Wednesday, 26 May 2021

How I hit my YouTube wall. And how you can fix it.



I hit a wall on YouTube. 
You might have hit a wall with YouTube or some other creative activity. 
But there is a way around it. And the fact that you can even see this YouTube video is a sign my solution for hitting the wall, procrastination, overthinking or stopping doing the things you want to do. 

How I hit my YouTube wall. And how you can fix it.



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!
This dad from Hampshire tried making a t-shirt mask for himself on his YouTube channel.
My ears aren't coping very well with the elastic bands 
So I’ve hit record... Is the mic working? Yeah.
I... I’m looking for any excuse not to make this video.

You'd have seen the title, I’m going to call it “I’m stuck!” 
I think I’ve completely hit a wall with YouTube and instead of pretending that it's not happening and putting out some old videos that I had lined up...
I’m going to sort of put out an old video that I’ve got lined up.
I am going to sit and talk to the camera.
I’m going to force myself to talk to camera with no script and no bullet points, no autocue or teleprompt, and maybe I should slow down talking?

I feel I’ve got to talk really quickly to keep your attention and to stop the viewer audience retention graph from plummeting.
For this video I don't care about that.
Obviously I do care, I want you to keep watching.
I want you to be entertained.
I’ve completely hit a wall this week and last week.
I’ve never sat down and talked to camera before like this.
[MUSIC]

I feel really uncomfortable doing this! 
I don't even know if I’m going to publish this video so if you do see this video you'll know that I have somehow managed to get past my YouTube wall.
I know what my wall is - I know what's... what's built this wall, this obstacle.
Well the first layer of the wall is... is perfectionism obviously that's...
that's always there.
Usually it's feeling overwhelmed... well no I do feel overwhelmed... that's the second layer... so the first layer is the perfectionism.

And that is that I want the video to be structured in the best way possible, so I bullet point it out, I make a list of the videos that I want to make, and I make a list of the kind of things that I want to say in each video.
And that leads to my second layer of the YouTube wall, which is this one, have a look at this! 
This is my Notion database, so I used to have cards on the wall here.
I wonder if I’ve got maybe I’ve got a clip of what my wall used to look like.

I think it's in - funny enough - I think it's in my last procrastination video.
There if I freeze frame it here: each card on the wall, each index card represented a video that I wanted to make, and I would just have this wall of guilt which...
which isn't helpful and it didn't help me get through each of those ideas.
Mainly because when I wanted to add to them or change them, it's a bit difficult writing it on an index card when I’ve already written a giant title on it.

So I followed Ali Abdaal’s example of creating a database on Notion so I have an electronic card for every video, and this is really helpful because when I have half ideas for the script, or ideas for things that I want to do in the video, I can just type it straight into the electronic card.
And then I can move that card along from idea to script to shooting it editing it and finally you know making a thumbnail and writing description and publishing it.

This looks convoluted but it's really helped me to get a lot of ideas out and it's also taken away the feeling of overwhelmed, because I know that if I have something else to add to that video I’ve got a place - I’ve got one place to put those ideas.
Before these cards I had this big document. 
This is my social media calendar document.
It's a bit of an ironic title because there's no calendar in here at all.

It started off with me planning out videos and then it became into this big old receptacle for everything - every fleeting thought goes into this document.
I still use this from time to time just to brain dump ideas, but at least I can then put them over into Notion and I’ve got one card there for every single video idea that I want to make.
The downside of this organization is that I... I don't know where to start.
Well I do know where to start.

The problem with this system is that it actually makes it too easy so I could make any one of these videos... so which one do I do first?
I’m overwhelmed. I’ve shot a load of videos and I’ve even edited some more videos that are ready to be uploaded and published, but then I’ve got to make thumbnails and write descriptions for them.
I’m going to show you what I use to get out of this rut and if you're watching this video now it's worked because I’ve used this method! 

Last year I... I hit a wall like this for... I had other reasons for not doing stuff very suddenly and I got my camera out I got... I actually got my phone out and I started filming myself and I started filming the process that I use for getting myself around hitting a YouTube wall.
My system is called experimental Nano chunking.
I hope I can keep using the uh the jingle that I made for it.
And the way that nano chunking works is that, well it comes from Tony Robbins book Awaken The Giant Within.

He talks about chunking which is: we take a big project like making a YouTube video or writing a book, and you break it down into more manageable chunks.
This isn't good for me because I still ended up with a load of tasks, so I took it to an extreme and I created the nano chunk and - thank you - the nano chunk is breaking down a task to the tiniest tiniest tiniest task possible and adding a “what if” before it.

So “what if I were to pick up my pencil?”
If you break down your big chunk into a tiny nano chunk, I guarantee it works and to prove it here is how I made a YouTube video using nano chunks.
So I’m stuck on... I’m stuck on this.
You can look over here: Make a CPAP mask... not a CPAP... make a FACE mask with a t-shirt.

It's a really simple dumb idea.
It's something I really want to do.
I really want to make a mask and I really want to make a video.
Why can't I just make a video of me making a mask?
I’ve completely turned it into something bigger than it is, but I’m stuck and I’ve been sitting on this idea for about two weeks now.
It's not because it's not a good idea it's... it's the exact opposite.
It's because I know it's a really good idea and something that I really want to do.

The resistance is that thing that when you have a good idea, everything in your brain and body will conspire to stop you from doing it.
And there's all kinds of biological reasons why we're programmed this way.
Basically by doing something you really want to do, that represents change, and change biologically represents death because you might change something and it might not work out and then you will die!
That's how we're wired so I’m gonna use this system now to- to free me from this block.

I hope it frees me from this block!
I’ve done some free writing just to bring my brain - look six pages of things in my head!
Got to the nano chunking list, and this is my first nano chunking task:
I’m gonna break down all the tasks down to the absolute tiniest level.
“Open the t-shirt script” so I’ll do that now.
That's really important when you're nano chunking to only write down one thing at a time - only one tiny task and cross it off.

It's a little achievement for each step, so my next step would be “print out what I’ve got” 
I’ll write down “print out t-shirt ideas”
[MUSIC]
So I’ve got all my t-shirt ideas then the next step would be to read them.
That's all, just read them, so I’m gonna get a nice drink and just read through them and I don't have to do anything else apart from sit down get a pen.
[MUSIC]
Can I just say, because I know I’m recording here.

I so didn't want to read through these that I’ve ended up actually writing and actually writing the script instead of doing what I should be doing which is reading these but that's okay because I wanted to read these to get to this!
It sort of works.
Oh sometimes this happens.
You get started on the nano chunk task which was for me to sit down with a nice drink and to just read through what I’ve got, and then all these other things pop into your head of all these other things you should be doing.

But if one comes up like “I need to get my glasses” what I do is I write that down as another task and then cross it off there and then, so if other things start popping into your head like “oh just need to check that” or “I need to get that” write them down as nano chunks and do them in order.
And then you'll have to go back to the nano chunk that triggered all these other thoughts.
Make the tasks even smaller, even more ridiculous.
Get my glasses.
Okay so here's an example now the kind of stuff that will come up.
To just stop you from doing what you're doing! 

I’m on a point now where I want to find a clip that I want to put into the video and I know I’ve got that clip on an email, so I’ve gone into email and I’ve just seen a email from my accountant and I’ve just spent 20 minutes reading it and replying to it.
So I’ve been thrown off the nano chunking horse: what I should have done is to write down as a nano chunk, open the email and do that afterwards, so I have the impulse I do it - so I’ve fallen off the horse - it's okay - don't give yourself a hard time.
But write down as soon as you can, on to your list, and then cross it off.

I don't know why I write some things on the nano chunk as capitals.
Works out some kind of anger or something.
Another good tip for the nano chunking is to write down nano chunks that aren't very difficult, so instead of “write three pages of script” I’ve put something a bit more easy, which is to just “do writing for 25 minutes”.

That's just... that's just “write”.
It doesn't matter what the outcome is - it's just the process.
If you can make your nano chunks about the process rather than the outcome, you'll find it even more easy.
There I’ve done it! 

I’ve actually written it's one, two, three, four, five pages of scripts.
I... if my task had been “write five pages of script” I just would not have done it.
Thanks to nano chunking [JINGLE: NANOCHUNK!]

The task was and I quote “open the t-shirt document in google docs” 
That's all I had to do just open the document, and then when you've done that, well you could just do the next nano chunk task...
And when you break down the tasks down to the tiniest tiniest nano chunk, just do that chunk and before you know it, a five page script! 

So now I’ll need to nano chunk the next task.
I even ended up shooting the video! 
That's how powerful the nano chunking is!
Respect the nano chunking!
Not only did I end up making the video, two days later BBC News got in touch.
They wanted to use a clip for the six o'clock news bulletin that night.

[BBC NEWS REPORTER:] So people can make them at home using anything from old t-shirts to bedding sheets.
Two of these guys are gonna get the chop - quite literally.
This dad from Hampshire tried making a t-shirt mask for himself on his YouTube channel.
My ears aren't coping very well with the elastic bands.

If I hadn't made it and made it right now, that would not have happened.
It's another reminder of make your stuff now because it turns out we need it.
I’ve put all of these videos into this playlist it's called “make your stuff now” at the moment.
There's a link up here if you click on the “i” or- or down in this description.
Can you please help my daddy get 10,000 subscribers. Just click in his face. Thanks bye! Alright, this is gonna be the proper one, right?


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Where is my ZOOM RECORDING? How to find Zoom video files and TWO bonus tips


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Saturday, 22 May 2021

Where is my ZOOM RECORDING? How to find Zoom video files and TWO bonus tips



Where are my Zoom video recordings kept on my computer! 
If you have a mac or PC I show you the exact location to find your video files recorded on your Zoom call.

Click on your avatar on the top right, choose 'settings', then click on the 'recordings' tab on the left hand side, and on the right you will see your default Zoom meeting recording location.

Where is my ZOOM RECORDING? How to find Zoom video files and TWO bonus tips



0:00 Where is my Zoom recording?! How to find your Zoom meeting video recording location
0:24 How to find where on your computer Zoom calls are recorded
1:10 BONUS TIP: Tick the Optimize for 3rd party video editor option for better recordings!
1:30 BONUS TIP: Tick the "Record in HD" box for better quality Zoom call recordings

TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

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

Hello welcome back to the Happy Hut.
How can I find my Zoom call recordings? 
Where on my computer, or PC or mac, can I find the recording file for my Zoom meeting? 
We're getting through this as quickly as possible and I'm going to show you 2 other things you can change in your Zoom call settings to make your Zoom recordings even better.
To find where on your computer your Zoom call recording is... 
go up to your avatar in the top right hand corner and click on that to open up this menu.
And then we want to go to the first choice on the menu which is settings.
This opens up a whole menu window with lots of tabs down the left-hand side where you can change different settings. 
But the first one we're going to go to is recording, and there as if by magic is the very first piece of information in this menu.
Local recording, store my recording at... 
And this is the location where your Zoom call recordings are currently being stored.
You can click on open to open the folder right now, or you can click change to set where you want your Zoom calls to be recorded.
But before you go there's two other things you can do to make your Zoom recordings even better! 
Down here... see this checkbox here?
Optimize for third-party video editor.
I would really recommend that you tick this box because the way that Zoom records isn't very friendly if you want to edit those recordings later.
The second bonus change you can make is by clicking on the video tab on the left-hand side and that opens up these options.
Make sure you've got this box here, HD ticked.
Because then the Zoom recording will be in high-definition and it will be a much better recording to use. 
I hope this video is helping.
If you hit the thumbs up button that will help others to find this video. 
And right here are some other things that I do with my video recordings. 
Can you please help my daddy get 1000 subscribers.
Just click on his face, thanks. Bye. How's that? 

Previous post...
How I make my YouTube Thumbnails. For free.


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Thursday, 13 May 2021

How I make my YouTube Thumbnails. For free.



I absolutely want the easiest way to make YouTube thumbnails. Because as we all know, they're probably more important to YouTube than the videos themselves.  I use a free app built into mac called KEYNOTE which is absolutely fantastic for making 16:9 thumbnails for my YouTube videos!

If you hate making thumbnails and want to find an easy quick way to make them, I thought I'd share my whole process step by step all the way to how to upload my YouTube thumbnail.


CANVA (for mac and PC) is here: https://www.canva.com/

How I make my YouTube Thumbnails. For free.



0:00 How I make my YouTube Thumbnails for free
0:50 How to make YouTube thumbnails for free on a PC: Canva
1:20 How to make thumbnails for YouTube on a Macbook Pro for free using Keynote app
1:55 How to make a thumbnail for YouTube
2:39 How to pose for YouTube thumbnails
3:40 How to improve photo images on Keynote
5:45 How to arrange images on a Keynote slide
10:40 How to export images from Keynote as jpeg or png
10:55 How to upload a thumbnail to YouTube video

TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

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

Hello, welcome back to the Happy Hut. 
This is going to be a bit of a strange video.
Well, it's strange for me because I'm going to share my process for making a thumbnail in real-time from scratch. 
I don't think I'm very good at making thumbnails, look here's how my YouTube channel is looking at the moment.
I think I'm getting better and I'm really much more proud of my thumbnails now, than I was, say, well even six months ago. 
So I don't actually know why I'm doing this.
But I thought if I at least share my process, I might get better over time and you might have better suggestions that you could leave in the comments and it might help you to make your thumbnails different from what you're trying at the moment.
This is my desktop. It's MacBook Pro.
Don't hate me. 
It's a computer that my sister got me, but whenever I mention the Mac I always get a load of hate in the comments.
And I completely understand because I think deep down, I'm a... I'm a PC person myself.
I certainly have PC pockets but if I were doing this on a PC I would probably screen grab by using shift and print screen, and pasting that into Microsoft Paint and then uploading those screengrabs to somewhere like Canva.
So I'll leave a... I'll leave a link to Canva down below cos I think that's the best place that I made thumbnails before the Mac.
But I've got the Mac now and I use an app called Keynote. 
This is how it looks and you can probably tell that Keynote is used for PowerPoint presentations.
But the great thing with Keynote is that it's really easy to paste images in and out and it exports images at 16:9 which is the exact dimensions that YouTube needs for my thumbnails!
And I think this is a really difficult thumbnail for me that I'm making today because it's about me talking over screen recording.
A bit like this video!
I don't know how this thumbnail will come out, but the video is called: how to find out how many subscribers you've lost on YouTube. 
So it's basically me talking over a screen recording of statistics. 
So I have no idea where I'm going to start with a thumbnail that intrigues and creates tension. 
I've grabbed some screenshots just in case there are any elements that I can use. 
So the first thing I'll do is to create a new slide, and put that at the top.
And then I'll delete out everything that's there.
And then I'll go to my special folder where I save all of my thumbnails and all of my thumbnail elements, you can see here, I have a folder for every single YouTube video that I've made a thumbnail for.
And I've already grabbed some thumbnails, look.
I'm already cringing now. Look at this. 
So these are the thumbnail poses that I made while I was recording the video. 
You know knowing that I'd be stuck.
Ahh, I'm not sure I like any of them.
That one looks happy I guess...
Which is the least obnoxious screengrab. I don't like that. That's okay? 
I like this one because I haven't got my thumbs up.
Just to get started... is I'll drag that into Keynote. And you can see, you can resize it here. I can drag a corner and make it bigger so that I'm bigger in shot. 
And the great thing with Keynote is actually, on the left hand side, can you see these tiny thumbnails for the slides? 
This is a really good way of seeing how your thumbnail is going to look on a small mobile device. 
I find it a lot easier to look at that side of the screen to judge whether or not I want to go a particular way with a thumbnail.
Something I do with all my thumbnails is to improve the picture, so if I click on image and I'll whack up the exposure and you can see again, if you look at the left, that's too much, but if you look at the left hand side, this is how it starts. 
And if I put a bit of exposure up, you can see how the picture starts to pop a bit more clearly. 
Let's have a look at the saturation and that sort of makes me look a bit too pink. 
I'll just give it a little bit... and my face is quite indistinct so I might... well, which is you know, what I'm born with! But I mean, in the thumbnail. 
You can't really see my expression, so I'll go bigger.
I went through the video and I took some screenshots so I'll flick through them here so you can see.
I've got some kind of arrows... things that look like statistics. 
I kind of like the coloured lines... that kind of makes it look statistic-ky. 
Statistic -ky? Is there such a word? 
There is now! 
And I like this screenshot because, let me show you, if I zoom in... 
it's got an incredible figure, look: "subscribers lost 749". 
I was thinking that might be a useful element for a thumbnail on a video about losing subscribers.
And the first shot I'll import is probably that one, even though it's the dullest.
Make it huge and then I'll crop the photo and use these handles to drag down a crop. 
And now, if I zoom in, I could make that bigger by just grabbing the corners and I can see how that looks on the left-hand side. 
It doesn't look that good! 
It does sort of look like it's in the official YouTube font. 
I want to get the number closer to the words "subscribers lost". 
If I just make it as tight as possible and then I'll select that image and hit command C to copy it and then command V to paste.
So now I have two of them which means that I can turn this one into just the figure. 
And then I could put that figure closer to "subscribers lost". 
Yeah. Something like that. Well that looks a bit weird, doesn't it? 
I could put it here, so I'll crop this to just have subscribers lost. 
There's a feature I love on Keynote.
Up here on the top right hand side, if I hit arrange.
I can select the number, and press the backward button.
And it will push it back behind, so now it's gone behind everything - let's bring it forward.
You can see it's gone behind this word image, for the "subscribers lost".
It's still not very compelling though, is it?
It's a black-and-white figure. 
It's also looking a bit fuzzy. 
I think I need to grab this again so that I have a higher definition picture. 
So I'll go back into Chrome where I grabbed it from. 
And if I zoom in here, the resolution will be as high as possible. 
And then go back into Keynote and we'll do the whole thing all over again. 
[MUSIC]
I don't want to hit my head, so what I'll probably do is shrink it a little bit and then I'll make this number really super big. 
Yeah, I kind of, I kind of like that and now I've got that in place, I might make my face more bigger. 
So I'll drag the corner to make the whole image bigger. 
But I found that the bigger my face is on the thumbnail the... the better. 
I would prefer it not to be the case, obviously! 
And I think this is the biggest thing that stops us from making thumbnails, isn't it? 
It's just this, UGGGH... having to see your big face... all over a picture. 
These are my old thumbnails here. 
And what I've done over time is build up, a little library of useful assets. 
So, I've got this YouTube logo. 
I hit command C to copy. If I hit command V for paste. 
You can see, I've got a YouTube logo with a background. 
I want a bigger white background and that's really easy to do in Keynote - to go up to shape and I'll select basic square, which can be dragged in to be a rectangle and I'll put that behind the YouTube logo. 
Under arrange, I'll click backward, and I've kept it blue just so I can see what I'm doing. 
I'll go back to 'style' up here, and I'll choose white, so it will change from blue to white.
It's looking very white, isn't it?
I like a bit more colour.
Trouble is the more things I put in now, the more I'll lose the sense that I'm shooting this outside. 
I could try putting in something that's a bit graphy. 
I'm not sure it adds anything, I'll take it out for now.
The last thing I would do is to take my favourite Arrow. 
If you've seen any of my videos, you might have seen these before and I'll paste that into the thumbnail. 
I'm hoping - I'm not sure - so tell me what you think in the comments but I'm hoping that showing "subscribers lost 749" might make someone think: "Wow. What did you do to lose 749 subscribers?!"
I think this is the best that I can do for now, but it's very black and white.
It's not very colourful. 
I'll do a couple of other things to jeuje things up. 
So I'll select the image with my face. 
And I'll click on IMAGE. 
And then ADVANCED SETTINGS.
And I like to bring up sharpness. 
I don't know why, I think because they are screen grabs, the pictures tend to be a little soft. 
So I'll grab the sharpness slider, and I'll drag it up. 
Just to give it a slightly more defined picture. 
I might also try that with the subscribers lost. 
Tell you what, if I move the slider closer to the words and you can see the effect that I am having on the phrase "Subscribers lost".
If I put it up to 100, there, it's gone black! Which actually is more impactful.
Usually, I put text on myself. 
And I thought, for this one, I would put text on. 
I'll show you how I would do that. 
If I copy this image, paste it into a new slide and then I go to another slide....
I really don't like this thumbnail. 
Grab the words. And I grab a colour bar. Put them in like this. So I put a colour bar here. 
I really don't like duplicating the words in the thumbnail with the title, and I know the title is going to be something really dull like "how to find out how many subscribers you've lost on YouTube" 
That for me, is too many words. 
If I were going down this route, I would probably move these out. 
I'd probably put a YouTube logo on as well. 
So those are the two options that I would go for. 
I always tend to have, like an option A or B. 
Sometimes I have about like, four or five versions. 
Look at all these: that was for my teleprompter video. 
These were my options for "how to put up an Ikea shelf"
You can see I am really indecisive!
It always feels good to have one or two options, and you can see instantly which one you would go for. 
So my question to you is of these two thumbnails, we've got one with the colourful words and one with a... what looks like an official screengrab... which thumbnail would you choose? 
I think I'm going to go for the 749 version because I think that encourages a bit of tension.
A bit of "what's going on there?"
Why... what's 749? How did that happen? 
So I'm going to go for that version.
Now to export it, I'll hit file - export to - images. 
It's slide number three. So we want from slide 3 to 3.
The next step is to go into YouTube Studio.
These are the thumbnails that YouTube selected from the video. 
But I'm going to hit "upload thumbnail". 
That's okay! 
So look, you can see it being updated here. 
If I hit save - ping, there it is. 
And if I go back to my list of videos... that doesn't look too shabby, does it?
What do you think? 
Which one would you choose? 
If you want to see more about how I make videos here on YouTube? Here's another video. I think you'll like this one!


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How to change your YOUTUBE CHANNEL NAME


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Monday, 10 May 2021

How to change your YOUTUBE CHANNEL NAME



Do you want to change your YouTube channel name?
I change the name of my channel right here in this video, step by step for beginners - because this is the first time I've changed my channel name.
This easy method is the quick name change, but there's a more difficult process if you want your channel to not be first name last name.

How to add ROWS to your YouTube Channel:

How to change your YouTube Channel BANNER: 

How to change your YOUTUBE CHANNEL NAME



0:00 How to change your YOUTUBE CHANNEL NAME: go to Customization in your YouTube studio dashboard https://studio.youtube.com
1:10 How to change how your channel looks
1:35 Where to change your YouTube channel name: click on Basic Info tab for channel name and description
2:20 How to change your YouTube channel name if you don't want the name to be first name last name. (You'll need to move your channel to a Brand Account).

TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

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

How do I change the name of my YouTube channel?
That is an excellent question and one that I hope to answer with you by actually changing the channel name of my channel right here in front of you before your very eyes! 

My name is Neil Mossey, I'm a digital development producer helping high achieving creators and performers just like you.
There's a sound effect. 
A high five would be better than a dig wouldn't it? 

To get ideas out of your head and out onto here on YouTube.
We need your channel but first we need your channel name to be changed just like mine, so let's take a look at my YouTube studio.
The first thing we can do is click on the three lines here to expand our menu.

But the section that you want is the tab down here.
It's called customization, so click on that and of course make sure that you are logged into the channel that you want to change.
You can do that up in the top right hand side here just by clicking "switch accounts" and then choosing the one that you want to change.

So we're in this channel here it's called "Neilnypops trains and stops" 
It seemed like an excellent name for a channel when I set this up, but we can see three tabs here under channel customization.
There's the "layout"...

There's a whole other video on this in the description: this is where you can change how your channel looks when someone goes to the home page of your channel.
The second tab is "branding" and this is where we can change our profile picture and select a banner image.

I've not done mine yet and that will be the subject of another video again that's down in the description.
The tab we want is basic information - "basic info", and I almost didn't find it but the place where we are going to change our channel name is here.

It's above the channel description.
Let's type something in now.
"My channel where I go for walks." 
Excellent prose, this is why I'm a development producer... 

But where do we change our channel name? 
I think it's quite hidden, even though it's really obvious and right at the top.
If you can see here there's a little pen icon.
We can click on that pen or pencil, if I hover over it says "edit channel name". 

Click on that and there you go, here's the box where we put our channel name.
I'm going to call it "Trains and stops with Neilnypops" and hit publish.
And as you can see there's confirmation at the bottom: changes published.

Let's have a quick look at the channel.
I only have one video on here. 
As you can see the channel name has changed so if you haven't got this box I think you'll have a box that looks like this.

Where you have two boxes.
There's a first name and a last name and that's because this YouTube channel is basically linked to the google account that created it, and the first name as you can see is great story team and I didn't put a last name in.

I didn't set it up properly.

I set it up like it's a person so it's a little bit more tricky to change this channel name.
All we can do is just change the first name and last name.
It's like a personal account and it's totally okay to change it here, so I could put "with Neil Mossey".
All that would happen here is if I save this, it would just change the name of the google account that this is linked to.

If you want to know how to change your YouTube channel to become a brand account, you can have a channel name which is a single word, or anything up to 50 characters long...
And you can even allow other people to manage your YouTube channel with you - just click on my other video here, I walk you through the entire process.
It's a bit like this video, but much longer and I'll walk you through every step along the way.
Let me know in the comments how you get on, I really hope this video helps!


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Find out how many LOST SUBSCRIBERS! How to count lost subs on your YouTube Channel


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Wednesday, 5 May 2021

Find out how many LOST SUBSCRIBERS! How to count lost subs on your YouTube Channel



How do you find out how many subscribers you have lost on your YouTube channel? 
Or how many lost subs on my videos? OR even which video is losing the most subscribers?
I walk you through my own YouTube Studio analytics to see how many subscribers I'm losing this month, and take you step-by-step for finding the number of subs we're losing on our YouTube channel.

Find out how many LOST SUBSCRIBERS! How to count lost subs on your YouTube Channel



0:00 Find out how many LOST SUBSCRIBERS! How to count lost subs on your YouTube Channel
0:59 How to find out how many people have unsubscribed from my YouTube channel.
2:40 Quick look at all the ways viewers can unsubscribe from my YouTube channel: YouTube watch page (video pages), my YouTube channel, Interactive features, Subscriptions feed, YouTube Home and 'Other'
3:35 How to look up how many have unsubscribed from my YouTube channel in the last year
4:14 How to find out how many unsubscribed from a YouTube video.
5:20 Which videos are losing the most subscribers? Videos ordered by subscribers gained and lost.
7:00 How to order videos by subscribers gained for the last month or year

TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

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

However successful we get on YouTube, there's always that horrible question that's in our heads...
...well it's in MY head: “How many subscribers am I losing this month?” 

How many subscribers am I losing across my channel?

And which videos are losing me the most subscribers?
We can always see our subscriber numbers just gently going up, but you and I both know that THAT number is hiding how many people are unsubscribing.
You and me are going to find out three ways to count the number of subscribers we are losing.

