know until you've spent enough time with the creator of that channel to trust them. The next con is it will take People longer to learn your name. While you might go with a brand name like Tennis Tips, and then at the start of each lesson, you might introduce yourself either verbally or with a heading.
People may forget this, and therefore it might take them 10 plus videos to properly remember your name, especially if you have an unusual name compared to if your channel name was your actual name. The name is sitting there underneath the video throughout the entirety of the video presentation, which might be, say, 10 minutes per video.
And as they're watching, people are looking up and down throughout the video page, between your video, The title, the channel name, the comments, and the more repetition they have to your name, the faster they'll learn it. And the faster they learn your name, the faster they will trust you. The next con of using a brand name is availability.
If you use a common name, like the one I came up with, Tennis Tips, I'd be willing to bet that this name has already been used by someone. The domain would've been taken, the social media accounts would've been taken, and there's probably a few channels already branding themselves as tennis tips. So it does create more confusion and less uniqueness around your personal brand.
The next con, and this is a pretty big one, and that is around content limitations, and this is a big problem that I came across when. I named my YouTube channel Life in 360. The name Life in 360 implies that I am living my life in 360, which I guess I meant with 360 cameras and creating amazing 360 content.
But what if I wanted to make a video about video editing or cinematography? It would seem kind of weird for a channel that's 360, to suddenly be making videos about topics that aren't anything to do with 360 cameras. And while you absolutely can do it and ignore those rules, it still does come across a bit weird.
Let's say the Tennis Tips channel wants to post a video about soccer. Let me ask you, would you watch A soccer video, if it was posted by a channel called Tennis Tips, or instead when you're looking through your YouTube feed and you were looking for soccer content, would you choose the video by a creator called Play Better Soccer?
If the title and thumbnail of the soccer channel was even half decent, I'd be willing to bet that you would choose the video by the soccer channel than the tennis channel. Hence why choosing a branded name like this. It does create a border or a boundary around the type of topics you can cover, especially if you make it too niche and too specific.
And this leads me to the biggest con of all of using a brand name for your channel. And that is it removes your ability to pivot. Let's say down the road, you're not happy with the niche you chose and you want to go to the left or the right or do a complete 180. When you've built a reputation around a brand name and in every one of your videos, you're introducing yourself as Tannistips or whatever you are.
And then out of nowhere, you start making videos about investing on Wall Street. Firstly, I wouldn't recommend doing that regardless. It's going to depend a lot on your preference of whether you chose a brand name or your personal name. But even if you did pivot maybe a bit less, let's say you go from tennis to talking about sports in general.
Because so much of your previous branding was around tennis, it's going to be much harder for you to pivot even a bit wider since everything you built already has that very distinct This is absolutely why I changed my channel name from Life in 360 to Ben Claremont, my name, because I could foresee at that time that one day I might not be making videos about 360 cameras anymore.
While this is what I love and I'm passionate about right now, I don't know what things are going to be like 10 years from now. What if 360 cameras go completely out of fashion? Or people just lose all interest completely? Back then, I knew that I absolutely did want to grow my channel into a big channel, and I didn't want to have that boundary around the topic that I was able to cover, which is why I decided to remove that boundary and switch to my personal name so I could give myself the ability to pivot down the road, which in retrospect, I actually did.
And I'm so glad I made that change. Okay. So that's the pros and cons of using a brand name for your channel. Now let's talk about the pros of using your own name as your YouTube channel name. The first one is personal branding. Like I said before, People connect to real people way more than they connect to brand names or companies.
One of the best things I've had on my side on my YouTube channel journey has been my ability to be authentic, both in my content and in my branding, where I freely speak my mind and speak the honest truth about cameras and editing. But also I'm happy to put my name to every word I say. I'm just like anyone else on YouTube, whether they're an active creator or not.
My name is Ben, and I'm just sharing the stuff that I've learned. And this instantly makes me more relatable, because using your own name instantly adds accountability to every word that comes out of your mouth. Therefore, people are more likely to trust whatever it is you have to say. Trust is such a big factor online.
