Creating Videos

 

Step 4: Creating

Take notes! We’ve mentioned this already but it’s important,

especially when you are doing market research in order to create

a plan for your own channel. You’ll want to reflect on this later.

And finally, give yourself the freedom to make mistakes. You’ll

learn a lot throughout the process and the kind of video content

you create today will likely look a lot different from what you

create a year from now when you’ve had the time and experience

needed.

The important thing is to stay consistent, follow a content

schedule that your subscribers come to rely on and stay true to

your brand

Your first video will probably not be everything you were hoping

for. That’s fine – practice makes perfect! The more you create

content, the faster and easier it will be and the quality will

improve as will your skills.

What you want to do is practice making and uploading videos

until you’re familiar and comfortable with the way the platform

works.

Watch a lot of videos in your market and see what channel

owners are offering. Pay attention to their format and overall

structure, along with their pacing. Take plenty of notes!

Then, create a content schedule and stick to it.

and upload them (you don’t have to actually publish everything

you upload). The more you practice, the better you’ll become, just

like every other skill you’ve learned.

The post-production process is very important as well, especially

when it comes to creating engaging content free of lag and poor

pacing.

The main thing to pay attention to during the editing process is to

remove any unnecessary pauses, lags and ensure that you keep

a steady pace so that your content flows smoothly and keeps your

viewers’ attention.

You can also save a lot of money by learning how to edit your own

videos. Popular Vloggers like Jake Paul and Felix Kjellberg use

Adobe Premiere to edit their videos. You’ll pay just over $20 a

month to use it, but it’s very intuitive and comes with everything

you’ll need to get started.

You can check it out here:

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/plans.html

If you want to follow the lead of popular vlogger Casey Neistat,

you can use the Final Cut Pro app.

Final Cut Pro is easier to use than Adobe Premiere and comes

packed with useful features that’ll help you create stunning

videos. It also includes outstanding organizational tools that will

make project planning easier.

There’s free editing software available as well, including iMovie

which has a minimal learning curve and comes pre-installed on

Mac-based operating systems.

It’s a great tool for starting out and will help you learn the basics

of video editing quickly and easily.

YouTube isn’t a difficult platform to learn. In fact, its popularity is

mostly due to how easy it is to use. You can upload videos in a

range of formats and YouTube converts them into Adobe Flash for

you (this gives you a file extension of . FLV).

Doing this allows YouTube to play your videos on its flash player

(which anyone can upload for free and use).

Another great benefit of this is that you can embed your video

into a website just by copying the HTML code and pasting it into

your site. This lets any of your website visitors watch the video on

your site using the YouTube player.

This way, you don’t have to host the videos on your own site and

use up a ton of bandwidth.

Bandwidth is the range of signal frequencies you need to transmit

data over the internet – and you have to pay for what you use. Let

YouTube carries the bandwidth burden for you!

Of course, most people will likely find your video by searching

Google or YouTube’s on-site search for relevant content. In order

to help connect viewers with the videos they’re looking for,

YouTube utilizes a complex algorithm that’s made up of over a

million lines of code.

One of the main factors they use to figure out which videos to

show is video metadata.

Metadata is the title, description, thumbnail, and tags you give

your video when you upload it. That means you need to make

sure your tags are relevant to the video content (and that they

match the keywords viewers would use to search for your

content).

YouTube also measures video quality by measuring the length of

time it’s being watched. If a lot of viewers leave the channel

before your video is over, this suggests that your video had a 

misleading title (or thumbnail), or that it didn’t give viewers what

they were looking for.

If they stay until the end, your video is likely appropriate for the

search terms used, and it will be given a higher ranking than

videos left unfinished.

Tips: Spend some time watching videos from your favorite

channels, especially from creators in your niche.

Pay attention to their overall style, how they create transitions,

what their pace is and branding style.

• What kind of voice and tone do they take when creating

videos?

• Do they create head-talker-type video content more often

than the take notes! We’ve mentioned this already but it’s important,

especially when you are doing market research in order to create

a plan for your own channel. You’ll want to reflect on this later.

