The Art of Self-Recording: Improving Your YouTube Presence

4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

A big part of being a YouTuber involves talking to the camera. How you set up your talking-head shot depends on many factors, including how much space you have, what kind of look you’re going for, and how many people you want to fit in one frame. Here are four ways to set up your talking-head shots for YouTube.

Table of Contents 1. Close Quarters Wide-Angle Vlog Set-Up2. Medium Vlog Set-Up3. Two Person Vlog Set-Up4. Long Teleprompter Vlog Set-Up

How to Set Up Your Talking Heads Shots for YouTube Video [Infographic]

We’ve summarized the key points about setting up talking head style video shots with the Infographic below. It is welcomed to share on social media.

How to Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots for YouTube [4 Ways]

1. Close Quarters Wide-Angle Vlog Set-Up

Don’t have a lot of space to set up your camera and lighting equipment? No problem! You can be within an arm’s length away from your camera with a close quarters wide-angle vlog set-up.

With this set-up, you’re going to need a camera with a wide-angle lens, a tripod, a camera-mounted shotgun mic for sound, and a ring light for light.

Set your camera on the tripod and mount the shotgun mic directly on the camera shoe (the electronic bracket on the top of the camera). Inside the circular space of your ring light, position your camera right in the middle of it so that you can shoot your video through it without getting any part of the lighting equipment in your shot.

In the video above, Sean Cannell demonstrates this set-up. As you can see from this example, the wide-angle lens is able to squeeze in a lot of what’s in front of the camera into the shot.

Objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame will appear more stretched out as the wide-angle causes distortion and enhances perspectives.

If you look closely into Sean’s eyes, you can also see a specular highlight in the shape of a circle. Many people like the way eyes look against a ring light.

2. Medium Vlog Set-Up

If you have more space and want to shoot a more professional-looking talking-head shot with more realistic perspectives, a medium vlog set-up may be a better alternative for you.

For this set-up, you’ll be using a slightly longer standard/normal lens (like a 35mm or a 50mm lens) attached to your camera which would be set on a tripod. Since this longer lens will show less of the surrounding areas as it “zooms” closer into whatever is in front, you will need to sit further back, away from your camera.

Now that you’re further away from your camera, a camera-mounted shotgun mic may not be the best mic for you. For better sound recording, you’ll need a shotgun mic fixed on a mic stand that is set up like a boom mic, positioned just outside of your camera frame.

At the 39 second mark of the above video, electronic music producer deadmau5 is positioned right in the center of this particular set-up.

You can see from how even the background and couch looks across the entire camera frame that there is no distortion or enhanced perspective.

It appears that, to the right of deadmau5 (camera left), there is a key light and to his left (camera right) there may be a fill light for additional lighting. Behind the couch, there’s also a background uplight to create depth between the subject and the background. At the 1:30 mark of this trailer video, you can briefly see how the Masterclass camera crew set up their shot.

3. Two Person Vlog Set-Up

If your talking-head shot has got to include two people, you can use a similar set-up as the medium vlog set-up detailed above.

If you look back at the 39-second mark of deadmau5’s Masterclass trailer, you can see that there’s a lot of space to the left and right of deadmau5. Now imagine the same shot but with two people.

With two people, though, you’ll want to set up your mic slightly differently. Rather than using a directional shotgun mic with a narrow area of sensitivity, you’ll want to use a directional mic with a wider area of sensitivity.

4. Long Teleprompter Vlog Set-Up

If you want to read over a script but still make it appear like you’re looking straight into the camera, you’ll need to use a long teleprompter vlog set-up.

For this set-up, you’ll need all the same equipment as the medium vlog set-up, but you’ll additionally need a teleprompter placed in front of your camera equipped with a long telephoto lens.

You will have to sit much further back away from your camera for two main reasons. Firstly, you want to be able to fit yourself in your much more zoomed-in camera frame (effect of the long telephoto lens). Secondly, you want to be far enough that the camera cannot detect your eyes reading from left to right. You’ll want to be around six meters away from a 17” teleprompter monitor or around four meters away from a 10” teleprompter monitor.

In the above video, Jared Polin uses a long teleprompter vlog set-up.

In the video, he says there’s about 8 feet (2.4 meters) between himself and his lens. At the 1:15 mark of his video, Jared demonstrates how this set-up works.

It is difficult to know whether the movement in his eyes is caused by not being far enough from the lens or from his horizontal nystagmus condition in his eyes.

Looking to find the right lights for your video recording set? Check out our Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Tips for Making a Talking Head Video Better

To make a talking-head video more interesting, you can add some background music to the video, apply some interesting texts or elements. Filmora has built-in royalty-free music tracks and sound effects as well as text templates , filters and motivating elements. Download the free trial version below and release your creativity.

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

A big part of being a YouTuber involves talking to the camera. How you set up your talking-head shot depends on many factors, including how much space you have, what kind of look you’re going for, and how many people you want to fit in one frame. Here are four ways to set up your talking-head shots for YouTube.

Table of Contents 1. Close Quarters Wide-Angle Vlog Set-Up2. Medium Vlog Set-Up3. Two Person Vlog Set-Up4. Long Teleprompter Vlog Set-Up

How to Set Up Your Talking Heads Shots for YouTube Video [Infographic]

We’ve summarized the key points about setting up talking head style video shots with the Infographic below. It is welcomed to share on social media.

How to Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots for YouTube [4 Ways]

1. Close Quarters Wide-Angle Vlog Set-Up

Don’t have a lot of space to set up your camera and lighting equipment? No problem! You can be within an arm’s length away from your camera with a close quarters wide-angle vlog set-up.

With this set-up, you’re going to need a camera with a wide-angle lens, a tripod, a camera-mounted shotgun mic for sound, and a ring light for light.

Set your camera on the tripod and mount the shotgun mic directly on the camera shoe (the electronic bracket on the top of the camera). Inside the circular space of your ring light, position your camera right in the middle of it so that you can shoot your video through it without getting any part of the lighting equipment in your shot.

In the video above, Sean Cannell demonstrates this set-up. As you can see from this example, the wide-angle lens is able to squeeze in a lot of what’s in front of the camera into the shot.

Objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame will appear more stretched out as the wide-angle causes distortion and enhances perspectives.

If you look closely into Sean’s eyes, you can also see a specular highlight in the shape of a circle. Many people like the way eyes look against a ring light.

2. Medium Vlog Set-Up

If you have more space and want to shoot a more professional-looking talking-head shot with more realistic perspectives, a medium vlog set-up may be a better alternative for you.

For this set-up, you’ll be using a slightly longer standard/normal lens (like a 35mm or a 50mm lens) attached to your camera which would be set on a tripod. Since this longer lens will show less of the surrounding areas as it “zooms” closer into whatever is in front, you will need to sit further back, away from your camera.

Now that you’re further away from your camera, a camera-mounted shotgun mic may not be the best mic for you. For better sound recording, you’ll need a shotgun mic fixed on a mic stand that is set up like a boom mic, positioned just outside of your camera frame.

At the 39 second mark of the above video, electronic music producer deadmau5 is positioned right in the center of this particular set-up.

You can see from how even the background and couch looks across the entire camera frame that there is no distortion or enhanced perspective.

It appears that, to the right of deadmau5 (camera left), there is a key light and to his left (camera right) there may be a fill light for additional lighting. Behind the couch, there’s also a background uplight to create depth between the subject and the background. At the 1:30 mark of this trailer video, you can briefly see how the Masterclass camera crew set up their shot.

3. Two Person Vlog Set-Up

If your talking-head shot has got to include two people, you can use a similar set-up as the medium vlog set-up detailed above.

If you look back at the 39-second mark of deadmau5’s Masterclass trailer, you can see that there’s a lot of space to the left and right of deadmau5. Now imagine the same shot but with two people.

With two people, though, you’ll want to set up your mic slightly differently. Rather than using a directional shotgun mic with a narrow area of sensitivity, you’ll want to use a directional mic with a wider area of sensitivity.

4. Long Teleprompter Vlog Set-Up

If you want to read over a script but still make it appear like you’re looking straight into the camera, you’ll need to use a long teleprompter vlog set-up.

For this set-up, you’ll need all the same equipment as the medium vlog set-up, but you’ll additionally need a teleprompter placed in front of your camera equipped with a long telephoto lens.

You will have to sit much further back away from your camera for two main reasons. Firstly, you want to be able to fit yourself in your much more zoomed-in camera frame (effect of the long telephoto lens). Secondly, you want to be far enough that the camera cannot detect your eyes reading from left to right. You’ll want to be around six meters away from a 17” teleprompter monitor or around four meters away from a 10” teleprompter monitor.

In the above video, Jared Polin uses a long teleprompter vlog set-up.

In the video, he says there’s about 8 feet (2.4 meters) between himself and his lens. At the 1:15 mark of his video, Jared demonstrates how this set-up works.

It is difficult to know whether the movement in his eyes is caused by not being far enough from the lens or from his horizontal nystagmus condition in his eyes.

Looking to find the right lights for your video recording set? Check out our Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Tips for Making a Talking Head Video Better

To make a talking-head video more interesting, you can add some background music to the video, apply some interesting texts or elements. Filmora has built-in royalty-free music tracks and sound effects as well as text templates , filters and motivating elements. Download the free trial version below and release your creativity.

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

A big part of being a YouTuber involves talking to the camera. How you set up your talking-head shot depends on many factors, including how much space you have, what kind of look you’re going for, and how many people you want to fit in one frame. Here are four ways to set up your talking-head shots for YouTube.

Table of Contents 1. Close Quarters Wide-Angle Vlog Set-Up2. Medium Vlog Set-Up3. Two Person Vlog Set-Up4. Long Teleprompter Vlog Set-Up

How to Set Up Your Talking Heads Shots for YouTube Video [Infographic]

We’ve summarized the key points about setting up talking head style video shots with the Infographic below. It is welcomed to share on social media.

How to Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots for YouTube [4 Ways]

1. Close Quarters Wide-Angle Vlog Set-Up

Don’t have a lot of space to set up your camera and lighting equipment? No problem! You can be within an arm’s length away from your camera with a close quarters wide-angle vlog set-up.

With this set-up, you’re going to need a camera with a wide-angle lens, a tripod, a camera-mounted shotgun mic for sound, and a ring light for light.

Set your camera on the tripod and mount the shotgun mic directly on the camera shoe (the electronic bracket on the top of the camera). Inside the circular space of your ring light, position your camera right in the middle of it so that you can shoot your video through it without getting any part of the lighting equipment in your shot.

In the video above, Sean Cannell demonstrates this set-up. As you can see from this example, the wide-angle lens is able to squeeze in a lot of what’s in front of the camera into the shot.

Objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame will appear more stretched out as the wide-angle causes distortion and enhances perspectives.

