🎥 Is it still worth it to start a golf-related YouTube channel in 2023?

First of all, you have to ask yourself why are you doing this, or even considering it.

Answering this question depends on a lot of factors, and perhaps more specifically on what you want to get out of it. For me personally, it’s not so much about becoming the biggest channel in golf. I actually just started out the channel as I wanted to share some of my rounds, connect with other golfers, and share my ideas about how to become better at it all the while building a bit of a community.

Of course, secretly I'd hope that I could grow the channel a bit, to a point where it could be a serious side project, paying for some of the green fees, new material, golf travel, and so on. That, for me, would already be a win.

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Starting out

I don’t really think it matters with what intention you want to start a YouTube Channel, whether it is to help others, to spread your love for the game, or simply as a creative outlet, all of these are valid options and if you’re thinking about it, you should just do it.

Not to discourage you, as I do believe there's a lot of space still for smaller channels to grow in the industry. There's no such thing as overnight success either, these things take time to build and grow, so you'll need to be pretty resilient and keep going. If you're easily discouraged, then I would not advise starting out.

Time & effort

Don’t fool yourself, a loooot of time goes into building a YouTube channel, so you must really enjoy the process unless you have a lot of money and can outsource most of the tasks involved in managing and growing a YouTube channel. Think of the following activities:

• Filming your rounds and golf activities
• Long hours cutting and editing the videos together
• Coming up with titles and descriptions for your videos
• Creating some fun and attractive thumbnails for the videos
• Replying to all comments and being an active member to grow the community
• Coming up with fresh new ideas for new videos
• Writing up scripts/shot lists for those videos
• Managing other social media accounts connected to the YouTube channel
• And quite a few more miscellaneous tasks

Even though my release calendar, well I don't really have one, but let's just say I'm pretty slow to release a video, I still enjoy the process. I just work on it when I can and feel like, I never wanted it to dictate my life. The same goes for the rounds of golf I play, I don't even film a quarter of the actual rounds I play. But that's okay because sometimes I just don't feel like filming, or I'm playing with friends, or the course I'm at simply doesn't allow me to bring out the equipment.

I very much still play golf simply because I enjoy it and when you get too caught up in the YouTube game, you may start losing some interest or even your love for the game. So I think it is important, at least for me it is, to take it one step at a time at a pace that feels good to me.

Growth

If you have big goals of growing your channel and turning it into a full-time job even, then you will have to approach it a bit differently. You'd probably need to sell yourself a bit and come up with lucrative ideas that catch eyeballs (think of crazy challenges), you'll want to work on a tighter and more serious release schedule, and you might have to play golf or film when you're not in the mood. But if you're focused and serious about it, I totally believe there's still plenty of room on YouTube.

Great examples

Your main focus should probably be to find your own style and deliver quality content. Think of all the major channels out there, Rick, being the grandfather of YouTube Golf, just naturally grew with doing some tips and tricks videos as well as product reviews. Great way to grow, but in the meantime, there are about another 100 channels doing the same. The only one I find interesting is Alex Etches, simply because his sense of humor draws me in every time. He's got great presentation skills, a fun way of editing the videos, and just a great personality.

Then there are the lads from Good Good who have just skyrocketed over the past few years. For me, their content was at its best some time ago, when Grant and Micah were still part of it, but they're still pushing on and pumping out some killer content by the week. They obviously grew due to their crazy challenges, and fun video ideas which weren't really seen before. With that, they also really tapped into a different audience.

I know there are many more channels, but the last one I wanted to point out is the original channel of Erik Anders Lang, Skratch. Again, his work as well as the team around him, just sets itself apart as well. Their video style is just incredibly high-end, their subjects have way more substance and depth than any other channel out there, they'll bring interesting guests on and do great interviews while playing, and show off some wonderful locations in a way that does them justice. This is the content I most respect.

Conclusion

Having said all that, the best way to grow your channel is by doing something different from what is already out there. Sure, you can grab some friends together, create a channel, and copy whatever Good Good is doing. You probably would even have some success, although you will need a big personality in front of the camera. But the real golden ticket lies in doing something that sets you apart from the rest. It's where you will likely get the most joy out of it as well.

Again, if you have high ambitions I hope you'll take two keywords away from having read this today, those are a good dose of personality and being unique. The two ingredients to doing well on YouTube in this day and age.

Keep it weird, keep it funny, keep it you