The Internet is chock-full of articles about the skills you need to be a YouTuber. But no one ever talks about the skills being a YouTuber gives you. Let’s change that shall we?
My name is Dennis Ohuru, a YouTuber with 4 plus years of experience producing, shooting and editing videos for my YouTube channel.
And the interesting thing is, 4 years ago I was just another guy dreaming about starting a YouTube channel; Too scared to start because I didn’t know one end of a camera from the other. More than that, I didn’t even own said Camera.
All I had was a budget smartphone, an Infinix S4, which with to make videos.
Contrast that to now, with 4 years of content creation under my belt and a monetized YouTube channel to boot. Everything I know, I have learnt courtesy of being a YouTuber.
Therefore, these are the skills you get from being a YouTuber. My hope is, if like me many years ago you are thinking of starting a YouTube channel. This article pushes you over the edge and into the game.
Videography Skills
Videography, for me, is the art of telling stories using a camera; And that is something you will do frequently in your YouTuber role/capacity.
In the beginning, your videography skills and your youtube videos by extension will suck, and you will no doubt feel like giving it all up. But keep at it.
The funny thing about any skill, not only videography, is the more you keep doing it, the better it gets. And it won’t get better in huge amounts; just bit by bit.
So one day you will discover that the audio quality in your videos is not as bad as it used to be, maybe because you’ve learnt to invest in an external microphone.
Another day you will learn to shoot with the sun or light behind the camera, and therefore make your images that much better exposed. And so on.
In the world we live in right now, videography is an excellent skill to have, and being a YouTuber will equip you with this most noble of skills.
Video Editing Skills
One of the things you will quickly learn if you ever make the leap and become a YouTuber is that raw video files (The files straight out of the camera) can’t just be uploaded to YouTube as they are;
They need sprucing up, taking of the pauses, the aahs, the mmhs, and the bad bits. Basically, video editing.
Now, that is not to say that all youtubers know how to edit videos. No, they do not. Some very successful youtubers outsource video editing to hired third parties and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
However, if you are like most people starting off on YouTube, you lack the financial wherewithal to hire a video editor. And so you will have to do it yourself.
The interesting thing about video editing is that it is even more important to muster than videography. The story, as they say, is made in the edit.
I have always held that videography as an art form is like raw food ingredients, and important as those are, they cannot be consumed in that form.
Video editing is like food preparation, a good chef turns good ingredients into an excellent meal, and a great chef will turn even mediocre ingredients into a good meal.
But a bad chef or a bad video editor will turn even great ingredients into a bad meal. Hence the importance of always leveling up your video editing skills.
And like videography, at the beginning, your video editing skills will be bad. But step by step, and if you keep on keeping on. You will surprise yourself.
When I started my YouTube channel, I knew nothing about video editing, now! I offer video editing services to clients and charge them a premium for the skill.
Visual Storytelling Skills
Another important skill being a YouTuber will equip you with is the art of visual storytelling.
The thing is, telling a story to a person is much easier when the person is right next to you. They can ask questions and you can clarify those areas you think they don’t understand.
Furthermore, since the listener is right there, you get immediate feedback as to whether your story is interesting or not.
Telling a story to an online audience is very different; First and foremost, you can’t see the people you are talking to and therefore you don’t get feedback for your story until the video is done, edited and uploaded to your YouTube channel.
Secondly, you will need to learn how to tell a story using a camera. And that’s different as compared to just telling a story to a friend on a call or something like that.
You will, in time, learn to tell stories using different types of camera movement, video editing styles, narration, voiceovers and more.
And when you master the art of storytelling using a camera; You will be unstoppable.
It is my feeling that the world today needs storytellers more than it needs anything. People need to escape, if only for a little while, into visual stories and forget about their lives, if only for a few moments.
And by being a YouTuber, you will be facilitating that escape, and if yours are inspiring stories, then you will be a net force for good. And that is something special.
Graphic Design Skills
Being a YouTuber, it has always been said, is to wear many hats.
Another skill you will learn is graphic design. YouTube functions on two major aspects.
- The first is (CTR) Click Through Rate; this is the number of people that click on your video when YouTube recommends it to them.
- Retention rate: The number of people that keep watching your video after clicking on it.
It is with the first that your graphic design skill will be called into question. You will learn to design interesting thumbnails that make people on YouTube want to click on.
You see, the thing with YouTube is, no matter how interesting your video is; If no one clicks on it, then no one sees it.
And that right there, is the importance of knowing how to design good YouTube thumbnails.
Camera Presence
Camera presence is how you as a content creator or YouTuber in this instance, come across to the audience, on camera.
Your camera presence includes such things as; your energy on camera, your facial expressions, your body language and your overall personality.
One of the most essential things to muster on your journey of being a successful YouTuber is camera presence; the faster you master this skill, the quicker you can click with your audience.
I have no doubt that even now as you read this, you are thinking of your favourite content creator and how easy and personable they come across on camera.
You almost feel like you are their friend, right?
Well, guess what, they didn’t always have that camera presence. It is a skill they had to learn over years of doing, literally, hundreds of videos.
And being a YouTuber will equip you with this skill if you don’t quit too soon at least.
Confidence
Is confidence a skill? I don’t know, a character trait more like right?
Still, it is my position that confidence can be learned. Being a YouTuber will impact your confidence positively, I can promise you that.
It is no easy thing to carry a camera and walk around in public recording yourself. And it doesn’t get easier over time. You just get used to the nerves and the people looking at you as though you are mad.
And that’s confidence. The ability to do something most people would never muster the courage to do. To do it fearfully and badly in the beginning, but to do it nonetheless.
One of my favourite quotes is by George R.R. Martin in his book A Song of Ice And Fire. The quote is from a conversation one of the main protagonists is having with his father, a famous warrior.
Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’
‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.
And so, the courage and confidence being a YouTuber equips you with, is a special thing. In the four years I have been a YouTuber. I have made some videos I never thought I’d have the courage to make.
And I still keep doing videos that make me proud to watch later on. Videos that, while doing them, have me almost shitting my pants in fear.
Money Skills
Many people will never have the opportunity to make money on the internet or to make money doing something they love.
That is not to say that all youtubers love being youtubers, and that is also not to say that all youtubers succeed and make money on YouTube. Definitely not.
But that’s what makes succeeding on YouTube such a special thing. Think about it, is success in an endeavour special if everyone can do it? No.
But if you become one of the resilient and determined and brave and lucky ones, and your YouTube channel is monetized and starts to make you the kind of money you can live on.
Then being a YouTuber will have equipped you with money skills. The ability to make a sort of passive income from the internet and to live on it. And that my friend, is a special thing.
Conclusion
At the beginning of this post, I said being a YouTuber no doubt requires you to possess several skills. The interesting thing is, as much as that is true, being a YouTuber also equips you with skills.
And the skills you get from being a YouTuber; skills such as;
- Video skills
- Video editing
- Storytelling
- Graphic design
- Camera presence
- Confidence and money skills
Will only get better the more you keep making videos on YouTube. Thank you for reading.
