Important tips for YouTube

COMPLETE ALL YOUR CHANNEL INFO!

From avatars and channel art to bio’s and related channels, this is a must. Your page will look as if you do not care which in turn won’t gain people’s attention, let alone your first subscriber. By completing all of the information you are also showing to your audience that you are dedicated, here for the long term, and not going anywhere/

GET A HEADSET/MICROPHONE

Now, this is our one step that does require a small investment, although it isn’t necessary, we highly recommend it. Without good audio your viewers won’t be able to understand what you are saying, they will soon lose interest and are likely to give your channel a bad rating.

HAVE ORIGINAL CONTENT

This is very important, stand out from the crowd, if you’re interested in Gaming, don’t just do Call Of Duty walk-through’s, or short Minecraft gameplay’s, be more original in your content, where not necessarily saying don’t do these, but take a different turn on them.

For example, only play Minecraft Puzzle Maps, or if you find making the content unique, make it funny or entertaining. Not all of your content must be unique. At DoubleUpGaming they do many tutorials and gameplay’s which could be likened to that of others, but they also have original content such as their two-minute commentary’s, their irregularly uploaded spin-off episodes, and that the fact that they also have a proper reviewing system.

UPLOAD REGULARLY SO YOUR VIEWERS KNOW WHEN TO EXPECT THE NEXT EPISODE

By uploading videos to your channel regularly and maybe in a repeated format e.g. every Monday and Thursday, viewers will know when your next video is coming out and will be able to look forward to it, maybe once your channel starts to grow bigger throw in an unexpected video just to please your viewers. Also make sure to upload content regularly to your channel, no matter how much a viewer likes your video, it is unlikely that they will subscribe if you haven’t uploaded anything for 3 months, and it is also likely that many of your subscribers will unsubscribe.

HAVE A SOCIAL NETWORKING PRESENCE

Social Networking is a great free way of advertising your channel, you can create either a page on Facebook or a Twitter account, what’s great about these is that you can link them onto your YouTube channel, in the bottom right-hand corner of your channel art. Whereas Facebook is great for interacting with your current viewers, as media is displayed more clearly and posts aren’t restricted, Twitter is a fantastic way of building up your fan base, the more people you follow, the more that follow you back.

HAVE A CATCHPHRASE OR A REPEATING JOKE PEOPLE CAN RELATE TO OR RECOGNIZE YOUR CHANNEL BY

Although this isn’t an essential right from the start, it will probably evolve self-consciously as your channel grows, think about your favorite channels, do they have catchphrases, we can think of many examples, how about Philip Defranco’s ’S’up Nation’ or Ray William Johnson’s new ‘I approve this message’. It doesn’t even have to be a phrase that you say. What’s good about these is that it’s something that audiences can relate to and quote in the comments. It’s just a funny little thing that comes along as your channel grows.

INTERACT WITH YOUR VIEWERS.

When starting a YouTube channel you must ask yourself a vital question, what am I doing this for, if that answer is money or internet fame, don’t bother making the channel, starting out with that attitude won’t get you anywhere in the long run, however, if your answer is to entertain or to help people, it is likely that you will get far, always remember who you are dependent on and who you are doing this for, the viewers, as corny as it sounds, you should cherish each new subscriber like they are your first one. One way in doing this is to interact with them, it will show your audience how much you value their subscription, you can do this by either talking/helping them out in the comments – the channel SourceFed does a great thing every week called comment commentary where they pick out their favorite comments and answer/talk about them – another way to interact with the audience is through the social networking sites we discussed earlier, in fact, the reason I produced this very article in the first place was on the basis of a request I got from a viewer earlier this week! Also, listen to your audience, tailor your content to suit their needs, even if you don’t like doing it that way, if you change something with your channel, e.g. the format of how often you upload, and your viewers don’t like it, change it back, remember they are the necessities and without them, your channel will never progress!

WORK WITH A GROUP OF PEOPLE

I’m not saying that you have to share ownership of your channel, or even give other people control, but two heads are better than one, and three heads are fantastic! Other people have different ways of looking at things, and this can be very beneficial, it can lead to new ideas and then better content. Having a friend to help you with your channel is a great idea too! They can keep you motivated and can help with things such as recording and managing the channel, also it makes it more fun! Another thing you will notice as your channel grows is that you make a lot of ‘contacts’ these will range from channels similar to yours to regular viewers with encouraging comments and even people who do favors in exchange for other favors.

For example, an amateurish VFX designer might help design you an intro for your videos, on the condition that you promote him/her on your channel, and put a reference for them in your comments to help their own channel/portfolio of work grow! Just make sure they are not going to go and stab you in the back if they leave.

USE ANNOTATIONS

Annotations can be an absolutely great thing if used correctly, otherwise, they will just prove to be a nuisance to the viewer, and your channel will decrease in popularity, what I suggest to do is not to pack in lots of annotations during the video, especially not those large ones that take up half the screen! Instead, make a video ending picture which you can place onto the end of your video using a video editing software such as Windows Movie Maker, all this picture has to have on it are some buttons linking to the next and previous videos as well as maybe a button linking to your site. You can then make these buttons work by using the ‘spotlight’ annotation and re-sizing it to the size of the button, by using the link feature you can link straight to the video or page. Another great feature of annotations is the subscribe button, you can either have this discreetly shown in the corner of your video or at the end along with the other links.

USE CATCHY MEDIA

Now this one is a lot easier than it sounds, all we mean by this one is media (pictures, music) that will stand out to the audience, all videos must have a thumbnail, and it takes no time at all for your channel to get the custom thumbnail option, take advantage of this! Create great-looking thumbnails that will make the viewer want to click them because let’s face it, most people watch a video based on the thumbnail, not the title!

DON’T HAVE LENGTHY INTRODUCTIONS

You want to grab the attention of your viewer in the first fifteen seconds of the video, that’s all you have, 15 seconds to entice them to continue watching your videos! You don’t want to waste those precious seconds with a boring introduction, maybe you could start with a funny opening clip, maybe containing some bloopers, then have a brief intro and get straight on into the video, your viewers are there for the content, not for some irrelevant introduction.

DON’T COMMENT SPAM/ADVERTISE YOUR CHANNEL

You know that feeling you get when you’re watching your favorite channel and you scroll down to read the comments and you see some guy promoting his channel, then you go to watch the next video by your favorite YouTuber, and there that guy is again advertising his own channel, it’s not a nice feeling, and by doing this you attract a lot of hate to your channel, yeah it might gain your attention, but not the kind of attention you’d want, so I would advise against it!