If you look closely into Sean’s eyes, you can also see a specular highlight in the shape of a circle. Many people like the way eyes look against a ring light.

2. Medium Vlog Set-Up

If you have more space and want to shoot a more professional-looking talking-head shot with more realistic perspectives, a medium vlog set-up may be a better alternative for you.

For this set-up, you’ll be using a slightly longer standard/normal lens (like a 35mm or a 50mm lens) attached to your camera which would be set on a tripod. Since this longer lens will show less of the surrounding areas as it “zooms” closer into whatever is in front, you will need to sit further back, away from your camera.

Now that you’re further away from your camera, a camera-mounted shotgun mic may not be the best mic for you. For better sound recording, you’ll need a shotgun mic fixed on a mic stand that is set up like a boom mic, positioned just outside of your camera frame.

At the 39 second mark of the above video, electronic music producer deadmau5 is positioned right in the center of this particular set-up.

You can see from how even the background and couch looks across the entire camera frame that there is no distortion or enhanced perspective.

It appears that, to the right of deadmau5 (camera left), there is a key light and to his left (camera right) there may be a fill light for additional lighting. Behind the couch, there’s also a background uplight to create depth between the subject and the background. At the 1:30 mark of this trailer video, you can briefly see how the Masterclass camera crew set up their shot.

3. Two Person Vlog Set-Up

If your talking-head shot has got to include two people, you can use a similar set-up as the medium vlog set-up detailed above.

If you look back at the 39-second mark of deadmau5’s Masterclass trailer, you can see that there’s a lot of space to the left and right of deadmau5. Now imagine the same shot but with two people.

With two people, though, you’ll want to set up your mic slightly differently. Rather than using a directional shotgun mic with a narrow area of sensitivity, you’ll want to use a directional mic with a wider area of sensitivity.

4. Long Teleprompter Vlog Set-Up

If you want to read over a script but still make it appear like you’re looking straight into the camera, you’ll need to use a long teleprompter vlog set-up.

For this set-up, you’ll need all the same equipment as the medium vlog set-up, but you’ll additionally need a teleprompter placed in front of your camera equipped with a long telephoto lens.

You will have to sit much further back away from your camera for two main reasons. Firstly, you want to be able to fit yourself in your much more zoomed-in camera frame (effect of the long telephoto lens). Secondly, you want to be far enough that the camera cannot detect your eyes reading from left to right. You’ll want to be around six meters away from a 17” teleprompter monitor or around four meters away from a 10” teleprompter monitor.

In the above video, Jared Polin uses a long teleprompter vlog set-up.

In the video, he says there’s about 8 feet (2.4 meters) between himself and his lens. At the 1:15 mark of his video, Jared demonstrates how this set-up works.

It is difficult to know whether the movement in his eyes is caused by not being far enough from the lens or from his horizontal nystagmus condition in his eyes.

Looking to find the right lights for your video recording set? Check out our Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Tips for Making a Talking Head Video Better

To make a talking-head video more interesting, you can add some background music to the video, apply some interesting texts or elements. Filmora has built-in royalty-free music tracks and sound effects as well as text templates , filters and motivating elements. Download the free trial version below and release your creativity.

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

A big part of being a YouTuber involves talking to the camera. How you set up your talking-head shot depends on many factors, including how much space you have, what kind of look you’re going for, and how many people you want to fit in one frame. Here are four ways to set up your talking-head shots for YouTube.

Table of Contents 1. Close Quarters Wide-Angle Vlog Set-Up2. Medium Vlog Set-Up3. Two Person Vlog Set-Up4. Long Teleprompter Vlog Set-Up

How to Set Up Your Talking Heads Shots for YouTube Video [Infographic]

We’ve summarized the key points about setting up talking head style video shots with the Infographic below. It is welcomed to share on social media.

How to Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots for YouTube [4 Ways]

1. Close Quarters Wide-Angle Vlog Set-Up

Don’t have a lot of space to set up your camera and lighting equipment? No problem! You can be within an arm’s length away from your camera with a close quarters wide-angle vlog set-up.

With this set-up, you’re going to need a camera with a wide-angle lens, a tripod, a camera-mounted shotgun mic for sound, and a ring light for light.

Set your camera on the tripod and mount the shotgun mic directly on the camera shoe (the electronic bracket on the top of the camera). Inside the circular space of your ring light, position your camera right in the middle of it so that you can shoot your video through it without getting any part of the lighting equipment in your shot.

In the video above, Sean Cannell demonstrates this set-up. As you can see from this example, the wide-angle lens is able to squeeze in a lot of what’s in front of the camera into the shot.

Objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame will appear more stretched out as the wide-angle causes distortion and enhances perspectives.

If you look closely into Sean’s eyes, you can also see a specular highlight in the shape of a circle. Many people like the way eyes look against a ring light.

2. Medium Vlog Set-Up

If you have more space and want to shoot a more professional-looking talking-head shot with more realistic perspectives, a medium vlog set-up may be a better alternative for you.

For this set-up, you’ll be using a slightly longer standard/normal lens (like a 35mm or a 50mm lens) attached to your camera which would be set on a tripod. Since this longer lens will show less of the surrounding areas as it “zooms” closer into whatever is in front, you will need to sit further back, away from your camera.

Now that you’re further away from your camera, a camera-mounted shotgun mic may not be the best mic for you. For better sound recording, you’ll need a shotgun mic fixed on a mic stand that is set up like a boom mic, positioned just outside of your camera frame.

