The 'How to Make a Vlog' Blog

Welcome to the Vlog Blog. Quite a mouthful, right? If you’ve ever wondered about how to make a vlog, this is the place for you!

 

Whether you’re a vlogger, a vlog fan or a complete vlogging novice, there is no denying that this method of communication has taken the world by storm.

Most people, whether they know it or not, have probably seen or been a part of a vlog. That person walking and talking to a camera in front of you in the shop – you better smile, because you’re on camera!

But what exactly is a vlog? A vlog is a video blog or a video log. Still unsure? Essentially a vlog is when someone records their life and publishes it online. People can be professional vloggers who document their daily life for their audience.

These influencers showcase everything from events to meeting with friends or even doing a food shop. Vloggers are walking personal brands! Vlogging can be just a hobby or an entire career.

Interested in learning more? Then read on.

How to make a vlog without all the fuss? Once you have a few video ideas , making a vlog can be as easy as taking out a camera and recording yourself. But if you want to have a realistic flow, a video concept and some good clips to use, there should probably be some research and planning done first.

 

Don’t be alarmed, the process is actually really easy and will make your life easier in the long run.

Creating a checklist of things that need to be done is great for you to use in the beginning. As time goes on you will become more familiar with the process, all of these things will become second nature.

You’ve decided you want to know how to make a vlog, the excitement levels are through the roof and so is the motivation. How to make a vlog 101, where do you even start? Step 1: Do not panic. No seriously, it can get quite overwhelming at the start. Take note, things will get easier from here.

 

Start by getting your first video topic. It will probably be an introductory video that will feature who you are, why you’re creating this vlog and most importantly, what the audience can get from following you

 

This can be shared at the start of your vlog if you want to jump straight in with your content creation. Think of a topic and decide on the type of message you want to convey. 

This is how you make a vlog when you haven’t a clue where to start. Get your topic down on paper and start some research. Find out what other people are doing with the topic and ask if it’s relevant to the type of audience that you’re hoping to attract. 

 

Next you can start thinking about talking points, you might write some bullet points or even a whole script. Whatever you’re feeling, you could even potentially free style the whole thing. Do whatever feels most comfortable!

Video locations can differ from video to video, but having a small background with good lighting is always a good idea. Before you hit record, do a practice run. Being mentally prepared is the best thing you can do, as you become more comfortable, you’ll become a pro in speaking to the camera.

 

No matter where you are filming, you need to be sure there’s nothing going on that will be too distracting in the background. Things like fairy lights or a bright sun may seem like a great idea, but if their brightness changes, your camera focus may be pulled towards them and all of a sudden you’re just a blur in the middle of the screen. Which we don’t want to happen. 

 

Film your vlog in clips, bit by bit. Vloggers rarely record a 20 minute video straight through without taking a break. If you’re unsure of what to do or if you make a mistake, do not fret, you can film that part again and just edit it in.

 

How to make a vlog your way. It’s your vlog, so you can make whatever changes you want to make! If you have too many clips and your vlog is too long, there may be some you can remove.

Now you have all the clips ready on your camera, it’s time to upload them onto a laptop and start using editing software. The order of your vlog is really important. Unsure of how to make a vlog with a logical flow. Start with a beginning, then a middle and finally an end.

 

It should also follow a natural course – A.K.A don’t start in the morning, skip to the evening and then back to the morning. Each section should be relevant, interesting and entertaining. If there’s a boring few minutes, people will click off. 

 

Before posting on social media or YouTube, there are a few things that need to be completed first. These tasks include creating a catchy title, an informative description and an attractive thumbnail. Your title and description should have SEO focused keywords.

Google loves video and high performing keywords. Using both in your vlog will benefit your performance. A thumbnail is the image that appears in the social post and on YouTube before you choose to play the video. This should be related to the video content and be really colourful!

 

Once you have everything ready to go, it’s time to publish. As soon as that’s done, you can begin to promote your vlog (more on that later!). There are a lot of vlogs out there, in order to stand out in a crowded place you need to first get yourself on the same level of everyone else and then do that little bit more.

 

 If you’re positive, enthusiastic and engaging, people will naturally be drawn to your vlogs. Like most things, practice makes perfect. You have time to improve and so does your channel. 

Vlogging is a very liberal art form and there are really no rules when it comes to vlogs. What’s cool about this is that you get a free reign – you can talk about anything and everything, no matter how weird or wonderful.

There are a number of things you should take note of when you’re planning on making a vlog. Let’s get to it!

So how to make a vlog without investing an insane amount of money. There are somethings you need for a vlog but expensive professional equipment is not one of them. Your phone camera may even be perfect while you start out!

 

Without stating the obvious, to create a video blog you need a camera or at the very least a phone with a camera. While creating a vlog you may need to shoot while on the go. For this purpose, a lightweight standalone camera is probably best suited.

 

A DSLR camera with quality resolution is exactly the thing you need to ensure your vlog is not only full of great content but is also of the best quality. If you’re into action, a GoPro might be your best bet!

 

Another thing that can help the vlog process is a camera with a screen which shows what it is recording. If you’re facing the camera toward you, it may need to have a screen which flips out so you can see how you look while recording.

 

That way, you can be aware as to what’s actually being recorded. Imagine the horror of spending a day out and about, only to find that the camera had not been recording. Avoid that from the get go with a flip screen.

The next thing you need to do is to organise all these clips into one or a few different videos. Video editing software is available to suit all budgets. Once you’ve identified the best editing tool for your vlogs you can go about optimizing your blog content to suit your personal brand.

 

Think about the vlog topic and clips. Do they showcase your brand in the best possible way?

It can be difficult to know how to make a vlog without knowing about the vlog standards. Before you even think about publishing your video, you need to be sure that your video has met some video standards. When it comes to video, and especially vlogs, there are certain requirements you want to meet to ensure your content will not only be easy to watch but also works on multiple different sites.

 

The three main areas you want to make sure are working for your vlog are length, image clarity, audio and the old favourite – copyright. 

 

The duration of the vlog is dependent on how often you post and the amount of content you have. If you publish a vlog on the daily, your videos can be a bit shorter. But if you only publish once every few weeks, it might be an idea for a longer video.

 

However, if your content is engaging enough, you can keep the video as long as possible. Just don’t put content in for the sake of duration. 

Your audience will value a shorter video with great content instead of a long form video with some dull moments. But one thing they will not tolerate is bad audio. Background noises, muffled voices or the dreaded wind, if any of these things are found in your video you should reconsider posting it until such time as it is fixed.

 

If you’re using music in your video it should not be from copyrighted sources. Don’t get your vlog taken down for a silly reason like this. You can get some great copyright free music online!

 

Unsteady or shaky video with copyrighted music will definitely combine to create a catastrophic vlog.

 

Keep a steady hand and use online resources to get some music to pop into your vlog and you’re on to a winner. To combat these things, you could purchase a tripod or a gimbal and an external microphone and muffler! 

Imagine the situation, your vlog has pretty cool content, but isn’t getting the attention it deserves. What to do, huh? The good news is that there are many things you can do to get the views and engagement to go through the roof. Let’s kick things off and get the audience to come to you.

How to make a vlog and channel that are a reflection of your personal brand? If a video about your life isn’t reflective of you, I don’t know what is! You need to make these recognisable with a specific and personalised intro, outro and a few personalised sayings.

 

All of these things should be automatically linked back to you by your audience. Your intro and outro could be a small animation of you or maybe just your logo or channel name. 

Imagine someone peering into a stranger’s phone on the train, you want that snooper to be able to find your channel from the first few seconds of the vlog. Should you gain enough followers you could give them name, like Justin Bieber and his Beliebers from back in the day.

 

Or even have a saying that you use in every video, like Nikkie Tutorials with her use of the phrase ‘Hello guys… it’s me… Nikkie’. Your vlog content is great, so don’t be afraid to make yourself known.

Before you start the adventure to the land of vlogging you should be aware of the type of audience you will be targeting and attracting. The best scenario is that these are the same, but that may not always be the case. Your vlogging efforts should be targeted to a specific group of people, usually based on age groups, interests and even geographical location.

 

If your vlog topic is generic, you are open to a very wide audience, but the more specific your topic or title, the more specific your audience will be. Once you’ve identified the vlog followers you can set a plan to make content that they will find appealing. For instance, if you’re targeting the teen girl market you may want to create fun upbeat content, but not include alcohol or swearing. 

 

Being relevant and timely for your market will keep them interested and engaged in what you’re up to. They might even share your vlog channel with their friends where you can gain even more traction.

How to make a vlog that will make you some money? From including ads that appear over your video to being a brand ambassador. There are a few ways you can turn this hobby into a career.

One way to grow your vlog audience is to partner with a brand or feature a company in your video. This could be a paid partnership where you the vlogger are legally partnered with the brand, you sign a contract and have assigned talking points. Or just speaking about a brand or specific company in the vlog with the hope that they will promote the vlog on their own social channels.

 

Nowadays, all relevant vloggers are known to also be influencers. This essentially means that you are an influential figure in the lives of the audience. Brands love to work with influencers or vloggers.

Paid partnerships with brands are great for exposure and it also gives you credibility in the eyes of the public. Most vloggers feel they “have made it” or achieved some level of integrity once they get a brand deal. 

 

Another way of bringing your vlog channel into the eyes of the business is to bring them into your video. This could be by visiting a shop location or just speaking about them during the course of the video. “Favourite videos” allow vloggers to mention a variety of different products and brands while not being overbearing.

 

If you’re interested in working with brands why not reach out to them and showcase yourself as an ideal candidate for a partnership. Some perks of these partnerships can be free products and invites to exclusive events. But you need to make sure the brands you choose are relevant to your audience. Vloggers or influencers who partner with unsuitable brands often receive backlash from the public. Make smart decisions and watch your audience grow!

 

Your audience are the fuel that keep your vlog channel going. Treat your supporters right from the very beginning and you can watch your following thrive. Authenticity is key; fans love people who are down to earth and cool. Be true to yourself, make great content and (should you be so lucky) partner with brands that your audience will adore. You can’t go wrong!

How to make a vlog that will be successful. If you’re investing time into shooting, editing and uploading vlog content, you’ll want it to do the best it possibly can. Two things to note when you’re promoting your content are views and engagement.

 

Aim to keep both of these high, views are one thing, but having people engage with your vlog is another. One way to do this is to promote your vlog on different platforms.

The home of all video content on the internet, YouTube is probably where you will post your vlog content. Here you can build your channel, create playlists of your vlogs, engage with your audience with comments and share your video to social media.

 

Having a YouTube channel is pretty essential when trying to carve out a career in vlogging. Your vlog channel will be the hub for your work and it’s super easy to get set up. 

 

You can pick a channel name that reflects your brand. Remember back at the start of this blog when I said vloggers are walking personal brands? Use this in every aspect of setting up and promoting your blog.

If you think a channel name, video thumbnail or description is a fit for your brand then great! If not, maybe go for something else!

Social media is the king of communication in this day and age. If you want to keep up with your audience (and have your audience keep up with you), social media needs to be involved. 

 

Realistically, you’re already on all of the top sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Creating business pages that cover all things business-related is a popular play by most vlog influencers. 

 

All things come back to your audience, whichever channel they are active on is where you should be too. Ideal posting times differs on each platform, this sort of detail will all come clear to you after a few posts.

 

Your vlog channel and pages are your homes for communication and delighting your market. Play around with different things but always stay true to your personal brand.

Although YouTube is the key to finding videos on the internet, it is not the only place to put your video on the social scene. Both Facebook and Instagram have platforms to post video. 

 

Facebook Watch and IGTV are the latest features on social media to promote the use of video. One cool thing you could do on IGTV is post snippets of the video as your story or as a post with a link to the full video as a swipe up and a link in the description. 

How to make a vlog when you already have a blog? As we have established, vlogging is blogging through video. But who’s to say that you can’t have both a vlog and a blog at the same time? Vlog content could be great for a website, should you choose to have a personal website.

 

You could write posts about events featured in vlogs. For example, create a fashion page with links to buy the outfits you were in the blog and a page with all the vlogs you have recorded. 

Including written posts on your blog site, along with video, will do tremendous work for SEO. By having a website that performs well on the various search engines and has a steady flow of content, there is a great potential to rank on the first page of Google. The opportunities go on and on!

 

Place your video on a site with traffic and potential for engagement and all your effort will be rewarded. The thing to remember is that promoting your blog is necessary to gain awareness from a wider audience. Even the biggest celebrities promote their work, how else will people find out about you and your vlogs? Be proud of your work and show it off.

There are hundreds of types of vloggers out there and even more vlog topics. There are many paths you can choose to walk down when deciding to try out creating vlogs. To find the right avenue for you, you need to identify the main things you hope to talk about.

 

Picking a genre or even a few topics will help to narrow down the list for you. Do a bit of research and take note of what interests you. Then you can know how to make a vlog that suits your interests and style.

There are many types of vloggers on the internet right now, from beauty to conspiracy, no topic is left untouched. Check your social media feed and chances are you’ll see some of these types of bloggers there.

 

If you’re in need of some inspiration, take a look at the list below and see if any of these are a fit.

Wondering how to make a vlog when you travel all the time? From the beautiful beaches in Bali to the high rise skyline of New York City, these vloggers get the most picturesque video content. These guys create videos based on their movement around the globe.

 

Trying new food, staying in luxurious (also some not so luxurious accommodations) and doing some crazy activities. There’s skydiving, swimming with pigs or maybe even just trekking through the Amazon, whatever the activity, make sure it’s scenic!

Targeting the female population through tutorials and unboxings and day in the life vlogs, lifestyle vloggers are perfectionists, upbeat and generally fun loving guys and gals. The best way to get involved in this vlog scene is to be a lover of all things makeup and fashion-related.

 

If you want know how to make a vlog that features popculture, makeup and fashion. If you want to become to a lifestyle vlogger you should be familiar with all the top brands. It’s a difficult industry to break into, but if you put in the effort, you could be up there with the best! 

Wondering how to make a vlog when you’re more into online games?  Minecraft, Fortnite, League of Legends, the number of high quality video games that are online now continues to grow; as does the number of people playing. Gaming vloggers who document their play time and post it online, have essentially become celebrities.

These people often compete in online competitions and play against other teams in the fight to be number one. Although it sounds easy, these vloggers must regularly enter and win competitions, like professional sports people, these gamers have fans and can grow audiences overnight!

If your resourceful and creative this is how to a make a vlog based on your skills. No matter your ability, it is always entertaining to see something being built (or torn down) from start to finish. These vloggers show everything from project plans to equipment on all their various endeavors.

These types of vlogs don’t have to be extreme or even overly successful, sometimes when it all goes wrong, it all comes together in the form of humour. You could make anything from homemade clothes, a conservatory or maybe just a facemask. Whatever you try and whatever the outcome, you know you can be successful. 

People are always fascinated to know what goes on behind closed doors. Family vlogs give people a chance to get involved and to know what’s going on. Most family vlog channels are led by the parents and of course heavily feature their children, pets and daily activities.

Wondering how to make a vlog with a family? Well wholesome content is the key here. Family trips, cooking with the whole family and even some of the more mundane parts of family life like trips to the doctor are featured. If you’re looking to get into family vlogs make sure you have a family and you’re good to go!

 

Before you start out on your own vlog journey, identifying the type of vlogs you would like to make. Once you find the path that’s meant for you, making a content schedule and the vlogs will become even easier to make. Don’t worry if you’re not sure which way you want your vlog channel to go.

The good things about blogs is that the theme of the channel and content can evolve with the person who makes them. Just because you start out as a beauty vlogger doesn’t mean you can’t become a conspiracy vlogger or even a gaming pro!

Vlogging can be a complicated business, but there are so many benefits to getting started on this journey. It may even become your entire career. Whether you’re beauty queen or a gaming pro, there is nothing stopping you from taking on the challenge.

 

Content and communication are the two most important aspects of vlogging. Get those right and you’re on to a winner.

 

Remember these vlogs are not professional movies, if you have the odd shake of a camera or a bit of bad lighting people won’t mind. It might even be endearing! Humans are not perfect creatures and neither are your vlogs, be happy with your current performance and know that even the best vloggers still have room for improvement.

 

Well now you know how to make a vlog so go enjoy your vlogging process!