If you want to get started vlogging this year, but you’re like, my life is boring, then stick around to the end of this article. 10 practical tips that’ll help you figure out what to vlog about, how to start getting views, even if you’re a beginner. Old way, you’re vlogging about your whole life, right? The new way you’re vlogging about one part of your life that people are interested in, and you’re really going to commit to that.
And this is why I say pick a theme because it’s more broad, gives you a little more flexibility, still an umbrella that influences all the content versus a niche, which kind of like bottlenecks you into just like one specific thing. This is why you have to get started. And that’s why the new vlogging method that I teach actually emphasises how can you vlog as much as possible, if not every day at the beginning so that you catch yourself up to the level that you need to get started and start getting the views and be successful as a vlogger.
Today, I’m sitting down with Benji, a creator who’s generated seven figures and brand deals, who’s built multiple different YouTube channels and multiple different formats and survived different eras of YouTube over the past 17 years. Now, you’ve designed this new format of vlogging and there’s a lot of changes, but it’s a good time to get started. And even if you think your life is boring, you’re going to love this.
So we’re going to dive into 10 practical tips. But first, let’s lay the foundation. Why is now a good time to start vlogging on YouTube? Yeah, so there’s a little fatigue with that high production type of content.
You could even say like short form content. And so people are desiring that more relaxed type of viewing experience. So vlogging is perfect for that.
Secondly, the TV is in play. We always looked at devices as influencing how we edit. And those devices were smaller and smaller and smaller.
And guess what? We have less time. So that’s why things like TikTok videos were working. Well, now with the living room, with the TV, people want longer videos.
Vlogging is a perfect format to create that longer video that’s required for that new viewing experience. And then third, people just want to deep dive into topics. You know, again, what short form lacked long form has available.
And so vlogs are a great way to deep dive into topics people are interested in if you’re doing it the new way. But these 10 tips also are going to probably kind of shake people’s thinking. It’s a little bit different than what you might assume, because the first one is stop filming your whole day.
Film one interesting thing. The old vlogging method was like, here’s my entire day and all the details that I’m doing. This new vlogging method is different.
Can you explain it? Yeah. Well, when people hear vlogging, they think Casey Neistat. They think, you know, you’re famous.
So your whole day is going to be exciting. And drone shots are going to get you on a skateboard. Going across the ice or doing something nuts.
And so that is influencing how you start a vlog channel if you want to start vlogging because you’re watching vlogs. But these new vlogs are different. See, the old way you vlog your whole day because you might be famous or you’re great at editing and you can make your day entertaining.
But not everybody has an exciting day. So then you start doing it, you know, the old way. And it’s kind of boring.
The new way to vlog is vlog one part of your day, part of your day that’s related to a topic that you’re interested in. And more importantly, the viewer is interested in. So oftentimes, you know, in my vlog channel, we’ll vlog our mornings, getting ready for the day, maybe running an errand.
Then my wife and I are eating lunch, and then maybe I’ll go shopping for some food, come home, cook dinner. And then we’re, you know, having thoughts on the bed about, you know, what we did that day. And then, boom, that’s all the way.
The new way I’m just taking my shopping trip. Right. And it’s just Costco because that’s the topic, not only that I’m interested in, I want to highlight, but also other people are interested in.
And that’s the new way of vlogging. Instead of vlogging your whole day, you’re vlogging one part of your day. Not only is that going to play to the algorithm, which wants to get content out to people that are interested in that topic, but it’s just easier to create content around that moment.
See, one of the things that’s really hard is to vlog your whole day. And then you’re back at your editing, you know, software. And you’ve got three, four hours of content.
Now you’re just got the 30 minutes, 60 minutes. Oftentimes, however much content I have is the length of my blog. And it’s easier to edit because it’s all around one topic.
And I don’t have to highly produce it to make it interesting. It’s already interesting because it’s highlighting the thing that people are interested in. That’s powerful.
And if somebody wants to start and they’re a beginner, having those handles is nice, because one of the biggest things that can get you stuck is too much footage, too much editing, too much complexity. So if you just film one interesting thing, you’re isolating down how much content you’re capturing. You might even just film it straight through.
Just talk for 12 minutes and then upload that clip. So it allows the beginner to start fast without overthinking. Now you have a student named Carrie.
You have a programme called Vlogging Academy. And can you break down some of these insights in terms of what is she doing and how does that apply to her content? Yeah. So when Carrie came to me, she had the same challenge that everybody else had, which is what do I vlog? Right.
How do I make my day kind of interesting? I kind of live a boring life. Well, I said, well, first off, the new way to vlog, we’re not really highlighting your whole day. We’re just highlighting one thing in your day.
