Interview with YouTuber Divya Gandotra

Divya Gandotra is a 16-year-old Youtuber, blogger and PIIT, Greater Noida student who is best known for making a video about Tech content, smartphones, laptops, software and other stuff.

After only 2 years of starting her YouTube channel, Divya has amassed over 28,000 subscribers and over 2.3 million video views.

1. Please give us a brief background on yourself and tell us about your YouTube channel.
My name is Divya Tandon but everyone knows me by name Divya Gandotra. I am from Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir. I have been grown up by a single parent. My mom and my Nani, Nanu were my support system who supported me in all the decisions and helped me to come out of each and every problem, in any situation. I started my schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya. I was not that much good at studies. I failed many times in my student Life and learnt many things from those failures. I was always crazy to learn about the software like how they are created, programming etc.

2. When & why did you start making YouTube videos?
I started making a video from May 2015. I used to watch success stories on YouTube by the creators who became Zero to Hero. At that time I decided to do something by which my parents will proud of me. I checked many videos on YouTube that how to become a YouTuber, Ya I know that’s funny but I tried my best to create the best content for channel growth. My First channel was by the name of Technical Divya, which unfortunately gave me many disappointments. Then I started a new channel by my some of the Creators friends suggestions.
The new channel definitely gave me a huge growth as compare to the work I did on it.
I am working on the channel Tech Divya from last two years with 100+ videos till now.

3. Your YouTube channel has over 28,000 subscribers, with over 2.3 million video views. When you started out did you ever imagine your audience would become so large? Do you ever feel overwhelmed or intimidated knowing so many people will see your videos, or is it something you’ve grown used to?
When I started my channel, I was always dreamed about getting the silver play button on YouTube as each and every creator dream about. I started my channel for the name and fame and I really love that people used to watch my videos on YouTube, and I feel really happy that I am able to help my audience by my videos. Many time in the market and malls I used to see people playing my video on YouTube, and that was the best feeling ever I had.

4. How did you promote your channel when you first started? What did you do to get so many subscribers?
When I used to create a video, I always take one thing in my mind that “Maybe this video will get viral”, by this hope of getting my channel viral, I always give my hundred per cent to my each and every video. I used to upload links of my videos on Facebook but that doesn’t work, after some time I understood that only audience can promote a video, not a creator.
While getting so many disappointments through YouTube by the suspension of AdSense, community guidelines strike and fewer subscribers, then there were some big creators who helped and supported me by featuring me on YouTube, which really gave me a great push to my channel growth.

5. What’s involved in making one of your videos e.g. equipment, script, storyboard, scheduling, etc?
While making a video I was using a small tripod which cost about rupees 350-400 and a smartphone which cost about rupees 14,000, but recently I started making videos by a tripod which cost about rupees 2600 and a DSLR which cost about rupees 39,000. That was all by my skills towards writing as a content writer.
That’s really difficult for me to manage my time for studies and YouTube so sometimes studies come to overlap YouTube. I never did scripting for my YouTube videos. I just read about the topic and explain by myself, just because I think people can also read the written content but they come on YouTube for a better explanation and that’s me all motive is to explain my audience better than others.

6. What advice can you give to people who feel they are too shy to start making their own YouTube videos?
Before YouTube I was having a big stage fear in my mind, I never did solo debate or performance in front of the audience, I was really afraid of it. That was the only weakness for me.
The start of my YouTube journey was from screen recording. But when I came on the world of YouTube, I really started gaining my self-confidence, I started pretending like the camera, where I have to focus on is my audience and they will not laugh on me if I will do any mistake. The only advice I can give to the people who are afraid or shy to make own video is, before you make a video for YouTube, give some time to yourself in front of the mirror, build up your body language and your style with the help of a mirror, this will definitely help you.

7. For somebody wanting to start their own channel, what advice would you give to help them create a popular channel with lots of subscribers?
If you want to create a popular channel with lots of subscribers then the only thing you need to focus on is content and Quality. Your video must be transparent(especially in a Tech field). Your videos must be real according to your thumbnail. Never make any negative comments on others channel, this can make an impact on your channel in future.

8. Do you use Facebook, Twitter, etc, to promote your channel? How successful has it been for you? Any advice on how people can use social media to promote themselves?
Sometimes, when I think that the video is really very important for others and they must watch, then I used to share the links on Facebook and Twitter. Otherwise I really never share my videos links on social media, as this can impact to my channel’s status or people might ignore my channel.