YouTube video ideas for when you don't know what to post

Not sure what to make YouTube videos about or just need inspiration for how-to video ideas?

We’ve done the groundwork and compiled a list of 105 YouTube video ideas you can use to get results from your YouTube channel.

Let’s dive into them starting with what your first YouTube video should be!

Best Video Ideas for Beginners

If you’re just starting out on YouTube, it’s best to stick to the basics.

You don’t want to go head-on with a lot of educational or information-heavy content because these videos will keep going lower in your channel as you create more content. So, it’s best to create simple, high-quality videos to warm up to your audience.

Here are some ideas.

1. Introduce Yourself‍

This is an essential and easy first post for anyone wondering what your first YouTube video should be. Make a video introducing yourself—what you do, what kind of content viewers can expect from your channel, how you can help, and how often you post.

The idea is to create a warm welcome video for your audience to give them a reason for subscribing to your channel. Here’s a great example of a chirpy “Introduce Yourself” video.

2. Host a Q&A on Instagram and answer the best (or top 3) questions in a YouTube video

Not sure what sort of things to talk about on YouTube but happen to also run an instagram page? Post a question sticker on your Instagram Story around your niche or a specific topic. Pick the top 3 questions and answer them in a YouTube video with examples and scenarios to make it interactive. This is how Grace did it, and also got 161K views on the video.

3. Introduce Your Team‍

Do a fun and engaging video with an interesting Q/A or a behind-the-scenes action introduction of the team members.This will help your viewers relate to the more human side of your channel and business, allowing them to connect with you better. Here’s a short and sweet team introduction video:

4. Home tour

Give your audience a sneak peek into your personal life with a home tour. You can shoot this video with a voiceover while showing each part of your house, or you can tell someone else to make the video, and you can properly take your audience through a virtual house tour.

5. Tour of your city

Film yourself touring across the city, and cover your favorite tourist places, lesser-known spots, cute cafes, and beautiful streets. Give your audience a chance to take a virtual tour of what it’s like to step into your shoes and see a city they’ve never visited before. Here’s a stunning Paris night city tour for you.

6. Start Vlogging

Like writing an educational or an experience-backed blog post, you can also make a vlog. It can be a product review, a day in your life or business experiences and educate or motivate the audience.

7. Explainer Videos

If you have a product or know how to explain complicated technical topics in a simpler manner, go for explainer videos. They simplify things and tell users how to use a product or understand a concept better through presentations, whiteboards, and graphs. Look at how Zendesk did this.

8. Channel trailer

Create a channel trailer that shows your audience what kind of content they can expect from you. It gives a preview of the content users will find on your channel to tease them to subscribe or watch more videos by you. Take your inspiration from Will Smith’s Channel Trailer here:

9. YouTube Shorts

Make 30-second videos of snackable content in an easy-to-digest manner and post them on YouTube’s latest feature, Shorts. It works similar to TikTok and Instagram Reels and is a great way to get your feet wet with long-form videos by first making short-form content:

10. Behind the Scenes

People love to see processes, so show your viewers what goes behind the making of your videos, the inner workings of your business, or your daily life as a creator, parent, entrepreneur, or artist. See this working professional’s morning routine video which gives a glimpse beyond her 9-5 job.

11. What’s on your phone?

If you’re a phone wizard, have loads of lesser-known apps downloaded on your phone that your viewers can benefit from or know settings that help you be more efficient—do a “what’s on your phone” video and tell people how they can manage their work, time and play better like Rowena Tsai did here.

12. Icebreaker Questions and Answers

Give your audience an insight into your views and opinions by answering some icebreaker questions in a video—you can make a “50 Icebreaker Questions to know me better” video. These can include questions about what you do in your free time, a fact very few people know about you, the best piece of advice you’ve ever received, etc.

13. Short Tutorial Content

One of the most common reasons people go on YouTube is that they want to learn how to do something by following along with a video. This can be as simple as “how to insert a table in Google docs” to an elaborate one like “how to assemble an IKEA bed.”

