From Scripts to Screens: Your Ultimate YouTube Production Plan

How to Make YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Finding the audience for short videos you create, sharing your knowledge of publicizing the music you create has become a much simpler and cheaper process in the last fourteen years. ‘Everyone deserves a voice’ is one of the core values that motivates the founders of YouTube to continue developing the world’s largest video sharing platform. So if you are looking for your own voice, but you’re not really sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place, because in this article we are going to show you how to make attention-grabbing YouTube videos that are going to attract a huge audience.

• Preparation Stage for Making YouTube Video [4 Aspects You Should Consider]
• Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video [5 Tips and Tricks]
• YouTube Video Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
• Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
• How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer? [Step Guide]

Preparation Stage: Getting Ready to Make a YouTube Video

Achieving success on YouTube may only seem easy before you realize how much time and effort it takes to run a successful YouTube channel. Making a YouTube video isn’t much different than making any other type of short or feature film as you have to go through the same stages of the video production process. Everything, including creating YouTube videos starts with an idea, so let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take before you actually start recording your first YouTube video.

1. Start a YouTube Channel

The journey towards success begins with seemingly small and insignificant steps. Creating a YouTube channel is exactly that, a step, without which you won’t be able to become a YouTuber. All you have to do in order to create a channel on YouTube is sign in to the platform using your Google account and then head over to the Settings menu. Click on the Create a new channel option and then pick a name for your Brand channel . Dedicate some extra time to the process of selecting a name for the channel, because that is the first thing your potential followers are going to notice. The platform lets you start as many as fifty channels with one Gmail ID, and as your channels grow, you can add multiple managers to each channel you’ve started. Click on the Create button when you’re done and that’s it you’re now a proud owner of a YouTube channel.

We have summarized some tips and tricks for creating a YouTube channel account , hope that will help you to create a channel more easily.

2. Choose a Niche and Craft a Video Content Strategy

Devising a plan before you start producing content you are going to share on YouTube is going to give you a sense of direction, since there are so many different types of videos that can attract a large audience. Try to imagine your ideal YouTube follower, and then think about what they are interested in or how you can generate value for them through the content you post on your channel. Attempting to cover a broad spectrum of topics usually doesn’t produce the best results, so instead, you should focus on a specific subject and do your best to offer a unique perspective to your viewers on that subject. More importantly, you need to choose the themes for your videos that are relevant to the audience you would like to reach. Gaming, tutorials, beauty or comedy videos are just a few of the most popular genres of videos on YouTube, although which niche you’re going to pick ultimately depends on your personal interests and reasons why you chose to become a YouTuber in the first place.

Additionally, you should follow the hottest trends on the Internet so that you can find out which topics are drawing the most attention at the moment. Don’t let all these questions trouble you, simply choose a niche in which you feel the most comfortable in and start shooting. Keep a watchful eye on how your followers respond to the videos you share on your channel as time goes on and remain open to new ideas or collaborations.

3. Secure a Fresh Supply of YouTube Video Ideas

Defining your niche is just a beginning because you have to keep producing your videos at a steady pace. Most YouTube experts say that sharing new content at least once a week is necessary if you want to gather a large group of followers on your channel. Consequently, you’ll need a constant supply of ideas for new videos that cover topics your audience is interested in. A simple search on YouTube can help you discover the videos on the platform that have the most views. This should give you a pretty good idea which types of videos are the most popular at the moment and what viewers want to see the most.

Reading the comments section below a YouTube video can be a great way to discover new ideas since viewers often ask questions or search for advice on very specific aspects of the topic that particular video is covering. Moreover, YouTube isn’t the only destination on the Internet where you can find inspiration for your next video since there are countless groups and communities where you can come across interesting topics for your next video.

4. Get the Right Video and Audio Recording Equipment

The list of audio and video recording gear you’re going to need to create a YouTube video depends on the type of video you’re trying to make. Gamers who want to record gameplay and post it on their YouTube channel only need a screen capturing software or a capture card and a microphone. The list of equipment is a bit longer for YouTubers interested in the production of vlogs, comedy or review videos since they are going to need a camera or a Smartphone capable of recording videos at high resolutions, lighting equipment, tripods, steady cams, microphones. If you would like to learn more about the pieces of equipment you are going to need while recording a YouTube video, check our picks of the YouTube Video Shooting Equipment List .

Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video

After you’ve successfully completed the preparation stage it is time to start getting ready for the next step of the process of making a YouTube video. However, you can’t just pick up a camera and start randomly shooting unrelated scenes, instead, you should follow the steps below that make the production of a video much less complicated.

