How To Get More YouTube Views 101 Tips
Red Hot YouTube Tip
It's super important to know which of your Videos is currently getting traffic that's why YouTube provide Analytics. However until recently I found it difficult to find out why I was getting a sudden boost in traffic. Often by the time I'd realised that a certain Video was doing well it was too late. Here's what you do: Go to traffic and click on the tiny "dot" which represents the most recent day. You then get a breakdown of the video(s) getting traffic now. Now you can improve them etc
How to make money with YouTube
I started making money with YouTube by accident which is of course the best way, I'd got a new camera so was photographing and videoing everything I saw and putting some of it on YouTube. Then one day I got an email from YouTube announcing that I could have Adsense on my videos should I wish. I did Wish!. See below how to become a YouTube partner yourself, how to choose things to video and 99 other tips.
YouTube is currently the best way I know for almost anyone to make money on the Internet.
101 YouTube Tips - How to get more Views
Ok way short of 101 Tips but I Will get there, bookmark me and come back please!
Some tips might be contradictory so it is up to you to decide which is most useful to YOU.
- Six words in the TITLE, one in Capitals
That's all visitors will see, you have to grab their attention in six words.
- Always have your camera with you
Video everything (then decide if you want to use it) not the other way round
- Creating a Video: Don't Hose
When you pan round to take a video move the camera really slowly. It is called hosing when the camera turns too quickly. I have to discipline myself to move the camera (what seems) painfully slowly.
- Use YouTube's Video Stabilizer
If YouTube detects that a video is shaky it will offer to correct this I usually need this feature.
- Don't Cheat
Don't use copyrighted material, don't buy traffic, don't put up videos with content which is against YouTube rules. YouTube are likely to give you no warning you'll just find that your account has been deleted.
- Choose a Theme (or Not)
Many YouTubers only create videos based on a similar theme this way people are more likely to visit their other videos and gives more reasons for people to subscribe to their channel.
- Thumbnail Image: Most Important Thing for Getting YouTube Clicks
The thumbnail is SO important , not how many top videos have a picture of a cute girl. I experiment by changing the thumbnail from time to time.
- Choosing Your Thumbnail
If you want a particular scene to be chosen as thumbnail film it for 30s or so at beginning and or at the end of video you can remove this at any time.
- How to Attract Attention to your Videos : Curiosity Words in Title
Add the words Exclusive or Leaked or Awesome or Weird or Shocking in the video title.But only if your video is - otherwise you will get down votes and hostile comments.
- Video Description
I try to write a lot of keyword-rich description it's all good for SEO , I'm trying to beat similar videos which are older and have more views. This really works, notice how many videos have no description at all so what is Google supposed to find to index?
- You don't know what will get views!
I'm still surprised by which of my videos get views. One of my top videos is of a road junction. Another is of a railway tunnel used in a movie location. So that's why I still put everything I video up on YouTube what I call a scatter-gun approach. Were I to start from scratch I would probably be more targeted and selective.
- What should use choose as YouTube User Name?
This is another million dollar question. As you probably created your User Name before you started taking YouTube seriously you will most likely regret your choice. A very successful YouTuber with a name something like PS3Gamer now regrets that he tied himself so definitively to the PS3 and wonders how many potential XBox subscribers he lost over the years.
- Music on your YouTube Videos
If you include music from YouTube's own library then you lose any Adsense income , so I never use their music. Unfortunately I have found it difficult to find good royalty free music.
- Music on your YouTube Videos II
I took a video of a street fair when I put it on YouTube their software recognized the music that was being blasted out by a loudspeaker and automatically removed my Adsense rights for that video.
- What Should I Video? YouTube Evergreen Subjects
Cats, Skateboards, Pranks, How To Fix things, How to Cook, How to Put on Makeup, yep even though there are millions of videos already these Evergreen subjects still get traffic!
- Create a Video from Photos
I use Google's Picasa for this. It is really simple and easy to use plus it is the best tool for getting your photos in the correct order
- Screencast: Make a video of what's on your PC
Screencast allows you to make a video of anything appearing on your PC. e.g. demonstrate how to do something in Word or Photoshop and it's free
- Green Screen
This is the technique of videoing someone or thing against a green backcloth. Clever Video Editing programs then replace the green screen with another video say of a city or the countryside. That's how they do all those Music Videos.
- More Ideas for YouTube Videos
A friend videoed a fire in a large wood yard from his balcony. The fire was in the news and he got a lot of views. He videoed a building that collapsed which was also in the news, same thing lots of views. Does that seem too dull? may be but it works.
- Icy Weather: More Ideas for YouTube Videos
My friend's top video with 100,000 views is of people struggling to walk on an icy pavement, in fact nobody even falls over! Iit gets lots of negative comments but that actually encourages people to view the video to see how bad it is!
- Pranks:More Ideas for YouTube Videos
Pranks are very popular, but I'd recommend only doing them to people you know really well, you will need their permission afterwards as well. Lots of the pranks on YouTube are scripted and staged.
- Creating your own YouTube Videos with a team
If I was young (when you know lots of people) I'd create a team, to think of, script, act quality videos. (Out of work actors are doing this)
- Videoing : Don't Panic
I once videoed the British TV Star David Walliams finishing one of his daily stages on his record Thames Swim for charity. He was in the news so I knew I'd lots of views. Or at least I thought I would in fact the switch for videoing on my camera is a toggle and in my excitement I'd double clicked it - I was left with one second of video BOO HOO..
- What is Going Viral on YouTube?
Going Viral means that people that see it recommend to their friends who recommend it their friends and the number of views grow exponentially. This will only happen if they find the video amazing or funny sometimes they may be horrified or disgusted by it. Many of the lucky people whose video went viral were really surprised. e.g. Charlie Bit my Thumb!
- Getting YouTube Subscribers: The secret to getting views
If you have lots of YouTube subscribers means that each time you release a video you are guaranteed a certain amount of traffic especially if it is similar to the Video that made them subscribe in the first place.
- What's so great about going viral?
Well you gets lots of views because you get lots of views. You start getting featured on TV programs about Viral YouTube Videos, people start blogging about you, it just gets better and better.
- Latest Viral : Harlem Shake (14Feb13)
Suddenly this is all over YouTube, and any group of friends could do their own! People are getting 2 million views in two days! (There are now 10 million Harlem Shake Videos!)
- Start noticing what attracts your attention on YouTube
Why did you click on a particular Video and not another? Was it the Thumbnail image, was it the Title? How did they grab your attention?
- Kids React, Teens React, Grannies React ...
These have become popular a panel on Teens are filmed watching a new YouTube Meme e.g. Harlem Shake and show their reactions and give comments. A bit Hit, what can you and your friends do?
- 8 out of 10 most popular Olympic Videos on YouTube were fails!
Only Usain Bolt and another got into the top-ten the rest were athletes crashing out.
- YouTube Rivaling Facebook
YouTube now has a billion users, just behind Facebook. But remember Facebook never pays you a cent no matter how must content you put up.
- 21 Things I wish I'd known when I was 21
This is a new attention grabbing Title I'm starting to see!
- Take lots of Short Scenes
Lots of short videos are easier to manipulate in YouTube Video Editor than one big one. You can pick and choose which sections you wish to combine into your final video.
- Film two videos (one as a backup)
Play safe and film two or more copies of a video. Then choose the best one later on. I've been heartbroken to find that the scene I drove miles to photograph had come out badly.
- Playlists
Create Play Lists of your similar videos. Click on Play Lists in your left YouTube menu and then notice the button 'New Playlist +' on the right of the screen. Just another chance to get people to click more than one of your videos.
- Annotations
These are the little text boxes that float on top of your videos. Use them to add information or to encourage people to click another of your videos.They can also contain links to your other videos.
- Photo Story : Animates Still Photos
Photo Story 3 by Microsoft is free it allows you to add photo effects such as zoom to give the illusion of movement to your photos, this makes your photo videos more compelling and professional looking.
- Rehearse Your Video
If you are going to video say a waterfall or a building walk up and a few times to plan your route, see if there are places with bad light.
- Best Dimensions for an uploaded thumbnail
Have a resolution of 1280x720 (with minimum width of 640 pixels).
Be uploaded in image formats such as .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG.
Remain under the 2MB limit.
Try to use a 16:9 aspect ratio as it's the most used in YouTube players and previews.
- YouTube Playbook
The forth edition of YouTubes own guide to planning, creating and promoting videos on YouTube has just been published.
http://www.youtube.com/yt/playbook/ it is full of advice on how get more hits, how to create better videos and how to promote them.
- Difference between British & American Slang
I've just watched a video with 1 American and two British bloggers discussing the transatlantic differences in slang how the same word might have completely different meanings one example was the British word Rubber meaning an eraser. The video has 4 million views!
- Notifications Widget
I've enabled the notifications widget on my YouTube account , I now get YouTube alerts letting me know that a particular video doesn't have a description etc. These notifications arrive gradually allowing me time to update my video.
- YouTube Creator Academy online course
This is a free course which I expect will give me even more tips on getting more traffic to my videos.
- Where can I see how much I'm earning on YouTube?
In your YouTube account you see your estimated earnings. You used to be able to see your daily estimated earnings in Adsense as well but this has changed you now ONLY see your ACTUAL YouTube earnings when you receive an Adsense payment and then you will see the YouTube earnings in the payment details of the PREVIOUS month.
- Nature Sounds
Create your own Nature Sounds such as birdsong, wind, waves etc at http://naturesoundsfor.me/ as ambient music for your videos.
- Gamma Correction
I am turning many of my Photo Collections into YouTube videos using PhotoStory. One problem I've had with photos is when they are over-exposed I've just learnt that by adjusting the gamma levels using Ifrfanview (a very simple graphics organiser & editor) I can get my bright colors back.
- Microsoft Movie Maker
You won't catch me praising Microsoft very often but Movie Maker is free if you don't have it you can download it, It allows me to add or replace the soundtrack of my videos, to make composite videos with photos and titles. Great!
- YouTube How to Create 16:9 Ratio Thumbnails
I finally know how to create these without trial and error. I create them using IrfanView selecting the menu option EDIT -> Create Maximised Selection (ratio). You have to juggle the X-Y of the corner but then it is easy.
- How to Make Title Images for your Video
I use http://www.signgeneratormaker.com/
- YouTube Matched third party content.
This is normally harmless i.e. is not regarded as a policy violation. It does mean however that you will get no income from your video as that will go to the copyright holder. I first got this when I videoed a fair where music by Nelly was blaring out of a loudspeaker. The second time I got it I went to the edit audio section of my video and clicked the button 'Delete matched content"
- YouTube Keyword Tool
Find out what keywords people are entering to get traffic!
https://www.youtube.com/keyword_tool
Do you make money with youTube?
Tips 51-101
- List of 100 Top (Most Viewed) Videos on YouTube
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_viewed_YouTube_videos
- Enter your Video Location
The setting is under Advanced. Also enter the date of the video. Every bit of precision helps.
- Topical Videos: Speed Is All Important
If a subject is extremely topical Miley Cyrus or Freak Weather, a New Trend then being the first to get your video up on Youtube is all important. I was the second to put up a video when our local Supermarket flooded, I did all the right things good title, tagging etc etc but after a day he had 4000 views I had 400 and now Google won't care about me.
How to Make Money on YouTube
How to Make Money on YouTube Poll
Best Point and Click Cameras
I'm a big fan of Lumix cameras because they have a solid feel.
YouTube Paradoxes : Decisions you need to make - and as early as possible
While almost any video will get views one decent video which takes off and goes viral will dwarf all your previous efforts but on the other hand you don't know what will go take off!
Remember when eBay was the great hope?
Turned out that making serious money on eBay was tough only a few made it, it helped if you got in early. YouTube is still in that wild-west phases when anything is still possible but it is getting tougher!
- Keep to One Theme or Not
Having a targeted niche is great for getting subscribers and getting people to visit your similar videos. Only problem is when you start out you may not know what your best niche will be!
- Create lots of videos quickly or a few brilliant ones?
It is certainly easy to create lots of videos and just hope that one or two get traffic, but well-crafted videos definitely can work better.