And so for her, she went through a weight loss journey, losing 100 pounds. And she wanted to share that and eventually coach other people on how to get healthier and lose weight and live this healthy lifestyle. And so she applied the new vlog method by just talking about specific topics.
Oftentimes she’ll just have a thought that she wants to rant on. And so it could just be her in front of the camera, no other edits and just straight talking about this one thing because there’s a takeaway that people can learn from it. And so within a month, she not only got a video that hit like 30,000 views, which was a big deal because she had started her channel from zero subscribers up the month prior, eventually having videos that are hitting a hundred thousand views.
And then one I think went more viral for 360,000 views. But the big, big takeaway from her experience was that video that hit 300,000 views was just her in the car because it’s good audio, right? Talking to the camera and no edits because she was applying my new vlog method at a hundred percent. She was just talking about the one thing that people care about and giving a very specific takeaway and then sharing all her opinions and thoughts and you know, basically her, her like advice and nothing else.
Part of it was of course the volume and putting in the reps, but ultimately it’s because the new way people are consuming content is not based off of your influence. It’s about based off of your interest and we call it interest media. And so that’s why someone like Carrie, even as a beginner is winning versus a seasoned creator trying to do it the old way and they’re not winning.
Hey, quick pause before we get back into the podcast. If you’re posting on YouTube but not getting the views or subscribers you want, this will help go to mycreatorquiz.com. It’s a free two minute assessment that reveals what type of creator you are, where you’re stuck and what to do next to grow. You’ll get instant clarity, a simple plan and it’s totally free.
So just go to mycreatorquiz.com to take the free two minute assessment or click the link in the show notes. All right, let’s jump back into the episode. So then number two, this ties into Carrie’s story is pick a theme so people know why they’re clicking.
So I’m guessing Carrie’s niche is weight loss and then by nat, of it being her journey to lose a hundred pounds, being a female, there’s a lot of like sub niches already attached to it. Like the people that are going to resonate with her, click on her thumbnail. But that being said, I would now imagine, okay, if I’m going to do a weight loss journey, I might just do a mindset day or I might just do the day you fail.
Or and then I might actually do a meal day or I might do a workout or I might, there’s, there’s like endless orbiting topics around that. But just the opportunity so that you could just sit in your car and talk about anything. But you’re saying pick a theme.
So for the listener that wants to start vlogging, how do you figure that out for yourself? Like what theme do I do? Yeah. Again, we compare it to the old way of vlogging. Your vlog channel was about you and your life.
Okay. That was the old way to vlog. The new way to vlog is you’re picking one thing about your life that your channel is going to be about.
Not you, but that one thing that you want to be known for that other people are interested in. So again, most people want to be a Casey Neistat. They want to be this big celebrity and they want to be super famous.
So then they have to become that, right? Or they have to try to create something that they would create. But now we’re just isolating to that theme of your channel. What do you want to be known for? So in the case of Carrie, right, it was her weight loss journey.
And I want to be known as a person that was able to be successful at losing a whole bunch of weight and connect with other people doing that. So that puts guardrails on the types of topics that she’s going to choose for her vlogs. Old way, you’re vlogging about your whole life, right? The new way you’re vlogging about one part of your life that people are interested in and you’re really going to commit to that.
And this is why I say pick a theme because it’s more broad, gives you a little more flexibility, still an umbrella that influences all the content versus a niche, which kind of like bottlenecks you into just like one specific thing. You can still do that. But when you have a theme, you have more topics you can cover.
So for her, the theme would be just like a healthy lifestyle. So she can cover different things versus like, these are the exact workouts I do. And that’s like a niche, right? I’m just going to talk about the workouts, especially as a beginner.
You need more options to kind of figure out what it is that you’re good at anyway. So this is why I say, choose a theme for your channel versus having your life be the channel. Number three is talk to one person, not the whole internet.
Break that down. Yeah. So one of the reasons why people are trying to be perfect is because they want to please everybody versus just simply understanding the reason that interest focused vlogs work is because there’s one other person that’s also interested in it.
The easiest way to explain is when you’re hanging out with that friend, that’s also into the same hobby as you. And you can just talk for hours and hours and hours. When you’re talking to that person, you’re not thinking about the 10 other people you might have the same conversation with or like, Hey, this might go out to a million people.
I hope they all like it. You’re going to overthink it. You’re going to like maybe be a little fake.
You’re going to put on a smile versus if you’re just talking to that one person, especially if it’s a friend or family member, you’re not overthinking it. You’re just yourself. You’re more natural.
