Starting a Youtube Channel 101

On 8th of February 2021, my youtube channel had 500 subscribers.

1 week later on 15th February 2021, the number ballooned to 800 subscribers. Seeing my subscriber count increase so quickly took me back to September of 2020 when I first hit 100 subscribers. It had taken me 5 months.

During the slough to a 100 subscribers I'd watch many videos on growing your channel and every single one of them highlighted that the growth on the platform is typically exponential.

Having seen my views finally rocket exponentially over the past week, the trend is anything but intuitive.

These days, I put a marginally greater amount (~10-20%+) of effort into my videos as opposed to the early days. But the returns as a result of the accrued efforts of the past 10 months are astounding. You could call it a snowball effect.

In this post, I'd like to share some tips and resources that have helped me so far on this youtube thing.

Baby steps

If you're thinking of starting a Youtube Channel, just do it. No matter how many videos you watch or how many blog posts you read related to starting a channel, none of the advice will be as good as your learnt experience. Starting will allow you to free your creative juices in order to think of novel video ideas.

In my first videos I presented 5 business ideas. These videos then evolved to present the uses of AI in industry, random space facts, book reviews and data science career videos.

All I'm saying is that the idea you have for your channel will evolve over time, and it's only possible through an iterative process which kicks off as soon as you start. So don't get too hung up on your first few video ideas.

Value

The primary goal of any content you create should to provide value. That value could be through education or through providing entertainment.

The quicker you adopt a value giving mindset, the easier and more rewarding the process will be for you.

Before you upload a video, you should have a clear answer as why a person should watch your video.

Consistency

With youtube, you should aim for longevity rather than intensity. This means regular video releases over a long period of time. I would recommend at least 1 video a week over a sustained period of time. Each successive video will teach you a new skill, building your stack higher. And it will help you build a disciplined process for video production.

These days I aim for 1 topic video and 1 shorts video a week.

Gear

Easiest way to get started is to use your phone. And you can progressively upgrade your gear as you level up in your skills. You should invest in gear in the following order:

Audio

A viewer is more likely to watch a video with good audio and bad visuals than a video with bad audio but good visuals. Your first investment should be in a quality audio setup. You can chose from a lavalier mics, shogun mics and desktop mics.

• Lavelier Mic
• Cheap, easy to setup, close to your body thereby enhancing audio quality
• Shogun Mic
• Moderately expensive, great for vlogging as the mic mounts onto your camera, ideal for a moving setup
• Desktop Mics
• Huge range of price from $100 to 1000+. Perfect for voiceovers, podcasts, stationary video setup

I personally use a Rode Video Mic Pro for my topic videos and a Blue Yeti for voiceovers for my shorts. They are both great investments. I couldn't recommend them enough. Side Note: You want to make sure that your mouth should be a hand's length away from the mic for optimal audio quality. Too far and the audio is not as crisp, too close and the variability of your tone reduces.

Lighting Set Up

Your camera is only as good as your lighting. My lighting setup involves two soft box lights at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock using daylight adjusted lights, along with a warm light in the background. One is the primary light, the second is a fill light and the final one is the background light.

Day light adjusted bulbs ensure that your true skin tone registers on the camera. Also make sure to set custom white balance on your camera. A simple way to do this is to take a photo on your camera of a white paper lit in your lighting set up, and to set the white balance to that photo.

Camera

An expensive camera is the last thing you should be worried about. Many flagship phones these days record 1080p videos which are more than enough. If you want to invest in a camera, I would recommend a mirrorless or DSLR setup. Keep in mind that investment in quality lens is more important than the camera body.

My camera set up is fairly outdated but I do have quality lens which never really get old. I use a Canon 650D with a 14mm f/2.8 Samyang lens. There are three basic category of lens, wide angle lens (10-18mm), normal lens (24-70mm), telephoto lens (80mm+). I use a wide angle lens as it's easier for me to have the camera close to me for adjusting manual focus. Autofocus can often be noisy and annoying if you're just doing a talking head video. Definitely pay attention to how noisy autofocus is when buying a lens and a camera.

Editting

Good editing can separate a mediocre video from a great video. Editing is like any craft, it needs a fair bit of practice to get good at. In saying that don't hold out for the perfect edit before uploading a video. A nearly there video uploaded this week is better than a 100% perfect video in 3 weeks. Consistency is more important.

These are some great resources that I've used to learn editing which helped me level up from mediocre video to a well edited video.

• Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - From Beginner to YouTuber
• 5 Editing Mistakes YouTubers Do That Annoy Me...

Hope this post helps you get started on your YouTube video. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below.