I am talking about having recently started a YouTube channel which is supposed to be an extension of sorts of my writing here and elsewhere. That's an overstatement because the reality is when it comes to writing I like to think I am decent at doing it, and of course I actually do have an audience.
Making videos is not my forte at all. That's the bottom line. But there was a time when what I wrote wasn't good either, but I kept doing it and eventually got better at it.
It's like anything you do in life, right? As the old saying goes, "Practice makes perfect." Or, at least in theory that may be mostly true. I am not sure it is exactly true. If you're 4 feet tall all the practice in the world may never make you a great basketball player.
The thing is, right now I am not even really trying all that hard to dance. I'm just doing whatever comes to me and going with it. I've gotten a couple subscribers and a few views. But I am virtually invisible. It is what it is.
I don't really have a camera presence, and that hurts me. In fact, I have a face for radio. But my voice isn't that great either honestly. There is no nice bass to it, and I don't have the ability to really project the way I would like to.
Do I just use an AI voice for everything? Maybe. I've done it on a couple of videos, but it sounds kind of robotic to me. Not at all appealing, but maybe it's more appealing than me?
And while I can think rather quickly, there is a naturalness to the way I write which does not translate well in front of the camera. I write better than I communicate, and maybe that's the way it is for most writers. I am not sure, but I suspect it might be.
I need a script in front of me. What I really need is a teleprompter. But I won't spring for one. Not yet anyway. But maybe one day. I guess I will wait and see if anyone at all comes and finds me and gives me a reason to make an "investment."
My studio sucks. Right now, it's mostly just my dining room, if I happen to be doing a video in which I actually appear in. I'll change it up a bit and sometimes do a bit in the living room or some other space in the house.
Hopefully a clean space. I mean, my house is not dirty by any means, but it is certainly well lived in if you catch my drift.
Most recently I decided to do episodes of what I am calling a podcast. But I am not sure if that's really what it is. Podcasts that appear on YouTube tend to do well. But most of them are on done on camera. They adorn themselves in interesting lights, maybe sport a pair of headphones and a microphone on a boom to make it look all fancy and stuff.
I have none of that. Even the footage I have available for a faceless read off of one of my blogs is crappy at best. Boring at most to look at.
I'm thinking, maybe someone will simply load up my video on their phone and listen in the car? The whole 5-8 minutes of the typical one, by the way. The podcast, or whatever it might actually be called, is based off my blogs, and blogs tend to be relatively quick reads.
Even if I sometimes get called a windbag. Oh well. Can I sit for an hour and talk my way through it? Not hardly. If I could, being as opinionated as I am, I'd have probably tried to become a radio talkie many decades ago.
Too many umms and ahs. I know this because when I finish the audio recording, I have to edit a lot of that out.
I'm really just messing around. I am not trying to seriously accomplish anything, but I want to think something might blow up and send me to the moon. You know, cash in on some big bucks from all that YouTube ad revenue and potential sponsorships.
Maybe. One day. Who knows? I suppose I might be making a bit of a fool of myself trying this thing out. I guess I don't really care. I'm too old to be worried about what someone else thinks, you know. And like I said, maybe I will get better. Maybe the process of making videos will become as easy as writing comes to me.
Even if I am embarrassing myself, but hopefully not tarnishing my reputation, like I said, no one is watching. I am the Jonny Fever of YouTube, dear readers. Maybe I should just stick to what I know. Isn't that a great tenet even of writing? Just stick with what you know.
But then how can I grow? Maybe there will be a time, 10 years from now, I will be thankful for having struggled through the first days of all of this—onward and upward is my motto. Maybe I will become really good at it and have great success.
It is interesting to scroll down on some very popular channels and see where they came from when no one was watching. It's night and day from video 1 to video 950. Perhaps it will be the same for me?
For now I am going to keep at it. As I also like to sometimes say, sometimes it's the journey that's more fun than the destination. This does seem like a very long trip, though.
Like the way I write or the things I write about? Follow me on my Facebook page or follow me on X to keep up with the latest writings wherever I may write them. Want to check out my crappy YouTube? Click here and leave a comment and tell me how much I suck at it. Hey, at least it's an interaction, and I think the YouTube algorithm likes that.
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