And what’s crazy about that is even though you’re only making the video for that one person, I always say that’s like talk on camera as if you were talking to your best friend, it equates to a lot of other people wanting to watch that content that you’re talking about. And so rather than thinking about I’m going to get super famous, so I have to be that famous person. Just talk on the camera like you’re talking to the person you already talked to all the time around the topic.
It’s like a breakthrough for a lot of people because they realise, Oh dang, I’m already doing this. So rather than getting comfortable on camera or building my confidence, guess what? I’m already comfortable talking to my friend. I’m already confident talking about this topic.
Now let’s translate it to video. And when you change your perspective from I’m vlogging for everybody versus talking to one person, it just is, it makes it so much easier to record videos. That’s actually so powerful because I think so often we do get into a rut when we overthink about trying to please everybody.
If you start thinking about the whole internet, you’re almost guaranteed to be paralysed because you’re like, okay, well, I got to please this person or what would this critic think? Or I need to over explain this or I need to justify this. But when you know you’re talking to the one person, which the algorithm is so powerful when you really start to align even with one person, there’s over 8 billion people on the planet. Like then the algorithm can help you find that kind of one friend tribe, thousand true fans, that like group of people.
Okay, so let’s then go to number four, share a takeaway, not a timeline. And so old way of logging was kind of just like, here’s what I did today, but you’re dialling this in. That might be some triggers.
If someone says, well, what am I going to talk about in the car? You might talk about, well, here’s what I learned. Here’s what I realised. And also here’s what I messed up.
It’s almost like anybody that’s married, they got a partner, you know, if you recap the day with them, but you talked about how the job interview go or how did work go? And you’re like, well, here’s the wins. Here’s the losses. Here’s something I realised I didn’t think about this.
And so when you say takeaway versus a timeline, what’s that mean? Yeah. So, um, you know, my new vlog method, I say when you’re going to create a vlog, have a topic that you’re covering. A good example is I have a food themed vlog channel and a topic I often, uh, hit is Costco.
Okay. But the takeaway isn’t necessarily Costco takeaway might be all the sales in January. And that is a takeaway.
That is something that you’re going to walk away with. There’s two reasons for that. One is going to separate you from everybody else that just covering the topic, but not giving anything.
And it’s something that people will remember. It’s like, Oh, I remember when Benji told me about this new product or he told me about that clearance item. And now I’ve got like a whole bunch of Wagyu beef tallow in my garage.
I got it for a good deal. It’s a way to serve your audience. And so this comes from the educational side.
But what’s funny is you can easily do it in a vlog. You already probably do it with that friend you talk to on the weekends. Like, Hey, you won’t believe this deal that I learned about.
And you tell them right in there. Oh, thank you so much. And then they’ll go to the store.
You can do that. So rather than just focussing on a topic, have a takeaway that they’re going to leave or vlog with and feel like they got value. So they want to come back to your channel.
The next time you do have a vlog. And so that’s what I mean by having a topic and a takeaway. And also like you often talk about, you have experiences and perspectives that are unique to you that might be relatable to the other person, right? Part of your theme is knowing who you’re reaching out to.
So for me, it’s other parents, right? Other people that cook for their kids. And so my takeaway might just be like my perspective on this topic that they also value, or they like, just love that. They hear that from someone else makes us more reliable, relatable.
And so that’s, that’s what I mean. I want to make sure that they feel like I’m giving them something that’s unique from me that no one else can give. You know, what’s interesting is I think actually a lot of creators underestimate sharing a takeaway because takeaways aren’t just as an education.
They’re also entertainment. If you’re going to tell a good story, there’s always a takeaway. It’s called the moral of the story.
And so any vlog that is even just story driven, if it’s like a good Disney movie, you think about it. There’s like not just as their characters, there’s story arcs, there’s conflict, there’s resolution, but there’s a moral to the story. And usually in like a Disney film, it’s stated plainly at some point.
It’s like, you know, you should always treat people well and never get too prideful or something. It’s a takeaway and, and having it spelled out. So it’s interesting.
It could be all the deals or it could be some kind of an epiphany that’s really powerful. And we’ve already kind of hit this one. So I’ll just sort of summarise it.
Number five is opinions beat expertise. So you were already mentioning like you’re talking about your opinions, your story. But I think that people that are listening, they might be paralysed right now.
They want to start a vlog, but they’re like, I’m not an expert. Why is it that your story could actually be more powerful than your credentials? So number one, if you wait to be an expert, you might never upload a video. Okay.
And then if you’re like, I want to be an expert and you’re willing to vlog, it’s like you’re trying to be something that you’re not. The cool thing about opinions, everybody has them, right? And they’re different. And that’s okay.
That’s the whole point. Uh, I talk about this a lot because, uh, the third T of my three T’s of the new vlog method is tell more stories. You know, all a story is, it’s what you think about a topic.