And sharing your real name helps people trust you that extra bit faster. Using your own name can also enhance your credibility because of this fact that you are in fact a real person sharing your real name but also if you have a title. Let's say you're a Doctor, or you have another title around your name, using that will build credibility quickly.
The next pro of using your own name is it comes with a lot of flexibility to pivot. So if you wanted to choose a slightly wider niche than you originally intended, Let's use the tennis and sports example. If you did start out just posting tennis videos, and you posted it under your name and not the name Tennis Tips, it's going to be so much easier to introduce related topics to your channel when you're not making that initial promise up front of what the channel is about, aka Tennis Tips.
Instead, you're just saying, Hey, my name is Ben Claremont, and I love sports. In this video, we're going to talk about tennis. In the next one, it's going to be soccer. This does kind of go against the advice I gave in the last episode, by the way, about choosing a niche and sticking specifically to that niche.
But expanding wider is something you will absolutely face later on in your journey. Once you pass 10, 000 subscribers, 100, 000, normally by that point, you've covered all the topics there is to cover in your original niche. And you need to expand a little bit wider. your channel to the next level, as well as having way more potential video ideas to choose from.
Another pro of using your own name is it builds your legacy and your reputation. Because personal names are more relatable than brand names, posting to your channel consistently over weeks, months, and years. Builds credibility around your name for whenever you might be interacting with fellow industry members, let's say at events, you might be invited to be a keynote speaker, you might decide you want to release a book because you put in the hard work to build a reputation around your name.
You almost become like a celebrity in your niche where people follow you for a really long time. They look up to you. They've gotten so much value from you over the years that meeting you in person holds so much more weight and value. It's like a once in a lifetime opportunity. And with that, you can create a really powerful business around providing.
Access to you, where you help people solve their problems face to face, and earn good money while you're at it. So using your personal name will build that reputation around it, that will instantly make you recognizable as an industry expert. Now, for the cons of using your own name. The first one is privacy.
Obviously, if you don't want people knowing your name or much about your life, starting a YouTube channel around your name is obviously going to be a bad idea. The next con, especially if you're starting from zero, is that your name doesn't really mean anything from day one, especially if you're not well known to begin with.
You're really at the start of your creator's journey. And you've got a big mountain ahead of you, but people on YouTube at this point don't know you from a bar of soap. And it's going to take a bit longer to get recognized because you're putting forward a personal name that people don't know yet.
Another con of using your own name is one day, let's say you build up this channel and you get to millions of subscribers and you decide you want to sell it. Sell your channel, your brand, your website, and everything. It's going to be harder to transfer ownership to someone else when it's based around your name.
Whereas if you're doing that from day one with the intention of growing it big and then selling it one day down the line, obviously, it's going to be a better decision not to use your name. The final con is to do with scaling, especially if you want to involve others in your channel. Let's say you want guests appearing and making videos, or maybe you want The channel to be collaborative one day, where in a week, say you release three videos, you make one of them, and you have two other people making the other two, including presenting on camera and sharing their names in that kind of situation, your personal name obviously isn't going to work super well.
Okay, so those are all the pros and cons. I. think about at least initially, but now I want to give my specific recommendations about which one you should choose as a brand new YouTube creator who wants to make a maximum impact with your audience on day one. Let's start with a brand name. So you should use a brand name.
If I'd recommend using a brand name, if you want to grow your channel. It will be a little faster up front due to having more niche branding that resonates with your target audience that extra bit quicker. It will also be a better choice if you're looking to make more professional style content that is professionally filmed, edited, has slick titles, and you're very much trying to portray a professional style.
Maybe you go to the effort of going on location and hiring a videographer to talk through very specific techniques, procedures, events. And your end goal is to create something as polished as possible and not really be very casual. This is the type of channel where it's more about the content than the person.
Like in a situation where there are multiple collaborators all making content for the same channel. Or you already have a company or brand that you're building this channel for. A channel name is going to be the better choice when you're certain that you have absolutely no need to pivot in the future.
