Tips: Creating Your YouTube Empire

RopeDrink

Howdy folks,

Hoping the mods don't mind this thread (which will aim to convey tips for building your YouTube channel - so feel free to chime in with your insight, fellow CCreators).

Having started YouTubing back in the days where it was an unlinked entity (ie. not tied to Google) with under half the features it has today, it's important to start by understanding what you are starting - and figuring out how far you want to go. Now that YouTube is joined at the hip with Google+, you'll have two areas that will need attention if you want to make your channel shine - as things such as avatars (overlapped on your channel banner), banner art and the comments section will intertwine across both sites.

• CHANNEL ART:

Before you even think of uploading videos, you should instead work on the building blocks - art files. A simple Google search can lead you towards many sites giving the up-to-date recommended resolution/sizes (and even downloadable PSD templates) for "channel art". Remember - if you want your channel to shine, people need a reason to click links leading to your content. The videos themselves are only half that battle. If people do land onto your channel, a mix of presentation (appealing theme) and available content will dictate whether people stick around.

You could have amazing videos but zero channel art (or vice versa) and it will stand against you in the long run - so it is a worthwhile investment to do your own art (or find someone to do it for you). Nothing says 'temporary' or 'short lived' like a greyed out imageless/avatarless channel. Lack of art will also impede the effectiveness of specific inbuilt YouTube features - a lot of which are too good to pass up on.

Channel art (banners) can be uploaded directly from YouTube - though the files will be stored and/or displayed on Google+ whether you like it or not, so start off by exploring both interfaces and learn how to navigate around their respective features. Both come with "Help" links or tutorials that explain image requirements (filesize vs dimensions etc). Once you have a template as a reference, aim for a fullsize Google image first. Once your image is complete - which will be around 2560x1440 in size - YouTube will use the midsection of that image for the banner - while the top & bottom will only be displayed on PC's via TV screens or on your Google+ page (if you choose to display it there). YouTube uses this as a one-size-fits-all answer to the many ways people can view YouTube, such as huge-screen TV's, regular monitors all the way down to phone-screens.

Here's an example of a fullsize image (downsized) - you will not see the black sections on YouTube. TV's will see the whole image - hi-res monitors will see the full midsection. Lower resolutions will result horizontal cropping, while phones will literally only see the words in the middle. The banner alone can be a nightmare to setup if you try to cater to all of these factors - but it is worth practicing.

Once you've jumped this hurdle (and settled on an avatar, which is a lot easier), you can YouTube with the comfort of knowing that anyone who checks your channel / subscribes and browses your available content will not have the default artless eye-sore to contend with - making for an attractive page.

Try to make sure that any/all art is related to your 'channel theme'. What, you didn't have a theme in mind? Then change that. It's a lot easier to get people to follow you when they know what to expect (preset audiences), compared to a themeless mish-mash of content (sporadic audiences).

• CONTENT LINKS & MEDIA:

With art dealt with, your next step is to ensure visitors know of the other worthwhile places where they can find you and your content. YouTube itself will allow you to embed some links into the bottom-right of your banner (so keep that in mind while working on above art), such as your Google+ page, Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, or custom links such as your own blogs or other content HUBS if you prefer. It is important to use these links wisely if you intend to build a following - as having them head over to other peoples content or unrelated areas risk you losing attention.

For example, my channel links to Google+ (by default), my content on NewGrounds (Music & Flash), my movie series on WCM and a blog dedicated to a specific game. Others may opt for Twitter, Facebook or other places if they have no problem conveying a personal image, or building an account based on the channel for later. Ultimately, even if someone doesn't follow your YouTube content, they may follow 'You' - and this invariably generates views or subs.

• ITS VIDEO TIME!

Congratulations! You have the skeleton of a YouTube channel planned and looking ready for some content. Unfortunately, just like channel art, your videos will also need to be equally as attractive to win over the audience and get that all important click. The most basic way of doing so is by ensuring your videos have attractive thumbnails, followed by fighting to ensure your video has a chance of cropping up in popular searches via "TAGS". It has been said that YouTube has/is cracking down on use of irrelevant tags (such as making some random unsexy video and using sexy tags), so be sure to keep your tags and thumbnails relevant to what you wish to show through your content. If you lie to your audience, you may get lots of views - but they will eventually become very unattractive when people get 'dislike' happy.

In addition - don't publish videos straight away. Instead, upload them on a schedule. Why? Because you have plenty of time to make any final tweaks - and YouTube has plenty of time to process your video so that it is available at the highest possible quality as soon as it goes live. Lastly, it also allows you to aim your video releases so that they go live during peak time for a higher traffic potential (yes, this is unfortunately an important factor).

When you feel you have content worth sharing, do some research into the best times to upload - and make a schedule for yourself. A channel that has a set schedule where people know when to expect content is a lot better than Joe Soap uploading random videos at random times whenever they like. Also, it helps if you have a set theme as this will cater to a specific audience. If you're going to commentate or webcam your videos, this can be forgivable as people may invest in the personality rather than what the person is showing (giving you some freedom) - but if you, like me, are a random gamer who focuses on random gameplay from random games (with no cam/comm), then people won't know what they're really subscribing for.

