(groaning)
- Are you getting the hot tub in the shot, too?
- Yeah. - I wanna make sure everyone
knows I have a hot tub and stuff.
Hey, Kari. What do you think of my new look?
(laughs)
What do you think?
- You're just missing a chain.
- I'm 300,000 subs now,
so this is the new me.
(Cameraman laughs) - Yes.
- Bardi, let's go clubbing.
("Not You" by Nydge feat. Effee)
(laughing)
- So good.
I'm just kidding guys, that was just for the clickbait.
I haven't turned into a (bleep) boy just yet,
that's at 500,000 subs.
Let's go to the studio.
Let's do orange today, it's a very celebratory color.
300,000.
Oh!
So first of all, thank you guys, this is insane.
When I was first starting out YouTube I had
zero expectations,
I always thought, oh, be awesome to one day have
a thousand subscribers.
Maybe one day I could get to ten thousand,
and I don't think I'll ever be able to achieve
a hundred thousand in my lifetime,
but might as well just try.
I'm so glad I tried.
There's zero guarantees in this YouTube world but,
it all kinda worked out and,
(bleep) yeah!
Thank you guys, you guys are freaking awesome.
When you're entering it
it can be kinda scary,
it can be kinda intimidating,
but now that I've somehow managed to get myself
a little bit further along on this path,
I figure I might just answer a few questions
to some new YouTubers.
I wanna know how many of you are actually interested
in becoming a YouTuber,
or if you're already a YouTuber
or if you care nothing about being a YouTuber.
Taking that poll is gonna kinda help me
a little bit get a better idea of who's behind
this thing of glass,
'cause I'm just talking to nothingness in an empty room,
there's nobody else here.
I feel like a crazy person.
So let's just dive right in
and see what kind of questions you guys have.
Question number one, "How did it affect you?
"For example, do you behave differently
"near friends or family?"
Aside from the fact that I'm better than everyone else now,
not really, I treat everyone the same.
(laughs)
I'm just kidding, hold on.
After I found my YouTube success,
how differently do I act from when
I didn't have any online clout?
- You are 100% the same.
- Do I seem less stressed?
- Well you're less stressed because
you don't have jobs to do for other people.
- That is probably the best part,
that YouTube's enough to support me
so if I don't wanna take on other jobs,
which I still do,
I still take on jobs,
but it used to be like you had
to take every single opportunity that was thrown at you
or else.
Might not be able to pay rent next month
'cause it was very busy and then slow,
and busy and then slow.
YouTube itself isn't consistent,
but it's more consistent than freelance video work.
Anything else that's different?
- That's different? - Yeah.
I'm a baller now. (laughs)
Just kidding, I like how you just laughed at my face.
Okay, thank you. - You're welcome.
- I'm gonna ask one of my oldest friends, too, hold up.
Dylan over here,
I've known this (bleep) since birth basically.
This is where we have a little montage of pictures
of when we were kids, (slow piano music)
just growing up, we'll put some sentimental music.
- Right there? - Yeah, right there.
Put more photos here.
Hey, okay, so quick question.
How would you describe me as a friend?
- Kinda random at times.
- I'm not random.
I am a very kind and caring friend, right Dylan?
- Yes, you are a very (laughs)
kind and--
- You can get the (bleep) outta here now.
- Okay. - Get out. You're done.
First of all, 300,000 subscribers is a lot,
and I'm very proud of that,
but when you compare it to a million
or ten million they're on a completely different league,
if you have millions of subscribers,
basically famous,
300,000 is at the point where sometimes I'll feel like
I have some internet fame when I'm going around reading
all the comments,
I'll go out to public, no one gives a (bleep).
Most days when I go out to a public place
and just do my own thing,
it's 100% the same.
I'd say once every week or two someone will come up
and be like, "Oh, Potato Jet!"
We'd chat it up for a little bit
and that's about the extent.
Opposed to the huge YouTubers or celebrities,
they'll literally go outside
and then immediately 20 people jump on them like, (screech)!
