Video Blogging

 
 
 

Vocabulary

 

tip (2)	make up	behind the scenes
scene	respond	make a living
earn	amount	afraid (2)
appeal	audience	opportunity
per	content	work out (2)
tight	expand	capital (2)
team	average	strategy
option	in return	take a cut
detail	similar	tight lipped
join	potential	bottom figure
inspire	actually	close eye
boost	regular	approach (2)
solid	look like

 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Julia Graf is at the start of a big make up job. But she’s not going out anywhere. She’s getting ready for the next presentation in her home studio.

The Swiss-Canadian used to work as a political scientist. But now she works full-time giving make up tips on her own YouTube channel.

Julia: “I think it averages around to—I don’t know—between 35 to 40 hours a week that I do work on the videos.

And of course there’s a lot of time I put into my videos that is kind of behind the scenes: like I answer people’s comments. You know they ask me a lot of questions, so I respond to fans. So yeah, it is like a full-time job if you do it full-time.”

Julia is one of hundreds of video bloggers across Europe who makes a living from YouTube videos. She won’t tell us how much her earns; but her makeup, beauty and lifestyle channel has more than 650,000 subscribers, mostly from Germany and the US.

For every viewer that watches the ad that run before her videos, Julia gets a small amount of money from YouTube. The online video giant has similar advertising deals with a million other video bloggers.

For cosmetics companies, Julia’s channel is perfect for directly reaching their target audience.

YouTube’s Mourina Latrache says there are already over a million advertisers and the market is set to keep on expanding.

Mourina Latrache, YouTube Germany Spokeswoman: “The growth will definitely continue because there’s more and more content, and it’s getting ever more professional. More and more companies are investing in producing YouTube content. And that also opens up new opportunities.”

YouTube and Julia Graf have a tight business relationship. The average beauty blogger gets more than half the advertising income. It works out to about three euros per thousand clicks.

Video bloggers who don’t work directly with YouTube can join a network, such as the one offered by Divimove.

The Berlin-based company advises YouTubers on how to build an online audience and boost their income.

Philipp Bernecker, Divimove Founder: “Divimove managers work with YouTubers to create a strategy for the channel. We have a team of 45 people who work on development and support.

And that gives us many options for improving the channel, expanding it and marketing it.”

In return, Divimove takes a cut of the advertising income, with the level varying from video-blogger to video-blogger.

Philipp Bernecker, Divimove Founder: “I’m afraid we can’t discuss any contractual details. But you could say we’re operating in the same way as similar business such as music labels.

Julia Graf may be tight-lipped about her business model too, but we did some math: if all of her subscribers watched just one ad per month, she would earn nearly 2,000 euros from automated advertizing alone.

And that’s just the bottom figure. The beauty blogger’s biggest capital is the potential of her fan base. And that means keeping a close eye on her social-media content.

Every day sees new postings on her Facebook page, such as this fan from Thailand.

Julia: “This is a person who actually saw one of my videos, and was inspired to recreate the look. Then they posted a picture of the recreation on my page, so it’s always fun to see that.”

Julia says her own personal style helps her fans relate to what she does.

Julia: “I think they like the sort of easier approach to makeup; we’re not models. You know we’re not highly-paid models in a fashion magazine: we’re just regular people and we’re showing regular people how to do makeup.

And I think that’s what really appeals to them, that we’re not superstars. And I think that people want to see other people who look like them making those kinds of videos.

Video blogging can be a solid business model, thanks to the power of online advertising.

 

 Questions

1. Julia has always created videos on makeups. True of false?

2. Is this a full-time job for her? Does she work many hours?

3. She only makes videos. Is this correct or incorrect?

4. How do YouTube and bloggers earn money?

5. The online video market is growing and expanding. Is this right or wrong?

6. What does Divimove do?

7. Do ordinary people prefer to watch and comment on models and actresses or ordinary people?
 
 
A. I like to watch YouTube. Yes or no?

B. Do you have a YouTube channel? Have you filmed and uploaded videos? What about your friends or colleagues?

C. Do you or would you like to make videos full-time? What would be the topic?

D. Some people say that blogging and video blogging are not “real jobs”. What do you think?

E. What will happen in the future?