00:00.00 kinkella Hello and welcome to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 126 I'm your host Dr Andrew King Kella and tonight we explore how I became head of my own media empire. 00:21.67 kinkella So we're talking about being a media mogul today and why am I doing this right? and it's actually because I get asked this question quite a bit ah in terms of How do you become a podcaster How do you do a Youtube channel. Um, how do you publish stuff. Basically as an archeologist in my case although it's whatever you are in your case, you know how do you use these different media outlets. In order to get what you have to say out to the general public right? So I again I want to talk about this because I keep seeing things in the news. How kids. Like when they say what do you want to be when you grow up they say Youtube influencer right? And so like what is that why it sounds kind of lame right? It sounds empty which in many ways it is but let's take the positive side to that you know how do you. Do this kind of stuff. Um I don't know honorably with some sort of professionalism you know and so I thought I'd just take this time and break down. 01:42.52 kinkella My experiences and really specific stuff like people will ask things like what kind of microphone. do you use how do I record myself you know um how do I edit myself that stuff is there's a learning curve there. You know and so I thought I'd I'd go through it right? I'll I'll sort of take apart. Um, we'll do my Youtube channel first. Ah, then we'll do the podcasting world and then finally I'll do um, written media like publishing books and blog posts and that kind of stuff and. 02:20.80 kinkella Right before I start I want I know that a lot of people are listening to this with hopes and dreams of doing their own and I want to make sure you're taking it seriously, you know that you have for any of these things a long game. Okay, that you have thought logically and in a step by step manner about making content that can work for many many episodes, not just 2 episodes of whatever it is. You're making you know, but for. The foreseeable future. So in terms of Youtube right? How how would you do a Youtube channel like if you want to do a channel on pseudo archeology right? how do you do that where's where do I King Kela where do I start how how do I become the ah. Media empire mogul that you are Andrew can Kella so first Youtube in some ways is easier. Um, you start by making a Youtube account right? and right away you have to be smart and what I mean by that is you have to be smart with your titling. Now for me my title for my Youtube channel is kinkela teaches archeology and it's okay, um, titles are better if they are simple and searchable. 03:52.55 kinkella Right? Remember that so Kin Kela teaches archaeology is okay, it's unique which is good. It's not just like archaeology show. But at the same time if your title is archeology show that comes up more on Google search. So when you're making a title for whatever media. You're doing make sure make sure you're not too smart for yourself. You know what? I mean make sure make sure that it's straightforward enough. It's okay, you don't have to be like super creative at every turn. Um. Think about that I find that a lot of people make that mistake just because when you make a Youtube account. It's just like right? there. What's the name of your thing you know so you already have to kind of think before you click because kind of once it's in it's in now now you have your account now you have to populate your account. In this case, some videos. Yeah and it's not just where you turn your camera on and do some wacky hijinks and then put it up online. You have to edit it. You have to think about your sound your video right? how how your background the camera itself and so what I find for what works for me is what's funny is the camera is always the easy part meaning that cameras in almost anything are so good. 05:24.88 kinkella That quality is not a problem when I first started my Youtube channel again now to in terms of numbers I think I have four point three thousand subscribers and I have 106 videos something like that and I've been doing it for like 5 years I think the earliest videos I have in there are from like 2018 so that's the channel we're where we're talking about right? that kind of size which is smallish. You know what? I mean. Um. 05:59.18 kinkella In terms of the technology though the the earliest ones I think god I might have used an iphone for s I always use my iphone for the for the video on my on my Youtube channel. Um. The very first handful of videos I remember I used an olympus camera that I had and the reason why I used it was it had a flip up screen where I could see myself. Um for a long time on Youtube I'd been using the main camera on my iphone so I couldn't see myself as I recorded myself. It is nice to be able to see yourself just recently I've switched to the forward facing camera on my Iphone right now I'm using an iphone mini 12 and the forward facing camera is more than good enough now in the in the olden days of 2018 maybe the forward facing camera might have not been quite good enough who knows that my point is though that the camera's not your problem. The camera quality will be good. Your problem is gonna be the sound for your Youtube video now again I've found that modern iphones are so good in terms of sound. That I actually record my videos just with with