It’s just like your perspective on the thing that other people are looking at. And so your opinion is an easy way to tell a story around the topic that you’re covering. And also it’s your perspective.
No one else has it. So embrace your opinion, you know, especially with politics. Um, a lot of people tend to go one side or the other and the, the creators of the channels that kind of make a decision.
I want to be more conservative. I want to be more liberal. Usually win because those opinions are so strong.
And that’s why I learned it from politics. Like, so if you have an opinion, whatever it might be, even if you think some people will think it’s wrong, state it, share it. That’s what people want to hear.
And also that’s how they’re going to relate to you. So opinions are really important and you don’t have to be an expert to have an opinion that’s strong. Number six is show the process, not the highlight reel.
So break this down. Like, uh, you and your vlogs recently, and this is a two part series. I encourage individuals to listen to part one, subscribe to the think media podcast if you’re new here.
And, uh, if you want to grow a profitable YouTube channel this year, but you are vlogging on your food channel. And it’s not necessarily super polished. Now you follow a whole framework and you teach that in a free class.
By the way, we’ll link this up in the show notes, but you can go to vloggeracademy.com to go deeper on this topic. You have a whole masterclass that really breaks down kind of the template and the format and the framework at greater detail, but you’re not perfectly polished in your vlogs. Like, are you just, break them down for us.
Yeah. So when I first started my channel, it was a food network style recipe tutorial channel. And I wanted to teach people recipes and those were very polished.
I use a $5,000 camera, a $2,000 light. I always had a videographer and for all the hours, for all the effort, for all the editing, I’d get a six minute video. Okay.
And I’d compete against actual chefs, other food network stars that had channels. It just got super competitive because it required a lot of production. Now my channel is just really relaxed.
It’s really chill. And so this is a good example of like the highlight reel was just my, uh, dialled in recipe tutorials versus now I’m showing the messiness of my cooking. In fact, I’m not trying to be an expert anymore.
I realised there’s no way I can compete against food network stars or my friend Matt, who has been a chef for 10 years in Seattle. No way, right? Like they know way more than me. So I just show my experience of cooking for my kids.
Oftentimes it’s like the title will be like a dad cooking lasagna for five daughters, right? Or a cooking, a romantic meal for my wife or buying a Costco dumplings and trying them out. And I just show that whole journey. In fact, you know, to prove my point, I do work with an editor that kind of edits my videos.
Not nearly. It’s ironically the same guy that did my recipe tutorials. And so he keeps it very relaxed.
We keep it all in there. I was like, you know what? I’m so confident in the fact that people want all the in between moments. I didn’t upload my content to him to edit.
I just put it into a timeline because I still know how to edit a little bit and I exported it and it was one of my highest performing videos and it had everything in there. Even me like pressing the record button, the stop and start button was all in there. And what was crazy? Nobody said anything.
I did get comes like, Oh, I like this more relaxed, a version of you. So again, when we talk about the highlight reel, that still has a place, but guess what it is? It’s YouTube shorts. The showing the process method, right? This new vlog method is you just put it all in there.
It’s my experience. It’s my recipe. And even Judy jokes with me, I was doing the toll house cookie recipe once, right? And I showed, but it’s like, how can you teach? I was like, I’m not actually teaching it.
I’m just showing how I do it and the nuances of it. And again, that was like a really well performing video of something has been recorded a million times on YouTube. But again, this new format, it’s all about my experience and sharing what I do to the audience that can relate to me.
I want to know what I’m doing, not what the expert cook does or the baker that’s on food network. I think listeners are going to love if they want to start a vlog this year, what you just said, let me break it down. So you film with the DJI pocket three camera, which if you can flip the investment, if you get the crater bundle, it’s going to be 700, 800 bucks.
Sometimes it’s out of stock. Uh, but if you, you filmed with that camera, when you talked about no editing, you went into like a grocery store and you shot the hook first, you turned it on, turn it off. You then shot the next clip and the next clip and the next clip.
And sometimes you’re editing your videos. But in this case, all you did was then drag those files. So there’s 30 files, all the mistakes and all.
Like sometimes I like I’d say something wrong or I didn’t say the way I wanted. And I have to say, I just left it all in there. So then you take, you know, the SD card out of your camera.
You dropped all those files into the timeline and where you could go in and just even trim a few seconds, maybe off the start of the end of any of these clips. You didn’t do that. So it was just linear through.
Now I will put a caveat that, you know, you’ve built up your reps and so listeners, this is why you should start. You should start messy, punch fear in the face, press record. So even your mistakes are like you, you put it all together.
