- What's up socials, welcome back to my channel
I wanted to chat today about vlogging
I know we talk about it all the time here
but I find that in the comments
you guys are always sharing what you think
and the questions that you have
and sometimes there are questions and ideas
that are what I would call a little bit dated
or just things that I've talked about in the past
that I really want you to know
and I would like to say as many times as possible
so you don't make some of the same mistakes
that a lot of people have made over the years
in video, there's just so much information out there now
you know why not skip to the fun part
and learn those things
that a lot of people had to
do on their own, figure out on their own
when there wasn't as much
access to this kind of information.
So I thought the fastest and easiest way to explain this
is to go through some of the advice that I've learned
as a vlogger over time that I wish I would've known
at the beginning.
I mean if I was starting today
these are things I would want to know immediately
whether I knew to ask the question or not.
Like I said we talk about video all the time here
so if you're interested in that
or video blogging, you're just sort of discovering it
or you're working on fine tuning your skills
make sure you subscribe to this channel
cause I make new videos every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday
and a lot of them are about vlogging.
But lets dive into some vlogging advice
that I wish I had when I first started.
Showing to tell story is much
more interesting then just telling a story.
It seems like the word storytelling is passed around
a lot because it's effective if you do it right.
There's a lot of companies doing this
there's a lot people doing this
and everybody has their own way of storytelling
but people forget the power of video.
It's not just sitting down and talking to a camera
it can be and that can absolutely work all on its own
but the more you can show to tell
you can actually fill in a lot of blanks
for people who are visual learners
or who are having a hard time understanding
the dots that you're trying to connect.
So, something I wish I would've
learned a little bit sooner is just leveraging visuals
in any way possible
whether it's just titles that you can integrate in the video
or going and getting B roll, just like visual video
that's meant to be overlaid on top of somebody talking.
Anything visual, photos, even just today
you can download your Instagram story and integrate it
into your video.
All of these visuals help to show
the story you're trying to tell
and like I said can connect those dots.
So, doing that, oh my goodness
it's amazing how much further
into the commitment of a story that a viewer can be
when you do that.
Rather then just relying
on the words coming out of your mouth.
I also kinda find it fun telling a story
using visuals to tell a story
but not always filling in some of the blanks.
Do you ever feel like that sometimes
where you're watching a movie and you're just like
just tell her, like somebody is leaving out
a specific detail that you know if she knew
she would understand.
There are so many blanks you could fill
in like a movie or a TV show
but often they don't because
it keeps the attention of the viewer
and sort of the drama extends.
That is really fun.
Once you've kinda hacked that
as a video storyteller certainly in vlogging
that's where you videos can get really fun
and extremely addictive, for the viewer.
There's always more video you can get
there's always more visuals that you can grab
to tell a story, so do that
so that you do a better job of showing to tell.
Great video is just as much in audio
as it is visual.
We talked about this a couple of
I guess, weeks ago in that
tutorial I did on jump cutting, I think the
a-ha moment for a lot of people watching that
is that if you really pay attention
to what I do in the audio line of jump cutting sometimes
it keeps you more entertained audibly
then you would anticipate
having to rely strictly on the visual.
So, what we just talked about showing to tell
and how that can keep things very interesting to the eye.
There's also things you can do with audio
that fill in the blanks so to say.
The very basic way of
taking this whole advice into consideration is
if you have bad audio
you're gonna lose people on the video.
So, that's why we talk about things like
using microphones or trying not to be outside
if it's too windy and unreliable for the audio
because if you screw that up you will lose someone
for the entire experience of your video
just one moment of cringe for audio is bad.
That's just the beginning of it though
because you have to have good audio
but also if you can get really creative
with audio in ways where
someone might only pick up on it
if they were really listening.
I kinda wanna compare it to like NPR podcast.
They put you in the setting they want you in
by playing audio of the background for a second
just so you can hear it.
What do the people sound like?
Or, what are the sounds in the atmosphere?
Just so you can hear it and then
sort of the person interviewing
or the person telling the story
will come on over top of that
and so because you're listening to that you have
you know, no other choice.
If you actually do that, with a video
you might find out that you favorite vloggers
are doing a lot more on that side
of the video than you realized
because you're paying attention to a lot more
than just the audio.
Man can you do some really fun stuff with audio.
I'm kind of all over the place
with like that creativity level of what you can do
it's almost like subliminal messaging
like what could you with audio in a video? (laughs)
I guess we're not going that far but
really could get very interesting.
But, I think it just goes back to that
jump cut video I was saying.
Think about audio as an opportunity
to keep the story flowing for the viewer
so that they're not getting bored in their ears
because if they get bored in their ears
there's a chance you could lose them on the video side too.
Google Adsense is not the only basket
you should be putting your eggs into.
It's very easy early on as vlogger on YouTube
to say, oh this is great
you upload video, you sign up for Google Adsense
and once you can be monetized
which is after 10 thousand views
as a new channel today on YouTube
then you make money on your videos.
I've had people come up to me at conferences
and ask me what my CPM is
and I'm like, what are you talking about?
If, Google Adsense was the only thing
I counted on paying my bills
I would not be here right now.
