- I teamed up with a group of
awesome creators to bring you the biggest mistakes we all
made on YouTube starting out and all of us have some tips
for you so that you don't make the same mistakes. (upbeat electronic music) So I'm super excited about
this video, I've got a really awesome group of creators and
all of us have come up with some of the biggest mistakes that we made, starting out on YouTube, this
is huge, and this is one of those videos that I've been
wanting to create for a while because when I was first
starting out on YouTube I didn't know what to do, I didn't
know if I was doing something right or something wrong, and
I wish that I could go back and tell myself to do
everything that I did and do it completely opposite. Now if you're new here to this channel, my name is Jeven Dovey, I do
a lot of filmmaking tutorials, camera, product reviews, and I
also do some YouTube training so that you guys have be
successful here on the platform. Now I asked each of the
creators that you're gonna see in this video for two of the
biggest mistakes that they made when they first started on YouTube. And one thing before we get
into the tips and the mistakes, I just wanna let you
know that making mistakes is an important part
about YouTube in general. You need to make mistakes,
and you need to learn from your mistakes, to be able
to become a better creator. So don't be afraid of making mistakes, it's not like you're gonna have the perfect video every
video that you put out there, what you produce and how
you produce it is gonna be constantly evolving, however
by making this video, we're hoping that we could use
our experience and help you guys so you don't make the
same mistakes that we made when we started. Also in the description you'll
find links to all of these creators, so guys make sure
you head over to their channels after you finish watching
this video, and check out some of their content because all
of the people that I asked to be on this video are awesome
creators and they're doing some really cool content,
so if you like this content, if you like the content
on my channel, then you're definitely gonna love the
content on all of their channels. Alright, so let's get into
some of the biggest mistakes that we've made as creators
and the first one is from Gerald from Gerald Undone. - Hey Jeven, so the two
biggest mistakes I made when starting my YouTube channel
was one, thinking that variety content would work. When I started out I was making
videos about photography, gaming, vlogs, parodies,
sketches, movie reviews, and pop culture rants, and that
made it impossible to build an audience who knew what
they were subscribed for. To subscribe to a channel
like that you'd have to really enjoy the YouTuber's
personality, and some people did, but the growth was very, very slow. There are over 300 hours of
video uploaded to YouTube every minute and nobody knows who
you are, so it's incredibly arrogant to think you can
just be a YouTube personality. So instead, be useful. Now you don't need to occupy
only the tiniest niches but you do need to have a general
focus that you can explain in just a few words. If it takes you multiple
sentences to describe what you do on YouTube your potential
audience is gonna have a hard time finding you, so stick
to a subject or theme and the algorithm will reward
you for having subscribers that consistently watch your
content and it'll be much easier for you to appear in search. The second mistake I made
was feeling entitled. Once you have a few subscribers
and a successful video or two, you might start to feel
like you're owed something, like your next video should
get even more views because you worked even hard on it or
you see another channel that does something similar
to you but not as well, in your opinion, and
they have a lot of subs, you deserve those subs. It's easy to get bogged down
by the numbers and this weird sense of competition that
YouTube sometimes evokes, but don't think like that. YouTube is hard, and it's not
a sprint, it's a marathon. It's important to remember
that as you grow you still have to earn every view and subscriber you get, you aren't entitled to them just because you hit the upload button. Don't be obsessed with the numbers, appreciate the viewership you do have and keep working on
improving your channel. Not because you'll be entitled
to more growth if you do but hopefully because
it makes you feel good to work hard on your content. - Now I just want to piggyback
on Gerald's first tip, when he was taking about
doing a variety channel. So one of the biggest mistakes
that I made when I first started YouTube was not being
realistic about the niche that I was gonna start creating in. So when I first started, I
stared my YouTube channel with my wife and we were doing
the whole adventure travel, couple thing on YouTube,
so what we wanted to do was create a travel vlog and
travel around the world and create content around our travels. Now when you're coming up with
the niche and what you want to do you need to be
realistic with yourself. For us, we weren't going
quit our jobs and go travel the world, that's not
something that we were planning on doing so putting ourselves
in this niche wasn't necessarily the best thing to
do, we should of done a little bit more research on what it's
actually going to take to, A start a YouTube but B, make
