Avoiding Poverty: Earning in Beauty Media

How to Make Money with a Beauty Channel?

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

There are a lot of ways you can make money by posting makeup, beauty, or fashion videos on YouTube. These are all industries that understand the value of quality social media content.

In the video above, beauty YouTuber Gena M explains all the ways there are to make money posting makeup and fashion videos on YouTube. Gena’s most important piece of advice for other beauty vloggers is, to be honest. There is nothing wrong with making money from affiliates or sponsors, so long as you only associate with and recommend products you would actually buy.

Here’s more advice on how you can make money from your makeup videos:

Sponsorships

If you are truly passionate about makeup or fashion then you probably have a few favorite brands. Even if you have never really thought about a brand as your favorite, chances are you purchase one or two types of lip gloss – or any other product – over others on a regular basis.

Wouldn’t it be nice if a company whose product you already love and use in your videos would start paying you just to mention them?

There are sites called influencer marketing platforms – the most popular one is FameBit – where you can find brands that are looking for creators just like you to work with them on marketing campaigns. Brands post what they are looking for, and you send them proposals for what kinds of videos you want to make for them.

Sometimes, creating branded content can be as easy as drawing attention to the brand of the eyeliner you use in a few of your tutorials.

Other times, brands may want you to say specific things or include logos in your videos.

Make sure to incorporate any brand messages or product placement you agree to do in ways that will feel natural to your viewers. You should let them know that you have a sponsor, and then incorporate the branded content in ways that do not take away from their enjoyment of your videos.

Ad Revenue

Monetizing your videos and earning ad revenue is one of the primary ways beauty vloggers, and all other YouTubers, make money. It takes a long time to earn more than the pocket change from ads, but so long as you keep growing your audience your revenue will keep going up.

Pay attention to the estimated revenue reports to see which of your videos are earning the most money from ads (they won’t always be your most popular videos). By making more videos on similar topics you will be able to make more money.

Affiliate Links

By becoming an Amazon affiliate, or joining the affiliate program of another online store, you can make money by including links to products in the descriptions of your video or in your related blog posts.

For example, if you talk about your new curling iron in a hair tutorial then you can include a special link to it on Amazon. If any of your viewers follow that link and buy it, you earn a percentage of the purchase.

Even better – if that person keeps shopping, or even skips the curling iron and buys something else, you earn a percentage of any purchase they make on Amazon for a certain period of time.

Affiliate links are mostly used by bloggers, not YouTubers, but you can still include them in the descriptions of your videos (not YouTube Cards or annotations though). It is not a bad idea for you to create blog posts to accompany your videos and post your affiliate links. Blogs are a great way to generate traffic to your videos.

Gifts

Sometimes companies might just give you stuff.

As your following gets bigger, brands might start sending you samples of their products in the hopes that you will fall in love with them and mention, review, or use them in your videos. This is not the same as a sponsorship because the brand is not paying you for a specific kind of message.

Receiving these kinds of gifts is not the same as getting paid, but it can certainly save you money on makeup.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

There are a lot of ways you can make money by posting makeup, beauty, or fashion videos on YouTube. These are all industries that understand the value of quality social media content.

In the video above, beauty YouTuber Gena M explains all the ways there are to make money posting makeup and fashion videos on YouTube. Gena’s most important piece of advice for other beauty vloggers is, to be honest. There is nothing wrong with making money from affiliates or sponsors, so long as you only associate with and recommend products you would actually buy.

Here’s more advice on how you can make money from your makeup videos:

Sponsorships

If you are truly passionate about makeup or fashion then you probably have a few favorite brands. Even if you have never really thought about a brand as your favorite, chances are you purchase one or two types of lip gloss – or any other product – over others on a regular basis.

Wouldn’t it be nice if a company whose product you already love and use in your videos would start paying you just to mention them?

There are sites called influencer marketing platforms – the most popular one is FameBit – where you can find brands that are looking for creators just like you to work with them on marketing campaigns. Brands post what they are looking for, and you send them proposals for what kinds of videos you want to make for them.

Sometimes, creating branded content can be as easy as drawing attention to the brand of the eyeliner you use in a few of your tutorials.

