Topic: I Wanna Be a YouTuber; And YOU Gotta Help Me! Tips?

A couple years ago I purchased an Elgato capture card with the intent of uploading Nintendo videos to YouTube with commentary. However, my computer at the time apparently lacked the processing speed to sufficiently run it, as I was met with all sorts of technical hiccups when recording. I recently received a new Dell PC for Christmas, which appears to run my capture card just fine. Thus, I am excited to finally be able to post Nintendo content to my channel! But in order to succeed as a YouTube channel, I need someone's input. Please help me by answering the following questions:

1. What mic is the best to use for recording my commentary? I don't want anything terribly expensive—ideally, something within a $100 price range but preferably cheaper. My current headset doesn't offer a lot of clarity, resulting in a loud static sound. Would a headset be better, or a regular microphone? I feel a microphone would be best, so I could record multiple people's voices at a time if playing with friends. However, I don't really have a level surface near me to place a microphone; a headset mic would always stay right there next to my mouth when I need it. I also worry a regular microphone would pick up unwanted TV volume, unless I turn it down or mute it. Which is superior, and what might be a good yet reasonably-priced brand?

2. I don't plan to do this for profit in the beginning; do I still need to join Nintendo's royalty program? I uploaded a few Nintendo videos in the past and was never flagged with copyright by the Big N. Am I safe until I start wanting to generate revenue? Or am I still required to sign up? Are there certain games I could get in trouble for recording? For example, if in March (or whenever it comes out) I post a spoiler-filled video showcasing the final boss of Breath of the Wild without being a member of their royalty program but also not doing it for profit, will I be flagged?

3. What are some good video-editing programs? I see a lot of YouTube playthroughs, etc. where the person commentating has footage of his/her own self displayed in a small frame in the corner of the video, overlaying the captured game footage which covers the rest of the screen. (See TheBitBlock's episodes of The Fold, for example.) I think this would add an extra layer of engagement if the viewing audience could see my facial expressions and body language as I play games. What is a good video editor with tools that allow me to add multiple frames of recordings to a single video? As with the microphone, I'd like something cheap. (Or free, if that's an option!) My old computer had Windows Movie Maker already installed for free, which was a very useful tool for video editing. I can't remember if it had this exact feature I'm looking for, but WMM isn't on my newest PC and I'm not sure if I can install it. If you know of some other software, I'd prefer it be from a reputable site such as Dell or Windows; I'm always wary about downloading things from a site unfamiliar to me.

4. Comments or no comments? It always bothers me to see the top comments of YouTube videos plagued with all sorts of vulgarity. I want to promote a kid-friendly ecosystem with my channel that reflects my own personal moral views, and this includes the comments section. Thus, I have thought about outright disabling comments entirely. However, I feel this would hinder me from connecting with my audience, getting feedback to provide better content, and growing a fanbase. Someone told me there is a way to filter comments to prevent the uploading of things like swearing. Is this true?

5. What should I name my channel? I originally wanted to have the screen name "GamingManeuverAlpha," but that's because it was the only thing I could come up with that wasn't taken. I have since come up with one I believe I like significantly more: "The_Nintentrovert." What do you guys think? Is this a good name, better than the first?

I apologize for the length of this post and hope it isn't for some reason deserving of being locked. I would really appreciate some helpful feedback, as I want to make sure I'm doing everything right when I start this channel. Along with the computer, my mother also purchased a number of Adobe programs for me, which I plan to learn how to use to create quality logos and animations for my channel. If you have any other tips for a wannabe YouTuber, please let me know. Thanks, guys!

Alright, what you wanna do is play Minecraft, and sometimes call of duty, always scream and overreact in the mic, people love this in their ear holes, then you wanna crack some stanky danky memes, and then lastly share your OC avatar while cutting stuff with a hot knife.

But ya I really don't know, could always just google good mics and video editing programs, but that's just mii, well good luck anyways.

Youtube is messed up and makes no sense sometimes....my channel is a ghost town. One time I uploaded a video of Molgera from Wind Waker HD, and it got over 10k views and it's STILL going (think it's around 20k now). So what I decided to do is start over in my game and record more bosses from that game....they only have 10 or so views...total...-.-

I don't get it, sometimes a certain video of mine will strike gold, others in the same series doesn't even exist, so I dunno.

I highly recommend the Blue Snowball microphone. It's a little bulky but at $40-50 and sometimes cheaper, from Amazon, the quality is probably the best you're gonna get. It's got 3 different modes, but they don't really make much of a difference. What I mean by that is, well, the snowball is basically an open room microphone. It will pick up your voice with great clarity... as well as other happenings in the local vicinity like the clacking of your keyboard and maybe even your controller. As for everything else well... I ain't much of a video editing kind of guy and my interest in video uploading went the wayside a while ago.