And finally, give yourself the freedom to make mistakes. You’ll

learn a lot throughout the process and the kind of video content

you create today will likely look a lot different from what you

create a year from now when you’ve had the time and experience

needed.

The important thing is to stay consistent, follow a content

schedule that your subscribers come to rely on and stay true to

your brand formats?

Branding Mastery

 

Step 3: Branding Mastery

We’ve discussed the importance of choosing a theme for your

channel but now it’s time to connect that theme to your brand.

Branded videos always outperform unbranded videos and there’s

good reason for it: People begin to recognize your content just

because your brand is prominent and memorable. They’ll share

your content with others (if it’s entertaining), and in turn, your

brand will gain even more exposure.

This includes creating stand-out channel artwork. Consider hiring

a professional designer to create a logo, banner, and thumbnail

templates that you can repurpose.

You’ll find qualified designers on websites like

https://www.Upwork.com and https://99designs.com

What you’re looking to do is highlight your brand in every way 

possible. You should choose one main color scheme or design

style and stick to it. Always look for ways to include your logo or

another brand-identifying element in your videos and other

content. The more often people see it, the faster they’ll begin to

recognize it.

If you have a great tagline, you should include that in your

artwork. If you produce a lot of videos (a new video every week,

or every other day, for example), then include that in your

channel banner so that people know what to expect.

Remember that YouTube can be viewed on many devices, from a

smartphone to television. On a larger television screen, the

channel art will appear in the background, behind your content.

On a desktop or mobile device, the channel artwork appears as a

banner across the top of the content.

You can also create your channel artwork from scratch if you’re

on a tight budget using a free image creator like Canva. This free

tool includes ready-to-go YouTube templates that you can quickly

and easily customize for your channel.

Link: https://www.Canva.com

Important Note: As you design your channel artwork, keep in

mind that “safe area” in the center of the template. That’s the

area that will be displayed on nearly every device. You want to

keep your text and graphics within that area.

Make sure any important information like your website URL,

taglines and images are inside of this space so they’ll show up on

the device and not be cut off or covered up.

Another thing to think about is your linking text. YouTube lets you

display links to your channel – they show up in the bottom right

corner, on top of your channel artwork. Make sure you don’t have

text, logos, or important images in that area of your artwork. 

Pro Tip: You could also create a hat, mug or t-shirt with your

channel logo and include it in every video. The more you can

highlight your brand throughout your content, the better.

Then later, as your channel grows in popularity, you’ll be able to

sell these items to your subscribers who want to support your

business.

It’s easy to create custom merch at places like:

https://www.Printful.com or https://www.RedBubble.com

Creating a Keyword Strategy

 

Step 2: Creating a Keyword

Strategy

Keywords help people find your channel. They serve as signals in

the major search engines that will connect your audience to the

content they’re looking for.

In fact, just by optimizing your channel so it includes relevant and

highly-targeted keywords may be all you need to do to drive in

traffic, especially if your content caters to a hungry market.

This means you’ll want to add relevant keywords in the “About

Section” of your channel.

Doing this will help you rank organically in the search engines and

make sure your channel appears when someone enters a search

terms directly into the YouTube search bar.

You’ll find the About Section here:

https://www.youtube.com/advanced_settings

Try to come up with 10-15 relevant, long-tail keywords that best

describe your content.

You can use them throughout the different areas of your channel

as well as within the description of each video.

You’ll also want to optimize your video descriptions so that they

are focused on both your audience and search engines. This

means that instead of writing a long description for each video,

focus on including your primary keywords early in the text but

make sure they read smoothly.

You don’t want to keyword stuff to where a subscriber reads your

description and it doesn’t make any sense to them.

Your most important keywords should always appear in the first

line of your description otherwise it’ll be truncated with a “Show 

More” link, but again, make sure your description isn’t just a

series of keywords – it needs to provide your audience with

important information about your content.

In addition, you’ll want to include relevant keywords in your video

titles as well, especially your focus keyword (the main keyword

you’re hoping to rank for).

Keep your video titles short and focused on engagement. You

want them to be exciting and to immediately capture attention.

Always take advantage of any opportunity to include keywords in

your content. In addition, vary the keywords used so that you’re

able to rank for a variety of long-tail keyword phrases.

Here are a few ways to leverage free YouTube keyword tools:

HyperSuggest: https://www.hypersuggest.com/

There’s a free version of this keyword tool that will allow you to 

search by country while providing important data, such as

potential search volume.

WordTracker: https://www.wordtracker.com/

This tool will provide search volume, overall competition and

other information that will help you optimize your channel such

as the number of times keywords appear in the anchor and title of

popular YouTube channels.

This tool makes it easy to uncover relevant, high-traffic keywords

while being able to reverse-engineer popular channels in your

niche.

And finally, you’ll want to create a secondary keyword list that

focuses on tags.

Tags function the exact same way keywords do and so they’ll

become a very important part of your channel. 

Unfortunately, tags aren’t displayed by default in video

descriptions so you won’t be able to uncover them just by

browsing popular videos in your niche. However, there are a

handful of free tools that will solve this problem.

These include:

TubeBuddy:

https://www.tubebuddy.com/

Tags for YouTube:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tags-for

youtube/dggphokdgjikekfiakjcpidcclbmkfga?hl=en-US

Once you install these Chrome plugins, whenever you visit a

YouTube channel and look through the description, you’ll be able

to see what tags are being used by the creator. This spy tactic is

invaluable because it’ll show you exactly what others are using

successfully. 

And while tags aren’t the only way to optimize your videos and

overall channel, they’re important when it comes to signaling to

YouTube search and Google what your video is about.

Tags will also help your videos populate in search as well as in

related video views.

The focus of your channel.

 

Step 1: Channel Focus

When it comes to setting up your YouTube account, there are

many tutorials online will guide you through the actual sign

up process, so we won’t cover that in this report.

Instead, we’ll kick things off by talking about what really matters:

The focus of your channel.

The truth is, laying the groundwork for your channel early on is

key to your success. In fact, the one thing that often separates

successful channels from flops is careful planning.

First, you want to make sure you have decided on one main topic

for your channel. Coming up with a strong theme will make it

easier for you to grow your audience.

And while you aren’t stuck creating content for only one niche,

when you’re just starting out it’s always best to focus on one

specific topic rather than trying to cater to multiple audiences.

You can scale your business later by creating additional content

that will attract other segments of your market.

The key is to create a channel that is focused and delivers content

that is relevant to one main niche.

So, begin by jotting down ideas and notes about the kind of

content you want to create.

Research your market in order to better understand what kind of

information they’re looking for, what style of content, and overall

tone are they most likely going to be attracted to and what can

you do differently from other channels in your market?

Quite often, the most successful channels are created based on

topics you are personally interested in and passionate about. And 

of course, you want to tie your content in with your existing

products, websites, or blogs.

The idea is to create one seamless brand where you’re visible on

all major platforms, so connecting your YouTube channel with a

blog that offers a text-based component will reach a wider

audience and help you maximize exposure.

If you aren’t sure what your channel will be about you’ll want to

spend some time figuring it out before you go any further. Again,

this goes back to researching your market so you can find areas

that are lacking in content.

Fulfilling a need in your niche with content that is in-demand but

not widely available, will be the easiest way to launch your

channel with little marketing needed.

If you need extra help coming up with a focus and theme, here

are a few popular themes used in many successful YouTube 

channels:

How-To/Tutorials/DYI:

These channels are always popular because they teach specific

skills. Whether your channel will provide tutorials for things like

software, marketing, website building, or making money – OR –

you create content based on home improvements, interior

design or saving money with renovations, this type of channel is

always in demand.

Best of Clips:

Think of these videos as round-ups of popular videos. It could

include content like “Funniest Home Videos”, or “Top 10 Vacation

Spots”. The possibilities are endless. Just make sure you aren’t

infringing on anyone’s content and that you have the right to

include segments of videos.

Travel Channels:

People are always looking for reviews on places to vacation and 

what type of activities are available in these areas. You can easily

monetize a travel channel with sponsorships later once your

audience grows.

Tech Videos:

Always a popular topic, tech videos simplify technology. You

could feature reviews of products such as computers, mobile

devices, and other gadgets or cover tech news.

Crafting:

These channels cover everything from creating crafts, selling

crafts and everything in between. Many of the popular channels

teach people how to create handmade crafts but there are dozens

of ever-growing channels that show people how to create digital

based products to sell on sites like Etsy or Shopify.

There are so many other channel themes that are in-demand and

profitable, including gaming channels, podcast-style channels,

story-time videos, fitness and health-based channels, cooking 

channels and even channels dedicated to exposing online scams.

The idea is to research your market, analyze the top 10 YouTube

channels in your niche and create a plan for your channel before

you even begin to create content. That way you have a clear

blueprint in place that will guide you with clear direction and a

strong focus.

Regarding Channel Names:

If you haven’t yet decided on a name for your channel, you’ll want

to consider this very carefully. Your name represents your brand,

your business and tells potential subscribers what to expect from

your channel.

This means you don’t want to choose something generic or vague

that people won’t instantly associate to a topic.

While there are countless examples of successful Vloggers who

created a channel in their personal name, it’s often much easier 

to launch a channel and connect to your target audience if you

choose a channel name that represents the type of content you’ll

be offering. In other words, your theme.

This means that you first need to ensure that you understand

your market and what kind of content they’d be interested in.

Creating a successful YouTube channel requires a strong focus on

specific content formats. Creating a random channel that tries to

be all things to everyone will make it hard, if not impossible, to

build a recognized brand and stand out.

Instead, you want your content to be geared towards one main

niche. At least when you’re just starting out.

Again, while you aren’t restricted to creating content in just one

niche, by deciding to focus the initial phase of your channel on

one segment of your market, you’ll be able to launch faster, grow

a following easier and solidify your brand.

Plus, it’ll be easier to create a content plan and schedule if you

take a laser-focused approach to launch your channel.

Tip: You also want to make sure that the name you choose has an

available domain, or closely related one. You’ll want to register

that domain in advance before you even launch your channel.

Acquiring the domain as well as the username on all popular

social media platforms will help you protect your business

because it puts you in full control of your brand. Plus, it’s a great

place to sell merch later on!

YouTube is the leading video platform online, for businesses.

 

Introduction

There’s a good reason that YouTube is the leading video platform

online, especially for businesses.

It’s easy to use, allows for maximum exposure in the search

engines and the audience is readily available. In fact, YouTube has

over a billion registered users, which means it’s clearly a great

way to build a business, maximize outreach and develop an

outstanding brand.

But we don’t have to tell you about the incredible possibilities

that creating a YouTube channel has to offer. You likely already

know this. What you may not know is exactly how to get started.

This includes things like:

• How to choose a theme for your channel.

    • How to effectively brand your channel.

    • How to optimize your channel for maximum exposure.

    • How to choose the best content formats for your channel.

    • How to grow your subscriber base.

Well, you’ll no longer be left wondering because all of this is

covered in this special report: YouTube in 5 Easy Steps.

We’ll guide you through all the important elements of creating a

winning channel.

From how to set up your channel so that it’s designed to attract

the most loyal subscribers, to how to plan and produce the

highest quality content possible, we’ve got you covered.

Let’s begin!

YouTube Promotional Tactics

 

Using YouTube Promotional Tactics

When you have created and uploaded some videos to your YouTube

channel there are specific tactics you can use on the platform to promote

your channel and videos. Most people that upload YouTube videos do

not use these tactics but you should because they will help you to get

more views and subscribers.

Create a Channel Trailer

You have the opportunity to upload a trailer video to your channel and

we recommend that you do this. This will help to convince users that

have not subscribed yet to do so. The trailer can be set up to autoplay

when a user lands on your channel page.