You thought about where you’re starting. You thought about where you’re ending and you just filmed all these clips, put them in a timeline, clicked experts export. So these 30 clips became one 40 minute video or whatever, threw that on YouTube, uploaded it.
And not only did nobody mention it, but people even were like, I like the, just the rawness of that. And it still was, it was a complete episode, not just continuous recording, but just clip after clip after clip exported and uploaded. This reveals why if someone’s listening to this right now and they’re hesitating, they should start before they’re ready.
You should, you should get in the game. Like you want to start a vlog, stop overthinking it, get your first upload up in the next 24 to 48 hours. Like just get going.
You can polish if you want or not even polish, but you could edit, you could cut something out. Maybe there is a mistake, but it just proves that it’s possible to just show your process and you don’t need a highlight reel. Absolutely.
And I always give that context. I’ve been doing it for 17 years. Yes, I do have some skills.
I have some experience and I’m confident in doing it, but I’m not doing it because of that. I’m doing it because complete beginners have done it already in the, in this new era that we’re in and are getting more views than me. I’ll say, okay, if they can do it, I should definitely be able to do it.
So I’m just trying to prove that I’m willing to do something that before I didn’t think would work because there’s other people that are beginners that are winning. So even without the reps because they don’t have the baggage of the old way of doing it. So yes, that context is important, but it’s also important to get in the reps and you’re absolutely right.
This is why you have to get started. And that’s why the new vlogging method that I teach actually emphasises how can you vlog as much as possible if not every day at the beginning so that you catch yourself up to the level that you need to get started and start getting the views and be successful as a vlogger. So number seven is make one long clip instead of 30 little ones.
Now this one is touching on the fact of what we just covered, which is like instead of shorter videos, there’s something about longer form videos. So what I want to do on this number seven is talk a little bit about why long form is winning in the TV era. So earlier on you mentioned Carrie and so in her car sometimes she’s talking for 12 minutes, 16 minutes.
That’s fine. But is there an ideal time length if somebody wants to be posting vlogs that are triggering what’s happening with TV, what’s happening with long form? What’s the state of YouTube and vlogging in long form right now? Yeah. A lot of people ask that question.
How long should my vlogs be? Are they too long? Are they too short? It’s crazy because the invent of TikTok reels and now YouTube shorts actually made it so anything shorter that can be shorts is going to compete and also get cannibalised by that. So I tended to go longer. And so today I actually have a number that I suggested people 30 minutes.
And it’s crazy for me to even hear myself say that because it’s still kind of an arbitrary number because your video is not going to be exactly 30 minutes. But my top three performing videos are above 30 minutes. So 32 minutes, 34 minutes, 35 minutes.
I actually believe there’s a reason for it because people are used to planning their day out in 30 minute increments, half hour day, you know, half hour whatever and also shows are 30 minutes because you know the second number I say one hour. I believe that both the algorithm and the audience and usually that’s one in the same thing want videos that are just longer. And so when you hit that threshold of 30 minutes and that’s why the second is an hour really is like an hour and beyond two and three hour videos are winning.
You just like that playing on your TV. And so for me, 30 minutes is good goal. You don’t have to, I still upload some videos sometimes are like 15, 18 minutes if it’s good.
And it’s focused on a topic and I know my audience wants it. But if I can choose, even today I’m uploading something. Guess what? We’re excited because it’s going to be beyond 30 minutes, not arbitrarily above 30 minutes.
It happened to land after doing all my recording, which by the way, it’s easier when you’re just talking like a real person very naturally and you’re vlogging in this new method where you keep all the fluff that used to edit out. And so, yeah, the videos that blown me away are usually over an hour long and have millions of views and there’s a reason for it. And I think a lot of it has to do in this new era that TV being so influential on how you watch and consume content.
So we’re going to 10 tips and we have three more, but I want to go a little bit deeper on something that most people probably don’t realise. It might shock people to think you should upload or could upload an hour long video on YouTube and it would perform well. But there’s kind of like a hidden secret of why that’s true.
And it’s the fact that some people are going to watch the entire thing or they’re going to let it play in the background, much like a podcast, much like why they’re doing chores. But it’s because of average view duration. And if you think about it, YouTube just rewards time on platform.
They want viewers to be on platform as long as possible and to watch videos as long as possible. And so if you hyper edit a YouTube short and YouTube shorts can be up to three minutes right now, the maximum amount of watch time you could get on a YouTube short is three minutes. And chances are someone’s going to swipe by it.
That’s going to knock down the average view duration. So it might be, it might be seven seconds. It might be 30 seconds.
