[Road Roamer]

What are you guys using for cameras ?

I use an old Canon XLH1 for shooting action or most car cruises. Gopro Hero 8 for onboard and either the Canon or my Iphone 11 for simpler and close up stuff.

 

[Derek69SS]

What do you guys use for editing software?
Some friends and I were thinking about starting a channel to share our racing activities, but none of us have any video editing experience.

 

[-SS454-]

What do you guys use for editing software?
Some friends and I were thinking about starting a channel to share our racing activities, but none of us have any video editing experience.

I started with Sony Vegas, and now I am using Premiere Pro.

Both have their perks and draw backs.

 

[Road Roamer]

Started out with Final Cut pro years ago but now I use a cheap simple program called Pinnacle.

 

[69SS454]

I cannot describe this insanity.

 

[bulletpruf]

I believe the 4000 hours has to be within a 12 month period too
Watch time is huge. Not only do the longer videos allow for more ads (8 minutes min is a key number now) but I believe it makes a difference to the youtube algorithms. YT is more likely to push a video that has several minutes of watch time vs one that is only 20 seconds long.
I wish there was more control over how YT kicks out your videos. In my experience I've found that YT will keep my reach/impressions about the same, regardless if I upload new videos. It seems like they will reduce the impressions of other videos to balance for the new impressions I get from a recent upload. That is frustrating. If you are fortunate to strike big on 1 or 2 videos, then you will get the subscribers which will greatly increase your views within the first 24 hrs of posting a video, which I think can help trigger YT to suggest it to others.

Yeah, I think you're right on the 4,000 hours.

My videos are all 15-30 minutes at this point. I really do not want to post any that are longer than 30 minutes; I want to be respectful of viewer's time and I think something longer than 30-45 minutes is going to turn folks off.

I think I can strike it big on a few videos, but I will definitely have to change content. I'm not going to get there with a diesel dually; would have to be something like rescuing a barn find musclecar and bringing it back to life. A vintage SS396 or SS454 Chevelle would do it or something of that nature.

I also have a bunch of other cars that I will shoot video on (66 Fairlane GT convt 428/4sp, 72 Alfa Romeo GTV track day car; 68 GTO convt 455/TH400, 71 Javelin 401/4sp road race project, 69 barn find Bronco) but they're back home in Texas and I won't be doing any wrenching there until I retire in a year and move back.

 

[bulletpruf]

What would it take to make say 1000 or 2 a month?
Need to supplement income and considered this but dont want to make it my entire life
responding to people...not on FB or any social media. Guess it would help

As a watcher...major turnoffs.
Super long vids 20, 30 min sorry. Especially when 90 percent of it is irrelevant filler...someone filming themsevlves yapping away, just irrelevant stuff. Get the friggin point!!

THumbnails....make sure its in the vid

Womens....sex sells just the way it is. Get one in there at some point can be totally tasteful
One channel just films this guys wife doing stuff around the house..she hot and its family friendly I bet they make a fortune. Guys subscribe just to make a comment...and get a response.

I like watching stuff that isnt a repeat of a million repeat like vids. Make yours a little different

Fact filled vids that are no more than 10-12min long I may take a look at. But jabbering..nope

To make $1,000 per month, I think you'd need roughly 10,000 subscribers. Lots of other variables, and that's a SWAG on my part.

I try to keep my yapping to a minimum and on point. If you look at my last video, you'll see that the yapping is kept to a minimum. Mostly wrenching with music in the background.

I have to work on thumbnails.

Wish my wife would agree to appear in some of my videos, but there's about zero chance of that.

 

[bulletpruf]

What are you guys using for cameras ?

I went with the Canon M50. Highly rated for YouTube type stuff. I used it on a tripod most of the time. I also have a few GoPros, but haven't used them yet. They're come in handy for when I do anything while driving.

 

[bulletpruf]

I have a real nice Nikon DSLR but dont really want to bring it to the shop and get it filthy The only issue I have with my phone is the audio stinks. Might have to try an external mic.

One thing I heard a lot about when I was doing initial research was audio quality. Folks will apparently put up with grainy video a lot more than they'll tolerate lousy audio. I use a lavalier mic that's connected via wire to the camera. It's inexpensive, simple, and great sound quality, but I really need to step up to a wireless mic at some point.

