Author Topic: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?  (Read 17805 times)

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Offline XOIIOTopic starter

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Hey all, something I was wondering, if anyone has tips on getting a youtube channel noticed. I'm not going to go spamming links saying "hey check out my channel" on other people's videos (hate that), but it seems pretty difficult to get noticed at all. Maybe it's just with eevblog, photonicinduction, connor wolf and the couple others, there isn't much interest in other channels, especially from people that know dick all compared to them.

 It's fairly disheartening, even when I threw up a link to a teardown of (what I think) is pretty interesting test equipment in the test equipment forum, the first video got 71 views, second a measly 31 (and that was the part with the proper teardown in it), and I didn't get one bit of feedback on it at all, zip, nada, nothing.

I'm not expecting to get anywhere near the amount of interest other people do, not even close, but it certainly does suck when there is apparently no interest in it, at this point I'm not even sure why I document stuff I'm working on, or have ideas for, I'm not really bothering to upload it much anymore.

Has anyone else you has tried uploading stuff to youtube encountered the same? I'm guessing the same problem happens for other channels, like people trying to do podcasts or gaming channels, except this is just a bit more niche, something more common in pop culture would be easier, the teardown I did of  call of duty pre-order gopro style camera got 177 views, no doubt mostly because it's from call of duty lol.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 12:10:46 pm by XOIIO »
 

Offline con-f-use

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Not a youtube person, but I guess the best way is to produce good content over a long time and work with other vbloggers that mention you in their channels. Mouth to mouth propaganda. I don't see anything wrong with a little mentioning your channel/videos where they are relevant.
 

Offline Stonent

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Start a separate blog on a well known blogging site and embed your vids. Also post vids on Facebook for family and friends. Use lots of keywords.
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Offline Bored@Work

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Well, having a bit of a clue also helps to get a channel noticed. That applies to production quality of the videos, as well as the subjects they are about.

Example: Regarding the first point, production quality, you were the one gracing us with the the power supply video that made watchers seasick and you refused to listen to any critiques. Regarding the second, if we stick with the power supply theme: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/so-negative-voltages-what-exactly-are-they-for-%28and-v-power-supply-question%29/msg428185/#msg428185 Really?

And mixing the typical pointless gaming junk into the channel doesn't help either.
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Offline XOIIOTopic starter

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Well, having a bit of a clue also helps to get a channel noticed. That applies to production quality of the videos, as well as the subjects they are about.

Example: Regarding the first point, production quality, you were the one gracing us with the the power supply video that made watchers seasick and you refused to listen to any critiques. Regarding the second, if we stick with the power supply theme: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/so-negative-voltages-what-exactly-are-they-for-%28and-v-power-supply-question%29/msg428185/#msg428185 Really?

And mixing the typical pointless gaming junk into the channel doesn't help either.

That's why it is separated into separate playlists, and I'm not going to go over the power supply stuff again, it's been talked to death, if someone acts like a prick about it I'm not going to listen.

And guess what, like I stated in that question, I have never needed to know about negative voltage sources, or done anything that requires knowledge about them, so why would I have looked into it? Of course I don't know nearly as much as someone decades older than me, and someone who is a professional electronics engineer.

I guess production quality is easy to talk about when people are used to vloggers with $600+ cameras and fancy lighting/audio equipment, not everyone can afford that.

I did change a few things in the nettest cma teardown, but I guess that still wasn't good enough to warrant even a single response from anyone, not even any feedback on the video/audio quality. I guess before I start making videos I need to invest hundreds of dollars in equipment that may prove to be a total waste?
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 07:58:15 pm by XOIIO »
 

Offline MatCat

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After taking a quick look at a few of your videos I can honestly say you need a better camera / mic, I am not going to watch / listen to that quality for much longer then a moment unless the subject at hand is really that interesting and it's not.  Secondly your on-camera personality is a bit dry, youtube is show business just like TV, think about mythbusters, Jamie was the star / center of the show because it's his shop and his experience, but the guy just has no appeal on camera, so they brought in Adam Savage who has gobs of on air personality.  Third is networking, no youtube channel is going to work without lots and lots of networking legwork, I.E. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wherever you can.  Fourth you should have seperate channels, one for gaming, one for electronics, they are literally two very different worlds, gamers don't really care much about true electronics, and people into electronics probably aren't going to care too much about the gaming, so neither are going to subscribe at very high numbers, playlists just aren't enough.