Other times, brands may want you to say specific things or include logos in your videos.

Make sure to incorporate any brand messages or product placement you agree to do in ways that will feel natural to your viewers. You should let them know that you have a sponsor, and then incorporate the branded content in ways that do not take away from their enjoyment of your videos.

Ad Revenue

Monetizing your videos and earning ad revenue is one of the primary ways beauty vloggers, and all other YouTubers, make money. It takes a long time to earn more than the pocket change from ads, but so long as you keep growing your audience your revenue will keep going up.

Pay attention to the estimated revenue reports to see which of your videos are earning the most money from ads (they won’t always be your most popular videos). By making more videos on similar topics you will be able to make more money.

Affiliate Links

By becoming an Amazon affiliate, or joining the affiliate program of another online store, you can make money by including links to products in the descriptions of your video or in your related blog posts.

For example, if you talk about your new curling iron in a hair tutorial then you can include a special link to it on Amazon. If any of your viewers follow that link and buy it, you earn a percentage of the purchase.

Even better – if that person keeps shopping, or even skips the curling iron and buys something else, you earn a percentage of any purchase they make on Amazon for a certain period of time.

Affiliate links are mostly used by bloggers, not YouTubers, but you can still include them in the descriptions of your videos (not YouTube Cards or annotations though). It is not a bad idea for you to create blog posts to accompany your videos and post your affiliate links. Blogs are a great way to generate traffic to your videos.

Gifts

Sometimes companies might just give you stuff.

As your following gets bigger, brands might start sending you samples of their products in the hopes that you will fall in love with them and mention, review, or use them in your videos. This is not the same as a sponsorship because the brand is not paying you for a specific kind of message.

Receiving these kinds of gifts is not the same as getting paid, but it can certainly save you money on makeup.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

There are a lot of ways you can make money by posting makeup, beauty, or fashion videos on YouTube. These are all industries that understand the value of quality social media content.

In the video above, beauty YouTuber Gena M explains all the ways there are to make money posting makeup and fashion videos on YouTube. Gena’s most important piece of advice for other beauty vloggers is, to be honest. There is nothing wrong with making money from affiliates or sponsors, so long as you only associate with and recommend products you would actually buy.

Here’s more advice on how you can make money from your makeup videos:

Sponsorships

If you are truly passionate about makeup or fashion then you probably have a few favorite brands. Even if you have never really thought about a brand as your favorite, chances are you purchase one or two types of lip gloss – or any other product – over others on a regular basis.

Wouldn’t it be nice if a company whose product you already love and use in your videos would start paying you just to mention them?

There are sites called influencer marketing platforms – the most popular one is FameBit – where you can find brands that are looking for creators just like you to work with them on marketing campaigns. Brands post what they are looking for, and you send them proposals for what kinds of videos you want to make for them.

Sometimes, creating branded content can be as easy as drawing attention to the brand of the eyeliner you use in a few of your tutorials.

Other times, brands may want you to say specific things or include logos in your videos.

Make sure to incorporate any brand messages or product placement you agree to do in ways that will feel natural to your viewers. You should let them know that you have a sponsor, and then incorporate the branded content in ways that do not take away from their enjoyment of your videos.

Ad Revenue

Monetizing your videos and earning ad revenue is one of the primary ways beauty vloggers, and all other YouTubers, make money. It takes a long time to earn more than the pocket change from ads, but so long as you keep growing your audience your revenue will keep going up.

Pay attention to the estimated revenue reports to see which of your videos are earning the most money from ads (they won’t always be your most popular videos). By making more videos on similar topics you will be able to make more money.

Affiliate Links

By becoming an Amazon affiliate, or joining the affiliate program of another online store, you can make money by including links to products in the descriptions of your video or in your related blog posts.

For example, if you talk about your new curling iron in a hair tutorial then you can include a special link to it on Amazon. If any of your viewers follow that link and buy it, you earn a percentage of the purchase.

Even better – if that person keeps shopping, or even skips the curling iron and buys something else, you earn a percentage of any purchase they make on Amazon for a certain period of time.

