A few years ago I cashed in and moved to Thailand from the USA. One of the only things I had of any worth at all was a Sony CyberShot camera that doubled as my video camera. This camera shot 640x480 video at 30 frames per second and was quite good at it. I could have bought a separate video camera if I wanted, but I wanted something compact and able to shoot both great photos and decent videos.
I began shooting videos about things I was doing in Thailand. Then, one wacky day I decided that it would be great fun to shoot some video of me eating some insects, worms and things that I found at an outdoor Thailand market. I created the "Gross Grub Series Videos" at YouTube. The videos were of horrible quality just because I shrunk them to 320x240 resolution and a mediocre quality setting in Windows Movie Maker when I converted them. The reason being, my internet connection was my mobile phone and to upload video more than 30 megabytes large was a serious effort and usually died mid-upload.
Even so, it didn't matter. I couldn't believe what happened, suddenly my videos were getting thousands and thousands of views. I quickly applied to the "partner program" and was accepted. What that meant is that I could now have Google AdSense ads run on my videos and in the right column - and be paid for clicks on them. A part time internet business was born. I now have 177 videos posted at YouTube and over 2.3 million views.
As I went back and compared the number of hours that I worked on various online projects over the years I found that these videos actually made more money than all but one of my other projects - per hour of effort. That's incredible. It's incredible because it's easy and fun. What a business!
Take a look at YouTube and see if there is anyone on the top channels doing anything like you could envision yourself doing. Notice that there are very few experts shooting video with perfect lighting or great scripts. Some of these video stars get more views per week than certain television shows. That's crazy, but that is the power of video.
If you're interested in shooting video at YouTube, follow these simple steps:
1. Buy a simple Sony camera that shoots 640x480 video at 30 frames per second. I still use a Sony camera that shoots at this same resolution because it produces good size videos, high quality resolution (HQ) in YouTube.
2. Experiment with shooting yourself walking around and holding the camera or someone shooting you. Leaving a video camera on a tripod usually results in boring shots - better that your camera is moving around a bit to give that sense of realism.
3. Devise a topic that you love to talk about and could produce something every single day about if you wanted to. Passion about your topic seems to be the one indicator of success when it comes to any business. If you don't love it - you won't do it.
4. Experiment with different themes. You might not hit on a theme that large groups of people want to see for your first few tries. No matter, keep trying. Look at the number of top viewed girls showing makeup tips. They aren't professionals in the least and are killing the views. What if you're a guy talking about makeup tips - that would be so funny, and probably do really well. Odd, funny topics do well. Can you be funny? Might as well try, right?
5. Once you have hit upon a popular topic and have 20,000 views or so of multiple videos go ahead and apply at the YouTube partner program and see if you can get accepted. If so, you'll also need an AdSense account so Google can pay you.
6. Get to work perfecting your new business. It isn't brain surgery, and you will probably be amazed at the low quality video broadcasts that are getting millions of views.
Give it a try, it's an amazing way to make some extra money. An even better way to make all your money, yes?
Author, Vern Lovic has a part-time video business going on YouTube at his Thailand Travel Channel ( YouTube.com/thaipulsedotcom ). Have a quick look and you'll see that it isn't difficult to get started. No special skills required. What could be a better business than shooting funny videos for a living?
