What you need to start selling on Youtube
Did you know that 1 Billion hours of Youtube-material is being watched every single day? It's more than Netflix AND Facebook video combined. On top of that Youtube is the world's second largest search engine and third most visited site after Google and Facebook. With this being said it's more than obvious what great potential Youtube has for your business. Are you making use of it?
To start living the e-commerce dream on Youtube, you're going to need some fancy material though. In this post I'm going to tell you a bit more about what you need to make Youtube videos and what you can do to promote your channel.
Four things are vital if you want to run a succesful youtube-channel:
First of all you're going to need a proper video set-up. We wish it was that easy to use just your phone, put it on selfie mode and start shooting, alas. However, the good news is that it doesn't have to be expensive or elaborate to start. There is some basic equipment that has the potential to make you a Youtube video rockstar with a cost below € 1,000.
A proper video set-up should include:
A camera: we start off with the most important one. A decent camera that's capable of recording minimum of 720p, but we prefer 1080p. You can start with a professional webcam, like the Logitech C920 or the newer model C922. You can also buy a decent digital camera: quality will be better and then you'll then have a decent camera too! Only thing is: the investment is a bit higher. Panasonic Lumix, Sony Cybershot, Canon PowerShot or Nikon Coolpix are good options (∿€300 at time of writing) or you can invest in a full-fledged camcorder like a Canon Vixia camcorder.
A tripod: to hold your camera. A tripod you can definitely buy on a budget. Just keep in mind that the heavier your camera, the sturdier your tripod will have to be. You should be able to score a tripod well under €50.
A microphone: because let's face it, no laptop or camera has a decent microphone, and nothing is more disturbing than having to listen to poor voice quality. The reason for this is because your laptop has a omni-directional microphone: this means that it records soundwaves coming from all directions. What you need is a cardioid microphone: a microphone that records with its heart and mostly ignores sounds coming from the sides or from the back. Trust and Tie has a nice variety of good microphones, or a Blue Snowball or Blue Yeti is definitely a safe choice too. A decent microphone will set you back between €50 and €100.
Lighting: proper lighting can really make the difference of making your video look professional or amateuristic. Buy yourself some decent softboxes or invest in some good LED panels. Trust us, it's worth it. You should be able to score good lighting for under €50.
A backdrop: this is an investment you don't need to make. If you have a nice brick-wall, or a painting you love, you can use those as a backdrop. If you want to create a brand, maybe it's better to go with a background with some character. This shouldn't set you back more than €100.
Video editing software: to paste your scenes together or cut a couple seconds off you don't need any professional editing tools. Windows Movie Maker and iMovie on Mac should do the trick. If that doesn't suffice we can recommend AVS Video editor or Adobe Lightworks.
But anyway you can get started with a decent camera, microphone and tripod for less than €500!
Four things are vital if you want to run a succesful youtube-channel:
- a good camera set-up,
- content that attracts followers,
- wanting to help others and
- an infectious enthusiasm.
First of all you're going to need a proper video set-up. We wish it was that easy to use just your phone, put it on selfie mode and start shooting, alas. However, the good news is that it doesn't have to be expensive or elaborate to start. There is some basic equipment that has the potential to make you a Youtube video rockstar with a cost below € 1,000.
A proper video set-up should include:
A camera: we start off with the most important one. A decent camera that's capable of recording minimum of 720p, but we prefer 1080p. You can start with a professional webcam, like the Logitech C920 or the newer model C922. You can also buy a decent digital camera: quality will be better and then you'll then have a decent camera too! Only thing is: the investment is a bit higher. Panasonic Lumix, Sony Cybershot, Canon PowerShot or Nikon Coolpix are good options (∿€300 at time of writing) or you can invest in a full-fledged camcorder like a Canon Vixia camcorder.
A tripod: to hold your camera. A tripod you can definitely buy on a budget. Just keep in mind that the heavier your camera, the sturdier your tripod will have to be. You should be able to score a tripod well under €50.
A microphone: because let's face it, no laptop or camera has a decent microphone, and nothing is more disturbing than having to listen to poor voice quality. The reason for this is because your laptop has a omni-directional microphone: this means that it records soundwaves coming from all directions. What you need is a cardioid microphone: a microphone that records with its heart and mostly ignores sounds coming from the sides or from the back. Trust and Tie has a nice variety of good microphones, or a Blue Snowball or Blue Yeti is definitely a safe choice too. A decent microphone will set you back between €50 and €100.
Lighting: proper lighting can really make the difference of making your video look professional or amateuristic. Buy yourself some decent softboxes or invest in some good LED panels. Trust us, it's worth it. You should be able to score good lighting for under €50.
A backdrop: this is an investment you don't need to make. If you have a nice brick-wall, or a painting you love, you can use those as a backdrop. If you want to create a brand, maybe it's better to go with a background with some character. This shouldn't set you back more than €100.
