YouTube culture is an esoteric and intriguing phenomenon. It’s an entire world that seems to exist in an alternate universe, an ecosystem populated by a collection of enormous superstars with millions of fans whom the majority of the American public wouldn’t even find remotely familiar. If you’re ever to venture down the rabbit hole, the quality of content ranges from amateurish and uninspired to artful and moving.
The most compelling YouTube celebrities create the type of content that feels personal, inviting and illuminating. There’s no perfect science to it, but the most important element seems to be an authentic and genuine motivation to share meaningful experiences and thoughts to add value to the lives of others.
Martin Moore is Milwaukee’s very own video blogger (vlogger). Moore is a gregarious and charismatic videographer who’s been prolifically producing his own vlog since the summer of 2015, completing 169 videos for his channel in under a year. The content of the videos varies greatly, including travel videos, business profiles, personal experiences and everything in-between.
We sat down with Moore last week and got to pick his brain about YouTube culture, his personal motivations and inspirations for vlogging, and his favorite experiences as a content producer so far in his young career.
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How did you get inspired to start vlogging?
I never traveled up until I was like 24. Then I met my wife in 2007, and she had traveled all over the world. She’d been to Zanzibar, Dubai, Tanzania… She taught English in El Salvador. So it just kind of blew my mind, cause the furthest I’d been is like Michigan. (Laughs)
So my wife and I started traveling together and I began making these vacation videos. We took a trip to Las Vegas, and I got this little Kodak Point & Shoot, and I was filming everything and taking pictures. And I just instantly fell in love with traveling and capturing the experiences.
I made a video for that Las Vegas trip, which isn’t really very different from my vlogs. And every trip I’ve been on since, I make a movie for. I never post those to Youtube, but they’re all set to music and have time lapses. I think I’ve made 22 of them now.
Do you show those videos to anyone?
Yeah, my friends and family come over, and we’d have a few drinks and put on the vacation videos. They’ll say, ‘Let’s put on Portland, or the Dominican Republic, or Mexico.’
So the goal was to capture the essence of these remarkable places?
Yeah, I’d record the whole trip, and cut everything together, and basically get to relive my vacation. Everyone told me that I should put them on Youtube, but I didn’t think anyone would care about that.
Did you start doing photography soon after that?
Yeah, I started photography in like 2008. I really didn’t know what I was doing, I didn’t know any other photographers, but I started following this guy called Chase Jarvis. He’s this cool photographer, he’s huge on social media—he’s a rock-star. Not that that’s what I’m looking to get out of my work, but it’s kind of neat. He used to make short movies and stuff too, so I kind of took inspiration from him at first.
When did you initially discover vlogging?
A couple of years ago. I had no idea what it was at the time, but I discovered Ben Brown, Fun for Louis, BFvsGF, and a number of other popular vloggers. They were basically doing what I was already doing with these vacation videos, and I thought, ‘That’s kind of cool, maybe I’ll try that.’
Then this guy Casey Neistat started vlogging and upping everyone else’s game because he’s great and he became really popular quickly.
When did you get started?
In June last year I did my first vlog. I used my cellphone to shoot it, and it was called ‘Why Do We Love Milwaukee?’ I just went down to Bradford Beach and interviewed people about why they love Milwaukee, and the answers of course were “beer, beer, beer.” (Laughs) It’s really not a great vlog, there’s the sound of water behind me and I’m talking kind of quietly.
What have you learned since then? I imagine there's a noticeable difference between your 169th blog and your first.
In 169 videos, the biggest thing that I’ve learned is self-confidence. Most people hate the sound of their own voice. Public speaking is something I never knew I’d be good at. Having that skill-set and being confident behind the camera is the biggest thing I’ve learned. There’s something to say about building your confidence, being able to walk down the street with this level of confidence and having people wonder what the hell you’re doing and being unfazed by it.
One thing I hate when watching a YouTube video is when you can tell someone is acting. I’ll never do that.
So authenticity is important to you?
Definitely. I want people to meet me in real life who’ve watched my channel and for them to not think I seem like a different person. I want to capture the genuine experience. And some vloggers don’t do that, which is okay. But for me I wanted to share my life, share my photography, and share my traveling. And if people are cool with it that’s great, but if not, please don’t hit the thumbs down button. (Chuckles)
Do you monetize your vlog at all?
No, I don’t want the ads, and I don’t do it for the money. On YouTube you get $1,000 for every million views, so some of the big vloggers who get a few million views per video make a lot of money. But I’m only getting a couple thousand views, so what am I gonna make, $10? It’s not worth it.
What’s the most difficult aspect of vlogging?
I think that there’s just so much competition on YouTube. There are millions of videos uploaded every hour. It’s the toughest social media to crack. For instance, on Twitter or Instagram it’s easy to post a photo/video and hashtag it and have people find you. But the only way to find someone on YouTube is searching a very specific title. So with vlog titles I always try to make a click-bait type of title to get people interested. If something has an interesting title and thumbnail, people will be more likely to watch it.
What’re your most popular blogs so far?
My most popular one so far is called 2,000 Naked Bikers, I filmed in in Philadelphia. I was on a two week trip with my wife, trying to see 12 states in two weeks, and we did a day-trip to Philadelphia. We were just bumming around and saw a bunch of naked people roll up to the mint, and I had to capture that. I don’t know if people clicked on it because it was me or because the title was “2,000 Naked Bikers.”
I’m really proud of the vlog I filmed at The SafeHouse in February. My favorite part of that is that there’s this interrogation room they have in the basement, and you sit in this chair that’s sort of like a chair in a jet that shoots you out to get out of the jet. So I’m sitting there and nothing’s happening and all of a sudden it rises up through the floor. It’s cool to create a neat piece of content for companies.
What’s your ultimate goal for your vlog?
I always knew when I started this vlog that I wanted to share not only my life, but share interesting things going on in the city. There are so many people who comment after watching my vlog like ‘I had no idea this particular thing existed.’ Like for instance I did one for Float Milwaukee, which is a sensory deprivation tank business, and not many people were aware of it yet at the time. My main goal is showing the people who live here just how cool the city is.
Follow Martin on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. As a bonus, check out Martin's vlog of our interview below:
