Create your account directly through YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/signup?next=/index
OR- Create your YouTube account by adding it as
a service through your Google Account.
See: http://www.google.com/support/accounts/
After you have created your YouTube account you should automatically have a channel. After you have logged into YouTube you should see your user name at the top right side of the screen. The image below shows where my user name is when I have logged in. Yours will be in the same place. You can click the user name to open the channel for viewing. The YouTube channel is a public Webpage and anyone can view it. However, only you can access the account tools. When you click the Account link it will take you to a page of tools. Some of these tools allow you to customize the appearance of your YouTube channel. The Account page is essentially the control panel for your YouTube channel. There are many things you can do from here. For example, in the My Channel section you can change the appearance of your YouTube channel to give it a different color scheme, add a background image, or change how some items are displayed on the page. Under the Customize YouTube heading you can change what is displayed on the YouTube homepage after you login. The Channel Design link under My Channel is where you go to change the color, layout, and background image for your channel.
©2008, Chareen Snelson, Ed.D. for tutorial content only. YouTube is a registered trademark of Google inc. Screenshots from the author's channel are instructive/illustrative.