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Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

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Re: Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

#111

Post by benjaminwootton »

swighton wrote: post #81

I used to be a full time dev / R&D engineer. Now I basically do the same thing on YouTube (youtube.com/stuffmadehere). The difference now is my R&D-ing is directed at early stage prototypes that I think are interesting / instructive, rather than what is best for an actual business, useful, or profitable. Youtube is interesting because theres a constant source of numeric feedback on how you are doing (views / subscrib…

That’s some of the best produced independent content I’ve ever seen on YouTube. Great work!

The subscriber numbers demonstrate the effect of quality over quantity.

Re: Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

#112

Post by y-curious »

swighton wrote: post #81

I used to be a full time dev / R&D engineer. Now I basically do the same thing on YouTube (youtube.com/stuffmadehere). The difference now is my R&D-ing is directed at early stage prototypes that I think are interesting / instructive, rather than what is best for an actual business, useful, or profitable. Youtube is interesting because theres a constant source of numeric feedback on how you are doing (views / subscrib…

I am a huge fan of you and your wife! How did you handle the transition from working for work and working on your channel? Did you just spend weekends doing personal projects?

Re: Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

#113

Post by marginalia_nu »

gms7777 wrote: post #61
marginalia_nu wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Practice speaking. Slow down. This is good advice for most people in general. Speaking slower gives more time to think about what you're going to say, which means you say better things. It's shocking how slowly you can get away with speaking. Incidentally, slowing down is also good advice for improving your handwriting.

And with YouTube, anyone that wants to hear it faster can just speed up the video anyway.

This is really mostly possible with well enunciated speech, which is only really possible if you slow down a reasonable bit.

Re: Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

#114

Post by ohghiZai »

mr_o47 wrote: post #69
cornstalks wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I only watched a minute, but the audio volume is too quiet. You could boost the gain but there’s static that detracts from the voice. A good mic will help with that, but you’ll also need to adjust the sound levels before uploading the video. Also, do I hear a very slight bit of music in the background? Either embrace the background music or remove it. Right now it’s just barely audible which is a little distracting.…

Any mic recommendations and can I also use a headset

Samson Q2U is an affordable mic which you can use over USB.

It also has an XLR output that provides an upgrade path for a better audio interface.

You can also monitor with headphones directly on the mic through the 3.5mm input.

Re: Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

#115

Post by iamflimflam1 »

I’ve grown my channel to around 35,000 subs now - link is in my profile.

As someone else has pointed out - decide if you’re doing it for revenue or for fun. This will determine how happy you are going to be.

To be successful you need to find a niche. And then stick to it. This can be very difficult if your goal is to have fun AND make revenue.

Typically, YouTube will show your videos to your subscribers first and based on their reaction will show it to more people - or just kill it.

This means that you have to stick to a very tight niche - the one that resonates with your subscribers.

If you can pull it off, then having people watch your videos because of “you” rather than the content you post can be a winning formula. This frees you up slightly on the niche side of things. But you will need to have an amazingly entertaining personality to make this work.

I write a bit about my frustrations with being stuck in a niche here: https://atomic14.com/2023/03/06/the-curse-of-youtube.html

Re: Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

#116

Post by roland35 »

iudqnolq wrote: post #110
wahahah wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your content is extremely prolific, good work! I think your thumbnails specifically do a great job of selling the content. Having a focus on numbers can definitely be caustic; at the end of the day it's about the whims of hundreds, thousands, or millions(!) of people, and even the algorithms in charge of leading them about. If you make good content, you'll be appreciated for that content regardless of what the number…

His content is incredible. But prolific? He's posted three videos on his main channel in the past year.

Quality over quantity! Also three is greater than the number of game of thrones books released in the past 20 years...

Re: Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

#117

Post by yurishimo »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #113
gms7777 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And with YouTube, anyone that wants to hear it faster can just speed up the video anyway.

This is really mostly possible with well enunciated speech, which is only really possible if you slow down a reasonable bit.

I disagree. I think it has more to do with ear training and being familiar with the topics at hand. I listen to most spoken videos on 1.5x by default and can easily go to 2x for channels with hosts that speak slower. This is most noticeable for podcast-esque content that is more free-flowing and unscripted. In those scenarios, I might start out at 2x but slow it down if the podcast hosts/guests get into a passionate argument about a topic and start speaking faster and faster.

Importantly, for topics that I don't understand (learning a new language - Dutch), I often don't speed up those videos because my brain is working a helluva lot harder to keep up. This changed last week however, when I was watching some very basic A1 content and found myself wanting to speed it up just a little bit. Did it help that the presenter was speaking slow and enunciating? Yes, but it's nowhere near the most important deciding factor (imo).

Re: Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

#118

Post by marginalia_nu »

yurishimo wrote: post #117
marginalia_nu wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really mostly possible with well enunciated speech, which is only really possible if you slow down a reasonable bit.

I disagree. I think it has more to do with ear training and being familiar with the topics at hand. I listen to most spoken videos on 1.5x by default and can easily go to 2x for channels with hosts that speak slower. This is most noticeable for podcast-esque content that is more free-flowing and unscripted. In those scenarios, I might start out at 2x but slow it down if the podcast hosts/guests get into a passionate…

To be fair, a lot of content on a podcast-like format is like 5 minutes of ideas stretched out to 115 minutes because that's what podcasts typically boil down to. Doesn't matter if you miss out on some detail because there's just not much subtlety to anything shaped up like a podcast. You can walk away from it for 5 minutes and come back and often you'll not feel like you've lost any information.

You'd probably miss out on quite a lot more if you played a Platonic dialogue back at 2x speed.

Re: Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

#119

Post by slowmotiony »

mr_o47 wrote: post #49
DANmode wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subconscious, but true: it will impact the feeling your viewers get when spending time with you.

Agreed, I just posted my first video Let me know how you guys feel about it https://youtu.be/PU75M0QkwTQ

I'm watching for like 2 minutes and I already got lost. What's a python virtual environment? Why do you need it, can't i just install python and be done with it?

Re: Ask HN: Advice on starting a YouTube channel?

#120

Post by Decabytes »

If you plan on making YouTube a career, work hard to avoid having Adsense be your primary form of income. Linus Tech Tips talks about how even with his media empire they are still beholden to the whims of YouTube in a way that still stresses him everytime they release a video
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