Transcription
You're about to upload a YouTube video you worked so hard on. You wanted to reach as many people as possible, but just hitting upload isn't enough. With just a few key settings and tweaks, you can transform an ordinary upload into one that gets recommended to thousands more people.
In this video, I'll guide you step by step on how to upload your YouTube video just like successful creators do. By the end, you'll know exactly what each setting means and how to use it to get the best results. Just make sure to upload from a desktop, not mobile, so you'll have access to advanced settings not available in the mobile app on YouTube.
Start by clicking the camera icon with a plus sign and selecting "Upload video." Choose your file or drag and drop your video to begin uploading. When it's uploading, let's customize the details and fully optimize it for views. I'll use this video I uploaded a few months ago as an example throughout this video. It has over 700,000 views and demonstrates every technique we're going to discuss.
The first thing to set up is the title. A YouTube title should grab attention, be relevant to the content, include important keywords, and create curiosity to make viewers want to click. Titling videos is an art, and there are many techniques and principles involved, but my biggest tip is to keep it short. Titles over 70 characters will get cut off, meaning viewers will miss important information. In according to this study, the best performing videos typically have around 53 characters. That has also been my experience.
Now, if creating a video title is challenging for you, search Google for a free resource called Creator Hooks. It's a newsletter that explains the psychology behind the best YouTube titles and helps you understand what makes a title effective.
Next, write a video description explaining what your video is about. Using keywords will help viewers find your video more easily through search, helping you get more views. The YouTube algorithm uses machine learning to analyze your video's audio, visuals, title, and the description. This analysis helps YouTube understand what your video is about, allowing it to recommend your video to the right audience more effectively. My personal method is to copy and paste the video script or transcript into ChatGPT so it can use all the details from the video to craft the perfect description for me.
Next, always upload a custom thumbnail. YouTube says that 90% of top-performing videos have custom thumbnails, so it's important to create one yourself. Don't rely on the auto-generated ones; they usually aren't eye-catching enough. Instead, take multiple high-quality photos while you're filming to give yourself options for when you make the thumbnail. If you're not skilled using design tools like Photoshop, you can use a simple tool like Canva to create a good-looking thumbnail. Now, for more complex designs, consider working with a designer. You can find designers for any budget on sites like Fiverr and YT Jobs, typically ranging from as low as $5 to $100 per thumbnail. I mean, you put a lot of effort into making your video, so don't cut corners on the thumbnail. It is what gets people to click. A strong thumbnail can be the difference between somebody clicking or skipping your video. Take your time and look at successful videos around your subject if you need inspiration.
Below thumbnail, you can add your video to playlists. Playlists can be added to your video channel page to make it easier for viewers to find related content. We like to create playlists around key themes that viewers can explore, and creators like Ryan Tran use playlists to organize video series. Just look at how your favorite creators use playlists for ideas, but you can also skip this step if it doesn't fit your needs.
Now, you need to specify whether your content is intended for children. Selecting "Made for Kids" will disable features like personalized ads, comments, and notifications. Videos marked as "Made for Kids" are more likely to be recommended alongside other children's content. YouTube provides this really helpful chart to determine if your content should be categorized this way. Essentially, "Made for Kids" videos are directly aimed at children, either as the main audience or through content such as games or storytelling that appeals specifically to kids. On the other hand, "Not Made for Kids" content often includes mature themes like violence or sexual content, making it unsuitable for younger audiences. This also covers anything that doesn't fall under the "Made for Kids" classification. You can also age-restrict your content if it's not suitable for younger viewers, which will prevent anyone under 18 from watching. But be very careful when you select this; it does impact the reach your video can get, and you might not get as many views as you normally would.
Now, if your video includes paid promotions, you are required to check this box here. Next is the "Altered and Synthetic Content" section. Since AI is becoming so realistic, it can sometimes be hard to tell if something's real or fake. So, YouTube added a new setting that labels your video if the content is altered or synthetic and seems real. You need to select "Yes" for this setting if any of these apply: makes a real person appear to do or say something they didn't say or do, alters footage from a real event or place, generates a realistic-looking scene that didn't actually occur. But the good thing is, selecting this option will not affect your video's ability to be discovered or recommended.
As you scroll down further, you'll see this checkbox to add automatic chapters. Video chapters break up your video into sections, each with its own preview. You have three options: upload without chapters, add them manually, or let YouTube generate them automatically. Since YouTube's automatic chapters aren't always accurate, I recommend leaving this option off and adding chapters manually to maximize views. Manually adding chapters allows you to use keywords deliberately. The chapter titles show up in search results, which is another way to help viewers find your videos more easily through search. When someone searches, both your video and specific chapters can show up, letting viewers jump straight to the part they are most interested in.