 

[bulletpruf]

Started out with Final Cut pro years ago but now I use a cheap simple program called Pinnacle.

I'm using Final Cut Pro. I know enough to be dangerous, and it's not terribly difficult to learn the basics.

 

[elco68]

I am 334honda on youtube. I just have made videos of concerts I have been to.

 

[Road Roamer]

I'm using Final Cut Pro. I know enough to be dangerous, and it's not terribly difficult to learn the basics.

Final cut is way beyond necessary for what I do currently, but amazing in what it can do.

I watched some of your vids. I like your on-screen presence. Audio and picture quality is very good. In the beginning of the dually vid where you're standing there talking, you could cut away from that visual and insert multiple varying video clips of the truck as you're describing it. Maybe a side shot, interior shot and driving shot all while your narration continues. That's just a humble suggestion to help keep the viewer's interest.

There are a few commenters in this thread that imo and experience are just wrong with their assessments. Be careful who you listen to. Also, in all the years I've been doing this, only the last 5 were successful to the point of monthly pay checks (deposits). It started out slow and then bam it just started climbing. Just before Covid I was $1000-$1300 per month but that dropped off as cars shows and events cancelled because I couldn't keep uploading. It's recovering this year and my last 2 payment were good. Subscriber numbers help springboard your new content but it's not something that can be used to assess earnings for all channels. There are way too many variables involved.

 

[cv67]

Go pro camers come wtih an editing feature you can use. (for the guy that asked)
Have next to 0 experience though. most complain about too much talking or music...seems car guys wanna listen and watch with less in the background.
eric Weingartner posts here maybe he can pipe in know he started a channel to help with $.
Hes getting more and more popular..just porting stuff no T and A.

I ahve a hard time with his long vids and taking forever to get to the point but pretty good content overall. Beats watching some idiot with a drill taking peoples money and pretending to know something.

 

[BlueSS454]

I have 2 channels. One for ChevelleStuff and one for my own personal stuff. I started making a few recently, but it’s all drag racing action and no dialog. I can’t get over the fact I can’t stand listening to myself talk. I use a program to edit called Windows Video Editor. It cost like $40 to download.

 

[bulletpruf]

Final cut is way beyond necessary for what I do currently, but amazing in what it can do.

I watched some of your vids. I like your on-screen presence. Audio and picture quality is very good. In the beginning of the dually vid where you're standing there talking, you could cut away from that visual and insert multiple varying video clips of the truck as you're describing it. Maybe a side shot, interior shot and driving shot all while your narration continues. That's just a humble suggestion to help keep the viewer's interest.

There are a few commenters in this thread that imo and experience are just wrong with their assessments. Be careful who you listen to. Also, in all the years I've been doing this, only the last 5 were successful to the point of monthly pay checks (deposits). It started out slow and then bam it just started climbing. Just before Covid I was $1000-$1300 per month but that dropped off as cars shows and events cancelled because I couldn't keep uploading. It's recovering this year and my last 2 payment were good. Subscriber numbers help springboard your new content but it's not something that can be used to assess earnings for all channels. There are way too many variables involved.

Good point on showing some different scenes when I'm talking about something.

Looks like I'm starting to get a bit more traffic on my channel after signing up for Instagram last night and posting a single picture. I'm going to try to post more Instagram content on a regular basis and see how much it helps.

Thanks for taking the time to watch some of my content and provide constructive comments!

Scott

 

[bulletpruf]

Several months have passed so I guess it's time for an update. I'm at 694 subscribers and 2,700 watch hours. I'm on track to hit 1,000 subscribers in a few months (December/January) and I should hit 4,000 watch hours then or shortly thereafter.

I have 11 videos up now, mostly of my F350 crew cab diesel dually rescue (Project Brutus). Also have a few of Project Crusty, a $1,400 1972 Bronco that I saved from the scrapper. I have a project car overview video, too, for stuff that hasn't hit the channel yet ('66 Fairlane GT convt, 428/4 sp; 68 Lemans convt, 455/TH400, 71 Javelin road race project, 401, 4 sp; and 69 Bronco project, 302, 3 sp).

I'm finding that my tech content (Dana 60 front diff rebuild, for example) is getting more views than I expected. And the video that I thought would take off - '72 Bronco first start in 20 years - has fallen flat.

