How to make a vlog: Best Beginner’s Guide
A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog, is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in one take or cut into multiple parts. Vlog category is popular on the video-sharing platform YouTube. In recent years, “vlogging” has spawned a large community on social media, becoming one of the most popular forms of digital entertainment. It is popularly believed that, alongside being entertaining, vlogs can deliver deep context through imagery as opposed to written blogs. Video logs (vlogs) also often take advantage of web syndication to allow for the distribution of video over the Internet using either the RSS or Atom syndication formats, for automatic aggregation and playback on mobile devices and personal computers (see video podcast).
In May 2019, Charles Trippy was awarded the Guinness World Record for the “Most Consecutive Daily Personal Video Blogs Posted On YouTube“, having recorded 3653 consecutive videos to his Charles and Allie YouTube channel over the previous ten years. Whether you’re a business owner, a marketer, or someone who really enjoys creating and sharing content, you should consider using vlogs to tell your story. YouTube is certainly saturated; 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. There are dozens of million-dollar YouTubers and bloggers creating thousands of hours of video a year.
The beauty of YouTube is that anyone can get started. Whether you’re someone who simply wants to share their life with others or a business owner wanting to engage with your audience on a more personal level, YouTube is the perfect place to so. If you want to start a vlog but aren’t sure how to go about it properly, we’ll help you get started with this detailed step-by-step guide.
Being Vlogger Making Money Is Possible?
Blogging is still an incredible way to make money online but they’re not for everyone. Let’s face it: some people love putting together words on a post and slowly building up the page count. Some people remember high school English classes and get a deer in the headlights look. Vlogging is another popular option. This can be a great idea for someone with natural charisma. Or just anyone more comfortable speaking rather than writing. While there are many ways to make good money vlogging, it’s important to learn as much as you can early on to pick a smart video creation strategy. Read on to learn basic and detailed plans for how to make money vlogging.
How do these millionaire vloggers pull in all that money? The main reason is that they have is an incredibly large following. Felix owns the channel with the most subscribers on YouTube, with 60 million as of March 10th, 2018. And he also has around 17,000,000,000 views. We live in a time when videos-on-demand – or VODs – work great, and the value of the video market worldwide grows steadily every year and is projected to reach 842 billion U.S. dollars by 2022. So, making a decision to sell videos online or start a vlog channel today is definitely a good idea. Here we’ll briefly cover some of the most popular ways to make money as a vlogger.
Sponsored or paid posts
Sponsored posts are video content ordered by a company that aims to promote a brand or service. In this scenario, you and your vlog function as influencers that advertise a brand to your audience. The benefit you receive could be money or product(s), depending on the company and your preferences. For vloggers, product review videos are one of the most popular video formats for sponsored content. There is one major “but” though. You’ll first need to gather a significant audience before companies become interested in offering you sponsorships.
When you have a substantial follower crowd (at least 5-10 000 viewers), try to establish partnerships with brands that are a good fit for your content and that your audience may be interested in. You can also join platforms like Famebit to show your topic to potential customers. In short, sponsored posts may be the most profitable and thus desirable type of vlogging income, but also the hardest to achieve.
YouTube ads
In order to monetize your channel, you need to hit at least 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months and 1,000 subscribers. Then you can apply for the YouTube Partner Programme and begin showing ads in your videos. Once YouTube checks and approves your channel, you can begin showing ads on your videos and get paid when your viewers click on them.
Affiliate links
Affiliate sponsorships are easier to land, but generally, bring in less income than sponsored posts. Here are the steps you should take to become an affiliate marketer:
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- Find products or brands that you’d like to promote and apply for their affiliate programs. Alternatively, you can apply for the Amazon Associates program and promote the products you already have – e.g., photo and video equipment.
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- Get unique affiliate links that can be used by your viewers to get discounts and/or provide you with a certain percentage of the sale.
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- Add affiliate links in the video description, the video itself, or elsewhere. Mention the link in your video and invite your followers to get the special offer or simply see more info about the product in the link.
- Get a commission if your viewer makes a purchase from your link.
For example, if you’re a photographer and your vlogs are mostly tutorials of different photography techniques and equipment, you can easily earn some extra income by placing affiliate links to photography products in the description of your video.
How to triger first vlog?
If you want to start a vlog but aren’t sure how to go about it properly, we’ll help you get started with this detailed step-by-step guide.
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Define your niche
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Find your voice
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Buy Equipments
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Make Unique content
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Edit your videos
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Know Your Audiance
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Optimize your content
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Track your performance
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Collaborate with others
Define your Niche
Unless you’re the most fascinating and famous person in the world, you aren’t going to snag a huge or even medium audience on your winning personality alone. You need a subject matter that viewers are interested in and will come to rely on you for. Decide what you plan to specialize in and make sure there’s an audience for it. Fast cooking, quick home improvement tricks, makeup tutorials, gaming, and fitness are all great video subjects likely to garner an interested audience. Select something you’re passionate about. It’ll come through in your work and keep you engaged and excited to come up with new video ideas.
