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Best 4K Video Settings for YouTube [Adobe Premiere Pro]

Faster, easier to worth with and smaller files in Adobe Premiere Pro with these 4K Export Settings! 

Today we are going to deep dive into what 4K video is, why it’s slowly replacing 1080p and what settings to use to make it painless to use!

Just because you’re shooting in 4K, that doesn’t mean you have to work in 4K. For many projects, 1080p is good enough.

The benefit of shooting in 4K is a quadrupled resolution, allowing you to zoom in cleanly since you have a much better source video to work with.

This is perfect for cutting to close-ups, effectively eliminating jump-cuts from your finished product entirely.

This effect can commonly be seen in single-camera interviews, where the perspective shifts between a wide full-body shot and a close-up shot of the interviewee talking. Pull it off well and it can be used for dramatic effect to add emphasis and connect better with the subject.

Even if your end product will be 1080p, shooting 4K will deliver a higher quality down-sampled image.

Capturing four times the amount of information you need won’t produce an image that’s four times better looking, but the end result will be noticeably sharper.

Best Settings To Export 4K Video for YouTube Adobe Premiere Pro 2020 3

You’ll also reduce the chance of color banding, since most cameras record 4K at a higher bitrate. That means more color detail is captured, which will vastly improve gradual changes, like deep blue skies or other solid colors.

Sometimes the camera makes all the difference. Many modern mirrorless, digital SLR, and cinema cameras shoot 4K using larger sensors, effectively down-sampling a 6K or 8K image to 4K (like the relatively cheap Sony a6300, above). The Panasonic GH5 even does 6K video and 4K video at a bit-rate of 400 megabits-per-second.

Yes, there are many 1080p cameras that will shoot better HD footage than a cheap 4K camera.

What Is 4K? Do I need 4K Video?

We hear the word 4K every day in several places such as on youtube picture quality, gaming, in the specification of electronic devices like cameras, television, laptop, etc.

But what did this term mean? 4K means a digital resolution of approximately 4000 pixels; there are several different resolutions in 4K. 4K aka UHD (Ultra-high Definition), has a standard resolution as a 4K digital television of 3840*2160 with narrow borders, or 4096*2160 without borders – as popular in movies.

The picture quality of 4K content is very sharp, colorful, and professional; 4k quality enhances the user experience. It highlights every detail of the videos, let us have a quick eye on some of the advantages and disadvantages of 4K picture quality.

4K YouTube Videos vs 1080p YouTube Videos

4K is known as Ultra High Definition (UHD), whilst 1080P is simply labelled High Definition. As their names imply, 4K UHD has a considerably higher resolution than 1080P HD video. 4K resolution is exactly 3840 x 2160 pixels, whilst 1080P consists of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Best Settings To Export 4K Video for YouTube Adobe Premiere Pro 2020 2

The 4K designation refers to the close to 4000 horizontal pixels. Traditionally, resolution had been labelled according to vertical pixels and in the case of 1080P, 1080 vertical lines make up that high definition resolution. By comparison, 4K features 2160 pixels vertically; a considerable increase.

At an aspect ratio of 16:9, 4K contains almost four times the number of pixels on a screen compared with 1080P technology – more than eight million pixels for 4K and just two million pixels for 1080P.

This massive difference brings about some important advantages for 4K when one compares it to the quality of a 1080P video.

 

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.

Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

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

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

4. Learn new skills for FREE with Skillshare

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

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

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

5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the Shutterstock website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.

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

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10 Ways to Promote Your Youtube Channel for FREE

If you’ve decided to go down a vlogging route and have started creating and publishing Youtube videos, then you need to make sure you promote your YouTube channel so your videos don’t flop.

It’s really easy to publish your content but without promotion how are people going to find your videos and see your content?

I’ve put together 10 brilliant ways to promote your Youtube channel and increase your views, a few simple changes to your normal Youtube tasks could see a big traffic change.

10 Ways to Promote Your Youtube Channel for FREE

[1] Make sure your titles are engaging

Just like any other form of social media or blogging you want people to click into your content, the only way to do this is make sure people are drawn into your content and want to click.

Make sure you use persuasive writing, ensure its clear what your viewers will get out of the video, and most importantly solve a problem for your viewer.

Look at your current titles and decide would you click on it? Do you know what the video would be about?

You need to make the viewer curious about what is going to happen or help solve their problem – I made a video about how to make clickable titles every time!

[2] Concentrate on SEO

Youtube is ultimately videos and vlogs, but the average user will use YouTube like a search engine, normally to solve a problem or find a video detailing something they are struggling with.

YouTube SEO

This means its crucial you concentrate on your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to make sure your videos show high in your results.

Titles and descriptions should have keywords you want to rank for, make sure you define your categories and tags because this helps Youtube categorise your video and help show it to a relevant audience.

71% of my traffic on my YouTube channel is from search that I won because I used TubeBuddy and VidIQ to optimize my titles, descriptions and tags.

[3] Promote yourself

If you’ve got a number of videos, the ideal action is for your watchers to watch all of the content.

Make sure you reference your older videos in new ones, leave links in the description and then if your watchers are interested its easy for them to find your older link and click through

[4] Share across platforms

Most social media platforms have a native video uploader, upload a snippet of your video with links to the full Youtube video.

This way wherever your audience are they have a very clear direction of how to access your Youtube videos.

It may be that they don’t usually use Youtube to find content but if it lands on their facebook feed they’re more likely to click through – clicking through from external websites shows Youtube that your content is valuable and is more likely to increase your ranking

If you need help with sharing your videos and building your brand – check out my resources page, packed with great tools I use personally to help grow my brand and get noticed on YouTube.

[5] Subscribe Buttons

You can subscribe to Youtube videos by clicking in the description, but a lot of viewers won’t read the description or even click through to subscribe.

You need to make it abundantly clear WHY they should subscribe to your channel and make sure you add a nice big subscribe button within your video.

It’s really simple to do so take a look at how to add a subscribe button into your videos

[6] Add Thumbnails to your videos

Hopefully by this point you’ve got a video, a short catchy title and a description full of the keywords you want to rank for.

Hopefully, all of this means your videos are ranking higher in searches. But wait there is one more thing you absolutely NEED to do to make people click your video.

Our brains are hardwired to react to visuals so make sure with every video you upload a custom thumbnail image which is bright and details what your video will do.

While YouTube will auto create a thumbnail, by creating a custom one you can make sure your viewers can see instantly what your video will be about.

How To Add A Thumbnail To YouTube Videos On Mobile (iPhone And Android) 3

Use the right YouTube thumbnail size

If you’re going to spend the time to create a professional looking thumbnail, start with the proper sizing and dimensions.

Per YouTube’s guidelines, your thumbnail image should be 1280 x 720 pixels, with a minimum width of 640 pixels. An aspect ratio of 16:9 is ideal as it’s used most often in YouTube players and previews.

Be honest & accurate in your thumbnails

If you click bait users to viewing your videos by misleading them with thumbnails and headlines, this will hurt your brand and reputation.

Not only that, but YouTube will stop showing your videos in search results if your bounce rates are too high.

The thumbnail is meant to give context, so providing an image that does not depict what is in the video will harm you rather than benefit you. Find the most important point or part of your video and create your thumbnail around that.

[7] A complete profile

Many people skip straight to creating content but don’t skip out on your profile it’s a really important aspect to making sure your viewers return.

Maintain a consistency across your other social media channels / website and most importantly have very visible contact details.

If your channel is going well then companies may want to contact you for sponsorship deals, your watchers may want to send you an email

10 Ways to Promote Your Youtube Channel for FREE 1

Why have Multiple Social Media Accounts?

Having a social media presence is key things for companies in this day and age.

Especially with the different types of social media accounts out. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. is key to get the word out about your company, brand, youtube channel or blog to your chosen target audience.

Social media has been a growing trend for businesses over the last few years, and for good reason. Before you begin dabbling with multiple social media sites, a strategy needs to be put in place that includes:

  • Consistency: Instead of posting when you have time, post something at the same times every day so your audience knows when to expect it.
  • Quality content: Don’t just post content to post it. Have something meaningful to say that your viewers will want to read.
  • Engagement: Interact with your audience through social media, whether it’s by answering questions they post or by asking questions yourself.
  • Images: Don’t just post links and text. People love pictures and infographics. Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. Businesses that have used infographics have grown in traffic 12% more than those that don’t.

 

[8] Caption your videos

In this day and age the internet needs to be accessible to everyone, that includes people with impairments, it’s so easy to make your videos accessible and add subtitles / closed captions to your Youtube videos.

This will increase your reach to people without accessibility issues too, so many people watch videos with their phones on mute you’d be amazed how many are skipped over if they don’t have subtitles it’s a really untapped market you need to address.

Why Accessibility Matters

It’s time to set a universal standard for accessibility. How many people have visited your channel and left without complaining because of its inaccessibility?

Invest in video captions to reach that sizeable audience. Captions are essential to ensuring that your videos are accessible to the wider public.

The Impact of Captions on Your YouTube Channel

How do the statistics of videos with captions compare to video content without subtitles?

When it comes to watch time, subtitled videos increase view time by more than 12% and are watched an average 91% to completion. In comparison, videos without subtitles are only watched 66% to completion. When subtitles are included, 80% more people watch videos to completion.

[9] High Quality Content

Let’s be fair, you can create rich SEO descriptions, fill out all your profile, have active subscribe buttons etc. etc. but if your content is weak then people won’t return, they probably won’t even watch the entirety of your current video.

Just like any other form of blogging / vlogging or social media content will always be king. Make sure the videos you are creating are what your ideal audience would be looking for, that the video ultimately answers a problem, that you’re clear and engaging and most importantly that you are yourself.

Anyone can create a factual video what makes your videos unique is you. So inject some personality and let your viewers really get to know the person behind the camera

This goes for how to package your content as well. A great video with a bad thumbnail can destroy all your hard work. Make sure you know what a good thumbnail needs to look like – check out this deep dive blog into thumbnail size, styles, designs and best practices.

10 Ways to Promote Your Youtube Channel for FREE 2

[10] Answer your fan mail

Hopefully if your videos are doing well you will start getting comments on your videos – answer them! Respond to your fans and engage with your community.

These are your viewers and subscribers, by making them know you ‘see’ them they’re more likely to return to your new content. Plus engage enough and you will get ideas for new Youtube videos, questions they need answering – its basically free market research very specifically from your audience.

So there you have it, 10 ways you can improve your current Youtube promotion with just a few simple changes.

What’s a Youtube skill you’d like to learn?

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Add Timestamp YouTube Video Chapters and Win In Search

YouTube video timestamps now come with skippable chapters that can help you rank better in search. Learn how to add chapters to youtube videos with time stamps and why they are so useful for YouTube and Google search results.

The new time stamp video chapters for YouTube videos give you the opportunity to add relevant sub titles to sections of your videos. This means people can skip to these parts quicker, helping them get the answer they want more directly. These snippets can work well for youtube promotion as they can also be found by Google and using in the search results as video snippets or result snippets for quick answers in results.

What Are YouTube Video Timestamps?

Timestamps on YouTube videos give you the chance to skim through the video quickly and find what you are looking for using the mini sub headings.

The timestamps are normally added to the video description by the video creator. You start with 0:00 to show YouTube where the video starts and you add time stamps to important parts of the video with index marks for example “2:53 – Step By Step Tutorial”.

The user can then either click the timestamp in the description to quickly jump to that part of the video.

Add Timestamp Chapters To YouTube Videos and Win In Search

Why Use YouTube Video Chapters?

YouTube video chapters can help you find the important part of the video faster.

If you are a creator and you upload videos, the chapters give you the opportunity to add additional, relevant keywords to the description of the video.

Why add keywords to the description?

