Yesterday, I was writing about how I’m a contrarian, but I couldn’t decide if it was organic or a reaction to societal norms. I wandered all over the place as is my wont. The reason I am thinking about this is because I am considering doing video. I have looked at a bunch of different videos in different genres over the year, and it’s pretty clear to me that there are a few general rules to follow if you want to be at all successful.
One, you have to pick a category and stick to it. Start with a broad category such as makeup. Then, pick a sub-category within that category/a niche. So, in makeup it would be–oh hell. let me switch to games, which I know better.
You want to do videos on games. Great. do you want to actually play games? Or do you want to talk about games? If it’s the former, then you have to decide if you want to stream or to just put up videos. Or both! And if it’s the latter, then are you going to edit or just put up the raw footage?
You also have to decide what kind of game do you want to play. Roguelike-like in which every run is roughly half an hour to an hour? That’s what Northerlion did in the beginning. Or rather, what he got famous for. He did four runs of Binding of Isaac: Rebirth a day with light editing. He did this every day for years before slowly starting to branch out. He did a live show, too, and that expanded as well.
I just looked at his channel and scrolled back. There is no obvious BOI content in the last three months. I would bet he hasn’t played it on the daily since Repentance came out. I would not blame him if he never played the game again. He also was responsible for boosting Cook, Serve, Delicious! (David Galindo) when it first came out, which was how I heard of the game.
Now, he’s more of a variety show, just playing whatever he wants. He also streams quite a bit–I know he did Elden Ring (FromSoft). He spent several years, though, building up his brand–and he did it by being consistent and insanely productive.
The thing is, you want people to think of you instantly when something in your wheelhouse comes out. That’s branding, and it’s very important. Here’s a silly example. I had a thing for Alan Rickman. I was passionate about him, and I could not stop blathering about him. I would go on and on on my socials, and it got to the point that when anytthing new concerning him came out, people would send me tweets asking me if I had seen it or post it on my FB.
For example. There was a video of him making tea. That doesn’t sound like anything, but it was shot very dramatically. Slo-mo and everything. At the end, he throws the cup of tea he had just made and then upends the table. It’s a little over seven minutes and I’ve included it below. There is also an orchestra backing him. It’s just incredible.