Make a Nerdy Living

by Alex Langley

  Commenter bots, who will litter your site with comments linking to shady sites and spyware (most hosting platforms have built-in ways of detecting and deterring these pests)

  Offers to revamp your site from “experts” who really want you to pay them to suggest that you change your website’s theme

  Offers to increase your traffic/follower count (generally through the use of bots, which can get you banned lickety-split)

  Notifications that your blog has won an award you’ve never heard of (generally a way for the award-giver to get free advertising on your site)

  Offers to enter a blogging contest (generally a money pyramid where you have very little chance of winning or earning money and a very high chance that the people organizing it will net a ton of cash)

  With blogging, as in real life, go with your gut and stay away from shady-feeling deals. If something seems too good to be true or like you’re the one getting one up on the other person and they don’t realize it, you’re probably ’bout to get scammed.

  DON’T GET TOO PUBLIC

  Generally speaking, it’s great to have an open, trusting personality. On the Internet, though, that can be a dangerous thing as you’ll find there’s no shortage of crazy assholes there. Don’t be too forthcoming with personal information, especially if you’re a member of a minority population, as you’re more likely to become targeted by one of the aforementioned crazy assholes. If you’re utilizing social media heavily, scrub your personal info and open a separate account specifically for friends and family, perhaps one with a pseudonym and a profile image of something other than yourself. Don’t fill out unnecessary information on social media, make your passwords tougher than PetNameAndMyDateOfBirthOrYearIGraduated or any variation of 1234567890 (which are a couple of the most commonly used passwords, so if those are your passwords change them right the hell now), answer password security questions with weird answers only you will know, use multi-factor authentication when you can, etc. This will help keep down the number of potential stalkers and hackers to a minimum.

  DON’T OBSESS OVER NUMBERS

  You’ll drive yourself crazy checking to see how many hits you have every single day. Keep an eye on the numbers, checking them periodically without the expectation of seeing much action early on. Don’t let random, wild downswings get you too down (while taking full advantage of any big upswings).

  BRANCH OUT

  The last piece of advice about running a blog might be the most important: It doesn’t have to be the only thing you do! There are so, so many delicious kinds of geekery out there. Explore them! If you’re looking for something that pairs nicely with article-writing this time of year, might I suggest the fine, heady aroma of videography?

  CHAPTER TWO

  VIDEO

  Influencers, content creators, YouTube superstars . . . though no one can agree on an exact job title, most can agree that the advent of online videos has created a new type of career path, one that puts the power in the hands of creators.*

  What is it about online videos that draws people to the format? For some, it’s the interactivity of making videos—of connecting with people from across the globe despite never physically meeting them. For others, it’s the ability of online videos’ to enable film-making types like actors and directors to take control of their careers and make the sort of roles and stories they want to make without waiting for cigar-chomping guys in suits to give them the go-ahead. For others still, it’s simply a means of expression. Sometimes that expression is “Let me show you how to put on makeup!” or “Sweet pants-melting Satan, these old video games are hard!” or “GYARGH!! I hate every single last one of you!”

  Regardless of why you decide to tube, this career has become among the most desired, most sought-after jobs out there, mixing the thrill of celebrity with the comfort of working from your own home. The history of Internet videos is short and sweet, and while the Internet landscape today is very different than it was in the ’90s and ’00s†, there are still plenty of lessons modern video creators can learn from their Internet ancestors.

  THE HISTORY OF INTERNET VIDEO CONTENT CREATORS

  I’m not talking about the goobers and goofballs behind early Internet phenomena like “Numa Numa” or “Star Wars Kid,” I’m talking about the folks who deliberately poured their heart-blood into making moving pictures for complete strangers and received a glittering gold reward for their efforts: the early pioneers of online short films, web series, and animated series who were bold enough to trailblaze a career from something that hadn’t existed a decade earlier.

