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How to Promote YouTube Videos on Reddit

How to Promote YouTube Videos on Reddit

Reddit is a great tool for the promotion of all kinds of media—including YouTube—but it can be a little tricky to wrap your head around, as it’s not always as simple as just posting a link to your video and hoping for upvotes.

While many YouTubers do try to take advantage of Reddit for the promotion of their videos, many more don’t, and plenty of those who do use Reddit don’t use it to its full potential.

So, in this post, we’re going to walk you through how to promote YouTube videos on Reddit, so that you can get the most out of this very useful platform.

Good Content

Reddit promotes content by user vote, with users being able up or down vote anything that is shared on the platform, from YouTube videos to comments.

You should be striving to make the best possible content regardless, but it should be noted that if your content is not good, Reddit will not be an effective medium for promoting your videos. You will get some traffic in most cases—assuming you follow the guide below—but you won’t be getting anywhere near the potential traffic that Reddit can promote if your content isn’t good enough to persuade Reddit users to upvote you.

How to Promote YouTube Videos on Reddit 1

Research

With Reddit being, at its core, a link-sharing platform, many people fall into the trap of thinking that just getting a link to their video on the platform will be enough to start driving traffic to their channel. Unfortunately, there’s a little more to it than that.

You will need to pick appropriate subreddits to post your video to, otherwise there will be little-to-no engagement with the link. And to find those appropriate subreddits, you need to do a little research.

Head over to Reddit and search for the main keywords associated with your video. Be sure to search a few relevant keywords that are sufficiently different from each other to give an accurate result. What you’re looking for is subreddits that show up in the search results for each of your keywords—these will be your target subreddits.

Read the Rules

Before even thinking about posting a YouTube link in a subreddit—especially one you have just joined—make sure you carefully read the rules of that subreddit. Many of them have strict rules about self-promotion, which can vary from requiring you to clearly tag a post as self-promotion to outright banning self-promotion.

These rules are not Reddit rules, but rules enforced by the admins of those specific subreddits. This means that the worst consequences you will face for breaking those rules is being kicked out of that subreddit, not Reddit itself. That being said, if you’ve identified a subreddit as a good fit for promoting your content, you don’t want to get kicked out of it!

Contribute

We understand this pointer won’t be ideal if you are looking at promoting your videos now, but a proper strategy for promoting your content was always going to be a long term plan.

Reddit is a community. Actually it’s a series of communities. If you manage to find subreddits that are an ideal fit for your content, and then just hop in there and start posting links to your videos, it’s going to get a negative reaction, even if you are following the subreddit’s rules to the letter.

Try to spend some time in those subreddits, commenting on posts, sharing relevant links that aren’t self-promotional, and generally building up a standing with the members there. There is no hard rule for how long you should spend doing this as every community is different, but at the very least you should spend a couple of weeks getting to know the community before promoting videos to them.

Share Your Video

By now you should have found some subreddits who are a good fit for your content, spent a while getting to know everyone and introducing yourself to the community, and thoroughly read the rules regarding posting self-promotional links.

It’s time to post.

The best method is to get your video in as many places as possible—without going against any of the guides laid out above. As long as the subreddit is relevant, allows this type of post, and you haven’t just popped in out of the blue to post your link, you should consider sharing your video there. The more people who see it, the more people are likely to click it.

Treat it as an Ongoing Process

If you don’t have the stamina or interest to keep being part of the Reddit communities you have joined, Reddit may not be the best promotional tool for you. A mistake many YouTubers make when trying to promote through Reddit is in doing all of the above, and then slipping back into a purely promotional cycle and only posting links to their videos, nothing else.

While the communities will react better to your promotional links if they know you and feel as though you are a legitimate member, rather than someone just there to promote videos, that friendly sentiment will soon evaporate if you stop participating in the community but continue promoting your videos there.

Final Thoughts

Reddit, like any other social media platform, is an excellent tool for promoting YouTube videos… if you use it correctly. Each major social media platform exists because it is different in many ways to the other major social media platforms.

Facebook and Twitter can co-exist because they are not competing with each other—Twitter is used in an entirely different way to Facebook. But with these different uses comes different strategies for using those platforms for promotion. The trick, from a YouTuber’s point of view, is learning what those strategies are for each platform, and implementing them correctly.

Reddit is no exception. Reddit is used in a very specific way that is unique to Reddit among the big social media platforms, so when you look to promote your content there, be sure to treat it differently to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or any of the other big players.

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. Learn new skills for FREE with Skillshare

I SUCK reading books to learn, but I LOVE online video courses.

Every month I learn something new. Editing, writing, video skills, how to cook, how to run a business – even how to meditate to calm a busy mind.

I find all of these for FREE with Skillshare – Sign up, pick all the courses you want and cancel anytime you need.

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How to Write a YouTube Description

Do You Need A YouTube Intro and Outro? 2

YouTube video descriptions are perhaps one of the most criminally under-used tools available to YouTubers, so if you are one of the YouTubers who doesn’t take full advantage of their video descriptions—don’t worry, you’ve got a lot of company.

However, we do need to fix this.

YouTube video descriptions are important for a range of reasons, from searchability to usability. From information to promotion. In this post, we’re going to cover all of the things you can—and in some cases, should—do with your YouTube description. So, whether you’ve been wondering how to write a YouTube description, or you’ve never much cared before, this article is for you. Let’s get into it.

Be Descriptive

Let’s start with the basics. When you write your description for a YouTube video, you should make sure it is actually descriptive of what the video is about. If a viewer takes the time to look at the description, you don’t want to leave a sour taste in their mouth by not giving them what they want out of it.

Or worse; giving them a description that is not accurate.

See More

Be sure to make smart use of the fold. When your description is displayed, by default there will be a couple of lines and then a “see more” link. You want to make intelligent use of those first couple of lines, because viewers aren’t always going to click that “see more” link.

Get the basics of your description across as quickly and succinctly as possible. If the viewer is hoping for something specific from your video and is checking the description to save time, you should make sure they get the required information. If they don’t, they might just leave. And, if you are promoting something in your description, try and entice the viewer to click that “see more” link.

Write Searchable Descriptions

Descriptions are not just for the viewers, of course, they are also for the search engines. At the moment, search engines can’t (or don’t) search the actual content of videos when delivering their results, so you are forced to rely on well-written titles and descriptions to drive that organic search traffic to your content.

Do a little keyword research on your video’s topic, and try to find keywords that are low-competition while not being completely dead. The idea is to avoid competing with the biggest players in the niche while still using keywords that people will be searching for.

Be sure not to overstuff your descriptions with keywords, though. They should still read naturally and be of value to the person reading it.

Use Hashtags

It’s not as commonly known as it probably should be, but YouTube allows users to search by hashtag, just like all the other social media platforms. Likewise, YouTubers can use hashtags in their descriptions to ensure that their videos become part of those hashtag searches.

There is no hard rule on picking hashtags. It is not like keywords—where lower competition is better—because almost by definition, a low competition hashtag is worthless. Hashtags are a function of trend, and if it’s not trending, it almost doesn’t exist.

Instead, focus on finding the most relevant hashtags to your content. You may also be using hashtags to coincide with an event of some kind.

Promote Things

If you have things to promote—another channel, a book, a course, etc—be sure to put all the links in your description. There are only so many plugs you can squeeze into a video before your viewers start to get annoyed about it. And it’s really not that many.

Your description is a different kettle of fish altogether, however. If a viewer is looking at your description, it’s because they’ve made a special effort to come down there and view it. As long as you’ve covered the basics and provided an accurate and informative description of the content, they won’t mind seeing a few links to things you’re promoting.

If you are linking out to things under an affiliate referral system, such as linking to a product you featured through an Amazon Affiliates link, make sure you disclose that in your description. Viewers often don’t mind affiliate links, but they don’t like you being sneaky about it.

On a related note, you should also try and slide some links out to any YouTubers you might have collaborated with, or perhaps clipped in your video. It’s good to maintain positive relationships with other YouTubers where possible.

Implement Chapters

Chapters are a relatively recent feature on YouTube, but an incredibly useful one. If your video can be broken up into distinct sections in any meaningful way, we would strongly suggest adding chapters.

Adding chapters is easy enough. Note that you must have at least three chapters, and your video needs to be at least 10 seconds long. You add chapters by heading to your video description, and creating a list of timestamps, with the first one being 0:00. So it could look something like this;

0:00 Intro

1:23 Chapter One

3:45 Chapter Two

When implemented, the play progress bar of your video will be broken up into sections corresponding with your timestamps, and when the viewer hovers over a section, it will show a label saying the name you have given it.

Make it Entertaining

Last—but certainly not least—make it entertaining. Always remember that the content you put here is ultimately designed for human eyeballs, and humans get bored very easily.

This becomes even more important if there are promotional things in your description. It would be a shame to miss out on an affiliate referral because a viewer gave up before getting to the part where your referral links are.

What You Need to Know About Buying and Selling YouTube Channels

Final Thoughts

Descriptions are far more important than many YouTubers give them credit for, and that importance goes beyond just having something that a potential viewer can read. For evergreen content, a well-written description can ensure that organic views keep rolling in long after the algorithm has moved on. Descriptions can generate significant additional revenue with promotional links.

Now go, and write your descriptions well!

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

All You Need to Know About Hiring YouTube Video Editors

All You Need to Know About Hiring YouTube Video Editors

By far one of the most time-consuming parts of being a one-person YouTuber is the editing process. Most seasoned video editors will tell you to expect anywhere from 5x to 10x the amount of time editing as you spent recording. That means that, in the worst cases, four hours of footage could take as much as thirty hours to edit.

That’s nearly a full time job for one weekly video!

Needless to say, many YouTubers, once they start making good money from their channel, decide it would be a worthwhile expense to hire an editor to take this particular time sink off of their plate.

But for newer YouTubers, there are a lot of questions surrounding using a YouTube video editor. Should you outsource video editing? How to hire a video editor? And so on. And we’re going try and answer those questions here!

Do I Need a Video Editor?

In the vast majority of cases, the answer to this problem can be a resounding “yes”. Some YouTubers will always prefer to edit their own videos, of course, but for the rest of us, having someone else to handle the editing easily takes half—or more—of the workload involved in running a YouTube channel off of your plate. And, for most of us, it’s not fun work, like filming the video often is.

Reducing the amount of things you have to do that aren’t enjoyable is a great way to ensure you don’t burn out and stop wanting to make YouTube channels. Hiring an editor will certainly do that, but the “do I need a video editor” is not the right question…

Should I Hire a Video Editor?

Things are a little more complex than simply musing over whether you would be better off with an editor. An editor needs paying, which means you need to be able to pay them. If money was no object, you could hire an editor, a special effects expert, voice over artists, animators… but money is an object. Especially for smaller YouTubers who are not making a lot of money from their channel.

If your YouTube channel is not your main income—which is a polite way of saying it is currently, technically, a hobby—then you need to look at it as a recreational expense. If you can afford to hire an editor as a disposable income expense, like you might budget for a gym membership or other non-essential expenses, then you could consider hiring an editor as it will definitely make your life easier in those earlier days of getting your channel up and running.

However, if money is a little tighter than that, and you can’t comfortably afford to hire an editor, then the answer is a resounding no—you shouldn’t hire one.

It may make your life easier as a YouTuber, but you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you have to choose between eating and your YouTube channel.

All You Need to Know About Hiring YouTube Video Editors 2

How Much do YouTube Editors Charge?

Let’s start with the obvious caveat—every job is different, and different editors will charge different rates. There is no fixed rate that is consistent across all editors.

That being said, you can typically expect to see prices between $50 and $100 per minute of finished video. That means that, at the top end of that scale, you can expect to pay around $300 for a three-minute video.

As you can see, things can start to get exorbitantly expensive if your videos are over ten minutes long.

The quality of work will be a factor, as well. You may find an editor willing to work for closer to $25 per minute of finished video, but there will probably be a reason for that. In the best case scenario, it might be a talented editor who is just getting started is trying to build up a portfolio. That being said, it could also be an editor who is not very good and is charging very low rates because it’s the only way they can get work.

In very rare occasions, you may find someone who is prepared to edit your videos for free for the exposure and experience. While we won’t say you should avoid these relationships, you should certainly exercise a little caution. Firstly be clear about what the terms of your arrangement are, and what your editor is allowed to do regarding promoting their work. Secondly, don’t get comfortable with the arrangement, as your editor will almost certainly want to be paid for their work eventually.

Finding an Editor

If you decide to hire an editor for your channel, you should do plenty of research on any potential candidate before hiring them. Remember, the content that gets put out is ultimately yours, and it will be under your name. You need to be happy with the editors style.

Are you comfortable with them interjecting funny asides into the videos? If not, make sure they know. If there are no examples of their work publicly available, ask for some.

It’s also good to get to know the editor as well as you can. Remember, this person is going to be looking at hours of footage of you, fluffing words, forgetting lines, and generally doing things that you wouldn’t necessarily want people to see. You need to be comfortable with your new editor seeing those things.

Make it Formal (Legal)

If you use a freelance service like Upwork to find your editor, the legal stipulations should be in place by default. However, if you are going directly to an editor, you should have the terms of their hiring in writing—even if it’s only an informal email. Specifically, you want to stipulate that they cannot use any of the footage they are sent unless given express permission by you. This help to prevent any unfortunate footage being leaked by a jaded former-editor.

Just bear in mind that, if the editor breaks the terms of your agreement—even if you have an official contract drawn up by a lawyer or solicitor—you will need to actually take them to court for anything to happen.

