Hello! Right now you’re reading “The Creator Confidential”, a blog where successful YouTubers share their stories and tips they have for growing a YouTube channel. Today’s post is something special and one of the first of a series called “YouTube from the Perspective of a Small Channel”. In this series, small YouTube channels share their successes and struggles, how they got their first subscribers, why they started, and more! If you want to be featured, you can send me an email (thecreatorconfidential@gmail.com) or DM me on Instagram (@thecreatorconfidential). Over the past week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amy, and here is the finished result. Enjoy!
Introduce yourself!
Hi, I’m Amy, I’m 18 years old and from the UK! I make videos about mental health, university, lifestyle & fashion. I decided to start YouTube because ever since I was around 11 years old, I have watched YouTube and thought how fun it would be to do the same! Throughout school and sixth form, I always had this fear that I would get judged by people for doing it, and so I decided university was the perfect time for me to begin. From the ages of about 11-17 I would sit in my bedroom and film random videos on my phone and pretend I had a channel! I would never upload them but that’s just something I always did because I loved the idea of having a channel.
How did you, personally, become more integrated with and interact more with the YouTube community/fellow YouTubers?
Since starting my channel, I have made numerous friends from YouTube and hope to meet them one day! To make friends and find other small YouTubers to support, I would say my biggest tip is to join Facebook groups, group chats, and generally just search for smaller YouTubers on YouTube! I found some of my closest YouTube friends through literally just searching for a video such as ‘Summer Haul’, watching and enjoying their video, and then leaving them a lovely comment about how much I enjoyed it. Showing someone continuous support can help to build a bond between you and the YouTuber.
How did you get your first few subscribers?
I got my first few subscribers by promoting my channel on my Instagram - at first I felt too scared to let everyone see my story so I blocked about 500 people from seeing it. But then, I realised that sooner or later people would find out anyway, so one day I just woke up and decided to let everyone view my story! From there I gained a few more subscribers, and that gave me the confidence to utilise all my social media to promote my channel. My biggest tip to promote your channel would definitely be to utilise all of your social media platforms!
Have any funny stories that might've occurred during filming or editing?
I filmed for the first time about a week ago with my boyfriend, and I felt so shy because it was the first time I had ever had to talk to a camera with someone sitting beside me! It took me about twenty minutes to actually start the video because we both just sat there laughing awkwardly! I’m hoping as I get more used to talking to a camera that I become more confident with this haha!
What inspires you to keep making videos?
The one thing that inspires me to keep making videos is the fact that I enjoy what I do so much. It makes me so excited to think about what the future could hold for me if I stick with my channel, and also just the idea of creating content is so much fun!
What do you think is the best and worst thing about YouTube?
I think the worst thing about YouTube is definitely the amount of people on there that are just in it for the subscribers - the people who comment ‘sub for sub’ under your videos and you can tell they haven’t genuinely sat and watched your video yet they leave a comment asking you to subscribe to them. However, the best thing about YouTube in my opinion is the opportunities it brings.
What types of struggles do you go through as a small YouTuber? Do you have any advice for other small channels on how to resolve these issues?
I think one of my biggest struggles as a small YouTuber is that it’s very difficult to deal with an experience where you upload a video that you’ve worked so hard on and it doesn’t get the recognition that you feel it deserves - and the one thing you have to have is patience. I don’t have a lot of that, but you have to remember that even if a video doesn’t do as well as you expected, a video on YouTube can pick up after months or even years of being uploaded. Think about all those random videos that pop up in your recommendations - some of them were uploaded in 2007, right? And they’ve only just blown up this year!
What is your experience with working with Instagram brands (or any other opportunities you've had) as an influencer with a smaller platform?
I haven’t worked with any brands yet on my channel, however I do get a lot of brands that DM me and ask to work with them, although they seem like scams. I would say just be careful, and thoroughly check out an Instagram page or website before you agree to collab or work for a brand. There are a lot of scams around these days!
What are your hopes for the future of your channel? What will your channel look like 2-10 years from now?
I hope that I stay consistent with my channel, and in the next 2 plus years I would love to have hit 1K on my channel, and have a positive impact on even more people :)
Finally, why should people subscribe to your channel?
I personally think my channel is unique because I document (or will begin to document) my university experience in September! I hope to attract people of a similar age to me that also attend university, however I also make other content and so I think this makes my channel unique because I could attract a wide variety and range of different people.
Thanks for reading! A huge thanks to Amy for taking the time to answer all the questions. Here are the links to all her socials:
Instagram: @amyxclarke https://www.instagram.com/amyxclarke/?hl=en
YouTube: Amy Rebecca https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCx1L06B8R1k0OoQdOIB56g
Please subscribe to be notified whenever a new post goes up! If you want to contact me with an idea for this blog, want to be featured, or want to send some feedback, then you can email me at thecreaterconfidential@gmail.com OR scroll down and send a message :)
Comentarios