Everyone who uses the internet on a daily basis is probably familiar with what YouTube is. For those who aren’t, it might be customary to ask them if they’ve been living under a rock. YouTube is a global video sharing sensation – over 8 hours of unique content gets uploaded to the site every second. You read that right, every second. YouTube has progressed far past its early days of entertaining teenagers on the internet with cute cat pictures and parody songs.
Viral videos, television shows, compilations and all manner of content can be found on YouTube these days. Professional music video production companies will market their artists through YouTube. YouTube, now owned by Google, has one of the largest concurrent user bases on the entire web. This is for very simple reasons.
YouTube is easy to use, has a VAST amount of free content, and allows you to upload anything you’d like within legal parameters. Fancy uploading videos of yourself playing video games with your friend? You can do that. Fancy learning how to play the chords to a select song on guitar? You can be sure there’s a replete amount of content suggesting you come and learn.
One of the most popular YouTube content sensations, which began on the side almost as soon as it was up and running, is the Vlogging, or ‘video logging’ trend. If you’re unaware, vlogging is the act of blogging in a video format. It’s that simple. However you live your life, you can be sure that creating an appealing video around the things you most like to do will draw some form of audience.
Why do this you ask? Well, some people simply enjoy sharing their experience of their day to day life, or building a follower base so as to potentially make vlogging into a full-time career. Many people just do it as a side hobby, and enjoy the discussion that springs up around the various topics presented. No matter your motivation, it’s not hard to assume that you’re reading this article because you are interested in vlogging yourself.
But where do you begin? How do you differentiate yourself from the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of vloggers out there, and more importantly, how do you retain a follower base? You might even worry about how to create the content in the first place? What form of editing software do you need, and how on earth do you operate it?
Well, you’re in the right place. This wonderful guide to lifestyle vlogging should give you the help you need to get your YouTube content of the ground and gaining an audience. For this list, we’ll assume that you’re hoping to gain large exposure during your efforts, and potentially make it into a full-time hobby.
Camera
The clue is in the title. If you have nothing to record yourself with, you’re more ‘blogging’ and not ‘vlogging.’ But what camera do you need? Is a webcam camera enough? Well, for the most part, no. You don’t need a professional DSLR used to shoot movies, but you need something a little better than a webcam. iPhones or modern Androids can actually work pretty well here if you’re strapped for cash, as most of the newer models have native 4k recording support which is fantastic, to say the least. Just be sure that you’re recording your face in a well-lit environment.
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The only downside of using a mobile phone is that the sound quality will not be anywhere near as good as using a dedicated mic. If you want to be professional, purchasing an SLR such as a Canon 5D and a blue-ribbon mic can help you get the best quality from both an audio and visual perspective, lending a premium air to your content. The better quality the content, the more people are likely to watch it. However, what you actually record matters too. You’ll need a great:
Personality
Your personality is the driving force of your successful vlog. If you aren’t magnetic, have no original opinions or thoughts, or can’t articulate what you mean very well, you’ll need to go back to the drawing board and focus on having fun experiences and improving your communication skills. You might think that you’re a great speaker, but when the camera is on you might find it a little more difficult.
Content
Once you’ve practised and you’re happy with what you have to present to the world, then you should fill your life with exciting hobbies, interests, opinions to provide to your channel. Repeating what other people think is a sure fire way to get lost in the vlogging user ocean, but doing something that no one else can do will give you an advantage.
What also helps is to specialise. If you really enjoy books, why not start a ‘booktube’ channel, in which you review your favourite books and discuss what your interpretations of the story are? Specialised channels like these can help you find a niche community with much more ease, and then progress from there.
Video Editing
When you’re completely happy with everything you’ve recorded, now comes the editing. This is a tricky process in itself. You might notice that some of your favourite vlogs (if you don’t have any, now is a good time to search for some,) will ‘cut’ the clips so as to reduce silence between the conversational flow. This saves on time and keeps the audience entertained.
You need a professional video package for this. Services like Adobe lease out their software on a subscription basis, such as the popular Adobe Premiere Pro. You can find Premiere Pro training at a multitude of great facilities, and this way you’ll get hands on experience which is totally invaluable.
Graphic Design
You may have noticed that many vloggers have ‘covers’ for their videos, featuring a picture of their face or some other item of interest alongside the title of the video. This enables their content to look professional, and like it’s ‘official.’ People are more willing to click on your video if the embedded cover image is exciting. Use an app like Photoshop to make simple covers that keep your channel looking uniform and bright.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]