Firstly how many subscribers we're losing across our whole channel, over any time period... so this week, this month or this year...
Then we'll see how many are unsubscribing from individual videos.
And then the thing I think you want to see the most - because it's the thing that I wanted to see the most.

Which videos are losing me the most subscribers?
And I’ll show you why that is not a very helpful figure, so let's find the first number: how many people have unsubscribed from my channel?
This is my YouTube studio and we're going to click on Analytics on the left hand side.

This is how my channel is looking at the moment, but on the top right hand corner can you see this button here: advanced mode.
If we click on that, I don't like going into this page.
I think these graphs look really ugly and intimidating but along the top of the screen can you see these tabs?

You've got video, traffic source... if you click on “more” it brings up a list of even more tabs that you can open, and it sometimes hides these - so it might be worth clicking on the “more” to find “subscription source” 
It's next to “subscription status” and this page is for the last 28 days.

If I scroll down past the lines, there you go, you can see total number of subscribers column, a subscribers gained column and a subscribers lost column.
So this is for the last month: I gained 164 subscribers but I also lost 43, which means overall I only went up by 121 subscribers.

That is how I know how many subscribers I’ve lost.
I can even change the time period, if I click on this box at the top, you can see all these different options you can select.
I’m going to choose “last 7 days” and I can see in the last week I gained 49 subscribers and lost seven.
Oh... big sad.

I think I need a drink just to calm my nerves.
Let's go back to the last 28 days, and I’ll scroll down and this brings up the whole list of different ways for people to leave my channel.

Let's quickly go through them one by one: there's my YouTube watch page.
These are the subscribers I’ve gained and lost from individual videos on my channel.
Underneath that is my YouTube channel, so this is where people have subscribed or unsubscribed from my actual channel page.

We have interactive features, the next one down, I gained two subscribers by people basically clicking on either the watermark in the corner or maybe my face at the end of the video.
I can see that I lost two subscribers from my subscriptions feed.

I lost another four subscribers from the YouTube home page, and then there's this kind of catch-all figure at the bottom for other places where we can gain and lose subscribers from these places that aren't listed above.
If I wanted a total figure for the last year, let's choose last 365 days, what a graph! 
I can see here that I have lost 468 subscribers and in that same year I’ve gained 2470 which means the actual number of subscribers that have increased over the year is 2002. 

Hello I’m Neil by the way, and welcome to the Happy Hut!
I’m niching my channel to only be about making more videos right here on YouTube and I think that is the reason why so many subscribers are leaving who didn't sign up for that... So it's kind of a good thing that they're leaving.
Let's go into the figures for an actual video now so I’m back into channel Analytics:

I’m going to click on my list of videos.
Let's choose “How YouTube banned my thumbnail” - that seems appropriate for... for what we're talking about, and I’ve clicked on the Analytics button for this video... 
And just like with the channel figures we're going to go up to the top right hand corner and click advanced mode.

And once again I’m going to click on the more button to bring up my list where I can choose subscription source, and these are my figures for the last 28 days - that's the default.
I can see that I gained 4 subscribers but if I go up to the time period on the top right hand side and choose the lifetime figures this is the total number of subscribers gained and lost for the lifetime of the video.

I have gained nine subscribers on this one video and this video lost one subscriber so the overall number of subscribers that it tells me on that overview page is eight subscribers.
Now you can do this with any video but we're gonna go for the big one now, which is how do we find out which videos are losing the most subscribers?

I’ll go back to my channel Analytics page and in the top right hand corner once again we'll click on the advanced mode button and this brings up my top 50 videos by views.
So the video with the most number of views is at the top and it orders them all the way down that list.

What we can do now is to click on this blue cross here it brings up this list of other metrics that we can choose, so we're going to select subscribers gained you can see it's on the list here and that adds a new column 

And it's ordered the list of videos by subscribers gained.
And if I click the blue cross again I can choose subscribers lost and that adds this column here: subscribers lost.
And it's ordered the videos by number of subscribers lost.

If I go up to the time box and choose last 365 days, we can now see my list of videos ordered by highest number of subscribers lost.
I don't think this list is very helpful.

We saw earlier that a video is only one of seven places where people can unsubscribe from my channel, so this idea that one video is making lots of people unsubscribe just... just isn't true.
The most that one video has lost is five subscribers, and that video also happens to be one of my biggest viewed videos.

It is my biggest fear obviously - I’m convinced that one video is going to wreck my channel - but the numbers that I’m seeing don't really support that.

I think this means that my videos aren't the place where people are unsubscribing.
A much more useful figure for me is to go back to the list of videos, and this is a bit more positive as well, if I order the list by subscribers gained it's so much more useful for me to know which videos are gaining the most subscribers because I can see what I’m doing right.

I can see instantly my top five videos for gaining subscribers for the last month and if I open that up to the entire year so far, 2021, I can see the top five videos that are gaining subscribers.
This... this information is just... it's just much more useful for me.
It's so much more positive.

If you've made it to this point of the video then hopefully my channel is for you so thanks for being awesome and hitting that subscribe button, and here's another video about how I run my YouTube channel.
Can you please help my daddy get 10000 subscribers, just click on his face. Thanks, bye! Alright this is going to be the proper one, right.



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Can you REALLY vlog with Sony ZV1 camera? My Brighton ZV-1 vlogging test


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Tuesday, 4 May 2021

Can you REALLY vlog with Sony ZV1 camera? My Brighton ZV-1 vlogging test



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Can you REALLY vlog with Sony ZV1 camera? My Brighton ZV-1 vlogging test!