That's probably why a lot of people give up
which is exactly why this is advice
anybody should get when they're first starting.
Sure, I may have had this thought process in the beginning
but even when I started
it was much more difficult to become
apart of the partner program on YouTube
which is the only way you could've monetized videos
with Google Adsense.
So, I knew to get more creative early on anyway
cause I wasn't apart of a partner program
I wasn't signed with a network, anything like that.
But, still it's
wild to me how many people still think that
this is like the way to make money on YouTube.
There are so many
other ways you can make money.
I mean, I just saw a patreon
closed another incredible round.
That's been helping people monetize
their presence on any platform online, definitely YouTube.
But, merchandise and
just selling your product or getting sponsors.
There's so many other ways to monetize
and you should absolutely
be entertaining anything that makes sense for you
the type of work you do, and how you're best
at serving a customer
so that you can give them the best product.
Whether that customer is a sponsor and
you need to make money on your content
so how do you align that sponsor
you have to be amazing at that, to make that work.
Regardless of what that is, Google Adsense
is not the only thing you can do to monetize videos, period.
I think people are more aware of that now
especially with how much talk there has been
of other platforms coming into play
how are they helping creators to monetize
what flexibility do that offer etcetera.
I still think YouTube is the most flexible
of any to monetize in a lot of different ways
but you must diversify that portfolio, you should not have
one paycheck, I mean if that's what you were doing
just go to a regular job
like why are you even trying to make money with this?
Just have fun.
Personality is far more important than perfection.
This is really difficult, I think, for a lot of people
in the beginning.
Today it's so easy because
we have phenomenal cameras in our Smartphones
and so it's a lot easier to kind of
make it feel perfect.
But even somebody can get into their own head
and say my phone isn't good enough
I have to have top of the line everything
and we think the camera is gonna solve the problem
but it's not.
It's really not, if you suck
at talking to the lens of a camera
mostly because you just haven't identified the camera
as a vehicle for your message
then your videos are just gonna be terrible.
I mean if you can't do this on a basic level
I would argue you can't even tell a good story
not talking to a camera either.
You really have to get the other person that's watching this
and that's where personality comes into play.
I don't think you have to have the personality
to be on camera, I certainly never had
the personality to do anything showy.
I just decided that what I wanted to do
was important enough to talk about
and so I started talking about it.
That just comes from talent and I talk about that
and how to become talented on video, I have a video
talking about that.
But, the personality, the person
that takes the viewer through this experience
on video, they are going to save everything else
from imperfections.
So if you have any camera laying around that you must use
and it's not perfect but it works
and you make sure there are no sounds
in your place where you're filming
so that your audio can be
the best possible it can be
even if you can't afford the equipment yet.
If you can sit here
and take someone into an experience
where they feel like they're sitting there with you
and you're educating them, or entertaining them
or any of those things, you're golden.
That could get you through forever
I mean look at all the people that became popular from vine.
That was absolutely Smartphone only (laughs).
And people can do some really amazing things
with something so simple, but if it wasn't for the people
none of it would've landed as well as it did.
It's the people that bring people into the experience
and take them through
and make them feel like they're hanging out.
Personality is not the thing
you have to have coming into it
but it is the thing that someone watching
is going to be paying attention to
to feel like they belong.
Be respectful with monetization
to both your audience and yourself.
We talked about this a little bit.
I think this is always on peoples mind
because they realize that if they actually have
a forte in this, they're very good
or they're very creative that their thing
their project, their product
could be worth money and so therefore
you should absolutely be allowed to make money
at what you do, I mean
yeah, obviously (laughs).
We don't have to put all our eggs in one basket
we can have lots of options
but we also sort of have to
present a couple of things
when you're getting started with this
especially, if you don't have experience
in charging, for what you do
especially, if you report to a regular job
you're not used to having to deal with that conversation
you just get a paycheck.
Couple of things here
some people are afraid to monetize at the beginning
whether it's just normal ads on YouTube
or incorporating a sponsor
or asking for patreon dollars or whatever it is.
They're afraid to do that because
they don't want to isolate their audience
which is completely understandable because
if you were not respectful about it
if you were doing it in a way
that seemed a little disconnected from your brand
then, yeah your audience is probably gonna go
what is going on here?
But, you can't not monetize
because you are deathly afraid of that
or you're afraid that the comments are gonna say
you're a sellout, because there's always that one kid
that says you're a sellout, like
cause they're kinda pissed
that they can't sellout cause they don't know how.
But, the ones who are part of your community
and they understand you and they understand the way you tick
if your monetization strategy aligns with that
and you present it in a way that actually
is going to be valuable for them
they usually don't have a big problem with it.
And you're actually worse off
making yourself suffer without monetization
cause you're worried about the isolation issue
because if you suddenly introduce
this idea of making money much later on
no ones understanding where this is coming from and
you still have no idea what you're doing
because you never really grasped the idea
of talking about money with your community
then it's gonna be caught
totally off guard, and you'll have a much larger audience
that could potentially make a stink about it.
You have to have this conversation early and often.
