 Hi everyone and welcome back to another vlog. My name is Claire Carmichael and I'm a newly qualified general practiceness. So today's vlog is all about vlogging. Vlogging and blogging and just some of the tips that I learned along the way and hopefully it's going to help you out if you're thinking about vlogging, if you're thinking about vlogging but you know you're a bit too scared, you don't know where to start, you don't know how to start. Hopefully this video is going to help you. First tip, just go for it. Just literally don't even think about it, don't think about any negativity, don't think about who's going to watch it, don't think about family and friends mocking you for it. Literally don't even tell anyone, just record a video, do it, go for it, put it out there, just take that leap. However tip number two slightly contradicts tip number one because what I'm going to say is think about your audience. Tip number two is think about what you want to say and also always question why am I saying this, what is my purpose of doing this vlog, what target audience do I want to reach with this, what sort of following do I want to gain, what sort of community do I want to build up for my vlogging community and that's just going to really help shape the content of your vlogs and what you do. So my content is all about nursing, it's all about student nurses helping those people hopefully get through nursing and any tips and advice as well as showing my journey as well so that people can see my journey and what it's like to become a newly qualified nurse and then future nurse and who knows what in the future and yeah, so that was my aim and I think that's really important is just to find your niche and what you want to vlog about and just always think about your target audience and what they want as well. And also there's no harm in asking people, so in your first vlog ask people, okay what do you want to see more of and keep asking that question as you go, what do you want me to do, what do you want me to see more of because you're doing these videos for other people, it's not just for you and whatever you're going to gain from it, if you're one of those people that likes a lot of followers I'm not that person, I'm not bothered about following or how many views I've got or dislikes or anything, I do this to help people and if I help one person or two people that's my goal done, I've succeeded in that so it's about finding out what's going to work for you, what your goals are and doing more of that as well. Literally just sit by a window, so where I am now, I'm literally in front of my window and that's because that brings in the light, as long as you've got good lighting it doesn't matter what fancy cameras you've got, I literally do mine on my iPhone I've got the iPhone XR, other makes and models are available but literally any camera phone that you have, put it in front of the window sit in front of it and you will see that actually it's quite a good quality as long as you've got good lighting you will always get a good quality video My next tip is get an editing software or app, whatever is going to suit your needs for what you want, I'm just a basic person, I'm not bothered about fancy things and put all these different things in, so I literally just use iMovie and that suits me, it does exactly what I need it to do I can edit my videos, trim it down, do anything I want to do with the ad pictures and little words at the bottom, that's just basic stuff that I need however there are other apps and other software things that you can buy to edit your videos if you want something a bit more fancy, but literally iPhone and iMovie again other phones and models are available but they will all have their own video and editing app as well so have a look into that and just work out what's good for you don't think about what you're comfortable with, don't think about fancy and things like that because you can do YouTube vlogs on just a basic, simple editing app and a phone so don't worry about spending money or anything like that My next tip is keep your video short, sweet, straight to the point which I really struggle with because I never thought I would ever do this but I just sit there and I just talk and talk and talk and talk but the good thing about that is you can edit it down so when you're editing your vlogs back you can always look at what you're saying do I really need that in there? Take it out if you don't need it just to shorten it all down but really just short to the point I try to keep mine under 20 minutes 10 minutes is a good number to keep it to and I do always kind of go over that it is more near 20 minutes some of the vlogs that I do sometimes there's just so much information that you have to go into it does go over but just keeping it short, sweet is going to entice people to watch your full vlog I think because I know when I've gone and looked at other people's vlogs and they're like an hour long I'm just like have I really got an hour of my time to just sit and listen to this it's really really difficult however if you do do a longer vlog it's okay but a tip that I've learned is to put the timings underneath in the details so what you're talking about when and what time so people can then go back and forwards if they want to and pick up where they left off it just really helps narrow the video down and for the viewers just to see what actually your content is all about it's just yeah it just helps so I always put my vlogs out every single Sunday morning it's 6am that is the time that they go out so that people know when to accept a vlog sometimes I will just schedule a surprise vlog mid-week if I've got time I will do that but I know that every Sunday a vlog is going out doesn't matter when it's scheduled or what it's scheduled or what it is or what the thing is I will just to keep that routine going I try my very very best there's only been maybe once maybe twice maximum that I haven't posted a vlog in one of the weeks and that's because I've just been so manic and so busy I just haven't physically had a chance so yeah so getting yourself a schedule is a really good way to do it as well so people know and they know to come back to your channel on that day to look at your next vlog my next tip is all about building yourself a community so I love that my vlogs have created this community of nurses and student nurses it's amazing I love going on to other people's vlogs and people that are starting out on vlogging as well I love to go and check out their videos and comment and like and support each other you know this isn't a competition I'm not even vlogging to compete against other people I don't care if someone's got a million views and I've only got one view it doesn't matter as long as that one view made a difference to somebody's life I'm happy but I love supporting other people and I love that we're such a nice community in nursing in the vlogging world and the sort of vlogging world it's really really nice so my tip to you is go and find like-minded people like their videos comment on their videos subscribe to their channels and just get your name out there as well and it's nice because then their viewers can see who you are as well and you can share these viewers and that's how you make these little communities because you'll be viewing each other's channels in a way and then you've got these followings that follow each other and it's just really really nice I love it that's the one thing I really love about vlogging is the community spirit so my next one is all about being you just be yourself be the real version of you don't try and pretend to be anyone else unless that's your thing that you want to do if you want to start impersonating people or doing comedy or something like that that's a little bit different but if you're just showing your journey and your nursing life and your personal life whatever just be you don't pretend to be somebody else just be