Next is "Featured Places." Checking this box will allow YouTube to highlight destinations mentioned in your description, video transcript, or video frames by adding a carousel of key places in your video description. This feature is ideal for travel channels that focus on showcasing specific locations. However, if your content isn't location-focused or you don't want to share specific places, just leave it off.
Next is this box that says "Allow automatic concepts." I always leave this on. It's mainly used for educational videos. It uses machine learning to identify key topics in the video and provide extra information like images or short text snippets. This feature can be very useful for videos that aim to teach or explain concepts in depth.
Next, let's add tags to your video. Tags are keywords that help viewers find your content, especially if they make spelling mistakes when searching. For larger channels, tags are not as critical for getting discovered, and you can just leave these blank if you have an established audience. However, for newer channels, tags are very important since they help YouTube understand your content and your target audience. Use both broad and specific tags. For example, if your video is about a workout, you can use broader tags like "healthy lifestyle" or "stress relief" to reach a wider audience.
Now, let's look at some extra features. Most of these are not important, so I leave them as they are. For language, just pick the one that you use. You can say when and where you made the video if you want. I haven't seen this help or hurt a video's performance, and YouTube is not clear on scenarios when this is helpful. For license and distribution, I recommend sticking with the standard YouTube license. You can choose Creative Commons with attribution also. This means others can use your video if they give you credit. Next, check the box that says "Allow embedding" so people can use your video on their websites. Also, check "Publish to subscription feed" and "Notify subscribers" so your subscribers will get notified and see your video in their subscription feed. If you don't want your subscribers to be notified for some reason, you can uncheck that box.
"Shorts remixing" lets other people use parts of your video to make their own shorts. I think you should choose "Allow video and audio remixing." This means viewers can take parts of your video and turn them into shorts. YouTube will show all the shorts that other people made from your video, and your video will be linked on those shorts. If somebody watches that short, they can click here and go straight to your video, which is super nice for getting more exposure.
Next, we have category. Choose the most accurate category to help YouTube show your video to the right audience. For comments, you can choose whether viewers can leave comments. I recommend keeping this on and then using the basic moderation option, which lets YouTube automatically flag inappropriate comments for your review. You can use stricter settings, but this means more comments will need manual approval, which can get pretty annoying, as many comments YouTube tends to flag are totally fine. So, only use a stricter setting if it's absolutely necessary. Then choose "Sort by top" so viewers can see the most interesting comments first. They can always manually change it to newest if they want.
If your video is part of a fundraiser, you can join it here. If you have at least 10,000 subscribers and are in the YouTube Partner Program, you can create a fundraiser that others can join here also.
Now, let's look at the monetization tab. If you're part of the YouTube Partner Program, you can turn monetization on or off for your videos. But remember, YouTube can show ads on your video no matter what you choose here. Back in 2020, YouTube updated its terms of service to state that they can put ads on all content, even if you decide not to enable ads. So, it makes sense just to keep monetization on because if YouTube decides to still run ads on your video even if you turn monetization off, you won't receive any of the money.
Next is ad suitability. Ad suitability lets you self-certify the type of content in the video that might affect the ads you receive. Be honest; if your video gets flagged later for something you said wasn't in it, you could be removed from the YouTube Partner Program.
Next is the video element tab. Here you can add music, subtitles, products, and cards. I don't always add these, but I always add end screens. End screens help promote other videos, playlists, or encourage people to subscribe in the last 5 to 20 seconds of the video. For example, we added this video to our end screen and asked viewers to watch it. That video got thousands of extra views just because of this. You should totally be using this feature.
Now we go to checks. This is where YouTube checks for copyright issues and duplicate content while your video uploads. In our case here, we've got all green ticks, which means no issues were found. But if you see issues, you can review and fix them before your video gets published.
The next step is visibility. This is where you choose how to publish your video. You have a few options: private, unlisted, members only, and public. I suggest you never choose public at the start. First, select unlisted to do quality checks and to let the highest quality version of that video process. Then make it public. If you want your video to go live at a specific time, set the date and time, then hit schedule, and YouTube will publish it for you automatically.
Thank you guys so much for watching this video, and if you enjoyed it, please do me a favor and hit the Subscribe button. And if you want to know some news that the YouTube CEO just announced that it's going to change the world of video forever, go ahead and watch this video right here, and I'll see you over there.