the camera itself like no no added sound I'm just recording into Iphone sound and it works fine now. Make sure to go into the settings of your actual phone before you record to make sure your levels are up kind of nice and high. 07:27.93 kinkella My problem as we'll see in so much of this is that my voice is super loud and I'm always having to fight against I'm always turning my levels down always down down down down down and a lot of times. It's it's never enough but but hey you you always hear me. So your sound is going to be more more of a problem I went to a point for while where I had a lavalier mic which is one of those little clipon ones that runs straight into the iphone and I found that again. My voice was so loud that I was overpowering the lavalier mark even though I would put the lavaler like way down. And I turned the levels down it just I thought it was gonna be better and it wasn't so if you're thinking of doing a Youtube channel for your nuts and bolts remember before you start, you need a camera your phone's probably fine. You need to test the audio and make sure it sounds okay, um, oh and for the camera itself. You need a tripod of some kind I have that I happen to have an old tripod I bought a little addition, you could screw on the top for a clamp for the iphone itself. You absolutely have to have 1 You have to think that what you're making you want it to look professional. You know how many Youtube videos have you seen where you're like dude is not professional now for me right now I'm I'm recording myself but you may be only hearing the audio my background right now isn't that great. It's because I'm I'm doing my podcasting stuff and I don't worry about the background so much. Um. 08:59.16 kinkella But if I was doing a Youtube video I really worry about it I tend to use my office the background of my office is colorful. It's kind of dynamic and it looks good like it looks correct for a show called the ah Kin Kela teaches archeology because it's an archeology professor in his real lab. It's authentic. Um. To think about what you wear I always think about what I wear for the Youtube channel shows even though it doesn't look like it. Um I make sure to wear dark clothing this is where all the stuff that you learn if you've taken film school which I have um, all that stuff kind of comes in like dark clothing. No stripes. Um. Generally stuff. That's a little bit more slimming and and that's not so you can look like svelte it just it makes it easier to see you moving. It's a little more It's just a little better than wearing something like you know, horrendously baggy or something just kind of fitting dark. Simple, um and the lighting too see these are the things that get you. it's not the it's not the camera lighting I have um I always do mine in front of a window that has great natural light and I actually have 2 little fill lights that I do sometimes too so I'm in my office natural light streaming in. 2 little fill lights that I just happened to own they were ah they were as part of some camera thing that I just found like a decade ago I'm like I'll set up these these 2 little you know, um. 10:30.91 kinkella 2 little mini spotlight things. They were very inexpense I mean the whole camera kit thing was probably twenty bucks um and then I have the lights on in my office so I have a lot of light more lights better than less light. Also have to watch the shadows that is making does it making is it making you look like you have like huge bags under your eyes even though you don't have them that bad you know like there's that kind of stuff so your lighting and your sound is what you're going to have to really concentrate on in order to make your Youtube channel look professional. You know, then after you record yourself, you got to upload it and edit it. You can't just upload it raw. So I edit my stuff in imovie. So I just use Apple products just because I have an I moviee comes free with a computer so I edited an I movievie very basic editing I usually only do one. 1 take straight across of what I'm going to say it's very off the cuff. It has that kind of energy sometimes I do 2 takes um but it's almost always that the first one's the better one anyway and that's what you do right? there you go just there and my Youtube channel is very basic. So again, if you want to do this thing think of the name of your show and we haven't even talked about what's your show about you have to have something you talk to at Depth Pseudo Archeology Podcast it's great I could talk about a thousand things. 12:01.13 kinkella Right? I'm not starved for material like ever. You know? Um, so think about that and can can you really do forty shows you know everyone has a great idea for one show or or four shows. But what about. 10 shows what about 50? What are you? What are you doing on your thirty first show those are the serious discussions you have to have with yourself in order to make a Youtube channel successful right? or any of this kind of stuff. Successful. Um, and then of course. People are curious about pay in the Youtube world right? because all, you're like dude I to be a a Youtube influencer man. But I mean children saying that's what they want to do with their lives I hope their parents are telling them that is not a viable career opportunity in any way shape or form because it's not It is a very fun side hustle you know and for me in terms so in the Youtube world getting to a thousand subscribers is a big deal. It kind of opens you up to be able to do things and um, but you only get. Advertising once you have at least a thousand subscribers and then I think you have to have at least 4000 hours watched per year I think something like that and that was always my problem. The 4000 hours because all my videos are short like 5 minutes long and I think I talked about in previous. 