I am hoping on making a YouTube channel for my team next year, and I want to know what tips anyone has about it
I don’t have any tips, but I do find that robot reveals tend to get some veiws. Especially if you have a well built, functional robot and editing skills. Some people don’t like clickbaits. When creating your channel, you can put in your team number or team name. (Something to represent your team or club)
Since 2022, I started to live stream tournaments that gained attraction. State/Regional champions get more views.
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Here is my YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@VRC98807B
Thank you for the information
Post tons of robot progress and youtube shorts, this will help gain interest for your channel.
It’s the content that matters.
But as per any social media, it takes a fair bit to maintain your team’s social presence.
Here’s 8059 YouTube channel - https://m.youtube.com/@Blank8059
We have Instagram and FB account as well.
We did a YouTube channel for the past two years and we had a blast! It helps record your progress and also it is just fun to look back on the insane optimistic thoughts you had early season (and sometimes correct predictions). The main thing I would say is have fun with it; the first year we did it we only got around 10 views a video, but our second year we ended up getting quite a bit. Both years I had a blast with it regardless of how many people saw the vids. It is fun though when you have a video blow up! I’m not the best advice giver on how to make money or get views and stuff, but just be yourself and have fun with it
-Bobby Alumni from GOLD! Robotics
If you want views from an audience that will usually not see your video (e.g. VEX teams not on VEXForum, and therefore will not see the Reveal), there are a lot of articles online on how to generally grow a youtube channel.
I would recommend
- high quality, relevant content
- engagement with community
- frequent posts
Hi Everyone,
I am also planning on creating a YouTube channel for my team, so thank you @V3XC0D3R for posting this topic! I have questions on this too.
I have viewed lots of YouTube channels from different teams, but I would like ideas of what good content from our channels looks like. Is that mostly content like robot reveals, skills runs, and tournaments? What are some other ideas?
Thanks!
Good instructional videos on different aspects of vex/vrc/robotics will be welcomed too.
i watched your robot videos a lot and they helped my team figure out faster what we wanted to do. def show team in your videos but don’t make it boring!!
My best advice for your robotics youtube channel is to put it out of mind until your robot is world-class. People are far more likely to watch a robot that’s high in the world skills standings, or just won a sig, than they are to watch a robot that’s just alright. If you love to film or edit, then by all means do your thing, but if you want views, you have to prioritize winning tournaments.
Are notebook reveal explanations also a good idea?
Don’t think I have seen any notebook reveal done via YouTube,
So far teams just dumped the link to their award winning notebooks over at forum.
But if you are going to do a video on what are the impt aspects of DEN or give some good tips, then it might be useful resources.
I thought I saw notebook explanations though…
Thanks for the advice though! I really appreciate it!
On top of that, share things that are cool an unique. My channel doubled in subscribers when I uploaded a video revealing the first big string shooter. Revealing something new or interesting get a lot of views.
I just had a student that tried to build a catapult for the first time. We had to cut a couple of sets of gears, and tried it with one and two motors. Then once it started working after about 10 shots it bent itself out of shape and he had to add some bracing. If we had recorded that entire process I think it would be pretty entertaining and helpful.
Good content is good content. You will know it when you see it. And you will not be good at it at first. Just post some videos that you would want to watch, and over time it’s a skill that you will develop.
Best of luck!
Would what you suggested be something interesting to show the judges about our process with developing our robot and whatnot? I just thought that it might be interesting if they could see our progress and difficulties we faced along the way, and it wouldn’t have to be all of the videos, just some important ones of our choosing (although notebooks would show this kind of material).
Although, now I wonder that if we were to do this, how much of our 10 minutes would that take…
I believe what is more important is not necessarily making videos that people enjoy but rather videos that you find enjoyable to make. If you cannot find enjoyment in making YouTube videos that people love, then you won’t be able to continue the grit of making videos people love long-term. To be honest, making VEX video is not profitable. You’ll have to accept that what you do on YouTube likely won’t earn you much money, but only give you attention at competitions. But, you should be making videos if you wish to add new skills to your arsenal in the future if you wish to be a content creator in the long run.
Try new editing software and try different effects.
Test the waters with different styles. Editing software does matter, so save up money or see if your school offers a discount for some. I found my favorite editing software to be Final Cut Pro for MacOS, or Vegas Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro for Windows. You will need to save about $200 for the software and it’s best to save up another $100-200 for fx packs. Video Editing is not cheap, especially if you want to do everything legit.
Make a name for yourself.
You do not have to be the best team to make it far but by being good can help, as it adds ethos to the words you say. Do research to find ways to improve your robot by seeing how other teams build their robots, or see ways to entice your audience and hook them in by standardizing catch phrases and introductions for every video. Do not be a cliche, but rather become your own character with unique branding and style. You should be adding a new perspective or resource and not just cloning one other’s make. It is okay to grab what other people are doing, but you should mix it up so that it is not a mere copycat. A good simple idea would be grabbing ideas from two separate unique videos you find that other people made and use those two videos to “craft” a new idea to make a video for yourself. This is a very simple and often successful method to enhance creativity.
Try to entice your viewers to keep watching.
Find music that is high bpm and is uplifting. This keeps the video energized in nature. When talking, try to edit out long pauses and long breaths to keep what you say dense, and try to have a transition every 7-10 seconds. Plan what you are going to say before saying it, like making a script beforehand so you can be more fluid with the things you say.
As a mildly successfull person in the vex youtube stuff, I found its easier to post lots of short clips of your mechs and robots (not nescassarilly shorts but it helps.) I also found that you still need to make long content, like robot explanations or reveals. One more thing, being popular on the discord servers online is EXCELLENT advertising its where I get most of my subs. Heres a few of my links to help.
Reveal: Vex IQ Slapshot Worlds Reveal, Patriot Mk. 8 - YouTube
Explanation: Team 15X Slapshot Robot Explanation and Extra Footage, 2022 2023 - YouTube
And much more!