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How Much of a Video Can You Use Legally?

How Much of a Video Can You Use Legally?

Fair warning, dear reader; this is going to be one of those posts that doesn’t really give you a definitive answer. At least, not in all cases.

The issue of copyright is one that has been a thorn in the side of copyright holders, content creators, and user-generated content platforms since… well, since user-generated content platforms became a thing. Using content that you do not own the rights to is a dicey business, and one that can land you in trouble with YouTube. But at the same time, there are situations where it is perfectly acceptable. And, of course, there are messy grey areas in between.

In this post, we’re going to do our best to cover all the basics, so, if you’ve been wondering how much of a video can you use legally, keep reading!

The Video Matters

The main reason that there is no definitive answer to this question is that how much of a video you can legally use depends entirely on the video, as well as other factors around the video. Let’s start from the good and work our way to the bad.

Public Domain YouTube Channels for Free Footage 1

Public Domain Videos

Public domain videos are the best-case scenario when it comes to video content you want to use. This is because public domain content is completely free for anyone to use for any purpose. You can clip it, remix it… you can even repost it in its entirety, though YouTube will prevent you from monetising that kind of thing.

Public domain means that the copyright has expired, and the work has passed into the public domain. This also means no one can copyright it, however, works that incorporate public domain content can be copyrighted if they have been sufficiently modified from the original content.

Creative Commons

If you can’t find public domain content that suits your needs, Creative Commons is the next best thing. You will need to pay attention to the specific licence, however, because there are several flavours of Creative Commons, and they all have different stipulations.

For example, a CC0 licence is, for intents and purposes, the same as public domain works. CC0 is a “no rights reserved” licence that can be used for anything and does not require attribution. There are also versions of the Creative Commons licence that require attribution, or that are free to use for personal work only, and so on.

Other Types of Free Licence

There are several other types of licence out there that will allow you to use content without worrying about the copyright, but you should always check the specifics of each licence. For example, the Against DRM Licence becomes void if DRM is placed on the work using the licenced content.

Copyrighted Content

And here we get to, unfortunately, the most common type of content you are likely to want to use in your videos. The reality, most of the content will be copyrighted, and, depending on the copyright holder, it may be an almost impossible prospect to get permission.

If the copyright holder is a large corporation—like Viacom, or Disney—you can pretty much kiss goodbye to any hope of legally using the content. It’s not impossible, but if you can even get a response from them, they’ll probably ask for an extortionate amount of money.

If the copyright holder is another YouTuber—especially a YouTuber of similar or smaller stature to yourself—then your chances of getting permission go up somewhat. Whether they say yes will still come down to their preferences and what you intend to do with the content, but you should at least be able to talk to them about it.

Fair Use

Fair Use is a complicated topic that deserves more than a small section in this blog post, so we won’t try to cover everything here. To sum it up, however, the concept of fair use says that you should be able to use copyrighted material for limited and transformative purposes without the permission of the copyright holder. Some examples of fair use include commentary videos, and parody.

Unfortunately, there is no rigidly defined concept of what constitutes fair use, and it is not a law as such, but a defence. That means that fair use would not come into play until after you have been sued, and are in court defending yourself. Needless to say, companies like Disney are not shy about breaking out the lawyers, and they probably have more money than you.

So, while the concept of fair use is appealing, the practical nature of it means you can still fall afoul of copyright holders, no matter how reasonable your interpretation of fair use is.

False Flags

Another problem to be aware of is copyright holders claiming content that they do not have the rights to claim. This can happen in situations where the content has similar audio to some copyrighted content, or where the copyrighted content features some public domain or Creative Commons licenced work. It is nearly always the result of YouTube’s Content ID system, which automatically checks for copyright infringement.

Unfortunately, there are no checks in place to verify that the “copyright holder” actually owners the copyright to the content they are claiming. In most cases, you should be able to counter-claim it and, as long as it was an honest error, the claim will be removed.

Final Thoughts

As a general rule, you should strive to avoid using content that you didn’t create as much as possible. Granted, there are situations where it’s just not possible, but there will always be additional baggage with content you don’t own, even if it’s just YouTube demonetising the video for re-using existing content.

If you do have to use content from elsewhere, be sure to check the copyright status of it, and pay attention to any licencing that might apply.

And, if you are relying on fair use, it’s best not to push the boundaries of the fair use description… unless that’s precisely what you’re going for, of course.

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How to Make Gaming Videos Without Showing Your Face

How to Make Gaming Videos Without Showing Your Face 1

Gaming videos are incredibly popular on YouTube, as is to be expected—the gaming industry has far surpassed all other entertainment mediums in terms of revenue, so there’s clearly an appetite for it.

Now, we have written about making videos without showing your face before. There are a lot of you out there who are interested in making content, creating things, and growing a YouTube channel but don’t want to put your face on screen. And there are plenty of reasons why that might be the case, but does the gaming niche lend itself to this way of YouTubing?

YouTube Isn’t Twitch

The most common format for gaming videos—at least in the minds of most viewers—is the style made popular by the streaming service, Twitch. This style would typically see the majority of the screen taken up by the game being played, but with a corner of the screen given over to a small camera feed of the streamer. This is by far the most recognisable form of gaming video, but there are a few things to note about it.

Firstly, Twitch isn’t YouTube. Twitch is a platform built specifically for live streaming, and most YouTubers do not focus on streaming as their primary format.

Secondly, it’s worth remembering that just because most Twitch streamers use this style, it’s not mandatory, and many Twitch streamers have found success without showing their faces on stream, so there’s no reason a YouTuber can’t do the same thing.

Finally, there is more flexibility to the YouTube way of doing things, and more options when it comes to how you present your content. Twitch streamers are doing things in real-time; their content is live, raw, and unfiltered. YouTubers (when they are making videos and not streaming) can meticulously edit their content to create more complex narratives, jokes, or just to look slicker.

Common Faceless Gaming Video Styles

There are already many gamers making content on YouTube without showing their faces, so you have plenty of inspiration to draw from when deciding on a style of video to go with. Here are some of the most popular ones.

All Game, All the Time

By far, the simplest gaming video format is the 100% game style of video. With this type of gaming video, rather than worry about what to put on screen, the YouTuber just uses the footage of the game as the entirety of the visuals.

Of course, whether you would supplement this with anything is entirely down to you as a YouTuber. There are successful examples of gaming YouTubers who just play game footage without so much as an audio commentary. There are YouTubers who add humorous captions to go with the footage. There are even YouTubers who use gaming footage as a kind of visual placeholder while they talk about something completely unrelated to gaming, such as politics, or Internet drama.

Mask or Persona

The suitability of this style will depend on your reasons for not wanting your face on camera. If it is for privacy reasons, you may want to keep looking, as any video footage could potentially leak personal information if you are not careful.

If it is just a matter of shyness, however, you might consider creating a character, like Dr Disrespect, or just wearing a mask or costume. Doing this might take a bit of getting used to, but it often helps people who are too shy to show their face on camera to get comfortable with being in their videos.

And, in the longer term, it can serve as an effective stepping stone to completely abolishing that shyness.

Become a vTuber Gamer

This option has all the same benefits as a mask or costume, but with the added bonus that it works for privacy as well, since nothing from the real world will be onscreen. vTubers are YouTubers who control a virtual character rather than being onscreen themselves. These characters are often controlled through motion tracking devices—such as VR headsets—but can also be done using a keyboard and mouse. It’s worth remembering that, while this method has advantages over a simple mask or costume, it generally requires more expensive hardware, and is not necessarily beginner-friendly.

Think Outside the Box

The three styles shown above are the most popular ways of creating gaming videos without showing your face, but they are by no means the only ways.

Don’t feel like you have to fit into some pre-existing box when you set about creating your channel.

If you can come up with a way of creating gaming videos that is unique, you might even do better than if you had gone with a more familiar format.

Why Avoid Showing Your Face?

The two main reasons a YouTuber might want to avoid showing their face on camera are shyness and privacy.

Shyness, in particular, can seem strange to many, since being shy would seem to be at odds with wanting to make YouTube videos, but shyness can come in many forms.

There are rock stars who are comfortable performing in front of tens of thousands of people, who turn into shy, awkward mumblers in the face of an interview.

Privacy is pretty self-explanatory—some people value it more than others.

Final Thoughts

The meteoric rise of the gaming industry has ensured that the demand for gaming-related content is strong and, while over-saturation may be on the cards at some point, we don’t seem to be there yet. And even if we were, YouTube has a strong personality component to it, by which we mean you can still find an audience with unique and engaging content, even in a competitive niche.

If you are too shy, or you value your privacy too much to get in front of a camera, gaming is perhaps one of the better subject matters to dive in with, since it is easy to make content that feels perfectly natural without your face being in it.

And, of course, don’t be afraid to experiment. Push your comfort boundaries a little, and see what you can come up with.

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Everything You Need to Know About Buying and Selling YouTube Channels

What You Need to Know About Buying and Selling YouTube Channels

Buying and selling YouTube channels is big—and small—business. If you have got, or are getting, into YouTube for purely financial reasons, it’s entirely possible that you have an endgame in mind, where you get out of the game while there is a financial impetus to make it worth your while.

Even for YouTubers who had no intention of leaving… things can change.

So, for those of you who are or might be interested in buying or selling a YouTube channel, here is our handy everything you need to know guide to that very activity.

Can You Buy a YouTube Channel?

Yes. There is no law preventing the sale of this kind of asset, there are mechanisms in place within YouTube for the transfer of ownership, and there are people willing to sell their YouTube channel. All the pieces are there, you just need to find the right channel.

It should be noted that YouTube itself does not facilitate the buying and selling of YouTube channels, meaning you would have to protect yourself (hire a solicitor/lawyer), unlike when you buy things through something like eBay, which has certain protections in place.

Can You Sell a YouTube Channel?

Again, yes! YouTube does not prohibit the sale of YouTube channels, and as mentioned in the last point, there is a mechanism for transferring ownership to another user. However, also mentioned in the last point, you’re on your own from a legal standpoint.

This is worth reiterating because if you do not legally protect yourself when making this kind of transaction, and the person selling the YouTube channel rips you off, you could be left with no legal recourse. Or, at best, a lengthy and expensive legal proceedings to get your money back.

How Do YouTubers Receive Their Money? 3

Is Buying and Selling YouTube Channels Legal?

From a legal point of view, there is nothing unusual about a YouTube channel as a digital asset, so it is no more illegal than selling an e-book, or a downloadable video game.

That being said, you should always be aware that you become legally responsible for that channel when you buy it, and, if the channel has engaged in potentially illegal activity, you could be liable.

Obviously, if the previous owner had committed a crime in a video, they would still be the one responsible for that crime, but if there are a lot of copyright-infringing videos, for example, that would then become your responsibility.

How Much are YouTube Channels Worth?

This question is a bit of a “how long is a piece of string” style of question, since the answer varies significantly.

As with many things in life, there is something of an exponential scale, with channels with seemingly quite large audiences being worth very little, but channels with enormous audiences being worth millions. Here are some factors that contribute to the worth of a YouTube channel.

Your Channel, Your Face

Many YouTube channels feature a person—or people—on camera, and their audience becomes comfortable with that person. It’s not necessarily a celebrity/fan relationship (though that does happen on YouTube), but it’s similar.

So, if the face of that channel suddenly disappears, there’s a good chance the audience will react negatively to the change, and a smart potential buyer will factor that in.

Videos Decrease in Value Over Time

Unlike blog posts, which tend to gain authority in the eyes of search engines the longer they are online, most YouTube videos decrease in value the longer they are up. Indeed, a typical video will make a significant portion of its revenue in the first few days of being online.

If a potential buyer is looking to purchase a profitable channel, the fact that the profit will start to drop immediately without new videos is a problem.

Buying the Cutting Room Floor

Many buyers would also want to purchase any raw footage that was shot for the channel, even if it was never used in a video.

This is something that a lot of YouTubers would be reluctant to sell, and that even more YouTubers wouldn’t be able to sell. After all, video takes up a lot of space.

It can also be a little disconcerting to the selling YouTuber when they realise the implication of this agreement. The buyer would essentially have the complete ownership of hours of unseen footage—potentially containing embarrassing or problematic out-takes involving the YouTuber who is selling—that they could upload whenever they wanted.

HOW TO LIVE STREAM WITH ZOOM

How do I Sell a Personal YouTube Account?

For YouTube channels that are set up as a brand, changing ownership is a relatively simple process that involves adding the buyer as an owner. You or the buyer can then remove you as an owner and the transfer is complete.

However, for personal accounts, things are a little trickier. These accounts are tied to an email address and cannot be converted to a brand account without deleting the channel. This means that the only way to safely purchase the channel is by purchasing the entire email address, which may have been the YouTubers personal email address.

If the email address is not bought as part of the deal, the new owner will not be able to keep the old owner out of the YouTube channel’s account page, which could present problems if that previous owner ever took it upon themselves to cause problems.

Final Thoughts

You can certainly buy and sell YouTube channels, but, for most YouTubers, it’s really not worth it. Channels with tens of thousands of subscribers can go for as little as a few hundred dollars, and that is assuming that amicable terms can be reached by both parties. Channels with millions of subscribers are worth much more, of course, but if getting millions of subscribers was easy, we’d all be doing it!

If you do decide to buy or sell a channel, make sure you protect yourself from a legal standpoint, as there is real potential to get shafted and left with no practical legal recourse.

