New youtube channel idea

4

4RNB

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4RNB
I'm searching for feedback, criticism, suggestions.

I have a farm based service business, use Utube a little bit for customer education or to better involve them in the service. All I do is use my phone for short and up to 12 minute videos. I've not tried anything with regard to monetizing. I suspect I've been able to help a couple others that provide the same service and have received help/ideas from comments. Easy, no cost, kind of fun. Customers enjoy seeing the process. 261 subscribers!

A few years ago a customer shows up with an army green cessna 172 front license plate, We get to talking, he was a birddog pilot in Vietnam. We chat a little bit, neat guy, did some fascinating things. I don't think he ever flew after the war. He's been back twice this year, each time sharing more of his story. I feel like I could just listen to his stuff all day. I told him I thought someone should interview him to share his experiences such as his only airborne navigation aid was a single radio station.

My motivation is finding the story compelling to share. I think there must be other such stories out there, starting with the ol timers at my local airport. Try and preserve the history. Don't really be sensational, focus on the everyman, common man. Be willing to talk to everyone. I think some of these stories would appeal to existing pilots, future pilots, and also non aviators that enjoy watching videos online.

I'd think to maybe buy some really simple equipment, only speak to people in person.

Other: When I meet someone really successful in life, I think their life should be held up as an example for others. Perhaps add in interviewing them about their lives and factors in their success. Hold up positive examples of achievement. I know of a couple people to start with.

I'd be open to monetization but would feel more like this would be a mission.

So my questions:
Is there a need for such?
Would these be interesting?
Any ideas or other feedback?
 
YouTube is pretty saturated IMO - and people seem driven to do more and more “novel” things to get attention and that’s not helping aviation in general.
 
4RNB said:
I'm searching for feedback, criticism, suggestions.

I have a farm based service business, use Utube a little bit for customer education or to better involve them in the service. All I do is use my phone for short and up to 12 minute videos. I've not tried anything with regard to monetizing. I suspect I've been able to help a couple others that provide the same service and have received help/ideas from comments. Easy, no cost, kind of fun. Customers enjoy seeing the process. 261 subscribers!

A few years ago a customer shows up with an army green cessna 172 front license plate, We get to talking, he was a birddog pilot in Vietnam. We chat a little bit, neat guy, did some fascinating things. I don't think he ever flew after the war. He's been back twice this year, each time sharing more of his story. I feel like I could just listen to his stuff all day. I told him I thought someone should interview him to share his experiences such as his only airborne navigation aid was a single radio station.

My motivation is finding the story compelling to share. I think there must be other such stories out there, starting with the ol timers at my local airport. Try and preserve the history. Don't really be sensational, focus on the everyman, common man. Be willing to talk to everyone. I think some of these stories would appeal to existing pilots, future pilots, and also non aviators that enjoy watching videos online.

I'd think to maybe buy some really simple equipment, only speak to people in person.

Other: When I meet someone really successful in life, I think their life should be held up as an example for others. Perhaps add in interviewing them about their lives and factors in their success. Hold up positive examples of achievement. I know of a couple people to start with.

I'd be open to monetization but would feel more like this would be a mission.

So my questions:
Is there a need for such?
Would these be interesting?
Any ideas or other feedback?
Click to expand...
I like the idea of interviewing old timers and preserving their stories. Probably not a moneymaker but who knows?
 
RyanShort1 said:
YouTube is pretty saturated IMO - and people seem driven to do more and more “novel” things to get attention and that’s not helping aviation in general.
Click to expand...

In what manner do you find it saturated?

In my niche farm service, nobody does what I do. If it existed I would not have started. For example, one piece of equipment I use has only short manufacturer videos, none discuss how to use it or upkeep it. Little info is shared online.

I would find it saturated with stupid sensationalized stuff.

When I search I see lots of Vietnam pilot stuff though.
 
4RNB said:
In what manner do you find it saturated?

In my niche farm service, nobody does what I do. If it existed I would not have started. For example, one piece of equipment I use has only short manufacturer videos, none discuss how to use it or upkeep it. Little info is shared online.

I would find it saturated with stupid sensationalized stuff.

When I search I see lots of Vietnam pilot stuff though.
Click to expand...
The farm world is a lot less saturated than the aviation world on YouTube IMO.
 
4RNB said:
I'd be open to monetization but would feel more like this would be a mission.

So my questions:
Is there a need for such?
Would these be interesting?
Any ideas or other feedback?
Click to expand...
The bad news is that there isn't a terribly big market for what you want to do.

The good news, is that it's very durable content. By which I mean that it isn't news or other content that is going to get stale. So you may find that it's hard to hit a home run, but it's possible to build a library of stuff that people enjoy for a long time.

If you're trying to make money, it's probably going to be a long slog. But if being a folk historian scratches an itch for you, I bet there is enough of an audience to make it satisfying.
 
4RNB said:
I'm searching for feedback, criticism, suggestions.

So my questions:
Is there a need for such?
Would these be interesting?
Any ideas or other feedback?
Click to expand...
1. Yes
2. Yes, depending on how well you conduct the interviews
3. Spend more time in the editing portion than you do on the interview itself. Video/audio quality and transitions will be important in order to keep viewers entertained and coming back. A bunch of videos shot with a nothing but a cell phone in-hand won't be quite as polished. It doesn't mean you need a full-on studio for it, but maybe get a small setup with proper lighting, some comfortable chairs, and a decent HD camera. Perhaps a nice coffee table setup or bar/barstool in an airplane hangar would be a good recurring setting if you can get people to come to the same location. Otherwise, you'll have to improvise each interview site.
 
