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How To Start Vlogging [Step by Step]
How do you start a vlog or start vlogging?
Well, any business you do on the internet probably falls under blogging, vlogging, or ecommerce. While both vloggers— video bloggers— and bloggers— text bloggers— all make a ton of money, the former tend to keep more of the money.
Give it up to YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc who made that possible.
Surprisingly, this multi-million dollar industry also has the least possible entry barrier even though it pays like crazy.
Of course, that’s after reading the entirety of this post, having the right tools, dedication and know-how to launch you into that life of your dreams as seen on social media.
Heads Up: Vlogging is a whopping $486M industry as of 2020.
That stat alone is hearth warming in itself.
What’s A Vlog Really?
Think of your favorite YouTube channels, your role model Instagram influencer’s page, the viral Khaby Lame’s TikTok channel, and all the places you watch big booty dance challenges, Yea!
Those are vlogs.
A vlog, short for a video blog, is a blog for video content.
YouTube houses some of the most viewed and successful vlog channels on the internet.
There are several other platforms where you can also create a vlogging channel and publish video content for free including:
- TikTok
- Twitch
- Vimeo
How to Setup Your Own Vlog Channel Right Away
Things that seem too easy to start always end up being difficult to succeed in.
Since vlogging is easy to start even with as little as a smartphone, a lot of people don’t succeed because of the competition.
Is there a path you can live by?
Yes!
This post shines a light on a path that will increase your odds of success.
#1: Identify A Target Audience.
This is the first step to take when starting a vlog channel and it’s not going to be difficult to spot after all.
Your channel niche is going to be about something you know a lot about, and your audience as well will be people who are interested in what you do.
So it’s like two different routes that lead to the same destination.
When you decide the niche for the channel, then the audience is automatically identified as well.
In the same way, you’ll understand and settle on the type of content to create.
#2: Create a Brand.
Branding is a fancy way to refer to the basic elements you’ll need in place to kick off your channel.
Stuff like channel name, logo, profile picture, fonts, thumbnails, banners, and colors are all part of your branding.
Finally, you should have all the above ready.
#3: Create Your Channel/Page.
There are a lot of platform options out there to use for your channel.
Many people will rather go with YouTube, but you don’t have to. There are other just as promising platforms to go with.
The platform you choose should be the one you have already been using or you can spend a few days getting to know more about any other platforms of your choice.
Depending on what you choose, run through the setup.
YouTubers
Sign In to Your Google Account
Since YouTube is owned by Google, with a Google account, you are already a few clicks away from owning your own YouTube Channel.
If you don’t have an account yet, simply head over to the signup page and get yourself a free account for all Google services accounts.
Just sign in to your account to get things rolling.
Create Your YouTube Channel
Once you are logged in, click on the user icon on the top right corner of your screen and click on it.
On the resulting drop-down, click on ‘Settings’ and scroll until ‘Create a new channel, then click and input the name of the channel.
This is the name you came up with in step #2 above.
Channel Customization
Creating a YouTube channel is as simple as what you just read. Time to customize and make it cool.
If you click on the ‘Customize Channel’ from your channel Dashboard, you’ll be taken to YouTube Studio which is where you’ll find yourself often in the future.
Now, with the details, you got from step #2, setup up your branding and basic information and you should be well on your way to making it as a vlogger on the YouTube platform.
TikTokers
1. Decide what you want to vlog about.
Are you interested in fashion? Beauty? Cooking? Pets? There are endless possibilities for vlogs on TikTok, so decide what you’re interested in and what you think your followers would be interested in.
2. Choose a good username.
Your username is your brand, so choose something that represents you and your vlog.
3. Make a good intro and outro
Your intro and outro are a great opportunity to introduce yourself and your vlog to your viewers. They’re also a great way to show off your personality and creativity.
4. Film quality matters
Make sure to film in a high-quality setting to give your vlog the best possible look.
5. Be creative.
TikTok is a great platform for creative content, so be sure to experiment with different types of videos and filming techniques.
6. Be social.
Engage with your followers and other vloggers on TikTok. It’s a great way to build relationships and grow your audience.
7. Be consistent.
If you want to build a following on TikTok, be sure to post regularly.
Instagrammers – Instagram Stories
Ermm . Nothing much but your account has to reflect that it’s more than what it used to be.
