 Alright so hello and welcome to another episode of the vlog it's okay my name is Kwame and over here we learn to be better versions of ourselves and that's what this channel is all about it's documenting my new freelance journey and filmmaking photography and becoming an all in all best person for myself and for the people around me. A couple of days ago I released a video which asked the question can we all make it big on YouTube and I talked about some other things that I've learned so far since beginning my YouTube channel in January not beginning my YouTube channel in January I think I started actively posting videos as vlogs like this in January. Now before I started posting videos I was binge watching a lot of YouTube videos and all the tips and the tricks and the gadgets to buy and everything all the alternatives the cheaper versions I binge watch a lot of them how to even talk to the camera and all of that I watched almost every video that would have made it comfortable for me to start a YouTube channel myself but the only thing was the relatability in terms of the environment in which all these people that were teaching all these great stuff were from I'm from Ghana and I didn't find at the time any Ghanaian YouTuber who was teaching anybody who wanted to start a YouTube channel how to go about it so this is a beginner's guide to starting a YouTube channel and I think it will be great for Ghanaian content creators who want to start or have their own YouTube channel to maybe see this and fix some of the issues that may occur with them wanting to start a YouTube channel so when I posted the previous video a couple of days ago can we all make it big on YouTube I think this one should have come before that one because that one was a bit more technical on the side of gaining followers and gaining views and all these things so before you start let's just backtrack before you start a YouTube channel what do you need to know I think the first thing you need to know is that YouTube thrives on contents so the first thing you need to know is to decide what kind of content you want to put out on YouTube now there's tons and tons and tons of content and it's okay if you are doing a content which already exists actually it's actually good if you are doing a content which already exists like you want to start a makeup or lifestyle vlog nobody can do makeup like you and nobody can teach people how to do makeup like you so that already in itself makes your channel unique so you have to find ways to put out your content that makes it different from the other content so decide on exactly what you want to do that is very important and how you want your channel to look like so there are a few things for example on your profile that you need to note whereby you need to have a good profile picture and a good header these are the two things or two basic things that people see when they come to your channel that is about the most basic of your customization of your channel now the next thing you need to know is that your content needs to have a certain look personal to you and it has to be consistent so when you are posting videos there are your titles and there are your thumbnails I'm talking about content even before I come to the gadgets you might need and your thumbnails so there's this level of consistency with your thumbnails that people can quickly track back to you or they know that this are how your thumbnails these are how your thumbnails look like so you have your profile picture you have your header your thumbnails and your titles and how your channel looks like I think it's really important to pay attention to these things when you are starting so that you have a consistency with how you're delivering now one thing that is most asked about how to start a youtube channel is the kind of gadgets you might need now to record yourself you need a camera that is basic you need some kind of sound to make whatever you're talking about audible enough to the people who are listening there are some tips and tricks to how to on how to get the best out of your camera how to get the best out of your sound those are detailed tutorials which are not going to be in this particular video but there are three major things you need how to record which is your camera your sound and you need light as well now one hack I'm going to give you right now on this video is recording with whatever you have not whatever you have let's just stay a smartphone if you have a smartphone the most basic of basic there has a camera use your smartphone for starters the one trick is to maybe use a window or natural light in your house open up the window and record facing it check out this example of what I did this morning before I even started recording this yeah so this is me recording in front of a window it's early morning so there's daylight and you can see that it's pretty clear now the trick is to record with your back camera not the selfie camera because the back camera is way more quality than the selfie camera or the front camera which the front camera will almost have you looking some type of way because you're trying to see whether you focus or you are in the frame it will make you look away from the camera so if you use a back camera you can stare into the back camera and just record at the moment there's a lot of construction going on so the noise is terrible using Filmic Pro which is a paid app but I think there are cheaper alternatives we can make you record very clean videos with good quality sound as well because they can allow you to use the back microphone the back microphone your phone has a back microphone yes unless you're not using an advanced phone to that degree but this is what you can get with just an open window you facing the window not with your back turned to it if your back is turned to which you're going to just be a black silhouette so with you facing the window you can get something like this so you don't necessarily have to go and buy all the gadgets in the world to start you just need to get a cheap tripod make sure you have a clamp that can hold your phone put it in front of the window just stand and talk to it all right so you can see it's a very simple way you need to make sure that you have a stable way or stable way of holding your phone record from the back camera and you have to try and try and try to you get your composition perfectly right it's something you need to do the practice is important so for me I fell in the trap of getting a lot of gadgets and I tend to like to buy gadgets a lot now because I'm constantly watching other gadgets and reviewing new ones that are