However, as far as I know Sony Vegas and Adobe Premier are still pretty popular editing softwares. Though I'm sure that there are competent freeware programs out there which you'll find with a bit of research. I'd leave the comments open so you can build a community and just manage it when you need to. As for your name just go with something you're comfortable. After all it's your identity so it's probably best to forge it on your own.

Good luck with your ventures dude.

Just make click bait videos it's all the rave now on Youtube.

stay toobin dawg

Thanks for the responses, everybody, based on my past experience with creating a thread, I expected this to go virtually unnoticed.

@Undead_terror Got it. I'll get to work creating Sanic OC's and editing in loud air horn sound effects right away.

@Joeynator3000 Hm, strange. Were these videos all uploaded around the same time? If the Molgera battle was posted around the time the game came out I could see why it was popular and why the other boss videos might not have done well if the game had been available for a long time.

@TromboneGamer Thanks for the useful information. That's a pretty reasonable price, I'll definitely look into possibly getting one of those mics. I hope they carry it on Dell's website, as my mother got an online coupon for about $200 to spend after buying my roughly $2000 worth of equipment. Must be like a 10% back thing or something. When you mentioned Adobe Premier, I checked to make sure it wasn't one of the many Adobe programs Mom got me, and it wasn't, unfortunately. Perhaps I will look into buying it later.

@gizmoto Honestly, I'm at the point now where I really dislike my NNID of 3DGamr. I think in all likelihood I will go with The_Nintentrovert, though I don't want to segregate my channel to only Nintendo. I would like to cover Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy when it comes out, for example, and maybe even occasional non-gaming content such as animated shows and movies. I'll be sure to give those videos a watch later, if my laziness doesn't get the best of me. Thanks for embedding them!

@Ichi Sounds like that Vegas program is worth looking into, since you're the second to recommend it. As I said in my original post, my Mom already bought me a bunch of other Adobe programs, and yeah, they are yearly subscriptions (and not cheap, at that), which is a real pain. Thanks for the info!

I'll try to remember to embed the link to my first video whenever I get it uploaded, if that isn't a Nintendo Life no-no. (I'm not trying to promote myself for profit, I'd just like you guys to see what I'm working toward, since you've been so willing to help out.) One of the first things I plan to do is play through Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door with commentary, giving voices to every character. I recently had my dad watch as I played through TTYD, narrating the whole game and coming up with unique voices for every partner and most NPCs, and he thoroughly enjoyed it. I'll probably do that as soon as I get a new microphone.

What you need to do is start 5-10 years ago if you want to be just a general channel. Either that or have something not yet on youtube that people want. If you want to do something relating to gaming? Find a niche. Be from a middle-sized country and be the Nintendo channel for that country. Be the guy who covers a specific platform, genre or even game in more detail than anyone else. But also have that thing be big enough that you'll find an audience. For example it's probably not too late to be one of the channels that does content relating to the Nintendo Switch.

Like the explosion of Minecraft stuff a few years ago. Very specific content for a particular game but with a broad appeal. There are guys who do nothing but odd team compositions in Overwatch. Guys who cover Pokemon Go which is an awesome game for youtube because it can be about more than the game itself. A lot of those channels are almost more travel VLOGs than lets plays. It's the same deal with non-gaming content. Be the guy who destroys things in a specific way. Keep it niche but entertaining.

But most importantly? Don't change what your channel does too quickly. If you gain an audience? Don't suddenly start doing some other content. Because you got that audience for the thing you did originally. Nothing kills a channel faster than alienating your subscribers.

Well, seeing as you're literally screaming for advice and don't like to be ignored, I'll throw my hat in the ring and give a few thread-making tips:

#1 - Don't demand help, ASK for it. No one here has any obligation to help you. You're very lucky anyone was willing to be civil after a title like that. I know I had to take a couple deep breaths before putting my fingers back on the keyboard. It is physically impossible to strong-arm the internet, so I highly recommend you don't push your luck next time.

#2 - Try not to make an essay in your opening post. You're making a discussion thread, not a blog post. (I'll admit. I am especially guilty of this one)

#3 - If you're asking for help, try to keep it as simple as possible while still making sense. If you already have a checklist of what you need, do you really still help? Just ask what you need the most help with, and start from there. Seeing as it'll be a discussion, any further information can be brought up later.

#4 - ALWAYS search for any question you have before you make a topic on it - at least Google it, or parts of your question. Perhaps the answer is only seconds away, instead however long it might take for people to notice and reply to your topic - which, as you've pointed out, could be never.

#5 - Watch for typos in your comments (especially titles of a thread) & use good grammar. That's just a general tip, directed at everyone. Including me.

