Vlogging is Hard
24-Jan-2022
Background
My camera setup includes Phones, Action cameras, DJI Pocket and now a Sony ZV-E10 mirrorless camera. My audio setups includes a fully featured USB microphone, bluetooth headsets, wired microphone and even a wireless microphone. I have tried Vlog genre like talking head videos, doing goofy stuff, travel Vlogs, product review and even food reviews. But one thing is for sure — Vlogging is hard and needs lot of time, focus and patience.
Challenges
In writing you may need an editor, references and active imagination. In Vlog I found the imagination & creativity bit adds the visual dimension and in the visual medium you are using all the three senses:
- Sound: What you say, the noise around you and even any music you play
- View: What you show: is it yourself, is it the surroundings, the view or a person
- Narrative: The logical flow of scenes in a video is more complex than blogs or articles that you write but editing them can be a creative and probably the most difficult process
While people can not touch a video but what you show, what you say and how you go about doing that is the most difficult part and doing it can be a creative and learning experience but also exhausting. Being consistent, every day or every week planning what topic to speak or share is difficult to do it alone as a side hustle.
Then comes the hard part of standing out and one has to toil long and the tough part is that there is no guarantee of any monetization or viewership. While as a hobby its fine but converting it something professional level and also getting a specific genre or evolving your style is difficult and also getting to know how to hack your way via YouTube ranking and pivot accordingly and its not easy.
Opportunities
The challenges aside, I learnt good thing in this journey. Today I know how to create and edit videos. Today I know the importance of narrative, I have more clarity how to communicate my ideas and have gradually evolved in my creative process and also got to learn how user engagement analytics works. The biggest opportunity for me was to learn how look beyond my work and de-stress.
Not Getting Carried Away
It took me 2 years to get 150 users for my Hungrulu Channel, there are YouTube channels who have reached thousands of users in that time but had I spent more time on my channel or promoting it last year may be I could have become more successful. I found that Youtube Shorts is a great way to grow your channel and adding the right music and voice can help a long way in improving your videos. But I also saw the downsides of it, I bought lot of gear initially and got disheartened when the channel did not grow as I wished.
My best videos have been via phone and when I share experiences. Hence in now I don’t plan to get carried away, I have enough gear. May be I will slow down my video making but rather use Photos to share my experiences than videos. I am aware I have other priorities and even this year my YouTube will be more of a side gig and will spend less time. Hence I hope to write more, make some more videos and keep learning, traveling and take lot of pictures.
End
Vlogging like blogging is hard but is rewarding and if you keep doing it you will learn that will help you in other areas of your life. Like anything in life one has to keep learning, showcasing their work and stay grounded and feeling happing in what you do and finding your niche. Its better time than now to start Vlog, Blog or podcast. While you express, but also learn and help others and get to know the world and engage creatively.
