Introduction
Maybe your business, which could be a local coffee shop or a Fortune 500 company. No matter how you plan to make use of your video-making skills, YouTube has made sharing the results of those skills easy. And with the tips and techniques included within the pages of this second edition of YouTube Channels For Dummies, you’ll be ready to take full advantage of YouTube’s user-friendly platform when creating your very own YouTube channel.maybe you’re looking to become a YouTube sensation with your next video or you simply want to share your insights or your particular expertise with the world. Perhaps you’d even like to use YouTube and video to help
To get a better sense of how YouTube has changed the entertainment playing field, cast your mind back to ten or so years before the turn of the millennium — if you can remember back that far. Despite an explosion of ever better and ever cheaper video equipment for consumers, sharing a video still meant gathering family and friends around your giant 70-inch, LED television screen so that every-one could watch your latest video masterpiece. Back in those days, someone who wasn’t in the room watching along was clean out of luck.
YouTube changed all that. It globalized the viewing experience, reinventing how people show videos by making it possible to share with audiences considerably larger than that bunch of friends and family gathered around the TV set eating popcorn. Any viewer who wanted to see any video anywhere in the world only had to type www.youtube.com into their favorite browser, search for the video they wanted to see, and click the Play button — and there it was.
As easy as it is for a viewer to take full advantage of YouTube, it’s almost as easy for a contributor to become part of the YouTube mix. After setting up an account, it’s a snap to start uploading video. And, if the video you’re uploading takes off, you could become famous and even earn a good chunk of change from your YouTube exploits.
Notice that we said “if the video you’re uploading takes off.” That can be a very big if. Not just any video will do. The truth of the matter is that the low-quality, badly shot videos that were still popular a few years ago no longer cut the
mustard. Viewers expect higher quality these days, which is why you need to step up your game and produce the best possible content. This book can help show you the way.
- Maintaining continuity
- Arriving on set
- Getting organized
- Looking at microphones
- Capturing Sound
- Setting up high-key lighting
- Stabilizing the Shot
- Planning Never Ends
- Delivering content consistently
- Programming for Success
- Being reactive
- Curation recycling
- Branding
- Planning the channel layout
- Recognizing that content includes video and more
- Looking at content formats
- Knowing why your audience matters
- The Basics of YouTube
- Finding out the nitty-gritty about your audience
- Managing Channels for Fun and/or Profit
- Defined Desired Actions
- Establishing your brand
- Going narrow versus going broad
- Angling for subscriptions
- Understanding Your Target Audience
- Seeing What Makes a YouTube Channel Unique
- Surveying the YouTube landscape
- Wasting lots and lots of time
- Being difference being valuable and being authentic
- Going viral
- Determining your goals
- Why You Need to Be on YouTube
- Establishing Your Channel’s Mission
- Becoming a star!
- Evergreen content
- Viral content
- News and information
- Making tutorial and how-to videos
- Getting Started with YouTube
- Logging On to Your YouTube Account
- Working with a YouTube Account
- The video info section
- Watching a video
- The logged-out experience
- Down the left side
- Navigating the home page
- What You’ll Find on YouTube
- The Basics of YouTube
- Making an educational video
- Producing your very own vlog
- Mastering the Genres in Your YouTube Videos
- Knowing What Makes a Good Video
- Picking the Right Camera for Your Needs
- What makes a good video a good video?
- Managing your links
- Managing Uploads
- Creating the Channel icon
- Managing channel art
- Customizing and Branding Your Channel
- The Channel tabs
- The Your Channel menu item
- Uploading the channel icon
- Building your channel from ground up
- Joining the YouTube Partner Program
- Verifying Your YouTube Channel
- Setting Up a Custom Channel URL
- Working with Voice
- Capturing the perfect take — several times
- Shooting extra footage and B-roll
- Shooting an interview
- Following the 180-degree rule
- Matching your eyelines
- Moving and grooving the camera
- Determining the best shot
- Composing and dividing the screen
- Shooting a Great-Looking Video