  Avid gamer Felicia Day was hopelessly addicted to the titanic crack pipe known as World of Warcraft. Sick of the mercenary nature of most acting roles, Day tried to take control of her life and WoW addiction by writing The Guild, a sitcom pilot* about a group of MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game) guildmates trying to balance the demands of their real and virtual lives. Hollywood being Hollywood, the suits in charge didn’t understand the appeal of such a show and declined, so Day instead turned to the online world. Through a combination of smart writing, powerful comedic chops, good timing, and generous fans, Day and her team of writers and co-stars triumphed, building what is still one of the most popular web series of all time.

  Day’s success with The Guild inspired Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon to make his own web series, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, casting Day and her fellow Whedonverse vet Nathan Fillion alongside Neil Patrick Harris to create a dramedy/musical too eclectic for the traditional Hollywood system. Dr. Horrible became a powerful cult classic, selling countless DVDs, stacks of merch, and getting aired on the CW Network in what Day described as a “big victory as far as mainstream Hollywood acknowledgment of web series as a legitimate format [goes].”12

  Day continued refining her craft as a writer and performer to later star in the Kickstarter-funded Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival and her own successful YouTube channel, Geek and Sundry. Like many YouTube channels, Geek and Sundry focuses on a particular theme while also focusing on a specific team of on-camera personalities. When people watch Wil Wheaton’s TableTop, they don’t do it just to see wild and esoteric board games get played, they do it because of Wheaton and his cohorts’ affable enthusiasm. Viewers don’t just tune in to Critical Role to hear Matthew Mercer’s dulcet tones as he DMs sessions of Dungeons & Dragons; he and his party are professional performers and players who know how to create one hell of an entertaining story.

  On the animated side of things, we have hits such as: Homestar Runner, a comedy series that gained popularity primarily through word of mouth; Red vs. Blue, a Halo parody series that became so popular, its creators got the chance to be in the game series that inspired them (and create a media juggernaut with the anime series RWBY); Dragon Ball Z Abridged, a comedy series that lovingly recreates Dragon Ball Z in a parody style reminiscent of Adult Swim’s early works; and Homestuck, a multimedia hit that requires a long-ass wiki to fully understand.

  Not all early web series were of the grassroots variety. The Spot, described as “Melrose Place–on-the-web”13 back when both Melrose Place and referring to the Internet as “the web” were remotely in style, was a more corporate affair than the other early web series. The Spot mixed blog entries, e-mail, static images, and video to create a highly interactive story that fans could influence. Its writers often changed the directions of its melodramatic gosh-it’s-hard-being-young-and-beautiful storylines based on the fickle fans, giving Hollywood its first taste of the potential power of online video content. While The Spot flourished briefly, it eventually became less of a spot and more of a muddy blotch due to corporate greed from the higher-ups, resulting in serious behind-the-scenes drama. Sadly, it was cancelled after a few short years.

  Today’s online video landscape is as much about the person in the videos as it is their actual content. Before you can reach the success of Felicia Day and the like, you’ll need to put in some serious prep, starting with figuri
ng out what kind of content you’re trying to be successful with.

  CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY: TYPES OF ONLINE CHANNELS

  Channel contents can range from the gentle blandness of videos of shoes being shined to the haunting weirdness of someone making mannequins sing about how fantastic they feel in rooms with taped-up garbage bags over the windows. Most channels, however, fall into a few basic categories.*

  GENERIC/“PERSONALITY”

  Example channels: Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg, Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach, Jenna “JennaMarbles” Mourey, The Fine Bros, Ryan “NigaHiga” Higa

  PewDiePie and company are among the most powerful video stars on the Internet. The content of their channels tends to be somewhat eclectic, with everything from makeup tutorials to comedy sketches to gaming videos to kids reacting to kids reacting to kids.