You have to be completely transparent about
what your goals are, cause they'll see right through it.
So, the more you do that you could actually
have things fair very well with making money.
I'm always extremely transparent about the fact
that there are affiliate people that I work with
companies that pay me, if you decide
to sign up with them, for whatever service
or product that they have
I'm not gonna talk about it though
unless it's something I believe in
or something that I use, because if I don't
then you guys are gonna see right through that you know.
But, if I do use it and
you're my best friend, like I'm gonna tell you
exactly what I'm down with, like
here's where I'm shopping, here's what I'm buying
here's the thing I can't live without, I mean
I can't believe I haven't gone through
my skin care routine cause that seems to be
my second best friend.
But, the reality is, I'm going to tell you something
because of how it has changed my life
that's the only reason why I'm here.
So, being transparent about that
means I can bring in an affiliate
or I can bring in a sponsor
that if they're aligned with that story
and I say I'm gonna vet you
and make sure you're good for my community first
then, it's all gonna be kosher, but, if you're not
transparent about that, you're not being fair to yourself
and that's how some of the best creators
end up falling off
because they just can't sustain it.
They can't sustain what they love, and that's
so unfortunate to me.
I just think that, that's awful.
And it's because they never had
a good sit-down talk from anyone
about, the fundamentals of making money
and how to do it the right way and not the shady way.
So, be aware of your audience and what makes sense for them
and don't walk all over them
cause they will put a stop to that.
But, do not be unfair to yourself
because you are afraid of the conversation.
Thumbnails matter, period.
This is probably a little specific to YouTube
but also, not really because it happens
on other social networks where thumbnails
come in very handy, but, on YouTube
as a video creator, somebody decides to watch your video
based on two things
a title, and a thumbnail.
Now, we're starting to see some really interesting
sort of like graphics when you hover over video
and it sort of plays in like
a GIF sort of format, what the video might look like
but, the thumbnail is that big visual thing
that people make a decision on
when they want to watch a video.
One visual connection after you did all this work
with video and audio, and being awesome
and editing and YouTube cards and all this kinda stuff
if you don't nail the thumbnail
that's a nail in the coffin for that video.
That should be a social media graphic
quote somewhere.
Also, thumbnails are useful on things like Facebook
because some peoples wifi stalls sometimes
and you don't want some like weird
visual of you face that Facebook stole
from YouTube strategy because you didn't upload a thumbnail
so even the other social networks
really need this kinda thing right now
but, YouTube is worth, they
literally look at a photo to decide to watch your video.
You have to think very carefully about
every square millimeter (laughs)
of that thumbnail
and what people are thinking when they see it
and how it might be answering the question
that is being posed to them in the headline
to bring it full circle to make them go, I gotta watch that.
Thumbnails matter, period.
Oh man, I wish I would've
really dissected that early on
god, that's a big one.
Every single video gets better.
It is amazing
how much you can grow over time.
I get the question a lot, should I delete my old videos?
I'm so much better now, I've got design
I've got help, I've got a nice camera
should I delete my old videos?
Well, first of all
if you really hate your old videos
thumbnails matter, period (laughs).
Go back and replace all those thumbnails.
Solved, because the videos actually do serve a purpose
and they help the same community that you're trying to build
then why waste those archives?
I love when people go watch all my old stuff
and go, Whoo hoo!, you've gotten better.
Yeah, I know.
I don't like watching my old stuff that much.
I've got a lot of videos I love on my channel
I've got a lot of videos that I just kind of like
but I was like eh,
I wish I could've changed a couple things here and there
I definitely made a mistake on that camera setting
definitely made a mistake on that video, definitely made
a mistake on the lighting, or the audio, whatever.
There's a million things
but, every single video gets better
because you are going to be hard up
to make some of the same mistakes again
when you see what they've done to you
and you're like, I have to publish this
but, I'm not gonna do that on the next one.
I will make sure I don't screw that up on the next one.
And sometimes you do, and it's fine
but, every video still gets better
so just get over it.
Publish the thing, make the archive.
I would not be here today if I was deleting
50% of my 750 some videos, no.
Do not spend so much time over-analyzing
your videos, and how you wish that were better
because they're getting better every time.
Guaranteed, unless you're a complete idiot (laughs)
and you watch yourself back and you're like
That's terrible, lets do it again (laughs), you're not.
Pretty sure you're not.
Well, those are seven pieces of advice that I wish
I would've had when I got started, hopefully
this was a good pep-talk for you
if you're sort of in a weird place feeling stalled
or you haven't gotten started with video
but, if you would like to keep on trucking through this
I would love to help you with that, make sure you subscribe
to this channel, because I do make new videos all the time
about this and don't worry
we'll get through it together
cause I have been through the ringers.
Specifically, more vlogging advice can be found
in Vlog like a Boss, the YouTube playlist
I will link that above
and it will be in the description as well
and also my book
Vlog like a Boss, you could check that out
and that would probably be useful to you as well.
That's all for today socials, thank you so much
for tuning in, I appreciate it as always.
Make sure you subscribe for good vibes
and keep on vlogging so that you can continue
to go after the life you want, cheers.