coming out and all these things it's it's it's a downward spiral you don't want to go into it's good enough that you have the basics which is a phone tripod that you can record with and good enough or good quality sound to start it's it's what you want to say that's more important since the personality is more important than the gadgets people have beautiful gadgets the expensive gadgets but yeah it doesn't automatically equate to the fact that they have more viewers or more subscribers or more money on youtube so the gadgets are important but always research on budget alternatives it's it's going to save you a lot budget alternatives that's going to save you a lot and it's not even easy even getting it into Ghana in the first place so don't worry ahead about the fact that you need to buy everything if you want to buy the basic of basics affordable things there are some websites in Ghana or shops online shops in Ghana which i'm going to link below that sell some of these things that you can buy to start I think with filming if you have a great or good enough camera good enough lens I think the light and the sound are the two things that are a bit tricky but you almost always want to have soft light that is why opening a window and having a natural light come in hit you is soft that that is soft enough light in the daytime not harsh light at noon but when it's coming through a window I think it's perfect so daytime or daylight is good enough but if you're not using daylight or you're using another light make sure you have diffusion diffusion is having a translucent fabric put in front of the light to diffuse it enough so that it's soft otherwise it's going to be harsh and hitting your face and it's not going to make your videos look more flattering so with gadgets like I said don't worry ahead about buying any and everything before you start I use a Canon ATD doesn't even shoot 4k so if you've heard about 4k you think 4k video looks the absolute best it's not really really really the reason why you should start recording or not record your youtube videos because you don't have a 4k camera I don't use a 4k camera but I put stuff out there and I know channels that have huge numbers that use very basic cameras so there are other tricks to getting views which I mentioned some of them in my previous video you can check out than concentrating so much on the look of your videos with the gadgets so basic gadgets you need you need good sound which some phones can give you really good sound like the iPhone 11 if you don't have that any other phone you can record with there are softwares that make you or that make it easy or that make it possible for you to actually use their back microphone the back microphone on your phone which is a filmic pro gives you that alternative to use a back microphone filmic pro is not a free app you can buy filmic pro and use it there's also the moment app that you can use and these things might improve the quality of the sound you want the microphone to be as close to you as possible otherwise if you're recording in a room that is huge is going to sound very hollow these are some of the tricks you need to know but I would say that I'll leave most of them to you to also research I may not be saying the correct thing don't take everything I say but do research compared to what I was saying if it's right for you then go ahead and use it so I think with content you need to know what content you want to record and put on YouTube you need to be consistent with your content in terms of putting it out once every week twice every week depending on how you can do it and then the gadgets you need to know that the basics are important or good enough to start a YouTube channel these are the two major things that I would say for a beginner this is not it's not anything extraordinary I think the most work comes in when you have to be consistent you have to learn how to talk to the camera and be confident enough to engage people for a long time and also remember that if you're starting a YouTube channel with the aim of making money then that's your main aim the reason why you're starting a YouTube channel because you've heard that a lot of people make money it's true a lot of people make a lot of money people are full-time YouTubers and they live off their YouTube it's very possible it's very doable but if you do backtrack or if you look into it you find that these people have been doing it for years or at least a year and the kind of content they do may not exactly be exact the same thing you can or will do so know where you fall within be consistent be creative be creative in your ways of delivering rather than picking the topic to make money fast because you think that that's where you run out of ideas to keep up you're not the same as the other person so I can't believe this so my lights went out and I gotta stop recording I was using or I'm using the SLW 60 and that one requires that you plug it in the wall and my lights just went out so what I'm gonna do is I'm going to switch lights and continue recording or finish up this particular video all right so we're gonna pause for now you can't even see me my god yeah so this is what I meant by relatability I'm recording and all of a sudden ECG decides to take the light lights that is not supposed to go off ECG will disgrace you but anyway yeah so this is what I mean by knowing what kind of content you want to do and let me put this around just wiping my face with it knowing what kind of content you want to do and the gadgets you need to get to start it's more important than your personality shows it's more important that you're consistent than buying everything that you might not need immediately to begin the youtube channel there is a monetization aspect which I'm sure I'll probably do another video to go through the things I have learned with some settings you need to do back and forth but for today I think this is a beginner video which tackles two areas which is the content and the setup these are the two major things you need to know as for the other parts of youtube you grow into it and you discover more this is the end of the video I had to switch my lights and this is not very flattering I said like it but it's doing the job and I get to finish the video so yeah my name is Kwame you can check out some of the videos that are on the channel I really do yeah it's recording I need to check everything before I finish it and realize that I didn't do jack shit yeah check other videos on the channel and I'll catch you again in the next episode wow ECG would really disgrace you adios man peace peace peace peace good show