Uploading your YouTube video correctly to make sure information technology volition be shown to equally many people as possible doesn't happen naturally. There are precise steps you should follow to ensure maximum exposure for your content.

Imagine this.

Yous worked actually difficult, developed your share-worthy video idea, wrote your video script, filmed and edit everything, and are finally ready to share your masterpiece with the earth.

What'southward next?

Follow along with my 25-step arrangement and get from final edit to fully-optimized YouTube video to give your side by side video the best possible start with my Ultimate YouTube Upload Checklist.

Upload Your First Video on YouTube

Well, nosotros have to start somewhere, don't we... 😉

There are many apps and software solutions that support native video export to YouTube.

But today, nosotros are doing it the former-fashioned way, via the YouTube web interface.

Log into your YouTube account and then locate the Creator carte in the superlative right corner of your screen.

Information technology should look something similar this, sometimes depending on your screen size you might only encounter the camera icon without the text:

Don't worry, if you don't encounter a cerise icon on the left side of the "Create" button. I use the TubeBuddy Chrome extension to assist me with my YouTube growth. (On a side note, I've also published an in-depth TubeBuddy Review on how information technology helped me to grow my YouTube aqueduct from 0 to 3000 subscribers.)

Side by side, yous click on "Upload videos".

A new popup should open up:

You lot might accept noticed a small icon at the tiptop right saying "Upload with Classic". This is the old upload office and volition disappear very shortly.

In this article, I'chiliad showing you the new, modern upload workflow that is hither to stay.

You tin can either click on "Select files" and locate your video (or multiple videos). Or you can locate your video on your computer and drag and drop information technology into the gray circumvolve.

Write a Compelling YouTube Video Championship

Writing a captivating video title is ane of the biggest success factors when it comes to YouTube videos.

It has to be brusque and sweet, so people on mobile and desktop devices tin speedily grasp what your video is all about without getting truncated.

The championship has to communicate two elements. Who is this for? And what's in it for them? Why should they sentry your video?

It also should contain specific keywords that someone might type into the YouTube search field to attract organic search traffic. This is especially important for modest YouTube channels with less than 1,000 subscribers.

If yous desire to learn more, check out these two articles about how to write the perfect YouTube video title, and how to optimize your YouTube titles for YouTube SEO.

Write In Your YouTube Video Description

In that location are three schools of idea when it comes to how to write your YouTube descriptions.

The commencement approach is to use the description of your video as an extended opportunity to optimize your YouTube videos for SEO purposes.

In other words, you're explaining what your video is all near, and topics y'all're covering. This allows you to add together a lot of boosted keywords, that YouTubers might be searching for.

The side by side arroyo focuses on creating a call to action such equally reminding your viewers to subscribe to your YouTube aqueduct, or following you on Instagram, or watching some of your other videos about a similar topic.

And and so nosotros have a hybrid arroyo. It uses the height half of your video for additional information about your video, allowing you to optimize your video for YouTube SEO. And then it uses the lesser half to promote someone of your existing videos and external links that allow you lot to brand money on YouTube, fifty-fifty when you're not all the same monetized.

Design a Click-Worthy YouTube Video Thumbnail

Together with your video championship, the video thumbnail has the biggest impact on your video click-through rate.

This is very important because it determines if YouTube will recommend your videos to other users who are non yet subscribed to your YouTube channel yet.

I recommend reviewing some of your favorite YouTube creators and to notice a simple manner that'south resonating with you lot and the content that you're creating and and then using that as the foundation to find your own mode.

There are two very important keys to thumbnail success. Include a photo of yourself and employ a large font to tease what your video is all most.

You can check out my tutorial on how to create animated video thumbnails for social media to get a skillful idea of how to design a simple, all the same great-looking thumbnail for your video.

If you want to get into the nuts and bolts of thumbnail creation, here's the article to read: How to make customized thumbnails that become clicks for your YouTube videos.

Add together Your Videos to YouTube Playlists

Every YouTube channel should have at least 2 plalist.

The first one should contain all of your published videos. This makes it very convenient for people who find your channel for the offset time to binge-watch all of your videos.

The second playlist should be one of many to come up and contain all the videos of a particular topic.

When you're only starting out the "all videos" and "all most topic Ten" might comprise the same videos, simply that'south going to change really quickly every bit you make more and more videos.

I employ TubeBuddy to keep all of my YouTube playlists organized. It allows me to quickly sort all of my playlists with the click of a button. I dear to sort all of my playlists by picket time and put the most popular videos at the top.

This has significantly increased the average watch time per viewer on my aqueduct.

If y'all want to larn more nearly YouTube, cheque out my YouTube Success playlist.

YouTube'southward Customs Guidelines

The offset question is, has this video been made for kids?

In the USA, the age of a "child" is defined as anyone under the age of thirteen. However, this number may be higher in other countries.

If your channel is not fabricated for kids, then you should select "No".

The next question is, do you want to restrict your video to an adult audition?

You should select "Yes" if your video covers whatsoever of the following topics or themes: Violence, agonizing imagery, nudity, sexually suggestive content, or portrayal of dangerous activities.

Otherwise, select "No" and motility on.

If all of your YouTube videos are non fabricated for kids, you can visit the YouTube Studio, click on "Settings" and then nether "Channel" select "No" as your channel default for new uploads.

If your video contains paid promotion or has been sponsored by a 3rd political party, you might be under a legal obligation to disclose this data to your viewers.

There are two options.

If you enable the first checkbox, yous notify YouTube that your video contains paid promotion. YouTube may verify that your promotion complies with their ads policies.

If you check the second box, YouTube will notify viewers that your video contains paid promotions. This happens in the form of a small overlay for the kickoff few seconds of your video.

In some jurisdictions, this is voluntary, in some, information technology's mandatory to disclose this.

I recommend checking both boxes if your video has been sponsored to be on the safe side.

Tags are one of the nearly underrated features on YouTube.

Many content creators don't use them. And if they do, they often use them incorrectly and add worthless tags to their videos.

Keywords are substantially little text snippets that people might type into the search field. If i of your keywords matches the search term, there is a good probability that your video will show upwards.

Especially, if you picked a "very good" keyword, that both have a high search volume and very little completion in terms of similar videos.

I use TubeBuddy to find the best keywords for my YouTube video tags. To activate this feature, I click on the "TubeBuddy Tag Tools" feature below the tags field.

It opens up the TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer. In the meridian left corner, I can type in whatever keyword I want to research.

TubeBuddy will then access the YouTube database and find the search volume for this specific keyword and how many "competing" videos will be displayed on YouTube.

Base on these recommendations it will calculate the overall keyword score from ruby-red to green.

It will as well requite me related keyword ideas that I might add to my tags based on what some of the nearly pop YouTube videos with like topics use in their videos, as well as some of the most popular, related searches on YouTube and Google.

Set the Linguistic communication for Your YouTube Video

Setting your video linguistic communication is an of import stride. It ensures that, if your video contains spoken words, it volition mostly exist promoted to people who speak the language of your video.

Funny compilations of cats and dogs will even so be shown to everyone considering they don't really incorporate any spoken words. In this case, you can just select your default language or English language.

YouTube tracks all video views and then determines what languages each viewer is speaking, based on how many foreign linguistic communication videos someone has watched.

Upload Subtitles for Your Video

The checkbox well-nigh caption certification is only relevant to a very pocket-sized part of the YouTube creator community.

Information technology'southward specifically targeting creators and publishing companies whose videos have previously aired on US idiot box. These videos are legally required to go on to display subtitles fifty-fifty when re-uploaded to platforms such every bit YouTube.

In almost cases you want to select the default setting, "This content has never aired on television in the U.Due south."

Using subtitles is a very good do in general. Information technology helps you to optimize your videos for YouTube SEO, as YouTube uses your subtitles equally a full-text search engine.

It also helps people who have hearing problems, those who speak a foreign language and anybody, if your background sound level is very noisy to enjoy your videos.

I utilise a tool called Otter to transcribe all of my YouTube videos. If you sign up via this link, y'all get 100 extra minutes of free transcriptions.

Update the Recording Date and Location of Your Video

If yous want to give viewers on YouTube the ability to search past appointment or location to discover your video, you may want to enter the date and location in the next department.

This is especially useful for time-relevant content such equally news and allows YouTube to use both information to align it with a viewer'due south search intent.

Review Your YouTube Video Licenses

You lot have a option between the Standard YouTube license and the Creative Eatables Attribution license.

The Standard YouTube license is the default setting for all uploads. I highly recommend to stick with the Standard YouTube license, to maintain all of your rights.

By marking your original video with a Creative Eatables license, you're granting the entire YouTube community the right to reuse and edit your video.

Because of that, you may only mark videos with the Artistic Commons license, if your entire video consists entirely of content that you tin can license under the CC BY license, you can besides switch to a Creative Commons license.

This could be your own, originally created content, other videos marked with a CC BY license, or videos that are in the public domain.

YouTube volition prevent y'all from switching to the Creative Commons license if at that place is a Content ID claim confronting it.

Review Your YouTube Video Distribution Settings

Yous accept two choices when it comes to distribution. You can show your videos "Everywhere" or just on "Monetized Platforms".

Now what's the difference?

According to YouTube, the following platforms are examples of platforms YouTube considers monetized:

  • world wide web.youtube.com
  • YouTube app
  • YouTube app on TVs including Xbox, Android TV, PlayStation and Chromecast
  • m.youtube.com accessed from nigh smartphones
  • YouTube app on Apple Boob tube

"Everywhere" as well includes the following placements:

  • YouTube app pre-installed on iOS v and below
  • YouTube legacy apps on characteristic phones and TVs
  • k.youtube.com accessed from feature phones

The number of unmonetizable placements is steadily declining, as information technology mostly covers deprecated technology. I, therefore, recommend keeping the default setting of "Everywhere" for your video.

Allow Embedding of Your YouTube Video

Why wouldn't you desire someone to embed your video on someone else'southward website? Doesn't it all add up to your views and sentinel time?

There are many reasons why you might want to turn embedding off.

Some users don't want to protect their brand by preventing their videos from appearing alongside content they don't approve of.

Some websites are able to hijack embedded videos and replace YouTube'due south built-in ads with their own. Result? You get your views and watch time but no AdSense revenue.

In short, in that location is no telling where your videos might testify up.

If control over your brand is of the highest priority to you, I recommend restricting embedding.

Please note, that this too prevents you from embedding your videos on your own website. If you want to have both, you might want to cheque out Vimeo.

Notify Subscribers About Your New YouTube Video

This is such an important setting.

Did you know that your subscribers tin receive a maximum of three new video notifications from your channel in a 24-60 minutes catamenia?

What if you have to upload more than iii videos and you lot want to exist selective about which videos you want to promote via email notification?

Imagine yous want to upload a webinar replay to your YouTube channel, but yous don't desire to send out an email to each and every one of your subscribers.

In this case, merely uncheck "Publish to subscriptions feed and notify subscribers" and you're adept.

The video volition be public and available in your videos feed for those looking for information technology.

Update Your YouTube Video Category

YouTube allows you to cull between 15 different categories for your videos.

  • Autos & Vehicles
  • Comedy
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Film & Animation
  • Gaming
  • Howto & Style
  • Music
  • News & Politics
  • Nonprofits & Activism
  • People & Blogs
  • Pets & Animals
  • Scientific discipline & Engineering
  • Sports
  • Travel & Events

The question is, which is the right 1 for your video?

To answer these questions, it's worth looking back in time, to come across where these categories originated from. In the early days of YouTube, these categories were really explorable.

Yous were able to go to the YouTube Browser page and and so click-through whatever of the 15 categories to scout more videos.

Think of YouTube's internal categorization engine more equally a dynamic auto learning algorithm, that'south constantly identifying, updating, and creating new categories. Everything is fluid and based on user behavior.

So while it doesn't really matter anymore which of the fifteen categories you pick, only option the ane closest to your video. In doubt pick either "Pedagogy" or "Entertainment"

Comments are an important factor when it comes to ranking your videos on YouTube.

Disabling can have a negative affect on your discoverability on the platform and should simply be disabled in rare cases.

  • You stirred up a hornet's nest. This is probably one of the most common reasons why people disabled comments on their channel.

    When a YouTuber or brand is involved in a scandal or controversy, it's a very mutual phenomenon that all, or some of their videos get spammed with negative and hurtful comments. Even if information technology's a completely new video and has nothing to do with the controversy. If you want to avert hour-long cleanup sessions for your comments feed, temporarily disable your comments until everything has blown over.

  • Your new video is controversial. Sometimes everything is fine, but the video your uploading right now contains a controversial opinion, you might want to proactively plough off your comments.

Alternatively, and that's my recommendation, turn on comment moderation.

There are iii settings for comments.

  • Allow all comments. Annotate moderation is turned off. Everything is published instantly.
  • Hold potentially inappropriate comments for review. Comment moderation is on. YouTube uses its comment AI to identify iii types of comments. "All good" get published instantly. "Held for review" is a maybe where the AI isn't 100% sure well-nigh the content. This might contain a discussion from your cake list, swear words, or links. The last category is "Likely spam". In this category, you lot find comments where YouTube is fairly sure that anyone would consider them spam. This tin exist triggered by the content of the comment itself, past past behavior of the person commenting, or past spam reports for similar comments.
  • Concur all comments for review. This setting works exactly like the previous ane, with the exception that fifty-fifty the "All good" comments are moved to the "Review" tab.

Either mode, this is easily reversible after.

Brandish the Number of Likes and Dislikes on Your YouTube Video

The question is closely related to the previous question almost disabling comments.

Sometimes a video might cover a sensitive topic or upshot and you don't feel it's appropriate to like to dislike something. Call up of a funeral for instance. In this example, turning off likes would be ok.

Another reason for disabling likes are controversial video topics when uploaders look an overwhelming number of dislikes, turning off the likes feature might be an option.

I personally don't recommend doing it. Starting time of all, likes or dislikes brand no difference to the YouTube algorithm, both count every bit date and assistance your video to exist seen by more than people.

Secondly, those people who dislike your videos are merely in that location for the short term and will somewhen disappear.

Enable Monetization for Your YouTube Video

If you want to brand money and run YouTube equally a concern, this is the most of import setting of all.

First, y'all want to turn monetization to "On" at the top.

Next, you want to enable all advertisement placements that don't have a checkmark next to it.

If your video is longer than 8 minutes y'all tin add additional mid-roll ads during the video. This can make a huge impact on the earning per video and I highly recommend turning information technology on.

Notation: this characteristic is simply bachelor if you decide to join the YouTube Partner Programme (so advertisers can run ads on your videos) and have fulfilled the requirements of 1000 YouTube subscribers and 4,000 public sentry hours.

When y'all turned on monetization, YouTube will enquire you to categorize the video based on YouTube's advertising guidelines.

For most content creators, none of these will apply, and they should select "None of the in a higher place" at the bottom of the page.

Try to be truthful, equally YouTube will still run automated tests to determine if your video is ok or non.

If YouTube finds that yous didn't accurately categorize your video, they might take away your ability to declare the advertizement suitability for your adjacent video.

Why should you intendance well-nigh that?

Because if a video is on a knife'due south edge, YouTube will have the creators' self-certification into consideration and might let a video for monetization.

While someone else who has been deceitful in the past might get the identical video demonetized based purely on an overly cautious AI algorithm.

Add End Screens to Your Video

What are stop screens?

Those are little boxes that video creators can place on top of their videos for the concluding 5 to xx seconds of their videos.

There are five different elements that you lot tin place on your cease screen.

  • Video. Link to another YouTube video. In most cases, y'all want to link to related videos of your own channel to maximize watch time and earnings.
  • Playlist. Some other great way to boost your views. Link to a topic-specific playlist of your own YouTube channel.
  • Subscribe. Adding a subscription button on top of your stop screen tin heave the number of new subscribers.
  • Channel. Take a second YouTube channel that you lot want to promote? Or did your video feature a collaboration with another channel? Why not give them a shout out by promoting their aqueduct in your cease screen.
  • Link. This can link to an approved website. This can be YouTube partners such as Teespring, or your own website. Yous have to link and verify your domain to your YouTube business relationship in order to brand this work.

