How To Be A Youtuber

Hey guys! Let me start this off by saying that all of this post will be from my own studying of channels, my own findings, and my own guesses. Feel free to disagree with anything I post- and if you're concerned that I'm not pro enough to be posting advice like this, well... Who really is?

---First things First---
You need to understand what comes with being a youtuber. This is the "I remind you how scary the world is" post. People on the internet are WEIRD. People on the inernet are bullies, they are mean, and many of them are people who hate to see others succeed. The internet adds a mask of anonymity that allows people the unfortunate ability of cruelty without having to stare their victim in the eyes. They can eject all of their daily pains and sufferings onto another unsuspecting person and five minutes later, forget all about it.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN that you should ignore criticism. If someone comes on your channel saying "omg yu so stoopid wow yu sound dumb", yeah, that's a troll. But a troll can be intelligent too. "Wow. Are you seriously trying to be a youtuber? It's impossible for someone like you to succeed. Your channel is barely above average, you sound like everyone else, and your carbon-copy videos hold nothing of interest."

Treat comments like that last one with respect. Remember, you are a YOUTUBER. You can no longer lash out at people. Diplomacy needs to be your middle name. If someone starts screaming nothing but hate at you, that doesn't mean you do it back. I CANNOT TELL YOU how many subscribers I have earned because someone started woman-shaming me and I kept my cool and responded back politely and even with concern for them. People want to think you are above human, because you are now in the spotlight.

Back to scary things.

Absolutely remove all personal information about yourself EVERYWHERE. It does not matter if your facebook is private- delete your location, your schools, your phone number. As you get bigger, people will be hunting MERCILESSLY for that stuff, and you will get threats and hate mail, sometimes for no reason other than the fact that you are succeeding and someone else isn't. It is impossible to completely remove yourself from the internet, as people can trace your IP to a city- I have had this happen to me- but you need to understand that that IS an evil. It probably will happen. You must ASSUME that it will happen, so you can be prepared. Ask yourself: Is it worth it?

---How to get more views---

This is a normal question I'll nip right now.

You will not get 1,000,000 subscribers in a year. You will not get them in two years. Hell, you won't get them in FIVE years.

Youtube is a JOB. Once you decide to take this on, it will not be easy, especially if you want to do it full-time. Pick up an editing software. These days, full-plays are on the out, so unless you really want your channel to grow slowly (like mine), try to avoid Full-Plays. That means your videos should be montages, fun-tages, short videos of the best moments of your recording sessions. It's why Call of Duty videos do so well- it's just no-scope clips under 5 minutes of laughter or really pointed, comedic editing. Editing is not really optional anymore. If you need examples, look at Pewdiepie's channel, and I am LITERALLY not kidding. There is a reason he is the most subscribed youtube gamer. His editing skills are on par, and his thumbnails are perfect, no matter how vile.

THUMBNAILS. You NEED thumbnails. I do half and half because I sometimes do not have the time to make thumbanils, but when I do, I use GIMP 2 to edit them together. Keep them obvious, and make them yours. If you have a channel logo or symbol, put it in the thumbnail. If your title is a zinger (funny and short), put it in the Thumbnail BIG. HUGE. It needs to be able to be read from literally the size of your thumb.

Get recording equipment. Do not record from your laptop's built in mic for any longer than you need to. Save up your allowance, ask for a headset for christmas. If you have a mechanical keyboard, keep your mic away from it. If you are using a mic that is not a headset, put earphones in, or your mic will pick up the echo from your computer. TRUST me, first thing I learned almost 7 years ago. It sounds GHASTLY. You should also save up for a high end WINDOWS PC DESKTOP. Not a laptop. ABSOLUTELY not a Mac. If you are a console gamer, get an Elgato HD60 or something similar to record to a pc. NEVER EVER EVER EVER a Mac, those things are overpriced and always have worst graphic cards than a PC. You can use a Mac for editing, and that's it. Never for gaming. Where possible, custom build your PC. It is cheaper and gives you a computer that will last you 10+ years, depending.

---Your Audience---

Never ever think you are better than your viewers. You start thinking that, you're screwed. They will know it, they will feel it.

Talk to them, engage with them, welcome every single commenter who is new personally. Give them a "Hello! Welcome to the channel!" comment. Make them FEEL important, like they're apart of something bigger. This is quite honestly my favorite part about being a youtuber. The more you let them know how important they are to you- and it NEEDS to be true, from your heart, you need to appreciate them, even the jerks- the more they will respond to it. How you act is how your community will act.

Take MangaMinx(TheRpgMinx). She is very blunt, uses LOADS of swear words I'm not going to repeat here, and is openly Aetheistic and antagonistic toward attackers. Her community is EXACTLY THE SAME. Whether or not they are all Aetheist, they want Minx to be proud of them, and so they emmulate her in every single way. If someone calls Minx names or insults her, you can be certain half the community will be saying things like "F**k off c**t." Minx says it, so it MUST be okay.

Oddly, Minx's almost bullying bluntness has earned her the everlasting loyalty of her community, but I wouldn't try it. Just remember: How YOU act, is how THEY will act. Treat them the way you want them to treat you, literally, that is STILL true.

