OPTIMIZING YOUR VIDEOS
Optimizing your videos is essential if you want to stand out in the crowd.
You don’t have to have fancy technology to
make a great video.
Use the tips below to learn how
anyone can create compelling and interesting videos for their
YouTube audience.
Remember, YouTube provides even novices the ability to create videos and upload them as simply as possible.
MAKING Videos With Your Camcorder
If you have a digital or analog camcorder, then you probably
already know how to use it. It is easier to post videos to
YouTube if you use a digital camcorder. All you have to do is
shoot your video, download it, and upload it to YouTube.
older VHS tapes to record videos, you will probably have to use
a converter box to create a digital copy of your video, which you
can then upload to YouTube.
Once you upload your video, it’s time to improve on it. Sure, you
can leave it as is, but remember, if you take even a small amount of time graphically strengthening your video you are likely to attract
a larger audience. So, here’s what you do.
. First, make sure you have access to some video editing software.
You can acquire this inexpensively on the Web. One of the more common
tools people use is Windows MovieMaker.
. Once you have the right software, upload your video to the application.
Once you do this you can
edit your video all you want. Try saving multiple
versions of it and testing it with users to see which
they like best.
. Now it’s time to make your video stand out.
Add special effects, like interesting color schemes or fade
in. Try adding titles or even chapters to your video.
Put some music in the background. All of these small
additions will encourage more people to look at and
review your video.
If you are not sure what makes a good video, go to
YouTube.com and check out their “featured videos” section.
Find out what makes these videos stand out. Is the content
outrageous? Does the author use multiple special effects? Are
subtitles or category titles included? Take some notes about
what you like and what you don’t. This will help you when you
brainstorm ideas for improving your personal video.
TIME TO UPLOAD
Now that you took some time to play with your video, it is time to
upload it to YouTube. Make sure you save any changes you made to
your video before you upload it. You also have to save your video in a
format YouTube can use. YouTube.com recommends you save your
video with the following extensions for easier uploads: .MOV, .AVI, or
.MPG files. These are common video formats most people find easy to use. YouTube also recommends you use a video with a
320x40 resolution and one with an MP3 sound track.
You should be able to upload your video any way you like. If
you use a digital camcorder, you can upload your video from the
device to the website. YouTube even provides the alternative for
users to send their videos to the site by e-mail.
One you upload your video, you will need to provide some
description for it and tags so people can easily find it. The best way to
create tags for your video is to come up with some catchy keywords
people are likely to search for when looking for videos like yours.
You will also have to specify one or more categories under
which YouTube.com lists your video. Remember, the goal here
is helping other users find your video quickly and easily. With
millions of videos uploaded each day, you have to take time to
ensure you label, categorize and tag your video correctly, so it
stands out from the crowd.
HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE BY
POSTING VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE
Web 2.0 offers many cost-effective ways of promoting
your website and YouTube is no different. And that’s
just one part of YouTubing. It is also one of the most
fun ways of promoting your website. There is music, there is video,
there is creativity, and there is marketing. A terrific mix, isn’t it?
YouTubing is not going to sell your product. What it can do,
however, is get people interested in your services. How? Let’s
take a look.
BROWSE around
If you are new to YouTube, this should be your first step. It’s
a fascinating world out there. Plunge right in and look around a
bit. Look at the kind of videos others have made. You’ll find
some of your favorite music videos, movie scenes, vintage
videos, personal videos, documentaries, and of course, a glut of
marketing videos. If you find something in your niche, make a
note of it. When you make your own video, you’ll need to come
up with something different from your competitors.
CREATE a video
That’s what you’re there for. Grab a video recording device –
your camcorder, digital camera, webcam, or your cell phone, and
get started. Like anything else, you won’t get it right the very first
time. If you look at your first video and feel like pulling your hair out,
remember that you’re not alone. Making a video is much easier in
your mind than in practice. Over a period of time, you’ll get better at
it. Which brings me to another point; just one video won’t win it for
you. Once you’ve uploaded your first video, start working on the
second video and then the third. Yes it’s not easy but it’s much
easier than some of the other marketing techniques. This will also
give you an opportunity to experiment with a variety of techniques.
Some may flop miserably while some may enjoy wide popularity
and may turn into a rewarding viral distribution.
SPARE a thought for the viewers
YouTube is free but viewership has to be earned. So here is
humble advice. Do not make videos that take forever to load.
People have other things on their mind. And a site like YouTube
has many choices for them to pick from. A study on video-
sharing websites suggests that a video works best when it is
under 5 minutes in length. So even though YouTube allows you
a maximum of 10 minutes, keep it under 5 minutes.
Before you upload your video, ensure that the file format is
accepted. YouTube accepts .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .MPG formats.
ENTERTAIN
I’ll say this a hundred times over – YouTube is not your marketing
collateral. DO NOT sell your product on YouTube. Use it wisely to get
people interested. Once they start flocking to your website, you can
sell all you want. The minute you start boring them with your ‘Buy Me’
messages, they’ll turn the other way. The best way is to come up with
something entertaining that the viewer would want to sit through. When you have six interesting videos on something,
the viewer will surely want to know you. That’s when your
marketing begins.
ADD YOUR WEBSITE URL
You’ve made a great video and you’re getting a lot of
comments. All of it will count for nothing if it doesn’t result in
increased traffic to your website. So add that all-important URL
with your video. You may add one before the video and one
after the video. Add your URL to your YouTube profile as well.
MARKET THROUGH OTHERS
Whoever said you need your own videos to attract traffic? If you
don’t want to spend time creating a video, approach a popular
YouTube user. Offer them a payment for displaying your link on their
videos. That’s encouragement for them to come up with interesting
videos and a marketing platform for you without sweating too much.
