So, you want to be a YouTube Star? Well, that was never something I thought I would said to myself… EVER! And yet? Here I find myself with this!
Nobody is more surprised than I am; not only that I started it (in July of 2023), but that I’ve kept up with it for this long! To anyone that’s ever made a YouTube Channel and been successful at it (even if you haven’t!), I whole heartedly congratulate you! It is a LOT of work, but at the same time a LOT Of reward as well!
So, let’s sum up what I’ve had to learn/do (in no particular order) in order to script, record, edit and publish videos!
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- Get an idea (Thankfully lots of places to get those, especially ChatGPT)
- Learn what the heck a ‘Hook’ isÂ
(No, not that Hook) - How to write said hook
- Force myself to sit down and write not just a single idea, but whole paragraphs of content that will not bore someone to commit hari-kari
- Take what I wrote and feed it through ChatGPT to help my writing (Shakespeare I am not!)
- Take what ChatGPT spits back at me and “make it my own” (the idea is mine, the content is mine, and now to make what it made of what I wrote mine
And that’s just the scripting part of it… - Get a camera, any camera, set it up somewhere that I can record myself
- Figure out the first camera sucked for YT recordings 🙂
- Get my Digital SLR setup so I can use it to record my videos (Much better)
- What the hell am I going to use to record? Oh, yea, I can use the Camera APP in Windows 10/11!
- One word… Editing… Well, I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, what’s the hardest thing I can use to edit? How can I punish myself the most? I know! Let’s install DaVinci Resolve!
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve - Let’s see, my first real video was just over 15 minutes long… I think it took no less that four hours to get it all recorded… Smartest thing I did? Record in parts so that when I screwed up (Oh and you WILL screw up), I could delete that piece and re-record it. I think it took me maybe 8 hours to edit it? This has GOT to get easier!
- I hate how I sound (who likes how they sound from the start?). Why do I sound like I’m at the bottom of a barrel?
- One LAV mic coming up! Well, once I found out what the hell a LAV Mic is (for those that don’t know, that’s the directional ones you wear on your person like you see the news people and interviewers wearing). Nothing like being tethered to the desk/computer while recording! Hope there isn’t a fire cause if there is, all this crap is going to go flying when I run out of the room!
- At least I sound “better” now, but still not great. Gotta do something to fix that at some point.
- The Camera APP sucks! I need to find something else. Discover OBS Studio! Weeee! It’s Free!
https://obsproject.com/ - Well, now I know why it’s free! I think I’d have an easier time working on working on a quantum computer while performing brain surgery on myself in a pool treading water!
- Okay, okay, okay, it wasn’t that bad! So, OBS is amazing, learn 5-10 different things to do with it and you can record like a champ!
- Time to fix how I sound… Choices, choices, well, here goes, one Yeti Blue Desk Mic on it’s way!
- Man! This Mic sounds AMAZING! Who knew? (Well, just about everyone else that’s produced YT content for any appreciable amount of time!)
- Hey! Because recording videos (scripting, recording, edit) takes such little time, let’s buy a house and move while trying to keep to the one video per week schedule! Yes, it’s official, I hate myself!
- One word…. Lighting!
- Yes, lighting, let’s get a small Ring light, because that’s going to completely light up myself and the room I’m in! (yup, it didn’t)
https://amzn.to/4htj5pD - So, a second, bigger ring light later, and then a stand flood light… Hey! It’s almost decent now!
https://amzn.to/4aw9snS - I hate how my room looks, I need a green screen
- The Green Screen I got for the back of my chair is too small and I look like I’m sitting much to close to the camera
- Yay! I bought a 10’x16′ green screen and stand! Unfortunately the stand is only about 8 or so feet across… Nothing that some self adhesive hooks and heavy clear fishing line can’t fix!
https://amzn.to/4aw9snS - Well, I still need the stand so it’s not completely sagging in the middle, but it’s now much bigger behind me than before!
- It’s still wrinkled as hell, hey! That’s what safety pins are for and extra loops of fishing line! Now it’s not only hanging from the line and stand, now it’s pulled tight across the room so it looks almost normal!
- Crap! I still need to zoom in a bit because unless I cover the edge of my desk, I still see something else in frame (not to mention my over sized mic and mic arm in frame)!
Okay, I think that’s enough about getting to recording, now on to other things like editing and post production!
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- Editing and post production… How is it, one minute of a video takes an hour to edit? Well, at first it was much worse, but as Monty Python said “I got better”
- Tricks, Tips and more editing stuff! All I can say is that if you know someone that already knows how to edit, produces their own videos (or someone else’s), TALK TO THEM! Man! I wish I had someone to talk to about just some of the things I’ve learned in video editing over the past seven months!
- B-Roll… How come that sounds like something you could get at a roadside seafood stand in New England with melted butter on it? Everyone talks about it, but nobody really easily defines it for you! Â
- Okay, I get it, not that I’ve found a clear definition of what B-Roll is, but I’ve been able to infer enough from all sorts of different places to figure out what the hell is! (See how I didn’t tell you? I know, typical… Your welcome 😀 )
- Remember when you thought your product looked pretty damn good almost a year ago? Well, remember you said that four months from now…
- Look at a video from four months ago and realize how bad it truly was, and that “you were proud of that” 😀
- Yup, walk back from the ledge, growing pains… Appreciate what you’re making now and spend a moment to be amazed at how much you’ve learned, and how much more you’re going to learn keeping this up!
- Thumbnails, Titles and Hooks! Oh My!
- Learn the tricks on getting your Thumbnail set properly for your long form videos
- Learn how to do the same thing but for YT Shorts (Thank you YT for not letting us set that more easily)
- Writing descriptions? Remember that thing I said about scripting, how you write it, feed it through ChatGPT and then re-edit afterword’s? Yea, do that again…
- Tags, tags, and more tags…
- Learn YT optimization
- Watch every video you can find about gaining viewers and subscribers
- Watch your subscription number SLOWLY climb… I’ve seen faster sloths on a cold winter morning stuck in black strap molasses…
Now, hopefully you had a chuckle or two from the above points, it is funny… But the irony is all that stuff’s true! That’s not every step nor every tool I’ve used on my YT journey so far, but it’s most of it. I don’t want this to discourage ANYONE from doing this! That’s the beauty of YouTube! Anyone can do it at ANY age!
So, what’s the big eye-opener I mentioned in the title? Well, I’ve now been making content now for almost eight months, and when I look back at what I started making back then (and even though I thought hey this was good, it wasn’t) compared to what I was making four months ago (still thinking it was good, and it still wasn’t 🙂 ) to what I’m making now, I realize a number of things!
1) How far I’ve actually come in my content creation
2) All the skills I’ve had to learn (and continue to learn)
3) I’m just NOW Finally making the type of content I wanted to make almost eight months ago!
Yes, that’s right, you read that correctly… NOW I know why they say it takes a year or two to really be successful at YouTube, because it takes at least half of that time (unless you’re outrageously gifted or have endless amounts of time because you don’t have another job or are a professional editor already) to learn what you need to know as well as get comfortable in your own skin talking to a camera while listening to your own voice.
It’s been a challenge! A big one! One that I’ve been thoroughly enjoying and found rewarding! One that I intend to keep on working at and trying to talk anyone that’s even a little bit interested in to take that leap!
There’s something I’ve seen/heard Steve Chou say a number of times, You’re going to regret not having started this years ago… I know I do! Looking back I regret not starting this in 2015! Waiting till it’s the “right” time is nothing more than an excuse. ANY time is the right time to start this!
Don’t know what to do? Pull out your phone.
Don’t know how to do it? ASK!
There are tons of resources out there, from web sites to, yes, YouTube itself! If you never start, then you’ll never get a video posted. Even if it’s one a month or quarter or year, just get something out there! The more that you make, the more comfortable you’ll become in your own skin. The more you’ll learn. There is one thing I can guarantee! If you never start, you’ll always have ZERO views!
Make the counter go up!
– The Grumpy Sysadmin