You're 100 percent sure that you'll be making content about this one topic for the long term. It's not to say that it's forever ever, but at least the next few years. A channel name is also the best choice for anyone that doesn't want to share too much information about their personal life, including your name or even your face.
So, if any of the points on this list resonated particularly strongly with you, then there's a good chance that a brand name is the way to go. Now, moving on to personal names. You should use a personal name for your YouTube channel if any of the following points resonate strongly with you. If firstly, you're okay with your channel growing a bit more slowly up front, knowing that it's going to be an even playing field later, and you're going to have much more trust with your audience, Due to sharing more personal details about yourself and your life including your name but that's not going to help you in the early days.
Which is okay, you can still build a great channel around your personal name with the right content. The exception to that is if you're already very well known. Let's say Serena Williams starts a YouTube channel. And she calls it Serena Williams. Obviously, she wouldn't need to call it Tennis Tips. People would know what her channel is about instantly.
It's going to either be about tennis, or it's going to be about her and her life and topics that are important to her now. So if you are already well known in your industry, then it will be much easier for you to grow your channel quickly from day one around your personal name. Here's a big point of differentiation.
If you know that the type of content you're going to make is going to be more casual. If you've ever seen my videos this is exactly the vibe that I go for. Where it feels very personal and intimate, for example, you might be filming in your bedroom, your office or your living room and your videos are going to feel like your audience is just hanging out with you.
You're sharing advice freely. You're not trying to present like a professional LinkedIn style presentation with every single video, but you're okay with a more casual performance. Maybe you use more everyday words and more creative and fun editing techniques. This is when using your name is going to be even more effective because people will start thinking of you like a friend.
They know your name, they know the room that you're hanging out in. And if they've watched enough of your videos, they'll have hung out in that room with you many times over the weeks, months, and years. And that, in turn, will make them feel more connected to you and want to stay with you on your journey for the long haul.
And, of course, the biggest reason you would choose your personal name is because you want the ability to pivot. Maybe you're getting started and you're pretty sure you know the direction you want to go. Go, but you're not sure if you should go slightly to the left, slightly to the right, and you don't necessarily want to make that decision now because you're happy with the direction you've initially chosen, but you want to maintain flexibility to expand that or pivot that in the future.
Okay, so if. Any one thing on this list resonated particularly deeply with you, chances are using your personal name is the right way to go. Now, there is also a third option here, and that is combining both a brand name. and your personal name into your channel name. For example, if you have a title like doctor, you could be Dr.
Ben Claremont, which kind of combines your profession. If I was a doctor and then it had my name afterwards, some other ones would be make better videos with. Ben Claremont, so make better videos is the concept of the channel. And then with Ben Claremont is adding my name in there. If you do combine both, I'd recommend shortening it a bit.
So maybe something like Ben's editing tips, which really nicely combines my. First name with the specific promise I'm making to my audience that they're going to learn how to edit. So combining both together is absolutely an option as well. Now, if you're still undecided about this, what I'd recommend is creating a list.
Whenever I'm brainstorming ideas, I will start a new note in Apple notes. And I'll write down all of the best ideas that come to me with absolutely no filter whatsoever. If I end up with 20 ideas, that's great. If it's only five, that's okay too. Then I'll put it down and come back tomorrow and see which one resonates the most.
I might even come back next week or next month. But usually when you create enough. Options. There should be one clear standout that you gravitate back to time after time. And if there isn't, ask Chat. GPT tell it. You want a definite answer about which would be the best YouTube channel name and why, and it can help you make a decision on the spot.
Now, if you want to work with me personally to help you choose the best channel name for your brand new YouTube channel. I'm now offering one on one coaching where I can guide you through branding decisions like this, as well as high level decisions like choosing your niche, creating great video ideas that resonate with your target audience, and creating a plan to monetize your channel and turn it into a profitable business.
If you need help with any of these things, I would love to work with you. You can book in a coaching call with me by Following the link in the show notes and I'd love to help you get your YouTube channel up and running. That's it for this episode. I hope it helped you make this important decision about how you're going to brand your channel.
I wish you all the success in the world and happy creating.
