MAY 28

A Step by Step Guide on How to Upload a Video to YouTube

Got a great video you’re dying to share with the world?

Of course you do. Why else would you have clicked on this article?


The good news is, uploading a video to YouTube is easy.


The even better news is that it's also easy to make sure you do it right!


Do it right... What does that mean?


It means following this step by step guide on how to upload your videos to YouTube in 2021 to give yourself the best possible chance to be found!


By optimizing your video properly you have a way better chance that your audience will find your video, watch your video, and come back salivating for more of your awesome videos in the future.

Before we start..

Does your video have about 10 to 30 seconds at the end of the video for an end screen? The end screen appears after the video ends and will have options for viewers to subscribe, watch another video or playlist, or visit a website.


THESE ARE IMPORTANT.


YouTube wants people to watch YouTube, stay engaged and keep watching more YouTube. This is how they make money. And if your video helps make them money, there's a good chance they're going to put it in front of more people.


So make sure your video has some space at the end where pop ups can appear without spoiling your content. If you don't want your final guest star’s face covered by a subscribe button - make sure to tack on AT LEAST 10 seconds of time to finish your video.


Don’t overthink it, it can literally just be a blank screen or a solid background colour that matches your branding.

Let's Get Uploading

The first thing you need to do is log in to YouTube. If you don’t have an account yet, you will need to create one first. This is completely free, and also easy to do, especially if you already have a Gmail account or a business email account set up through Google Workspace. Just go to YouTube and sign in using whatever email account you would like to use. Any videos you upload now will be on this channel.

If you are signed in but want to make a new channel, then click on your icon in the top right.

After clicking on your icon, click “Switch account”, then “Add account”. Here you can login to an existing account or make a new one.


If you are already logged in, find the camera icon with the plus mark, click that and “Upload video”.

Upload video - This can take some time depending on how large the file size is. However you can still do much of the work as it uploads. You can make some small edits in YouTube later, but it is MUCH better to do everything before you upload.


In YouTube you can basically only cut things out and change some music. Any editing you do in YouTube won’t take effect for HOURS, it's also awkward to use and usually won't get you the quality results you're trying to achieve.


Title - Add an eye-catching but honest title. YouTube is tracking how often people back out of a video. Videos that people leave early get shown to fewer people, so don’t make promises in your video title and thumbnail that you can’t keep. Keep it real, brother.


Description - You can add links, chapters (see below) and any other useful information here. It’s a good idea to have a transcript of the video here and add some chapters. You can also preload text that will appear in every new video you upload.


Thumbnail - Remember the title will always be under the thumbnail, so you don’t need to have the title written on the thumbnail. Choose something eye-catching.

YouTube may state that your thumbnail is too large, to reduce its size, go to www.tinypng.com to make it smaller (it's free and you do not need to login).


Playlist - Add to a playlist (or create a playlist here)

Audience - Check here if the video was made for kids then check SHOW MORE.


Paid Promotion - Check here if you are a big sell out. You only really need to do this if you are an influencer that is being paid directly by another company to promote their products or service.


Add Recording Date and Location - Putting a location is good if you are advertising or trying to build your brand in your local area.


Allow Embedding - What does this mean? Do you see the YouTube video on this page? That video has been embedded into the page. To stop anyone from doing this to your video, uncheck this box. Please note that any views the video gets on someone else’s website are still credited to you. They are not stealing your video, just showing it outside of YouTube - this is not a bad thing, it's really just helping you get more views.


Tags - “Tags can be useful if content in your video is commonly misspelled. Otherwise, tags play a minimal role in helping viewers find your video.” - Google


Basically if you think that people commonly misspell something in your video, add the common misspellings here.


You can add more than one tag at a time by adding them in the following format.


Word, comma, space, word, comma, space


Copy and paste your words into the tags section.


Upload Defaults - If you would like these to appear every time, you can set this up in settings. There you can also decide what appears in the Title and Description. This can save you a lot of time.


Go to Creator Studio - Settings - Upload defaults - SAVE

Language - This is for the captions (subtitles). YouTube will automatically transcribe your video for captions. You can edit these or turn them off later. The caption certificate is just promising that it hasn't been aired on U.S. television after 1992 (otherwise it would legally require captions).


