What I Learned My First Year On YouTube

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It's been just a little over a year (June 2023) since publishing my first video on YouTube.

So I thought you might find it interesting to know what my first year on YouTube was like and what I learned, in case you're thinking about starting a YouTube channel for your business.

Why I wanted to start a YouTube channel

Two main reasons:

To increase my reach by creating an additional internet property where people could find me. Google is the largest search engine in the world, but the second largest search engine is YouTube. When you publish a video on YouTube, it has the potential to show up on YouTube as well as in the Google search results.
To increase conversions. Over the past few years, I've noticed it's taking more and more website traffic to generate the same number of leads and clients. I believe that's partly because people these days are doing more research before making a buying decision, but also because they have more choices and data to sift through. I felt that having a presence on YouTube would help me stand out from my competitors and gain rapport with prospective clients by giving them a chance to see and hear on YouTube before even speaking with me

Why I almost DIDN'T start my YouTube channel

I was terrified.

Although I had been making videos since the mid-2000s, I had never been on camera before. I was worried I was not going to be photogenic enough, that my content wouldn't be good enough, that people would judge me or leave negative comments and on and on.

But despite all these fears, I forged ahead anyway because something inside me said it's what I needed to do.

And I did it.

Looking back a year later, it now seems silly I was ever afraid to be on camera because today it seems like no big deal.

I guess it's just another reminder that sometimes we have to get out of our comfort zone if we want bigger and better results.

Solving my first two YouTube challenges

Starting out, the first two challenges I had to solve were:

1. What kind of background or studio did I want to create for my YouTube videos?

2. What kind of equipment did I need?

I began watching a ton of YouTube videos about how to make YouTube videos. Eventually I stumbled across a channel called Live Streaming Pros by Luria Petrucci. I purchased her course and it literally solved all of my problems regarding how to set up my YouTube studio as well as all the equipment I needed.

My first two equipment upgrades

After publishing my first few YouTube videos and confirming to myself that (a) this was something I actually liked doing, and (b) it was something I was going to continue doing, I decided to invest in two additional pieces of equipment.

First, a better lens for my camera.

The Sony camera I bought on Amazon came with what's called a "kit lens", which is a starter lens, and I thought this might just be good enough — even though every serious YouTuber recommended upgrading your camera lens.

I bit the bullet and followed their advice, and they were right.

Upgrading my camera lens was a major improvement.

The image on the left is using the kit lens that came with my camera. The image on the right is using the upgraded lens. Big difference.

The second piece of equipment I invested in was a teleprompter. I had a terrible time remembering my lines while talking to the camera, which resulted in take after take to get it right.

The teleprompter I use is the Elgato Prompter, and it works great.

My biggest takeaways after year # 1 on YouTube

After a year of making YouTube videos, one of my biggest takeaways is that making decent quality videos takes a lot of time and effort. More than you might realize.

Most of my YouTube videos are about 5-7 minutes in length. To produce a high-quality, 5-7 minute video, it usually takes me around 10-20 hours, start to finish. In addition, I sometimes stay up until 2, 3, 4 o'clock in the morning just to stay on schedule and make sure my videos get published on time.

You might be wondering why does it take so long to create a 5-7 minute video?

First, any good piece of content (whether it's a video or written content), requires a lot of research to find out what your audience wants, as well as to make sure your information is accurate. Unfortunately, there's no magic easy button. You simply have to roll up your sleeves and do the work, which takes time.

Then you have to write your script, where you start with a blank page. You start by throwing stuff on a page and writing and rewriting (and rewriting some more) until you get something that flows well and tells a coherent story. This process takes several hours.

Even though I love and use ChatGPT all the time, it cannot magically spit out a perfect video script for you. You still have to do the work manually.

Then once you have your script, you have to record your audio and video.

After you've recorded your audio and video, you have to edit your audio and video, and create graphics and special effects. and get everything synchronized — which takes time.

Again, there's no magic easy button. This is why even a polished, 5-7 minute video can take 10-20 hours to produce.

The top 5 video techniques I learned in year # 1

Get right into your content immediately. Don't dilly-dally or blather on. Start delivering on the promise you made in the title or thumbnail of your video. Nothing is more annoying than a video that wastes your time with irrelevant introductory information.
Keep things moving. You cannot have dull moments where viewers lose interest. This is where having a well-written script comes in. You also want to change images, use transitions, sound effects, etc. Make it interesting so people don't get bored.
Raise your video production value with music. Movies, TV shows and commercials all use a subtle music background track to enhance the feeling or a vibe for the viewer. Have you ever been to a restaurant or party with no music playing? It's a very flatline, sometimes uncomfortable, experience. The key is making the background music just loud enough so it's perceptible, but not so loud that it's distracting from the content of your video.
Leave things on the cutting room floor. This can be a tough thing, especially when you've worked really hard on a certain part of your video. In your final edit, if there's a dull moment or a certain section that just doesn't work like you thought it would, you have to be objective and cut that section out even if it hurts a little bit. When in doubt, leave it out.
Don't reinvent the wheel. Find a handful of YouTube creators whose videos you like and emulate them. Use them for inspiration to get you going. As you create more videos, you'll experiment with different techniques and develop your own unique style. As you might've heard me say in my other blog post or videos, "It's a thousand times easier to edit, or in this case, model something than to try and create something completely from scratch."

Conclusion

Has YouTube been worth it for me?

100%!

Being a relatively new channel, I don't have millions of subscribers to my channel. But you don't need millions of subscribers to be successful.

As mentioned above, establishing rapport with prospective clients by giving them valuable, helpful, useful information is really my top priority.

And I can tell you for a fact, nearly every client and prospective client I've talked with in the past year has told me, "Yeah, I watched a bunch of your YouTube videos!" This results in much less "sales resistance" because they feel like they already know me.

Yes, producing YouTube videos is a lot of work and it's not always fun, but it's totally worth it — both for elevating my brand and attracting new clients.

So that's what year #1 on YouTube was like for me.

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Mark Brinker

Mark Brinker is president of Mark Brinker & Associates — a business website design and development firm in Sterling Heights, MI. Mark offers a FREE masterclass training, "The 5 Steps To Creating A Website That Consistently Attracts Ideal Clients", which you can watch here. Mark also publishes lots of great (and free!) content on his YouTube channel.