I'm still posting 2 or so videos per month, and have 2 more that I need to finish editing.

My videos are getting better as I get more experience - using transitions between scenes, inserting music (I use Epidemicsound.com for non-copyright songs), and good thumbnails for each video (I use canva.com).

Anyway, it's been fun doing the videos, and it will be nice to have some extra income, but I don't expect to be retiring off what I make from YouTube. Just hope to keep it going with a video or two per month for the next several years.

Scott

 

[-SS454-]

Good job on continuing to work on it. I checked out the page and one thing I noticed about the thumbnails is I feel you have too many words on them. Some of them have around 20 words. If you can keep that down to around 5, I believe it would be more effective. Short, Sweet, and obviously needs to grab a viewers attention.

I think the videos are relatively consistent. 100-200 variance in views wouldn't be enough to consider it a flop or success at this point IMO. In any case, it's bound to happen and a lot that is out of your control. Everyone have videos they are really proud of, and it tanks on Youtube, and then some so often some nonsense clip will take off.

Keep it up.

 

[cv67]

Can I ask roughly what that # of subscribers/views can net someone per month?
Thought about doing a channel or two but with no experience, a gopro dont think people would dig it.
To make it count, seems its a full time thing for most. I hear if you link everything to a FB, IG, tiktok account that helps? have no intention of ever joining so what would work against the goal perhaps?
Literally dont have time for the phone beeping all the time, texting etc. No desire

If it helps...minimal talking, no goofy music and a limit of 10 mayb 12 min tops can sway me to maybe watch. These vids where its an hour...only a minute of content related to the title and filled with ..unrelated stuff I wont watch

 

[bulletpruf]

Good job on continuing to work on it. I checked out the page and one thing I noticed about the thumbnails is I feel you have too many words on them. Some of them have around 20 words. If you can keep that down to around 5, I believe it would be more effective. Short, Sweet, and obviously needs to grab a viewers attention.

I think the videos are relatively consistent. 100-200 variance in views wouldn't be enough to consider it a flop or success at this point IMO. In any case, it's bound to happen and a lot that is out of your control. Everyone have videos they are really proud of, and it tanks on Youtube, and then some so often some nonsense clip will take off.

Keep it up.

Good point on the thumbnails. I recently changed all of them; had the background in coral red and the text in white and it just didn't show up as well as good old black and white. Next time I do a thumbnail overhaul (just takes a few minutes for each one) I'll try to cut down on the amount of text.

I hear you on the views. At some point, I should have something that takes off. Just not sure what it will be.

Thanks

 

[bulletpruf]

Can I ask roughly what that # of subscribers/views can net someone per month?
Thought about doing a channel or two but with no experience, a gopro dont think people would dig it.
To make it count, seems its a full time thing for most. I hear if you link everything to a FB, IG, tiktok account that helps? have no intention of ever joining so what would work against the goal perhaps?
Literally dont have time for the phone beeping all the time, texting etc. No desire

If it helps...minimal talking, no goofy music and a limit of 10 mayb 12 min tops can sway me to maybe watch. These vids where its an hour...only a minute of content related to the title and filled with ..unrelated stuff I wont watch

You really don't need to do it full-time. I have a full-time job but I'm able to wrench on weekends and days off and edit on weeknights. FYI - for a 20 - 30 minute video, I may spend a full weekend wrenching and 5 or so hours editing.

As for how long it would take to get to 1,000 subs/4,000 watch hours, that's really difficult to guesstimate, but I'll take a stab at it. I'm going to guess that you're going to just video what you happen to be wrenching on -- changing a starter, rebuilding an engine, installing gears in a 12 bolt, etc. If you average 2 videos a month of popular'ish (i.e., not obscure) content, I'm going to go with 10 months/20 videos before you hit 1,000 subs/4,000 watch hours.

You don't need experience. You don't need to spend a bunch on a fancy camera, either. Just use your smart phone, your GoPro, and get a lapel microphone and inexpensive tripod for about $20 each on Amazon. Good audio is MUCH more important that high-end video.

You don't need any fancy ideas, either. If there are 40 videos on YT about changing a starter on a SBC, go ahead and do one, too, if that's what you're working on. Just look at the other ones, see what they do well, and make yours better, or at least as good as you can do it. You'll get views.