How to Build Your Channel & Find an Audience: Advice for Aspiring YouTubers
How to Build Your Channel & Find an Audience: Advice for Aspiring YouTubers
2010-05-12
what's up everyone jon rettinger can
technobuffalo here back with another
round of the advice for aspiring tech
reviewers and youtuber series a sort of
a revamp of the whole series in the
first video I talked about where my
gadgets come from how I got them and
where you can get yours didn't get a
chance to check that out i'll put a link
either down below for watching this on
youtube or volleys down below to for
watching on technobuffalo so this video
is going to cover how to build your
channel you just started a channel let's
say you've had it for a while I've got a
couple of videos out there nobody's
watching them how do you build your
audience how do you get people to look
at your channel and sort of get you some
exposure that you think you deserve and
olives are you do so let's go and get
started first I want to preface this by
saying there's no magic formula you can
follow these advice step by step and
still maybe not get an audience these
are just tools to help you it's
certainly no way a guarantee so i'll
tell you what i did when i was starting
to build my channel first I was talking
about technology to interest me I had a
passion for the topic I still the
passion for the topic clearly I'm a
monster geek and the chance to talk
about technology was absolutely
fantastic so I think you first thing you
need good motivation don't go into
thinking I'm going to be a tech review
or I'm going to make thousands of
dollars per month I'm going to be super
rich because it's not going to happen go
into it with the right motivation than
the intentions and the idea you want to
do it because of the love of what you're
doing don't go into it because you want
to make money you want to get free
gadgets that's just not what it's about
and that if you think that it will show
in your videos in very subtle ways and
the audience will definitely react to it
okay so you built your channel you've
got it up in live maybe you've got one
two three four videos we don't have any
yet how would you get people to come to
your channel the first question I get is
I don't have a lot of money what do I do
so if you don't have new gadgets laying
around you don't have the finances and
go get new gadgets that's not a problem
at all you can actually be a tech review
or without spending any money so the
first thing I'd recommend or be a
youtuber in general without spending any
money the first thing i'd recommend is
look at the most popular videos for the
day see if there any themes so if you're
a tech reviewer and you see me
a couple videos about the new iphone 4g
remember that if you want to film a
video about another topic if you want to
talk about celebrity gossip you see
something on that bieber kid make a note
of that see what they title the video
see how the video is tagged see what
they put in the description box and
definitely make note of that when you
put your video up online and you update
the fields that are about it tagged
fields in the info box those are the
things that people use to search and you
want people to search for your videos to
searching for popular topics so if you
just label it you know Apple you don't
put iphone 4g rumors and everything
about it you're not going to get the
coverage that you want essentially
YouTube see this is almost like a spider
like websites use our google users
rather to search through content and the
content that matches the spider search
is what's going to come up more often so
if you use keywords that people already
searching for that are very popular your
videos may come up when people are
looking for videos on whatever you are
discussing so be very mindful of how you
title your videos and what tag to use
now I'm not saying tag every possible
topic known to man I generally don't put
in any more than seven tags otherwise
the sort of gets ignored by Google's
algorithm so 7 make sure their direct
way you're talking about don't over tag
put in tags of topics that are only in
your video but you can start making
videos topics that are very popular like
I said and that will help bring audience
for things people are already searching
for so you people already searching for
say iron man 2 reviews everybody wants
them about iron man two so you can talk
about iron man 2 you can talk about the
rumors of a new macbook air people are
searching for you can look through and
talk about topics that are popular and
that's going to help sort of build a
base audience sort of your foundation
coats you know if you're painting a wall
which is an awful analogy hopefully you
understand what I'm talking about so the
next thing is the thumbnail image when
people go in search for your video they
see a picture of you know maybe you're
going like this you know hey they're not
going to click on it they don't know who
you are you're not an established brand
not a name people recognize it just
looks like a dude talking so pick a good
thumbnail and talking about an image
about the iphone 4g pick an image of the
iphone 4g
going to get something from gizmodo be
sure you cite it make sure you let
people know what the image is from you
don't want to steal anybody else's stuff
but you definitely want to have that an
intriguing image people may think oh you
know it's interesting you know I think
that I might want to watch that video
now don't try and trick people don't
talk about the iphone 4g and show a
picture of it and say i have the iphone
4g if you don't have it just talk about
it and pick an image that you think is
going to be in treatment to people now
maybe one of the three or four that
YouTube gives you as an option which is
fine or upload your own and find one
that works that's probably the next bit
of advice that I can give you second as
you start doing this you to notice that
may be a few more people start
commenting on their videos maybe one two
three or four those are sort of your
first to action people those are the
ones that are going to help you spread
the word about your channel interact