Video editing software: to paste your scenes together or cut a couple seconds off you don't need any professional editing tools. Windows Movie Maker and iMovie on Mac should do the trick. If that doesn't suffice we can recommend AVS Video editor or Adobe Lightworks.
But anyway you can get started with a decent camera, microphone and tripod for less than €500!
Creating good content
It's not easy to create good content, that's where your willingness to help and your infectious enthusiasm will come in handy. It's normal to feel unnatural when you film yourself at first, but you'll grow into it and you'll enjoy this way of creating content. Here are some video ideas you can try:
It's not easy to create good content, that's where your willingness to help and your infectious enthusiasm will come in handy. It's normal to feel unnatural when you film yourself at first, but you'll grow into it and you'll enjoy this way of creating content. Here are some video ideas you can try:
- Create do it yourself-videos: this can go from cooking, make-up, woodworking,… Nowadays a there's even a successful page that simply crushes stuff! Take your passion and throw it into youtube-channel. We suggest you that the items you sell is related to your selected niche of course.
- Answer questions: your fans will have questions, no doubt about that! A smart thing to do is to integrate your followers in your videos, create community. they'll love you for doing this, trust us.
- Bloopers or behind the scenes: don't think that errors or behind the scenes are footage for the bin. Make a bloopers-episode! Or show your funny or geeky side in a behind the scenes. You won't attract many new followers with this but your current followers will eat this up like candy.
- Get in touch with your community: send out a message to your fans asking for videos of them telling you about their favorite tips and tricks. Or if you're seling already, ask what are their favorite products, how they use your products. This is a great branding tool and it works as a customer testimonial.
Linking the content to your shop
Setting up a Sayl Retail can be done in less than 5 minutes. Create the products in your account, assign them to a Sayl Retail shop, and use the unique URL of the shop in combination with your Youtube video.
Almost done, but still some work…
Great and interesting content is cool. But the next step is even more important! Getting the right eyeballs to see your video. Selling basketballs but only having tennisfans find out about your video, won't help you a dime. Therefore getting the right audience is key to sell.
Get audience
Engage with your community: answer questions that are asked on not only your channel but on other channels that are in your niche. Share your opinion about other people their vlogpost: do you agree with what they say? Or you want to add some additional tips, share them. Spread the love and share your wisdom.
Promote outside Youtube: link your social media to each other. Give sneak peaks on one social platform to guide your audience to your Youtube-channel.
Reach out to other pages or blogs that are also in your niche and ask them to share your content. It's not always for them to find good material so you might be doing them a favour. Worst case scenario is that you have to pay a fee. But if you carefully selected your platform then it should pay itself right back.
Promote inside Youtube:
Brand your channel. Create a good looking banner and image. Fill in the "about" section with honest information about your brand and drizzle it with some of your enthusiasm and awesomness.
Youtube SEO
Definitely take a look at SEO. This is oh so important to get new viewers. SEO guides new viewers to your channel based on the words and keywords that you used to name and describe your videos. We think this article by Brian Dean is extremely helpful. https://backlinko.com/how-to-rank-youtube-videos
Setting up a Sayl Retail can be done in less than 5 minutes. Create the products in your account, assign them to a Sayl Retail shop, and use the unique URL of the shop in combination with your Youtube video.
Almost done, but still some work…
Great and interesting content is cool. But the next step is even more important! Getting the right eyeballs to see your video. Selling basketballs but only having tennisfans find out about your video, won't help you a dime. Therefore getting the right audience is key to sell.
Get audience
Engage with your community: answer questions that are asked on not only your channel but on other channels that are in your niche. Share your opinion about other people their vlogpost: do you agree with what they say? Or you want to add some additional tips, share them. Spread the love and share your wisdom.
Promote outside Youtube: link your social media to each other. Give sneak peaks on one social platform to guide your audience to your Youtube-channel.
Reach out to other pages or blogs that are also in your niche and ask them to share your content. It's not always for them to find good material so you might be doing them a favour. Worst case scenario is that you have to pay a fee. But if you carefully selected your platform then it should pay itself right back.
Promote inside Youtube:
Brand your channel. Create a good looking banner and image. Fill in the "about" section with honest information about your brand and drizzle it with some of your enthusiasm and awesomness.
Youtube SEO
Definitely take a look at SEO. This is oh so important to get new viewers. SEO guides new viewers to your channel based on the words and keywords that you used to name and describe your videos. We think this article by Brian Dean is extremely helpful. https://backlinko.com/how-to-rank-youtube-videos
So there you have it: we told you about the equipment that you'll be needing, some good content-ideas, we explained you how to create a community,… All you need to do now is to start making videos! One thing we have to tell you though: don't expect this to explode over night. It takes time to create a community. It'll take you weeks, even months. But as long as you keep your goal in mind: share the wisdom and spread the love. Then you'll do just fine!
Happy Vlogging!
Happy Vlogging!