Building A New Blog From Scratch: Part 3 – A YouTube Channel

This is the third post in my series about starting a new blog. I will be talking about setting up a YouTube channel.

Here are links to the first two in the series:

Sorry for the delay in this series. It has been an unfortunate year so far, but hopefully things will be more normal from now on.

Regardless, I did create a YouTube channel and have been uploading podcast content to it for several months now once or twice a week.

I will relate how that has gone and what I have learnt.

What You Need

1. You will need a Google account.

https://www.google.com/account/about/

You can create one at YouTube or any other Google website.

2. The ability to record and edit video.

a. You’ll Need A Computer And Microphone

I built my own. You don’t have to.

But, you need something better than a cheap laptop.

Whatever you get, it should have a new modern CPU with six or more cores. It should also have a good Graphics Card(GPU).

I would suggest a 12600k or better for a CPU and a RTX3060 or better for a GPU.

It will still work with worse hardware, but the editing will be difficult and the encoding will take hours if you don’t have the right tools.

I bought a $150 USB microphone. It’s a ‘Boya’. You could probably get away with a cheaper option or you could spend more if you want.

I didn’t want to have any problems so I bought a well-reviewed one.

b. Recording Software

I am using OBS. https://obsproject.com/

It is free and mostly easy to use. There are numerous guides online to help you if you get stuck.

What it does is allow you to record either sound, a whole screen, or a window. You can do all three at once if you need to.

I have used it to record multiple sound channels so I can later edit them together into a podcast video.

c. Editing Software

I use the Adobe Suite https://www.adobe.com. It costs about $40-$60 a month. Which frankly is a lot since you used to be able to just buy it once-off for $300.

But, you get everything you could possibly need to make images and videos with this purchase.

I use Premier Pro and Adobe Media (the name keeps changing – it was called ‘Spark’) to edit videos and create images for them and for articles.

What I Have Learned

Well, I have not done all I intended to do.

I have not advertised or put in lot of effort to making videos that would be click-bait friendly.

I wanted to see how things would go without doing this.

And, well, I don’t recommend it.

The channel, That Japanese Thing has not grown much. Videos get maybe a few hundred views or less and we have only a handful of subscribers.

It is a niche topic, Japanese Pop Culture, but there are successful blogs and channels about such things.

So, I am going to rationalise what can be done hereafter to promote the content and will report back on that.

Problems I Have Had

1. Time

It takes several hours per episode even with only basic editing.

2-3 hours to record.

Several hours, up to 20/30 in a week to do research on a topic.

Editing takes as long as 2 hours per one hour of content.

2. Editing

Editing takes long because I have had to teach myself how to use new software and am not an expert at it.

You also have to listen to the content, make sure there are no mistakes, and to get the details right.

3. Schedule

It makes a difference what time and day you upload.

Don’t do it at night or on a weekend. On a Tuesday at 14:00 Eastern Time seems to be the best.

4. Positives

Since I am basically talking to friends about topics we like, it is quite fun.

I have learnt a fair deal about video software and YouTube.

But, most importantly I have become comfortable with doing it.

This has helped me build a habit for recording and doing research. Even if that is just watching a movie to talk about.

Things To Work On

1. Voice

I have become aware of the short comings I have developed in speaking since I stopped teaching. I speak more slowly and often pause now.

I also realise I have to speak in a more upbeat way to compensate for audio recording.

Microphones and software don’t always catch every word, so it helps to be very clear and maybe a bit louder then you normally would be in real life.

2. Advertising

Now that I have seen what it is like without advertising I will start to create a social media presence as well as to promote the channel via the website and possibly by going on other podcasts.

3. Short Content

I want to also make short content.

This would be well edited scripted content about popular and interesting topics related to our content. I am planning to do one every two weeks and hopefully I can ‘encourage’ my co-hosts to produce some at a similar rate.

The Last Word

Thank you for reading this. I hope it was interesting or informative.

Check back in a while for more on this series.

By Christopher Luke Dean (File not found).

Christopher Luke Dean writes and facilitates for Writers Write. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisLukeDean