QR codes, or Quick Response codes, are two-dimensional barcodes that can be scanned using a smartphone or other device equipped with a camera and a QR code reader app.
They were originally developed by Denso Wave, a subsidiary of Toyota, in 1994 for use in automotive manufacturing, but they have since been widely adopted for a variety of other applications.
Here’s a fun fact about QR codes:
Did you know that the largest QR code ever made was created in 2013 in China? The code was made up of 1.5 million colourful Lego bricks and measured 31 meters by 31 meters (approximately 101 feet by 101 feet). The code could be scanned using a helicopter-mounted QR code reader from an altitude of up to 500 meters (approximately 1,640 feet). The massive code was created to promote a new shopping centre in the city of Ningbo.
Here’s how to make a QR code using the website you provided, QR Code Generator:
Select the type of content you want to encode in the QR code, such as a website URL, text, or a phone number.
Enter the content you want to encode in the appropriate field.
Customize the appearance of the QR code if desired by selecting a colour scheme, adding a logo or image, or adjusting the size or shape of the code.
Generate the QR code by clicking the “Create QR Code” button.
Download the QR code in a suitable format, such as a PNG or SVG file.
Here are some examples of how QR codes can be used:
Marketing and Advertising: QR codes can be used in print and digital marketing campaigns to direct consumers to a website, social media page, or other online content. For example, a restaurant might include a QR code on its menu that leads to its online ordering system or a discount offer for a future visit.
Event Management: QR codes can be used to streamline event check-in and ticketing processes. Attendees can scan a code on their mobile devices to gain entry to an event, and event organizers can use QR codes to track attendance and gather data on attendees.
Product Packaging: QR codes can be used to provide customers with additional information about a product, such as nutritional information, product specifications, or instructions for use. For example, a QR code on a bottle of shampoo might lead to a video tutorial on how to use the product.
Education: QR codes can be used in educational settings to provide students with access to additional resources, such as online readings, multimedia content, or interactive quizzes. Teachers can include QR codes in textbooks or on classroom materials to enhance the learning experience.
Contactless Payments: QR codes can be used to facilitate contactless payments, allowing customers to pay for goods or services without physically handling cash or credit cards. For example, a restaurant might include a QR code on its bill that customers can scan to pay using a mobile payment app.
Common Stats about QR Codes
Category
Statistic
Global QR code usage (2021 estimate)
11 million QR codes
Expected annual growth rate (2021-2026)
17.8%
QR code scans per day (2021 estimate)
9.76 billion scans
Most popular industries using QR codes
Retail, Food & Beverage, Marketing
Smartphone users scanning QR codes (2021)
67%
Expected QR code market size by 2026
$3.6 billion
QR codes have become increasingly popular in recent years, with an estimated 11 million QR codes in use globally as of 2021. The expected annual growth rate for QR code usage is 17.8% from 2021 to 2026.
On average, 9.76 billion QR code scans occur daily, with the retail, food and beverage, and marketing industries being the most popular users. Approximately 67% of smartphone users scanned QR codes in 2021, and the QR code market size is expected to reach $3.6 billion by 2026.
Overall, QR codes are a versatile tool that can be used in a variety of settings to enhance customer engagement, streamline processes, and provide additional information and resources. With tools like QR Code Generator, it’s easy to create custom QR codes that meet your specific needs.
What is a QR code?
A QR code, or Quick Response code, is a two-dimensional barcode that can be scanned using a smartphone or other device equipped with a camera and a QR code reader app. The code contains information that can be quickly and easily accessed by the user.
How do QR codes work?
QR codes work by encoding information in a matrix of black and white squares that can be read by a QR code reader app. When the user scans the code with their device’s camera, the app decodes the information and displays it to the user.
What can QR codes be used for?
QR codes can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including marketing and advertising, event management, product packaging, education, and contactless payments.
How do I create a QR code?
To create a QR code, you can use an online QR code generator tool like the one at qr-code-generator.com. Simply enter the information you want to encode in the code, customize the appearance of the code if desired, and generate and download the code in a suitable format.
Can QR codes be customized?
Yes, QR codes can be customized with logos, colours, and other visual elements to match a brand or to make them more visually appealing. However, it’s important to ensure that the customization does not interfere with the readability of the code.
How do I scan a QR code?
To scan a QR code, you’ll need a smartphone or other device with a camera and a QR code reader app installed. Simply open the app and point the camera at the code. The app will automatically recognize and decode the code.
Are QR codes secure?
QR codes themselves are not inherently secure, as they can be easily copied and reproduced. However, they can be used in conjunction with other security measures, such as encryption, to enhance security.
Are there any limitations to using QR codes?
One limitation of QR codes is that not all devices have QR code reader apps installed, although many smartphones come with these apps pre-installed. Additionally, QR codes may not be suitable for all types of content, as the amount of information that can be encoded in a code is limited by its size and complexity.
Are QR codes still relevant today?
Despite being developed over 25 years ago, QR codes remain a popular and versatile tool for a variety of applications. With the rise of mobile devices and contactless technology, QR codes are likely to remain relevant for the foreseeable future.
If you’re a content creator on YouTube, you might be wondering how to increase your CPM (cost per mille) and RPM (revenue per mille).
These metrics are important for determining how much money you can make from your YouTube videos.
What are CPM and RPM on YouTube? – CPM (cost per mille) refers to the amount of money you earn per 1,000 ad impressions on your videos. RPM (revenue per mille) refers to the estimated amount of money you earn per 1,000 views on your videos, taking into account all sources of revenue, including ads, YouTube Premium, and channel memberships.
In this blog post, we’ll discuss some tips and strategies for increasing your CPM and RPM on YouTube.
Optimize Your Video Titles and Descriptions
The title and description of your video play a big role in determining whether people click on your video or not. Make sure your video titles and descriptions are informative, interesting, and accurately reflect the content of your video. This can help increase your click-through rate (CTR), which can lead to higher CPM and RPM.
Use descriptive and concise titles: Your title should accurately reflect the content of your video and be easy to understand. Try to keep your titles under 60 characters to ensure they aren’t cut off in search results.
Incorporate relevant keywords: Use keywords that are relevant to your video content in your title and description. This can help your video rank higher in search results.
Write compelling descriptions: Use the description to give viewers more information about the video, including a summary of the content and any relevant details. Use relevant keywords throughout the description, but avoid keyword stuffing.
Add links and calls to action: Use your description to include links to related content, your website, and social media pages. You can also use the description to ask viewers to like, comment, and subscribe to your channel.
Use tags: Add relevant tags to your video to help it appear in search results and suggested videos.
Consider the audience: Make sure your titles and descriptions are targeted to your intended audience. Use language and tone that will resonate with them and encourage engagement.
By following these tips, you can optimize your YouTube titles and descriptions and increase the visibility and engagement of your videos.
Focus on High-Value Niches
Certain niches on YouTube tend to have higher CPM and RPM than others. For example, tech, finance, and beauty are all niches that typically have high CPM and RPM.
If you’re looking to increase your earnings on YouTube, consider focusing on a high-value niche that you’re interested in.
YouTube rewards content creators who can keep viewers engaged for longer periods of time. This is because YouTube makes more money from longer videos, so they’re more likely to promote videos that keep viewers on the platform for longer.
Try to create videos that are at least 8 minutes long, as this can help increase your CPM and RPM.
Once you have a longer video you can add more adverts. These adverts are called Mid Rolls.
Try to use high-value keywords that are relevant to your video and have high search volume. This can help increase your video’s visibility and ultimately lead to higher CPM and RPM.
High-value keywords are search terms or phrases that have significant search volume and high commercial intent. These keywords are typically used by people who are actively searching for a product or service, and are more likely to convert into paying customers.
For example, if you have a website that sells running shoes, a high-value keyword could be “best running shoes” or “buy running shoes online.” These keywords are likely to have a high search volume and indicate that the searcher is looking to make a purchase.
High-value keywords can vary depending on the industry and type of business. Some keywords may be more competitive and have higher cost-per-click (CPC) in advertising, but they can also lead to higher returns if you can effectively target and convert those searchers into customers.
To find high-value keywords, you can use keyword research tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs. These tools can help you identify search volume, competition, and other metrics to determine which keywords are worth targeting.
Focus on Audience Retention
Audience retention is a metric that measures how long viewers stay on your video. This metric is important because it’s a signal to YouTube that your video is engaging and valuable to viewers.
Try to create videos that keep viewers engaged and watching until the end. This can help increase your CPM and RPM over time.
Build a Loyal Audience
Having a loyal audience can help increase your CPM and RPM because loyal viewers are more likely to watch your videos and engage with your content.
Try to build a community around your channel by responding to comments, hosting live streams, and creating content that your audience is interested in. This can help increase engagement and build a loyal following.
Collaborate with Other YouTubers
Collaborating with other YouTubers can help increase your exposure and bring in new viewers to your channel.
This can help increase your CPM and RPM by expanding your audience and increasing engagement on your videos. Try to collaborate with YouTubers in your niche who have a similar audience to your own.
In conclusion, increasing your CPM and RPM on YouTube requires a combination of strategies, including optimizing your video titles and descriptions, focusing on high-value niches, creating longer videos, using high-value keywords, focusing on audience retention, building a loyal audience, and collaborating with other YouTubers.
By implementing these strategies and consistently creating high-quality content, you can increase your earnings on YouTube over time.
Q: What is the difference between CPM and RPM on YouTube?
A: CPM (cost per mille) refers to the amount of money you earn per 1,000 ad impressions on your videos. RPM (revenue per mille) refers to the estimated amount of money you earn per 1,000 views on your videos, taking into account all sources of revenue, including ads, YouTube Premium, and channel memberships.
Q: How can I find high-value keywords for my video tags?
A: There are several tools you can use to find high-value keywords for your video tags, such as the YouTube Keyword Tool, Google Trends, and SEMrush. Look for keywords that are relevant to your video and have high search volume, and try to include them in your tags, title, and description.
A: YouTube rewards longer videos that keep viewers engaged for longer periods of time. Try to create videos that are at least 10 minutes long, as this can help increase your CPM and RPM. However, it’s important to focus on creating quality content that keeps viewers engaged, rather than simply trying to make your videos longer.
A: There are several strategies you can use to increase audience retention on your videos, such as creating a compelling hook at the beginning of your video, using engaging visuals and sound effects, providing value to your viewers, and breaking up your content into shorter segments. You can also use YouTube analytics to identify the parts of your video where viewers tend to drop off, and make adjustments to keep them engaged.
Q: How can I collaborate with other YouTubers to increase my CPM and RPM?
A: Collaborating with other YouTubers can help increase your exposure and bring in new viewers to your channel, which can help increase your CPM and RPM. Try to collaborate with YouTubers in your niche who have a similar audience to your own, and create content that appeals to both of your audiences. You can also cross-promote each other’s channels and videos, and collaborate on sponsored content or product launches.
Q: How long does it take to see an increase in my CPM and RPM on YouTube?
A: Increasing your CPM and RPM on YouTube is a gradual process that takes time and consistent effort. It may take several months or even years to see a significant increase in your earnings, depending on the quality of your content, the size of your audience, and the strategies you use to monetize your channel. It’s important to focus on creating high-quality content that provides value to your viewers, and to continually experiment with new strategies to increase your earnings over time.
The prevalence of social media in our lives has opened many doors to success that would scarcely have been dreamed of in the past. And, by “the past”, we could be talking as recently as fifteen years ago. But, while there is an abundance of success stories from platforms like YouTube and Instagram, Facebook rarely is rarely brought up in this regard.
Sure, Facebook is an important tool in getting success on other platforms—you have to promote those YouTube videos somewhere, after all—but what about a more direct approach? Can you make money on Facebook?
The short answer is yes. There are several ways to make money through Facebook, ranging from “a little extra cash” to “this is my job now!”. In this post, we’re going to outline a number of ways in which you can start earning cash through Facebook. So let’s dive in!
How to Make Money on Facebook
With well over two billion users and a well-established advertising platform, there is certainly plenty of money floating around Facebook to be shared. Here are nine ways for you to get your hands on some of it.
Become an Influencer
We’re starting here because this is probably one of the most common ways in which people want to start making money online these days—the influencer route. Making content for an army of fans and making money from that content is the present-day version of being a celebrity, though much more attainable than being the next Tom Cruise or Lady Gaga.
It’s not nearly as well advertised as things like Facebook’s advertising platform, but Facebook does have a system in place for content creators to make money directly, and it comes in three parts.
Brand Collaborations
Brand Collabs Manager is Facebook’s system for bringing together popular content creators and brands in a managed environment where everyone can feel safe from… well, safe from being ripped off.
Essentially, Facebook ensures the brand is getting a legitimate content creator with an active audience while making sure the content creator gets paid for their collaboration efforts.
In order to qualify for this, you need to have at least 1,000 fans on your page and at least one of the following; 15,000 post engagements or 180,000 minutes watch time over the last sixty days.
That being said, even if you don’t qualify for Facebook’s system, you can always make brand deals directly with brands if you have the audience and negotiation skills.
In-Stream Ads
Much like YouTube, if you are creating video content on Facebook and you are seeing high enough levels of engagement, you can benefit from in-stream ads, earning you a small amount of cash per impression or click.
The criteria for monetising your content in this way is to have a fan or business page with at least 10,000 followers, at least 600,000 watch-minutes across live, on-demand, and replayed videos, five on-demand or previously videos published, and you must meet their policy guidelines.
Fan Subscriptions
Fan subscriptions are essentially Facebook’s answer to services like Patreon, and other platform’s solutions like YouTube Memberships. The criteria for this is a little simpler than the other options; you need to have at least 10,000 followers and at least 250 returning weekly viewers.
Once you meet those criteria, your fans can choose to pay your a regular fee for exclusive content.
Promote Your Services or Business on Facebook
Moving on to more indirect ways of making money through Facebook, if you have a service to offer or a business you are running, Facebook is an excellent platform for advertising your wares.
Like any good advertising platform, Facebook puts a lot of effort into making it so you can get your ads in front of exactly the right kind of people because paying to show an ad to someone who is not interested in what you are offering is a waste of money. Their rates are competitive compared to alternatives like Google Adsense, and you can generate a lot of traffic using this method.
Crowdsource Your Blog
If you run a blog—or you are thinking of starting one—Facebook can be an invaluable resource for researching your posts. Now, we’re not suggesting you start ripping posts directly off of Facebook and claiming them as your own. That would be wrong.
Facebook is full of groups put together with specific purposes in mind, and those groups are populated by people who are ready and willing to give their opinions and advice. If you are a little stumped for ideas, you can always ask questions in a relevant Facebook group. As long as the group is active and has plenty of members, you’re practically guaranteed to get answers.
Sell Things on Facebook Market
If you’re more interested in selling goods—or even if you just want to have a clearout of some of your old stuff—Facebook Marketplace is an effective way to do so.
Facebook Marketplace is heavily location-based, making it easier to find things that are local to you. This lends itself well to sellers who are perhaps looking to move on something like furniture they no longer need, or electronics they have outgrown. If you are running a business, it can also be a good way to build a local customers-base.
Become a Facebook Marketplace Re-Seller
Facebook Marketplace works both ways, of course, and you can buy just as easily as you can sell. You will often find things cheaper on this platform because of the local nature. Sellers have more of a “garage sale” (or car boot sale if you’re in the UK) attitude towards their items.
This presents an opportunity for someone interested in selling items because you can often find things on Facebook cheaper than those same items would be on something like eBay, or Amazon. You can then buy those cheaper items from Facebook Marketplace and sell them on platforms like eBay and net yourself a little profit!
Find Bugs
The technology behind Facebook is obviously critical to the success of the platform. And, with so many people’s data being at stake, Facebook knows how bad something like a data breach or fatal error could be for business. For this reason, Facebook has a “bug bounty”, where they essentially offer a reward for users who can find problems with the platform.
You will need some technical expertise for this—we’re talking security flaws and other vulnerabilities in Facebook’s systems, not simply reporting a link not working. The above link contains all the details about what Facebook considers a legitimate vulnerability, but if you find one, the minimum reward is $500!
Become a Social Media Manager
If you have a flair for social media—and, of course, your talents extend to Facebook—you could market yourself as a social media manager. Companies, and even individuals, are increasingly willing to pay people to take care of their social media presence for them, growing audiences and keeping them out of trouble. If this is something you would be good at, Facebook presents a huge opportunity to make money. And you wouldn’t be limited to just one client in this line of work.
Create a Popular Facebook Group
If you have an area of expertise—whether it be a professional thing or an area of deep interest on an enthusiast level—you could start a Facebook group centred around that subject matter.
This will require plenty of active participation from you, sharing your expertise and encouraging others to do the same. Once the group has reached substantial numbers, it can be a powerful tool for promoting things. And you, as the founder and established expert of the group, will be in a prime position to take advantage of that.
Become an Expert
Of course, you don’t need to create a group to establish yourself as an expert in something on Facebook. Posting helpful content on your area of expertise will likely garner interest from those people who seek that knowledge, and that can be parlayed into something more profitable.
It could simply be a way to funnel traffic from Facebook to your website or business, but it could also be the start of something. For example, you could start out answering questions on Facebook, and then move onto a podcast or YouTube channel with your already-established user-base.
Final Thoughts
Like all platforms on the Internet, Facebook is an invaluable tool for making money. And, like most platforms, there are several ways to go about making that money. The trick is finding the method that suits you the most.
For example, if you do not like dealing with people directly—and especially if you are not a fan of negotiation—you should probably steer clear of selling things through Facebook Marketplace. Similarly, if you do not have expertise in developing online systems like Facebook, you probably shouldn’t put much hope in the Facebook Bounty program.
And, most importantly, remember that nothing happens overnight. With a few very lucky exceptions, Facebook success takes time and effort, so don’t be discouraged if you’re not rolling in money by the end of your first month!
Vlogging is all about your brand. You need people to recognize you on other socials as well as YouTube and post your videos out from them. Branding yourself carefully at the beginning is a great way to set yourself up for success. Here are five free branding tools that every YouTube vlogger should know.
LogoCreator
LogoCreator is a free logo maker that is full of hundreds of templates that you can use and alter to suit your needs. You can convert your logo into a variety of formats for free download and use it in any way you like.
Why Use It?
When you brand your vlog with a logo, you show your fans who you are and the style of your brand personality. Give people something to easily recognize when they watch your vlogs. This way, when they see another pop up on YouTube or your logo head a photo you post for content on Instagram, they will know that it is you. This is how you develop a brand following for your business.
Canva
Canva is an online design tool that allows vloggers to use customizable templated videos to create content for their socials and vlogs. They offer hundreds of templates for free and you can alter them to suit your brand.
Why Use it?
Using a video template can be a great way to ensure your vlog looks professional every time. You can use it to put across your branding in your video, which makes your business easier for consumers to follow and associate with.
Biteable
Biteable offers a vast array of customizable videos. Much like Canva, but with more features. Biteable is a dedicated video site, offering free video templates as long as you have their watermark on the vlog. If you want to lose their logo and add your own, price plans start at just under £14 per month.
Why Use it?
If you want to set up a vlog but don’t have the technical or creative know-how to create videos yet, then a template can help get you started. Once you are a master vlogger, you might want to move to a different tool, but for the beginner, Biteable has almost no competition.
Open Broadcaster
Open Broadcaster, or OBS is a great piece of software for the more experienced vlogger. It is a free open-source piece of software that is designed for video streaming and recording. Many people use it to stream themselves playing games or vlog about certain topics. It is sponsored by Twitch, Facebook and YouTube so you can rely on it to be updated fairly often. You can add graphics and overlays to your OBS to sync it with your brand.
Why Use It?
OBS offers an enormous amount of guidance with how to use their software. They have a downloadable quick start guide, a more detailed OBS Studio overview and a Discord community forum. All of this assistance means that vloggers can feel supported and get the help they need when creating their videos.
Shotcut
Shotcut is an open-source video editor that can be used cross platforms. It offers an incredibly detailed repertoire of features. Shotcut offers wide-angle support, device transfer options and a sleek, intuitive interface. They offer an astounding amount of video and audio options that can help you brand your vlog. They also have an option to add a watermark which can be great for branding if you use your logo.
Why Use it?
Shotcut has all of its previous versions available for download and a detailed site map available with FAQs, contact options and an active forum. It is a great bit of kit if you are looking do get in deep with vlogging.
When vlogging it is important to brand your videos to create a direct link between your socials, emails, website and videos. Your brand is also the first point of contact for most of your audience so branding your vlogs is a sure-fire way to get viewers acknowledging you brand and building a relationship via association.
Content marketing, by its most simplistic explanation, boils down to two activities:
Content creation.
Content distribution.
For many content marketers, it’s easy to start at step 1 and stay there, just continuing to produce content. That’s fine and well, but if you aren’t sharing your content with your audience, I guarantee you’re not getting the results you want.
While step 1 should be a nice combination of creativity and analysis, step 2 is made almost entirely of data-backed strategy. Determining the most lucrative content marketing channels will help you reach your target audiences in meaningful and impactful ways.
So, what channels should you be focusing on this year? That depends on your industry, goals, audiences and more.
But the following 5 are all excellent channels to consider incorporating into your content distribution strategy:
YouTube
Video marketing has risen in popularity every year, and now it’s more important than ever for businesses. In 2020, it was one of the fastest growing types of visual content marketing used, and about one-quarter of marketers said it helped them reach their marketing goals in 2019.
Video became the champion of communication—business or personal—and entertainment during the pandemic as more consumers utilize these technologies and tune into this captivating content format. Of the 24% of marketers who said they used video for the first time in 2020, nearly half said doing so was a necessity because of the pandemic.
But this section is titled “YouTube” – not video. I have a reason for this, and it’s only partly because the next section is “live video.”
A search engine where people look for and find information.
Google’s daughter company that feeds directly into SERPs, giving you a second opportunity to be discovered organically.
In short, YouTube is a powerfully multifaceted distribution channel because the videos you upload to it are both shareable (it’s simple to embed them into your landing pages and blog posts and to link to them in social media posts and emails) and searchable, whether your audience is searching on YouTube itself or on Google.
As more people look to video to learn and communicate, brands that want to keep up will strive to provide more content in this format.
Those that want their videos to be easily found will most likely compile them on their YouTube channel.
Live video
Video is one thing; live video is something else entirely … OK, perhaps that’s an exaggeration, but live video really is important enough to deserve its own mention on this list.
Close to half of marketers (45%) use live video to connect with their audience in a highly personal, real-time format, according to Social Media Examiner.
A number of industry reports indicate that this medium is increasingly important for marketers, and not just because of the pandemic. Live video use was already on the rise, especially in B2B marketing:
29% of B2B marketers used livestream content in 2020, making it one of the fastest growing content types of Content Marketing Institute’s survey.
63% of B2B marketing representatives were willing to exchange their contact information for access to a webinar, according to Demand Gen Report’s 2019 Content Preferences Survey Report.
64% also noted they’d take 20-60 minutes to watch a webinar when researching a B2B purchase.
Facebook Live is likely to be the most popular channel, with 64% of marketers voting it as their most important in Social Media Examiner’s report, followed by Instagram Live with 19%.
But before you choose your streaming platform, consider where your audience finds video content. LinkedIn supports live video, and with only 5% of marketers saying this is their most important live video channel, you may stand out from the pre-recorded crowd.
Live video can be lucrative for B2C brands as well, and with consumers seeking out this format more often, you may find your audience quickly. A HubSpot survey found that 79% of respondents watch live video at least once weekly; YouTube Live is their favorite channel.
Email
Email is a low-cost, high-value content marketing channel, and should therefore be a key component of your digital marketing efforts. Plus, it’s a strong communication method in any circumstance: A Brafton survey found that following the pandemic, email was the No. 1 way brands communicated important updates to their customers.
For most marketers, email is already among their top channels; 87% of B2B marketers told CMI that email is the top way they distribute content, second only to social media. With a return on investment of 42:1 on average, it’s easy to see why.
However, you only stand a chance to see this level of ROI if you know how to leverage this channel strategically and in a way that makes sense for your brand, goals and audience. For many brands, this means creating a diverse email marketing strategy that includes aspects like:
Regular newsletters.
Sales emails.
Helpful notifications about company updates.
Cart abandonment emails.
And more.
Email is a key communication channel for just about … everyone. For that reason, brands that put the time and effort into getting their email strategy right have the opportunity to open up meaningful conversations.
Podcasts
Audio content is steadily becoming a cornerstone in content marketing as more consumers seek out information and entertainment in podcasts. And while some might assume that podcasts are primarily for individuals seeking entertainment, they’re actually a strong B2B marketing device.
Demand Gen Report found that half of B2B buyers would be willing to spend up to a half-hour listening to a podcast when researching a purchase decision. And among B2B marketers surveyed by CMI, just 26% said they were already including this audio-first format in their marketing mix.
Here’s what this tells us: Buyers will listen to a podcast. But not many B2B brands have entered that market yet. When you launch your podcast, you’ll be among the few.
Of course, like all of these channels, this isn’t just a B2B trend. Consumers are listening to more audio content, especially as more people spend time at home. Nielsen’s August 2020 Total Audiences Report found that 53% of respondents listen to spoken-word audio content either weekly or daily.
Podcasts can do a number of positive things for your marketing efforts, like increase brand recognition and trust, and drive traffic and backlinks to your site (from the platform you use, e.g. Apple Podcasts).
In the future, more people will tune into podcasts to learn something new or disconnect from their day to day for a few minutes. You have the opportunity to be the person who speaks directly to them when they do.
Your blog
Last but not least, I can’t leave this list without mentioning the most important content marketing channel of them all: Your blog.
I’m not calling this the most important channel because it’ll be the most lucrative of your efforts, or the one that captures the most attention. I’m also not mentioning it because I think you’ll forget about it. That’s just crazy, and besides, 93% of B2B marketers already use blog posts in their content marketing strategies.
Rather, your blog is an essential addition to this list because:
It’s the home base of all your content marketing efforts. Most of the content you create should, in some form, live on your blog.
It’s easy to forget how much value you can truly glean from your blog when you know how to creatively leverage it.
Any type of asset that you create for the above channels can be repurposed for your blog, giving the content new life and your website another opportunity to capture attention from organic search.
Every video you create should have a search-optimized page to live on, and your blog is the perfect place to expand on the video’s topic.
Your email strategy can easily be centered around your editorial calendar. When you publish a great new article, share it with your email subscribers.
And so on.
Choose your channels wisely!
A new year always presents new possibilities for marketers. This year, move your company’s marketing efforts in a positive direction to reach the right audiences and provide meaningful interactions for them.
Whether you choose to explore the opportunities that await your brand in video, email, audio, blog content or something else entirely, make sure you’re doing so with the needs of your target audience in mind. This is truly the best way to connect with them.
YouTube is testing a new TikTok-like feature that allows creators to upload short vertical videos, called Shorts.
Ahead of its full release, some creators say they are seeing huge audience growth by posting short videos.
But for now, videos that appear in YouTube’s Shorts section don’t earn creators any money.
TikTok is top of mind for all the major social-media platforms.
Following TikTok competitors from Instagram (Reels) and Snapchat (Spotlight), YouTube is slowly rolling out its own rival in the US called “Shorts.” And in preparation for the launch, creators say YouTube is quietly promoting short videos, spiking engagement and reach for some channels.
While the full Shorts feature hasn’t launched in the US yet, creators are still able to upload short vertical videos that mimic TikToks.
Similar to TikTok videos, Shorts are vertical videos that can be up to 60 seconds long. YouTube announced the feature in September, and has been testing it officially in India, where it has added a short-form video creation tool and camera to the YouTube app.
Beyond India, some elements have been implemented as a beta test to the YouTube app, like a carousel (“shelf”) of short videos that appears in a section on the homepage and under videos.
YouTube is currently experimenting with different ways to help users find and watch short videos, and the company is testing adding a Shorts entry point on the Explore tab, the company said.
As YouTube prepares for a full Shorts launch, creators said a key to getting short-form videos into the special section is to add “#Shorts” in the title or description, though sometimes videos are added even if they don’t have the tag. YouTube confirmed that creators don’t need to use the hashtag but that adding it would increase the chance that a video would be shown on the Shorts shelf.
Daniel LaBelle, a comedy creator with 1.6 million YouTube subscribers, launched his channel in April to repost the TikToks he was making after his wedding photography business dipped due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I posted for probably five or six months, built up 30,000 subscribers and then out of nowhere in November things exploded,” LaBelle said, adding that his channel went from 30,000 subscribers to over half a million within a month. “I think it was because of the Shorts, but I still don’t know for sure.”
Some of the short vertical YouTube videos LaBelle posted on a whim in the beginning of 2020 were being picked up by YouTube in November and added to the new Shorts feature, he said. LaBelle then noticed the view counts on those older videos begin to soar (his most viewed short has 23 million views).
“You can get a lot of attention on your channel by doing these short-form videos,” said Alex Sibila, a part-time YouTube creator with 4,800 subscribers. “Some of my Shorts are now my most viewed videos.”
Sibila is an electrical engineer and makes videos about electric vehicles and owning a Tesla. He uses the vertical video feature to share 30-second teasers that direct back to some of his full-length videos. His Shorts range from 20,000 to 50,000 views, which is more than the 1,000 to 5,000 average views his longer uploads attract.
“They are still shown on your channel as regular videos,” Sibila said of his short videos. “Then if you are on mobile they have the Short shelf, and that is where you get a lot of views. If videos are pushed out to the Short shelf then they are getting shown to a lot of people and that’s what is going to make them viral.”
As the battle for short-form video heats up, YouTube will compete against TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat to be seen as a platform where creators can make money, reach new audiences, and build a sustainable business. Snapchat’s Spotlight and TikTok have each set up programs dedicated to paying creators on an ongoing basis.
Read more: Snapchat is minting overnight millionaires with its TikTok competitor but creators worry the gold rush will end soon
Creators generally earn money on YouTube from the ads placed in their videos through YouTube’s Partner Program. How much money a creator earns from AdSense depends on the video’s watch time, length, video type, and viewer demographics, among other factors. YouTube also keeps 45% of the ad revenue, with the creator keeping the rest.
LaBelle’s short-form videos earn money when they are viewed in the subscriptions section of YouTube, where ads will play before the video. But if the videos are viewed in the Shorts section of the YouTube app, they don’t earn money because videos on the Shorts shelf don’t get ads or generate subscription revenue right now, the company confirmed.
Still, LaBelle said he is making more money off his short videos on YouTube than he is on TikTok, where he has 14 million followers.
“I am at a point where I am trying to prioritize YouTube as much as I can,” he said. “It’s been a fantastic income source as well, just being on YouTube and working with the AdSense program.”
“YouTube just kind of threw this onto us without any warning or introduction,” said Rob Wilson, a content strategist at the YouTube analytics and growth platform vidIQ. “It still feels to me like a beta test that could change radically.”
But for now, creators are figuring out their own strategies and trying to get the most out of the feature, and the extra boost provided by the platform.
Sibila plans to post two under-60-second videos a week to share on Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube.
“Trying to get people to click on those longer videos and check out my channel is tough sometimes, especially as a smaller creator,” Sibila said. “Now that I’ve started posting more Shorts, I’ve found that they can be incredibly viral and they are very shareable.”
“It’s super exciting,” said Kevin Parry, a stop-motion animator and visual effects artist. “The struggle for me has always been to make one piece of content and have it work on every platform. With most platforms now pushing shorter formats, I can make one piece of animation, or one behind-the-scenes clip and post it everywhere now.”
While many YouTubers are happy to make videos on things like how much they earn (because it is almost guaranteed to be a highly viewed video) there is much about the life of your average YouTuber that remains off-camera.
Not necessarily because there is some desire to keep it secret, but because it’s not all that interesting and people rarely think to ask.
“Do YouTubers have managers” is one of these unglamorous questions that you don’t see often answered, but it can be useful information for aspiring YouTubers who are looking to map out their road to success on the platform – Most small YouTubers under 100K subscribers do not have managers. When starting YouTubers try to manage all of the day to day tasks themselves. However, as a channel grows to around 100K subscribers is might be wise to seek additional help with organization and marketing decisions.
In this post we’re going to look at the different types of “manager” that this question could refer to (yes, there are a few) as well as what type of YouTuber might need them, and whether this might apply to you.
Let’s dig in.
What is a Manager?
There are a few different roles that the title “manager” could refer to in this context, and understanding what they are will go a long way to helping you understand if you need one.
In this section we’re going to give each type of manager a different label to distinguish them, but in reality they would probably all just be referred to as a “manager”.
Show Manager
In a more traditional television setting, this role would likely be referred to as a “Show Runner”.
A manager in this context would be responsible for taking care of the logistics of making YouTube channel content. For example, if the boys over at How Ridiculous want to drop a sail boat from the top of a tower onto an industrial-strength trampoline, someone needs to make those arrangements.
It can also cover things like handling travel arrangements if the channel is going abroad, or securing guests for the show.
This type of manager is typically only necessary for larger channels with more extravagant content.
Money Managers
This type of manager is actually often referred to as a “money manager”, largely because it is a pretty self-explanatory name.
Money managers exist in all walks of life, not just YouTube, and are responsible for managing their clients money. This can cover a lot of things from, from advising their clients on whether a particular purchase or investment is a good idea, to actively investing their client’s money for them.
For larger channels that are making lots of money, however, and especially when that money comes from several different sources, a money manager can be an invaluable way of freeing up time and giving you peace of mind that your money is being taken care of.
Content Network Managers
For YouTubers that become part of a larger content network, they may have a manager responsible for taking care of them within the network.
The manager would be responsible for advising them, making sure they don’t break any of the content network’s rules, and generally acting as a point of contact between the YouTuber and their network. Obviously, this type of manager only applies to YouTubers who are part of a content network.
General Managers
When people think about the idea of a YouTube manager, this is usually the type manager they are thinking of.
A general manager (not like in a business sense) takes care of a range of things, some of which may include things we have mentioned above.
They will often be responsible for handling enquiries, such as bookings and collaboration suggestions. They will probably also be handling a good deal of the more administrative tasks involved in running a YouTube channel, such as updating websites, handling descriptions, and some of the more in-depth promotion.
In this regard, most YouTubers act as their own manager, but many of the more successful YouTubers generally reach a point where they find outsourcing some of the less creative aspects of their job can free up a lot of time, which one of the most constraining parts of being a YouTuber.
This tends to be the first step towards deciding that getting a manager would be a good call.
Talent Managers
Talent managers are a bit “odd man out” in this context, as they are not really related to YouTube specifically.
Talent managers will often have several people and acts on their books, and concern themselves with looking after their clients best interests, ensuring they get good deals and only take on work that is good for them.
Talent managers (or agents) are usually more found with YouTubers who have a marketable skill outside of YouTube, such as being a musician, comedian, or actor.
Business Managers
We saved the best for last. Business managers are by far the most important of the manager types we have listed. You can think of a business manager as similar to a money manager, but the scope of their work is much broader.
If your YouTube venture begins to grow beyond the confines of yourself and your home studio, you should definitely consider getting a business manager. There comes a point in many successful YouTube channel’s life where, no matter how much it still feels like a cool creative project, it is technically a business. It is technically a business from the moment it makes its first dollar, but it is unavoidably a business when it is making thousands.
There are a lot of things to wrap your mind around when running a business, and the consequences for failing to fill out certain forms or apply for certain licenses can be quite strict. For someone starting a business, you would expect them to know everything they need to know, but for a YouTuber who just wants to make content, it is reasonable to expect that they would not know everything they need to know to run a business.
Business managers will look after the business side of a channel, leaving the YouTuber to concentrate on what they do best; making content.
Do I Need a Manager?
Much of the decision as to whether you need a manager (or any help, for that matter) will come down to your ultimate goals for the channel.
If you are looking to grow to be a large operation, perhaps extending into a brand beyond your channel, and you can comfortably afford to hire a manager, then you could probably justify it.
If, however, you have no intention of making your channel more than just you and a camera, it would be very difficult to justify a bringing a manager onboard, even if you can afford to.
YouTube Partner Managers
Currently, YouTube has a program in place called YouTube Partner Managers, and is an initiative by YouTube Creators to help YouTubers get the most from their channel.
The program involves one to one tuition, personalised plans for your channel, and invitations to workshops and other exclusive events.
Unfortunately, it is only open to channels that meet certain criteria, and it is invitation only.
Can I Do It All Myself?
In theory, there is nothing stopping you from taking care of everything yourself. There are no laws that say you have to hire a money manager once you start making a certain amount of money. There are also no laws that say you have to partner with a business manager before turning your channel into a business.
Like many things in life, however, the question is less about whether you can and more about whether you should.
The different types of manager we have mentioned above cover a very broad selection of skills and expertise. To effectively do the job that they can do, you would need to learn these skills and gain that expertise; something that is very time-consuming.
The smaller your channel, the less you need to know and the less work would be involved, but if you have ambitions of growing into a YouTube behemoth, you will probably need to consider hiring a manager at some point, if only to save your own sanity. After all, there are only so many hours in the day!
Final Thoughts
Of all the types of manager we have mentioned, only the money, business, and network managers are particularly common in the world of YouTube, and the rest sometimes go under different labels (talent agent, for example).
The first two of these—money and business—are especially important for YouTubers that need them because the consequences of getting that side of things wrong can be severe. If you manage your money poorly you can end up broke, or worse; in debt. If you don’t handle the business side of things well, you can get hit with fines, even sued.
This is especially true if you begin hiring people, who will have many rights as an employee that you must respect as their boss.
Of course, if you stick to just making videos from your home studio by yourself and declare all the money you make, you’ll be fine. Not every YouTuber dreams of being a content network.
There have been several YouTube trends over the years, most following the same basic pattern of exploding onto the scene, being everywhere for a hot minute, and settling down into another corner of the platform. We’ve seen it with everything from Let’s Play YouTubers to Reaction YouTubers, and now we’re seeing it with VTubers, but what are VTubers?
A VTuber—or Virtual YouTuber—is a YouTuber that uses a digital avatar as their main onscreen persona, often using motion tracking software to directly translate their movements onto their digital avatar. This allows the VTuber to film themselves naturally as any regular YouTuber would, while still using the digital persona they have created.
Of course, we’re going to take a much closer look at this YouTube niche, as well as considering the reasons you might want to become a VTuber yourself – including a great way to make videos without showing your face.
A Brief History of VTubers
Originating in Japan, VTubers tend to present themselves as anime girls, using the likenesses of popular online artist’s work.
The earliest instance of what would become virtual YouTubing came from visual novel makers, Nitroplus, who started uploading videos that featured an animated 3D version of their mascot. This mascot would essentially make vlog videos about her life while also throwing in mandatory information about the companies upcoming releases and other news. It was a marketing ploy, after all.
However, VTubers were not a thing way back in 2010 when Nitroplus started making these videos, and the official first VTuber is widely considered to be Kizuna AI, who first appeared on the scene in 2016 and was the first to refer to herself as a virtual YouTuber. The main difference between Kizuna AI and the various similar channels that had come before her was that Kizuna AI was operated more like a typical YouTube channel in the content of the video and the fact that she responded to fans. It would take less than a year for her to reach two million subscribers.
The popularity of Kizuna could be put down to the fact that YouTube was wall-to-wall vloggers in front of webcams at the time, but whatever the reason, the immense popularity of the channel naturally led to a lot of similar channels popping up, and thus the VTuber trend began.
These days there are thousands of VTubers, and seven of the ten biggest Super Chat earners were VTubers. Clearly, there is a big market for this kind of video.
Is this sounds a little too weird for you but you still want to make videos on YouTube without showing your face, here are 12 YouTube Channel Ideas without showing your face without needing to be a cute, creepy anime animation.
How Are VTuber Videos Made?
As touched on above, VTubers do not manually animate their virtual avatars in the way that a company like Pixar might for their movies. That kind of thing had been done on YouTube before VTubers came along, but it is a lengthy process that requires a lot of skill and patience and is really not practical for something like a YouTube video, especially if the video is quite vlog-like in nature and intended to be uploaded on a similar schedule to those vlogs.
The majority of VTubers use motion capture applications like Live 2D, or FaceRig. These applications monitor the subject through their webcam, tracking facial and body movements and manipulating the digital avatar so that it, in turn, copies the movements. In this way, the VTuber can record their video naturally as though they were recording a regular on-camera video and use the footage outputted by the application for their video.
Why Anime?
Even a brief look into the world of VTubers will reveal that it appears to be almost entirely anime characters—a style of animation that originated in Japan. There may be some complicated social or psychological reason for this, but we’re not aware of any studies. Our best guess is that it is a kind of snowball effect—the first VTubers were anime characters, so it appealed to people who liked anime more.
That being said, the definition of a VTuber—if something like this can be said to have a definition—does not necessarily restrict the video content to Japanese anime characters. For example, AI Angel is a VTuber whose digital persona is that of a caucasian woman. AI Angel makes a range of types of videos from the perspective of being a real AI interacting with people on the Internet and trying “human” things, and has, at the time of writing this post, amassed over seven hundred thousand subscribers.
Granted, AI Angel is something of an outlier in the VTuber community, with the vast majority being firmly in the anime camp. But she does help to illustrate the fact that VTubers are not limited to anime if they don’t want to be.
What Kinds of Content do VTubers Make?
The type of content made by VTubers, unlike the visual style of the videos, is relatively open. For the most part, VTubers make videos in the style of whatever is popular—just like regular YouTubers. They do vlogs, reaction videos, gaming videos, etc.
There is, of course, a considerably lean towards the kinds of content that Japanese people are interested in, but that is only a byproduct of the space being predominantly made by and for Japanese people. As AI Angel has proved, you don’t need to limit yourself to that particular box.
Is Being a VTuber Expensive?
When the prospect of specialist software is floating around, the question of cost is never far behind it. In terms of the software itself, the news isn’t too bad. You can find very inexpensive—even free in some cases—applications that will let you animate virtual avatars using your phone or computer. Of course, the more features and quality you want to incorporate into your videos, the more you will find yourself needing one of the more expensive apps. Still, even FaceRig is only around £13, with that price going up to £50 if you make over a certain amount of money per month from the use of FaceRig.
Where the real expense may come from, however, is the required hardware.
Video production is already an intensive thing as far as the required computer power goes, and it is even more demanding if you stream. Adding a layer of realtime motion capture and digital animation can put a real strain on your computer if it was only just keeping up before. This will especially be the case for people who are making gaming videos.
You may find that your recording computer needs upgrading or even replacing. Or you might find switching to a dual computer setup is necessary. This is where one computer handles the streaming and recording side of things, leaving your main computer free to do whatever it is you are doing.
Another area that might cost you is your recording setup. Motion capture software is improving all the time, and the degree to which software can track and replicate your three-dimensional movements from nothing but a flat video is, quite frankly, astounding. That being said, the motion capture software is only as good as the video it is capturing from.
If you have a cheap webcam or poor lighting in your recording space, you will probably find that the avatar animation software you are using struggles to accurately track your movements, and certainly your facial expressions.
It is somewhat ironic that to make videos where you are never onscreen; you may well need a more sophisticated and expensive recording setup to capture your image more accurately than you would need if you were just pointing a camera at yourself and talking to your audience.
Is Being a VTuber the Right Choice for Me?
The first thing you should ask yourself is why you are considering it at all. Making YouTube videos just for the sake of making them will usually end up in failure. The good news is that the scope for what constitutes a good reason to make a YouTube channel is quite broad. You might just like playing with technology like the motion capture software VTubers use, and a YouTube channel could be an outlet for that passion. You could even have very little interest in making videos but like doing something that there is an audience for regardless. For example, there are many successful channels that play video games without any commentary or additional flavour, and people just tune in to watch them play.
Once you have decided what your channel is going to be about, the next step is deciding if the VTuber route is right for you. There are a few reasons you might want to throw on a digital avatar;
You are camera shy and don’t feel like you can get over it any time soon
You want or need to keep your real identity private
You want to express yourself in ways you wouldn’t feel comfortable doing as yourself.
You just think it’s cool
As the last point hopefully illustrated, there really is no limitation to why you might choose this method of making videos. Sure, if any of the above reasons apply to you, then you have additional reasons for taking the VTuber route, but, at the end of the day, you don’t need a good reason. It’s an artistic choice. It is far more important you have a good reason for making videos in the first place.
Copyrights and Trademarks
It probably doesn’t need saying, but in the interests of being thorough, we’re going to say it anyway. Trademarked and copyrighted characters and art should be avoided. It will only get your video struck by YouTube in the long run—especially if your videos become popular. This includes artwork by relatively unknown artists online. No matter how obscure the art, if it is not Creative Commons or Public Domain, and you have permission from the artist, you should steer clear.
Remember, the relationship between your digital persona and your audience is very similar—if not perhaps identical—to the relationship they would have with a regular flesh-and-bone YouTuber. If you have to change your digital avatar because of a copyright dispute, it will have a similar effect to how it would go down if a regular YouTuber just gave their channel to someone else and that person started making videos. People become attached to their favourite entertainers, even when those entertainers are digital.
If it is a somewhat unknown artist’s work, you want to use, ask for their permission, and be sure to keep a copy of their email in your inbox. If a large company owns the likeness you want to use, you may as well accept that it is not going to happen. You could still try, just don’t expect a favourable reply—if any.
Is This a Passing Fad?
Keeping in mind that this is a guess based on the way things usually go down on YouTube; yes and no. Yes, it is almost certainly a trend that will die down a bit once it has peaked, but unlike a fad, it probably won’t go away once its time in the spotlight has passed. YouTube trends, as we mentioned above, tend to explode onto the scene, dominate everyone’s recommendations for a time, and then settle down into being another sub-community on the platform.
It is unclear how big this trend can get—perhaps it has already reached its peak—but it is worth noting that there is nothing inherently Japanese about the concept of a VTuber, and yet the majority of VTubers are Japanese. Now, this could speak to some sociological reason that western audiences aren’t interested in VTubers, but it would seem more likely that this disparity is because the western audience hasn’t caught on yet, which would, in turn, suggest that VTubing would be in for another big surge when they do.
Given that this is an English-language blog companion for an English-language YouTube channel, we’re going to assume that the majority of the readers are western. So, has this post inspired you to go out and start a VTube channel? Perhaps you could be in the vanguard of western VTubers, cementing yourself as one of the leading channels in the English-speaking VTube space.
Or perhaps you think it’s all a bit silly. Why not let us know in the comments?
Presentation is everything, and your channel art can play a huge role in how potential new viewers perceive your channel.
If you are running a channel aimed at businesses, having unprofessional-looking channel art could put your target audience off. Similarly, if you are running a comedy channel, your channel shouldn’t look too formal.
On a more fundamental level, having your art be too small will affect the quality it displays at, making it blurry and generally giving the impression that you perhaps don’t care about your channel. There are other factors to consider, such as the placement of your art within the overall image, and how it will display on various different platforms. Remember, YouTube can be watched on a plethora of devices these days, from desktop computers to television sets to mobile phones.
So what should your YouTube channel art size be? Well, there are a few figures to take into account here;
2560 x 1440 is the recommended dimensions of your YouTube channel art. Remember; YouTube makes these recommendations for a reason, and you really should treat this as an ideal size.
2048 x 1152 is the minimum resolution you should make your channel art image. Below this size and YouTube will not allow you to upload it. The aspect ratio must be 16:9.
1546 x 423 is the safe zone for any critical parts of your channel art if you are using the recommended YouTube channel art size. If you are using the minimum size, the safe zone would be 1235 x 338. What this means is that anything you want viewers to be able to see, you should keep within an imaginary rectangle of this size that is centered within the overall channel art image. Anything outside of this safe zone may get cut off or hidden on various devices. That is not to say you shouldn’t put any effort into the rest of the channel art, but don’t put anything outside of that area if it is vital that it be seen, such as social media info, or schedules.
6MB is the maximum file size your channel art can be. Anything larger and YouTube won’t accept it. You can, however, upload smaller channel art images.
The part that can be tricky to wrap your mind around is the different platforms, and how the sizes apply to each. So let’s take a look at that.
How Channel Art Displays on Different Devices
For the rest of the article, we’re going to assume we are working with the recommended YouTube channel art size. If your channel art is a different size, you will have to scale the dimensions we discuss to suit.
The first device we are going to talk about is TV. Televisions—or, more accurately, devices that use the YouTube app designed for televisions—are the only ones where the full 2560×1440 will show. Televisions tend to have a lower pixel density due to being much larger screens, which may explain why YouTube treats it more as a background than a header on this platform.
For every other device, there is one crucial number to remember; 423. This is the height of the displayed area of your channel art regardless of the platform it is being shown on. The width, on the other hand, depends on the device. The maximum width that will be displayed on desktops is the full 2560, whereas the maximum on a tablet, like an iPad, is 1855. For mobile phones, it is 1546. It is also worth noting that the desktop size is scalable, and can be anywhere between the maximum 2560 and the minimum 1546.
And this is the reason there is a safe zone of 1546 x 423, because that area of the channel art will be shown regardless of the device, so it is the only part of the channel art you can guarantee will be seen no matter what platform the channel is being viewed on. You can, of course, put whatever you want outside of that safe zone, but be aware that some people may not see it. And, given that mobile phones are among the most popular devices to view YouTube on, there is a very good chance anyone looking at your channel will only be seeing that minimum safe zone.
What Should I Put in my Channel Art’s Safe Zone?
Now you know which part of your channel art can be relied on to always show, what should you put in there? The answer to that is one that deserves a post of its own, as there are many ways to play the channel art game. You could have a humorous slogan, a matter of fact statement about what the channel does, an upload schedule, or really anything.
One solid piece of advice for what you should be showing in the safe zone of your channel art is information that accurately conveys what your channel is about. At the top of the post, we mentioned a formal, business-orientated channel having unprofessional channel art not being a great idea, and that about sums up this advice. Try to accurately represent your channel at every level, not just in any words that are said in the channel art, but in the tone of the image.
It’s not uncommon to see social media information in YouTube channel art, but don’t assume it’s right for your channel art automatically. Remember, there are no links in your channel art. If you are going to include your Twitter or Instagram, you will have to write out username on that platform in the channel art. If it is a long and complicated handle, it may not be the best fit. You can always link to them in the header links that YouTube lets you place on your channel page.
How to Set YouTube Channel Art?
Setting the art for your channel is extremely easy. Firstly, make sure you are logged in to YouTube and head over to your channel. You should see a “customize channel” button in the top right-hand side, just under the channel art. If you are on a phone or tablet, you are looking for a little cogwheel icon instead, but the location should be roughly the same.
Once you have clicked that you should be presented with a screen that looks like your channel with the exception that hovering over different elements of your channel page reveals a little pencil edit icon. Clicking on one of those icons will allow you to edit the element in question, so head on up to the channel art and click on the edit icon in the top right-hand corner of it.
From here, you can choose to upload a new image, select one your previous headers in “Your photos”, or choose something from the gallery that YouTube offers. Once you’ve chosen an image—assuming it is not too small in dimensions or too large in file size—you can then crop it to suit, click done, and that’s all there is to it.
How do I Change my Channel’s Icon?
Since your channel is tied to a Google account, you have to go there to change your channel icon. It can help to understand why this process is the way it is if you think of the channel icon as more like a user profile picture.
Fortunately, getting to the right place to change this icon is not that difficult. If you are logged in, you should be able to go to your channel hover over the channel icon, which will reveal a little camera icon. Clicking that will take you where you need to go, allowing you to upload a new image. If it doesn’t show up straight away, don’t worry. Sometimes it can take a little time to update on other services, and YouTube technically counts as a different service to Google.
Branding
It can be easy to overlook branding on YouTube, particularly if you are not the kind of YouTuber that thinks in terms of marketing.
It is worth wrapping your mind around the concept of branding; however, as it can make a significant impact on your channel.
If possible, try to incorporate a consistent theme to your online presence. It may be a logo or icon, but a colour scheme works surprisingly well, too.
The goal is to have viewers associate your branding with good content so that, when they see it in other places, they recognise it almost immediately as something they will like. It is much easier to pick up on a particular combination of colours that you are familiar with than it is to remember the name or recognise the face of someone you are not familiar with.
Once your branding is established in the mind of a viewer, it will draw their attention in thumbnails, and any other places your branding appears. And, as many of you will know, getting a viewers attention is a significant part of the battle. Once you have them looking at your thumbnail and title, you are well on your way to getting a view.
And, of course, your channel art is one of the primary places to show that branding. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the centrepiece of your channel art—though it certainly can be if you prefer—but it should be incorporated. From there, you can go on to include it in other places, but the main area you should try and tie in is your thumbnail because that is the spot where your branding will be recognised the most, and where you will be able to attract the attention of those who are familiar with you.
It’s worth noting that branding sentiment can work against you if your content is good. Viewers will associate your branding with the experience they had watching your content. And, if the experience was bad, that is the emotion that your branding will conjure up. As always, good content is fundamental to success on YouTube.
Other Uses for Channel Art
Your YouTube channel art doesn’t have to be a one-trick pony. In fact, as mentioned in the branding talk above, it would actually be better if it wasn’t just used on your channel page. Using your channel art in other places helps with that branding, but it also allows you to focus extra time or money on making one good piece of channel art without worrying about having to do the same for other places.
Some of those other places include the header image on social media sites, artwork for things like stickers, and even overlays for streams. Of course, a purpose-made YouTube channel art image won’t necessarily drop into all of these roles without any effort. In the case of social media headers, you should be able to get away with just cropping the image to suit, but there may be a bit more work involved with something like a stream overlay.
Conclusions
The ideal YouTube channel art size can be seen as something of a misnomer, given that YouTube has a minimum size and will not allow you to upload channel art that is smaller than that. Still, the difference between the minimum size and the recommended size is enough that you could see significant degradation of your channel art if it is stretched to fit wider screens. For that reason, we would always recommend uploading your channel art at the recommended 2560×1440 resolution.
You can, of course, create a larger channel art image; however, the cropping process that your image goes through after upload will produce an image of the size YouTube wants regardless of what size it was going in, so you none of that extra resolution will make it to your channel page. That being said, it can’t hurt to have a higher resolution version of your channel art available. It could come in handy for things like printing on merchandise. And, of course, with screen resolutions continually increasing, the day will come when YouTube decide to increase their recommended channel art sizes.
Now, if you’re ready to get making your channel art, there are plenty of tools to help you make excellent channel art, not to mention services to make your life easier, and resources to help you learn.
How would you monetize your Facebook page without adverts?
Now, if you hit a certain threshold on Facebook, you can start integrating brand deals with your Facebook page, but not everyone’s jumped through those hoops just yet, and you can make money without Facebook’s help.
How To Monetize A Facebook Page without Ads
1) Use relevant affiliate links
I’m a YouTube creator that talks about YouTube. So maybe I post up a post about what camera I’m using and I link through to that product on Amazon. If I’m really smart and I’m hunting out a specific brand, maybe I can talk to that brand before hand, to get a better deal, and then push it out there.
For example, maybe I’m talking about how you can subtitle your videos, and then I want to promote it on Facebook saying, go and use rev.com.That way you can subtitle all of your videos with captions that are in English or French or German or any language that you wish.
That’s a relevant affiliate marketing link, and you can do that in your descriptions on Facebook,
2) Add digital products
Now I have a digital product that I hardly promote, and it’s 75 thumbnails for YouTube. If you’re not quite sure on how to start, how a thumbnail should look, just click this link, it goes through my digital products.
That’s a product that hopefully helps you and is relevant to my audience. I’m not going to sell baby monitors to people that want to learn how to do YouTube.
So if you have a digital product, let’s say an ebook on how to knit because you do knitting, or a recipe book because you’re a cooking channel, that’s a good place to promote it on your specific Facebook page.
I also push out my services like a channel audit and coaching call consultation, but you can also be sending your products, or pots and pans set, some cute little crochet things.
By the way, if you’d like that, this is the link to “Oh Sew Cute.”
3) Consider a newsletter
This is your way of harvesting people from your page, and then collecting them into — I really hate this word — but a funnel.
If they’re engaged enough to actively choose to be on a newsletter with you to hear more from you, to see more videos from you, or see your blogs from you, then they’re more likely to be more engaged than any random human to possibly listen to your advice on buying a product or a service.
I know you said it to me as your slow cooker of leads. As you collect more and more people in there and you hone the art of talking to them and building up a relationship, they’re more likely to convert in the long run because you’ve kept them warm for eight, nine hours smelling sexy minted lamb hot pot.
Anyway, back on point…
4) Selling advertised posts
Maybe you have a huge audience. Maybe you have 20, 30, 50, or a million followers on your page. This is your chance to flip the script. People will want to advertise in front of your audience.
So, charge them for it.
5) Starts an associated podcast
I’ve got the “Start Creating Podcast” at http://startcreatingpodcast.com/, where I talk about my experiences as a YouTuber, and growing and marketing and branding.
It gives me a little bit more leeway, I can talk about more things, less heavily edited. In the long run, you can invite people in to talk about your specific niche, interview people, and associated podcasts gives you a chance to place adverts against that podcast, also affiliate links in the description.
As you grow a podcast audience, it can also become fairly passive once the contents is out there, it will remain out there forever. And when was the last time you started a podcast, and then went back and binged watched everything else that was already on that podcast playlist.
Just try to make them evergreen rather than “This week on July the 30th, 2020,” whatever.
If you think of the longevity of the content and you answer and solve a problem with each podcast, people are more likely to go back and finish them. A good example of this is Gary Vaynerchuk or Tube Talk from vidIQ.
6) Raising money for a charity
You don’t have to monetize your Facebook page to make you money. You can also monetize your Facebook page to make charities, money.
You might have an audience that’s quite tuned in with you and your feelings and your sentiments, your political leaning, or your empathy towards specific topics.
Right now we’re in the middle of an unprecedented worldwide situation. So, if you wanted to raise money for that illness, that’s causing a lot of problems around the world, nothing’s stopping you throwing up a charity post that people can donate.
Or you reflect on something in four or five years time, maybe someone near and dear to you dies of some horrible disease, or struggles with a mental illness, depression, anxiety.
There’s nothing wrong with you raising money for a charity.
Final Words
Now, if you want help on monetizing your Facebook group, there’s a video here. And if you need help on monetizing your Facebook page through Facebook, there’s a video here.
When you start out as a YouTuber, you are trying to achieve many things at once.
Most of your time is spent on thinking about content ideas, filming it, and learning how to edit it into a great video. With, perhaps, a bit of time dreaming about what you’ll spend your YouTube earnings on too!
But, eventually, you get to a point and think ‘hang on, how do I promote my youtube channel?’
You’re working from a standing start. You don’t have the budget for ad buys or an existing following from another platform to leverage.
Well, to get the ball rolling, and the subscribers racking up, you’ll need to spend a little elbow grease. Do some hard work. Because at the start you need to do all you can to get your name out there.
This means cross-promotion on social media networks. You need to be your own distribution network at the start, and create a spiderweb of content to catch your viewers. Then, well, it’s down to the quality of your content to then turn those initial viewers into long-term subscribers.
This blog post covers the big-four social media platforms you should be cross-posting your content on, how often you should do it, and what kind of material to publish.
Let’s get going.
A Brief Word of Caution.
The following tips won’t work unless you are a consistent YouTuber.
You can undertake all the promotional activity you like, but if you don’t regularly upload compelling content to YouTube, then your channel is set for failure. Mr Beast uploaded content for five years before his channel took off. Five years!
The content you’ll post to Twitter has a very short shelf life, in most cases, only a matter of hours. So it’s fine to post out lots of links to your content.
Look for a few popular hashtags that tend to trend frequently, rather than one-offs that happen to be trending at any particular moment. Don’t copy spammers and use hashtags that are not related to your content. You’ll only end up annoying Twitter users.
While following hashtags on Twitter is not possible, people do have favourites that they regularly look up so they can see the latest.
If users see your content under that hashtag, and it’s excellent, then you may get a new follower. Once you gain followers, then you can post out links to your channel and invite them to watch your content over on YouTube.
Think about what you tweet, though. Before you tweet, think carefully about what you’ll write – ask yourself ‘why would people care about this tweet?’ You have to engage people.
Look at the example below, posted with the phrase ‘New Vlog is up!!!’. Who cares!? Maybe his mother, but not anyone else.
Instead, give the Twitter users a reason to click on your link. The illustration below is much better.
Also, make sure to separate your link from the hashtags. Both are hyperlinks. So if your content is next to the hashtags, then fat thumbs can mean you could miss a potential viewer.
Promote Your YouTube Channel on Facebook
Two excellent places to share your new content on Facebook are on your own Facebook branding Page and in Facebook groups.
Create your own brand page. You won’t have any followers, to begin with, but post your videos there anyway. It won’t help your video to rank on YouTube but can help your video to rank for Google searches
The best part is that Facebook has already niched down the audiences for you. Whatever topic area you make your videos around, there is a place for you to share them on Facebook.
Tips for Promoting Youtube Content in Facebook Groups
When searching for groups to post your content to, make sure it contains enough people to engage with. There are plenty of groups with only a handful of members; keep searching until you find a large one.
For some Facebook Groups, activity drops over time. So, even if there is a large membership for a group, check the frequency of posts to make sure that it is worth your time to engage with it.
How you act in a group, once you have joined and been given access, matters. You have to engage with the group and be helpful. There is no point in joining a group to spam a link to your videos every once in a while. Instead, participate in the conversation, be helpful where you can, and when it’s appropriate, then share a link to your content. If you don’t, you’ll likely end up banned from the group.
Promote Your Youtube Channel on Instagram
Instagram is an ideal place to help build your YouTube audience.
Depending on the type of content you make for YouTube, you may be OK with using your existing Instagram account. If you don’t want to mix up your content with your personal Instagram usage, then create a new one specifically for your channel.
But it’s up to you. If you are the main focus of your YouTube channel, and ‘behind-the-scenes’ content might be valuable to followers, so use your existing account. If your YouTube channel is in a niche where you don’t show your face, then set up a fresh account.
Use Instagram to build up a following in your topic area. Spend some time browsing relevant hashtags to get an understanding of the type of content that is popular, then set out to emulate it.
Create Youtube Teasers
One of the best uses of Instagram to promote your YouTube channel is to create short 15-second teaser clips. Teaser clips can intrigue and draw Instagram users over to your YouTube channel.
A teaser is different and operates like a film trailer made by the big Hollywood movie studios. You intrigue and invite your potential audience to watch the full thing.
You can use your video editing software, or even better use a tool like Placeit to produce a compelling teaser. Placeit lets you quickly create teasers for Instagram (and other platforms) with handy templates and stock graphics.
Promote Your YouTube Channel on TikTok
The new kid on the block. Tik Tok divides opinion, some love the brash new social sharing platform, others criticise child safety and privacy issues. But, no-one can deny its reach.
It’s the new Vine, the platform to share short snappy videos, and there is a massive audience on this hot fresh platform.
TikTok has experienced incredible growth since its launch in 2016. The TikTok app has been downloaded over 2 billion times and now has over 800 million active users.
Use TikTok to post 15-second teaser clips like the ones you made for Instagram. Make sure to add a link to your YouTube channel in your bio, and direct people to your bio in your teaser clip.
Once you become as popular as Mr Beast, you can forget the profile link and afford to be sassy instead.
Conclusion
When looking for ways to promote your YouTube channel, don’t overlook the free options. Yes, it can be tempting to spend money you don’t have on ads and try and spend your way to success.
But YouTube is a long-term undertaking. You have to do the right things, regularly, to make a success of your channel. You’ll run out of advertising budget before you attract enough followers to make your channel a cash earning machine.
Look instead to the big social media players. There are millions of daily active users on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Get strategic and make promotional content for your channel to post on those platforms.
And make sure to do it right. You can spot spam posts yourself, so make sure not to post spam for others to ignore. Become a part of the conversation, help out other users, and when it’s right, direct them to your channel on YouTube.
Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.
VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search
I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.
Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!
Rev.com helps people read my videos
You can’t always listen to a video.
Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.
This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.
A whole generation of kids are growing up with YouTube for the first time in history. Remember, there was no such thing as YouTube as little as fifteen years ago.
So while being a professional YouTuber may seem like an unusual and exotic career choice for those of us born… let’s say “a little earlier”, it is an established industry for today’s children. It makes sense, then, that kids might aspire to become a YouTuber.
At the same time, it is perfectly natural for you, the parent, to have concerns about the safety and legalities of setting up a YouTube channel for your child. The Internet has proven to be a very useful tool for those who are prepared to harm children, be it through written or verbal abuse, or something far more sinister.
If you find yourself asking, “can I create a YouTube account for my child?”, then you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to give you all the information you need about this topic. Unfortunately, we can’t give you a clear cut answer up top—something we like to do whenever possible—because the answer is yes… and no. It depends on the child.
Can I Create a YouTube Account for My Child?
Most people would agree that a thirteen-year-old is a child—they certainly are in the eyes of the law. YouTube may not see a thirteen-year-old as an adult, but that is the age where they deem a child old enough to have their own YouTube account, though they still require parental permission up to the age of seventeen.
So, yes, you can create an account for your child—if that child is over the age of thirteen. This applies regardless of whether your child will be just watching YouTube, or actively making videos.
If you are only looking to set up a YouTube account for your child so that they can watch content, all is not lost. YouTube Kids is designed specifically for this purpose.
As a signed-in parent, you can create a kids profile that will allow you to set viewing preferences and recommendations, which is great for families with more than one child. YouTube Kids profiles are not merely about keeping inappropriate content away from young eyes—though that is an important part of it.
It is also about COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule) regulations, and not storing specific data about underage users. That is why YouTube will not allow you to set up a full account for your under-thirteen child, even if you were willing to disregard any safety or privacy concerns that might arise. This also extends to the YouTube browser experience.
If your child is signed in and attempts to go to youtube.com, they will be told that they can only access YouTube Kids. They will also be told that YouTube Kids is not available in-browser, which can be irritating for some parents who don’t necessarily want their child staring at a tiny phone screen for too long.
If, on the other hand, you do want to set the account up so that your child can make videos, you will have to wait until they are over thirteen, as YouTube Kids accounts cannot upload video.
We wouldn’t advise lying about your child’s age to open an account early, as that could lead to the account being banned if you are found out.
Are Their Loopholes?
There are plenty of YouTube channels that do—or have in the past—featured under-thirteens. Depending on the situation, there are varying degrees of risk to these potentially grey areas.
The Sidekick
The first example we are going to use, and probably the safest in terms of running afoul of YouTube rules on underage YouTubers, is that of Andy Schrock. In this case, the channel is unquestionably Andy’s. The content revolves around him and his business, and there is no ambiguity that the channel belongs to an adult.
However, a good deal of the content on Andy’s channel involves his young children. In this manner, his children—his eldest son in particular—have been able to experience making YouTube videos entirely within the terms of YouTube’s rules on children.
This way of introducing your child to YouTube allows you to fully control your child’s exposure, while also being there with them to guide them as they get to grips with being on-camera.
The Family Model
Our next example is HobbyFamilyTV, formally HobbyKidsTV. The channel has been around for several years now, and features a range of video types involving the “HobbyFamily”, but as you may have guessed from the previous name of the channel, the focus of the videos used to be the children primarily.
In this case, the channel did not belong to the children, but the children nevertheless were the stars of the show.
The method of allowing your children to become YouTubers has the advantage of you being there to essentially chaperone their journey, while still giving them the independence of making their own content.
The Hands-Off Model
Understand that, when we say “hands-off”, we are not talking in a literal sense. If you have a YouTuber child, whether they are old enough to do it alone or not, we recommend maintaining a watchful eye over them, both to protect them from the unpleasantness of the Internet, and prevent them saying or doing things they might later regret.
Our example for this kind of YouTuber is EthanGamer, formally known as EthanGamerTV. Though he is now old enough to have his own YouTube account, Ethan joined YouTube at the astoundingly young age of seven years old. Clearly, that violates YouTube’s current rules on underage accounts.
The way Ethan’s parents handled this was to be hands-on in the management of the channel (along with any other social media) while leaving the actual content of the channel to Ethan. This allowed Ethan to essentially run the channel as though it were his (we can’t say how much editorial control his parents exercised) while technically not violating YouTube’s under-thirteen policy, because it wasn’t his.
Now, we class this one as a bit of a grey area. It clearly worked for Ethan, who is now a very successful YouTuber with over two and a half million subscribers, but YouTube’s rules were not so strict throughout most of his YouTube career. We can’t say with confidence that a similarly run account wouldn’t be shut down today.
Guidance Is Critical
However you choose to approach letting your child become a YouTuber, it is critical that you don’t leave them to do it alone.
The Internet is seemingly filling up with stories of influencers getting “cancelled” after some poorly judged joke or insensitive comment from when they were a lot younger surfaced. Children, by their very nature, are not good judges of things like proprietary.
They are still learning and need guidance as they learn. They should be allowed to make mistakes, but on camera in front potentially millions of people is not the place to make those mistakes.
YouTube Restrictions
Like any good parent, you’ll want to be fully informed about letting your child travel down the YouTube path, and that includes knowing how monetisation works for these kinds of channels.
Unless the content being produced by or with your child is being made for adults, it will likely fall afoul of YouTube’s COPPA restrictions. This means several things, among which are disabled comments and no targeted advertisements.
YouTube is not allowed to keep data on children, which means they cannot serve personalised advertisements to them. This, in turn, discourages advertisers from running their ads on these kinds of videos, since they want their ads to be as laser-focused as possible. After all, the more relevant the audience, the better the chance of their ads generating leads.
The restrictions on advertising do not mean your child’s channel cannot be monetised, but the potential revenue that monetisation can generate is significantly reduced when compared to a channel whose content is not aimed at children. There are other options for monetisation, of course, but that is a substantial topic in its own right.
Keeping Your Child Safe
The dangers of the Internet as it pertains to young children is well known, and it is no different for YouTubers. There is also emotional wellbeing to consider, as YouTube is notorious for having many commenters who are not exactly positive and full of praise.
As it turns out, YouTube’s policies do a lot to mitigate this kind of problem by disabling comments on content aimed at children.
However, if your child is on other social media networks, you should consider keeping an eye on the interactions they have through those channels.
Naturally, you’ll want to ensure your child’s safety against online predators, but there are no YouTube-specific measures to take in that regard. All of the good practice and common sense that is recommended for other parts of the Internet apply here.
Is it dangerous to be on YouTube? – Check out my deep dive blog into all the things you need to thing about when becoming a YouTube.
Tip for Starting a YouTube Channel for Your Child
If you decide to let your child start their own YouTube channel, either with a full account as they are over thirteen, or using one of the methods mentioned above for under-thirteens, we have some tips for getting started.
We assume you’re not trying to get picked up by a TV network here.
But don’t feel like anything you film has to be put online.
Watch your content back as objectively as you can before it ever sees a YouTube upload box. Get close friends and family to cast their opinions on it. If you’re not happy, go again and try to fix the things that weren’t working.
If your child is going solo, insist they do the same.
Many people have had to learn to live with the stuff they put on the Internet when they were younger without fully understanding the implications; you don’t want your child to be one of them.
Talk About It
Perhaps one of the best things you can do if you intend to let your child use the Internet in any form, especially as a YouTuber, is to have a conversation with them about the risks and dangers of being online.
If your child is not yet at a point where they can grasp the things you need to talk about, it may be a sign that they are not yet ready for this kind of step.
Create a Plan
Things invariably go more smoothly when there is a plan guiding the process, and there’s no reason to think things work any differently when creating a YouTube channel.
If your child wants to do their own thing, have them develop a plan of action first. If they are too young to do it without your help, make the plan with them.
Talk about things like how often videos will be posted, who the intended audience is, what kind of content they plan to make. How will they go about learning the necessary skills to create, edit, and upload content by themselves?
If equipment is a factor, talk about money. Will you be helping them buy the equipment, and are there stipulations? If not, how do they plan to afford what they need?
Having a conversation like this not only ensures your child knows exactly what they are getting into, it also tests how much they really want to do it.
Find Your Balance
One of the hardest things to do as a parent of a YouTuber child—and in parenting in general—is finding the right balance between protecting your child and letting them spread their wings.
As they get older and more comfortable with their life as a YouTuber, you need to find a healthy balance between keeping an eye them as they continue to develop and letting them grow and explore without your presence bearing down on them.
It can be challenging to step back, but your child must gain a sense of independence as they grow, and that applies to YouTube as much as it does to life in general.
And, when they’re old enough to go it alone entirely, you will have prepared them as best you can.
Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube
Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.
1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search
I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.
Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!
2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos
I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.
When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.
Big mistake!
I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.
That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.
Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.
3. Rev.com helps people read my videos
You can’t always listen to a video.
Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.
This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.
5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways
I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.
And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.
I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.
I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the Shutterstock website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.
As a general rule, the better the quality of your video, the better it is for your channel. While channels can—and indeed have—succeed with lower quality video, there is hardly any reason at all not to opt for the highest possible quality you can manage when considering things from a viewers perspective.
However…
As with most things in life, the practical reality of uploading videos in 4K isn’t quite as straightforward. 4K is nowhere near ubiquitous, yet the cost of a good 4K camera over a regular HD camera is not insignificant. The result of this being that you could end up putting considerably more time and effort into making your videos 4K, only to find none of your audience is watching in that resolution. But we want to go a little deeper than that, of course.