Affiliate links are mostly used by bloggers, not YouTubers, but you can still include them in the descriptions of your videos (not YouTube Cards or annotations though). It is not a bad idea for you to create blog posts to accompany your videos and post your affiliate links. Blogs are a great way to generate traffic to your videos.

Gifts

Sometimes companies might just give you stuff.

As your following gets bigger, brands might start sending you samples of their products in the hopes that you will fall in love with them and mention, review, or use them in your videos. This is not the same as a sponsorship because the brand is not paying you for a specific kind of message.

Receiving these kinds of gifts is not the same as getting paid, but it can certainly save you money on makeup.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

There are a lot of ways you can make money by posting makeup, beauty, or fashion videos on YouTube. These are all industries that understand the value of quality social media content.

In the video above, beauty YouTuber Gena M explains all the ways there are to make money posting makeup and fashion videos on YouTube. Gena’s most important piece of advice for other beauty vloggers is, to be honest. There is nothing wrong with making money from affiliates or sponsors, so long as you only associate with and recommend products you would actually buy.

Here’s more advice on how you can make money from your makeup videos:

Sponsorships

If you are truly passionate about makeup or fashion then you probably have a few favorite brands. Even if you have never really thought about a brand as your favorite, chances are you purchase one or two types of lip gloss – or any other product – over others on a regular basis.

Wouldn’t it be nice if a company whose product you already love and use in your videos would start paying you just to mention them?

There are sites called influencer marketing platforms – the most popular one is FameBit – where you can find brands that are looking for creators just like you to work with them on marketing campaigns. Brands post what they are looking for, and you send them proposals for what kinds of videos you want to make for them.

Sometimes, creating branded content can be as easy as drawing attention to the brand of the eyeliner you use in a few of your tutorials.

Other times, brands may want you to say specific things or include logos in your videos.

Make sure to incorporate any brand messages or product placement you agree to do in ways that will feel natural to your viewers. You should let them know that you have a sponsor, and then incorporate the branded content in ways that do not take away from their enjoyment of your videos.

Ad Revenue

Monetizing your videos and earning ad revenue is one of the primary ways beauty vloggers, and all other YouTubers, make money. It takes a long time to earn more than the pocket change from ads, but so long as you keep growing your audience your revenue will keep going up.

Pay attention to the estimated revenue reports to see which of your videos are earning the most money from ads (they won’t always be your most popular videos). By making more videos on similar topics you will be able to make more money.

Affiliate Links

By becoming an Amazon affiliate, or joining the affiliate program of another online store, you can make money by including links to products in the descriptions of your video or in your related blog posts.

For example, if you talk about your new curling iron in a hair tutorial then you can include a special link to it on Amazon. If any of your viewers follow that link and buy it, you earn a percentage of the purchase.

Even better – if that person keeps shopping, or even skips the curling iron and buys something else, you earn a percentage of any purchase they make on Amazon for a certain period of time.

Affiliate links are mostly used by bloggers, not YouTubers, but you can still include them in the descriptions of your videos (not YouTube Cards or annotations though). It is not a bad idea for you to create blog posts to accompany your videos and post your affiliate links. Blogs are a great way to generate traffic to your videos.

Gifts

Sometimes companies might just give you stuff.

As your following gets bigger, brands might start sending you samples of their products in the hopes that you will fall in love with them and mention, review, or use them in your videos. This is not the same as a sponsorship because the brand is not paying you for a specific kind of message.

Receiving these kinds of gifts is not the same as getting paid, but it can certainly save you money on makeup.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

From Selfie to Sensation: Vloggers’ Choice of Top 9 Camera Accessories

Smartphone Camera Accessories Vloggers Should Try to Improve Recording

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

As smartphone camera technology is rapidly advancing, more and more people are using smartphones as their primary vlogging device. They’re convenient and they draw the least amount of attention. But since most smartphones weren’t made specifically for vlogging, there’s a lot of room to make them more suitable for that purpose. Here is a list of the nine best smartphone camera accessories for vloggers.

Table of Contents 1. PORTABLE CHARGER2. TRIPOD MOUNT3. ANTI-GRAVITY CASE4. SELFIE RING LIGHT5. DIRECTIONAL MICROPHONE6. LENS SET7. FILMMAKING RIG8. FILMMAKING RIG9. GIMBAL

1. RAVPower Portable Charger

Vlogging uses a lot more power. If you’re planning to vlog all throughout your day with your phone, you need a portable way to charge it back up. RAVPower has a great line up of portable chargers with multiple USB inputs that hold a total charge of more than 20,000 mAh. With that amount, you can fully charge your smartphone more than 6 times! I own one myself and it’s been great for me during my travels. A 22,000 mAh charger goes for about $42 USD.

2. Arkon Tripod Mount

The Arkon tripod mount is a great portable tripod option that you can get at the fair price of around $20 USD. Not only does it have bendable legs, like the more expensive Joby GorillaPod tripod, that you can wrap around all kinds of structures, but it also comes with the smartphone mount, which Joby sells separately. Another great thing about the Arkon tripod is that its smartphone mount can be rotated so that you can position your phone to film in either widescreen or portrait mode.

3. Mega Tiny Anti-Gravity Case

For all the flat surfaces that the bendable legs of the Arkon tripod mount can’t wrap around, Mega Tiny’s anti-gravity cases will do the job of holding your iPhone or Android phone in one fixed position. These cases can stick to glass, mirrors, metal, and more. They range from $20 to $30 USD.

4. FLII Selfie Ring Light

As much as smartphone camera technology has advanced, phone cameras still underperform when it comes to filming video in low-light. In low-light, your footage is very grainy because your phone is equipped with a small camera sensor, an engineering choice by the manufacturers to keep the size of the phone small. A handy accessory that you can use to get more light is the FLII selfie ring light. This ring light clamps onto your phone and emits a neutral white light. You can clamp this light to either side of your phone, depending on whether you want to use your rear-facing camera or your front-facing camera. This selfie ring light sells for around $16 USD.

5. RODE VideoMic Me

The mic that is already built into your phone is equally sensitive to the sounds that come from behind the phone as it is to the sounds that are in front of the phone. This can be problematic when you’re trying to vlog in selfie mode while there’s a loud concert on the other side. One smartphone accessory that can improve the sound that you record from your phone in these situations is the RODE VideoMic Me. This mini directional shotgun mic plugs right into your phone’s headphone jack and sells for around $60 USD. In windy conditions, the dead cat windshield that it comes with does a great job of minimizing noise from the wind. In quiet, indoor conditions where you are the only person speaking, this device performs no better than your phone’s internal microphone. Your phone will also have to be in airplane mode to prevent the Rode VideoMic Me from recording unwanted clicking noise caused by background processes performed by your phone. So you wouldn’t want to use this for livestreaming.

6. Aukey Optic 3-in-1 Smartphone Lens Set

Aukey makes a 3-in-1 lens set that you can clamp onto your smartphone so that you can vlog at different focal lengths. The 3-in-1 set comes with a wide-angle lens, a fisheye lens, and a macro lens. The clamp it comes with is long enough for these lenses to reach any camera on a smartphone, not just those of iPhones which are positioned close to the phone’s outer edge. To get the most out of these lenses, you’ll have to use them without your phone’s protective case on. Although you are free to use this lens set on either your phone’s rear-facing camera or front-facing camera, the metal housing of these lenses is likely to show up in your footage when you use them with your front-facing camera. So, instead of having your recorded image stretch to the ends of a 16:9 ratio rectangular frame, your recorded image will look as if it is contained inside a circle. This lens set sells for around $30 USD.

7. iOgrapher Go for Android and iPhone

There’s many more accessories that you can take advantage of if you don’t limit yourself to just smartphone camera accessories. Sound and lighting equipment made for stand-alone cameras perform much better too. Many of these accessories are meant to connect to the camera “shoe” (a bracket on top of the camera that accessories can be attached to). Smartphones don’t come with these kinds of shoes. So, to take advantage of these higher quality accessories, you’ll need some kind of camera rig for your smartphone that also comes with shoes. The iOgrapher Go offers this at around $60 USD. This accessory comes with three shoes.

