Simple Ways to Make Effective LPs

TheSGGamingChannel

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I have 3 years experience of making Let's Plays, Walkthrough, Playthroughs, or whatever you want to call them, so I just want to give some quick pieces of advice to people who are new to the business. Having a YouTube channel these days that is dedicated to gaming isn't an impossible task; it can be done. Just because "so many people do it" doesn't mean you should give up on what you feel you want to do. Hopefully, my advice can be of some use to you; if not...well...thanks for stopping by anyways... :meh2:

I'm gonna try to make this as quick as I can/want.

3 Important Tips

1.) Brand Your Channel
Since there are A LOT of gaming channels on YouTube (a lot is quite an understatement), you are going to have to stand out in some certain way. One way to stand out is to have a channel banner and channel logo that is unique and original. Make sure your images are not pixelated....that has to be one of the biggest pet peeves I can think of. It makes the channel look sloppy and honestly, doesn't make me think of your channel as something I want to watch. Here is an example of a channel logo and banner:


Get creative with your channel banner; its your palette. Try to avoid using a lot of words in your channel banner; it can make things look sloppy.

2.) Tags, Thumbnails, Descriptions, and More
Out of the three I am going to mention, thumbnails and tags are probably one of the most important. Tags are extremely important, as they are key for people stumbling upon your content. Make sure your tags actually make sense with your video and that you're not just putting "hot sexy milf" on there for views, or because you think it'll get you views. You'll get nowhere with that (well, at least not in the way you might think you are)...and you're gonna have some REALLY weird videos show up on the recommended section.

Make sure you have variations in your tags. For instance:

"Sly Cooper", "Let's Play Sly Cooper", "Sly Cooper Playthrough", "Sly Cooper Walkthrough"

Notice how they all have variations, but they are connected. That way, if people search up those key words, there is a better chance of your video showing up. Also, don't forget to brand yourself! My YouTube channel is named "Sweet Genius", so, at the tags, I want to add "Sweet Genius", "Sweet Genius Gaming", and things similar to that. Branding yourself is incredibly important....don't forget that!

Next up, Thumbnails. These at this thumbnails:


What do you notice about these thumbnails? They're colorful, interesting, and eye-catching. In my personal opinion (you may disagree), they make me want to watch these videos. These thumbnails are from my Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus Playthrough. All you need to make these kinds of thumbnails is paint.net and some basic skills with editing pictures. But, if you have the money, go crazy and get Photoshop. Thumbnails are what attract people to your videos, so don't f**k it up by making it drab and unappealing.

Next, descriptions. For the descriptions, I recommend this simple formula: Video Description (/) Links to Your Social Media (/) Links to your Important Playlists (/) and a quick "Don't forget to comment, rate, and subscribe" at the end. I think this works well, but you can change it around if ya like.

3.) Be Yourself; Don't Force Anything
Of course, if you're not a talkative person, you're gonna have to work on that a little bit. But, if you're very talkative on the other hand, work on that as well. For me personally, on an LP, I am looking for someone who talks a decent amount, but doesn't overdo it. I don't want you to talk every single millisecond of the video; give a chance for my ears to breathe. But also, don't go too far with it and have a 2 minute pause.

Most important thing is to be yourself; don't copy other YouTubers and expect people to respect you. Have you own distinctive style. Of course, there is no problem with having inspiration; but there is a big difference between "inspiration" and just downright copying (*ahem* George Harrison "My Sweet Lord" *ahem*).

...

Hope you enjoyed this quick little post and will get something out of it :giggle:. Can't wait to see some channels grow! Best of luck my friends!
 
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DAVID isWHITE

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When I made gaming videos the only problem I had was talking for the whole video, I would just have long stints of silences
 
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Crown

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Nice article. :)

I've moved it to the advice forum. :)
 

newage

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WhitePenguinz

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Thanks for this, it was a good read. I think I may be stuck on tip number 2. Either I'm doing my SEO wrong or the game I'm playing is saturated and no one cares about it anymore because it's roughly a year old.
 

TheSGGamingChannel

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Thanks for this, it was a good read. I think I may be stuck on tip number 2. Either I'm doing my SEO wrong or the game I'm playing is saturated and no one cares about it anymore because it's roughly a year old.
Yeah, I've had that problem too. You can have the perfect tags, but that doesn't mean you'll automatically get 1000 views on your video. Watch-time of your videos is the real determining factor for your videos and how they'll rank.

If nobody watches your videos, and you have good tags, welp, you'll need to advertise more...just like how I have to lol.