How to Start a Vlog: The Complete Beginner’s Guide

Whether you want to be the next big YouTube star, learn how to start becoming an influencer, indulge in a hobby or share your knowledge with the world, you’re probably looking at how to start a vlog. In 2024, the competition for YouTube vlogging has never been tougher, but it has also never been more accessible.

If you aim to start a vlog in 2024, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll be taking you through a step-by-step beginner’s guide to ensure that you don’t just know how to start a vlog, but you understand what it takes and how to start a successful vlog. When you’re starting a YouTube channel like this, there are a few best practices that can really help kickstart your content creator journey. So let’s get into it.

What is a vlog?

First things first, before you start YouTube vlogging, you may want to understand what a vlog actually is. The word “vlog” is short for video log or video blog, and that’s essentially what a vlog is – it’s a blog in a video format. You’ll most likely be sharing this vlog online via YouTube (or TikTok and Instagram), but apart from those rules, everything else is up to you.

That’s partly why starting a vlog is so attractive – you get full creative control over what is essentially your own TV show! You’re fully entitled to create whatever you want and how you want to create it. This freedom is a relatively new concept media world and creativity, and it’s why so many of us have looked into how to vlog on YouTube.

Why start YouTube vlogging?

There are lots of different reasons why you should consider starting a vlog:

• Creativity. Vlogging is a great creative outlet – it allows you to stretch and work a creative muscle repeatedly over a long period of time. It’s an enjoyable, fulfilling process!
• Revenue. While it’s not guaranteed, a successful YouTube vlog can become an important driver of revenue for your business. The top YouTubers are consistently making 8 figure sums every year.
• Authenticity. Vlogs create authentic relationships with your viewers, increasing trust and fostering connection.
• Logic. YouTube is the second most visited website in the world behind Google. People love video and they love YouTube, so why wouldn’t you start a vlog?

How to start a vlog – your step-by-step guide

If you want to know how to start a vlog, there are a few essential first steps for you to consider. Let’s go through them.

Choose a platform

First and foremost, you’ll want to pick the platform on which you’ll be hosting your vlog. Naturally, YouTube is the primary candidate here. It’s the birthplace of modern vlogging as we know it, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

However, you may also want to bear in mind platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Both are competitors to YouTube, wanting to muscle in on the video platform scene. With TikTok just announcing that a maximum video length can now be up to 10 minutes long, the next few years could be intriguing. Perhaps you want to diversify your strategy, involving a mix of relevant platforms in your content calendar.

Pick a niche

The 2nd step when learning how to become a vlogger should be picking a niche. Realistically, 99.9% of us aren’t going to draw a huge audience just on our winning personalities, right? While we’re all interesting people, there’s simply too much content saturation out there. So when you’re first starting a vlog, you need something that differentiates you from the crowd and keeps people coming back.

That’s why you pick a niche. This niche can be anything you want. Whether it’s travel, road cycling, home cooking, makeup, skiing, you name it. All we advise is that you pick something that you’re really passionate about. That way, it’ll be easier for you to film your vlogs and find your style. Your enthusiasm will naturally shine through in videos, giving people one more reason to come back and watch another.

Pick the right gear

Speaking of filming vlogs, no “how to start a vlog” guide is complete without discussing equipment, right? There are no right or wrong answers here, and as you’ll see on YouTube, people vlog on everything from their humble smartphones to crazy cinematic cameras that need 6 months of gym workouts just to lift.

