Category: YOUTUBE

Categories
SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How to Promote YouTube Videos on Pinterest

How to Promote YouTube Videos on Pinterest

There is a seemingly endless source of opportunities for promoting your YouTube videos on social media, from Twitter to Facebook, and everything in between. Pinterest is rarely the first option that comes to mind when deciding where to promote you videos, but it is very much a viable tool for promotion.

Granted, Pinterest is typically known more for its image-sharing than video promotion, but the fact that Pinterest is primarily an image-based platform can be misleading, as its real strength lies in sharing content of all kinds by leveraging the appeal of images.

In this post, we’re going to look at how to promote YouTube videos on Pinterest, but before we get into the how, let’s talk about the what.

What is Pinterest?

In the most basic sense, Pinterest is an image-sharing platform that allows users to “pin” images from around the web to their profile. Users can create boards (essentially image galleries), and in doing so, build up collections of images on a specific theme.

Crucially for the purposes of this post, pinned images come with a link to the place they were found, so that anyone interested in the image can click through to the place the image came from.

How to Promote YouTube Videos on Pinterest 1

Why Pinterest?

You may be asking yourself, “if it’s a platform for saving and sharing images, what does it have to do with YouTube?” The key point is that the links to the image’s source is included.

Another key point is the fact that Pinterest receives a lot of organic search traffic from search engines. You may expect that this would mostly be from people running image searches and seeing Pinterest results, but Pinterest shows up a lot in regular text search results, as well.

Of course, it would be better if the search results took someone directly to your video, but if the choice is between someone arriving at your channel via Pinterest and not arriving at all, I think we both know which is preferable!

How to Promote YouTube Videos on Pinterest

Now that you know what it is and why it can be useful in promoting your videos, let’s take it a step at a time. Here’s how you promote your videos on Pinterest.

1. Preparation

We won’t waste time telling you that you need an active YouTube channel—we assume you already have one of those if you’re reading this post—but you will need to make a Pinterest account. You’ll also want to create a board specifically for your YouTube pins. This isn’t just for the sake of keeping everything organised (though that is helpful as well) but it helps with SEO, as all the pins on the board will be related, which will add a little weight to the board in the eyes of the search engines.

Another thing you should do as part of your preparation is ensure that your videos are branded. This means making it clear in the video who you are. You want to leave a lasting impression on the viewer (in a good way) that they’ll remember. The reason for this is that Pinterest viewers don’t need to open YouTube to see your video; they can watch it right there on the Pinterest page. That means they won’t see your subscribe button, video description, or anything else that might lead them to click more of your content.

As a general rule, this kind of branding awareness should be considered good practice in any YouTube situation, so, if you’re not doing it already, consider this a good reason to get started, but not the only reason.

2. Get Your Video Embed Link

You’ll need to grab an embed link from your video, but this isn’t as simple as it sounds. You will need the long URL for your video, which may already be the one in your browser’s address bar. If the full “youtube.com” address is there, you should be fine to copy that. But, if you click the “Share” button, make sure you are getting the full YouTube address, and not a shortened link. Pinterest will reject those shortened links as they see it as spam.

Once you’ve got your link, you can head to the next step.

3. Upload Your New Pin

Over on Pinterest, click “Add a Pin”, drop your video link in the box, and click “Find Images”. Make sure it is your video that is selected, and then pick the board you created for your YouTube videos. Finally, add a description. This could be the same description you used for your video over on YouTube, but it could also be beneficial to write something new, so search engines don’t count it as duplicate content. Regardless of which route you take, it should have plenty of relevant keywords in it. You’ll have to keep it under the Pinterest description’s character limit of 500 characters, however.

You can also take this opportunity to get a link to your blog or something similar, as this should count as a high-authority link in the search engine’s eyes.

4. That’s All, Folks!

And you’re done. You can repeat this process for other videos, perhaps set up automatic sharing to things like Facebook, but other than that, you’re all set to reap the rewards of promoting your video content on Pinterest.

Final Thoughts

When looking to promote your YouTube videos, not every method or platform is going to be right for you, but you should never rule an option out until you are sure it won’t work. This is the mistake that many fall into with Pinterest by assuming it’s no good for their needs and never giving it a try at all.

Pinterest is a powerful tool for driving organic search engine traffic to your videos, and that can only be a good thing. If nothing else, it removes some of your reliance on the ever-changing YouTube algorithm, which makes it less likely a minor tweak by YouTube will send your traffic numbers plummeting through the floor!

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 Many Videos Should I Upload a Week?

How Many Videos Should I Upload a Week?

Upload frequency is one of those thing that it can be easy to get turned around on, since you can easily find opposing advice… sometimes from the same sources! In this post, we’re going to do our best to not only give you the information you need to answer this question yourself, but also explain why there are so many conflicting opinions on the matter.

And we’ll start by saying this; there is no definitive answer to the question of “how many videos should I upload a week?”. Like many aspects of success on the platform, it all comes down to your specific circumstances. Let’s dig a little deeper.

A Late Video is Better Than no Video

The first thing to note is that, whatever upload frequency you have been told is the key to success, it will not work if you can’t stick to it. Many YouTubers set themselves lofty goals that they can’t stick to at the start, with declarations like “I will upload a new video five times a week!”

