When you get started with video marketing you will be looking for ways to make better YouTube videos. It's no wonder why because with over 400 hours worth of videos being uploaded to YouTube every minute,when it comes to getting your videos noticed – the word competition – is pretty much an understatement.
If you are like me, when I first started out on YouTube, you’re most likely struggling to get more than a handful of views on your videos and you’re wondering if all the time and effort you invest in video marketing is going to waste.
Now honestly, there’s no way I can tell you everything you need to know about how to succeed on YouTube in this podcast because it’s a multifaceted network and your strategies depend a lot on you and your specific goals.
But what I can do is share some tips and tactics that can put you on the right path so that you can start getting the visibility you want for your YouTube channel. So today, I want to do Part One of a series I’m going to call:
YouTube 101 – Your Path To A Better YouTube Channel
First we need to talk about your overall vision for your videos and that will help guide some of the decisions you make regarding the content want to offer to your audience. 
Consider the Goals for Your Channel
I find that if you’re clear about what you want to do with your channel your viewers will be clear about what to expect from you; which will help with your engagement and audience development. Think of your YouTube channel as a place where you can grow and nurture a community. It’s like a hub where people know they come back over and over again to find value.
This will make it much easier for you to find the people on YouTube that are searching for someone exactly like you!
Let’s face it we’re all searching for something when we come to YouTube to watch videos. Maybe we want to find an answer or solve a problem, maybe we want to laugh or be entertained or maybe we just want to chill out. Once that person is who is looking for exactly what you have to offer finds you – as long as you help them with whatever they came to YouTube looking for,
That person will be more likely to respond to your call to action – like sign up for your email list, subscribe to your channel, buy your product or service and tell their friends about you and your channel.
That person just became your biggest advocate and a loyal fan.
YouTube Channel Basic Setup
Of course you want to have a recognizable profile pic – maybe it is the same one you use on Twitter, Facebook, Google, WordPress – any of those will do but try to be consistent so that people will recognize you from other networks you hang out on. You also need to upload a YouTube channel banner.
There are tons of options in your settings on YouTube that you need to fill out and we are not going to go through each one of them right now – but I strongly encourage you to fill out each and every one of them. They will with your SEO and the monetization of your channel. You can also get extra features like uploading videos that are longer than 15 minutes, video annotations and YouTube cards (we’ll come back to YouTube cards in a few minutes).
That brings us to what I like to call the YouTube Money Page.
Go to: https://www.youtube.com/advanced_settings
This is where you set your country, your keywords, link your Adwords and most importantly this is where you add your associated website.
Recommended Reading: The Secret to Building your YouTube Audience: 6 Steps that Convert Viewers into an Engaged Community
Test Your Recording Setup
Do a trial before actually going live. You can do a private Facebook live and sort of rehearse what you’re going to say before you start recording. Don’t be afraid to practice but don’t spend too much time practicing instead of DOING! Here are two things to consider: sound quality and proper lighting. But remember things don’t have to be perfect.
Try to be genuine and authentic. Let your personality shine! That’s what people what set’s you apart from everyone else. People really want to see the real you.
Set Realistic Goals For Channel Growth
As a rule, don’t compare your YouTube stats to those of other YouTubers. Set realistic goals for your channel and only make comparisons with yourself. If you look at other YouTubers and see that they are getting more views than you, mostly likely it is because they have put in the time and worked to build their audiences.
It's counter-productive to make comparisons with more experienced YouTuber so try not to do that. Otherwise, you might get discouraged when you see others racking up numbers on one single video that you can’t muster across your entire channel!
YouTube Cards
YouTube interactive cards are one of the best new features added to YouTube in 2015. I have a full tutorial on setting up YouTube Cards that you watch right now:
A question came up about YouTube cards from Sheila Stover during the recording over on Blab. She asked about setting up YouTube cards to link out to more than one website. Turns out that there is a little known featured of YouTube that allows you to do this. You can link out to any of the websites you submit to Google Webmaster Tools (also known as Search Console). Here's a link to the documentation from YouTube Help, scroll down to where you see the question: “Can I associate more than one website with my YouTube channel”.
Here's a screenshot of how the YouTube card menu appears for those of us with multiple websites. I found blogs on this list that I'd almost forgotten about. There's also loads of approved sites you can link to for Merchandise (like iTunes and Gumroad) or Crowdfunding (like Patreon and YouTube Fan Funding).
Monitor Your Progress
YouTube analytics is a great place to start. Look at your stats to see who your viewers are. What countries are they from, how old are they, are they male of female – you can easily see this in YouTube Analytics. For even more stats, you can read this post about 7 YouTube Stats Tracking Tools where I give my review of sites including TubeBuddy, vidIQ and more.
Click here for Part Two of Your Path to a Better YouTube Channel
If you are ready to learn more about how to improve your YouTube channel, take action and sign up for my course How to Get Started with YouTube Video Marketing. With the course you will get easy-to-access, easy-to-manage training from a YouTuber with thousands of subscribers and hundreds of thousands of YouTube views. See for yourself how easy it is to get the training you need to improve your YouTube Channel and get more views on your videos.
YouTube Course
This self-guided online training course provides an easy to use, interactive format that allows you to get the most out of the course while navigating the material at your own pace.
Come click through our course preview to see exactly how our training works. You'll be able to:
- Launch videos
- Review lessons
- View resources
- Track progress
- Get results
I'll talk you next week in the upcoming episode of the Ms. Ileane Speaks Podcast!
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