"When did you feel like, oh (bleep), this is happening,
"in your YouTube career?"
There's definitely been a few times,
when I was first starting out my channel
was entirely about travel.
I didn't think anyone wanted to see another camera channel
'cause there's so many out there already,
so I was kinda trying to figure out a niche
that wasn't too populated already.
At the time I was traveling a whole lot
and I remember when we were getting ready to travel,
I was thinking, I wonder how much this is gonna cost me.
And if I'm thinking that,
a lot of people are probably thinking the same thing.
So I started making a series of videos
of how much it cost to go to Iceland,
how much it cost to go to Cuba,
how 'bout Cancún, how 'bout Cabo.
And those videos blew up, at least for me at the time.
It got 4,000 views in one day and I was like,
oh my God!
That would last for a day or two
and then it'd come back down and I'll flatline again.
But every time you kinda get a spike of exposure
you get a little bit more of that core audience,
so when you post the next video that core audience
will always be there.
But it was always still kind of like a side thing,
I think it was around 50,000 subscribers
I started getting some comments from Matti Haapoja,
and I was like oh my God, this guy knows who I am!
And he was like, "I'm gonna be in Santa Cruz next month,
"so are you nearby there?"
And I was like yeah,
it's only five hours away, I'm coming over!
I swear to God he's the nicest guy you will ever meet.
It's true what they say about Canadians.
But from that point on he was like my mentor,
and gave me a ton of advice,
and that really catapulted everything
because before that I didn't really have
a ton of confidence on what I can do
with this YouTube channel.
But having someone like him say, "Hey,
"you're actually doing a good job,
"you have a lot of potential on this platform,"
that was huge for me.
I think that was my biggest shift
in just taking it very seriously.
But to be completely honest I do worry once in a while,
I've gone like this, have I peaked,
am I gonna start going down here?
But for now I'm just appreciating what I've got
going for me right now.
I'm just gonna try my best to keep it going
and keep making interesting content.
"Do you feel any pressure since having 300,000 subscribers?"
I try not to let it get to me, but absolutely.
Back then I would upload a video
when just a handful of people will see it.
Now that I know that there are more people sitting there
behind this lens,
obviously there's pressure related to that.
But I don't necessarily think it's a bad pressure,
sometimes I could use that pressure
and try to convert it into motivation to do a good job,
so I don't think it's all bad.
"How do you trick people into liking you?
"I still haven't been able to figure that out."
Ooo, that's a good one. Hypnosis.
GriffinCaseyVlog asks, "How much you making?
"Is it full time? If so what point did you take the jump
"to make this a living?"
Kind of a tougher question to ask
because there's so many variables and it really depends
on the channel and who you are.
I personally know people that have smaller channels
than me making way more money than me,
and I also know people that have way more subscribers
than me and barely getting by.
Personally when I was starting out I was making
about a dollar per thousand views,
and this is YouTube AdSense,
so basically before you watch this video
you might've seen an ad.
Whoever puts up that ad pays YouTube
to put that ad there,
and then we split it 50/50 afterwards.
This is another thing that really varies on the channels.
We hear about entire channels getting
completely demonetized.
It also very much depends on your demographics,
who's watching, what's the age of them,
what's their engagement.
As I'm getting more and more loyal viewers
I am starting to see that number go up a little bit
so now I'm getting about $3 per thousand views.
If a video gets 50,000 views you could assume
I made 150 bucks off it from AdSense.
There's many channels that get much less than me
and many channels that get way more than me.
Sometimes I get paid by a sponsor
but legally I'm not allowed to tell you guys
the details of that 'cause there's usually
a clause in there that basically says
this is to remain confidential.
A lot of YouTubers make merch, so shirts.
I have yet to do that.
I also have a video course on basically
how to get started on YouTube
and how to make interesting content for the internet,
so I have a little mini course down there.
And affiliate links are great
'cause let's say I make a video about this camera.
Anything that's on Amazon I can just go
and create an affiliate link.
Then it's the same exact price to the viewers,
but I'll get a little commission off that.