a travel vlog YouTube channel. We travel here and there, we
like creating content around those travels but when it comes
to what you're realistically gonna create and what you can
create time and time again throughout however long
you're gonna be going YouTube, you need to understand
like what it's gonna take. So having a travel channel,
you really have to be invested in travel and you have to be
traveling, I mean that's one of the big things about it. For me, I run a production
company here in Los Angeles and I wasn't gonna be
traveling all the time. There's definitely gonna be
moments where we're gonna go out and travel here and there but
it's not something realistic that we can do for an
extended period of time. So my big tip for you would
be, be realistic with yourself on what it is that you're
actually going to create. If you go down the path
of a specific niche, is this something that
you actually want to do. Is this something that you're
gonna want to do five years from now, and I want you
to really think about this because when you set yourself
up in a niche and get going, you're gonna start getting
some momentum and you're gonna get followers in that particular
niche and if you have to rebrand yourself or completely
change your channel down the road, it's gonna be harder
and it's gonna stunt your growth, and this is exactly
what happened to me, I had to change from my
travel brand to basically my personal brand which is what it is now, and I had to make a massive
switch and it was a tough thing to do, so do a little research
into the niche that you want to start creating for, and
see if this is something that you really want to go after. Alright so let's hear some
of the biggest mistakes from Dunna from Dunna Did It. - What is up, my name is
Dunna from the channel Dunna Did It and I definitely
made my fair share of mistakes when I first started out with YouTube. Kind of going with one that's
a little bit more of a mental thing and one that's a
little bit more technical. The first one is that I put
way too much stress on myself about trying to get views
and promoting my videos instead of focusing more on
actually making better videos. It's easy to look at some of
these bigger channels and see that they're getting thousands,
tens of thousand, millions of views and be like, well
my video is as good as that, how come it's not getting those
views, but that's not really how it works, you have to
put out lots of videos, you have to put out really good
content, you really have to be out there for a while
before that'll happen, it's very few and far between
that just get that viral video and skyrocket to that level. So instead of spending all of
that extra energy on trying to go on Facebook to promote
it, and Twitter, and Reddit and wherever it is, I really
wish that I would of spent more time making more videos
and getting better at making good videos, getting more
out there, because every time you put a video out that's
another chance for someone to find you. And the second mistake that
I made that I wish I could go back and teach my former
self to not make this mistake is to focus more on thumbnails. It seems so simple to me now
that the first thing that we see and the reason that
we click on something is the thumbnail, we're very
visual, if you go into a grocery store and you have a
whole isle full of sugar, you're naturally going to be
drawn to the one that looks the best to you, whatever has
the nicest style or whatever you're into, that's the one
you're going to be drawn to and videos are no exception
to that and all of the YouTube gurus tell you this but it's
something that I kind of had to figure out as time went on and
so now I try and be a little bit more aesthetic with my
thumbnail so that they're more clickable but still my style. So those are my beginner
mistakes that I made, and kind of how you can fix them. - Dunna brought up an awesome point. So, your thumbnails are super
important and so is your title and your descriptions and all
of that, so I highly suggest you put some effort into that
element of creating content for your channel because if
someone doesn't click your video then they're not gonna watch
your video, so you need to actually grab people by
creating engaging thumbnails. Alright, so now let's check
our Sidney's biggest mistakes that he's made on YouTube
and some of the tips that he has for you. - Okay, here we go. So one of the first mistakes
I made when I started my YouTube channel back in
2012 was that, I was afraid. I was so afraid that my
first video would be so bad that it actually took me
five years to actually start creating consistent content. I gave into the fear, I was
procrastinating, I made up so many excuse that it prevented
me from doing what I love doing most and if I would
of told myself when I first started YouTube just to
embrace it, embrace the fear, and just make that first
video regardless of how it comes out, man, it would
of been a different story. So that was my first mistake
is I was so afraid that it prevented me from actually
doing what I love doing and that's creating content. Another mistake that I made
when I started my YouTube channel was that, I was copying
Casey Neistat, I mean I saw his success, I didn't know how
to vlog and so I pretty much imitated him, even to his
editing style, his pacing, his choice of music and deep
