Making Your First YouTube Video With Paranerdnicky

youtube Jul 16, 2018

So you want to be a YouTube video content creator? Great!

But how do I get people to listen to me? There’s millions of people doing the same thing and…

*cue exsistential crisis*

Now, I don’t have millions of subscribers but I do have a wonderful and growing community I couldn’t be prouder of, as well as a few videos that have hit around 10,000 views (much to my initial shock!)

While there is no one big secret formula on ‘making it’ as a creator – here are a few things I have learned in my first year of being Paranerdnicky on one of the world’s largest platforms, YouTube.

Forget all the fancy equipment and programs. If you do have access to these – great! but it isn’t the be and end all. You can even use your smartphone nowadays and YouTube even has a simple built in video editor for an even easier means to making a video! If you have the means to go bigger than that, then go you!

Set up Paranerdnicky youtube gear

Here’s a list of what I use:

  • Logitech webcam (c920)
  • Blue snowball mic
  • Adobe premier pro (video editing)
  • Adobe photoshop (thumbnails)

What’s your YouTube channel all about?

Are you an avid gamer? A filmmaker? Or prehaps a musician? There are so many routes you can go down but your main focus should always be something you’re passionate about. Your audience aren’t dumb, they can spot someone who doesn’t care for what they do a mile off (well, there are SOME content creators like that out there but I won’t be serving the tea today.Ahem.)

Great! You’re ready to make your first video!

Now, your first video… I’m going to be honest here. As you learn and grow you’re probably going to cringe at it in the future and it’s not going to be top quality (unless you really know what you’re doing then hats off to you!) That is completely okay. It’s about getting in and just doing it! Talking to a camera may seem silly for a while but I promise you will grow used to it. Practice, practice and practice some more! Make goofy faces, use silly voices! They don’t have to see the light of day if you don’t want them to.

Video Editing

This is sometimes the longest part of the process depending on what you’re making. Use online tutorials, have a play around, familiarise yourself with the tools you’re using. I learned as I was going along!

Video Thumbnails

Video thumbnails  are one of the most important things- they are what your audience see first. Make sure they are bold, clear and to the point of the video (if you’re going to clickbait, make sure it’s relevant! If a viewer clicks on your video and finds out it has no relevance at all, they will more than likely leave and never come back. It’s about trust y’all.)

Video Titles and tagging

Also very important! You need to create a title that sums up what the video is but leaves a little mystery and intrigue (again, clickbait is a thing but keep it relevant!)

Tagging is going to be what gets you noticed in the searches. Don’t just spam the bar with useless tags. I use a program called Tubebuddy to search tags and see how often they’re used and searched. Ideally you want something that is searched fairly often but not saturated with everyone else’s videos. Longer tags are surprisingly more helpful. For example, normal humans will search ” funny cat videos” instead of ”funny,cat,videos.” You can still tag the short words to bring up your amount of tags but try throwing some longer ones in too.

It’s also useful to research similar videos that have done well and see what tags they have and if you can use them in your video. (Again, I’m going to sound like a broken record here but KEEP IT RELEVANT, DAMMIT!)

Socials and engagement

jacksepticeye-evolution-300x169

The more socials – the better! It casts a wider audience net. Whatever passion you have, research your target audiences and what platforms they use the most. Find people who produce similar video content and interact with them, find people that enjoy that content and interact with them too! (I don’t mean spamming them constantly with ‘watch my shit’ because that’s annoying as heck) but drop it into conversation and get them intrigued about you e.g ”oh you like jacksepticeye? Me too! [Conversation where you talk about your favorite videos and mention you make similar content]”

If possible ask friends and family to reblog,retweet,share,comment on your content. Every little helps!

HASHTAGS.ARE.IMPORTANT. It’s where everyone with a similar interests for videos and other content can interact together and find new creators and friends! Make sure you’re using them!

Keep active on social media! Post your social links in the description of your videos so people have more platforms to engage with you.

You now have a small community?! woohoo! Oh no what do I do now?

*cue more existential crisis*

Making the audience feeling involved and personal with you (no, I don’t mean tell them your social numbers and blood type!) is a bigger element than you think. Your audience like to get to know the real person behind the camera. Interact with them! Create polls, talk about your favorite things and have conversations. We’re all people here! (or, y’know. Reptilian Overlords.)

Always be transparent about who you are, no-one likes a phony. Show emotion and be real with them. Your audience will appreciate you all the more for it (and please, don’t be a dick. We have too many content creators like that already.)

Finally, the most important thing.

Be you. You are what makes you different from everyone else. No other person is you – and you’re amazing.

via GIPHY


Nicolle Brown – fangirl, content creator, has had an existential crisis or two.

Check out Paranerdnicky on YouTube – professional shower singer/mother/fangirl/idiot fandom content, reactions, travel and general life!


 

 

 

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