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How to Create a YouTube Channel Step by Step and Get It Ready

· 9 min read · Estudio de Canales

Cover graphic for Estudio de Canales: a record card with rows on a black background, with the article's headline in Spanish

This is how to create a YouTube channel: with your Google account, you sign in to YouTube, click your profile picture, go to Settings, choose “Add or manage your channel(s)”, click “Create a channel” and enter the name and the handle. Before you click, decide one thing: whether it will be a personal channel, of which only you are the owner, or a channel with a different name (a company's or a project's) that can have more than one manager or owner. For the latter, you use a brand account.

A Google account and a channel are not the same thing

With a Google account you can already watch videos, like them and subscribe to channels. To upload videos, comment or create playlists you need a channel: without one you have no public presence on YouTube. That is why the first step is not filming, but choosing what type of channel you are going to create.

Channel typeWho manages itWhen it fits
Personal channelYou, as the sole owner; you can add managers.A project of your own that you do not plan to hand over.
Channel with a company's name or another name (brand account)It can have more than one manager or owner.A business, a project with partners, or a channel that may one day change hands.

The difference matters more than it seems. If the channel is not linked to a brand account, you can change its managers, but not its owners: to transfer ownership of a channel, YouTube's help states that it has to be moved to a brand account. If it is a business's channel, it is covered in YouTube channel for businesses.

Creating a personal channel, step by step

This is the short route, the one that YouTube's official help (in Spanish) proposes for a channel that only you can manage:

  1. Sign in to YouTube from a computer or from the mobile website.
  2. Click your profile picture and go to Settings.
  3. In the Account section, select Add or manage your channel(s).
  4. Click Create a channel.
  5. Choose a profile picture and enter your name and your handle, the one that starts with the @ symbol.
  6. Click Create channel.

If you use YouTube with a supervised experience, you may not be able to create a channel. And if you are unsure about the name, do not get stuck: it can be changed later, within the limits you will see below.

Creating a channel with a different name or with the same account

If you want to use a name on YouTube that is not your Google account's, or you want the channel to be able to have more than one manager or owner, YouTube suggests connecting it to a brand account. It is done with the same Google account you already sign in with:

  1. Sign in to YouTube from a computer or the mobile website.
  2. Go to the list of channels.
  3. Click Create a channel, or choose from the list a brand account that you already manage. If that brand account already has a channel, you cannot create another: when you select it, you go to its channel.
  4. Choose a profile picture, a name and a handle, and click Create channel.

Brand accounts are managed from Google accounts, can have several administrators, and you do not need another username or password. With a single Google account you can manage up to 100 channels, although on YouTube you only use one channel at a time: to switch from one to another, click your profile picture and choose “Switch account”. If you plan to run more than one, first read how to have and organise several YouTube channels.

The channel's first settings

Once the channel is created, the rest of its identity is completed in YouTube Studio, under Customization > Profile. It is worth getting it ready before the first video:

  • Name. You can change it twice every 14 days, and the change may take a few days to show on YouTube. If the channel has the verification badge, changing the name removes it. How to choose it well is covered in names for a YouTube channel.
  • Handle. This is a name that only you use, with the @ symbol in front. It can also be changed twice every 14 days.
  • Description. It appears in the channel header: say in one or two sentences what it is about and who it is for.
  • Links. You can show up to 14 links on the Home tab; the first one is highlighted next to the “Subscribe” button.
  • Contact information. An email address so that anyone with a business enquiry knows how to contact you.
  • Profile picture, banner and watermark. These are also changed under Customization > Profile. The sizes and the safe area are in YouTube banner: size, profile picture and trailer.

Under Customization > Home tab you can later add a trailer for people who have not subscribed yet and a featured video for returning visitors. There is no rush: a trailer makes more sense once there are videos to show.

Before uploading anything: bible, series and pace

If you are starting from scratch, a newly created channel has no history to correct, so it is the cheapest moment to decide three things:

  1. The channel bible. A short document with the audience, the topics, the tone, the visual style and what the channel never says. How to write it is covered in a YouTube channel bible.
  2. Two or three series. Formats that repeat with a fixed concept and a rule for what changes in each episode. They help viewers know what to expect, and help you avoid starting every video from zero.
  3. A pace you can sustain. Better one video every two weeks for months than three in the first week and none afterwards. Have several videos finished before publishing the first one: that way the pace survives a bad week.

One more practical point. From the moment you create the channel you have the standard features, such as uploading videos, as long as you have no active strike for breaking the Community Guidelines. For intermediate features, including uploading videos longer than 15 minutes or adding custom thumbnails, YouTube asks you to verify your phone number. Do it before the first upload so that you do not run into the limit with the video already edited.

Can you create a YouTube channel with AI?

AI does not replace sign-up: the channel is created on YouTube with your Google account, as you have just seen. Where it helps is in what comes next: proposing ideas, preparing scripts, adding a voice to the narration or generating images. For it to work well, two conditions:

  • A person decides. The AI proposes; whoever runs the channel reviews the script's facts and approves what gets published.
  • You disclose when needed. YouTube asks creators to tell their audience when they use AI to significantly modify or generate photorealistic content; that is what the “AI use” option in YouTube Studio is for.

What the Estudio de Canales does when you create a channel

In the Estudio de Canales, creating a channel means registering it inside the studio, not on YouTube: you create the YouTube channel yourself with the steps above. This is what the studio does:

  • A sign-up with the basics. It asks for the channel name and, if you want, the language, the country and the niche. With that, the first version of its bible is created, with the note “Versión inicial” (initial version).
  • The bible and the series, afterwards. You complete the bible (identity, content, editorial style, audiovisual style and rules) and create the series, each with its format and its variation rule. Saving changes to the bible creates a new version.
  • Linking it with YouTube is optional. With your Google account connected, the studio reads the public figures, the videos and the private analytics of that account's channel. Without connecting it, you can link it by its channel ID, which starts with “UC” and has 24 characters: it then reads the public figures and the videos, without private analytics.

What it does not do: it does not create the channel on YouTube, it does not design the profile picture or the banner, and it does not publish on its own. It prepares each video's package (video, thumbnails, subtitles, title, description and chapters) and you upload it yourself in YouTube Studio.

Sources consulted

Checked on 11 October 2026. We link to the original source so that you can consult the current text.

Frequently asked questions

Can I create another YouTube channel with the same Google account?

Yes. With a single Google account you can manage up to 100 channels. A channel with a different name is created from the list of channels, linked to a brand account, and you then switch between them from your profile picture, with “Switch account”.

What is the difference between a personal channel and one with a brand account?

A personal channel has a single owner, you, although you can give it managers. One linked to a brand account can use a name different from your Google account's and have more than one manager or owner. In addition, to transfer ownership of a channel it has to be moved to a brand account.

Can I change the channel's name and handle later?

Yes, in YouTube Studio, under Customization > Profile. Each can be changed twice every 14 days, and changing the name removes the verification badge if the channel has one.

Do I have to verify the channel to get started?

Not to create it or to upload your first videos. For intermediate features, such as uploading videos longer than 15 minutes or adding custom thumbnails, YouTube asks you to verify your phone number.

Does the Estudio de Canales create the channel on YouTube for me?

No. You create the YouTube channel yourself. In the studio you register the channel with its bible and its series, and you can link it with YouTube by connecting your Google account or with the channel's public ID.

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