Introduction 1
About This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 3
How This Book is Organized 4
Part 1: Getting Started with YouTube Channels 4
Part 2: Making Good Videos and Not Making Bad Videos 5
Part 3: Growing and Knowing Your Audience 5
Part 4: YouTube Channels Are Serious Business 5
Part 5: The Part of Tens 5
Icons Used in This Book 5
Beyond the Book 6
Where to Go from Here 6
Part 1: Getting Started with YouTube 7
Chapter 1: Making a Home on YouTube 9
The YouTube Phenomenon: Why You Need to Be on YouTube 10
Audience, audience, audience 11
Incorporating YouTube into your business and marketing plans 12
Becoming a star! 14
Going viral 15
Wasting lots and lots of time 16
Seeing What Makes a YouTube Channel Unique 16
Angling for subscriptions 18
Establishing your brand 19
Managing Channels for Fun and/or Profit 21
Creating content 21
Building an audience 22
Building a business 23
Monetizing 23
Chapter 2: The Basics of YouTube 25
What You’ll Find on YouTube 26
Managing your identity 26
Navigating the home page 27
Watching a video 36
Working with a YouTube Account 41
Logging On to Your YouTube Account 48
Creating a YouTube Channel 49
Verifying Your YouTube Channel 56
Setting Up a Custom Channel URL 60
Joining the YouTube Partner Program 61
Chapter 3: Building Your Channel from the Ground Up 63
Navigating Your Channel 63
The Your Channel menu item 64
The Channel tabs 66
Customizing and Branding Your Channel 68
Creating channel art 68
Managing channel art 70
Creating the Channel icon 72
Uploading the channel icon 73
Managing your links 74
Managing Uploads 76
Part 2: Making a Great YouTube Video 79
Chapter 4: What Makes a Good Video a Good Video? 81
Picking the Right Camera for Your Needs 82
Knowing What Makes a Good Video 85
Mastering the Genres in Your YouTube Videos 87
Mastering music videos 87
Producing your very own vlog 89
Making an educational video 91
Making tutorial and how-to videos 92
Let’s play (and make) gaming videos 93
Making animal videos 94
Capturing sporting events 95
Film and animation 96
Entertainment 97
News and information 98
Autos and vehicles 99
Comedy 99
Travel and events 100
Science and technology 101
Nonprofits and activism 101
Viral Videos versus Evergreen Content 102
Viral content 103
Evergreen content 103
Chapter 5: Making Plans Both Large and Small 105
Establishing Your Channel’s Mission 106
Determining your goals 107
Being different, being valuable, being authentic 109
Surveying the YouTube landscape 110
Understanding Your Target Audience 112
Going narrow versus going broad 113
Knowing why your audience matters 113
Finding out the nitty-gritty about your audience 114
Defining Desired Actions 115
Planning an Outstanding YouTube Channel 116
Having a spokesperson 117
Branding 117
Planning the channel layout 118
Crafting a Content Strategy 120
Recognizing that content includes video and more 120
Looking at content formats 121
Curation recycling 123
Programming for Success 124
Delivering content consistently 124
Being flexible and reactive 125
Going live for more engagement 126
Planning Never Ends 127
Chapter 6: Acquiring the Tools of the Trade 129
Checking Out Your Camera Options 129
Working through the (camera) basics 130
Looking at DSLRs 133
Settling for smartphones 137
Stabilizing the Shot 138
Seeing Your Way with Light 139
Setting up 3-point lighting 139
Setting up high-key lighting 140
Capturing Sound 141
Looking at microphones 141
Capturing good audio 142
Chapter 7: Putting It All Together to Capture Some Video 145
Setting Up for a Shoot 146
Getting organized 146
Completing your checklists and shoot sack 146
Arriving on set 149
Planning a realistic shooting schedule 150
Practicing good habits before a shot 151
Maintaining continuity 152
Shooting a Great-Looking Video 153
Composing and dividing the screen 154
Determining the best shot 154
Moving and grooving the camera 156
Matching your eyelines 157
Following the 180-degree rule 158
Shooting an interview 159
Shooting extra footage and B-roll 160
Capturing the perfect take — several times 160
Working with Voice 161
Practicing diction and dialects 161
The power of the pause 162
Managing crowd audio 163
Chapter 8: Fixing It in Post: The Edit 165
Picking the Right Software Package 165
Mac tools 166
Windows tools 167
Knowing Where to Get Started with Editing 169
Attempting a test project 169
Handling file formats, resolution, and conversion 170
Editing Your Video 172
Logging your footage 173
Trimming video clips 175
Making a rough cut 176
Switching it around 177
Creating cuts 178
Filling the gaps with B-roll 180
Polishing Your Video 180
Fine-tuning your edit 181
Adding bells and whistles 181
Adding Music to Your Video 182