This is especially difficult for new YouTubers, who are often balancing work, family, and school around their channel, so committing to making a lot of video content several times a week is a non-starter.

Unfortunately, it is very easy to get from not being able to stick to your arbitrary schedule to not uploading videos at all!

Whatever your chosen system for creating YouTube content, it should be one that you can stick to, and without burning yourself out. Now, don’t mistake this for “easy”. We’re not saying succeeding on YouTube won’t be hard work, but there is a difference between working hard and running yourself so hard into the ground that you never want to make another YouTube video again!

How to Make Gaming Videos Without Showing Your Face 1

The Content You Make is a Factor

Many new YouTubers make the mistake of deciding what their upload schedule should be and then trying to make their content creation fit that schedule.

This is the wrong way round, folks.

You need to take a good hard look at your content before deciding on your upload schedule. How long do your videos take to make? What are the upload schedules of competing YouTubers in the same niche?

To give a couple of examples, someone like Philip DeFranco uploads daily videos because he creates news-style content that needs to be up-to-the-minute. He also has the advantage of his style of video not being too intensive to make, as it essentially just consists of recording his video vlog-style and then editing bits of it.

In contrast, someone like Colin Furze makes content around his projects, building various strange contraptions. Sometimes a project can take months to complete—even longer—so it wouldn’t be realistic to expect to put out a video every day.

As far as competition goes, you shouldn’t have to worry about being “undercut” by someone uploading more frequently. Using the Colin Furze example, other inventor YouTubers can’t really upload more frequently than Colin without taking less time to make the videos. At some point, they would cease being direct competition.

Quality Shouldn’t Suffer For Your Schedule

One thing that often happens with YouTubers who find themselves struggling to maintain their pre-decided upload schedule is a dip in quality as they cut corners to get the video out quicker. A common example of this is skimping on the editing—one of the most time-consuming parts of being a YouTubers—and leaving mistakes and awkward pauses in.

The problem is, your content doesn’t just appear and then disappear (unless you delete it). Once uploaded, your content is there for all to see, and someone might stumble across a video that you uploaded months ago as their first introduction to you.

For them, it won’t matter that you have uploaded a new video every single day for the past two year; all they will see is the video they are watching, which you cut corners making and is not your best as a result.

With almost no exceptions, you will find more success uploaded better videos than you will by uploading more videos. If you have to take an extra week to make the video you’re making, do it. It will pay off in the long run.

Public Domain YouTube Channels for Free Footage

YouTube Prefers Consistency Over Frequency

And here we come to the most important point; YouTube isn’t all that bothered about how quickly you get your videos uploaded, but they are bothered that you do it consistently.

Being able to count on regular and reliable uploads is something YouTube likes, because they know if they promote a reliable channel, the viewers of that channel will always have a reason to come back. On the other hand, a channel that uploads once a day for two months and then doesn’t upload for an entire year can leave a sour taste in subscriber’s mouths, and YouTube doesn’t want that.

Of course, we’re not saying that you should settle for just getting a new video out every year and leave it at that—there are limits to the “consistency over frequency” theory—but if you have a choice between putting out weekly videos but not always hitting your target, or putting videos out every two weeks and never missing an upload, you should probably go for the latter.

Final Thoughts

YouTube’s algorithm factors a lot of things in when it decides whether to promote a video or channel or not, and, in all honesty, it would appear that watch time and click-through rates are more important to YouTube than any of the aspects related to the upload schedule.

As ever, this should not be taken as an excuse to abandon any notion of a proper upload schedule, but it’s worth noting that it is far from the end of the world if you can’t seem to nail that schedule.

And if we can leave you with one piece of advice; some videos are better than none. Don’t let the fear of failure stop you from making YouTube content, even if it means not uploading as often as you’d have liked.

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

Can YouTubers See Their Subscribers?

Can YouTubers See Their Subscribers? 2

It’s natural to wonder what your favourite YouTubers know about you—what data is available to them. It’s also natural, if you are a YouTuber, to wonder if there are things available to you that you didn’t know about.

One such piece of information that often comes up is subscribers, and whether YouTubers can see who is subscribed to their channel. And the answer to that question is yes… but also no.

There is an option within the YouTube Studio dashboard to see a list of your recent subscribers. However, it only shows you subscribers who have opted to allow this behaviour. In your YouTube account, there is an option to keep your subscriptions private. Perhaps you’re subscribed to several channels about entertainment news and want to keep it private, we’re not judging.

But, if you chose to keep your subscriptions public, but then YouTube went and told every YouTuber you subscribed to that you’re on their list, it wouldn’t be very private, would it?

So, can YouTubers see their subscribers? Yes, but they can only see subscribers who have chosen to let their subscriptions be public. It should also be worth noting that, while you might have your subscriptions set to private, if you are regularly commenting on videos and joining in with live chats, people are going to be able to guess that you are subscribed, so if keeping that private is very important to you, you’ll have to bear that in mind.

Can YouTubers See Their Subscribers?

