Okay, Danielle and I are not full-time YouTubers, this is just a hobby, but you can make money, in this article we will tell you all we know on this topic. For most YouTube is not a get rich quick solution, only a few make a real living with it, most dabble in it like us. When started ChrisDoesWhat on YouTube we never meant to make any money, just thought it would be fun while improving ourselves in the process. Two years later we make a little money on YouTube, it covers the beer and hosting fees for this blog, but nothing to write home about. I hope we can help you from our mistakes, our trials, tribulations the bumps we have hit along the way on our YouTube journey.
YouTube Stats on Socialblade.com
We have learned a lot about how to make our videos be more searchable, stand out more in the crowd. Here will go over what we do and won’t do because of integrity, don’t want to make the internet angry. We are not going to go over the different software and equipment, there is just so much, some basic, some not so much, personal preference on what to use is up to you. If you are starting out, we would recommend your cell phone as a camera, then just use the YouTube tools to edit.
Tools on YouTube:
When making a video the content has to come naturally, so it can flow from you and hopefully get a lot of views. When we started we mostly did review videos, I liked to talk about specs, think maybe we improved little over time, maybe. We did lose our way for a minute, seeing a lot of content creator gripping thru their entire video then getting tons of views. We thought we would try this approach, I really like to debate, Danielle has a few grips about stuff, we can do it. Well we did it, being angry in videos just wasn’t us, kinda sucks trying to be upset all the time. The video would not flow, plus after the video, we still felt frustrated, so not wanting to be mad all the time we went back to our comfort zone. So our advice for your video topics is, keep it real and start simple “KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid”. It is hard enough to talk on camera, don’t add the stress of hating your topics.
The thumbnail of the video is key to someone clicking on it, making your video stand out, but we personally don’t want click-bait. We just hate when we’re looking for something an someone’s video doesn’t match their thumbnail. When we create a thumbnail most come directly from the video, add value to the search, yet be fun, inviting. We will sometimes put text over the thumbnail, try not to cover up the photo too much, also keep it center for different platforms. Your thumbnail is to entice people to want to click on your content, so let the creative juices flow, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Now that you have made that perfect video, you have a thumbnail that really sets you apart from the rest, you still have to get found on the interweb. You could have made the best video in the world, but if you don’t add keywords your video will never be found. We’re not just talking about tags for your video it’s the combination of title, description, and tags working in harmony.
We start with a title, a short but descriptive title, no longer than what you can read on a phone. If we are going to have a long title, make sure that the first few words still describe the video. We always make our title after we have created the video, we often go off topic cause we never create a script (We really don’t fit into any box).
After we have that perfect title, we then have to describe our video without giving away the plot, with YouTube you get no revenue if people don’t watch your video. In the description, you want to use most of the words that were in the title, here you can add a lot more detail cause the thumbnail and title have sparked a viewer interest. Most of our descriptions are only a few lines, if doing a product review we will add the device information just to make it more searchable. We always have links to our blog and anything else that may add value to the viewer once the video is being watched.
Now for the tags, this should be really easy, we have a title with description done so we just use the keywords from both in the tags. We also do searches on YouTube and take the words it will auto-generate. When putting tags in you have a maximum of 500 characters which equals a lot of words, just keep your tags relatable to your video, nothing like a downvote cause someone hates what their search pulled up.
We really hope this helps you start your own YouTube adventure, just be true to yourself with your strengthens and weaknesses, and most of all have fun. You can always go back and change this in your video as you learn and grow, nothing is set in stone. I this article helps you, leave feedback below if my information is incorrect or you have some good ideas I should add, leave them as well.
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