with your new audience talk to them
respond to the emails respond to their
questions create a dialogue that's going
to help really brand you as sort of an
expert and it's going to help you
interact and find out what people want
maybe someone's following you or comment
on your video will love to know more
about you know the iphone 4g micro sim
card whatever they want to know more
about whatever that beaver kid does on
the weekend you know whatever topic
you're making interact with your
audience find out what they want what
you think they want and what they
actually might want could be very very
very different YouTube is a fantastic
resource to talk to people so definitely
take advantage of that and don't take
any way it's watching your videos for
granted at all those people are watching
are your lifeblood if you cut off your
blood supply you're going to die that
through analogy is definitely true for
you to the next bit of big advice i
think is being mindful of your language
and i'm not saying you know don't swear
or any of that but be mindful of what
you're saying try to avoid lumps and
ahhs and likes and sort of the slang
almost if you will be no matter how what
age you are you want to appear
professional now you can use still you
square word about your style you can use
you know gaming vernacular to PO noobs
whatever it might be that's your style
definitely go ahead and use it don't
change who you are but just look
professional and talk professionally and
be wary of your ohms and looking to the
side of the camera you know just be very
careful of what you're
saying in speaking your camera pick a
good camera angle I'm certainly guilty
of picking some bad camera angles this
one right here may not be the best but
if you're talking to your eyesight
camera or your webcam I'll take a good
angle you don't know pick an angle of
someone walks behind you or your faces
or go to the side like this and just see
how few pick a pic a good angle and if
you have editing program try and go
through and edit to the best of your
abilities if you don't have my movie
don't a final cut or Windows Movie Maker
you know use the best that you have
available even if you don't have
anything that's okay if you have some
editing software available learn how to
use it and make your videos look
professional if you can put an interim
fish just text or an outro you know be
very mindful of that as well and seeking
up sort of text another bit of advice is
annotations YouTube is a great way to
mobilize an audience so to get people to
go from your video to somewhere else
whether it's to a website or another one
of your videos so at the end of your
video or during your video put up an
annotation that says for more
information click here for round two
click here to learn about another video
with the iphone 4g click here and make
sure that's clickable people will start
to migrate more videos let's start to
see a bit more of your content which is
quite nice I think you may also want to
circuit coming active other people's
channels now do not spam people's
YouTube pages don't go to other pages
and say check out my channel I of great
videos don't do that but go and ask
questions there a go and comment in
other peoples pages see who's doing
something that you want to do so if you
want to be a tech review or go to tech
reviews website see what sort of videos
they're making what the audience is
asking for and you can learn a lot from
that don't go in spam that is not a good
way to get people to know about your
site in fact that's going to have the
opposite effect of what you're looking
for be very very very mindful that I
can't stress enough so in post something
on my page that says check out my
channel it immediately gets deleted or
its leaders as soon as I see it and
oftentimes I all ban people from doing
that you really want to be very cautious
of that but go to people that you admire
and see what they're doing whether it's
tech or celebrity blogging your politics
and see their style is that they haven't
see the styles that's working and not
copy them but maybe you can be
influenced by them and find a style that
works for you so there are ton of other
things we're going to cover as you
continue to do this video series but I
thought it was important the Scots sort
of the baseline a bit of advice about
how to build your channel now it's
really the biggest advice that I can
give you I hopefully you follow those
and they give you guys a bit of an edge
and the leg up over the competition and
I get asked quite a bit you know John
why are you doing a series you're just
growing competition for yourself and
I've set this time and time again I
don't view anybody else out there is
competition I think it just validates
the industry that I'm in which is the
technology reviewing it makes the genre
of a video more professional and more
widely accepted the more people that are
doing it so your success is my success
so hopefully I can help you guys keep
the success that you want and I guess
the last thing that I want to mention
and certainly I think it's important to
do so is is TechnoBuffalo we have about
six hundred thousand page views per
month create a sub blog bear embed your
videos if they're especially good we'll
put them on the homepage people will see
them in the most viewed content section
you can get more exposure that way as
well you can get those eyes onto your
sub blog and onto your youtube page
something else to sort of keep in mind
anyway guys I hope you enjoyed the
second round of the series here if you
have something that you want to know or
questions feel free to leave them down
below in the comment section that will
read them and I will try and dress them
in upcoming videos if this is helpful to
you please let me know as well if it's
not helpful you let me know that too
anyway I am jon rettinger from
technobuffalo if you want exclusive
content check me out at twitter
twitter.com / John for lakers or if you
just want to say hello say hello and
again for all your tech news be sure to
check out a technobuffalo com jon
rettinger see you the next video bye
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