That’s the feeling I had after posting my first video on YouTube and after about a week and only 25 views – about 8 of those views were mine trying to impress myself!
I really thought that I was on to something when I searched Google for “build your own cell phone or mobile unlocking website”. If you tried, you really couldn’t find much of anything out there about making your own unlocking website from “scratch”.
It wasn’t long before I realized that there was a reason why you couldn’t find anything out there on this topic. Apparently, there’s not a lot of interest. It seems that the vast majority are more interested in just getting their handsets unlocked.
What Am I Going To Do?
Despite all of that, I’ll still let you know what I went through to get my first StockUnlocks.com YouTube video out there. I’ve used Final Cut Express in the past to make videos, so the video making process wasn’t entirely new to me.
Final Cut just wasn’t a fit for what I wanted to do though. So, I set off looking for a crash course on using ScreenFlow (I used version 3.0.6) and iMovie (I used what came with my Mac, version 8.0.6) in order to get ready to [not] attract the masses.
Why Did it Only Take 8 Hours?
The idea for what I wanted to present was clear in my mind’s eye. However, I needed an outline to help get me from the beginning to the end. I also felt that a video lasting more than 2 minutes in length might be too long.
If I could do it over, I would cut it down to a minute, more like a commercial. A lot can even be conveyed in as little as 30 seconds. As an exercise, I might try both of those lengths using the same material in the future.
Even though it took me over 8 hours to get it done (an old dog learning new tricks!), here’s what helped me when making the video:
- Set a time limit:
Since this was a “promotional” video, I thought that it shouldn’t be too long so as not to bore people, but long enough to convey the message. Think of a short commercial. As mentioned earlier, I probably could have made it a minute shorter.
- Focus on the goal:
I asked myself: “What am I trying to do here?”. I was trying to build excitement for an upcoming tutorial via a working website. With that in mind, I needed to highlight the functionality of the existing website.
- Write a descriptive outline (here’s my unedited “outline”):
————————–
Set expectations.
… and there it is. Probably a little out of order or missing some things, but the general idea is there.
Somebody Found It!
One very excited guy wrote me inquiring about the tutorial. I thought that was great until he asked, “… what is Drupal anyway?”
I’m not discouraged. I think that it’s worth giving back to the community, even if the takers are very few to none right now. Somewhere down the road maybe something in the tutorials might help someone. But until then: more lights, camera … action [and crickets]!
