Video Editing
There’s no doubt that YouTube is the king of video hosting. It is also the place to be if you want to create a personal vlog or promote your brand with videos. However, if you are new to the platform, it might be difficult to upload videos to YouTube and try to make sense of the settings. But fear not! In this article, we’ll share with you everything you need to know on how to upload videos to YouTube and make the most out of the platform’s powerful functions. Let’s begin.
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Have the File Ready
First and foremost, to upload a video to your YouTube channel, have your video file ready. Make sure you’ve made your last edits to the video and converted it to the proper format and duration. The video file formats YouTube recognizes are .MOV, .MPEG4, .MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm, and HEVC (h265).
As you can see, the platform supports most of the popular video formats, and your video won’t be left out. In case of having a different file format, make sure to convert it to one of the formats above.
What comes to duration, unauthorized YouTube channels are allowed to upload only up to 15 minutes long videos. If you plan to upload a longer video, you will need to authorize your channel. The maximum size of your YouTube video file is 128 GB. In the unlikely event that your video is larger than the allowed size, you can reduce its size using compressing tools.
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Sign in to Your Account
To upload videos to YouTube, you need to sign in to your YouTube account. If you don’t have a YouTube account, go ahead and create one.
Open the YouTube app on your device or browser, and click the Sign-in button on the top right corner of the page. YouTube channels are connected to Google accounts, so if you have several accounts linked to the device you are using, make sure to choose the exact Google account you want to upload your video to.
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Upload Your Video and Edit the Information
Next, upload a video to your YouTube channel by clicking on the upload button – a camera icon on the upper-right side of the page, situated next to your user icon. From the drop-down menu, you’ll have two options: upload a video or go live. Click “Upload Video” to choose a video file from your device or drag and drop it on the page.
Title and Description
After the video is uploaded to YouTube, you’ll be redirected to the editor, where you can edit and add details about your video for a better reach.
Start with the headline: the name of your file is going to be the default title of your video. So, if your video file was titled something similar to “Video 1 final final,” this is where you can change it.
Right after the title of the video comes the description box. This is where you can give the viewers more context about your video. Ideally, you want your video description to be around 250-300 words and contain several keywords, as well as links.
Thumbnail
When the video is uploaded to your YouTube account, YouTube generates and suggests thumbnail options for your video. These thumbnails are screenshots from the video, and as a rule, are of low resolution.
You also have an option to upload a custom thumbnail with the ideal size and format. Pay attention to the file size as well: 2MB is the maximum size for a thumbnail YouTube allows.
Besides being a means to help you have more views on YouTube, thumbnails have the power to attract attention within seconds once you post the like to your YouTube video on social media platforms. Once people see an interesting thumbnail, they click immediately to see more. This will result in more views and higher engagement for your video.
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Playlists
Next comes the playlist selection process. While adding the video to a playlist is not mandatory, it helps to keep the channel structured, organized, and easier to navigate. It will also help your video rank higher in the search, as the playlists are effective for YouTube SEO.
By clicking on the Playlist box, you can either choose an existing playlist or create a new playlist. Once you are finished, make sure to click “Done”, otherwise the changes will not be saved.
Audience
The Audience section has been added recently and is crucial to consider when uploading your video. If your video is directed at children, that is, the primary audience of your video are children, you need to choose “Made for Kids” as the audience. YouTube will set limitations on the videos marked as “Made for Kids”. Paid promotions and notifications will not be allowed for these videos, and YouTube may turn off the comment section. Make sure to check the full list of factors to determine whether your video is made for kids before uploading your video.
If the video is not intended for children, choose the “No, it’s not made for kids” to move forward. In case you want to restrict the video to adult users only, you can do this in the “Age Restriction” section. However, this is not a mandatory step.
Recommended Reading
- 13 Tips for a Clickable YouTube Video Thumbnail
- How to Change a YouTube Video Thumbnail?
- How to Delete a YouTube Video?