Top 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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

Categories
TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How to Write a YouTube Script

How to Write a YouTube Script

There are many YouTubers with what some would call the “gift of gab”, who are able to sit down (or stand up) in front of a camera and chatter away for a solid twenty minutes or longer with little more than a few scribbled notes for prompting. For those lucky few, YouTube can be a magical place. For many of us, much more work is required to make the YouTube dream a reality, and scripts soon become an important part of the process.

Unfortunately, knowing that you need a script for your YouTube videos and knowing how to write a YouTube script are two very different things. Fortunately, you have lovely articles like this one to help you along!

Know Your YouTuber

If you are writing a script for yourself—as many YouTubers do—this part should be relatively simple for you. We can all stand to learn a little more about ourselves, but hopefully you know yourself at least a little.

However, if you are writing a script for another YouTuber, it is important to know a little about them. Script writing can be a bit strange at times, since you are only creating part of the final product. A good script can die in the hands of a bad actor, just as a bad script can get by in the hands of a good actor. But the best scripts results are often achieved when the words on the page and the person reading them mesh.

If at all possible, you should write your script with the voice of the YouTuber who will be reading it in mind. We’re not talking about their literal voice (though that can sometimes help, too), but their voice in a broader, more metaphorical sense. Does what you’re writing suit their personality? Will it sound right coming out of their mouth?

Ultimately, a good YouTuber will be able to work with what they got, but why make it hard for them? And, if you are writing your own script, why make it hard for yourself?

How to Write a YouTube Script 1

Format Your Script Appropriately

Most YouTubers don’t embark on their YouTube career knowing how to write a proper script from the get go. Perhaps if you have a background in film studies, or you are an aspiring screenwriter, you will know the technical side of putting a script together.

However, that’s not what we mean.

Formatting your script appropriately is a contextual thing. If you are writing a script for a big YouTube channel, or perhaps you are making a short movie for YouTube, you should probably make that script look as professional and legitimate as possible. That being said, if you are writing for another YouTuber, they might have their own preferred format. And, if you are writing for yourself, you can pretty much do as you please as long as the result is usable by you!

Do Your Research

Working with a script provides a golden opportunity to be right first time. With live broadcasts—especially when the thing being broadcast includes interactions with uncontrollable external elements, like other people—there will always be an element of uncertainty. Things may get said that are not correct. Mistakes may get made.

Not so with produced videos.

If you are going to be taking the time to write out a script, take advantage of that process to ensure that everything you are saying is correct, both in a factual sense and in the sense that it works from a tone and cadence perspective.

Make Sure There is a Structure

When you boil it down, a script is just a story. In the same way that a work of fiction, or a blog post, or a news article has to have certain elements, so should your script.

There should be an introduction, where you establish the premise of the video while also grabbing the viewer’s attention. Remember, most viewers who decide to pass on your video will do it in the early stages. There should be a middle, which will contain the meat of the content. And, finally, there should be an end, or conclusion, where you satisfyingly finish the video and leave the viewers happy that they stuck around for the whole thing.

While the writing style is obviously very different, it can help to consider the elements of your script as though they were a blog post or short story. Is the viewer given reason to stay? Are they given what the video promised them? Is it entertaining?

Try It Out!

Do not, we repeat, do not just patter out a script on your keyboard, proofread it, and call it a day. As much as we all like to think that the voice in our heads is a reliable mirror of reality, the truth is that all manner of problems can be missed if you don’t—at the very least—read the script aloud before you mentally sign off on it.

The ideal scenario would be you reading your script to someone else, so you can get their opinion on it as well as your own, but if you can’t get another person involved, consider recording a dry read—it can be audio only—and listening back. This will often help you catch any weird quirks or difficult sentences that looked fine on the page.

Final Thoughts

YouTube scripts aren’t for everyone, and anyone that tells you otherwise should be given a healthy dose of suspicious side-eye.

That being said, they will help far more people than they harm, as most of us are just not that adept at free-flowing, natural sounding speech without something to help us along. Of course, speaking naturally while reading a script is also a skill that needs to be learned, but it is an easier skill than speaking off the cuff without any script at all.

If we could reiterate one piece of advice, however, it would be to read your script aloud before signing off on it. You would be amazed at what you can miss when you’re reading things in your head.

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How to Promote YouTube Videos on Twitter

How to Promote YouTube Videos on Twitter

The explosion of social media and sheer pervasiveness of its adoption has left us with no shortage of places to promote our YouTube videos when the time comes. There’s short form messaging platforms, long form message platforms, image-only platforms… you get the idea.

In fact, the main dilemma you face when promoting your work on social media is not the where (the answer to that being as many places as you can) but the how. And, as you might expect, the answer is different depending on which platform you are promoting to. You wouldn’t promote your work on Facebook the same way you would on Twitter. Well, you could, but you’d be missing out on an opportunity to maximise your potential.

In this post, we’re going to be looking at how to promote YouTube videos on Twitter.

Why is Promoting Videos on Twitter Different?

In truth, it doesn’t have to be. If you wanted, you could easily write a single update informing everyone about your new video, throw a link and maybe a few hashtags in there, and push it out to all of your social media platforms. It would get the information out, and it’s better than nothing.

The thing is, people don’t use every social media platform the same way. It’s a lot like evolution and natural selection. Animals can co-exist in different niches, but when two creatures are in direct competition for the same resources, one of them has got to go.

This is why Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and countless other social media platforms with their own unique take on things are able to exist alongside each other. Meanwhile, platforms like MySpace, Vine, and Path are no longer around.

Each platform is used in different ways, so it makes sense that promoting things on each platform would take a different form.

How to Promote YouTube Videos on Twitter 1

More Than Just an Update Feed

One of the main things Twitter users expect from you is some kind of inherent value to your content. In truth, this applies to all social media, but the form that value takes differs. What we mean by value, is that your Twitter account should give people a reason to follow it in its own right, not just because of the YouTube channel it is promoting.

If a Twitter account just exists to tweet out the latest videos, very few people follow it. And, if very few people are following it, there isn’t going to be much value in promoting your videos there.

You should try to use your account regularly, providing content that your potential audience enjoys. If you are a tutorial YouTuber, tweet tips and tricks from time to time. If you are a comedy YouTuber, tweet jokes. The idea is to get people to want to follow your Twitter account for the content you are putting out on the account. That way, when you promote a video, it won’t feel like you’re just advertising at them, and they are more likely to want to check it out because they already like your content.

Don’t be Afraid to Share Other YouTuber’s Content

Technically, this is kind of an addition to the above point, as it is essentially a way to add more value to your Twitter account. Don’t be afraid to share relevant content from other YouTubers if it has some value for your followers.

Yes, sharing content that could rightly be termed “competition” might sound counterintuitive at first, but ask yourself this; what are the chances that your viewers would never have come across your “competition” on their own?

The reality of being a content creator today is that there is no such thing as a completely untapped niche, and you will always have competition. The trick is to be authentically you. You might be delivering the same content, but you’re doing it your way.

But occasionally sharing useful content from other YouTubers not only adds value to your Twitter feed, it can help build positive relationships with those other YouTubers.

Put it in Your Bio

Unlike YouTube, many tweeters will head over to your bio before they click that follow button, which makes your bio quite important. You don’t have a lot of space to cram it all in, but you should make a special effort to get across what you do, and, if YouTube is your main thing, definitely put a link to your channel in there.

Get Involved

Another way in which Twitter is quite different from YouTube is in the reciprocal nature of the platform. Despite the comments, YouTube is very much a one-way experience. Not so with Twitter.

Twitter is a place for conversations, and conversations are a great way to find new people who are interested in the kinds of things you make videos about. Of course, you have to find a balance between getting involved on Twitter and spending far too much time on Twitter, but that’s a learning curve we all must master.

How to Promote YouTube Videos on Twitter 2

Always Use Hashtags

Hopefully, if you’ve been engaging with the relevant communities, you will already know which hashtags are appropriate for your content. But, if you don’t, make sure to do a little research and find out where the action is regarding the videos you make.

You don’t need to go overboard and populate your tweet with nothing but hashtags and a link, but there should be at least one or two in there to get your video in front of the right eyeballs.

Final Thoughts

Twitter is just one tool in your video promotion arsenal, but it happens to be the tools with the largest immediate reach. Sure, Facebook might have more users, but there is far less potential for your content to spread beyond your immediate circle on Facebook than there is on Twitter.

Like all tools, it needs to be used correctly to get the best out of it. But, as always, you need a foundation of good content. No matter how good your Twitter strategy is, there needs to be compelling content to promote with it.

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

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DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Can YouTubers See Who Viewed Their Video?

Do YouTubers Delete Negative Comments? 2

Can YouTubers see who viewed their video? The clear answer is no.

Creators get a wealth of anonymised data about their audience — but never the identity of any individual viewer. Watching a video is private. Here’s exactly what YouTube shows creators, what it keeps hidden, and why.

Why trust this? I’m Alan Spicer — a YouTube Certified Expert with two decades on the platform and six Silver Play Buttons. I’m in YouTube Studio every day, so this is exactly what creators can and can’t see about their viewers.

Want to actually understand your audience data? Book a free discovery call.

⚡ QUICK ANSWER: Can YouTubers see who viewed their video?
No. Creators cannot see the individual people who watched their videos. YouTube provides only anonymised, aggregated analytics — total views, watch time, age and gender ranges, location, devices and traffic sources — never a named list of viewers. Watching is private; the only things that attach your name are public actions you choose to take, like commenting.

Can YouTubers See Who Viewed Their Video?

It’s a natural assumption in a data-saturated world that creators can see everything about their audience. And they do see a lot — just none of it identifying. The one thing most YouTubers would really love to see, a list of exactly who watched, is the one thing YouTube does not provide.

Views are anonymous to the creator. It doesn’t matter whether a channel has fifty subscribers or five million — the analytics are aggregated into totals and ranges, never broken down to “this person watched.” The only way your name ever attaches to a video is through a public action you choose to take, like leaving a comment or being a public subscriber. The view itself stays private.

What Creators Can and Can’t See

✅ Creators CAN see (aggregated) ❌ Creators CAN’T see
Total views & watch time Who individually watched
Age ranges & gender split A viewer’s name or account
Countries & regions Whether a specific person watched
Devices, traffic sources, when viewers are online Any personal or contact details

What Data YouTubers DO Get

The upside is that the aggregated data is really rich — and far more useful for growth than a name list would ever be. In YouTube Studio analytics, creators can see:

  • Views and watch time — how much your content is actually being watched.
  • Audience demographics — age ranges and gender split of your viewers.
  • Geography — the countries and regions where you’re watched.
  • Devices and platforms — phones, TVs, desktops, and where playback happens.
  • Traffic sources — search, suggested, browse, external.
  • When your audience is online — handy for timing uploads.

That’s the data that actually drives decisions — none of it needs to identify a single person.

Why Can’t YouTubers See Individual Viewers?

One word: privacy. YouTube deliberately keeps individual viewing activity private so people can watch whatever they like without a creator tracking them. Imagine if every creator could see exactly who watched — viewers would think twice about clicking, and the whole platform would feel like surveillance. By aggregating everything, YouTube gives creators enough insight to grow while protecting the people behind the numbers. It’s the same principle that keeps your own watch history yours.

Want to turn your audience data into growth?

On a free discovery call we’ll read your analytics together and turn the anonymised numbers into a real plan.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

What Else Does YouTube Hide From Creators?

Viewers aren’t the only thing kept private. Creators also can’t see:

The theme is consistent: numbers and trends, yes; individuals, no.

How to See Your Viewer Analytics

Here’s where the aggregated data lives:

  1. Open YouTube Studio for your channel.
  2. Go to Analytics in the left-hand menu.
  3. Open the Audience tab for demographics, location and when viewers are online.
  4. Use the Reach and Engagement tabs for impressions, traffic sources and watch time.

Read those alongside your audience retention and you’ll understand your viewers far better than any name list could tell you.

Final Thoughts

So, can YouTubers see who viewed their video? No — and that’s by design. Creators get a rich, anonymised picture of what their audience does, never who those people are. As a viewer, you can watch freely knowing your activity is private. As a creator, the smart move is to stop wishing for a name list and start mining the aggregated data you do have — because that’s what actually grows a channel.

Viewer Privacy on YouTube: FAQ

Can YouTubers see who viewed their video?

No. YouTubers cannot see the identities of the individual people who watched their videos. YouTube only provides anonymised, aggregated analytics — total views, watch time, age and gender ranges, location, traffic sources and device types — never a named list of viewers. This protects viewer privacy.

What viewer data can YouTubers actually see?

Creators see aggregated analytics in YouTube Studio: total views and watch time, audience demographics like age range and gender, geographic location, the devices and platforms people watch on, traffic sources, and when their audience is online. It’s all grouped and anonymised, so no single viewer can be identified.

Can YouTubers see your account or name when you watch?

No. Watching a video is anonymous to the creator — they don’t see your account, name or profile. The exceptions are actions you choose to take publicly, like leaving a comment or being a public subscriber, which attach your channel name to that action, not to the view itself.

Can YouTubers see if a specific person watched their video?

No. There’s no way for a creator to check whether a particular person watched a video. YouTube’s analytics are aggregated by design, so even with a small audience a creator only sees totals and ranges, never individual viewing activity tied to a name.

Why can’t YouTubers see who viewed their videos?

Viewer privacy. YouTube deliberately keeps individual viewing activity private so people can watch freely without creators tracking them. Creators get enough aggregated data to understand and grow their audience, without any of it identifying the individuals behind the numbers.

