Titles can be catchy, right? Well, it got you here and so you're probably thinking, crikey, how much time and money do I need exactly to be a great vlogger on YouTube and is it even worth it? Well, relax, and let me tell you about my journey so far. Your success on YouTube is VERY achievable!
The truth is, if you have a smartphone nearby, you're already on your way to making some great videos. It doesn't cost the earth to get started and the world really is your oyster when it comes to video making.
It's not a licence to print money though and you won't see any return overnight. In fact it took me nearly a year to make a return of just £5 when I secured my very first Patreon supporter. It took another twelve months before my YouTube channel became monetised. Then again, I started my YouTube channel just before Covid kicked in. What is my subject? Travel. Talk about rotten luck!
First things first..
Vlogging takes time. You're not just thinking here about the time it takes to record your video, but the time it takes to edit and upload. Typically, for me to produce just one travel vlog, by nature of the travel time required and subsequent editing, by the time I click 'upload' on YouTube, I'll have invested around 7 working days of my life. For one video.
Granted, once you've got your footage, editing can be done at your leisure - evenings, weekends, if like me you work full time. But don't underestimate the time investment here. And don't expect an immediate cash return on that investment. If like me you simply do it as a hobby, the last bit isn't so important. But cash return helps to make more videos. Travel isn't cheap!
Costs of equipment..
If you have a smartphone, they do excellent video with fairly decent sound. My iPhone records 4K video at up to 60 frames per second (the higher FPS, the easier it is to do slower video in post production). But eventually you'll want to invest in more advanced equipment..better cameras, better lenses, better microphones etc. My current filming inventory cost in excess of £10k, but it has been built up over a number of years and I pick and choose what to use for each video.
My set up..
Before you choose your equipment, think about what sort of video you want to produce. Here's my equipment list and why I have it:
- MacBook Pro 14" - because it can edit 4K video with ease
- Sony A7IV camera - because it records excellent photographs and 4K video
- Various Sony lenses - because you'll record video and photographs and various focal lengths - one lens will never be enough
- DJI Mic set - for excellent vocals when you're recording video
- RODE shotgun mic - for great studio vocals
- Final Cut Pro - the Mac software I use for editing my videos
- Studio light - lighting is everything in video - and it's notoriously difficult, especially indoors
Do I really need all this equipment to get started?
No, you absolutely don't. In fact I'd suggest spending as little as you can, initially, to make sure that a) you enjoy it and b) you're seeing growth on your YouTube channel.
If you own a Mac, you've already got a great video editing app called iMovie. It's what I started with three years ago and it has amazing capability for the video novice. It'll keep you happy for a fair while but if you do enjoy it, you'll eventually want more features and that's when you can look at Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro - the latter is available for both Windows and Mac, but only on a subscription basis which I'm not a fan of. I use Final Cut Pro and it is superb, with just a one off payment of £200.
Things like video recording equipment can also come later. Your smartphone has powerful algorithm's to counter that cloudy outdoor lighting and as you've probably already seen, can record some really impressive sound.
Start with your smartphone and edit on iMovie, if you can. Then take it from there.
Motivation..
"Brilliant, that's a cracking video, it's going to get 2000 views by this time tomorrow. I'll be a millionaire by this time next week"
Stop right there grasshopper. Neither of these things is going to happen. What is going to happen, is that your first video is going to have about 20 views in its first few days, if you're lucky and depending upon who you can convince to watch it (and deal with the subsequent feedback).
Once you start to get subscribers and YouTube's own algorithm gets to know you, you'll see your video and watch time grow. But you can't give up. You've taken the first major step in setting up your channel. If you can't deal with a knock back at this stage, you won't get very far in future, trust me.
"Awesome, I've got my revenge on that company for giving me rubbish service by making a terrible video - I even added in some exaggerated points just to get more viewers!"
Well, do that, and you're on a one way street to an avalanche of abuse and potentially getting sued by the company you bad mouthed in your video. Two thoughts emerge from this attitude. One, yes, you should document it as you experience it. It's fine to complain as long as it's justified and is true. But you do need to know that if you criticise a firm, then its employees will defend it. I know of some YouTuber's who get death threats as a result of their videos - although these are extreme and generally come from continents such as India and Africa where people are more loyal to their employers than here in the western world.
But whatever happens, you need to stay focussed and motivated. If a video flops (and some of them will), then learn from it and move on. You'll soon get a clearer understanding of what your viewers like to see - and what they don't. Every day is a school day, as they say.