Tags, Subtitles, and Licensing
If you want to add subtitles to your video or make it more SEO-optimized, the “More Options” section is where you can do it. Here, you can add tags to your video to optimize it for SEO. Have a list of researched keywords prepared and add them in the keywords section.
You can also add subtitles to your video by uploading a document with video captions. The formats YouTube currently supports are .srt, .sbv or .sub, .mpsub, .lrc, and .cap.
Even with closed captions, people will notice the familiar icon and be able to make them visible with a single click.
You can find more information on how to add subtitles and captions to your YouTube videos in our article.
YouTube also offers two licensing options: Standard YouTube License and Creative Commons. The first option, the Standard YouTube License, means that you give YouTube permission to broadcast your video. Your video can only be accessed through YouTube, and cannot be recreated or used for any other purpose. Essentially, no one can use your work.
In the case of Creative Commons, other creators are allowed to use and edit your work, including removing the copyright of the original author.
In the video below, you can learn more about Intellectual Property, copyright, and what is copyright claim on YouTube.
Video Category and Comments
The last step of editing the video details is choosing the video type and comment permissions. In the video category box, select the category your video belongs to. This, similar to tags, will give more information to YouTube about what your video is about.
In the comment box, you have an option to disable the comments, allow all comments, or hold potentially inappropriate comments for review. This is the default option YouTube will set in case you don’t make any manual changes here.
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Add Video Elements
After you’ve made the main edits to the video, click “Next” to proceed to the “Video Elements” section. This is where you can add dynamic cards to your video to promote another video, playlist, or even another channel! The option to add links to websites is available only to YouTube Partner Program members.
Want to promote another video or add a subscribe button to your video? The “End Screens” section is where you can do it. Here is what the end screen page looks like:
You can choose and add an end screen from many template designs offered by YouTube, or create a customized element design for your video from here. You can also control the time when the elements appear on the screen.
Another dynamic element option you have on YouTube is the Cards, which help you add more actionable visual content to your video. To add cards to your video, click on “Add”. You will be redirected to a page that looks like this:
The editor is simple and intuitive. You only need to select the part of the video where you want to add the card and choose its type. For a more detailed guide on how to add Youtube end screens and cards to your videos, you can have a look at our article.
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Publish the Video
Only one step left before you finally share your video with the world!
The “Visibility” section is where you choose the privacy of your video. The privacy settings offer three options.
- Public – Your video will be available for everyone. It will be visible in the search results of YouTube, and search engines will be able to see it.
- Unlisted – This privacy option is what we like to call semi-public. Only people with a direct link to the video (or the visitors of websites where the video was embedded) can access it. It won’t be visible in search and on your channel.
- Private – Only you will have access to the video.
If the video is public, you also have the opportunity to Premiere it, which creates a TV experience for both the viewers and the creator when watching the video. For our videos, we always opt for the premiere as more subscribers see the video.
If you don’t want to publish the video instantly, you can schedule it for a later time. For that, you only need to choose the date and time in the “Schedule” box. Make sure to pay attention to the time zone as well. YouTube automatically sets the time zone to the available time zone closest to your location. However, you may want to change it depending on the location of your target audience. Here as well, you can opt to premiere your video. Once the date and time are set up, simply click schedule, and you are done.
Congratulations! You have just published your first video. You can edit or view the video following the provided link or from your channel.
However, if you have created your video with Renderforest, there’s an easier way for you to publish your masterpiece on YouTube right from the editor. Check out the video attached below to have a look at the step-by-step tutorial of how you can do that.
Conclusion
YouTube Studio is designed to make the process of uploading videos and customizing them as seamless as possible. Experiment with it, dive into the tools and analytics, as well as into the depths of the paid promotion setting to have a better understanding of this huge platform. And hopefully, these tips will help you make your start on YouTube smooth and easy.
Need help with creating your first video? There are hundreds of templates on Renderforest you can use to create professional-looking videos in minutes. Click the button below to browse our template library and start getting creative.
