Youtube – History

YouTube is a free video-sharing website that makes it easy to watch online videos. You can even create and upload your videos to share with others. It was launched in February 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is the second most visited website, with more than one billion monthly users who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos each day. YouTube is now one of the most popular sites on the Web.

The company was bought by Google in Oct, 2006, since then YouTube has also changed its business model; it no longer generates revenue from advertisements alone. YouTube now offers paid content such as movies and exclusive content.

Youtube – Main Functions

Users can search for and watch videos
Create a personal YouTube channel
If you have a popular channel you can earn money (monetize)
Upload videos to your channel
Like/Comment/share other YouTube videos
Users can subscribe/follow other YouTube channels and users
Create playlists to organize videos and group videos together

Youtube Channel – Main Components

Many of us think that youtube is all about just uploading videos, which is not true.

Here are the few things which you have to do to make the Youtube channel popular and much-watched. These are the basics.

Logo

Having a logo of your company or a picture of yourself is so important to show your audience who you are and what you do. Your YouTube channel is connected to your Gmail so whatever picture you have in Gmail will be put on there so make it a good one.

2. Banner

Very similar to having a logo, creating a banner is so important to make your channel branded. A great place to make these is in canva where they have templates just for this. There are other tools too, just need to explore those.

3. Social Media Links/Website Links

If your YouTube channel is for your website, make sure to have a link to your website on the top page of your channel. If you don’t have a website, you can link your social media channels, like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Etc… This lets people who follow you find you on other platforms.

4. Custom URL

To create a custom URL for your channel, your account needs to:

Have 100 or more subscribers
Be at least 30 days old
Have an uploaded photo as a channel icon
Have uploaded channel art

In general, a YouTube channel may only have one (1) custom URL and custom URLs cannot be transferred or assigned to anyone.

Name your channel the same as your website or social media accounts.

5. FrontPage full of videos

If someone goes to your channel and all they see are people you recently subscribed to on the front page and can only find your videos when they click “Videos”, you may be losing credibility and potential followers. Setting up your homepage with playlists, recently uploaded as well as your most popular videos let people know the kinds of videos you have and convince them to subscribe. Without, it’s basically like sending someone to Instagram but instead of seeing your feed, all they see are whom you subscribe to.

6. Playlists

Creating playlists based on the type of video is important to show viewers what kinds of videos you have and can keep them clicking “next” to watch the next video and so on. The best is to start with 2-3 playlists, more or less depending on how many videos you have. Creating playlists are so important for subscribers.

7. Videos with consistent Thumbnails

Thumbnails are probably the most important part of the video. They truly make or break whether someone clicks to watch your video or not. Having custom and good thumbnails is just as important as the title of the video. Contrary to popular belief, all videos can have custom thumbnails, not just certain channels, all channels. This is done during the upload phase.

8. Annotations

Annotations are important to bring subscribers to your channel. This helps in driving YouTube Video viewers to subscribe to your channel. Adding an outro with annotations to subscribe or view other videos is a necessity.

9. Subscriber Count

Viewers usually don’t trust channels that don’t list their subscriber count. They are fine following channels with a low number of subscribers, but when they don’t list subscribers, it seems sketchy and fake, like they are trying to hide basic info from their fans. It does not matter how many subscribers you have, it is important to show it to your viewers so that you have nothing as such to hide. Everyone knows that it takes time to grow, then why hide.

YouTube – Channel Starting

Creating a YouTube channel is completely free. The part that can get expensive is when you start to create the content for your channel. Let us learn some interesting and successful tips.

1. How to Set Up Your Youtube Channel

Setting up a new YouTube Channel is simple. It helps if you already have a Gmail account, which allows you to associate your new channel with your email address.

Sign in to Youtube
Click your picture in the top right corner (desktop version)
Select “Create a Channel”
Decide if you want to use the name associated with your email address or create a custom name for your channel
Add details to the “about” section
Customize the look of your channel with a cover photo and profile picture
Upload your first video
Add playlists, fill out your profile with more details, and link to your other social media accounts

Now that your Youtube account has been set up, it’s time to lay the foundation to create a successful channel. As a beginner, it’s important to understand these steps or you can end up wasting a lot of time and money.