So let’s get to it. Should I upload 4k to YouTube? Kind of. If it is something you can already do—if you have a 4K camera, your set is nice and dressed up, you’ve mastered your makeup game, and you have a beefy Internet connection and a beefier computer, there’s no reason to not upload in 4K. If some or all of these things are not true, however, you need to weigh up the pros and cons before deciding 4K is for you.
What is 4K?
Let’s start with the basics. Before you decide whether 4K is right for your channel, you should know what it is you’re deciding about. 4K is a somewhat gimmicky name given to the latest standard screen resolution to hit the market. The name could come either from the fact that the horizontal resolution of 4K is almost 4,000 pixels or from the fact that there is exactly 4x the number of pixels in a 1080p display.
4K represents several challenges from a creator’s standpoint, from recording to editing and, ultimately, streaming. Not only do you need a camera capable of 4K, but it also needs to be a good camera, as poor quality video will be considerably more apparent at that resolution. You also need a computer capable of editing such high-resolution footage. As anyone who has rendered a video before can tell you; video editing is not light work.
You also need to pay more attention to yourself, your set, and anything that might be in the shot when filming. The increased resolution of 4K will bring a lot more detail into the light.
Finally, there is the issue of streaming. Internet speeds may be increasing all the time, but many homes don’t have a fast enough connection to stream 4K content, and certainly not at higher frame rates.
For reference, here are the different standard resolutions broken down.
Resolution
Up to 30FPS
Up to 60FPS
2160p (4k) 3840×2160
35-45 Mbps
53-68 Mbps
1440p (2k) 2560×1440
16 Mbps
24 Mbps
1080p (Full HD) 1920×1080
8 Mbps
12 Mbps
720p (Std HD) 1280×720
5 Mbps
7.5 Mbps
480p (DVD) 720×480
4 Mbps
4 Mbps
Of course, the average Internet connection speed in most developed countries has risen in the 100s, but it is important to remember that averages can be easily skewed by a relatively small number of abnormally high connections. And there is also the possibility that all of a households internet connection will not be available, such as would be the case if someone were watching Netflix at the same time your viewer is attempting to stream your 4K content.
One final thing to factor in is your connection. As fast as Internet speeds are getting, upload speeds have always been notoriously slow in comparison. Having to wait 4x as long for your video to upload (plus additional processing time at YouTube’s end) might not be an issue for you, but it’s worth mentioning.
4K Represents a Tiny Slice of the Market
Finding concrete statistics on 4K as it pertains to YouTube is not easy. What we can safely say is that only a tiny share of computer users online have their resolutions set to 4K. As shown by screenresolutions.org (at the time of writing), only 0.12% of users online are using 4K resolution, with 2K just creeping inside the top ten, and regular 1080p (1K, if you like) topping the list by a wide margin.
“But what about TVs?” I hear you yell. Well, more and more people are indeed watching YouTube through their TV, thanks to the prevalence of things like Amazon’s Fire Stick, Smart TVs and gaming consoles with an app ecosystem. However, 4K TVs are still vastly outnumbered by 1080p, so even if every TV owner on the planet was watching YouTube on their television rather than their computer, 4K would still be in the minority.
To briefly touch on phones since, of course, mobile devices are the most popular kind of device for watching YouTube on. While it is true that many—probably most—modern phones can display 4K videos, it’s something of a moot point since our feeble human eyes can’t tell the difference on screens that small. It is estimated that a healthy human eye can discern detail up to 326ppi (pixels per inch). 1080p on an average mobile phone screen is already higher than that, so increasing the pixel density further won’t make a noticeable difference.
4K is Growing
Now that we’ve talked about how small a market 4K is for YouTube let’s look to the future. 4K TV sales are increasing exponentially, and the ever-hungry PC gaming market is driving the sales of 4K monitors. Furthermore, the cost of making a 4K device is dropping to the point that the Smart TV Effect is beginning to take hold.
If you’ve never heard of the Smart TV Effect before… that’s because we just made it up, but the premise is simple enough. The “smart” part of smart TVs is notoriously terrible. There are exceptions, of course, but most smart TV interfaces are clunky, slow, and generally unpleasant to use. So why, then are they in almost every television?
The answer is because it got so cheap to add to their product that it was worth it just to get that “Smart TV” sticker on the box, it doesn’t matter if nobody wants a smart TV, it became almost impossible to buy one without it.
4K is heading in the same direction. The cost of making 4K TVs is dropping, which means the cost of the TVs themselves is dropping, too. 4K is proving to be a powerful marketing tool, if not a particularly useful feature given the lack of 4K content.
So what does all this mean for YouTubers? Well, 4K is a significant minority now, but it almost certainly won’t be staying that way. So when you consider whether or not you want to record your videos in 4K, you need to think about how important having the best possible quality is to your channel. Right now, 1080p is good enough, but 4K is coming.
Should I Upload 4K to YouTube?
So, now we have laid out all the basic information, how do you decide? We can get one straight forward answer out of the way easily enough. If you already have the means to record in 4K, and the thing you are recording is ready (remember, every imperfection, be it on you or your set, will be 4x larger), your computer is up to the task of editing, and the additional upload times do not bother you, then there is no reason not to upload in 4K.
YouTube will automatically process lower-resolution versions of your video, which will then be delivered to those who are not viewing on a 4K screen, so nothing will change for them. But you will be future-proofing your videos. Not to mention; with the lack of 4K content available right now, you may even gain viewers just through virtue of having 4K video on your channel.
But what about everyone else? What if you don’t have a means of recording 4K, or your computer wouldn’t be able to handle the editing even if you did? Is it worth taking steps to get 4K video?
This will depend on your channel. If you are making software tutorial videos, you shouldn’t be in too much of a rush to switch. The important thing there is clarity. If your viewers can see what it is you’re doing on screen, that’s good enough. If you can relatively easily switch to 4K, by all means, do it. If it’s going to be too difficult or expensive, don’t worry about it.
The same can be said for most types of channel, actually. For the most part, the benefits of moving to 4K right now are not big enough to warrant the cost and effort involved. But are there any types of channel where switching to 4K should be considered a priority? As a matter of fact, yes. Any channel where the viewing experience is paramount should consider getting onto 4K as soon as possible. This is as much for future-proofing your videos as it is for capturing current viewers. Videos like this tend to be evergreen—that is, they remain relevant long after they are uploaded. An example of such a video might be nature videos or aerial drone footage.
In two years, if somebody wants to watch “3 hours of serene woodland ambience”, they are not going to care if your video is two years old, but they might care if it is only available in 1080p when everything else is in 4K.
Tips When Switching to 4K
So you’ve decided that 4K is a good move for your channel? Great! Here are some things to think about.
Prepare Yourself
We’ve touched on it a little in this post. For better or worse, 4K video offers considerably more detail, which means your viewers will be able to make things out that they wouldn’t before.
If you like to look good on your stream, you might need to up your prep game. You should also take special care to make sure there is nothing in the shot that you don’t want public. This can include address labels, serial numbers, and any other potentially sensitive information.
You should do this anyway, of course, but the chances of a viewer being able to read the address on a label a few metres behind you in 1080p are pretty slim. Not so much with 4K.
Scale Up Your Text
This applies mostly to videos where text is a significant part of the content, such as with software tutorials. It’s important to remember that, while the resolution may be 4x larger than 1080p, the screens that your video is being viewed on are not.
Or, to put it another way, the same text that is legible on a 24″ 1080p screen will be 4x smaller on a 24″ 4K screen.
When you make the switch to 4K, you will need to rethink your various designs, such as end screens and lower thirds. Any text that would have been considered small in 1080p will need increasing in size when you switch to 4K.
Let People Know
If you are going to make the switch to 4K, be sure to let people know. This can be as simple as adding an “in 4K” to the end of your video title, and certainly tagging it and mentioning it in the description.
You will now be offering a type of content that is rare, so you want to capture that niche audience while you can.
Conclusions
The price of 4K equipment—both recording and watching—will continue to drop as it becomes more prevalent. There will come a time when the switch to 4K will not be as difficult as it is now.
That being said, there is an element of “getting in on the ground floor” about being a 4K YouTuber in 2020, and it could be a great way to gain extra subscribers that might not otherwise have checked out your channel.
Still, it is not a cheap transition to make. If that leap is too big for you at this moment in time, don’t sweat it. Most of us are watching in 1080p anyway.
Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube
Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.
1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search
I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.
Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!
2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos
I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.
When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.
Big mistake!
I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.
That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.
Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.
3. Rev.com helps people read my videos
You can’t always listen to a video.
Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.
This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.
5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways
I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.
And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.
I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.
I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the Shutterstock website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.
There are plenty of tips and tricks on growing your YouTube channel, and all too many of them are subjective. That trick works well for this kind of channel, and this tip is better for that kind of channel. Unfortunately, there aren’t many hard certainties when talking about succeeding on YouTube. At least, not once you get beyond things like “don’t steal content”.
When it comes to intros and outros, the answer is a little more reliable—though still not absolute.
So, do you need a YouTube intro and outro? Yes! If you want to grow your channel and your brand on YouTube, you should consider an intro and an outro an essential part of your process. Just make sure it’s not too long and adds value to the video.
As always, we’re not going to leave it there. Let’s take a deeper dive and get into why these things are important, as well as how best to craft them to help your channel grow.
Why Are YouTube Intros and Outros Important?
There are different reasons for the importance of intros than there are for outros, so we’re going to take a look at both individually.
YouTube Video Intros
The primary reason an intro is important is new-viewer retention. If you are attempting to grow your channel, you will naturally be working to bring new viewers in all the time. Getting a viewer to your video is only half of the battle, of course—you want them to watch the video. And, all being well, subscribe to your channel.
Neither of which is likely to happen if you lose their interest in the first twenty seconds.
Your existing subscribers will have a certain amount of forgiveness about your not getting to the point in your video because they know what to expect from you. After all, they have already subscribed. But new viewers can have a tendency to click away very quickly if they get the sense that your video isn’t going to give them what they came for.
With an intro, you can quickly establish who you are and what the video is about, so new viewers will be more willing to keep watching.
YouTube Video Outros – End Cards – End Screens
As much as we hate to admit it, being reminded to click like, check out other videos and do all those other things that help the channel out, works. Viewers simply don’t think about those things a lot of the time, but a gentle reminder from you will help. Need proof?
Next time you go to the cinema, take a look around when the pre-roll ads inevitably ask the audience to turn their phones off. We all know that you’re not supposed to have your phone on—or at least have it on silent—when at the movies, but look at how many people are turning their phones off during that announcement. Reminding people works.
And it’s not like you saying “if you enjoyed this why not hit like and subscribe?” will make someone like and subscribe if they didn’t want to in the first place. Be a little wary of asking people to like and subscribe at the start of the video, however. Some YouTuber’s swear by it, but many viewers find it a little presumptive.
Beyond that, your outro is the perfect place to handle any channel housekeeping, such as thanking Patreons and recommending some of your other videos, but we’ll get more into how to put an outro together later in the post.
Should I Always Use Intros and Outros?
There will always be fringe cases where it is not appropriate to use intros and/or outros. However, these are so few and far between relative to the times when you should use them that we’re comfortable saying yes, you should always use them. In the interests of covering all the bases, however, here are some situations where intros and outros might not fit.
Videos where intros and outros would not fit stylistically
“Member-only” videos
Meme videos
As with most things, try to use your judgement. There are times when a “members-only” video warrants an intro, or where meme videos could benefit from an outro.
How Big a Difference Do Intros and Outros Make?
Hard statistics are difficult to come by; however, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence from YouTubers who have conducted their own tests. One such example is Real Men Real Style, who noted that engagement on their videos dropped by as much as 70% when they didn’t add a call to action in their videos.
Another thing to factor in is the kind of video you are making, and the viewing habits of people watching it. For example, an intensive video—such as a tutorial—will likely be a very active viewing experience. That is, it is more likely that the viewer will have sought that video (or one like it) out. For those videos, your likelihood of increased engagement will hinge on the quality of your video. But for a more casual viewing experience, the intro and outro are more crucial.
What do we mean by casual? If your video is more along the lines of entertainment, which can include things like history videos, punditry, and anything where the viewer might be just sitting back and enjoying the content like they would a TV show, then there is more of a chance they came across your video by happenstance.
Perhaps it was a recommended video in their feed, or maybe your video auto-played at the end of a different video. Perhaps they arrived at your video through social media and had no idea what they were watching at the time. In all of these cases, it is far more likely that the viewer will not be aware of you or your channel, or the kind of content you make.