How to See Who is Subscribed to You

If you are a YouTuber and want to see who is subscribed to your channel, it is very easy to do so. Firstly, head into your YouTube Studio dashboard. Once you’re there, simply look for the “Recent Subscribers” card and click “see more” to view your subscribers. At least, the subscribers that have allowed you to see them.

You can filter subscribers into time periods, for example; the last 30 days, 60 days, etc. You can also sort them by various factors, including by their subscriber count.

How to Make Your Subscriptions Public or Private

If you want to change your own subscription visibility, either to allow YouTubers to see that you are subscribed to them, or to make it so they can’t see you… or even if you don’t care, but you’re curious what yours is set to, you can find the necessary option in YouTube’s settings menu.

Simply head over to YouTube and click your profile picture in the top right-hand corner. In the dropdown menu, find “Settings” and click it. It should have an icon of a cogwheel next to it. From there you should be presented with your settings page and a bunch of categories down the left-hand side. You want “Privacy”. Once in there, you should see an option called “Keep all my subscriptions private”, which you can toggle on or off depending on your preferences.

Why Hide Subscriptions?

Some people are just very private, and don’t want people to know what they watch on YouTube. That being said, there are also practical reasons. For example, if you are a YouTuber who makes controversial statements, there may be certain channels—or types of channels—that you do not want to be seen subscribing to as it might affect your reputation.

Given the way most of us use YouTube, there is also the prospect of long-since forgotten subscriptions causing problems. It is increasingly becoming commonplace for people to go deep diving in the online past of people they want to take down, and finding that you subscribed to someone eight years ago who has since become incredibly controversial, or perhaps committed crimes, would be exactly the kind of thing they would look for.

How to Hide Your Subscriber Count

Subscribers aren’t the only ones who have the power to make their subscribing habits hidden; YouTubers can also choose to hide their subscriber count, essentially making their subscriber situation a total mystery to regular viewers since even the subscribers who are public aren’t viewable to anyone besides the YouTuber.

If you want to hide your subscriber count, first you need to get back into YouTube Studio. Click on “Settings”, then “Channel”, then “Advanced Settings”. Scroll until you find a section labelled “Subscriber Count” and there should be an option underneath called “Display the number of people subscribed to my channel”. You can toggle this on or off as preferred.

Can YouTubers See Their Subscribers? 1

Why Would a YouTuber Hide Their Subscriber Count?

There can be any number of personal reasons to hide your subscriber count, but one of the most obvious and common ones is optics. As much as it shouldn’t be the case, we often let popularity cloud our judgement, and channels with low subscriber counts regularly get passed on because they are seen as lesser.

We should be content to judge a new (to us) YouTuber on the content of their videos, but many of us don’t. We find ourselves wondering “why have they got so few subscribers? There must be something off”, even when we are there because we have just enjoyed one of their videos.

Hiding your subscriber count is a way to eliminate this factor from the equation. Additionally, if and when your subscriber count reaches a level where you would no longer have to worry about it putting people off, you can always decide to show the number of subscribers you have then!

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, it is entirely up to you as a person with a YouTube account (whether you make content or not) whether you want to allow anyone to see what you are subscribed to. And you don’t need to have a “good” reason for that decision, nor do you have to tell anyone what that reason is. The same goes for YouTubers and their subscriber counts.

As the Internet continues to fill up with more ways to track your online presence and collect your data, online privacy continues to be a big issue, and you should be free to exercise as much—or as little—privacy as you want.

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
LISTS TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

5 YouTubers Who Make Videos Without a Camera

5 YouTubers Who Make Videos Without a Camera 5

We’ve talked on this blog before about the possibilities YouTube presents to make content in a variety of situations. You don’t need a thousand dollar camera and a professional lighting rig to make videos. In fact, some YouTubers don’t even use a camera at all.

Of course, it’s all well and good insisting that these YouTubers exist, but it would be better to show you some of those YouTubers. Not just so you know they really do exist, but so you can see them in action, and take cues from them where needed if you are planning on embarking on a camera-less YouTube career.

So, without further preamble, here are 5 YouTubers who make videos without a camera.

5 YouTubers Who Make Videos Without a Camera

Stimpee

Stimpee is a gaming YouTuber whose visual content is entirely made of game footage, with the occasional graphic or text element for added colour. Stimpee streams his gaming sessions and then edits together humorous videos from the footage, none of which requires his face to be on the screen at any point, which in turn means there is no need for a camera to record said face.

5 YouTubers Who Make Videos Without a Camera 1

Sebastian Lague

Sebastian Lague is technically a coding YouTuber, though in recent years his content has strayed more into coding concepts than pure coding content. The important point for this post, of course, is that he is not on camera at any stage. The visuals for his video are a mix of the code he is writing, the results of said code, and occasional additional graphical elements to help with understanding the things he is discussing.

5 YouTubers Who Make Videos Without a Camera 2

Primer

Primer is a YouTube channel that features videos explaining complex concepts like natural selection, herd immunity, and really anything that can be analysed from a statistical point of view. It does this with the help of visuals from a series of 3D animated “blobs”.

The blobs act out the thing that is being explained, helping the viewer to understand, and all of this takes place without the YouTuber being onscreen or stepping in front of a camera at any point.

