Category: GJB Ramblings

I’ve been doing YouTube videos for about 6 years now and I don’t claim to be an expert but I’ve been a viewer too and have seen difficult-to-watch videos on YouTube. I’ve also been trying to upgrade my videos but it costs money to do so. Sometime ago in 2010, YouTube gifted the top 500 YouTubers with $1,000 to buy better gear to improve their videos. This was their Christmas gift to them and I remember seeing this and thinking that it wasn’t fair that the top YouTubers got this money when other beginning YouTubers are struggling to improve their videos. A camcorder, a good mic, good lighting and the other extras cost a lot of money. The top YouTubers already make tons of money. I don’t get why YouTube doesn’t reward struggling YouTubers with gear. It should have been some sort of contest of some sort, but what do I know. I’m just a struggling YouTuber. But, I digress….

So, here are some tips to make good YouTube videos:

1. Mix, dissolve or crossfade

I’ve seen many a YouTube video that does this the wrong way. I’ve also been guilty doing this when I first started making videos. When you choose this transition you run the risk of not being able to be understood properly. This might turn off your audience. The audio from the last seconds of the clip will mesh with the audio at the beginning of the second clip. Try to space out your clips with some bits of silence at the end and at the beginning of clips if you want to use this transition type.

2. Background music

Sometimes the music can be louder than your voice. This is a common mistake among YouTube videos. It’s distracting and a little bit annoying when you have to lower the volume every time the talking stops and the music begins. In one video I watched the music was so distracting I switched to another one. Try to make the volume of your voice the same as your music. You can do this by using Audacity which you can download for free on sourceforge: Audacity. This application allows you to change the volume of your music to fit your audio. It can also change pitch and allow you to record.

3. Choosing a good mic

Choose a good mic if you want high quality audio. It’s hard to find a good affordable mic. Many of the good ones are over $100. If you are going to film outside it is best to invest in a good mic because the wind is distracting. Some may even stop watching your video because the wind does overpower your audio.

4. Talking speed

Try to speak normally but also try not to speak too fast. Pretend your’re talking to a friend and you’re trying to explain something or teach something. There was one video I was watching with my mom with a girl who was teaching us how to cook macarons. She was speaking so fast. Kinda like how I think a chipmunk would speak if it was given caffeine. That’s just way too fast. You would have to pause the video multiple times to even get the recipe or the ingredients she was using. Speak at a normal speed and enunciate your words. I know I have some trouble with this sometimes. I need to make sure my point gets across by making my words clear.

5. Video editing software

Find a good one that will make your videos properly. When I was using my mac I used iMovie and Final Cut. Those were by far the best video editing software I have used. My videos are clean without pixelation. I have Windows 10 right now which I don’t recommend you upgrade to btw. Windows 10 doesn’t support Windows Movie Maker. Now, I’ve used Window Movie Maker before with an older PC and that worked fine. I had to download Windows Movie Maker onto my fiance’s computer and it didn’t do a good job. It was pixelating random clips which was not suppose to happen. It didn’t pixelate when I published it as a movie for my PC but it didn’t want to publish correctly for HD movies. That really pissed me off. I did some troubleshooting of my own and it still didn’t want to do it right. For tutorials I need my videos to by in HD so you guys can see it better. I ended up using YouTube video editor which is fine if you have nothing else. It’s not great because what takes 30 minutes to edit, YouTube video editor will turn it into 1 to 1.5 hours. I just don’t like using it but what can I do. I have nothing else to use. I tried to use wevideo but it adds a huge logo on the top part of your video. Not cool. If you guys have any suggestions please let me know.

If you want to edit videos through YouTube all you have to do is upload all of the clips you want to include in your video. Then go here: YouTube Video Editor. Here you can select your clips and start editing. The one thing that is horrible about this (there are a few other horrible things but here’s one pretty bad one) is that you can’t add your own audio without replacing your ENTIRE audio. That irritated me. So you would have to upload that clip you want the audio to be at and upload it again. Ridiculous. So if you have to use this like me, I wish you luck and all the patience in the world because you’re gonna need it.

So that’s pretty much all of the tips I have. Let me know if you guys have any questions 🙂