Wow, I honestly hate seeing that it's been a week since I last blogged. It's not that I think there are people out there staring at their computers, waiting to see what I think about things. It's more that I really like writing and playing around with words and my thoughts. It's like when you realize you haven't been to the gym in a week. You aren't upset because the other gym-goers might be missing you. You are upset because you are getting a puny and scrawny!
I have been spending a lot of time lately on Youtube. My first impressions of youtube those many many years ago was that it was kind of a waste of time. It seemed like a place for people to post home videos, or place for people to find videos of the latest teen heartthrob (a la Justin Bieber). But over the last week or so I have found that youtube has a lot to offer. I have found tons of tutorials on different programs and operating systems for my computer. I have found a ton of people like freddiew that make some amazing, and hilarious, videos. And I have found one of the biggest youtube sensations: Shaycarl.
Shaycarl and his family, the Shaytards, are just normal people from Idaho. They are just like you and I. A mom, a dad, 4 kids (2 boys and 2girls. How's that for average?), they are Mormon (that makes them similar to me), and they make their living by recording and uploading videos to youtube. Yup, and as far as I can tell from their videos, it's a pretty dang good living.
It's hard to describe what is so appealing about Shay and the family. Maybe it's that they are just normal people goofing off. Maybe it's that Shay has a certain Chris Farley approach to life. Maybe it's that people are always looking at other people and wondering what their life is like. But regardless of the reasons for watching, people watch. And a lot of them watch too. Last I saw, the Shaytards (the nickname for the family), had 800,000 subscribers.
So, for the past week I have been laying awake at night and thinking. I've been wondering, "Could I do something like that? Could I get people to watch and follow videos I upload to youtube?"
I'm a big football fan. I'm a fan to the point where I will even watch the NFL draft. You can usually tell a lot about these young players by the way they respond to interview questions. If they come across as cocky and full of themselves then they will probably have a rough time getting things rolling in the league. The players that approach the NFL with the, "I'm just going to help my team win." approach are usually the most successful. So I think this will be my approach the increasing my social media footprint (That's a cool term. Did I make it up?). My plan right now is to get myself a webcam or maybe one of those Flip cameras, and start a daily vlog (vlog: video log for those of you outside of the loop) on my birthday or sooner. And I'm just going to do it for fun. Who knows, if I get famous I might toss a dime or two your way.
But in the meantime, watch this space for updates and my musings. And remember, as long as you are doing better than Charlie Sheen, you are doing pretty dang good.
I don't know. Have you seen Charlie Sheen party? Winning!
ReplyDeleteGood for you. To me, reaching shaytard status is pie in the sky but that is what life is about. Going Big!
I have learned a lot from watching Shaytards for over a year now. I watch him with the same perspective. There are a lot of people making it happen online. Check out some books by Gary Vaynerchuck and some other youtubers I would recommend if you haven't subscribed are MysteryGuitarMan, DaveDays ...I always go back to watch their earlier videos to see how they got started. Shaycarl started with a webcam and just had a lot of energy and networked his tail off. He started going to meetups and collaborating with other big names (We all know it's not what you know but who you know). PhilipDeFranco helped him get his start but one might argue that he has surpassed him. Probably not in a business sense. PhilipDeFranco started his own "studio" while Shaycarl is part of the station. Nalts also helped him and he passed him up a long time ago. Other youtubers you might like. SeaNanners, Olinselot (another guy from Pocatello). If I think of any others I will send them your way. I like watching and studying to figure it out but the answer is to just do it and learn as you go. I'm up to 250 subs on my thintopia channel and I've met some cool people through it.