Successful Blogger or How to Become Famous on YouTube

Almost everyone knows about YouTube from young kids to older adults. However, not many people are away of how much money successful YouTubers make and those that do know that – would love to be in their shoes. It seems like an easy task when you’re watching the video. They just sit in front of the camera, talk about whatever they like and get paid big bucks on top of that. But don’t judge the book by its cover!

In the beginning this was more or less how it worked, but nowadays YouTube has grown enormously and the platform’s market has matured. The competition is fierce and the room for mistakes is small. When you start out a new channel there are many things you have to consider in order to step on the path of success. Your charisma and a good sense of humor won’t get you there alone. There are many technicalities you have to consider and you most certainly would need a relatively quality equipment.

This article will talk about several technicalities, tools and things you have to consider if you want to become famous on YouTube. So take notes and let’s go!

First and Foremost – The Basics

Before becoming a famous YouTuber, you have to do a few things. The first base of a successful blog is its name and the way it looks. Try not to come up with any childish names for your blog thinking that it will attract attention. Pick a name depending on your target audience and the niche you are going to enter.

The name has to be catchy and easy to remember, here the marketing aspect plays a role – original sells. Using numbers or many similar letters in a row isn’t the best idea – it might push the audience away. On the other hand, having a name that hints to what the content is about would increase your chances of attracting the audience.

When picking the name you have to be careful not to plagiarize it. You might get a warning if you violate other YouTuber’s rights or privacy and if it happens again, you might get banned all together.

The Importance of the Banner

How your channel is styled is a crucial factor in determining your future on YouTube. Imagine you want to buy candy; the first thing you lay your eyes on is the packaging. Same goes for your channel or in this case the banner.

The banner represents some sort of a billboard. To create a good banner you’d need to use Photoshop or some other quality editing software.  It’s important to know how to use editors, because anything that doesn’t look attractive will push away the viewers. You could potentially hire designers or use a freelance company for these purposes, but be prepared to pay some big bucks for it.

The banner has to be bright, catchy and it has to shortly describe what you or your channel is about. Some YouTubers even add their own image in the banner with the name of the channel.

The actual resolution of the banner has to be 2560 x 420px. However, in order for the banner not to get deformed in all the different browsers, mobile devices, tablets etc., there is a safe zone of resolution you could use which is 1546 x 420px. This is the size that doesn’t get cut.

Shooting Videos

Once you choose the niche we can move on to the base that will help you become a YouTuber – video material. The gamers have it the easiest. When you’re recording a Let’s Play you don’t have to be present in the actual video, because the most important part is what’s happening on the screen and subsequently in the game they’re playing. For a quality screen capturing following programs will be suitable:

• UV Screen Camera
• Bandicam
• Fraps
• Camtasia Studio

However, if you have chosen a different niche that’s not gaming, where your presence in the video is necessary for the viewer, then you would have to acquire some basics of shooting videos. Two essential things in a regular life of a YouTuber are the lighting and the equipment to record the videos.

Not to mention, the right lighting helps to point out or hide facial features. Quite often what you see on the video is not what the person looks like in real life. The lighting hides lots of imperfections hence the reason many YouTube gurus look so flawless. There are many guidebooks on how to use lighting correctly, but the main one is not to place the source of light behind you. Otherwise the vlogger will look like a black spot on the video.

What Camera & Microphone to Use

What should you shoot with? The optimal choice for a home blogger would be a DSLR camera or a Camcorder. These two options have a big variety of settings and a high resolution perfect for shooting videos.

For action videos a GoPro or a regular smartphone would be a better choice. However, a smartphone has a drawback, because it has limited settings. But when there is nothing else around and something epic is happening around you, a smartphone would do just fine.

Every vlogger has to have a microphone! Forget about all the cheap microphones there are, it’s almost impossible to get some quality sound from them. Make sure you pick a good one, whether it’s a table mic or something that comes in a headset is up to you.

A Little Bit about the Acting Skills

Besides all the equipment and tips we’ve talked about, it would be useful to acquire some acting skills. It has a huge effect on the audience when it’s accompanied with charisma.

Reading off the paper would be hard in front of the camera, so you’d have to learn everything by heart and improvise on the spot, unlike gamers, who once again have it easy. They can read the text off the paper and no one would know. You have to be confident when speaking into the camera, otherwise your audience will feel uncomfortable and probably won’t visit your channel again.

The Editing Part

You might think shooting a video is all it takes, but slow down a bit. It’s just half the way. The recorded material is not ready yet and has to be edited. The next steps to come are cutting out all the unnecessary bits of the video, editing in the intro, music and anything else that you think is necessary. Just remember, that the intro is just as important as the video itself. It has to be catchy and interesting to watch.

It’s not advisable to end the video fast either. In the end of the video you can either include a Q&A with answers to the most interesting questions from the comments section, or an outro including a peek into what’s in the next vlog.

What’s the best video editor? This list seems to be the most popular amongst vloggers:

• Adobe Premier Pro
• Sony Vegas Pro
• Pinnacle Studio

The Importance of Good Engagement with Your Audience

The more popular the vlogger is, the more fans want to talk to them. It’s important to expand your social media presence in all areas including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and maybe even Twitter. The more presence you have the easier it is to attract more followers. It allows you to increase the activity of your audience, gives them an opportunity to see your daily routine, places you visit, things you do. This way they feel they can connect with you more. Vlogging is great but it doesn’t allow your fans to see what you’re currently doing, which other platforms provide. You can use those platforms to communicate with your fans, answer their questions; do live streams and many other things.

Ideas of Channel Promotion

This is a final and a really important step. Without it all your hard work will not be noticed. Of course, there is a chance that your videos will be seen and your channel will grow naturally. But let’s face it; the competition is so fierce that the chances are very small.

The best promotion is – advertising. Place the links to your channel on different forums, social networks or reach out to other bloggers to work with them. It’s hard to promote yourself alone.

An easier and a more effective method would be to hire professionals to do it. There are tons of quality promotional services offered online. This way you wouldn’t have to worry about anything and you could just focus on providing quality content.

Another method you could use is by adding the right keywords. YouTube has a tool to help you find the keywords that are the most trending, it shows the number of searches for those keywords and it gives you an option to add them to your video.

To Summarize Everything

Once you have an idea of what steps to take in order to become a vlogger on YouTube, you can create a channel. However, it will only bring you profit if you’re fully devoted to it and you truly want to make it. So stare the fear in the eyes and take a step!