The Vlogger Interviews: Josh Rimer [JoshRimer]

"The Vlogger Interviews" is an ongoing series of vlogs and blogs exploring the definition of vlogging – from the vlogger's perspective, If you like this interview, I would appreciate your subscription to http://youtube.com/worldaccordingtorich on YouTube.  

In my latest "Vlogger Interview," I had the opportunity to chat with Vancouver, Canada-based Josh Rimer.  Josh is both a successful YouTuber (4.4 million views; 9120 subscribers), and, as of earlier this year, a YouTube Marketer.

Huh, what's that?  If you've never heard of the term "YouTube Marketer," that's probably because the concept really didn't exist until just recently.  As YouTube becomes more and more popular - and vloggers and other YouTubers being to see what they're doing as potentially a profession, knowing how to actually bring those videos out to an audience has become something of an art.

Josh's YouTube story began, like many others, as a hobby - and a way to gain some exposure as an actor.   He had a small video production company that produced wedding and corporate videos.

"I'd make a nice little corporate video for someone and they'd put it up on their YouTube channel and get a dozen views on it and so they'd start to say, you know, I want to get views like you're getting on YouTube. " They began to ask him just how he did it.  After all, in the age of social media - why produce an expensive corporate video and not take advantage of every tool available to bring people to your product?

"I'm still sort of surprised how slow some people and businesses are to catch on to what's happening on YouTube."  It's the second biggest search engine - yet many still ask, "Isn't that just for cute kittens and laughing babies?" 

If you've spent any time around social media, you're likely aware of a preponderance of social media "experts" and "consultants" that promise pie-in-the-sky results.   I'm happy to report that Josh doesn't seem to be of the "get-rich-quick" variety.  He's simply taking the basics of what he's learned and helping others achieve their goals through his knowledge of the mechanics of getting a YouTube video seen - and, as always, the value and quality of the content itself.  (I think there's an unrealized value in the sheer volume of experience that YouTube's early adaptors have to offer).

"A lot of people get on there and just expect that they're going to have a huge audience.," he says, "and a lot of people don't realize there's a lot of time involved in making your videos."   Putting time into producing a quality video, though, isn't the whole story.

"The work really begins after you put up the video. You have to do a lot to promote the video and find the proper keywords and all that kind of stuff because if you just make the video and put it up and walk away, you're probably not going to get a lot of views. Creating and succeeding on YouTube, he says, in a time-consuming task before, during and after producing the actual video.

His clients might be businesses, actors, or people in the entertainment industry who want to get more exposure on YouTube, "Sometimes they already have their videos going up, but they just want me to go up and optimize them to find better keywords and change the meta data and that sort of thing, or add annotations, and they just don't know the ins and outs of YouTube."

If you've spent any time around social media, you're likely aware of a preponderance of social media "experts" and "consultants" that promise pie-in-the-sky results.  I have to admit a bit of suspicion.  Josh, I'm happy to report, doesn't seem to be of that "get-rich-quick" variety.   He's selling - and sharing his experience.   Check out his free e-book on his website.

It's not entirely clear how web video - and in particular, vlogging - will evolve over the next few years - but both the financial success of some YouTubers, and the political powerhouse of social media in general have fired the public imagination about the personal potential of the YouTube world beyond existing as an extension of traditional television.

Josh, not surprisingly, believes that "being on YouTube is sort of ahead of the curve right now, so if you can get in it now, even though it's already a bit of a jungle, but get in it now, start building your audience now, once it does become more mainstream, you'll have a head start."

I'll switch things up a bit with Tuesday's interview, featuring KenRG - Ken Goldsein - who is part of YouTube's "class of 2006."  He'll chat about early community on YouTube - and the sometimes overlooked fact that it's one of the original social networks.