As I enter my third year of creating videos on YouTube, I have become fairly well-versed in the types of content that do well on the platform. To me, there are three major groupings of videos:

1. Instructional Videos. From makeup tutorials to cooking channels; car repair overviews to learning how to sneak into a movie theater for free, people turn to YouTube when they don’t know how to do something and want to learn. The short, visual nature of YouTube assures that we are able to grasp something without having to decipher someone else’s instructional language. Rather, we can follow along as someone does something and feel pretty sure that we’re doing it as instructed.
2. Observational Videos. In this category are videos where we watch other people do things. This can be watching musicians perform a song, or a sporting event take place. A politician making a speech or a group of guys playing a video game together. We are not participants in these videos, but rather are here to watch something happen. Most viral videos are observational in nature, as we don’t get emotionally engaged in watching a roof collapse from snow buildup, but it’s easily understood and gets a lot of attention due to the universality of stopping what you’re doing to gape at something different.
   
3. Stories. The rest of the videos that are on YouTube are stories of one type or another. Vlogs are the main category in which stories are told, but there are also fictional characters created and presented, as well as what has become known as “YouTube drama,” where people talk about other people. Often the stories being told are about people who make the first two types of videos.

Of the three types of content, I believe stories are the most difficult to get right. Instructional videos can be judged immediately by the results on the screen or by testing out the instructions on your own. You’ll know a bad makeup artist by the finished look on their face. If your car doesn’t run right after checking out an auto mechanic’s video, that’s pretty easy to test. And observational videos are generally a matter of taste. Either what you’re watching is something you like or not. Either it makes you laugh or gasp or think about the state of the world.

Story is difficult because it tends to look very easy. Vlogging seems to be about nothing but filming the events of your day and uploading it regularly. “Storytime” videos are just sitting down on the floor and talking about something interesting that happened to you. But it’s not that easy.

A good storyteller needs as much practice and skill as a good musician. While you may be able to tell the details of how two other YouTube creators are publicly fighting on Snapchat, this doesn’t mean that you have the skill necessary to make that fight something compelling. Just because you get gorgeous time-lapse footage of an event you attended, that doesn’t mean your audience connects with you on a deeper level.

Storytelling is an art form, and if you want to get it right, you have to find out what it is that makes the storyteller unique, compelling, and worth returning to. Studying good storytellers can do as much for your content as studying NFL footage can help your game. Remember that just because you are talking, it doesn’t mean you’re telling a good story.