  These folks have, by and large, achieved their fame through perseverance, good luck, and force of personality. Channels like these are probably the hardest to make grow, yet are invariably the most pursued style of channel. Countless would-be YouTubers upload videos of their thoughts and reactions online, counting on their raw personalities to entertain the audience. While these channels can be done well, they’re a dime-a-dozen-to-the-thirteenth-power. The examples I gave at the start of this section are the exceptions to the rule that, if you want to have a successful video channel, you should focus on a subject other than yourself.†

  PROS: Largely require the efforts of only one person—you; they’re cheap to make; you get all the credit

  CONS: Hard to grow; content doesn’t generate organically; low-effort videos are especially bland and boring; this content can really suck if you don’t have a good editor; you take all the blame when things aren’t good; personal attacks from trolls get exceptionally personal

  SKETCH COMEDY

  Example channels: Mega64, Derrick Comedy, ERB (Epic Rap Battles of History), Smosh, Rhett & Link, Lonely Island

  Before Mega64 was a multimedia empire, it was a group of goofs making parody videos of Resident Evil 4 and Assassin’s Creed. Before Donald Glover stepped into the smooth mustache of Lando Calrissian, he and his comedy pals were performing sketches about trying to resist the erotic enticements of a bowl of fruit. Sketch comedy is a noble art form dating back to the vaudeville era, a time when people wore top hats and fluffy dresses and big mustaches and talked like this, friend!* At its most artistic, this performance style can provide razor-sharp insight into the state of society; at its goofiest, it’s a bunch of funny people trying to make one another (and hopefully others) laugh.

  While sketch comedy started on stage, eventually it broke away from its show-timey roots to find a wider audience through television and, ultimately, the Internet. Online videos turned out to be a great format for sketches, as Internet audiences are often searching for a quick laugh they can share with their friends without worrying about things like continuity. Even popular television shows like Key & Peele and SNL have gotten big hits when posting their sketches and digital shorts on YouTube.

  PROS: Can combine challenging social commentary with comedy; really fun to make with friends; one smash-hit video can lead to a big break more easily than it would with another type of channel

  CONS: Require more prep-time, thought, and collaborative effort than many other types of channels

  GAMING AND LET’S PLAY

  Example channels: Game Grumps, Maximilian Dood, Geek & Sundry (TableTop, Critical Role), VanossGaming, JackSepticEye

  Gaming channels provide roughly two types of content: walkthroughs and “Let’s Play” videos. Walkthroughs focus on the minutiae of games, helping struggling players find buried secrets or tips on how to beat that one dick boss who keeps killing them. These are good for video creators who have the knowledge and skill but perhaps aren’t as goofy or lively as other performers.* Generally, getting the biggest hits on walkthroughs will require you to quickly play through popular games so you can get your footage online and stake your claim as the definitive video guide to getting Mario’s hat down from the tree in the desert world.

  Let’s Play videos stem from the comedy forums at Something Awful,14 where folks play through games and post videos and screenshots of their experience with their commentary and, often, with input from their eager audience. Some of these Let’s Plays are informative, others humorous, and others still focus on breaking open their game of choice to explore its inner workings.

  The question you may be asking is: Why would anyone spend their time watching others play through games? Because Let’s Plays provide a way for gamers to connect with other gamers, past and present; to relive the thrills and spills of their favorite games; and to feel a sense of community (and, in the case of streaming Let’s Plays, immediacy) not found in playing games alone. Humans are social creatures that crave connection on a deep, fundamental level. Gaming can be a lonely hobby, often enjoyed alone; while some time alone is fine, too much is bad for you, leading to disruptions in our perceptions, behaviors, and bodies.15 For some, Let’s Plays provide a way of undoing some of that isolation, and for others it’s simply a way to share the joy of their favorite hobby.