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0:00 Can you REALLY vlog with Sony ZV1 camera? My Brighton ZV-1 test!
0:55 My Nan was stationed here in The Grand Hotel as a WAAF for the Australian Royal Air Force in WWII... https://youtu.be/SNmphjk9u5E
1:17 My worst YouTube shooting moment
2:00 Brighton has the highest density of YouTubers on Earth, maybe I'll bump into Zoella, Alfie Deyes, Mary Spender, Cameralabs or Pewdiepie!
2:58 My Sony ZV-1 camera rig for vlogging: Chromlives hand grip, Rode Lavalier Go lapel mic, Comica Mini Deadcat windshield. And my merch which is dwarfed by Linus Tech Tips merch logo.
3:36 Shooting behind the scenes with my DJI Osmo Pocket camera
4:05 Bumping into Gordon Laing from Cameralabs - an actual Brighton YouTuber! And trying to find where PewDiePie lives.
6:30 Boho Gelato ice cream shop in Brighton - fantastic place!
9:30 Walking around Brighton Pavilion trying to not get told off for filming.
10:58 Sony ZV1 Camera FINAL VERDICT on the vlog test 

TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

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

I’ve come to Brighton to see if I could find any vloggers or YouTubers have you ever met any? 
Well I’ve met Alfie Deyes before...
[MUSIC]

Can you actually really vlog with a Sony ZV1 camera?
I know that Sony says that it's a vlogging camera and some of the YouTube reviews - they might have like one or two shots of someone walking like this but can you actually shoot a whole vlog on it?

I haven't actually seen someone actually shoot a real proper vlog on a Sony ZV1... well for a start I’m in the UK so I call it a ZV-1 
and I get more money from viewers in the United States so I think I should call it the ZV 1.
[MUSIC]

And I found out in one of my other YouTube videos - there's a link here and in the description - but my 
Nan was stationed here during World War II.
Not just stationed here but stationed like literally HERE in the Grand Hotel.
She was a WAAF working for the Canadian air force and... and worked right there all the way through the... well most of the way through the second world war.

That was a car crash interview.
I remember there was one point in the video where I asked my Nan how did she find out that she was pregnant: thinking that was asking about what the procedures were like in World War II for... you know... how do the doctors inform you.
But she actually said:

[ME IN VIDEO] How did you find out did... did you get to go to the doctor or...
[NAN] Well, I must’ve known I missed a period. I think that had been the first sign.
It wasn't quite the answer I was expecting and I’d never heard her say anything like that before or since but I was really glad that she chose to do that on my YouTube video! 

The other reason I’m here - by the way I’m wearing the sunglasses because it's bright sunshine but also to get that whole vlogger vibe... 
Brighton has the highest density of YouTubers and vloggers per square metre than anywhere else on Earth 

I mean basically you could throw a rock here and hit a YouTuber.
I think only Santa Monica and Venice Beach in the states comes even close so I’m hoping to maybe spot a really famous YouTuber or vlogger while I’m here.

You know someone like Zoella Sugg or even though I haven't actually watched any of her videos...
Someone told me there's Alfie someone that might be here?
I think he's linked to her in some way?
There's my favourite music YouTuber Mary Spender maybe I’ll bump into her?
Or maybe there's my favourite YouTube photography channel cameralabs?

Hang on that's... that's not cameralabs!
That's... that's cameralabs!
And my son’s and the world's most favourite YouTuber: er... pewdiepie? 
Did I say that right?

Maybe I’ll bump into one of them if I walk around the town for long enough.
[MUSIC]
So this is my camera rig: 
I’ve got my favourite hand grip here - there's a link to that in the description - and you can see the cable hanging out.

That goes up a wire that goes up my sleeve and it's connected to this...
it's the Rode Lavalier Go with a Comica mini deadcat windshield on it.
But you probably can't help noticing my merch.
I mean my worry is that the logo is just too damn big.
Then I saw Linus Tech Tips, have you seen his merch?

Look at the size of that!
I mean that basically dwarfs my little effort at a logo.
Now the reality of filming this - this vlog test for the Sony ZV1 camera - is I’ve got to actually hold another camera over here.

This is my DJI Osmo Pocket so I’m actually walking around town with... with two cameras stretched out from my arms. Hello! 
Maybe I should have called this video how to shoot a behind the scenes vlog test of the Sony ZV-1 on a DJI Osmo Pocket?

So my long-suffering wife said that American audiences might actually like to see British backgrounds at... oh uh excuse me are you are you camera conspiracies?!
Sorry no you’re cameralabs! 
This is it's-- it's Gordon Laing! I’ve found a vlogger! 
I found an actual - not vlogger but a YouTuber!

If you throw a pebble in Brighton you will hit a vlogger!
Everyone you can see on this beach is currently planning their next YouTube video.
It's Gordon Laing from cameralabs... can I ask for some free camera advice that like everyone who watches your channel gets?

Sorry, I should be socially distancing but the... the wide angled-ness of the lens isn't...
It... it doesn't help with the social distancing.
Is it the ideal camera for vlogging now?
Because you're so far away you won't get any audio! 

I know I’ve now turned my arm into a mic boom as well! 
It's really hard vlogging in Brighton isn't it? 
It is by the sea, it's a big challenge especially as there's a constant breeze, so you do need wind mufflers on the microphones.
No we're going for an ice cream oh okay... oh it's just here yeah... yeah.