Make your trailer video short but interesting and exciting. Make sure

that you tell viewers to subscribe to your channel so that they do not

miss out on the exciting videos that you plan to upload in the future.

Increase your Subscribers

You have the opportunity to create a subscribe link which appears on all

of your videos in the bottom right-hand corner. This is a proven tactic

that will help you to gain more subscribers to your YouTube channel.

Another tactic for gaining more subscribers is to create branded

watermarks. 

Users that view your videos will see this watermark and if

they click on it then they will have the option to subscribe to your

channel. YouTube users are used to seeing these watermarks and you

should get more subscribers using this tactic.

Make your Video Thumbnails Enticing

Don’t rely on YouTube to take a snapshot image of a section of your

video to create your thumbnail. You need to create your own enticing

thumbnails for every video that will draw the eye of YouTube users.

It is not difficult to create good-looking thumbnails. You can use a free

online service like Canva.com to create YouTube thumbnails using

templates. If you don’t have any design skills or want to outsource this

task then you can find competent freelancers on Fiverr.com.

Use Enticing Titles

You need to get the balance of your video titles right. We recommend

that you add your main keyword in your video titles but we also suggest

that you make your titles as short as possible. The title of your video is

the most important SEO element.

Don’t just use the keyword in your title. A lot of other people will do

this and it is just lazy. Add some more enticing words to draw viewers.

Try to keep your title short as only the first 45 characters are displayed

in the YouTube search results.

In the next section, we will discuss how you can use your influence on

YouTube…17

How you can use your Influence on

YouTube

This section is all about making money from your YouTube channel.

Despite what you may have heard, it is not necessary for you to have

millions of subscribers to generate revenue from your videos and

channel.

Be a Micro-Influencer

It may surprise you to know that there are a lot of businesses that are

looking for YouTube channels that have a small number of loyal

subscribers. If they can see a good fit with their business and their

products and services then they are going to be interested in working

with you.

Loyalty is the key here. Sponsors will want to see that your videos are

eagerly consumed every time you upload a new one. They will also

check the comments, number of likes, and more to gauge your

engagement levels.

Create a Statistics File for potential Sponsors

Throughout this report, we have recommended that you monitor key

metrics for your channel and your videos. We also suggest that you keep

a record of your metrics that you can show to any potential sponsors.

Here are some metrics that you should start recording:

• The engagement rate for your videos

• The subscriber growth for your channel

• Demographics such as location

When you think about it, sponsors are going to be interested in how

engaged your viewers are with your videos. If you work with a sponsor

then they will want you to promote their products and services in your

videos. Just placing an affiliate link in the description will not be

enough.

It is important that you can demonstrate to potential sponsors that your

channel is growing. Keep a note of your subscribers over time and also

the increase in video views. How many of your videos do your viewers

tend to watch? Retention rate is important and as your channel grows

this should increase.

Be Proactive and find Potential Sponsors

Rather than wait for potential sponsors to contact you, we recommend

that you be proactive and look for potential sponsors that are a good fit

for your channel. You can use Google search to find companies in your

niche. If your channel is still fairly small then contacting large

companies is probably not going to work.

Create a list of potential sponsors and then contact them via email and

ask if you can send them the latest metrics for your channel and videos.

Offer them the option to sponsor your channel/videos or the chance to

advertise on your videos.

Sign Up for the YouTube Partner Program

If you are eligible, you can sign up for the YouTube Partner Program

which will enable you to show ads on your videos. You will get a share

of the revenue for displaying these ads. In order to qualify, you need a

minimum of 1,000 subscribers to your channel and more than 4,000

watch hours over the last year.

Affiliate Marketing

You can promote related products or services on your videos. Sign up as

an affiliate for these products and services and add your affiliate link in

the description box. When a sale is made through your affiliate link you

will earn a commission.

Video SEO Techniques

 

Use Video SEO Techniques

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world after google.