Location, location, location..
"Excuse me sir, why are you filming?" said a police officer to me on a trip to Istanbul, Turkey, when I first set out making travel videos. Fortunately, most of the freedoms that remain in Western Europe, also exist across the rest of the world. But succinct differences remain and you should always research where you are going to film, especially if like me, you incorporate drone footage into your final cut.
In the UK, laws prevent the police from interfering in your photography in most cases. There is even case law in this arena. But that's not the case everywhere - be prepared to be approached by either the local authorities or angry members of the public. That's life. In most cases pretending to be friendly towards the law can help.
To speak or not to speak? Front of camera or behind?
Your presenting style is exactly that. Yours. I began my YouTube journey doing voiceovers to my visuals. And that is perfectly acceptable. Some of the most successful travel vlogs I watch I have never yet seen the actual man behind the camera! Yet it's a time served and proven format.
Over time though I wanted to experiment with other formats. Most of my videos now are me presenting on camera. I like that and, it would appear, so do my viewers. I'm no Brad Pitt but I'm not sure that's what people expect on travel vlogs of the Canary Islands!
The third method is what I use for my hotel reviews. You don't hear or see me at all. It's visuals (drone and camera), with soft music and simple subtitles. Not a format I originally liked but they are some of my most popular videos by view count and watch time.
Is branding important?
It's critical!
In the early stages of setting up your new media empire, do yourself a huge favour and spend a fiver, on the app, fiverr. For this, you can get a solid brand design to match and reflect your channel topic - my brand name and logo is now trademarked and has been with me for all of the time I've had my brand.
But do this early so that a) people recognise your work as your channel expands and b) doing it early means you don't have to retrospectively apply it to your earlier work..which is very time consuming.
Monetising your work..
Ah the good bit! Yes, it sure is. And it's very achievable with some effort and a broad mind.
I monetise through four methods. Once you hit 1,000 subscribers and have a total of 4,000 watched hours in a year on your YouTube channel, you can monetise your videos. That is to say, YouTube will share some of the advertising revenue they make from selling adverts on your videos. Don't expect a million dollars in your first month, but do expect to see decent month-to-month revenue growth that is paid at broadly the same time each month directly into your bank account.
The second, is Patreon. In exchange for a number of benefits such as free merchandise and early previews of your work, the people who enjoy seeing your productions will send you a set amount of money every month. It's a great way to engage with some of your most loyal viewers and from there, build up a real sense of camaraderie. I host monthly calls with my Patreon supporters and enjoy going on trips with them too. I love this part of my work. In fact it's more than work, it's building up friendships with people who have shared interests.
Third, as your brand grows, you'll get queries along the lines of "do you do stickers or mugs for your channel?" - and I do. It's call merchandising, or 'merch', for short. I sell branded merch on both YouTube and right here on my website. Margins are great and really help to fund more travel which makes more videos.
Finally, once you've found your proven niche, you can secure sponsorship deals. Sponsorship can be very hard work (some sponsors require endless edits of your promotion of them), but earnings are equally good. Sponsorship works in different ways. For me, I like to promote travel-related products (I have a policy of not promoting non-travel stuff), so for example, I have partnered with the Canary Islands largest car hire firm, CICAR who pay me to promote their brand by giving me free car rentals. Other sponsors will simply pay me a fixed fee for promoting their product. Fees range from £500-£2000 per video.
Conclusion:
Producing video for YouTube, to me, was the obvious next step for my travel obsession. I was already taking those flights, hotels, ships etc. so making videos became not only a lot of fun, but also a way of funding my travel hobby.
Do you really need to upload videos every week to stay relevant on YouTube? Well, I don't. But the more you can upload, the more you get noticed and like anything in life, the more opportunities that profile brings. I know of several Canary Islands vloggers who upload most days and they make a lot more money out of YouTube than I do. But it's a balancing act. If you work a straight 5 day week for an employer in the UK or US, you'll make more money than spending the same amount of time making YouTube videos.
YouTube isn't a licence to print money and all of the 1m+ YouTuber's that I know tell me that it's a 7 day a week job. They occasionally take a day off, but not regularly. Then again, they also tell me that it's an enjoyable kind of hard work, so it's swings and roundabouts really.
My advice is simple: give it a go. If you don't, you'll never know what could have been.
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