"We Used To Get Stressed Over Design For Our YouTube Channel. But Picmaker Made it Fun," Say Travel Vloggers Beth And Paul

Karthik S - May 17, 2021 - Leave your thoughts.

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28 February 2020 - The world around us was beginning to change. We had seen crises before - hunger, poverty, floods, and wildfires.

But, what was beginning to unfold before our eyes were beyond anybody's comprehension.

We couldn't meet our loved ones anymore. Days of going out and playing in the sun were forgotten. Forget going out, saying a 'Hi' to our neighbors was forbidden.

Things would never be the same anymore.

Amidst all this gloom, an Australian travel vlogging couple decided to take matters into their own hands. The couple, Beth and Paul, began posting videos of their travel around different places in Australia and Southeast Asia.

Their YouTube channel named, Beth and Paul, took shape on 1 March 2020, a day after Paul retired from service.

Why were they doing it?

"We are extremely positive in our outlook, and we want to entertain our audience for a few minutes every week. Hopefully, that sparks a change for the better," says Beth Kemp, in an interview with us.

Till date, Beth and Paul have produced 68 videos of their experiences, and have a loyal fan following. We almost binge-watched all their videos, and we weren't surprised that most of their videos had 99.9% likes.

So, we sat down with Beth, to know about their mission so far, and what keeps them going. Here's our conversation:

Here's a transcript of our conversation:

Beth: So, my name's Beth, and I live with my husband, Paul, in Brisbane, Australia. We have two adult children. Paul retired last year [2020] right at the end of February, and we started a six-month trip, uh, traveling around Southeast Asia.

We were so excited about it, we even bought a GoPro, and we wanted to take small vlogs of our trip, to keep our family and friends posted, and anybody else who was interested.

But, only about a month into our trip, it had to be cut short because of the pandemic, and we returned back to Brisbane. So, we decided that we would keep doing weekly vlogs about Southeast Queensland.

That's because we've been very lucky where we live, they've been very low Coronavirus numbers in Queensland. So, we have the freedom to travel. So, that's what we've been doing. Every week we go out, and we, we have a day out traveling, and sometimes a weekend away and we take our viewers with us.

Beth: Since we live in Queensland, the sun rises very early here, and it gets hot very quickly in summer. So, we usually get up pretty early, and we go for a walk.

And, we come back. Breakfast is my favorite time of the day, so we have breakfast together, and that's when we usually sit down and plan our day together. We go through, write down a few tasks that we need to do for the day.

Paul's retired so he can pot around the garden, and do his bits and pieces. But, I still work part-time, I'm a consultant, and I work online from home. So, that takes up part of my day, and then we also spend time planning our next trip and video. So, all of that kind of keeps us from running the house kind of keeps us pretty busy.

Beth: I guess when Paul retired, I was trying to think of the best present for his retirement. And, I bought him a GoPro, which is something that you wouldn't probably associate with a retiree. But, I thought with our holiday coming up, it would be a great thing to give him.

And, that it would be a lot of fun to make these YouTube videos, about which, we didn't know anything about. We love watching other people but we didn't know anything about creating and designing our own content.

So, we had this huge learning curve, but it's been a lot of fun. And, that's, that's where we started. So, it was about, it's about 10 months ago, I guess now, it was in the middle of March last year [2020].

Beth: The reason that we do our videos is that there's a lot of sadness and anxiety in the world today. And, so we hope, that in our weekly vlog, for six or seven minutes, we can distract our viewers and take them somewhere else, and give them something else.

We really are positive people, and, the people that they see on the video, that's really us. And, we really just hope that they can be entertained for a few minutes. If they can pick up some useful information, or they find it interesting, then that's a bonus. But, that's really where we're coming from, and that's the reason why we've continued to do our channel.

Beth: We go out every week, so we plan a day every week. We devote that whole day doing the excursion and filming. But, there's quite a bit of work in video editing, and we take our time with it. We don't rush with it.

So, we post our videos once a week, and I think that works really well for us. And, we really put that time into it, to get the best quality that we can. We're always trying to improve ourselves, and improve the quality of our videos.

Beth: We Googled to find Picmaker, and that was because when you start a YouTube channel, you come across all this jargon, that you've never heard before.

Like thumbnails, click-through rates, impressions, and we didn't know anything about them. So, I think our very first thumbnail was literally just a photo that YouTube defaulted to from that particular video. So, it had no heading.

