A short guide on how to get video ideas

Ideas are the backbone of every video. However, sometimes it’s hard to come up with new ideas, especially if you just start out and don’t know what your (potential) viewers want to see. But no worries, you’re at the right place\! Here you can find some ideas on how to… Well come up with ideas…

What do you have to offer?

You can take a lot of ideas from your own experiences. Maybe you’re a professional chess player or food taster? Those things are cool! Maybe you just read a book or discovered a band no one has ever mentioned before, or have strong opinions about a well-known one? Share those things! Perhaps you have an “ordinary life” but would love to visualise the adventures you have in your head? That sounds amazing too!

People often think that they “don’t have anything to offer” - but that’s not true! You never know what people might be interested in. Thus, one source of inspiration can be your own life. Here are different themes you could consider when brainstorming ideas:

Your studies
Your real-world job / skills
Hobbies (and thus, skills again)
Anecdotes from your life.
Interests (e.g., books, games, music)
Things you wished you knew earlier (If the video would've been valuable to you to have in the past, it might be for someone else now!)

Stealing like an artist

There is a great book called “Steal like an artist” from Austin Kleon (give it a read! It’s really nice). The premise is basically that a lot of artists “steal” from others through inspiration. They are getting inspired by different artists to finally find their own way. That said, look at other YouTubers that you enjoy (whether they be in your niche or not) and have a look at what they do.

What do you like?
What don't you like?
Are they missing something?
Do you disagree with them?
What could you do better?

After watching a couple of videos, you might come up with some new ideas of your own. However, it’s important to give it your own spin. For example, you may enjoy watching “a day in my life as a student” videos, but you feel that all you see are videos from people who go to Ivy League Schools while you’re going to a community college. Why not make your video about that? You could compare the differences, or share something new. If you're a gaming channel, the same may apply - a lot of channels may be showing off their high-ranked, fancy skills, while you're terrible competitively, but insanely funny instead.

When stealing like an artist, you are adapting something that already exists in your own unique way.

YOINK AND TWIST BABY!

- Ludwig

Making videos for your (hypothetical) special someone

At the end of the day, it's your channel, so your rules. However, sometimes it can be difficult to get started if you don’t know where to start. Putting some constraints on yourself might be helpful. Personally, I (SimplySel) like to envision one specific person who I want to make videos for. This person can be someone you know or that you made up yourself. What’s important is that you know them well enough to feel like you understand their wants and needs. Then you can think about them and answer the following questions:

What kind of problems/issues do they face?
- Could you offer them a solution?
What do they like?
- Could you recommend them more like this?
What do they don’t like?
- Could you help them avoid this in the future?
What are their aspirations?
- Could you support them somehow?

Chances are, this "particular person" that you're passionately making videos for happens to be part of a whole demographic. That imaginary "young adult car enthusiast with a low budget named Alex" you invented is likely a whole audience practically waiting for you to exist.

Adversely, your ideas may stem directly from real people. For example, I (SimplySel) would like to get some ideas for my movie review channel. The videos I want to make on this channel should be for my mum (hypothetical scenario ~ please mum, don’t be mad if you ever read this). If I think about my mum and the questions above, I realise that my mum really has problems following the plot of movies if there are a lot of characters involved. This may inspire me to create a movie review channel that has easy-to-understand plot summaries.

Use AI

Hey, I’m not saying this is my favourite (or an option Ben likes), BUT it is one way to come up with ideas. Use your favourite AI to describe what your channel is about, what you make, what you're interested in, etc. and you might get a couple of raw concepts that you could turn into a video you're passionate about.

Remodel what's worked before

This one won’t help you much when you start your channel. However, after a while, you may notice that some videos “get old”. This could be a matter of things changing (e.g. a software update, rules / laws changing, etc.), or simply that you've improved enough as a creator that the video deserves a refresher.

I’m not specifically recommending just making the same video again, but maybe you could do an update? Did your opinions change on a topic? Did you learn something new? Maybe you missed something in the original video?

In the case of an update (be it a video game or a Photoshop tutorial), you could practically just re-make the video to be more relevant, to show a better technique, etc.

Seasonal videos (such as Halloween, or when new products release) can work too, such as "Best budget smartphones 2025!" can be done in 2026, etc.

"Part 2" videos can be a hit or miss, but if you make them work as standalone videos, you can get something good going. An example of this could be a 10 part minecraft series where each video focuses heavily on one particular goal, but builds off the previous videos.

Take a break

If you're reading this, chances are high that YouTube is your hobby, and not your main source of income. As such, it’s okay to take a break to recharge your (creative) energy. Even if producing videos is fun for you, you might have overstretched your creative muscles a bit and would benefit from a break. Take some time off and don’t think too much about your channel. You would be surprised how much easier it is to come up with new ideas with a fresh perspective. It’s better to take a break now and then, find things that inspire you, and come back with excitement, rather than forcing out content until you burn out or quit YouTube altogether.

Don't burn out, because that will make everything worse.