Advice for creators of YouTube videos

[Charcold]

When you decide you want to make a new blacksmithing video, post the subject here first. Something like: "I am going to make a video on mounting a railroad anvil, what type of information do you all think would be key for beginners? What have you seen too much of already? What haven't you seen discussed at all?" etc.

Then people can give you bullet points to potentially include onto your videos such as , alternative anvils, optimal track anvils, proper knuckle height testing and how to tell when your anvil is too low or high (such as back pain in a specific location), tools required for certain jobs at the start of the video, a shot of the finished product at the start of the video, resources for more in depth discussion that can be linked, literature to potentially buy and read, etc. 

To put it bluntly, there are a LOT of people who are beginners that are not qualified to give advice without referencing a lot of sound material from experts. If i made videos I'd certainly be guilty of this as well. I and most people simply don't have the expertise to post videos and be anything but common, the market is heavily saturated with these video channels already. If you are serious about taking your video channel farther, you need to do quite a bit of upfront research, draw on experts, and make small tweaks such as a tripod and potentially more editing. If you simply want to make videos that fit into a largely saturated market, you're not going to see much success, that's the way it is. You can't just open a pizza joint in New York without a niche that puts you above all the other 12 places on the block.

Now a civility check on myself, I apologize for being rude in my first post. To be quite honest by the time I re-read it it was beyond the edit window. I was going to change "The main gripe I have with this video is that it spreads the idea that track anvils such as yours are worthwhile" to "spreads the idea that track anvils such as yours are the best use of the material and time it takes to make them."

(Borrowed and lightly edited.)

[sakurasanta86]

When you decide you want to make a new blacksmithing video, post the subject here first. Something like: "I am going to make a video on mounting a railroad anvil, what type of information do you all think would be key for beginners? What have you seen too much of already? What haven't you seen discussed at all?" etc.

Then people can give you bullet points to potentially include onto your videos such as , alternative anvils, optimal track anvils, proper knuckle height testing and how to tell when your anvil is too low or high (such as back pain in a specific location), tools required for certain jobs at the start of the video, a shot of the finished product at the start of the video, resources for more in depth discussion that can be linked, literature to potentially buy and read, etc. 

To put it bluntly, there are a LOT of people who are beginners that are not qualified to give advice without referencing a lot of sound material from experts. If i made videos I'd certainly be guilty of this as well. I and most people simply don't have the expertise to post videos and be anything but common, the market is heavily saturated with these video channels already. If you are serious about taking your video channel farther, you need to do quite a bit of upfront research, draw on experts, and make small tweaks such as a tripod and potentially more editing. If you simply want to make videos that fit into a largely saturated market, you're not going to see much success, that's the way it is. You can't just open a pizza joint in New York without a niche that puts you above all the other 12 places on the block.

Now a civility check on myself, I apologize for being rude in my first post. To be quite honest by the time I re-read it it was beyond the edit window. I was going to change "The main gripe I have with this video is that it spreads the idea that track anvils such as yours are worthwhile" to "spreads the idea that track anvils such as yours are the best use of the material and time it takes to make them."

[ThomasPowers]

What the previous poster said!     I've seen so many "I don't know how to do this but this is how you do it" videos I generally don't look at youtube unless it's a previously suggested one.

[Steve Sells]

You tube is a free for all, why use it for serious stuff at all ? Post it here.

but you can keep your plagiarizing to yourself, we do not want it here, copying Charcolds posts and pretending it was  yours is unacceptable. We merged the threads.

[Hans Richter]

Now it me, how smells some troll, after this only post out of the blue referring to nothing and from an anonymous poster???

[Exo313]

Eh. YouTube is a platform. Unlike here, it's a non-reviewed democratic platform.

Which means some content is terrible. 

But shouldn't that encourage those of us with the rare combination of desire, time, and talent to produce not-terrible content counter to the misinformation?

If there were an educational, peer reviewed instructional video platform available, that would be amazing. 

[Glenn]

14 hours ago, sakurasanta86 said:

Now a civility check on myself, I apologize for being rude in my first post. To be quite honest by the time I re-read it it was beyond the edit window. I was going to change

Your first and only post is, word for word, a copy of another members post. 

[Hans Richter]

Right (big) nose, 

[Jackdawg]

Actually I disagree, there are 3 or 4 blacksmiths worth watching on youtube, that's all, we could do with some more good blacksmithing content.