"Do you have any tips on improving click through rates
"for videos?"
The biggest advice I give most people
that are making content for YouTubers,
cut it short.
If you have a ten minute video that you're thinking
about posting,
the easiest thing is hey, try to force yourself
to cut it down to five minutes.
And by forcing yourself to cut out the less exciting stuff,
it often makes a much more interesting five minute video.
"How did you get to 300,000 subscribers?
"How can you or we promote our channels and where?"
My approach when I was first starting out
is to not worry so much about promotion
but just focus on making the best possible content
because I heard enough people say you should
just trust in the YouTube algorithm.
If you make content that's so good,
then it will find it and it will blow up the video.
And if YouTube decides to promote your video,
you'll get way more views from YouTube
than anywhere else.
This is just my personal theory on
how YouTube finds good videos.
They take the videos that are posted
and just see how people react to the video.
If they find it kinda interesting they might watch it
for a few minutes and then watch something else.
If you can get a small batch of people
that really like your content
and they're engaged with what you're talking about,
then that hundred people will react to it positively,
then YouTube will be like, "Hm, we might have something,
"let's show it to a thousand people."
And if they all love it, 5,000 people. 10,000 people.
It could literally skyrocket your analytics like that
if you can get into YouTube algorithm.
I've definitely gotten lucky before
where sites like Engadget posted a video,
that would bring in a stream of views in a few other spots.
But if you're talking about when you have zero subscribers
and you wanna just get a little bit of attention
on your video,
share it with the groups you think that would fit perfectly.
Do not spam, because last thing you want
is a bunch of people to click your link,
and then only watch a few seconds and be like,
"This isn't what I was expecting or looking for,"
and click out,
'cause that tell YouTube this video sucks.
An example was when I made a Cuba travel video,
I literally listed out all the expenses I spent
and said this is how much this entire trip cost me,
and I super organized it.
There was this one group on Reddit that was like Shoestring,
it was basically about travelers trying
to travel on a budget.
And I thought this is perfect,
this is exactly the type of video
that this group wants to see.
So I posted it in there,
and in that group itself it was a hit.
A bunch of people went to go watch it
and they literally watched the whole thing,
they gave it a thumbs up.
So then YouTube got that flag like hey,
this might be an interesting video,
and then YouTube started promoting it straight from there.
Now I think it has 500,000 views.
So I'd say when you're first starting out,
just make that video as good as possible
and share it with a few select people,
and again do not spam,
and then hope that YouTube will take it from there
and blow it up.
"What was the biggest challenge you faced as a creator
"when you were first starting out,
"and how did you overcome it?"
The biggest challenge was for sure the fact that
I put all this work into a video,
I'd upload it,
and I would see the view counter go to five
and then just stop.
Five people, damnit.
It definitely takes a lot of hard work
to gain that traction.
It honestly can be kind of embarrassing to have this channel
that's like nothingness.
I actually started a channel back in 2008
and I made a couple videos and actually was doing decent,
I think I got to a hundred subscribers,
and I was like, this is stupid.
I deleted it, and I regret it so bad that I deleted it.
Why didn't I just keep it up, ugh!
I just quit way too early,
but this time around I knew not to make the same mistake
and kept working at it and working at it
and eventually it got some recognition.
By the way, all these questions are from Reddit.
I literally learned Reddit when I was starting out
just because I heard it's a good resource for YouTubers.
There's a group here NewTubers,
which was kind of a community as a part of
where you could bounce ideas off other people,
you could get feedback on your videos and stuff like that.
But yeah, I just went back and posted on there
and said hey, ask me questions.
MrBeWilder says, "I have had my channel for three weeks
"and I am on 68 subs. I don't know if that's a good thing
"or a bad thing."
68 subs in the first two weeks, that's great.
First three weeks of my YouTube channel,
I had four subscribers. Four. (laughs)
Three weeks of uploading videos, four subscribers.
Obviously the more videos I started to feed my channel
the bigger it got.