At the 39 second mark of the above video, electronic music producer deadmau5 is positioned right in the center of this particular set-up.

You can see from how even the background and couch looks across the entire camera frame that there is no distortion or enhanced perspective.

It appears that, to the right of deadmau5 (camera left), there is a key light and to his left (camera right) there may be a fill light for additional lighting. Behind the couch, there’s also a background uplight to create depth between the subject and the background. At the 1:30 mark of this trailer video, you can briefly see how the Masterclass camera crew set up their shot.

3. Two Person Vlog Set-Up

If your talking-head shot has got to include two people, you can use a similar set-up as the medium vlog set-up detailed above.

If you look back at the 39-second mark of deadmau5’s Masterclass trailer, you can see that there’s a lot of space to the left and right of deadmau5. Now imagine the same shot but with two people.

With two people, though, you’ll want to set up your mic slightly differently. Rather than using a directional shotgun mic with a narrow area of sensitivity, you’ll want to use a directional mic with a wider area of sensitivity.

4. Long Teleprompter Vlog Set-Up

If you want to read over a script but still make it appear like you’re looking straight into the camera, you’ll need to use a long teleprompter vlog set-up.

For this set-up, you’ll need all the same equipment as the medium vlog set-up, but you’ll additionally need a teleprompter placed in front of your camera equipped with a long telephoto lens.

You will have to sit much further back away from your camera for two main reasons. Firstly, you want to be able to fit yourself in your much more zoomed-in camera frame (effect of the long telephoto lens). Secondly, you want to be far enough that the camera cannot detect your eyes reading from left to right. You’ll want to be around six meters away from a 17” teleprompter monitor or around four meters away from a 10” teleprompter monitor.

In the above video, Jared Polin uses a long teleprompter vlog set-up.

In the video, he says there’s about 8 feet (2.4 meters) between himself and his lens. At the 1:15 mark of his video, Jared demonstrates how this set-up works.

It is difficult to know whether the movement in his eyes is caused by not being far enough from the lens or from his horizontal nystagmus condition in his eyes.

Looking to find the right lights for your video recording set? Check out our Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Tips for Making a Talking Head Video Better

To make a talking-head video more interesting, you can add some background music to the video, apply some interesting texts or elements. Filmora has built-in royalty-free music tracks and sound effects as well as text templates , filters and motivating elements. Download the free trial version below and release your creativity.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Strategies for Sourcing Video Content with Google Trends

How to Use Google Trends to Come up with Video Ideas [Easy Guide]

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

There is always something to make a video about. It’s a big world where new things happen every day, in every YouTube niche . One of the best ways to climb to the top of YouTube’s search engine results is to be among the first creators to make a video about a trending topic.

But how do you know what’s trending? If you’re in a huge genre like beauty or technology then it’s not impossible to keep track of the latest news and trends, but you probably hear about things as other people start making videos and as websites start publishing articles. How do you get on top of trends just as they’re becoming trends?

Google Trends, of course!

Google Trends is a completely free tool you can use to determine what’s trending on YouTube or in Google’s search engine. Here’s how you can use Google Trends to figure out what’s trending in your niche and make a video before there’s tons of competition.

Part 1: Seeing The Big Picture

You’ll need to be signed into your Google account to use Google Trends.

Start off at trends.google.com and you’ll see what’s trending in general – usually big news stories or things like sports finals. The data is laid out like this: at the top there are three ‘Featured Insights’. These are three of the most popular trending topics paired with graphs of their recent search traffic. Underneath these there will be a list of stories that are currently trending. You can click on them to see charts of their search data and links to where the stories are being covered online.

Unless you do news or political commentary on your channel these probably aren’t topics you want to cover, but if you like to insert some topical references into your other videos then it’s still good to be aware of these things.

To get information more relevant to your channel you’re going to have to do some filtering.

Part 2: Getting Results That Matter to You

In the Google Trend home page, scroll down to the ‘Recently Trending’ section and click on ‘More Trending Searches’.

Then click from ‘Daily Search Trends’ to ‘Realtime Search Trends’.

On top you will see two drop-down menus, one is for the category and one is for location.

Under All categories select the general theme your channel falls under.

Your options are business, entertainment, health, Sci/Tech, sports, and top stories.

It might be the case that your channel doesn’t fall under any of these themes, but there could still be related stories for you in other categories. For example, if you have a beauty channel then there could be something that’d interest you under health, entertainment, or even business.

Under the location menu choose the region most of your viewers are from. This might not be the same as where you are from – you could be in Australia and most of your viewers could be in the U.S. If you’re not sure where your viewers are from you can find out in your Creator Studio under Analytics > Demographics.

Once you have narrowed down your results you can just scroll through and pick out a topic related to your channel’s theme that you have something to say about.

For example, if you have a gaming channel and you’re looking for a non-gameplay topic to make a video on, you would look under Sci/Tech. If I look under that category today (May 29, 2017) and specify that I want topics trending in the United States then these are my top 5 results:

The first two happen to be about gaming. If you, as a gamer, had any strong reaction to either of these topics – whether it’s that you feel like you’re knowledgeable about them, or that you’re excited by something that’s coming up, or that something made you groan – then that would be a sign that you should make a video. Capitalizing on a trend while also covering a topic you have a lot to say about is always a good move.

Having something to say doesn’t have to mean having a strong opinion. If you just find something interesting and want to pass the information along to your viewers then that’s great too.

