10 mistakes that new YouTubers make: Advice for them

Are you frustrated because you’re making videos but you’re not getting the views and subscribers that you want? In this article we’re going to talk about 10 common mistakes that new YouTubers make. And how to fix them so that you can get more views. They are discussed below.

Looking into the viewfinder, not at the lens

If you have a camera with a front-facing screen, it could be tempting to just stare at yourself. Whether you’re shooting in your bedroom or out vlogging, you shouldn’t do that. What you ought to do is look directly into the lens, because that way you’d be making eye-contact with your viewers. Let us present a real-life example of that. Imagine one of your friends talking to you and instead of looking into your eyes, he’s basically looking at your forehead. How awkward would that feel! The same thing is applicable to your precious viewers. That’s why we would suggest the beginners to look at the lens while shooting.

Spamming comments

Many new YouTubers choose to spam other YouTubers’ videos’ comment sections. You probably have seen this before. People usually spam there with comments like ‘Sub4sub’, ‘Like4Like’, ‘Hey I have subscribed to your channel, now you subscribe to mine’ etc. What they try to do is heavily promote their YouTube channel on someone else’s channel by adopting unfair means. So we suggest that instead of spamming you could try to have engagement with other YouTube users. You may post positive comments in other people’s videos after watching them and thus they will get a chance to discover you.

Bad or confusing titles

We have experienced that many new YouTubers have a tendency to blindly imitate other successful YouTubers, specially the famous ones. Many of them start the title of all their videos with their channel’s name, or phrases like ‘Today’s vlog (a number)’. As one of new YouTubers you should have a searchable content in the first part of your video title.

You shouldn’t use any kind of ‘insiders’ language’; because let’s face it, there are no insiders on YouTube. This means that you should not use any language in the title that is understood only by you and some of your associates and by nobody else. If you choose to use such language your video may be considered as spam or it may get community strike because of having misleading content. By providing appropriate title and other metadata in your videos you basically pave the way for them to be found by your potential viewers and subscribers.

Being inconsistent

This is a mistake many new YouTubers make. They show inconsistency in uploading quality video content. We have seen many who uploaded for a couple of weeks to find that their channel hasn’t been popular or viral yet, so they got frustrated. You should at least upload a new video in every 3-4 days or a week. Because if there is no possibility of new videos to appear, then why would people subscribe to your channel? We have seen a few new YouTubers who uploaded like 10 videos in a month and then boom! No video in the next few months. So all that matters is consistency. It would be a great trick to go live on YouTube if you’re late to publish a new video. Also YouTube prefers those channels to promote that regularly and consistently upload videos.

Weak intros

The most important time of a YouTube video is its first 5 to 10 seconds. To have the viewers’ attention you need to make an intro for your video, but don’t make it too long like 30 seconds, or even 20 seconds. Nobody will wait that long to get to the point. You just need to summarize what the entire video is about, and really pitch it to the audience to create interest. And you have to do that in the first few moments of your video.

A power-tip from us to you new YouTubers is that you start the video with a question to the viewers. Have you seen YouTube videos that start with this question ‘Are you curious to know how to get more views?’ Then you know what we mean. By presenting a question like this you can compel a viewer to stick with you and watch your full video. In your case the question could most definitely be different. Just ask yourself what should be your question at the start of your video to hook the viewer and make them watch your video to the end.

Distracting background

We have found many new YouTubers to use busy and distracting background. Don’t make this mistake, as it is quite easy to clean up the messes and make a peaceful and attention-grabbing background. The thing is that your viewers are supposed to concentrate on your intended content, not on your busy and distracting background. If for some reason you can’t clean up that space, then go to another which is clean and appealing.

Bad AVL (Audio, Video and Lighting)

You now might be thinking that we’re suggesting you to buy new camera or expensive equipment. No, we aren’t doing that. All we mean that you should be thoughtful to shoot in a quiet place, so that the audio is good. You should be shooting in daylight in front of a window so that there is plenty of natural light available in the video. Don’t shoot in a dark room because video cameras need light to perform well. Now thinking about your video quality? The good news is that most smart-phones now-a-days record HD videos and there are many affordable cameras out there as well. So you can have high quality videos without exceeding your budget. As one of new YouTubers you should always think how to improve your AVL (audio, video and lighting).

Another mistake YouTubers make is that they try to center their face in the camera frame. It would be a good practice to keep your face in the upper portion of the frame instead of the center. And in order to do that you just need to bring the camera down a little bit. That way your head is near the top of the frame and your body is filling the entire frame. This is just a small trick to improve your shot composition.

Low energy

Low energy is the killer of attention. Nobody wants to see something boring, they want to see something exciting. Even if you’re searching something to get a quick answer, an exciting answer is much better than a boring answer. So here’s our tip for you: add up some extra energy in your body and mind while shooting a new video if that contains your audio or visual or both. You will see that successful YouTubers have a lot of energy in their body language while they give interviews and present tips-videos.

It’s a fact that when you perform in front of the camera your energy level might go down because of nervousness. You are not to blame for this, because there is a saying ‘The camera adds ten pounds’. So you have to work on boosting your energy. Always keep in mind that viewers like to find you energetic. You can connect to the person on the other side of the camera (the viewer) only by showing appropriate level of energy and enthusiasm.

Monetizing too early

Some YouTubers like to monetize their channel from the very beginning. Well that way they are basically distracting their potential subscribers with ads. So our suggestion to you new YouTubers is that you don’t plan to monetize until you have a good number of subscribers. Lately YouTube has changed some of their policies. Now a channel can’t be monetized until it gets 10k views. We’d say, this policy turned out to be good for beginner YouTubers. You know you shouldn’t worry about your earnings at first. Once you have gathered a significant number of subscribers, you surely will be able to earn handsome amount from then on.

Impatience of new YouTubers

Majority of the YouTubers that are successful today had to wait for a long time. They had to work very hard to build their audience. Your career on YouTube is more like a marathon than a sprint. So don’t get discouraged, keep learning, keep growing, keep getting better about all the details of YouTubing. Keep leveling up your content and keep hustling to build your influence on YouTube.

Lastly we would like to know what mistakes you think most new YouTubers make in their early stages. Let us know through your comments.

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