What’s fascinating about ultra long form videos and why they can work well is if you upload an hour long video, it’s common to see an average view duration of seven minutes, 14 minutes, 23 minutes, which, which says that on average a lot of people are clicking off, but that’s an insane amount of time. Like the fact, consider if you could get, you upload an hour long video, people only watch 10 minutes on average. How many YouTube shorts is that way more than 10? It’s probably like 30, 40, 50 shorts because they’re so short, like someone on your video.
And when you start hitting those kinds of numbers in long form, YouTube will reward you because they want viewers to stay on the platform as long as possible. So there’s still, of course, like, again, if you have too much of a hockey stick, if someone clicks on the video and leaves, well, an hour is not going to help. If you don’t have a good opening, a compelling idea, a good title, some different things like that.
But there’s a reason long form is working because YouTube rewards time on platform. I got this idea initially from you, Sean, in the era of video influencers where we’re interviewing people, it’s very edited. And of course your channel, think media, it’s very produced.
The craziest thing was your 45 minute long, just PowerPoint presentations would perform so well. And you know, they were different kinds of views, 50,000 views, a hundred thousand views. You’ve had ones that perform better, but what was the ABD on some of those videos? Yeah.
Sometimes it’s 18 minutes, 24 minutes, 32 minutes. With less work. Now you don’t want to discount all the experience and reps to get to the point where you do those type of videos, but less editing, right? Not as produced.
It’s just you and the camera, no cameraman or anything like that. And so I was seeing that. And then also these longer vlogs that were hitting, you know, in the 2020 era.
And I thought, you know what? It’s just easier to let that play versus picking 10 other longer videos. And so, yes, you’re absolutely right. That ABD is really important.
And oftentimes for me, when I’m doing a 30 minute video, I’m hitting 15 to 20 minutes. And I always think about that. How many TikToks would you have to watch to do it? So by default, if my ABD is longer, the amount of time the average viewer is watching, the more likely that YouTube will want to suggest my video, even if somebody else’s video that’s hitting on a similar topic is more engaging produced because I’m hitting a longer amount of time that I’m keeping people on the thing.
Because when a video ends, the biggest risk to YouTube is that person might leave to another platform or just not watch content. But if your video is longer and they want to know what the end result is, right? Like say there’s a challenge I’m trying to hit, or they want to see all the different sales. They’re more likely to stick around, hence stay on YouTube longer.
And guess what? The algorithm loves that. Yeah, that’s good. So we’re going to cover these final three tips and we’ve got a couple of cool resources for you as well.
Let’s just hit number eight. I’ll just touch on this one. Use your real voice, imperfections included.
The new algorithm rewards authenticity, not just polish. There’s a time and place for highly produced content. And of course, creators that are doing retention editing are still doing well.
But what’s so cool about this new vlogging method is it allows anybody to get into the game that doesn’t have fancy, doesn’t have a team, doesn’t have fancy editing skills. You could just start filming in your car, but the point is you’re being human and you’re already interesting. But I actually want to skip to point number nine next, which is don’t chase views, chase volume.
We’re talking about starting a vlog channel this year. And if someone’s a beginner, if someone’s just getting started, what is the importance of volume? What does volume mean? It means like amount of uploads, not just trying to have one video that gets 10,000 views or a hundred thousand views and you hope to go viral. It’s actually saying like, show up and upload a lot.
Why is this important? Well, any skill in life, right? It could be a profession. It could be sports. It could be a hobby.
The more you do it, the more you practise, they better you get. And that includes vlogging, but especially the new way of vlogging. And so this is speaking to both beginners and creators with an audience.
This new way of vlogging is different than anything you ever did. Unless you’re from the OG days of like 2007, 2008, where this was what we did, but we did it like five, 10, 15 minutes because there was a limitation on the length. I actually believe if we could have uploaded hour long vlogs or videos in 2005, we would have did it this way.
But we had the limitation of like a ceiling for how long your videos could be. So we as creators and even viewers don’t understand this new skill of guess what? Just be yourself. We always said be yourself, but guess what? That was after her.
Oh, that was before you produced it. You edit it. You put the graphics, you did the B roll and all that kind of stuff.
Now you and a camera just talking in your car about one thing with no edits can get you hundreds of thousands of views. And there’s plenty of examples of a million plus views. And so getting the reps in is going to help you be comfortable on camera.
Um, and then also there’s this thing that I call the mirror exposure effect. And when you think about the friends that your closest was or family members, your closest was, you probably hung out with them a lot. Would you agree? Yeah.
The people you spend the most time with is the people you’ve cultivated the most depth with. Is there anybody that you only hung out with once and had this amazing 30 minutes that you’re just like, that’s my favourite person ever? Not typically. Not typically.