What else does YouTube hide from creators?

Besides individual viewers, creators can’t see who specifically liked or disliked a video, who is subscribed if those subscriptions are private, or who shared a video. They see totals and aggregated trends for all of these, but not the individual people behind them.

Understand your audience — the right way.

A free discovery call gets you a two-decade head start on reading the data YouTube does give you and turning it into growth.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

A note on this guide: YouTube’s analytics and privacy model reflect YouTube Studio at the time of writing (July 2026); exact tabs and metrics can change between updates. See YouTube’s official Help Centre for the current layout.
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DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

What is the Best Frame Rate for YouTube?

Do YouTubers Have Managers?

In the interests of not leading you on, let’s just say straight at the top here; this is not going to be one of those posts that poses a question and gives you a straight forward answer, because when it comes to the best frame rate for YouTube, there is no direct answer.

However, my personal opinion as somebody who has been creating content on YouTube is – 24fps is a universally accepted baseline for YouTube frame rate quality for vlogging, educational videos and normal every day use. 30fps 60fps and higher is optimal for gamers and any higher is personal choice and only really needed for advanced video editing and slow motion content.

Like many things in the YouTubing world, the answer to this question varies substantially depending on what type of content you are making, and what your personal circumstances are.

We’re going to do our best to lay it all out for you so that, while we can’t just say “this is the best frame rate for YouTube”, you should at least have all the information you need to determine the best frame rate for you.

Cinematic vs YouTube

When uploading videos to YouTube, it’s crucial to consider the optimal frame rate to ensure a smooth viewing experience for your audience. Frame rate, expressed in frames per second (fps), is the frequency at which consecutive images (frames) are displayed in a video.

The ideal frame rate depends on the type of content, audience preferences, and devices used for playback. Here’s a breakdown of common frame rates, their suitability, and comparisons:

  1. 24 fps (Cinematic):
  • Standard frame rate for films and cinematic content.
  • Gives a “film look” due to motion blur.
  • Not ideal for fast-paced action, sports, or gaming content.
  1. 30 fps (Television Standard):
  • Common frame rate for television content, including news broadcasts and sitcoms.
  • A good balance between smooth motion and manageable file sizes.
  • Suitable for most content types, including vlogs, tutorials, and interviews.
  1. 60 fps (Smooth Motion):
  • Ideal for fast-paced action, sports, gaming, and high-quality live streams.
  • Offers very smooth motion and minimal motion blur.
  • May result in larger file sizes and longer upload times.

Frame Rate Comparisons

Frame Rate Pros Cons Best for
24 fps Film look, smaller file sizes Not ideal for fast-paced content Films, cinematic content
30 fps Balance of smoothness and file size Not as smooth as 60 fps Vlogs, tutorials, general content
60 fps Very smooth motion, minimal motion blur Larger file sizes, longer upload times Fast-paced action, sports, gaming

Examples:

  • A vlogger sharing travel experiences might choose 30 fps for a good balance of smoothness and manageable file sizes.
  • A gaming channel showcasing high-action gameplay would benefit from using 60 fps to capture the fast-paced action without sacrificing quality.
  • A short film or narrative content creator might opt for 24 fps to achieve the cinematic look.

The best frame rate for YouTube depends on the type of content you’re producing and your target audience’s preferences.

For most general content, 30 fps is a safe choice. However, for more cinematic content or fast-paced action, consider using 24 fps or 60 fps, respectively.

What Are Frame Rates? Why does YouTube Frame Rate Matter?

When you boil it down to its most basic components, video is essentially just a sequence of regular still images shown in quick succession.

Before the days of digital media, these image were stored on film and literally rolled in front of a bright light at a set speed to get the effect of moving pictures projected onto a screen, but these days we can just store it all in a digital file.

Frame rate is, quite literally, the rate at which the images—or “frames”—rush past your vision. If the frame rate is too low, the video will start to look more like a slide show than a video. If the frame rate is too high, the video will look fine but over a certain threshold, the human eye ceases being able to tell the difference, and those extra frames don’t come for free, as we’ll get into later in the post.

Shooting Frame Rate Vs Showing Frame Rate

The frame rate you shoot video at is not necessarily the frame rate you will show the video at. Two well known examples of this are silent movies and slow motion.

Silent movies were shot at the very limit of where film stops looking like motion and starts looking like choppy slideshow footage—typically between 16 and 18 frames per second. However, to give the final result a more fluid feel, they were shown at between 20 and 24 frames per second, which is also why movies from this era have that comical sped-up look to them.

At the other end of the spectrum, slow motion footage will often be shot at much higher frame rates than the human eye can discern, such as 480, and even 960 frames per second. The footage is then shown at something more reasonable, like 30 or 60 frames per second, with the result being much slower video.

What is the Best Frame Rate for YouTube?

How to Choose the Best Frame Rate for Your YouTube Channel – What Frame Rate Should I Use?

So, now that you know what the main variables are and how they affect your footage, how do you go about settling on a frame rate for your content?

Again, we can’t give any definitive answers that will suit everyone, but we can give you some firm guidelines that should steer you to the right answer.

Remember, we’re talking about the frame rate that you show export your videos at, not necessarily the frame rate you shoot at.

What is the lowest frame rate for YouTube? [The Hard Floor]

Unless you are recreating the old silent movie effect we were talking about, you should never use a frame rate lower than 24 frames per second.

Below this speed your video will start to look choppy, giving the impression of low quality footage, or possibly Internet connectivity issues.

Even YouTube suggests that a lower frame rate(below 24 FPS), you will experience choppy quality, and the video will seem like it’s lagging in real-time. As a matter of historical fact, 24FPS for movies was initially agreed upon back in 1926 by projectionists, as motion pictures hit the talkies.

What is the highest frame rate on YouTube? [The Pointless Ceiling]

Showing video over 120 frames per second goes beyond what the human eye can distinguish, and so is wasted. And we’re being generous with 120, the truth is it’s closer to 75 frames where our eyes tap out.

The quality of the video will look fine, of course, but you will be putting a lot of unnecessary file size (not to mention processing time when editing) into your videos for little-to-no gain on the end result.

What is max frame rate for YouTube? – In 2014 YouTube added 60fps but that has been its top end frame rate every since. After years of capping video playback at 30 frames per second. Back in June 2014, YouTube announced that 60 FPS video playback was on the way in “the coming months.

Does YouTube support 120 fps videos? – No. YouTube currently supports up to 60fps HD video playback on Chrome and Safari. However, If you upload a 120fps video to YouTube, it will be converted to 60fps automatically for compatibility and compression.

What is the difference between 60fps and 120fps? – A 60Hz monitor refreshes the screen 60 times a second, so at 60 fps there is a frame drawn every time the screen refreshes, and at 120 fps there is a frame drawn every time the screen refreshes and once in between refreshes, so it’s not shown on the screen but does get drawn.

What is the Best Frame Rate for YouTube? 1

How much does frame rate cost? [Economics]

Good video recording equipment is not cheap, and it gets more expensive when you need it to do more, such as record at higher frame rates.

If money is no object for you then you can disregard this point entirely, but if, like the vast majority of us, you have to work within budgetary constraints, you might want to prioritise your spending. If the best camera you have can only shoot in 720p, you should look to upgrade it when you can, but 720p video is not the end of the world.

On the other hand, if you are shooting your video in 4K, but you have had to drop the frame rate and other settings because your hardware isn’t up to the task of editing and exporting, you need to ask yourself if 4K is really that important to your channel.

Style

Finally, when all other factors have been considered, we come to the stylistic reasons for choosing a frame rate. As a general rule, 30 frames per second is fine for the majority of content on YouTube. If you are filming something cinematic—perhaps a short film—you will want to drop the frame rate to 24, as that is the standard rate for movies, and our brains recognise it as such.

On the other hand, if you are just vlogging or shooting regular footage, 30 frames per second avoids the weird disconnect we get from seeing footage that is shot in a cinematic frame rate but isn’t actually cinematic. If you are shooting action footage—a point of view recording of you surfing, for example—you will want to bump that frame rate up to at least 60, if not 90 or 120 frames per second. The lower number of frames is most evident when things are moving fast, and that tends to be the case for action footage.

Shooting Frame Rate

For most of the content on YouTube, your shooting frame rate will be the same as your final frame rate. It makes life a little easier when editing and exporting, and most YouTubers don’t need to do anything fancy with their video settings.

If you are doing something like slow motion, however, you will probably have a bit of frame rate adjustment to take care of, but if you’re making slow motion videos, you probably don’t need us to tell you that.

The middle ground lies when you are shooting footage that contains both. An example of this might be a “follow-cam” shot of a skateboarder, where you would have normal speed footage as they skate along, but switch to slow motion when they do a trick. In this case it would make more sense to shoot the whole thing in the higher frame rate and deal sort it all out in editing.

Adjusting Frame Rates in Editing

Frame rates can be adjusted after the fact, but it’s important to remember that, at the moment, you should avoid reducing the frame rate to something lower than what it was shot in. At least with the regular software tools we have today.

Because there will still be the same amount of frames available, slowing down the footage will result in that slide show effect we talked about. There are clever AI-based tools being developed that can interpolate between two frames and insert more frames to make the transition smoother, but at the time of writing, these tools are far from perfect and not widely available.

Increasing the frame rate—which will have the effect of speeding up the footage—should be fine, since the process is just cutting out frames and squashing the remaining ones together. It is always easier to remove information than it is to add it.

Do YouTubers Charge for Collabs? 1

Recording Equipment

These days, if you are buying a dedicated recording device that is not a webcam, you won’t need to think about frame rate unless you are doing something like slow motion. Generally speaking, all cameras will offer at least 24 and 30 frames per second recording, with most cameras also offering 60 frames per second. If you are happy with the quality of the video itself, the frame rate will be fine.

If you are shooting something like slow motion, you will need a special camera for that, but you probably already knew that. It’s also worth noting that, with the ever-impressive quality of phone cameras, many YouTubers are forgoing expensive cameras and just using their iPhone or Android, and who can blame them? The quality is great on those little devices these days.

Final Thoughts

Frame rates are typically the kind of thing that you don’t think about unless what you’re doing is intrinsically linked to it—such as is the case with slow motion video. For the most part, YouTubers are more concerned with things like the resolution, especially with more and more 4K displays hitting the market every day. And the truth is there is no need to think about it for many YouTubers. For most of us, we can buy a camera, set it to a recording pre-set, and the frame rate it spits out will be perfectly fine for the content we are making.

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

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DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Why Do All YouTubers Have Anxiety?

Why Do All YouTubers Have Anxiety?

Okay, let’s get this out of the way at the top; not all YouTubers have anxiety, but there certainly does seem to be a high prevalence of anxiety among YouTubers when compared to the regular population. In this post, we’re going to explore some of the potential reasons for that, as well as ponder and muse over the implications of it.

In my personal opinion why all youtubers have anxiety – Being a YouTube creator lends itself to a certain personality type. The introvert who wishes to be creative, without their comfort zone mostly solitary. However, as they grow audience, channel growth or failure can become a wider concern and bucks against the introvert personality.

So, before we get into this, we would be negligent if we didn’t make it completely clear that I am not a mental health expert. Where necessary, you will find links to more authoritative sources, but this post is going to explore the subject from the perspective of a YouTuber, not a therapist.

At the end of the post there will be a section on tips for reducing stress as a YouTuber, but if you are suffering from serious anxiety, we fully recommend seeking real help rather than relying on the contents of posts like this one.

Why Do All YouTubers Have Anxiety?

The first thing we want to address is that the framing of this question carries with it an implication that isn’t necessarily correct.

It assumes that the driving factor is YouTube, that there is something about YouTube that leads people to develop anxiety.

Of course, without any additional evidence, it could very possibly be the other way round. There could be something about people who are prone to anxiety that leads them to want to start a YouTube channel. It is also entirely possible that YouTubers are not proportionally worse for anxiety than non-YouTubers, but that YouTubers who suffer from anxiety are just more visible, and so it seems like there’s more of them.

The point we’re trying to make here is that it’s important not to box your considerations in. The prevalence of anxiety among YouTubers could have come about in several ways—or even a combination of ways.

Why Do All YouTubers Have Anxiety? 1

The Tortured Artist

While not every YouTuber is a whirlwind of creativity, it is often the case that someone who takes it upon themselves to become a YouTuber is a little more creative than your average person.

There is also a well established trope of tortured creative types who exorcise their inner demons through their art, but are ultimately a roiling mess of inner turmoil.

As much as this theory might make sense, as best we can tell, there is no confirmed link between creativity and these kinds of disorders. It would have been nice and neat, but it looks like this ain’t it.

Social Anxiety

Though anxiety wouldn’t necessarily be social anxiety, it is a form of anxiety, and one that leads people to avoid social settings. Even people with a crippling phobia for social situations are humans, and, for the most part, humans want to connect with other humans.

YouTube allows you to do just that.

It’s one of the many weird quirks of the human mind that someone who can barely function in a room with twelve other people could happily record a video of themselves and show it to a few million people, but there you have it. Being a YouTuber allows you to develop a community, meet people, and express yourself without ever having to set foot in a crowded party. This is all speculation on our part, of course, but it makes sense to us.

The Stress of Exposure

Anyone who has seen one of the many sad stories of child actors who end up with a laundry list of drug offences and assorted other brushes with the law will be well aware of what fame and exposure can do to a mind that is not ready for it.

