07-17-2015, 12:12 PM
Well let me caveat this response by saying I don't think there is a definite must-do order of things to do to get some exposure, nor are any of these mutually exclusive dependencies. You will often be building and developing these things concurrently. From what I have seen of people who get more popular online, this seems to be their MO.
1. Get good. In your case the content of the videos should be well thought out, engaging and most importantly, useful.
2. Get known. Facebook, dA, Tumblr, Instagram, Medium etc etc. Post post post. Build audience using your good content as a drawcard.
3. Convert followers to dollars. Patreon, Kickstarter etc
It is admirable your main motivation is to help, but seriously just because you may not have that as a focus, doesn't mean others don't value it and wouldn't be willing to pay for it sooner than you think! Don't get yourself out of the running before you even begin. Keep it in mind, especially if it is hitting a needed niche in the market.
My personal view is if you build great content, that meets a need, the sharing of it almost becomes a side benefit requiring less effort. I think perhaps this is the way to look at it? If you have mediocre content but you post 1k times to all the various social media over the course of 3 months you may very well get some more followers (but not as much as if you had great content) It becomes a brute force approach rather than more organic.
You see lots of beginners doing this with their art pages...spam the hell out everywhere because they heard somewhere that exposure is necessary, but then they don't have the skill to convert those potential followers into real followers. It is a balance. I prefer to think in terms of "ramping up".Social media posting take time and effort. Start small, upscale when needed.
In terms of "bite-sized", I didn't mean to imply that you should only pander to the 2 minute attention span of most youngsters, though you could edit longer tutorials into the attentiondeficit format to serve as a teaser so people can judge value quickly. I guess I meant just be relatively clear and concise with your aim for each video.
Remember this is about teaching people something specific.
I really like the way you are thinking about your content approach. Taking one trope(for example) and using examples, explore the various different aspects of it, and then maybe a short sped up drawing demo with voiceover. You can then release the longer unedited cuts with you explaining in more detail what you did? I think maximising the reuse of your assets will be something to think about.
I don't know if you've seen Ross Tran's stuff online, but he is just this young kid out of Art Centre design school, and over the course of a month or two launched, instagram, youtube, patreon, but first he had gatheredfollowers based on his great work. He is now making 700 odd dollars per video, and they aren't tutorials per se, just his own paintings and personal workflow insights.
That seems to be the "easy way" : Get good.
I think you should plan out what your content is first. Start creating it immediately. Get some rounds of feedback. And keep developing. Don't worry too much about early great stuff going unnoticed. it probably won't be for long. If all you can handle is sped up process stuff with music, then that will of course draw people, but it will be in a HUGE crowd of other "sped up stuff to music" . If you are going to offer something unique that nobody else offers, that is how you will build more followers I would imagine.
The problem with an analytical mind, is actually that we often spend too much time analysing, that could be spent doing. So do some due diligence, but then I think just get started sooner rather than later and see where it goes!!!!
1. Get good. In your case the content of the videos should be well thought out, engaging and most importantly, useful.
2. Get known. Facebook, dA, Tumblr, Instagram, Medium etc etc. Post post post. Build audience using your good content as a drawcard.
3. Convert followers to dollars. Patreon, Kickstarter etc
It is admirable your main motivation is to help, but seriously just because you may not have that as a focus, doesn't mean others don't value it and wouldn't be willing to pay for it sooner than you think! Don't get yourself out of the running before you even begin. Keep it in mind, especially if it is hitting a needed niche in the market.
My personal view is if you build great content, that meets a need, the sharing of it almost becomes a side benefit requiring less effort. I think perhaps this is the way to look at it? If you have mediocre content but you post 1k times to all the various social media over the course of 3 months you may very well get some more followers (but not as much as if you had great content) It becomes a brute force approach rather than more organic.
You see lots of beginners doing this with their art pages...spam the hell out everywhere because they heard somewhere that exposure is necessary, but then they don't have the skill to convert those potential followers into real followers. It is a balance. I prefer to think in terms of "ramping up".Social media posting take time and effort. Start small, upscale when needed.
In terms of "bite-sized", I didn't mean to imply that you should only pander to the 2 minute attention span of most youngsters, though you could edit longer tutorials into the attentiondeficit format to serve as a teaser so people can judge value quickly. I guess I meant just be relatively clear and concise with your aim for each video.
Remember this is about teaching people something specific.
I really like the way you are thinking about your content approach. Taking one trope(for example) and using examples, explore the various different aspects of it, and then maybe a short sped up drawing demo with voiceover. You can then release the longer unedited cuts with you explaining in more detail what you did? I think maximising the reuse of your assets will be something to think about.
I don't know if you've seen Ross Tran's stuff online, but he is just this young kid out of Art Centre design school, and over the course of a month or two launched, instagram, youtube, patreon, but first he had gatheredfollowers based on his great work. He is now making 700 odd dollars per video, and they aren't tutorials per se, just his own paintings and personal workflow insights.
That seems to be the "easy way" : Get good.
I think you should plan out what your content is first. Start creating it immediately. Get some rounds of feedback. And keep developing. Don't worry too much about early great stuff going unnoticed. it probably won't be for long. If all you can handle is sped up process stuff with music, then that will of course draw people, but it will be in a HUGE crowd of other "sped up stuff to music" . If you are going to offer something unique that nobody else offers, that is how you will build more followers I would imagine.
The problem with an analytical mind, is actually that we often spend too much time analysing, that could be spent doing. So do some due diligence, but then I think just get started sooner rather than later and see where it goes!!!!