Finding Inner Voice: How to Confidently Share Stories Online

8 Tips on How to Vlog Confidently Like Popular YouTubers

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

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For most people, vlogging is not something that comes naturally. Like any skill, it takes practice to improve. When someone is good at vlogging, they make it look easy.

When we watch the most popular YouTubers, the traits that make them successful are often invisible, because we are so consumed by their vlog. In this article, I’ll highlight 8 tips from the most accomplished vloggers on the Internet, so that you can vlog confidently and make the best YouTube videos.

1. Be Authentic

People opt to watch vlogs because they want to see something real.

Vlogging is about honesty, telling a story that is truthful and showing your personality. The most popular vloggers are likable because they don’t deceive the audience, they befriend them. Vloggers treat their audience with respect and that comes from being honest.

There will be an urge for you to mimic other vloggers, talking and acting the way they do, but savvy YouTube viewers will be able to see your faux personality pretty quickly.

Don’t focus on your image, but instead focus on your voice. What makes you different? That is how you will build a proper reputation.

2. Tell A Story

A vlog is not an assortment of footage haphazardly put together. A successful vlog must have a story: a conflict told with a beginning, middle, and end.

When you are casually telling a story to a friend, you are not thinking about the structure or the plot. You are focused on what happened and you want to communicate it as accurately as you can. While vlogging, you should approach it much the same way. Ad-libbing is fine. Stumbling is fine. Going back and repeating a part of the story is fine. By simply getting your story on camera, you now have all the pieces.

Once all the pieces of the story are captured — including your storytelling, b-roll, and other supportive footage — you must now cut out all the irrelevant or repetitive parts and edit it so it can be enjoyed as one cohesive tale.

Take a look at this example from Tiffany Alvord and notice how there are jump cuts both to skip information that can be assumed by the audience and add the tension to the story she’s telling.

3. Surprise and Delight Your Audience

There is a saying that a great ending to a story is that it is surprising, yet inevitable .

The ending needs to be justified even if there is a twist. Everything before that had worked to build up the tension and when it concludes it needs to be logical. However, the ending cannot be something that the audience can guess. Remember those mystery movies where you know who the murderer is after the first few scenes? Yeah… those aren’t satisfying. A good story ends with a surprise, and with everything prior leading up to it.

The gold standard example of a surprising, yet inevitable end is Casey Neistat’s bike lane video. Everything in the video is leading up to the end, but when you watch it the first time it’s unexpected, and that’s why it’s so good.

4. Be Inviting

A common trait of successful vloggers is that they are welcoming. They share their passion and encourage others to join in. Vlogging is about being a guide. It doesn’t matter if you are leading a tour of your home or showing your viewer an interesting new skill, it is important for you to approach the whole process with open arms.

Unlike being invited to a party, there is no obligation when it comes to YouTube. Your viewers can continue to live vicariously through you or they may be inspired by your experience and dare to try it themselves.

The opposite of inviting is rejecting, and when you are a vlogger, you don’t want to reject anyone from enjoying your videos.

5. Compose the Shot

Vlogging is a visual medium, and while the story is important, what is captured in the frame will play an impactful role in the video as well.

In a way, every vlogger needs to have a director’s eye for cinematography. I’m not saying that you need to be Wes Anderson to be an awesome vlogger, but knowing what is in the frame with you, the angle of the shot, the movement of the camera, and the quality of light will help the product look better.

The great thing about vlogging is that you will get a lot of practice framing shots, so I encourage you to learn the basics of video editing .

Check out this example from Rosanna Pansino , where she gives a tour of her bedroom.

The camera follows her fluidly throughout the video, but it is her eyes that guide both the camera moves and what she wants our attention to be directed to. Don’t hesitate to let the viewer know what you want them to see.

6. Be Prepared

While you can pick up a camera and start vlogging on the fly, being prepared enables you to produce the best video possible. Take a few minutes before you hit record simply to outline the key points you want to talk about and how the video will end, ensuring that after filming you haven’t forgotten a crucial part.

Additionally, knowing what to say makes you a better host for your vlog. Watch your favorite vlogger, I bet when they are speaking on camera, their speech is not littered with umms and ahhs…

Good preparation includes having all your gear ready for filming when you need it. There is nothing worse than being set to shoot and running out of battery or memory.

Take a look at Ashley Nichole in this vlog and notice that although she sounds spontaneous, it is also evident that she knows what she is going to talk about next.

7. Be Expressive

Remember those teachers that drone on and on, without adding any expression or passion to what they are lecturing? While they might have been perfectly suitable as teachers, they wouldn’t make good vloggers.

If you speak on camera in a monotone voice, you are not being expressive. Your facial and body language will match your lackluster performance. Even if you are talking about something you are excited about, if your demeanor doesn’t match that, then the video is going to be lifeless. Vlogging is a presentation, a performance. There needs to be energy.

Consider your audience: they are coming home from school or work, where there were classes and meetings, and the last thing they want to watch is a video of your speaking without energy.

Want to see a vlogger that is awesome at being expressive on camera? Check out Emma Chamberlain , if you haven’t already. Every word she says in her video is layered with emotion. We know exactly how she feels.

8. Stay Organized

The same way you should prepare before filming, it’s also important to be organized comes the editing phase. Editing is arguably the most time-consuming part of the vlogging process, so have a system for categorizing and finding your footages.

This is especially important when you have multiple video and audio files and if you are capturing footage over a number of days or in different locations.

Additionally, while filming your vlog, you are going to mess up. It’s also helpful to add a cue after you messed up, this can be a sound cue that causes the levels to spike (clapping or snapping your fingers work) or a video cue such as a dramatic gesture to the camera. When skipping through your footage to find the part where you messed up, later on, it’s easier to have a mark to help you locate it.

Vlogging is hard, so don’t make more work for yourself. Learn little tricks to make life easier for yourself at every step.

The more organized you are the more attention you can put into the creative aspect of vlogging, and less time finding a video file or syncing audio to video.

There you have it, 8 tips to help you vlog like the pros. Anyone can vlog. But only until you point a camera at yourself in public for the first time, do you realize how uncomfortable vlogging can be.

Even filming yourself in your room with the door closed — and nobody is in the house with you — can be a challenge for beginning vloggers. If you find watching your first few videos to be cringy, don’t be discouraged. There are fears of vlogging, but you can overcome them .

Take a look at some of the first videos from popular YouTubers and you can see that everyone had a starting point.

Do you have any vlogging tricks of your own? Leave a comment below.

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora, which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps you to make money by making videos much easier.

Richard Bennett

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

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Maximize Engagement with Integrated YouTube Playlist Features

YouTube is an excellent resource for entertainment, education, and general information, but did you know you can also display a YouTube playlist on your website?

Embedding a YouTube playlist will allow you to showcase a collection of videos on a topic or theme on your website. It’s also a great way to keep your visitors engaged on your site for more extended periods.

To help you with the process, we’ll explore different step-by-step methods to embed a YouTube playlist on a website to add interactivity to your site.

So, if you’re ready to get started, read on!

How To Embed a YouTube Playlist on a Website

If you want to embed and display a YouTube playlist on your website, we’ll give you a complete rundown of the three methods you can try to get this done. But, of course, each method has its pros and cons, so you’ll need to decide which is right for you.

Here’s how to embed a YouTube playlist on a Website:

Embedding a YouTube Playlist on Website Using WordPress Plugin

The plugin is the simplest way to add a YouTube Playlist to your WordPress website. This will help you get this done in no time without having to write any code for the process.

With plugins like YouTube Feed Pro by Smash Balloon , you can extend your website’s functionality and create, customize, or embed a YouTube playlist with just a few clicks of a mouse.

To embed and add a YouTube playlist on your website page/post, do the following steps in sequence:

Step1 Launch a browser on your PC and head to your WordPress website’s login page. Sign in to your dashboard using your username and password.

Step2 Click the “Plugins” option from the left-hand side menu on the WordPress dashboard. Now, click “Add New” and use the search option to find and install the YouTube Feed Pro plugin. Afterward, click the “Activate” option to enable the plugin.

Step3 Click the “YouTube Feed” option from the left menu and open “All Feeds.” On the next page, click “Add New” at the top left of the screen.

You will now be asked what type of feed you want to create. Select “Playlist” and click “Next.”

Step4 You need to create your YouTube API Key , copy it, and paste it into the pop-up. Click “Add” to connect your YouTube account to the plugin.

Step5 Select the Playlist you want to display on your WordPress website and take its ID. Paste that in the next pop-up window and click “Next” to continue the process.

Your YouTube playlist will be connected to your WordPress website. To further customize it, select the template you want and click “Next.” You can also configure the Feed Layout and Color Scheme.

Step6 Once you are done with customization, click the “Embed” option on the top-right side of the screen, and a pop-up window will appear. Next, click “Add to a Page,” and a list of pages on your website will be displayed.

Choose your page and click “Add” at the bottom of the pop-up window. You’ll be directed to a new page where you can embed the feed. Click the “Plus” icon at the top-left of the screen, search for YouTube Feed and choose the Feeds for YouTube block to embed and add your playlist.

That’s about it! You’ve successfully embedded a YouTube playlist on your WordPress website.

Embedding a YouTube Playlist on a Website Using oEmbed Code

Another method to embed a YouTube playlist on your WordPress website is to use oEmbed Code. This method requires basic CSS, HTML, or Java knowledge; otherwise, you won’t be able to customize your playlist.

Moreover, this method is too complicated for beginners, and you will miss the customer support provided by WordPress plugin developers in case of any mishaps.

To use the oEmbed Code method, do the following steps:

Step1 In the first step, head to your YouTube account and access the Playlist you want to embed. Next, click the three dots below it and copy its URL.

Step2 Now, login to your WordPress dashboard and open the post or page editor where you want to add the playlist.

Step3 Paste the URL directly in the editor and click “Update” to save the changes.

WordPress will grab your playlist from YouTube and automatically show it in your post using oEmbed. The outcome is a single video with a menu that your viewers can click to see other videos in the playlist.

Embedding a YouTube Playlist on WebsiteUsing