Even if there was somebody, you know, like a celebrity or mayor or whatever, but you’re not trying to go out and hang out with them. You’re probably going to hang out with a person that you hung out with the most that you liked the most that you can relate to the most. The mirror exposure effect is explaining that that person that you go to school with and you’re in every single class together for years and years and years, you end up becoming close, maybe not best friends, but really close.
Just from the fact that you’ve been exposed to them many times, the same thing happens on YouTube. It also happens on social media. So reps is really important.
We kind of went away from this because quality was everything for a long time. We forgot that people connect with and become, uh, you know, closer and trust the people that show up in our lives every single day. So the reps are great to get the experience and be comfortable to do this new vlog, make vlogging method, but the reps are still important.
Even if you are comfortable because you want to show up in people’s lives and because there’s a lack of supply of these longer videos, you can by default just win by doing it a lot. You know, I’ve had different sprints where I’ll do every single day for a month or whatever. And it’s crazy how much more engaged my audience is.
They’re like let down. If I miss a day though, Oh my gosh, I was waiting for it. And my vlogs aren’t that much different than when I only do it once a week.
I see those comments on my wife and I back in October when we did the daily vlogging challenge, you could just see that engagement. And what’s funny is that was a power of having a lot of subscribers back in the day. And whether they’re subscribed or not, this is a crazy thing.
They still want to watch our videos because we’re showing up in their lives and the mere exposure effect made us closer to them and them closer to us. And that is powerful. And you can only get that from doing lots of reps and doing the volume.
Yeah, that makes sense. It’s like, uh, there’s all kinds of analogies of why this is so important. The world is so noisy that if you only get one exposure to somebody, you’re going to be forgotten.
You’re going to get drowned out. And so you even, you need to do a lot of reps just to get the time to clock some time with people. And it’s like, it’s like dating relationships and marriage.
You know, you might’ve met somebody, you guys had chemistry at the start, but it still took a couple of dates. But then once you lived life together, you went on a road trip together, you made some memories together. Times and seasons have passed.
You’ve been through the holidays together. You’ve been through summer together. That bond is there.
You start to get to know that person. Well, if you’re going to create a personal brand online that connects with people, you need those multiple different touch points with them. I would bet money that nine out of 10 people that are watching this or listening to this or closer or feel closer or trust a creator that has low production that is not shiny and pretty low key and more real natural that shows up a lot in their life, whether daily or maybe like two or three times a week versus a very polished celebrity that’s got a whole production that puts out banger vlogs or videos like once every other week.
Just that person that shows up in their life is the one that they’re obsessed with. And it’s weird because they probably wouldn’t say I’m obsessed with, but they actually want to watch our views, their videos. We call it like comfort viewing that comes from showing up in their life a lot versus you don’t do comfort viewing when there’s only one upload every other week.
And so that is the difference. Different strategies, different goals. But for me I like it when I have that connection with my audience because then I have a relationship and trust and that not only leads to follow up views, but also opportunities, whether it’s, you know, you know, selling your products or doing brand deals, whole nother topic, but I’m telling you it’s powerful and you can do it as easily as showing up as often as possible, but not in a way that’s highly produced.
So we’re talking about starting a vlog this year and we’ve shared nine tips so far. I want to hit tip number 10, but a couple of resources. One, if you didn’t catch part one of our conversation, there’s a lot of other nuances about the opportunity with vlogging right now.
We’ll link that in the show notes. Another one is if you want to go deeper on this topic, Benji you’ve got a free masterclass at vloggeracademy.com entirely free and that’s you doing a presentation. It’s over your shoulder.
So people can get really tactical. I would encourage listeners to go take advantage of that free masterclass to keep the momentum going because I know that a lot of times when we think about starting, I mean if you’re still listening to this, you want to start a vlog or you want to get back to it. Keep the momentum going like especially at the beginning of the new year, like don’t just keep watching stuff, but like put it into action.
Pick your camera, pick your phone. I know you talk about all that kind of stuff that you can help people with. So in the show notes you could check out the free class, check out part one and then also subscribe to the Think Media podcast.
We’re bringing you unfiltered tips for building a profitable YouTube channel and we’ve got some really good content coming up this year. And so as we land the plane though, I think there’s the big final idea. Your boring life is somebody else’s comfort TV.
And so I think the thing that holds people back is like, but does anyone are going to really care? But isn’t it too competitive or isn’t like, are people going to judge me or like, you know what I really have to say and there’s so much I’ll start when or limiting beliefs and doubt. Benji, what is your final few thoughts about why people should punch fear in the face and get into the vlogging game right now? Yeah, I think about this old cowboy. He’s like 80 years old.
