Jump to content

I've thrown my hat into the Youtube ring...


XxEvil AshxX

Recommended Posts

I've had my gamer blog going for years now, but traffic and visibility have always been pretty low, which was never a big deal because it was mainly just for fun. But, I started a Youtube channel as an outlet and a means of discoverability, not just for my own blog but for the female paintball pinup group I work with. I'm trying to grow our fanbase. (The real golden goose would be for them to make their own youtube channel, but for the life of me I can't seem to convince them to do it.)

 

Anyways, I'm doing my own youtube thing now, again mainly for fun, but if it turns into something, great. I am wondering if anyone else on here does youtube and if they know how to work it. I've heard horror stories of the dreaded "algorithm" but nobody ever elaborates on it. I know I'm putting the cart before the horse, because I only have two videos so far and shouldn't be worried about an algorithm, but I just want to make sure I'm doing things right.

 

Don't bother telling me I'm wasting my time. I'm aware the success rate on youtube is astronomically small, especially in the gaming space, but as I said, I'm doing it mainly for fun. But at the same time I don't want to miss out on any opportunities just because I fucked up my keywords or something stupid.

 

I'm just a creator that wants to create. 

 

(For posterity's sake, Youtube channel - Gamer blog)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Anyways, I'm doing my own youtube thing now, again mainly for fun, but if it turns into something, great. I am wondering if anyone else on here does youtube and if they know how to work it. I've heard horror stories of the dreaded "algorithm" but nobody ever elaborates on it. I know I'm putting the cart before the horse, because I only have two videos so far and shouldn't be worried about an algorithm, but I just want to make sure I'm doing things right.

 

Don't bother telling me I'm wasting my time. I'm aware the success rate on youtube is astronomically small, especially in the gaming space, but as I said, I'm doing it mainly for fun. But at the same time I don't want to miss out on any opportunities just because I fucked up my keywords or something stupid.

 

I have a youtube but don't expect anyone to look at my stuff.

 

Biggest things I know (or have heard just by Max saying it)

 

1. If you have someone's face in the video thumbnail it drives up views (which is why you see tons of youtube videos like this)

2. I guess there was a trend for a bit for like short 30 second videos (probably nothing that you want to get into :p )

 

Here's mine - I use it very infrequently. I recently started uploading dota videos for shits and giggles (they are very nice 4K videos check it out!) , but I mainly had it for video game stuff and then back in the day videos I made in school.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Yeah the face thing is definitely in right now. Not sure if I want to plaster my stupid ugly face all over youtube though. I'm not there yet lol.

 

You've got it on easy street, you could ask one of your models if you could use their face. :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First thing to remember is YouTube is a social network, so be prepared to do networking. You need to be involved in the community you want to reach.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sure I can offer some advice.

 

I'd definitely get your front page looking good. Most people find you through your videos, but the next thing they'll look at is your YouTube page. Working on that actually involves a bit of pre-planning. Looks like you have a logo, so the next thing I'd think about is a color scheme of some sort. Pick two to three colors and a font you'll use. These colors and font will be part of the branding and design look of your channel, and you'll want to use them in each video you produce as your sort of "signature". You can come up with other things as well get across branding (phrases or gimmicks), but those colors and the font are fundamental.

 

So using that, I'd come up with a clean but attractive looking banner. Here's the resolution template you'll want to use to make it.

 

Then in the YouTube Studio under Customization, you'll want to upload the banner and get your video watermark going. Fill out your "Basic info", link to whatever social media you have, and this is also where you'll want to link to that blog you were talking about.

 

Looks like your channel is a Let's Play style channel. So with that you gotta upload frequently, and you'll also want to do lots of series as well. Make liberal use of Playlists when you do video series. You may even want to come up with creative ideas for these series. "Minecraft Played Entirely With Golden Tools" or some whacky shit like that. If people see a 32 video series on a concept, they're more likely (in my experience) to marathon and get hooked to what you do. I wouldn't worry about livestreaming until you build up a pretty decent size audience.

 

You got a good attitude about it though. The people hoping to strike it big are the people that burn out. If you're doing it to enjoy it, you can have some fun with it. Work hard because you're making something you want to be proud of. Don't expect to be rewarded for your hard work. You gotta be almost entirely self-motivated. It's SO easy to get fixated on views, especially if a video randomly gets picked up by the almighty algorithm. That's addicting. You'll want to figure out how to trigger that... except you can't because it's almost entirely random. Reason it's random is because people are fickle. One week your video about videogame chickens is a huge success. Next week you make a part 2 on almost entirely the same premise and it gets a fraction of the views. YouTube's algorithm chases people's interests, and people's interests are always in flux. So don't try to please it. Just try to please yourself. Content creation is mostly a masturbatory exercise!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Reputator said:

Sure I can offer some advice.

