Back when we were n00bs at making videos, we used Windows Movie Maker(WMM), the default program Microsoft gives us for free(surprising isn't it). For a starting out, WMM is a great tool but if you really want to spice up your videos you are going to have to step it up a notch and get a better program. We personally use Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe was confusing to learn at first, but once mastered it is truly an effective editing program. Any effect you want or see on YouTube can pretty much be done with Adobe. Now the turnoff with Adobe is that it is like $250+ to buy, but there are other ways to get it which I am not going to discuss if you can get my drift.

One huge editing mistake I see on YouTube videos is long drawn out camera cuts. If you are trying to catch a user's attention you are going to need to switch the camera angle up every 5-8 seconds. If you pay close attention to any of the crap on MTV they literally switch the angle every 3 seconds. You may be thinking right now of all the additional work you are going to have to do to accomplish this, but this is really what you have to do since the average YouTuber's attention span is very short.

Adding sound and music is another way to spice up your video. Because using copyrighted music is against YouTube's TOS (and illegal) we use music from http://www.incompetech.com. This is a great site run by a gentleman named Kevin MacLeod. All the music on his website is copyright and royalty free -- all he asks is that you properly credit him when you use his music in your video. Adding a little background music really makes your video come alive, and will hold the attention of YouTubers longer. Sound effects will also give your video more life. Don't go overboard, but try and add them in here or there and it will really make the video more enjoyable.

Finally, video length is a huge factor when creating a video. You really don't want to go over 5 minutes or else no one is going to watch your video. 3 minutes is a great length and we try to stick around that for our videos. YouTubers are very jumpy, they wont stick around for a 10 minute video even if you think it is your best work ever. This sometimes means you are going to have to cut parts out to fit in the time restraints.

Next Topic: Titling Your Video

The largest reason I see most videos on YouTube fail is because of the horribly poor quality they are created with. The phone on your camera may be work to show 15 second clips to friends and family, but the average YouTuber isn’t logging on to watch content they can barely see. A decent “starter” camera is probably going to cost you two to three hundred bucks, which really isn’t bad since prices have dropped quite a bit over the last few years.

Another thing YouTubers HATE is shaky camera work. If they sense any sort of miniscule twitch or change in horizontal orientation, expect no more than a 3 star rating at best along with a comment section filled with flames such as the good old middle finger comment, blasphemy, cussing, and racial slurs. Tripods range from $10-$50. If you don't want to spend the money make place the camera on a table, a chair, books, or whatever is around when you are shooting.

Lighting is also a key aspect when going for sufficient quality. If you don’t have a bright room available, we suggest a mechanics light and replacing the bulb with one that has a high luminosity rating. Mechanics lights are small enough to hide and can pretty much be placed anywhere.

The most important aspect of quality that ties all of these together is editing. Editing your video is crucial! You could have the best footage anyone has ever shot, but if you edit it poorly your video will never go anywhere. Editing is going to be the next topic covered since there is so much ground to cover.

Next Topic: Editing


Open the Popup Window

So you decided you want to become the next big thing on YouTube. You just uploaded your first video that you feel is bound to get one million views in a week and you are ecstatic. After a restless night of sleep you wake up in anticipation thinking you must have at least 5,000 views, a solid 5 star rating, and a handful of raving subscribers. However, when you load up your video page your video only had 7 views and a 1 star rating. JoeSchmoe393 left a comment describing how ugly you are as well as how fond you are of the same sex. You are now furious wondering why your video has not been featured, let alone cracked double digits in views overnight.

After abandoning your YouTube project due to your apparent failure, you think it must just be all luck getting a steady stream of views to your channel. Well, I have some good news and bad news for you. The good news is that it’s not all luck when it comes to building up your channel. The bad news is that it is going to take a lot of effort and work. A lot of work. It has taken over a year for our channel to become what it is right now and we still aren’t even close to where we want to be. This blog is designed to help you learn from some of the things we did right, and steer clear the mistakes we have made. Although we may be a little further than you, we are still in the process of building our channel as well, so we sure do know the effort it takes.

I will try to update this weekly but it really depends on the interest from viewers like you. Please use the comment section! Ask questions, offer your own advice, and request specific issues you would like me to focus on. Every post will be designed to attack a certain topic so the whole “secret” will not be revealed within the first few weeks. Topics I intend on discussing include quality, titling your videos, networking yourself, optimizing your videos for search results, content and pretty much any other topic you can think of that has something to do with improving your channel and videos.


Next Topic: Quality