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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?

#81

Post by swighton »

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 / subscribers / watch time). Seeing these numbers change based on what you do can be incredibly addicting and it's very easy to accidentally connect your personal happiness to those numbers. This is great if they are going up, but if they aren't.... yeah. It's also easy to get into a situation where you lean into "what works" over and over until you find yourself doing stuff that you don't enjoy.

My advice would be to find a way to keep the numbers at arms length and focus on doing stuff that you enjoy. You definitely need the feedback of stats / comments / etc to get better, but you don't wan to check it 10 times a day. Personally when I launch a video I will check a few times to ensure I didn't screw up anything major, see if there is any useful feedback in comments, then I will check maybe the stats every week or two.

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

#83

Post by Dalewyn »

carom wrote: post #12

Find a niche. People love free content. It wasn't that hard. I was making computer security videos for people, real basics for programming, networking, web interactions, number bases, bit math - stuff that you need to learn as a base to get into hacking. Grew my channel pretty quickly to 1k subscribers just by sharing them to reddit. I deleted it because I got annoyed that I was making content for YT for free (the vi…

>- Downsize your screen to 720p when you record so it is large enough for the average laptop screen to read. It is absolutely ridiculous when someone is recording a tutorial on a 4k monitor and the text is microscopic.

This echoes to basically anything creative in nature. Always consider the average situation of your customers when making your product.

As a programmer, consider whether your program runs properly on a $300 dollar potato from Walmart rather than your $8000 dollar development workstation. As a videographer (aka Youtuber), consider whether your video looks nice on a $300 dollar potato from Walmart rather than your $8000 dollar 8K 60" monitor.

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

#84

Post by dangoodmanUT »

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…

> Seeing these numbers change based on what you do can be incredibly addicting and it's very easy to accidentally connect your personal happiness to those numbers

As someone who doesn't post as often as other YouTubers, do you find it's harder to be mindful of this because of the "stakes" of a single video, or easier because there's more time to disconnect between uploads? (big fan btw)

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

#85

Post by sublinear »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #32
carom wrote: post #12

Find a niche. People love free content. It wasn't that hard. I was making computer security videos for people, real basics for programming, networking, web interactions, number bases, bit math - stuff that you need to learn as a base to get into hacking. Grew my channel pretty quickly to 1k subscribers just by sharing them to reddit. I deleted it because I got annoyed that I was making content for YT for free (the vi…

> - 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.

I disagree. The creator should slow down when writing, but they should not waste the viewer's time when speaking. I don't want to hear someone's ramblings unless they're really someone special.

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

#86

Post by hackermailman »

swyx wrote: post #73
hackermailman wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've watched those, the recommender algo he claims is simple. Whoever achieves the longest continuous views wins so you introduce every video with very brief 'here is what you are watching' then do that video you just described. What you don't do is long intros, music intros or not tell people what's going on. The thumbnail helps but not as much in the past, it should just be something interesting and unique to the v…

yeah, see, advice like "pay for translations" is unrelatable for anyone under 10m subs, which is where everyone here is.

Not for me because I did my own translation and became a meme because of my awful accent according to comments, currently my French translation is making money which I found hilarious because ppl are posting me as the idiot who has good videos for MSTs and linear programming. Anyway just have fun and don't worry about money if the content is what you would like to see you'll do OK. Guys like Mr Beast have teams of pros

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

#87

Post by TheHumanist »

deadeye wrote: post #75
graiz wrote: post #19

- Good audio is more important than good video. People can listen to good audio and forgive bad video, but bad audio and people will stop watching. - It takes time/audience to get traction. I started with a bunch of different topics and this was a waste of time. Having a focus for the channel helps. - It takes a ton of time. I enjoy the process but don't underestimate the time commitment. - Don't do it for subs or mo…

Run your audio through Adobe podcast. It's insanly good.

Will try this. Thanks!

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

#88

Post by swighton »

dangoodmanUT wrote: post #84
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…

> Seeing these numbers change based on what you do can be incredibly addicting and it's very easy to accidentally connect your personal happiness to those numbers As someone who doesn't post as often as other YouTubers, do you find it's harder to be mindful of this because of the "stakes" of a single video, or easier because there's more time to disconnect between uploads? (big fan btw)

I definitely have a sense of only having one shot so I want to make the best video that I can. Though it’s not so much related to the numbers as it is to:

1) I spend a ton of time on the engineering so I don’t want to make a crappy video that doesn’t do it justice

2) the amount of time spent watching these videos is staggering. Like multiple lifetimes of time is spent watching an average video. If I make a junk video, I’ve just wasted an enormous amount of time. Being a good steward of this weighs heavily on me.

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

#89

Post by damascus »

sublinear wrote: post #85
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.

I disagree. The creator should slow down when writing , but they should not waste the viewer's time when speaking. I don't want to hear someone's ramblings unless they're really someone special.

Rambling and speaking slowly are very different things.

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

#90

Post by kayson »

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…

Your channel is among the best content on youtube, and I am very jealous you get to do this for a living. Do you have any sort of contingency plan for what happens if youtube/patreon is no longer sustainable as an income source?
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