Hello hello!
So a question I get a lot in the comment section of my videos is Evan!
How do I become a YouTuber?
I feel like I already answered that question 5 years ago!
Today I'm gonna be teaching you guys how to be successful on YouTube.
*children cheer*
As you can see from that terrible video from 5 years ago, you don’t have to be amazing
when you start.
You're gonna be bad.
You don't even have to have graphics that'll blow your mind.
Okay? *laughs*
So if you are still keen to be a YouTuber, you've come to the right place!
I've been on YouTube for so long.
I've seen the YouTube algorithm go through so many changes.
I'm the perfect person to talk to: here I am.
I'm gonna be teaching you, how to be a YouTuber.
*knocks tripod* Ohhhh noooooo.
UGHHHHH Rule number 1: Don't kick the tripod because
it ruins everything!
I should've TRIed harder.
Now I thought I’d start off with the most important tip I can give you which is to be
consistent.
If you want to be a YouTuber, you have to commit.
If you say you're gonna make a video every Sunday, make a video every Sunday.
It's the least you can do.
Just do it.
Don’t let your dreams be dreams.
Like if you're gonna go around telling people you're a baseball player, but you never play
games, and you don't really practice often, what are you doing?
In terms of being consistent, don't do it for the fact that people will go back to your
channel on certain days of the week looking for videos.
Don't do it because you know the YouTube algorithm will actually favour your channel if you're
consistent, do it for yourself.
Set yourself a challenge.
If you say I'm gonna become a YouTuber, you need to adhere to that.
Commit.
Make the videos at least whenever you say you will make a video.
To commit to being a YouTuber, you have to be consistent.
And if I say that any more times I'll be very consistent at it so, it's working!
The 5 fundamentals of a video are:
The content The ighting
The audio The lens
And the camera
Content comes first.
What are you interested in?
What do you want to talk about?
Talk about what interests you!
Are you a funny person?
Be funny.
Are you a musical person?
Be musical.
The number one thing people look for in a YouTuber is their personality so I cannot
stress this enough, but be yourself.
You may feel like you have to put on a different personality or put on a different voice just
to talk in front of a camera, but that's not true.
For instance, with me I'm mostly the same exact person that you'll meet in real life
that I am on the camera, the only difference is that I'm a bit louder when I talk to a
camera.
I'm like *speaks quietly* hey guys how's it goin?
HEY GUYS HOW'S IT GOIN?
Like that's basically it.
And if that's it, I can live with that.
People subscribe to you because they like you for you.
They don't subscribe to you because they like you for who you're pretending to be.
The next up in importance is lighting.
Lighting is incredibly important to a YouTube video.
Watch any of your favourite vloggers and you'll always notice one thing: They're always really
well lit.
And usually they use soft boxes.
Right now I have 2 soft boxes on me, but when you start, you might not have the budget for
that sort of thing, so I would highly recommend just use natural lighting.
For instance, I've got a window over there.
And he's letting in some natural lighting.
So I'm filming during the day.
However, if you don't have soft boxes as well, face the window.
Let the window light come in towards you, and you can just use that.
The one negative with natural lighting is that if the lighting changes, if a cloud covers
the sun, that'll be noticeable.
But that doesn't really matter in the long run.
You're just trying to start YouTubing.
So don't worry about it.
Eventually you can upgrade invest in some soft boxes which may do some light damage
to your wallet.
*laughs*
Next up, before we even talk about cameras is audio.
Buying a good microphone is always a sound investment.
I can't even say these with a straight face.
Now most DSLRs and cameras nowadays come with an onboard microphone, but that microphone
quality is usually really poor and it picks up a lot of the sounds of the room and it's
a bit tingy.
Most of my first videos were filmed on a very small compact camera with a very terrible
microphone that sounded like this: You can... ya know, somewhat use it.
Yeah, it was just terrible.
It was terrible.
And right now, I'm talking to you on the onboard microphone.
Whereas right now, I'm talking to you on the microphone that I purchased.
As you can tell, audio is very very very important.
Now as a pro tip for when you’re editing, when you get to the final draft of your video
and you're like I can't wait to upload this to YouTube, what I want you to do is close
your eyes and listen to the video from start to finish.
If you find that there's a lot of silences and a lot of gaps between your clips, what
I want you to do is just edit that out.
Edit the audio clips overtop of each other so they flow into each other.
You've probably noticed that with the way that I speak.
It's not like hey guys.
How's it goin?
It's Hey guys how's it goin!
Like the clips automatically are smooth and it makes it look like you know how to edit
videos.
I want the video to be appealing to my ears and my eyes.
Audio is very important to a video, so make sure you edit it well.
Now that we’re getting lower on the priority list, the next up is the lens.
If you're ever wondering how does that YouTuber have such a beautiful face?!
Well, that's just their face, however, you might notice that their background is very
blurry.
That's all in the lens.
If you get a really nice lens with a very low F stop, you're going to get those shots.
As long as you know how to use the camera lens.
I personally shoot with a Sigma F/1.8 18-35mm which means that when the camera is focused
on my face, everything behind me is incredibly blurry.
We also have the lights in the background that produce a nice blur. Little bokehs there.
And that's why you'll notice, most YouTubers you love watching will have a very large room
they're filming in, so that way there's a nice depth of field and a lot of blue.
Now I know a lot of big YouTubers that have bought really nice lenses and have come to
me like Evan!
I don't understand!
I bought this really nice lens.
Why isn't anything working?
As a general, very simple rule of thumb, if you wanna have good shots, lower the F stop
as low as you can.
The F stop is just a number that represents the aperture, so mine goes down to 1.8.
That is where it will stay.
That way it's incredibly nice on me and incredibly blurry in the back.
To put it simply, if you don't want people to STOP watching...
lower your F stop.
Yeah.
And the last thing on the priority list which may surprise some of you is the camera body.
Because as long as youv'e got good lighting, as long as you've got good content, and as
long as you've got good audio, the camera doesn't matter as much.
You're really helping yourself before you even turn on the camera.
However, if you don't have a really big budget, you can just film with an iPhone.
You can buy a cheap point and shoot camera.
The G7X is a nice easy camera that if you wanna start with, you can use that.
However, I would highly recommend the camera that I started with, which literally any video
I've ever filmed that's still public on my channel was filmed with this, and that's a
canon 600D.About a month ago I recently upgraded to the Canon 70D which is amazing because
look!
Oh my god!
Video autofocus.
It focuses no matter where I am.
And that's basically why I made the upgrade.
But you don't really need that at first.
Go for the 600D or if you're a fan of Nikon, what are you doing here?
Why?
So, now that you’ve got everything set up we come back to content.
What are you going to make?
What is it you're going to do?
Well you'll never know unless you make things!
The more that you make the easier it gets.
You'll never find your niche unless you constantly create and then you find out who you kindof
are online.
I had no clue what my niche was for the first 3 to 4 years on YouTube and then someone just
thrust it on me.
Puns.
Seems that I'm good at that and other people like it.
Fine.
I can take that.
I've always loved puns and now that's my thing.
So literally just film anything.
And learn from your mistakes.
And also watch other YouTubers.
Learn from their editing styles.
Take some of their editing styles and incorporate them into your own.
And then eventually after taking this from this person, this from this person, you'll
develop your own sense of style on the Internet.
And then you'll keep making things and constantly learning.
The one thing about being a YouTuber is always improving your style.
If you watch any of your favourite YouTubers' videos you'll notice the quality isn't there.
Because they learned.
Everyone learns and gets better at what they're doing.
No one starts playing baseball as... a famous baseball player.
I don't know any famous baseball players!
Jackie Robinson?
Why am I using baseball analogies??
You're not gonna start drumming and magically turn into Josh Dunn.
Okay, it takes a lot of practice.
Once you're confident with your videos, go to a YouTube gathering.
Become friends with YouTubers.
Make videos with YouTubers!
But do not collab just for collab's sake.
If you're thinking of making a collab with someone, it should be because you're like,
man!
I really like this person's videos.
And I really have this really cool idea for my channel where they'd be on it.
That's awesome!
That's the stuff that your viewers will want to see.
Never take your viewers for granted because they are intelligent human beings that are
very very smart and they're going to see you're not even friends with that guy!
You're just filming to try and get them views man!
That hashtag sub for sub!
Not happening.
Treat your viewers with respect because without them, you will be nowhere.
And one last thing, before you end your video always make sure to remind people… please
give this video a big thumbs up if you liked it right down there.
Also be sure to subscribe because I make new videos every Sunday.
Thank you SO much for watching, I really hope this has helped you, and I hope to see a lot
of you become YouTubers some day.
I will see you guys next week.
Good bye!
*cue catchy whistling outro* *swoosh*