  PROS: Content ideas are easy to generate; good for generating multiple revenue sources through streaming; gamers are ravenous for new content

  CONS: Content will be most successful if you’re a highly skilled gamer and/or have an energetic personality; gamers can be seriously entitled jerks; not a viable choice if you don’t like video games (unless you’re Conan O’Brien)

  HOW-TO AND TUTORIALS

  Example channels: Bright Side, Rosana Pansino/Nerdy Nummies, Binging with Babish, Christen Dominique, Laura Lee

  How-to channels focus on instructing viewers looking to broaden their skillsets. They tend to be laser-focused and get to the point quickly, without a lot of different types of videos on their channel. If someone needs to know how to build a garage and they come to your home-building channel, the last thing they’re going to want to sift through are comedy sketches featuring your uncle and his unfunny friends pantsing one another at a bat mitzvah.

  How-to channels are a great choice for people with a very particular set of skills; if there’s something you know well, something you stay up-to-date on and are always striving to get better at, it might not be a bad idea to share that knowledge with the world.

  PROS: Easier to gain followers due to high skill requirement; videos tend to continue gaining views over long periods of time; content is incredibly helpful to those who need specific tutorials; easier to monetize due to built-in presence of potential brands through material and tools

  CONS: Higher cost of entry; higher skill requirement; higher tools and materials requirement

  CRAFTING

  Example channels: Awe Me/Man at Arms, Simone Giertz, How to Cake it with Yolanda Gampp, Skallagrim, Alec Steele

  Though they share some surface similarities, the biggest difference between a crafting channel and a how-to channel is that a how-to channel is about teaching you how to do something specific while a crafting channel is more about inspiring, educating, and entertaining people by making things they probably won’t make themselves. Yolanda Gampp’s Giant Chocolate Éclair or Giant Red Velvet Steak Cake aren’t practical treats to make for your family, they’re entertaining ways of getting people to think creatively about cooking. Simone Giertz doesn’t make alarm bots that slap her awake and tangle her hair in the mechanism in the hopes that viewers will copy her to get their hair ripped out first thing in the morning, she does it to entertain and draw in potential newcomers to the fields of engineering and robotics. Man at Arms certainly doesn’t seem to be recommending that you recreate Cloud Strife’s Buster Sword in your own home, but watching the trouble they go through to forge it (and how awesome it looks when chopping things up) may give you the idea to become a blacksmith or metallurgist yourself.

  PROS: Easy to gain followers due to high skill requirement; little competition; easier to monetize due to creation
of physical products that can be sold

  CONS: Requires large investiture of resources for each video; greater research requirements than other channels

  LIFE HACKS

  Example channels: Expert Village/eHow, Howcast, I Like to Make Stuff, HawkGuruHacker, Morena DIY, Mr. Gear, The Q

  Life Hacks are a strange intersection of crafting and how-to. It’s a term that previously meant “little known but valuable tip” but has now become so overused that it just means “a thing you can do.” Life Hacks can provide useful, esoteric ways of doing things better. Sometimes, however, they’re highly impractical, offering solutions that are worse than the problem they’re trying to solve (such as using toothpaste and soda to wash things when soap will do a better job and won’t leave your stuff sticky). Life Hacks are frequently the YouTube equivalent of old late-night infomercials, offering impractical solutions to problems no one has. That said, even the most impractical Life Hacks are good exercises in divergent thinking.

  PROS: Quick and easy to put together

  CONS: Hard to create new and useful Life Hack ideas

  UNBOXING VIDEOS AND PRODUCT REVIEWS

  Example channels: Unbox Therapy, Grav3yard Girl, Ryan ToysReview, LeoKim Video

  What’s in the box? What’s in the box??? We, like Brad Pitt in Se7en, are endlessly curious to know what’s in the box, and unboxing videos are the answer. While Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow weren’t so lucky when it came to the contents of their box, viewers are when it comes to unboxing videos. This channel type often features gentle voice-overs while opening up, unwrapping, and showing off the features of different kinds of toys. Some are toys for kids, some are electronic toys for grown-ups, but the intent is the same—unboxing videos let viewers feel like they’re getting to play with fancy new stuff, and, in the case of videos marketed to kids, it will make the viewer themselves feel like they’re being played with.