RyanShort1 said:
YouTube is pretty saturated IMO - and people seem driven to do more and more “novel” things to get attention and that’s not helping aviation in general.
Click to expand...

4RNB said:
In what manner do you find it saturated?
Click to expand...

Maybe or maybe not saturated in any particular niche, depending on how narrowly you define that niche, but at least to me there is SO MUCH stuff out there that my time is saturated. There are a LOT of interesting, well-done, informative and entertaining videos out there on all topics. So many that I don't have time (or the inclination) to watch them all. So like most people, I have to pick and choose. Which means that any new channels have to offer something really high quality, entertaining, and informative for me to choose it over the millions of other choices for my limited time.

Do I mean this to discourage you? No, of course not. But if I'm being honest, am I "likely" to watch a video of an interview with somebody who may have a very interesting story, but who I've never heard of? Realistically, probably not.

I will say, though, the shorter the better. Some people complain amount everybody's limited attention spans these days, but that's not really it. It's just that if I see a 20, 30, 40 minute video come up on youtube, it had better be really riveting, or I'm going to click over to something else. If it's 5 minutes long, I'm far more likely to watch it to the end (and to click on it in the first place) - and I can watch four 5 minute videos covering four different topics in the same time as one 20 minute video covering one topic. Unfortunately, when doing an interview, getting to the interesting story probably takes longer than 5 minutes.

And there are already a lot of aviation interview channels out there competing for my attention.

SoonerAviator said:
3. Spend more time in the editing portion than you do on the interview itself. Video/audio quality and transitions will be important in order to keep viewers entertained and coming back. A bunch of videos shot with a nothing but a cell phone in-hand won't be quite as polished. It doesn't mean you need a full-on studio for it, but maybe get a small setup with proper lighting, some comfortable chairs, and a decent HD camera. Perhaps a nice coffee table setup or bar/barstool in an airplane hangar would be a good recurring setting if you can get people to come to the same location. Otherwise, you'll have to improvise each interview site.
Click to expand...

This is unfortunately so important. You may have the most interesting story to tell, but we've all become used to high quality production values. This is not the early days of youtube anymore, where the idea was just to post your own amateur, often candid videos (of "you" of course). EVERYBODY has high production values nowadays, so if you come in with a poorly edited, handheld cellphone video of a static scene of somebody talking, well that's just not going to get watched very much.
 
If the subjects and stories are interesting, the videos will be, too. But you, the interviewer, have to be interesting or the whole thing is a bust.

For anything longer than 5 minutes, you’re going to need B roll. Ideally, that would be stills or even movies of the subject “back in the day.”
 
10-15 minutes is the sweet spot for not too shallow vs not too long, in my experience, but if it's good quality, like the Unauthorized History of the Pacific War - I'll bite while I'm editing photos.
 
Much as I respect the knowledge of the group, I doubt you'll find your answers on here.

I've heard some very successful people say essentially that great ideas are a dime a dozen, it's all about the execution.

As for the content, I think it's irrelevant. It's all about your personality and style. The YouTube audience will watch literally ANYTHING as long as it is presented in a compelling way.

C.
 
RyanShort1 said:
YouTube is pretty saturated IMO - and people seem driven to do more and more “novel” things to get attention and that’s not helping aviation in general.
Click to expand...

Well... You could buzz people's airport homes, or deliberately crash a good plane, or try jumping out of a one plane to skydive into another and keep flying....

Oh, wait... never mind.
 
4RNB said:
I'm searching for feedback, criticism, suggestions.

I have a farm based service business, use Utube a little bit for customer education or to better involve them in the service. All I do is use my phone for short and up to 12 minute videos. I've not tried anything with regard to monetizing. I suspect I've been able to help a couple others that provide the same service and have received help/ideas from comments. Easy, no cost, kind of fun. Customers enjoy seeing the process. 261 subscribers!

A few years ago a customer shows up with an army green cessna 172 front license plate, We get to talking, he was a birddog pilot in Vietnam. We chat a little bit, neat guy, did some fascinating things. I don't think he ever flew after the war. He's been back twice this year, each time sharing more of his story. I feel like I could just listen to his stuff all day. I told him I thought someone should interview him to share his experiences such as his only airborne navigation aid was a single radio station.

My motivation is finding the story compelling to share. I think there must be other such stories out there, starting with the ol timers at my local airport. Try and preserve the history. Don't really be sensational, focus on the everyman, common man. Be willing to talk to everyone. I think some of these stories would appeal to existing pilots, future pilots, and also non aviators that enjoy watching videos online.

I'd think to maybe buy some really simple equipment, only speak to people in person.

Other: When I meet someone really successful in life, I think their life should be held up as an example for others. Perhaps add in interviewing them about their lives and factors in their success. Hold up positive examples of achievement. I know of a couple people to start with.

I'd be open to monetization but would feel more like this would be a mission.

So my questions:
Is there a need for such?
Would these be interesting?
Any ideas or other feedback?
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter if there's a need or not.
Can you make it interesting?
Only one way to find out.

But don't be surprised when you realize to have any level of success that you may need to be able to churn out a lot more content a lot more frequently than you might be imagining.
 
I don't have much to add, except one thing. If you do it, make sure to get the audio right. It isn't necessarily easy, and it can make or break the production. Suggest multiple mics and a way to record multiple tracks so you have good levels on both people. Check every mic on every shoot.

I kinda like the idea, especially in the format of short videos.
 
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