5 YouTubers Who Make Videos Without a Camera 3

Kurzgesagt

Like Primer, Kurzgesagt is a channel that explains complicated premises, though the scope of Kurzgesagt is a little broader, and not restricted to things that can be analysed statistically. For example, Kurzgesagt have produced videos on the Big Bang, depression, and a minute-by-minute timeline of the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Kurzgesagt doesn’t use 3D animated blob creatures, however, they use regular 2D animated graphics to show the concepts they are explaining. The animated style is quite distinctive, and does not require anyone to step in front of a camera at any stage of the recording process.

5 YouTubers Who Make Videos Without a Camera 4

How it Should Have Ended

The name of this channel is pretty self-explanatory, but How it Should Have Ended is a YouTube channel dedicated to making comedic alternative endings to popular films and TV series. They do this by animating the ending they think should have happened.

Though the videos do seem to require quite a bit of voice acting, nothing actually requires anyone to be in front of a camera.

A Brief Note on VTubers

You might notice that we didn’t include any VTubers in this list.

While some VTubers don’t use cameras, many do use cameras for the motion capture element of their recording process. If this is not a dealbreaker for you—if it’s just having your face onscreen that you’re worried about—check out this video on ideas for YouTube videos without showing your face.

Why Might a YouTuber Not Want to Use a Camera?

If you’re thinking of starting a YouTube channel, and you can’t wait to get in front of a camera, or you’re already running a channel, and you’re perfectly fine with being onscreen, you might be wondering why there would be any problem with being on camera.

Naturally, every YouTuber is different, but it’s not always mere personal preference that leads someone to shy away from being in their YouTube videos.

Privacy Concerns

There are many situations where a YouTube might want their privacy protected, ranging from avoiding awkward conversations at work to not avoiding your children! There might even be situations where a person is doing something that could be construed as illegal by an ill-informed viewer, and the YouTuber would just rather not have to deal with the hassle of mistaken accusations.

Safety Concerns

There are situations where a YouTuber’s safety could be legitimately at risk if their identity were to be outed, such as YouTubers in authoritarian countries who are critical of the government. Granted, this probably isn’t all that common, but there are micro versions of this, such as criticising criminal activity in your city that might be seen by said criminals.

Shyness/Personal Preference

While shyness and general personal preference isn’t the only reason a YouTuber might choose to avoid the camera, it is a reason, and a perfectly valid one. It may seem like a strange path to take if you don’t like being on camera, but as we’ve seen from the few examples given in this post, not to mention the countless other successful camera-less YouTubers we didn’t include, it’s definitely possible.

Final Thoughts

Being a YouTuber without a camera is definitely a feasible route to YouTube success, but you will need to make sure you still have something to hook your viewers. It could be stunning visuals, a distinctive narrator, witty writing, or any number of other things that you can use to make your channel stand out in a way that YouTuber’s whose face is onscreen have by default. There will always be competition for whatever you are making. The trick is not to deliver something no one else is delivering, it’s to deliver it in a way that makes you different from the others.

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

Can You Use Copyrighted Music on YouTube if You Don’t Monetize?

Can You Use Copyrighted Music on YouTube if You Don't Monetize?

Using copyrighted material on YouTube has always been a contentious area. Whether it’s big faceless corporations stifling small creators who are clearly within the realm of fair use, or YouTubers blatantly stealing other YouTubers content, there are plenty of examples of things turning sour.

The question of whether you can use copyrighted music in your videos is a common one for inexperienced YouTubers, and, generally speaking, the answer is no. But what about if you aren’t monetising those videos? In this video, we’re going to address that very question.

The Blunt Reality

There is some nuance to be discussed with this type of situation—and we will get to that nuance—but it should be noted first that there is an absolute to deal here.

From a purely legal and technical point of view, there is no situation where you can use copyrighted music in your videos without permission, with the complicated exception of fair use. Copyright protection is not limited to situations where the copyright infringer is making money from their use of the copyrighted media.

Loosely put, any time someone infringes on copyrighted music, there is potential for someone who might have bought a song or listened to it on a streaming service who will no longer do so because they heard it on your YouTube video. So, while you, the copyright infringer, might not be making any money from your use of the media, you could theoretically still be costing the copyright holder’s money.

So, the golden rule here is that any time you want to use copyrighted music, assume you need permission from the copyright holder. No exceptions. If you’d like a bit more information on fair use, here’s a handy video;

The Nuance

Okay, so that was the blunt reality of using copyrighted music. Now for the more nuanced YouTube reality.

Firstly, you are extremely unlikely to face any legal repercussions for copyright infringement on YouTube. That being said, there is nothing to stop a copyright holder from pursuing in the courts for damages. If you infringe copyright, you are taking this risk.

In practice, copyright holders are content to let YouTube’s built-in copyright protection methods do the heavy lifting. So, while you might not get sued by Warner Bros. for using music they hold the copyright for, you will still face repercussions from YouTube.

Strikes and Suspensions

In the olden days of YouTube, a successful copyright claim against your videos would see you get a copyright strike, with three strikes leading to a suspension/banning. The strikes system is still in place, but it is less relevant than it used to be, as we’ll talk about in a moment.

