Tag: youtube

Good Places to Record Videos in Your Home

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 27 June 2020
3 Comments on Good Places to Record Videos in Your Home

YouTube might be an excellent medium for expressing your creative side, educating people, and even just making money.

Still, it is not exactly a low footprint medium when it comes to creating those videos. At least, not all of the time. We’ll get into that.

Finding a space to make your YouTube videos can be tricky, especially if you live with other people, or have a small home. Or both! Fear not, however, there are always options. They’re not always free options, but there are options.

In this post, we’re going to go into detail on how to choose and prep a place for recording your videos. What makes a great space—and what you need to do to prepare it—will vary greatly depending on the kind of video you make.

The right equipment can make a huge difference to how and where you can record – but it doesn’t have to cost the earth. That’s why I made a deep dive blog into YouTube Equipment on a Budget – spend a little, get a lot of freedom in your recording options.

Before we talk about the types of video, let’s go over some of the attributes that make good places to record videos in your home.

What to Look For

If you are lucky enough to be in a position where you have a large room to yourself, a spare room you can make use of, or even the ability to build something new, then you’re already most of the way there. For the vast majority of us, however, we have to make do with what we got.

The first thing to consider when looking for a place to record your videos is permanency. That is, somewhere you can set up recording equipment and leave it in place.

Granted, this might not be an option, but if it is, it should be a strongly considered option. A space that may seem far more appropriate for recording videos isn’t necessarily the best choice if you have another area that you could set up permanently.

For one thing, it makes the time required for recording a new video considerably shorter, because you don’t have to worry about setting up or tearing down your equipment.

An example of this would be a large room with nice acoustics and natural lighting that you could use, but couldn’t leave your equipment in versus a tiny room—even a closet—that you could claim for the long haul.

The larger room would undoubtedly be better, but you could make the small room work. As with many things in life, it is a matter of deciding what best suits your situation.

The next thing we would recommend you consider before moving your gear into a particular area is how much control you have over that area. Similar to the previous example, a space that you can modify may prove to be better for you than a space that you can’t, even if it doesn’t look that way, to begin with.

After that, the main things to consider are environmental. For example, areas that are subjected to a lot of noise, perhaps from traffic. There are things you can do to mitigate that, but if you have other options, maybe consider something with less noise.

Camera-less Videos

Not all YouTubers need a big, adequately lit set up. If you make software tutorials where you’re not on camera, such as list videos that consist of clips and still images, or any other type of video where you are not actually filming yourself, you have a higher degree of flexibility in terms of the areas you can record in.

As your primary concern will be the quality of your voice over recording, it will actually benefit you to record in a smaller space, such as the closet we mentioned before.

Your main goal for the recording space should be to cut down on acoustic reflection and in a smaller room. This is much a much easier prospect. For one thing, you can always coat the entire space in acoustic foam tiles, which will all but eliminate reverb and echo.

If you do not have such a space—a common situation for YouTubers is recording in their bedrooms—then you will need to be smarter with your preparation. Thick packing blankets can act as excellent acoustic insulation and can be draped over any number of household objects to create a capable acoustic screen around your recording area.

Having issues with echo? You’ll be amazed what you can do from home for next to nothing to make your videos sound professional. For a more comprehensive guide to soundproofing check out my deep dive blog.

Shared Spaces

Now, assuming you are on camera but you don’t have anywhere you can claim in the name of YouTube, what are your options? Firstly, if you are going to have to pack up your gear when you’re not using it anyway, you may as well opt for the best spot you can find.

This may mean recording at inconvenient times so as not to irritate family members or roommates. Not to mention avoiding having people walking through your shot in their dressing robe!

You will be a bit limited in terms of your “set”, as the people you share a the space with won’t necessarily be happy about you putting up acoustic treatment and set dressing while they’re trying to watch Netflix!

One thing you can do in these cases is to use the room as your set. It might require doing a bit of tidying up, but most people wouldn’t complain about that. Even a drab looking space can be a serviceable YouTube set with the right focus and a bit of lighting.

Dual Purpose Spaces

This is the kind of situation most YouTubers find themselves in; you have somewhere to yourself, but you can’t dedicate it to your YouTube exploits.

The most common instance of this being a bedroom. Sure, you have the bedroom to yourself, but you do have to sleep in there. The good news is it’s your space, and you can do as much to it as you can endure.

You’re probably not going to want to hang set dressing over your bed, forcing you to take it down anytime you want to go to sleep. But you can certainly put things on the walls, arrange lighting in a way that suits the video, and move furniture around.

The Attic

…or loft, depending on what you call it.

Unless we’re talking about a converted attic, the chances are you’re going to need to do a lot of work to get things going up there. You will need lighting, acoustic treatment, and you will probably be sharing your recording space with decades of accumulated boxes.

The good news is, if you can get all of that sorted, you have a secluded space all to yourself. Just bear in mind that you will have to climb in and out of the attic any time you need to record, which isn’t always the easiest prospect depending on how the is laid out property.

Of course, if we are talking about a converted attic, there is no reason to treat it differently to any other room in the property.

Garages and Sheds

Let’s face it; nobody uses garages for cars anymore. And garden sheds are being converted into secluded getaways all the time. If you have access to such a thing, it can make a great recording space. But there are things to consider that you wouldn’t have to think about in a regular house or apartment.

Firstly, in the case of a typical garden shed, it is considerably easier to break into. If you leave a bunch of expensive recording equipment in there, you will have to weigh up the risk of it being stolen.

You can add security to the shed, remove the equipment when you’re not recording, or just hope that you never face that problem.

Another concern to think about with garden sheds (and, to a lesser extent, garages) is things like damp. These structures are not designed for use in the same way a typical home is, and they are prone to things like condensation and leaking. As you can imagine, this isn’t ideal when you have a potentially expensive computer, and a bunch of recording equipment sat there.

The other problem you will face is acoustics and set dressing. Having your own dedicated little space is great, of course, but your typical garage or garden shed is terrible from an acoustic point of view, and not exactly pretty to look at. Be sure to factor all of this in before moving your gear in.

Think Outside the Box

While not strictly in your home, gardens can provide an excellent backdrop for a video (depending on the video, of course).

You will need to do a little research into your gear if you want to record outdoors, as getting the best video and audio in the midst of Mother Nature is not quite the same as getting it in your bedroom.

The weather may also be a factor. If you live in a particularly wet region, the garden might not be very practical when you have to wait for the one dry day a month to shoot a video!

And The Rest…

It is also essential to put some thought into the rest of the video-making process, as you will need somewhere to do this as well. If you have set up a nice little audio recording booth in a closet somewhere in your house, it may not be the best location for slaving over endless hours of editing. Assuming, of course, you edit your own videos, but things like scriptwriting can go down in this category as well.

If you can split the various aspects of YouTubing across multiple machines, it might be worth having a dedicated device for the recording that can be left in place. If not, portable devices such as laptops are always great for those times when it’s not possible or feasible to edit and record in the same place.

Of course, if your set up is a big, roomy desk with a nice, comfortable chair, there’s no reason not to use that same location for your off-camera work.

Essentials

Any space you choose can be made into a serviceable YouTube recording space with a few essential tools.

Firstly; lighting. The amount of difference lighting makes to a video cannot be overstated. It is often the case that a cheap camera with good lighting can do a far better job than an expensive one with poor lighting. Lighting doesn’t need to be expensive, and it can come in very portable form factors, and with the right placement, it can be used to effectively remove the background entirely. Perfect if you are recording somewhere with a less than ideal look for your videos.

Acoustic treatment is also essential, though a little trickier to make portable. If you have a dedicated space, consider getting some acoustic foam tiles on your walls and ceiling, and perhaps a thick rug for your floor.

If you need more help in soundproofing your newly discovered record set I have a deep dive in my blog on soundproofing tips for youtubers – this should get you started and can be amazingly cheap!

If your setup needs to be portable, thick packing blankets are always a good option. Draping them over something around your recording space will make a massive difference to the acoustics, and you will be able to easily take them down afterwards.

Finally, for those times when the space is just not fit for screen time—or just because you want to—there is a green screen. Green screens can be picked up relatively cheaply on Amazon, or sites like Wish, and there are free options for implementing Chroma Key (the name of the green screen effect) either live or in editing.

Don’t Be Discouraged

It is essential to remember that, ultimately, it is the content you produce that will make or break your YouTube career, not the space you are recording in. If you can’t make a great looking set to record in, do not let that stop you from making videos.

Just do the best that you can do with what you have and then set about creating great content. Always be on the lookout for ways you can improve your recording space, of course, but don’t wait until it is ready, because it may very well never be ready. Especially if you are a bit of a perfectionist.

Viewers will forgive you for less than perfect backdrops, or subpar video quality. And as you progress, if your content is good enough, you may well find that is financially practical to upgrade.

Tags film making, how to make better videos, how to make better videos on youtube, make videos from home, making youtube videos, youtube, youtuber

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE YOUTUBE

How much money does 1 million YouTube views make?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 21 June 2020

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Guide to Make Money Online

Many YouTubers have the dream of earning their living as a content creator. Even if it is not the reason we start making videos, it’s often a goal that we strive for.

Knowing what is required of us in order to make that dream a reality isn’t as clear as it probably should be. Sure, we know that the more subscribers we have, the more potential for earning we have. And those of us who dig a little deeper may know more of the specifics (and those who don’t should keep reading!), but everything is just… vague.

It is reasonable to want to know how many subscribers equates to a substantial enough revenue source that would allow a creator to go full time, but very difficult to find a clear answer to that question. It can help to pick a straightforward metric as a starting point, and views are as good a metric as any.

The most common question that gets asked is how much money does 1 million YouTube views make? – This can depend on niche. A Prank channel with a $1-2 per 1000 views (CPM) would earn $1000/2000 for 1million views. However, a finance channel could get a $10-15 CPM meaning $10,000 to $15,000 for 1million views. The more adverts available and the more valuable the content the higher the income.

One million views was once an impossible goal for most YouTubers, but these days, with improved discovery algorithms, it is entirely within reach of any YouTuber with good content.

Unfortunately, this leads to confusing figures and wild differences in income. But don’t worry, we’re not going to leave you high and dry. Let’s break this down.

The Value of a YouTube View?

For now, in the interests of keeping things simple, we’re going to stick to purely YouTube monetisation. There are other ways to generate revenue from your channel, and we’ll take a look that later in the post, but right now, we’re only going to factor in revenue generated from YouTube’s Partner Programme.

There are two ways to couch this question; individual video views, or total channel views. The simplest metric to track is individual video views, as you can clearly see how many views that video has received, and how much revenue it has generated as a result.

Total channel views are more complicated. For one thing, you don’t even qualify for the YouTube Partner Programme until you have at least a thousand subscribers.

That means that a potentially significant chunk of your views won’t count because you were not able to monetise them at the time. Another issue lies with the fact that even the most consistent YouTubers can’t guarantee the same engagement across all their videos.

Once you reach a certain level of exposure, you are almost guaranteed a good amount of views on any new videos, but if the people who watch that video don’t watch to the end, or are less engaged with the content, they are not worth as much in terms of monetary value.

Engaging Content is Worth More

All views are not created equally, unfortunately. A video can have millions of views and make considerably less than a video with hundreds of thousands of views. This is illustrated by Seth Everman, a very popular YouTuber who has had several viral hits.

In one of his videos, he shows that the near-ten million views he had received on one of his videos equated to only $682.71.

Not exactly a high return for such a popular video, is it? But why did so many views earn so little?

The first thing to note is that Seth’s video—the one that had nearly ten million views—was only 41 seconds long. Short videos are considerably more limited in earning potential. People are far less likely to stick around for an ad that is longer than the video itself, let alone watch multiple ads on that video.

The next thing to consider is that the video was hilarious, but that was all there was to it. People watching it were there for the humour and came from all walks of life and held a variety of interests. It is this disparate nature of the audience that makes it worth so little in a monetary sense.

Compare this to, for example, a video reviewing pool cleaning equipment. That video is very unlikely to get ten million views in a reasonable amount of time (with enough time, any video has the potential to accumulate a massive number of views), but the ads shown on that video will be more targeted, and the people watching the video will be more likely to click them.

If YouTube serves up an ad for pool cleaning supplies on this hypothetical video, there is a much higher chance that the people watching it will want those supplies.

In contrast, Seth Everman’s video has no real direction from a marketing standpoint—the people watching are just there to laugh. This is not to say that there is no value to this kind of video, of course. We are not highlighting Seth’s video as a bad example of a YouTube video, merely using it to help explain how this system works.

