Since you are done with setting up your channel, you are now ready to create and upload your first video. Before you get all excited and upload one into your channel, consider the following points to check if your creation will pass muster amongst viewers.
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Video (and Audio) Quality
At an age where high-definition is everything, you cannot shoot a video on your 2010 model smartphone with a VGA camera and expect your audience to like and subscribe. It is the time of 1080 and 4K resolutions, and anything below 720-progressive is considered to be low quality.
So, whether you are capturing yourself while you commentate or if you are creating a video using snippets of shots, use a recorder that can capture high-definition videos. You don’t have to take extra care of the quality of the audio unless your videos rely on them. Since most vloggers bank in on the visual characteristics of their creations, audio does not have to be on your top-ten checklist.
The recommended resolution is 1080-progressive or higher, with the audio bitrate anything above 256 kilobytes per second. You can also experiment with 4K and 360° resolution videos, but they require special equipment, which may be expensive.
Ideal Video Length, Size, and Format
The days when you could upload a video that are up to only 10 minutes long are gone. Since its inception in 2004, YouTube has undergone countless changes. But, for us, the things that matter the most are the sizes and the formats. While the video size limit was 100 MB a few years ago, you could the supported formats with fingers of a single hand. As of November 2016, following are the limits:
Video Length
The default limit per video is 15 minutes, but you can extend it by verifying your channel. The limit then extends to 12 hours. However, the ideal video length depends upon your content. Most popular videos on YouTube are between 5 and 40 minutes. Anything above that may not be helpful, especially in the initial stages. The key is what you do in the first 1-2 minutes to grab your viewer’s attention.
Tip: Start with smaller videos, and as you increase your fan base and understand their requirements, you can then notch up the minutes.
Video Size
128 GB is the upper size limit of a video that you can upload. Generally, a 5-minute content at 1080-progressive resolution would make your video file to be of around 1 GB, which is a good number. The ballpark is set between 1 and 5 GB, but you can always push for more if your video is longer.
Make sure you have a good internet connection so that you can upload such big files at a high speed.
Video Format
There is no ideal video format, but YouTube supports the following ones: MOV, MP4 (MPEG4), AVI, WMV, FLV, 3GP, MPEGPS, and WebM. The most popular formats are MP4 and WMV, and those are also the containers used by camcorders and video recorders to generate content.
According to me, MP4 is arguably the best format, and you should always prefer that over the others. 3GP and WebM are meant for low-quality videos. So, let’s not even talk about them.
Video Editing
While some knowledge of video and audio editing is required to be a successful YouTuber, it is not a necessity. You can always take help from your friends and the ever-helpful internet. YouTube’s own Creator Studio can help you do wonders with your raw videos to polish it up with texts, sounds, annotations, and images. The YouTube Video Manager is an easy-to-use tool.
If you are really clueless about how to edit a video, following are some other online resources to hit you up:
- There are countless online intro makers such as Vipid, Intro Maker, and VideoHive that have beautiful intros that can be customized based on your taste. While the free themes may contain watermarks, you can buy high-resolution intros starting from $5
For a more hands-on approach, fire up your computer’s native video editor and start playing with ideas. We all know that we ourselves are the best creators. Apple’s iMovie and Windows Movie Maker are two most-popular free tools.
Intro and Background Music
There is an art of providing good intro in your videos, it is non visual art that people enjoy without really noticing it was there. Be it an intro jingle or an end credits theme, a video is partly driven by its background music. So, naturally, it is crucial that you spice up your videos in 2017 with some good audio bytes.
Copyright Issues 2017
But, before you add any music in your video, consider all sides of the box. The track that you want to use may be owned by someone else, you could end up using someone else art that you may get penalized for. YouTube takes copyright very seriously. So, that jingle you thought you could use on your video may not have been a good idea after all.
Even if you use 5 seconds of an audio, the copyright of which is held by a music label, you will get a copyright warning in your account. While warnings are fine, and in most cases, your videos will be playable around the world. In some cases, though, this may not be the case.
I have myself experienced copyright issues. One such video of mine, which had audio art samples from three popular songs, had been a victim of copyright warnings. As a result, the video was not playable on mobile devices. It was a huge setback for me as more than half of YouTube’s users are on a mobile or a tablet.
Financial Setbacks – YouTube Copyright
While minor copyright issues on youtube are still fine, if you use copyrighted music, there is a bigger problem; You cannot monetize your videos. If you have a video which uses copyrighted music (or other content), chances are that it will be monetized by the copyright owner.
There’s no workaround for that, which can severely affect your revenue. And, if you continuously use copyright art, then your account will be struck with multiple claims. You can even get blocked.
Using copyright music or art means you cannot monetize your videos on YouTube
YouTube Music Policies
So, if you want to add a sample of that catchy song or some other audio art in your video, consider checking its copyright information on YouTube’s Music Policies database at https://www.youtube.com/music_policies. Just search for the track and find the info.
Free YouTube Music and Sound Effects
Moreover, YouTube provides another database of free music that you can use on your projects. These songs are on the public domain, and can be used countless times. Categorized according to genres, it helps users easier find and download free music. You can access the database at https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music. For sound effects, go to https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/soundeffects.
So, remember: the next time you resist using that Rihanna’s track on your video about umbrellas, go to YouTube’s free music database and find an alternative.
Uploading a Video on Youtube
How to upload a video on youtube? Use the uploader on YouTube by following these easy steps:
- Log in to your YouTube account
- Click on the upside arrow button on the top-right corner of the homepage or go to https://www.youtube.com/upload
- Select the listing: Public, Private, or Unlisted (which are all pretty self-explanatory)
- Drag or select the file that you want to upload
- Once you select the file, a processing dialog will appear
- Add in the title, description, and tags of the video. SEO comes into effect here. So, use the right keywords and tags. Avoid long titles and short descriptions
- Select the options to share the video on Google+ and Twitter along with a customized message
- Add translations, subtitles, and other info using the two tabs shown in the screenshot above
- You can even add the video in a preferred playlist
- In “Advanced Settings”, you can allow or disallow comments and user ratings, choose an appropriate category, set the video location and recording date, and add other miscellaneous info
- Going to the Video Manager after the video has uploaded will help you make more changes to your video in the following departments:
- Contrast and other color enhancements
- Audio editing, trimming, replacement
- End screen and annotations
- Subtitles and closed captions
- Copyright info art/music
- Cards
Comments – Interact with your Fans
Once you upload the video, do not forget to interact with your fans in the “comments” section. Checking this section of your videos on a regular basis will give you important information as to how your videos are being perceived by viewers, what improvements can be made, and other minor things. Feedback is important, and there’s nothing better than sifting through the comments. Although, brace yourselves from trolls as the YouTube comments section is often dubbed as “the worst place on the galaxy.”