Showing off your Track.......fun, fast, exciting, easy

RoadRunnerRacewayFan Tuesday, 1/5/2021

We would all like our tracks to be as amazing as 3dBotmaker's but the time and effort it takes to create a 7-15 minute video is something most of is can't afford to do regularly. So I fiddled around with a short version of something 3D did awhile ago with his street racing series. A simple 1vs1 battle. His videos were 2-3 minutes long and spectacular but if you really just want to show off your track in a way that looks good and keeps people coming back for more than I hope this helps.

First : 1 minute is the longest your video should be if your track is anything like mine. Not super fancy. People want to see the cars in action on your track so don't force a long slow montage of your track on them. ( unless your chaos canyon, then please show us All your track.

Second: Make sure to show case the cars at least twice. You want your veiwers to know who's racing and who they want to win.

Third: Have fun making it. Name it whatever you want. Be free to comentate and be okay with hearing your voice recorded. (That one took me awhile). Add music that fits. But really just have fun.

These are not the core truths of everything. I find that it works for me and I wanted to share with you. 

Here is one that I made. It took me 15 minutes to make. It was very fulfilling.I bet you'll watch all of it just because it's more work to click away from a 38 second video then to finish it. AHHHH laziness. :)

youtu.be/3Hfbum7R8mc

Disclaimer: this is meant for small track and channel owners like RoadRunner Raceway. This is not a dig at other channels or racers. This is meant to help and not hurt anyone.Have a good day :)


Discussion

Haha, thanks for the shout out :)

I agree with pretty much everything above, but especially your third point. Have fun making what you want to watch and you'll find like minded viewers. If you constantly compare yourself to others or try to make stuff that isn't really you but you feel that's what people want or you're doing it just for 'views' then it'll get really exhausting and the whole thing will just feel like a major chore. 

Also, decide why you're doing it. If it's to make some cool videos and put content out for people to enjoy, then that's awesome. Have fun and do that and don't get caught up in the view counts etc and you'll have an absolute blast and make a ton of new friends etc.

If you are going into it because you think it's an easy way to make money then be prepared to put in a lot of effort, stick to schedules, have plans and stick to them etc as it will take a ton of work. Keep in mind as well, it takes a lot of subs and watch hours before you get monetised (1000 subs and 4,000 Hours of watched video just to hit the minimum barrier to be able to monetise) and a whole lot more before it starts paying anything that you could possibly live on, so it is going to take a long time to get there - an average video will pay approx $5-9 per 1000 views, so a video that gets 1000 views may be worth $5 and you only get paid if you hit the threshold of total revenue each month of around $150-200/m. Just some food for thought :)

The other point I would add to your original post, is just start now. Don't wait till everything is perfect and you have the perfect light set up and the best cameras etc. If you look at our first few races back in April last year they are really dark and quite grainy plus the track 'diorama' was a bunch of material stapled to the shed wall because the track was made out of what we had on hand during lockdown but starting at that stage is great becuase you get a feel for what you can and can't do, what works or what doesn't while filming etc and if you wait till it's pefect then launch, you're first few videos will likely only still get a few views as your channel will be new. So start now and have fun and you'll learn so much more by doing it now and you'll get better at commentating or voiceovers the more you do it - and it feels less embarrassing when you're channel is small :)

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redlinederby 1/6/21
Site manager

All true and something I have to remind myself often. I've been racing more than 10 years and video had never been a priority until probably 5 years ago. It was a drastic change in race workflow and it was burden. And to be honest, the need to produce videos makes a lot of decisions for me when it comes to number of entries, race format, etc. (bad or good). 

The videos I make, I feel, are bare minimum but it still takes a few hours to clip it all together. I look at videos as proof of a race and little more. Doesn't mean I want it to look like shit but you're rarely going to get more than just the cars down the track. I'm also someone who doesn't like to sit through extra commentary and extra races when I watch others...I scrub through most of a video looking for my cars or other racers/moments I'm keen on watching. And I try to produce the style of video that I would want to sit through (which is probably not a good way to try and make money). 

Folks like 3DBM have the video production skills BEFORE they started racing. Rolling cars down a track is the easy part and for those folks. Making entertaining content is the hard part. And folks like 3D have the most fun making the videos. But he is working his ass off and he's getting returns for it. YouTube is NOT an easy way to make money. Making content is difficult and time consuming...it's a job. Most of us will not be like 3DBM and aren't really trying to be...and that's okay.

Lastly, as a suggestion for when you publish a video on YouTube...add time skip links in your video description, along with other links and info. The more information about the race, the better. Links will drive folks to your site or group...and time skips will let people easily jump to the races they're interested in. The YouTube Studio makes it very easy to go through and get times and add them to the description - just type the time! You can see an example in the description of my Holiday Rumble video.

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