8. Manfrotto TwistGrip System

Manfrotto’s TwistGrip System does a similar job to the above iOgrapher Go. This system also comes with three shoes. An advantage the TwistGrip System has over the iOgrapher Go is that it is much more portable. Its three connected parts can be detached to take up less space in your bag. This system sells for around $50 USD.

9. Zhiyun Smooth-Q 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer for Smartphones

My favorite smartphone camera accessory that I own is the Zhiyun Smooth-Q gimbal stabilizer. This gimbal is very effective in helping you record smooth video. Using the app that it comes with, you can even preset this gimbal to smoothly pan and rotate from a starting position to an ending position, giving you the opportunity to film beautiful time lapses. You can get this device at around $100 USD.

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

As smartphone camera technology is rapidly advancing, more and more people are using smartphones as their primary vlogging device. They’re convenient and they draw the least amount of attention. But since most smartphones weren’t made specifically for vlogging, there’s a lot of room to make them more suitable for that purpose. Here is a list of the nine best smartphone camera accessories for vloggers.

Table of Contents 1. PORTABLE CHARGER2. TRIPOD MOUNT3. ANTI-GRAVITY CASE4. SELFIE RING LIGHT5. DIRECTIONAL MICROPHONE6. LENS SET7. FILMMAKING RIG8. FILMMAKING RIG9. GIMBAL

1. RAVPower Portable Charger

Vlogging uses a lot more power. If you’re planning to vlog all throughout your day with your phone, you need a portable way to charge it back up. RAVPower has a great line up of portable chargers with multiple USB inputs that hold a total charge of more than 20,000 mAh. With that amount, you can fully charge your smartphone more than 6 times! I own one myself and it’s been great for me during my travels. A 22,000 mAh charger goes for about $42 USD.

2. Arkon Tripod Mount

The Arkon tripod mount is a great portable tripod option that you can get at the fair price of around $20 USD. Not only does it have bendable legs, like the more expensive Joby GorillaPod tripod, that you can wrap around all kinds of structures, but it also comes with the smartphone mount, which Joby sells separately. Another great thing about the Arkon tripod is that its smartphone mount can be rotated so that you can position your phone to film in either widescreen or portrait mode.

3. Mega Tiny Anti-Gravity Case

For all the flat surfaces that the bendable legs of the Arkon tripod mount can’t wrap around, Mega Tiny’s anti-gravity cases will do the job of holding your iPhone or Android phone in one fixed position. These cases can stick to glass, mirrors, metal, and more. They range from $20 to $30 USD.

4. FLII Selfie Ring Light

As much as smartphone camera technology has advanced, phone cameras still underperform when it comes to filming video in low-light. In low-light, your footage is very grainy because your phone is equipped with a small camera sensor, an engineering choice by the manufacturers to keep the size of the phone small. A handy accessory that you can use to get more light is the FLII selfie ring light. This ring light clamps onto your phone and emits a neutral white light. You can clamp this light to either side of your phone, depending on whether you want to use your rear-facing camera or your front-facing camera. This selfie ring light sells for around $16 USD.

5. RODE VideoMic Me

The mic that is already built into your phone is equally sensitive to the sounds that come from behind the phone as it is to the sounds that are in front of the phone. This can be problematic when you’re trying to vlog in selfie mode while there’s a loud concert on the other side. One smartphone accessory that can improve the sound that you record from your phone in these situations is the RODE VideoMic Me. This mini directional shotgun mic plugs right into your phone’s headphone jack and sells for around $60 USD. In windy conditions, the dead cat windshield that it comes with does a great job of minimizing noise from the wind. In quiet, indoor conditions where you are the only person speaking, this device performs no better than your phone’s internal microphone. Your phone will also have to be in airplane mode to prevent the Rode VideoMic Me from recording unwanted clicking noise caused by background processes performed by your phone. So you wouldn’t want to use this for livestreaming.

