His YouTube channel is among the top most popular channels in the country with over 33,000 subscribers. He calls himself a “total nerd” and his love for quantum physics, “My quantum weirdness.” His channel is an educational channel and he believes, “YouTube is not just for cat videos, funny videos or viral videos. We can talk science too.”
He is Malinda Alahakoon, a well known YouTuber for his channel, TechTrack show. This week we decided to talk to him about how he ended up being a YouTuber whose main focus is to educate and share the knowledge with his audience.
Malinda, a lecturer by profession says he started his channel at the end of year 2014 with no serious thought of becoming a YouTuber.
“I usually read stuff the others would not. And when I read something I want to explain it to someone else. That is usually my wife. She is the one who gave me the idea to start a channel. So I decided to video record and upload those on YouTube. That is how my show was born.”
One of the key features of his channel is that it is very informative and to the point. Malinda reveals that when he decided to become a lecturer which was a coincidence, he figured out that it is not about knowing everything. It is the way you explain things to others.
“Lecturing is a performing art. So you have to master your voice, body language and lots of other things. I studied those things and that helped a lot both in my profession and my channel,” he says.
His initial plan has been to upload two videos per week. However now he uploads a video almost every day at six in the morning.
Technology
Explaining how he schedules the topic for the videos, Malinda says he does not shift his whole focus just because a video goes viral but sometimes he chooses the topics accordingly.
“I did a video on this Sri Lankan Sports car. Then I figured that a lot of people are interested in Sri Lankan technology. So then I tried to include more Sri Lankan technology in to my schedule. Also I figured people are interested in photography. So basing on those I have lined up a few videos and next few weeks I will be focussing on that area.”
According to Malinda, mostly viewed video of his was the one about the Sri Lankan sports car which had more than 100,000 views. He reveals that the reason for it to go viral is not purely the interests of the audience but because the gossip websites and facebook pages shared the video and then it became available for a wider audience.
“My audience really like space travelling and things related. Recently I was talking about the biggest telescope in human history which is supposed to go up into the orbit by 2018. The response for the video has been amazing.”
Speaking of how he knows whether his videos are viewed by his audience or by outside users Malinda says if there are a lot of comments and less views then it is definitely coming from his audience and if less comments and more views then it is from outside and not from his hardcore audience.
Response
Malinda says he is quite happy about the decision he took to start a YouTube channel and that he is lucky to receive tremendous response from day one.
“It is not actually about producing videos. I do not know how to do that. I go in front of the camera and talk. I am not a video producer. I am an educator and that is my job. It is just I do it in different platforms, at my Uni and on YouTube.”
Viral
Expressing his notion on what type of videos are most popular in the country Malinda says, topics such as “How to make money” would top the list.
“If someone says, Okay you can Click this button and become a millionaire, that is the kind of video which goes viral. Other than that, its gadgets, gadget reviews. People are so much into buying new phones, laptops, cameras,” he adds.
Malinda does all the work by himself from choosing the topics, researching, video recording, uploading it on YouTube and sharing it on Social media, mainly Facebook and Twitter.
“Way back 2014, my wife helped when making videos since I could not control the camera, the focus and framing. Now I have fully automated cameras so I can control my camera with my phone. I do not need a cameraman.”
He believes that in Sri Lanka one cannot make money and share knowledge by starting a YouTube channel and that if someone wants to do that then he/she should start two channels. He points out that is because the community is so small and the ad rate is very low.
Therefore one cannot actually make serious money out of YouTube. However Malinda says from brand deals a YouTuber can make some good money.
“If you target Sri Lankans living in other countries such as Italy, South Korea, Middle East and Australia then there are millions and therefore a huge market. Start a Sri Lankan gossip channel targeting those countries if money is your main focus. Those people feel disconnected and are searching for ways to connect to their motherland.” He says those who wish to start their own YouTube channel should first decide what their focus is.
“If for money then you have to target Sri Lankans in other countries or you have to target U.S, Europe and that means you have to do the videos in English.
But if you want to share your knowledge with the Sri Lanka community then you will have to forget about money. Do the videos in Sinhalese. By that you can build the community and meet likeminded people.”