You can decide to switch to a business account or leave it at what it is.
Implement the details from step #2 above and be consistent with them.
Additionally, on Instagram, you can set up a beautiful Menu to allow people to navigate easily and find what they may be looking for.
To vlog on Instagram stories simply shoot all your content and begin to upload it as multiple stories. One of the benefits of this is that you can add music, captions, and fun GIFs to your stories to make them more engaging.
Add a brand #hashtag for a faster appearance on search results and let the description box tell people what to expect onwards.
Facebookers
The social media giant Facebook will invest more than $1bn in content creators on its Instagram and Facebook platforms by the end of 2022.
That means there’s no better time to set up your blog channel on Facebook and Instagram than now.
And the process for setting up a vlog channel on Facebook is all about creating a page on the platform.
Once you have a business page on Facebook and have set it up with the details in step #2, then you are ready to post.
How To Setup A Vlog On Facebook Page
- Sign in to your Facebook account
- From the small triangle at the top right corner of your screen, click on ‘Create Page’.
- Choose an option from Business or Brand or Community or Public Figure as your Page category based on your chosen vlog channel niche.
- On the new page, enter your brand name in the page name box and niche into the category input box then hit continue.
- Finally upload your brand picture and a cover photo (channel thumbnail) and click on finish.
You can further customize your page to fully reflect your brand.
#4: Create Value-Based Pro-Quality Videos
After all the preparation, it’s time for the main business. Time to create videos people will want to watch.
At this stage of your vlogging, you will want to unleash any and everything that will allow you to create pro-quality and value-filled videos.
The different components to make a good video include the right vlogging equipment like lightning and camera, skillset such as editing quality and communication skillset, a sense of humor, and well-to-do niche knowledge.
You want to get the visuals of your video to be top-notch with loud clean and clear audio output.
Fortunately, your smartphone and iPhone camera can take care of the visuals for you.
#5: Publish
You can now beat your chest proudly and say that you are a vlogger.
Just upload your video on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok and do the final touches.
Now that everything is in position, go ahead, don’t be scared, just hit the publish button.
And there you have it.
You’ve just walked the 5 step path to success as a vlogger.
SEO for Vloggers: Rank #1 On Google, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok
Search Engine Optimization is one of the cornerstones to the success of any online business which includes vlogging.
You may be wondering what that has got to do with vloggers? Well, do you know there’s a term called video SEO?
By the end of this post, you’ll fully understand why SEO is just as important to vloggers, just as it is to bloggers, how to start optimizing your videos and ultimately enjoy the rewards of video SEO.
To kick off this handy guide, let’s take a step back to wHat SEO is and what search engines vloggers will be optimizing for.
What Is SEO
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of incorporating those practices that will help a business, website, blog or vlog appear higher in the list of search engines pop out (SERPs) as best resources when users perform a search.
It promotes the inflow of free organic traffic from search engines.
What Is Video SEO
Video SEO or Video Search Engine Optimization is the practice of optimizing videos to get indexed and ranked high on search engine results (SERPs) for a niche and specific set of keywords.
This practice could involve creating video metadata that promotes relevance to your target audience searching for your type of video.
Video SEO is SEO for video content aimed at generating traffic from search engines.
What Search Engines Does Video SEO Target
For a blogger, the target search engine is only Google, but a vlogger has at least two search engines they can get ranked.
Vloggers on the YouTube platform (YouTubers) get more exposure to the world’s second-largest search engine by engaging in video SEO. Their videos can also get ranked on Google (the world’s largest search engine).
Vloggers on Instagram optimize for the inbuilt Instagram search engine, as well as Google.
The same goes for Facebook and TikTok.
It’s a doubles game with a lot of potential.
How To Do Video SEO for Higher Ranking
In a blog, we do SEO by putting keywords in the title and subheadings, tags, and sparingly throughout your content.
Video SEO also follows the same pattern. Add keywords in the title, tags, and description, and use your keyword in your video recording.
YouTube, just like Google (the parent and sister company), checks for the ‘keywords’ in your video title, tags, description, and the main video content through the subtitles.
After performing some ranking algorithms, your video is ranked based on the outcome of the result.
SEO for Vloggers
Try to read everything below to the last with extra attention.
Some points here seem not related to SEO, but they do in ways you wouldn’t imagine.
