Making money legally during the epidemic years is crucial to beating inflation and keeping you and your family's head above financial water. Many Filipinos have taken to TikTok for their entertainment, and 99% do not make a single peso from uploading short videos, but now you can get paid for sharing your videos.
Yes, we have #BCH has a means of making money and putting food on our tables (or adding to our savings), but a wise person never puts all of their eggs in one basket. In other words, a savvy individual should always be on the lookout for other opportunities to make money, as opposed to falling for get rich, pyramid schemes.
Enter Google. They have observed the success of #TikTok and have launched a similar platform that actually pays its creators. According to Southern (2020), a Your Tube (YT) creator is able to do the following:
Create and upload videos of 15-seconds or less (now up to a minute plus).
Edit videos with a number of creative tools.
Stitch shorter clips together with a multi-segment camera.
Add music to videos from YouTube’s library.
Speed up or slow down videos.
Timers and countdowns.
You Tube Shorts
According to Google, people can "Now ... can create, edit, and share short videos on YouTube Shorts. All you need is a phone, your ideas, and voilà! New ways to create mean new chances to be seen. Where will your creativity take you?
#Google began with the Beta phase, but it is now ready for anyone who has the desire to make videos, as opposed to #vlogging.
The best part? It's free!
Getting started
Google states that all you need is a smartphone. Well enough. But as I prepared to begin uploading, I thought about what else I could use to my advantage. Light!
Oftentimes when we make a video our smartphones are unable to capture decent light. According to #Scotty17, who is a screenwriter, actor and filmmaker, one of the more fundamental aspects of film or videos is proper lighting.
I picked his brain via Facebook Messenger and he offered me some tips. Light and a green screen.
I went ahead and picked up a light from #Lazada for 300 pesos (including shipping). It came in about 4 days from Metro Manila. It sits here on my counter so I can grab it easily whenever necessary.
It's nothing fancy and certainly inexpensive. Note the black mount for one's smartphone. Of course, the stand is adjustable for height, and the light itself can be adjusted by swiveling it. One of the nice features of this light is that it is portable, so you can shoot your videos in dim lighting or even outdoors at night. Ta-da!
Green screen
"The term 'Green Screen' is used to describe a camera and editing trick. A large canvas is placed behind a scene, and it contains a color that is not present elsewhere in the shot. The color is typically a bright shade of blue or green. During the editing session, the green screen color is keyed out of the scene. It then leaves a blank space where another image may be superimposed into the video" (Arango, 2021).
Green screens are used for big Hollywood productions, when shooting scenes that are realistic though not reality. We see this is all films where there is CGI, like "Jurassic Park","The Matrix", and Apollo 13, etc.
Here is an image of Scotty17's studio.
The price can be costly to obtain a green screen, depending on the size, but here's good news - you can download one from the Microsoft Store for free. Simply follow this link:
Or if you don't have Microsoft, you can download an app from other sources, like here:
https://filmora.wondershare.com/video-editing-tips/free-green-screen-software.html#:~:text=OpenShot%20is%20a%20free%20and%20open-source%20chroma%20key%2Fgreen,Linux%2C%20Mac%2C%20and%20Windows%2C%20and%20it%20is%20cross-platform.
Free videos for green screens
Okay, let's say you want to make a short video and you want an interesting background. While you can use your natural surroundings, which I prefer, you can also use ready-made images and video as your background, again, for free.
Go here:
https://www.videezy.com/free-video/green-screen
Money, honey!
Vlogging is still popular with some Filipinos and they have become popular and wealthy. But you can make money, too! You don't have to be popular or well-spoken, but just need a creative mind and the free tools to make your video. I mean, why make a 20-minute video when you can make a host of shorts?
And another thing: I have researched the most popular videos and how long people can focus or pay attention to any video. Some people wrongly believe that the longer the video, the more money they can make. This is only somewhat true.
However, the best videos that go viral are always under 4-5 minutes, and the actual viewership time is approximately 3-minutes.
What are you waiting for?
If you sincerely want to make some extra cash, I suggest you dump TikTok and go with You Tube Shorts. At least your time making and uploading a video will pay. You can also add your link to your bio on #read.cash or wherever. Also, you can add your link to the bottom of each article you write.
In my opinion it doesn't get any easier. So, what are you waiting for? Procrastination is your foe, not your friend. Get after it!
References
Arango, B. (2021). How Do Green Screens Work? [A Complete Beginner's Guide]. Filmora. Retrieved from https://filmora.wondershare.com/video/how-do-green-screens-work.html
Southern, M. (2020). YouTube Shorts – Google’s Answer to TikTok? SEJ Journal. Retrieved from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/youtube-shorts/380811/#close
Excellent article and no I had not heard about youtube shorts. I am on it now though!! Thanks so much.