This is the same place that was on the front but obviously this is the main one and the other one was shut.
So I’ve got to fill eight minutes to get the mid-roll ads from YouTube...
Nothing cynical about this content! 
No and this is... this is great but how many.. is... are there any good places... are there any good places where I could find some YouTubers? 

In Brighton?
Yeah where would you... what do you think would be the... the best... apart from the beach where I’ve met one.

I would say in front of some cool looking graffiti probably - cool looking street art.
Always think about your backgrounds when you're vlogging right?
I think I’ll need to subtitle this bit! 
Well it doesn't matter what I say!

Where would the vloggers hang out?
Good question. I would say that the ones who are... not many people do them outside anymore because obviously when you reach a certain level of fame, you don't want to be bothered doing your work.
So the really big ones are just doing it from home aren't they?
So you need to find out where pewdiepie lives and knock on his knock on his door.

I’m sure he'd love to see you.
I don't know if you can see this behind me but this is pewdiepie's new house being built.
It's quite impressive.
I think the top four floors were built just with Google AdSense revenue alone. 
You're getting one, aren’t you Neil. 
I am.

I’m treating you!
I’ve come to Brighton to see if I could find any vloggers or YouTubers...
Oh really?
Have you ever met any?
Well, I met Alfie Deyes before.

I had to explain to him earlier who that was.
Oh really?
So now he can go: “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah!”
Yeah, they’re usually down on the... South Laines is usually a good spot.
Oh is it?!
Or Palmeira Gardens?

No, Pavillion Gardens even.
You didn’t tell me about those places!
I thought we could go there with our Ice Creams!
Result!
Anything else?
Whatever he wants.

You get told off for filming in the Pavilion Gardens.
I’ve filmed that before and they--
You get told off for everything in there.

They’ve got that automatic telling-off machine.
“STOP HAVING FUN.”
And you’re like...
It’s true. It is true.
“MOVE AWAY!”
No no, this is great... this is great intel.

That’s good advice.
It’s good advice.
Good advice.
Are you having a nice day then?
Yeah it's brilliant! It's the first time I’ve travelled in a year 

Oh really?
So anywhere that's not in the house is... is a treat but yeah, it's a good day thanks!
It’s a nice day as well, so that’s a win.
Yeah.
There we are. Thank you so much.

Thank you!
Gordon's channel is doing really well at the moment so he's getting the ice creams.
I can stretch to an ice cream!
Do you take American Express?
We don’t sorry. 

NO ICE CREAM FOR YOU NEIL!
Thank you so much!
Have a nice day, thank you!
[MUSIC]
Wow that's good advice.

That's good and... and crucially I think that filled up another 30 seconds of the... of the video, so that's good and I’ve got some... a bit of food photography in there.
What flavour have you got?
I went for berry burst.
Have you had it yet?
No, no

That's really good - yeah that tastes exactly like carrot cake 
Oh my gosh 
Which is fortuitous because that's what it is 
It's like they've just kind of got a carrot cake... 
stuck it in a magi-mix with some vanilla ice cream and served it which is all you want really! 

That's a great idea 
Sadly your Paperchase... which is just up here 
oh yeah 
Where Neil buys all of his development notepads... 
Yeah my yellow pads! 
...is no longer here.

Well Gordon you could have broken that news to me more gently!
It’s a victim of The Vid 
Ah... The Rona got the Paperchase 
Sorry Neil.
Oh man - they haven't even put up like, you know, where the nearest one is.

Oh man.
Still ice cream eases the pain.
...Two grand for a puppy.
Anyway this is... this is the place that the very nice ice cream shop lady 
- this is good ice cream 
It's an excellent ice cream.
I should have taken a shot of the shop shouldn't I.

I’m sure there's some branding in there.
Boho Gelato - look on the front of the ice cream: they print it on the front.
Oh that's clever 
I’ve eaten my-- 
You've eaten your logo 
-- My brand integration 
He looked a little bit like Romesh Ranganathan!

Really? I thought he was gonna tell me for filming so--
No they do! They do.
I’m going to do some secret filming to see if we can find some Brighton YouTubers here.
So Neil - yeah - just go really close to the Pavilion 
Yeah?
Yeah.

I know... is there some kind of alarm?
No nothing will happen - just... just have a closer look, it's a very interesting building 
Built by the Prince Regent.
Yeah - George IV.
But why do you want me to go over there?

Because I think you're missing out on some of the detailing which would look nice in your video - just have a closer look
What are you afraid of? 
Okay I can't... I’m not allowed to go close to the pavilion 
Why not?

You think I’ll get a better shot if I go closer?
Much better
I’ll just be over here distancing myself from you.
At least the uh the monitor is quite useful for this
Always remember your bonus content for your Only Fans 
[LAUGHTER]

So what's it like using the Sony ZV1 camera out and about vlogging?
It... I feel a bit self-conscious I had to admit and having the... the monitor on the side just makes it just that little bit more obvious - it's like I’m holding this big matte black cross.

And you've got to hold it quite high.
It's basically like goose stepping down the street with the arm stretched aloft.
My battery's dead.
It's only like 4:30. 

I think YouTube has put some ad breaks in the middle of this and I even bumped into someone who has 190000 subscribers so I think I’ve managed to hit all three challenges in this vlog and leave a comment if you want to see anything else from this camera when I’ve charged it up again.
Thank you Brighton.

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Best teleprompter for Sony ZV1 camera and Zoom? Ambitful mini budget prompter + Parrot app! REVIEW


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