Banning is the most severe repercussion YouTube will bring down upon you. If you are a successful YouTuber who is perhaps making quite a bit of money on the platform, this is a pretty severe repercussion. If you are a small YouTuber—perhaps one who hasn’t even met the threshold for the YouTube Partner Programme—then the prospect of being banned might not seem so severe, but just bear in mind that the ban would be permanent, and YouTube would enforce it on any future accounts they identify as being you.

Can You Use Copyrighted Music on YouTube if You Don't Monetize? 1

Content ID and Copyright Claims

The reason the strikes system is less relevant these days is that YouTube have implemented a system whereby copyright holders can “claim” copyrighted content, as well the Content ID system for automatically detecting claimed content.

In cases where copyrighted music is detected—and not successfully counter-claimed—the copyright holder has a few options.

  • Mute the audio of your video
  • Block your video
  • Monetize your video
  • Track your video

The first two are pretty self-explanatory. Monetising your video is exactly what it sounds like, with the twist being that the money generated goes to the copyright holder, not you. Whether or not you have opted to monetize that video—or whether you are even eligible to monetize it—is not a factor here. The final option allows the copyright holder to track the viewing statistics of your video, giving them all the data about how many people have watched, where they are from, and everything else you can see about your viewing demographics.

If your content gets such a copyright claim—and it is legitimate—you have a few options. You can swap out the music, dispute the claim, or go with the flow and accept the copyright holder’s chosen action.

In this sense, you could use copyrighted music in your videos if you are not concerned about receiving revenue from them. However, it is worth noting that there is no way of knowing what the copyright holder’s preferred action is, other than finding out who the copyright holder is and looking it up.

For music that is flagged in the Content ID system, you can test the situation by uploading a private video with the music you intend to use. It doesn’t need to be a real video, just a blank screen with the music playing will do. You will be notified as soon as the video has finished processing, and your options will be presented to you.

Final Thoughts

Copyright issues on YouTube are far from straightforward. That is, unless you take the “you can’t use copyrighted music without permission, end of discussion” line of thinking, but, for the most part, you should be safe to experiment without fear of any serious consequences.

Content ID claims do not negatively affect your channel, and YouTube gives you the opportunity to resolve the copyright issues before the video ever goes public, reducing the possibility of real legal consequences significantly.

So, can you use copyrighted music on YouTube if you don’t monetize? The answer is yes… in some cases. It’s also the case that the “don’t monetize” part is non-optional, since you won’t be able to monetize your videos if they have copyrighted music in them.

But whether or not you tried to monetize the video is entirely irrelevant to whether you are allowed to use the copyrighted music.

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
SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

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
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE YOUTUBE

Public Domain YouTube Channels for Free Footage

Public Domain YouTube Channels for Free Footage 1

Public domain video is a great source of content for clips, transformative projects, and, frankly, just entertainment.

Public domain video—and any other content, such as audio and text—is completely free of copyright, and can be consumed for free, as well as used in other media without having to seek permission.

Naturally, with YouTube being easily the largest distributor of free-to-consume video around, there is plenty of public domain video on YouTube… if you know where to look. Though this is by no means an exhaustive list, we’ve collected together some good channels for public domain content.

What is “Public Domain”?

If you’re not sure what public domain means, it is essentially a piece of content that has either passed naturally out of copyright due to age, been released from copyright by the copyright holder, or was never copyrighted in the first place.

Public domain material has no licencing requirements or restrictions, and can be used in part or in whole for any purpose, including commercial. A popular example of someone using public domain content to make something new is the 2009 novel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. This novel uses the original text from the classic novel, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, but adds more narrative, turning the story of 19th-century English aristocracy into one set amidst a world full of zombies.

If you are interesting in uploading public domain content to your YouTube channel, check this post out.

Can I Upload Public Domain Movies on YouTube?

Public Domain Movies YouTube

Cinema has been around for a long time, and there are many movies that, either by quirks of copyright law, a filmmakers generous nature, or just the length of time since they were made, have passed into the public domain. Here are some channels where you can find entire public domain movies.

Public Domain Films

As the name of the channel suggest, Public Domain Films uploads entire public domain movies. There is a lot of variety here, from 7-minute shorts to full 90-minute movies. Some are in colour, some are relatively recent. There are films as recent as the late 1980s on there.

Public Domain Movies — Classic Movies Free

Much the same as above, Public Domain Movies has a wide selection of full movies that are in the public domain. This channel also has a selection of playlists, breaking those movies up into genres to make it easier to find something you like.

Public Domain Cinema

Public Domain Cinema is, broadly speaking, the same as the previous two suggestions, though with over 300 films, they are bound to have some public domain movies that Public Domain Films and Public Domain Movies don’t have.

Public Domain Music YouTube

Public domain media is not limited to movies, and there can be just as much of a demand for public domain music. Here are a few channels that deliver that very thing.

Audio Library

Audio Library is a channel dedicated to collecting copyright-free music for creators to use in their projects. And, with over four million subscribers, it is an incredibly popular resource.

It should be noted that not everything on this channel is public domain—there is a lot of Creative Commons music, and other licences that allow people to use the music freely while not being public domain. For most use-cases, this will be a minor detail, but if you are planning on using the audio in your videos, you should always make sure you know what the licencing and copyright situation is.

