I uploaded my very first video to YouTube on March 2, 2006.
And 3,000-plus videos later, I have learned a few things about
this platform, a few things that I wish I knew back then that I
know today.
And I'm going to share those with you,
and hopefully help you guys avoid
a lot of mistakes and problems that I've
run into along the way.
Those are coming up.
Hey, guys.
My name is Tim Schmoyer, and welcome to Video Creators,
the channel that is all about helping you
guys grow your YouTube channel so you can spread
a message that changes lives.
Three things I wish I knew back when I first
started on YouTube.
Number one is that I wish I knew not to use any copyrighted
material.
When we first started uploading videos, it was me
and my, now she's my wife, but back then, we were dating.
And we made a lot of videos.
Now they're known as vlogs.
But back then, that wasn't a word in 2006, and 7 and 8.
And we were just uploading these videos,
but no one thought twice about using
copyrighted music and material.
And so unfortunately, a lot of those videos that I really I
they had now are gone.
They were taken down.
That includes our dating years, all
those vlogs we did together.
And it includes our honeymoon video, and when we first
started living life together in a little apartment in Dallas,
Texas.
Like all of those things, all those videos
are gone because of copyrighted music.
So I wish I knew not to do that.
Which leads into the second thing I wish I knew,
and that is to always make backups of your videos.
So I don't have those videos of our early dating years,
of our honeymoon, of our first year of life together.
I don't have those anymore, because I uploaded them
to YouTube thinking that, what could go wrong?
They're on YouTube, and if I ever need them,
I'll just get them from YouTube.
Well, now I know that you should back up your content,
because you never know what YouTube's
going to do with your content or your channel.
So you should always have a backup.
I have a few other videos here on this channel already
that walk you through the process and the system
that I go through for backing up my videos.
So if you want to check those out,
there's a link in the description
below that will take you to those videos
and show you how I do that now.
And number three, I wish I understood the impact
that sharing your life online can
have on other people and their lives.
Back and the early days, 2006, 7 and 8,
I was a full-time youth and family worker.
And I loved doing it because I loved seeing people's lives
change, and relationships grow, and all that.
And then after my wife and our family's vlogging channel
started growing a little bit, and we
were reaching like a million people
a month, whereas in real life doing youth and family work,
I was reaching, I don't know, like 100-some maybe a week.
I was hearing a lot of the same stories that
are coming from people who are watching our YouTube
channel as I was from the people I was working with in real life
professionally.
But online, I saw a tremendous opportunity
to scale how we reach people, and how many people we reach,
and whose lives we impact, where in real life,
I couldn't do that.
I could only meet and work with so many people
with so many hours in a given week.
So at that time, I shifted to a blog
actually, pre-YouTube, and lived full-time
off of a blog for a few years, and then
shifted my audience and everything to YouTube
because I realized that I could make a human connection.
I could make eye contact here.
I could have human emotions, and all sorts of things in ways
that at least I couldn't do as well through the written word.
And now this YouTube channel, on Video Creators
revolves around treating creators
like you to see similar experiences
on your own channel.
People are being reached, their lives being changed,
and the stories you're hearing back
are ones that just motivate you to keep
going on your mission to reach people and change their lives.
So those are three things that I wish
I knew back in the beginning.
I would love to hear from you guys in the comments below.
And that's actually the main reason
why I made this video, to be honest with you,
because I want to hear from you guys
what are three things that you wish you knew back when
you first started on YouTube?
Leave those in the comments below.
I'm going to be reading every single one.
And you guys also read what other people are writing down
there, because guys, I always learn from you,
and you guys always learn from each other.
It's awesome to see how you guys all support each other down
there in the comments.
So check those out down there.
And if this is your first time here at Video Creators,
I would love to have you subscribe.
Every week, Thursdays and sometimes Tuesdays,
we publish videos to help you guys grow your YouTube audience
so that you can spread a message that changes lives.
So thanks for hanging out with me here today, guys.
Subscribe, and I'll read your comments down there,
and then I will see you guys again next week.
Bye.