Find the Best Equipment
Start with Simple Editing Software

2. Tips for Creating Great Content

Plan Your Content
Look for Inspiration
Make Every Second Count

3. How to Market Your Youtube Channel

Optimize Your Videos for Search and SEO
Build Your Network with Social Media
Connect with Your Viewers
Ignore All the Negative Comments
Upload Videos Regularly

Youtube – Channel Trailer Setup

Set up the video as a YouTube channel trailer

1: Click on the profile icon > Your channel.

2: Tap on Customize Channel > upload a video.

3: The video will soon be uploaded, input description, tags, hit Publish.

4: Go to the Home tab, click on for new visitors than the + Channel Trailer tab.

5: Save the changes.

YouTube channel trailer ideas

Keep the video short

You should tell all viewers who you are, what your video contents are and when the new updates are before they lose patients. Remember, less is more.

Make your YouTube trailer mobile friendly

Over 60% of views are from mobile devices. You can see many mobile-unfriendly YouTube trailers.

YouTube introduced the end screen and cards feature. They all work great on mobile phones. Give it a try.

Attract your audiences in the first few seconds

Try to come up with something creative and put that in the first few seconds of your video. By doing so, you can easily win a good first impression and audiences will be more likely to finish your YouTube trailer.

Assume all viewers have never heard of you

The main purpose of the YouTube trailer is to attract new followers. You must assume that all views haven’t heard of you and communicate with them.

Ask viewers to subscribe

Don’t let viewers guess what you want them to do after watching your trailer. Tell them to subscribe directly at the end. It is also crucial to give audiences an easier way to subscribe.

Youtube – Optimize your Videos

Rename your video file using a target keyword.
Insert your keyword naturally in the video title.
Optimize your video description.
Tag your video with popular keywords that relate to your topic.
Categorize your video.
Upload a custom thumbnail image for your video’s result link.
Use an SRT file to add subtitles & closed captions.
Add Cards and End Screens to increase your YouTube channel’s viewership.

Youtube – How to Create a Playlist

A playlist is a collection of videos. As a creator, you can create playlists and segregate your videos accordingly for future reference. You can also upload new videos and put them in a playlist for easy navigation. A playlist can be shared with the public and can also be used privately.

1. Begin watching the first video you wish to add to the playlist.

2. Under the video, click the word “SAVE.”

3. On the popup window, click “Create new playlist.”

4. Name the playlist, and select its public or private status, then hit “CREATE.”

5. To add a video, go to the next video you want to be added and again hit “SAVE.”

6. Check the box beside the playlist to which you wish to save the video, and it will be added to the list; note that you can add a video to more than one playlist at a time.

Once a YouTube playlist is created, it can be found on the left-hand column of the YouTube homepage or pulled up by clicking on the three parallel bars at the top left of the screen.

Youtube – How to Add Info Cards to your Video

Info cards allow YouTube creators to add an extra layer of interactivity to their videos.

YouTube cards are in-video notifications that help promote your brand and other videos on your channel. If you haven’t used this feature before, here’s how it works for the viewer.

In the upper-right corner of the frame, a teaser box appears during a video.
The teaser box shows a message preview, which you can designate in the YouTube Studio.
When the teaser is clicked, the box expands to show a ‘card’. These can feature a video, playlist, channel, or outside link.
Finally, viewers click/tap on one of these elements to view the content.

As a YouTube creator, this process for showcasing your work is invaluable. Informational cards can boost views on older videos and help you cross-promote different parts of your brand, such as a website that houses all your content.

If that sounds good to you, let’s explore how this brand-boosting, cross-promotion magic happens. There are two ways to add YouTube cards to your videos, and we’re going to show you each method, step-by-step.

Best Practices for Youtube Info Cards

If you choose the cross-promotion route, here are some best practices for when and where to add cards in your videos.