Public Domain Classical Music

Being one of the oldest genres to be recorded, it shouldn’t be surprising that there is a lot of classical music in the public domain. Public Domain Classical Music is a channel dedicated to just that.

Public Domain Music

Public Domain Music doesn’t have a gimmick or specialisation, but it is another source of public domain music that you can use in your videos without having to ask permission. You can also just enjoy listening to it, if you wish.

Public Domain YouTube Channels for Free Footage

Why is Public Domain Content on YouTube?

You might be wondering why anyone goes to the trouble of uploading public domain videos and music to YouTube, and there are a couple of answers to this.

The first answer is pretty straightforward; money. There is no copyright on public domain videos, which means there is no restriction on what you can do with it, and that includes monetising it. Populate a channel with hundreds of public domain videos, promote it, and rake in the cash, right?

Well, not exactly. While this has no doubt worked for some, YouTube has a policy against monetising duplicate content, even if there are no copyright issues at play.

The second reason is accessibility. You see, while public domain content is free, the distribution is not. If a book publisher does a printing run of a popular novel that is now in the public domain, you can’t demand they give you the book for free because they still paid for the printing and the paper. Likewise, any online video host is paying for the bandwidth and storage of that content, and the fact that they are hosting public domain materials does not obligate them to give you access.

However, YouTube allows free access to all its normal video content, so uploading public domain videos and music to YouTube is a great way to make sure it is available to everyone for free.

Final Thoughts

If we’re being completely honest, you’re probably not looking for public domain content to consume it. The chances are, if you’re the kind of person who is interested in obscure movies from 1923, you’ve probably already seen them.

The more likely reason, of course, is that you want to use public domain media in your videos, and that is a perfectly legal and acceptable thing to do under the current laws.

Can you monetize public domain footage? – Just remember that you can’t simply re-upload public domain content wholesale and expect to monetise it. YouTube will let you upload it, but they won’t let you monetise it as it will be considered re-used content.

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 LISTS YOUTUBE

Top 7 Highest Paid Niches on YouTube

Top 7 Highest Paid Niches on YouTube

Anyone whose familiar with the topic of YouTube as a money-making opportunity will be familiar with the concept of niches.

If you’re not, all you really need to know for this post is that some niches are worth more to advertisers than others, and the more valuable a niche, the more revenue it has the potential to generate for YouTubers.

Choosing the right niche (or niches) is key to not only ensuring that your channel is financially successful, but also to ensuring that you can maintain the kind of momentum necessary to stick at it long enough to be successful. With that in mind, we’ve picked out seven of the highest paid niches on YouTube.

It’s best to pick a niche you are interested in, but that doesn’t mean you can’t lean towards a more valuable niche that you’re interested.

And now, in no particular order…

Affiliate Marketing

It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that one of the best paying niches on YouTube is about another way of earning money.

Affiliate marketing—earning income through referrals—typically commands a CPM (cost per thousand views) of around $12 to $22, and is probably the highest paying niche available.

Because affiliate marketing is such a viable way to succeed, there is a lot of interest in affiliate marketing products and, as a result, a lot of interest in advertising said products And, because YouTube ads work on a bidding system, the more interest there is in advertising something, the more money those advertisements will generate.

Top 7 Highest Paid Niches on YouTube 1

Personal Finance

Our next pick, and something that you might see as establishing a bit of a trend on this list, is personal finance.

Being financially successful is about more than finding ways to make lots of money, you also need to manage your money well, and more of us are coming to learn that.

That’s where personal finance products come in. These might be anything from debt management consultations to services and software for tracking your finances. Videos making content in this niche can expect to see a CPM of between $4 and $12.

Business Advice

In much the same vain as the personal finance pick, business advice is also a very lucrative niche, often commanding CPMs in excess of $10. This one makes a lot of sense, as more and more opportunities for small businesses become accessible to regular people, more of us are looking to start a business of our own.

It could be a craft brewery, a 3D print on demand business, an Etsy store, or any number of other ways to start a business without hundreds of thousands in capital. But those people still need advice on running a business, which is why this niche is so competitive.

Drop Shipping

Very much continuing the theme of our last pick, drop shipping is a business model whereby a business owner markets and sells products that another company stocks and ships, that company being a drop shipping company.

This works to both companies advantage, as the smaller company does not need to worry about purchasing and storing lots of expensive stock, and the larger company does not need to worry about things like customer service.

This model of business has found a lot of success in the Internet age, and videos in this niche can expect to see CPMs in the region of $7 to $14.

Print on Demand

There isn’t a great deal to be said about print on demand that wasn’t said in our drop shipping pick because the basic business model is very similar, and so are the CPM figures.

Many drop shipping services will offer a print on demand component on some of their products, allowing companies to offer those products with their own branding.

Top 7 Highest Paid Niches on YouTube 2

Trading and Investing

It’s probably obvious to you now that all of the highest paid niches on YouTube are ones that revolve around finances in some form or another, so you shouldn’t be surprised to see investing and trading on here.

Videos on the hows and whys of investing, as well as tips for those brave YouTubers who are willing to put that information out there, do very well in their own right, but content in this niche that trading platforms, signal services, and the multitude of investing and trading related services and products can advertise on routinely see CPMs as high as $18.

