How to do well on your first vlog

This wikiHow teaches you how to make a professional vlog, especially if you’ve never filmed a vlog before. The first product may not be perfect, but you’ll still be sure to get positive feedback on the vlog.

Table of Contents

Steps

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Prepare the right equipment. While you don’t necessarily need an expensive DSLR and microphone, you do need a camera with at least 720p quality video recording. You also need an external microphone that can be connected to the camcorder.

If you have a smartphone (or even a tablet), you don’t need to buy any additional equipment.
Sound is just as important as the picture, so if you decide to buy a dedicated microphone, be sure to choose carefully.

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Make a rough outline of the day’s events. Although vlogs are often presented spontaneously, the truth is that everyone has to think a lot before filming. If you write down an outline of what you’ll be shooting for the day, at least you’ll get a rough idea of the layout of the vlog. ^{[1] X Research Source}

Writing an outline doesn’t mean you have to stick to it. If you come across something more interesting during the day, feel free to add it to the vlog.

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Select promotional tips. Any successful vlogger has a unique personality or habit that sets them apart from other content creators (for example, a vlogger may abruptly end all vlogs without warning). The video doesn’t have to be all about this promotional tip, nor should it apply throughout its duration, but should be part of the content.

Not using promotional tricks like dealing with serious or tragic situations in a video can be a powerful wording.

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Consider the background. When you’re not shooting in public or around the house, you need a setting that you can use frequently. This background will become just as important as you, so make sure you’re happy with the background before you shoot. ^{[2] X Research Source}

For example, if your vlog is about cooking, the main background will be the kitchen; you can even change the background a bit according to the season of the year.

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Vlog content variation. Just talking for 15 minutes won’t be enough to engage your audience, so it’s a good idea to show some different styles in your video. For example, you could start with slow motion, move on to walking and talking, move on to a montage, and end up “chatting” in front of the camera.

Another way to tweak your content is to fast forward certain parts of the video or apply other attention-grabbing effects during the editing process.

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Find something unique during the day to focus on. If your day-to-day activities are like most other people’s then your activity will surely end up very pale. You can extract small snippets of the activity and incorporate this content throughout the video, however, the highlight of the vlog should be a prominent part.

Of course, the “unique” part will be different every day. You probably won’t even realize what the most exciting moment of the day is until you start editing a video.

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Be yourself. The fastest way to become natural in front of the camera is to act like your usual self. Remember, you are creating footage of your own life, so you are the star of the vlog!

If you choose to portray a certain type of character from the beginning, then maintain this personality throughout the vlog to avoid creating contradictions.

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Pay attention to the brightness. Especially if you are shooting outdoors, you need to make sure that the camera always has a light on the back. If you have to go into the dark (or shoot at night), you need lighting (flashlight, flash, etc.).

Sometimes shooting yourself backlit is a fun and artistic way to shoot, but you shouldn’t overdo it in your videos.

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Use jump-cut scenes when editing. The jump scene is created when you cut content between two points in time; for example, if the dialogue you’re filming includes an awkward silence, you can cut it. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

The dance scene builds energy by ensuring there are no interruptions in your content. This technique is very suitable for energetic vlogs.

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Promote vlogs. Over 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, meaning you can take advantage of any opportunity to grow your vlog viewership. Consider the following suggestions: ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Use eye-catching thumbnails.
Enter contact information, keywords and tags in the description box of the video.
Post your vlog on social media like YouTube.
Experience other video platforms (like Vimeo).

Advice

Looking at other vloggers’ content will give you some ideas on how to build your vlog, but you should be careful not to accidentally copy their style. Learning is good, but copying ideas is not.
Your first vlog may not be perfect, but it will be fine! Once you realize that you have the potential to grow as a creator, you can continue to grow your content.

Warning

While most vlogs look impromptu and careless, creating a quality vlog from start to finish requires a lot of time and patience.

Steps

Advice

Warning

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