What I LEARNED in my first 25 YOUTUBE videos

Thinking of starting a YouTube channel? Not sure where to get going? I don't have a ton of advice to offer except we're 25 videos in and I'm going to let you know what I've learned today on this video. Okay, first and foremost guys, 25 videos in. So pumped. Set the target for myself that, you You know, we started December 12th, and Monday through Saturday I'm gonna pump out a video, and that's it for the next year. That's just life. That's how it's gonna be. What's the target? How am I gonna gauge value on this channel? This is it. If I can help one person this year and I make the amount of videos I had planned to make. So far so good. We're up to 25 videos. I'm having a blast. It's been a ton of fun, but I wanted to share a little bit of wisdom of things that I've found of the first little bit that might help you if you're considering starting a channel, or you just started a channel, that might go a long way in saving you some headaches and hassle. So without further ado, here we go. So guys, it's been an amazing first 25 videos, having a blast. And to get started, the— honestly, the best advice I could give anybody that's looking to start a YouTube channel is look at the people out there that are giving you their content already on the network, okay? And I'm not talking cat videos and dog videos. I'm talking creators that have a grasp on how YouTube works, why it works the way it does, and how you can use it to build a successful channel. And I'm going to give you 3 or 4 guys here that just— they've got it. They've clicked. They nailed it. They know it, okay? Number 1, it's got to be Roberto Blake. Roberto Blake is a guy that will help you not necessarily with the backend, and he does some graphic editing, he does some of that stuff, but the reality is Roberto Blake's strength comes from his ability to help you craft and create an effective business model behind your YouTube channel. Essentially what he does is when you watch his videos, it's going to help you better understand how you define success and that will help you actually build your channel over time, okay? Next up, you've got to learn the ins and outs and the tech behind the channel, and sometimes that can be really overwhelming for somebody just starting into YouTube. Maybe you've never done video before and this is a real challenge for you. 2 guys that you definitely want to check out that are going to go a long way, both of them are YouTube certified, you've got Tim Schmoyer and you've got Derral Eves, okay? These 2 guys will give you everything you need to know as far as tags, product descriptions, captions, video length, video content, thumbnail design, anything that you need to know on the backend of the Google upload, YouTube upload, they are the guys to sit down and watch their videos. Just consume that for a day. You're gonna just absorb it, love it, learn it, and be able to create really successful best practices right out the gate, okay? Last but not least, and this one's a personal favorite because he's a Canadian, Peter McKinnon is the guy that you wanna check out. Once you start to improve, now I would say probably about 20 videos in, start to play around with different tools. Okay, what am I gonna use to record? How am I gonna do this? How am I gonna do that? Some of it was successful, some of it wasn't. But Peter McKinnon is a great resource, guys, if you wanna find ways to pull in some great transitions and add some new filters on it and change your color and get an understanding of where your lighting should be. Just all kinds of great stuff, guys. Uh, as far as the visual aesthetic of your video. So if you hit up those 4 guys and just consume everything they've got there for you, you're gonna have a well-established business understanding of why am I building my YouTube channel, what's the objective, where do I want to go. You're gonna understand when I upload, how do I have all this backend stuff so YouTube can find me and people can like me. You're gonna have that. And even further, you're gonna have a nice looking final product as a result of the great stuff that Peter McKinnon has for you. So though I'm going to put links in the comments down below for you guys, but next up we've got the tools that I used. Okay, you've developed these really great understandings out of the gurus on YouTube. Perfect. That's exactly where you want to start. Now the next step I took was finding tools. I started off with $0 to promote this channel, to, to build the tools, to get whatever. So The free suite of tools that I used was literally just OBS, Lightbox. That was it. It was free, it was easy, it was accessible. That's everything that you need to record your video and then edit it effectively to start your channel. Next step was probably 5, 6 videos in. I was like, oh, this Animoto thing, that's pretty sweet, love it. It was a simple tool where I could shoot clips of video upload them, and then plug and play to pre-established templates. Now, the reason why I'm not gonna advocate this long-term is because the templates don't offer a ton of variety. There's some color variation and you're putting in your own photos and whatnot, but your audio editing is almost negligible. You can't really do anything with it. Um, so Animoto is a great starter tool for somebody that just doesn't wanna play with it, wants the same template, uh, it's great for you. Animoto is a great kind of middle ground tool. Again, you can shoot with whatever you want— cell phone, webcam, you can use your OBS, you can use whatever you want. But the reality is Animoto is a plug-and-play tool for those that don't want to go any further with their channel. I would recommend it for people that do maybe a video a week, they're not super serious about it, and they just need something to throw into a template. Last but not least, guys, the tool that I highly recommend, and I'm glad I made the investment into it— so many people out there made this suggestion of you've got to make the investment. It's worth the time. It's worth the money. Adobe Premiere Pro. It has been amazing to see what's capable. Watching Peter McKinnon's channel, seeing what's, what's, what the possibilities are for your videos out of this tool is mind-blowing. Just mind-blowing. And so far I've had a blast with it. I'm learning some of the nuances. Some of the next couple videos as I work into this are hopefully going to improve in quality as a result of it. But those are the tools that I recommend in your first 25 days, guys, as you're starting putting out your videos. First 25 videos, maybe not first 25 days. Who knows how long it'll take you. But as you're growing, make sure that you're learning new tools and finding new ways to improve every day. But those are the tools that I use, guys, so far in my first 25 days. And I highly recommend if you're an easygoing person who's going to put out 1 video a week, 1 video a month, Animoto may be perfect for you. But if you're somebody who's serious, wants to grow a YouTube channel, make the investment, hit Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe Premiere Elements is the lighter version of it. But in either case, hit it up, grab it, use it, you're gonna love it. Okay, last but not least, you got your guru advice, you know where you're going, you got your mentality set. It was crucial for me. Next, getting the right tools to plug and play and put your videos out there the way that you want them to be seen. Last but not least, guys, you want your videos to be seen. This is no secret. And while a lot of the tips and advice that people can give you about getting the right key keyword search terms in there and, and making sure you've got everything properly edited and the thumbnail that grabs attention and it's got the right views on it, the reality is, guys, you're still gonna have to distribute your content as a new channel using another means. And for me, the number one way to do this is is through your social networks. Most of us out there on a day-to-day basis have our social networks available. They're there, they're readily available. You've used them, you've built up a network, and I know some people for certain strategies, if they're in a niche or they're in a video market that doesn't relate to their personal life, this won't work as well for you. But regardless, I still recommend you start social channels that are reflective of the videos you're creating. And in doing this, guys, I can tell you, looking at my traffic sources for the first 25 days, 80% of my traffic is coming off of social networks into YouTube. This is great for 2 reasons. One, you're engaging regularly with the content you created onto your social networks, so you're actually helping build your social networks. You're helping build awareness, authority on those networks. So whether it's Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Snapchat, you name it, wherever you're putting that content out, you're actually helping to build and grow Those social networks through that tool. So that's a great way to go, guys. Keep that in mind. Whether it's a new channel or an established network, it's really important that you get out there and you put that content out there for people to stop, realize what you're doing, go, this is great, I want to come. Now eventually what's going to happen, guys, is you're going to build up that network and people are going to go, okay, great, so now I know he's on YouTube, I know he's doing this thing. But the majority of your traffic in those first 25 videos isn't going to come from you being a YouTube star. Pending you get a viral hit, okay? Now, I really, really can't emphasize enough, guys, the power of using video on certain networks, okay? There are lots of video networks out there, a lot of different ways you could go. Vine's coming back, you've got Vimeo, you've got Facebook Live now, you've got LinkedIn. Really, which social network you should be using, I've got a video, I'll put it at the end of this video for you to understand. Which social networks you should be targeting and why. Okay guys, um, but again, it's key that at the beginning you are putting your content out there in as many different places as possible to get eyes on what you're doing. That's it guys, first 25 videos. I honestly had a blast. This has been amazing, learning new skill sets, grabbing new things, meeting new people, having new conversations. I know I've reached out to Derral Eves, Roberto Blake. I've heard back from those guys. Their teams are amazing, they are a huge encouragement. Definitely go check them out. But the reality is this, guys. I am not going anywhere. One video all the way through to 300 and whatever it is, 330 videos because I am shooting 6 videos a week. It is just going to keep happening. Nobody shows up, zero views, no subs, no likes, I will be here. So if you are a startup, a business owner, an entrepreneur, if you just want to know how to use this internet thing to grow your business, become an effective business owner, This is the place for you. Daily content. But the question of the day today is, guys, what do you want to know? I'm here, I've worked with international companies, I've worked with companies like Fox, H&M, I've worked in multiple languages, multiple countries, e-commerce, social, Shopify, brick-and-mortar, dropship. I've done a little bit of everything all over the place, guys. A lot of different stories, a lot of different experience. So if you have a question, if you want to know how to grow your business, let me know down below in the comments and question section. What your question is about how you can grow your business today, and I will let you guys know the answer to those questions in future videos.