If you’re making youtube videos for fun then this part might not interest you, however, if you want to grow your audience and really benefit from what youtube offers then this guide is for you.
Continuing from my last video about editing your film the end result needs to be uploaded to Youtube, some editing software can do this upload for you, however, I prefer to render my film to a file I can then store and watch independently of youtube. So when I upload I send my film to youtube via the web browser.
So in this guide I’m going to go through what I do from the film rendering stage to how I manage my youtube account.
In my editing software I had my film set to 1080p 25 fps and so I need to render the film to a format that matches, then wait for 10 minutes while the film is rendered locally on my computer. I then watch the film back, making sure it’s problem free and once it’s good to go I open Google Chrome browser, which is my preferred browser as I have some plugins that help me on youtube, I go to my youtube channel and top right I click the little video icon and choose upload, I select the new film from my computer and then it starts to upload to youtube.
This stage is where you get some crucial options, don’t ignore all the sections on this upload page, they are going to help your film be seen by people by the powers of the algorithm. The first item I change on this page is to set the video to be unlisted, so I can watch it back before it goes public. Sometimes youtube delays the processing of the uploads and for a few minutes or a few hours which means your video will be in 360 low quality and not 1080 HD. As you upload to youtube it starts to create multiple resolutions of your video, so it can be more easily streamed over poor data connections, shown more easily on smartphones or TVs. So I check once the upload has finished to ensure the video is ready to view in 1080 HD.
We now need a title, description and tags before we get to the thumbnail and other options. So the title should be short, roughly 8 words but no more than 12. The description should use the words form the title but expand on them, for example a title that says “Camping trip to Dorset” should have the description “On this camping trip we visit the lovely coastal areas of Dorset”. Now this gives youtube and viewers an understanding of what they are going to see, but the tags are used to help people find your video and also the tags tell youtube who they should show your video to and what ads can be shown over it.
So tags are crucial to get right, you need to have all the words in your title used as separate tags, a comma (,) separates the tags, then use double and triple word tags too, for example “dorset coast” or “camping in dorset” as well as the single tags “dorset” “camping” “coast” etc. You get 500 letters to make up your tags. At this stage you see why I choose Google Chrome browser as it allows the Tube Buddy and Vid IQ plugins, free to setup basic accounts, and these assist you with tag ideas with tag rankings – so you can see the most popular tags you could use.
See here how Tube Buddy (TB) shows tags that it thinks you should use, and the tags you’ve already entered show the ratings in numbers.
Now that’s all sorted you can choose a thumbnail, as youtube uploaded and processed your video it generated 3 thumbnails, use any of them if you want OR you can create your own via Tube Buddy. I use a template in photoshop on my computer to create a thumbnail, either a still from the video or a photo taken at the time I was recording the video clips. Thumbnails are important, they should be clear to see, maybe have a few words describing the video and you should try and make them stand out. Check out Ash Pollard and Andrew Ditton for 2 different examples of thumbnails that work really well.
Click “Save changes” at the top of the upload page, then you can move on to the next 2 stages, which are End screen and Cards.
Go to your creator studio, then Video Manager and then click edit next to the video you’ve just uploaded, which should be unlisted still. Now click the “End screen” tab, this will show you the last 20 seconds of your video, if you followed my example you’ll have some nice b-roll as your end screen background now. Click the “Add element” button and then “Subscribe” this places your channel logo on the top left, move this around to where you want, in my example I have all items centrally aligned. I then go back to “add element” then choose “Channel” i then link to my other channel or to another youtuber who featured in my video and then move their logo around to suit your layout, lastly I click “add element” then “Video or Playlist” and either choose a video or playlist I think people would like after watching this new video OR I choose “Best for viewer” and let youtube pick the video shown. I then move that around and to get my desired layout.
Now we can move onto the Cards tab. This section allows you to drop clickable content into this video to entice people to watch other videos, related videos or even put a survey in your video. Click “Add card” from the drop down choose what you want to add, then drag that along the video timeline to place it so it shows at a point in the video that’s relevant to the card.
Now for most that might be the end of the youtube back end screens, you can go ahead and watch your video, make sure it’s in 1080 HD and looks great and either choose to make public there and then or Schedule to go public at a later time.
These options are on the “Info & Settings” tab.
However, if you have a monetised youtube channel you have some controls over where youtube shows the ads, and if your video is over 10 minutes long you can even have multiple ads showing to generate more income. Choosing where the ads are shown might make the viewers happier, no one likes an ad showing when someone is mid-sentence.
So click the “Monetisation” tab and see the options you have…
Here you can choose the type of ad shown on your video, where it’s shown and if you want more than 1 ad shown. Click “Save changes” when you are done.
And that’s the section on uploading your video and setting your video options. Let’s now move on to getting your channel setup to be as good as it possibly can be at attracting new viewers and new subscribers.
This is how my channel looks to new viewers. I have a video playing instantly that’s my most popular video and showcases my channel. I have a header image that tells people what my content is likely to be about. I then have some YouTubers I recommend people watch that are listed on the right, youtube then adds other similar channels in a section below.
I then have sections I have setup to show playlists or most popular videos.
So to setup this page go to “Customise Channel” and now you can set the videos seen my new visitors and subscribers.
Under this you can setup your sections, showing playlists or your most popular uploads.
Once you have your page sections and intro videos setup you can then go to the top of the page and upload a banner image by clicking the photo icon (top right).
Setting up this page takes time, choosing the correct banner image, the video sections and even just the 2 intro videos might be something you do over several days. Adding the featured channels is easy, you can only have 5 though, but you can change them whenever you want. When you are in the customise view click the pencil next to “Featured Channels’ to edit this section.
And then enter the title of the section and enter the channels you want to be added.
I hope that’s covered the basics and the advanced parts of your youtube account so that you can start to make the most out of it.
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Are you interested in the Gear used to produce this video? Here’s a link to all my tech I use to record and produce my videos…
https://www.johnandmandy.uk/filmmaking-gear/
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