So yeah, with that off my chest, good luck with the Youtubes or whatever.

My video showed up shortly after the game came out, but so did all my other videos... :/
So, yeah, Youtube is just weird.

@CanisWolfred

"Please help me by answering the following questions" "I would really appreciate some helpful feedback" "If you have any other tips for a wannabe YouTuber, please let me know. Thanks, guys!" This sounded demanding to you? I take it you only read the title and didn't bother with the body, unlike everyone else who kindly wished me good luck. That title, by the way, is something you took out of context. It was meant in jest as a subtle reference to Hotel Mario when Luigi says, "And YOU gotta help us!" I didn't mean it sternly.

Also, while the semicolon usage in my title may have been redundant, I don't know that it was necessarily grammatically incorrect. I generally pride myself in my grammar. Again, please read the whole thing. Feel free to note any other mistakes if you can find any, but I thank you for at least acknowledging that you yourself have to remember this, as well as your #2. I see from your profile you are an enthusiast when it comes to writing, which we both have in common.

If you don't mind, I have a life tip for you, in return: don't be so quick to make assumptions without getting the full context of a situation, which is perhaps something I, likewise, could work on. Also, for the sake of your happiness, you probably shouldn't take a general forum directed at anybody so personally. I hope this does not come across as offensive, and I also hope you feel no ill will toward me. Anyways, Happy New Year and may the Lord God bless you in the name of Jesus Christ!

@skywake

Thanks for the tips. I definitely get what you mean about finding a niche. My channel probably will be primarily focused on Nintendo Switch related content. Being a dedicated Nintendo fan, this is probably the best time for me to embark in the world of YouTube with the Switch just over the horizon. However, there are so many other avenues I wish to explore—playthroughs of old and new games, discussion videos, top 10's... gosh, I have so many ambitions, it will be hard for me to segregate it into something so specific!

As much as I'd like to become popular at this, I'm not sure it's worth sacrificing my creative freedom by focusing on just one thing. As of now, this is simply for fun, not profit, so I may take a more broad approach at first. But if I do begin to do this for monetary gain and notice a lack of views on my channel, I will definitely heed your words. At the very least, I'll try not to do much of anything that's TOO out there; I may save my ideas for discussing TV/movies/miscellaneous for a secondary channel and keep this one on games exclusively.

I don't live in a small country or anything, but I am Appalachian, which I guess is... different. Maybe I could somehow feed off of that, though I don't want to be seen as the "Redneck Gamer" or anything. We'll see how it all pans out, but I think my personality (which can be as quirky or as serious as need be), my youthfulness, and my array of weird yet (hopefully) amusing voices and comedic mannerisms will help make me stand out.

@Not_Soos - Simply put: I believe strongly in good first impressions. I was only telling you what I've learned the hard way. And yes, I didn't read your whole first post. TL;DR. Normally I would've just moved on in such a situation, I just felt it was necessary for me to speak my mind, since your title did indeed tick me off, but moreover, I felt at the time that you were displaying a lack of self-awareness. Perhaps I was mistaken, yet I regret none of what I've said today.

@CanisWolfred

I'm afraid you were mistaken, and there was no reason to be ticked off by my title, but it's okay. I've typically never been one to base things on first impressions, but if I did, your readiness to slam me in a lengthy comment about being demanding without reading my post that proved otherwise because you felt it was too long would certainly leave a sour impression.

I prefer to give others the benefit of the doubt and actually get to know them. I don't mean to sound critical, but going by first impressions can be a dangerous thing, especially if you act on it, as it can lead to unnecessary strife if you're judging the situation incorrectly. I'll admit, I was initially quite agitated by your comment. But ultimately, I don't really care and would much rather we get along. Not everyone is passive, though, so for your sake be careful, friend.

I use a meh at best headset mic and my username has numbers in it, so clearly I am already no help to you tbh.

I will say, you have no reason to worry about comments anytime soon, unless something crazy happens and one of your early vids go super viral or whatever. You will still get the occasional spam post though, no matter how tiny you are. : p

@TomJ I probably wouldn't be very interested in stepping outside of YouTube, but thanks for the information. If you link the Sonic animation, I'd be more than glad to give it a watch! I tried the link in your profile, but it appears to be broken.

Yeah, I'm staying with Youtube as well, it's not perfect...but I still use it. I also sometimes watch some of my own videos from time to time, because I'm weird like that. lol

Besides, I don't want to download and re-upload all of my 200+ videos to a new site anyways. (I'd like to keep them, lol)

@TomJ Nice, is this made in Flipnote Studio 3D?

thx

HD capture card footage, unsurprisingly, is a bit better and a higher resolution than say, N64 rom footage off of a crappy laptop. Who would've guessed?!