• DESCRIPTIONS - TAGS - SELF-LISTING:

We live in a world where you have to physically tell people to subscribe to you. Why? Because everyone and their mother loves going on a clicking spree without giving subscribe/like buttons any thought. This means you should plan a format for your video descriptions that a) describes the content (for those who read before watching) and b) gives links that will keep people clicking on YOUR content, not others (such as heading to the recommended link section right after watching).

Same themed content having similar tags also gives a better chance that a users recommended list will circulate back to your content - and playlists are also a good way of doing this as YouTube often heads straight to a 'next video' if this applies. The longer you keep people browsing your content, the more views (and possibly subscriptions) you will muster.

Even if you don't have videos yet - but know what you are going to upload - take the time to setup playlists (descriptions / tags) in advance. That way, once you upload content, you can simply tell YT to place the upload in a playlist of your choice.

On the other hand, don't be 'too' specific. A "Horror Playlist" encompassing multiple horror themes is better than making playlists for individual horror games, especially if you have limited content starting out - so don't spread it too thin.

Lastly, you can continue to help self-circulation by embedding your avatar/subscribe button into all your videos via a specific feature. This means (at a time in your video that you decide), your avatar will appear in the video as an annotation along with your sub-count and a +subscribe button. As long as a viewer has annotations enabled, this will appear in every video at a time you decide, each and every time.

"Cards" (a new feature) also allow you to encourage a sort of spiritual slideshow, where you can self-recommend one of your own videos within a video. Doing a longplay in 10 parts? Part 1 can contain a card linking to part 2 and so on, which further helps keep viewers on your content.

• COMMUNITY & ENGAGEMENT:

Community is a powerful and important word. You aren't just building a channel, you're building a potential following. If you took note of the social links, people might not just follow you on YouTube, they may follow you elsewhere. When uploading videos, be sure to make use of the small comment box by using hashtags (#) and @ for google & twitter. If your YouTube is linked to those areas, then doing this will ensure your video also shows up in google areas or in Twitter feeds and lists. Be sure to keep it to 100'ish characters (practice by writing a tweet - the comment should not exceed a tweet character limit).

Also - "ENGAGE WITH YOUR AUDIENCE". A small channel that is trying to grow will do it a lot better if the content creator gets involved in the discussions. I've lost track of how many times people have stuck with me for years not just because they liked the content - but because they feel like part of a community, with myself or regular followers getting involved with eachother's discussions of the content.

This isn't entirely possible for the grossly huge channels who have millions of people asking for attention - but there is no excuse if you aren't that multi-mill sub channel person. Give people a reason to follow you - the videos alone won't always do this.

• MISC:

Steam Accounts & YouTube accounts can also be linked. If you're an avid Steam user, don't hesitate to link accounts and include videos of your Steam-Games into your Steam-Content section.

If you're a streamer, don't just stream - upload the stream video as a separate movie (similar to the Twitch archive). Don't let content go to waste!

PROMOTE YOURSELF! If you're like me, you'll feel dirty doing it - but it's mandatory when getting started. However, be careful how you do it - as some people give off a bad impression when trying to leech attention. One example being a lady who without fail will post on certain popular channels with self-promo links via an account that has a very boob-centric avatar/image. It gets them subs/views, but an equal amount of negativity in the process which would make it far less enjoyable compared to wholesome organic growth and positive engagement.

Use every feature available to you on all social media. Really. Nearly everywhere has a means to encourage viewers to circulate back to you. If you do not use them, you will get short lived attention. Even if you hate X, Y or Z media - at least consider using them. I loathe twitter yet getting my vids to post on Twitter per upload almost always results in someone sharing my video despite having about 20 followers. Every little helps.

That is about as much as my brain can muster at 5:15am in the morning - and I'm sure I missed TONNES of other pointers. If you noticed, be sure to share it here so up-and-coming content creators get a good idea of how to give their upcoming YouTube empire a little edge.

Myrddin

Great info Ropey, thanks for sharing

Blue Neptune

Might be worth mentioning that the way YouTube ranks videos was changed a few months ago.

Before it was all about views - but there where a lot of people using misleading thumbnails, tags, titles and descriptions all to get the view count up so the video would be higher in the search rankings/recommended/suggested videos.

Now YouTube ranks videos on `Minutes Viewed` which solves the misleading information and thumbnails. Obviously the higher % of the total video watched the better.

Doctor DooM

Just to add, I actually had a wee chat with an expert in Google and directly asked a question: if YouTube videos are now ranked on duration viewed, does it make more sense to make short videos that are more likely to be viewed to completion, or a long video that someone might watch the whole way through the odd time?

She kind of glared at me and told me what I assume is the company line- make your videos as good as possible, and it doesn't matter

(Some of my videos can occasionally be upwards of 45 minutes as they're live tournament play. The reason I was asking was if I should cut them into smaller parts, not game the system making a bunch of 15 second videos )