13:29.80 kinkella The the thing that pushed me over the top was my video about my joking video about how Graham Hancock was right and you know ancient aliens are are here. Are they atlanteans I had evidence of the atlanteans in my office so that so all the all the angry suitud archeology people push me over the top on my Youtube channel. Um, but what is over the top. So as of about a year ago I was able to start getting revenue and that's after 4 years of having a show again. At this point 106 videos making nothing. Okay, nothing and some of my videos in terms of watches and watches something like 20000 watches for me would be very high many of my videos have like 250 watches just depends 250 views right? So um I was only able to. Quote unquote get paid. Although Youtube would run ads over my videos without paying me. That's what happens after a while they start running ads and they don't you're like and you want to be like dude, you're not even paying me, don't run ads through my stuff they do it anyway. So. Once you get over that hump though then you can get paid so after a year of all my stuff running and all my old videos are still being watched you know this kind of stuff. Um I made one ah hundred and thirteen dollars in total. So that's what I made. 15:03.11 kinkella You know, after about a year of people rewatching um old stuff and I would say at this point in the Youtube world just to give you guys a feeling I will get a big check from Youtube for about $100 maybe at this point every. Five months or six months something like that that's that world so think of how much work I've done on my youtube channel one ah hundred and six videos over 5 years and by the end of this year twenty twenty three I might sneaky in a second check and I've made like two hundred bucks in total so that's that world. There's a little variety of course but I want you guys to know it's not about the pay. It's about outreach to the general public and in terms of that. I've loved my youtube channel but I got content right? Kinkela teaches archaeology I can talk about anything I have a hundred videos worth of stuff for yourself. Think seriously about how much content you have you know what? how long are your videos going to be. Minor short 5 minutes or whatever you know are they long. What's your format. These are all serious questions because even though I joke you really are starting a media empire when we come back more. 16:34.21 kinkella Um, my media Empire and how you can do it too. 16:48.80 kinkella Hello and welcome back to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 126 and I've been talking about how the um, how that really how the hamburger is made behind the scenes. In terms of Youtube videos in terms of podcasting in terms of publishing and because I've gotten this question kind of a lot from various places but my students are curious and they're not just curious like oh wow what's your favorite video on your Youtube channel. It's like they're curious about the nuts and bolts. You know of how you did this the actual product so previously we had just talked in terms of Youtube how I record stuff on my iphone. A modern iphone is fine for both audio and video but you have to have a tripod and have a way to edit it and upload it. So um, moving on. So the podcast world. What do I use to bring this very show to you guys. So I'm lucky because whereas in Youtube world I'm totally my own producer like I do it all I edit it all right I do everything here. Thank god archeological podcast network with Chris wrote well ah his name is Chris Webster with Chris Webster and Rachel Rodden those guys edit all my shenanigans. So I am just quote unquote the talent. 18:16.32 kinkella Right? So I don't have to deal with the same sort of things here that I have to deal with in Youtube world like Chris deals with the commercials he deals with the editing right? I'm part of this umbrella group. So this world's easy for me. So if you want to start your own podcast. You will have more difficult than me unless you join a group that's already. Making stuff which I highly recommend unless you totally are like I want to make all the revenue for myself all my millions notice. How much I said I made in the previous segment That's what you're looking at if you're getting into this world right? Sort of. Tenths of pennies in terms of the amount of time you put in but in terms of that. So how is this podcast made we we make it on a platform called Zencastr there are different platforms in order to make these and I go into the Zencastr program and I I sort of. Turn it on and I have choices whether to just record audio only or to record video as well in terms of the video. It's just straight off my mac and my mac is like 8 years old 9 years old at this point so this is an older computer still looks great. It looks fine. For these needs. The camera's fine. Um, it works very straightforward. The audio though is of course what matters for a podcast now for me I use I have a sure this is the sure branded model I forget the actual exact model but it's the 1.