your real genuine self and people will warm to that and people will just be able to relate to your life and what you're going through as well luckily mine has always been positive but I will also show me getting upset and crying and looking at an absolute mess like I'm a days off I've got my hair in a bun I'm scruffy like this is real life this isn't some fake movie or anything like that this is real life and it's really important to show that especially in nursing when you're inspiring people to come into nursing you have to show the real side to nursing as well it can't be this fake life it's not all positive and I will share the negatives as well as the positives luckily for me it's nine times out of ten it is positive but yeah just be you be genuine be real and just show that side of you so people can just really relate to you don't be afraid to do giveaways to do charity stuff on YouTube I love doing a giveaway I think it's so exciting I love it and not only that but don't be afraid to approach people to get things to do a giveaway all these different places and companies just ask the question the worst they're going to say is no sorry I can't do that that's a little bit much but at the end of the day it's promotion for them as well you're promoting their brands and their company so it's a win-win sort of situation your viewers are going to get something amazing from it but also so is the company because you're getting it out there so yeah so it's really really nice I love doing giveaways it makes me feel so good when I'm giving a giveaway especially when it's people that follow me people that are my regular viewers and people that comment regularly it's so nice when I pull out their name and I'm like yes it's so lovely so yeah do a giveaway do charity work do lovely lovely things on your channel so this tip is for creating thumbnails and titles for your YouTube channel so I use something called Canva if you literally type in Canva I think it's Canva.com I'll put it down here anyway in the links below but go on to Canva this is what I use for everything like all of my the starting image that you see on my vlogs I use it for my thumbnails if I'm creating something to post on Twitter or Instagram I use Canva because it's just amazing and it's a free service as well you can pay for some upgrades and stuff but you don't actually need to I've always just used the basic thing and never paid and it's okay for me it's exactly what I need so Canva is amazing for creating those things and then with the titles of your videos so say what it is don't beat round a bush don't put words that you don't need in there try and keep it short, sweet and simple so you know when people are Google searching you or Google searching something like nursing you want nursing in the title of your video if people are searching for things like assignments you want assignments in the title of your video because that's going to come up on Google searches when people are searching for that type of content so just have these short keywords exactly what's in your video and also things like Google Trends and Google Analytics is amazing like a bit that you can use on the Google Trends that you put in keywords and it will show how many people have searched that keyword across Google over the month or the year whatever you want and it'll also show different countries people are from that have searched that keyword so you can see how many people are searching that keyword and which one's the most popular to use so if I wanted to pick between nurses, nursing and nurse I will put it into Google Trends and whichever one has the highest amount of views and searches I will put that one in my title however I don't faff with that anymore I used to do it a lot at the start but now I'm not so bothered I'm kind of used to just putting the keywords and stuff in there so I don't use it as much now but it's really good for if you're starting out to use that and just see what sort of things people search for really does help structure your title and my next add-on tip to that is once you've put your title in your description below repeat the title you want to have that title repeating apparently it helps with the Google search as well I don't know how but it does and this is what I've always done so I'll have my title and then I'll repeat the title in the description below and then a brief description of what the title is after that and then a whole load of other stuff very cheeky tip which I'm ashamed to say but something I found when I was searching is if you hashtag a person so let's say I follow the queen and the queen is YouTubeing she's not going to but I'm just using it as an example oh she might do I don't actually know should we look into that actually does the queen YouTube stuff? she might do when you do your YouTube video when you're creating it there's little boxes with the title description and then there's a bit for tags so I would hashtag the queen so whatever her YouTube name is Queen Elizabeth let's just say I will hashtag Queen Elizabeth in those tags so that when people go over to her channel and view her videos on the recommended for you bit my video will come up on the recommended for you because I've hashtagged that person and it's just a good way to sort of promote your video I'm still not 100% certain if that is true or not if that really really does work but it's just something that I do I do hashtag a few people in my videos because I know their content is very similar to mine I know that sort of people that come onto my page might see their videos as well I think it works both ways because if you're hashtagging someone I think their videos will automatically go on the recommended for you and it will pop up on your channel as well as their channel so I think that's a really good way to promote other people as well as promoting yourself but apparently it does work I think this is my last tip just practice literally practice practice practice sit in front of your camera talk do whatever you want just literally practice it because the more you do it the more you put yourself out there the better you will get at it like now I just talk and I just I feel comfortable just talking to my camera but if you go back and watch my very first ever vlog I was so awkward I was like this on a sofa like a mess it's just really embarrassing actually looking back at that vlog but it's a really important vlog so I will never take it down so I keep it there to remind me that I was really rubbish at the start but now I'm getting a little bit better I think a little bit more confidence in doing these vlogs so yeah practice definitely makes perfect and don't think about who's watching it just put it out there and if you get any negative comments or any negative nancies out there any trolls out there delete and block don't even waste your time commenting and replying because that's what they want so the thing for me anyone that comments negatively or be horrible or anything like that delete and block done luckily I haven't had many negative comments only one that I had to block but the block feature is there and you can do it and don't be scared to do it just get rid don't need that negativity in your life carry on you do you anyway I'm gonna shut up because I'm waffling so yeah that is it from me everybody massive good luck to you all if you're gonna pick up that camera get vlogging get vlogging and if you need any more further advice or any tips or anything I haven't covered in this vlog because I don't plan my vlogs that's something I don't do I don't have a script or anything I literally just sit and talk and hope for the best so if I've missed anything out if there's things that I haven't covered that you want to know please ask me comment below and I will cover it no problem at all and yeah so thank you so much again as always for tuning in thank you so much for following my journey and I hope you all have an amazing week