YouTube search and google works on relevancy and meta data. If you post a video tutorial that has 5-6 different parts to it then you can section it out. Each questions could have a time stamp. Each of those time stamps could be a search term and each could have a chance of dominating search results with google snippets.

Add Timestamp Chapters To YouTube Videos and Win In Search 1

What Are Google Snippets?

Google Snippets (featured snippets) are short selections of text or clips of YouTube videos appearing at the top of Google’s search results that are designed to answer a searcher’s query.

The content that appears inside of a Featured Snippet is automatically pulled from web pages in Google’s index or snippets from YouTube Videos with timestamps. Common types of Featured Snippets include definitions, tables, steps and lists.

How featured snippets are chosen?

Featured snippets come from web search listings. Google’s automated systems determine whether a page would make a good featured snippet to highlight for a specific search request.

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How To Download A YouTube Video

How To Download A YouTube Video for a backup, maybe you want to download YouTube videos for b-roll, or you are using the youtube video download tool to save them to play later – this can help you.

I like to download my own YouTube videos to add them as overlays in new content, it’s a good way to drive traffic to older content.

So how do you download YouTube videos?

To download a YouTube video you will need to login to your YouTube dashboard. Click on videos and look for the video you want to download. Hover over the video description snippet and it will change into a tool bar. Click on the 3 dots options and you will see a Download video link.

Download YouTube Videos on Mobile with YouTube Premium

Offline downloads are one of the various perks offered to people who pay $12 per month for YouTube’s Premium subscription.

It also offers access to YouTube Music Premium and removes ads from videos. While the 720p resolution download limit may have made sense a few years ago when phone screens generally didn’t go far beyond 720p, many phones have now gone past that; the iPhone X and XS have resolutions that exceed 1080p, for instance.

Why Download YouTube Videos?

When you download YouTube videos, you can watch them without an internet connection, which is ideal for keeping yourself entertained on planes, trains, and trips to places without reliable mobile internet access.

Downloading YouTube videos on to your mobile phone can be a great way to save money on limited data allowance plans.

But if you download them to your phone using your home Wi-Fi before you travel, you can watch them on the move without risking going over your data allocation.

It’s surprisingly easy to download videos from YouTube and other video hosting sites – and you can do it free. YouTube itself provides some tools for downloading videos (on both desktop and mobile), and there are third-party tools that can do the job as well. Read on to find out how.

Is downloading YouTube videos legal?

Using third-party apps to download YouTube videos is against Youtube’s terms of service – which state that you are only able to stream videos directly from its servers.

How To Download A YouTube Video 2020 (NEW METHOD)

Downloading YouTube videos also opens you up to potential copyright infringement unless you have permission from the copyright holder, it’s in the public domain, or you own the video yourself.

YouTube does offer some ways to download videos through its web service and its own apps.

How To Download YouTube Videos with YouTube Premium

The YouTube Premium service (formally YouTube Red) is the only official way you can download other peoples videos and music.

Download videos and playlists to watch offline when you aren’t connected to the Internet.

You can download videos to watch offline using the YouTube or YouTube Music apps (and watch auto-downloaded videos in the YouTube Kids app) if these apps are available in your location and you’re signed in with your YouTube Premium account.

How To Download A YouTube Video on YouTube Premium

  1. Start watching a video on the YouTube Mobile app.
  2. Tap Download  below the video player.
  3. Select the video quality.
  4. The ‘Downloaded’ icon  will appear below the video player when the video has finished downloading.

You can view your downloaded videos in the Library  or Account tabs.

To remove a downloaded video, tap Downloaded  and select Remove.

How To Download A YouTube Video 2020 (NEW METHOD) 1

YouTube Premium Recommends Videos to Download

YouTube Premiums recommended downloads feature will help you get ideas for videos and playlists to download.

Note that when you download a recommended playlist, all the videos contained within that playlist will be downloaded. These recommended playlists will update weekly (while you’re connected to Wi-Fi), so you always have new videos to watch.

To find your Recommended Downloads:

  1. Open the YouTube app and make sure that you’re signed in to your YouTube Premium membership.
  2. Tap on the Library tab .
  3. Tap Downloads and scroll down to Recommended downloads.
  4. Download videos and/or playlists by tapping the download icon .

Change YouTube Premium Download Settings

On certain mobile devices, videos and playlists can be downloaded only when connected to a Wi-Fi network.

To download videos over a mobile network, go to Settings Settings and turn off Download over Wi-Fi only under Background & Downloads’.

Set Video Download Quality on YouTube Premium

To change the default quality for downloading videos, go to Settings Settings and select Download quality under ‘Background & Downloads’.

Higher-quality videos may take longer to download and may use more storage space on your device.

If less than 5% of storage space is available on your device, you won’t be able to download additional videos. To free up space, try removing a downloaded video or playlist.

How To Download A YouTube Video 2020 (NEW METHOD) 2

Things to know about videos downloaded from YouTube:

  • You must be signed in to your YouTube Premium account to download videos to watch offline.
  • Some actions, like commenting and liking, are not available while viewing videos offline.
  • Downloaded videos renew automatically as long as you go online in your home country/region at least once every 30 days.
  • Some videos may not be available offline when you reconnect to the Internet due to content restrictions from video creators.
  • If your device loses connectivity while downloading a video or playlist, it will automatically resume when you reconnect to a mobile or Wi-Fi network.
  • You can only download videos in countries/regions where YouTube Premium is available.
  • Learn more about YouTube offline 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.

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SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS VIDEO YOUTUBE YOUTUBE TUTORIALS

You Can Still Access YouTube Studio Classic Mode – Old YouTube Creator Studio

YouTube have recently updated to the new YouTube studio. There are many new features but some of us still prefer the “old” classic creator dashboard.

How To Access YouTube Studio Classic Mode?

To access the old YouTube Studio click on your avatar in the top left hand corner and goto your channel home page. Click on the big blue customise channel button. This is display the only channel design, now click on your subscriber number and it will load you into the old dashboard. Simply click all videos and enjoy the classic studio.

Old YouTube Creator Studio – YouTube Studio Beta is being rolled out and will be the default dashboard for all users in early 2020. But if you’re like me, you prefer the familiar basic look and feel of the classic mode. So this is how you can still access classic mode.

In February, YouTube devs started auto-defaulting users to new Studio, regardless of their previous choice. For the time being, Classic is going to stay, but old platform’s days are practically numbered. How can we still switch back to good old classic version and set it to be our default – at least, while it lasts and YouTube doesn’t permanently shut it down?

We still prefer Classic over new Studio version. Force of habit is probably a dominant cause in this case, let’s admit that right now. Classic still offers a lot of features which Studio doesn’t at the moment, despite the fact that it receives constant updates with ported features and analytics charts literally on a weekly basis, getting new existing and exclusive ones like impressions and click-through rates, performance comparison between videos/channels, and easing access to others, like subscribers per each video and so on.

Still, one feature that we really miss is the x-axis time control. We still cannot select x-axis reporting interval and set it to be weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly or pre-defined rolling range in order to more easily visualize and see cumulative growth (or regression) over time on a simplified chart. With so much data available, it is often easy to miss a forest for a single tree.

Need help ranking your videos and growing your YouTube channel – I have a whole page of tools that can help you get started!

Another, relatively recent change, that is going away with Classic design is the top-left MENU button, that allowed direct access to MAIN YouTube menu (History, My Channel, Subscriptions, Trending, Premium, YouTube TV …), which now doesn’t do that any more. Instead, it does simple Collapse Menu action. Same thing happened to main YouTube page, where it collapses the menu, instead providing access to useful shortcuts.

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.

VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

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.

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.

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.

Get More Views on Social Media Fast
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How To Go Live on Facebook 2020 (NEW METHOD)

It’s time learn how to go live on facebook! Facebook Live is great for livestreaming on facebook with Webcam lessons, remote learning, talking with family members or vlogging. Live stream to facebook from your pc, add polls, screen share and more in this how to use facebook live tutorial.

How To Livestream on Facebook Tutorial
0:15 – Start of How To Facebook live stream tutorial
0:24 – Facebook livestream dashboard
1:03 – How To Live Steam from a Facebook Page
1:27 – How To Crosspost Facebook Livestream
2:03 – How To Screen Share on Facebook Live

If this Facebook live streaming tutorial is helpful maybe the videos below would interest you too!

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How To Turn On SECRET YouTube Stats for Nerds

SECRET YouTube Debug Mode Feature for Frame rates, codecs, dropped frames, streaming quality all useful youtube stats for nerds that are hidden in plain view.

What is YouTube Stats for Nerds?

Stats for nerds is an inbuilt feature of YouTube app desktop and mobile including detailed statistics for video stats, audio and video formats, video ID, your current bandwidth, viewport, dropped frames, etc. It can help you find important info and troubleshoot your Internet (mobile data) issues.

On any YouTube video, if you right-click or control-click on the video, you will be presented with a contextual menu. In this menu, you will find a few options, such as the ability to set the video to loop, copy the URL of the video, copy a timestamped URL to share the specific location in the video, and few others.

Need some help in understanding what each of these options means then check out my YouTube Stats for Nerds EXPLAINED deep dive article where I look into these youtube stats for nerds, what they mean, how they impact your video and how you can use them to boost your luck in the youtube algorithm game.

Why Use YouTube Stats For Nerds?

This is a handy little tool if you love the fine details of YouTube and content creation.

These hidden gems can help you see what codec you are using, how well your video is performing from a technical standpoint and if you are a tech junkie its a little hidden extra look behind the scenes.

This could also be interesting for starting a YouTube gaming channel as you can see what video encoding service youtube is using for your videos. YouTube has different formats for footage depending on 4k, 1080p and even footage frame-rates which might effect your end product.

Why Does The YouTube Video File Format Matter?

Different types of video file formats exist for a reason: each one has slightly different methods of organizing the content within them, so it can affect playback, even if only slightly.

The YouTube stats for nerds can identify file formats for you. Different types of file formats and file containers may or may not be compatible with certain types of players.

Some file formats can take a single video and create a larger file size than others, which can impact the ability to upload it to certain platforms, too.

Since YouTube is all about video, it’s of course important to choose the video file format that will benefit you most. I have even done a video to show you the best 1080p HD Adobe Premier Pro Settings for YouTube or 4K videos below.

What Is The Difference Between File Containers and File Codecs?

One thing that we want to look at really quickly is the different between video file containers and video file codecs, because this will be relevant in a few minutes.

Video file containers will include how the video content is organized, and will include options that most people are familiar with, like .MP4 or .MOV which are used for Facebook video and Instagram file formats. Most file formats are ultimately named after their container.

Need help ranking your videos and growing your YouTube channel – I have a whole page of tools that can help you get started!

File codecs, on the other hand, is what’s used to compress and then decompress the file.

If you need help in understanding file codecs I have written this blog to explain why compression is needed, the best formats and how it can all help or hinder your YouTube video quality.

Certain, low-quality codecs can result in poor compression and decompression; though they can create smaller video files in many cases, the video quality is also much poorer.

As long as your video file is under YouTube’s maximum limit, always opt for the lossless codecs that yield the highest quality of video, even if it takes a little longer for it to upload.

What Video File Formats Does YouTube Accept?

YouTube accepts the following video formats:

  • .MOV
  • .MPEG4
  • .MP4
  • .AVI
  • .WMV
  • .MPEGPS
  • .FLV
  • 3GPP
  • WebM
  • DNxHR
  • ProRes
  • CineForm
  • HEVC (h265)

Almost all video editors and creators will give you the option to choose what file format you’d like to save your content in, and the majority at least over .MOV, .MPEG4, and/or .MP4 file formats.

What’s the Best YouTube Video Format?

The best YouTube video format based on the platform’s recommendations is the .MP4 file type. Additionally, YouTube also recommends opting for the following in order to be able to create high quality 1080p HD content:

How To Turn On SECRET YouTube Stats for Nerds

  • 264 codec(which is one of the most efficient options out there, allowing for a small file size without sacrificing video quality)
  • 15-20 mbps
  • A standard aspect ratio of 16:9(this is particularly important for mobile)
  • An audio codec of AAC-LC

That being said, if you absolutely can’t upload .MP4 files for whatever reason, .MOV files can work well, too. However, try to keep the H.264 codecs and aspect ratios consistent for ideal video quality on the platform.

YouTube accepts a number of different video formats, but they have recommendations for what can generate the best results and most high quality video on their platform.

States for Nerds – More Technical Requirements

When you’re creating your YouTube video and getting it ready for upload, there are a few more technical requirements and general best practices that you’ll want to be aware of in order to 1) be able to even upload your video on YouTube and 2) ensure that it looks great and is most likely to be well received by your audience.

Here are the other technical requirements that you should be keeping in mind to help your channel skyrocket to success:

  • The maximum file size that you can upload is either 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less. Some older videos may be longer than 12 hours, but that cut off has been reduced. (Although really, that’s for the best; you’re going to lose people like crazy if you’re going more than 12 hours and it sounds like a nightmare to edit).
  • Stick to that 16:9 aspect ratio. You really want your videos to show up well when users are watching, whether they’re watching on desktop or mobile. It’s particularly important on mobile– especially with 70% of views coming from mobile— so that the video can scale properly to full screen, making it easier for users to see and engage 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. Learn new skills for FREE with Skillshare

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

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

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

5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the Shutterstock website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.

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

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Add Thumbnails To YouTube Videos On Mobile (iPhone And Android)

A thumbnail is important to stand out and get noticed on YouTube. You need something eye catching but not too weird!

Once you’ve created your masterpiece its time to upload the thumbnail! Learn how to add a thumbnail to your YouTube videos using your Mobile phone (iPhone or Android device).

Download YouTube Studio App from the Google Play Store. Open the App, Click on the top left menu, choose videos, find the video you want to edit, click the pencil icon, and in the thumbnail click the thumbnail again, click change and upload your desired thumbnail image.

You’ve probably heard this phrase plenty times – “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Though these are words to live by, it is often the most neglected advice.

Every day, every minute, every second, your videos are judged by their thumbnails. In fact, video thumbnail plays a very important role in encouraging viewers to hit the PLAY button.

With so many videos on the Internet competing for attention, a video thumbnail can determine whether your video is watched or ignored, that is why use Adobe Express Thumbnail Maker.

Here are few points to keep in mind when you select a thumbnail for your video – How To Make A Great YouTube Thumbnail.

Why are YouTube Thumbnails important?

Thumbnails are the most important aspect of any video’s release, other than the content itself. Seriously.

This is because thumbnails, in combination with titles, are often the biggest deciding factor in whether or not a person will click to watch a video.

These are insights gained from conversations with creators, reading the YouTube Playbook, and countless experiments with various design types, all while measuring the click through rates and performance of our thumbnails through YouTube’s TrueView advertising.

Add text to represent your video content

Your thumbnail should convey your viewer what they’re going to see in the video. This is why it should sync with the title, description and the content of the video.

A good tip is to include some text in your thumbnails. Platforms like Facebook have a restriction on the amount of text you can put into a video thumbnail, so keep that in mind!

In fact, you can also include some hashtags in the thumbnail. Compare the views of this Jimmy Falon video to others:

How To Add A Thumbnail To YouTube Videos On Mobile (iPhone And Android)

As someone who regularly watches videos on different platforms, I request you to avoid using click-bait video thumbnails. This causes a lot of annoyance to the viewer and give out a ‘cheating’ vibe. And this is not good for your brand.

In the not so distant future, platforms like YouTube and Facebook can slowly start identifying such users using machine learning, and start penalising them.

Make it visually appealing

Impress your audience at first sight. Use the right color palette, but also make sure it doesn’t end up too gaudy and bright. You can use some image editing tools like PlaceIt.

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PlaceIt even has a huge gallery of templates to get you started. I have used PlaceIT for YouTube branding inspiration for years and its always a great way to research a starting design. Or you can buy templates for as little as $14.99.

Tubular Insights claim that something as simple as sharpening the edges can have also a subliminal effect on your thumbnail!

Include a human face to build an emotional connect

This usually makes people click you video because it makes them feel more connected. Once that connection is made, viewers are more likely to watch the entire video.

If possible, use a close-up shot because it helps the image stand out, irrespective of the device it is being viewed on. Look at the views on these BuzzFeed videos:

How To Add A Thumbnail To YouTube Videos On Mobile (iPhone And Android) 2

Tip: Based on what emotion your video is trying to evoke,  use a face that exaggerates this emotion!

Brand your thumbnails

Given the real estate of the thumbnail, it can become difficult to add your brand’s logo. But try to include it whenever you can. This ensures your video stands out in a collection/list, and helps the viewer identify your content.

Branding and logos are essential for great thumbnails. A good logo for brand recognition helps your thumbnails stand out against other thumbnails on YouTube because it’s a clear signal to the audience that this is one of your videos.

Since your audience is easily able to identify the video as one of yours, they are more likely to click that video.

Have a look at the Vice YouTube channel:

How To Add A Thumbnail To YouTube Videos On Mobile (iPhone And Android) 3

Try A/B Thumbnail Testing

A/B Testing is the process of testing two variants of the same thing. In video marketing, this involves comparing two different versions of a particular video to gauge which one does a better job at attracting more YouTube views or engaging an audience.

Video makers need to understand that nowadays, it is no longer just about putting out great content but being able to market it effectively enough to continue organic growth over time.

On top of having great quality content, video thumbnails, tags and descriptions contribute to driving traffic as well. Oftentimes, having great content with poor video descriptions or thumbnails can spell the difference between getting more YouTube views or not, and that’s not the only factor.

Having the ability to do an A/B test on videos prior to publishing them live to check which version and setup works better for their audience is essential to success.

Sadly, YouTube does not offer a feature for A/B Testing as of yet for its videos. I use the A/B thumbnail tool from TubeBuddy to help me boost views, rank higher and improve my click-through-rate.

Why should I Carry Out YouTube A/B Thumbnail Testing?

To most marketers, video is time-consuming and expensive to produce.

Then why am I suggesting you to make multiple variants of your videos?

Because your video is useful only if people actually watch it. And honestly, video that isn’t increasing your viewer engagement is a waste of your time and money.

YouTube A/B thumbnail testing will tell you what factors in your videos influence the probability of the viewer watching the entire video. And you can then use this insight to make more videos that your viewers love!

In fact, brands carry out A/B testing video ads on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook all the time to mazimise click-through-rate and conversions – more often than you’d imagine.

How do I know whether my impressions click-through rate is high or low?

For this I am going to refer to Googles play book directly as they deep dive into Tips for using impressions and CTR data.

What Drives Impressions? – When you upload a video, YouTube starts surfacing it to relevant audiences. Based on many factors, our system figures out which viewers are most likely to watch your video. The system continues to surface the video to audiences as long as it remains on YouTube.

How Do I Know If My Click-Through-Rate (CTR) is High or Low – Impressions click-through rate measures how often viewers watched a video after seeing a registered impression on YouTube. Some views don’t count towards impressions, like views on external websites or from end screens. Because of this, your impressions CTR probably represents a subset of your channel’s total views.

Impressions click-through rate will vary based on the type of content, audience and where on YouTube the impression was shown. Video thumbnails are always competing against other videos on the homepage, in ‘Up Next’, in search results and more.

Half of all channels and videos on YouTube have an impressions CTR that can range between 2% and 10%.

New videos or channels (like those less than a week old), or videos with fewer than 100 views can see an even wider range. If a video gets a lot of impressions (such as if it appears on the Home Page), it’s natural for the CTR to be lower. Videos where most of the impressions are from sources like your channel page may have a higher rate.

Ultimately, it’s best to compare CTRs between videos over the long term and keep in mind how their traffic sources will affect their CTRs.