Content Creation

Our last pick might not be the most lucrative in terms of CPM—typically around $5 to $10, if you were wondering—but it is probably the most relevant to anyone reading this post.

Content creation is big business these days, whether it is creating content on video platforms like YouTube, or making podcasts, writing blog posts, or any number of other ways to make things and put them out into the world.

Crucially, there is a seemingly endless supply of products, tools, and services to help people in their content creation endeavours, which means there is plenty to advertise about.

Final Thoughts

While the niches shown here are hot right now, this is very much a volatile marketplace, and there are so many factors that can affect it.

If you can find a niche you are comfortable working in and interesting in making content for, you are in the ideal position as a YouTuber, because you will enjoy what you do.

We understand that many YouTubers don’t necessarily have that luxury, however, and it is sometimes necessary to hunt for the niche that makes the most financial sense. As with most areas of online revenue generation, the best advice you can take here is to not put all of your eggs in one basket.

If you focus everything on one niche, and that niche takes a dive for some unforeseeable reason, you will find yourself in a sticky spot.

If you can diversify your content and tackle multiple niches in different areas, you stand a much better chance of withstanding any dramatic changes to any single niche’s popularity.

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 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.

Categories
DEEP DIVE ARTICLE YOUTUBE

Can I Upload Public Domain Movies on YouTube?

Can I Upload Public Domain Movies on YouTube?

There are often question marks over the legalities and practicalities of using content that you didn’t create your YouTube channel. For many situations, the answer is quite clear. For example—if you want to just upload an entire modern movie that is still in copyright, the answer is a resounding no. You will get a copyright strike for that, and possibly worse if you persist.

For other situations, the answer may be dependent on what you mean by your question. For example, can I upload public domain movies on YouTube? From a legal standpoint, yes. Absolutely. But let’s reframe that question. Can I make money uploading public domain videos on YouTube? No. No you cannot.

The context of the question is important, because if you are just looking to upload the video with no ulterior motive—perhaps you are trying to create an archive of something—then there is no problem. But if you want to monetise your content, we have a problem.

Can you reuse content on YouTube?- YouTube’s Stance on Reused Content

While it’s true that most of YouTube’s policies and service changes stem from a direct or indirect way to increase revenue, it’s not always immediately obvious how a particular change might help with that.

In the case of public domain content, there are no copyright holders to sue anyone, and the content is still subject to the same rules regarding monetisation as everything else, so what could the problem be?

Well, fewer viewers mean less ad revenue, and less appealing content means fewer viewers. If the same content is appearing in several videos across multiple channels, that content is going to lose its value to the viewer. Moreover, it makes YouTube as a hole look less valuable.

If someone is searching for something and comes across the same content several times, they’re less likely to search there in future.

So, when YouTube detects content that already exists on YouTube—even when that content is not copyrighted—it will demonetise it. This isn’t an unofficial rule, they explicitly mention it in their monetisation policy.

Can I Upload Public Domain Movies on YouTube? 1

Other Public Domain Problems

Though not technically a problem in terms of YouTube policies, there are other issues you might run into when using public domain content in your videos.

Not Really Public Domain

There is nothing to stop someone uploading content to a hosting service and claiming it is public domain. That is, nothing except for the copyright holder. However, if you use said content, you will be responsible for your copyright infringement all the same.

It may not seem fair, that’s the way of the Internet. The only way to definitive prove that a piece of work is public domain is to have it checked out by an expert, which isn’t exactly practical. If you stick to trusted sources, you should be fine. Some random WordPress blog isn’t an ideal source, however.

False Flags

While we don’t doubt that there are unscrupulous devils out there who are prepared to flag a public domain video for copyright violations that don’t exist, the risk of false flags actually comes from a more innocent—though no less frustrating—place.

YouTube’s Content ID system is a way for eligible YouTube channels to have YouTube automatically flag content that it recognises as someone else’s. This is used by TV studios, record labels, and more. The problem is, sometimes these eligible YouTubers use public domain content themselves, and the Content ID system doesn’t always know that. It just knows that the content they uploaded belongs to them, and you have just uploaded content that contains something identical to their content. The fact that it’s identical because you both got it from the same place doesn’t factor in.

In most cases, this mistake should be solvable with a simple counter-claim. Unless the copyright holder at the other end of the claim is an unsavoury individual with no morals, it should be quickly resolved.

Try to Use Original Content

Regardless of whether you are using public domain footage, Creative Commons, or legally licensed video, it’s a good idea to use original content as much as possible. A good metric to strive for is an 80/20 split, with 80% of the content you create consisting of your own original footage. Of course, that’s not going to be possible in all situations. For example, channels that offer commentary on real events will always have a large portion of their content consisting of footage they don’t technically own. But, if it’s possible, you should certainly strive for as little third party footage as you can get away with.

Why Use Public Domain?

If you’re new to the concept of public domain, and you’re wondering what’s so appealing about it, public domain works are works that are not under any copyright. They could have been intentionally released to the public domain at some stage, or they could have passed into the public domain after their copyright term expired.