But, I was reading online the importance of having a good thumbnail, and I Googled and found Picmaker. And, so I went into the Picmaker website, and I learned all about how to create to design a really good Youtube thumbnail, and it looked really professional. And, I could do it really quickly, so, that's how it came about.

Beth: We've only just started, an Instagram account, we literally did it finished it this morning. We've used Picmaker for that as well.

Compared to other people we, are at a snail's pace. But, Picmaker is great for both Instagram posts and YouTube thumbnails. The next thing that I want to do really is to improve our YouTube banner, and I'll use Picmaker for that as well.

Beth: I guess not everybody is a creator, not everybody is gifted with a creative mind. So, the thing with Picmaker is that, it does all the hard work for me, and it makes designing fun.

So, designing used to really stress me, but Picmaker really makes it very quick and easy to put together the YouTube thumbnail. It turns my work into beautiful quality, and so, I love that.

It has all these photos that I can use, different design templates, fantastic objects, if I want to put them into my work, it has ideas that I hadn't even thought of putting into my work. And, they're there ready for me to use.

So I really love that aspect. I think that it's a great way to customize your work to a quality that I wouldn't have been able to achieve on my own at all. With Picmaker, I can do a thumbnail really quickly, and easily, and I'm so proud of it afterward. I look at it, and think, ‘Wow, I could not have done that without Picmaker.’

And, that's the truth, it's been fantastic for us, and I can tell that I'm really proud of our thumbnails now. As our channel has continued to grow, people often comment on our thumbnails, and how beautiful they look. So, I know, that it's doing a great job for us.

Beth: In fact, we have already. For anybody starting out, it's a free tool, a resource that you can use, that can start you off. Had we known about it, it would have been great from the very start.

But, to know about it now, and to start your channel with those fantastic YouTube thumbnail templates, you can make them eye-catching. And, you can do it so quickly, and easily.

I showed Paul, today, I called him over and I said to him, ‘Come over and have a look at how quickly I can put a thumbnail together.’ It literally took less than three minutes, and he was like, ‘Wow that's amazing!’

So, you'll see that thumbnail next week, it's got the Brighton bathing boxes and the beach on it and it's so quick and easy. I think the fact that you can customize it, and produce such beautiful quality, I think that's a fantastic thing. So, yeah, I can totally recommend it.

Beth: I really thought about this question, and I think that you're really awesome. I noticed the differences between the first version and the second version.

And, the second version has made it really easier for someone who is still very junior in the whole process. I noticed that when I uploaded my image, I can align it in the center, really easily now. I don't have to save it before I download it. All these little steps make it more user-friendly.

Honestly, I can't think of anything. Maybe as I use it a bit more, I might come up with some more feedback. But, I do want to thank you, Karthik, because I can't believe that, like when I have been stuck, you've been there to answer my questions, and give me that support.

And, I would never have dreamed that I'd be having getting support at all hours of the day and night, which you did. One of the successful things about our channel is we've never missed a deadline, we've always posted when we said we would every week. We know that we look forward to watching other people's channels, and for them to regularly stick to a routine, can be difficult.

So, the fact that we have that access to that customer service, and it's incredible. And, so, thank you, because that's one thing that really makes Picmaker stand out from the rest of the companies!

Beth: So, I think the biggest thing is patience. I think so many people put all the emphasis on how many subscribers, and how many views, and that's not really where the focus and the energy should be.

The focus and the energy should be on planning good content. For us, it could be planning a trip, or an excursion, that we find interesting, but that would our viewers would find interesting too.

So, putting in the work, that's where all the focus and the energy should go into. Put it all into delivering really good quality content, and the rest all the statistics will follow eventually. And be yourself, as well. So, you know, we, we try to be ourselves, and I think that our viewers can relate to that too.

One of our favorite videos by Beth and Paul is their Brisbane, Northshore Eat Street video. Some of the delicacies that they try out can make you go hungry, so watch out :) Here's their awesome video:

If you enjoyed reading about Beth and Paul's travel experiences, we're sure you'll enjoy watching the American couple, Ari and Jessi, who shot to fame with a World War II U-boat video.

Besides, its not Beth and Paul alone who love using Picmaker, we have quite a few users around the globe who are big fans. Listen to their stories, their fears, and what made them successful over the years.

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