The top 5 most common mistakes YouTubers make

You’ve made up your mind: you are starting your own Youtube channel. Whether it is filming vlogs, displaying your fashion outfit, or sharing your journey throughout Elden Ring, one thing remains certain, this won’t be an easy task.

We can imagine you’re eager to start posting videos but, to be honest, it’s easier said than done. A YouTube channel takes a lot of work and it is not only about recording content, in fact, one of the hardest parts starts when you stop recording: it is the editing process. But don’t be disheartened! In this article, we will be sharing some of the most common mistakes when editing videos so you can avoid them.

Starting with the most common and typical mistake:

#1 You are not finding your niche

But what is a niche in the first place? A niche is a specific genre on which content creators focus. By now, you might be fully aware that the following types of niches exist:

• Fashion
• Gaming
• Tech
• Care & Beauty
• Travel

And so many more. But in reality, choosing one of these to focus your videos on barely says anything about your channel at all. Remember, the more specific the niche, the more personality and authenticity your channel will have. This is why it’s important to know the difference between:

“I want to target gamers” and “I want to target gamers from age 21-27 years of age, who are deeply into RTS games”. Once you are this specific towards the audience you are going to target, you will have your niche.

We suggest you always try to land on a niche that is personally relevant to you. The more you actually enjoy creating a specific type of content, the more authentic your content will be perceived.

#2 Underestimating thumbnails

In case you’ve never heard about “the hook”, don’t worry about it, I’ll explain. The hook is a specific moment, within a very short timeframe, in which the viewer takes action on a call suggested by the uploader, aka. you. (Share, subscribe, like, comment, you get it).

It is within this moment that your viewer converts to a subscriber, and as I just said, this happens within the very first seconds, when the viewer actually pays attention to what you have to say. 

It sounds mean, I know, but your audience’s capacity to pay attention is likely to fade away as every second passes by, but don’t worry much, it isn’t personal. It’s just that as modern humans, we are accustomed to receiving so much stimulus per day, our focus nowadays is all over the place. Attention span as a whole has lowered down.

It is so, a recent study by Microsoft concluded that the human attention span has lowered from 12 to 8 seconds in the year 2000.

This whole explanation serves the purpose to clue you in on how important the very first seconds of engaging with the audience really are. The first form of contact in which your content catches your viewers’ attention isn’t even at the start of the video, in fact, it’s when the viewer sees the title of your video and thumbnail for the very first time.

If your thumbnail doesn’t hook the user at first glance, I promise you, no amount of any other effort is going to make the user click on your video.

So how do we create a good-looking thumbnail? We would really have to write an entire blog post in order to cover thumbnails. But don’t worry! 

Thousands of YouTubers are currently using templates from Canva which has totally surpassed their expectations. In short, try to include short amounts of meaningful, but short text and make sure the text and background have a good contrast to separate them from one another. Last, but not least, be sure the colors you pick for the background actually portray your content and theme.

A good thumbnail should be able to explain what the whole video is about in only a few seconds. Remember, enjoying the creation of your content is part of a successful experience, so have fun!

#3 Not Calling to Action

One of the most common mistakes YouTubers make is not to take any action calls at all.

Often now, we find ourselves so outpaced by the life, we barely pay attention to anything at all. Brands and media tend to stuff their audiences with ads so many times per day, it was deemed unimaginable twenty years back.

This has had a huge impact on everyone on a global scale, we typically find ourselves forgetting basic chores of our everyday lives and being easily distracted by whatever is on-screen.

Research suggests the average American is exposed to somewhere between 4000 and 10000 ads PER DAY. So it’s more than likely your viewer will catch on to a new distraction even while watching one of your videos.

Don’t be shy, there’s nothing wrong with asking your viewers to subscribe, like, comment, or even share your video. In fact, you’ll notice that most of the world’s renowned YouTubers make use of this strategy in each of their videos, and there is no shame in it.

Some YouTubers have mentioned why it’s also important to give the viewer an explanation to your CTA, be sure to tell your audience why it’s so important for them to leave a like in your video and subscribe. 

So when do you call for action?

As explained in point #2, the first 8 seconds are the most important team players of your video, so go ahead and make your call to action as soon as you start!

Another good moment to make a call to action is halfway through the video and of course, at the very end, however, the most relevant CTA is always at the beginning of your videos.

#4 Not sharing in any other forms of social media

Once you’ve reached a few thousand subscribers, your count is more likely to continue growing on an exponential growth curve. However, how do we start growing when our subscriber count is closer to 0 than anything in the world? 

The answer is social media (especially Instagram). If you have any type of social media, make sure to let everyone know you’re starting out a YouTube channel.

How? 

Well, the best way to bring traffic to your channel is by providing a link to the desired video. Luckily for us, Instagram provides the fantastic feature that stories are. The best part of Instagram’s stories is that you can create them daily and share the same link as many times as you like. 

Your followers are more likely to see your Instagram stories rather than your posts, since these will show up daily on your follower’s feeds.

#5 Taking Audio Quality for Granted

Now that we have the whole cake, it’s time to put a cherry on top of it. Many of us have a vision of vlogs and other types of channels as being of visual interest, but in fact, no video with a bad audio quality will ever come out as a successful one, that’s the honest truth.

Aside from the bad quality of the sound itself, it gives the impression of carelessness and unprofessionalism at its finest. 

So remember. If you’re trying to record the audio file on a microphone, it isn’t necessary to strive for the best quality of the mic, try instead to avoid interruptions, keep a 2 to 12 inches distance from your face to the microphone, and of course, try doing it on a quiet room to isolate external sounds.

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