Does it take a $600+ camera (and honestly a lot of pro youtubers use cameras a hell of a lot more expensive then $600!)?  No not really, but it sure does help. 

I hope that helps :).

 

Offline XOIIOTopic starter

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After taking a quick look at a few of your videos I can honestly say you need a better camera / mic, I am not going to watch / listen to that quality for much longer then a moment unless the subject at hand is really that interesting and it's not.  Secondly your on-camera personality is a bit dry, youtube is show business just like TV, think about mythbusters, Jamie was the star / center of the show because it's his shop and his experience, but the guy just has no appeal on camera, so they brought in Adam Savage who has gobs of on air personality.  Third is networking, no youtube channel is going to work without lots and lots of networking legwork, I.E. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wherever you can.  Fourth you should have seperate channels, one for gaming, one for electronics, they are literally two very different worlds, gamers don't really care much about true electronics, and people into electronics probably aren't going to care too much about the gaming, so neither are going to subscribe at very high numbers, playlists just aren't enough.

Does it take a $600+ camera (and honestly a lot of pro youtubers use cameras a hell of a lot more expensive then $600!)?  No not really, but it sure does help. 

I hope that helps :).

Curious if you speak of the older or newer videos, or both, the old ones were shot with a crappy point and shoot, never ones with an iphone 4 when I got a tripod mount and rigged up a cable to hook into external audio (this would be the best example I think: )

I do want to get a better camera (well, actual dedicated camera), unfortunately that's going to be stuck behind building a PC that doesn't crash randomly all the time (and then I could render something like 1080p without it taking ages) and a few other things so it wouldn't happen for some time, I was hoping the iphone/mic solution might be good enough in the meantime but I don't really have a decent camera to see just how much of a difference there is (youtube encoding and different lighting setups make it hard to tell).

I do figure it's difficult to do something like this if you don't really have much personality on camera, I don't really have much personality any other time either though, I'm not really an expressive person, at all. What you see there is pretty much me all the time. I just hoped that if it was something interesting like a network analyzer that would be the point of focus, rather than my on air personality.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 08:26:38 pm by XOIIO »
 

Offline hans

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Honestly, I think playlists will not work for many (if not all) people. If I subscribe to a small channel with electronics content which then puts irrelevant video's on the same account I may put up with it for 1-2 times (if their other video's were interesting enough). After that (or directly if I'm not impressed) I become annoyed and unsubscribe. I've got a list of ~130 subscriptions of Youtube; having the subs stream sort of "junk free" is kinda nice.

Heck. I've some "League of Legends" channels that would put up video's of the game Heartstone. The disclaimer was: the game is so popular.. everyone I know in LoL and Twitch streamers of LoL play this game, so I am sure you guys are interested in this! If not, please ignore these video's. Yeah for sure I will do, by just unsubscribing.

Hence some bloggers realize that and create new channels for other content.

As in making a successful video channel; I think it's hard. In ideal situations, you want to have both content value and production value, in addition to some charisma on camera. I think in particular production value can be sacrificed for content value (to certain limits.....). Personally, I favor content value bigly. I like watching channels like mikeselectricstuff and connor wolf with interesting teardowns and some sensible philosophies/talk instead of overproduced & acted Arduino-shield waffling like "Ben Heck show" pushed by a large company.