The idea is to dip your toes in the water by creating shorter videos of 2-3 minutes to get good at storytelling before you start making longer videos.

14. Challenge Videos

Every other day there’s a challenge that goes viral on social media—think mannequin challenge, vogue challenge, or a regular dance challenge. Participate in these challenges by creating videos with a unique twist to cash in on these trends.

How-To Video Ideas for Educational and Tutorial Content

Over 86% of US viewers watch YouTube videos to learn new things. If you have knowledge or expertise in a topic, you can create educational videos on it.

Here are some easy how-to video ideas you can try next.

15. Bite-Sized Tutorial Videos With YouTube Shorts

People always want to know the quickest way to do things. So, if you’re good at anything, be it tech, lifestyle, makeup, dancing, singing, art, or athletics, create 30-second tutorial videos and post them on YouTube Shorts.‍

16. Video Collaboration with an Industry Expert

Partner with another expert in your industry and bring more value to your audience through conversations, discussions, and insights. Such videos also help increase both collaborators’ reach and give your audience a reason to be glued to your channel.

Look at this YT collab our head of content, Diana, did with Michael Janda—former owner of Riser Agency who has worked with clients like Disney, Google, NBC, and ABC.

17. DIY Videos

If you’re looking for creative video ideas then a DIY video is perfect! Make a video showing a play-by-play of how to make something from scratch. This can be creating origami designs, decorating your home office, painting plant potters at home, etc. Be creative and show people how to reuse old items or save money by “doing it yourself” at home. Here’s an example.

18. Cooking Videos

Make cooking videos at home with detailed how-to recipes of your local cuisine or a widely-consumed international cuisine. If you’re a vegan, follow a keto diet, or are an expert at easy-to-make recipes, cooking videos are for you.

19. Product Tutorials

If you have a digital or physical product, the best way to get more eyes to it, educate people about what they can do with your product, drive people to your website and bag some sign-ups is giving product tutorials. Here’s one of our recent videos where we teach our viewers how to edit social media videos on VEED.

20. Workout Routine Video

If you’re a fitness freak and often make your own workout routines, share it with everyone by making tutorials about it. This can be a muscle strength workout routine where your viewers can follow along or a tutorial on doing exercises the right way. Here’s how Chloe Ting does it.

21. Teach a Lesson

Are you good at playing an instrument or explaining complex marketing or tech subjects in simple words? Share your expertise with lesson-based videos and teach your audience what you’re best at—all while establishing credibility. Here’s how Chris Do teaches complex freelance topics through a simple video.

22. Video Infographic

Infographics educate viewers by presenting stats and graphics around a particular topic in an easy-to-understand format like this one on YouTube vs TikTok.

23. Video Presentation or Webinar

There’s nothing more effective than one-on-one interaction with your audience. Conduct live-streamed webinars or use a video presentation to discuss a popular topic in your niche. Education + live interaction is a recipe for video success. Here’s a webinar by Neil Patel.

24. Whiteboard Videos

Remember learning on a chalkboard or whiteboard in school? It’s a popular way to explain topics and analogies the good old way. So, get a whiteboard and create a video series by explaining a complex topic with examples and relatable elements like this.

25. Do’s and Don’ts

Create a video telling people what to do and what not to do about a particular thing. This can be about a first date, or while travelling to a specific destination. Whatever your niche is—pick a frequently debated topic and create a do’s and don’ts video.

26. Q&A

Pick a question comment from one of your previous YouTube videos like Vanessa Lau does or encourage viewers to post their questions in the comments towards the end of every video.

These questions make for a great topic, and the chances are that if one viewer has that question, hundreds of others may want to know about it too—so, it’s a win-win.

27. Myth Busting

Debunk industry misconceptions by making a video on what people assume vs. what it actually is—with graphs, stats, and analogies or examples to make understanding easier like this video.

28. Social Media Trends Weekly or Monthly Recap

Everyone wants to be on the top of social media trends—be it a dance challenge on Instagram Reels or a popular tweet format on Twitter that everyone’s following. Make a trend recap video weekly or monthly combining all trends together to give your viewers an insight into what’s trending:

29. TikTok Dance Tutorials

TikTok has over one billion monthly users, and the number is steadily growing. TikTok dance challenges are a recipe for going viral and having fun by introducing your unique twist to it. If you like dancing and enjoy scrolling through TikTok—make these challenges easier for your viewers with tutorials. Here’s a great example.

30. How-To’s for Different Social Media Platforms

Social media is a maze for everyone—entrepreneurs, businesses, creators, and even marketers because it’s constantly evolving. So, if you’re good at research and enjoy social media platforms, create how-to videos like how to use Instagram reels for your business or how to find trending music on TikTok.

31. Videos about different cultures

If you have an interest in global culture, make videos about one that intrigues you the most. You can talk about cultural origin, traditions, practices, surprising facts, myths, etc., to become a culture encyclopedia for your viewers. Look at this interesting video on cultural differences.

32. Teach a language

If you’re good at a language, be it English or your nativa language, make video tutorials about language usage, accents, etc. You’d be surprised at how many people want to learn or improve in possibly every language you can think of!

33. Videos about history

Know your country, culture, language, or a particular brand’s history all too well? Make videos about it and give your viewers history lessons with dates and visual presentations. Here’s a video on the history of the French language.

34. Psychology videos

Have you studied psychology before, or are you a student of one and want to spread awareness about it? You can make videos on the psychology behind love, marketing, or making money like this very popular video based on the book “Psychology of Money”.

35. Philosophy videos

If you often find yourself in the middle of debates about the purpose of our existence and why we live a certain way and want to start a conversation around the same—make philosophy videos. You can pick up a topic like existentialism and make videos on sub-topics or invite philosophy experts to talk about a subject and provide more insight to your audience.

36. Science videos

Talk about scientific experiments gone wrong, or the myths about scientific concepts. If you like experimenting, make videos of different tests with magnets, soda, mint, etc.—you can even start a series on “Science Experiments 101,” and make videos like this:

37. Math tutorials

Not everyone can understand math in school. And if you’re good at it, put it to use and talk about complex math problems to give simple solutions. You can also come up with innovative techniques to solve common math problems and help out students like this crazy video here.

38. Life skills

Create knowledge lessons on effective communication like Jay Shetty does here or making decisions in complex life situations like Mel Robbins here. Everyone needs these essential skills like communication, decision-making, critical thinking, empathy, and stress coping, irrespective of age.

39. Productivity hacks

Make videos on how to be more productive like Robin Sharma or share your best tools for productivity. There’s no better skill than knowing how to do something in less time, and making the most out of the 24 hours we have in a day.

40. Explain how certain tools work

Not everyone is familiar with the inner workings of a tool and how to squeeze efficiency to make your work simpler. If you know a tool like spreadsheets, Google docs, or Slack inside and out, make videos and tell people how to use it in the best way to maximize their output like this video here:

41. Video gaming walkthrough video

Are you a pro at a specific game like Valorant or Call of Duty? Create a walkthrough video, and show other gamers how to beat the final boss in the game or win that tricky level they’re stuck at like this video here.

Review Video Ideas

Reviews save people time and money, so they’re one of the most popular YouTube videos—be it for gadgets, beauty products, clothing brands, games, or even movies. Creating reviews requires some comparative and technical knowledge about the industry so you can give a complete examination and let the audience decide if it’s worth their time and money.

42. Tech reviews

Do you have a thing about Apple products? Create a review video where you go into detail about the latest Apple product and talk about camera specifications with demonstration, storage, navigation, functionality, and pros and cons. You can do tech reviews with laptops, mobile phones, headphones, smartwatches, ovens, and any tech gadget out there.

43. Beauty product reviews

Create videos comparing beauty products or give a full review of the latest product by a brand and tell people the pros and cons about it, which skin type it’s best for, and for which occasion. This video by influencer Ayesha Harun is a wonderful example.

44. Course Content Reviews

If you’ve taken any courses or are generally interested in the education sector, review course content on your YouTube channelThink of the questions you had about the course before signing up. Or look at what other people are asking and answer the most popular questions in your review.

45. Music Reviews

Review the latest songs and their music videos on your YouTube channel. You can break the song down and explain to people what it means, how it’s shot, and the meaning behind it like this video here. To make it even more interesting, you can review classics and take your viewers on a musical journey, but with critical reviews.

46. Game Reviews

Gaming is a fast-booming industry, given the number of games released every year.

If you often find yourself reading about or buying a lot of games, it’s a good idea to start doing game reviews and talk about the game’s technicalities, the levels, strategies, and good and bad things about it.

47. Food Reviews

Visit a restaurant, order some exciting food and do a review about it.

People always seek the best places to have food in their city, country, or abroad when they’re traveling—so food review is an excellent topic. People also love finding hidden gems to avoid tourist traps or just to spice things up as a local.

48. Toy Reviews

Make toy review videos if your kid is passionate about toys and always has the craziest reactions unboxing them. Show unique toys, how they work, what’s so special about them, and why parents should buy them for their kids. It’s also crazy how kids have built massive audiences unboxing and reviewing toys. In fact, a YouTube channel called Kids Diana Show is the 6th most watched channel of all time as of August 2021.

49. Celebrity Looks

Galas and events are the epicenters of the most fashionable trends of the year. Make review videos about celebrity makeup, clothes accessories, and you’ll have a lot of people intrigued by them. Watch this Met Gala review video.

50. Netflix Show Reviews

The pandemic made Netflix everyone’s best friend, but the number of shows is overwhelming. Here’s where your Netflix review videos can help.

Review a movie or a new TV show in your YouTube video and talk about the plot, characters, good things, and frustration points—without revealing spoilers. Here’s a review video on the recent Netflix release, Squid Game.

51. Sports Highlights with Review/Commentary

Are you a fan of football or any other sport you regularly watch? Create sports review or highlight videos about that one crazy goal during an important match or the fight between two team players. You can even do a live review video like this.

52. Movie Reviews

The world doesn’t revolve around OTT—what about good old Hollywood movies?

Review classic, teen, horror, evergreen, or thriller movies, among other genres, and tell people why and why not they should consider watching the movie. Take this movie review video as an example.

53. Fashion Brand Reviews

Many things happen in fashion brands than what meets the eye, and if you’re a good researcher, you can create brand review videos giving an overview about a brand like Zara and if and why one should buy from them.

54. ‘TikTok Made Me Buy It’ Product Reviews

Buy popular or viral items used in TikTok videos and create a TikTok Made Me Buy It review video. Talk about what you ordered, what you got and what’s your verdict on buying the trending item.

55. What’s In The News?

Not everyone watches what’s in the news every day, but you can summarize it together in a video and tell them what’s happening in the world and what you think about it. This can be a generic news round-up or niche-specific like celebrity and entertainment, sports, finance, etc. Here’s an example.

56. This VS That Product Reviews

Compare two tech gadgets together, or talk about two same makeup products but from different brands. Buying something is not just about investing in it, but investing in the best product according to the consumer’s budget. So, comparison product reviews like this work well.
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Funny (and Entertaining) YouTube Video Ideas

Fun videos are the staple diet of YouTube users as they’re light, entertaining, and offer an escape from the daily happenings. Pro tip–look up trending topics on YouTube to get some ideas or try one of our ideas below!

57. Underrated or Overrated

This is a popular video series by Gary Vee, also an excellent idea for creating fun content. Do you often come across things some people think are overrated, while others feel are underrated? For example, the show F.R.I.E.N.D.S or McDonalds. You can create a video series debating about niche-specific things and if they’re underrated or overrated. This will also start a conversation with the audience and encourage them to comment on your video.

58. This or That

Interview an expert in your field or a friend, and talk about general life scenarios with this or that version. For example, would you rather be rich and sad or happy and broke? Ask such questions and have a small discussion around it. Take inspiration from this “Would you rather” snippet between Ellen and Jennifer Lopez.

59. Pranks

Prank videos are the holy grail of entertainment and get people laughing. But steer clear from the mean pranks where people get hurt.

60. Comedy Skits

If standup is your thing, and you’re generally the person who cracks many jokes or people around you are always laughing, make comedy skits like Lily Singh does.

61. Cute baby animal videos

Baby animal videos make people go “aww,” so if you have an adorable little pet, make funny or cute videos of them like this one here. Here’s a compilation for your dose of cuteness.

62. Funniest news bloopers

Everyone messes up, right? Reporters are only human, and if you’ve ever recorded videos you know that you don’t give a perfect one-take every time. Scrounge through newsreels, find funny bloopers and make a compilation video like this—while ensuring the compilation isn’t mean or hurtful to anybody.

63. Parody Videos

Liked a music video or an interview snippet of a celebrity? Turn it into a funny video by enacting the footage and make humor a part of your channel. Anyone remember “Weird Al” Yankovic? He’s the king of parody videos.

64. Guess What This Is?

Gather a bunch of friends and make a video trying to sense a food item by just smelling it or by shutting your eyes and nose shut to taste it. This will be weird yet fun for you to do and the viewers to watch. Look at this Pringles Tasting video.

65. Cute and funny baby videos

If you’re a parent, shoot cute videos of your kid and create a compilation like this. This can be a video of every time they threw a tantrum, or when they started laughing for no reason or did something very funny.

66. React to trending videos

React to a unique video with funny or shocking expressions or gestures as you see it in real-time like this mom reaction video.

You can ask your audience to comment video recommendations for you to watch, and that you’ll record your reaction for videos with the maximum comment upvotes. This will enhance your engagement and retain the audience as they’ll wait for you to post the next reaction video.

67. Crowdsource ideas from your audience and then build the video content

Ask your audience what topics they want you to create videos on, collect the suggestions from the comments and start making the context. It’s a great way to get an idea of what the audience wants to see and is much better than hit-and-trial. You can also do a compilation video answering all comments like in this video.

68. Try-on haul

Just received your package from Zara where you got a lot of clothes? Or came back from a trip in another city and shopped a lot? Show off your clothing, and accessories to create a spectacular video. Brownie points if you can make it theme-based with music, background and filters. Look at this haul video.

Listicle (Top X) Type of Content

Listicles are listed content in video format and offer a quick way to share information with your audience, and often have higher retention rates. The crisper it is, the better. Let’s look at some ideas:

69. Favorite Apps

Have a list of apps you use daily? Make a video on the top 10 apps you use daily to run your YouTube channel. You can do the same for apps entrepreneurs or students should use, or apps for specific activities like editing your videos or managing your work.

70. Favorite TikTok Videos

Make a compilation video of a few of your favorite TikToks every week. People like to see what’s trending for inspiration, and to make something like that for their own channel. Look at this TikTok compilation video, for example, with over 18 million views:

71. Best Restaurants

Do you go out to eat a lot, or travel often? Make cuisine-wise or region-wise lists of the best restaurants to visit with videos, images, reviews, etc., to make it engaging.like this one here.

72. Best Cities to Live In

Create a video on the best cities to live in your country—as a couple, student, or a family with elderly parents. You can also make one based on cities where health costs are lower, the crime rate is less, or education is comparatively cheaper. Talk about the cities, their relation to your core topic, and what’s unique about them.

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73. Best Countries to Live In

Like the best cities, you can also make a listicle video on the best countries to live in, based on different factors like family size, amenities, preferences, scenic views, etc. Here’s a stunning example of the 10 happiest countries in the world to live in.

74. Favorite Movies

Are you a binge-watcher? Put that skill into use, and create a video on your favorite movies in different genres or specific occasions. For example, top feel-good movies or best of family movies to watch in 2021.

75. Favorite Books

If you’re someone who reads a lot, be it fiction, non-fiction, or any language at all—start creating videos about the books you read and would recommend. This video on the books you should read in your 20s is a great example.

76. Best Youtube Videos

Do you use YouTube a lot for learning? Make a video on your top recommendations for the best YouTube videos your audience should watch for a specific topic, like marketing, startups, psychology, art, makeup etc.

77. Most Viewed Youtube Videos

People want to know which videos are performing best on YouTube—either because they want to replicate those metrics or because they’re intrigued to spend their time only watching the best. So, create a listicle on the most viewed YouTube videos on marketing, fashion styling, or video editing—any topic related to your channel.

78. Most liked YouTube videos

Just like most viewed, making a listicle video of the most liked YouTube videos would also serve the same purpose. People want to watch what others are watching, so give it to them.

79. Most Epic Fails

Failure is a part of life. But it can be funny and entertaining at the same time, right?

“Most epic fails” is an evergreen video format on most social media platforms, including YouTube. Make a video on the most epic fails in science, marketing, technology, or simply funny attempt videos doing things in daily life.

80. Video Games

Top video games kids can play or someone who’s a fan of Valorant will like to play—are great ideas for video game listicles. You can also create a monthly roundup, like the top video games released in October 2021.

YouTube Video Ideas For Kids

YouTube Kids is a separate segment of the platform, where only censored content is shown, and kids can watch freely. If you’re interested in making kid-friendly videos by yourself or with your kids, here are some great ideas:

81. Unboxing toys

Unboxing videos are a delight for people—adults or kids. Make a video of your kid unboxing a toy by focusing on the contents, how the toy works, and your kid’s reaction to the same.

82. Slime videos

Kids playing with slime is gooey, but it’s also fun and interesting for child viewers. Buy slimes of different colors, set an interactive background and let your kid play with the slime while you make a video. They can also do tricks with the slime to make the video more intriguing. Look at this slime video with over 89 million views:

83. Educational Games

YouTube is a form of learning for many kids. So, you can ideate and make videos of educational games for children like a unique way of remembering numbers, colors, alphabets, homophones etc,. You can also make them into a song and encourage viewers to sing along.

84. Cooking for Kids

Make videos cooking simple meals for kids, decorating and plating them beautifully, or creating a healthy yet delicious snack in minutes. If you have a kid who likes helping out in the kitchen, let them make some fire-less food like Kobe here.

85. Painting tutorials

Shoot a video doing simple painting—easy strokes, using water paints properly, or finger painting. These make for fun, and educational videos, especially if you feature your kid in them.

86. Recreate a trending dance

There’s nothing cuter than kids dancing, especially on trending songs. Make a video of your kid dancing to family-friendly trending songs from TikTok and post it on YouTube. Not only is this cute, but also heartwarming and interesting for the child viewers too.

87. Magic tricks for kids

You see it in front of you, but suddenly it disappears. Where did it go?

Magic tricks are fun as they have an element of surprise and wonder. Make videos showing magic or teaching kids how to do it like this video so they keep coming back for more videos.

88. Karaoke for kids

Sing-along videos of popular kids’ songs or rhymes are a great video idea to get repeat views and more subscribers to your channel. Create an animated video of a rhyme with lyrics, so kids can do karaoke.

89. Vlogging kid-friendly activities (going to the zoo)

Going to the zoo or an amusement park with your kids? Make a video vlogging your experience and giving details about your visit, what you did, and what you saw.

90. Pranking Mom and Dad

Does your kid often play harmless, funny pranks on you? Record a video of them doing it the next time, or if they’re a bit older, teach them how to record themselves and start a prank series on your YT channel. Here’s a funny video:

91. Acts of Kindness

Kindness goes a long way, and kids do what they see. Create videos of your kids or doing nice things for other people like donating food and clothing to the homeless to encourage such behavior in viewers too.

92. DIY home activities

Teach children how to fill water balloons at home, play chalk games with friends or create a fort with cardboard boxes . These Do-It-Yourself activities will encourage movement and creativity.