I recently finished my DIY van build and started thinking about how I best learned about all the intricacies of van building. This forum was a massive resource as well as the vanual and sprinter rv conversion sourcebook. However, after a long day of building the last thing I could/wanted to do was read dense instructions or flip through millions of forum posts so I typically turned to YouTube. As you all know there is a tremendous amount of info already on YouTube some of which is EXCELLENT but other information that seemed questionable at best and made me nervous about trusting the advice. Sometimes it was hard to discern who was right and/or wrong and it led to lots of mistakes on my end.
Which got me thinking, could I put my years of video editing, shooting, and directing experience to use all while helping those individuals who prefer to learn through a video format?
My question then, and would love your feedback on, is would you all see any value from a Masterclass-type program on DIY vanbuilding? I’m thinking of interviewing experts and demonstrating the main pain points that a DIY vanbuilder has as they proceed through their own build. Experts could be folks that have built countless vans, electricians, solar experts, tiny home builders, interior designers, etc. who would educate the viewer on each specialty topic that will hopefully answer any and all questions that a DIY vanbuilder would have. I also would love to harness some of the experts in this community and put together an amazing video lesson package for any and all new vanbuilders.
What are your thoughts? Good or bad idea? Or…should I just shut up and get back to work…haha
Interesting question… As it stands there is probably more bad information out there than good. I guess the real question is how could you rise to the top of the heap. If you’re not on the page one, your lost in the masses.
Good Luck!
Cheers!
"Be a credit to the human race, and make the world a better place." ~ Off Grid
This depends on you, are you willing to provide more value then everyone else out there on YouTube. It’s a good idea, one that I also thought about, but my lack of experience stopped me from pursuing it. If I were you I would definitely do it!
But iff I were to do this I would focus on providing as much value as possible. Like @Van_Dweller said:
Break the course down into the tinyiest of pieces and answer ALL questions/concerns a newbie might have about builds (or your topic), provide one on one support, constantly update the course, do lives. Then at the end you could maybe have interviews or case studies from real vanlifers. These are just a couple ideas that come to mind, im sure you can think of more
It’s all about providing more value. You’re literally about to compete with the thousands of free videos out there on YouTube. How are you going to prove your course is better then them all? The good thing is you’d be the first (i think) to create a video course like this about vanlife conversions so there’s a lot of potential.
But at the end of the day it all comes down to providing value. If you’re truly passionate about this providing value shouldn’t be a problem at all.
Most of the people I know prefer written material over video’s for reference or how to material. Written material makes the process of finding what you’re looking for much easier than wading through video’s. Video’s for entertainment, written for how-to’s.
Cheers!
"Happiness only comes before money in the dictionary." ~ Smilin Sam
But what if you could combine the two?
Ebook + video course
Then you’ve got yourself something.
However, I actually disagree with that. While you’re right about videos being more for entertainment, many people still prefer to learn by them instead of reading IMO. I might just be saying that because that’s how the people around me, and I prefer to consume content.
But either way, i’m pretty positive their are enough people out there that prefer videos for this to work out. When you’re marketing you could use YouTube ads, I feel like those would work very well for this.
Youtube ads, or any paid ads can expensive real quick. A first page listing on the search engines under appropriate keywords is a better choice.
People successfully market ebooks and video courses via free classified ads too. I was selling 1000+ ebooks in a month using nothing but free classifieds. Marketing means everything in the profit game, how to reach the most people with least amount of cost.
Cheers!
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." ~ Benjamin Franklin
myelf being deaf, i rather to read THEN watch edu/instructional videos.
why not do both. but make the Ebook/PDF the Main subject. in each section of the book or certain points, a link to a video (please do not do one long arse video).
break down the videos into series with certain focus (follow along the book as it goes)
AND Caption the videos! please do not rely on auto-caption of youtube, it still hit/misses.
Thanks all for the input and insight, I’m in the early stages of this project still and greatly appreciate your feedback. Definitely will take all this into consideration as my research continues. As this develops I’ll be sure to post some updates to this forum!
Of course it’s an excellent idea. As someone who has built several vans, turned down countless more, counseled/coached many, many people through their own builds and even started a business building them… I considered the same for a while.
I actually have no doubt there’s great money to be made, especially now as most trusted van builders now won’t even take a call or respond to an email without charging you by the hour.
I still enjoy the conversations, so I do it for free… and I realized the abyss of years I would spend on a computer typing out all the resources - but if you’ve got the time and energy to dedicate to putting together a vast class/resource of the options/possibilities - DO IT!!!
IF you gave detail and covered all the basics this would be an exceptional idea - and one people would pay for. YouTube vids rarely explain and demonstrate at a pace that educates. Get real carpenters, solar guys, etc. and don’t spend a lot of time posing and showing location shots - make it a genuine ‘classroom’ and it would be gold.
