Who are you and what kind of content do you create?

I am GG, aka ImaGamerGirl. I live in England, and I’m a part-time Roblox YouTuber. I produce the videos on my own, which takes around one to two hours per video. I came up with my channel name by deciding what sort of videos I would make on it, gaming videos. Then I thought of what words I could add to that to make it sound unique for my channel. My YouTube channel name was originally ImaGamerGirl XD, but I removed the XD at the end as I realised that it was unnecessary. It only took me a day to come up with my old channel name, but I didn’t change my current one until several months later.

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Let's go down memory lane, tell us your backstory! 

I have been making YouTube videos for over two years. When I started, I had no experience making videos, editing them, or making video thumbnails and descriptions. But over time, I researched video-making apps and how to use them until I reached a level of video-making skills that I was happy with. I’ve always wanted to become a YouTuber and had made around seven channels in the past. But I wasn’t committed to them, and I usually quit within a month or two. When I found out that I could make gaming videos using my iPad, I decided to have another go at making a channel, but I was committed and didn’t give up on the channel this time. I chose to make videos on Roblox since I enjoy playing games on the platform.

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The game I played changed after around a month to the game I mainly play today, Royale High. I also use Twitter often to interact with the money and for video ideas and content. Other Roblox YouTubers were a big inspiration for me since it made me see how my channel could grow to be like that one day. My friends, family, and of course, my lovely fans motivate me to make YouTube videos, and I couldn’t be happier to continue making them.

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How do you brainstorm ideas for your content and your advice in getting the creative juice flowing.

Many of my video inspiration comes from the community on Twitter, where many motivating tweets from people sometimes give me ideas. I also sometimes come up with ideas when I’m traveling or in my bedroom, and I’ve come up with several unique ideas in the past. When I can’t think of any ideas, I usually look back on some of my older videos and see which videos gained many views, then I try to make a video similar to it but with a different theme.

When brainstorming ideas, I think it’s essential to start by thinking of basic categories of videos you could make, then try to think of videos you could complete within those categories.

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What are the tools and platforms you use to help with your brand?

I use the built-in screen recorder on my iPad whenever I’m recording on there, or OBC Recorder when recording on my laptop. I use iMovie to edit videos whenever I’m making them on my iPad or Adobe Premiere Pro when editi2ng on a laptop. I always make video thumbnails on my iPad using Magic Eraser to make PNG files for the thumbnail, PicsArt to edit the PNG files, and Phonto to put the files together to create the final image. I have YouTube (ImaGamerGirl), Twitter (ImaGamerGiri), and Instagram (ImaGamerGirl_). I used to have a Discord server, but it wasn’t managed well, so I deleted it after a few months. I use TubeBuddy to help choose tags to use on my video, so it gets viewed more, and I have a default description and tags saved on Notes that I copy and paste, then edit, for each video.

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What were your fears starting out? How did you handle it? 

When my channel started to get famous, I began to acquire various hate comments from people. I noticed that most hate comments have specific words in them, so I added them to my comment word filter to be held for review and not visible to everyone. Sometimes I would go through those comments if good ones ended up there. But seeing hate messages is never a good experience, so I generally leave those comments alone and just go through the published ones. Hate comments on social media other than YouTube are very different since I can’t only filter them out. Still, I generally just try to ignore the hate comments as much as possible and focus on the lovely messages sent by fans. I already had a habit of talking to myself sometimes, so I was never camera-shy when making videos. Still, it did take several months to be satisfied with my level of video-making skills.

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How did you build your brand to where it is now, take us through your process.

I’ve always been posting consistently on my channel. I used to post videos every two days, but now I aim to post videos every day. Sometimes it’s hard, and I miss a day, or two or I go on a half-break and upload less frequently to give myself a bit of a rest, but it’s helpful to don’t get burnt out from making videos. I had some money when I created my channel, which I used to buy a microphone, headphones, and a few other items, but I still wasn’t using much equipment to make videos. One of my biggest challenges was finding the right time to make videos since I live with other people, but I always find time for a recording that works for everyone else.

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It took me five and a half months for my first video to get very popular, and I remember having precisely one hundred and fifty-three subscribers before that happened. My first video came out on the same day that I created my channel, but that video and several others are set as private because I wasn’t happy with them. The video that made my channel popular is my most viewed video at the moment, with over six hundred thousand views:

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For someone who wants to get into content creation, what is your advice?

I would strongly advise that you make sure that all of your social media has the same name so that it’s easy for people to find. Unfortunately, my channel name was already taken on most social media, so it was hard to have similar names. I also advise that you try to upload all your videos at a time where most people are online. Otherwise, lots of people may miss your video in their notifications and subscriptions page. If you’re trying to improve your content, I recommend that you search up video-making tutorials to see what works for you and your videos. Tags are something that many people don’t bother using, but they can significantly increase the number of views you get to make sure to use them well.

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How did you finally commit to X platform rather than your regular day job?

I didn’t have any job before YouTube, but I did have to find a way to balance YouTube with the rest of my life. Sometimes it was difficult if there was a video I wanted to make, but I also had other work to do at that moment, but I organised what I should do when and what time to make my videos to do everything I wanted to.

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Tell us your best milestones in being a content creator.

When I made my first popular video, it was exciting to see my channel grow from small to large. Hitting one hundred thousand subscribers was a massive achievement for me and something that I will never forget. These milestones made me see YouTube as a future career for me, and I’m so grateful that I’ve had this fantastic opportunity to do what I love.

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What are your marketing strategies to grow your brand?

Video tags help your video out a lot to be recommended more to the right people and get more views. It’s also good to follow trends that seem to be popular in the niche and create your trends. I’ve done a few video collabs in the past, and I plan to do more in the future since they can help all the YouTubers in the collab have their channels seen more.

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How do you handle brand deals and sponsorships? 

I don’t reach out to brands, but I have a public business email to contact me with a brand deal. I haven’t done any brand deals in the past, but I would only accept offers from brands similar to what I make videos on if I were to. It’s also good to do some research on the brand to ensure that they aren’t secretly trying to send you a link that will hack your account, which unfortunately can happen sometimes.