What is a Vlog? (And How You Can Get Started)

Vlogging has increased in popularity quite a bit in the last few years. This is due in part to vlogging actually becoming a full-time income for many people. Once others started seeing how much could be made by vlogging, more and more people started doing it. Not only that, but the cost of some of the equipment has gone down, the tutorials online have gone up, and the exposure to the business as a whole has increased as well. All of these things have contributed to the increase in vlogs and vlogging knowledge.

What is a Vlog?

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Vlog definition:

A vlog is a blog in video format, rather than text or images. The word vlog originated from the word blog itself. Vlog stands for Video Blog or Video Log.

Blogging is where a person writes an article to give advice, teach something, or just talking about their feelings. So a vlog would be doing this same thing but filming the entire thing instead of writing it.

What does Vlogging mean?

Vlogging is the process of filming your vlog. For example, the film is when you’ve recorded something, but filming is the act of you doing it. That is exactly what vlogging is in relation to a vlog.

Today the most popular platform for Vlogging is undoubtedly YouTube. People are vlogging their daily lives on YouTube to their millions of fans. There are vloggers in many different genres like gaming, beauty, food, travel, etc.

What Is A Vlogger?

A vlogger is someone who makes vlogs. So if you have made a video blog and posted it on the internet then you’re a vlogger.

History of vlogging

The first-ever vlog was created on 2nd January 2000 by Adam Kontras. He created this vlog to inform about his cross country move to Los Angeles from Missouri.

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Want to learn about the history of the world’s first vlogger? Check out Adam’s channel here.

Many people vlogged from 2000 to 2005, but it was still not that popular. As video hosting sites at that time would charge for bandwidth to the uploader. So every time your video went viral you would lose a substantial amount of money.

But in February 2005 YouTube was founded. Which allowed free video hosting to everybody. This completely changed the landscape for vloggers. It became popular overnight and by June 2006 YouTube was the fifth most popular website on the Internet.

Why is Vlogging so popular?

Vlogging is a totally new type of concept. For example, people love watching beauty vlogs rather than conventional beauty tips. Because while watching vlogs you create a personal connection with the vlogger, which is powerful than blogs or podcasts. Not to mention, top vloggers get paid. A lot.

How much, you ask?

Here were the top 3 highest-earning YouTube stars in 2021.

  1. Jimmy Donaldson (Mr. Beast) – $54 Million USD
  2. Jake Paul – $45 Million USD
  3. Markiplier – $38 Million USD

You see why so many people are trying to get on this ship? The earning potential is incredible.

While money is not everything, there are other reasons why people create vlogs. Here are a few of the most common:

Entertainment – This is one of the main reasons why vlogging is so popular. People are really entertained with vlogs. It creates a personal intimate connection with the viewers. And when they create entertaining content it’s really powerful.

You are more likely to laugh from a bad joke through a person you know than a stranger because you are emotionally attached to them. This is what vlogging is all about.

Human Connection – While watching vlogs people create a human connection with the vlogger. It’s a fun and easy way to connect with other people. As they start seeing the life of the vlogger, they feel personally invested in their life. And this connection makes them a lifelong subscriber.

Escape from reality – We all are either stressed out of our job, or hate school, or have a family crisis of one sort or the other at some point in life. Escaping from reality gives us an explainable joy and a peace of mind.

Watching vlogs allows us to join a virtual family and be a part of it. We can travel the world with them, we can see the different cultures of the world, etc. from the comfort of our home.

How to Make a Vlog

In order to become a vlogger you just need to start filming and publishing your videos online. This is pretty easy to do, but most people don’t feel comfortable getting in front of a camera. It doesn’t matter what it is that you are thinking about recording, just try it and see how it feels. The more you vlog the easier and more comfortable it will become. Trust me, becoming a vlogger is not as hard as many people make it out to be.

Vlogging Tips for Beginners

Get Started Today

Getting started is really the hardest part about vlogging. Here’s a great video to help you begin your journey.

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Most people don’t think that they can do it, so they just don’t try. Many people assume that nobody will watch their videos, so they don’t record anything. And many people think that it won’t amount to anything, so they give up before they even try. Don’t give up, get started today, grab your vlogging camera and start filming.

Relax

Don’t worry about anything, just relax. When filming yourself, relax. When filming somebody else, simply relax. There is no need to worry so much about what is going on around you, focus on yourself and you will be just fine.

Start Filming

I can’t emphasize this enough, record, record, record. The more you can film the more vlogs you can publish. I know it can be difficult to film when you don’t feel like it, so record when you do feel like it. Start filming as much as possible and then start putting the clips together. The more clips you have the more you will be able to edit and combine. Trust me, the filming part will get easier the more you do it.

Ask for Help

Do you need help to learn how to vlog? Do you need help editing your videos? Maybe you need help with what to talk about. When you need help you should simply ask for it. It is almost impossible for somebody to know that you need help unless you ask. Ask before it is too late.

Be Ready to Adapt

When you start vlogging you might have a clear vision as to what you want to vlog about, but that might change. When most vloggers start they start off knowing very little and then as they learn their channel begins to adapt. Be ready to adapt because chances are you will need to at some point.

Vlogging is very simple once you get started, but you will never know that if you never get started. Now that you know what vlogging is and how to begin vlogging, it is time that you give it a shot.