Fun, Fear, Family and YouTube Videos

byRaven9

897 followers

8 years ago

My favorite part of working at our own business is being able to work with my little family. Some people may think kids are a hindrance to working at home – and while doing some aspects they can be. However, with a little creativity, kids can be an asset in your business.

My young daughter is great at helping us come up with new ideas and recently we started doing videos with the children. I am very shy and reluctant at the thought of being on any sort of camera, but my husband is the exact opposite. A comedian at heart, he absolutely loves to be the centre of attention, my daughter has the same qualities.

After months of persuasion, I reluctantly agreed to be a part of the videos, but am still taking it slow ;) Other than my nervousness with the camera, we have found the videos to be a fun family thing to do together. Initially, I felt like the videos should be fitting within our niche, but my husband convinced me to just go for the randomness and fun. (How can you tell he's the spontaneous one)

In our short video making career, we've already come up with a few tips to help you get started:

1) Do videos about something you are passionate about – the energy of your excitement will come through the video and make the viewer more interested.

2) If you have children, this is a great way to involve your kids with your business. If you don't want your children on camera, consult with them for ideas of videos for you to shoot. Anytime you can ask your children's opinion, it's a great way to make them feel important and included.

3) Make your videos either entertaining or educational. Most people don't go on the internet to be sold to – they want to be entertained or are wanting to learn about something. Cater to one or both of these needs.

4) When you are recording a video – let other family members/people who are around you know that you are recording. This will hopefully prevent someone from talking and interrupting your video with conversation or language that you would not want to post online.

5) If you are recording in a public place, be aware that others around you may not want to make an appearance online. In my opinion, it is a matter of courtesy to not record people without their knowledge to put online, and I haven't heard of law suits around this yet, but I'm sure it's the wave of the future. If you are recording a person, get verbal permission on camera, to make them aware of your intention to post the video online. Or if there's other people in your video you can also use editing programs to blur faces and respect other's privacy.

6) There's some great training on WA about how to incorporate videos into your online strategy – be sure to watch a few. Jay (Magistudios) has an informative training about adding descriptions to your videos before you upload them online. It is very similar to keyword research you would do for a blog post – this is something I never would have known to do without the help of Jay's training (Thanks!)

7) Don't worry about editing software if you are just starting out. Youtube has an editor function within it and you can perform the basics within youtube's editor. Eventually if you want speciality software, you can purchase it in the future, but don't let the thought of not having a good editing program hold you back from beginning. The basics through youtube will be enough to get you started.

8) Do be sure to have the rights to the music you add to the video though. There's alot of free music that you can use (even within youtube), but you need to be sure to add the credit to the creator in your descriptions. The same applies if you use a video clip that is not yours within your video. Follow all copyright rules and be sure you are allowed to use footage and music that you are not the creator of.

9) Once your video is uploaded onto youtube, if you hope to earn money from it, don't forget to monetize the video. Each video needs to be monetized individually – it is just a matter of clicking the setting to do so, but don't forget to do that.

10) The final tip I have is to not worry about what others think. This is the hardest part of all. It is human nature to feel like people may not like what you have to offer, but you must remember, chances are, everyone is just as insecure about themselves as you are. The difference is that YOU are actually putting yourself out there by making a video – Give yourself a big KUDOS for that – Don't criticize yourself to the point that you are scared to move forward. Just have fun with it and go into it with the thought 'F it – I'm doing it'. That 'F it' mentality can take you a long way in not worrying so much what others may think. After all, you are building an independant business in order to do what you want, when you want and to work for yourself right?! So, don't let the insecurity stop you.

Check out our Youtube channel – I have the link in my profile – it's been a challenge for me personally to put myself out there, but I'm determined not to let that fear stop me. Our videos are a collection of randomness from our daily lives, and we intend to document our new adventures in life and business as we go on. The husband and kids have alot of fun with shooting videos and the whole video thing is even beginning to grow on me....;)