End screens are a keen nugget when it comes to increasing spotter fourth dimension and earn more coin with your YouTube channel and I highly recommend adding end screens to all of your videos.

Add Info Cards to Your YouTube Video

What are YouTube cards? Same idea every bit terminate screens, but less obtrusive nudges during your video itself.

Elements are slightly dissimilar. You still take videos, playlists, channels, and links. Subscribe buttons are not available. Just instead, you lot can add polls.

From my experience, the all-time use of cards is to promote videos and links that you're mentioning during your video. Just identify a carte du jour for the verbal time code and the straight link to either a video or link volition pop up at the top right (i) info icon.

Choose the Correct Visibility for Your YouTube Video

The video visibility screen looks a little intimidating at first.

Here is what yous have to know. If you want to go on your video private for now, select "Save or publish" at the top, and then "Individual".

If you desire to share the link video link with someone without publishing it, for example every bit an early on-access membership benefit for your Patreon membership site, so select "Save or publish" and "unlisted.

If you lot want to publish it right now, select "Save or publish" at the pinnacle, and so "Public".

This pick allows you lot to mark a second checkbox. "Fix as instant Premiere" is similar to a live stream sentry political party. If your viewers tune in halfway through your video, they can't go back until your Premiere has finished.

At that point, your Premiere turns into a regular YouTube video.

If you want to publish your video at a specific time and engagement, y'all want to switch over to the "Schedule" department.

This allows you to select a appointment, fourth dimension, and fourth dimension zone when your video switches from "individual" to "public". It'south not possible to schedule an "unlisted" video with YouTube.

It is as well possible to plough your scheduled YouTube video into a Premiere.

If y'all want to schedule an "unlisted" video, you lot tin sign up for a TubeBuddy account.

This allows you lot to schedule any transition at whatever fourth dimension. Private to Unlisted, Unlisted to Public, Public to Individual. Whatever your heart desires.

If yous are not gear up to make your video public yet but want to run it past a couple of close friends, yous can set it to unlisted and share the link with them.

Don't worry, YouTube subscribers can't come across unlisted videos.

Once you made your option, but click on the "Relieve" push at the bottom right and your video is set up to go.

YouTube will start to upload your video file during editing, then with a scrap of luck, it might exist already encoded by at present, especially if it was a brusk video.

Utilise Boosted Privacy Settings for Your YouTube Video if Necessary

In some cases, yous might want to enable additional privacy features for your videos.

A good example could be if you wanted to blur out the faces of people who walked into your frame.

YouTube has a born AI to detect and blur faces.

  1. Open YouTube Studio.
  2. Click on "Videos" on the left.
  3. Open whatever video of your option.
  4. In the left sidebar, click on "Editor".
  5. In the video timeline located the "Add Blur" button and click it.
  6. Next to "Blur faces" click on "Edit".
  7. Wait for the video to process.
  8. Select any specific or all faces that you want to blur.
  9. Then click on "save" and you're done.

Once your video is live or scheduled, it's time to promote it. I recommend a 3-angle arroyo.

  • Share your video on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (You can also share your video to Twitter using TubeBuddy), LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest are good starting points and permit you to drive free organic traffic to your videos.
  • Share your video with your email listing. If you don't take an email list yet, sign upward for a Moosend account and start building one. Email marketing is i of the most powerful promotional tools when it comes to building a successful and profitable YouTube channel.
  • Share your video on your website or web log. If yous have your own website or blog, why non link to some of your YouTube videos inside one of your manufactures? This is another like shooting fish in a barrel to implement way, how to get free traffic to your YouTube videos.

Adjacent Steps

Yay, you fabricated information technology! Congratulations.

Now that y'all understand how to upload a YouTube video, it's time to work on other aspects of your YouTube channel.

Bank check out my YouTube articles on my web log to learn more about building a profitable YouTube business, lookout my YouTube Success playlist, and subscribe to my YouTube channel to learn how to build a profitable YouTube business.