While the fame YouTubers experience isn’t quite the same as the fame someone like Lindsay Lohan experienced, it is still a massive amount of exposure. Add that to the fact that many YouTubers start out making a passion project or just doing something for fun and never really expect it to go anywhere, and you have a recipe for successful YouTubers finding themselves thrust into celebrity status without being mentally prepared for it.

Whether it’s the new expectations on the YouTuber to behave a certain way, the potential threats to privacy and safety, or just the plain fact that there are hundreds of thousands—even millions—of people watching your videos, it is perfectly understandable that this situation may lead to a little anxiety.

Over-Representation

We touched on this above, but there is also the fact that YouTubers are far more visible than your average anxiety sufferer. Vloggers in particular are likely to talk about something like anxiety if they are suffering from it, since their channel is essentially built around them talking about their life.

In the US, nearly 20% of the population suffers from an anxiety disorder. When you consider how much the average person in your life opens up to you about the deepest parts of their life, versus how much a typical YouTube tells you about their life, it seems very possible that anxiety among YouTube is on par with non-YouTubers, it’s just that YouTubers talk about it more.

Why Do All YouTubers Have Anxiety? 2

Tips for Dealing With Anxiety on YouTube (YouTube Burn Out)

First and foremost, once again, this is not medical advice. If you are suffering from anxiety to the point that it is debilitating and affecting your quality of life in a serious way, seek professional help.

Identify the Things That Trigger Your Anxiety

You may need the help of a therapist to establish what your triggers are, but some common triggers include;

  • Caffeine
  • Chronic pain
  • Medication side effects
  • Stress
  • Trauma

Some anxiety sufferers are luckier than others—someone who is triggered by caffeine can simply stop drinking caffeine, whereas anxiety brought on by chronic pain is less likely to be something you can simply cut out. After all, if your chronic pain was easily curable, you’d have it cured, right?

The idea is to eliminate where you can, and manage when you can’t eliminate. For example, many forms of chronic pain can be eased with regular exercise or stretching, which, coincidentally, can help with anxiety. Trauma can be worked through with a therapist. Medication is trickier, but there are rarely no other options. Examine your triggers and find out if there is a way of managing them.

Stay Healthy

The human body is a complicated thing, and our mood and mental state is much more greatly affected by things than we often appreciate. Keeping your body healthy can go a long way to improving your state of mind, which in turn can help with feeling anxious.

Now, we’re not talking about running marathons or developing rock solid abs (though there’s nothing wrong with those things if that’s what you want). Being healthy just means being in good shape. If you get out of breath going up the stairs, or your body complains when you perform even a moderately physical task, it’s going to affect your mental state.

Create a Relaxing Space

Anxiety is often brought on by environmental factors, and it can help to create an environment that counteracts that. It be a single room in your house (often the bedroom), or it could be your whole house, but work out what relaxes you and make a space that contains those things. From lighting to aromas, consider every aspect, and make a space that puts you at ease.

Take Up Meditation

It doesn’t work for everybody, but taking some time out of each day to clear your head, centre your self, or do whatever it is you need to do relax and take your mind off of the things that cause you anxiety can really help to… well… manage your anxiety.

While we’re here, we can put other activities like yoga or a peaceful walk through some nice scenery in the same boat. Sure, they’re not meditation strictly speaking, but they can have much the same effect.

Why Do All YouTubers Have Anxiety? 3

Change Your Diet

This one is a slow burner as it can take months to really kick in, but changing your diet can help to manage anxiety. As a general rule, you want to skew your meals towards the healthier end of the spectrum because being healthier in and of itself can help with anxiety. There are also some foods that are thought to help, such as lemon balm, valerian root, kava kava, dark chocolate, and more.

Final Thoughts

As with most things in life, there is no quick or easy fix to something like anxiety, and it might be the case that you need to combine several of the suggestions we’ve made in this post to see noticeable results.

As for the apparent correlation between YouTubers and anxiety, it looks as though it is a case of correlation, not corroboration. If there is something about YouTubing that causes anxiety, it is yet to be discovered. Then again, YouTube is relatively new to the world, and it is entirely possible some researchers will one day find evidence to the contrary.

It should go without saying, however, that if you are suffering from anxiety, and you find that YouTubing is the cause, put your mental health first. Take time off, change your schedule, do what you need to do. If you have fostered a healthy community around your channel, your subscribers will understand.

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Do YouTubers Delete Negative Comments?

Do YouTubers Delete Negative Comments?

It is no secret that YouTube has a bit of a reputation for less than positive comments. Indeed, it is often considered good advice to up and coming YouTubers to avoid the comments altogether. Like most social platforms on the web, many-a-YouTuber has learned the hard way that no matter how well they might conduct themselves online and on their channel, they can’t control how the people who watch their content act.

Or can they?

As a YouTuber there are many tools at your disposal to help make your channel as friendly as possible. You can report spam comments, hide particular commenters so that their comments don’t show up on your videos any more, and, yes, delete comments entirely.

Do YouTubers Delete Negative Comments?

As you’ve probably already guessed, the answer to this question is not as simple as it perhaps could be. Which is to say; the answer is yes, YouTubers do delete negative comments—it certainly does happen. But not all YouTubers, and there’s no practical way of knowing what percentage of YouTubers do, though we suspect it’s a minority.

For larger YouTubers who can get hundreds—even thousands—of comments a day, it is simply not practical to delete every negative comment. Even if the negative comments made up a vanishingly small portion of the overall comments, they would still have to be aware of those comments, and noticing a few comments among thousands—no matter how mean or inappropriate—is a difficult task to say the least!

Still, someone YouTubers nevertheless make the effort to prune comments of anything that is not conducive to the kind of atmosphere they are trying to build with their channel, so let’s take a look at some of the reasons a comment may find itself being removed.

Do YouTubers Delete Negative Comments? 1

Why Do YouTubers Delete Comments?

There are several reasons a comment might find its way into the trash, and none of them are universal, which is to say that something that might be perfectly acceptable in the comments of one channel might be wholly inappropriate on another. There is, of course, a practically endless list of reasons why a YouTuber might choose to delete a comment, including things like “because I don’t like them”, but we’re going to focus on the most common reasons.

Explicit Language

One of the most common reasons to remove comments is because they contain explicit language. In this case, it is the language itself, rather than the content or intent of the comment, that gets the message deleted.

This could be because the YouTuber wants to foster a family friendly community around their channel, or it could just be because they don’t like explicit language. Whatever the reason, if you are commenting on a channel like this, find ways to express yourself that don’t involve swearing!

Offensive Comments

A couple of caveats need to be made here. Firstly, when we say “offensive”, we are talking as universally as possible. Offence is a very subjective thing, and what offends one person might not offend another, but we can generally assume that if someone is maliciously insulting someone else, it is an offensive comment.

The second caveat is that offensive comments are distinct from explicit language. It is possible to use explicit language in a way that is not offensive (beyond any offence caused by the word itself). For example, it is very common in the UK to use explicit language when talking to a friend. On a similar note, it is perfectly possible to be offensive without using explicit language.

So what do we mean by offensive comments? Generally speaking, anything that is attacking someone else, whether it be personal insults or insults directed at a group of people with obvious intent to upset.

Hot Button Topics

This one is a little trickier since what constitutes a hot button topic these days changes so quickly. Essentially we are talking about any topic that tends to polarise people and cause arguments, with religion and politics being two of the biggest culprits for this.

Again, not every YouTuber will care if these things are being talked about in their comments, but for YouTubers who want to foster a friendly atmosphere and a sense of community, it is often best to keep these kinds of topics out of the comments altogether, as they invariably end in arguments, division, and bad blood.

Do YouTubers Delete Negative Comments? 2

Troll Comments

Trolls are not always the easiest thing to identify, since part of their shtick is often mocking or insulting you without you realising, which is why this type of comment is separate from offensive comments, since trolls may not necessarily be offensive in any given comment.

It is more a pattern of behaviour than a specific comment. It could be repeated comments criticising silly things, or criticising the same thing over and over. We’re not suggesting YouTubers should delete any criticism they get, but when criticism isn’t constructive, it serves no useful purpose.

Spam Comments

Spam comments tend to get reported as such, rather than just deleted, but they do get deleted. These are comments that are only there to draw attention to something else, like another channel, or a website. They are usually identifiable by the fact that use generic language and in no way reference the content of your videos. And, of course, they will attempt to link out to something else in the body of the comment. Some spam comments don’t link, but rely on the curiosity of the reader to click on their profile based on what they have said. Regardless, they add little value to the community and rarely share anything that your viewers would be interested in.

Videos for Children

While there are a range of things that can be considered offensive, hurtful, or inappropriate to an adult, most adults can, ultimately, manage their emotional state sufficiently to come away from such a situation unscathed, but what about children. Most of us can agree that children should be protected to some degree from the more unsavoury elements of online interaction. How much of a degree that is, and what age it stops, are things people will probably never come to a unanimous agreement over.

As it turns out, YouTube has taken the decision out of our hands. Videos that feature children automatically have commenting disabled, so there is no fear of child viewers running into unpleasant comments on those videos. Indeed, the YouTube Kids app does not have the ability to show comments at all.

It’s worth remembering this because some YouTubers do deactivate their comments entirely, and some of those YouTubers are heavily criticised for it (typically when the content of the video is controversial or, ironically, offensive), so remember, if the video features children, it probably wasn’t the YouTuber’s choice to disable the comments.

Censorship

Another reason you may see comments vanish from a YouTube video’s comment section is YouTube themselves.

Although heavily criticised, YouTube does on occasion remove comments that present as red flags in the ever-changing algorithm that YouTube has going on behind the scenes.

We won’t pretend to know what YouTube deems unacceptable enough to remove without consulting the YouTuber whose video the comments are on, but they have been known to remove harsh language about nations, and even comments containing Chinese-language words related to the Communist Party (CCP), though in the case of that last one, YouTube claimed it was an error.

How to Avoid Getting Your Comments Deleted

If you’ve found that your comments get deleted often, there is likely behaviour that you need to change to stop that from happening. If it only ever happens with one particular YouTuber, we’re not saying it’s impossible that the YouTuber has a problem with you specifically. However, more often than not, the problem is with the commenter, especially if it happens across multiple channels.

The most general advice we can give is to just be polite. If you are constantly getting into arguments with people, calling people names, saying mean things about the creator of the videos you’re commenting on, you significantly increase the chances that your comment will get deleted.

More specifically, try to observe the type of community that has formed around the videos you are commenting. If every comment is wholesome, friendly, and free of bad language, your comments probably should be as well. On the other hand, if everyone is swearing and insulting each other, you should be safe to do the same.

Final Thoughts

It can be frustrating when you get your comments deleted, or comments are closed, and you can’t contribute in the first place. Try to remember that it’s not always the YouTuber’s conscious decision to remove your comments. And, when they did take the time and effort to specifically remove your comment, most of the time, they will have had a reason for it.

And, if you are a YouTuber, the best thing you can do when it comes to deleting comments is find a balance. Try not to stifle the conversations your videos create, but at the same time, don’t be afraid to create the type of community you want to create.

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Do YouTubers Charge for Collabs?

Do YouTubers Charge for Collabs?

The question of do YouTubers charge for collabs is one that be answered very simply or in great detail. In the interests of getting to the point; do YouTubers charge for collabs? Yes. It definitely happens. In the interests of answering the question more accurately, however, it should be noted that not all YouTubers charge for collabs, and the true answer to the question is “it depends”.

Like a good deal of behaviour on YouTube, paying for collabs happens. It even happens with enough regularity that there are services dedicated to helping small YouTubers find relevant larger YouTubers who, for a little cash, will do a collab with them.

Like some kind of dating website only with a much stronger scent of capitalism. That being said, it does not automatically follow that if you want to do a collab with a YouTuber, you will have to pay them.

Every YouTuber is different, and you may find that the YouTuber you are considering approaching will not do collabs under any circumstances (or will not do a collab with you under any circumstances), or that they will happily do a collab for free, or anything in between. The spectrum of expectation is broad enough that we can confidently say for any expected response, there is a YouTuber out there who will respond that way.

So, if you’re interested in learning more, let’s dive a little deeper!

What are “Collabs”?

Short for collaboration, a collab is the name given to the process when multiple YouTubers team up to make a video—or series of videos—together. This can be for no other reason than content creators liking each other and wanting to work together, but it often has more practical connotations. We’ll get into some of the more common reasons why collabs happen in the next section, but first…

Do YouTubers Charge for Collabs? 1

Examples of Collab Videos

Let’s take a look at some types of collab videos you might encounter on YouTube, or that you might look to create yourself.

General Team Up

This is the most common type of collab you might come across, and it is one that spans many different genres and niches. In this type of collab, two or more come together to do something all at once.

It could be play a multiplayer video game, play a musical number, take on a DIY project, or really anything where all the participants can come together to make the video with each other.

Specialised Collabs

In this type of collab, two channels with the same or similar niches will team partner up, but each make their own videos. The idea here is that each participant of the collab will tackle a different part of the subject of matter, and all the videos that are part of the collab will be plugged by the other videos.

This could be educational content where two YouTubers each tackle different but complimentary topics, or a construction project where each participant handles a different part of the job.

Challenge Collabs

Another popular type of collab is the challenge collab, where the participants face off against each other to do a specific thing. For game development YouTube, this could be something like “make a game in 24 hours”. For music YouTube, it might be something similar like “make a song in 2 hours”.

Why Do YouTubers Collab?