• The camera. Ultimately, we’d advise that the best vlogging camera strikes the right balance between price, quality and weight. Remember – you have to carry this thing around with you all day and most likely in public. So keep your camera of choice light and small, but ensure it has a good level of autofocus and image stabilization, as well as a flip-out screen so you can see yourself while filming.
• The microphone. You need a good microphone for vlogging. The quality of your audio is arguably just as or even more important than your image, so don’t cut corners on this. There are different types of microphones out there but for vlogging, we recommend looking into shotgun mics that capture great audio but remain light and nimble.
• The tripod. A good tripod probably comes in at number one when you’re considering travel equipment for vlogs. You want something that’s lightweight, portable and easy to adjust but also tough and durable. You’ll be using this thing out in the field a lot.
• The lighting. Depending on the type of vlog you’re looking to create, you may want to invest in a good quality vlog lighting setup. For example, you could buy some LED panels and softbox lights, or keep things more simple with a nice ring light.
• The storage. Remember this one. When you start vlogging, the footage quickly starts building up. You’ll need sufficient memory cards and harddrives to store everything.
• Extra batteries. This gets overlooked but you’ll soon find out how frustrating it can be to get caught with no more battery and only half a vlog shot. Invest in a few extra batteries to save yourself the hassle.
• Camera bag. There are a million options available to you here. Pick a bag that suits your needs and the type of vlog you’re looking to create. For example, if you’re covering outdoors and travel, it probably needs to be durable and waterproof.
• Editing software. While this isn’t strictly vlogging gear, it is essential for anyone starting a vlog. Consider how you’ll be editing your raw footage. There are fantastic options out there ranging from Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro to iMovie and DaVinci Resolve.

Ultimately, we’d advise that the best vlogging camera strikes the right balance between price, quality and weight. Remember – you have to carry this thing around with you all day and most likely in public. So keep your camera of choice light and small, but ensure it has a good level of autofocus and image stabilization, as well as a flip-out screen so you can see yourself while filming.

Additional factors to consider are the vlog lighting setup and your audio. For example, do you need a ring light? We also recommend looking into shotgun mics as audio is equally important as image quality. In general, audiences don’t mind a slight reduction in image quality if the story is good, but as soon as the audio is bad? They’ll stop watching.

Plan your content

When you’re looking at vlogging for beginners, a lot of guides will fail to mention that actually, you also need to learn how to write a vlog. Before any filming can begin, it’s important that you know what you’re shooting and why. The more planning and preparation you can do, the more likely it is that your vlog will be a success.

Of course, for some YouTubers (such as travel vloggers), this isn’t always possible due to the spontaneity of the content. But even then, they’ll be well prepared and have at least a rough idea of the structure of the vlog and what they hope to shoot on any given day.

Follow the 3-act story structure

While YouTube vlogging is all about experimenting and doing things a bit differently, we can highly recommend following the 3-act story structure. This gives every video a framework that’s both useful for you and the audience. There’s a beginning (where you establish what you’re doing and what the problem or challenge is), the middle (where you tackle the issue at hand) and the end (where you wrap things up and conclude). During Casey Neistat’s infamous vlogging years, he was the master at this. Go watch some of his videos, and you’ll always find that 3-act story structure cropping up.

“Talk” to your audience

It’s important to engage with your audience early on. Make sure you reply to all of their comments (genuinely, not just with an emoji) and consider how you can foster conversation and connection. On YouTube and Instagram, you can create polls and in your vlogs, you could ask questions or their opinion on something, which will hopefully lead to interesting conversations and engagements in the comments section. This is how you build a real community of people who care about what you do and keep coming back for more vlogs.

Study your favorite creators

In general, if you’re looking at how to start a successful vlog, it’s a good idea to study those who have gone before you and done it. Whoever your favorite creators are, do some homework on them. Why are they successful? What do you like about their videos? What gear do they use? While being unique and genuine is the ultimate key in unlocking how to become a vlogger, it doesn’t hurt to be inspired and take ideas from those you look up to.

Editing your first vlog

If you’re looking at how to start a successful vlog from an editing point of view, there are a few key takeaways:

• The first few seconds are crucial. Your viewers have an unlimited amount of videos to watch. If you don’t grab their attention right away, they will move on. So, at the beginning of any edit, make sure you jump straight into the action and set the story up with the promise to deliver what they want. This will give them a reason to keep watching.
• Make sure your video is well branded with your channel throughout the edit. Don’t be afraid to remind people to like and subscribe using some motion graphics, and when it comes to the end of the vlog, give people a reason to come back for more.
• Vlogs are more often than not quite short in length – perhaps no more than 10 minutes and certainly no longer than 20. To maintain people’s attention, you need to make the edit snappy and fast-flowing. Use jump cuts and different camera angles to keep things fresh and interesting. Remember – vlogs are different than conventional films. They need to move at a fast pace.

