iRadar: How To Make YouTube Videos That Don’t Suck

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

How To Make YouTube Videos That Don’t Suck

How To Make YouTube Videos That Don’t Suck: "

how to make youtube videos Have you ever uploaded a video to YouTube? If you have, what was it of? Did it get a lot of views?

Getting a lot of views or “going viral” is one of the main reasons people put videos of themselves online, but the formula for creating a hit video is a tricky one. You never know when something you’ve done will garner a lot of attention online.

There are certain things that will always generate a lot of views, like videos that are funny or about things we wouldn’t see every day. Recently, I’ve written articles covering cool science experiments and top stand-up comedy videos, for example.

In this article, I’ll point out how to make YouTube videos to make sure your next video doesn’t suck. I can’t promise you that you will go viral, but I can promise an improvement in your view count.

The Content Side Of Things

Since content is king, I think that is where we should start. You can have the best equipment and technical knowledge in the world, but content doesn’t come standard.

If your videos are boring, no one is going to want to watch them, plain and simple. So let’s look at a couple things you can do to make your content better.

Be Different

The first and perhaps most obvious thing I can recommend is that you be different. We are supposed to all be unique, right? So why am I seeing a lot of the same videos online?

Coming up with an original idea isn’t easy, but it’s essential if you want to make a YouTube video that doesn’t suck. Rather than copy someone else’s idea, try being yourself. Originality tends to get noticed online.

Showcase Your Talents

There are a lot of talented people out there with hit videos on YouTube.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this one. Everyone is talented in something, so videotape those talents and get them out to the world!

The Technical Side Of How to Make YouTube Video

If you can do the two things mentioned above, you should be fine. However, a bit of technical knowledge can go a long way to help you in your video authoring efforts. Here are a few things you can improve to inflate your view count a bit.

Use Proper Equipment

When shooting videos, it helps if you have the right equipment. Out of all the things you can have, the 3 most important ones are below.

Video Camera

how to make youtube videos

We’re making videos, so having a good video camera kind of makes sense. You don’t want to make your YouTube video with your laptop’s webcam because chances are your videos will be choppy and low quality.

Digital cameras and smart phones now have pretty decent cameras on them for video, but if you’re looking for a cheap alternative to an expensive handycam I would recommend looking into a flip cam. It doesn’t cost much to shoot HD video nowadays.

Lighting

make youtube videos

Having good lighting often goes overlooked in the online video world. You don’t have to go crazy with your lighting situation, but put some time into making it better, especially if you’ll be shooting your videos indoors.

Placement is also key when considering lighting, because you don’t want to create distracting shadows for your viewers.

Sound

how to make youtube videos

If you’re going to be speaking in your videos, you might want to invest in a microphone. A lot of the microphones on cameras are pretty low quality, and you don’t want anything impeding your progress in regard to getting your message across to your viewers.

Get Better At Editing

If you don’t want to waste your time with expensive video editing software, you should at least familiarize yourself with YouTube’s video editor during the upload process.

Matt recently wrote a nice article on How to Use the New YouTube Video Editor back in July.

Work On Your Headlines

When it finally comes time to post your video, make sure you have a good headline. This step is very underrated. No one will watch – or be able to find – your video if it has a bad title.

You can search for headline writing tips on Google, but with YouTube I would make sure your headline properly conveys what your video is about. Think about the top keywords you would use to describe your video to someone and make sure you put those words in your headline.

Conclusion

Can you make a popular video without all the stuff I just mentioned? Yes. This is the Internet, after all. Overnight sensations happen all the time without rhyme or reason, but you can’t control that. You can control the things I just mentioned above, and they should help improve your chances of making a popular YouTube video.

For more articles about YouTube, check out our YouTube category.

Do you have any tips to add? Leave your thoughts, ideas and comments below!

Image Credit: leocub, Cindy Shebley, Serggod, Macs Peter

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