Are you interested in starting a YouTube channel? Have you ever thought about vlogging? I chatted with a friend, Bre Miller, who you may know from the YouTube channel, Meet the Millers. She shared her experience about what it takes to be a pro YouTuber and these are some of the best tips you could ever know if you are thinking about testing out the YouTube world yourself! Alright, let’s get started. 

 

 

As I just mentioned, Bre Miller is a vlogger for her channel, Meet the Millers. She and her husband, Derek Miller, first started posting videos of their family about 7 years ago. At that point, they were just testing it out to see if this would work for their family, so it was more of a hobby. About two years into it, they decided they enjoyed posting the videos and they wanted to fully commit. So they started posting 5 videos per week and ever since then that’s what they’ve done. 

Bre has learned a lot over the years about what it takes to be a pro YouTuber. Especially since her type of content is so personal and candid, she’s learned how to keep a balance between her personal family life and what she shows her audience. She’s also learned how to show up consistently and make this YouTube vlog a successful business. Let’s dive into some of these lessons she’s learned. 

 

What it Takes to Be a Pro YouTuber

 

 

Pro YouTuber Tip #1: Set boundaries and then respect them.

Bre is a mom to five children, so very much of their videos include her kids in some way. Her kids know they have the boundary set where they can tell her and their dad whether or not they want to be filmed and they will respect that. 

Due to the nature of the content, it is very genuine and family oriented. This also means it could become too much to where you feel exposed. It’d be different if she was doing tutorial videos or some other type of content that didn’t involve all of her family members. But a vlog is basically a home video but with more narration. 

Knowing what they were committing to, Bre and Derek have set up systems that work for them to where they still have those special moments with their kids off camera. But they’re also so grateful for the vlog because it’s like a huge archive of home videos that they’ll have forever.

No matter what type of YouTube content you are creating, make sure to set boundaries for yourself. Give yourself work hours e.g. you won’t film after 6 p.m., or whatever works best for you. Your YouTube channel will last if you are meeting your needs first as the YouTube creator.

 

Pro YouTuber Tip #2: Have the confidence to go all in.

When Bre and Derek first decided to go all in, it was hard for Bre to find the confidence to fully commit. She was questioning if vlogging on YouTube is even a real business or profession. She knew other people were doing it and were successful at it, but she didn’t know anyone personally so that made her feel a little apprehensive about making this her full-time job. 

Back when they were considering making this YouTube channel a legit business, Bre and her husband attended a YouTube conference where they met tons of other people who were trying to grow their YouTube channel as well. This conference made them realize that there are tons of other people who are trying to do the same thing, which gave them a lot of positive energy they needed to take this leap forward!

So going to this gave her the confidence she needed to take that leap of faith and turn this vlog into a business. Besides, at the end of the day, this is what felt the most genuine. And the thing that they felt like they could show up the most consistently for. 

 

 

Pro YouTuber Tip #3: Test out the new features of YouTube. 

Just like with any social media platform, YouTube rewards early adopters. YouTube shorts are fairly new, so it’d be a great strategy for you to start accessing that feature as soon as possible. Not only will YouTube push your content to reach more people, but you also have less competition because not as many people are using the shorts feature yet. 

And the best part about using this new feature specifically is that you probably already have content created that you’ve been posting on TikTok and Instagram that you can easily roll over to YouTube as well. 

Paying attention to and using new features YouTube puts out will help you get more views and hopefully more subscribers as well. And this is exactly what you want to happen when trying to make a profit from your YouTube channel. 

Other ways to make money from your YouTube videos:

• Ad revenue

You get ad revenue when you hit a certain amount of subscribers to your channel and views on your videos. Any time the viewers watch the ads on your video, you get some of that profit. 

• Brand deals

Video content has such high value and brands love it. So whether you want to be a YouTube vlogger like Bre or a completely different type of YouTuber, brands will use you to post videos and advertise their products. And this is such a lucrative way to make money from your content too.

 

Pro YouTuber Tip #4: Make your content creation process work for you.

Remember, your video content does not need to be perfect before you post it. Brands actually prefer videos to be really candid and natural when talking about products. They don’t want it to feel like an ad so the more you can make it feel naturally integrated into your conversation the better.

Most of the time it’s easiest to just pull out your phone and start filming something when you want to record a YouTube video. InShot is a great video editing app that Bre uses often for her videos. She has used other apps, but this is the one that she loves the most. So your editing software does not have to be super fancy in order to make good quality videos for your channel. 

 

 

Pro YouTuber Tip #5: Remember your why.

Showing up on YouTube consistently can be really hard work some days. Especially if you’re just starting out and you’re trying to find your rhythm. And then you’ll have hard mom days and ask yourself if having a YouTube channel is still worth it. 

On those days, circle back to your why, like, why did you start this YouTube channel in the first place? If your why is powerful enough, it will help you get out of your funk every single time. While it is important to run a successful business and make money, that’s not the only reason we are showing up and posting content every single day. 

We are not meant live this life focused on ourselves. Bre said one of the most beautiful things about showing her family’s life to the world is how there is a community of people that she’s never met before that are impacting her life. They have become a support for one another. Bre has had some scary moments in her life that she ended up vlogging about, and so many people have reached out to her who is going through something similar and thanked her because her videos have given them some comfort and hope. 

The biggest thing about life is that we are here to help each other learn and grow. We are meant to figure out the ups and downs of life together, and Bre has found a way to fulfill the calling through her YouTube vlog. It’s such a beautiful thing! 

 

Pro YouTuber Bonus Tip: Two things you should know about as a YouTuber.

Your title and thumbnail are SUPER important for your YouTube videos. Try to keep your titles generic and broad, so your video will come up when people are searching for content. And make sure your title matches up with your thumbnail. YouTube loves consistency, so it looks for that kind of thing when looking for videos to push out there to more viewers. (Click HERE for more tips on how to nail that title and thumbnail.) 

As a YouTube creator, Bre has always used vidIQ. They give you ideas for videos, title suggestions, etc. This is an amazing resource, especially if you’re just starting out with creating YouTube videos. Tube Buddy is another great resource that has some similar features as vidIQ. 

Bre and I both highly recommend using one of these resources when creating your videos. You want to make sure you are accessing all the help you can get if you’re putting in all the work to create the content anyway. These tools will help all of your hard work pay off because they will help get your content in front of the right people. 

 

 

What it Takes to Be a Pro YouTuber

Alright friends, those are Bre’s best tips on what it takes to be a pro YouTuber. I know you have it in you. If you’ve been thinking about adding YouTube to your marketing strategy, just start. I’ve been wanting to make it more a part of mine, so I’ve been reading books, researching online, and interviewing YouTubers to try and learn all I can as I start to make more and more videos for my YouTube channel. 

You know we are huge believers in having businesswomen stand up and speak out. And YouTube is another way for you to do it! You can follow Bre on Instagram @bremill and subscribe to her YouTube channel HERE. You can also follow me on Instagram and YouTube too for all the best tips and tricks on growing a successful biz online!