Many people use YouTube to search for what they want as they would

prefer to watch a video than read a blog post for example.

No matter how good your videos are, if YouTube users cannot find them

with a search, then you are wasting your time. You need to SEO optimize

all of the videos that you upload so that you give them the best possible

chance of appearing in the search results for specific keywords.

For each video that you create, perform keyword research for it first.

You can do this for free using the Google Keyword Planner. Identify the

keyword terms that you think users will search for to find your videos.

Put your most important keyword in your video title. There is a video

description box under the video and you must add text here and include

your keywords in it. You can also add URLs to your video description.

Add tags to your videos that contain the keywords that you want to

appear in a search for.

We recommend that you remind your viewers to subscribe to your

YouTube channel and “like” your video at least once. You can also ask

them to leave a comment. Telling people what they need to do online is

necessary. Never assume that they will just subscribe.

Finally, you need to create compelling thumbnails for your videos. If

you do not add a thumbnail image then YouTube will select a section of

your video as the image. This was OK a few years ago but it isn’t now.

You can use Canva.com for free to create great-looking thumbnails for

YouTube videos. Be consistent with your thumbnail designs so that you

stand out from the crowd and that users will instantly recognize your

videos. Outsource the creation of your thumbnails on Fiverr.com if you

want to.

Post New Videos Regularly

If you want to be a successful YouTube influencer then you need to be

consistent. A lot of good influencers post new videos 2 or 3 times each

week and this seems to work well for them. You can work up to this

number if this is not possible for you to start with.

As your subscriber base grows, they will expect you to be consistent

with your video posting. If you start by posting videos on a Tuesday for

example then stick with this. Tell your subscribers that you will post

every Tuesday and do everything that you can to ensure you stick to this.

Posting new videos regularly will help to develop your library. As the

number of videos grows on your channel, the more content you will

have for your subscribers to watch. This is good for your overall

standing on YouTube as it tells the algorithm that your videos are

popular.

Use Social Media to Promote your Videos

All successful YouTube influencers have social media channels that they

use to promote their videos. You do not need to create a profile on all

social media platforms. What you do need to do is to find out where

your target audience hangs out and make sure you have a profile on

those channels.

If your audience mainly uses Facebook then it is unlikely that they will

use Tik Tok as well for example. Do your homework here and find out

which social platforms your audience uses. You can also take a look at

the YouTube channels of your competitors to see what social channels

they are using.

Once you have the necessary social channels in place you need to add

content to them. Of course, you will want to tell your followers

whenever you launch a new video on YouTube. But it is better if you

can do more than this. It will take time to build up a following on the

various social channels and publishing valuable content regularly is the

best way to do this.

Tell the story of your YouTube channel on your social channels. Why

did you create it? What are your aims with the channel? Ask your social

followers for ideas for new video content you can create. Get them

involved as much as possible. Engagement and interaction are essential

to build up and maintaining a good following on social media platforms.

Monitor the Performance of your Videos

After you have uploaded a few videos, you need to start monitoring how

well they are performing for you. There are a lot of helpful metrics

available in YouTube analytics. You can see at a glance how many

views your videos are receiving; the number of comments users are

leaving and other important metrics.

By paying careful attention to these metrics, you can see which of your

videos create the most engagement. Ask yourself why this is the case.

What is it about these videos that makes them the most popular?

You can find Audience Retention Graphs in YouTube analytics that will

show you what kind of habits your viewers have. Use this information to

discover:

• Your most popular videos (by engagement)

• Times when viewers click away from your videos or your channel

• Comments that can help you to improve your videos

You need to be prepared to make consistent improvements to your

videos. This information is very valuable to you. For example, if you see

that viewers are clicking away from one of your videos at around the

same time then investigate why this is happening.

Some people are likely to leave valuable comments about how you can

improve your videos or provide you with ideas for new content. When

you receive a comment on your videos be sure to respond to it as quickly

as possible. Always thank users for making constructive comments.

In the next section, we will discuss using YouTube promotional

tactics…