You do need to get your name out. I've uploaded some (gaming) video's to YouTube myself, and never did anything in the form of advertisement. I did gave it some tags, but views rarely developed >400 (even after being out there for 2 years). Views are scarce and don't develop on themselves. Maybe it is shameless advertisement, but I think initially most video blogs have started with the mindset of sharing interesting content so I think people would only benefit from that.

I would also try doing something about the camera work. In your last video I noticed you adjusted the camera like 3 times in the first minute. It's extremely tedious to watch a video like that. There is probably a viewfinder on the camera. Before turning it on, see if the camera is set up properly. If not, reposition, start over and use some (simple) montage program to put the individual segments together. Note that, afaik, Dave still shoots some individual clips with him waffling about, pastes them together in good order, maybe adds the occasional text comment/screencast/photo, and uploads it.
Also the audio level was a bit on the low side IMO.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 08:35:46 pm by hans »
 

Online mariush

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A very small percent of people will actually comment or like videos.

Check a few videos randomly.... video quality could be better but it's not bad, audio quality seems ok.  Lots of uhmmm, ohh, in one video i jumped at some point and right away i got "oh shit, i guess that's why it said that here" or something like that.  If you don't seem to know what you're doing, nobody's going to care to keep watching. You can fake it until you get more experience and start to understand some things... editing helps for this. Use the edit functions of a video editor, cut away those breaks (uh, oh, hmmm etc), pause recording and look over something you see in a product teardown, type some chip names in google to get a clue about their purpose instead of just saying something stupid.
Don't be afraid to say "I don't know" what this does, instead of just guessing... it looks worse when you have to correct yourself later in the videos.
Pay attention to the focus and zoom in, zoom out when needed.. for example in the nettest cma 4000 teardown (part2) you have 35 minutes of boringness because you couldn't be bothered to zoom in where needed and show some closeups, or the lightning is bad when you do closeups and you don't explain what people are looking at - the video could have been a 20 minute or less video, with more quality.

And honestly, I wouldn't subscribe because I don't want to see in "My subscriptions" videos about call of duty or other crap - specialize the channel into something - you can make lots of channels and upload into each channel separately : https://www.youtube.com/channel_switcher?next=%2F

Audio can be improved with a good lavalier microphone .. i ordered a Sony ECM-CS3 lavalier microphone for 30$ incl. shipping from South Korea (eBay) because they're about 50$ in ships here... in US they're as low as 16$, here's Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-ECMCS3-Omnidirectional-Stereo-Microphone/dp/B0058MJX4O
In one video you mention that Youtube screwed the audio... stick to ac3/aac stereo 192kbps or 5.1 448 kbps and you should be fine.

Video can be improved with some good lightning.. if you don't mind the heat they generate, these things work quite well and bulbs are cheap (you can probably find them cheaper in home depot or diy type stores) : http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Halogen-Garden-Weatherproof-Light/dp/B00ET9WT8Y/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1397939710&sr=8-8&keywords=500w+halogen+garden+lamp

There's also lamps like these... brand sounds like Chinese crap but they do work quite well for the money (search for the product code on amazon.com and you'll find them) : http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dimmable-Digital-Camcorder-Panasonic-Samsung/dp/B004TJ6JH6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1397939682&sr=8-2&keywords=led+lamp+camera

Get some A1-A2 sheets of white paper, put them on your desk.. the paper will reflect the light and make your camera work better and so on.... and videos will look more professional with a clean desk.

No need to spend hundreds of dollars to improve quality, with under 100$ you can really improve the quality of your videos a lot.

Someone mentions networking... I don't know.. I hate facebook and twitter, i don't use them.  It wouldn't hurt to mention from time to time on some forums you use (like this one) that you uploaded a video and ask for feedback and so on.. as long as you don't spam, you'll be fine.  People will start subscribing when they see you have good content.