Market Value

In the last section, we said that not all YouTube views are created equally—this exact principle applies to advertisements. Though it’s not strictly analogous to YouTube advertisements, it can help to understand the concept by looking at Amazon’s Affiliate Programme.

The basic premise of Amazon’s Affiliate Programme is that you share links to products on Amazon, and when someone buys one of those products via your link, you earn a percentage of the sale.

Now, it doesn’t take a marketing genius to understand that a percentage of $12 is considerably less than the same percentage of $1,200.

This is why an Amazon Affiliate marketer who is promoting a small ticket item—books, for example—can make hundreds of successful referrals a month and still earn less than a someone marketing luxury hot tubs who only makes one or two successful referrals in the same period.

YouTube ads are similar in that some ads are worth more than others; only the distinguishing factor is not the value of the item or service being advertised. Rather, it is several things, including the competition for that type of ad and the kind of advertisement that is being shown.

If affiliate marketing confuses you, you are not alone. When I first started it was like talking an alien language, but last year I earned over $5000 in affiliate income alone. I have tried to translate all that Jargon into human talk in my blog about Affiliate Marketing for Beginners – that should help you get started!

The Take-Aways

So, what should we take away from this information?

Videos in a niche with a lot of advertising competition will attract higher-paying ads
Videos with a clearly defined market have considerably higher earning potential
Longer videos have higher earning potential but only when viewers are engaged enough to watch most or all of it

In the case of that last point, it should be reiterated that merely producing longer videos does not guarantee you better earnings. The benefit of a longer video comes from increased watch time. More watch time not only presents YouTube with more opportunity to show ads on your content, but it also tells YouTube that you are a safe bet for keeping viewers on their website.

This will lead YouTube’s algorithm to recommend you more since keeping people on YouTube is the primary thing they are concerned with.

Uploading a two-hour video that the majority of people only watch for a few minutes not only doesn’t gain extra ad plays, it also tells YouTube that your videos aren’t engaging. In other words, it can damage your standing in the eyes of the almighty algorithm.

Answer the Question!

Ok. How much money does 1 million YouTube views make? Well, as you’ve seen from all we’ve said above, there’s no clear answer to this question, but we can give you examples.

One of which being Seth Everman, who we talked about above. His video was at nearly ten million views, but a bit of simple maths gets us to a rough figure of $60-70 for one million views. Ouch.

But let’s look at some other examples. Popular content creator Shelby Church gives a few different examples in her Medium post on this very subject. In it, she mentions one video which earned $1,275.99 for just under four million views. Doing some rough maths, that equates to about $300 per one million views.

It’s an improvement, but it’s still not a particularly significant amount considering the number of people who have watched her video. The video in question was about how to pose in photos, and by Shelby’s own admission, didn’t have much marketing power for advertisers to latch on to.

However, later in her post, she details a second video about the top features of the Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle. This video attracted two million views and made over $11,000. That’s over $5,000 per one million views. Now we’re getting somewhere.

If you search enough, you will find some incredibly generous numbers floating around. Shelby herself states that she has had one video make approximately $40,000 from the two million views it received. Kevin David managed to top that by earning just under $50,000 for less than two million views with a video helping beginners get to grips with Shopify.

As you can see, the numbers are all over the place. If you are looking for a range of expectation, a safe bet would be $2,000 to $15,000 per one million views—anything outside of that range being considered an outlier.

You can also boost your CPM and get more income for each view. Over the last 4 years I have tweak and changed and nearly doubled my channel CPM – I wrote down all my tricks in my blog about How To Increase Adsense CPM.

Expand Your Revenue Streams

We mentioned near the top that we were going to focus on money earned through YouTube’s Partner Programme for simplicities sake. But, that is not your only option when it comes to making money from your YouTube channel.

For one thing, if you are attracting a million views in a relatively short amount of time, or consistently attracting over a million views to your videos, you can probably gain the interest of a brand.

Brand deals are by far the most lucrative option for YouTubers… when you can get them. Fortunately, if you are attracting millions of views to your channel, you have already overcome the first hurdle—having a broad enough audience.

The brand will need to be in an appropriate market, of course. There is no sense in a boutique keyboard manufacturer signing a brand deal with a YouTube channel about gardening.

Similarly, crowdfunding is a very popular method that works particularly well for smaller channels, as it allows invested subscribers to contribute to your channel directly. This system often sees smaller content creators able to earn considerably more per view than YouTuber’s who have a much larger audience.

You may also consider the affiliate marketing system we mentioned earlier, though that only suits specific channels, namely channels that can tie into a product or service, such as a review channel.

It is not as straightforward to quantify these alternative revenue sources into a “$$ per million views” kind of metric. In the case of brand deals, you’ll likely need to hit that million view mark before you can even get a brand deal (though that is not a set-in-stone) rule.

As for crowdfunding, your viewers will typically be contributing with either one-off amounts or recurring payments, which doesn’t translate well to a per-view amount.

Finally, affiliate programs, as we covered before, are primarily dependant on the kind of product that is being marketed. If you review high-end electronics on your channel, any related affiliate program you use has considerably more earning potential than if you were reviewing budget electronics.

It’s Only a Number

Whether you are making YouTube videos for fun, or YouTube is a career move for you, you should try to avoid getting too hung up on numbers like this.

YouTube’s Partner Programme is generally considered to be a poor choice for monetising your channel (by itself, at least) so you should be looking into other options regardless. But don’t feel like a million views is an essential goal if you want to make it on the platform.

Some channels, by their very nature, never make a million views on a single video. At least, not in a reasonable time. And yet those channels still thrive. Arbitrarily forcing your audience to grow can backfire, in fact, as less interested viewers mean less engagement, which in turn means less watch time, fewer ad clicks, and fewer recommendations from YouTube.

It may be the case that your channel is better suited to a smaller audience. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make good money while catering to that audience.

Tags 1million views, money, youtube, youtube faqs, youtube money

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Do YouTubers get paid if you skip ads?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 20 June 2020
1 Comment on Do YouTubers get paid if you skip ads?

As users of the Internet, we have something of a love/hate relationship with advertisements.

Most of us understand that the blogs we read, the videos we watch, the content we consume—is made possible by the revenue generated from ads. At the same time, we see those very same ads as an inconvenience and an annoyance.

Indeed, many people use adblockers to remove them from our screens altogether – and this might harm a YouTuber long term, as discussed in my deep dive article.

For creators of that content, it is a difficult concept to come to terms with. On the one hand, you want your viewers to watch ads on your videos. Still, it’s hard not to empathize with their desire not to be bothered by commercials for Fiverr, Monday.com, or whoever is turning the advertising firehose on your viewers lately.

In the case of YouTube, it’s not as clear cut as getting an ad view or not—YouTube often gives viewers the option to skip ads after the first few seconds. As welcome as this tool may be to viewers, it can leave YouTubers wondering if they get paid for those first few unskippable seconds.

We’re going to get into this subject in-depth, but do YouTubers get paid if you skip ads? Short answer is, no. However, the answer isn’t as clear cut as we might have liked. Generally speaking, no, YouTubers don’t get paid for skipped ads. However, there are situations in which a skipped ad will still result in some earnings for the YouTuber.

Let’s get into the details so you can understand when you are—and when you aren’t—getting paid.

YouTube’s Ad Options

Here, we are talking specifically about YouTube’s in-stream ads. These are ads that show up in your actual video, before (pre-roll), during, or at the end. There are other advertising options for YouTubers to monetise their videos, and we’ll touch on those later, but you can’t “skip” a display ad, so for now, we’re going to stick to the video ads.

YouTube has two options when it comes to in-stream advertising campaigns. The type of ad that gets shown on your video determines whether you get paid anything on skipped ads.

YouTubers may be able to choose what TYPE of adverts to show but there is a debate whether YouTubers can choose the ADVERT itself that is shown – you’ll be surprised with the facts outlined in my blog on choosing adverts.

TrueView for Reach Ads

For YouTubers who have been around for a while, this could be considered the “traditional” YouTube advertising model. In TrueView ads, the advertiser pays per engagement.

The definition of engagement (or “completion”) is watching at least thirty seconds or interacting with the ad. If the ad is shorter than thirty seconds, then the viewer will have to watch the whole thing for it to count as an engagement.

If your viewer doesn’t meet one of these requirements, the advertiser is not charged and you, the YouTuber, don’t receive anything for the ad.

These are the ads that typically allow the viewer to skip after the first few seconds, which tends to be what happens a lot of the time. There is no CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model for these ads. As such, the number of people seeing those first few seconds of an advertisement is of no benefit to the YouTuber whose videos they are being shown on.

Should a viewer click on one of these ads, however, it is typically worth more to the YouTuber than the non-skippable bumper ads that we’re going to cover now.

Non-Skippable Bumper Ads

Like TrueView ads, these can show up before, during, or at the end of your videos. Unlike TrueView ads, these are only ever six seconds long, and cannot be skipped by the viewer.

These ads are charged (and, subsequently, paid) on a CPM basis. That means that, rather than earning you money every time a viewer clicks on the ad, they earn money for every 1,000 views they receive. Bumper ads are designed to gain exposure, rather than encourage the viewer to perform a specific action. That makes the number of people who have seen the advertisement is the more critical metric.

It is still possible for a non-skippable ad to not count, such as if a viewer hits the back button when the ad starts. But YouTube is using the industry standard of two seconds for an impression to count. That means the viewer would have to immediately leave your video for their view to not count.

I you want more in-depth tips on how to increase your earnings and boost YouTube Channel and even blog CPM, I wrote a deep dive into what can positively and negatively effect ad rates and earnings in my blog.

Do YouTubers Get Paid if You Skip Ads?

Hopefully, the answer is a little clearer now.

Technically YouTuber’s get paid almost any time a bumper ad is played, however, these ads are unskippable. Also, as they pay per 1,000 views, the effective amount you earn for one view is tiny compared to engagement on a regular ad.

With the more traditional TrueView ads, a YouTuber will earn money if the ad is watched for at least thirty seconds, assuming the ad is longer than thirty seconds. So, a viewer can skip an ad and still count as an engagement.

For viewers that skip before those thirty seconds are up, however, no money is paid by the advertiser, and so no money is earned by the YouTuber.

Other Types of YouTube Ads

In-stream ads are not the only option for advertisers on YouTube, and, as such, not the only way YouTuber’s can earn money.

There are presently two other ways for advertisers to get their message across, so let’s take a look at them.

Non-Video Ads

Non-video ads are the ads that show up in the form of a small banner overlay in the video or a display ad in the sidebar. These ads are minimally intrusive, which is a double-edged sword in terms of viewer engagement.

On the one hand, they are less irritating to your viewers, meaning they are less likely to click away because of an ad. On the other hand, they are considerably easier to ignore, meaning there is less chance of engagement and, subsequently, less chance of revenue.

As a YouTuber, you can choose which kinds of ads you allow on your monetized videos, though not the content of those ads. So, it may be worth doing research and testing to find which ads work best for you and your audience.

Discovery Ads

Discovery ads, while they are clearly marked as an ad, show up in organic search results and watch feeds in the same style as the regular search results and recommendation videos around them.

This type of advertisement is ideally suited to YouTuber’s themselves, as it is designed to drive traffic to a particular video. The ad will show among related videos as though it were an organic result, meaning the people seeing the ad were already looking for that kind of content to being with. It is worth remembering that, as mentioned, the ads are marked as promoted content.

These ads are unobtrusive and, by their very nature, tailored towards the viewer’s interests because the viewer is already looking for the type of content being promoted in the first place.

Other Options for YouTuber’s to Earn Money

YouTube’s advertising platform has its strengths and weaknesses as a revenue source. Still, it’s not the only option for YouTuber’s to turn their channel into an income generator.

Brand Deals

For channels with enough interest, it is possible to cut out the middle man and go directly to the advertiser. Several brands have been open to making deals directly with content creators. That number continues to grow as the power of platforms like YouTube becomes increasingly evident.

With a brand deal, you will have to work out the details with the advertiser yourself, including price negotiations, but this added work comes with rewards. Namely: revenue.

The earning potential from brand deals is considerably higher than that of YouTube’s monetisation program. Of course, the barrier to entry is higher as well. You only need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours watch time to qualify for YouTube’s Partner Programme, but brands will require a considerably larger audience before they think about offering a channel a deal.

It should be noted that, if you do get a brand deal, you are required to inform YouTube via the “contains paid promotion” checkbox of your video details.

Getting started on YouTube can be hard so I wrote a deep dive step by step guide on how to start a YouTube channel on my blog – I even added pictures!

Crowd Funding

For YouTuber’s with an invested audience, crowdfunding is a great way to earn revenue from a relatively small audience. Traditional advertising does not pay very well with low viewing figures. Often earning pennies per 1,000 impressions, or more per click when only a small percentage of viewers ever click, you need a lot of views to make decent money.

