Vlogging is the new blogging. Watching video is just much more entertaining than reading text. Millennials have the attention span of a toddler with attention deficit disorder and prefer watching video to reading. It is also easier than ever to create video. Apps like iMovie work on your smartphone or tablet allowing folks the ability to cut professional looking videos from their mobile devices in seconds. The cameras in the latest smartphones are great for video too. They produce high quality images that rival many professional cameras. The world is configured for video and its killing written content.
Video Camera’s like the Canon G7x are perfect for vlogging. This particular camera shoots fantastic video, it has a good built in microphone, and it has an LCD screen that flips over to shoot selfies. The camera also comes with built in wifi. This makes it easy to share your videos with the rest of the world. It couldn’t be easier to shoot great content, edit it and get it into YouTube.
Popular vloggers on YouTube command huge audiences. Some of them have larger audiences than popular TV shows. Each of their episodes can garner more than 40 million views. Some of the really good vloggers like Casey Neistat post vlogs daily. Its like watching reality TV on steroids. You are watching these people’s daily lives and some of them are really interesting. There is also no shortage of content.
I started watching Casey’s videos a few years back when I stumbled on a video he made about riding bikes in the NYC bicycle lanes. It was a hilariously funny video he made after he received a ticket for riding in the street instead of the sidewalk. The video went viral and he became one of the early YouTube sensations. He’s since had show on HBO, he runs a production studio to make videos for brands like Mercedes and Nike. He has a company that makes a video app called Beme. He gets invited into A list events and walks the red carpet with movie stars. He literally went from being a cook in a restaurant to a wealthy famous vlogger. The beauty in all of this is that you can watch his life blossom on his daily vlog. We live in a great time.
Vlogging is no joke. Some of the top vloggers earn more than $5 million a year on just the ads that run on YouTube from watching their videos. They earn much more doing product placements, product reviews or even mentioning a company name. This is serious business. I can’t think of any comparable blogger who is earning bank like some of these vloggers. There are just so many great things that come from success on YouTube.
I love watching people travel, review products, talk about politics, make jokes and much more. There is something about the medium of video that makes content much more intimate. I’m transported into their lives and experiencing the world as they do. For a few minutes I can drive a Ferrari or fly an airplane or talk to a famous mathematician. Its a world full of possibilities easily accessible on any device anytime. With so many possibilities why write when I can vlog?
