One Million Subscribers on YouTube, How she did it with Lindsey Hughes: Beauty and the Vlog Podcast 33
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Lindsey Hughes is a 20 year old Beauty YouTuber who started her channel who moved to Los Angeles a year ago to attend college and pursue her YouTube career. Her sister, a former guest of the show, Meghan Hughes is also a YouTuber. Both girls live together in Los Angeles. Lindsey has almost 1 million subscribers and 80 million video views.
Lindsey Hughes
I was uploading every single day consistently for a year. I was so dedicated to YouTube. I would film four videos in one day. I would use the weekend to edit and pre-upload all of them. I was so dedicated because I had so much free time that year. Being consistent and the time is what helped me the most. Always listening to people and what they wanted to see. I know there are a lot of people that did a specific collab. I did stuff with other people; I think it was more about time and consistency.
My biggest thing I like my videos to be is relatable, I am a normal girl just like all the other girls watching my video. I don’t want it to feel like a show. That is why I like chill editing. It is not as crazy and cool as so many other YouTubers but I feel like YouTube is changing now and it’s a lot more professional and crazy editing and the lighting. It is hard for me to want to go over to that because I know that is what most people want to see. Its difficult for me, its not necessarily how I want myself to be portrayed in this light. I have final cut but I don’t even use it. First, I don’t know how to use it, but second I don’t know, all of the amount of time put into editing a single video, my favorite type of videos to watch and film are sit down videos where I am connecting. I feel like I am talking to my friends, my viewers. Those are my favorite type to film. I struggle with that aspect of YouTube.
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Lindsey Show Notes
Beauty Bonus Round:
1.)Beauty Blender: Its just so great. Its my #1. Over any actual product, that applicator
2) Cover Girl Stay Fabulous Foundation: You can get it at the drugstore. One of my most favorite foundations I’ve found. It lasts a pretty long time. It’s the perfect coverage, perfect finish.I use it on every single video.
3) Benefit They’re real mascara.
Three Holy Grail for Channel:
1.) Vlogging Camera I use. I feel like very YouTuber has it. It’s the Canon G7X. Its fabulous. Its tiny but the quality is probably better or just as good as my DSLR camera. It has a screen so you can see yourself. I am so obsessed, I got it a few months ago.
2.) You have to have good lights. At least for me. If you film during the day during natural light. I film a lot at night. It would be better if I had another one. They are the cowboy studios kit brand. Its $50 and you get three lights and umbrellas.
3.) My little microphone. Its called the snowball microphone by Blue. Its around $40 or $50 from Amazon. For voiceovers I never realized that you need to have a microphone to do it well. It sounds so much better and so much clearer. Just filming on a MAC book your voice sounds cloudy. When I started using that I noticed so much of a difference.
Any Favorite Time Management Tools?
I like making lists. I will make to-do today or this week lists. Most of the time I don’t get everything accomplished. I always feel really productive when I finish filming or editing two videos in one day. Other than that I probably shouldn’t give any time management tips because I’m not good at that.
Dream Collaboration:
Miranda Sings is my favorite YouTuber. We have been to at least two maybe three of her comedy shows. I’m obsessed with her. You know you have been fans of someone before they were big? I watched her when she had less than 100k subscribers, I would tell my friends about her and nobody knew who she was. Now she’s huge, she has like 2 million subscribers, she blew up in the last year and a half.
What would you not do again if you were to start your channel right now?
I would probably not ever use a Mac book for filming. I did that for a year. I probably have gone through 8 cameras. I used my moms MacBook, I would sneak it at night when she went to sleep. I use a digital camera but it was for pictures. It was not good. I used so many cameras. It didn’t get good until I got a mini DSLR. I would have started from the beginning using a good quality camera and not using a bad camera. I think it would have made my channel grow a little faster if I started with a more professional looking camera. It didn’t feel like when I started I needed that. If I started again, I would be more professional and know about lighting and quality. If you don’t know anything about video and lighting and good cameras you might think, this is really good? But you go on someone else’s video and theirs is perfect.
What are you glad you did do when you first started your channel?
I am glad that I made videos about what I was passionate about the whole time. I never made videos based on what was popular. Obviously, I do what my viewers wanted to see but I never made videos about stuff I don’t care about. I started making videos because I wanted to talk about beauty and I have always been passionate about it. Making videos about what I was passionate about and wanting to talk about from the start is good.
The biggest thing is I have grown up a lot. You change a lot in that time. The changing of me as a person. I have always wanted to make videos about beauty. A lot of people changed from wanting to be a beauty guru to more of a personality. I feel like I never needed to make a switch became I was always showing my personality. I have my vlog channel where I can post things that are not beauty and fashion related. I always am going to want to talk about makeup and beauty, I know that for sure. I wish I still made favorites videos every month; they are not that popular anymore. For me, people don’t care about them as much. You’ve been doing this every month for three years. Even I am over it because I talk about the same stuff. But, those are some of my favorite things to make.
Are you strategic with planning your videos?
Most of my videos; I have an idea of how they will perform. Certain videos do better. On everyone’s channel those types of videos are going to do better than if I were to make a random favorites video or outfit of the week. I sometimes want to upload avideo. I hate the idea of not creating a video because someone might not watch it. Besides views, I look at likes. Some videos will get 5 or 6k likes and some will get 13k likes. So many more people liked it enough to click the thumbs up button.
What is your unfair advantage?
The time when I started YouTube, there couldn’t have been a better time. Now, trying to get into YouTube is so much harder, in the last few years its insane. Its so hard to start and distinguish yourself and be someone people want to watch and subscribe to in addition to the other people that are out there. You need something about you that stands out. When I started 5 years ago that was the perfect time to start. There were not that many of us. I could name to you all the beauty gurus, I knew who everyone was. Now there are thousands. I could never name all of the channels that I watch. I think a good advantage, when I started my beauty and my vlog channel, it was 3.5 years ago. Starting those channels early enough when there was a need for more beauty gurus and personalities. It’s a lot harder now, but so much better now. There are so many more people watching. Making videos is the best decision in my entire life. IT takes work and dedication. Other people are going to find your channel and like it. YouTube is a great platform and I would 100% encourage anyone who has a little free time to go for it. I feel really lucky but I feel anyone who wants to and is dedicated enough can do it. Anyone can make it. Anyone with the drive and personality and who wants to be doing YouTube can do it. It takes time and hard work.
If you are a YouTuber, sign up for Grapevine (It’s FREE!)! You get connected with potential sponsors and other YouTubers looking to collaborate! (Plus you will be getting a special bonus exclusively for my listeners and you are supporting the show!) Click here.
You can find Lindsey and her channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/beautybaby44