 

I'd definitely get your front page looking good. Most people find you through your videos, but the next thing they'll look at is your YouTube page. Working on that actually involves a bit of pre-planning. Looks like you have a logo, so the next thing I'd think about is a color scheme of some sort. Pick two to three colors and a font you'll use. These colors and font will be part of the branding and design look of your channel, and you'll want to use them in each video you produce as your sort of "signature". You can come up with other things as well get across branding (phrases or gimmicks), but those colors and the font are fundamental.

 

I already have my blog, so I already have a pretty good idea of what my "branding" looks like, but yeah I agree I'll have to keep it consistent. 

 

5 minutes ago, Reputator said:

 

So using that, I'd come up with a clean but attractive looking banner. Here's the resolution template you'll want to use to make it.

 

Nice! Thanks, that's much more helpful than just a static image size.

 

5 minutes ago, Reputator said:

 

Then in the YouTube Studio under Customization, you'll want to upload the banner and get your video watermark going. Fill out your "Basic info", link to whatever social media you have, and this is also where you'll want to link to that blog you were talking about.

 

You mean I don't have to add my watermark to every video myself? I'll have to look into that. 

 

5 minutes ago, Reputator said:

 

Looks like your channel is a Let's Play style channel. So with that you gotta upload frequently, and you'll also want to do lots of series as well. Make liberal use of Playlists when you do video series. You may even want to come up with creative ideas for these series. "Minecraft Played Entirely With Golden Tools" or some whacky shit like that. If people see a 32 video series on a concept, they're more likely (in my experience) to marathon and get hooked to what you do. I wouldn't worry about livestreaming until you build up a pretty decent size audience.

 

You got a good attitude about it though. The people hoping to strike it big are the people that burn out. If you're doing it to enjoy it, you can have some fun with it. Work hard because you're making something you want to be proud of. Don't expect to be rewarded for your hard work. You gotta be almost entirely self-motivated. It's SO easy to get fixated on views, especially if a video randomly gets picked up by the almighty algorithm. That's addicting. You'll want to figure out how to trigger that... except you can't because it's almost entirely random. Reason it's random is because people are fickle. One week your video about videogame chickens is a huge success. Next week you make a part 2 on almost entirely the same premise and it gets a fraction of the views. YouTube's algorithm chases people's interests, and people's interests are always in flux. So don't try to please it. Just try to please yourself. Content creation is mostly a masturbatory exercise!

 

Yeah, I'm pretty used to my content being completely ignored, so it won't be anything new there lol. It's mainly Let's Plays and "reviews." I have a number of "series" on my blog, and I'm hoping to carry those over to my youtube videos. I'm not what you would call a "skilled player" so things like speedruns and no-death runs aren't something I'm interested in or looking to do. As far as for what will make them unique or interesting, I have no clue. In all honestly, I have no idea what my "thing" will be. But I figure it'll either come naturally or not at all. 

 

Thanks for the advice. 

 

One last question... what video editor do you use? I use Adobe Premiere Pro, mainly because I'm on a PC and it's all I've ever known. But I've been using it casually for literally decades and I find that it's getting pretty bloated and unintuitive. It's kind of a pain in the ass nowadays. I've been looking for something with a cleaner interface that leaves more room for timeline editing and doesn't bog it down with all this extraneous shit. I'm not Pixar. I don't need 90% of those features. Not to mention every time they "update" it, I have to re-learn the damn thing because they move everything around and change how tools work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

you pay them money and they shoot you in the balls with paint 

 

Well, you're not wrong.

 

56 minutes ago, The def star said:

 

I still don't understand :lol:

 

A friend of mine (female paintball player) started it about ten years ago as a means of growing the sport and increasing the visibility of female paintball players. As you can guess, paintball is 98% dudes, and I know this is gonna be hard to believe, but the majority of them kinda treated the female players like shit. There was also a stereotype about female paintball players being "tomboy-ish" and "masculine." She started doing it as a means of empowerment, and to let other women know that there are paintballers out there of the feminine variety, hence the pinup photos.

 

Honestly she could probably give her mission statement a lot better than me, I just take the photos. I can honestly say though, over the past ten years I've been working with these ladies, I've seen them go from blown off to legit respect on the field. I've also seen a number of young ladies tell them that they had always wanted to play with their brothers and cousins, but never got to either because they were too afraid (not physically, but emotionally) or that their male counterparts would tell them they didn't belong on the field. Then they saw the PPoT and either decided to do it and loved it, or they showed their brothers or whoever and proved them wrong. 

 

I mean, it hasn't all been fun n games. We've had our share of critics for sure, but the vast majority of the paintball community has been pretty supportive. We've featured ladies from all over the country.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...