Get Rich Blogging. Zoe Griffin
sell. He succeeded – Justin’s debut album My World was certified platinum in the US in 2009, and he became the first artist to have seven songs from his debut album chart on the Billboard Hot 100. How did they do it? At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) conference keynote speech, Scooter said: ‘My career started sat on the sofa in my underpants, thinking of ways I could get more people to watch my videos. Then it clicked – I needed to keep it simple. If you want to make YouTube work for you, don’t make content for billions of people. Don’t try and think of the broad spectrum you could reach and aim for people sitting on the fence. Look at yourself. If you feel something, there’s a good chance some other people will feel the same way. Go to your office or bedroom, say what you’re interested in and how it makes you feel.’
Only when you are clear in your mind as to the subject you want to vlog about should you start to think of your audience. By this, I mean working out which groups of people are interested in the same subject as you, and thinking about their personality traits and other interests. But why should you think of your audience at all? The answer is because you’ll be talking to them when you’re looking down the camera, and you need to know how to address them. You need to treat your viewers as friends and forge a connection with them, and you can’t do that if you don’t know anything about what these people are like.
It may be a good idea to grab another sheet of paper and a pen, and answer these questions:
HOW OLD ARE THESE PEOPLE?
It’s important to know how old your audience is so you can talk to them in an appropriate tone. If your viewers are older and looking for factual information, they won’t appreciate a quirky, jokey tone as much as a teenager would.
Many of the vlogging superstars that I’ve met and featured in this book have audiences under thirty years old on average. However, if you want to appeal to an older market, you can still be successful. All you need is an awareness of how formal or informal you need to be. The vloggers featured in this book are successful because they’ve adapted their tone to suit their audience, not because teenagers are more active on YouTube. In fact, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki claims YouTube now reaches more users in the 18–49-year-old demographic than any other TV network. It is possible to attract older viewers, as long as you don’t annoy them by talking down to them.
WHAT LEVEL OF EDUCATION HAVE THEY REACHED?
You’re in a tricky situation here. You don’t want to look shallow and superficial, but you also don’t want to make others feel stupid by referring to things they haven’t been taught. Knowing their level of education will help you realise how much technical knowledge you can assume in your videos, and it will also help you decide how much of your own educational background to share.
You may have noticed that some of the successful vloggers in the UK act a lot younger than they are. Tanya Burr and Zoe Sugg are in their mid-twenties, but they are still able to connect with teenage girls. This is because they don’t talk about graduation, nor do they cover subjects like drinking alcohol or clubbing, as they know some of their viewers are too young to have experienced these things.
If you can work out what your audience is going through, you’ll know what to cover and what to leave out.
WHEN DO PEOPLE HAVE TIME TO WATCH YOUR VIDEOS?
It’s crucial to get the length of a video right, and that largely depends on an audience. Younger viewers tend to have more free time and spend longer browsing YouTube, and as a result they are more fickle. They dip in and out of content as they are under fewer time constraints. Older viewers tend to search for an individual subject and watch one video explaining that subject in detail.
If you have a younger audience, shorter videos work best to maintain a viewer’s interest. If you have an older audience, your priority is to show you’re answering the viewer’s need in the first minute, but there is more flexibility to talk for as long as it takes to explain the answer.
WHERE ARE THEY WATCHING THE VIDEOS?
Fifty per cent of videos are viewed on a mobile device, according to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. If you think your audience is likely to use a mobile device and enjoy vlogs during their daily commute or while they’re doing something else, such as watching one of the mainstream TV channels, you need to try extra hard to make your videos as attention-grabbing as possible. This is because a viewer’s attention is likely to be distracted if they’re multi-tasking. If the other thing they’re doing excites them more than your video, they will zone out and stop watching. As the percentage of viewers watching videos on mobile devices is constantly growing, it’s never been more important to keep your videos short and snappy and full of things your audience find interesting. If you lose their attention momentarily, they could turn their mobile device off and do something else.
WHAT OTHER VLOGGERS DO THEY WATCH, IF ANY?
Watching a vlog isn’t like supporting a football team. Viewers can watch two or more vloggers and like them equally. See if there are any other vloggers in your field who aim at the same age group, and talk to people of your target age group to find out which vloggers they watch. Having an idea of your audience’s wider viewing habits both enables you to keep an eye on the competition and to identify vloggers to collaborate with to widen your appeal.
Answering the questions above will help you determine what your audience wants, so you can meet their needs and satisfy them. Satisfied viewers will keep coming back and they are more likely to tell other people about you, helping you to grow your reach. If you arrogantly started showing off about a subject to a group of people without taking the time to ask questions or find out what they were interested in, do you think they’d like you? Of course not. You can only bond with people – and viewers – if you take the time to get to know them and find out what they like.
TIP: PUT PASSION FOR YOUR SUBJECT AND A DESIRE TO CONNECT WITH AN AUDIENCE ABOVE FINANCIAL TARGETS
Vlogger Fleur Bell has more than a million subscribers to her main channel, Fleur De Force, which she started in 2009. She made a show for Channel 4, How to Be Internet Famous, and her advice was: ‘I think what’s really important now for anyone starting a YouTube channel is not to start thinking, “I’m going to make a load of cash.” At the end of the day, it doesn’t work for everyone and not everyone does make a lot of money. If you’re passionate about it, then that’s what comes across in the content and you’re more likely to make it work.
‘The way to not be successful on YouTube is to do the same content as everyone else and do that because you think it’s how the successful people do it. People love YouTube because everyone’s unique and they’re following different unique characters and personalities. You’ll be followed if you can show you are unique and can be yourself.’
Choosing what to vlog about and picking a theme can be time-consuming. Don’t give up! You need to start your vlogging journey on a solid footing if you’re to have any chance of success. In the next chapter, I talk about how you can build a brand. You can only do that once you have picked a theme, because having a clear sense of direction will help you stay on track and focused.
After reading this chapter, you should have:
