Youtubing for dummies : Tips & Tricks

[unindexedsearchengine]

So, my fellow escapists, I call upon thee to lift the veil of ignorance from my eyes.
I have recently started a youtube channel (which shall go unnamed as I do not seek to advertise myself), and this would be the my first time performing anything, really. I jumped in equipped with naught but my enthusiasm and my glorious hat. To be mildly specific, I make gaming videos with commentary.

Therefore, if any "veterans" of this topic would be kind enough to give me some pointers, do's and don'ts, and just some general advice, it would be very much appreciated!

 

[omega 616]

You have to realize that you're about 5 years late to the party, there are thousands of your channel and you're now competing with every single one of them. Hell, I've posted more or less this exact same stuff in this exact type thread 4 times on this forum.

You have to ask yourself, why should people watch your stuff ...? There are thousands of "funny" gaming commentators, thousands of knowledgeable gaming channels, thousands of reviewers, thousands of indie channels, thousands of lets players etc.

Just typing into youtube "lets play" gets you "About 10,500,000 results"
Just typing "play through" into youtube gets you "About 34,300,000 results"

You have to get yourself on a publisher type channel, like Machinema or yeousch to get even noticed these days. Tag the fuck out of every video you post, if you post COD you should do things like COD, call of duty, black ops 2, BO2, codbo2, call of duty black ops 2, lets play, match, quickscope (even if you don't) ... I'd even do misspellings like cof, cos, vis etc.

Post regularly, get facebook, twitter and every other social network you can think of. Inbox people on youtube, try posting on roosterteeth 'cos that's how a number of them got hired there (Ray and Micheal got there jobs that way).

 

[Anarchemitis]

Video quality,be it what it may, the first and highest priority if you're going to be talking, is to have excellent audio quality. People will overlook the lack of detail in a 240p video if it's an excellent recording of the London Philharmonic performing Rachmaninoff, but will immediately press the Back button on a 1080p video game clip of someone doing something moderately cool but with a scratchy voice, terrible microphone, or recording artifacts like background noise. [ Relevant and useful link [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r90Xy9eIU8E]]

Reward consistent viewers with consistent content. Make for yourself a broad, comfortable schedule (one video every two weeks?) in which to make your video, commentate, and edit it to a good level of quality. Once in that schedule, stick to it. Never underestimate the benefits of consistently making something that you take satisfaction in. If there are any people out there who are like-minded as you, by virtue of the fact that you enjoy making it, they will enjoy watching it at least just as much.
That said, don't feel pressured on yourself to continue to "perform well". Do what's comfortable and natural; if that involves game-play style, commentary, what details you find interesting, or whatever. UNLESS, you're intentionally going with a level of artifice, like a fake voice or personality, such as with Cr1TiKaL.

And, importantly, don't have an intro longer than 4 seconds. It can be very disinteresting for people to have to continually watch a long introductory clip. You're making video game commentary, not an animated sing-along tv-show.