By introducing your video at the start, you ensure that they at least know about your channel once they’re there. And, by placing an outro at the end, you can break the chain of auto-play, and divert your new viewer to more of your content.
Making a Good Intro for your YouTube Video
The first rule of making a good YouTube intro is not outstaying your welcome. There is no universal length of time that applies to every video but finding the sweet spot between getting enough information across in a short enough period so that your viewers don’t get annoyed or bored is key. As a general rule, fifteen seconds is a popular length for an intro.
It’s not just about getting all the information you want to get in there, however. You have to do it in a way that engages your audience. If your video kicks off with you jabbering at high speed trying to squeeze everything in like a pharmaceuticals disclaimer, it won’t go down well. But, if you take too much time, you risk your viewers clicking past the intro to get to the content. Or worse; clicking away from the video altogether.
A good way to structure your introduction is to set out what the video is about first then introduce yourself and your channel, then get into the content. This way, the viewer knows right at the top if the video is what they’re looking for, and are more likely to hang around through the rest of intro to get to the content.
One thing we can give you as a hard rule that should always be applied is this; never take longer than you have to get to the content. Be concise.
If you have branding on your channel—and, to be clear, you should have branding on your channel—make sure it features in your intro. The main point of branding is recognition. If your viewer takes nothing else away from your video, they should at least have seen your branding.
Making a Good Outro for Your YouTube Video
Outros are a different ballgame altogether. If a viewer is watching your outro, it means they have already viewed your whole video and are somewhat invested in you. While you should never waffle in your videos, you don’t need to have quite the same urgency about getting your information across in an outro as you do in an intro.
The outro is an obvious place to wrap things up, thank people, politely suggest that they like and subscribe if they liked the content and the rest. But the most practical use of your outro is to direct your viewers to more content on your channel related to what they have just watched.
This is also where end screens come in. The beauty of end screens is that they can be dynamic. You can link to a specific video or playlist, of course, but you can also have it show your latest video or the most recommended video for whoever the viewer at the time. And you can have multiple video links in your end screen.
The critical component here is that you have a call to action in your outro. That call to action could simply be liking and subscribing, or checking out another video, or even visiting your website. If you have a viewer who has watched all of your video, they are more likely to be interested in what else you have to offer. Not having a call to action, in this case, is a wasted opportunity.
Frequently Asked Questions
There are a lot of commonly asked questions around this topic, so we’ve done our best to answer some of the more frequently asked of those questions. If there’s something we missed, leave a comment below.
How do you make an intros and outros on YouTube?
Depending on your skill level, there are multiple options.
I am not skilled in design but I was about to make professional looking intro, outros and channel banner branding with PlaceIt – I was amazed how many templates they offered for cheap or even free. It’s something simple that can really level up your channel branding.
If you are a little savvier, you might want to create your own from scratch.
How do you make a YouTube intro for your phone?
While the level of control you have over your intro may be reduced when compared to intros made on a computer, there are phone apps that do a very respectable job.
One such app is Intro Maker, though there are other options available.
What should I say in my YouTube intro?
The most effective use of your intro would be to state concisely what the video is about, introduce yourself and your channel, and make sure any channel branding is shown.
How long is a YouTube outro?
When talking about an outro where you are signing off, the length is entirely up to you. Though we would always recommend being clear and to the point.
If talking about the length of time your end screen is shown, 10-15 seconds is the typical amount of time to show it before ending the video.
Conclusions
Having an intro and outro on your YouTube video may not be a necessity—channels can succeed without them—but we strongly feel you will be making life harder for yourself if you decide to not use them. They provide a great way to establish your branding, convey important information, hook your viewer at the start and direct them to more of your content at the end.
They are particularly useful for channels that get a lot of new traffic, as they play a crucial role in converting unique views into long term subscribers, and establishing your brand with that viewer.
Animated content for your intros and outros can be made with little-to-no experience in animation software, thanks to a wide selection of apps and web services. Be sure to make use of your end screen to drive your viewers to more content on your channel, not to mention providing them with a simple, one-click method of subscribing to your channel if they haven’t already.
If you need help with your graphics, branding, subtitles or anything else to level up your YouTube videos, I have a long list tools I used to grow my channel from 0 to 2 Million views in less than 2 years – check out my resources page.
And, remember, use this time wisely. Get the information you need to get across in as short time as you can, but do so clearly and concisely. You don’t want your viewers to feel like your wasting their time before they even get into the meat of your video.
Your intro is the first thing a new viewer will see. Make it count.
Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube
Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.
1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search
I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.
When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.
Big mistake!
I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.
That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.
Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.
3. Rev.com helps people read my videos
You can’t always listen to a video.
Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.
This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.
A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.
4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube
I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.
I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.
That is why I could not live on YouTube without someone like PlaceIT. They offer custom YouTube Banners, Avatars, YouTube Video Intros and YouTube End Screen Templates that are easy to edit with simple click, upload wizard to help you make amazing professional graphics in minutes.
5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways
I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.
And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.
I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.
I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the StoryBlocks website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.
There are over five billion videos on YouTube. So, if you’ve been creating videos with clickbait titles in the hope of going viral, you may as well buy a lottery ticket – it’s no plan for channel growth.
Growing a YouTube channel is a long-term venture. Best achieved by regularly uploading quality videos that give your audience more of what they are looking for.
When you are trying to grow, it’s natural to want to compare yourself to other channels, but resist the temptation! YouTube channels exist in viewer bubbles – it’s your unique combination of content, presentation and production values that keeps your viewers watching.
But you don’t nail it every time. So how do you figure out what it is your audience likes most about your channel? Sure you can keep an eye on your likes, dislikes, and comments, but these don’t give you the full picture.
Fortunately, YouTube provides you with a sharper view, with lots of in-depth analytics about your channel.
This post looks at how you can use your analytics to better understand your audience and how you then use that knowledge to grow your channel. First, though, it’s crucial to know how YouTube ranks videos and why clickbait doesn’t work.
How YouTube Ranks Videos
Before 2012, YouTube ranked videos based solely on view count. It didn’t matter if a viewer watched one second or five minutes, both counted as a view.
This led to an increase in YouTubers using clickbait titles to try and game the system. YouTube had to do something – video content frequently wasn’t delivering on the promise of the title.
So after 2012, Youtube added in watch time and session duration to its ranking algorithm, resulting in an improvement of content quality. Today, YouTube also puts ranking weight on how engaged viewers are with content. Relying on things like watch time, likes and dislikes, and subscribes, amongst other factors.
YouTube wants to keep users on the platform, consuming content and viewing paid advertisements.
And did you know that 70% of all videos viewed on YouTube are those suggested by the YouTube ranking algorithm? If you want to grow your channel and appear more in the YouTube recommended video lists, then you need to find out what parts of your content users like most, and plan more of it.
But, before you use your analytics to make content decisions, make sure you have uploaded a minimum of 20-30 videos. Data on only five or six videos will not be helpful enough to draw conclusions from. So if you have only uploaded a few videos so far, first work on recording and uploading more videos.
Where to Find YouTube Analytics
To access your analytics, first, log in to your YouTube account. Next in the top right of the screen, click on the small circle showing your profile picture or first initial. Then, from the drop-down menu, select ‘YouTube Studio’.
When the channel dashboard loads, on the left-hand menu, select ‘Analytics’.
The main Analytics screen then loads.
How to Use YouTube Video Views Analytics.
You may think you know what your audience wants. But, until you see how viewers actually interact with your channel, you can’t be totally sure. To start the process on the main analytics screen, make sure you have the ‘Views’ tab selected and click ‘see more’.
This loads up a more detailed list of your videos and some headline analytics. First, make sure that you have all the ‘lifetime’ data of your channel showing by selecting the data function in the top right corner of the screen.
Then from the drop-down list, select the ‘Lifetime’ option, which will show all the analytics data from the time your channel started.
Next sort your videos in descending order of views so that your most-watched videos are at the top.
Use this list to gauge what your audience likes about your channel. Figure out why your popular videos are doing better than ones that fell flat. See if there’s a pattern. Are your most popular videos a hot topic? Maybe useful tutorials or when you live streams.
Whatever the reason, the content of those videos is the kind that your channel viewers find most compelling. Look for these trends then aim to make more videos like them.
YouTube Impressions and Click-Through Rates Explained.
In the same analytics section as Video Views, further along there are two other columns titled ‘impressions’ and ‘impressions click-through rates’.
These data in those columns indicate:
Impressions. The number of times a video thumbnail has been seen, either from a search or by YouTube suggestion.
Impressions click-through rate. The percentage of times a viewer saw your thumbnail and clicked on it to watch your video.
Now, say that your click-through rate is 2%, if you can get that up to 4% then you will double your video viewers. So the impressions and impressions click-throughs measure how good your thumbnail and titles are.
Re-order your click-through rate column, again by descending order, and take a look at your best performing titles and thumbnails. What makes the top ones stand out from other titles and thumbnails? Perhaps a thumbnail was well composed, or it could be the title was snappy.
Use this feedback to improve your existing thumbnails and titles, then use what you’ve learned when you create them for your new content too.
If you need help getting started with Thumbnails, why not check out my Thumbnail Pack where I give you 75+ easy to edit psd template files to help you level up your thumbnail game and get more views!
Use Your YouTube Subscribers Analytics to Plan Content
Now let’s take a look at subscriber analytics and how you can use them to grow your channel. In the same ‘see more’ section you used for the video view count locate the column headed ‘Subscribers’.
Make sure the time period is showing the lifetime data again and order the data in descending order.
Follow the same process as before and examine the top videos to see what the common factors were. Did they have a certain length, content topic, or presenting style? Maybe you made a request or showed an extended caption asking viewers to subscribe in a different way to your other videos.
Whatever the factor, plan new content that replicates it. Whether it’s similar, updated, or complimentary, the analytics are telling you that certain content you make turns a section of your viewers into subscribers. Do it again.
If you make a successful video about knitting a jumper, make one for knitting a hoodie. If you made one showing how to find a weapon in a game, make one for how to use it.
YouTube Watch Time – The Most Important Metric?
Of course, views and subscribers are essential to understand. But an arguably more important metric for YouTube is watch time. Watch time is an estimation of total hours spent by viewers watching your videos.
On the main analytics screen, select the tab showing ‘Watch time (hours) then select ‘see more’ at the bottom.
As I mentioned earlier, YouTube ranks videos, in part, by how long viewers watch videos. Why do they do this? Because it demonstrates how engaging and useful your videos are to your viewers.
It makes sense when you understand that YouTube’s entire business model is to keep people viewing content and adverts on their platform. It follows then, that channels which get good overall watch time are more likely to show up for searches, or in a selection of videos that YouTube recommends.
So, if you are getting click-throughs and good view counts, but people aren’t watching many hours of your videos then (there is no way to sugar coat this) you need to make better videos.
Fortunately, YouTube offers data you can use to see precisely when viewers stopped watching your video; audience retention.
YouTube Audience Retention Metric Explained
The audience retention metric is shown as a percentage figure. If you upload a ten-minute video and your audience, on average, watches five minutes, then you’ll have an audience retention measure of 50%.
Select one of your videos to view the analytics screen shown below, then click ‘see more’ in the audience retention section.
As you can see, in the graph below, audience retention starts at 100% and over time gradually drops off as viewers stop watching the video. In the example below the overall retention rate is 30.4%
You can play your video and watch as it tracks along the graph so you can see what you were doing at the time when viewers stopped watching.
Did you lose a lot of viewers when your content got a bit dry or technical? Maybe you had a section you felt was amusing but turned your viewers off?
This is a powerful tool. It gives you feedback on what works and doesn’t work. You can use it to help you plan future content and give your audience more of what they want.
Also, did you notice the bump in the graph?
How can audience retention go up if viewers have gone away? This bump tells you that viewers are coming back to rewatch a portion of your video. Whatever you were doing at that part of the video is clearly of value to your audience, so it’s a good idea to do more similar content.
Conclusion
Getting to grips with your analytics shouldn’t be as scary as it sounds. Once you understand what they represent and how you can use them to understand your viewers, you’ll probably find yourself hooked on them.
And we’ve only scratched the surface here. There are lots of other metrics in your analytics that help you make better videos. There are also analytics for things like audience demographics and YouTube features like cards.
Explore the entire analytics section to see what other metrics you can use to fuel YouTube channel growth.
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