Chapters - Adding chapters to your video can be very helpful for viewers, allowing them to skip ahead to the content they want to see. It is actually very simple to set up as you only have to write it in the description.

You need at least three chapters, making sure you start at 0:00 and each chapter must be at least 10 seconds long.


The formula example you MUST follow in writing the chapters in the description is:


0:00 First Chapter Title


0:15 Second Chapter Title


0:35 Third Chapter Title


0:50 Add as Many Titles as you Need


*Note that it is 0:00 NOT 0.00 !


For short videos there is less of a need to add chapters. A longer video looks more professional if it is broken down into segments and gives the video a higher chance of being found by Google.


Your entire video may not be useful for somebody depending on what people are searching for, but maybe your third chapter is. Google will now be more likely to put that chapter in front of those people.


Monetization - This is dependent on whether you qualify. There are a few rules - the 2 biggest being you need to have at least 1000 subscribers and people must have watched over 4000 hours of your videos. You will also need an AdSense account, and be in a location where all this is legal - sorry North Korea.


Add Subtitles - If you want to upload some captions, you can upload them here. The file must be a .srt file and you can find numerous programs that you can use to make them.


YouTube can automatically create captions for you if you have set your language. These are actually quite good, but they are never perfect. Here you can edit them manually. It is the most boring and time consuming part of all of this, so try to get someone else to do it for you if you can!

End Screens - This is why we added 10 seconds or so at the end of our video. You have 2 choices


1. Use an end screen you have already made. If you use this, make sure that the timing is correct by watching the video in the player. Adjust the time by dragging the elements along the timeline.

2. Make a new one from scratch


Here you can choose what elements to add. Always have a subscribe button. You can choose specific videos or playlists, or let the Gods of YouTube algorithms decide for you.


Add Cards - These are the small pop ups that sometimes happen in the top right of a video. You can use up to 5, and they can be links to other videos, playlists, channels or websites.

  1. Choose what type of link you want to add.
  2. Choose the video or playlist. Your most recent videos will pop up, but you can add any video from YouTube with its url.
  3. Add a custom message here if you want.
  4. The teaser text shows before the pop up is clicked. This is optional.
  5. This is the timeline. Drag this around to choose when they appear.


Checks (Copyright) - This is essentially a copyright check. Does your video have music or video that someone else has (or has claimed) rights to? If it does, you will get a message here. This usually happens when you are using stock music or video or are uploading something you really shouldn't be uploading.

Mostly this means that you cannot make any money from your upload. If you use someone else’s music, any advertising money that your video generates will go to them instead. Or they can force you to delete the video completely. If you have the rights to it through a site membership or actual ownership of it, you can refute the claims here.


Visibility - The final step. Here you can choose what happens to the video from now.


Private - Basically you are saving it as a draft. No one can see it except for you. You can still edit the video’s backend by going to YOUTUBE STUDIO - CONTENT - EDIT (the pen icon next to the video). It is essentially the same option as listed here, but all on 1 screen instead of split into 4.


Unlisted - Anyone with the url can watch the video, but it will not appear in YouTube searches. This is good for private videos in a company or between friends. This is usually what you want to choose for adverts you will show on YouTube. Or leave it up for anyone to see if it doesn't have a time specific offer.


Public - This goes live right after you click SAVE.


Schedule - Choose a day and time when it goes live. Remember that the time is based on your current location.

Conclusion

First copy your video link and play it to make sure it works! Are all your chapters there? Does the end screen pop up correctly? Make any changes before you go live, but know that you can still edit much of it at any time.


Remember that the first few hours of a video being published are extremely important. So if you are online answering comments, have shared the video on other places, and have done everything you can to get people to watch, then the YouTube bots will notice the reaction your video is getting. If they notice it is getting some traction, they will show your video to more people.


These steps won’t get you 100k views. What you upload and how you promote it will do that. Just know that most people aren’t taking these steps and you now have a significant advantage over them. They are pretty simple, and after a bit of practice they will only add an extra 5 minutes or so to every upload you do from now.


If you have any questions about this campaign set up, feel free to email directly at Kevin@ad-ronin.com or set up a video call with me.


I geek out to this stuff and I’m more than happy to talk digital marketing - Let’s Talk Digital Marketing

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