6. Aukey Optic 3-in-1 Smartphone Lens Set

Aukey makes a 3-in-1 lens set that you can clamp onto your smartphone so that you can vlog at different focal lengths. The 3-in-1 set comes with a wide-angle lens, a fisheye lens, and a macro lens. The clamp it comes with is long enough for these lenses to reach any camera on a smartphone, not just those of iPhones which are positioned close to the phone’s outer edge. To get the most out of these lenses, you’ll have to use them without your phone’s protective case on. Although you are free to use this lens set on either your phone’s rear-facing camera or front-facing camera, the metal housing of these lenses is likely to show up in your footage when you use them with your front-facing camera. So, instead of having your recorded image stretch to the ends of a 16:9 ratio rectangular frame, your recorded image will look as if it is contained inside a circle. This lens set sells for around $30 USD.

7. iOgrapher Go for Android and iPhone

There’s many more accessories that you can take advantage of if you don’t limit yourself to just smartphone camera accessories. Sound and lighting equipment made for stand-alone cameras perform much better too. Many of these accessories are meant to connect to the camera “shoe” (a bracket on top of the camera that accessories can be attached to). Smartphones don’t come with these kinds of shoes. So, to take advantage of these higher quality accessories, you’ll need some kind of camera rig for your smartphone that also comes with shoes. The iOgrapher Go offers this at around $60 USD. This accessory comes with three shoes.

8. Manfrotto TwistGrip System

Manfrotto’s TwistGrip System does a similar job to the above iOgrapher Go. This system also comes with three shoes. An advantage the TwistGrip System has over the iOgrapher Go is that it is much more portable. Its three connected parts can be detached to take up less space in your bag. This system sells for around $50 USD.

9. Zhiyun Smooth-Q 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer for Smartphones

My favorite smartphone camera accessory that I own is the Zhiyun Smooth-Q gimbal stabilizer. This gimbal is very effective in helping you record smooth video. Using the app that it comes with, you can even preset this gimbal to smoothly pan and rotate from a starting position to an ending position, giving you the opportunity to film beautiful time lapses. You can get this device at around $100 USD.

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

As smartphone camera technology is rapidly advancing, more and more people are using smartphones as their primary vlogging device. They’re convenient and they draw the least amount of attention. But since most smartphones weren’t made specifically for vlogging, there’s a lot of room to make them more suitable for that purpose. Here is a list of the nine best smartphone camera accessories for vloggers.

Table of Contents 1. PORTABLE CHARGER2. TRIPOD MOUNT3. ANTI-GRAVITY CASE4. SELFIE RING LIGHT5. DIRECTIONAL MICROPHONE6. LENS SET7. FILMMAKING RIG8. FILMMAKING RIG9. GIMBAL

1. RAVPower Portable Charger

Vlogging uses a lot more power. If you’re planning to vlog all throughout your day with your phone, you need a portable way to charge it back up. RAVPower has a great line up of portable chargers with multiple USB inputs that hold a total charge of more than 20,000 mAh. With that amount, you can fully charge your smartphone more than 6 times! I own one myself and it’s been great for me during my travels. A 22,000 mAh charger goes for about $42 USD.

2. Arkon Tripod Mount

The Arkon tripod mount is a great portable tripod option that you can get at the fair price of around $20 USD. Not only does it have bendable legs, like the more expensive Joby GorillaPod tripod, that you can wrap around all kinds of structures, but it also comes with the smartphone mount, which Joby sells separately. Another great thing about the Arkon tripod is that its smartphone mount can be rotated so that you can position your phone to film in either widescreen or portrait mode.

3. Mega Tiny Anti-Gravity Case

For all the flat surfaces that the bendable legs of the Arkon tripod mount can’t wrap around, Mega Tiny’s anti-gravity cases will do the job of holding your iPhone or Android phone in one fixed position. These cases can stick to glass, mirrors, metal, and more. They range from $20 to $30 USD.

4. FLII Selfie Ring Light

As much as smartphone camera technology has advanced, phone cameras still underperform when it comes to filming video in low-light. In low-light, your footage is very grainy because your phone is equipped with a small camera sensor, an engineering choice by the manufacturers to keep the size of the phone small. A handy accessory that you can use to get more light is the FLII selfie ring light. This ring light clamps onto your phone and emits a neutral white light. You can clamp this light to either side of your phone, depending on whether you want to use your rear-facing camera or your front-facing camera. This selfie ring light sells for around $16 USD.

