According to Business Insider Australia, TV is dying with 5 million people cancelling their cable between the beginning of 2010 and the end of 2013. Tom Rutledge, CEO of Charter Communications, told Wall street analysts he was “surprised” that 1.3 million of his 5.5 million customers don’t want TV, just internet. (USA statistics)
If people aren’t watching TV, what are they watching? The amount of video seen on mobile devices is going through the roof. Anything from tablets, iPads, Android and iPhone, people are not organizing their dinner to coincide with Wheel of Fortune anymore.
Let’s look at YouTube statistics!
No longer will you be fighting over the remote with your brothers and sisters or experience the excitement over receiving a freshly smooth TV Guide out of The West Australian.
YouTube is where people are heading! If you’re excited and passionate for an opportunity to create something you love and get paid for it, YouTube is the perfect platform for you.
YouTube Partner
‘Back in the day’, you had to be invited to become a YouTube partner and it was based on content, traffic and subscribers. But now, YouTube is really investing in passionate people to become YouTube creators by giving us all the education, tools and support by means of the Creator Hub. First, you need to become a YouTube Creator.
How to become a YouTube Creator
If you have a Gmail account (A Google email address), you are half way there. If you don’t, sign up for one now. Once you have one, you are now ready to head to the Creator Studio.
1. Open your email so you are looking at your inbox
2. In the top right hand corner, you will see a square made out of nine dots, a circle with a bell in it and your email address. Click on the square with nine dots. This will bring up all of Google accessories. Click on YouTube.
3. This will bring you to the YouTube home page. In the right hand corner, you will see a box that says UPLOAD and next to it will be a circle. Click on the circle and then click on Creator Studio.
4. You will see this: You must create a channel to upload videos. Create a channel
Click on Create a channel.
5. A box will come up and if you want to change your username, NOW is the time to do it. Then click continue.
6. You are now a YouTube Creator and can start uploading videos.
YouTube partner program
Here are important steps to understand and set up your YouTube channel!
Introduction to the YouTube partner program (Links below are the most useful ones and are from this page)
https://support.google.com/youtube/topic/14965?hl=en&ref_topic=2676320
Criteria for YouTube partner program
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/82839?hl=en&ref_topic=6029709
Set up your channel and videos for monetization:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72857?hl=en
When I first started as a YouTube creator, you had to have a YouTube account for six months before becoming a YouTube partner, monetize or set up Adsense. Now you can do it all straight after opening an account.
1. On your YouTube homepage, click on the circle in the far right hand corner. Next to the Creator Studio button with be a ‘settings’ button. Click on that.
2. Click on ‘View additional features’ which will bring up a page with the status of your channel.
3. Click on ‘Enable my account’, read through the agreement and tick the boxes below. (Remember, this is a real agreement)
Get paid by linking Adsense to your YouTube account:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72866?hl=en
Opt in to YouTube partner updates:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/176643?hl=en&ref_topic=6029709
Enable ads on your videos:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/94522
For any other information and help on setting up your channel, there is YouTube Help:
https://support.google.com/youtube#topic=4355266
Creator Hub
‘Your home for resources to help create better content, build fan bases, and turn your creativity into your career’
The Creator Hub is my favorite tool on YouTube. It’s made up of four parts.
Creator Academy – Full of free online academy courses to help you become the best creator you can be.
Programs and Tools – Mentoring, Google and YouTube only tools and training. If you live in LA, London, Tokyo, New York, Sao Paulo or Berlin, there are YouTube Spaces to learn, create and connect where you can attend classes.
Support – Ask questions, search for help and read questions from other YouTubers. Also has Terms, policies and community guidelines.
Working together – Verify your channel for partnership and see a table that shows all the options between: All Creators, Verified accounts and Partners.
Now that you have your account all set up and are full of information from the Creators Academy, what do YOU create?
Coming up with video ideas, let alone your FIRST video can be exciting and terrifying. YouTube suggests to do what you LOVE. Browse around on YouTube and you will see people doing anything from singing to the camera, teaching us how to knit a scarf, how to look after horses, how to plant and grow, how to lose weight, how to put on eyeliner, how to get a cat wing eyeliner, building a car, visiting a new country, reviewing a book, baking, how to look after your pet spider.
Gaming videos like Minecraft and COD (Call of Duty) are extremely successful. People even will dress up their cats and dogs, put music to it and people will watch it! You will come up with ideas at the most random times, so keep a list on your phone.
Be bold, creative and have fun!
Here is my first YouTube video of my first trip to Bali, Indonesia:
Do what you love, give it a go and see what works for you.
There are a lot of famous YouTubers who still have their first videos up for everyone to see. If you watch their first video and compare it to their current video, you will see major difference in lighting, content, angle etc. It’s all about learning and having fun at the same time. You don’t have to be perfect!
danisnotonfire’s (Dan Howell) first ever YouTube video from 2009 that he recorded on his laptop.
Dan is now a successful YouTuber and radio personality for BBC Radio 1. See how different his videos are now?
You don’t need a lot of money to create great content.
You will find that a lot of successful YouTubers started with their parents old camcorder. You do not need an expensive camera, set, lights and other props. Use what you have for what you want to do and work up from there.
Example:
You can create amazing cupcakes and have great techniques for the perfect icing?
What you will need: kitchen, ingredients, daylight, something to record on (smartphone, camcorder, video camera, iPad. Make sure you have cords to hook up to your computer), internet, computer to upload, editing program (which you can download for free) and enthusiasm.
How much did that cost? The ingredients, time, patience. People will watch it, especially if you’re passionate about what you are doing.
Editing programs
When you are first starting, download a free editing program from Google search. I have tried quite a few and found VideoPad to be the easiest one, which you can use for PC or Mac. When you have been creating for a bit longer and get the hang of everything, invest in a good editing program.
Music
I recommend having a low background track in your videos, it’s better then silence and makes your videos more lively. YouTube is very strict on music and will flag you for copyright if you are not careful about your music choices. Use these two websites for music and add in your editing process.
#tip If you have friend or someone you know in a band or they are a songwriter, ask to use their music in your videos.
Add credits in the description of your video. For example:
Edited on a PC using Video Pad Editor for PC.
Audio from: https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary
YouTube Audio Library: https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music
If you add music from the YouTube Audio Library AFTER your video is live, you won’t get flagged for copyright but you CANNOT monetize your video. If that happens, you can delete (make sure you have saved it during editing first), add music in your editing program and upload again. If you don’t want to, you can add music from Incompetech straight into your live video.
Incompetech: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/
Will save files to your computer and you can add them to your editing process or into your already live video.
For more help of adding music to your videos click here:
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3376882?hl=en&rd=1
Do you have what it takes?
Creating content is fun, exciting, exhausting and frustrating. I have experienced filming an entire piece and realizing I have not pushed record or my battery had died or my camera had run out of memory OR I was not in frame. My PC sometimes won’t recognize my camera, my MacBook lost footage and the time my PC, (Or my camcorder. I don’t who the culprit was!!), changed the file type and it was unusable. Sometimes technology takes any opportunity and any force on earth to make creating as difficult as possible.
It can take hours or even days to film a video that includes planning, preparation, personal grooming, getting the lighting right, bloopers, re-takes, editing, thumbprints and finally uploading. It’s not a two hour job unless you are making a very short and quick video.
That’s why it’s important you choose to do this for the right reasons. It’s great to get paid for ‘just uploading a video’, however people can tell if you are not genuine and a fake.
Fake = No views = no ad clicks = no pay.
Passion x Creativity = views = ad clicks = Paid for doing something you love.
Even this 57 second video I made (which is just a short video I filmed on my phone while holding it the wrong way) took around an hour and a half of editing, music (which I had major issues with) and uploading (which i did three times).
Here is another video I made that took a morning of exploring and around 3 hours that night of editing, music and uploading.
See also:
Perth’s Secret Garden Wonderland: https://soperth.com.au/perths-secret-garden-wonderland-1545
#perthsecretgarden: Who can visit the Secret Garden?: https://soperth.com.au/perthsecretgarden-can-visit-2278
When you look at my YouTube channel, it’s full of testing and trying different content, editing programs and other features like voice over. I have done arty type videos, photographs to music, box subscription openings, LUSH hauls, traveling, healthy eating and positivity and a fail DIY. As you can see it’s a mixture of different content to see what I want to do.
I have been a YouTube partner for about a year and a half now and honestly haven’t worked on my channel as much as I have been watching YouTube, (Who can’t resist awesome raccoons, cat vines and train or car crashes caught on tape!!) and I’m no where near to the threshold to receive my first YouTube cheque. I’m still learning how it all works and what content I want to create.
#fact I’ve had two channels before. One in 2008 with photography videos and another one in 2009 that had Health and Fitness vlogs.
YouTube has come along way in the last two years with the Creator Hub and all it’s support, it’s an exciting and excellent time to join in!
I love creating content and for the last six months I have been working on three mini series:
- How to – a series where I try to learn and teach a skill but mostly end up failing
- Perth + Western Australia Explorer – hidden gems in Australia’s largest state.
- Book and Audible reviews
Creator Academy Bootcamp
There are a lot of oportunities that come up that are great to jump on to. I got an invitation to the Creator Academy Bootcamp that was run in the month of June. You completed six online courses that each had a quiz and then completed the final quiz. If your score was above 75%, you recieved a Certificate of completion. I really enjoyed the bootcamp, I found it very informative, helpful and inspiring.
Go out there and start creating!! Remember to be genuine and create what you love.
If you need help or have any questions, feel free to Tweet me @myrapeggyrose or go to the Hello page on my website and fill out the contact form: http://myrapeggyrose.com/
Or visit the YouTube help forum and search or ask a question:
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/youtube
Here are two Perth YouTubers:
Troye Sivan https://www.youtube.com/user/TroyeSivan18
Lauren Curtis https://www.youtube.com/user/laurenbeautyy
Happy creating xx
Disclaimer: I was not asked or paid by YouTube to write this article. I love creating content and thought it might inspire others to do the same.
In my next article: Is Perth losing it’s uniqueness?
In my previous article: #perthsecretgarden: Who can visit the Secret Garden?