Find your voice
Sound Quality is just as important as the video recording in Vlogging. So no matter how beautiful or engaging your visual subject matter, if it sounds average, people will tune out right away. Moreover, getting great sound for your vlog is easy with the right gear and a little technical know-how. The vast majority of YouTubers and vloggers opt for USB microphones. These are ideal for anything you’re recording near a computer, including gaming walkthroughs, product demos, tutorials, music, interviews, commentaries, and voiceovers.
Sound Quality in DSLR microphones, These microphones mount to a DSLR camera hot shoe (some point-and-shoot cameras have them, but not all) and are a good option if you’re filming outdoors or away from your computer. It’s a bit more expensive than other options, but if quality is important to you — and if you’re shelling out for a DSLR, it probably is — then it’s worth it to spend a bit more for a quality DSLR mic too.
Buy Equipments
If you want to be a successful vlogger, you will need to invest in some essential equipment. The main things you’ll want to think about are the camera, sound and lighting. It’s a good idea to purchase a vlogging camera with a flip screen so you can see yourself when you’re filming. That way, you’ll know the image is in focus.
You’ll also want to choose a good microphone to ensure that sound quality is top-notch in all your videos. And it can help to purchase a ring light so you won’t have to rely on natural light alone to get good lighting. Fortunately, there are many affordable options for each of these items. Do your homework and research affordable, high-quality equipment. As your following grows, you can start to invest in better items.
Make Unique content
If you want your vlog to be successful, you need to regularly create and put out new content. To ensure this happens, it’s a good idea to plan out your content several months in advance. Having a content calendar will keep you on track and ensure that you always know the topics you will be covering.
Before you record your videos, it’s a good idea to come up with a rough outline of what you plan to talk about. But the most important thing is to be yourself and make the video as natural as possible. You can always edit out any mistakes later.
Edit your videos
Video editing is one of the most important parts of creating a good video. Some vlog channels have launched empires based on quirky editing alone. You don’t have to come up with a groundbreaking editing style to be successful. But, you do need to make sure that things are clean and professional looking.
There are a ton of video editing software options on the market. While you can go all out and invest in Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro, you can also get a lot done with free apps on your Windows or Mac. You can even get away with using Windows Movie Maker or iMovie on your computer to make simple cuts. There are even some great apps for iPhone and Android that you can take advantage of if you recorded on your smartphone.
During your edits, you should focus on making the video look as good as possible. Cut out any awkward silences and compile clips into one cohesive story. You can also implement graphics, perform color correction, and balance audio. How much editing you choose to do is entirely up to you.
If you’re not that knowledgeable in editing, you can also hire contractors to get the job done for you. You can easily find freelance editors on gig sites. Just make sure that you present your ideas clearly so that they know what you’re after.
Know Your Audiance
The key to growing an audience is understanding your audience. Mapping out the wants and needs of your target audience inspires the content for your channel, and sticking with content that your audience will enjoy is a necessary step for growth. Start posting content, injecting your videos with your authentic personality. As your audience grows, keep a close eye on the analytics and listen to what viewers ask for in the comments. As you create more content, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of your audience and what content promotes growth.
Optimize your content
Uploading a new video to your channel is pretty simple. Though, it may take some time depending on the resolution and overall file size. As you wait for the video to upload and render, you can start optimizing it to ensure that it’s seen. There are several ways that you can do this. YouTube is, essentially, a large search engine that provides access to millions of videos. You can treat your video like a webpage and perform search engine optimization techniques to increase your exposure.
Track your performance
The great thing about the YouTube Creator Studio is that you’re given access to some important analytics information. As your channel grows, you can use this information to adjust your content accordingly. There are many types of data available for you to see. You can find information about where your viewers are located, how old they are, and more.
YouTube even provides audience retention graphs. These graphs can tell you how long people stay on your video, when they decide to click off, and more. After viewing the data, look at your video and see what made people click off. Make adjustments to your next video until you find something that works for both you and your audience. Once you find that sweet spot, you can improve your retention and gain even more followers.
Collaborate with others
Many new YouTubers have a lot of questions about when they can start monetizing their channels. YouTube has changed its policies quite a bit in recent years. Currently, you have to have at least 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers to become a Google AdSense partner. This is the easiest way to monetize a channel. But, it’s not the only solution. The sky is the limit when it comes to money-making opportunities. That is, as long as you have a large audience of viewers who are willing to support you.