Prompt details

Tested on

Claude Opus 5.5

Length

564 words · 3 fill-ins

Example input

[Your topic, skills and time]: Topic: budget meal prep for families. Me: home cook in a mid-size US city, feeding a family of four on about $150 a week in groceries. I have meal prepped every Sunday for 6 years. I keep a spreadsheet with the cost per serving of about 120 recipes I make, updated when prices change. On camera: I do not want to show my face. Hands, overhead shots and my voice are fine. Equipment: iPhone 14, a cheap overhead tripod, one ring light, CapCut on my laptop. Time: 6 hours a week in total. I cook on Sunday mornings anyway, plus 2 free evenings for editing. Channel: new, 0 videos. I have an Instagram with 600 followers where I post food photos.

[Channels you admire and why]: Pantry Math: overhead, hands-only cooking, shows the price of every ingredient on screen, videos about 12 minutes. I like that it is calm and all about the numbers. Sunday Batch: a dad who preps 5 lunches in an hour, with a timer on screen. I like the timer, but it feels rushed. Cheap Plate Club: reacts to grocery prices. I do not like the shocked faces and clickbait.

[Your goals]: In a year: a channel I am proud of, with enough viewers to start earning from it (ads, maybe affiliate links to kitchen gear I really use), and maybe sell my cost-per-serving spreadsheet later. I do not want to burn out. I would rather post on a steady schedule than post a lot.

Example output

1. Niche and audience

Assumptions: You shoot in a normal home kitchen (oven, stovetop, sheet pans, freezer) with no special appliances. Every dollar figure in the titles below is a placeholder. Replace each one with the real number from your spreadsheet, and never round down to make a title look better.

Channel promise: *Sunday meal prep that feeds a family of four on $150 a week, with the real cost of every serving on screen.*

Who it's for: US parents, mostly of school-age kids, who cook most nights. They want a plan they can copy on a real grocery budget, not a single "cheap recipe."
What they struggle with: Grocery prices keep moving, and they can't tell whether a recipe is actually cheap. Weeknights are chaotic. Kids are picky. Most "budget meal prep" online is made for one person, not four.
Why you: You've prepped every Sunday for 6 years, so you never run out of footage. You keep a 120-recipe cost-per-serving spreadsheet that you update when prices change, which almost no one else can show. Your mid-size-city prices are closer to what most viewers pay than big-city or extreme-coupon channels. And hands-only overhead footage suits this niche: the food and the numbers are the stars.

2. Content pillars

Pillar	One line	Share of uploads
A. The Sunday Prep	One real prep session per video. Calm, overhead, a timer on screen without the rush, and a price total at the end.	35%
B. Cost per Serving	Rankings and breakdowns pulled straight from your spreadsheet.	25%
C. Family Prep How-To	Answers to the exact questions parents type into search.	25%
D. Price Check & Swaps	Prices changed, here's what I adjusted. Calm and numbers-first, no shocked reactions.	15%

3. 30 video ideas

Search or Browse is my judgment, not data. To check demand: type the first 2–3 words of a title into YouTube's search bar and note what autocomplete suggests. Then add a letter after your phrase ("family meal prep a…", "…b…") to see more suggestions. If your phrase or something close appears, people are searching it. Also look at the top results: if they're old or come from small channels, there's room for you. Rewrite titles to match the suggestion wording.

Claude Opus 5.5

YouTube Channel Strategy – YouTube channel strategy prompt for ChatGPT and Claude

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Claude Opus 5.5

This prompt plans a YouTube channel from your skills and the hours you have. Paste your topic, the channels you like and your goals; you get a niche, pillars, 30 titled ideas, a schedule and what to measure.

What you get

A one-line channel promise and the audience it serves
3 or 4 content pillars and 30 video ideas with titles, thumbnail text and a Search or Browse label
An upload rhythm sized to your hours, a 12-week calendar and outlines for the first 5 videos
The numbers to check at 30 and 90 days, and what to change when each is low

How to use it

1
Describe yourself honestly
Give your real hours, skills, equipment and limits, such as not showing your face. The plan is only as doable as the facts you give.
2
Check the ideas against search
Type the first words of each Search idea into YouTube's search bar and keep the ones the suggestions support.
3
Follow the 12 weeks, then adjust
Film to the calendar, read your 30-day numbers in YouTube Studio, and paste them back with "Here are my numbers; adjust the next 8 weeks".

Better results

Say what you dislike in other channels as well as what you like. In our test that kept the plan calm and away from shocked faces and clickbait.
Put your real numbers into the titles before filming: a title with a price only works if the price is true.
At 30 days, paste your Studio numbers back and ask which pillar to weight more for the next 12 weeks.

Questions

What is the best ChatGPT prompt for a YouTube channel?

The best ChatGPT prompt for a YouTube channel gives it your topic, skills, hours, the channels you like and your goals, then asks for a niche, pillars, ideas and a schedule you can keep. A one-line request gets generic ideas; your own details get a plan.

Can AI plan a YouTube channel?

Yes, AI can plan a YouTube channel: niche, pillars, video ideas, titles and an upload schedule. It cannot see YouTube's search data or promise views, so check its ideas against YouTube's search suggestions and adjust the plan once you have 30 days of numbers.

What is YouTube automation, and can AI help with it?

YouTube automation usually means running a channel with little on-camera work, often faceless with voice-over and outsourced editing. AI helps plan topics, titles and scripts. The videos still need real value, so read YouTube's policies on reused content before you start.

How often should a new YouTube channel upload?

A new YouTube channel should upload on a schedule it can keep for months, not as often as possible. For a part-time creator that can be one long video every two weeks plus a weekly Short, which in our test came to about 8.5 of 12 hours.

Updated 8 Nov 2026