There are several reasons why a YouTuber might choose to do a collab, and, surprisingly, they do not have anything to with money most of the time. It is often the case that the reasons for doing the collab are different for each participant, so let’s take a look at those reasons.

Exposure

The single biggest reasons a smaller YouTuber would want to collab with a larger YouTuber is the exposure they will gain. Having their channel put in front of the eyes of a much bigger audience can provide a significant boost to their channel’s growth, as long their content is good, of course.

Naturally, this reason for collabing is a one way street in that the bigger YouTuber will not gain much—if any—exposure from appearing with the smaller YouTuber. That does not mean there is nothing in it at all for the larger YouTuber, however.

PR

The biggest benefit a bigger YouTuber will get out of doing a collab with a smaller YouTuber is the positive PR from being seen helping out smaller YouTubers. YouTubers who are happy to help the little guys, so to speak, are often more liked among viewers, and YouTubers with loyal audiences have a much better chance of being around for a long time to come.

Just Because

It’s worth noting that just because there is the potential for good PR from a collab, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s why the bigger YouTuber is doing it. Some big YouTubers are genuinely just nice people, and are happy to help out the little guys regardless of whether there is anything in it for them.

Do YouTubers Charge for Collabs? 2

Friends

You often see YouTubers collabing with other YouTubers of a similar stature to themselves, but there is no rule that says YouTubers can only fraternise with similarly-sized YouTubers.

If YouTubers are friends, they might decide to collab just for the opportunity to work together, regardless of whether any or all of them get anything out of it.

A Good Cause

It has been known for YouTubers to come together to collab on something just because they believe in the thing they are collabing about.

This might be something noble, like planting trees, or something like preventing a faceless corporation from taking the top spot on YouTubers most-subscribed list.

Money

And finally we get to the reason that spawned this post in the first places. We don’t have any numbers on the amount of YouTube collabs that go on where money exchanges hands, but anecdotally, it doesn’t appear to be anywhere near a majority.

Still, it happens enough that entire services have appeared to facilitate these transactions, helping smaller YouTubers find a suitable larger YouTuber to propose a collab with, and enabling that larger YouTuber to get paid for it.

The Ethics of Paid Collaborations

The ethical side of this topic is very much a grey area due to the subjective nature of whether you think it is acceptable. We’re not going to pass judgement here, because this blog is about growing and succeeding on YouTube, and paying for collabs is one tool you can use to achieve those goals.

What we will say is that, even the general consensus was that paid collabs are morally questionable, they do not break any of YouTube’s terms of service, and they do not negatively affect other channels, so any argument against them would be one of preference.

Tips for Collabing

To finish off the post, we thought we’d cover a few tips to help you on your way to your next collab video.

Try to be Realistic

There is an argument to be made that you should aim high, and that is certainly one strategy to achieve success. This piece of advice is more for your own mental well-being than it is to do with any external factors.

Sure, if you have a channel with 2,000 subscribers and you propose a collab with a channel that has 12 million subscribers, you’ll probably get ignored—or at least turned down. But this rejection in and of itself is not damaging (unless you keep trying with the same YouTuber but more on that shortly), it is the effect on your state of mind from being repeatedly told no that we are warning against.

No Means No

If you do decide to reach for the stars when looking for a collab—or for any collab, for that matter—don’t be the person that refuses to take no for an answer.

You may not agree with another YouTuber’s reason for not collabing with you. Maybe you were ignored or brushed off without a reason.

The important thing to remember is that no matter how rude or mistaken you think they might have been, it’s their channel, and they get to decide what they do with it.

Work on Your Tone

There is a balance to strike when approaching a YouTuber for a collab, and it is somewhere between being too desperate and being too cocky. If you sound overly needy, you could put the YouTuber off before they even get started. Similarly, if you come off very cocky and full of yourself—especially if you’re the smaller YouTuber—you won’t make a very good impression on them.

Stay Relevant

When it comes to finding a YouTuber to collab with, size isn’t everything. The idea of collabing with a bigger YouTuber is to get exposure, but if the people you are being exposed to are not interested in the type of content you make, you are not likely to pick up many new viewers from the collab. For the most part, the bigger channel will likely moderate this themselves, since they will probably be more experienced with this kind of thing. But it doesn’t hurt to make sure you get experienced as well!

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

What is the Best Bitrate for YouTube Streaming?

What is the Best Bitrate for YouTube Streaming?

When you start delving into the details of video encoding, it can come as quite a shock just how much there is to tweak and adjust. Many of us will be content to choose an encoding preset that works and stick with that, and that’s fine for your average YouTube video, but what about streaming?

If you’re looking for a quick answer, here it is; the best bitrate for YouTube streaming is between 2,250 and 6,000 Kbps for 720p video at 60 frames per second. Of course, there is much more we can cover in this topic, which is precisely what we intend to do in this post. For example, why did we pick 720p? What is the best bitrate if you want to stream a different resolution to 720p? What is a bitrate?!

Let’s dive in.

What is a Bitrate?

The bitrate of a video is literally the rate that bits are transferred when streaming. The higher a bitrate, the higher the quality of the video can be. Bitrates can be fixed or variable, and the streaming platform can (as most do) make dynamic adjustments, such as dropping the quality of the video to compensate for poor connections, so that less bandwidth is required.

One way to think of bitrate is as a pipe through which water is flowing, with the water being your video content. The bigger the pipe, the higher the volume of water that can be transported at any given time.

What is the Best Bitrate for YouTube Streaming? 1

Why is Streaming Bitrate Different to Regular Video Bitrate?

When you watch a regular video, be it on YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, or anywhere else that serves streamed video content, there are a few factors that make it different from streaming live content.

The Source is Fixed for Regular Video

When streaming a video from a server somewhere, the video is already made. It is a file on a server, and it’s not going to change size, vary in quality, suffer from processing issues due to a bogged down computer, or anything else that might change the requirements on the streaming platform. Having this stability at the source allows the streaming platform to be more refined with its methods, and squeeze more performance out of it without worrying about large margins of error.

Timing is Less Important in Regular Videos

For a standard YouTube video, YouTube is essentially at liberty to produce the video as quickly—or as slowly—as they like. Now, don’t get us wrong, if you had to sit and wait for forty seconds for the video you put on to actually start playing, you’d probably be a bit annoyed. The point is that YouTube can take a little extra time to load in the content, and they can even buffer the content (load ahead of where you are in the playback) so that they have some extra information to compensate for erratic connections.

With streaming, the content is expected to be as close to live as possible. With live content, buffering is far less useful because the content is being created in real time; you can’t load ahead! The only way to buffer a live stream is to delay it so that the viewers are behind the live content, which is frustrating for those live viewers. Especially if there is a live chat situation and the streamer is interacting with their viewers.

The Requirements on Your Computer are Lower for Regular Videos

One thing that many aspiring YouTubers overlook—at least until they find out the hard way—is just how intensive working with video is on a computer. In the early days of Blu-ray, many computer owners excitedly bought themselves a Blu-ray drive for their computer, only to find out the computer wasn’t powerful enough to play back Blu-ray content!

Streaming is much more intensive than merely playing back content, because your computer is not just processing the video, it is encoding it as well. When you export a regular video, your computer can take its time and let you know when it’s done. When you stream, your computer has to do the same thing but instantaneously.

Now, of course, there are differences between the two processes—streaming sacrifices some quality to ensure fast encoding times—but it should give you an idea of why streaming is so hard on a computer. Especially when you consider that there’s a good chance the streamer’s computer will be doing other things beside streaming, such as playing video games. Some streamers get around this by having an entirely separate computer dedicated to the streaming side of things, and doing their gaming on a different computer, but that’s obvious not an option for everybody.

So, how does this tie in to bitrates? Well, the higher the quality of the video, the higher the bitrate. You may find that your maximum bitrate is not limited by your connection, but by the power of your streaming computer.

Quality Can be Higher for Regular Videos

Because of the above points, the quality of a regular YouTube video can be quite high compared to a stream, with a typical streaming resolution being 720p, compared to the standard YouTube video resolution of 1080p, with 1440p and 4K beginning to show up more and more.

Of course, this will change as Internet connections become faster, more reliable, and more widespread. We are already at a point where 4K content is available on services like Netflix, which means there must be enough of a user-base able to stream 4K to make it worth those platform’s while to provide that content. And, if we’re streaming 4K video today, we will probably be live-streaming 4K video in the not-too distant future.

Finding the Best Bitrate

Assuming your computer is capable of processing the video that you are putting out, your only limitation on bitrate is your Internet connection or the destination platform. If you go by YouTube’s recommendations, you would be looking at a bitrate of 51,000 Kbps for the highest quality streaming they support—4K video at 60 frames per second, so it is unlikely your bitrate will ever need to be higher than that on YouTube. At least, not until they start supporting 8K streaming.

Since your bitrate is essentially a single-value representation of your video content as it is being transferred, you can tweak just about any setting to change the bitrate requirements of your video. For example, if you switch from 4K content to 1440p content, you are essentially halving the amount of information that needs to be sent because each frame is half as big.

There are more subtle changes you can make, such as lowering the frame rate from 60 frames per second to 30 frames per second, which once again will halve the amount of information being sent because there will be half as many frames. You can also change codecs to something with a more aggressive compression, or make smaller changes across the board to get an overall lower bitrate.

Is Screen Recording YouTube Illegal?

Visual Information

Methods of compressing video content are constantly evolving, and are increasingly effective in the streaming arena, but it is useful to understand a little about what is going on in this regard, so you know how the type of content you are filming can affect your bitrate.

We mentioned above that switching from 4K to 1440p essentially halves the amount of information you are sending; this technically not true. It would be true if the video was being sent raw and uncompressed, but video like that would be enormous and not practical for today’s Internet connections.

The basic concept of compressing video is that duplicate information is bundled together. An easy way to visualise this is with a list;

  • Black pixel
  • Black pixel
  • Black pixel
  • Black pixel
  • Black pixel

Our list tells us that there are five black pixels, but we can represent that more efficiently like this;

  • 5x black pixels

Compression does this to your video, finding information that can be bundled together so that it takes less space when it is transferred over the Internet.

This is why video that doesn’t have a lot going on requires less bitrate than video that is all action. If a streamer is sat talking in front of a static background, the compression algorithm can practically render half the screen “free” in terms of data costs because it is unchanging. On the other hand, if the streamer is playing a fast-paced game in full screen, every frame will be different, and there will be much less that can be compressed, increasing the necessary bitrate.

Final Thoughts

If you choose a preset for your stream, and it works, there is no pressing need to go optimising things for the lowest possible bitrate you can get away with. YouTube will take care of the variable side of things, and as long as your connection and computer are up to the task, your end will be fine.

That being said, if you do want to get under the hood and tweak your streaming settings, be sure to enlist the help of someone (or a few someones) to check your stream is playing how you hope before you go live with it.

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

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.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

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DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS

How to Make YouTube Videos Without Showing Your Face

Do YouTubers Get Paid if I Use AdBlock?

Starting a YouTube channel presents a number of hurdles to jump at the best of times, and that is only more evident when you are getting out of the gate with a number of restrictions on what you can make.

One of the more common restrictions that people place on themselves when starting a YouTube channel is to enact a “no-face” rule. We’ll look at why this might be the case below, but the rule is simple enough; some YouTubers don’t want (or, in some cases, can’t have) their face on camera. For those people, the techniques and formats available to them are a little more restrictive than your average YouTuber, but it is far from impossible to find a way to make it work.

Obviously such a YouTuber won’t be making your stereotypical vlogs, where they talk directly to the camera for five minutes with their face front and centre. We’re going to give you a quick run down of ideas for videos without showing your face at the end of this post, but that’s a topic that deserves a post of its own, so we won’t dwell too long on the ideas side of things here. Instead, we’re going to look at how best to make your faceless YouTube channel work, including areas that should be be focussed on to make up for the lack of a face to put to the channel.

Why Would a YouTuber Not Want to Show Their Face?

The most obvious reason a YouTuber might want to keep their face offscreen is shyness. It may sound a little counterintuitive that someone might want to create and run a YouTube channel but is too shy to be on camera, but it’s not a particularly uncommon phenomenon. You only need to look at the creative world for a brief time and you should be able to find plenty of musicians, directors, even actors who are happy to ply their craft in front of thousands of people, or on movies that will be seen by millions, and those people are still awkward in front of a camera doing a plain interview.

There is also the matter of anonymity. Anonymity can be desired for a number of reasons, from just plain not wanting to have your identity out there, to protecting yourself or your family from the potential backlash of things you might be saying or doing on your channel. It could also be a for safety reasons, such as would be the case for YouTubers in countries with oppressive laws and a dim view about criticising the government.

The Faceless Stats

Videos without showing the creator’s face have gained popularity across various genres on YouTube. Here are some interesting statistics and facts about faceless videos and the creators behind them.

  1. Faceless Video Categories on YouTube:
Category Percentage of Faceless Videos
ASMR 45%
Cooking & Food 25%
Art & Animation 15%
Gaming 10%
DIY & Crafts 5%
  1. Top 5 Faceless YouTube Creators (by subscribers as of September 2021):
Creator Subscribers Category
Tasty 20M Cooking & Food
5-Minute Crafts 70M DIY & Crafts
HowToBasic 14M Comedy & Tutorials
Baumgartner Restoration 1.7M Art Restoration
The Relaxed Guy 800K Nature & Relaxation
  1. Faceless Video Viewership:
Viewership Metrics Statistics
Average Views per Video 500,000
Average Likes per Video 15,000
Average Comments per Video 2,000
  1. Top 3 Countries Consuming Faceless Content:
Country Percentage of Global Faceless Video Viewers
United States 40%
United Kingdom 20%
Canada 10%

How to Make YouTube Videos Without Showing Your Face

Making videos without showing your face makes things a little trickier, but not too much. We’re going to go over some things you should focus on to make sure your faceless videos still do the job.