But yeah, it took my about seven months
to get 622 subscribers.
Seven months of maintaining a YouTube channel,
that's a lot of work.
And relatively very little payoff,
you're not making any money at that point.
So if you've started a YouTube channel
and you haven't seen traction yet,
then just know that's normal.
IceTeaNPizza says, "How did you get comfortable
"being on camera?"
That is a good question, it just takes a lot of practice
and you get used to it.
Right now I'm pretty comfortable talking to this camera,
but I cringe at my old videos where I was obviously like,
why am I talking to this camera, this feels so weird!
It does feel weird. It feels freaking weird.
But now I've just done it for so long
that I feel totally comfortable.
Chancepierce14 says, "How often do you recommend
"new channels to post videos?
"And when starting should it be quality over quantity
"or the other way around?"
Ooo, this is a good argument here.
Some people just say, "Oh, focus on quality,"
and some people say, "Oh, quantity,
"just maintain that schedule,"
and I think they're both right but me personally,
I would say at first just go for quality.
Just get a few videos that you consider to be bomb.
Once you build an audience and start getting in the groove
of things and knowing what the audience expects,
then go a little bit more for quantity.
I have talked to a lot of people that were like,
"I'm posting regularly every single day
"for the last 25 years, and nothing's come out of it."
Probably better to just have a few videos that are great.
By the way when I say quality,
like good quality,
I don't necessarily mean great production value.
You don't have to necessarily spend a ton of money.
Do not be concerned if it doesn't look super professional
or polished.
If people watch this, are they gonna find it entertaining?
If you wanna know more about making entertaining content
just click that link in the description to my Udemy course
so I could get more money.
Homelessmuppet, fantastic name.
"Have you ever reached out to other, larger YouTubers
"for a collab and how did it go?"
I'm not the best person to answer that questions
because I've never been a huge collab guy.
I've definitely done some collabs though,
and they definitely helped a lot.
But I guess I just try to wait for them to happen naturally.
We haven't actually hit 300,000 subscribers yet,
assuming by the time I get this edited
it'll be around 300,000, so.
Unless something really bad happens, that would suck.
Anyways, let's close this up by reading a few comments from
my last video which was basically the
Samsung Galaxy 10S+ versus a RED Digital Cinema camera.
Tyler Cheeseman says, "I can't order a pizza on the RED.
"Samsung wins automatically."
That is true.
But did you know that the airy Alexa does have
a pizza ordering hidden menu?
Hey Alexa, order pizza. (mimics beeps)
- Special delivery. - Ha! That was nice and fast.
(laughs) Why is there a slice missing?
Technology Nerd says, "Don't fire Sam,
"he made your hair look lit."
A pogo stick, oh!
Kari literally walked in as he was lighting my hair on fire,
she opens the door and is like, uhh, and closes it.
Tyler Cheeseman again,
he's doubled have been in the comments.
"9:23 was not expecting that at all.
"We need a present day parkour montage."
(laughs)
I used to be able to do cool stuff.
I can't do that now,
I would literally break my neck on the first attempt.
"Do a video on why shallow depth of field
"is being overused and abused."
Shallow depth of field is awesome but,
can definitely get overused,
and I say that as I'm filming in F/1.4.
Look how blurry that camera is.
I'm shooting on this new lens actually,
it's a 20 millimeter F/1.4 full-frame lens,
so it's very wide,
just me standing right here
look how blurry this camera is,
it's a pretty cool lens
I feel like I should make a review on it.
Anyways as always, thanks so much for your support.
We're gonna go eat this pizza.
See? The YouTubers paid for this pizza. Isn't that cool?
- Thanks guys! - Yeah!
There's this trend where you close off
a video by putting something up to the lens,
just bow!
But don't actually hit the lens.
'cause that would be bad,
this is a brand new lens.
Bow.
You're doing it too slow,
it doesn't look good if it doesn't work,
it just looks weird throwing stuff at the lens.
You gotta do it hard once, boom.
And then it would be like a cool closing.
- A punch. Like--
(mellow music)