[ThomasPowers]

I don't understand the urge to put up bad content associated with one's face and name. 

[JHCC]

That's why I don't put my face and name on my bad content.

[Marc1]

On 11/26/2017 at 10:58 AM, Charcold said:

When you decide you want to make a new blacksmithing video, post the subject here first...... If i made videos .... and bla bla and etc.

(Borrowed and lightly edited.)

When you decide to make a video and publish it on YouTube ... and then when you have done say 20 or 30 of this videos ... then maybe you will start to have an idea of what it is to do this,  why people do it, what is the market like, potential payments, how to get the numbers etc. and when you are at your 100 video, then I may be interested in hearing from you what is the best way to make a video.

 

[ThomasPowers]

"when you are at your 100 video, then I may be interested in hearing from you what is the best way to make a video."

Can you put a filter on folks so they can't post a video about blacksmithing till they have done a hundred of the thing they are demonstrating?

Unfortunately I am not interested in making videos; I'm interested in the *CONTENT* of said videos and many folks with large numbers of followers and videos have terrible content.

I don't want to learn from the most popular; I want to learn from the *best*!

I have actually contacted a company that had linked to a video that was dangerous and resulted in a dangerous and unsound item.  I suggested that they up their liability insurance....Sadly they had no way of judging what they linked too as it was just a throwaway "Link of the week"; but they could have lost their business!  (It was the infamous cold forging a used leaf spring flat and then grinding it into a sharpened crowbar----I mean sword blade---no distal taper, extremely overweight, unknown fatigue status...)  

[Steve Sells]

3 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

  (It was the infamous cold forging a used leaf spring flat and then grinding it into a sharpened crowbar----I mean sword blade---no distal taper, extremely overweight, unknown fatigue status...)  

I remember  "fluffy" the sue happy Master Sord smith,  he was a riot  

[Marc1]

Lots of youtube videos are funny because of the content or the way they are delivered. Some can be even dangerous. The renovation instructions, "how to" even those from big hardware chain can be plain wrong. It is what it is.

However if you know a bit about the youtube business, you would know that in order to get high number of views and get paid accordingly , you don't have to be "right", nor informative or educational, not even entertaining. You can be plain rude and obnoxious and get high number of hits. That is my only point and why I find the OP post out of place. You can start telling others how to do their business when you actually have done it and are good and better than them. Someone who has never made a video of any description let alone post it on the internet, can hardly give advice on how to do it. 

Knowing the content of a video to be wrong, misleading, dangerous, or using poor grammar is an observation from the armchair on the public side. How to do it better can only be told by one that actually knows how to do it better having it done many times over. In most cases the hypothetical expert in question will have little motivation to tell others how to. 

[ThomasPowers]

There is the dichotomy: You are addressing the "BUSINESS" of doing youtube videos and I am address providing information on blacksmithing.  Perhaps your comments would be better on a video making forum and I'll keep mine on a blacksmithing forum and we can both be happy?  Or there is the ignore function for this forum.

[Charcold]

On 4/17/2018 at 4:28 PM, Marc1 said:

When you decide to make a video and publish it on YouTube ... and then when you have done say 20 or 30 of this videos ... then maybe you will start to have an idea of what it is to do this,  why people do it, what is the market like, potential payments, how to get the numbers etc. and when you are at your 100 video, then I may be interested in hearing from you what is the best way to make a video.

 

you're missing context. My post, which was not stickied by my request, came from a specific thread. That thread was around the time that xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx was posting on the site (before he got banned). He posted a couple of generic bad information videos that are a dime-a-dozen on youtube. He then asked 2 questions in that thread, 1.) why am i getting scolded by this forum for my video content, 2.) what could i do in the future to make better content that's in line with this forum. My post was an answer to that specific user on his specific questions. That context was removed to create this general advice sticky. 

I'm well aware of how bad content can still make lots of money, and if someone wants to make money devoid of giving dangerous advice, they're free to do that. That simply wasn't the context of this original post, at all.  

Edit: And i believe i'm a bit between TP and you on this. I feel quality information will further your channel better than generic, incorrect, or incomplete video content. Because there is such a saturated market of basic DIY videos made by novices. Some times generic information can still lead to a lot of views, i dont feel blacksmithing is the case for this all the time however. There are too many "make a railroad anvil" or "how to mount your anvil" videos for those to be wildly successful content on youtube. Granted, even a perfect video wouldn't have much of a chance on those two topics as they're heavily saturated. But they'd certainly earn less griping on the forums as a result, which was the main reason i posted that long rant. 