5. RODE VideoMic Me

The mic that is already built into your phone is equally sensitive to the sounds that come from behind the phone as it is to the sounds that are in front of the phone. This can be problematic when you’re trying to vlog in selfie mode while there’s a loud concert on the other side. One smartphone accessory that can improve the sound that you record from your phone in these situations is the RODE VideoMic Me. This mini directional shotgun mic plugs right into your phone’s headphone jack and sells for around $60 USD. In windy conditions, the dead cat windshield that it comes with does a great job of minimizing noise from the wind. In quiet, indoor conditions where you are the only person speaking, this device performs no better than your phone’s internal microphone. Your phone will also have to be in airplane mode to prevent the Rode VideoMic Me from recording unwanted clicking noise caused by background processes performed by your phone. So you wouldn’t want to use this for livestreaming.

6. Aukey Optic 3-in-1 Smartphone Lens Set

Aukey makes a 3-in-1 lens set that you can clamp onto your smartphone so that you can vlog at different focal lengths. The 3-in-1 set comes with a wide-angle lens, a fisheye lens, and a macro lens. The clamp it comes with is long enough for these lenses to reach any camera on a smartphone, not just those of iPhones which are positioned close to the phone’s outer edge. To get the most out of these lenses, you’ll have to use them without your phone’s protective case on. Although you are free to use this lens set on either your phone’s rear-facing camera or front-facing camera, the metal housing of these lenses is likely to show up in your footage when you use them with your front-facing camera. So, instead of having your recorded image stretch to the ends of a 16:9 ratio rectangular frame, your recorded image will look as if it is contained inside a circle. This lens set sells for around $30 USD.

7. iOgrapher Go for Android and iPhone

There’s many more accessories that you can take advantage of if you don’t limit yourself to just smartphone camera accessories. Sound and lighting equipment made for stand-alone cameras perform much better too. Many of these accessories are meant to connect to the camera “shoe” (a bracket on top of the camera that accessories can be attached to). Smartphones don’t come with these kinds of shoes. So, to take advantage of these higher quality accessories, you’ll need some kind of camera rig for your smartphone that also comes with shoes. The iOgrapher Go offers this at around $60 USD. This accessory comes with three shoes.

8. Manfrotto TwistGrip System

Manfrotto’s TwistGrip System does a similar job to the above iOgrapher Go. This system also comes with three shoes. An advantage the TwistGrip System has over the iOgrapher Go is that it is much more portable. Its three connected parts can be detached to take up less space in your bag. This system sells for around $50 USD.

9. Zhiyun Smooth-Q 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer for Smartphones

My favorite smartphone camera accessory that I own is the Zhiyun Smooth-Q gimbal stabilizer. This gimbal is very effective in helping you record smooth video. Using the app that it comes with, you can even preset this gimbal to smoothly pan and rotate from a starting position to an ending position, giving you the opportunity to film beautiful time lapses. You can get this device at around $100 USD.

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

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As smartphone camera technology is rapidly advancing, more and more people are using smartphones as their primary vlogging device. They’re convenient and they draw the least amount of attention. But since most smartphones weren’t made specifically for vlogging, there’s a lot of room to make them more suitable for that purpose. Here is a list of the nine best smartphone camera accessories for vloggers.

Table of Contents 1. PORTABLE CHARGER2. TRIPOD MOUNT3. ANTI-GRAVITY CASE4. SELFIE RING LIGHT5. DIRECTIONAL MICROPHONE6. LENS SET7. FILMMAKING RIG8. FILMMAKING RIG9. GIMBAL

1. RAVPower Portable Charger

Vlogging uses a lot more power. If you’re planning to vlog all throughout your day with your phone, you need a portable way to charge it back up. RAVPower has a great line up of portable chargers with multiple USB inputs that hold a total charge of more than 20,000 mAh. With that amount, you can fully charge your smartphone more than 6 times! I own one myself and it’s been great for me during my travels. A 22,000 mAh charger goes for about $42 USD.