With an engaged audience who like your content and are happy to send you a little cash to support you, you can earn considerably more revenue.

Crowdfunding suits smaller channels particularly well, as viewers are more likely to support a creator they feel connected with. It is easier to maintain that kind of relationship when you don’t have millions of subscribers.

Responding to every comment is feasible when you have a few thousand subscribers, but that’s not the case when you have a few million.

This dynamic extends to YouTube advertising as well. With a small, dedicated audience, you are more likely to receive ad revenue because your viewers are more likely to be interested in the ads. For larger channels with more casual viewers, this is not usually the case. It is this relationship that is why some YouTuber’s can go full time with an audience of around twenty thousand subscribers, while other YouTuber’s with ten times that amount of subscribers still have to work a regular job alongside their channel.

Affiliates

Affiliate marketing is usually thought of as a supplemental revenue source—rather than a primary earner—when talking about YouTube channels. Affiliate programmes will pay you a commission for actions carried out through your referral—a typical example of this being you sharing an Amazon affiliate link in your description. Amazon then pays you a percentage of the sale when one of your viewers buys something through that link.

Affiliate programmes are particularly useful for channels that feature products, such as unboxing videos and product or service reviews. If a viewer watches your video and decides they want to purchase the product or service being featured, they can click through your link, and you will earn a small commission.

Using affiliate marketing when it doesn’t organically tie into your content is unlikely to generate revenue, however. Worse still, it can sometimes be seen by your viewers as a cynical money grab and may turn some people off. And, on that note, always be upfront with your viewers about affiliates, brand deals, and product placements.

Most viewers won’t care if you are getting paid to talk about a product, but they will care if you aren’t honest with them about it.

Affiliate marketing has made me $1000’s over the last few years. It can be as simple as making content and picking the right links. But to help you get started I have written a Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing in this blog – It’s surprisingly simple once you get started!

Eyes on the Prize

At this point, it is worth enforcing the point that content is what matters. If you focus on making the best possible content for your audience, meeting a need they have, the opportunities to generate revenue will come.

If you are concerned over whether you earn money from skipped ads, you may not have your head in the right place for success. Many YouTubers consider the YouTube Partner Programme a poor option for revenue generation, and certainly not a good bet for your primary source of income. Obsessing on details such as whether you get paid for a few seconds of watch time on a skipped advertisement is not the best use of your mental energy.

Put that energy into your content. Find ways to expand your audience, or drill down further into your niche and become an authority. Consider other methods of monetisation when the time is right. There is no point in starting a Patreon with fifty subscribers, for example. Well, unless they are very dedicated subscribers.

YouTube monetisation has long been an unreliable source of income for its creators, with continually changing terms and multiple “adpocalypses”. The best way to approach this is not to think about it. Simply turn monetisation on when suitable, and forget about it. Focus on your content and other revenue sources. That way, any income you do make through YouTube’s Partner Programme will feel like a nice bonus.

And you won’t be caught short the next time YouTube changes their rules, and your revenue takes a hit.

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.

Tags ads, adverts, how to make money, make money online, money, youtube, youtube ads, youtube faqs, youtube help, youtube money

HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE SEO TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How to promote YouTube videos on Facebook

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 15 June 2020
1 Comment on How to promote YouTube videos on Facebook

If you have been creating YouTube videos but not promoting it across other social media channels, you are missing a real trick.

First thing you need to do is go and read about the best places to share your YouTube videos for all of the ideas, and then come back here and we can run through just how important Facebook is to catapulting your YouTube views and traffic.

Why Share YouTube Videos on Facebook?

Why should you be promoting your YouTube videos on Facebook?

Well I think you should be sharing your videos on every social media platform you have! But Facebook is particularly important for several reasons:

6 Billion monthly active users
Leading non video social platform reaching over 60% of internet users
Over £17 Billion earned in ad revenue in Q1 of 2020

Stats source: Orbelo

With those huge ad numbers and high active users you really can’t afford to miss out Facebook in your YouTube promotions, plus the platforms work together in a really effective way making it super easy for you to promote your new content

Native Videos or Embedded Videos

When deciding to share your YouTube video on other social media platforms you need to decide whether you want this to be native or embedded.

Native videos are hosted on that particular platform, for example you would download your video on YouTube and then reupload it to Facebook, so the video is then also hosted on Facebook. This is good for sharing a related video or a shorter promo clip.

Native video uploads will not increase your YouTube views directly but can help you direct traffic to the full video

Embedded Videos are where you are effectively sharing your existing YouTube video to another platform using YouTube share functions. It is still hosted on YouTube so the views you receive from other platforms will increase your YouTube video views

How to embed your YouTube video on Facebook

Embedding your YouTube video on Facebook is really simple here is a quick step by step guide to help you embed your video

Find the YouTube video you want to share and click into the thumbnail, this makes sure you are on YouTube’s distinct URL for that video
Scroll down to directly underneath the video, you will see the thumbs up / down buttons and a share button, click the share button
You should now have a list of social platforms you can share your video to, click the Facebook button
Add any text or captions you want sharing along with your video, this is a good place to explain what the video content is as embedded videos do not auto play so will require someone to click.
Click the blue post to Facebook button and that is it! Your video should now have shared across to Facebook

How to upload a native video to Facebook

Uploading a native video to Facebook is slightly more complicated but it does have it’s pro points too, first of all it’s important to note that it goes against YouTube’s terms of service to use a 3rd party app to download YouTube videos they want you to stream directly from their own servers.

But as you are creating content you will not need to use a 3rd party app because you should already have the video created and saved before you originally uploaded it to YouTube. Here is a quick guide to uploading a native video:

Locate your video file on your computer and check the files format, you want this to be an MP4, if it isn’t already then you can quickly Convert to MP4
Open the Facebook URL or app and find the standard ‘What’s on your mind’ for sharing new content. Directly underneath the text should be a button that says Photo/Video
Click Photo/Video and find the video you want to upload in your files and click open
Add text or a caption to your post, again this is always important it is a way of selling your video to stop the scroll
Finally click the blue post button and voila! You have now uploaded your video directly to Facebook.

Which should I use?

This is a trickier question and entirely depends on what your marketing goals, traffic goals etc might be. There are pros and cons to both video options and direct comparisons too which can help you decide which is right for you

Embedded video links tend to show as a smaller thumbnail whereas a native video will show at the width of the news feed making it more eye catching and noticeable when scrolling through
Auto play only works on native videos, with an embedded video the audience will need to click to get the video to play
Native videos tend to keep users on Facebook, understandably it’s a competitive field in the social media game, so where they can Facebook will keep it’s audience on it’s own platform, this isn’t good for you if you’re trying to increase your views specifically on YouTube in order to hit goals to monetize your channel.
Whether it’s natively uploaded or embedded Facebook posts are not usually crawled by search engines so it’s unlikely to increase organic search traffic, but it obviously does open up your video content to a whole different audience than the YouTube audience
The lifespan of a Facebook video is relatively short in comparison to YouTube where videos can continually perform.

How do I get the benefits of both?

There are pros and cons to both methods of sharing your YouTube videos to Facebook so it’s important you experiment with both methods to get a good feel for your Facebook audience, determine which they prefer and monitor which type of video gains you more views / click throughs.

A good way of getting the benefits of a native video but the YouTube traffic and increased channel views is to utilise both methods. Try full videos for both, but a common method for gaining traction is to create specific promo videos or a sneak peak video for Facebook.

This allows you to share a short video clip natively that will pique interest and make your Facebook audience want to click through and watch the full video on YouTube

Did you know you can also monetize your Facebook Page using your videos, pictures and blog posts? I even made a video about it on my youtube channel – You’ll be amazed how simple it is!

Promo Videos

When creating a promo video use a tool such as Adobe Spark, this allows you to cut video clips and add shorter clips while also adding slides and overlay text to your video.

This promo video can then be shared across your various social media channels with a link through to your YouTube video therefore gaining strong click throughs and increasing your YouTube views and subscriptions.

Promo videos are an excellent way of gaining the right audience, and an audience that will stick around. If they are interested enough to click through to the full YouTube video the likelihood is that the content resonates with them and they are going to watch the full video

How are you sharing your 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.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

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.

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.

Tags facebook, how to get more views on youtube, promote youtube videos, promote youtube videos on facebook, youtube, youtube promotion, youtube views

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Do you get paid for YouTube?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 10 June 2020
2 Comments on Do you get paid for YouTube?

YouTube is the kingpin of social media; it remains the leader amongst all social media channels and consistently receives the highest traffic, so it makes sense that everyone now like the idea of having their own YouTube account.

Here is a quick overview of YouTube user stats to help inform your video creation:

2 billion logged in monthly users
Each visitor spends just over 11 minutes a day (so make your videos snappy!)
Over 70% of views are on mobile
70% of videos viewed are determined by YouTube recommended algorithm
50% year on year growth of channels earning over £10k per year

So, looking for a quick answer? Do you get paid for YouTube? – Yes! You can get paid many ways on YouTube. The most direct way is from the YouTuber Partner Program that needs 1000 Subscribers & 4000 Hours of Watch Time to apply. You will then get paid a small fee per 1000 advertisements displayed (CPM). You can also integrate affiliate links and sponsors.

But first you need to set up your channel and find your niche.

The audience is already present on YouTube, you just need to tap into their habits and create exciting and interesting content to capture them and ensure you are the video they’re spending 11 minutes on a day.

It’s clear to see that consumption has turned more mobile, and that YouTube still have a huge say in who’s successful on their channel but there is absolutely no reason why you can’t be the next channel earning over £10k per year.

There is every opportunity to get paid for being a YouTube creator and you don’t really need anything special to begin your journey, many of the most popular YouTube videos returning ad revenue every day were shot on mobile phones you just need to capture your audience and hopefully get your videos viral or a steady returning audience to increase your YouTube growth.

How do I start getting paid for YouTube?

YouTube has various methods for you to start earning money from advertising revenue, channel memberships and more. Each method has differing eligibility requirements whether that is a certain number of subscribers or views.

Before you’re able to apply to monetize your content and join the YouTube Partner Programme you need to have gained 1000 subscribers and have had 4000 public watched hours over the last 12 months.

To achieve this you need to make sure you’re creating high quality content, promoting your YouTube channel and sharing your YouTube videos to bring an audience to your videos.

Hopefully utilizing those tips and tricks you’re at a level where your channel is garnering views and you’re ready to monetize, your first step is to have an active Google AdSense account – Google owns YouTube so this is where your adverts will come from. You can now enable the monetization feature within YouTube and connect your AdSense account, this basically lets YouTube know that you are happy for adverts to be included on your videos.

What Adverts will I get paid for?

If you have joined the Partner Programme you’ve told YouTube that you are looking to make money on their platform and that you’re happy to include adverts on your videos.

These adverts can arrive in a variety of methods, each earning you different amounts. The main two methods are CPC (cost per click) or CPM (cost per mile). CPC is what it says on the tin, the ads are charged per click meaning that you get paid the more clicks you get on those adverts.

CPM is slightly different; these are usually if a viewer has watched an advert on your video and you will get paid a set amount for every 1000 views of the ad. The amount differs per advertiser so there is not a definitive answer, but it can be anything from 5p upwards. Within the two main advert methods are 4 different formats that become available to you

Pre-roll video ads (CPC) – These videos are shown before your video and can last up to 30 seconds
In Stream ads (CPM) – Very similar to Pre-roll video ads however the viewer can skip the ad after 5 seconds
Bumper ads (CPC) – 6 seconds non skippable clip that will be shown before your video
In Display Ads (CPM) – These adverts are not included on your video they can be found in the sidebar so are a bit more discrete

You can personalise what types of adverts you’d like to be included on your videos as a whole and also on individual videos which is really good for driving the adverts onto your most popular videos and making sure your balance of content / advert is how you’d like it.

Adverts are the most passive method of getting paid for YouTube, once its set up you can pretty much leave it in the background earning you money.

How else can I get paid for YouTube?

There are many other ways you can earn money and get paid for YouTube.

Depending on your content and niche you could reach out to brands within your niche for product placement campaigns, this would involve ticking the ‘paid promotion’ box when uploading your video but you can advertise the product and depending on the agreement you have you could earn a commission for sales via your video

In a similar vain you can use affiliate links throughout your video or in your description to earn via people clicking your links. Let’s say you are creating a recipe video; you could link the equipment you use in the description using an affiliate link. This should generate income via your affiliate network by utilizing your YouTube audience

If you want a deep dive into affiliate marketing and how to get started – check out my monster blog post on affiliate marketing for beginners.