1. Write a Script and Make a Shooting Schedule

Write down all of your ideas for your next video prior to shooting the first shot of that video. A script can be particularly useful if the video you’re planning on making involves a lot of narration since you’ll always know what to say next. Furthermore, you don’t have to record the entire video on the same day, and you have the freedom to plan when and where you are going to record each scene you want to include in the video.

2. Set a Scene

You control what the viewers of your YouTube video are going to see. That’s why you have to choose your shooting locations carefully and to hand-pick each prop that is going to be visible in the shot. Avoid shooting in messy rooms, because the items in the background are going to distract the viewer and reduce the quality of your videos.

3. Pick the Best Camera Positions

Once you know where and when you are going to shoot your video, you should start planning your shots. Most YouTube videos are recorded from a single camera position, but you can also experiment with different shot angles if it helps you to tell the story of the video. Don’t put the actors near direct sources of light like windows or lamps because if you do so you can easily end up ruining the shot.

4. Make Sure that You Have Enough Light in The Shot

Natural sources of light are often not enough to light a scene properly, because the amount of available light you’ll have at your disposal can change in a few minutes. That’s why nearly all YouTubers use lighting kits that enable them to control the amount of light in the shot at any moment.

5. Bonus: Making YouTube Videos Without a Camera

In case using video and audio recording equipment is a bit too technical for you, there is a simple alternative solution since you can capture all activities on your computer’s screen with software products such as Filmora or OBS Studio. This is an excellent option for gamers who want to record gameplay of their favorite video games or skilled educators that would like to share their knowledge and show others how to use a piece of software or perform any other computer-based task.

Besides screencasting, you can also assemble existing footage from old TV shows, movies or cartoons to make a YouTube video. You don’t have to worry about copyright infringements, as long as the footage you’re using is within the public domain. However, if you accidentally end up using footage without permission it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to file a lawsuit, but your video may be removed from your YouTube channel if someone reports that you’ve used footage without the permission from its owners.

Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded

Before you can share the video clips you recorded with a camera, Smartphone or a screencasting software, you should edit them first. Choosing video editing software isn’t always easy since there are so many different options that enable you to perform both basic and advanced video editing tasks. You can check our recommendations about some of the best video editing software for YouTube videos, in case you are still looking for a video editor that is best suited for the price range you’ve had in mind or your skill level. You should choose a video editing app that you feel the most comfortable using since you are going to spend a lot of time editing videos with it.

The video editing techniques you will utilize during the process of piecing together a YouTube video depend on a number of factors that range from the genre of the video to its visual style. However, trimming or cutting the footage, creating opening titles and end credits are among the most common video editing actions you will have to perform on each new project. Mastering these basic video editing techniques is essential for the success of your videos on YouTube since it will enable you to quickly trim a video clip by dragging one of its ends in an inward or outward direction or remove a portion of a clip you don’t want to feature in the final cut of the video from the timeline.

Hard cuts can at times disrupt the flow of a video, but you can easily fix this by adding a transition between two clips. What’s more, nearly all video editing software products on the market come bundled with rich visual and audio effects libraries that make the color grading or audio editing process much faster. Adding opening titles, lower thirds or any other image overlay can help you introduce the characters in the video to the audience, inform the audience about important aspects of the topic you’re covering or summarize the key points of the video.

Creating a soundtrack is also a vital step of the video editing process that largely influences the quality of the final video. That’s why the narration or the dialogues must be recorded professionally since even the slightest background noise can distract the viewer. Whether or not you are going to add music to a video, depends on the type of project you’re working on. Video editing software products like Filmora have their own royalty free music libraries that offer songs from Rock or Electronic and numerous other genres.

When you complete the video editing process, you should export the video to a folder on your hard drive or directly to your YouTube channel if the video editing app you’ve chosen provides that option. How long the rendering of a video is going to take depends on your computer’s processing power, video’s length, and the output resolution.

Adding/Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel

As we already noted you can either upload a video to YouTube directly from a video editing software or from a hard drive after the rendering process is completed. You can upload videos with 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios to your channel, and the platform support videos in resolutions up to 8K. The minimum length of a YouTube video is 33 seconds while a video’s maximum length cannot exceed the twelve-hour limit. The file’s size can’t be larger than 128GB while the frame rates can go as high as 60fps. If you need to edit the uploaded and published YouTube videos, you can check our tips about editing existing YouTube videos , and you can check out our guide about how to make money on YouTube if you would like to learn more about account monetization.

Read More to Get : How to Loop a YouTube Video >>

1. Optimize Your Content for YouTube Searches

Every bit of information you add to the video increases its visibility on the platform. Even the name of the file you’re uploading to your channel should contain a keyword, and once the upload is completed you should add a title, description, and metadata if you would like to increase the video’s visibility on the platform. It is vital to select your YouTube SEO strategy before you actually start adding new videos to your strategy. In case you’re not familiar with the concept of search engine optimization for YouTube, you can find everything you need to know aboutYouTube SEO in our guide.

