How to Set Up Your YouTube Video

Ok, let’s just get this out of the way before I give you my "how-to's" on setting up your YouTube video. YOU ARE QUALIFIED! Let me repeat this - you are qualified to share your story, your expertise, your point of views, your ideas, your concepts, your cooking skills, your dance moves, WHATEVER! Your mere passion to help others is all the qualifications you need to get started. I say that because a lot of those that come to me for coaching don't feel "qualified" to help others.

I think there is a misunderstanding between qualified, trained, and certified.

What qualifies you is your experience and your passion to share what you know with others.

Example: your passion is to be a health/fitness coach and help others eat healthier foods and with exercise routines, because you have experienced success in that area of your life and now you want to share it with others.

You're in the grocery store in the produce aisle. Someone next to you asks you for your opinion on what vegetable is best for them simply because you "look like" you know what you are doing. Do you then turn to the person and say, "I'm sorry, I'm not qualified to share my opinion and experience with you because I have not gone through training and I'm not certified yet. Can I come back and answer you in 6 months after my training?" 

Or do you simply share what you know with them from your heart?

I'm sure you’d do the latter.

Ok, now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can now get to the how-to's.

Define your target audience 
Don't make this part difficult. What you love to do and love to talk about is your niche, therefore your target audience would be people who enjoy what you enjoy.

Recording device 
The brand make and model of your camera is not really that important. You can even use your cell phone. iPhones have awesome cameras. The main thing you want to focus on is the value in your content and the quality of your video. Even though the brand, make, and model isn't that important, you do want to make sure the quality of the video is good. With the way technology has made it so easy to produce videos to come through crisp, clear, and professional, you want to make sure you are bringing your best. 

Lighting
Artificial or natural. I prefer natural. However, if inspiration hits at night when the sun is down, do you really want to wait until the next day to record? 
I have a video on my YouTube channel for more on that. Click HERE. 

Clean background
Optional, but recommended.

Intro 
You can check freelancer.com or odesk.com to find someone to create it for you.

Editing software
I use iMovie that comes with Apple computers. I used to use Movie Maker on my old computer. You can also Google “video editing software” for more options. 

Topic
Think about what you'd like to share. You can think of it on your own, survey your audience or answer a question you received on your social media sites. A Q&A is always great because if one person is asking that question, 20 others could potentially want to know the same thing. 

Good title 
People do judge "books" by their covers. Be creative in your titles. Get to the point. Tell the viewer exactly what they are going to get from watching your video.
3 Ways To...
4 Reasons Why...
The Number One Reason...

Thumbnail 
Check out James Wedmore on YouTube for more on that and HOW to create them.

Thumbnail Art
Try Canva, PicMonkey or Photoshop.  

Set up a playlist
Having a playlist will make it a lot easier for your viewers and subscribers to navigate your awesome content! 

Put important links in your description box
Like, Instagram, Facebook, your newsletter, website, Twitter, etc.

5 Steps to Format Your Video 

1. Intro
2. Tell your audience what your video is about and how it's going to help them
3. Teach/share/inspire 
4. Give them a call to action, i.e. tell them to either follow you on your other social media sites, sign up for your blog, newsletter, or whatever you want them to do.
5. Ending/Outro 

PUBLISH! 


Now, here is my call to action to you - what did you take away from this blog that you can do today?