Tyler Oakley's top 5 tips for YouTube success
How can budding creators make the most of YouTube? We asked a man who knows all about it
How do you become a success on YouTube? That's the question many are asking as books by bloggers and vloggers top Christmas lists while documenting every moment of daily life becomes an aspiration for teens and twenty-somethings alike.
But with the world and its wife having a crack at it, how can any budding YouTube creator (that's the official term) make their mark?
We asked Tyler Oakley – YouTube sensation, author and all round internet superstar – for his top tips.
1. Get on with it!
"Start today, as soon as you want to start, start" says Tyler, "because a year from now you'll wish you started a year ago."
2. Don't worry if no-one's watching
When you start out it might feel tough to find motivation, especially if your number of subscribers (people who sign up to your YouTube channel) is low.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIdT_tIPomw
Tyler's oldest YouTube video, posted in 2007, has far fewer YouTube 'views' than anything he posts today
You can't let it get to you, though: "Sometimes you've got to put in that grunt work of making videos when nobody's watching."
3. Know what you want and don't be afraid to fight for it
"You need to have a persistence, you need to not give up, and figure out why you want to make videos," explains Tyler.
"Is it because you want it to be something other than it is? Or is it because you want a creative outlet, and go with that."
4. Find your own voice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdbqsN460SM
"You need to be yourself", Tyler insists. "I think a lot of the time you're inspired by people you watch and although that's great you can take from them some tricks but you also want to find your own voice."
"If you're just replicating something that's already successful nobody's going to subscribe to the second rate version of something that already exists. By being yourself you're making yourself irreplaceable and subscribable."
5. Don't give up
"Don't give up! It took me five years of making full time videos before it was able to become my job," Tyler explains.
"I think a lot of people want that instant gratification of 'I want to start and have it become something right away'. It just doesn't work like that."
So what are you waiting for? Get your camera out and get filming. You might even end up with your own documentary – after eight years or so...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJJP5AfCTX8
Tyler Oakley's Snervous is available on iTunes, Google Play and Vimeo from 11th December
