Everyone dreams of a life of freedom at least once, one where you can make money doing the things you love. In this blog post, I would like to share both the pros and cons, as honestly as possible, of being a YouTuber.
1. The Reason Why I Wanted To Be A YouTuber
9 years of travelling around the world is what made me want to be a YouTuber in the first place. Those 9 years full of adventure left me with such precious experiences, knowledge, and wisdom.
However, for some reason, I started getting bored of travelling just for my own satisfaction. And then one day, I had the chance to speak to my friend from high school via video-chat while I was staying in Costa Rica.
While I was travelling around the world, I never really spoke about my experiences with another Japanese person, so it felt a bit strange to me. My friend was super curious about my adventures and asked me a lot of questions.
This conversation with my friend made me realize how fun it can be to share my journey, especially with another person from Japan who may understand my unique experiences as a Japanese traveler meeting different cultures. Towards the end of our conversation, my friend said something that changed my life forever. “Why don’t you share your trip on YouTube, Shota?”
2. Shooting My First YouTube Video
I’d never even heard the word “YouTuber” before, since I was hardly ever on social media.
But my strength (and maybe weakness) is that once I’m curious about something, I can’t resist but try it. So that’s how I shot my very first YouTube video with a crappy old camera that I had.
I still remember that day so clearly. When I faced the camera, my mind went completely blank. I was filming alone back then, so I found it really difficult to keep talking to the camera when it didn’t respond back to me. I lost my words.
Finally, I had to write a script and completely memorise it to speak in front of the camera. I would never do that now… And that’s how my first YouTube video was made.
3. Editing My Video For The First Time
After I filmed my first video, I went back home and watched it. Long story short, I sounded like a robot reading a book. It was bad. I then searched on Google “how to shoot YouTube videos.”
As a result, I found out that people called “YouTubers” actually exist, and that you usually edit your videos before uploading them to YouTube.
So I opened up my old laptop (which I usually only used to listen to music on my trips) and installed video editing software called “Filmora.”
Of course, I didn’t know a single thing about video editing, so it took me a whole week to finish my first video and upload it to YouTube. When I look back at it now, it was pretty terrible.
4. The Hardest Things About Being A YouTuber
My first YouTube video got 3 views in a week. One was my friend who convinced me to shoot it and one was my girlfriend Ruth. I have no idea who the last person was, but my friend and Ruth told me they enjoyed the video.
When I think about it now, maybe they were just being nice. It sounded like a robot reading a script out loud. Still, those compliments made me really, really happy.
Back then, I didn’t realise that feeling I felt was what helped me stick with being a YouTuber. What I did know was that I wanted to share my experiences and knowledge that I had learnt from travelling around the world, with much more than 3 people.
I kept asking myself: “How can I make my videos more interesting?” or “How can I share my experiences with more people?” The reality is, it’s not that simple.
Three months after starting my YouTube channel, I had 120 subscribers, 30 videos, and fewer than 100 views per video. Plus, it took me at least 3 days to make one video.
To be honest, this was when I first realised how tiring and tough it can be to live as a YouTuber.
5. From 120 To 1000 Subscribers
No matter how many videos I made, it felt like no one was watching them. Those days were the hardest, but when a few people gave me comments like “thank you for sharing” or “I enjoyed your video,” it made my day.
It’s hard to explain, but the emotional connection I was able to make with my viewers through my videos, gave me the energy to make the next one. Eventually, this energy even changed the purpose of my travelling.
I started doing things that never really interested me before, just because I wanted to share them with my viewers. I’m not sure why but I felt like challenging myself that way gave me a purpose in life.
And finally, after 6 months, I reached 1000 subscribers.
6. What Does It Mean To Be A YouTuber?
Looking back at my journey, being a YouTuber isn’t as easy as most people think. It’s especially hard when you don’t have that many subscribers. The time and effort you have to commit are unimaginable.
Personally, I feel like I wouldn’t have been able to keep shooting if I started my YouTube channel for money. The reason why I could overcome the most difficult times was that I really loved being a YouTuber.
This blog post ended up focusing more on the cons of being a YouTuber, but of course, there are a lot of pros as well.
Next time, I would like to share the positive experiences I have had while working as a YouTuber.
Thank you so much for reading through this blog post.
ADIOS