Save info cards for the second half of the video, after you’ve already provided some value to the viewer.
Use info cards sparingly in longer content, as you can only add five per video.
In shorter videos, avoid stacking cards on top of each other. Create a 20 – 30 second gap between each one.

Youtube – How to add end screens to videos

End Screen: It helps to bring more views and subscribers to your channel. In terms of video SEO, it’s important to attach the end screen to your videos. If the end screen option not showing on your video means, probably, your video length is less than 25 seconds. In a nutshell, End screens won’t show to the videos, which have less than 25-sec duration. t’s perfect to attach the end screen at the last 5 seconds of your video.

1: Go to YouTube Studio.

2: Move on to the videos page and edit the video to which you want to attach the end screen.

3: Click the End Screen bar.

4: A dialogue will appear, here choose the template of your end screen. Generally, it has 4 types of elements to add and they are,

Video
Playlist
Subscribe
Channel
Link

5: Once you have chosen the template, it will appear over the video. Here I have chosen the, 1 video, 1 playlist, 1 subscribe template.

6: Click each template and add the overlay end screen video/playlist/subscribe by choosing left-side options.

7: That’s all, finally click the “Save” button. So, the end screen video was updated successfully to the selected video.

Youtube Channel – How to Make Money (Monetization)

YouTube is a great way to generate extra income. You can create videos for a money boost now, or leverage your existing content in new ways to grow your passive income. To get approved for making money, your channel needs to have at least 1000 subscribers and at least 4000 watch hours in the last 12 months.

Go to Channel Dashboard and click on Monetisation

You should be able to see the Channel Monetisation option with notifying you of the Number of Subscribers and What is the current watch hours remaining before you monetize the channel.

Here are a few different ways to earn some money with your existing posts:

Use AdSense to get advertising revenue
Start creating as a YouTube Partner
Work with companies to create sponsored content that leverages access to your fanbase for income
License the content you create to other companies and sponsors
Sell merchandise related to your videos
Recruit direct payments from your fans and followers using apps like Patreon
Set up a crowdfunding campaign

Ways to Grow Your YouTube Channel

1. Build Your Videos Around a Single Keyword/Topic

2. Reuse Existing Top Performing Content

3. Engage with Your Audience with Calls to Action

4. Get Branded

5. Promote Your YouTube Videos on Other Social Channels

6. Target Google search results

7. Show Up & Stand Out

8. Post-Great Thumbnails & Leverage YouTube Cards

9. Push for Subscriptions

10. Increase Your Uploading Frequency

11. Run a contest or giveaway

12. Run a paid YouTube ad campaign

13. Create playlists to organize your YouTube content

14. Give live streaming a try

What are the different types of Youtube ad Campaigns

With marketing, in general, becoming more pay-to-play, you always have the option to get more visibility through paid YouTube ads. YouTube offers a variety of ad formats to choose from:

Display ads: These ads show up on the right-hand sidebar of videos, and are only available on desktop.
Overlay ads: These are semi-transparent ads that are displayed on the bottom part of a video. They’re only available on the desktop.
Skippable and non-skippable video ads: These ads show up before, during or after a video. Skippable ads can be skipped after five seconds, but non-skippable ads have to be watched all the way through before the viewer can watch their video.
Bumper ads: These are non-skippable ads that have to be watched before the viewer can watch their video. They can be a maximum of six seconds.
Sponsored cards: These are cards that get displayed within relevant videos. You can use them to promote your products or other content.

YouTube – Analytics Basics

You can use analytics to better understand your video and channel performance with key metrics and reports in YouTube Studio.

Get to YouTube analytics

Sign in to YouTube Studio.
From the left menu, select Analytics.

You can also view various reports at the video level:

Sign in to YouTube Studio.
From the left menu, select Content.
Point to your video and select Analytics. You can also view your latest video performance from the channel dashboard. Click a video title or thumbnail.

Within YouTube analytics, you’ll see different tabs that help you understand your data.

Overview

The Overview tab shows you a summary of how your channel and videos are performing. The key metrics card shows your views, watch time, subscribers, and estimated revenue (If you’re in the YouTube Partner Program).