Working with a YouTube Account
There are a number of reasons you’d want to open a YouTube account. Though the logged-out experience is interesting, you need an account to subscribe to chan- nels, create playlists, comment on videos, and generally become part of the You- Tube community. Not to mention, you need an account to launch your channel, where you upload videos, run ads on those videos, and generate some revenue.
Be aware that signing up for a YouTube account means signing up for a Google account. Google owns YouTube, and recently Google has been busy unifying its products under a single login, allowing you to use one username and password to log in to its complementary services — like Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, and Maps — in addition to your new YouTube account.
One of the first things you notice when you arrive on the YouTube home page is the Sign In button in the top right of the screen. Google and YouTube want you logged in so that they can monitor your viewing habits and provide more focused video recommendations and — ultimately — relevant advertising. If you already have a Google account and you want to use it to house your channel, you can. If you’re creating a new channel, it may make sense to create a new Google account to go with it.
You’ll use this channel as your business, and you should, as the popular idiom goes, “never mix business with pleasure.” Though not always 100 percent true — many people have jobs they truly enjoy — this statement definitely applies in this case. If you take to heart all the principles in this book and have a bit of luck, your channel could become quite popular. You’ll then be in the unenviable position of running your new online video business in your personal email account, and you’ll be stuck with the job of sifting through the guilt-inducing emails from your mother, the advertisement for the big sale at the store where you bought a gift for your ex once (like 12 years ago), and, of course, messages that might actually be important. Rather than deal with that hassle, just go ahead and start a new account. It’s free.
Follow these steps to get a Google account you can use on YouTube:
- Click the blue Sign In
Doing so takes you to the Google login screen, shown in Figure 2-8, where you
can log in or create a new account.
Last time we checked, the big blue Sign In button was in the top right of the screen, but be aware that YouTube, like all other websites, tends to redesign things and move buttons around from time to time.
If you already have a Google account, you may already be logged in. If you’re creating a new account to go with a new channel, it may help to use a private browsing mode in your web browser to avoid confusing Google.
- Click the Create Account link, below the Username and Password fi
Doing so yields a pop-up with two options, shown in Figure 2-9: For Myself and To Manage My Business. Though the account-making process is identical for both, the latter enables the Business Personalization setting, allowing Google to target ads toward you that it thinks will help your business. Unless you want to receive marketing tailored toward your business, going with For Myself is just fi
FIGURE 2-8:
The Google login
screen.
FIGURE 2-9:
Choosing the type
of account.
- Fill in the necessary
The fi shown in Figure 2-10 are much like what you’d expect, but here’s a
description of each item anyway:
- Your name: This is the name associated with your You can use
either your real name or a made-up name that refl your account. Just
be aware that the name functions as the public face of your channel, so sophomoric attempts at humor are probably not the way to go.
- Your current email address: We like Gmail, so create a new Gmail address when setting a new account, instead of using your current email It
makes all your YouTube work easier. Below this fi is a link that off the
option to create a new Gmail account.
- Password: You’ve probably done the Create a Password and Confi Your Password song-and-dance a thousand times before, so we don’t offer any
advice other than to recommend that you follow the sound password tips
that Google off during this process.
FIGURE 2-10:
Creating your Google account.
- Click
- In the new dialog box that appears (see Figure 2-11), enter the following personal details:
- Verify your phone number: A mobile phone number is required for identity
confi and account recovery processes. (You use account recovery
when you’ve forgotten your password.) So go ahead and enter your phone
number.
- Add a recovery email address: Though adding one is optional, we recom- mend that you enter a recovery Like your phone number, it can be
used for account recovery and serves as a good backup if you’re unable to
reach your phone.
- Birthday: No ifs, ands, or buts — you need to choose a You may
not want to show your real age, what with YouTube largely being a young
person’s game, but we won’t encourage you to lie.
If you’re going to be a smart-aleck and decide to give the age of your channel rather than your own age, make the age at least 18. Some content on YouTube has age restrictions, and giving your channel a birthdate that makes it less than 18 years old can come back to bite you.
- Gender: Gender is truly up to It’s a sensitive subject these days, so we won’t joke about it here. Personally, when we’re creating business
accounts, we usually choose Rather Not Say because we think of the
channels as an inanimate object.
FIGURE 2-11:
Enter your personal details.
- Click
- In the next dialog box that appears (see Figure 2-12), verify your phone number and then click
You should receive a text containing a code; if you don’t, click the Call Instead
button to receive an automated voice message.
- Enter the code, as shown in Figure 2-13, and then click
FIGURE 2-12:
Verify your phone
number.
You’re asked whether you want to enable web phone usage, as shown in Figure 2-14. This allows calls made to your phone number to be received while using your Google account. It also allows Google to use your number for ad targeting.
- Choose either Skip or Yes, I’m
- In the new dialog box that appears (see Figure 2-15), click the I Agree button to agree to Google’s terms-and-services
This is the requisite “fi print.” We’ll leave it to you and your legal representa- tion to decide whether you’re comfortable with it.
FIGURE 2-13:
Enter your
verification code.
FIGURE 2-14:
The web phone usage agreement.
FIGURE 2-15:
YouTube’s terms- and-services agreement.