For the most part, these should apply to any type of video you choose to make, though you should apply a little common sense to each. For example, you don’t need to spend money on a fancy microphone if you don’t talk!

How to Make Videos Without Showing Face 3

Audio Quality

Now, we would ordinarily recommend striving for the best audio quality regardless of the type of video you are making, whether it has your face in or not. Somewhat counterintuitively for a video platform, poor audio quality is often a significant factor in driving viewers away—far more than poor video quality.

The first thing to make sure is that your video export settings are on point. If you’re getting fuzzy or crackling audio in your finished videos when it was fine going in, you probably have some export settings to tweak.

The next thing is your audio quality going in. If you are using something computer generated voices, or you are putting together compilation videos of other clips, you should do your best to make sure the input audio quality is high, because it will only get worse through the export and YouTube’s compression if it is poor going in.

Give the Viewers Something to Latch on To

Branding has become an integral part of any kind of success using the Internet. What used to be a discussion about the colours used by a corporation or the logo for a new global product release has become commonplace among individuals using YouTube and other social media.

For individuals, a face is often all the branding you need. It is recognisable, often unique, and it belongs to you. Unfortunately, if you can’t or don’t want to show your face in your videos, this branding option is off the table. But that doesn’t erase the power that branding has.

So, without your face, you need to make sure that branding void is filled. A logo is always a good start, but at the very least you should have a consistent colour scheme. The idea is that your videos (and any other media you make) are recognisably yours, even at a glance. This brand recognition helps you better retain new viewers.

Have a Clear Purpose in Mind

This one could be just as easily applied to any type of YouTube channel, and it’s just as important here. Your viewers are going to want to know what they’re getting into, and if your content is wildly different each upload, it’s going to put people off of coming back.

Now, this is a little more complicated than it seems, because what your viewers are coming there for can cover a wide range of things. For example, they may be coming for your commentary and personality, in which case that is the thing that needs to be consistent. You could be talking about completely different things from video to video, as long as you are still being you.

Similarly, if viewers are coming to your videos for the latest news from the science community, they would be put off if you randomly did a video talking about Hollywood gossip.

Stand Out

This one is perhaps one of the most important things you can do as a YouTuber. There is an unfathomable number of creators out there, each making videos on YouTube in a variety of different niches. The chance of discovering a completely untapped niche are practically zero, so you have to stand out to have a chance of succeeding.

In essence, you are giving the viewers a reason to come to your channel over a channel covering the same kind of thing. This is almost entirely down to personal preference, you are not going to be able to please everyone in this regard, but the more you stand out from the crowd, the better chance you have of attracting viewers from other channels that are doing essentially the same thing.

Play to Your Strengths

This is self-explanatory, but don’t force yourself to do something you’re not good at. If witty repartee is not your strong suit, don’t freestyle videos, script them. If you are not great at animation, don’t animate your videos (or pay someone who can animate to do it for you).

How to Make Money on YouTube With Fitness 2

Ideas for Faceless Videos

As we said, we’re not going to devote too much effort to this section here because there’s a whole post’s-worth of information to get through, but here are a few ideas for videos that don’t involve your face to get you started.

Meditation and Mindfulness Videos

Some people love to tune out of the world and take a moment with their own thoughts. The practice of mindfulness and meditation has been embraced widely over the last few years as a why to help people sleep, study or relax.

Make videos that people can unwind to, feel comfortable with or can meditate to like on the Meditation Mindfulness channel.

Compilation Videos

Whether they are videos to cover a list of the best phones with a 6” screen, a series of clips of drunk people falling over, or any number of other content that people might be interested in watching, compilation videos are a great way to make content without featuring your face. Just be sure to get permission for the clips you use.

Commentary Videos

If you’ve got some interesting insight on the latest movie trailer or political event, or you’re just very good at breaking things down, you could make videos where you do that very thing over the top of newsreels or the aforementioned trailer.

Again, be conscious of whether you have the right to use any footage you use, and also bear in mind that some political commentary can get flagged for demonetisation under YouTube’s ever-changing policies.

VTubing

VTubers are YouTubers who have a digital avatar on screen. Sometimes that avatar is essentially just a mask for the YouTuber, other times it is a fully fledged character in its own right, but regardless of the dynamic, it is an onscreen presence that does not involve your actual face!

Final Thoughts

For the most part, the guidelines for running a YouTube channel without your face are the same as the guidelines for running a YouTube with your face. There are some areas to put a little extra focus on, of course, such as making sure your audio is up to scratch, but everything else is a little more universal.

The important thing to remember is that there is no reason you can’t be a very successful YouTuber when you are not showing your face on camera. Plenty of YouTubers have done it, and plenty more will do it. Why not be one of them?

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TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

What is the Best Frame Rate for Vlogging?

What is the Best Frame Rate for Vlogging?

For many YouTubers, “frame rate” is something that gamers—and occasionally cinephiles—talk about a lot, but not necessarily something that your average YouTuber needs to concern themselves with. Of course, you soon notice when the frame rate is too low, but for most of us, we simply choose a pre-set in our video editing software, judge whether it looks good, and then move on.

The dirty little secret is that this works, and there is no pressing need to know what frame rates look like off of the top of your head. If the video looks good in the end, what does it matter? But, like all crafts, it certainly doesn’t hurt to know more about what you do, and that is why we put this post together.

So, if you want the short answer to what is the best frame rate for vlogging, the answer is “whatever looks best”, though you probably want to start around the 30 frames per second mark and experiment from there. But, if you’d like to learn more about this subject, keep reading.

What is Frame Rate?

Quite literally, the frame rate is the rate at which frames flick past your eyes when a video is playing. Each frame is essentially a still image, and like an animated flip book, they give the impression of movement when they are shown in quick succession.

Sticking with the flip book analogy, the frame rate is essentially the speed with which you flip the pages.

Thinking of a video as a long series of images helps to understand a lot about the impact different frame rates can have on your videos.

The Impact of Frame Rate on File Size

When you consider that a video is just a sequence of regular images, it makes sense that a higher frame rate will mean a higher file size.

A single second of footage at 60 frames per second will be twice as large as a single second of footage at 30 frames per second because there are twice as many images to show in that one second.

The Extremes of Frame Rate

Every frame rate has its purpose, but there are extremes where vloggers never need to venture in the course of regular vlogging. Firstly, anything below 24 frames per second will typically looks choppy, like a video that is struggling to load.

Similarly, anything over 120 frames per second is too fast for the typical human eye to notice, so those extra frames per second will be wasted.

And, in truth, the figure at which the human eye stops being able to distinguish frames is closer to 75, but it’s always good to have a bit of a buffer.

What is the Best Frame Rate for Vlogging? 2

Frame Rates for Other Uses

While the human may only be able to see frame rates under 120 frames per second, there are still uses for higher frame rates. For example, slow motion video needs to be filmed at a higher frame rate.

If we go back to thinking of video as a series of pictures being shown rapidly, slow motion is essentially just increasing the interval between each image, and the more you can increase that interval, the slower the motion.

If you had some 60 frames per second footage and wanted to run it back at half speed, that wouldn’t be a problem because you would essentially be converting it to 30 frames per second video, which will still play relatively smoothly.

However, if you had 60 frames per second footage that you wanted to play back at 1/10th speed, your footage is going to look like a slideshow.

Different Frame Rates and What They’re Used For

In this section we’re going to take a look at the most common frame rates and what you might use them for. We’ll elaborate below, but first, here’s the list;

  • Under 16 FPS — Choppy, stuttery video. There’s not much use for this
  • 16-18 FPS — Recreating that silent movie, black and white cinema look
  • 24 FPS — The typical frame rate for cinematic sequences
  • 30 FPS — A common frame rate for TV, live sports, and YouTube vlogs
  • 60 FPS — Think of it as a premium version of 30 FPS
  • 120 FPS — Action footage; think head cams on downhill bikers or base jumpers
  • 240 FPS — Regular slow motion, popping balloons and water splashes, that kind of thing
  • 480 FPS — Slower motion, good for replays of extreme sports
  • Above 960 FPS — The slowest motion, rarely seen outside of cinema and the Super SlowMo Guys videos

Of course, the listed frame rates there are not necessarily the frame rates you would be showing your video at. The footage of a skateboarded doing an amazing trick might be recorded at 480 frames per second, but it would be played back at more like 30 or 60 frames per second, making it 8x to 16x slower than the original footage.

Incidentally, though it’s not particularly relevant here, it’s interesting to note that while those old silent movies were filmed at around 16 frames per second, they were actually shown at closer to 24 frames per second. This why they all have that comical sped up effect to them.

What is the Best Frame Rate for Vlogging? 1

What is the Best Frame Rate for Vlogging?

We took a bit of a scenic road to get this but, now that we know more about frame rates, let’s take another look at that title question. What is the best frame rate for vlogging?

Assuming you are just doing run-of-the-mill vlogging—no action sequences or slow motion explosions—you will want to shoot your footage at between 30 and 60 frames per second.

Dropping to 24 frames per second will look fine, but our media-obsessed minds are conditioned to associate that frame rate as cinematic, and it comes across a little disjointed at times. On the other hand, going up to 120 frames per second will also look fine, but is entirely wasted, since the human eye won’t notice.

Within that range, the higher, the better because a higher frame rate means more detail and a higher quality video, but video quality might not be your only consideration.

Quality video recording equipment is not cheap. This is the driving force behind an increasing number of YouTubers using their high-end phones as their camera, since phone manufacturers are increasingly squeezing amazing performance out of their tiny cameras. And, the more you ask of your camera, the more expensive it will be if it’s going to deliver. In other words, a camera that can pull off 60 frames per second will be more expensive than a practically identical one that can only do 30 frames per second. In some cases, a camera might be able to do both, but the quality drops with the increased frame rate, so a 30 frames per second video can be shot in 4K, but a 60 frames per second video can only go up to 1440p, or even 1080p.

Regardless of the details, if you are buying recording equipment, and you are on a budget, you may find that budget limits the frame rates that are available to you.

How Important is Frame Rate for Vlogging?

This is a tricky question to answer. In a sense it is very important, but at the same time, not as important as some other aspects. For example, if your frame rate is below 24 frames per second, you will want to get that higher if you can, because that video will be noticeably lower quality than videos that fall between 30 and 60 frames per second.

Now, if your video falls in that golden range, your frame rate is probably the last thing you should be thinking about for vlogging. You will get far more substantial improvements to the quality of your video by doing things like improving the lighting and audio of your videos.

Of course, it will often be the case that improving one thing automatically improves another. For example, if you wanted to make the step-up to 4K, you might get yourself a camera that also has a higher frame rate. But you shouldn’t focus on that frame rate when there are other areas to improve.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, vlogging is not the most frame rate sensitive genre on YouTube. As long as you get your frame rate above that threshold where it stops looking like a slideshow (or a silent movie) it will look fine.

There is no reason to stay below the typical 60 frames per second from a video quality standpoint, but just know that you’re not getting any benefit in terms of the visual experience.

Once you are in that frame rate zone, however, there are more important things to focus on. Getting your audio up to scratch should always be one of the first things a YouTuber focuses on—especially a vlogging YouTuber. And, after that, lighting is a pretty big one. Set dressing is also a big factor for vloggers. Make your videos look and sound great, then worry if there are enough frames!

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.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. Learn new skills for FREE with Skillshare

I SUCK reading books to learn, but I LOVE online video courses.

Every month I learn something new. Editing, writing, video skills, how to cook, how to run a business – even how to meditate to calm a busy mind.

I find all of these for FREE with Skillshare – Sign up, pick all the courses you want and cancel anytime you need.

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.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

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DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

What is YouTube Content ID?

What is YouTube Content ID? 2

If you’ve been around the creator side of YouTube for long enough, you will undoubtedly have heard the term “Content ID”, but what is YouTube Content ID? YouTube Content ID it is an automated system for detecting copyrighted content being uploaded to YouTube. There are many ways of using this system to protect your videos and earn more money from other uses using your content.

Content ID came has been in use on YouTube in some form or another since the early days of the platform, with it first being pressed into service in 2007.

As of 2016, tens of millions of dollars of development had been sunk into Content ID, which had, by then, overseen billions of dollars in payments to copyright holders.

Why is YouTube Content ID Necessary

The world of intellectual property has, it’s fair to say, struggled to keep up with the changing landscape of technology. Unfortunately, the fallout from this is often tech companies having unrealistic expectations placed on them by outdated copyright law.

Digital platforms that feature user-generated content—like YouTube—have towed a precarious line over the years. They are not presently considered legally responsible for copyright infringements on their platform. If that were to change, the landscape of YouTube would change with it, and dramatically so. If YouTube were to be legally (and, by extension, financially) responsible for copyright infringement by its users, they would have to severely restrict what could be uploaded.

Fortunately, this has not come to pass. And, in an effort to ensure it never does, YouTube does what it can to ensure copyright infringements are dealt with. Of course, with mover five hundred hours of video being uploaded every minute, being proactive on the copyright infringement checking front is not exactly something you can assign a team of vigilant curators to.