Don’t forget licensed music

Music adds a lot to any video and choosing the right music for your vlog can help make it stand out in the crowd. At Artlist, you will find plenty of high-quality royalty-free music perfect for vlogging, and you can choose between an unlimited license that covers every video platform and a license that covers only social media. And to help you find the perfect song for your vlog fast, check out our curated collections – vlogging music, travel vlogging songs and many others.

Uploading your vlog 

Depending on where you’re going to be uploading your vlog, the upload process will differ slightly. However, there are a few key things to bear in mind.

Ultimately, you want people to click and watch your video, right? Therefore, you need to think about factors such as the YouTube keywords you’re going to use, the title, the thumbnail and your video description.

Promote your vlog

When it comes to how to start vlogging, many of us think that the process is complete when we hit upload. But that’s not quite true!

If you’re serious about starting a vlog that’s successful, you need to promote it a lot, particularly in the first few weeks and months when nobody is going to know about it. You need to create some noise across your different social media channels, including the likes of Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook. As an example of how you could do this, repurpose some of the vlog content into TikToks, Shorts and Reels that can then be shared on these sites, with a call to action asking people to come and check out the full vlog on YouTube.

Alternative vlog platforms

Aside from YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, are there any other places you may want to consider starting a vlog? X (formally Twitter) is certainly taking a more video-centric view on things these days, which may present an interesting proposition. Of course, Facebook is well established and has long been home to some great video-first content.

Other video-sharing sites that may be worth looking at include DailyMotion and Vimeo – both rivals to YouTube, albeit a lot smaller in size.

How to generate revenue with your vlog

Let’s say you’ve figured things out and after a few months of vlogging, things are going very well and you’re picking up some traction. Your next question may naturally be “how do I generate revenue from my vlog”? There’s a few ways you can go about this.

• YouTube AdSense. Presuming your vlog is uploaded to YouTube, you can simply keep on uploading. Once you’ve hit the requirements to monetize, your videos can earn you money simply by people clicking and watching the vlogs
• Sponsorships. Depending on your audience and the metrics, it’s plausible that companies will pay you to promote their products or services in your vlogs. This could be in the form of a sponsored mention, product placement, or dedicated videos. Remember – you need to respect your audience. Sponsorships should be appropriate and make sense, not just random products and companies that have nothing to do with what you vlog about.
• Affiliate marketing. When viewers purchase products or services through an affiliate link, you’ll earn a commission. For example, if you’re talking about your travel vlogging gear for 2024 and reference a few items, you could create an affiliate link for each of those and share them in the description.
• Merchandise sales. If you have a loyal audience, you can create and sell merchandise related to your vlog’s brand. This could include items like t-shirts, mugs, or other merchandise that resonates with your audience.
• Crowdfunding. Platforms like Patreon allow your viewers to support you financially on a recurring basis in exchange for exclusive content, behind-the-scenes access, or other perks. When you have a large enough, loyal audience, this can be a great way to generate revenue.
• Events and workshops. If you have a niche audience interested in your content, you could consider organizing events, workshops, or meet-ups where attendees pay to participate and learn from you. This is a great way to meet and connect with your most loyal viewers.
• Product sales. If you have your own products or digital goods (e.g., e-books, courses, presets), you can promote and sell them to your audience directly through your vlog. This is a common thing seen across many different YouTube vlogs.
• Consulting or coaching. If your vlog revolves around a specific skill or expertise, you could offer consulting or coaching services to your viewers who want more personalized guidance. If you position yourself as the expert and provide real knowledge and value, people will be willing to pay you for that.

Wrapping up

So, that’s our beginner’s guide dealing with how to start a vlog. Whether you’re in it for fame and money or just want to pursue a hobby, by following these best practices on how to become a vlogger, you can’t go too far wrong.

As I always like to remind people, the most important thing is to just practice and understand that this process takes time. When looking at how to start a vlog and make money, you need to know that a lot of patience is required. Nothing happens overnight, and it’s a case of learning as you go.