Should I use Gmail for Creator Youtube Channel?

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This question is more for content creators.

I want to create a Youtube Channel to become a content creator.
I personally already have my own Protonmail account for all everything with aliases for every service.

Should I make a new gmail account for that channel?
Should I make a new protonmail/tuta account for that channel?

Is there any benefit to using gmail or proton or will it not matter? Also should I use an alias similar to what I did for my personal account?

Any thoughts/help would be much appreciated!

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There’s no right way to do this, and the fact you’re asking means you’re going in more prepared than most.

Some general thoughts I have to share:

  • I would suggest having a custom domain for your channel as it’s more professional and gives you a dedicated area to host things down the road. (like a website for example) To my knowledge, I believe you have to use Google Workspace to use a custom domain within their ecosystem. But whichever provider you choose, I would opt for a custom domain.
  • Regarding aliasing, entirely your call and depends what your email(s) will be used for. You can alias emails and have a public-facing email? (ex. contact@jim.com for people to reach you publicly, and then internally you alias emails to a seperate me@jim.com which would give you the benefit of both worlds)

Pros of Google:

  • You’ll have everything under one suite for your channel which is convenient.
  • You can take advantage of GAPP for some of the riskier parts of managing your channel. (YouTube, Email, and your Android device if you’re on Android)
  • You have the option of going entirely free with a standard Gmail account w/o a custom domain, though I wouldn’t suggest it.

Pros of Proton:

  • Offers some separation from Google and will remove pressure to lean in to Google’s ecosystem.
  • Easier E2EE options that people can utilize when they contact you
  • Open source ecosystem that’s more privacy-respecting

I don’t think you can go wrong either way. It’ll just depend how you want things managed. Do you want an entire Google ecosystem behind your channel? Or do you just want the YouTube channel with a different ecosystem powering the workflow behind the scenes?

We’ve done both at different points in time. We experimented going all-in on the Google Suite some years ago. It was incredibly convenient and made our lives very easy. But it also restricted us in some ways which eventually led to us opting for a more Frankenstein situation mixing/matching different services for different uses :slight_smile:

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I’m very thankful for this in-depth response

The self-domain route sounds very elegant as I can always change what client I use seamlessly

One concern I have is that I’m currently a student and don’t have the income to support paying for a domain.

Is it possible to make a YouTube account with gmail/proton then change it to my own domain when I have an income later on?

And again, thank you!

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If you create a Google/YouTube account with a Gmail address, you cannot change it back to your own domain without deleting this account and then recreating one. If you use Proton to create this Google/YouTube account, you can definitely change it and use your own domain.

Hope this helps! :slight_smile:

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It looks like proton is the way to go. Thank you

When the time comes how would I change the email? Is it a setting in Proton or for the Google account?

In any case thank you!

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It is a setting of your Google account. I don’t remember the section but you will find it. I think its “Data and personalization” or something like that.

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This is Gold. My advice is always learn how to undo what you have done.
It always seems easier to learn well I should not have done that. Fixing your mistakes is harder than learning how to prevent those mistakes. Especially as the mistake evolves on its own.

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