Today I'm going to answer a question I got about creating videos.

This post goes out to Aaron Hunt!

He asked me a few questions on facebook but we are only going to tackle one of them in this post.

Aaron asks:

Much of my video work is capturing fishing trips, so I'm experimenting with ways to make it more engaging and story-like even though I don't know exactly how the fishing trip will work out until after it's done. My trip videos do OK - my review and unboxing videos usually do better.

Vlog Storytelling is something I've been studying A LOT in the past year.

Why?

My wife and I are starting to travel full time with a tiny camper and we want to vlog it obviously!

My primary form of video content is either talking head interview style videos or highlight reels for conferences/meetups so I didn't have much experience with vlogging.

In my research I've learned 2 things.

1) Vlogging takes way more time than creating a conference highlight.

2) How to create a story when you don't know what exactly you will be doing.

I decided to learn from people who were doing it right and who I already followed. This is what I learned.

Videos need direction. Yes, even Vlogs.

How do you do that if you don't know what is going to happen?

I would suggest having a reason for each vlog before you even go out. Write down your ultimate goal before you start recording.

For instance, When we are vlogging our travels I will say at the beginning what we are going to be doing in the video.

For example, we recently went to Glacier National Park and one of the days we went paddle boarding so I started with "Hey Everyone! Today we are going to go Paddle Boarding at Lake McDonald at Glacier National Park!"

Since we travel all over the place, letting the viewer know where we are and what we are doing gives the unique information to grab attention.

It gives your audience a clear expectation of what you are going to accomplish and it gives you direction with your day of recording.

If you are going to the same lake to fish, then that information isn't unique enough to make people want to click. There is no clear goal other than watching someone fish. Why would someone want to watch your video?

Instead, you could do something like a series on different types of bait.

"Real worms vs. fake worms, Which one catches the monster fish?" is a much more catchy title, thumbnail, and gives you direction when shooting.

You know when recording that you need to be comparing real worms vs fake worms and that's why the viewer clicked the video.

"what if I don't catch ANY fish?"

Then change it up. The new title could be "Real Worms vs. Fake Worms, Does It Really Matter?"

If something crazy awesome happens, run with that, but ultimately you want your audience along for a journey.

The point is having a clear goal when you set out gives you a reason to press record instead of just recording everything that happens.

Aaron, This is probably why your unboxing videos are doing better. The viewer sees what you are doing specifically in the video and they want to see that specific thing. They want to see what the product looks like coming out of the box.

For instance, I used to follow a Disney Vlogger named Tim Tracker. He would vlog from a theme park, usually Disney World, every single day.

How do you go to Disney World EVERY DAY, record it, edit it, and share it? That is a crazy amount of work.

I noticed that he had a clear goal set for each video.

He would start videos by stating the clear goal. "Today we are going to go to main street at the Magic Kingdom because they just put out the Halloween merch so we are going to check it out!"

He would go through and look at his favorite merch on main street, share some pricing, maybe grab a snack along the way... but the goal was "Sharing The New Halloween Merch"

This makes it so he can go into the park, record the new merch on main street, and leave. He got the footage he needed. He could have shot that days video in 45 minutes instead of spending all day in the park looking for a story.

Hope this Helps Aaron!