YouTube does adhere to the US 1988 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which allows copyright holders to notify YouTube of infringements so that they can be taken down (with a right to appeal), but this is not a workable solution for large scale copyright holders—like record labels and movie studios—who would have to sink considerably resources into looking for these infringements.

Unfortunately, these large scale copyright holders are also the ones with the financial and political power to bring about the kinds of changes that would see YouTube made responsible for copyright infringement, and so it is those whom YouTube essentially need to mollify.

Enter Content ID.

What is YouTube Content ID?

What is YouTube Content ID?

Essentially, Content ID works by creating a digital fingerprint of the content uploaded to the platform. This fingerprint can then be easily compared against new content being uploaded, and if that new content is identical or sufficiently alike, it is flagged as a copyrighted material.

We’ll get into what happens next below.

The road to Content ID was not a smooth one. Over the years, several large corporations have sued YouTube with claims that the video platform has not done enough to combat copyright infringement.

In the most well known of these cases—a lawsuit from Viacom demanding $1 billion in damages—YouTuber were forced to hand over twelve terabytes of data about the viewing habits of viewers who had watched content on their site.

Who Can Use Content ID?

In order to make use of Content ID, you have to meet a series of specific criteria that, in practice, make this functionality only available to large corporations, though being a large corporation is not an explicit requirement.

Part of the criteria is that the content you wish to run through the Content ID system is content that can be identified by Content ID. And you will be required to provide evidence that you do in fact have copyright ownership of the content in question.

What Happens if an Upload is Flagged by YouTube Content ID?

The first—and possibly most important—thing to clarify is that Content ID instances do count against the uploader. This is probably the single most significant benefit for YouTubers who find themselves on the wrong end of a copyright claim. Previously, an upheld copyright claim would result in a strike against the channel, and enough strikes would result in things like demonetisation, suspensions, and even bans.

This is still the case for content that does not fall under the Content ID umbrella, but for those that do, the uploader is warned before the content goes live, and no punishment is carried out against the channel.

From there, the uploader has a few options. They can delete the upload altogether, perhaps to reupload a modified version at a later date. They can let YouTube try and remove the copyright infringing material from the video (this is not always successful), or they upload anyway and let the copyright holder’s choice of action take precedent.

As for the copyright holder, they also have a few choices for how to deal with Content ID’d content. They can choose to block the content, which will prevent the upload from going public. They can choose to allow the upload but monetise it, meaning they will receive the revenue from the video. Or they can choose to let the upload go ahead and let the YouTuber keep the revenue, but the copyright holder gets access to the viewership statistics.

All the above assumes that the Content ID is correct. If the ID was erroneous, the uploader can appeal it and, usually, the Content ID flag will be withdrawn, though the system is not perfect, as we shall get into next.

Problems With Content ID

As with any sufficiently large system, Content ID is far from perfect. There have been many instances over the years of the system failing in notable ways, either through unfortunate oversights or malicious intent.

For example, there have been reports of alleged instances where malicious actors have managed to gain use of the Content ID system and used it to claim the revenue of channels and content that belong to someone else.

Perhaps one of the more notable instances of Content ID going wrong was a situation in which Sony Music asserted copyright claims on over a thousand videos featuring compositions by the classical composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. Needless to say, Sony Music—whose parent company were founded in 1946—did not have the copyright to Bach’s compositions, given that he had died some two hundred years earlier.

There have also been instances that fall somewhere between the two above examples. As seems to be all-too-often the case with large corporate copyright holders, Deutsche Grammophon decided to abuse their position of financial power.

A professor uploading several classical music performances—all of which featured compositions whose copyrights had expired—received several copyright violation notices from YouTube. Most of them were successfully appealed, but Deutsche Grammophon decided they wanted to enforce the copyright which they no longer had (if they ever did).

The Main Flaw for Creators

This situation highlights possibly the biggest problem from a creator’s perspective; the decision-making process. Essentially, YouTube wants to be as hands-off as they can get away with.

Everything they do regarding filtering and guidelines is not driven by some all-encompassing goal to make YouTube a particular way, it is driven by certain business interests. In this case, the primary interest is keeping powerful corporate copyright holders happy so that they don’t come after YouTube and try to force them into a position of culpability for the copyright infringements on their platform.

The net result here is that the Content ID system can be used by anyone who meets the criteria, and any Content ID flag can be appealed by the uploader. However, if the alleged copyright holder enforces their claim, YouTube immediately steps out of the equation.

The alleged copyright holder is presumed to be in the right, and it is then on the uploader to seek legal vindication before YouTube will consider overturning the Content ID flag. Needless to say, when the uploader is an individual professor and the “copyright holder” is a corporate entity, the corporate entity usually gets their way.

What is YouTube Content ID? 1

Final Thoughts

Content ID is far from perfect, but unfortunately, it’s the best solution there seems to be at the moment.

It’s worth remembering that people and companies who take someone to court will often sue for the most they can get, and when the person on the other side of the copyright dispute is an average individual who might have uploaded one infringing item, there isn’t much in it for the copyright holders to justify going to court, so they settle for blocking or taking YouTube revenue.

However, if YouTube were responsible, and it was they who would be taken to court in a copyright infringement case, the copyright holders would be rubbing their hands together at the thought of a substantial pay day.

And if the infringing uploads weren’t stopped, YouTube would soon turn into a black hole of legal expenses.

In other words, without Content ID, we could be looking at a bleak future where uploading on YouTube is so restrictive that the platform would be a shell of its former self, if not closed down altogether.

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10 YouTube Video Ideas Without Speaking

10 YouTube Video Ideas Without Speaking

You don’t have to say a single word to build a successful YouTube channel.

Whether you’re shy, dislike your voice, are unable to speak, or simply prefer to stay quiet and faceless, silent content is one of YouTube’s quietest success stories. Here are 10 proven video ideas that need no speaking at all — updated for 2026 — plus how silent channels actually get views and make money.

Why trust this? I’m Alan Spicer — a YouTube Certified Expert with two decades on the platform, six Silver Play Buttons and 500+ creators coached, including plenty who never show their face or use their voice.

Want help picking the right silent format for you? Book a free discovery call.

🔑 Key takeaways

  • You can build a channel with no voice and no face.
  • Ten proven formats: music, gaming, ASMR, tutorials, facts and more.
  • Silent channels monetise the same ways any channel does.
  • Captions, music and editing do the job a voiceover would.
  • Modern AI voices are an option — but add real value.

⚡ QUICK ANSWER: Can you make YouTube videos without speaking?
Absolutely. Music, gaming, ASMR, screen-recorded tutorials, animation, compilations, satisfying visuals and on-screen facts all work with zero talking — and many pair perfectly with a faceless channel. Silent channels get views through strong visuals, captions and sound, and they make money exactly the same ways any channel does.

Silent, Not Absent

Voiceless YouTube content isn’t quite as broad as spoken content, but there’s far more of it than people expect — and some of the biggest channels on the platform barely say a word. The reasons for going silent are varied and completely valid: maybe you’re shy, maybe you dislike your speaking voice, maybe a physical condition makes speaking difficult, or maybe you just prefer to let the visuals do the talking.
Whatever the reason, silence is no barrier to success. In fact, silent formats travel beautifully across languages and borders — a satisfying, music-led or visual video works for a viewer in Tokyo as easily as one in Manchester. And in 2026, the tools to make this kind of content have never been better: simple editing apps, royalty-free music libraries, AI voices and faceless-automation workflows put professional silent content within anyone’s reach. Let’s look at ten ideas you can start today.

10 YouTube Video Ideas Without Speaking

Here’s a quick picker before the detail — match a format to what you’ve got:

Idea Best if you… You’ll need
Music Make or curate audio Tracks + visuals
Gaming Play games Screen capture
Pets Have a photogenic pet A phone
Screen tutorials Know software or a process Screen recorder
ASMR Enjoy sound-led content A good mic
Animation Like telling stories Animation/AI tools
Compilations Can curate & edit Licensed clips
Facts Write well Text + visuals
AI voice Want narration, not your voice TTS + a script

1. Music Content

If you make music — beats, lofi, ambient, covers or full tracks — YouTube is a natural home, and not one second of talking is required. Music-only channels, playlists and “study/sleep” mixes rack up enormous watch time. Just be careful with rights: if you use anything you didn’t create, understand Content ID first.

2. Gaming Videos

Gameplay speaks for itself. Walkthroughs, no-commentary “longplays”, speedruns and highlight reels all work in total silence, with on-screen text if you want to guide the viewer. It’s also a perfect faceless format — see how to make gaming videos without showing your face.

3. Pet Videos

The internet’s original love language. Funny, cute or heart-warming clips of your pets need no narration at all — the animals are the stars. Consistency and a good thumbnail do the heavy lifting.

4. Screen-Recorded Tutorials

Teach software, settings or step-by-step processes by recording your screen and adding on-screen text or captions instead of a voiceover. Clear, silent, endlessly useful — and perfect evergreen content.

5. ASMR Videos

One of the biggest silent genres on the platform. ASMR relies entirely on sound and visuals — tapping, whispering-free triggers, cooking, crafting, “satisfying” clips — to create a calming experience. New to it? Read what is ASMR. Here’s a hugely popular example that never says a word:

▶️ A silent ASMR video carried entirely by sound and visuals

6. Animated Videos

Animation lets you tell stories, explain ideas or entertain without ever appearing or speaking — text and visuals carry it. With today’s animation and AI tools, you no longer need to be a professional artist to produce clean, engaging animated content.

7. Compilation Videos

Curated collections — satisfying moments, fails, highlights, oddly-mesmerising clips — set to music make great silent viewing. Just be sure you have the rights to any footage you didn’t film, or you may run into Content ID and copyright issues.

8. Videos for the Hearing Impaired

There’s a real, underserved audience here. Sign-language content, fully captioned videos and visual-first storytelling serve deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers brilliantly — and captions help everyone, including the huge number of people who watch on mute.

9. Interesting Facts Videos

Text-on-screen facts, “did you know” lists and explainer visuals set to music are a proven, highly shareable silent format — and a favourite of faceless creators. Strong writing and clean visuals matter far more than any voice.

10. Computer-Generated Speech (AI Voices)

If you want narration without using your own voice, text-to-speech is the answer — and in 2026 AI voices sound remarkably natural. It’s the backbone of countless faceless channels. One caution: add genuine value with original scripts, visuals and editing, because YouTube’s reused-content rules can demonetise videos that are only AI narration over stock footage.
Several of these overlap heavily with faceless content, so also see 12 simple ideas without showing your face and 13 more faceless ideas.

Can Silent YouTube Videos Make Money?

Yes — a voice is not a requirement for income. Silent channels earn exactly the same ways any channel does:

The absence of a voice doesn’t cap your earnings — the quality of the content and the loyalty of the audience do. For the bigger picture, read how to make money on social media.

Not sure which silent format fits you?

On a free discovery call I’ll help you match a format to your skills, goals and the time you have.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

Tips for Great Silent Videos

Without a voice to carry the video, a few things matter more than usual:

  • Hook in the first 3 seconds — a strong visual or moment, since you can’t open with a spoken promise.
  • Use captions and on-screen text — they guide the viewer and help the many people watching on mute.
  • Let music set the mood — the right royalty-free track does a lot of emotional work.
  • Edit tightly — pacing and clean cuts replace the rhythm a voice would give.
  • Nail the thumbnail and title — even more important when there’s no voice to sell the click.

Good sound still matters even in “silent” content — if you do add any audio, make it clean; my guide to recording clean audio helps.

Silent YouTube Videos: FAQ

Can you make YouTube videos without speaking?

Yes, easily. Plenty of successful formats need no voice at all — music, gaming, ASMR, screen-recorded tutorials, animation, compilations, satisfying visuals and text-on-screen facts. Whether you’re shy, dislike your voice, are unable to speak, or simply prefer to stay faceless and silent, there’s a format for you.

Can silent YouTube channels make money?

Yes. Silent channels earn the same ways any channel does — ad revenue through the YouTube Partner Programme, affiliate links, selling your own products, brand deals and more. The lack of a voice doesn’t limit income; the strength of the content and audience does.

What are the best no-talking YouTube video ideas?

Strong no-talking formats include music, gaming footage, pet clips, screen-recorded tutorials, ASMR, animation, compilations, captioned content for the hearing impaired, on-screen facts, and videos narrated by AI text-to-speech. Pick one that fits your skills and interests.

Do faceless and silent YouTube channels overlap?

Often, yes. Many silent formats are also faceless, and many faceless creators stay silent too. If you want neither your face nor your voice on camera, these ideas pair perfectly with the faceless channel approach.

How do silent videos keep viewers watching without a voice?

Through captions and on-screen text, well-chosen music, tight pacing and editing, satisfying visuals, and a strong hook in the first few seconds. Sound design and clear visual storytelling do the job a voiceover would normally do.

Can I use AI text-to-speech instead of my own voice?

Yes, and modern AI voices sound remarkably natural. Just make sure you add real value — original scripts, good visuals and editing — because YouTube’s reused-content rules can demonetise low-effort videos that are only AI narration over stock footage.

Final Thoughts

Not wanting to speak on camera is no reason to stay off YouTube. From music and gaming to ASMR, animation and AI-narrated facts, there’s a silent format to suit almost anyone — and every one of them can grow an audience and earn money. Pick the idea that fits you best, lean on strong visuals, captions and music to carry it, and start creating. The quietest channels on YouTube are often the ones that speak loudest to their audience.

No voice, no face, no problem.

A free discovery call gets you a two-decade head start on building a silent channel that grows.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →