# How to Get Noticed on YouTube: A Guide



## ChrisBird (Jun 23, 2010)

Hey Everyone,
I applied for the FB Tester program, and needed to give and answer 3 questions, making sure I answered them thoroughly and completely while being simple and to the point. They said to make sure they were in areas I was experienced in. So I chose YouTube and how to get noticed. Here is what resulted, your thoughts?

Question: YouTube is a scary place, how do I get noticed?

Answer:
You are right, YouTube can be scary especially with Subscribers reaching into the millions on some 'Tubers.' So where do you start? First, you want to prepare yourself for a somewhat slow journey, so patience is key. Also, you need a good idea, a good camera (high quality) and some free time for editing.

Since YouTube is a community, many people build themselves, and others, up by giving a 'shoutout' or by doing a collaboration. The former is where a YouTuber of similar or larger notoriety talks about you in one of their videos, directing their viewers to your channel. The latter is where you and another YouTuber join up and make a video together which you both post on your respective channels. If people see the video and like you, they will come find you and watch.

One major key to success is having content which people will want to watch consistently. Meaning, choosing a topic/style that will make people want to come back for your next video. The user "RayWilliamJohnson" on YouTube has a topic of 'viral' videos, where he reviews and jokes about the quickly growing videos on Youtube. Since every episode of his show contains 3 clips that you probably haven't seen, it continues to be interesting. Also, for him, there is a constant flow of new material to talk about, so he won't run out of ideas.

Once you have your style/topic chosen, it's time to get recording. Pick up a high quality camera (720p or 1080p is recommended) and plan out your show. Figure out what you will be talking about, what exactly you will say, and how you will say it. Be sure to make it interesting, as if you are talking to the viewer face-to-face in order to keep their interest. The user "WhatTheBuck" pre-writes his entire script before recording the video, memorizes it, and then delivers it as if he just made it up, leading to a very captivating video, even if you have no interest in his topics.

Thirdly is the editing, get a good video editor like Adobe Premier ($90) or CyberLink Power Director ($90). A good video editor will allow you to take your video and transform it into a masterpiece which will look professional. Even if you film in your basement, a good editor can make you look like a super star. Some users like "MysteryGuitarMan" make their style the interesting type of editing they use. Be sure to edit out long pauses, sections of video which are not necessary, and all things you do not wish the general population to see.
You can also use editing to add subtitles, animation, pictures, and diagrams to make your video more entertaining and informative.

Finally the presentation. The moment everyone has been waiting for. While it is simple to upload the video under your account name and wait, you can do a lot to get people interested. First, make sure you channel and username are short and simple, but catchy. Usernames containing a lot of random numbers at the end (cuber10083465) are hard to remember and make it hard to find you again. But simple names, or catchy ones, like "Pogobat" or "ShayCarl" are easy, and just weird enough to make sure you remember clearly.
Next make your channel look attractive. Many users stick with the YouTube editor, which leaves you with a simple, two-tone channel. Create a custom background, change the transparency and colors of your modules to ensure a nice look. An example of a simple, yet effective, channel design can be seen at www.youtube.com/monkeydude1313.

Now onto the actual video page, make sure the title fits the video content, but is also interesting. You want to make people interested enough to click. In a video about a small kitten, and title like "Small Kitten" would work, but is not interesting enough. Using "Adorable Kitten Playing with Ball of Yarn!" will draw the attention of almost everyone.

Make sure the description of your video contains a short summary of the video (1-3 sentences) and a link to whatever forms of communication you want with your Audience. If you have a twitter, facebook, BlogTV, flikr, etc, make sure to link to it in the description. Make sure the tags fit your video, and do not skimp on them, choose as many as you can that pertain to the video to increase your chances of being shown in search results.

Once your fully edited, interesting, and good quality video is uploaded under a catchy title, you can sit back and watch the views rise. They will start out slow, but don't fret, continue to make videos (even if they only get 10-20 views) with the best quality you can manage, and you will be in good shape. It is also a good idea to end the video with a prompt for your audience to participate. Ask a question, ask for their opinion on a certain topic, etc. This will make your videos interactive and fun for people to watch.

Send messages to larger YouTubers who may be interested in your content and ask them to check out your channel and videos. If they like them, they may give you a shoutout and link their audience to you. Don't fret if no one does, you can climb the charts on your own as well.

That ends this tutorial on how to get noticed on YouTube, be patient, make good videos, and grab your audience, and watch the views rise.

Any opinions on this?

~Chris


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## IamWEB (Jun 23, 2010)

Typo in the title.


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## Meep (Jun 23, 2010)

ChrisBird said:


> Any opinions on this?
> 
> ~Chris



"An Guide"


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## 4Chan (Jun 23, 2010)

IamWEB said:


> Typo in the title.



>An Guide

Lmao.


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## Weston (Jun 23, 2010)

I haven't read it yet, but "an guide?"
lol


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## Forte (Jun 23, 2010)

this an guide will help me very much


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## ChrisBird (Jun 23, 2010)

Wow, a typo in the title gets more attention than the thread itself?


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## 4Chan (Jun 23, 2010)

tl;dr: An guide.


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## Meep (Jun 23, 2010)

ChrisBird said:


> Wow, a typo in the title gets more attention than the thread itself?



And that's how to get noticed


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## ~Phoenix Death~ (Jun 23, 2010)

Okay, stfu about the title! LOL
But I like the guide. It's an guide that's really detailed. Time to look into Adobe Premiere!


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## aronpm (Jun 23, 2010)

What's up with all these people posting? Every single one them misspelled "a guide"!


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## ~Phoenix Death~ (Jun 23, 2010)

aronpm said:


> What's up with all these people posting? Every single one them misspelled "a guide"!



Deliberately .


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## IamWEB (Jun 23, 2010)

ChrisBird said:


> Wow, a typo in the title gets more attention than the thread itself?



What typo? 

I guess I didn't notice, I was reading the post for the content, not the grammar.


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## shelley (Jun 23, 2010)

4Chan said:


> tl;dr: An guide.



Haha, I was about to post exactly this when Chris asked me to fix the typo, so I did that instead.

But yeah, it's very tl;dr. You've got thorough down, now work on concise. But honestly I think a lot of what you ramble on about is just details. They'll help, but focusing on them is not necessarily how you get noticed.

It's been said that success is something like 5% talent, 5% hard work and 90% being in the right place at the right time. Harrison Ford started out working as a carpenter on the set of Star Wars. YouTube is a bit like that. Certain videos go viral and others that do everything right stay in obscurity. Tweaking your username isn't going to change that much.


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## ChrisBird (Jun 23, 2010)

IamWEB said:


> Typo in the title.





IamWEB said:


> ChrisBird said:
> 
> 
> > Wow, a typo in the title gets more attention than the thread itself?
> ...



Sharp.



shelley said:


> 4Chan said:
> 
> 
> > tl;dr: An guide.
> ...



The prompt I was following:



Prompt said:


> Write detailed, articulate answers.



Which I believe I did.

~Chris


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## IamWEB (Jun 23, 2010)

It was an interesting read. It covers some of the stuff you could read to get started. There are more things that could be covered, like handling criticism and etc., and it wasn't in the middle of the night I'd think of more than that to say you could also write about.
Still nice.

oh and, [03:01] <Faz> you spelt "a" wrong


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## shelley (Jun 23, 2010)

My mistake, I just noticed


ChrisBird said:


> *while being simple and to the point*


but I suppose that didn't actually matter.


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## ChrisBird (Jun 23, 2010)

shelley said:


> My mistake, I just noticed
> 
> 
> ChrisBird said:
> ...



I apologize.


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## Rinfiyks (Jun 23, 2010)

I applied for that. I read the example answer, and it was really short, so I deliberately wrote very short answers, just 3 paragraphs.

It might be a good guide, but I think the people at Facebook who recieve this will just be like "oh crap, I have to read all of this :fp". So I'd shorten it.

On a side note, what exactly do you think Facebook are planning to do? Seems like they're trying to compete with Yahoo answers.


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