These works essentially do not have an owner, so they cannot be “stolen”. Transformative works—that is, new works that use public domain content in a way that significantly changes it from the source material—can be copyrighted, however.

To give you a couple of examples, a content creator who includes a minute of public domain content in their video cannot claim ownership of that minute of video. However, someone could release a public domain video in its entirety with their face in the corner giving commentary, and claim that specific video, even though it contains all of the public domain content.

Final Thoughts

Anything that is public domain is essentially fair game for anyone to do anything (within the law, of course), but you should ask yourself what you are trying to achieve. Many attempts to make money using public domain content would fall flat for one reason or another, and end up being nothing more than a waste of time.

However, if you are using public domain content as part of a more complex video, you can certainly pull that off.

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

Can YouTubers See Who Viewed Their Video?

Do YouTubers Delete Negative Comments? 2

It’s only natural in today’s data-saturated world to assume that content creators have access to a vast wealth of information about their viewers. And that assumption would be correct; YouTubers can see a great deal of information about the people who watch their content.

YouTubers cannot see who is watching their videos. Most YouTubers would LOVE to see who watched their videos, but this is not possible.

There are many data points for YouTubers to explore, but those data points stop short of telling you things like who is watching, liking, and sharing your content.

Can YouTubers See Who Viewed Their Video?

Of course, when we say YouTubers can’t see who has viewed their video, we just mean that there is no stat or dashboard panel that will show you your recent views, nor is there a link you can click on for a given video that will take you to a list of viewers. There are ways to infer some of your viewers, however.

For example, it is safe to assume that anyone who has commented on a video (and is not obviously spamming) has watched it. It’s not exactly of practical use from a data analysis point of view, but it may be useful in some cases.

What Can YouTubers See?

In terms of names, there are only two significant situations in which a YouTuber can see the who, and those are comments and subscribers.

Comments are a given, as every comment has a username attached to it. Not only that, you can click on them to head of to that user’s YouTube page. If they are also a YouTuber, this is a nice, easy way of getting to their channel if you want to check something out. It’s also sometimes abused by people posting all manner of attention grabbing comments in the sole hope that you will click on their name.

Subscribers are a little more complicated. YouTubers can see who has subscribed to their channel if the user in question has that feature enabled. Users can choose to keep their subscriptions private, which prevents them from showing up in the YouTuber’s subscriber list. They still count towards the total subscribers figure, of course, there’s just no way of knowing who they are.

Can YouTubers See Who Viewed Their Video?

Analytics

If there is one thing that Google is known for… after search… and AdSense… and a veritable graveyard of projects… it’s analytics. Google collects an immense amount of data about the people using its various platforms, and for the people who make Google money, Google likes to make life as easy as possible for them by giving them access to as much of that vast treasure trove of data as possible.

Can YouTubers see who viewed their video? No. But can they see what percentage of their viewers were white men in their mid-thirties residing in England? Absolutely.

A big part of Google’s data collection is anonymisation. Google themselves might not have opted to do things this way if they’d had the choice… but they didn’t have the choice.

So YouTubers can see a great deal of information that gives them insight into the type of person that is watching their video. Essentially, they can see demographics. They can see if the majority of their viewers are male or female, or if they are in the United States, even what device they are watching the videos on.

What the YouTubers do with that information is their own business, but if you are a viewer worrying about what your favourite YouTuber might be able to see about you; don’t worry, there’s no way for them to link any of the data they can see to you.

Why Would YouTubers Need to See Who is Viewing Their Videos?

The truth is; they don’t. This may go a long way to explaining why YouTube don’t let YouTubers see who is viewing their videos, but there really isn’t much benefit, and some of the ways YouTubers might use this information are even negative.

For example, if a YouTuber has been targeting another YouTuber with less-than-friendly behaviour, and finds that their victim has been watching their videos, it could add more fuel to their unsavoury fire.

On the flip side, there is no added value to being able to put usernames and accounts to the analytical data YouTube provides. Knowing that a specific person is watching your content doesn’t give you any significant insight into your channel’s performance, so why bother?

What is YouTube Content ID? 2

What Else Does YouTube Hide?

The names of viewers isn’t the only thing YouTube keeps from its content creators. YouTubers also can’t see the names of people who have liked or disliked their videos. In fact, the only time YouTube is explicit about a like is when the YouTuber themselves clicks the little heart on a comment for their video.

It is also not possible to directly tell who has shared your videos, though this particular metric is quite easy to find through other means, as it involves essentially just searching for links to your video.

Final Thoughts

In today’s privacy-concerned world, where huge corporations are routinely harvesting and selling our data, it’s understandable to be concerned about what information about you is being passed around behind the scenes.

It’s important to remember that, just because YouTube aren’t making your account name available to the YouTubers you watch, they are still collecting vast amounts of data about you, and you have to be comfortable with that if you want to use the platform as a logged-in user.

That being said, the typically unpopular part of this kind of data collection is less about personal safety—after all, your data is anonymised—and more about the fact that the company—YouTube in this case—is profiting from your data. The counter to this, of course, is that you agree to YouTube’s terms of service when you use their platform, and all of this is covered in those terms.

Regardless of the reason for your interest in this topic, we can say confidently that YouTubers cannot see who has viewed their videos.

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
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.