The first thing I have to make clear to you is that there is no magic recipe for success on YouTube. Starting from that premise, you can always carry out a series of steps so that your video has, at least, a reasonable success. In this post, I am going to show you some of the tips to make tutorial videos on YouTube that I wish someone had given me when I started. So let’s get to it.
The basis of a good YouTube video
Remember that nobody sells you the motorcycle with an infallible recipe. That is something that does not exist. But there are a number of issues that are important:
What do you want to tell?
Who is it for?
How are you going to count it to achieve your goal?
If you can answer those three questions, you are well on your way to starting to write your script or outline.
You can believe that by buying the best camera, renting the best studio, and spending huge amounts of money on your image (logo, banner, etc.), you will be able to place yourself at the TOP. But sorry, there are millions of hours of well-recorded content buried in the underworld of YouTube. And instead, low-budget recorded content has risen to the top.
Now that you have the subject, you know what you want to achieve, who it is aimed at and how you are going to tell it. You need to ask yourself two fundamental questions. Am I handy on the subject?
If you are not skilled enough on the subject, I recommend you make a complete script addressing each and every one of the parts. I’m not going to tell you to learn it or read it on a prompter because freshness is often lost. But you do read it many times and leave some room for improvisation.
If, on the other hand, you are very skilled in the matter, I would recommend making a simple outline, some annotations and little else. It shows a lot when someone controls a subject, likes it or is passionate about it. The result is infinitely better.
Improvisation should always be a resource, not THE RESOURCE.
Once you have the script or outline of what you are going to talk about, do a little test. Record a video tutorial and see how you do it. First impressions are usually negative, and you will hear yourself and see something different. The most normal thing in the world.
The voice that I hear inside is very sensual and radiophonic, but the truth is that in the first videos, I was even sorry to listen to myself. I didn’t like it at all! And it still doesn’t.
Get to the point. Going around only causes viewers to leave the video.
With the passage of time and the recordings, you will begin to accept that it is you, with your pigtails and your hobbies. In addition, you will have learned to make variations in the voice and in the video editing that you will not do in the first videos. And as you will find out over time, your first videos will be bad, very bad compared to the ones in the future.
The first videos you shoot will be bad. We all shoot bad videos. But they are the ones who teach you to do better.
At the time of recording
When you already have a script or outline and have your speech more or less prepared, it is time to get in front of the camera. And several things will happen:
You will see that it is not easy to talk to a device and that you do it totally different than if you were doing it with a person. But don’t worry, ease is something that you will gain as you record more videos.
You will probably get stuck on several occasions, and you may even despair. Nothing happens! After 5 years of filming for YouTube, I have days where I can hang myself for ten minutes trying to record just the intro. There are days when it is better to postpone recording and take a break.
If during the recording you make a mistake, continue. Correct your mistake and go ahead. Videos don’t have to be perfect. What’s more, you will never make a perfect video. Something always fails! So give yourself a chance to be wrong. Editing works wonders, and people like to see you make a mistake. The important thing is not to make a mistake, but how you deal with it and how you solve it.
Breathe, tune and live what you are doing. But as much as possible, avoid pauses to think. The “ehhh,” “emmm,” and the “a …” are not good companions in videos. The doubt is reasonable, but 5 minutes of a doubting speaker end up unnerving the most patient of the spectators.
Be yourself. There is nothing more false than trying to be someone you are not. You may think that by copying Crespo from Quantum Fracture, you will get the same as him. But Crespo, there is only one. You would only be a copy of him.
Don’t be too demanding of yourself in the first videos. Just record and detect those things that you could improve on and focus on one of them in the next video.
Patience, patience and patience. Things don’t have to go the first time.
If you want to record videos for YouTube and reach fame or an interesting audience in no time, you will end up on the couch of a psychology office. The competition is very high, and only those people who come up with a “particular way of doing things” are the ones who manage to differentiate themselves from the rest.
After recording
For me, it is the least fun part, but over the years, I am getting a taste for it. Editing is a very personal way of doing things. Everyone edits in their own way and sets the goal on what they like the most or makes them feel more comfortable. Do not think that this process is just a procedure. Editing can turn a mediocre recording into a decent or excellent one. It all depends on what you do with what you have in your hands.
Do you know that “if you give me lemons I’ll make lemonade”? Well, it works. If you are not the life of the party, nor do you have great oratory skills, you will have to put a little effort into editing. And for this, you must carry out an organizational strategy. I follow the following:
I create a folder with the name of the video
I add a folder called gross, in which I add my recordings
I put a resource folder with images, music, headers and other things that I will use in the video
And a final folder where I export the fully edited video
Obviously, how you organize yourself will depend on you, but get organized! Editing is a pretty crazy process, and you might end up getting lost in the process. So rename everything clearly so that if you use that project again in a month, you will know what each thing is and what function it fulfills within the project.
It’s time to upload the video
Once the video is edited comes the task of sharing it or uploading it to YouTube. Obviously, you will need to have a YouTube channel. And believe it or not, this is one of the hardest parts.
First of all, you must give your video a title. For example, a few weeks ago, I recorded a video about a large file-sharing tool. And I discovered it because of those questions of chance, and it made me stop using another very good and well-known tool. How did I title the video? Well, I could have given it a fairly simple title such as:
Learn how to use SendGB
Get started with SendGB
SendGB the heavy file sharing tool
But honestly, I’ve used those titles many times, and they’re pretty bland. They lack salt and pepper. Everyone uses them and, personally, they don’t tell me anything. So I opted for another strategy, to think a little further.
I used WeTransfer, and I was happy, but this tool was more interesting to me, so if I referred to WeTransfer, it would not be bad at all. What title did I use?
The app that made me stop using WeTransfer
If you notice, it is a short title and makes my intention clear to the subscriber of the channel. Teach him to use a tool, which I do not say what it is, and it generates intrigue, and the application that I have stopped using and I know that many people use. With which I have killed three birds with one stone. With the other titles, I could only target a bird.
How to position your video on YouTube?
YouTube is a search engine just like Google. Obviously, it is a more rustic search engine, but you can work on a series of elements that make it become your best friend.
If your content is not good or does not entertain, there is nothing to do
As I already taught you in the previous point, a good title, a description according to it and a good selection of keywords is very important. Follow the less is more rule.
Conclusion
Life on YouTube is more complex than it appears in this little article. Hours of hard work and a very small reward await you. That is why I encourage you to take it as fun, a way to continue learning, and something that helps create your digital image and complement your CV.