2. Arkon Tripod Mount

The Arkon tripod mount is a great portable tripod option that you can get at the fair price of around $20 USD. Not only does it have bendable legs, like the more expensive Joby GorillaPod tripod, that you can wrap around all kinds of structures, but it also comes with the smartphone mount, which Joby sells separately. Another great thing about the Arkon tripod is that its smartphone mount can be rotated so that you can position your phone to film in either widescreen or portrait mode.

3. Mega Tiny Anti-Gravity Case

For all the flat surfaces that the bendable legs of the Arkon tripod mount can’t wrap around, Mega Tiny’s anti-gravity cases will do the job of holding your iPhone or Android phone in one fixed position. These cases can stick to glass, mirrors, metal, and more. They range from $20 to $30 USD.

4. FLII Selfie Ring Light

As much as smartphone camera technology has advanced, phone cameras still underperform when it comes to filming video in low-light. In low-light, your footage is very grainy because your phone is equipped with a small camera sensor, an engineering choice by the manufacturers to keep the size of the phone small. A handy accessory that you can use to get more light is the FLII selfie ring light. This ring light clamps onto your phone and emits a neutral white light. You can clamp this light to either side of your phone, depending on whether you want to use your rear-facing camera or your front-facing camera. This selfie ring light sells for around $16 USD.

5. RODE VideoMic Me

The mic that is already built into your phone is equally sensitive to the sounds that come from behind the phone as it is to the sounds that are in front of the phone. This can be problematic when you’re trying to vlog in selfie mode while there’s a loud concert on the other side. One smartphone accessory that can improve the sound that you record from your phone in these situations is the RODE VideoMic Me. This mini directional shotgun mic plugs right into your phone’s headphone jack and sells for around $60 USD. In windy conditions, the dead cat windshield that it comes with does a great job of minimizing noise from the wind. In quiet, indoor conditions where you are the only person speaking, this device performs no better than your phone’s internal microphone. Your phone will also have to be in airplane mode to prevent the Rode VideoMic Me from recording unwanted clicking noise caused by background processes performed by your phone. So you wouldn’t want to use this for livestreaming.

6. Aukey Optic 3-in-1 Smartphone Lens Set

Aukey makes a 3-in-1 lens set that you can clamp onto your smartphone so that you can vlog at different focal lengths. The 3-in-1 set comes with a wide-angle lens, a fisheye lens, and a macro lens. The clamp it comes with is long enough for these lenses to reach any camera on a smartphone, not just those of iPhones which are positioned close to the phone’s outer edge. To get the most out of these lenses, you’ll have to use them without your phone’s protective case on. Although you are free to use this lens set on either your phone’s rear-facing camera or front-facing camera, the metal housing of these lenses is likely to show up in your footage when you use them with your front-facing camera. So, instead of having your recorded image stretch to the ends of a 16:9 ratio rectangular frame, your recorded image will look as if it is contained inside a circle. This lens set sells for around $30 USD.

7. iOgrapher Go for Android and iPhone

There’s many more accessories that you can take advantage of if you don’t limit yourself to just smartphone camera accessories. Sound and lighting equipment made for stand-alone cameras perform much better too. Many of these accessories are meant to connect to the camera “shoe” (a bracket on top of the camera that accessories can be attached to). Smartphones don’t come with these kinds of shoes. So, to take advantage of these higher quality accessories, you’ll need some kind of camera rig for your smartphone that also comes with shoes. The iOgrapher Go offers this at around $60 USD. This accessory comes with three shoes.

8. Manfrotto TwistGrip System

Manfrotto’s TwistGrip System does a similar job to the above iOgrapher Go. This system also comes with three shoes. An advantage the TwistGrip System has over the iOgrapher Go is that it is much more portable. Its three connected parts can be detached to take up less space in your bag. This system sells for around $50 USD.

9. Zhiyun Smooth-Q 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer for Smartphones

My favorite smartphone camera accessory that I own is the Zhiyun Smooth-Q gimbal stabilizer. This gimbal is very effective in helping you record smooth video. Using the app that it comes with, you can even preset this gimbal to smoothly pan and rotate from a starting position to an ending position, giving you the opportunity to film beautiful time lapses. You can get this device at around $100 USD.

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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