He has a YouTube channel and he just sits on the porch and just talks about stories about his life as a cowboy and it’s, it can get like a million views. People need to differentiate with the setting that you’re recording in and the topic you’re talking about. So yeah, your general life might be boring.
Guess what? Almost everybody, if you were really honest with yourselves has kind of like a normal regular life. Okay. Unless you’re like a superstar in the NBA or a celebrity living in Hollywood, that’s everybody.
Okay. It’s what you’re talking about. That’s interesting.
And so don’t think like I have to have an exciting life for someone to want to watch. No, I have some things very interesting to talk about around an interest and that’s why people will watch and people are putting too much weight on the visual and not enough on the audio. I’m not just talking from a technical aspect.
I mean, I wear a microphone for a reason because people like that crispy sound like this microphone, but no, it’s because they’re sometimes just listening to what I’m talking about versus watching what’s in the video. And if you think about that and you apply this new method where I’m talking and I’m obsessing and I’m nerding out on a topic, think about all these other videos so that cowboy, old cowboy on the porch, it’s always the same perspective. It’s always the same framing.
It’s like a rocking chair. How interesting is that? It’s not that interesting. He kind of looks interested about how long can you watch him for just doing the same thing, but it’s what he’s talking about that is keeping you interested and that’s compelling.
And think about your life. What have you done that’s amazing or great that you don’t have to like create a whole production around to share? Or what is it that you’re obsessed with that someone else is obsessed with? The easiest example to like prove this is correct. There’s probably people in your life that when they cross paths with you because you’re so into that, that you can talk about it.
You actually were the one that proved this to me. My whole new vlogging method on my channel, the food vlog is because when you’d come over to my house, you would just sit there and listen to me talk about the different ingredients, the farmers that sold me these onions, you know, this method that I learned from Matt and then you would sit there and it’s like, Oh my God. So when you play, you take a picture and you eat it.
I was like, man, if I can just do what I do for Sean and my kitchen on YouTube, I bet you there’s other people like that. And I was, I was proven right. And so there’s something that you already do that is compelling enough to keep someone’s attention for a long period of time.
You just need to put that onto video. And that’s why the cowboy on the porch, though, like it seems like it’s, you know, like a very boring scene. I bet you there’s people in his life that like said, Hey, you have so much wisdom.
You should just put this on video. And bam, you got a million people listening when before there was nobody on his porch because he had a boring life. No, he had a lot of amazing things to talk about.
And that’s the point. This is why you need to get your opinions out there, share your experiences or talk about the thing that cranks your wheel because there’s an audience out there waiting for that video to just get suggested on their YouTube, on the TV that they can just relax to and watch while they’re sitting on the couch doing chores or even commuting to work. And if you think about that and the content you’ve also done that for, then you need to get started right now.
There’s so many opportunities that came to mind when you said that, when I think about it, I think his name is Dwayne, right? That’s, uh, you know, sitting on this, uh, on this porch. I think that the key there is there’s so much opportunity right now for people in their forties, fifties, sixties, and even seventies to start YouTube because they have life wisdom. And when you’re telling life wisdom and you pick a theme, that’s super powerful.
But I think also whether it’s RC cars, it could be magic, the gathering, it could be, uh, you know, careers. Maybe you’ve been going through getting promotions and how do you interview or what are you doing? You’re recapping your experience in tech. And these people that especially are coaching are filming just 10 minute, 13 minute videos in their car.
You know, I interviewed somebody that talks about, he, um, talks about the economy, but from a, uh, standpoint of particularly lumber, cause that’s his career. And he gets into his pickup truck and he puts his phone on the passenger side door and the angle is always the same and he presses record and then he turns it off. But it’s already what he obsesses about.
He obsesses about looking at the economy and what’s really happening and what’s happening with tariffs and what’s happening. So whether it is around something like an interest, like weight loss or whatever, the landscape is wide open, but you might want further help like narrowing your niche, figuring out your theme, because this is not to downplay the fact that there’s competition. 20 million videos are uploaded every day to YouTube is what YouTube said.
So having your theme topic and telling stories and dialling in those details could be really helpful. So if you do want more stuff from Benji, you do have a free class at vloggeracademy.com. I’ll link that up in the show notes as well. Definitely subscribe if you’re not subscribed.
And then if Benji, if people want to follow you, where can they connect with you online? Yeah. Instagram type in Benji Travis, Benji Man TV is the handle. And as I always say, don’t worry about my content finding you because if you’re interested in food vlogs and the topics I cover, the algorithm will find you.
And that’s kind of the point. You know, more and more, we’re not trying to promote our videos or share our videos because YouTube’s so powerful. It connects your video with the right viewer.
So now you just have to make the video and you’ll see the magic of this platform that we call YouTube and why it’s so powerful.