Adding built-in music in video editing tools 183
Incorporating stock music libraries 184
Putting music in your video 184
Adding emotional impact 185
Cutting your video to music 186
Cutting your music to video 186
Incorporating Voiceover and Sound Effects 187
Exporting the Final Version 188
Chapter 9: Preparing for Upload Day 189
Preparing Your Channel for Uploads 190
Checking your YouTube account hygiene 190
Enabling channel features 193
Tending to Video SEO Matters 194
Titles 195
Descriptions 197
Tags 199
Thumbnails 200
Uploading Your Video 201
Picking the source 202
Going public about YouTube privacy 202
Uploading to YouTube 203
Entering information about your video 206
Setting upload defaults 213
Publishing and Unpublishing Videos 213
Part 3: Growing and Knowing Your Audience 217
Chapter 10: Building Your Audience 219
Developing a Community 220
Deciphering audience evolution 220
Determining what you want your audience to do 221
Appreciating the importance of community 221
Determining your subscription source 223
Understanding Subscribers and Their Value 224
Persuading viewers to subscribe 225
Specifying how subscribers get updates 226
Controlling channel settings and privacy levels 227
Managing Comments 230
Seeing why comments matter 231
Setting up your channel for comments 232
Moderating comments 233
Reacting to inappropriate comments 234
Configuring Community Settings 235
Getting Viewers to Engage 236
Capturing the Captioning Opportunity 238
Producing Live Events 240
Chapter 11: Knowing Your Audience 241
Getting Started with YouTube Analytics 242
Reading YouTube Analytics reports 243
Breaking down the report components 246
Grouping information 248
Comparing data 249
Setting up report filters 249
Selecting a report 250
Understanding visual charts 251
Understanding the table 254
Learning about Video Views 254
Seeing which content is the most popular 254
Determining whether viewers are watching or leaving 255
Understanding Your Audience 258
Diving into demographics 258
Diving into subscribers 260
Optimizing Discoverability 261
Seeing where viewers find your content 261
Finding out where (and how) viewers watch your content 264
Making Sure Your Audience is Engaged 266
Imagining the Future of YouTube Analytics 268
Part 4: YouTube Channels Are Serious Business 269
Chapter 12: How and Why Businesses Use YouTube 271
Understanding Video and Business 272
Understanding Your YouTube Business Components 274
Content matters 275
Community and content creators 279
Advertising 281
Integrating YouTube with Other Campaigns 283
Cross-media integration 283
YouTube is TV now 284
YouTube isn’t Google, either 286
Chapter 13: Expanding Your Audience with Google Ads 287
Understanding YouTube Advertising 289
Recognizing the importance of ad policy 290
Looking at YouTube ad types 290
Planning for Advertising 292
Creating a Google Ads account 292
Linking your Google Ads account and YouTube channel 293
Determining Your Ad Targets 296
People targeting 297
Content targeting 299
Navigating Google Ads 300
Setting Up a YouTube Ad Campaign 302
Going with a general campaign 302
Creating an ad group and setting up targeting 306
Creating a YouTube Ad 308
Setting up remarketing lists 313
Looking at Your campaign details 315
Measuring Clicks and Results 316
Looking at campaign information 316
Getting earned metrics 318
Optimizing Your Campaign 319
Chapter 14: YouTube Monetization: How to Earn Money on YouTube 321
Partnering with YouTube 323
From Ads to AdSense 323
Setting up YouTube monetization 324
Analyzing ad performance with YouTube Analytics 326
Getting your YouTube revenue information 327
Seeing which metrics are offered 327
Making changes to your video strategy based on the data 329
Strikes 330
Brand safety and suitability 331
Federal Trade Commission Guidelines and COPPA 332
Part 5: The Part of Tens 335
Chapter 15: Ten Key Steps to Improving YouTube Search Results 337
Updating Video Metadata 338
Managing Video Titles 339
Understanding Working Titles 340
Optimizing Thumbnails for Viewer Session Time 340
Managing Video Descriptions 341
Adding Closed Captioning 342
Handling Tags 343
Refreshing Metadata 343
Understanding Channel SEO 343
Avoiding Misleading Metadata 345
Chapter 16: Ten Things to Know About Copyright 347
Remember Who Owns the Copyright 348
Attribution Does Not Absolve a Copyright Violation 348
Know the Consequences 349
The Profit Motive is Irrelevant 351
Get Permission for Using Copyrighted Material 351
Fair Use is s Complicated 352
Don’t Let Copyright Issues on YouTube Lead to a Strikeout 353
Wipe the Slate Clean 354
YouTube’s Algorithms Are Good at Finding Copyright Infringements 354
Copyright is (Almost) Forever 355
Index 357