down in my gut, I just knew it wasn't right for me,
I mean it worked for him, obviously but it just wasn't right for me because it wasn't my voice. That was just such a big mistake
because when I made videos imitating Casey, I got no
views, I mean I worked so hard making these videos that I
was so frustrated and angry and upset that no one would
actually see it and so one day I finally came to terms with
it, and I started making videos that resonated with me and
funny enough it wasn't until those videos that it
resonated with other people and I started getting traction
and views and subscribers and that's when I finally
took off, and so big lesson learned, you have to be yourself
because if you try to be like another Casey Neistat
you're gonna be another Casey Neistat and if you
want to stand out on YouTube, you have to be yourself and
so that was my, that was a big mistake on my part is that
I didn't embrace who I was and I just embraced
somebody else's persona. Being on YouTube you have to be yourself. - So I've got a quick tip
for you to just add on to everything else that
we're talking about here, and that is don't get
stressed about the analytics, don't always be looking at
social plates, seeing your subscriber counter go up,
don't always be looking at how many views you're getting,
you can get really lost in the analytics and it's
one of those things that can really take your attention
away from the important part which is creating awesome content. Alright so next we've
got Dave from Kinotika, he's got a few tips for
you that's gonna help you with your channel. - Hey guys I'm Dave Maze host
of channel called Kinotika we have over 50,000 subscribes
and we review camera gear and equipment and try to
make it really entertaining. I'm also the host of a podcast
as you can see behind me, this is actually the PolarPro
set, the podcast is called Golden Hour and we interview
creatives and influences. It just launched today actually
so we're really excited to share that, so check
Golden Hour on PolarPro's YouTube channel. To answer Jeven's question,
which two mistakes did you make as a YouTuber, well the first
mistake that I actually made is not staying focused. I started doing YouTube when
I was also doing freelance work and I think that's a
very important thing to do starting out because you
can actually pay your bills but I actually found myself
just diving into not having enough time to actually do YouTube. I wanna be a good husband
and a good father to my son, but I also wanna do this
YouTube thing, so I actually started saying no to a lot of
freelance work that was maybe not paying at the rate that
I wanted, and I was able to figure out my budget to live
off a lower income to build my YouTube channel. At this point it's kind of
balanced out the other way to where I'm actually making enough
money now to be a full time YouTuber and not have to
worry about freelance. So if you wanna be a YouTuber
then consider cutting back some of your freelance work,
maybe some of the things that you don't have to take that
you kind of feel obligated to take because you've
worked with them in the past and you're giving them a
discounted rated because they're a friend, start cutting
those things out of your life so you have more time to
focus on the things that you actually want to do,
like being a YouTuber. And the second big mistake
that I made as a YouTuber was doing this alone. I think one of the most
important things as a YouTuber is finding other people who
do the same kind of content as you on YouTube and becoming their friends. I'm not taking about
reaching out to Casey Neistat or Peter McKinnon cold,
I mean you can do that and maybe they'll respond but
really people who are kind of at the same level as you,
that you can just kind of partner with and grow together
with, I think it's really important because as a YouTuber
you sometimes find yourself in a really lonely place,
you're shooting videos by yourself, you're editing them by yourself, and often times it's really
lonely, so I've found it to be really valuable to reach out
to fellow YouTubers who are similar to me, like Jeven who
asked me to be in this video and it really helps you as a
creator because you're able to lean on them when you're
struggling, you can ask them questions about the algorithm
or which thumbnail you think is better, it's just a
really great way to grow as a YouTuber, reach out to
other people similar to you and they don't have to live
in your city, you can do this over the internet, you
can do this over Twitter, over Instagram DMs, it's not something that you
have to do in a physical location although moving
to Los Angeles helps a lot. - Alright so I've got
another quick tip for you and that is you need to
just enjoy the process of creating content, you need
to stop worrying about the analytics so much, I kind
of talked about this earlier but you need to just
enjoy the fact that you're creating content and this
is something that you enjoy doing, if you get wrapped
up too much in the analytics and all the stuff that goes
into, getting your videos higher in the ranking system,
you kind of forget about the fact that we're here just
creating awesome content. So never walk away from your
creativity and always be focused on creating awesome
content rather than always thinking about analytics