Funny you have money for an iphone but you don't have money for a pc.... an AMD FX-6300 is 120$, a motherboard for it could be as low as 50$, some ddr3 is 20$ .. with under 200$ you can have a solid pc.
You can buy good used HD cameras from eBay for under 200$, you just have to be patient and wait for good models that show up from time to time. There's even some refurbished cameras on Canon's own online store, with warranty and all that... if you check from time to time there's some very good deals on those cameras: http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/camcorders/refurbished-consumer-camcorders
 

Offline XOIIOTopic starter

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I didn't have money for an iphone, I haven't owned any new PC or phone ever, only PC I ever owned new was an old hp laptop back in 2007/8 i think, it's been a long time. edit: actually a few years before that even.

I got the phone (iphone 4) free for taking over someone's contract, otherwise I wouldn't have even gotten a phone at all. Unfortunately the phone and the point and shoot I have can't zoom in while recording (especially annoying for a more modern, though cheap,point and shoot, i guess because the motor noise would be audible, you can if you disable the mic, stupid annoying options). I wonder if the iphone 5 might be able to, I think I might be able to get one (unsure which, might be 5, or 5s, or 5c, no clue off hand) as an upgrade if I extend my contract, I need to look into it. video quality would probably be improved a fair bit too.

I never knew about that channel switcher thing, that would make it a lot easier than having to come up with a new email to suit it, I'd just need to come up with a name for it, though I suck at naming things. Thanks for pointing that out though. I probably will segregate my content then, especially if you can move the videos over.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 09:27:55 pm by XOIIO »
 

Offline MatCat

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2014, 09:19:26 pm »
I certainly wouldn't worry much about feedback either, I have 3 total videos with views over 1000 (1,100, 1,600, and 1,800) and each only have a single comment and I think only 2 of them even have a like.  I have probably about 20 videos with over 500 views that have 0 to 2 comments only, so feedback is indeed rare.
 

Offline XOIIOTopic starter

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #11 on: April 19, 2014, 09:40:58 pm »
Hmm thinking about it, the zoom on the iphone will be digital anyways, I wonder if it would be better or worse than doing it in a video editing program afterwards. Would still be crappy though compared to optical.

Isn't there a phone with some crazy 42 megapixel camera with optical zoom that was made? I recall it having a massive bulge out the back for the camera lol, I wonder if you could find one of those relatively cheap-ish if the phone was in rough shape since you would only use it for the camera.

Offline Legit-Design

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #12 on: April 19, 2014, 10:42:33 pm »
Hmm thinking about it, the zoom on the iphone will be digital anyways, I wonder if it would be better or worse than doing it in a video editing program afterwards. Would still be crappy though compared to optical.

Isn't there a phone with some crazy 42 megapixel camera with optical zoom that was made? I recall it having a massive bulge out the back for the camera lol, I wonder if you could find one of those relatively cheap-ish if the phone was in rough shape since you would only use it for the camera.

Nokia 808 PureView 41MPX, but megapixels aren't going to help you here. Was your iphone lens clean when you filmed the power supply video, looks hazy to me and that means dirty lens? You obviously didn't have enough light, add more light, and more light until you cannot add more light anymore. Take look at Eevblog videos about the lab upgrades, Dave is always adding more lights and better lights and all that. For just quick and dirty and cheap get highest power CFL bulbs and fittings you can find, it's not going to cost too much. You will also find working on stuff much easier with more lights. Don't get halogens get 30W+ CFL bulbs. No need to get 5000K meant for video or photography, get 6400K if you can't find anything else.


Really good simple example about cheap video light. No need to follow every step, important thing is to have a lot of light. Get more than in that video if at all possible.
Indy mogul also speaks about all the subjects related to video blogging.


