Although I’m fairly new to this game and taking this vlogging thing seriously, I am by no means an expert yet!! I mean I barely have over 400 subscribers at the time of writing this article. I am however open to sharing my learning with anybody who is considering getting into video content creation and sharing on YouTube.
I won’t however, cover the steps of setting up a YouTube channel. There is tons of information out there on the web.
What I want to talk to you about is the stigmas of putting yourself on the web? What I want to talk about is the daunting thought of getting out there and filming yourself for the camera/your audience? How quickly should you expect results?
The Stigma of Putting Yourself Out There
For me, this was a challenge for a long time and my motivation was On and Off but as I have learned from some of my favourite vloggers that you can’t let this hold you back. You have to commit and be persistent in producing content.
You can’t think about things that will hold you back:
- I don’t have the right gear!
- I don’t know how to put good videos together!
- I don’t know how to use the camera correctly, what are the right settings?
- I don’t know if people will like my content
- It feels weird talking into the camera
- It feels weird seeing myself in video and the sound of my voice. Do I sound like that?
- Would anybody watch my videos?
- Can I make money (enough to live on)?
- What about YouTube policy, minimum 1000 Subscriber and 4000 watch hours in last 12 months before your channel is considered for Monetisation.
I too was a victim of these types of stigmas that held me back. For a long time, I was watching videos of other people talking about the best camera for vlogging, the best settings for vlogging and how to get started with vlogging.
But the fact is if you don’t get out there and shoot, make mistakes and learn from the mistakes. Don’t hold yourself back just cause you think you don’t know enough and you need to learn before you get started.
The most important thing I have learned from last one and a half month is that you have to get your content, your message out there!! And you have to do consistently.
Initially, my motivations were driven from focusing on the wrong concept which was: I want to make passive income from this source. However, I realised that this was the wrong motivation. I have a job that fulfills my financial needs so the reason why I started vlogging was because of my passion for photography. So once I figured out why I was doing this I didn’t see YouTube’s new policy as a prohibiting factor but more as a motivation to achieve this target.
So for me, my challenge to myself is to reach 1000 subscribers by end of 2018. Am I there yet? Not even close.
I only focusing on the one item in 2018, the watch time will come & increase as I gain audience in form of subscribers.
You just need to focus on your content and start publishing. Talk about what you want to share with your audience. Get yourself out there!!
All of the above stigmas fade away when you start doing what you want and producing the content that you want. But wait the biggest fear, hesitation is still not addressed.
Shooting Out in Public
The biggest fear and hesitation for me was the weird feeling of walking around with a camera and filming myself in Public. I won’t lie to you, it is weird and the thought of what others will think does stick around in your head. When normally you are used to standing behing the camera and taking photos/video, suddenly turning the camera in a completely opposite direction is very daunting. However, the only way to get this out of your head is going out there to shoot and doing it repeatedly.
A lot of people actually do know what is vlogging, look at me and my channel is still in its infancy stage but just last weekend I got two comments while filming, “good on you mate” and “are you a vlogger?”
To hear these comments and feedback is only encouraging me to do more. The more I do the more ideas flow through my head to share more content on photography with my ‘small’ audience.
Audience Will Come
If you consistently put your content out there, the audience will eventually find you and your channel will grow!!
Being genuine with your audience and the content is very important. If you are in it for the wrong reasons, people will see through that. So don’t be impatient with your subscriber count, don’t expect to become overnight success. The growth will come in due time, just focus on your content.
So a few weeks back I build my own YouTube planner on which I stick up my content ideas on sticky notes.
Planning and Staying Ahead
Plan your videos and ideas as they come to you. Use whatever you have in front of you, with you to jot down the idea when it comes!! Also, stay at least 1-2 videos ahead of your publishing schedule, this will take the pressure off you and allow you to manage your personal life when things get in the way.
I am using my planner to stay atleast 1-2 videos ahead of my schedule. I do however, stay flexible with my publishing schedule because sometimes I get an idea that I want to publish sooner rather than later. So I juggle up the publishing schedule if and when needed.
For now, my schedule is to publish Sunday night and Thursday nights (Australian Eastern Time). I think I can manage producing 2 videos each week which gives me 8 videos every month and you do the math it adds up to 104 videos in one year.
Conclusion
As I conclude, I would like to re-iterate that if you want to do this, then just go out there and do it. There is plenty of room out there for every channel to have its own audience!!
Be consistent, genuine and become fearless.
Subscribe
Harmeet Gabha
Harmeet Gabha
