Finding music to legally use in your videos is already tough enough. You don't want to waste a ton of time figuring out where you should look.
In this video I show you three free and two paid places to find royalty free music for your videos. (And none of these companies have paid me anything to recommend them, so you know, you can trust me and stuff.)
Read MoreIt's one of those questions that is best answered with "it depends" because there are so many variables, but there is a real answer if you dig deep enough.
How long should a web video be?
In this episode we discuss why the length of your videos should differ in length depending on the style of them, the platform they're on, whether you're entertaining or teaching, and what the goals for it are.
(And no, we don't just say "two to five minutes", which is what every other website on the web likes to recommend.)
Read MoreToday YouTube announced YouTube Red, which is what they're calling they're monthly payment membership. YouTube Red is going to cost you $9.99 a month and for that you won't get any ads when you're watching videos. So if you're logged into your account and you're on your phone, your iPad, Apple TV, computer or whatever else you own, you won't get any ads before the videos or on the sidebar.
Other added benefits of having a subscription to YouTube Red include being able to download the videos and a background listen feature.
Read MoreIf you're putting all this work into making videos, shouldn't you put them in multiple places for people to consume them?
Or are you hurting your reach on a platform like YouTube by also publishing to iTunes?
In today's podcast episode we discuss the pros and cons of having a video podcast, why you may or may not want to spend time on one, whether or not people even know podcasts can be in video instead of audio, and what service we use to host ours.
Read MoreMore views. That's what you want, right? More people watching the videos you spent all that time to prepare, record, edit, and publish.
In this podcast episode we discuss why your videos aren't being watched at all or why people quit watching them part way through.
Whether it has to do with how the video was made, that they aren't engaging, or how they're being promoted, this episode will give you eight tips to make sure your audience keeps showing up to watch your videos, clicks play, and sticks around for the entire thing.
Read MoreIt is easy to think of ideas for videos when you have a go-to list of different kinds of videos to make. If you're stuck only making how to or tutorial videos you can quickly get burnt out.
In this podcast episode we discuss the thirteen different formats for videos, examples for each, and how to combine them to make compelling and engaging videos.
You'll take away a bunch of new styles you can use to switch up the format of your videos.
Read MoreI just went to VidCon 2015, a conference for YouTubers, Viners, and other web video creators. During last week's podcast episode I talked about the panels I went to, shared some future directions I see online video going, and ranted about selfies, Vine, and Snapchat.
But in today's video I share more of my experience at VidCon and try to help you decide whether you should go in the future.
I'll also help answer most of the following questions: What level of ticket should I get? What other conferences are there for video makers? How are there so many screaming tweens?
Read MoreConferences are a great way to connect with like-minded people and I wouldn't be where I am today professionally if I hadn't have attended a bunch of conferences over the past few years.
Well, I just went to Anaheim, California for VidCon 2015, a conference for YouTubers, Viners, and other web video creators. It was kind of an insane conference full of screaming fangirls and "celebrities" I've never heard of, but I actually got a lot out of it.
In this podcast episode I give a rundown of the panels I went to, share what some of the biggest YouTubers struggle with, and rant about why building an audience on a short-form video platform like Vine or Snapchat might not be what you really want to do.
Read MoreVlogging (video blogging) seems to be all the rage these days.
It has been around for a long time on YouTube with people talking into their webcams, but people like Casey Neistat and Ben Brown are growing huge audiences through telling daily stories of their life and putting much more work into them than a simple webcam vlog.
I recently started experimenting with vlogging and in this episode of the podcast I share seventeen tips I've learned so far.
Read MoreWhen I browse around YouTube I see a lot of mistakes. Things that YouTubers either should be doing but aren't, or things they are getting completely wrong.
And don't worry, when I look at my own channel and videos I get a bunch of these things wrong too, but to be your best, sometimes you have to be your own worst critic.
In this episode of the podcast I share nine things that most YouTubers and YouTube channels are doing wrong and how to avoid them yourself.
Read MoreEarly mover advantage. Being in the right place at the right time. Luck.
These are all excuses in my book. Pick something, do it well, and keep showing up.
That's what Austin Evans has done on YouTube since 2007. He has nearly 1,200 videos live, almost a million subscribers, 117,000,000 views, and has become one of the biggest tech channels on the platform.
In this episode of the podcast I pick Austin's brain on how he got started making YouTube videos in high school, why it is important to connect and collaborate with other YouTubers, how he plans out and shoots his videos, and whether or not your competitors are good or bad for you.
Read MoreYouTube annotations have been both good and bad.
They help direct viewers to watch other videos, start viewing playlists, subscribe to a channel, donate to fundraising campaigns, visit an external website, and more.
But they also are poorly designed, extremely intrusive, and don't work on mobile devices.
Enter YouTube cards, the newest feature to YouTube. Think of YouTube cards as the better looking, younger sibling to annotations.
In this video I'll show you how to start using YouTube cards, what you can use them for, how to set up an external website on your channel to link to, and my 301 re-direct hack for linking to any possible URL from YouTube.
Read MorePaying for ads and not knowing whether or not you're getting anything out of them can be extremely frustrating. Especially ones that take a lot of work to produce like YouTube ads.
And getting more views isn't the only thing you can do with YouTube ads either. Channel subscribers, building your email list, and gaining actual customers are all possible from running YouTube ads.
In this episode I chat with Ryan Masters all about how to get started with ads on YouTube, how to properly track them so you know which ads have a positive return on investment, and what tools you can use to do so. We also talk at the beginning about how and why he changed his broad fitness channel to a more specific niche and what the results have been since.
Read MoreWhat if you released a video every single day? How long do you think you could keep that up? What do you think the results of that would be?
Today’s guest on the podcast, Antonio Centeno, created 200 videos in 200 days and racked up over a half million views on them a few years ago. Fast forward to today and he has a YouTube channel about men’s fashion that has over 400 videos on it, with almost 15 million views, and over 227,000 subscribers.
In this episode I chat with Antonio about why he got started making videos on YouTube after seeing a competitor do so, his tips for batching the creation of his videos together, how to make your thumbnails more clickable, how he grows his email list directly from his YouTube videos, and why he embraced the DIY mindset when he first started making videos online.
Read MoreYouTube says that 40% of their worldwide watch time comes from mobile devices.
And if you’re using annotations in your videos, such as telling people to click to subscribe or follow a link on screen, that is 40% of people that can’t click on them.
In this episode I chat with Greg Hickman of Mobile Mixed about what you need to consider about mobile viewers when making videos for YouTube or the web.
We discuss annotations, calls to action, how to convert viewers via SMS, and how videos made with your phone can be less produced and scripted than with a regular camera.
Read MoreShe started making personal videos and uploading them on YouTube 5 years ago just for her family, but she quickly fell in love it.
Amy Schmittauer has consistently been video blogging (or vlogging) for half a decade. In that time she's piled up 1.5 million views on YouTube and learned a ton about how video can work for your business.
In this episode I chat with Amy about how she is able to produce three or more videos every week, which YouTubers she looks up to, what gear she recommends for the vlogging style of videos, and what keeps her from hitting record.
Read MoreHow do you build a online brand that stands out in an industry or niche that most people considering "boring"?
Think personal finance, law, anything technical like engineering or math, and home improvement, etc.
Well today's guest on the podcast, Matt Giovanisci, has built his audience and business around swimming pool and hot tub care through his YouTube videos for Swim University. (Some of which, like "How To Change The Sand In Your Sand Filter", have hundreds of thousands of views.)
In this episode I chat with Matt about how he got into making videos online, what his process is for planning and shooting these videos, how makes sure he adds comedy into them, and how he got started without buying any gear.
Read MoreIf you have no money for camera gear, lights, or software that can often hold you back from making videos.
Luckily, our guest on today's episode of the podcast, Thomas Frank of College Info Geek, shares how that isn't holding him back from making weekly videos on YouTube.
With less than a few hundred dollars worth of equipment, he makes short-form talking head videos for college students.
In this episode Thomas shares how he makes his videos look great without investing a ton of money on a bunch of gear, tips for planning out your videos before you sit in front of the camera to make them, and how incorporating b-roll into his videos speeds up the process.
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