5 Things You Need to Know About Light

Another MUST watch video from indy mogul.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 10:54:39 pm by Legit-Design »
 

Offline vk3yedotcom

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #13 on: April 19, 2014, 11:34:32 pm »
Lots of good comments above.  Definitely avoid seasickness.  Buy a tripod - even if it's only a cheapie 15cm tall.  Though 1m ones aren't much dearer.  No fancy lights or expensive cameras required.  This guy is super-popular even though his movie set comprises a dull brown sofa and often just one camera angle. https://www.youtube.com/user/ashens

Good editing conceals a multitude of sins.  Some people are like Dave, can start the camera rolling, and come out coherent from start to finish. But most can't.  Having a plan of what you're going to say helps.  But you'll still need to edit.  I typically record 40 minutes of stuff, spread over 30 or 40 separate segments to make one 4 - 6 minute video.   Good editing shows you respect the viewer by not wasting their time.

Some more tips at (plug follows):

 

Just replace 'radio' with 'electronics'.
« Last Edit: April 19, 2014, 11:38:00 pm by vk3yedotcom »
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Offline EEVblog

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2014, 12:23:22 am »
Most successful channels took a lot of time to build up an audience and youtube ranking.
Building an audience you have complete control over. It's to do with the quality of your content and your likeability.
Youtube ranking is a mysterious beast, and if anyone claims to completely understand it then they are bullshitting.
Not even those working on the algorithms for search ranking know the whole story, no single person does. They deliberately do this to avoid information leaking out and people being able to "game the system". The algorithms are also constantly changing and evolving.
The the usual rules always apply that will help build your channel, as all the following (plus more) is taken into account into the youtube algorithms :
1) Continue to produce and upload consistent content. If you don't youtube won't rank you anywhere.
2) Get people to comment and rate your videos
3) Release your videos during the peak times for your biggest audience, as rate of viewing and commenting in the first hours matters a lot.
4) Target specific keywords and have your videos fit some niche were there isn't too much competition.
5) Follow the Youtube Playbook: https://www.youtube.com/yt/playbook/ (I an others do the opposite though in terms of attention span, content organisation etc, so this is just generic advice for mass audiences)

Keep doing that for a few years and you might see success.
It's not easy.
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #15 on: April 20, 2014, 12:26:21 am »
Good editing conceals a multitude of sins.  Some people are like Dave, can start the camera rolling, and come out coherent from start to finish. But most can't.

I can do long rambling videos, but they generally turn out a lot poorer, even with a lot of editing.
So I've learned to shoot lots of short segments. That gives you a bit of time to think about (or even re-take) each shot, and set up the optimal camera position, framing and lens etc.
 

Offline w2aew

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #16 on: April 20, 2014, 02:41:13 am »
Dave, and the other folks, have given you very good advise. It takes time to build a following. Quality content, clear and concise delivery, and topics of good general interest are very important. It's taken years for me to get to about 14,000 subscribers. Dave has grown faster due to other social media presence, particular the forum and blog.
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Offline vk3yedotcom

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #17 on: April 20, 2014, 06:19:51 am »
I actually watched a video on Oreo copies. Go figure. Even though I always regarded Oreos as a copy of Arnotts Delta Cream. They're not apparently.

Saw that as well.  Spent a good few minutes in the supermarket aisle pondering the markings on them a few days later and ended up buying a pack. 

If you're near a beach, river or hills, do videos from there; a lot of people like it as a backdrop. Makes a nice change from a work bench or spare room.  That would only work for some videos and wind/rain can sometimes be a problem. But if feasible it can aid recognition when people talk about your channel and mention it in their videos, social media etc.  Eg apparently I'm the guy down the beach with the antennas.   

Even if you're not so locationally blessed, then some other point of difference is as good if not better.  The following conversation might happen several times a day/week/month:

A: Saw a great video on smashing multimeters the other day
B: I'm looking for a rugged one - know who did it?   
A: Can't remember - but he's that crazy Aussie bloke
B: I'll look him up  (he does and comes here)

As for personality etc, once you have a following and people know what to expect, it does no harm to throw in a curve ball with a crazy (but vaguely on topic) video every now and then.  Eg stuff blowing up, falling over, not working, dogs getting in the way, April fool, spoof etc.  Popular culture references (eg music/video clip) can also be thrown in occasionally.  Such videos generate more than average comments.

Look at how BJA does Silicon Chip cartoons in Serviceman.  He'll hone in on a couple of words in the article, put a different spin on it and make that the topic of the cartoon or caption.   In the case of videos such references can encourage people to stay watching until the end if there could be a twist or bite at the end.  Eg    Even before this point retention is important which is why tight editing is good to 'keep it moving'.

Some say that you should 'be yourself' on screen.  Others say that making a video requires a particular role (possibly different from your normal duties) and you should act that to the best of your ability, even if the personality is different to the 'real you'.  I'll let others debate that!
« Last Edit: April 20, 2014, 06:33:41 am by vk3yedotcom »
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Offline han

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #18 on: April 20, 2014, 08:51:53 am »
Just watch the CMA 4000 vid, the video is too long and to much idle moment so i skip a lot of it...
Just sugestion(my opinion).
1. Make shorter video first before gaining more viewer
2. I like video from w2aew, there is a simple tutorial for most/all the video, so every time i watch it i gain valuable knowledgeable
3. Try to skip the boring stuff (like ff at opening the case)
 

Offline XOIIOTopic starter

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #19 on: April 20, 2014, 09:53:25 am »

Nokia 808 PureView 41MPX, but megapixels aren't going to help you here. Was your iphone lens clean when you filmed the power supply video, looks hazy to me and that means dirty lens?

That video was on the old point and shoot, anything before the Logitech driving wheel was.

As far as having an expressive personality goes I can't offer much advice to help, I am not so blessed either. However I watched a bit of the teardown and I found the audio a bit hard to understand and I do have a bit of hearing loss. I tend not to like the over the shoulder camera view and don't need to see the back of your head. Put the camera over the bench or else on the other side from you. Although I don't suggest spending up big on a camera I do think the iphone camera is not ideal for a video that would benefit from some close ups of the detail. Dave is a good example of someone doing it pretty well. He is doing it a lot and can justify the money spent on better gear which can make the process more efficient.

You could still try using the iphone but I suggest you abandon the single over the shoulder shot and try repositioning the camera up close for the things you are talking about at the time. Also with the camera up close you will also be closer to the mic. Then you could also bring in a desk lamp in close to light the circuit board. It will take more editing.  This will also help pick up the pace and offset the lack of expressiveness in presentation style. Someone else here made a persuasive video illustrating this. Alternatively if you are not going to be talking on camera you can add audio later to the edited video. Bad audio is more unpleasant than bad video quality, ie shaky or distant.
 

Yeah,  I am still working on a good way to suspend the phone/camera over my desk. I have a monitor on one of those swing out arms, unfortunately it  is too high up

Lots of good comments above.  Definitely avoid seasickness.  Buy a tripod - even if it's only a cheapie 15cm tall.  Though 1m ones aren't much dearer.  No fancy lights or expensive cameras required.  This guy is super-popular even though his movie set comprises a dull brown sofa and often just one camera angle. https://www.youtube.com/user/ashens
 

Yup, I've watched ashens for quite some time, though he has loads and loads of humor. I believe he does have a lighting setup.

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Anyways, thanks for the tips all, I'll check out those links when I have time, I definitely do need to find a way to suspend the camera, the biggest thing in the way of it is the ability, or lack thereof, of zooming. Perhaps there are some relatively cheap clip on optics that would do it (I think I might have a couple old CCTV cameras that I might be able to rig up the lens from, but mounting it is the trick). I might be able to improve the audio by tweaking things on the wireless receiver, but I can guarantee you that the audio from that is better than the iphone's build in mic.
there are other things I have probably missed, but I'm going to go over the thread again when I'm slightly more awake.

Offline EEVblog

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #20 on: April 20, 2014, 09:57:40 am »
It's taken years for me to get to about 14,000 subscribers. Dave has grown faster due to other social media presence, particular the forum and blog.

