Hey friends! I’m Skylent Shore and you may know me from my top ten videos or maybe my video game first impressions, but I am here today to give out some knowledge that I have gained through trial and error over the years working on video production. I’ll admit I made this in haste and I probably have much more to offer, but I feel it is important to get this out there since I have quite a few friends and acquaintances interested in working with YouTube. So lets get started!
Tips and Tricks
Tip: Higher Quality doesn’t matter if you never upload the video.If you are afraid that because you can’t upload video in 1080p at 60fps that you can’t compete with others, don’t worry, you can. Just make sure if you are going to upload, make it at least 720p with NO BLACK BARS! That means, the video needs to fit the whole screen. Do the highest quality that you have available to you right now, and commit to making videos RIGHT NOW! Stop waiting, the more you wait the more you are losing out. Yes, quality is important but what is more vital is that you actually put content out. Don’t use what I just wrote as an excuse to be lazy, if you put your heart into it, your audience will continue to follow you.
Trick: Use a combination of royalty free content and your own content.Here is an example: “I want to start a makeup channel but I don’t have a good camera right now so I can’t make ANY videos” Wrong. Even without a camera you can still make at least top ten videos where you use product commercials/trailers and pictures. Same for gaming, if you don’t have a good machine to capture perfect footage, you can use trailers which is what I STILL do for my top ten videos. Certainly you won’t be able to do all the videos that you would want, but at least you are making some.
Tip: Have background musicSeriously, even professional grade mics pick up a lot of noise and background music cuts that out and makes everything appear perfect. This is especially relevant for people with laptop mics or usual gaming headsets. It also helps the video keep its energy so you get more viewer retention which leads to more views and subs. Just make sure you pick a fitting song/beat.
Trick: do lists! You are a new YouTuber, who wants to make new content, truly the “best” content you could make would be wholly original content but that doesn’t necessarily get views but neither does simply copying someone. There is a balance and for me I found that doing list videos was the best starting place. As a new YouTuber, you want people to discover YOU and the best way to do that is by helping others discover other topics, trends, information, content. If you are a gaming channel, make a top ten list of some games or if you like make up, maybe do a top ten list on best brands. Essentially, use the popularity of other original works to accelerate your own personal growth and demonstrate your own uniqueness.
Tip: Watch other YouTubersYou probably already do this, it is a given. Find what they do that you like, but mostly find what they DON’T do, and make note of it and do it yourself. You are trying to fill a niche somewhere, not copy someone else. It is good to try and replicate their production, but not their content.
Trick: Catchphrases!They are called catchphrases for a reason, you need to CATCH your audience or any new viewer who stumbles along into your videos. Example: in my MMOATK.COM videos, I intro with “Welcome Back Attack!” It has a lot of energy and the start of the video is hugely important not just for your viewers but also to help maintain your performance, especially if you are recording live.
Tip: Don’t expect much out of friends and familyI learned this back when I was in a band and it was also true for YouTube and I imagine it is probably true for any creative or artistic work. It is unlikely that your friend and family will be the true target audience for what you are making. Begging them to like and share and even watch whole videos is cringey and honestly unneeded. I think every like helps, but what you really want to do is stimulate conversation in your comments and only people who are truly engrossed in your videos will do that. You are building a community from scratch, not plucking your real life friends and placing them into your virtual one. If they happen to really like your stuff, then great! But otherwise, don’t beat yourself up because they don’t like it. My family hasn’t watched a single one of my videos, and yet I make my living off of it!
Trick: Don’t sight read your scriptsIf you have a script, that is awesome! But even good actors can sound dull simply reading a script as is. Likely, there will be errors either in the writing or your tonality, so really it is best to ad lib color words when you can. If your script says “the game was good but not great” it is okay not to say those exact words if you are carrying a lot of energy by the time your eyes hit that line, maybe you can say something like “the game was pretty alright but I can’t bring myself to call it great” Since you had more energy coming into that line, it was necessary to deposit it with more words and in the end your recording is more personal and better for it. Many people speak differently to how they write, so it is important to know it is OKAY not to read directly from your script. Often I will even purposely take my eyes off of my script so I am forced to ad lib. People come more for your personality than the raw information.
Useful Websites (Free)
https://www.wetransfer.com/
If you are working as part of a team, this site will be your best friend. WeTransfer is the fastest most professional file transfer website and with video upload timing being crucial, you want something fast and friendly. Dropbox is awkward but Google Drive is a close second though it depends on how you want to use it. Basicly, if you need to send a video sample or whole single video to someone, use wetransfer. This is how I send clients my videos and I use this daily.
https://pixlr.com/If you need to edit an image extremely quickly, such as a thumbnail, pixlr has you covered. It also has some interesting royalty free effects/stickers that maybe you could use but overall this is for someone who needs to do image editing lightly, quickly, and with no need to download.
https://www.google.com/drive/There are so many good reasons to use drive. There is no reason anyone should be using multiple alternatives when drive does them all better. Holding all of your scripts, video ideas, is really important! Plus you can share documents or entire folders with partners or clients to make sure the work is getting done properly.
http://socialblade.com/This is a good site to track your/others progress. If you are new, use this with other newer channels that you like and try to match or better them. It is also a good tool for seeing exactly what you are getting into i.e how much money you could expect v.s how much work is needed.
Programs to Download (Free)
https://krita.org/You’ll need an image editing program so that you can quickly and cleanly create thumbnails, and if you don’t have someone hired for channel design/logo design you can also use this to get started. There are others out there but I found Krita to be the most intuitive whilst giving me the most tools to use instantly. Also here is a bonus link for an image to use as a background template for your channel http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/099/9/e/new_youtube_background_layout_2013_by_mariobink-d60zqir.png
https://obsproject.com/Regardless if you are a gaming youtuber/streamer or even work with computers at all, many videos could profit from on screen recording every once in a while. This program is a great free resource for streaming video and recording. Even if you have ShadowPlay with your video card, this program can simply do more and has better audio quality as well for free.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/movie-makerYes, this is a link to windows movie maker. If you don’t have the means to get a professional video editing software, movie maker is pretty much the easiest and best to use. I used it for the majority of my professional career until recently I purchased Adobe Premiere subscription. I tried other video editors and found them not as easy to use but in the end, if you are hiding your video quality behind fancy editing, maybe the actual content isn’t that good huh? Best to start out simple and then expand later.
http://web.audacityteam.org/It looks old, but it is tried and true. Almost everyone uses this program to record their voice as it is quick and clean.
