Best setup for a YouTube channel

born_again

Even the likes of Joe Sugg (very long term u-tuber) & partner Dianne Buswell (dancer) use phones for the vast majority of their video's

No need for a expensive high end laptop to create video's

https://www.youtube.com/creators/youtube-create/

Giraffe76

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81941756#Comment_81941756

Thanka for the question. I will ask him.

He didn't know any sort of budget as he wasn't sure of the best setup to get

MattMattMattUK

The key is what he is aiming for, if the videos are to be educational they need a different approach, different editing style and different tone to "I do stuff" sales type videos and the latter is a waste of time on YouTube, that is more an Instagram thing if it even still is a thing, but it generally moved to irrelevance years ago. The former often benefit from more than one camera, lighting, closeups as well and it can be useful to narrate as working but also add additional guidance, zooms etc. after, however that is a saturated market and very difficult to break into.

I would say that if he does not have a proper business plan in relation to this and is just thinking "this will be easy and generate business", the general rule is it is not easy to do even slightly well, is very time consuming and only generates additional business or ad revenue if one does exceptionally well at it.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81942528#Comment_81942528

Does he realistically need the best setup? Ultimately he could spend £100k plus and still it wouldnt be the "best" but probably massively overkill for what he is doing.

Phones are ok, there are some professional productions filmed on phones but they are often using lots of supporting equipment around them to support and enhance the outcome. Who's doing to be doing the filming whilst he works? Is he going to be inside or outside? Clearly with the later background noice, wind etc all become more of a consideration.

Similarly DSLR and their Mirrorless equivalents are used fairly heavily in production, they open up new possibilities around depth of field etc but may not be what's required and will be more expensive unless they happen to have a photography hobby anyway.

Laptop - if they're doing 1-2 short videos a week almost any laptop will do, though the most budget/older ones may be a little frustrating. It's when you are working at volume or longer productions where the speed of being able to process materials really kicks in.

At the end of the day the eye of the person capturing and editing the material is one of the most important parts. Used to be friends with a famous professional photographer and for most their work they were using much older kit than I had but 95% of the time captured much better images.

Giraffe76

One thing that he has told me is that a friend has done this exact thing for a few years and got some sponsorship so my friend wants to do the same thing

Neil_Jones

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81943685#Comment_81943685

A very quick Google suggest viewership of 50k per new video within "a few weeks" may be a good baseline, and then there are videos on YouTube that suggest this is a load of tripe and its all about "intent" apparently.

Suggest walk before you can run, and see sponsorship as a bonus initially until the channel is established and there is a demand for the content.

forgotmyname

With a small number os subscribers you will get no sponsors but as they build you will get the sponsors that
you really should not touch with a bargepole.

They will want you to sign your life away with them taking ownership of the content. May seem tempting but
avoid them like the plague. Keep making good content upload regularly and you will get the better sponsors.

You don't want to wait for a sponsor to say they are not happy with your video and that you did not tell blatent
lies about their product which can easily push subscribers away.

There have been a couple of really large YT channels that lost tens of thousands of subscribers over a stupid
comment or sponsor. As an example search the "Honey browser extension" findings.

A certain large YT'er knew about it stopped accepting deals from them and said nothing to anyone else which
cost them a lot of subscribers.

Also they will need to factor in doing a job with a camera can take 10x longer where some jobs may need to
be repeated because the angle was wrong or the lighting was wrong.

B0bbyEwing

Whatever he does I hope he's not one of those who seem to attach their camera to a rope & swing it about where I can't follow what you're trying to show me.

Or the other ones who are forever showing super close ups. That's great but what's around there, where even are you.

forgotmyname

Or poor lighting and bad camera angles whilst loud music plays as they explain that you need to unclip in this
order but you cannot see the clips, barely heard them say undo the clips in order.

Curious what jobs they plan on making a video of and whether they will scrap the entire video or remove and refit
a part just to get another few seconds of video? But when your making content you need to keep it regular otherwise
people will not return.

I used to watch NileRed/Blue but a couple of his projects took a while to create and film and YT stopped
recommending his channels to me, but then it thinks oh you stopped watching them and starts a chain of
not recommending other science channels.

Add to the massive influx of AI slop channels and building subscribers is going to be hard work.

Doshwaster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81942528#Comment_81942528

I would start as simple and cheaply as possible - a phone, microphone and tripod is probably enough to get started. Any laptop and free editing software would be fine. He can then invest in better equipment if the channel takes off. You can have the best kit available but it won't help you if you have no presenting ability or viewership.