PUT up a video on your social networking profile
This may not seem relevant at first but it will surely help you
get popular. Put up a bunch of hit YouTube videos on the other
social networking profiles that you use. A few examples are
Digg, De.li.-cious, Orkut, and Reddit. That will make your profile
attractive and help in getting new contacts.
PARTICIPATE
If you want others to visit your profile on YouTube, start with
visiting their profiles. Browse through videos, add comments for
their videos. Don’t spam their profiles. Offer genuine comments
and try to initiate a dialogue.
SPREAD THE WORD
If you have uploaded your own video, get your friends and
family members to view it and rate it. Nothing works like a five star
rating. Ask them to chip in with a few good comments as well. The
biggest mistake is to assume that uploading a video is the end of it.
It needs a lot of promotion to make your video visible.
TAG YOUR VIDEO
Now this one is the most obvious idea. Use appropriate and
rele-vant tags for your video. You wouldn’t want a person to miss
out on your video if he or she is looking for something similar.
What you’ve read above are just a few ideas you can use to
drive traffic to your YouTube profile and thus to your website.
You’ll find more as you go along. As you see other users, you’ll
pick up a few interesting tactics. The bottomline – be innovative,
be observant and be smart.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Now that you have the basics down, it is up to you to make
extraordinary videos. Here are several frequently asked
questions newbie’s have when starting with YouTube.
If you do not find the answer you need, check out
YouTube.com’s help section, where you will find a comprehensive
listing of hundreds of questions users have about the service.
Q. CAN I comment on other people’s videos?
A. YES, you can. Much like blogging, you are able to place comments
about a video. The more often people rate and comment about a
video, the more likely it is to achieve higher ranking on the site. Keep in
mind however, once you make a comment on another video, it is
permanent. Only the creator of that video can delete it. You can
however, delete unwanted comments from your own video clips. You
should in fact, keep an eye on the kinds of comments people make to
your video so you do not have Spam comments posted to your clip.
Q. MY COMMENTS are not showing up, and sometimes I can’t
comment at all. Do you know why?
A. THE CHANCES are high either (1) you did not confirm your e-mail
address, so you are not showing up as a registered member, or (2)
you haven’t given it some time. There is a slight delay in the time
you post comments to the time you can see them on the website. If
you find you are having other technical difficulties, sometimes it
helps to simply clear the cache on your Internet browser. Typically,
to do this you will want to delete any temporarily files, your search
history and any cookies stored on your computer. Next, be sure to
log out, and then log back in again.
Most of the time you can do this by using the Tools menu
Options tab. Other times you can click the Start button, then go
to your computer control panel and find the Internet Options bar,
which will allow you to delete the files you select.
Q. I WANT to save a video clip to my computer. How do I do that?
A. YOU CAN’T ACTUALLY DOWNLOAD and save any videos to your
computer, except for your own videos. YouTube created a
structure that allows all clips to run on the site, but on the site
alone. Some-times you can save a video in your “save videos”
list on YouTube, and watch them when you log back in later.
You can also bookmark videos much like you would your
favorite sites, so you can come back to them later.
Q. WHAT ARE playlists and how do I use them?
A. PLAYLISTS ARE lists of your favorite videos. When you bookmark videos you add them to your playlist. Typically, creating a playlist is
as simple as clicking on the “save to Favorites” button. This link is
just below the video you watch. You can classify your favorites into
sepa-rate playlists by using the dropdown menu. All you have to do
is create a title and the properties for each playlist you create.
You can even share your playlists for others. When you go to
your playlists page, located at:
HTTP://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/MY_PLAYLISTS
YOU SIMPLY SELECT the playlist you want others to see, then click
the bar that says share this list. It’s that easy. You will need to
add the e-mail addresses of people you want to share your list
with. When you click send, the people you appointed will receive
a message telling them they can log on and view your playlist.
Q. WHY ARE Playlists of use?
A. PLAYLISTS CAN SERVE many purposes. If you want to get a
marketing message out to many people, you can create a series
of videos that talks about your products, services or one you are
promoting. You can then send a link of your Playlist out to your
opt-in list. You can also use Playlists to send out family videos to
members living out-of-state. Simply compile a few clips of your
favorite family videos, add them to your list, and then send them
to distant family.
If you have a series of products you sell, or a book series you want
to promote, you can provide audio clips about that series on a specific
playlist. You can then create other playlists to market and show off
other products you want to promo. Remember, the list of possibilities is
endless when you use YouTube.com as a promotional tool.
Q. What if I do not want other people to see my video?
A. YOUTUBE ALLOWS REGISTERED members to keep their videos
private, meaning only people you invite will be able to view your
video clip. Simply visit the following link:
HTTP://YOUTUBE.COM/MY_VIDOES
YOU WILL WANT to go to the “Edit” section, and select the private
button. You will then need to choose the contacts you want to
allow viewing rights to.
Q. IS it hard to watch videos on YouTube?
A. WATCHING A VIDEO IS SIMPLE, anyone can do it. All you have to do
is visit the site. Remember, anyone can watch video clips
without registering. Click the video and you are in business. If
you want to save videos to your favorites list, you will need to
register, but remem-ber, registration is free!
Q. I WANT to use my cell phone to upload a video. How do I do that?
A. MANY NEWER phones allow you to record short video clips. Before
uploading to YouTube, you will have to set up your account so it can
receive videos from mobile devices. To do this, simply log into your account. Then, follow the account settings choice and click on the link
to “Mobile Upload Profiles.” Here you can enter information about the
mobile unit you plan to upload from. Then you create a file for your cell
phone. YouTube.com will provide you with a specific e-mail address
you can use to send your videos to. Make sure you send your video
direct to the e-mail address provided by YouTube.
