Are you exploring Vlogging as a career option? Will it be your full-time choice of earning or is it something you want to add to your life and career? Either way, you have landed in the right place! This article will guide, explain and clear all the misconceptions regarding Vlogging and help you in choosing and identifying the most suitable platform for your genre and content.
Create Quality Vlogs
These days, people are using their mobile phones to create content. They have become self-sufficient and edit it on Apps available online, free of cost. Having said that, it is nice to make small investments along the way. The first is knowledge. Second, comes vision. The third one is having faith in yourself!
Invest in a Good Camera:
Now let’s talk about the ‘other’ investment (yes, the one that dents your pocket!) The most obvious one is your camera. If you don’t want to spend heavily on a camera, get a phone with high pixels. Another very important tool is the Audio kit as you don’t want yourself flashing on-screen without sound, right?
Let’s take a short break from the expenses and see what can one save on.
Use Natural Light for Video:
Use daylight for your shoots and content to save on light expenditure. It always comes out nice and you catch the gorgeous environment around too! Since you’re a start-up, I’m not really sure if you will be having people helping you out. In this case, get a remote control. This will help you in pausing during your sessions.
Selfie Stick/Tripod:
Next comes something that might be in your cubby, somewhere. Bought and safely kept; you got that right, selfie stick or a tripod. Dive into your cupboard and find it. Since we are beginning our journey, we will be doing many rounds before our final product, which is why memory card is so important!
Once you are set with this, you are good to go with your choice of vlogging platform. I will be sharing some key points regarding these platforms for you to be aware of. Each has an objective, vision, and ideology. Choose what matches yours. I will be touching upon this in a bit so stay with me.
Best Platforms for Vlogging
There are 8 platforms for vLogging that are being used rather extensively by the trending Vloggers, and rather successfully if I may say so. The topmost is YouTube followed by Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Twitch and DTube.
How to choose the Right Vlogging platform?
Vlogging was introduced when YouTube came around. With more than 1 Billion users, it will be safe to say that Vlogging and YouTube go hand in hand. However, over the years there are many pre-existing and new platforms that have taken over and changed the whole scenario.
After YouTube, Instagram (also known as IGTV) has created a niche for itself and has come across as a gamechanger followed by Tik Tok. The content created and posted on all platforms caters to different audiences.
Before you decide on your platform, be sure of what you want to do. Your objectives should be clear, content sketched out, and ensure that your research is done, extensively! Your tone, look and feel, consistency of content, and format mainly identify the right plan for you.
Reviewing and assessing the platform to understand the niche
Your channel is your home. Everything stems from there. It is your identity. Keeping it concise and point-based, I am sharing with you the main pros and cons regarding the ones aforementioned, for you to evaluate and be the best judge. Free advice: See what others are doing. The platforms they are using. The content they are creating. See how can you make your content stand out. Know your USP. Find your voice.
Creating content on YouTube automatically enables you to reach out to 1 Billion users, making it fall under the top 3 best platforms for Vloggers. Vlogging is all about viewership and clicks. When someone searches the keywords on YouTube, you will eventually pop up. Naturally, with time your channel will climb the ladder but remember, consistency is the key. YouTube allows you videos of worth hours. You can post 20 videos on a daily basis.
To start earning, you need to have 4,000 valid watch hours in the span of 12 months along with 10,000 subscribers. Once you have reached the mark, money will start flowing in. Learn more about the YouTube monetization policy here.
Creating an Insta account comes with many perks. You can link it to your YouTube channel. On a daily basis, multiple stories can be added alongwith posts and videos. To grow your audience and make it more engaging Instagram offers tags, adding music and GIFs. Any activity done on this account grows your viewership on the other, if and once linked. Formerly IGTV and now know Instagram video- it allows content ranging from 3 seconds to 10 minutes. In order to have longer videos, you need to have a higher number of followers. This spikes your limit to 60 minutes/video.
The plus with Instagram videos is that it really hasn’t put a cap on the number of videos you can post on a daily basis. However, experts recommend that a Vlogger should not be posting more than 3 videos/day.
The more comments, the more possibility of it going viral. Tik Tok content is very different from others. It gives you the most diverse sounds, effects, music, templates to add and uplift your content with. Now before you post, you may want to trim and edit your content, for which there are many free video editing Apps while some are paid with the minimum amount – InShot Video Editor, Timbre, YouCut to name a few.
Each Tik Tok video can go up to a minute. Compared to previously discussed, it is fairly a short time. However, it is a great supporting platform for Vloggers to link to their main channel.
Facebook videos have shown better results with short lengths; 20 – 40 seconds, primarily because the audience goes to Facebook more so for socializing.
Quite recently, Facebook monetized its videos giving the same share plan as YouTube to its creator.
The best thing which is also the biggest difference between Vimeo and others is that you do not need to upload a video. Instead, you can directly publish on any social platform of your choice.
If you are looking for a quiet and secluded place, this is your game. Vimeo gives you options to go public and private, unlike other channels. It has no limits to the number of videos you can upload on a daily basis. When comparing technical features, Vimeo outsmarts YouTube.
Like others, You can make money on Vimeo. On every 1,000 views, the creator gets $260. Another plus is that you can edit the content without losing the existing stats.
You can publish 10 videos on a daily basis. The minimum length of the video preferred is 30 seconds. This is YouTube’s biggest competitor and a good place to know your audience. Unlike the former, Dailymotion has followers in millions. Your video content will be limited to 60 minutes here.
It focuses on high-quality content and is a valuable platform for rising stars, as you of course.
This is a platform that is usually used for streaming broadcasts. The audience logs in to watch game shows and sports. If that is your niche, this is where you need to be.
DTube has a large audience and has more leverage on the content. However, it is not recognized by Google just yet, therefore the content is limited to the realm of Dtubers.
Conclusion
A multi-dollar industry, Vlogging has turned tables for the media industry. There are many stars that have been born out of Vlogging. YouTube is a clear winner with the highest viewership, clicks, and uploads. It believes in giving back to its community and growing together.
This is a well-chosen career and can actually become your prime source of income if done correctly, smartly, and with consistency. So off you go and choose your platform wisely. Leave a comment and let us know how beneficial this article was for you.
