YouTube: http://youtube.com/vlogbrothers (URL 15.4)
Website: www.ecogeek.org (URL 15.5)
Hank and John Green (vlogbrothers), brothers for over 27 years, decided not to write, email, instant message, or text message each other for all of 2007 and instead make daily video blogs. Though the Brotherhood 2.0 project has ended, they update the YouTube channel at least once a week. The community of nerdfighters they helped create is now stronger than ever; it lives at www.nerdfighters.com (URL 15.6). The vlogbrothers' YouTube channel has been featured on NPR and in the Wall Street Journal.
Alan Lastufka: When and why did you start making videos for YouTube?
Hank Green: New Year's Day 2007. It was my first video I'd ever edited. And I had just signed on to do a full year of them…every other day. Man, that was dumb.
Alan: How did you come to have your YouTube celebrity?
Hank: I wrote a song about the last Harry Potter book the day before it came out. It got featured on the front page of YouTube. A tiny fraction of the million people who have watched that video became loyal viewers. And they told their friends, and we felt pressure to make better videos, and then more people responded to the better videos…and on and on.
Alan: If you had one sentence to describe your YouTube channel, what would it be?
Hank: We're just two dorky brothers who wanted to have a better relationship with each other and ended up having a pretty powerful relationship with 30,000 nerds.
Alan: How has your success on YouTube helped your career outside of YouTube?
Hank: Oh yeah, people are always being like, "Oh, that Hank guy is pretty cool, yeah." And then they find out about Brotherhood 2.0, and they're like "Hire him!" or "Bring him here to speak at our event" or "OMFG, I want to have his BABY!" That last one isn't really good for the career, but it's good for the ego. The biggest deal is that I got a gig making videos for Discovery Channel's new Green Cable Network. And, just in general, it's good personal branding. People just assume you're capable of anything, which is, of course, very far from the truth. But I don't generally tell them that.
Alan: Who is your target audience? And who is your actual audience?
Hank: Our target audience is anyone who believes that being yourself is cool and being smart isn't something to be ashamed of. Our actual audience is pretty much that, except it's mostly girls. About 75 percent of the people who watch us are female, which is really surprising. The only thing that would make us more interesting to girls than boys is our powerfully handsome faces, which is ridiculous.
Alan: In what ways do you interact with your audience?
Hank: There's probably a pretty sloped hierarchy here. There are the people who just watch who we never interact with. That is probably the biggest slice. And then there are people who comment, and we sometimes respond. But beyond that there's a select group of several thousand who we do tons of stuff with. We make music videos, we have scavenger hunts, they cover my songs, I cover their songs, we make collaborative videos, and sometimes we just sit around and talk. I hired a nerdfighter to work for my blog. We also do video chats sometimes, and we're going on a real, in-person tour, so we'll be hanging out with our audience face-to-face soon.
Alan: You refer to your viewers as nerdfighters. What are nerdfighters?
Hank: Instead of being made of bones and organs and stuff, a nerdfighter is made of awesome. Less technically, a nerdfighter is someone who believes in, and has no problems with, their dorky obsessions and interests and will never criticize anyone else for their obsessions and interests.
Alan: Have your YouTube friends become your real-life friends?
Hank: I'm not sure how to make the distinction between real-life and YouTube friends anymore. So, I guess the answer is yes.
Alan: Has interacting with people on YouTube made you more confident while interacting with people face-to-face on a daily basis?
Hank: Almost always. Sometimes I still get really nervous, but I think it happens less often now. Most people don't know what they sound like and even cringe a little when they hear themselves recorded. I know exactly what I sound like; I hear myself all the time. And I've even kinda started to like it.
Alan: How much of your day is spent on YouTube?
Hank: I really have no idea. Between one and six hours, I'd say.
Alan: What advice do you have for up-and-coming YouTubers?
Hank: Make videos you enjoy watching. I literally watch and enjoy watching my old videos. I sit there and laugh and say, "That was a funny joke." If you don't enjoy what you're doing—if you don't think it's cool or funny or worth watching after you're done—then no one else will. Also, it's a great cure for the "no one is watching, so why bother?" problem. If you're entertaining yourself, then at least you have one reason to keep doing it.
Alan: Do you feel you could repeat your success on YouTube if you started over today? Why or why not?
Hank: Maybe. There's no way to tell. YouTube changes constantly, so video makers have to change constantly as well. We have to keep on top of trends and make connections with people who are doing cool things. Plus, we'd need to have more good ideas, and you can never be sure a good idea is going to come by. I think it would be more difficult now. But there are still tons of people doing it, so it's certainly possible.