Clicking on these results will give you more specific data including how often the topic has been searched recently and links to recent news articles. These can give you a better idea of why it is trending and help you come up with what you want to say.

Part 3: Battle of the Keywords

Once you have a topic in mind for your next video – whether it came from Google Trends or your own noggin – think about what the most important keyword for that topic might be.

A keyword is a word or short phrase that people type into a search engine like Google or YouTube. In order for people to find your videos, you’ll have to include a keyword in your video’s title.

Once you have a keyword in mind, type it into the Explore bar at the top of your page in Google Trends.

What happens after you click enter is pretty much magic. Say I want to make a video on how to use Filmora. The first thing I’ll type into that Explore bar is ‘Filmora’.

You can see near the top that this chart represents searches for the topic over the last 5 years, which isn’t necessarily useful (although it is sort of cool that you can see when Filmora was ‘born’). I’m going to narrow that down to results from the U.S in the last week.

There, now I can see how the popularity of Filmora as a search term has spiked on specific days and times (if you hover over a spike it tells you the time and day) and plan to post my video at a time that capitalizes on these trends.

Next, what other words do I want to include in my video title? Is this a review, a tutorial, or a how-to? By clicking on my search term Filmora, I can edit it to read ‘filmora review’. Then I can click + Compare and type in ‘filmora tutorial’ and ‘how to use Filmora’. Google Trends will create a chart comparing the popularity of those 3 terms.

I also ‘zoomed out’ to 90 days – if I’d only looked at how they compared over the last week my results could have been skewed.

It’s pretty clear from the chart that ‘filmora review’ is the strongest of those 3 search terms. The title of my video should definitely start with the words Filmora Review because that is what most people are searching for when they want information about Filmora. Putting your most important keyword/search term first in your video titles will help them rank better in the viewer’s search results.

Although, when you do a comparison like this you should also go to YouTube and search for each potential keyword/phrase individually. It might turn out that there is a ton of strong competition for the most popular search term, and not as much for the second or third most popular. Here’s a search for ‘Filmora Review’ on YouTube:

If my view of YouTube looks different from yours it’s because I’m using the VidIQ plugin for Chrome . It’s free and it gives you all kinds of extra info about videos and channels.

The second-highest ranked result is only 2 months old and isn’t from a huge channel. Although there is competition for this keyword, ranking for it is not impossible. It also helps that software reviews are a topic where people will always be looking for the latest information/newest videos.

If the search results for your keyword are dominated by monster channels with millions of subs, and you can’t think of an angle you can use to crack into those top results (i.e. having newer information people will be looking for, which the more established videos are lacking), then maybe try the search with your second best keyword and see if there’s a better opportunity for you to rank there.

One of the biggest benefits of identifying trends and making videos about them quickly is that you can get in before there’s a lot of competition for the first few pages of search results on YouTube or Google, and before larger channels start making videos of their own on the same topic.

Want to make coming up with YouTube video ideas a habit? This post here will help you develop a process to generate more ideas and properly evaluate them.

Making Better YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software among YouTubers, Filmora provides plentiful editing tools, such as cut, trim, video stabilization , noise removal , chroma key compositing , and color grading. Besides, there are royalty-free music track and sound effects available in the built-in Audio library, and title templates and presets, as well as elements and effects. Download the free trial version below 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

There is always something to make a video about. It’s a big world where new things happen every day, in every YouTube niche . One of the best ways to climb to the top of YouTube’s search engine results is to be among the first creators to make a video about a trending topic.

But how do you know what’s trending? If you’re in a huge genre like beauty or technology then it’s not impossible to keep track of the latest news and trends, but you probably hear about things as other people start making videos and as websites start publishing articles. How do you get on top of trends just as they’re becoming trends?

Google Trends, of course!

Google Trends is a completely free tool you can use to determine what’s trending on YouTube or in Google’s search engine. Here’s how you can use Google Trends to figure out what’s trending in your niche and make a video before there’s tons of competition.

Part 1: Seeing The Big Picture

You’ll need to be signed into your Google account to use Google Trends.

Start off at trends.google.com and you’ll see what’s trending in general – usually big news stories or things like sports finals. The data is laid out like this: at the top there are three ‘Featured Insights’. These are three of the most popular trending topics paired with graphs of their recent search traffic. Underneath these there will be a list of stories that are currently trending. You can click on them to see charts of their search data and links to where the stories are being covered online.

Unless you do news or political commentary on your channel these probably aren’t topics you want to cover, but if you like to insert some topical references into your other videos then it’s still good to be aware of these things.

To get information more relevant to your channel you’re going to have to do some filtering.

Part 2: Getting Results That Matter to You

In the Google Trend home page, scroll down to the ‘Recently Trending’ section and click on ‘More Trending Searches’.

Then click from ‘Daily Search Trends’ to ‘Realtime Search Trends’.

On top you will see two drop-down menus, one is for the category and one is for location.

Under All categories select the general theme your channel falls under.

Your options are business, entertainment, health, Sci/Tech, sports, and top stories.

It might be the case that your channel doesn’t fall under any of these themes, but there could still be related stories for you in other categories. For example, if you have a beauty channel then there could be something that’d interest you under health, entertainment, or even business.

Under the location menu choose the region most of your viewers are from. This might not be the same as where you are from – you could be in Australia and most of your viewers could be in the U.S. If you’re not sure where your viewers are from you can find out in your Creator Studio under Analytics > Demographics.

Once you have narrowed down your results you can just scroll through and pick out a topic related to your channel’s theme that you have something to say about.

