Coming up with an endless flow of video ideas for Youtube can stop the most ambitious person in their tracks before they even begin. The daunting thought of hundreds, if not thousands of videos you want to produce for your channel, laying out before you like a path through a dark and dangerous forest, can give you a major feeling of overwhelm - to say the least.
Well, there is a way, or a few actually, to relieve that sense of fear and dread, and give yourself the confidence to say, 'I got this!'.
Before we dive in though, I'd like to say that you don't have to do it all at once. Pre-planning what you're going to do is good and looking ahead a couple of weeks to be ready is very helpful, but when you're just getting the ideas going it helps to look at it one at a time and not worry about all the years ahead.
One... video... at... a... time...
Okay, so onto '5 ways to keep the YouTube video ideas flowing'.
#1: Research your video niche thoroughly
I say this often, but research is your friend. 'You don't know, what you don't know' as someone once said. I find that as I research ideas just start coming out of the woodwork. Follow research tangents to see where it leads and how it might relate back to what you're working on. You don't have to always be so literal about your niche when you're producing video, as long as it relates back in some way to your message, theme or niche.
As you research video ideas for YouTube you'll want to write everything down. Some of it may seem silly at the time, but do it anyway. When you look back you might find nuggets of information that you can turn into a whole video idea. At this point there are no bad ideas, so drop any judgement and just read and write what you learn.
Once you feel you've exhausted all research avenues, then you can go through what you've written and learned and curate what you think you'd like to use. Don't throw anything away though, move it somewhere that you can reference on a rainy day, when you're not inspired. You may see it differently another time.
The ideas you do like you can start to use to create a list of videos to be produced.
You can reuse this technique from time to time as information is always changing.
#2: Be Inspired by Others
Watch YouTube videos in similar niches to garner ideas for your own YouTube channel and social media video endeavors.
It's very difficult, if not impossible to come up with new video ideas constantly out of thin air. Just the stress and pressure of attempting it can cause your creative brain to shut down.
So I give you permission here and now to be inspired, not steal, ideas from competitors and others in niches similar to your own. Actually, they don't even have to be all that similar - ideas can cross pollinate quite easily and then there's no way of even accidentally stealing or copying someone else's idea.
A bit more about that - you'll notice when you do a web search for a certain topic that a slew of videos will come up that are all on the same topic: something like 'video editing 101'. Even though it's the exact same topic, and no one necessarily stole it, each video will have it's own spin, angle and information which will make it unique. Even as simple as it's a year later and the software has new features.
So when you're putting your ideas together, don't worry too much about stealing ideas. Put your own spin on the same topic and it's instantly unique.
#3: Read a Magazine or Two - go Analogue
Sometimes when trying to come up with video ideas I like to go analogue. Give my brain a break from computers, phones and devices for a while.
I say 'read a magazine or two', but I also mean you can read the paper and see what's currently going on to inspire you or a book, with real pages, to rest your brain from the blue light.
I also like to write ideas down on paper. There is research to suggest that writing things down and using your hands actually creates a more creative mental environment.
Here are a couple of shorts posts with more in-depth information:
#4: Use Software that Helps Create Ideas & Concepts
Okay, if going analogue isn't your thing or it's not working out... you can always use AI!
I haven't personally gone this route yet, but I think I'll try it for fun. I found https://www.writecream.com/idea-generator/ and it looks quite interesting. It can be used for a few different platforms from blogs to videos, so it could be a handy tool across all your marketing endeavors.
#5: Get Granular
If you're still really struggling or you're 20 years into creating daily videos... then go back and see what topics you've done before and break those down into smaller, more granular, topics.
For instance, using video editing as the example again, you can go back to your 'Video Editing 101' video and break that down into smaller topics and maybe shorter videos like 'How to roll cut like a pro' or 'How to organize your footage to never search again'.
Having more detailed topics based on larger topics will just help the algorithms find you and bring your level of authority of the topic up in your customers' eyes.
In Conclusion
Coming up with ideas for your YouTube videos has always been the Achilles Heel of writers and creators around the world, so you're not alone in your struggles. Just keep hammering away and spending the time needed for ideas to come to you - they always do, so patience my friend.
I hope this helps you in your video creation process and you have much success with it all. If you have any other helpful idea generation ideas, please post below in the comments.
If you need help with creating and executing YouTube Videos, feel free to check us out at ONE INCH PUNCH PRODUCTIONS.