How To Get Started On YouTube
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Today’s question comes from Richard, and he says, “What do I need to get started to make good videos on YouTube?”
I love this question because I get asked by it all the time, and I love YouTube, and I love video!
I want to tell you that to get started on YouTube and making videos you don’t need a thing, other than a camera. Honestly, I would suggest that when you start, just use your phone. Because often if you have a smartphone, you can use the camera on your phone to film videos, but I would suggest filming it horizontally.
The next thing that I would suggest is just to make videos based on the content that you are already teaching or is part of your niche; once you know that, you don’t have to go all fancy to get a camera. I mean, if you want to invest in a camera, absolutely go for it, but if you even just started basic, using your camera phone is perfect. I’ll let you know that the first camera that I ever had was a Sony 5000. It’s about 500 dollars, and it was easy to use. It has a nice flip up screen so that I can see myself in the camera view, so I make sure that I can actually, that I’m being filmed, and it’s not just taking a video of my shoulder. I like that for my videos. You can also get some external microphones. A lighting kit, which again, you can get for very cheap. You can get even just a lamp.
When my husband and I first started making videos, I would get my husband to hold a lamp without the lampshade, and I would put my camera, which was still my phone at the time, and I would put it on top of a chair with a stack of books and prop it up. And then I would squat down to be in the camera view, while my husband is standing with a lamp without a lampshade, so we were bootstrapping it, and it worked! So if you scroll down far enough on my YouTube channel, you can find those videos. Good times!
The first microphone that I had was a Rode mic that attached to my phone. Just a little lavalier mic and it would connect to my phone, and then I used the Rode app which is free, or you can get the paid version that records your audio if you don’t like audio that’s coming from your camera. But often especially when you’re just starting out, the audio straight from your camera is just fine.
For lighting, yes, get a lamp. Get a little lighting kit which you can get lighting kits on Amazon. My lighting kit is about 100 dollars, and it works perfectly for me, and you can get lighting kits for even cheaper than that.
The next thing you need to do when you’re creating videos is to make videos based on what your audience wants. So whatever your business is, whatever niche you are, I want you to think of within six degrees of separation of the video content that you put out. I talk about business in social media; I’m not going surprise my audience by talking about golf. That’s not what they signed up for. That’s not what they subscribe to my channel for. They’re coming for business in social media tips. So if I wanted to stray a little bit, maybe I could talk about some mindset, productivity, which I do even though it doesn’t have to do specifically with the platforms you can use for social media. It does help you to be more productive when you’re using these certain platforms for social media.
So, remember to make content that is within your industry, within your niche that makes sense. That your customers do want to watch, and one of the things that I’d recommend is to use Google Keyword Planner to find some suggestions and see how many people are searching for the terms that you want to make videos on. That’s all you need!
You don’t need to go fancy when you’re thinking about camera equipment. A lot of time I work with people that they say “Oh I don’t have a camera. I don’t have this. I can’t do it.” And it’s really just an excuse because they are worried about breaking out of their comfort zone to start doing video, but I promise you when you start doing a video for your business and allowing video to be so powerful for you. That video often creates demand and generates leads for you on autopilot, because you’re creating videos based on what people want, providing them value.
And then what I’d suggest is to provide them another way that they can get in touch with you. Whether that’s offering them something for free, asking them to sign up for your newsletter list, asking them to follow you on Facebook or Instagram; so that you can continue to nurture that relationship.
When you create videos like these, people see that you are an expert in the topic that you’re speaking on, so they can continue to follow you, to continue to get more value on what you can teach them.
That’s all you need to get started on YouTube.