For example, if you have a gaming channel and you’re looking for a non-gameplay topic to make a video on, you would look under Sci/Tech. If I look under that category today (May 29, 2017) and specify that I want topics trending in the United States then these are my top 5 results:

The first two happen to be about gaming. If you, as a gamer, had any strong reaction to either of these topics – whether it’s that you feel like you’re knowledgeable about them, or that you’re excited by something that’s coming up, or that something made you groan – then that would be a sign that you should make a video. Capitalizing on a trend while also covering a topic you have a lot to say about is always a good move.

Having something to say doesn’t have to mean having a strong opinion. If you just find something interesting and want to pass the information along to your viewers then that’s great too.

Clicking on these results will give you more specific data including how often the topic has been searched recently and links to recent news articles. These can give you a better idea of why it is trending and help you come up with what you want to say.

Part 3: Battle of the Keywords

Once you have a topic in mind for your next video – whether it came from Google Trends or your own noggin – think about what the most important keyword for that topic might be.

A keyword is a word or short phrase that people type into a search engine like Google or YouTube. In order for people to find your videos, you’ll have to include a keyword in your video’s title.

Once you have a keyword in mind, type it into the Explore bar at the top of your page in Google Trends.

What happens after you click enter is pretty much magic. Say I want to make a video on how to use Filmora. The first thing I’ll type into that Explore bar is ‘Filmora’.

You can see near the top that this chart represents searches for the topic over the last 5 years, which isn’t necessarily useful (although it is sort of cool that you can see when Filmora was ‘born’). I’m going to narrow that down to results from the U.S in the last week.

There, now I can see how the popularity of Filmora as a search term has spiked on specific days and times (if you hover over a spike it tells you the time and day) and plan to post my video at a time that capitalizes on these trends.

Next, what other words do I want to include in my video title? Is this a review, a tutorial, or a how-to? By clicking on my search term Filmora, I can edit it to read ‘filmora review’. Then I can click + Compare and type in ‘filmora tutorial’ and ‘how to use Filmora’. Google Trends will create a chart comparing the popularity of those 3 terms.

I also ‘zoomed out’ to 90 days – if I’d only looked at how they compared over the last week my results could have been skewed.

It’s pretty clear from the chart that ‘filmora review’ is the strongest of those 3 search terms. The title of my video should definitely start with the words Filmora Review because that is what most people are searching for when they want information about Filmora. Putting your most important keyword/search term first in your video titles will help them rank better in the viewer’s search results.

Although, when you do a comparison like this you should also go to YouTube and search for each potential keyword/phrase individually. It might turn out that there is a ton of strong competition for the most popular search term, and not as much for the second or third most popular. Here’s a search for ‘Filmora Review’ on YouTube:

If my view of YouTube looks different from yours it’s because I’m using the VidIQ plugin for Chrome . It’s free and it gives you all kinds of extra info about videos and channels.

The second-highest ranked result is only 2 months old and isn’t from a huge channel. Although there is competition for this keyword, ranking for it is not impossible. It also helps that software reviews are a topic where people will always be looking for the latest information/newest videos.

If the search results for your keyword are dominated by monster channels with millions of subs, and you can’t think of an angle you can use to crack into those top results (i.e. having newer information people will be looking for, which the more established videos are lacking), then maybe try the search with your second best keyword and see if there’s a better opportunity for you to rank there.

One of the biggest benefits of identifying trends and making videos about them quickly is that you can get in before there’s a lot of competition for the first few pages of search results on YouTube or Google, and before larger channels start making videos of their own on the same topic.

Want to make coming up with YouTube video ideas a habit? This post here will help you develop a process to generate more ideas and properly evaluate them.

Making Better YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software among YouTubers, Filmora provides plentiful editing tools, such as cut, trim, video stabilization , noise removal , chroma key compositing , and color grading. Besides, there are royalty-free music track and sound effects available in the built-in Audio library, and title templates and presets, as well as elements and effects. Download the free trial version below 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

There is always something to make a video about. It’s a big world where new things happen every day, in every YouTube niche . One of the best ways to climb to the top of YouTube’s search engine results is to be among the first creators to make a video about a trending topic.

But how do you know what’s trending? If you’re in a huge genre like beauty or technology then it’s not impossible to keep track of the latest news and trends, but you probably hear about things as other people start making videos and as websites start publishing articles. How do you get on top of trends just as they’re becoming trends?

Google Trends, of course!

Google Trends is a completely free tool you can use to determine what’s trending on YouTube or in Google’s search engine. Here’s how you can use Google Trends to figure out what’s trending in your niche and make a video before there’s tons of competition.

Part 1: Seeing The Big Picture

You’ll need to be signed into your Google account to use Google Trends.

Start off at trends.google.com and you’ll see what’s trending in general – usually big news stories or things like sports finals. The data is laid out like this: at the top there are three ‘Featured Insights’. These are three of the most popular trending topics paired with graphs of their recent search traffic. Underneath these there will be a list of stories that are currently trending. You can click on them to see charts of their search data and links to where the stories are being covered online.

Unless you do news or political commentary on your channel these probably aren’t topics you want to cover, but if you like to insert some topical references into your other videos then it’s still good to be aware of these things.

To get information more relevant to your channel you’re going to have to do some filtering.

Part 2: Getting Results That Matter to You

In the Google Trend home page, scroll down to the ‘Recently Trending’ section and click on ‘More Trending Searches’.