Jacksepticeye has worked really hard to keep his community from devolving into the hell-fest that is Pewdiepie's community, and to be honest, it has worked. He works SO hard to comment to as many people as he can, as kindly and as fairly as possible. As such, when new people ask well-known questions that most of Jack's viewers already know, his community does not lash out. They help the newcomers feel welcome, they respond kindly and intelligently (for the majority), and those who don't are usually told that that isn't the right way.

Keep these things in mind.

---Analytics---

Not much longer, I promise.

Keep an eye on your views, and your audience retention. What videos are they watching the most of? What series is actually their favorite? What do they like most through views and actions? Don't just ask them, look at the data, and upload accordingly. You might find that people like your nintendo 64 games more than your minecraft videos. That might mean you need to focus on whatever it is you are doing in your nintendo 64 series'.

---Be Active On Other Channels---

DO NOT ADVERTISE YOURSELF. It is absolutely d*ckish, it is not cool, and no one appreciates it. End of story. You'll get three subs and 400 people calling you names. NOT WORTH IT.

BUT. You can comment. Be active in the communities of other youtubers. Make yourself known. Eventually, people will think "I wonder what this person watches?", click your channel, and find out you do videos. I was originally Darkovika, but I changed my channel name to Darkovika Gaming a year ago, so it implied that I did videos. You might want to do the same.

You can mention you have a channel. But ALWAYS give attention, respect, and acknowledge the hard work that the youtuber you are currently commenting on did. They worked really hard for the community they have, and you have no right to come in, ignore that effort, and just expect people to immediately love you.

---Stay Current---

If you are an RPG gaming channel, that does not mean you have to play minecraft. Look at what channels similar to yours that are successful are playing. If you want that audience, emmulate them. There is NO such thing as absolute individuality, and anyone calling you a copy-cat does not understand the world. NOTHING in this world is 100% original- it was based off of something else, and that off of something before it, all the way to the beginning of man.

Keep to your channel's style. If you're like me and you do several different kinds of videos, adopt a schedule. Every monday, I upload Horror games. Every wednesday is a surprise, anything that doesn't fall into another category. Every Friday, I upload Fantasy/Story-driven games. And Saturdays, hopefully, will be livestream days.

I am constantly looking at the videos that Pewdiepie and Markiplier are uploading, as well as Jacksepticeye, because my goal is to be like them. You should do the same. Don't copy people like SuprMaryFace unless you want to do cosplay tutorials and makeup tutorials. TOTALLY LEGIT VIDEOS, but only if that's your ultimate goal. I tend to avoid doing music videos because it's not the way I want my channel to go, even though I have seen what a HUGE BOOST those videos get me. People love them, but then that's all they want, because that's all they came for. Your other videos WILL SUFFER, and you will be forced to do videos you originally didn't even want to do.


If you guys think of anything else, LET ME KNOW! This is a field of interest I am constantly looking into. And remember- STAY SAFE. NEVER EVER give out your information.

 

Mmm, this is interesting! I haven't tried HeartBeat yet, but I didn't know that's what they did. Tags has always been a tricky one for me. I've been guilty of splitting up sentenced as well, but I've recently started moving more toward complete sentences. I think I read somewhere that youtube only really reads the first 10 tags you have, and whatever is in your title, and that's how your video is listed in relevance. So super good titles and tags can be your best friend!!

I also tend to save tags that I've accumulated for videos in a text file. If you hit ctrl+a in the tags box, you won't see it, but you've actually highlighted them all and you can copy paste in there. It's really helpful for videos with the perfect tagstructure that you just don't want to upset XD

EDIT: Darn! I tried editing in the information on tags, on the message yelled at me for being over 10000 words or something like that and deleted everything I'd added!

 

This was great! Thank you!!! And helpful to me as well!!!

 

Hell, if you can work it, do it! Macs usually require extra finnicking though, and they're far too expensive for what little they offer in the way of video games and recording. A built PC meant to last 5+ years will be less expensive than a middle-line Macintosh, citation needed, I can almost guarantee it.

I may be a bit biased though- after 3 years of being a video game industry student (programmer), literally every instructor I've ever had has treated any Mac they come in contact with like it's an angry rattlesnake. And to be fair, working with them has been frustrating from a designer standpoint. They're never as fast as my desktop, they have weird functionality, and they hate programmers ^_^;;;

 

Musically, Macs are ingenius. To anyone in the music industry, I'd be confused if they said they were using a PC. For video editing or visual effects, it's 50/50. ^_^ In the end, it's whatever keys you're used to haha. Macs are above decent for editing, and on that PC is relatively the same.

 

Thank you very much! =^_^= I'm obsessed with patterns in what makes a youtuber big. I don't even think I touched on personality in that post, I ran out of space

 

This is important, but not necessarily strict! I recently hit 3000 subs, and let me tell you, I have THE most all over the place channel. 70% of it is gamplay videos, but the other 30% is tutorial videos, music, performances, audiobook-type-stuff, and vlogging. And also homework lawl.

Having a main type of video you do is huge- like for me, it's gameplay- and focusing on that is important. But don't be afraid to deviate ^_^ Vlogging is acceptable anywhere, anytime. Putting everything on one channel with organized playlists means people will be able to peruse and see all of the things you do!