Vlogging is a new art. The art of performance, advertising, and making money. The increase of vlogs’ popularity happened since 2005 when YouTube was launched. By 2006 Internet users had been watching 100 million videos a day. Nowadays vlogging is a powerful marketing tool used by 66% of business owners and 44% of Internet users watch vlogs monthly.
Why consider video blogging? Internet users value their time, therefore many of them prefer getting information from videos to scrolling down long articles. Moreover, vloggers get closer to their audience as they don’t hide behind the text, they reveal their personality and engage the audience more. It’s a matter of perception, charisma, and attraction. In the era of video platforms’ growth and popularity, starting a vlog becomes a must for creators, business owners, and people who want to become popular and successful.
Most popular categories for successful vlogging
Every vlogger has a specialization. It is something they are good at – hobbies, professional skills, or just addressing the audience with motivational messages. The topic could virtually be anything, however, we’d like to share some of the most popular vlogging categories you may choose for your content generation.
Traveling
Traveling is always a trendy topic for vlogging. The world is so huge, and there are so many places to visit, show, and tell about. On the one hand, it is hard to share some catchy traveling content during lockdowns because most countries’ borders are closed. But on the other hand, it is a great opportunity to share some helpful tips on traveling in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, you can travel to the available destinations and share your experience, or provide ideas on journeys within your country.
Entertainment
Watching funny videos never gets old. Pranks, entertaining shows, parodies – if you know how to make your audience laugh, becoming a successful vlogger is easier. But you don’t have to be a comedian to entertain viewers. If you sing or dance well, record eye-catching videos of your performances.
Education
The Internet gives tons of opportunities to educate and learn more. The best way to grasp new knowledge is by watching video tutorials and lessons (because it is better to see and to hear than just to read). Therefore, there are such a great amount of online video courses, lectures, and educational channels. If you are an expert in some area or can teach the viewers something new, starting a vlog with educational videos would be great. If you are afraid of public performance, think over appropriate visuals to grab the attention of viewers.
Unboxing
There is no need to be an expert or invent something new for your vlog since you can just buy things and unbox them on camera. Of course, it is better for your purchases to be trendy or at least to relate to your target audience’s preferences to arouse interest but unboxing things like gadgets, household appliances, toys, clothes, accessories, etc. is always in demand.
Reviews
Another category for vloggers requiring minimum effort. However, you will need more time to publish videos. You don’t have to possess any specific skills to record reviews and talk about your experience of using something but you need time to test your purchase to be ready to share expert advice that would be useful and appreciated by your viewers.
Motivation
Are you a positive-thinking guru? Do you know the secrets of high productivity and can lead others to success? Use the power of the word and moving image to influence your channel viewers, share your success stories, and inspire people with your personal example. Make sure you sound and look persuasive, and create motivational videos that are shared among a wide audience.
How to start a new vlog channel: step-by-step instructions
Once you have decided what content you would like to share on your video channel, it’s high time to proceed to action. Below is a list of essential points you need to follow to launch your first video blog. So, how to be a successful vlogger? Let’s find out.
Video platforms
Choosing a platform for your future vlog launch is a significant step that depends on the type of content you are going to share and your target audience. Here are the most popular video platforms to make money for you to consider:
YouTube: the biggest and most popular platform that has been used since the birth of video blogging – will accommodate any topic from kids content to scientific channels.
Facebook/Facebook Live: good for partnerships with other brands and influencers, as well as making your video content go viral.
Instagram Stories/Instagram Live/IGTV: great for quick and easy content sharing even on the go.
Tik-Tok: rapidly growing platform that helps you reach a wider audience of any age and preference.
Gear
If you want to create top-quality content you will hardly cope with everything without proper blogging equipment. Fortunately, it’s not necessary to spend a fortune on it from the start.
Camera
It all starts with a camera. You may use either a portable or an action camera, or record videos with your smartphone. It is not necessary to buy expensive equipment but you need to make sure the quality of videos you shoot is high.
Microphone
Your viewers should hear you as clearly as they see you, so make sure there is no background noise and other interference. The type of microphone depends on the videos you make and on your budget. For example, a wireless lavalier mic is great for interviews while a wired one will fit videos made in front of your computer.
Lighting
If it is possible, use natural light. But in some cases using top-quality lighting is important because you need your video to look good, and natural light is not something you can control. Even if your camera is cheap, good lighting equipment can significantly improve the quality of the video, so spare no expense on it.
Stabilizing equipment
If you shoot with your smartphone, and there is not much action in your video scenario, you can simply use a selfie-stick. But for more dynamic shooting it is better to use a tripod or other stabilizers to get smooth footage.
Editing
Recording a nice video with the help of good equipment may be enough but if you feel that your vlog lacks some zest, you will need editing software. If you are a Windows user, the simplest one to start with is Windows Movie Maker – it allows you to change the video speed, add visual effects, animation, etc. If you work on MAC OS, iMovie will help you edit videos easily. Both editors allow for the sharing of your works on YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook. In case you are going to edit videos on your Android device, Adobe Premiere Clips is an excellent choice.
Marketing
Video is a winning way of promoting products and services, engaging new audiences, raising brand awareness, and getting revenue. It is a powerful marketing tool with a huge impact on the audience. How to make a newly created vlog channel work for you?
- publish new content regularly
- know your target audience’s preferences and give your viewers value
- stay active on social media to benefit from comments and reposts
- create viral videos for higher conversion rates
- use video platforms and channels to make your vlog available for comfortable watching on any devices from smartphones to TVs.
Best vloggers’ channels for your inspiration
There are countless vloggers sharing cool content. We have singled out a few examples of the most popular and interesting vlogs for you to get an idea of how to start a successful vlog and what videos with millions of views look like.
This guy is a passionate traveler and food connoisseur, and he combines these interests in his vlog by tasting the most popular dishes of the places he visits. Every video on his channel is so mouthwatering you better not watch it while hungry. An excellent example of getting revenue from doing what you love!
The owner of this channel, Lewis Hilsentenger, creates unboxing videos and reviews lots of products from the cheapest to luxury ones. Now the channel has 13+ million subscribers and the number of views has reached more than 2 billion!
A Swedish vlogger with a good sense of humor and more than 100 million subscribers. He creates hilarious content from memes to videos where he plays games. This is an example of how charisma, creativity and a funny bone can lead to success and let you gain billions of views.
His name is Jimmy Donaldson and he is American. The videos he creates are a bit provocative, challenging, sometimes weird but always attention-grabbing: he donates large sums of money, plants thousands of trees, counts to 100,000, etc. Jimmy was one of the top 10 highest-paid YouTube vloggers in 2020, and his channel has 52 million viewers.
James is an English teacher with 12 years of experience, and he knows how to make everyone love English and learn it with joy. The format of not-so-dull English has brought him almost 3 million subscribers. This is an example of sharing knowledge for profit!
Takeaways
Starting a successful vlog seems to be an easy way of becoming popular and earning additional income. But in fact talking on camera and engaging an audience to keep watching your clips may become a pretty challenging task. Vlogging is not only about entertainment, it’s hard work requiring inspiration, creativity and the right strategy for your endeavors to bring profit. We hope our tips will help you launch a video blog that could become a favorite channel for millions of users all over the world.