Wednesday, February 18, 2009

YouTube: An Insider's Guide





As a subscriber of Alan Lastufka’s1, the vlogbrothers2, and the Five Awesome Guys3 on YouTube, I’ve been hearing loads of great things about this book for months now. Of course I had to pick this one up.

In this book, Michael and Alan break down and explain every little detail about video making on YouTube. They go through how to set up an account, what equipment they use to film, what software they use to edit, and how to upload videos. They explain how copyright law works and how to gain revenue from your videos. There’s even a chapter on ways to cheat and why you really shouldn’t.

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about YouTube and video making is covered in this book.

And while this book does cover a lot of the technical aspects of video making, don’t mistake this book for another tech manual to clutter your shelf. In order to demonstrate their points clearly and effectively, Michael and Alan use personal anecdotes, screenshots, and links to videos and websites. They even provide additional chapter information and clickable links through Alan’s website (http://viralvideowannabe.com/). So, while they explain everything they do to make videos, they relate everything back to the community and the common user.

One really fun feature of this book is that it concludes with several interviews that Alan conducted with big name YouTubers. These include LisaNova, Hank Green, and that guy from the Shoes and Muffins sketches. I know you know who I’m talking about.

I’ve been on YouTube for a couple of years making videos4, and I’ve found this book extremely informative and helpful. It answered a lot of questions I had and I really enjoyed going through how other people make their videos.

My recommendation for this book will not be surprising. Anyone who is interested in how YouTube works, in starting a vlog, or looking to improve their videos should have a look at this book.




1 http://www.youtube.com/fallofautumndistro
2 http://www.youtube.com/vlogbrothers
3 http://www.youtube.com/fiveawesomeguys
4 Some of you might even be on this site because of my book review videos.

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