My stats after each year:
1 year:  422K views, 1183 subscribers.
2 years: 1.9M views, 6345 subscribers
3 years: 4.8M views, 18961 subscribers
4 years: 11.6M views, 52646 subscribers
5 years: 22.3M views, 125528 subscribers

So as you can see, it's not quick, even for "successful" channel like mine. It is a long hard slog doing an average of 3 videos a week for 5 years non-stop.
If you are lucky enough to appeal to a much wider audience, like Mehdi Sadaghdar for example then growth can be much quicker.
https://www.youtube.com/user/msadaghd

Here is the graph of 5 years worth of subscribers growth with rolling 30 day average.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2014, 10:03:10 am by EEVblog »
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #21 on: April 20, 2014, 10:10:49 am »
Dave is a good example of someone doing it pretty well. He is doing it a lot and can justify the money spent on better gear which can make the process more efficient.

I do have a $1500 camera (now $1K), but I can get essentially the same results with my backup $400 camera and $40 macro lens.
 
Quote
I notice Dave has posted as I've been typing so do what he says. I have been watching the EEVblog for about 4 years and Dave has steadily improved and not just because he bought a better camera. It is because he took the time to use it properly, the focus, exposure and white balance and using an external microphone.

Actually, the majority of my audio (the stuff behind the camera) is shot with the internal mic. But an internal mic on a Canon $1500 Canon HFG10 is a pretty good mic.
Any decent brand camcorder is actually going to have a pretty decent internal mic which will be fine for the behind camera use. But talking head video in front of the camera at 1m away is entirely different story and room acoustic really play a huge part here.
For example, the internal mic on my $400 Canon HF M400 is better than the mic on my $1500 HF G10 when I'm in front of the camera, because the M400 has the mics on the front pointing forward, but the G10 has the mics on the top pointing up which are much more suited to behind camera voice over. So I get more room echos on the G10 if I use it for talking head shots. So for that I plug in my Rode Videomic Pro. But even then I still get echos and aircon noise, so I've just installed some acoustic foam on the walls.
« Last Edit: April 20, 2014, 10:12:41 am by EEVblog »
 

Offline EEVblog

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #22 on: April 20, 2014, 10:32:23 am »
Ultimately there are two types of content creators - those who appeal more because of just their content, and those who appeal more because of their personality and/or persona etc.
And of course those who have both.
If you have a channel long enough, you'll usually end up building up both eventually though, especially if you are on-camera.
I seem to have a foot well and truly in both camps, after all, why would so many people watch me open my mail, or do a several hour live show?
But in our industry someone like say Afrotechmods would be classic example of the former. e.g. he's never on camera, you don't even know his real name, and every video is a polished short no nonsense tutorial video cut down to the classic 5 minute attention span limit. And no hundreds of videos to really build up personality appeal, running gags, building audience rapport etc.
The audience just get the info videos and nothing more.

Nothing wrong with either approach of course, it's whatever you like doing. Mine was always a personal "video blog" style from day one. The risk was always though that if people didn't find me appealing, then the blog would not have grown like it has. So as far as lower risk goes, the polished Afrotechmods or Kahn Academy style how-to info-only video approach stands a better chance of success.
 

Offline XOIIOTopic starter

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #23 on: April 20, 2014, 11:12:29 am »
Quick question for you guys for when I have time to read through this, videos relating to a home made air canon/air gun and that sort of stuff, would that fit on the channel since it will have DIY electronics stuff and small projects, or would that be more clutter than anything else? Not sure if those areas of interest cross over for most people unless I was rigging up a remote control system or something like that.

Offline SeanB

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Re: Tips on getting a youtube channel noticed/ is it worth trying anymore?
« Reply #24 on: April 20, 2014, 12:06:35 pm »
Video of the making is good, as that falls into the interfacing to real world category.

Just video of you shooting spuds at targets as a whole video not really. One good shot at beginning or end yes, as intro and demo of completion.
 


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