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Swati Rai
From fashion and beauty to lifestyle and technology, tips on videos are ruling the web. Vloggers or video bloggers are not only following their passion but also helping the user an informed choice to watch
Click, like and follow…that’s how easy it is to get your daily ‘virtual’ fixes on lifestyle, comedy, DIY and technology et al! Made possible by the growing tribe of vloggers and YouTube channel owners! With the ease of plugging and unplugging in your time, watching what you want was never this easy.
Find your voice
Meet Mumbai-based, effervescent former model, qualified lawyer and now a full-time YouTuber, Scherezade Shroff. She mans two channels ‘Coupling’, where she vlogs about her quirky experiences with her partner; and ‘Gotta do India’, a travel tips and must dos channel. ‘Being yourself, finding your own voice and having something to say are the three most important things for a ‘virtual’ newbie!’ says Sherry. She began by shooting with an inbuilt laptop camera and slowly graduated to a DSLR on which she is self-taught! “I don’t have much of an offline life I guess!” exclaims Sherry! Yes you guessed it right! “Have a backup plan”!
She advises for those heading out to etch their vlogs as you can never be sure of brand partnerships and sponsorships as you go along this virtual path!
Hard work pays
Hyderabad-based Geeky Ranjit, a.k.a Ranjit Kumar, has a tech YouTube channel with more than a million subscribers where he offers, “unbiased tech reviews and posts new videos daily”. “It is tough and a lot of hard work!” says he, and adds that unlike what most youngsters feel, “I find myself working even on Sundays and holidays for an average of 13 to 14 hours a day!” It helps if you vlog about what your hobby, passion is and what you have in-depth knowledge about! “It can be tough to make it financially viable however I am now looking at seriously streamlining that process too!”
Bouquets and brickbats
Beauty fixes and vlogging go hand in hand, ask Mumbai-based, Sonal Sagaraya, who is now four years into her YouTube fashion and beauty stream!
“You connect with people from the remotest parts, however sometimes you can get some nasty hate comments at times,” says Sonal. “It is essential for a vlogger to consider it as a part and parcel of this journey.”
With more than 15,000 subscribers and growing everyday, Sonal now plans to “venture into an offline business in the space of beauty and lifestyle”.
Age is just a number
Noida-based, 57-year-old Nisha Madhulika owns a cookery channel on YouTube, which she had started as a blog. It now has two lakh sixty YouTube followers and she gets about nearly 80 million views too!
It is important to have good quality videos uploaded for a sustained growth. Nisha adds, “It took me a while to arrange the resources and to gain some working experiences before I could make videos of acceptable quality.” Through her vlog Nisha aims “to take Indian cuisine as far and as wide as possible”.
From virtual to real
Delhi-based stand-up comic artist Neeti Palta started by sending her video clips to agencies and clients to get visibility. Later ‘realising the kind of reach YouTube had across age groups and geographies, I started putting out sketches and the kind of response coming in was awesome.’ Her YouTube sketches helped her establish her reach and translated in getting hired for corporate and public shows. With about two hundred thousand followers, Neeti keeps busier on stage in real thanks to her virtual beginning!
About the future she says, “Many other start-ups are reaching out with interesting ideas about creating exclusive videos for phone apps!’ Clearly, the internet and the digital age are upon us. It is a great leveller where sitting in remote corners of the world one can go viral with an idea that can click, literally!”
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