32 YouTube Video Ideas Creators Need To Try

Running low on YouTube ideas? Got your YouTube channel all ready to go but unsure how to get started? Well, here's 32 easy YouTube video ideas you can try now!

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Once you have your YouTube channel set up and your first YouTube videos out there, it’s time to come up with more Youtube video ideas.

Producing a steady stream of great video ideas can be a bit of a challenge. But it is important: amazing video content is a great addition to your portfolio. Make sure to pick a video portfolio website that lets you embed your videos—showing off your video prowess is sure to lure in potential clients!

Not sure what to make YouTube videos about? We’re here for you—we’ve put together a list of the top YouTube video ideas that you can try for yourself. Let’s check them out!

Introduce Yourself

This YouTube video idea is super-necessary: your audience needs to know what you’re about, and what kinds of videos they can expect. This is a great opportunity to really establish your brand identity and set the tone and style of your video channel.

Introduce Your Organization or Company

This YouTube video idea is a must-do for all organizations or companies with a YouTube presence; they should start with a basic video explaining who they are and what they do. This easy video idea will help make the company or organization seem more relatable to folks.

Who Are We?

The previous video idea can easily transition into or be paired with a “who are we?” kind of video. Introduce your viewers to everyone behind the scenes. This easy video idea will make you and your colleagues or company more accessible to viewers. You could even introduce viewers to the camerapeople!

Spotlight Your Organization or Company Culture

This video idea is a pretty cool chance for you to show the viewer what your organization or company culture is like. Do you have a ping-pong table? An office pup? Group volunteer outings? Cool, now totally make us jealous!

Take a Tour

This popular YouTube video idea can really be a lot of fun. Say you’re a visual artist: this could be an awesome opportunity for you to take your viewers on a tour of your studio. Show us your easel, your paint brushes, what you’re working on. Show us where the chaos turns into creation. Additionally, if you’re a traveler, make sure to document your adventures: show us where you’re going and what you’re loving about it, whether it’s a stunning new art gallery or renowned outdoor sculpture garden.

Walk a Mile in My Shoes

Let us take a peek into your life. YouTube video ideas like this let your viewers see what a day in your life might be like. Maybe you’re a busy photographer and you’ve got back-to-back clients? Take us with you! We want to see you getting up before the sun, lugging all your equipment, hopping into your Uber, and heading to the studio. These video ideas are super-popular for a reason—they offer rare insight into the artist’s practice!

99 Questions

Similar to the “73 Questions” series done by Vogue, this could be a fun YouTube video idea for YouTubers looking to open up a bit more to their subscribers. Want to connect to your viewers? Ask them for their most burning queries (or just compose some questions yourself!) and have your camera person ask them while you’re hanging out in your space (that way, they can get a glimpse of where you work, too).

Interview

Say you’ve had the amazing opportunity to meet one of your favourite sculptors and they’ve agreed to an interview. Film it! This easy video idea will show how well-connected you are, as well as establish you as an active participant in your community.

Tutorial

A tutorial is a pretty common YouTube video idea; these videos are everywhere! Maybe you’re a designer with some new software that you’ve learned to navigate and you want to show your viewers how to do that cool thing you just did. Or you’re a photographer who has just purchased a new DSLR and want to show people how to format it, or switch between lenses. Or you’re a model and you want to show your viewers how to recreate that dewy strobing effect featuring your favourite makeup brands. A lot of creators are trying to keep up with a lot of challenging new tools and processes out there and really depend on tutorial videos to get them up to snuff, making tutorials one of the top YouTube videos.

Presentation or Webinar

Think TED Talks, but a bit more artsy. For a super-cool video idea, sometimes YouTubers will have a class or work presentation recorded and turned into a webinar. These video ideas are a great way to position yourself as an industry leader with excellent expertise to share.

Illustrated Explainers

This fun YouTube video idea has become more popular in the past few years. Also called “whiteboard videos,” these videos have you drawing (or illustrating in a different creative way, from animation to sketching) what you want to share with us. Maybe you’re a photographer and you want to explain to your viewers how to set up for those technically complicated long shot landscape photographs, or a designer mapping the best practices process for designing a new website. Draw it out!

Q&A Period

Once you’ve built up your subscriber base, your comment section may start to blow up. Reading out the questions you get from viewers—yes, even the weird ones!—is a good YouTube idea to try. You might be able to craft some good jokes out of this material, making you seem more relatable (and, of course, funny). At the very least, though, you can connect more with your audience, making this a great YouTube video idea for building that viewer rapport.

Product Reviews

Product reviews are one of the most popular YouTube video ideas—and for good reason. If you’re about to make a huge purchase, like a new lens for your camera or some new illustration software for your computer, and you’re conflicted between two or three brands, what do you do? You look for reviews! It’s an easy YouTube video idea to execute, and can be great for your channel views and building your cred.

Book Reviews

There are a lot of art books out there that claim to have the answers in only 500 brief pages. If you’re the brave bookworm who’s read a lot of books on your photography or design, honestly, share the wealth. Book reviews can be really helpful for your viewers, but if the book itself wasn’t, let your viewers know.

Movie Reviews

Did a big buzzy film come out that features folks in your field? One fun YouTube video idea to try is doing a movie review comparing and contrasting the on-screen portrayal of that field and the day-to-day realities of working in it IRL. Would a photographer really do that?! Rants can be great for boosting views! Who knows—you may even go viral.