Then click from ‘Daily Search Trends’ to ‘Realtime Search Trends’.

On top you will see two drop-down menus, one is for the category and one is for location.

Under All categories select the general theme your channel falls under.

Your options are business, entertainment, health, Sci/Tech, sports, and top stories.

It might be the case that your channel doesn’t fall under any of these themes, but there could still be related stories for you in other categories. For example, if you have a beauty channel then there could be something that’d interest you under health, entertainment, or even business.

Under the location menu choose the region most of your viewers are from. This might not be the same as where you are from – you could be in Australia and most of your viewers could be in the U.S. If you’re not sure where your viewers are from you can find out in your Creator Studio under Analytics > Demographics.

Once you have narrowed down your results you can just scroll through and pick out a topic related to your channel’s theme that you have something to say about.

For example, if you have a gaming channel and you’re looking for a non-gameplay topic to make a video on, you would look under Sci/Tech. If I look under that category today (May 29, 2017) and specify that I want topics trending in the United States then these are my top 5 results:

The first two happen to be about gaming. If you, as a gamer, had any strong reaction to either of these topics – whether it’s that you feel like you’re knowledgeable about them, or that you’re excited by something that’s coming up, or that something made you groan – then that would be a sign that you should make a video. Capitalizing on a trend while also covering a topic you have a lot to say about is always a good move.

Having something to say doesn’t have to mean having a strong opinion. If you just find something interesting and want to pass the information along to your viewers then that’s great too.

Clicking on these results will give you more specific data including how often the topic has been searched recently and links to recent news articles. These can give you a better idea of why it is trending and help you come up with what you want to say.

Part 3: Battle of the Keywords

Once you have a topic in mind for your next video – whether it came from Google Trends or your own noggin – think about what the most important keyword for that topic might be.

A keyword is a word or short phrase that people type into a search engine like Google or YouTube. In order for people to find your videos, you’ll have to include a keyword in your video’s title.

Once you have a keyword in mind, type it into the Explore bar at the top of your page in Google Trends.

What happens after you click enter is pretty much magic. Say I want to make a video on how to use Filmora. The first thing I’ll type into that Explore bar is ‘Filmora’.

You can see near the top that this chart represents searches for the topic over the last 5 years, which isn’t necessarily useful (although it is sort of cool that you can see when Filmora was ‘born’). I’m going to narrow that down to results from the U.S in the last week.

There, now I can see how the popularity of Filmora as a search term has spiked on specific days and times (if you hover over a spike it tells you the time and day) and plan to post my video at a time that capitalizes on these trends.

Next, what other words do I want to include in my video title? Is this a review, a tutorial, or a how-to? By clicking on my search term Filmora, I can edit it to read ‘filmora review’. Then I can click + Compare and type in ‘filmora tutorial’ and ‘how to use Filmora’. Google Trends will create a chart comparing the popularity of those 3 terms.

I also ‘zoomed out’ to 90 days – if I’d only looked at how they compared over the last week my results could have been skewed.

It’s pretty clear from the chart that ‘filmora review’ is the strongest of those 3 search terms. The title of my video should definitely start with the words Filmora Review because that is what most people are searching for when they want information about Filmora. Putting your most important keyword/search term first in your video titles will help them rank better in the viewer’s search results.

Although, when you do a comparison like this you should also go to YouTube and search for each potential keyword/phrase individually. It might turn out that there is a ton of strong competition for the most popular search term, and not as much for the second or third most popular. Here’s a search for ‘Filmora Review’ on YouTube:

If my view of YouTube looks different from yours it’s because I’m using the VidIQ plugin for Chrome . It’s free and it gives you all kinds of extra info about videos and channels.

The second-highest ranked result is only 2 months old and isn’t from a huge channel. Although there is competition for this keyword, ranking for it is not impossible. It also helps that software reviews are a topic where people will always be looking for the latest information/newest videos.

If the search results for your keyword are dominated by monster channels with millions of subs, and you can’t think of an angle you can use to crack into those top results (i.e. having newer information people will be looking for, which the more established videos are lacking), then maybe try the search with your second best keyword and see if there’s a better opportunity for you to rank there.

One of the biggest benefits of identifying trends and making videos about them quickly is that you can get in before there’s a lot of competition for the first few pages of search results on YouTube or Google, and before larger channels start making videos of their own on the same topic.

Want to make coming up with YouTube video ideas a habit? This post here will help you develop a process to generate more ideas and properly evaluate them.

Making Better YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software among YouTubers, Filmora provides plentiful editing tools, such as cut, trim, video stabilization , noise removal , chroma key compositing , and color grading. Besides, there are royalty-free music track and sound effects available in the built-in Audio library, and title templates and presets, as well as elements and effects. Download the free trial version below 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

There is always something to make a video about. It’s a big world where new things happen every day, in every YouTube niche . One of the best ways to climb to the top of YouTube’s search engine results is to be among the first creators to make a video about a trending topic.

But how do you know what’s trending? If you’re in a huge genre like beauty or technology then it’s not impossible to keep track of the latest news and trends, but you probably hear about things as other people start making videos and as websites start publishing articles. How do you get on top of trends just as they’re becoming trends?

Google Trends, of course!

Google Trends is a completely free tool you can use to determine what’s trending on YouTube or in Google’s search engine. Here’s how you can use Google Trends to figure out what’s trending in your niche and make a video before there’s tons of competition.

Part 1: Seeing The Big Picture

You’ll need to be signed into your Google account to use Google Trends.

