YouTube Guide to the Universe

[AZUMIKKEL]

I decided I want to share my personal experiences with how to handle the part of being a YouTube video artist and channel holder, since a bunch of people here have YouTube channels.
These tips will very well help you get big(ger). They will not carry you, they are merely guidelines on what you should do, and what you shouldn't do.
Take note, that I do not include tips on commentating; you can find these plenty other places.

• Find something unique
  Do you want views? Find something unique, that you enjoy doing. Why unique? Because very few people will want to watch a video with CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE 3 multiplayer gameplay. These videos are everywhere, especially on Yeousch. Unless you are a fantastic commentary, and already have a load of followers, no-one will even click your video - unless you use the cheap method of faking your video title, which will instead attract the wrong audience, meaning you will receive a dislike and maybe a ranting comment. However, whenever I see a video title going "COD# 35-7 TDM" or "Minecraft 1.8 New features", even though they are honest, I can't help but thinking God, haven't I seen something like this a hundred times?. I am not the one to tell you what "unique" is. When I find something, I make it myself
  
  
• Content quality checking
  This is a quite simple step. Before uploading, review the video you just made. Would you enjoy this video yourself?
  Yes - Upload it!
  No - Make it better!
  Maybe - Upload it as hidden and ask a bunch of people who enjoy your regular content for opinions!
  
  
• Keep your target audience
  I see a lot of people not doing this. You will want to focus on a specific audience. A lot of people upload Call of Duty videos, and then all of a sudden, Minecraft videos. Let me tell you. People who subscribed to you because they like your Call of Duty let's plays, will most likely NOT want to watch Minecraft or home-videos of cats.
  
  You will also have to watch out with uploading Battlefield 3 videos to a Call of Duty fanboy subscriber-base, however it is completely possible to do so. If your videos consists of a ton of random crap, you might lose subscribers because they have no interest in what you're now uploading, and people who look at your channel, will have no idea of knowing what the hell kind of videos you are uploading. Upload videos that will make people want more, and then GIVE them more!
  
  
• Video titles
  Keep your titles interesting, and on-topic. I personally despise and dislike any video with any title close to "WATCH THIS! SO FUNY" or "BEST ... EVER". People will watch your video, if the title and thumbnail interests them, or they get referred by friends that think the video is good. You want to get a lot of views, but you don't want the viewers to hate you. Don't use excessive punctuation, exclamation- or question marks. These will make you look amazingly unprofessional and immature.
  
  
  
  
• Behave
  You want people to like you. Before a certain cynical Brit realized this and got his channel popular, I forced myself to unsubscribe because he treated people commenting on his videos like scum. There was nothing wrong with his videos, in fact they were awesome. But you really need to remain professional when dealing with comments. No rage or cussing! Kindness and humor is what matter. You will not want to answer all comments, as some comments are simply stupid. If a troll comments, you can throw in some humor if appropriate.
  
  If people realize you are an awesome person, they will reward you with their subscription, positive ratings, and video views. If they deem you immature, they will not want to have anything to do with you.
  
  
• Music
  Unless it's a montage, trailer or a music video, don't use music. If people watch gameplay, they don't want to listen to some random guy's choice of music that they likely think is horrible listening to. A background track for a commentary is alright, but try not to make it sound like a cheap porno.
  
  
• HD
  You will want to let people be able to see what goes on in the video. 360p is okay but people might complain. 480p is better, 720p is best. Not many people actually need 1080p. For commentating, you will want a microphone that is clear, with little to no background noise. Get rid of all objects near you that cause noise (except your computer, but try setting the fan to noise-reducing if possible).
  Remember this though: Quality is NOT guaranteed popularity. I raised a handful of 3,7k subscribers on a channel with horrible upscaled 360p quality, as my PC couldn't handle anything better. If your content is good, quality is only an improvement.
  To reach 720p, you will want to render your videos in the dimensions 1280x720. Usually 30 FPS is acceptable, but 60 FPS looks really smooth and lovely, so if your PC can handle 60 FPS, use it.
  My personal favorite render settings in After Effects CS5 is H.264, with Bitrate set to 6.00 (Composition -> Make Movie). Higher bitrate = higher quality, but bigger file size. Remember to toggle audio on, as it for some reason is off by default. This produces a nice clear image that looks good in both 360p and 720p. Example recorded with Fraps and rendered with the above settings: http://i.imgur.com/3AC0e.png
  If you can do 1080 then do it. Some people will not sub to you if you don't use 1080. Some viewers only watch videos in full screen, and on a 1080 monitor (very common now) 720 doesn't cut it. It just depends on your render speeds, upload speeds, and how much you value quality video. It also sets you apart from the pack. With my computer and software I can render a 10 minute 1080p 20 mil bps video in about 12 minutes. That same video will upload in about 45 minutes, so it's not a big deal. Others I've talked to said it would take them hours. Results may vary.
  
  
• Frequency
  You will not want to throw videos in your subscribers' faces, like Machinima and CollegeHumor does. If people leave for 2-3 days, they should have a fair chance of following up on you. Quality > Quantity. You will not want to deprive them of videos at all either though. One video a week is good. Two videos a week is perfect. Three is okay, but it's starting to get a bit too frequent, and you'll end up throwing any shit you can find onto your channel. Four is too much.
  I do not encourage making videos in parts (eg. "Black Cops Part 2/5"). Videos as such will not generate as much views as your normal videos would. A series however is alright, but try not to use the word 'episode' in it, as this makes people feel they will NEED to watch up on earlier videos to understand anything - speaking of which, don't make any videos that force them to do this. They will stop watching your video as they don't find it humorous and don't understand what's going on. A great example of a video title for such could be "Black Cops #4". Simple and forward. Don't refer to older episodes with "..as you saw in.." if you decide to do so. An ongoing joke is alright, but make it funny for each new episode, even though the person hasn't watched the old one.
  
  
• Length
  This is really hard to determine, as there are different types of videos. People like short videos, but it is also sometimes appropriate to upload a 10 minute clip. If you make commentaries, this is something you will have to decide for yourself. For gameplay videos, a good length would be above 01:30 and below 04:30. Tutorials take the time they require. I do not personally endorse montages, but keep these below 04:30 as well, and only last one song, unless you are experienced with handling audio, and making it fade into another song in a way that is either not noticed, or fits with the montage.
  
  
• Intros and outros
  Keep these below 5 seconds. That's all I have to say. Nobody but the channel-holders actually care about this, and a lot of people hate them, because they waste their precious time. WUB WUB WUB DUBSTEP xxXKILLAXxx PRODUCTIONZ.
  
  
• Whoring
  This is not what you want to do, trust me. If you are very smooth, you can sneak in a "if you liked this, remember to subscribe and I will bring you more" or something along these lines. DO NOT say "Like this vid if you wish nyan cats were real XD". People will like your video if they enjoy it. People will subscribe to you if they want more. You cannot force them. Trying to do so will make you look like a douchebag.
  

The pictures used in this thread are only there for examples, no advertising or proclaiming intended.
If anything more comes to mind, I will update the thread.

Hope this helps!

[JariZ]

*cough* repost
No, but probably one of the best youtube tutorials

[Bloopbloop]

On the frequency part, i'd say thats not really true, the amount of videos you upload all depends on what kind of channel you have. If you're doing a let's play of a game your subs are going to appreciate getting more than 1-3 videos a week, and if you flood them with videos it doesnt really matter if you're doing a let's play because they can just see them on a playlist.

[Tomsen1410]

well...here's another good tip: