YOUtube. No, not MyTube. Not YourTube. Not…okay I’ll stop, this is clearly a really crappy attempt at a joke.
Anyway.
Four years ago, I used YouTube as a way to get a job…in the “I’m gonna upload these random news reporting clips from college and send private links to potential employers in the hopes that they would hire me” sort of way.
Now, YouTube is itself…a job (no resume, cover letter, or letter of recommendation required.)
Yes, it’s true, you can get paid by YouTube, and (if you’re loved enough by the teens who consume your content) rake in a good 6-figure income – (see @Destorm’s feature in GQ as proof.)
One of my faithful and devoted Twitter followers, @e2unes, asked me what it takes to be a successful YouTuber. Aside from just making videos and gaining subscribers and becoming a YouTube partner, there are tricks to the trade. And while I could easily create my own “top 5” ways to become Internet famous list, I thought I’d go straight to the source – tips from my incredibly successful YouTuber (yes, YouTuber is a noun/job title) friends.
Let’s start with the aforementioned DeStorm, who has multiple YouTube channels, over a million subscribers, and the person I’d trust to write a song if my life were on the line (though not sure if there’d ever be a scenario where someone would have to write a song to save my life.)
“To become a YouTube celeb basically you have to stalk Twitter and be the first to jump on a hot trending topic, or have a personal relationship with Justin Bieber or Selena Gomez. You have to realize that a very large percentage of your viewers are gonna be trolls so the better the content the worse the comments. As a matter of fact, just upload white noise and you will get millions of views. Oh yeah, or anything with a cat in it! If you’re a minority and you’re not doing hair or make-up, give up, close your account and subscribe to other folks. No… but truthfully, you have to realize it’s a constant and gradually climb to success and you cannot get frustrated. Just stay current, keep your equipment and content up to date and work your ass off!”
SK commentary: Some of you may be wondering what DeStorm meant by trolls. No, he does not mean those plastic toys with the crazy colorful hair of the late 80s/early 90s, or Jon Cryer. According to wikipedia, a “troll” i ssomeone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic message in an online community, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response… so basically, someone who talks shit just to start drama (too bad we didn’t have the term troll back in high school or college.)
Next up, OlgaKay… she’s Russian. A pretty popular female YouTuber (4 channels, main one with over 460k subsribers.) And fairly good at Apples to Apples (I know this personally, I’m pretty sure she beat me the one time we played.)
A few things to consider, if you want to become a successful female YouTuber.
1. Convince people that you are funny.
2.Wear cute clothing, shorts skirts and such
3. Sleep with famous male youtubers as much as possible if you are over 18.
All those may work, but only for a short amount of time. If you want to become successful and stay there for a while, here is what I did.
1. Hard work always pays off (which means you do everything yourself. Writing, editing, filming)
2. Try to understand what kind of audience you have, I have 13-17 females so I concentrate on relationships and fun girly videos.
3. Don’t be a bitch, be a cool chick.
4. Interact with your audience, they need to know you are real.
SK Commentary: So basically – create a video where you repeatedly say “I’m funny”, while wearing provocative clothing… hopefully the male YouTubers will see, and ask you out to coffee or perhaps an edit session (yes, edit session. It’s the YouTube version of a study group)… and if that fails, emulate Olga’s approach.
Next Up…Ethan Newberry…aka TheSampler… who actually won a spot in YouTube’s “NextUp” talent search program (yes, I was attempting to be clever in the way I started this sentence.)
My tip: Don’t listen to anyone else’s tips. Do your own thing and be proud of it.
(Did you find yourself getting a lot of bad advice early in the game?)
No, but all the advice was specific to those individuals that provided it. Could be good for some, while detrimental to others. Find what works for you and use it!
SK Commentary: Way to negate the purpose of this blog post, Ethan. That’s like…going on Yelp and telling people to not eat. Or something.
Onto another YouTuber… Chris Thompson aka SupRicky06. He’s a singer/songwriter and maker of comedic music video parodies… who just so happens to look like Ricky Martin (hence his YouTube name). He’s also quite the ladies man, as was evident with the swarms of girlfans surrounding him at VidCon (myself being one of them.)
Learn to photoshop boobs onto yourself for thumbnails. It will increase views times 10!
(Did you actually try this?)
No, I just hire a big boob girl for my thumbnails.
SK Commentary: See?! He’s being funny. I would sub him. (Before you start thinking inappropriate thoughts, calm down…sub is short for subscribe. As in, I would subscribe to his channel.)
And last but not least, the one and only Freddie Wong….His FreddieW channel is the 6th most subscribed on YouTube, with 2.3 million followers, making him more subscribed to than Rihanna, Eminem, Justin Bieber, and Selena Gomez. He uses his dope technical skills to make videos involving guns. Lots of guns (I’m guessing Freddie isn’t a Democrat.)
Make what you love and keep doing it, and never be afraid to experiment.
SK Commentary: I love making cookies. And weird faces. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to combine these two for YouTube success.
Anyway. I hope these tips from the pros (ie people who make money by making YouTube videos) help you in your YouTube endeavors. Who knows… you might just make it big enough to have the big screen stars callin… (case in point? Freddie’s “Cowboys and Aliens” video featuring Jon Favreau…see below.)
[youtube id=”71YsRO6G7Ks” width=”600″ height=”350″]
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