Names of third party's removed

[Charles R. Stevens]

Let me pop some popcorn, and pull up a chair...

[Glenn]

Charcold, Your post was split off and started as a new thread so it would not be lost in the archive. Good information and good advice, thank you.

[Charcold]

Thanks Glenn. Just trying to let Marc know I think there are 2 things at play, how to give good advice that experienced smiths can get behind and endorse on the forum, and how to make the most money on youtube. I personally believe they are the same course in this situation, but i understand marcs point about bad information not exactly standing in the way of big profits on youtube generally. A great example is a youtube DIY instructor who I won't name that made the soup can, plaster of paris, and sand diy forge to be used with a propane torch. Countless people I'm sure have made that forge (me included on a boring saturday a few years back) only to realize it struggles to heat up even nail sized stock. 

[Marc1]

Yes, Charcold, two things, my point exactly.

I could talk about bad content until the cows come home, I can not talk about how to make a video of any description nor it's market, saturation of said market, DIY instructions, or anything related to the topic of YT until I have at least done something on that line, something you have stated you have never done.

But it is never too late. 

[Charcold]

My statement meant that I don't have the expertise on blacksmithing to make credible blacksmithing videos. I don't have a youtube channel, but I have helped with editing and posting videos for my friends in video games for youtube, twitch, justintv, and a few other sites for years. Regardless I don't think its true that you need to be an experienced content creator to judge the saturation of the market, companies regularly do market research before entering a field. This market research isn't perfect, people still end up finding success and difficulties in markets that defy their market research. To apply that to this topic tho I think we can all agree that basic videos with incomplete and/or incorrect information is a saturated market on youtube. That's clearly evident with a simple search that brings up perhaps a hundred videos similar in tone and information to what xxxxxxxxxxxxx posted, all with sub-1000 views which is a benchmark for monitization on the site. In reality since the adpocolypse making money on youtube requires far more views and is far less lucrative. Following that same logic look at all of the large blacksmithing content creators on youtube, by-and-large they give good info (T-Joe, TA, etc) or state at every turn they are in the learning process or for entertainment only (thinking people like xxxxxxxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxx). So it is true that entertainment can in fact get you as many views as good concise informed blacksmithing information, however there was no entertainment value to xxxxxxxxxxx content, and by his own admission he was trying to build into a larger channel. My suggestion was to stick to good info, use the site as a resource, and set himself apart from a saturated market. I don't feel that any of that info is wrong nor that I need to make 100 blacksmithing videos to give that advice. I also recognize a bit of irony in being told i need to be an expert to give advice to a person i'm telling to seek expert opinions for his advice channel. But i'm more than willing to address any parts of my post that aren't correct, it has been stickied and presumably is looked at. If the criticism comes down to you haven't made 100 blacksmithing videos so kindly be quiet then we're at an impasse. 

Names of third party's removed

[ThomasPowers]

I disagree with that statement as some of the videos with the best production values have terrible content.  If the video maker had had expertise in blacksmithing they would either have been much better content wise or non-existent.

[Charcold]

I'm assuming you're talking about a young man from england who makes large knives and swords? In terms of blacksmithing instruction i agree, but i dont think that user is trying to instruct anyone as most of his videos don't even have all that much commentary on his process. I'd lump him into the entertainment category. Although he has done a good job of advocating for respirators while grinding which is a big safety hazard i see on youtube. 

If you're talking about someone else I may not have seen their channel. 

The best instructional videos are generally plain jane and don't attract the number of views someone can make a living off of, but I'm sure a few of the smiths on youtube with good content that make a good amount instructing. 

Still tho, in the context of what I said to xxxxxxxxx i dont think that changes anything. He made a video with the goal of instructing people, then got mad when he was told his video wasn't all that instructive. If he came in saying he wanted to make a living off of youtube I'd have stayed quiet, only because i don't like the idea of advocating someone take advantage of ignorant viewers for money. 

 

Names of third party's removed

[JHCC]

51 minutes ago, Charcold said:

I think we can all agree that basic videos with incomplete and/or incorrect information is a saturated market on youtube.

And yet, people keep making them!