What’s up, Boujee Bosses, we are back with more tips! Today, I am going to be sharing five must haves you NEED for a professional YouTube channel. There are millions of channels out there where all you need is a phone, but if you want to grow a professional brand, there are some additional resources you need to invest in to take your channel to the next level on a budget. So, let’s jump right in!
Good DSLR Camera
As I said previously, most YouTubers will tell you to just start with your phone, but most who say this have personal channels, not business channels. You can get a decent DLSR for a couple hundred bucks, but I invested a little more because I wanted top-tier video quality. No one takes a brand with low resolution videos and images seriously. If you want my type of quality, but want to cut some corners, I suggest looking up used or refurbished cameras. I paid $600 for my canon t6i, my 18-55 mm lens and a rode mic from a seller on the Mercari app, which is a steal because these items usually retail for at least $800 when trying to buy altogether. Another dope thing about DSLR cameras is that most brands have a FREE software you can download on your laptop to link with your camera, so you can control everything from your laptop. It provides a monitor for you to see yourself up close, you can record and take pictures from your laptop, you can even adjust the settings, so that’s a really cool feature. All you have to do is go on your camera brand’s website ( ex. https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home), type in your camera type (ex. Canon t6i) and it will show you links, one of which is the software to download. So, get creative girl!
Professional Lights
A professional camera does you no good if you don’t have good lighting. Especially if you don’t have much natural light where you film, you need to invest in more upscale lighting. However, you don’t have to spend a bunch to get them! You can start with a good ring light for $20-$40. I started with that, but it wasn’t doing enough, so I invested in softbox lights as I shared in my Amazon Must Haves post. I paid $90 for a set with two lights, and the quality it brought to my videos and images was worth well beyond its price.
Free Video Editor
No matter how much prep work you do prior to shooting, you will need to edit your videos, even if for nothing else but to edit in your intro and outro (which I highly recommend creating). But honestly, you’ll have to edit other parts of the video sometimes to make cuts at the least. But you don’t have to shell out hundreds of dollars on editing software, there are many of free options to choose from. Of course, you can use iMovie if you have a MacBook, but I don’t have one at the moment, so I had to find another option. I use VSDC and I am in love with it! It is so easy to use, they don’t watermark and there are countless tutorials on YouTube showing you how to operate the software. I actually prefer VDSC over iMovie, so this will remain my FREE video editing software of choice until I decide to actually invest in a paid software.
Microphone
Clear sound is key! I’m sure you’ve seen videos with great quality but horrible sound and that drives your audience away. I mentioned above that my camera came with a rode mic, which is a great option if you’re moving around a lot, but I mainly use my lavalier mic that’s only $20 on Amazon. The sound is just so much crisper and it’s good about canceling out surrounding noise like the air conditioner or my siblings moving around (smh).
Graphic Design Platforms
The aesthetic of your YouTube channel is crucial to its success. You need a YouTube Banner, Video Intro and Video Outro. I made my banner using both Fotojet and Canva, just make sure to note that Fotojet doesn’t save your drafts for free like Canva does, you have to download your design right then or you’ll lose it. You need to include what main topics your channel focuses on and when you’ll upload as seen down below.
You may need to adjust the spacing a few times but use this image below as a guide.
I created my intro and outro on Keynote, but as you can imagine, I ran into trouble saving that video to my non-Apple laptop with high quality. All you have to do is convert that MOV file your video saves as to an MP4 or AVI file on CloudConvert, and that will solve that issue!
BONUS: Planner
You MUST stay organized if you want to build a credible YouTube channel. You don’t have to purchase a fancy planner/notebook, you can just grab a random notebook laying around the house (we all have them) to plan your content and outline your videos. I outline every video the day before filming to make sure I stay on track, which makes the process go a lot quicker and editing a lot easier.
I really did a deep dive for you all today, so I hope this was helpful! Let me know which tip/hack is your favorite in the comments below and on our social media pages!