New to vlogging - Any tips?

[DonHoliday]

Hello everyone,

DonHoliday here! This might end up being a long post because there's a lot of questions I'd like to ask and they don't just apply to vloggers.

For example, although I started re branding my channel months ago, I'm still in the process of doing it. I was originally called FullyAutomaticGames but I made it when I was 15 or so (I think - might've been even younger) with some friends and I really wanted to move away from that since I wanted to incorporate more than just gaming to my channel.

Part of the re branding involved coming up with a "mascot" idea (mainly for Twitch sub emotes) but I loved the design so much I wanted it to represent my channel more. To anyone who has a similar idea and uses a mascot how (if) do you add and make them a part of your videos? I'm in the middle of making an outro, but I don't think I'll be using an intro.

I've finally finished my latest video which took 2 days to record and edit in total, not bad I guess. I'm still a bit rusty at editing, so that's bound to take some time. Been around on YouTube on and off now for 6 and a half years or so and I've only just finally got the confidence to upload vlogs!

If you go and check any of them out you might notice the lack of talking, when recording these video clips I talk non stop, but because of where I live you can't really hear me over the wind so I try use editing to make up for that.

One question I have for any vloggers out there is what tips you can give me to keep the camera more stable, especially when holding it while moving? For those of you that might timelapse parts of your vlogs, do you do it as a still recording or do you have any tips/tricks to move the camera very slowly but steady enough that it looks smooth after being sped up?

To any editors out there, vlog, gameplay or whatever content you produce, what tips can you give me on transitioning? I try my best to do clever transitions as well as the standard fade/crossfade, but I would love to do more cool transitions. (I use Sony Vegas).

A question for all YouTubers out there is how do you get your head around the new changes? They might be old for some people, but the last time I truly uploaded and did YouTube "full-time" was 3-4 years ago. I tried doing a "comeback" 11 months ago, but gave up pretty soon for personal reasons.

As I've gotten older and realised my love and obsession for YouTube I've started to understand how useful it is to use your phone to check how your videos are doing. But my old daily routine would've been:
Wake up - Go to Emails - Click social and EVERYTHING I needed to know was there. Now I quite often won't even be notified of a new subscriber and even some comments seem to go completely under the radar. How does everyone else make sure they're not missing any comments or notifications?

Although there's so much more I want to ask since this is my biggest passion in life and I'm a huge perfectionist I will leave the rest for another day haha!

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated

Matt/DonHoliday

 

[Xapok]

Hi Don

I say good move making your channel more than gaming, I'm more likely to watch it
For stability I use a gimbal, they come cheap now at around 100$ and do a great job
For editing, I'm using Premiere pro and there all sorts of transitions, but I prefer the "less is more" approach. Simple edits work best I think.
I've been using Youtubebuddy recently and it's alright, giving you advice if you forget important when uploading etc
I recommend sitting down and writing a one minute intro, like an elevator pitch, just to check if you know what you want your channel to be about. It seems obvious until you have to give a definite answer...
So vlogging and gaming is it ?

 

[DonHoliday]

Hi Don

I say good move making your channel more than gaming, I'm more likely to watch it
For stability I use a gimbal, they come cheap now at around 100$ and do a great job
For editing, I'm using Premiere pro and there all sorts of transitions, but I prefer the "less is more" approach. Simple edits work best I think.
I've been using Youtubebuddy recently and it's alright, giving you advice if you forget important when uploading etc
I recommend sitting down and writing a one minute intro, like an elevator pitch, just to check if you know what you want your channel to be about. It seems obvious until you have to give a definite answer...
So vlogging and gaming is it ?

Hey, sorry for the late reply, busy day at work! I've wanted to do vlogging for years, but I'm not really a very outgoing person, so walking about a fairly quiet area with a camera always felt really awkward

I looked up gimbals and that's exactly what I was looking for, thank you!! I'm the same as you, I try to keep most of my transitions simple, but effective. A lot of the time it's just using the music and syncing changes to really make it look good!! I have never heard of Youtubebuddy but I'll give it a look at My channel will be gaming and vlogging but I don't think I'll prioritise one over the other. I'm thinking of just doing the laid back approach and upload what I feel like, so long as I stick to uploading as daily as I can I'm fairly happy with how things are I think

Thanks for the tips