Your Guide To Making The Best Commentaries On YouTube
There’s no easier way to make your name on YouTube than with a successful commentary channel. Commentaries took off on YouTube within the past decade. Over time, commentary videos on all topics, ranging from politics to games, gained momentum.
Commentary videos can now be found on nearly every topic under the Sun. They are easier to make, in that you don’t necessarily have to go out of your way to create new content. By providing your opinions on existing work, you allow people to experience that piece of content through you. For commentary channels, it’s the narrator who becomes the main subject of the content itself. However, despite YouTube commentaries being easier to shoot, they can also be the trickiest kind of content to get right.
Why YouTube Commentary Videos?
Reviews have always been popular pieces of content. People often turn to reviews and testimonials before they decide whether they want to purchase a product. Similarly, people have also throughout history, been interested in the art of good storytelling.
YouTube commentaries present a unique niche, in that they combine these two to present opinions on various topics. As a YouTube commentary content creator, you also don’t have to worry about constantly coming up with new original videos. That’s not to say that you don’t have to take care to produce high quality content. Instead, the kind of content you’ll be creating will be providing the audience with three valuable pieces of information:
- The content itself, what it means, and why you’ve chosen to comment on it.
- Your opinions on the content. A fresh perspective that adds value to the original content invites the greatest success in the form of real YouTube subscribers.
- What the audience can get from the content.
Your YouTube views reflect the number of people who were either interested in the topic or had already engaged with the content. Knowing this is crucial, as your commentary can’t be aimed towards a specific type of viewer. Everyone, irrespective of whether they had or hadn’t engaged with the content you’re commenting on, should be able to engage with you.
In this way, making YouTube commentaries can become more complex. However, planning your content bucket ahead of time and taking the time to immerse yourself in the topics you choose can help you stay on top.
Types of YouTube Videos for Commentaries
YouTube commentaries encompass every topic from movies and music, to sports and games, politics, puppies, fashion, horror and even environmental issues. YouTube commentary video content creators usually choose to work within a specific niche.
If you make commentaries based on game reviews, then ideally you should stick to that topic. This is as the audience who is coming to see your videos, is there to see a certain kind of content. So if your claim to fame was gaming commentaries, then suddenly switching to finance could be a bad idea. This is as you could slowly end up losing the real YouTube subscribers you had gained so far. On the other hand, many YouTube commentary channels do choose to pursue different topics, as long as they are similar and relevant to each other.
An example of this is a gaming commentator who branches onto movie reviews. The movies they review however, are the ones that are based on video games. This helps them draw the link between their existing content, and the new content they are creating, as they are branching out.
Commentaries are one of the types of YouTube videos that allow for faster growth on the platform. Here are the five most popular kind of YouTube commentaries:
1. Movie Reviews
For a long time, movie reviews could only be found in newspapers, blogs and magazines. However, YouTube movie reviews make use of both clips from the content itself, pictures, music, as well as high quality narration.
This leaves people with a better idea of what they can expect if they choose to go in to see a certain movie, or watch a new TV show. With the rise of OTT platforms and people now looking for ways to choose new content to watch, YouTube movie reviewers had found their market.
If you’re thinking about making movie or TV show reviews to get YouTube subscribers and growth, then you need to be careful of one thing. That is, you should be wary of the copyright behind the material you are using. While it doesn’t always happen, YouTube controversies around movie reviews have been known to happen. This is mainly seen in the form of copyright strikes from the original content creators.
You can however, get around this. There’s a limited amount of video clips you are allowed to use of certain videos. As copyright law changes from country to country, you can find that not every movie or TV show is under the same scrutiny. However, always do your research and understand where you stand based on copyright. This will help you avoid getting your video demonetized or taken down. You can however, use a larger number of pictures without having to worry about copyright strikes.
2. Product Commentaries
These content creators center their commentaries within their niche. They approach topics that they have an expertise in, and use that knowledge to help others. Say you wanted to buy a new phone, but you weren’t sure about the model you chose. A good product commentary video should be able to help you make up your mind on this topic.
They do this by providing key details, pros and cons, as well as how the product works in various conditions. Makeup and beauty commentaries often dominate this category.
Satire commentaries where the content creator pokes humor at unique or interesting products also gain popularity easily on the channel.
3. Real Life, Politics and True Crime
These topics have always fascinated people, and YouTube has given voice to those who want to talk about it. From serious opinions on politics to detailed descriptions of grisly crimes, YouTube is full of excellent content that regularly draws in huge YouTube views.
If you want to comment on these topics, then it’s important to remember that you do your research in detail ahead of time. Expect there to be some YouTube controversies, especially if your video is about politics. But these could also be great for your YouTube engagement.
4. Self Help and Psychology
Self help is another niche that has started to dominate on YouTube when it comes to commentaries. These videos also offer high levels of YouTube engagement, and can enable you to impact peoples lives in a meaningful way.
Content creators in this niche often do excellent background research, and put together ideas that can truly help people. It’s important to note however, that there is a distinction between a psychologist and a life coach. Someone who has no prior academic or professional training in psychology should not offer psychological advice.
If you don’t have any prior training in psychology, then you can present yourself as a life coach. This enables people to still receive the same help from you.
5. Humor and Satire
Humor and satire are some of the most popular kinds of content out there. They can be found on nearly every topic, but the key is to take that topic and place it within the humor niche.
This can be done by with the help of excellent writing, great narration and editing.
How Do You Make Good YouTube Commentaries?
If you have the gift of the gab, then making YouTube commentaries won’t be hard for you at all. Still, taking the time to plan out your video is essential if you want it to be a successful piece of content.
Aside from writing out your narration ahead of time, you should also consider ensuring that you have all the equipment you need. This could be the difference between your channel getting more YouTube views, and less.
There are some very simple ways you can do this:
- Get good video recording equipment
- Get good audio recording equipment
- Have a professional video editing software ready
- Take time to make better quality videos
Instead of trying to post as many YouTube commentaries as you can, choose to upload once or twice a week. This gives you the time to plan out and create better content.
For more niche subjects, you can consider uploading less frequently as well. But keep in mind that the more niche your topic is, the more difficult it can be to find an audience for your content. Choosing a niche where you can gain YouTube subscribers is also important.
The quality of your audio will be of prime importance when it comes to your YouTube commentaries. Your audio equipment should not pick up on any background noise.
When you think you’re ready to upload your YouTube commentary video, remember to sit down and go through it at least once. It’s always better to catch a mistake ahead of time and fix it, than to have it pointed out in the comments section.
With this, you have everything you need to start making your own YouTube commentary videos. So start today!
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