Also, these are all part-and-parcel of the big picture of what we aim to achieve, get more views, subscribers, comments, and ultimately, “make money.”
By following this step by step, we aim to leverage these different sources that a vlog gets views:
- Search,
- Suggestions (which are responsive for the videos that went viral and the ones that never got more than 27 views),
- Browsing and,
- External sources.
Let’s get to it…
1. Get A Role Model
It’s always easier to follow a path that has been trodden before and known to work.
That’s why we read books, biographies, and history, and listen to interviews and personal stories.
Whether as a YouTuber, Instagrammer, TikToker, Facebooker, etc, a model will help shorten the journey as well as serve as a motivation for you.
Of course, your model should already have what you are looking for whether in the form of success, audience, or impact.
If possible, reach out to your Role Model and schedule a virtual or physical meeting to get more insights into what it took them to get to where they are.
Such information and preparation will help you set better long-term goals and go all the way to achieving them.
2. Carryout Advanced Video Keyword Research
If you are new to Vlogging, in a previous post, we have already shared how to get started as a vlogger which will be an interesting and powerful piece for you, go check it out.
In SEO, decisions are always taken after proper research keyword research is done.
Keyword research will help you decide on the next topic (in your niche) to create a video on that is less competitive but has a lot of potentials.
3. Create The Best Videos [Value & Quality Wise]
The bests out there are the ones that earn recognition. People like Elon Musk.
If aiming for the best will make you a perfectionist, then be a perfectionist.
As rightly pointed out by Vince Lombardi in one of his quotes, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.”
And if I could add or alter that quote just a bit, I’ll replace ‘can’ with ‘will’ because that’s always the case.
That’s a principle you can live and die by, to perform at your peak always.
Edit your videos like crazy with sound effects, animations and transitions, and all that.
Make the audio quality dope and let the final export of the visuals of your video be enticing and inviting to watch.
Apart from the audio and visuals, there’s also the value factor in a potential successful video, especially YouTube videos since it allows for longer duration content, but also just as important for your Instagram, or TikTok videos.
With the right quality, value delivery, and HD quality visuals, the video SEO game is almost won! Because if you happen to have horrible videos that people will not want to come back for, then SEO is useless.
4. SEO Optimize Your Videos
Optimizing your videos is the heart of your SEO for search and discovery on YouTube, Google, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
Most of your views on any of these platforms will come based on these metrics:
- Your type of videos and the people who like watching them.
- How much time do they spend watching?
- The number of likes and dislikes on each video.
- Comments.
To optimize your videos the right way, these are a few of the settings you need to do on every one of your videos before hitting the publish or upload button. - Make sure that you did integrate your keyword or keywords into your videos during the shooting/recording session.
- A good video description should include your keywords and give a sneak peek of what the video is about.
- Utilize hashtags in the video descriptions.
5. Share Your Videos
To boost your traction and initial views after publishing a new video, share it as widely as you can.
It is believed that videos that perform very well in the first 24hours of posting, tend to get a push from YouTube.
To get more out of your videos, you’ll want to commit from a few bucks to hundreds or thousands of dollars to promote your videos.
Discover more about video content promotion in the ‘Content Promotion’ section.
6. Regularly Consult Video Analytics
Your vlogging goals are found in the future, the things you are doing now are your target of getting there.
What about the things you have already done that brought you to where you are already.
Analytics of your video performance is a blueprint to consult steadily to know the things you need to fan their flame more and the ones to quench for others to thrive.
SEO Tools To Help YouTube Vloggers
- VidIQ Keyword Search
- TubeBuddy
- YT Cockpit
How To Boost Engagement In Live Videos
Engagement is one of the most important metrics in any form of content, text, video, or image.
But this is more important for video content and especially important for live videos.
When we zoom in a little more, there are a few things video content creators (vloggers) also get wrong when they go live which further reduces engagement instead of boosting it.
YouTubers, Instagrammers, TikTokers, Facebookers, and all the video content creators seem to make this simple mistake.
By fixing this error, and implementing the engagement hacks that this post caters to provide, you’ll finally discover how to boost engagement when next you go live.
We talk specifically about the mistake towards the end of this post, while the meat of the post (or vegetable for vegetarians) starts things off.
Right now,
How Is A Live Video Different Than Uploaded Videos
Uploaded videos go through a lot of engineering and pimping, so viewers only get to see the end product.
By the way, the effort and talent poured into these videos usually meet the appreciation of fans.
But if and when we go on live sessions, there’s more of a real connection on an entirely different level.
It’s like watching your favorite star in movies vs. on an interview.
In an interview, just like a live video, there are no scripts to follow.
Because of that, celebrities like you appear like every other day-to-day folk we can relate with, flesh and blood.
It’s priceless.
So Why Go Live?
Well,
- It fuels views for previous content. That in turn increase revenue.
- Boosts engagements such as likes, comments, following, and shares.
- It’s an opportunity to run a product advert too.
- Collaborate with other content creators.
- Host a mini-show from your phone.
- Connect in real-time with your audience.
- Ask questions and get immediate feedback that can help your career growth.
Now let’s go into the real deal.
How To Boost Engagement In Live Videos
It’s the dream of celebrities and content creators alike to have a lot of engaged fans and even fellow celebs on a live session, in a lively and fun atmosphere.
So, let’s quickly get down to how to make that dream a reality.
1. Run Giveaways on Live Sessions
People like free things any day any time, especially those they can’t easily afford.
Besides exciting loyal fans, giveaways are a way to give back to society.
And no doubt your contribution will be a help or favor to someone in need.
So giveaways work both for stimulating more people to join your ‘live’ either now or in the future while affecting ‘lives’ positively.
That can only be a blessing.
2. Announce You’re Going Live Early
To get more people on board, you can announce that you’ll be live at a particular time.
Additionally, you can as well mention what you’ll engage attendees on and what anyone that joins stands to gain.
Announcements will serve as a reminder to interested attendees and a notification when finally the live kicks off become the final reminder.
Reminders and notifications have always worked, no wonder almost every app has the feature.
3. Be Consistent
If you always go live, then it will be a good habit to map out a day in a week that always happens.
Thursdays, then keep at it so that fans know that every Thursday, you’ll be live.
Sundays, then by all means show up.
Stuff happens and we can no longer meet up with a promise, also inform your audience on these special occasions of the new turn of events.
Now The Mistake.
These mistakes outlined below may seem trivial but are they?
Well, a lot of people do and keep making these mistakes.
I’ve made them, you too have made them before, and probably still doing it.
Not again.
These are the two big mistakes you shouldn’t make next time you go live.
1. Talk About Yourself The Whole Time
This one is very funny.
Live sessions are for the fans, so shouldn’t be all about you talking the whole time, worst still about yourself.
Sure, there’s a time to talk yourself, but to get the most out of your ‘live’ sessions, allow fans to engage with you.
You’ll have a lot to talk about when you take questions from fans.
How it works is, that you let fans own it 100% the entire time.
2. No Topic Of Discussion
Why content creators end up talking all about themselves on a live video is probably ‘cus there’s nothing pre-planned to talk about.
Which shouldn’t be so.
It’s recommended that you plan on a fun topic that the live audience will be dwelling on. Get it down even before the session begins.
This topic is bound to change once discussion picks up, but we can’t bank on chances.
Instances of things to talk about or questions you can through at a person in the audience to spike up conversation may include,
- How did your day go (or is going)?
- Who will sing for us?
- Who can dance for us?
- Which of my videos do you like most and why?
- When was the first time you discovered my videos?
- etc.
Alternatively, allow fans to ask all the petty and boggling questions they will want to know about you, while you do justice to the ones you can.
There are things we’d rather not talk about.
When those types of questions pop up, politely decline, with reasons if available and necessary.
By correcting the above mistakes and implementing everything else we’ve discussed in this post, your live video sessions will never be the same again.
Remember, create a topic of discussion so that you don’t keep talking about yourself, be consistent, run giveaways, and notify people when next you’ll be going live.
With all that in place, I’m certain your next live session as a content creator is not going to be the same again.
What do you think? Let’s talk about it in the comments section.
Bang on.
You’ve got the recipe.
Rinse and repeat this vloggers content creators’ recipe for maximum success.
But it’s still half done. You are not ready to make money yet, there’s still the promotion stage as well as the monetization Stage.
Find the next interesting reads on the ‘Content Promotion’ and ‘Content Monetization’ sections (from the blog menu) to learn what more it takes to start making money as a vlogger.
You got this.
CID
