Tuesday 5 April 2022

D is for Descriptions et al #YouTube #AtoZChallenge

D is for Descriptions - YouTube - What they Don't Tell You

YouTube - What They Don't Tell You
D is or Descriptions et al

My AtoZ theme this year is my YouTube journey with my new fiction channel, and all that I have learned - plus some free fiction - scroll down to the embedded vid for that.

Every single "How to…" vid about becoming successful on YouTube will tell us that your Title, Description and Tags are really important. Get them wrong and our vid will disappear into the abyss. Some vids even tell us how we should go about forming these things, the major problem being, most of the advice is for current affairs as entertainment channels or those along such lines.

I have a fiction channel, so it was kind of hard to figure out how to use the advice given in such vids.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Title

The first important, and if you are doing shorts, the most important thing to decide on, is the title of the video. Lots of "How to..." vids will tell you to decide on the title of a vid before you make it. It should give an indication of what the video is about, but it also needs to hook the viewer. It's far more complex than I have time to go into here.

If you would like to see a very good breakdown of the kind of thing you need in your title to hook viewers, I would suggest this video: Why 98% of YouTube Videos DON'T Get Views…

However, if you have a channel like mine, it's hard to see how some of these strategies can be used. Honestly, I'm still trying to work it out. I've tried a few of the strategies in the linked vid over the last couple of weeks, but I had more hits when I just start with "1 min story" or "Haunting micro fic", so I'm now trying to figure out if it's the content or the title that is causing that. My next experiment is to implement some of these ideas with what seems to be my most popular genre. Wish me luck ๐Ÿ˜‰!

Anyway, I would suggest listening to the experts in this case and check to see what does well in your niche.

Description

On shorts, this may not seem overly important, since most people won't see it, but the algorithm does. So, get your buzz words in there. For longer vids the first two lines of the description are displayed below it, so get all your exciting info in there. You're trying to convince people to watch, so think of it like the first paragraph of a book blurb.

YouTube gives us the option to have a default description, which is then added to every video we upload directly in YouTube Studio (be aware, however, that if you upload via the app, it isn't applied - I copy and paste from other vids for my shorts). This is really useful to get all our links and standard info in there, so we can edit and add the vid specific information around it.

Tags

Now YouTube says tags aren't overly important, but don't completely believe them. Tags are still useful. These are not HashTags which are when you put #shorts in a title or suchlike, these are the tags we fill in when editing a video's details.

Think of them a bit like the keywords for Amazon, if you've used KDP. They need to describe the content and allow the algorithm to serve the vid to the audience who will enjoy seeing it.

Summary


Title, Description and Tags are a bit like alchemy and it will probably take a while for us to hit our mark. When we find it, what we have to do going forward is keep up the formula. So if something works, run with it.

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About the AtoZ Challenge

The A to Z Challenge happens every April. Bloggers from all over the world come together to post every day in April, apart from Sundays, inspired by the letters of the alpha bet. A = April 1st etc. Some of us have themes, some of us don't. Click the image below for more info and links to other participants.
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Check Out My Fiction YouTube Channel

Tales with Tasha - YouTube

Each week we have a theme and so there will be something for all tastes.
  • ๐ŸŽคMicro stories as YouTube Shorts Monday - Thursday - for fun quick viewing
  • ๐Ÿ•ฎA longer story every Friday - for story time, over coffee or before going to bed

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15 comments:

  1. I do admire anyone who does a creative YouTube channel. I mostly watch, and yes, mentioning how long it is does help because you only have a limited time to invest in each video. I do start with subject matter, then length.

    Nice little horror story there, Tasha!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much. The overall genre this month is ghost stories - I know, odd genre for spring, but they seem to do the best and I enjoy a good ghost story. This week is haunted houses. I have also just discovered the YouTube music archive, which is fee to use, so will be playing with that too.

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  2. Am no professional but I too file the effective title, description and tags help in finding your video better! Ur tips r very helpful

    Dropping by from a to z http://afshan-shaik.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are so many things to think about when making content for anything, aren't there.
      Thank you so much for dropping by.

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  3. I too feel* pls excuse the typos!

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  4. I'll remember to add tags to mine in the future. Thanks!

    Ronel visiting for the A-Z Challenge My Languishing TBR: D

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    1. I had no idea tags were useful either, but I was watching a vid on getting shorts in front of people and they recommended using between 300 and 450 of the characters allocated for tags. Since they get people to go viral every day, I believed them. Every little helps IMHO.๐Ÿ˜Š

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  5. I am horrible at giving titles. I think it comes from traditional storytelling, where tales don't really have any...
    Very interesting info, thank you!
    The Multicolored Diary

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  6. Again, this month is going to be an education for me! If I ever decide to give YouTube content a try you are the first person I am asking for advice.

    --
    Tim Brannan
    The Other Side | A to Z of Conspiracy Theories

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  7. This totally makes sense for YouTube channels or anything else one is trying to market.

    Arlee Bird
    Tossing It Out

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  8. There's so much that goes into being successful at promoting one's work, regardless of the social media platform. As one who has worked in that field, everything you've mentioned is really solid advice.

    AnjelaCurtis.com

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  9. In public speaking workshops they mention that its important to grab the attention of the audience in the first three minutes... this is the case when you know for sure there is an audience seated in front...now in cases like you tube where the viewers have a choice to come tonones video or view it and you are competing with millions for that screen space, it makes sense to leave no stone unturned. I will bookmark your pages for possible future reference... great info

    Visiting from AtoZ
    Jayashree Writes

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  10. Urgh, sounds like so much overlap with the devious depths of SEO :( But all we can do is dip our toe in the water and see what works, before trying a different toe or pool of water.

    Debs visiting this year from
    Making Yourself Relationship Ready

    ReplyDelete

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