5 Things to Remember Before you Start Vlogging

Have you ever heard of Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg? Possibly not… He’s better known as PewDiePie, the world’s most successful vlogger whose net worth is estimated at $20million. Unlike other vloggers who use their popularity to sell items, PewDiePie made most of his wealth by vlogging or creating videos for his YouTube channel alone. Over the course of his vlogging career, PewDiePie has reached over 96 million subscribers worldwide.

YouTube has made it possible to reach a large audience and become your own internet media personality. It doesn’t cost much to start vlogging: a good video camera on your smartphone will be enough. We’ve pieced together a good guide on what you need to get started.  But there are five things to remember before you start vlogging, especially if you wish to make money from your YouTube channel.

Can You Actually Make a Living Vlogging?

Yes. Thousands of people are making money through vlogging. YouTube has 1.9 billion users worldwide who watch over 5 billion videos per day. People upload more than 300 hours of High Definition (HD) quality videos every minute on YouTube. In fact, over 13 billion videos available on YouTube and the number is growing even as you read this article.

Reaching the top is not easy, but if this sounds interesting and you’d like become a vlogger, here are five things to remember.



Five Things to Remember for Vlogging

The first step before you start vlogging is to read community guidelines about posting your videos on YouTube. The online video sharing platform has some very strict rules about the type of content you can post – make sure you familiarize yourself with these guidelines.

Select a Niche

Selecting a niche is the most important thing to square away before you start vlogging. With over 13 billion videos on myriad topics, you need your video to stand out. YouTube has videos about almost everything on this planet and beyond.

Ideally, you want to tap into a niche with low competition and have a unique idea about what you’re going to vlog about. Since everything seems to already be taken, you can borrow a good idea to make YouTube videos from blogs and various websites. When you find a niche, make sure you have enough skills, as well as passion, for vlogging about the chosen niche/idea. This will help you start vlogging almost immediately since you would know a lot about the topic or theme.

Successful vloggers like PewDiePie and others simply followed their passion to make videos. Doing the same would definitely help you too.

Never Violate Copyrights

Violating copyrights means taking videos from other sources, especially popular songs and movies and uploading them on your channel, often with a review. Vlogging about music and movie reviews is key to instant success but can land you in serious trouble.

Remember, music and videos have Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) held by the singer, recording company, or movie producer.

If you plan to vlog about music or movie reviews, only include short clips that run for less than 15 seconds. YouTube also has an IPR screening policy. This means, your vlog can be removed from YouTube if it violates international IPR rules and regulations.

Subscribe to YouTube’s Partner Program

YouTube encourages vloggers to make money by posting high quality and relevant content that meets community guidelines and international standards.

Since YouTube makes money from your content, they want to make sure your content is good enough to generate revenue. When your content reaches their standards – here is a resource page on what you need to meet their standards: YouTube Partner Program – You’ll gain access to their YouTube Partner Program. YPP allows you to make money in different ways through vlogging.

So, if you’re going to start vlogging, make sure you find ways to help your YouTube channel qualify for YPP. Everything you do has to be intentional. Don’t let it happen by luck.

Create a Vlogging Plan

What’s a vlogging plan? In simplest terms, it means identifying who would be the potential audience for your vlog, identify the type of content and frequency of upload, ways to get more people to watch your vlog (distribution channels), and how to keep interest in your “show” alive among your subscribers.

Think of a vlogging plan as a “Show Schedule”, this plan will serve as roadmap about how to go about vlogging and making money. Before you start vlogging, make a list of videos that you will make and try to give those videos a purpose – If I make video XYZ, I’m going attract people who like ABC.

Nowadays you can find excellent books and journals to help you plan your vlogs, how to create vlogging plans, and how to go about growing your YouTube channel. These books can offer some excellent insights into the world of vlogging.

Promote, Promote, & Promote

And finally, remember that before you start vlogging, you need to find ways to promote your YouTube channel. Even HUGE movie companies have a promotional campaign for their films. If you search online, you’ll find a ton of tips and guides on how to promote your channel, but where do you start? Well, it depends on who you are vlogging for. If you are vlogging for professionals in a particular industry, promote your vlog on LinkedIn. Are you going to vlog about pets? Consider joining a Reddit Community or Facebook Group. If you’re going to start a vlog about cars? See if you can join a car forum, etc.

Regardless of your type of vlog, make sure that you open yourself up to criticism. This feedback is very vital. It helps you understand the pulse of your subscribers and tune your vlogging to suit their needs. In fact, read the online tutorial on YouTube’s official website to learn about promoting your channel before you start vlogging.

This brings us back to objectionable content. Due to the socio-political developments around the world, several types of content are now deemed objectionable by YouTube. So, get updates frequently on what type of content is permissible.

Vlogging is a fun way to give wings to your passion and earn money. Using few simple tricks and tweaks can make you a successful vlogger and make you a YouTube celebrity. At the same time, vlogging requires immense patience and tremendous creativity with extra efforts. You’re going to be your own creator, editor, promoter, and manager. Vlogging is not easy but remembering these five things before you start vlogging can help you grow a channel quickly and successfully.

Remember… Be intentional.

This Article was written by Ashwin Honawar, an avid writer, blogger and journalist for over 25 years. Currently, he is working as a content writer at surejob.in and writes mostly on Career and Education. 

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