Start off at trends.google.com and you’ll see what’s trending in general – usually big news stories or things like sports finals. The data is laid out like this: at the top there are three ‘Featured Insights’. These are three of the most popular trending topics paired with graphs of their recent search traffic. Underneath these there will be a list of stories that are currently trending. You can click on them to see charts of their search data and links to where the stories are being covered online.

Unless you do news or political commentary on your channel these probably aren’t topics you want to cover, but if you like to insert some topical references into your other videos then it’s still good to be aware of these things.

To get information more relevant to your channel you’re going to have to do some filtering.

Part 2: Getting Results That Matter to You

In the Google Trend home page, scroll down to the ‘Recently Trending’ section and click on ‘More Trending Searches’.

Then click from ‘Daily Search Trends’ to ‘Realtime Search Trends’.

On top you will see two drop-down menus, one is for the category and one is for location.

Under All categories select the general theme your channel falls under.

Your options are business, entertainment, health, Sci/Tech, sports, and top stories.

It might be the case that your channel doesn’t fall under any of these themes, but there could still be related stories for you in other categories. For example, if you have a beauty channel then there could be something that’d interest you under health, entertainment, or even business.

Under the location menu choose the region most of your viewers are from. This might not be the same as where you are from – you could be in Australia and most of your viewers could be in the U.S. If you’re not sure where your viewers are from you can find out in your Creator Studio under Analytics > Demographics.

Once you have narrowed down your results you can just scroll through and pick out a topic related to your channel’s theme that you have something to say about.

For example, if you have a gaming channel and you’re looking for a non-gameplay topic to make a video on, you would look under Sci/Tech. If I look under that category today (May 29, 2017) and specify that I want topics trending in the United States then these are my top 5 results:

The first two happen to be about gaming. If you, as a gamer, had any strong reaction to either of these topics – whether it’s that you feel like you’re knowledgeable about them, or that you’re excited by something that’s coming up, or that something made you groan – then that would be a sign that you should make a video. Capitalizing on a trend while also covering a topic you have a lot to say about is always a good move.

Having something to say doesn’t have to mean having a strong opinion. If you just find something interesting and want to pass the information along to your viewers then that’s great too.

Clicking on these results will give you more specific data including how often the topic has been searched recently and links to recent news articles. These can give you a better idea of why it is trending and help you come up with what you want to say.

Part 3: Battle of the Keywords

Once you have a topic in mind for your next video – whether it came from Google Trends or your own noggin – think about what the most important keyword for that topic might be.

A keyword is a word or short phrase that people type into a search engine like Google or YouTube. In order for people to find your videos, you’ll have to include a keyword in your video’s title.

Once you have a keyword in mind, type it into the Explore bar at the top of your page in Google Trends.

What happens after you click enter is pretty much magic. Say I want to make a video on how to use Filmora. The first thing I’ll type into that Explore bar is ‘Filmora’.

You can see near the top that this chart represents searches for the topic over the last 5 years, which isn’t necessarily useful (although it is sort of cool that you can see when Filmora was ‘born’). I’m going to narrow that down to results from the U.S in the last week.

There, now I can see how the popularity of Filmora as a search term has spiked on specific days and times (if you hover over a spike it tells you the time and day) and plan to post my video at a time that capitalizes on these trends.

Next, what other words do I want to include in my video title? Is this a review, a tutorial, or a how-to? By clicking on my search term Filmora, I can edit it to read ‘filmora review’. Then I can click + Compare and type in ‘filmora tutorial’ and ‘how to use Filmora’. Google Trends will create a chart comparing the popularity of those 3 terms.

I also ‘zoomed out’ to 90 days – if I’d only looked at how they compared over the last week my results could have been skewed.

It’s pretty clear from the chart that ‘filmora review’ is the strongest of those 3 search terms. The title of my video should definitely start with the words Filmora Review because that is what most people are searching for when they want information about Filmora. Putting your most important keyword/search term first in your video titles will help them rank better in the viewer’s search results.

Although, when you do a comparison like this you should also go to YouTube and search for each potential keyword/phrase individually. It might turn out that there is a ton of strong competition for the most popular search term, and not as much for the second or third most popular. Here’s a search for ‘Filmora Review’ on YouTube:

If my view of YouTube looks different from yours it’s because I’m using the VidIQ plugin for Chrome . It’s free and it gives you all kinds of extra info about videos and channels.

The second-highest ranked result is only 2 months old and isn’t from a huge channel. Although there is competition for this keyword, ranking for it is not impossible. It also helps that software reviews are a topic where people will always be looking for the latest information/newest videos.

If the search results for your keyword are dominated by monster channels with millions of subs, and you can’t think of an angle you can use to crack into those top results (i.e. having newer information people will be looking for, which the more established videos are lacking), then maybe try the search with your second best keyword and see if there’s a better opportunity for you to rank there.

One of the biggest benefits of identifying trends and making videos about them quickly is that you can get in before there’s a lot of competition for the first few pages of search results on YouTube or Google, and before larger channels start making videos of their own on the same topic.

Want to make coming up with YouTube video ideas a habit? This post here will help you develop a process to generate more ideas and properly evaluate them.

Making Better YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software among YouTubers, Filmora provides plentiful editing tools, such as cut, trim, video stabilization , noise removal , chroma key compositing , and color grading. Besides, there are royalty-free music track and sound effects available in the built-in Audio library, and title templates and presets, as well as elements and effects. Download the free trial version below 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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