You(tube) Star!
Hey guys, how are you this Monday?
Oh me? Despite the flu, I am good! I was chatting to my friend Kuri who was feeling the Monday morning dread coming on, and it just struck me at that moment that I don’t feel Monday blues anymore! Woohoo! I don’t ever have to feel Monday blues ever again…EVER!
I can finally start to love and cuddle and adore my Mondays!
Okay, okay, I know that sounds boastful and cruel to those of you that are actually going to some place you don’t want to be at today, to listen to your whiny boss, to pull the weight of your lazy colleagues, to be overworked and underpaid, forever and ever til death do you part.
Yeah I know, I am not making you feel any better but did you ever stop to think that it doesn’t have to be that way? How many of you have been brainwashed into thinking that there is only one formula for success in the whole WIDE world? Have you ever looked past Farmville into the thick of the World Wide Web? People, this is the door to everything! Well, almost everything. With it you can make anything happen (well, almost anything!)…okay…quite a lot of anything…the Egyptian government had to force a shutdown on the internet because it is a tool powerful enough to enable citizens to overthrow their rulers. It is the ultimate form of expression and there is room for everyone!
I wish sometimes I could warp into a different dimension and discover something cool.
Hmmm, what if I could at least visualize myself doing that? Like so…
Want to know how we did that? Simple. Jash wanted to learn how to do special effects so he Googled it and found a ton of free tutorials. Yes! FREE high quality, in-depth tutorials on how to create special effects. He downloaded the trial version of Adobe After Effects and presto!
Now watch how these guys make some money out of special effects on YouTube.
The possibilities are endless and the results are deeply SATISFYING!
For those that don’t know, if you have a channel on YouTube and your show brings a lot of viewers, google (who owns YouTube) will pay you because you’re bringing in viewers. This is funded by businesses who advertise on YouTube. Kind of like television, except, you’re not watching TV, you’re making TV. It’s a chance to have fun, get famous and possibly make some frikkin big money! How cool is that?!
Caution: Like any other creative pursuit, don’t go into this with the idea that you are going to be an overnight millionaire (though you never know with the internet). What you should be focusing on is having fun! Lots of fun! Enjoy every moment, feel your way around. Does it make you feel happy inside? Do you feel your passion rising and your interest in it deepening naturally? Do your friends enjoy it? If you’re making one person happy with what you’re doing, you’re succeeding. Think of it only as a hobby that you’re obsessed with for now. Nobody ever really expects to make any money from hobbies but we all invest our time in it anyway. The good part about this particular hobby (and many other hobbies I will be blogging on) is that with enough time, you will make money out of it. Think of that as a plus, but not as the main goal. If you think of the money, your patience will wear thin and you will end up frustrated and creatively blocked. The object is solely to have fun.
I can hear you say:
“But I am terrible with computers! Special effects? Omg! Are you kidding?”
No, you don’t have to use special effects to get views on YouTube. Of course to get your videos up, you should learn some basics, like how to record a video, how to do some light editing, and how to upload the video to YouTube. There are plenty of FREE resources out there, so you can learn how to do just about anything!
If you really want to get your channel plenty of views, the best thing to do is network.. It matters hugely when it comes to stuff like this. American YouTubers seem to have the advantage of hosting social events like YouTube parties where they are able to meet each other physically, collaborate and produce shows together, but if you're not American this doesn't necessarily put you in a disadvantaged position. Word spreads around the internet fast and if you network enough with people online, you will get good numbers but don't just go out there spamming people, and posting your link at every site or forum possible. Go out there and make real friends online. Speak to people, help them out of their spots, let your personality shine through. Be yourself, be helpful and have fun. You will find that people would more naturally keep coming back to your website/youtube channel simply because they feel a personal connection with you. There are millions of sites out there and there just isn't enough time for one person to visit them all. You have to give them a reason to keep coming back to you. Once you're in the circle, the word spreads from there and that's when you will start reaping the benefits of your hard work. But hey, the internet is unpredictable! You may just get lucky and go "viral" (spread quickly around the net) almost without any effort on your part. If so, hats off to you!
Are you going to or have you already done something cool on YouTube? Share the link with me and let me know how it's going! 🙂
Click here to read about some successful YouTubers:
