My Youtube Channels, Live Streaming and Sharing My Freelance Experience

Today I've started my day with occupying my sister's computer and trying to set up the OBS Studio in order to do live streams on my multiple Youtube channels. I actually have three channels. One for my English for Ukrainians lessons, one general channel in Ukrainian and one English speaking channel.

When it comes to my second channel, I used to post videos and podcasts about books, psychology, and different social topics. But then I had a disagreement with some Ukrainian Youtube activists, so I ended up making most of my videos private. I started with a clean slate, posted three or four videos and then abandoned my channel. First of all, I think I stopped posting videos because I wanted to figure out a simpler way to do Youtube. My time is limited and I don't earn anything from my channel. So I simply can't afford to spend a lot of time on something that I do as just a hobby. It's not even my only hobby. I have lots of other stuff to do. So I've decided to put it on hold until this morning.

As I was saying, I sat at my sister's computer because my own computer is old and glitchy. And even though it's perfectly fine to use it for work, I can't use it to make videos. So I asked my sister to help me set up the software on her computer. The main problem was with the microphone. For some reason, it wouldn't work at all. But then sis remembered that she can use an extension cord to plug it into a different outlet. It worked and so I was set on making at least one video today.

I started setting things up. At first, the sound wasn't good. But I tried recording in different formats. I figured out that it sounds ok if I record in mp4 and reduce the noise filter in OBS a little (when it was set to default the sound was bubbly as if from underwater).

Then I texted my friend who's also a Youtuber that I'm gonna start making videos again. I said that I'd do live streams but who would want to watch them at 11 a.m. on a Monday. He said that he'd watch it, so I started thinking how to better make live streams. Ideally, I'd like to stream discussions or conversations with friends. But I like it if a video has both of the people chatting on screen at the same time. At first, I thought that you can make it with Skype. So my friend suggested we try it out right away. He called me on Skype and we started meddling with OBS and its settings.

For some reason, OBS and Skype didn't want to share one web-camera. It took us quite some time to make it work. After about half an hour, my friend remembered that you can also do Youtube live streams with Google Hangouts. That's when it's dawned on me that this is probably what everyone's using for these conferences and broadcasts. So we tried using that. I started the broadcast without going live first but my friend couldn't join it. After another half an hour he finally managed to join me on Google Hangouts. We were simultaneously chatting about everything under the sun. Then I saw that I've got a new sale on Shutterstock and told my friend about it. And as we started talking about that, I said: "Hang on a second. This is an interesting topic for a conversation. Let's go live."

So I hit the "Start broadcasting" button and for the next 26 minutes, we chatted about Shutterstock, freelancing, portfolios, illustrations, and all that stuff. We would've streamed for longer, but there was a blackout at my friend's house so he suddenly logged off. But still, it was a fun live stream. I hope to do that again soon.

But my Youtube channel is not the only place where I want to share my freelance experience. I've been thinking about writing about it here on Steemit. I don't know if that would be interesting for anyone, but I'll try. After all, I'm still exploring this platform and considering what to blog about. That's why my first few posts may seem a little too random and rambling. But I hope I will get better with time. For now, I just want to share my thoughts.

Thank you for reading!