In the past, YouTube was famous for posting funny viral videos and vlogs. But now, the giant has become a digital powerhouse where brands engage and post content.
There are creative influencers who are making big banks on YouTube, and you can find the likes of PewDiePie who get revenue by simply making cool gaming videos.
If you’ve been thinking of sharing your life online and starting a vlogging channel, here’s what you need to make it big in the YouTube game as an upcoming vlogger.
Find a Niche
What’s common between all the popular YouTubers out there? Niche.
Niche is a segment or sub-category of a topic. For example, if you want to get into food and nutrition, your niche could be the Carnivore diet or holistic healthcare practices. A niche for YouTube gamers would be either e-Sports or making gameplay videos around a specific platform.
Narrow your niche so you can locate your channel on search engines. Also, when you cover a particular niche on YouTube, you stand out as the expert.
People know what the channel is all about and what you specifically offer. It’s powerful stuff.
If you need advice on what niche is doing best, you can always reach out to popular YouTube vloggers and ask them through DMs. They’d be more than happy to answer and share their experiences with you.
Nail Your Thumbnails
You might offer fantastic content, but if your thumbnails aren’t catchy enough, people won’t pay attention. Get your hands dirty with YouTube thumbnails and learn how to make them. You can use free thumbnail making tools like Canva or use this tool by VideoCreek to get started.
Make the text on your thumbnails readable and stick to large font sizes. Adding some graphics or graffiti to the thumbnails also helps in standing out.
Make an Intro and Outro
You might be vlogging, but when you vlog on YouTube, you should act like a brand, especially if you’re planning on monetizing your content in the future. Making an engaging or viral intro and outro will get you more likes, comments, and engagements.
You can visit VideoCreek.com to get a free intro and outro maker. There are tons of readily available templates you can use, and you can add your own logos to the videos too. A good tip is to keep your intros short, about four to six seconds long.
If you have any sponsorships for your video promos, you can make an ad and put that up at the beginning of your video.
Use Good Lighting and Sound
Lighting and sound are the two essential building blocks of vlogging. Whether it’s a personal vlog, professional, or your creative vlogging adventures, don’t compromise on these.
Use natural lighting and invest some money into the right lighting equipment. If you’re on a budget, you can use lighting rings, which you can get for cheap.
For the microphone, you can go with a lapel microphone or a cardioid condenser microphone for isolating the audio. Look for noise cancellation features because that will block out background noise. If you’re in a noisy environment, get some noise panels for the walls, and install them.
A lot of YouTubers who are into gaming or vlogging and make videos from home do this. If you’re just starting out, you can film your vlogs in natural lighting. Face the window with the light falling on your face and record.
If you record at night, be sure to carry your lights with you because it can get really dark.
Tell A Story
Most successful vloggers have a story to tell when it comes to their videos. Take your viewers through your life and show what makes you relatable to them.
You can film yourself walking outside your home and shoot in different locations to keep the content unique. Try telling a few bits and snippets about your life and be engaging.
And when you record vlogs, make sure you face the camera and talk. Think of the lens as your friend and record accordingly. This will make your videos more engaging and not seem like you’re talking to yourself alone.
Learn about the best SEO Practices
Search Engine Optimization and what it means is you use keywords that help Google find your content. There are many YouTube channels and vloggers coming out, but few get noticed. This is why.
Learn about how to use long-tail and short-tail keywords. Use a free keyword analytics tool like TubeBuddy to start ranking your videos on the YouTube search engine. An excellent way to go about SEO is to see what topics are popular or trending and make videos around them.
Focus on Your Content
Don’t compromise on the quality in an effort to put out more to your audience. If you can handle only one video a week, stick to that schedule. Work on the tone and voice of your content.
You can consider writing a script if you struggle to talk on camera without any planning. Switch up your topics every now and then.
Don’t just make vlogs about studying or your life. You can vary the content and keep things interesting. Take a look at the top vloggers, and you will see that they have variety. You don’t have to be intense with this but try not to vlog about the same topics every time.
Edit and Review
Before giving the go-ahead for publishing, take a step back, and edit your videos. Run your footage through a video editor and cut out any unwanted scenes. You can decide how to remove scenes by taking a look at your YouTube analytics.
If you study it, you’ll notice at what part of your videos the audience stops watching. This will help you understand how to make your videos more engaging and improve the overall vlogging content.
Conclusion
Ultimately, standing out as a vlogger on YouTube will depend on luck, hard work, and staying active on the platform. Vlogging is such a unique genre since it’s personal, and not all vloggers do well online. If you have an exciting story to tell, there’ll be many chances to share that on YouTube.
Enjoy the process because your channel won’t grow overnight. But that’s the fun part because when it grows, and you start getting traction, that’s when you start winning the YouTube vlogging game.
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