Becoming a Better Language Youtuber with Lindie Botes

Lindie’s Story

South African-born Lindie grew up acting and playing about on videos with her older brothers. It was a familiar, comfortable activity in her home circle, so perhaps it’s not so surprising that Lindie began a YouTube channel when she was still in high school.

When a video of her speaking Korean as she woke from an anaesthetic went viral, Lindie started taking her channel seriously. 

Although not all the new subscribers stuck around, by making and posting her videos more strategically Lindie’s community continued to grow.

A UI/UX designer in Singapore by day, Lindie’s got no plans to go full time on her channel. Still, she loves the connection, interaction and sheer fun of helping other polyglots along their language learning journeys.  

Grow your channel by creating a community

Lindie has always been fascinated by languages and has many strategies for learning them. So, when she hit on the right mix of information, humour, stories and personality in her videos, her channel began to grow. 

But what helps even more, is the way Lindie responds to her community. She genuinely loves replying to comments and forming bonds with those who share her interests. 

“It’s really about creating this community of like-minded people and interacting with them.”

Lindie does have a warning though; be careful not to go too far with your comments and community. You won’t have time to reply to everyone and people need to respect your privacy, too. It can be quite a learning curve for YouTubers until they find the right balance.

Consider taking a public speaking course

What you say in your videos is important but so is HOW you say it. The public speaking course Lindie took as part of her job gave her some invaluable communication skills for her videos.

Public speaking teaches you to:

• Speak slowly
• Enunciate clearly
• Smile and pause
• Vary the expression on your face and in your voice
• Think quickly and creatively
• Understand the importance of a good story.

What videos should you post?

It can be difficult to keep thinking of new video topics, but the key is knowing a lot about your niche so that you’ll always have something to say.

To help with ideas, Lindie says, start a list and jot down thoughts whenever they come to you. 

Ask your community what they’re interested in seeing and keep track of the questions they ask in the comments or on social media. That makes it quick and easy to make a Q&A video or blog post. 

Another idea is to show your own progress and methods for learning languages.

Use YouTube Analytics to monitor what’s working

YouTube Analytics lets you measure your channel’s performance and video engagement as well as helping you to see where your traffic is coming from. It can be beneficial to know what’s working, but equally handy to know which videos didn’t perform as well as you thought they would.

“When you learn to use YouTube Analytics you can understand what kind of content people are interested in and create more of that.”

To find the Analytics tool, log in to your YouTube account and click your profile icon. Select YouTube Studio and then Analytics from the left-hand menu on the Channel Dashboard.

How to deal with YouTube trolls

One scary aspect of YouTubing is the prospect of trolls infesting the comments under one of your videos. Trolls delight in negativity and tend to attack your looks or demeanour instead of starting a discussion about your content. 

Everyone has their own way of dealing with critical trolls. Some YouTubers answer them back, even if it starts an argument. 

However, if it’s serious abuse, you should take action and report it. Hover your mouse over the comment and click the three dots that appear. Select the Report Spam or Abuse option and follow the prompts.

Generally, Lindie prefers to use a simple but effective method for dealing with negative comments that have nothing to do with languages. 

“Delete, ignore and just leave it.”

Lindie’s tips for Langpreneurs 

Don’t be scared — just start.

Face it; your first videos will not be great. Accept that fact and learn from it. Don’t plan too much or worry about having cinematic quality.

Post videos consistently

Decide whether you’re going to put content up weekly, fortnightly or monthly and stick to that schedule. Consistency is even more important than quality when you’re getting established.

Stand out from the crowd with the languages you focus on and the way you deliver your content.

People will watch for your humour, charisma, personality and style as well as the Languages you highlight. 

Capture your audience’s attention by using a B-roll.

Rather than just showing yourself talking all the time, have a B-roll of supplemental visuals to add interest. For example, if you’re discussing the supermarket use footage that wanders through the aisles while you do a voiceover on top.

Have a clear niche and vision. 

“People like to know what they’re subscribing to.”  

Communicate to your audience what your videos are about with your banner, your intro and your consistent content. 

Be genuine – don’t try and be like anyone else.

“People are going to subscribe for the type of person you are; the unique perspective you bring to the field. So, always stay true to yourself.” 

Contact Lindie