Written by Petra Hule
YouTube, one of the most successful video streaming services has become the one-stop shop for any viewer or creator. Created in 2005, YouTube’s success has only increased since its creation, currently hosting 6 billion hours of video per month and 1.9 billion active users.
YouTube’s success could be dedicated to the changing world where people are moving from sitting in front of the TV for hours to sitting at their desk in front of their computer, tablet, or smartphone. When we take a look at the stats, 6 out of 10 users prefer online videos and platforms such as YouTube as opposed to traditional TV.
The History Of YouTube
The first video ever uploaded to YouTube was a video of co-founder Jawed Karim on April 23rd, 2005 of him at the San Diego Zoo titled “Me at the zoo” being viewed over 172 million times.
Since its creation and Karim’s first upload, creators have become ever more creative with the content they create and share, even to the point of creating thumbnails that display a specific photo of the creators choosing.
How To Format Your YouTube Videos
YouTube comes with many perks and opportunities for anyone to create content that is accessible to almost anyone, anywhere in the world. That’s why it makes it the perfect place for any aspiring musician to join the community and release their work to the world.
Although there are other video streaming platforms such as TikTok, Twitch, Instagram, and Facebook Live, YouTube allows you to put more time and effort into your work as opposed to short videos on other platforms.
The Importance Of YouTube Titles
The titles you give your videos are just as important as the videos you create. Your titles and your thumbnail are the first things your viewer sees, be sure to keep your titles short. By short we mean imagine your viewer viewing your videos from their phone.
Word Count
Typically a good title ranges between 65-70 characters and includes certain keywords. One of the most common and used words in search engines is “video,” for example “funny cat video” and so on.
Elicit Tip: Be sure to include “video” in your title as even if people search on other search engines such as Google, the algorithm will automatically search video platforms and links with keywords.
How To Utilize Keywords
Along with a great video, one must start with a captivating title. We see from the first video how simple titles were, however, the number of videos since the beginning has significantly increased, not just on YouTube, but other video streaming platforms as well. Including keywords that are constantly processed through search engines gives your video the best chance to be viewed.
Answer The Five W’s
Try to answer the 5 W’s, Who, What, When, Where, and Why, in the title in as few words as possible as that’s what people search for. Do some practical work and see what you type in when you’re searching for a video.
Elicit Tip: Imagine you saw a funny video of a horse running around on the beach, but you’ve forgotten the name of it. You’ve remembered there’s a horse on the beach running in circles, so you try your luck and search “Horse running in circles on the beach at sunset video.” Those keywords register and automatically bring your video to the front of the search results.
How To Choose The Perfect YouTube Thumbnail
As mentioned before, thumbnails have become increasingly popular as users have the ability to choose the picture that viewers will see when they first search for the video. This is just as important as the title as it should contain just as much information about the video as the title does.
If there’s a random thumbnail that has nothing to do with the video, the less likely the viewer is to interact with the video as they see it’s not what they’re searching for.
How To Use CTAs
Although views are important, when trying to put content in the world your main focus is for people to take action. Whether that’s finding you on Spotify and streaming your music through other platforms or getting people to interact with you through other socials or buying your music, at the end of the day, you have to make a living some way or another.
A call to action or CTA is often seen and heard of as “like and subscribe to my channel” or a button that you insert at the end of your video for viewers to watch your next video.
How To Make Money From Your Music
When you own or have licensed the songs you are sharing you have the right to monetize your music. Ways to make money through your content on YouTube include:
- Advertising revenue, where you receive ad revenue from display, overlay, and video ads.
- Channel memberships are one of the most important where your subscribers make monthly payments for special perks that you would offer throughout your channel.
- YouTube Premium would be the largest source of revenue on YouTube as you receive a part of a YouTube premium subscribers fee when they subscribe to your channel and watch your content.
For more information on how to monetize your YouTube visit YouTube’s monetization for creators page which holds all the ins and outs about how to make the most out of this platform.