If you have a loyal following and audience and a catchy slogan or name you might even, consider creating your own items and merchandise to sell. This gives your viewers a way to purchase an item you have created and if it’s branded can drive off site traffic to your YouTube channel – win win

When will I start earning?

Becoming a YouTube creator isn’t a get rich quick scheme, I’ve highlighted a couple of ideas for earning, There are a plethora of other ways to get paid for YouTube but don’t run before you can walk, gain your audience, set up your adverts and start building your YouTube empire.

It is important your focus remains on your content and keep a healthy balance of unsponsored content as well as paid advertorial campaigns. Your audience want to see you and followed you for your authentic voice so ensure you maintain that credibility throughout. Your audience are likely to stay longer if they trust you and don’t think you’re selling out for a quick buck.

Let your passive income build while you develop and build your YouTube account. Your AdSense must hit £60 before you can withdraw anyway so expect a slow burn

How close are you to monetizing your YouTube account?

Tags do you get paid for being on youtube, Do you get paid for YouTube?, do youtubers get paid, how do youtuber get paid, making money, making money online, youtube, YouTube Monetization, youtube money

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE MARKETING SOCIAL MEDIA YOUTUBE

Can YouTubers Control Which Ads Are Shown?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 9 June 2020
3 Comments on Can YouTubers Control Which Ads Are Shown?

There is a multitude of ways to monetize a YouTube channel. Still, the most popular method remains YouTube’s built-in monetization features.

You will need to meet several criteria before you can monetize a channel (more on that later), but once you do, YouTube will begin showing ads on your eligible videos, and you will start earning a cut of the profits those ads generate.

There are typically a lot of questions surrounding YouTube’s Partner Program, which you have to become part of if you want to monetize your videos. Many of these questions come from the perspective of branding; a critical ingredient in any online presence.

The question of whether you have control over the ads that YouTube play place on or around your videos is a reasonable one to ask. After all, public perception is not always as nuanced as you might hope.

If an ad for something controversial is played before your video, it can negatively affect your brand. Similarly, most YouTubers aren’t exactly keen on having ads for their rivals playing on their videos, either.

So can YouTubers control which ads are shown on their videos? – The short answer is no. YouTuber’s have no control over which specific ads are shown on or with their videos. However, you can disable specific advert categories in the Google Adsense settings to eliminate some niches you might wish to avoid like Gambling, Health etc

Still, you are not entirely powerless in controlling the branding of your channel.

Let’s dig in a little deeper.

The YouTube Partner Program

Know your enemy, as they say. Before you even consider how to handle YouTube’s built-in monetization, you need to understand what is required for your channel to qualify.

It used to be the case that anyone who followed YouTube’s community guidelines could monetize their channel, but this changed in 2018 when the barrier to entry was significantly increased. The current requirements to become a YouTube partner are as follows;

Reside in a country or region where the YouTube Partner Programme is available.
Have at least 4,000 hours of valid watch time in the past 12 months.
Have at least 1,000 subscribers.
Have a linked AdSense account.

Most of these requirements are self-explanatory with the possible exception of “valid watch time”.

Watch time consists of accumulated watch time across all of your videos by any viewer. So, sixty different viewers could watch one minute of a different video each. That would count for the same amount of watch time as one viewer watching a single sixty-minute video.

The “valid” part refers mainly to the fact that, previously, YouTube’s Partner Program would factor in all views across your channel. That includes private and unlisted videos. Now, for it to be considered valid, it must be a public video.

Once you have met these criteria, and provided there are no issues with your account, you can sign up to be part of the YouTube Partner Program. And, after YouTube approves your channel (usually a few days), you can start monetizing your videos. It’s also worth noting that being accepted into the YouTube Partner Program is a channel by channel process.

If you start a second channel after being accepted to the program, you will have to go through the same process for that new channel.

What Control Do YouTubers Have Over Ads?

Firstly, it should be noted that even though your channel is part of the YouTube Partner Program at this point, any individual videos you intend to monetize must meet their own criteria before they can be monetized.

When monetizing your video, YouTube will ask you to answer a few questions about the content. They will want to know if it has any offensive language, or if it is aimed at children, as well as a host of other things.

For the most part, the answers to these questions will affect the advertising that YouTube will show on your video. In the same way that you might not want certain things advertised with your brand, advertisers often don’t want their ads displayed with certain types of content.

For some types of content, this may mean YouTube won’t show any ads at all. If your content falls into this category, you should look into other ways of monetizing your videos.

Assuming your video is eligible to be monetized and you do decide to put ads on it, the only real control you have is where and how those ads are displayed. There are several options to choose from, and you can select some or all of them. These options are;

Display Ads
Overlay Ads
Sponsored Cards
Skippable Video Ads
Non-Skippable Video Ads

The timing of the in-video ads can also be set as “Before Video”, “During Video”, and “After Video”, with the further option of manually choosing the placement of “During Video” ads.

Overlay ads are those little banner ads you sometimes see in the bottom center of the video. The ones that you can close if you like. Display ads, on the other hand, are the ads that appear above the recommended videos (typically to the side of the video you are watching).

These ads are minimally intrusive and do not stop the viewer from watching the video. That means they are less likely to cost you views, but also less likely to make as much money as the more intrusive ads.

Cards are the little boxes that pop up in the video when you click “more information”, and, as you may have guessed, sponsored cards are ads placed in those boxes.

Finally, skippable and non-skippable ads are video ads that YouTube will play at the times you have allowed. These videos interrupt or delay your viewers from seeing your content.

Because of this, there is a higher risk that they will click away if the content is not grabbing them. That being said, this kind of ad is also worth considerably more money, so it’s a trade-off you will have to weigh up for yourself.

And that, along with not monetizing your video with the YouTube Partner Programme, is the full extent of control you have over YouTube ads on your videos.

Or is it?

Paid Promotions and Product Placements

Your earning potential through YouTube is not limited to the YouTube Partner Program alone. Indeed, some YouTubers do not use the program at all, feeling that the extra revenue does not warrant the added inconvenience to their viewers.

One of the more popular methods of monetizing a YouTube channel without using YouTube’s own methods is paid promotions and product placements.

This can be handled several ways, but typically takes the form of an in-video ad that you place in the video yourself, rather than leaving it for YouTube to do automatically. For this kind of arrangement, you will have to strike up a deal with an advertiser yourself, and so it’s impossible to say what constraints you might face on the content of the ad.

However, you will be in full control of what you do and don’t show.

If an advertiser demands something you are not comfortable with on your channel, you can choose to not work with them. Just be sure agree on the content of the ads before any legal documentation is signed. Failing to do so may result in you being legally obligated to show ads you are not comfortable with.

If you do implement this kind of monetization, there is a simple checkbox you will have to tick when you upload your video. This tells YouTube (and, consequently, your viewers) that your video contains paid promotion. In most cases, this will be an unnecessary precaution, as it is often obvious that there is paid promotion in the video.

For videos with product placement, however, or where it is not immediately clear that the video contains a paid promotion, this notice will act as full disclosure to your viewers.

Whether it is necessary for your content or not, you must make sure to check this box if it applies. Not doing so would constitute a breach of YouTube’s terms if you were ever found out. In extreme cases, you could even lose your channel!

Affiliate Programmes

Affiliate program are not suitable for all types of YouTube channels, but for those they do suit, it’s an excellent way of monetizing your content. To explain how affiliate programs work, we will use Amazon as it is the most popular example of this kind of service. There are many affiliate programs to choose from, however.

To make use of Amazon’s affiliate program, you first sign up with their program. From there you can access special affiliate links to Amazon products. From a customer’s point of view, clicking an affiliate link looks no different from clicking a regular link.

The item is the same, the price is the same, and the process is the same. The difference that we’re interested in, however, is that you get a commission of any products that are bought through your affiliate link.

Now, if your channel has no relevance to anything you can buy on Amazon, then an Amazon affiliate link wouldn’t do you much good.

However, if your channel reviews things, or you do some product spotlights, or even if you have a professional setup and frequently get asked about your gear placing affiliate links to the related products in your video description can be a great way to monetize your content. It is also a great way to add a revenue source if you are already monetizing through some other means.

Leaving the Amazon example behind, there are many affiliate services, and some companies even have their own affiliate program. For instance, Udemy, an online learning platform, has its own affiliate program. There are also affiliate program related to books, entertainment, and a host of digital products.

Crowd Funding

The final alternative to monetizing your channel that we’re going to cover is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding requires you to have a somewhat invested audience but is essentially your viewers choosing to compensate you for your content.

For this to work, you would need to be providing useful content that your audience is willing to pay for. People like to watch funny animal compilations, but they are probably not going to financially support you to make them when they can get that content elsewhere.

There are a few different ways to make this option available to your viewers, the most well-known one being Patreon. With Patreon, you can set different tiers that your patrons can contribute to, with rewards for each tier.

Patreon supports recurring payments, very much like a subscription. Another similar option is Ko-Fi, which is a little better suited to smaller, one-off payments. The theme of Ko-Fi is that your supporters are buying you a cup of coffee. It may help to think of this service as more akin to a tip jar.

For eligible channels, YouTube has an in-house alternative in the form of Memberships, which works in a very similar fashion to Patreon. Using YouTube’s system has the added convenience of not requiring your viewers to leave YouTube to support you.

Of course, you will have to meet YouTube’s requirements before you can use this feature.

Conclusions

While it is unfortunately true that you cannot control the ads that YouTube displays on your videos, you are not powerless in the presentation of your brand. You can choose not to show YouTube ads on your channel, and seek alternative ways of monetizing your channel.

It’s worth noting that YouTube advertising is not the most predictable source of income. In addition to fluctuating viewing figures, the type of video you make can significantly affect your earning potential. While some YouTuber’s have made a respectable income from a relatively small number of subscribers, other YouTubers have had viral hits with millions of views that only made a few hundred dollars.

Things like the length of your video and how long viewers watch for also has a significant impact on the earning potential of any specific video.

However you plan our your monetization strategies, remember that good content should be at the core of whatever you do. You can’t control YouTube’s ads, but you can control your content. Make it count.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

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

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

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

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.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

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.

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.

Tags ads, adsense, adverts, Can YouTubers Control Which Ads Are Shown?, disable adsense ads, making money online, money, youtube, youtube ads, youtube adverts, youtube money, youtube partner program, youtuber ads, ypp

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE LISTS TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How to Grow a YouTube Channel (30+ Ways)

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 4 June 2020
1 Comment on How to Grow a YouTube Channel (30+ Ways)

“They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but what about videos; I’d say they are worth a trillion words.”

You cannot deny it anymore; videos are now everywhere and video marketing is on the rise. It has grown even more prominently than just a few years ago and is convenient for brands to reach their customers.

You can argue that popular social media sites like Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram, Twitter, and others are good places to promote your content, but the truth is YouTube reigns supreme. People spend trillions of hours every day looking at videos.

I’m going to share with you 30+ proven tactics, tips, tricks, and hacks that are going to help you grow your YouTube channel.

Know Your Audience

One of the first things to do before you go about making your videos is to know what your audience, viewers, or customers want. You should be asking yourself questions.

Asking questions will help you to understand and make better videos for your audience, customers, consumers, or viewers.

Keywords & Research

Now that you’ve had a chance to know their requirements, you can start with subject / content research and gather keywords. When YouTube is concerned, keyword research is important. I cannot stress this enough.

Choosing the CORRECT keywords skyrockets your videos to the top. Choosing the WRONG keywords buries in heaps of search results.

Engaging Titles

This is another one of the important factors that make-or-break your YouTube video’s popularity. Literally, titles are what makes or breaks your video’s engagement and performance.

You have to craft engaging titles and grab your viewer’s attention without using “clickbait” headlines. People want entertaining content, and not one that says something but delivers something else.

Trailers, Trailers, Trailers

Before you run off and make your first YouTube video, create a video introducing yourself, your brand, and what your channel is about. This is a mini trailer to show to non-subscribers and persuade them to stick about and even subscribe to your content.

Need help with make a good trailer? I make a video all about that on my YouTube channel – check it here.

Content – Quality, Reformatting, Sustainability, Trending

Rule #1 – Quality, Quality, Quality; Content, Content, Content

Rule #2 – Read Rule #1 Period.

You know your audience, done your research, and have gotten that optimized video title, but now what? Now, you start to form the content of your videos.

If your video is not what people want, they’ll be lost in the infinite sea of other videos that nobody wants to see.

You have to create content that lures viewers, meaning videos on trending content. You can also repurpose an old article or blog post and create an engaging video your viewers will love.

Make Eye Catching Thumbnails

YouTube grabs a screenshot of your videos and uses these as thumbnails. Most times the image is blurry or you do not want this. Use specific fonts and styles so that it’s consistent with your brand’s look and feel. Use tools like Canva to create thumbnails.

Also, don’t make thumbnail to clickbait. You’ll lose subscribers in an instant. Thumbnails give a good first impression to your viewers of you and your channel, so make it eye-catching.

Put Yourself On Camera

Are you running your YouTube channel yourself or as a small business or start-up, then it’s better to put yourself in front of the camera. Putting a face to the brand lets your viewers easily associate with you.

This is particularly true for solo entrepreneurs; business, fitness, or life coaches; and bloggers. Also, use your photo instead of your logo on your YouTube channel if you are one of the above.

Win The Click

If your video is based on a project, show the final result at the start. A stunning result makes people more interested to see how you achieved it. This is a winner for makeover, beauty, home improvement, and DIY videos.

Telling stories is another fabulous way to tempt your viewers’ emotions. We all want to hear stories.

Viewers want to know what happens at the end of a story, so start with one.

Also, a personal story will endear you to your viewers.

Upload Videos Consistently

Just making videos with great content and then not doing it anymore is not enough. You have to be sustainable, meaning you have to do it regularly.

Doing it once is GOOD, doing it again is GREAT, but doing it again and again is FANTASTIC for you (brand or otherwise) and your viewers.

Stay Focused

AVOID nonsense and ramblings, don’t take long pauses, jump around topics, or be boring. This makes your viewers look at the recommended video section for interesting stuff. Make sure your videos are engaging visually or use stories.

Do not give your audience a chance to click away.

Engage Your Audience

Make sure the content you make is what your viewer wants. Ask your viewers for suggestions. You need to engage your subscribers and reply to their queries and comments on your videos.

Don’t forget to reply to negative comments also. It shows you are listening and active. You can use this to convert your audience into possible leads.

Brand Yourself and Your Channel

Don’t make your video look fake as this affects your viewers’ perception of your channel and you. Also, make sure your channel is visually appealing. You have to make it look authoritative. Branding a channel helps users to recognize it in a sea of content.

Be sure to match your channel to your website or blog’s look and feel; do not differentiate between them.

Cross Promote Your Videos

Cross promoting make you look more professional and uniform. You don’t know the subscribers you’ll get just by promoting on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, etc

Use the following tips to cross promote on social media:

Make and promote teasers
Release behind the scenes videos.
Alert your subscribers to new video uploads
Links in video description to nudge viewers to take a look (call-to-action)

End Screens and Info Cards

You might be thinking what is a Card? It is nothing but an interactive “panel” that slides in and out as your video is nearing the end. This is to nudge viewers with interesting content that they might like.

You’ll be able to add 5 panels, make the most of this. You can add text, images, or clickable links.

Subscribers, Subscriptions & Newsletters

Use your site’s email newsletter to grow your channel. Send embedded preview videos or links to new content and bring them back to your channel. You can always ask your audience to subscribe to your channel.

Do not ever pay for subscribers. This brings down the engagement and your authenticity is at risk in the long term.

End Screen Promotions

Use interactive graphics to link to another playlist, video, web page, or channel, or prompt them to subscribe to your channel.

You’ll be able to add them at then end 20 seconds of the videos. Plan this out, and make sure you know where they will appear.

Chase Trends

Check out your competitors and see which videos are ranking higher with better engagement. Keep checking out and refining the topics and workflow until you have a process that is well-oiled.

There isn’t any replacement for hard work. Always search for patterns like subject, editing style, or delivery system and create videos like those.

Improve Your “Watch Time”

Make your video as long as your topic requires. Nowadays, longer videos result in more watch time. This boosts your videos in YouTube’s algorithm.

Do not make videos longer just to make them longer. You will lose viewers. Generally, 7-15 minute videos perform better.

Content Mix Strategy

Always try to make videos that serve you channel’s community, perform well in search, and are shareable. You can post regular videos for your product, service, brand, or other things.

You need to mix the types of videos as well.

Along with the regular ones you can have videos that contain responding to comments, answering questions, interacting via live video as well.

Make Bingeable Videos Series

Make a video series so you can convert one time viewers into subscribers. Find specific keywords or topics and optimize your content for search.

These help you in establishing yourself as a thought leader or an influencer.

Creator and Brand Collaborations

Collaborating with another YouTuber will help you grow your channel as it helps in doubling your audience.

You will have two channel’s subscribers seeing your videos meaning more subscribers, viewers, and reach. Collaborate with guests or co-hosts that fit your niche only.

YouTube Video Optimization

Don’t only do SEO for your site, blogs, or articles. Use it to rank your videos on YouTube.

To get subscribers and growing your channel, you need SEO. YouTube results actually pop-up before other traditional blogs, articles, or websites.

Some fantastic tools for YouTube SEO are TubeBuddy and VidIQ – They help with keyword research, ranking and even your thumbnails – check out my resource page for more tools to help with SEO & Branding.

Search Engine Results Page (SERPs)

YouTube is making a killing when SEO is concerned. You shouldn’t just create videos for search engines and not people.

Do how-to’s, product reviews, and long-form (7-15+ minute) videos covering specific topics to rank higher.

Giveaways and Contests

Hosting giveaways is a one of the quickest ways to gain subscribers. Base your giveaway on your channel’s niche.

YouTube viewers love giveaways. Host giveaways or contests and encourage people to subscribe and engage with your channel.

Embed Your Videos

YouTube does not give you options to promote videos. This is why you need to have a website. Make a detailed blog or article that coincides with your channel and gives people the ability read, watch, or do both.

Embed your videos in your website or blog post and promote it to your email subscribers. Add a video widget to your blog post or website as well.

Creating, Organizing, & Promoting Your Playlists

With the increase in videos you’ll create, people will find it more difficult to navigate your channel.

This is why playlists are critical. Playlists allow you categorise and organize your channel. This allows your viewers to binge watch all videos in that category increasing watch time.

Be Interactive – Go Live!

This is a great option to boost engagement without spending much time. Live-streaming does have a learning curve. After you have learned it properly, it is the easiest way of creating video content. On YouTube, live-streaming is called YouTube Live.

It provides splendid engagement opportunities as you can communicate directly with your viewers. You can so some live streams on topics such as Q&A Sessions, Webinars, Tutorials, Product Demonstrations, etc

Should I Try Paid Adverting?

Just using organic growth is good, but you’ll have to add paid promotion at one time or the other to speed things up. Create an ad campaign and help drive subscribers and viewers to your page.

This is similar to Facebook Ads, but is tailored towards YouTube.

Deep Dive Into The Community

Other than promoting your videos to grow your channel, you need to be active in the community. This allows you to get feedback, network, and share interests with people having the same goals.

Attend events like Content Marketing World or VidCon and meet other creators like yourself and promote your videos.

Analytics, Analytics, Analytics & There’s Data Too

YouTube’s analytics and reports are crucial to your success. Your analytics are tailored to your channel and provides an opportunity for you to improve.

Do not stay away from analytic because it feels overwhelming. If you avoid it, it will not help you to understand it.

Publish to Social Media

Last, but not least is publishing to social media and promoting the hell out of it. This is no secret that video kills it with engagement and boosting performance in terms on social media.

Regularly promote your channel and videos to your followers and encourage them to become subscribers.

As soon as you upload your video, let your followers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn know. Create previews or snippets for each social media platform and link it to an accompanying blog post or article on your website.

Conclusion

Driving participation using quality content is what makes up for engaged followers who advocate your brand to others. Always be true to yourself and your brand, and be in constant communication with your viewers.

Develop quality content, make thumbnails to grab viewer’s attention, deliver as promised, start videos using a strong hook, and keep things interesting. Overall, you’re creating an experience to keep your viewers’ engaged.

Did you like my post on “How to grow a YouTube channel?” Did you try any of these in your videos? What results did you get?

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.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

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.

Tags Grow a YouTube Channel, how to grow a youtube channel, youtube, youtube growth

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE MARKETING YOUTUBE

Crazy YouTube Stats : Views, Money, Users, Traffic & more!

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 27 May 2020

I was searching for something on the Internet and I casually saw a video of it on YouTube. It was then that it hit me. YouTube has been around for 15 years, can you actually believe that?

Each day more than a billion hours of content is being watched by people that generates billions of video views. 5 billion of the world’s population has mobile devices and this constitutes about 70% of the website’s watch time.

It was founded on February 14, 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim all ex-PayPal employees. They funded it with the incentives they received when eBay bought PayPal. It was later acquired by Google for a cool $1.65 billion on October 9, 2006.

Let me provide you with a perspective on what this social multimedia platform has unleashed on us within the last 15 years. Below, I’m going to provide you with some of the best figures, facts, and statistics gathered from around the web about YouTube.

General Stats About YouTube

There are over 2 billion monthly regular users
It is the world’s 2nd biggest Search Engine
37% of mobile global web traffic
Mobile constitutes 70% of watch time
Localized for 100 countries in 80 languages
60% of people favour watching online videos to live TV
51% people visit the website daily.
600 hours of content uploaded every minute.
1 billion hours worth of content is watched each day.
People watch videos for entertainment and relaxation.
79% of internet traffic accounted by online videos.

Summary: By looking at the above information you can see that not only is YouTube a very popular video platform, but it commands 51% of all visitor traffic and 37% of mobile web traffic globally.

In 2019, 600 hours of videos got uploaded every minute. This is a substantial increase in the video content consumption cravings for web users.

Videos tagged as music, entertainment, people and blogs were the ones to collect the greatest view shares in 2018. In recent years user-made content made some of the significant Internet buzzes.

YouTube started as a medium for original videos. It set up a new creative category for content makers drawing huge viewers to their screens and they subsequently became celebrities themselves. The site’s other chief approach is providing corporate media like official music videos that goes viral within hours and reaches 200-300 million views in a few days.

YouTube Demographics Stats

The website’s videos reach to a greater degree 18/19-year-olds than any TV network.
For millennials, it makes-up for about 67% of all video online activity.
2/3rd of the millennials use the website to search and find instructional videos on any topic or niche that you can think of.
YouTube also appeals across various age groups in US.
1. 81% for 15-25 years, 71% for 26-35 years, 67% for 36-45 years, 66% for 46-55 years, 58% for 56 and older
It reaches 90% of US families earning over $100,000 in income annually.
During a normal month, YouTube will reach 95% of web users over the age of 55.
More than 50% of the viewers are female

Summary: Looking at these numbers, it is no surprise YouTube is a jumping-off point for influencers. It is also a mighty income-generating machine for Google and parent Alphabet.

In 2019, it produced ad revenues of about $15.15 million globally. This accounts for roughly 9.4% of Google’s annual gross revenues. Brands and companies are devising ways to profit from YouTube’s huge audience, and have now begun to upload videos to their brand channels. In the US alone, Hulu, Target, and Samsung are some of the top advertisers on YouTube with regards to display ads, launching skippable videos, impressions, and other formats.

YouTube advertising is expensive when comparing social media networks, but it pays off. This is why brands and companies expect to see an increase in YouTube usage for ads in the coming years.

YouTube Marketing Stats

It is the 2nd most watched website to upload videos for businesses.
It is the 3rd most watched network for marketing influencer videos.
2/3 shoppers mention videos as an inspiration of purchase decisions
- 90% of these consumers discover something new by using YouTube.
About 1/2 half of the marketers have invested in YouTube advertising.
A YouTube mobile ad will engage viewers 84% more when compared with TV ads.
Users have viewed more than 50,000 years worth of product reviews since 2016.
Users are 3X more likely to view a video tutorial than read the steps to do it.
80% of customers who viewed video for purchase ideas said they did that at the start of their customer journey.
The amount of SMBs promoting on the site has doubled since 2016.
Comparing digital channels, YouTube is the 2nd-most influential for purchases.

Summary: You have a lot to grasp here. I’ll start from the top. Regarding businesses, it is the 2nd most watched website to upload videos. Facebook, on the other hand, is still the king. For best results, I’d recommend uploading on both networks.

I would advise you to analyse your audience information. Even if it seems everybody on the Internet uses both platforms, you have a great chance of attracting unique visitors for each. If you are able to optimize your videos on both video-sharing networks, you will draw in a consistent flow of qualified leads.

YouTube Traffic Stats

4 billion videos are seen each day everyday
More than 800 million unique visitors every month
More than 3 billion hours of video watched every month
What the major 3 US broadcasters produced in 60 years is uploaded in a month
70% of website traffic comes from outside the US
It is localized in 100+ countries and across 80+ languages

Summary: Looks like a lot of traffic for a video sharing website and still there are no traffic jams. All of this is feasible because of the ease with which videos can be uploaded, tagged, and marketed to people. This is also possible because the uploaded content can be easily searched making it the second biggest search engine after Google.

Data, data, data is the only thing I will say here. Optimize your content based on the latest trends that prevalent online and it will become viral.

YouTube Partner Program Stats

YouTube partner program was created in 2007
Has over 30,000+ partners from 27 countries globally
The company pays millions of dollars every year to its partners
Thousands of partners make six figure incomes each year
Partner revenues have doubled for four straight years
There’s now more than a million YouTube Partner Program members

Summary: YouTube’s Partner Program (YPP) gives creators better access to YouTube’s features and resources. You get access to the Creator Support Teams, Copyright Match Tool, and monetization features.

To be eligible for the YPP, you’ll have live in a region or country where it’s available, have over 4,000 public valid watch hours in the past 12 months, over 1,000 subscribers, and have a linked valid AdSense account. The YPP provides you with the necessary tools and features to monetize and promote your account.

YouTube Money Stats

More than 3 billion video views are monetized globally every week
AdAge’s Top 98 out of 100 advertisers have run ads on Google’s Display Network and YouTube
Thousands of advertisers are using TrueView in-stream ads
60% of TrueView in-stream ads can now be skipped

Summary: The first ads on YouTube appeared in August 2007. Nonetheless, YouTube is secretive about ad revenue. It is crucial to remember that most channels are monetized through AdSense earnings.

The more famous your channel is, you’ll have a wider range of money-making methods available to you. You can command significant sums of money from endorsements, sponsorship, product placements, and other merchandise.

YouTube Product Metrics

There is more HD content available than any other online video website
You can view thousands of full-length motion pictures on YouTube
10% of all YouTube videos are available in HD
YouTube mobile received more than 600 million views each day
70% of the total views comes from mobile devices
Mobile ads are more likely to be watched than TV ads by 84%
In 2019, content creators posted more than 50,000 videos using “Day in the Life” in their titles
Average durations of top viral videos in 2019 compared to 2010 were over 9.5X longer.

Summary: These above stats just prove how powerful the platform really is. Although, you will get all types of videos, more and more videos are being uploaded in HD.

YouTube is ideal to reach a young audience but it also engages viewers across all age groups.

You should add YouTube Live to your content strategy as many people are not looking forward to seeing live videos.

Final Verdict

These are really crazy numbers. If you are just a simple YouTube viewer who wants to know the stats behind these online videos, I hope the above stats have impressed you.

Many of us use YouTube’s app or website daily. From the above data points it is clear that it is an integral part of our lives.

I have covered the basics here, and if you want to add more to these crazy facts just post them in the comments section below. Show us some love and share this article with friends and family so they can also know these crazy YouTube stats.

Tags general youtube stats, stats, youtube, youtube money stats, youtube product stats, youtube stats, youtube trends, youtube usage stats, youtube user stats, youtube video stats, youtuber stats

HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE LISTS YOUTUBE

Best Mobile Apps for YouTubers

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 25 May 2020

YouTube is now a vast video uploading website, where numerous youtubers are making money. Be it smartphones, laptops, or tablets, we’re always on our mobile devices.

It is important for content creators to have the power to record videos, edit them, reply to comments, and take care of their channels from their mobile devices.

YouTube is now the biggest video streaming network in the world and the second largest search engine right after Google. Nowadays, worldwide, we are seeing the YouTube trend and everyone is looking to become the next successful YouTuber. This is mainly to become viral, get views to their videos, and in turn earn a huge amount of money and fame in the process.

The reality is, achieving success on YouTube isn’t as easy as people think it is. It’s very hard, as you have to outsmart and outrank all of your competitors in your niche. This sounds tough, doesn’t it? But, if you’ve got great content and do the proper marketing or promotional strategy, you’ll be the next big face.

The YouTube creators list is increasing day in day out. Many want to handle their YouTube channel from their mobile devices. These creators use different apps to handle their YouTube channel. Many of these apps have to do with capturing videos and editing them afterwards and uploading them to YouTube.

If you are able to create and edit videos on your Android or iPhone directly, you will be happy. These apps will help you to share them on your social media and with your family and friends.

Yes. You’ve read it correctly. There are a huge number of apps which people might consider as important to them so that they can become an efficient YouTuber. Many a times we cannot use our PCs or laptops so as to access numerous video creation and editing solutions.

To help on your YouTube journey, we’ve written this article with mobility, ease of use, features, cost, and platform availability in mind. Many people do not know or think about these types of apps. In reality, these apps are going to help you reach the next level just by using your mobile device.

In a simple manner you can create a lot of content on the go simple using your mobile device. What do most youtubers want in an app or apps? They want the ability to create or do the following things:

Logo
Thumbnails
Video / Audio Editing

We’ll be covering these functions in our list of the Best Mobile Apps for YouTubers.

The mobile apps mentioned below are useful for different objectives in the content creation process. I would recommend that you install all these apps and check out which ones work best for you in the YouTube content production process.

As you know, not every app is created equally and so are the platforms on which they are available. To help save money and time every youtuber must have these mobile apps. We have gone through these apps and below provide you with a list the best must have apps for youtubers in 2020.

Now, let’s get going.

YouTube Studio

Google’s official app makes it easier and faster to manage channels on the go. You’ll be able to check the latest statistics, reply to comments, and get notifications so you’ll be connected anywhere anytime.

Features:

Video and Channel Monitoring
Analytics and Monetisation Settings
Filtering and replying to comments
Receive important notifications
Update video details, image thumbnails

Bonus Tip – Now you know your stats maybe its time you look into optimization for more views. Why not check out TubeBuddy and VidIQ to amazing your rankings on YouTube.

iMovie – Turn videos into movie magic

This one is for you Apple fans who want to edit videos on the go. Using iMovie, you’ll be able to edit and enjoy videos easily. You can start editing on your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and then finish it on your Mac.

Features:

Hollywood-style trailers
Make stunning movies
Everywhere – iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
Sharing with family and friends
Customize logos, names, and credits

KineMaster – Video Editor, Video Maker

KineMaster is one the best full-featured video editors available for Android. It supports multiple layers of images, video, and text, and more. It helps you create amazing videos using your Chromebook, tablet, or phone? KineMaster’s editing tools are free to use and it also supports unlimited exports even in resolutions up to 4K!

Features:

Combine numerous layers of images, video, stickers, text, special effects, and handwriting
Color adjustment tools and Reversing videos
Add background music, voiceovers, voice changers, and sound effects
Tools to trim, crop, and splice your video
Slow motion and time lapse effects

AZ Screen Recorder – Video Recorder, Livestream

This is another app to record your device’s screen. There is no time limit, ad free, no watermark, and is easy to use. It lets you record your screen in HD and Full-HD. It is the only screencast app that allows videos to pause and resume while it is still being recorded.

Features:

Record video at 1080p, 12 Mbps, 60 FPS
Record internal and external sounds
Pause/resume screen recording
Convert video to GIF
Crop, Rotate, Compress, and Extract images from video
Facecam while live streaming
Stitch, Crop, Blur, add text, and draw on images

YouTube Thumbnail Maker & YouTube Banner Maker

This app allows you to create thumbnails and banners for your YouTube channel. If you need an app to create your YouTube channel art, then this is the one. This app is collaboratively made by numerous youtubers who very well know the importance of having great channel art designs to attract viewers.

Features:

Crop thumbnail images to 1280×780
100+ backgrounds
Color intensifying filters for your images
Tools for brightness, contrast, saturation, vignette, and 3D rotation
Add typography fonts and graphic design elements

Making thumbnails can take time to master but in this blog article I explain everything you need to know about how to make the perfect thumbnail.

Tag You

This app is the best tool to boost your videos. SEO is simple and quick for videos with their proprietary keyword optimization. Optimizing tags dramatically improves subscriber engagement, videos’ performance, and promotional opportunities. Tag You helps you to find the optimal tags making videos go viral and get better views.

Features:

Quick and simple SEO
Tag and keyword optimization
Discover best tags
Optimize video tags
Search competitor video tags

Google Ads – Grow your Business Online

Google’s Ads app will help you in managing, optimising, and tracking your ad campaigns by simply using your smart device. You’ll be able to easily check your ads’ functioning on the go using this simple solution to your desktop account. You can keep your campaigns functioning smoothly irrespective of where your go.

Features:

Create ads and campaigns
Call an expert for live help
Update budgets, bids, and campaign status
Add, change, or delete keywords
Review performance using instant notifications
See campaign impressions, average CPC, clicks, and conversions
Improve campaigns based insights, suggestions, and alerts

Canva: Graphic Design, Video / Poster / Logo Maker

Having over 60,000+ templates makes Canva the best online graphic design solution you can have. You can create amazing high-quality posters, banners, thumbnails, covers, and others also. You can use it on your PC and smartphone.

As it is in the cloud, you can create, change, and promote your work anywhere anytime using any device.

Features:

Create posts and covers for a variety of social media
Design logos, book covers, blog designs for any project
1 million + stock photos and elements to choose from
Create, change, and share designs with colleagues or friends
Design YouTube thumbnails & Twitter and Pinterest banners
60,000+ free guides created by professional designers

SnapSeed

SnapSeed is one of the best photo editor apps made by Google. You can choose different adjustments and effects to apply to your pictures. You can save the editing history and default settings for future usage.

SnapSeed is widely used to create default settings thumbnails. Some filters are Grunge, Drama, frames, Vintage, etc

Features:

29 filters and tools
Supports RAW and JPG files
Selective filter brush
Open and tweak RAW DNG files
Adjust colour and exposure automatically

Adobe Premiere Rush – Video Editor

Adobe’s Premiere Rush is a great app to edit videos on your mobile device and offers good video editing functions. It helps you to create incredible video clips using ultra refined editing features. Enrich your channel with a stable flow of awesome videos using Adobe’s Premiere Rush. It’s a cross-device, all-in-one video editor.

You can make and share professional-grade videos with cool video effects like speed easily and quickly. Also, you’ll be able to work in-between all of your devices – tablet, phone, and desktop.

Features:

Capture high-grade content
Edit your videos using 4 video & 3 audio tracks
Edit content using just dragging and dropping
Built-in customizable templates
Support for opening Rush projects in Adobe Premiere Pro

I love using Adobe – In fact I have edited over 2500 videos with Adobe Premiere and other tools over the years. It has a little bit of a learning curve but I would highly recommend it. If you follow this link you can get a great deal on Adobe’s suite of tools.

PixelLab – Text on Pictures

PixeLab is a good app when you consider that you can use it to make thumbnails of your videos. You can add 3D text, Stylish Text, Shapes, Stickers and Drawings on top of your pictures easily. It uses a clean and simple interface which lets you concentrate on whatever you are doing.

You get a huge selection of backgrounds, fonts, presets, stickers. You also have over 60+ distinctive options which you’ll be able to customize. You can create impressive graphics and surprise your friends right from your tablet or phone.

Features:

Text effects – 3D, Shadow, Stroke, Reflection, Mask, Emboss and many more
Ability to add your images from your phone’s gallery
Customize emojis, stickers, shapes, and much more
Ability to change or remove the background
Enhance images using effects such as stripes, vignette, saturation, hue, etc
Create memes using presets easily and in seconds

Conclusion

I hope this blog post on Best Mobile Apps for YouTubers has helped you to start your YouTube journey right away. If you have any suggestions, feedback, or questions regarding YouTube, please do not hesitate to write to us in the comments section below.

Tags app, apps for youtubers, best apps for youtube, best apps for youtubers, mobile, mobile apps, mobile apps for youtubers, must have apps for youtubers, screen recorder, screen recorders for youtubers, video editing, video editing apps, video editing for youtubers, youtube, youtube mobile apps, youtuber apps, youtubers

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Best Places To Share YouTube Videos For More Views

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 24 May 2020
9 Comments on Best Places To Share YouTube Videos For More Views

You have a YouTube channel all up and running and you’ve been uploading your new YouTube videos and content to your channel, but the views aren’t coming? Need help with the best places to share YouTube videos for more views?

Sharing your your YouTube videos on social media can be a great way to boost exposure, grow your audience and seed links back to your videos. The more social networks you can post to the more likely you are to figure out what social platform is best suited to your content. Try Instagram, Reddit, Forums, Facebook Groups, Mix and learn what works best for you, then double down.

Time to set the foundations for finding the best places to share YouTube videos for more views.

First things first you need to ensure you’ve set your channel up correctly and that you’ve followed my 10 steps to promote your YouTube channel.

Once that’s completed it’s time to share your videos. You can create the content but if you don’t tell people where to find it you may as well be talking to yourself.

Here are the best places you absolutely must share your new YouTube videos after clicking publish:

Utilise your social media channels

Whether you’re a standalone YouTube vlogger, or you’re using videos and blogging separately, you should have all your other social media channels aligned, I recommend having at least a Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Whenever you publish a new video on YouTube make sure you share it across all your channels. It is important you tailor the content, embed the videos but leave your audience wanting more.

Different types of people utilise different social media channels, but the key is to drive them to your YouTube channel so make your content enticing, show clips from the full video, and make clear click-through. These are call to actions will obvious value explained before they click on the,

As your channel grows, your promotion should grow too.

The most important place to share your YouTube videos is on your other social media channels, on a regularly basis. There are hundreds of social media schedulers available to help you with this such as Hootsuite or SocialOomph.

I recommend using a social media scheduler as you can then plan and set how often you would like a specific video to be repromoted on your social media channel. I personally use MeetEdgar to push out 30-40 social media posts every day.

Share YouTube Video in Facebook Groups

I thought Facebook deserved its own section.

I personally think Facebook is an excellent tool for increasing your YouTube video views, they have a YouTube uploader which means the views go straight to the video without your audience having to leave Facebook.

One thing you can also do on Facebook is join niche groups and pages, this gives you an opportunity to share your videos and leverage your content.

Make sure what you’re sharing is useful and relevant to your viewers, but lets say for example you’re making a YouTube channel about cleaning, there are hundreds of Cleaning Facebook groups with an active audience who would be interested in your video.

Make sure you read individual group rules regarding self-promotion, but most are happy for you to share useful content within their groups.

If you need help in making your videos look great, or promoting your videos on social media, check out my resources page, for some great tools and equipment guides.

Guest Posting to Get More Views

Look around your Vlog niche and start making friends.

Is there anyone who’s open to a guest blog / vlog? Anyone who you could do a promotion exchange with?

By working closely with people in your niche you can access their audience too. There are enough people to go around especially in terms of YouTube views.

If people are watching a video in your niche chances are, they would also be interested in your content. Send people a message and see if you could host a guest video or write a guest blog for them which will in turn promote you and your YouTube Channel.

Mix Your YouTube Videos

Mix used to be known as StumbleUpon, it still has excellent reach and is extremely easy to utilise, just download the add on to your browser and ‘mix’ your content.

This basically adds it to a database of content, if a person has selected interests that coincide with yours whenever they click the mix button, they have a chance of arriving at your content.

If they enjoyed your content, they would then remix this. The more people like your content, the more people the algorithm will push your content too thus increasing your reach and views.

Like Facebook groups, reddit is subdivided into lots of different categories and niches, it makes sense for you to create an account and engage with niche groups like the YouTube content you are creating.

There are general video subreddits you can push your video to, but the smaller more niche groups should provide a better audience.

While the users of each forum maybe smaller the value of that audience is higher than someone without a continued interest in your videos, they’re more likely to subscribe and stick around to see other content

YouTube Ad Network – Use YouTube Ads To Get More Video Views

While I would not recommend throwing money at ads in the beginning, it can be an advantage to get the ball rolling with a new video.

YouTube own integrated ad network works out at 2p per view and these are genuine people and real viewers not bots.

This can also trigger a spiral, if the viewers you have promoted to like your content they could share it further and subscribe so play around with the ad network and see if you feel its worthwhile for your business or not.

Most importantly create good high-quality content that people want to talk about, they want to share with friends, and they want to see more of.

You can publish and share a hundred times over but if the content isn’t watchable, interesting or provide ‘something’ for your audience they’re unlikely to return so make sure you hone in on your content skills and the rest should follow accordingly

Where do you share your YouTube videos? I love to embed them into my blogs – Maybe its time for you to start your own blog! – Here is an article I wrote to explain how to start started with blogging.

Tags best place to share youtube videos, best places to share youtube videos for more views, how to share youtube videos, share youtube videos, sharing youtube videos, view, youtube, youtube promotion, youtube views

HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE LISTS TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE YOUTUBE TUTORIALS

10 Ways to Promote Your Youtube Channel for FREE

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 20 May 2020
4 Comments on 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.

[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.

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.

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

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?

There are 466 million people around the world who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
Up to 71% of people with disabilities leave a page immediately if it is not accessible.
Only around 360 million people speak English as their first language.
60% of YouTube views are from non-native English speakers.

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] 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?

Tags free, free video promo, free youtube video promotion, how to get more views on youtube, how to promote a youtube channel, how to promote a youtube video, video promotion, youtube, youtube channel, youtube channel promotion, youtube promotion, youtube promotion free

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE YOUTUBE TUTORIALS

How To Start A YouTube Channel – An Illustrated Guide

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 19 May 2020
2 Comments on How To Start A YouTube Channel – An Illustrated Guide

Everyone’s on YouTube, from Dwayne Johnson to Huda Kattan to your neighbors. What started as a steaming platform has turned into the second largest search engine and a reliable way to market products and services. Everyone wants to know How To Start A YouTube Channel!

YouTube has given us internet celebs like Logan Paul and PewDiePie. It’s also helping people make millions. All that you need is a YouTube channel and a decent number of views and subscribers.

In this article, we’ll tell you how to start a YouTube channel so you can begin your YouTube journey.

Step #1 Get a Gmail Account

You must have a Gmail account in order to create a channel on YouTube since both the platforms are owned by the same company – Google.

You do not have to make a new account if you already have one unless you want to keep your YouTube page separate.

Go here to sign up for a free Gmail account. You will be required to enter personal details including your name, gender, birthday, etc.
The system will ask you to choose a unique Google username. Be careful when selecting one as it will end up being your YouTube channel name. Stick to your business name if you’re opening a business account but make sure you have the right to use it.

You can also come up with a unique username. It does not have to be your legal name and Google will not ask you to verify that you own the name. We suggest that you stick to a name that is easy to remember and spell.

Google will give you the option to add a phone number to your account. We suggest that you do not skip this step and link your phone number to your account so that you do not lose access to it. It can also be used to authenticate accounts. Moreover, you can also add a recovery email.

Once done, move to creating your Google Account Profile. Be careful when selecting an image as it will show on your YouTube channel.

You can edit the image by signing into your Google account. Find the Settings option in the top right. Scroll down and click About me in the ‘My Picture’ section.
Upload a profile photo by clicking on the “Add Profile Photo” button on the page. It can be any image relevant to your account including a selfie. Make sure to only upload images that you have a right to use. The image must be the right size and pixels, otherwise the page will return an error.

Step #2: Create a YouTube Channel

Once your Google account is ready, it is time to create a YouTube channel. Sign in to YouTube and move ahead.

You can create a personal channel or a business channel:

Creating a Personal Channel

The easiest way to create a YouTube personal channel is to try to upload a video. The website will ask you to sign up for a channel.

Verify your name and photo and confirm.

Your new channel is ready. You will now be able to upload videos, post comments, etc.

Creating a Business YouTube Channel

Creating a YouTube business channel can be a little complicated. However, we suggest this option if you want your YouTube channel to display a name and image other than the name and photo on your Google account.

Use the account that you just created to sign in to YouTube.
Go here and choose ‘Create a New Channel’.

YouTube will ask you to create a brand account, i.e: a business account.
Enter the required details and click Create.
Done. Your new channel is ready.

Step #3: Personalize Your YouTube Channel

Your new YouTube channel is ready to post videos but you’re not done yet. Make sure to personalize the channel so that you can attract more subscribers.

Upload a profile picture by following the steps explained above. You can also upload one directly from YouTube by clicking your account option given on the top right corner. Click it and select the ‘Manage your Google Account’ option.

This will open a new window, choose Personal Info. Here you can add a profile picture. This will get linked to your YouTube account.

Once the photo is ready, it is time to further customize your page.

Click the ‘Customize Channel’ option and enter the following details:

Channel Art: You can choose one from the gallery or upload one of your own photos. It is best to choose a relevant and high quality image that helps users connect with your content.

Home: You can edit this part by adding sections. This section will be available once you have videos uploaded to your channel. Click ‘Add a section’ and choose the contents and layout. You can display popular videos, live videos, playlists, etc.

Playlists: This section is where you can create your own playlists for subscribers and visitors to see. Choose an apt name for each playlist and make it easy for users to find what they need.

Channels: Here you can add other channels including your sister channels. Click the ‘Add Channels’ option on the right to add channels.

About: This is a very important section as it will tell others what your channel is all about. Write a description. Make sure to be SEO friendly and use tags that are popular among users. Also, add your contact details and a location.

Review all your changes and you are done.

Step #4: Verify Your Account

Now that your channel is ready, it is time to verify your YouTube account. Do not worry, you will not have to upload any documents and the process is instant.

Go here to verify your account. Select country, choose how you wish to receive a code, enter your phone number, and click Submit.
You will receive a call or text on the given number. Enter it and your account will get verified. Remember that one number can only be used to verify two accounts per year.

While it is possible to use your YouTube account without verifying it, we suggest that you go through the process as unverified accounts come with some limitations.

Unverified accounts cannot upload longer videos (up to 15 minutes). Plus, they cannot go live or choose custom thumbnails. Hence, complete this step before moving to uploading videos.

Step #5: Upload a Video

Now that your channel is ready, it is time to kick start it by uploading a video. There is no limit on the number of videos you can upload. However, the maximum file size is 128GB, which is about 12 hours.

Here’s how to start a YouTube channel and post videos:

Go here to upload a video. You can also find this section by going to YouTube and clicking the ‘camera’ icon on the top.

The system will ask you to select a video that you wish to upload. Remember that you can only upload videos that belong to you. Uploading copyrighted content can get your account temporarily suspended or permanently blocked. Plus, copyrighted content owners may also have a right to take legal actions against you. Hence, be careful.
Drag and drop the file and it will begin to upload. You can also click ‘Select Files’ and choose the video that you wish to upload. You can select multiple videos at a time.

Your video will begin to upload. The system will show you the remaining time. You can cancel the upload during the process.
You will get a message once the uploading and processing finishes.

Once done, you’ll be asked to provide details including a title, description, tags, etc. Provide the required details and complete the process.
To maximize the chances of your videos being found in search and get more views try browser plugins like TubeBuddy or VidIQ

Congratulations! your channel is up and running. Start sharing the URL with others.

How To Start A YouTube Channel: FAQ

#1 How many channels can I create on YouTube?

You can use one Gmail account to create 50 YouTube channels.

#2 Can I change the name of my YouTube channel?

Yes, it is possible to change the name of your YouTube channel if you have a personal account. YouTube does not currently allow users to change brand names.

Go to your Google Account, and change the name on your Google profile. The change will appear on your YouTube account.

#3 Can I delete a YouTube channel?

Yes, you can, but be careful as doing so will permanently delete all your playlists, history, videos, and subscribers.

Go here and select the Delete channel option at the bottom. Enter your login details and confirm the action.

You can also choose to temporarily hide your channel.

#4 Is it free to start a YouTube channel?

Yes, it is absolutely free to start a YouTube channel. However, the company offers some paid marketing tools to YouTube content creators.

#5 Can I make money by starting a YouTube channel?

Making a channel will not earn you any money, however, you can monetize it and use other tactics to make money via YouTube.

#6 What is the age limit to start a YouTube channel?

You must be 18 to create your own YouTube channel. Children between the ages of 13 and 17 can own a YouTube channel with parental permission.

#7 What can a YouTube channel be about?

YouTube does not expressly ban any topic, however, there are Community Guidelines that must be followed. It prohibits nudity, abuse, copyrighted content, and false news.

Tags how to make a youtube channel, how to open a youtube account, how to open a youtube channel, how to start a youtube channel, how to youtube, make a youtube channel, open a youtube channel, start a youtube channel, tutorial, youtube

BUSINESS TIPS DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS

5 Essential Time Saving Apps for YouTubers and Video Creation

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 13 May 2020
1 Comment on 5 Essential Time Saving Apps for YouTubers and Video Creation

5 Time Saving Apps for Youtubers, tools for youtubers, tips for youtubers, free tols for youtubers

Content creators upload over 300 hours of video every minute to YouTube. That’s a lot of competition. So, to stand out and grow your channel on YouTube, you need to upload professional videos on a frequent basis with these time saving apps for YouTubers.

But, once you’ve planned the content and shot a video, the work isn’t finished yet. You still need to add graphics, caption it, get the title keywords right, and think about promotion.

There’s lots to do.

This article takes a look at five excellent tools to speed up your content creation process.

Some are free, and some need a subscription. And once you start using them, you’ll find you can reduce the time from recording to upload – leaving you more time to plan and shoot more content.

Let’s begin.

remove.bg – YouTube Image Background Remover

YouTube is a visual platform. Viewers mostly choose what video to watch next based on visual clues from the thumbnail.

Having the right thumbnail then is essential, it can be the difference between success and failure for a video. It’s not enough nowadays to use a boring still from your video.

Take a look at the image below. The thumbnail on the left has the best combination of text and visual, and outperforms the rest of his content combined.

You need to be upfront and centre in your YouTube thumbnail. But making thumbnails takes time, especially if you need to cut-out your portrait from a cluttered background.

Did you know you can turn a 20-minute task into a five-second one with remove.bg?

remove.bg is a free online tool that cleverly removes the background from your image. Leaving you a perfect cut-out of your picture for you to add the finishing touches.

It’s straightforward to use. Drag an image onto the remove.bg’s homepage and they handle the rest.

Here’s an example.

As you can see, the image size for the free version isn’t the largest, but you can process it a little to fit the resolution that YouTube requires.

You can get a higher resolution image if you buy credits from remove.bg. For each credit you buy, you get to download 1 high-resolution image. 10 credits cost £8.00, or you can get credits cheaper by taking out a subscription.

rev.com – YouTube Closed Captions and Subtitles Service

Closed Captions and Subtitles – what’s the difference?

Closed Captions. These are a direct transcript of the audio of your video. A viewer can use them if they don’t want to listen to the sound of your video. They are in the same language as the one spoken, and a viewer can turn them off if they don’t need them.

Subtitles. Subtitles assume that the audio of the video is still on. They clarify the speech if the audio is poor or the speaker has a strong accent. They are also used to provide a translation of speech in another language.

Obviously having closed captions or subtitles on your videos help those hard of hearing or who don’t speak your language. But, there are also other benefits that land this site on the time saving apps for youtubers list.

One of the most important factors of ranking for your video is Audience Retention. That is, how much of your video a viewer watches. Clearly, having closed captions and subtitles promotes access to your content and will help with this metric.

Another ranking benefit is that your uploaded transcription file also helps with your metadata.

The free AI transcription tool on YouTube is not very good. And if you don’t have the time to transcribe your own videos, instead use the service provided by rev.com.

The service works on a per-minute basis and will provide the output in the .srt format YouTube prefers.

Get $10 worth of free transcription here.

kapwing.com – YouTube to Social Media Content Creation

If you’ve been a YouTuber for long enough, you know that for best results you need to promote your video after you have uploaded it.

Gary Vee is a master at teasing his content. On Instagram and Facebook, you’ll find video snippets with closed captions for easy consumption over mobile.

It’s really easy to one of these yourself, head over to kapwing.com.

Hit the ‘start editing’ button and select start with a blank canvas. Then, input your YouTube video URL, and it will import it for you.

Next, using the easy controls, you can clip the section of the video you want to use, add subtitles, and then change it into the best size for where you will upload it.

A great benefit is that all the processing happens at the server-side, so your laptop won’t feel like a baking tray just out of the oven when you use it.

Kapwing is free to use and even lets you produce media without a watermark by registering for a account. You need a subscription to keep all your work private, get faster processing speeds, and long term storage of your media.

A monthly subscription is $20, or you can make a saving if you buy an annual subscription for $200.

placeit.net – YouTube Intro, Outro, and Logo Maker

One way to stand out from mediocre content and show expertise is to add professional looking intro/outro animations to your videos.

An animated intro/outro that is quick and clear tells your viewer who you are, what you do, and helps with your branding strategy.

To quickly make very professional intro/outro animations, I use placeit.net.

There are plenty of templates to choose from; some are image-based and some are text-based, so you should find one to fit your requirements.

Once you have picked a template, you can customise it to fit your needs. It’s easy to change colours and resize logos, so you get an intro/outro that fits your channel’s branding.

For other elements of your channel, like logo’s and banners, placeit.net works well for these too.

You won’t need to hire a graphic designer to create fantastic looking graphics. Here is a sample of the kind of logos you can use as a starting point.

I picked the cupcake above, then changed the text and the central image to end up with the logo below for my new seafood venture. (OK, it’s just an example – I’ve never even eaten lobster!)

As you can see, it’s easy to change the colours and text to create a professional-looking logo you can upload to your channel page.

priceit.net – costs $14.95 per month for unlimited videos, logos, and designs, or if you take out an annual subscription $99.95.

A solid gold entry into the time saving apps for youtubers list with so many tasks that you can use placeit.net for, so it is a worthwhile subscription. But if you’re on a budget, you can get all the graphics you need with a single months payment – just cancel your subscription when you have what you need.

photopea – Free Browser-Based Photo Editing Tool

As a visual content producer, you need a photo editing suite. It can be a great time saving app for Youtubers. But, there’s no need to pay for Adobe Photoshop or PaintShop Pro. photopea.com is a browser-based image manipulation tool that is free to use. It works with all the popular image formats, and even handles .psd files.

There are lots of reasons a YouTuber might need photo manipulation software – here are two of them:

1 – Outlining Your Thumbnails. You have possibly noticed some YouTubers using a white outline surrounding their picture on their thumbnails, it’s a good technique to make a thumbnail pop out on the page.

Here is an example made using the image we removed the background on earlier. Drag the image onto the project workspace, then add a stroke effect in layer styles.

Now it’s ready for your logo, title, and branding.

2 – Making Start and End Screens. If you don’t want to pay for placeit.net to make an animated intro/outro, then you can use photopea instead. Use it to create a professional-looking branding image then edit into your video.

There are lots of templates to choose from. Pick one and edit away.

They even have standard templates for promotional images you can post to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Start using these Time saving apps for youtubers today to speed up your production process and make your YouTube videos look amazing. There is a learning-curve with a few of them. But, in most cases, you will be up and running with them quickly and producing professional-looking video in a shorter amount of time.

If you have any questions, please add them in the comments, and I’ll answer them as soon as I can.

And remember to check out my resources page for more useful tools discounts and links!

Tags apps for youtubers, how to get more views on youtube, kapwing, photopea, placeit, placeit.net, remove.bg, rev.com, save time, time saving, time saving apps, time saving apps for youtubers, time saving tips for youtubers, tools for youtubers, youtube, youtube tips, youtuber, youtuber tips, youtuber tools

SEO TIPS & TRICKS VIDEO YOUTUBE

Supercharge Your YouTube Video Tags for Search (How I Tag My YouTube Videos)

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 15 February 2020
1 Comment on Supercharge Your YouTube Video Tags for Search (How I Tag My YouTube Videos)

Learning How to Tag YouTube Videos can be hard but I have a little technique to Tag youtube videos for search and more videos. In this video I am going to teach you how I tag my youtube videos and how you can use google, youtube search and tubebuddy to tag yours.

According to YouTube, tagging is one of the most important ways to rank your video in YouTube search results:

Tags help users find your video when they search the site. When users type keywords related to your tags your video will appear in their search results.

YouTube does consider user engagement as well (like number of views, views in common and user “retention”) but tagging is the *first* step to ranking your video in YouTube search results (and thus getting a good chance to get ranked in Universal Results as well).

How To Tag YouTube Videos

A most scientific (but still useful to start brainstorming) approach to classifying YouTube tags (pdf) groups all the tags as follows:

Generic relationship between tag and video content:
1. Tag identifies what the video is of at its most primary and objective level – no subject specific knowledge is needed to make this distinction (e.g. a video of a cat, tagged as ‘cat’ or ‘animal’)
2. General YouTube defined Category or Genre (e.g. Comedy, Entertainment, Music)
Specific relationship between tag and video content:
1. Tag identifies what video is of. Familiarity or some existing knowledge is needed to make this connection (this may be about names, locations, venues, etc).
Tag only useful to a minority of users, specific individual or group
1. Refining tag (Tag which cannot stand alone – only useful when looked at as part of the larger tag set (e.g., episodes of a series of videos specified by a number)
2. Self-reference tagging (e.g. “my dog”),
Irrelevant/Non Useful Tags (those may vary from attention-grabbing and misspelled tags to conjunctions and prepositions).

Obviously, the top three classes of tags should all be considered for ranking for various types of search queries (navigational search queries, generic search, category search, etc).

TIPS & TRICKS VIDEO YOUTUBE

7 Tips for Building your YouTube channel

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 31 August 2019
No Comments on 7 Tips for Building your YouTube channel

7 Yips for Building your YouTube channel in 2019 6

It can be hard to start on YouTube these days but if you nail the basics you will give yourself a huge head start.

1. Determine Your Goals for the Channel

First, it’s important to decide if you even want a YouTube channel for your store. It’s a lot of work, but the benefit to your business could be astounding.

Having a YouTube channel affords you a free method of marketing to potential customers. Think of it just like an email list. Your YouTube subscribers are signing up to be notified when you release new video content. This can be a powerful force if built and maintained correctly.

It has taken years and over 350 videos to reach our nearly 10K Subs. However, our website traffic is comprised predominantly of visits from YouTube as well as direct visits. In fact, these two segments account for 50 percent of our traffic. Add in organic search traffic (thank you universal search results) and nearly 75 percent of our traffic is “free.” We spend very little on traditional Internet advertising because we’ve built a name for ourselves via YouTube.

Now that you’ve decided to create a YouTube channel, your second step is determining what you want to achieve with your channel. Are you trying to build loyalty with current customers or obtain new customers? What type of customers are you looking for on YouTube? Experienced or newbies? Until you can answer these questions, you can’t start creating content.

Let’s assume that you sell dollhouse supplies. Do you want to offer tips-and-tricks videos? Do you want to showcase new products with video? Do you want to highlight amazing dollhouses from around the world? You may wish to do all of these things, but it’s probably best to have a laser-like focus when you begin.

Determining the focus of your channel should be the result of researching other channels on YouTube as well as your innate knowledge of your business. So, don’t duplicate what other channels are doing. Think about the common questions your customers ask. They’re probably also looking for these answers on Google (which loves to show videos from YouTube in its search results). Use these resources to refine the purpose of your channel.

2. Invest in Ideas and Concepts, Not Equipment

You probably already own all of the equipment you need to start your YouTube channel: a smartphone. But what you probably desperately lack is a great idea and a great concept for your channel. You should spend a ton of time figuring out your niche.

Start by writing down 50 to 100 ideas for videos. Think deeply about the titles of these videos. Type them into YouTube’s search box to see what comes up. See what your competitors are doing. See what hobbyists are doing. Figure out where they’re falling short and devise a way to create better content.

Content is king. Nothing is more important. Launching your YouTube channel is akin to launching a new business. Treat it as such.

3. Keep Your Videos As Short As They Need To Be

In today’s world, viewers want bite-sized chunks of information. Unless you really know what you’re doing, you won’t be able to get away with videos more than 2 minutes long, unless you deliver VALUE.

Remember that when you’re starting out, viewers don’t know you. All they have to judge whether they’ll click to watch your video is the title, thumbnail, and length of the video.

4. Design Thumbnails That Pop

Thumbnails, along with the title of your video, are really all you have to market your video (until you start to build an audience).

Sure, YouTube uses your video’s description and tags in its search index. But on the results page, where you’re competing with all of the other videos available for viewers to watch, your title and thumbnail are all you have to separate yourself. So make sure your thumbnail stands out.

Check out the YouTube search result for “pranks.” When I do this, I am drawn most to the thumbnails with the large text on them.

Thumbnails with larger text stand out in YouTube’s search results.

Other tips include using a face as well as designing simple images with only a few elements, a solid (and bright) background color, and a solitary foreground image that pops off the page. Check out some of these examples.

Compelling thumbnails on YouTube.

Simple images are effective.

Thumbnails with text stand out.

The bottom line is that you should never use one of the suggested thumbnail images that YouTube provides when you upload your video. You should be designing them yourself.

5. Title Your Videos with Search Engines and Humans in Mind

The same SEO techniques that you’re using on your web pages apply to your video titles. Include a keyword, but make sure the title is enticing to a human.

Also, the first two lines of your video’s description are usually shown on YouTube’s search results. Make those two lines count.

Make the first two lines count for your video’s description.

6. Engage Your Audience Via Comments

Don’t be a nameless and faceless entity. Audiences on YouTube want to connect with their favorite channels. One simple way to do this is to engage in the comments section of your videos. Yes, this can be time consuming. But anything worth doing is worth doing right.

7. Ask Viewers to Subscribe to Your Channel Everywhere You Can

At the end of your videos, tell your viewers to subscribe to your channel. One common technique is to create an “end slate” for every one of your videos where you ask viewers to subscribe to your channel and to check out some of your other videos.

On Facebook, tell your followers to subscribe to your channel. Do the same on Twitter and Instagram. Do this on your website, too. Don’t be shy. You’re creating terrific content, right? So tell your viewers how to get more of it.

Tags grow on youtube, grow on youtube 2019, youtube, youtube tips 2019