Uploading your YouTube video correctly to brand sure it volition exist shown to as many people as possible doesn't happen naturally. There are precise steps you should follow to ensure maximum exposure for your content.

Imagine this.

You worked really hard, developed your share-worthy video thought, wrote your video script, filmed and edit everything, and are finally ready to share your masterpiece with the globe.

What's next?

Follow along with my 25-footstep system and become from final edit to fully-optimized YouTube video to give your next video the all-time possible first with my Ultimate YouTube Upload Checklist.

Upload Your First Video on YouTube

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

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

But today, we are doing information technology the erstwhile-fashioned style, via the YouTube web interface.

Log into your YouTube business relationship and and then locate the Creator menu in the top right corner of your screen.

It should await something like this, sometimes depending on your screen size you might only run into the camera icon without the text:

Don't worry, if you don't see a carmine 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 annotation, I've besides published an in-depth TubeBuddy Review on how it helped me to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 3000 subscribers.)

Next, you click on "Upload videos".

A new popup should open up:

Yous might have noticed a modest icon at the top right saying "Upload with Archetype". This is the old upload function and volition disappear very soon.

In this article, I'm showing yous the new, modernistic upload workflow that is hither to stay.

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

Write a Compelling YouTube Video Championship

Writing a captivating video title is 1 of the biggest success factors when it comes to YouTube videos.

It has to be short and sweet, and then people on mobile and desktop devices can quickly grasp what your video is all well-nigh without getting truncated.

The title has to communicate 2 elements. Who is this for? And what'southward in it for them? Why should they sentinel your video?

Information technology as well should contain specific keywords that someone might type into the YouTube search field to attract organic search traffic. This is especially important for small YouTube channels with less than i,000 subscribers.

If you want to learn more, cheque out these 2 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 Clarification

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

The commencement arroyo is to employ 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 about, and topics y'all're covering. This allows you to add together a lot of additional keywords, that YouTubers might be searching for.

The side by side approach focuses on creating a call to action such as reminding your viewers to subscribe to your YouTube aqueduct, or following y'all on Instagram, or watching some of your other videos nigh a similar topic.

And and then we accept a hybrid arroyo. Information technology uses the top half of your video for additional information about your video, allowing y'all to optimize your video for YouTube SEO. And then information technology uses the bottom half to promote someone of your existing videos and external links that allow you to make money on YouTube, fifty-fifty when you're not yet monetized.

Design a Click-Worthy YouTube Video Thumbnail

Together with your video championship, the video thumbnail has the biggest touch on on your video click-through charge per unit.

This is very important because it determines if YouTube will recommend your videos to other users who are not still subscribed to your YouTube channel yet.

I recommend reviewing some of your favorite YouTube creators and to find a unproblematic manner that'due south resonating with you and the content that you're creating and and so using that every bit the foundation to find your own style.

In that location are ii very important keys to thumbnail success. Include a photo of yourself and use a big font to tease what your video is all well-nigh.

You can check out my tutorial on how to create blithe video thumbnails for social media to get a good idea of how to design a unproblematic, yet great-looking thumbnail for your video.

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

Add Your Videos to YouTube Playlists

Every YouTube aqueduct should take at least two plalist.

The commencement i should comprise all of your published videos. This makes it very convenient for people who discover your aqueduct for the first fourth dimension to binge-watch all of your videos.

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

When you lot're merely starting out the "all videos" and "all about topic Ten" might comprise the aforementioned videos, merely that's going to change really quickly as you make more and more than videos.

I use TubeBuddy to keep all of my YouTube playlists organized. It allows me to quickly sort all of my playlists with the click of a push. I love to sort all of my playlists by picket time and put the most popular videos at the peak.

This has significantly increased the average sentinel time per viewer on my channel.

If you want to learn more near YouTube, check out my YouTube Success playlist.

YouTube'southward Community Guidelines

The first question is, has this video been fabricated for kids?

In the USA, the age of a "child" is defined every bit anyone under the age of 13. All the same, this number may be higher in other countries.

If your channel is non fabricated for kids, then you should select "No".

The next question is, do you want to restrict your video to an developed audience?

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

Otherwise, select "No" and motion on.

If all of your YouTube videos are not made for kids, you lot can visit the YouTube Studio, click on "Settings" and so under "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, yous might exist under a legal obligation to disclose this data to your viewers.

At that place are two options.

If you lot enable the beginning 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 2d box, YouTube will notify viewers that your video contains paid promotions. This happens in the class of a minor overlay for the outset few seconds of your video.

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

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

Tags are ane of the almost underrated features on YouTube.

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

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

Particularly, 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 notice the best keywords for my YouTube video tags. To activate this feature, I click on the "TubeBuddy Tag Tools" feature beneath the tags field.

Information technology opens upwardly the TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer. In the peak left corner, I can type in any 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 summate the overall keyword score from red to green.

Information technology will also give me related keyword ideas that I might add to my tags based on what some of the nigh pop YouTube videos with similar topics use in their videos, too as some of the nigh popular, related searches on YouTube and Google.

Set up the Language for Your YouTube Video

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

Funny compilations of cats and dogs volition notwithstanding be shown to everyone because they don't actually contain whatsoever spoken words. In this case, you lot tin can simply select your default language or English.

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

Upload Subtitles for Your Video

The checkbox about caption certification is merely relevant to a very modest part of the YouTube creator customs.

It'due south specifically targeting creators and publishing companies whose videos have previously aired on United states television receiver. These videos are legally required to proceed to display subtitles even 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.South."

Using subtitles is a very good practice in general. It helps yous to optimize your videos for YouTube SEO, as YouTube uses your subtitles as a total-text search engine.

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

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

Update the Recording Date and Location of Your Video

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

This is especially useful for time-relevant content such as news and allows YouTube to use both information to align information technology with a viewer's search intent.

Review Your YouTube Video Licenses

You have a choice between the Standard YouTube license and the Creative Commons 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 Commons license, you're granting the entire YouTube customs the right to reuse and edit your video.

Considering of that, you may only mark videos with the Artistic Commons license, if your entire video consists entirely of content that yous can license under the CC Past license, y'all tin can as well switch to a Creative Commons license.

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

YouTube will forestall you from switching to the Creative Commons license if there is a Content ID merits against it.

Review Your YouTube Video Distribution Settings

Yous have two choices when it comes to distribution. Yous can show your videos "Everywhere" or only on "Monetized Platforms".

Now what'due south the difference?

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

  • www.youtube.com
  • YouTube app
  • YouTube app on TVs including Xbox, Android Television receiver, PlayStation and Chromecast
  • k.youtube.com accessed from most smartphones
  • YouTube app on Apple tree Boob tube

"Everywhere" as well includes the following placements:

  • YouTube app pre-installed on iOS 5 and beneath
  • YouTube legacy apps on characteristic phones and TVs
  • m.youtube.com accessed from feature phones

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

Permit Embedding of Your YouTube Video

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

In that location 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 corroborate of.

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

In brusk, there is no telling where your videos might show upwards.

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

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

Notify Subscribers Nearly Your New YouTube Video

This is such an important setting.

Did you know that your subscribers tin receive a maximum of 3 new video notifications from your channel in a 24-hour period?

What if you have to upload more than 3 videos and you want to exist selective virtually which videos you desire to promote via e-mail notification?

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

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

The video will exist public and available in your videos feed for those looking for information technology.

Update Your YouTube Video Category

YouTube allows you to choose betwixt xv different categories for your videos.

  • Autos & Vehicles
  • Comedy
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Motion-picture show & Animation
  • Gaming
  • Howto & Style
  • Music
  • News & Politics
  • Nonprofits & Activism
  • People & Blogs
  • Pets & Animals
  • Science & Technology
  • Sports
  • Travel & Events

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

To reply these questions, it's worth looking dorsum in fourth dimension, to see where these categories originated from. In the early days of YouTube, these categories were really explorable.

You were able to go to the YouTube Browser page then click-through whatever of the fifteen categories to watch more videos.

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

And then while it doesn't really matter anymore which of the xv categories you pick, only pick the i closest to your video. In dubiousness pick either "Education" or "Entertainment"

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

Disabling tin can have a negative impact on your discoverability on the platform and should only exist disabled in rare cases.

  • You lot stirred up a hornet's nest. This is probably 1 of the most common reasons why people disabled comments on their channel.

    When a YouTuber or make is involved in a scandal or controversy, information technology's a very common phenomenon that all, or some of their videos get spammed with negative and hurtful comments. Fifty-fifty if it's a completely new video and has nada to do with the controversy. If you desire to avert hour-long cleanup sessions for your comments feed, temporarily disable your comments until everything has diddled 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 turn off your comments.

Alternatively, and that'southward my recommendation, turn on annotate moderation.

In that location are three settings for comments.

  • Allow all comments. Comment moderation is turned off. Everything is published instantly.
  • Concur potentially inappropriate comments for review. Comment moderation is on. YouTube uses its comment AI to identify three types of comments. "All good" become published instantly. "Held for review" is a mayhap where the AI isn't 100% sure about the content. This might contain a discussion from your block list, swear words, or links. The last category is "Likely spam". In this category, you observe comments where YouTube is fairly sure that anyone would consider them spam. This tin can exist triggered by the content of the annotate itself, past by behavior of the person commenting, or by spam reports for like comments.
  • Concord all comments for review. This setting works exactly like the previous one, with the exception that even the "All good" comments are moved to the "Review" tab.

Either way, this is easily reversible later.

Display the Number of Likes and Dislikes on Your YouTube Video

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

Sometimes a video might cover a sensitive topic or result and yous don't experience information technology's appropriate to similar to dislike something. Recall of a funeral for example. In this case, turning off likes would be ok.

Some other reason for disabling likes are controversial video topics when uploaders expect an overwhelming number of dislikes, turning off the likes feature might be an choice.

I personally don't recommend doing information technology. First of all, likes or dislikes make no divergence to the YouTube algorithm, both count as engagement and help your video to be seen by more people.

Secondly, those people who dislike your videos are only there for the short term and will eventually disappear.

Enable Monetization for Your YouTube Video

If yous want to make coin and run YouTube equally a business organisation, this is the most of import setting of all.

Commencement, you want to turn monetization to "On" at the tiptop.

Next, you desire to enable all ad placements that don't have a checkmark adjacent to it.

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

Note: this feature is only available if you decide to join the YouTube Partner Program (then advertisers can run ads on your videos) and accept fulfilled the requirements of m YouTube subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours.

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

For near content creators, none of these will utilize, and they should select "None of the above" at the lesser of the page.

Try to exist truthful, every bit YouTube will nevertheless run automated tests to make up one's mind if your video is ok or not.

If YouTube finds that you didn't accurately categorize your video, they might take away your power to declare the ad suitability for your next video.

Why should yous care virtually that?

Considering if a video is on a pocketknife'south edge, YouTube will accept the creators' self-certification into consideration and might permit 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 end screens?

Those are little boxes that video creators can place on height of their videos for the last 5 to twenty seconds of their videos.

In that location are v different elements that you tin can place on your end screen.

  • Video. Link to another YouTube video. In about cases, you desire to link to related videos of your own aqueduct to maximize watch fourth dimension and earnings.
  • Playlist. Another groovy way to heave your views. Link to a topic-specific playlist of your ain YouTube channel.
  • Subscribe. Adding a subscription button on top of your end screen can heave the number of new subscribers.
  • Channel. Have a 2d YouTube aqueduct that you want to promote? Or did your video feature a collaboration with another channel? Why not requite them a shout out by promoting their aqueduct in your end 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 account in order to make this work.

End screens are a great asset when information technology comes to increasing lookout time and earn more money with your YouTube channel and I highly recommend calculation terminate screens to all of your videos.

Add Info Cards to Your YouTube Video

What are YouTube cards? Aforementioned idea as end screens, simply less obtrusive nudges during your video itself.

Elements are slightly different. Y'all yet take videos, playlists, channels, and links. Subscribe buttons are not available. But instead, you can add together polls.

From my experience, the all-time use of cards is to promote videos and links that you're mentioning during your video. Simply place a card for the exact time code and the direct link to either a video or link volition popular upwards at the height right (i) info icon.

Choose the Right Visibility for Your YouTube Video

The video visibility screen looks a picayune intimidating at first.

Here is what you take to know. If y'all want to keep your video private for now, select "Save or publish" at the top, and so "Individual".

If you want to share the link video link with someone without publishing it, for instance as an early-admission membership do good for your Patreon membership site, then select "Save or publish" and "unlisted.

If you lot want to publish information technology right at present, select "Save or publish" at the tiptop, and and so "Public".

This selection allows yous to marking a 2nd checkbox. "Set equally instant Premiere" is similar to a live stream sentry party. If your viewers tune in halfway through your video, they tin can't go dorsum until your Premiere has finished.

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

If you want to publish your video at a specific time and appointment, you want to switch over to the "Schedule" section.

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

It is also possible to plow your scheduled YouTube video into a Premiere.

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

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

If you lot are not ready to make your video public nonetheless just want to run it by a couple of close friends, yous can ready it to unlisted and share the link with them.

Don't worry, YouTube subscribers can't see unlisted videos.

Once you lot made your selection, but click on the "Save" push button at the bottom right and your video is ready to go.

YouTube will start to upload your video file during editing, so with a chip of luck, information technology might be already encoded past now, specially if it was a brusk video.

Apply Additional Privacy Settings for Your YouTube Video if Necessary

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

A good example could be if y'all wanted to mistiness out the faces of people who walked into your frame.

YouTube has a born AI to discover and mistiness faces.

  1. Open YouTube Studio.
  2. Click on "Videos" on the left.
  3. Open any video of your selection.
  4. In the left sidebar, click on "Editor".
  5. In the video timeline located the "Add Blur" button and click it.
  6. Next to "Mistiness faces" click on "Edit".
  7. Look for the video to procedure.
  8. Select any specific or all faces that y'all desire to blur.
  9. Then click on "save" and yous're done.

Once your video is alive or scheduled, it'southward time to promote information technology. I recommend a iii-angle approach.

  • Share your video on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (You tin also share your video to Twitter using TubeBuddy), LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest are proficient starting points and permit you to bulldoze free organic traffic to your videos.
  • Share your video with your e-mail listing. If you don't have an email listing nevertheless, sign up for a Moosend account and start edifice ane. Email marketing is one of the virtually powerful promotional tools when it comes to building a successful and profitable YouTube channel.
  • Share your video on your website or weblog. If y'all have your own website or blog, why not link to some of your YouTube videos inside one of your articles? This is another easy to implement way, how to get free traffic to your YouTube videos.

Next Steps

Yay, you made it! Congratulations.

Now that you sympathise how to upload a YouTube video, information technology's time to work on other aspects of your YouTube channel.

Check out my YouTube articles on my blog to learn more than about edifice a profitable YouTube business concern, picket my YouTube Success playlist, and subscribe to my YouTube channel to larn how to build a profitable YouTube business.