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How His Car Cameras Drove His Success In His Content Creation Journey
My name is Scott and I run the YouTube Channel, Scott’s Car Cameras. I started this as a way to send people videos I had recorded in my car while driving around Sydney. This is a hobby and a side project for me. I have a full-time career in a completely different field. My channel is gradually growing, who knows, I might resign from my job and do this as a full-time gig, soon!
I'm a one-man band - I do all the work by myself, from gathering content, editing, uploading, and branding, to taking care of emails and interacting with my followers. I didn't make the brand name with the intention to market myself. I simply called it my name and as it was about videos from my car cameras, hence, the brand name, Scott’s Car Cameras.
I started the channel in 2013 but for several years I didn't promote nor try to grow the channel.
I just put clips up of events I recorded while driving to share with my friends. Then, I started getting subscribers and the channel grew very slowly. After a news story was done on my channel, it doubled in size then my subscribers started buying dash cameras and sending me videos as well. The channel then grew steadily and then became very busy and bigger in the last 2 years.
I come up with new ideas by looking at my existing content (including submissions) and by referencing movies, TV shows, and books, among others. I don't use any third-party software for brainstorming.
When I get a mental block on what to do I will either try something and see if it works or I will simply put it to the side and leave that part of the video. I will then allow myself to come back to work when I'm refreshed and well-rested. Most of the time, I will come up with an idea for it while I'm not trying to work on it, then I load it down and then go back and try it.
Some techniques I use when I'm trying to come up with an idea, whatever the subject is, I think about the things connected to those ideas from my childhood or life experience that make me laugh or make me happy. I think of something similar to this subject that could fit the content and then I go and find resource material to use for this specific content like maybe a movie clip or a sound bite.
I use a combination of software to do video and photo editing. I use Windows PCs and laptops as well as Mac. When I’m using my Mac, I use a few different software for converting video files as well as a couple of different editing software to combine files.
Currently, I am on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook only. I don't use any third-party software on Facebook. On YouTube, I have all the tools built into one. I have taken self-learning online about how to use the creative studios of Facebook and YouTube, and they can do everything for you once you learn how to use them.
As my channel grew, I did have concerns about things people were saying about me and my channel was not very active on social media at that time. I didn’t expect to get so much negativity. At first, when I was getting negative comments, I would try to argue with each basher. I then realized at that time that even when you're right, you can't make people agree with you if they're arguing based on feelings and not facts. So I moved on, I ignored any negative comments that aren't constructive and just tried to moderate and remove them.
I did have concerns about being in front of the camera. Although I don't show my face in my videos, I show myself on the video while driving and I do many commentaries. At first, I wasn't comfortable with the idea but my fan base has grown and has given me a lot of compliments which has made me relaxed and at ease with it.
Originally I was only posting videos randomly or maybe a few every couple of months. I have now refined my method to posting at least two times a week. I do it consistently and then do additional videos on top of that when I can. Starting your brand doesn't cost any money if you’re doing it yourself. It's all free to set up accounts on social media and you can grow yourself from there. I've had no outside help I have done all the work myself.
The hardest part of that starting your channel is trying to grow the fanbase. Once you get the momentum going, it continues for a little while but the real challenge for me is trying to get people to find you organically online. Getting the first 100 followers who were licensed drivers wasn't very hard but at the time I wasn't trying too hard. When I actually put a lot of effort into growing the channel, it goes pretty quickly if you're giving the audience what they want. Find your genre and do it differently and better than the others.
Today, my operation is very different than how it originally started. I have a routine and a structure for how I organize and obtain my content. I also have a schedule of how I make it. I've upgraded my hardware, my software, and my websites over time as I have increased my following, and on my clock, I am busier now than I used to be.
I have been a content creator since 2013, however, I've only operated the channel seriously in the last couple of years. There was a video I made about police pulling a driver over near me and another one about a WRX driver who crashed their car, driving dangerously near me. Those two videos I've had over 3 million views and they are what sort of kickstarted my channel.
If I had the knowledge I have now, I would have from the beginning, sorted content from other people. I would have made videos more consistently and I would have made longer videos. I probably would have invested money sooner in upgrading my hardware and software to be state of the art.
I haven't really made any mistakes with the channel. In hindsight, I could have grown sooner. I probably wasted time trying to influence those who were not interested in having their mind changed or spending my time and energy on trolls and keyboard warriors when I should have been concentrating my time on all those positive subscribers and followers instead of the negative ones.
If someone has content for videos and is struggling to improve their content, I would suggest that they look at how similar channels organize their content and determine what element makes it work for them. Do not copy others but perhaps take insights from them and put your own spin on it. Being unique and different will get you well more views online than simply being like all the others.
Tricks and life hacks would be for YouTube. There's a YouTube university that helps teach you how the algorithm works. You need to understand the algorithm and understand their community guidelines. Essentially, what YouTube wants from the video is for it to be advertiser-friendly even if you don't want to make money. YouTube is only interested in your video if it makes money so you have to follow their guidelines if you wanna get good news. So with this, learn how the platform you're working on works because even though you may have great content, you can't get it out there.
Some of the more important things are thumbnails and details, such as the hashtags that will get you noticed in a search.
I still have my full-time job and I do YouTube as a side hustle. At present, I still don't want to leave my full-time job but if my YouTube channel continues to grow and my Facebook takes off, I will look to leave my job soon and do this full time.
I got a lot of negative comments at one point and this disheartened me with the whole process and did make me think about giving it away. However, the amount of positive feedback I've gotten from people has made me forget those negativities and only concentrated on the positive. Another obstacle I had was in the channel, being popular required more time than changing jobs. I did consider discontinuing creating content for the lack of time but I decided to stick with it and just do what I could. With this, I refined my methods to be more efficient to allow me to get the work I needed to be done in less time. This has allowed me to continue doing both jobs simultaneously and smoothly.
Some of the highlights for my channel would include me having a series of videos go viral and get millions of views. Some subscribers have also requested merchandise stickers and other items to display to show they're a fan of mine which is quite humbling.
I also consider it a milestone having people all over the world use phrases and catchphrases I use and reference me in videos from the content. I also hear people talking about my content and with them not knowing that I'm the one who creates that content. The money I have made for my content has allowed me to change my lifestyle for me and my family and provide a happier life for all of us.
Starting my channel was just creating a user account on YouTube and uploading my first video. We refined it from there over the years to what it is now. I've never done anything unethical, well, I actually do the opposite, unlike other content creators that don't care about those that they're affecting or how the content they're creating may affect them. I don't use content that is going to have a negative effect on people.
Currently, I have not hired anyone to handle my marketing, however, I have been approached recently by someone wanting to run my Facebook page so that may be an option anytime soon. My channel grew because of people sharing my content all the time and of course, through my other social media platforms. I don't collaborate with anyone else. I don't post on pages or groups or blogs, just on my Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram accounts.
No, I don't reach out to certain brands. Brands come to me if they want me to advertise their products or do some advertising. I like to work with brands that I approve of. The brands must promote a service or product I am most likely to support or use and they should not be doing unethical things.
My advice with dealing with brands is to understand if you deal with certain brands, think of how that will affect your viewers. If you simply take money from the brands that the majority of your viewers don't like, you could lose your audience base. I negotiate payment from various sources. I ask them what they offer and prepare it to match other offers I've had.
This is changing all the time and grows over time. It is seasonal and varies depending on advertising trends, I’d say around $5,000-$10,000.
