How to NICHE on YouTube GORDON LAING: GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS with Neil Mossey PODCAST 004

NEXT PART 5 IS HERE: https://youtu.be/QNJrF3Mrclk
Gordon Laing has 160k subscribers and, incredibly, uploading to YouTube since 2006.
I'm a Development Producer helping as many people as possible get ideas out of their heads to make more people happy. I created GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS to help you get started and keep your YouTube channel going.

How to NICHE on YouTube GORDON LAING: GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS with Neil Mossey PODCAST 004



This is part 4 of this episode, PART 1 IS HERE: https://youtu.be/WVwvyVI6YBk
0:00 YouTube is a terrible way to make money!
1:10 Gordon Laing on running a photography channel.
2:40 The Great British YouTubers Podcast Drink Break. (My favourite part of the series).
3:15 Some of Gordon Laing's favourite YouTube channels, links below.
5:50 You need a narrative - how to script your YouTube video.
8:08 YouTube is part of Google and has the best search.
9:14 On the next episode of Great British YouTubers Podcast.

YouTube channels mentioned in this episode:
NEW ROCKSTARS https://www.youtube.com/user/NewMediaRockstars
CAMERA CONSPIRACIES https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwxgo62w72LxZDA1fTibdYg
DPREVIEW https://www.youtube.com/user/dpreviewcom
SHELBY CHURCH https://www.youtube.com/user/teenmakeuptips

LONG EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHY: https://youtu.be/kcTAXn7LJZ4

GREAT BRITISH YOUTUBERS | YOUTUBE TIPS AND TRICKS full series playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtZM4-pHDwPmfZSonvf366y7rmJLV5dFG

Gordon's channel: https://www.youtube.com/cameralabs
Gordon's Cameralabs camera review site: https://www.cameralabs.com/
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
In Camera BOOK by Gordon Laing: https://amzn.to/3cFBnSD
(Amazon affiliate link)

MY CHAT WITH GORDON IN 2018: https://youtu.be/JVIyBPNa05Q


TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

I like to see some sort of some sort of plan like you've-- like you-- the YouTube creators Twitter channel frequently ask: "what would you, what do you want to make a video about?" or "what are you going to make a video about today?" Like as if you have to make a video today.
They want you to make a video today because they want you to produce content for their platform, but do you have to produce a video today?
[Music]

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

If you're on YouTube you're probably not going to be making much money from YouTube until you get over a million subscribers right?

At that point you're going to be able to make some decent money, you're also going to get better sponsorship and stuff like that, so that's when the money really starts coming in.

Below that you're not gonna make too much.
You'll make some money but not a massive amount.
You're gonna have to have another revenue stream as well, like I have my website as well.
YouTube is just a small part of that.

So you've got to love making those videos.
I know a lot of people go I'm... what am I going to do for job?

I'm gonna be a-- I'm gonna go on YouTube because that's an easy way to make money.
It's not. It's a terrible way to make money, especially if you're not utterly passionate about that subject because you're gonna have to talk about that subject a lot.

And you're gonna think "Ugh, do I have to do another video about cameras?"
You've gotta love that subject.
And I do!
So I'm with the kind of personality or mindset which is I'm producing the kind of content I would like to consume.

So when I review a camera that-- I'll look at it and I'll go "hey they say it's got this stabilization mode that the marketing people says is brilliant for this well I want to try it but I also want to try it while I'm jumping off a cliff towards a thing on a parachute"

Do you know what I mean, some weird combination that appeals just to my mind and I think I wonder what it would do if I did that to it?
And you get a surprising result.

Sometimes it does better than expected, sometimes it does much worse and you, then you've got a story and it's an interesting thing and that's what I-- that's what turns me on.
The kind of detail, you know "they say it does this but let's just take a closer look"

And yeah it does do really well at that, but this thing actually less so and it might be that that's the thing you want it to do and-- and you know these things are pulling against each other.
So I produce those videos and just hope that people are also interested in watching which is why I should probably very satisfied with my subscriber count because I'm not specifically targeting anyone apart from me.
Which sounds selfish or arrogant?

I produce videos that I would want to watch except they were a bit longer.
I'd like to see a short version of me... and that as Yoda says "is why you fail!"
You know, produce what people want, you know?
I'm producing BBC Four shows... No! I'm producing shows that even BBC Four would turn down because they're too long and obscure and of too limited interest.

There's a format point there actually that I wanted to introduce, you've just segued into it:
Let's take a drink!
Let's do that and, and you at home... have a drink as well.
This is the drink break.
So maybe we do this in slo-mo Peter MacKinnon style?
He's done well.
That's right so, this, this--
He likes coffee!

And if you've got to this point, hit the like button.
Let us know or say in the comment what can they say, what can we say in the comments?
What the code word?
Yeah... "In Camera"
I was going to say pineapple but..
Oh no, pineapple is better.

Actually this was the next format point: can you pick your favourite three youtubers and explain them for 15 seconds each?
Just off the top of your head...
You didn't give me any, er--
No, exactly.
This is a new question.

Gotta be off the top of your head - oh my goodness this is fraught because if you forget someone...
Okay off the top of my head.
Yeah. From this week that you happen to have watched this week... so that you have others, favorites, but these are the ones you've watched recently.

Okay I really like new rock stars - this is a huge channel. It was probably the biggest channel that I follow and what they do is really geeky in depth analysis on Easter eggs and stuff you didn't notice in sci-fi and fantasy movies. So if you into Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Marvel, they'll say look at that picture - that means that something's working in--
That's 15 seconds! That's 15 seconds brilliant. The next one 15 seconds... go!

Okay Camera Conspiracies. He reviews cameras but not as a journalist because he doesn't get sent them he's not privileged like I am he actually has to borrow them or buy them or get lent them and because he's not tied into that world he's extremely honest not that I'm dishonest but--
That's 15 seconds! Fantastic! I think, I think this format point's a bit of a winner!
This is the way - yeah, we should've started with this.

And... ahhh, yeah. Okay third youtuber that you watch a little too much of.

Okay again it's in my own industry and that's er, DP review TV because it's Chris and Jordan who used to be on the camera store. I know those guys personally, I really love them and their way of presentation. They're doing similar sort of videos to what I do, so I watch them and think how they missed out the thing I found, and then I go "No! They found the thing I missed!"
Fifteen seconds! Would you like, would you like a bonus youtuber?

Yes you Neil because I always flatter the interviewer, actually Neil, I'd watch--
Hang on, that was 3 seconds! Sorry, sorry, you broke up.
I've watched all of your videos and they're very entertaining, and I feel that you followed my advice of filming the video that no one else has done a bit too seriously... maybe you're too obscure, but I admire that and I admire that you stuck to it.

Yeah well the scary one is face mask... is my favourite to date and that that got picked up by BBC news, that was--
Yes!

I'll talk about for it-- Do you know what?
I was following your advice about long exposure photography which is-
Were you?
Yeah I took some time on it.

I planned it out, I didn't over script it, but I did structure it and I did some shooting and some editing and then went back to do some shooting again...
and that's exactly the same advice that Shelby Church proposed for how she she makes videos as well.

That, if you mix-up the scripting, the shooting the editing, you know rather than treating it as a pipeline, but you make better work...
But you're also happier doing it.

You need a narrative I think, and I'm too tied to my narrative now I realise that, but I think you do need to have-- and this is what frustrates me about a lot of TV shows is you're like-- or movie series - and you're like "you didn't plan that". "This character's just said this thing, they'd never say that thing!"

You know, or "why are they doing that, that makes no sense!" and you... I think you have to have an idea of where you're going in a video even if it's like "my goal is to make a biscuit" right?
The end to think, you should be visualizing you, with a tray of biscuits at the end maybe going [CRUNCH NOISE] "cheers readers"!

You know what I mean?
It's, you... that's the way I think about it.
Now what happens in that journey in between? Mix it up.

Play around. Have fun, and if things change? Include it!
You know if the biscuits get burnt then include it: it doesn't have to be perfect.
In fact it's better if we see the fails but, but have an idea in mind.

I see so many videos from like quite high end people, that don't do that and they still may perform well and that kind of disappoints me on a personal level.
I like to see some sort of, some sort of plan like you've-- like you-- the YouTube creators Twitter channel, and lots of Twitter channels, frequently ask: "what would you, what do you want to make a video about?" or "what are you going to make a video about today?"
Like as if you have to make a video today.

They want you to make a video today because they want you to produce content for their platform, but do you have to produce a video today?
I'm so old that I think you should only say something if you've got something worth saying!
Or something useful to add to the conversation.

Don't just, I'm not just going to record a video because I like the sound of my own voice and wanna film and do the process!
Produce stuff as often as you want so long as it, it gets across the message you want to get across and that can be as simple as you like.

It can be as short as you like. It can be as silly as you like, but do it for a reason, not just because you want to feed the beast.
That's so true - it is so true because that's what bled out with the the face mask video.
That was absolutely a subject that was really bugging me.
The best stuff absolutely comes from something that is truly bugging you and face masks were bugging me.

It was bugging me that people... it was seemed to be so anti them, so I thought it would actually help the world for me to have a go.
Even though it was just a dumb video of me copying how to make a face mask, there was a useful to humanity question underneath it all.
There is an important SEO tip there.
What search engine do most of us use?
Right.
Say it!
Google?

Therefore if you want good SEO are you going to try and continue to push your own website against every other website or are you going to post a video with a good SEO title on YouTube which Google that provider with the biggest search engine in the world uses?
How hard is it to search Facebook?
And Facebook results don't appear on Google do they?

Or at least not properly - yeah - so if you want to search for... and I've done this before.
I was like "oh I did this post on Facebook where I mentioned something and I didn't post it anywhere else" right?

So I've got to now search for it on Facebook and I couldn't find it - and that's when I thought "gosh actually the search on this is rubbish!" and I'd become too reliant on, rather than indexing things or storing things properly - on relying on search instead, but of course search will only work with what search wants to show, and search wants to show what search owns.

And if you're using Google, well Google's going to give prominent results to YouTube obviously!
Because it owns it. Also because people like consuming video as well.
And there's more of my chats with Gordon Laing from camera labs...
I quit! And if this were a YouTube video... I should have made a video about it.

And you would do "I" and in capital letters QUIT. Q-U-I-T why I quit!
I've seen videos where people say "why I quit" and they didn't even quit!
They talked about why they might quit, or why somebody like them might have quitted, or why they thought about quitting, but they didn't quit!

And please hit the subscribe button if you want to see more Great British YouTubers.
There's a playlist and a podcast. All the details and links are in the description.
I'm Neil Mossey and I'll see you on the very next episode of Great British YouTubers.
[Music]

Previous post...
IKEA SEGLARO PARASOL for garden or patio, review unboxing and assembly instructions

All about me, and getting these by email.

Try my previous book!

(UK) (US)