Since YouTube first launched, Vlogging has grown in popularity year-on-year. And with the constant innovations in Social Media platforms, it’s never been easier to start a vlog. If you’ve considered becoming a vlogger but need help figuring out where to start, check out our 15 ideas for creating a vlog.
- Check out our top vlogging tips for beginners.
- Discover 15 different types of vlogs you can create for your viewers.
- Understand how to find your niche as a vlogger.
Why Start a Vlog?
Starting and maintaining a vlog is a lot of work, and some of the most popular vloggers have made it their full-time job. However, if you’re considering starting a vlog with the sole purpose of generating income, it is essential to understand that, while possible, it can take time and hard work to reach a sponsorship level.
Most vloggers, however, start vlogging as they have something they’re keen to share with their audience, from hobbies to talents. There are vlogs covering every subject. Starting a vlog channel can help build a community around a common interest.
Tips for creating a Vlog
Vlogs come in all shapes and sizes, but there will be a few things you’ll need to do to ensure the best possible viewer experience.
Learn about Filming
Everyone knows how to use the camera on their smartphone, but getting a professional shot takes a little work. Many blogs and vlogs are available online with tips and tricks for lighting, sounds and shot composition.
While you don’t need to buy top-of-the-range camera equipment for your vlogs, a well-lit shot with great audio will make it much easier for your audience to engage with your content.
Learn to Edit your Videos
Learning to edit your vlogs can help you create a professional look for your videos. Not only can you cut out mistakes in your filming, but you can also add titles, graphics, animations, and the all-important call to action.
While editing takes time, it does give you complete control over all the content you publish online. Learning to edit a YouTube video can also make you confident in the content you release, resulting in a better experience for your viewers.
Plan your Videos
Pre-production is a massive part of any professional video shoot, and it is just as crucial as vlogging. It would help if you took the time to plan your videos and your series and release strategy.
The most successful vloggers provide consistent and regular content to their audience. Planning your video release schedule will ensure you know what you are doing next. It will also help your audience understand when and where they can find your new videos.
Vlogging Ideas for Beginners
The good news is, if you want to start vlogging, you can start with a vast range of categories and vlog types. But to build an engaged and loyal following, you must find your niche.
Review Vlog Ideas
Review Vlogs can cover anything you have an opinion on, but most come down to other forms of content; music, movies, TV shows, Books, and performances. The most popular review vloggers spend time researching and understanding the subject of their Review, so it can take a little time to produce.
Suppose you want to create Review based Vlogs. In that case, it is essential to understand YouTube’s fair-use policy. It gives guidelines on how much copy-righted material you can include in your video as the basis for the Review.
RedLetterMedia is a fantastic example of a professional review setup. Boasting nearly 1.5 million subscribers, the team covers movies and TV shows, old and new.
Reaction videos
Reaction Videos are a huge category that includes music, TV shows, Movies, memes and even other YouTube Videos. Unlike review vlogs, reaction videos are recorded as the person watching the content, giving the viewer their instant reaction to it rather than their opinion.
One of the best elements of reaction videos is that you don’t need to cover current content. Many reaction vloggers react to older songs, movies and TV shows. If you want to start a reaction vlog channel, you’ll need to learn how to create screen recordings and check out YouTube’s Fair Use Rules.
Blind Wave is one of the most popular reaction channels on YouTube, featuring reactions to TV shows, movies, cartoons and anime. The channel has over 800k subscribers.
Gaming
If you’re a gamer, creating a gaming vlog is a fantastic idea. Whether reviewing games or live streaming your gameplay, a huge captivated audience is ready and waiting for your content.
You don’t even need to have the newest consoles or games; some Vloggers focus on vintage games, while others look solely at mobile gaming. A great place to start is by looking at other gamer channels; look at what you like and what you can improve on in your competitors’ content.
VanossGaming has a staggering 25 million viewers with its fast-paced gameplay and voiceover style content.
Unboxing
Unboxing Vloggers create helpful content for their audience within their niche. Unboxing videos cover everything from beauty and fashion products to kids’ toys and games. Unboxing videos are similar to reaction videos; rather than digital media, only products are reviewed.
The bigger unboxing vloggers get products sent to them by companies looking to promote to the vlogger’s audience. However, it can take a while to get to this stage. Until then, you will need to look for smaller sponsors or invest in the products you are unboxing yourself.
Ryan’s World is one of the biggest unboxing channels on YouTube, with 33 million subscribers. Ryan was just 3 years old when he started reviewing toys with the help of his dad.
Travel Vlog
When you think about travel vlogging, you probably imagine around-the-world trips with white-sanded beaches and stunning views, and many vloggers take this approach. However, like unboxing videos, you’ll need to pay for your trips until you reach ‘influencer’ levels.
As a travel vlogger, you don’t need to travel that far; start looking at places of interest in your local area. Being knowledgeable in your vlogs will help build trust with your viewers, so start with the places you know.
Fearless and Far is a fantastic example of a travel channel that provides not only beautiful shots of incredible places, but history and facts about the locations visited.
Music Vlog
Music Vloggers are another broad category, and music-based channels often cross several types. There are music reactors, music unboxing and music reviewers, but it doesn’t stop there.
If you have a musical talent, either playing an instrument/singing, writing lyrics or producing tracks, you have a skill worth sharing. Use your vlog to teach your audience how to play and care for their instruments. If you’re just starting out learning an instrument, vlog about your experiences and show your journey as you learn your new skill.
Ukulaliens is a popular music play-along channel for Ukulele players. Despite having only 130k subscribers, some of their more popular videos have over 4 million views.
Family Vlog
Family vlogs detail the everyday lives of a family and can include cooking videos, life hacks, travel and budgeting tips and tricks. While the type of videos made by family vloggers vary, the common theme is that they include the whole family.
Family vlogs are popular, especially among young parents just starting their families, but consent is key if you consider starting a family vlog. Make sure you have permission to share your videos with anyone else included in them; consider carefully how publishing details about your family will affect them.
KKandBabyJ is a family channel following the adventures of Keren and Khoa and their 4 kids. Their channel boasts over 1.2 million subscribers, with videos regularly reaching 100k views.
Business Vlog
If you’re running a business or even a side hustle, consider a companion vlog for your audience. Vlogging is a fantastic way of breaking barriers between the face of your business and your customers.
Giving away tips and helpful information in your area of expertise is a brilliant way of generating a following, allowing you to continue marketing your products or services. If you want to create a business vlog, remember you are representing your company, so act as you would in any other professional situation.
FXHome’s YouTube channel offers a huge range of tutorials and vlogs for editors and filmmakers, with an audience of over a quarter of a million subscribers.
Pet Vlog
Pet Vlogs are a fantastic option if you want to avoid being on camera but would love to start a vlog. People love seeing happy pets, and there is a huge community of supportive content creators for every animal out there.
Pet vlogs should be helpful as well as cute and fun to watch. Cover everything from diet and general care to vet trips and adventure days. Use your experience as a pet owner to help others interested in caring for an animal with your first-hand experience.
Maymo is one of the most famous dogs on the internet, with a whopping 11 million subscribers. The channel follows the adventures of a Lemon Beagle dog called Maymo and is regularly featured in TV Shows and adverts.
Fashion and Styling
If you’ve got an excellent eye for design, then fashion and styling vlogging may be for you. One of the best and most accessible things about this particular vlogging category is that you can have limited knowledge about the industry.
While some vloggers will cover high-end fashion brands, many vloggers create niche fashion and styling content, focusing on specific budgets, time periods, body types or cultures in their videos.
StealtheSpotlight is a fashion and styling vlog focusing on looks from TV Shows and movies such as Clueless and the Gilmore Girls.
Health and Beauty
Health and beauty Vlogs are very similar to fashion and styling, and many vloggers will create a mix of these categories. Many health and beauty vloggers focus on makeup/hair tips and tutorials, unboxing and reviews.
Health and beauty is one of the more popular vlog categories, so there is no shortage of competition out there already. Research popular vloggers and find a different angle or niche to base your content around.
MissFitandNerdy has a subscriber count of over a quarter of a million; the channel covers a range of fitness, exercise and diet videos.
Educational
Educational vloggers are experts in a particular niche and provide helpful information about their expert topic. Educational vlogs aim to educate your viewers, and your vlog topics must be accurate and well-researched.
The best thing about education vlogs is that they can be about literally anything. So if you are interested in a subject, other people will want to view your content.
TED is one of the biggest YouTube Channels ever due to its fantastic range of educational talks and videos. The channel has over 22 million subscribers; yes, that is twenty-two million!
Food Vlog
Food Vlogging is another huge category, but you don’t need to be a chef to become a food vlogger. Whether you’re vlogging your cooking journey or trying exciting new foods, there are many areas you can focus on.
Food is a health and safety concern, so if you share recipes or cooking tips, the steps must be accurate. If possible, provide written instructions alongside your vlog.
Nearly 4 Million subscribers tune in for Pick Up Limes’ range of plant-based recipe ideas, with each video reaching several hundred thousand views.
Curated Content
Many vlogging channels are based around curated content, finding content others are sharing and bringing it together into one place. Reddit stories, memes and fail videos are all fantastic sources of longer-form vlogs.
Curated Content vlogs are fantastic for people who don’t have the confidence to appear on camera; use a voiceover instead. But remember, you need to spend time sourcing unique and exciting clips and stories and, where possible, getting the creator’s permission to share.
rSlash is a Reddit Stories YouTube channel with a range of content from entitled parents’ stories to relationship advice. The channel has nearly 2 million subscribers and hundreds of thousands of views on each video.
Hobby Vlog
Niche hobbies are a fantastic source of content for any would-by blogger; from mountain climbing to tabletop gaming, your hobbies connect you to a community. Creating content for your hobby can help you connect with other fans and introduce new viewers to a subject.
The SDJR7F88 Channel might only have 16k Subscribers, but the very niche subject matter immediately shrinks their target audience. For fans of model trains, however, this channel is THE place to meet other like-minded people.
How to choose a Vlog Niche
To create a successful vlog, you need to be consistent with when you share the content and what it is about. By creating a niche for your vlog, you’ll attract an audience of like-minded people that share a common interest.
To choose a niche, think about what interests you; you’re going to be making videos about this topic a lot, so it is crucial you are interested in the subject. By choosing something you are passionate about, you’ll be able to create more engaging content that connects with your audience.
Vlogging can be fun and rewarding; it can not only help you engage with a community, but it can also help you build one. Check out this handy guide about creating and editing your vlogs to learn more.