and data and all that stuff. Alright so I've got a couple
more tips for you from Josh from Make Art Now and
some of his biggest mistakes that he made when he started his YouTube. - Yo, yo, Josh, yo, okay. Two mistakes when I first
started out, oh boy, how much time you got? Alright so it took me full
year to shoot and edit my very first episode and I scrapped
it, I ended up reshooting and reediting and realizing
that one, I wasted so much time, I was so crippled by the fear
of judgment and rejection that I lost sight of my work
ethic which is experience makes you better. I could of started a whole year
earlier if I'd just released that first one, I dunno, maybe
I'll release it some time, it'd be a good story. If you guys wanna really
inspiring message, go watch Ira Glass, the creative process. Watch that about 10 times
and let that sink in. Alright second big
mistake, trying to predict what subscribers want, I've
wasted so much time in the very beginning and the truth
is, trends come and go, so what works for some YouTuber
yesterday won't work for you today and that's just
the truth of any industry that we're in, trends evolve,
so in the end you just have to do stuff that you want to
do, this is long-game stuff, you don't want to get burnt
out doing product videos, you want to do stuff that
artistically turns you on, that fills the bucket
that just gives you juice and you will attract
your kind of subscribers, I would much rather have a
hundred thousand of my hardcore subscribers than a million
of like, take it or leave it subscribers, just kind
of pick them up from here or there, you want people
that are in your corner, 'cuz they will follow you anywhere, whatever career you go
in, they will follow you, and the only way to do that
is by doing the things that you love and making that
the light of your channel. Anyway, go make some art. - Josh, thanks for those awesome tips. Guys, I've got one more major
tip for you and that is not worry so much about always
sticking to your schedule and having the pressure of
always having to upload. Things happen in your life
and if you miss an upload it's not the biggest deal in the world. When I first started creating
content on this platform, I always felt like I needed
to upload more and upload more and upload more and if
I didn't get something out every few days, I felt like I was gonna miss
out and loose all my momentum on YouTube, well that's not the case. Yes it's important to
give yourself a schedule, but don't let it take over your life. If you have things come up
or you're just not feeling very creative then don't
worry about missing a video here and there, it's not
gonna be that big of a deal in the world. And one of the tips I have for
you is just communicate with your audience, do whether that's
though Twitter, Instagram, your community tab, just tell
your viewers what's going on, you could even just create a
quick update video where you're talking to your audience. Communication is key and so
you need to actively engage with your audience, you need
to comment to them, you need to talk to them, you need to
tell them what's going on, and you just need to be a person. Take the pressure off to
always be creating content and always be forced to get something out. Your content is gonna suffer
because if you force yourself to just put stuff out, it's
not gonna be very good. And then I got one more bonus
tip for you, it's actually something that Dave was talking
about and one of the biggest mistakes that I made when
first starting out was not collaborating with other YouTubers. Now there's a few reasons
why you wanna collaborate, number one is that it's gonna
grow your channel and you're gonna reach new audiences but
number two and more important than growing your channel
is you're gonna meet really awesome creators doing some really cool stuff on this platform. The key is just wanting to
work with other creators because you're gonna
learn from each other, you're gonna have awesome
experiences and it's just gonna be a ton of fun. So that's one thing I wish I
could tell myself, going back years ago when I first
started my YouTube channel, is start reaching out to other
creators, start joining in the conversation and start
being a part of the community because it is such a
awesome group of people. Alright guys, that is it,
those are our biggest mistakes that we made when we first
started our YouTube channel. I'd love to hear your
thoughts about these mistakes and these tips down below in the comments. So if there's any mistakes
that you made when you first started your YouTube, please
leave them down in the comments because let's help each
other be successful YouTubers and be a part of this community. And also, make sure you head
over to all the different channels that were a part of
this video because they're awesome creators, doing
some really cool things. Guys, if you're new here to
this channel make sure you hit that subscribe button,
there's a lot of awesome filmmaking tutorials, camera
reviews, some YouTube training stuff, also I have the
creatorfilmschool.com which is my nuts to bolts
everything you need to know to have a career as a creator
and guys, I'll put a link down below in the description
so you an check that out. And if you like this video, make sure you hit that like button, and guys that's it, I'll
see you on the next one.