Time-Lapse

Time-lapse videos are really cool to watch. Say you’re a model getting ready for a shoot and you have a million hands all over you helping you prepare. Film it and time-lapse it. These video ideas are easy and a lot of fun.

Unboxing

If you’re looking for a good YouTube video idea and you’ve just ordered a boatload of stuff from Amazon (or wherever), film it and share the unveiling with your viewers. Unboxings are one of the top YouTube videos these days, so you should definitely cash in on that trend.

What’s In My Bag?

This YouTube video idea is almost like an unboxing video…of your own bag! Do you travel around with oodles and oodles of film and chargers and cords and lenses? Maybe you’re a design freelancer who works remotely a lot of the time—what supplies do you need to sustain you during a long day banging out designs in various cafes? Show us!

App Attack

What’s on your phone? This is a popular YouTube video idea because a lot of you trend-setting artists have really helpful apps that enable them to manage their resources wisely. You should share these cool apps with your viewers and fill us in on your productivity tips and tricks.

30-Day Challenge

Who doesn’t like a good challenge? This YouTube video idea is building up momentum online—probably because it is a lot of fun. A 30-day challenge can be a great way to increase your viewership. Want to boost views even more? Partner with another YouTuber; with two of you doing the challenge, your viewers will be even more invested to see who is killing it hardest! Whether you’re an artist committed to producing a new drawing every 24 hours or a photographer posting a cool self-portrait every a day, you’d be surprised at the number of followers who want to come along for the ride.

Comfort Zone Challenge

This is another challenge video idea that really gets people watching. If you’re a creature of habit and you don’t really experiment with your practice much, try stepping out of your comfort zone and delve into a new medium. A lot of artists make these videos to publicly try out new styles or methods and provide commentary along the way. Give it a shot and let us know what you’re thinking and how you’re feeling about it.

#TBT

Here’s a cute YouTube video idea that is also growing in popularity. If you’ve been around the block and have a lot of good video material or old photographs from years gone by, share them with your viewers. This could be a really good way to demonstrate how far you’ve come—along with some zany hairstyles and questionable fashion choices of yesteryear!

Highlight Reel

Similar to the #TBT option above, highlight reels are a really easy YouTube video idea to try. If you’ve got footage or photos that show us moments from your past which make you proud or demonstrate your skills and professionalism, share them with your viewers.

Blooper Reels

Who doesn’t live for a good blooper reel? This fun YouTube video idea can honestly make anyone’s day. If you’re a photographer who has mangled some shots or a model who has taken a hilarious tumble or two, throw them up on your channel!

My Fave

This easy YouTube video idea is a great chance to give your audience a look into your personal taste. If you compile a list of your favorite songs, music videos, movies, runway walks, or paintings, you can really bridge that gap with your viewer and bring them into your world.

Promo

Here’s a good YouTube video idea for folks looking to boost their subscriber count. You’re working on building relationships with other YouTubers, right? (If not, get started!) Once you’re tight with someone, you could ask them to run a promo video for your channel on their channel. (You should do the same for them, of course.) This way, you can hopefully get some of their viewers to subscribe to your channel, too. Lots of YouTubers do this because it is a mutually beneficial situation—sharing videos means sharing followers.

Opinion Piece

These videos are kind of like product reviews, but they can be about more general subjects—and usually come with an extra dollop of personality. Put a little fire into it! You can offer up your experiences working with certain brands, for example, or discuss an industry trend you’re not into. If your opinion strikes a chord with a bunch of people, it has the potential to become one of your top YouTube videos.

My Reaction

A reaction video can be a pretty entertaining video idea, whether it’s a visual artist watching a timelapse of someone’s process or a model viewing the latest runway show of their favorite designer: audiences love to see reactions in real time. Now, if we can offer up any advice here, it’s to not spoil the authenticity of your reaction and watch the video beforehand: give your audience the real deal.

My Response

These are one of the top YouTube videos these days. If there is controversy or debate over certain beliefs or myths about something in your industry, offering up a YouTube video in response can be a great opportunity to shine a light on the situation or offer up some clarity. Additionally, if you see something trending in the comment section of one of your videos, you can use a response video to address it thoroughly.

Livestream

Livestreaming is a cool way to bring your audience along for the ride. If you’re a fashion photographer and you really want to show your viewers what it’s like to be on the job with you, have your assistant livestream the shoot while you’re doing your thing. This YouTube video idea can be quite intimate, too, and really help you build that rapport with your audience. Feel free to solicit questions from your live viewing audience; subscribers love seeing their favourite YouTubers answer their Q’s on the spot.

Contest

Once you’ve accumulated a decent amount of followers and you’re ready to start paying it forward, contests should be next on your list of video ideas to try. You could start by offering up, perhaps, a used (but still quality) camera accessory. Eventually, you can build relationships with brands and get fancier freebies from them that you can use for giveaways.

Thank You

One final easy YouTube video: a thank you video! Typically, success is hard-won and you’ve been helped along way by many people, including your viewers. Offering sincere gratitude is a great way to keep your follower relationships strong. Make sure they always have great content to come back to: if you produce good YouTube ideas like these regularly, you’re sure to become a big YouTube success!

Want some more ideas on how to kill it as a creator?
How To Start Your Own Podcast: A Creator’s Guide
The Complete Guide to Creating Infographics
11 Ways To Battle Creative Block—And Get Back To Work

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    At Format, we are a passionate group of individuals at the intersection of technology and creativity, united by one purpose: helping photographers succeed. Our team is dedicated to providing photographers and creative artists with the tools and resources they need to share their work and grow their businesses.

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