It’s great to see that Google is offering dedicated New Zealand video creators the benefits of full partnership, allowing them to gain money to allow for the future improvement of their content. But of course Amber and I are not celebrating the fact that we can earn money, since we have been monetized for the last few months, it’s more the recognition from YouTube and the branding benefits that we’re really excited about.

So I’ve embedded this post with our latest videos, and hope that you’ll enjoy them. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out both Amber and I’s channel and support us by viewing, commenting, liking and subscribing to our videos. Thanks guys, the support is much appreciated!

-Ryan Lamont

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thanks for reading and watching guys!

-Ryan Lamont

It never ceases to amuse me how bad I am at discovering when someone else’s birthday is coming up. Heck – most of the time I discover someone’s special day via Facebook!

But, I want to draw mention to our head poncho and editor for the NZYT Community Central, Ryan Lamont!

Happy Birthday to you buddy. I’m sure all of our best wishes are headed your way. You have an exciting future ahead of you, especially with your acceptance into South Seas Film & Television School!

Keep up the good work in developing this community, and hopefully we’ll have a YouTube New Zealand shindig in early 2012.

All the best,
Andrew (Strugnotdrugs)

Seriously, the amount of stuff we learned at the Googleplex was enough to fill three pages of scribbled notes – and I only started writing half-way through! I can’t wait to get back home, stick my nose into writing a series for ‘how to optimise your YouTube channel’. Some simple, but very effective methods.

In the meatime, I’m about to jet off to the Sydney Opera house for the SYDNEY LIVE! 9.10.11 YouTube Event. This should be an über-sized gathering, with crazy Australian YouTubers from all over the place having the chance to meet their fans and favourites. Check out a small video I edited just last night. There are some crazy YouTubers I think you should check out!:

Hope you’re all having a great weekend too!
Andrew.

Sitting here with coffee cups rattling, newspapers rustling and keyboards tapping away in the departure lounge at Wellington Airport, I’m thinking about all the cool new things to look forward to in Sydney this weekend for the SYDNEY LIVE! 9.10.11 YouTube event.

Having never been to a YouTube gathering before, I think it’s going to be both an exciting and possibly overwhelming experience meeting so many Australian YouTubers. I go with an expectation that there is much to be learnt, and many new creative contacts to be made.

I welcome you to stay tuned  to continuing to updates on this post with relevant details about the experience, and I may even introduce to you some YouTubers I think you might be interested in. The Saturday conference at the Googleplex is sure to be an informative time as we learn about creating better videos, reaching larger audiences, and making some pocket money, courtesy of Google. With the Australian YouTube community having such established and active involvement with each other, lets hope this is a good chance to invite Australian YouTubers to get involved in the development of the NZYT Community Central too.

I’m about to dash- people are about to board the plane! :O
Follow @Strugsnotdrugs on Twitter for little bits and bobs throughout the weekend. I hope you enjoy what is to be shared in the following posts. I leave you with some new Strugsnotdrugs tshirts for giveaways this weekend.

Hope you like. :)

- Andrew

Next weekend is the YouTube SYDNEY LIVE! 9.10.11 Gathering.
Australia has a well-established YouTube community, and gatherings seem to happen more regularly across the ditch. Last year’s YouTube gathering in Brisbane was considered “the largest YouTube event in Australia’s history”. We can only imagine how much bigger the event in Sydney this year is going to be!

The weekend running should look a little like this:

1. Saturday, 8th October - A YouTube partners meeting is held at The Googleplex by Pyrmont Bay. This is an opportunity for YouTubers to further understand how to better engage with audience members, making a career out of social video networking. It is a chance for content creators to meet YouTube staff to ask difficult questions, and also hear from established Australian partnered YouTubers.
   I very much look forward to learning loads about the website we love, and I will share some nuggets of gold when I am back home again. Please feel free to send me questions about YouTube over the next week to present at the meeting. I have a few big questions up my sleeve too – especially with regards to how New Zealand’s YouTube scene needs to be run out of New Zealand, and not out of Tokyo, Japan!
2. Sunday, 9th October - This is the biggest part of the weekend. YouTubers from all over Australia are invited to a free-for-all gathering event outside the Sydney Opera House. Like most YouTuber gatherings, I see this as a fantastic time to meet new creatives on the web, and suck up to some well-known YouTubers! Who exactly will be there? I have no idea – but last year DaveDays was in Brisbane – a definite favourite among fans. Get an idea of what’s to be expected here!

I stumbled upon a rather snoopy YouTube-statistics based website.
It’s called Social Blade:  www.socialblade.com/youtube.

Have you ever wondered how many views another YouTuber is scoring, or how many subscribers they are snatching every day? I mean, surely Charlieissocoollike gets some ridiculous subscribership numbers every day. Maybe 1000 subs a day? I wonder how much revenue he might might be making from all that traffic! Check out the Social Blade website for an intriguing, public insight into views, subscribers, friends, and even estimated earnings! You might learn a lot about your own channel too.

While my contributions may not be as prolific as Ryan Lamont‘s passionate contributions to the community, I enjoy checking out some interesting things on the internet and sharing them with you here.
Sign yourself up to NZYT e-mails, and stay tuned for updates from the SYDNEY LIVE! 9.10.11 event next weekend!

Andrew (Strugsnotdrugs)

Finn, Josh and Conor are the main players of the CouchKumaras channel, with others chipping in to help with the occasional video. This trio of creative kiwis create sweet little video skits on a regular basis, with their latest skit ‘Can I borrow your Pistol’ making its way onto the New Zealand YouTube homepage.

It is here where I discovered this awesome kiwi channel, and began watching their snazzy skits. I really recommend going through this channel’s past videos – they’re all so great!

I would say that these guys are New Zealand’s version of the hugely popular Smosh. But I honestly find CouchKumaras videos far funnier and more enjoyable to watch.

These guys only have 169 subscribers, which I think is crazy! They deserve a few thousand at least! So be sure to go subscribe to these top notch kiwi YouTubers here.

The reason I’ve written so little about these guys, and instead posted a range of their videos, is because I’d quickly find myself running out of adjectives for how awesome these guys are. Just watch a few of their videos and I’m sure you’ll be hooked.

So after watching those videos I’m sure you’re ready to subscribe and possibly promote these guys even further by making a video about them. So be sure to subscribe to CouchKumaras and maybe visit their snazzy website too?

Thanks for reading and watching guys!

-Ryan Lamont

Tahlia (tootumeke) has been apart of our small community for a few months now, starting originally on her duo vlogging channel smjandtqwee. But Tahlia has left this disused channel and is now making her own content on her own channel. On September 20th Tahlia posted her first ever vlog to her new channel, and left us with promises of future videos…

I for one, am excited to see another NZYT’er enter the world of vlogging, especially since Tahlia expressed an interest in getting more involved with the New Zealand YouTube community. Eager and passionate kiwis are what this small community needs to grow and develop, so I hope you’ll all go check out Tahlia and support her in her endeavors.

Thanks for reading and watching guys!

-Ryan Lamont