2. Create Visually Captivating Thumbnails and End Screen Elements

A thumbnail is usually a snapshot of a frame from a video, you’ve created during the video editing process or any other still image that suggests what the video is about. A small thing like adding a thumbnail to a YouTube video can increase both the number of views and the number of likes that video is getting. In addition, YouTube’s video editor enables you to add end screens that last anywhere between five and twenty seconds to your videos, but keep in mind that the video must be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen. There are a number of fully customizable templates available that can be uses to promote your upcoming videos or to invite viewers to subscribe to your channel.

Wanna making YouTube thumbnail yourself? Check some of the best YouTube thumbnail makers list.

3. Publish, Interact and Share

YouTube lets you keep your videos private until you are ready to make them public. Once you decide to make a video available to all YouTube users, you should share it on social media like Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Furthermore, embedding a YouTube video on your blog or website can drastically increase the number of views it’s getting. The YouTube Analytics tool is designed to help you track the metrics that indicate how well your video is performing. Don’t know which analytics tools should use? Check our picks of some useful YouTube Analytics Tools to learn how to analyze your video.

How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer?

Even though you can use almost any video editing software to edit a YouTube video, we recommend trying a versatile video editing app like Filmora to edit videos on Windows PC and Mac which offers both basic and advanced video editing features. Creating a video in Filmora doesn’t require a developed set of video editing skills, since all of the tools and options the editor offers are remarkably easy to use.

When you are ready to start a new project you should simply launch the software, and once the new project loads, you should head over to the File menu and select the Project Settings option that lets you set the resolution, aspect ratio and the frame rate of the video. Proceed to import the footage into the project by selecting one of the available options in the Import drop-down menu or by simply dragging the media assets from a folder on your hard drive and dropping them to the Filmora’s Media Panel. In case you don’t have your own audio and video footage you can download videos, music, visual and audio effects from a stock footage website like Filmstock effects store . Filmora also offers screen casting features, so you can easily record gameplay, show viewers how to use a software or capture any other type of activity on your computer’s screen.

Add each media asset you want to include in the final cut of the video to the timeline and then proceed to remove all unwanted parts of the video and audio clips from the timeline using the Cut or Trim options. Filmora offers rich transitions and visual effects libraries you can use to make the cuts between shot smoother or enhance the colors in the video clips you’re editing. Furthermore, the editor lets you take snapshots of any frame in video clips you’ve placed on the timeline in a single click which can be quite useful if you want to create a thumbnail for your YouTube video. Creating the opening titles, end credits or adding different image overlays to a video is a straight forward process since you just have to select the option that fits the style of the video you’re creating and add it to the timeline. Once you’ve completed the video editing process, you can click on the Export button and decide if you want to export a video directly to your YouTube channel or to a destination on your hard drive.

New to Filmora? Check our beginner guide about How to Edit Videos in Filmora in details or check the quick video tutorial below to find out more details.

Conclusion

Becoming a successful YouTuber requires a lot of dedication and hard work, so if at first, you don’t succeed, you should be patient and persistent. In time, as your channel grows, you will be able to monetize your videos, but only if you keep producing new content at a steady pace. Each step of the YouTube creation process is equally important, and you should dedicate an equal amount of attention to recording high-quality footage, editing, and promotion of the content you share on your YouTube channel. Was this article helpful? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and experiences with us.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Finding the audience for short videos you create, sharing your knowledge of publicizing the music you create has become a much simpler and cheaper process in the last fourteen years. ‘Everyone deserves a voice’ is one of the core values that motivates the founders of YouTube to continue developing the world’s largest video sharing platform. So if you are looking for your own voice, but you’re not really sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place, because in this article we are going to show you how to make attention-grabbing YouTube videos that are going to attract a huge audience.

• Preparation Stage for Making YouTube Video [4 Aspects You Should Consider]
• Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video [5 Tips and Tricks]
• YouTube Video Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
• Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
• How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer? [Step Guide]

Preparation Stage: Getting Ready to Make a YouTube Video

Achieving success on YouTube may only seem easy before you realize how much time and effort it takes to run a successful YouTube channel. Making a YouTube video isn’t much different than making any other type of short or feature film as you have to go through the same stages of the video production process. Everything, including creating YouTube videos starts with an idea, so let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take before you actually start recording your first YouTube video.

1. Start a YouTube Channel

The journey towards success begins with seemingly small and insignificant steps. Creating a YouTube channel is exactly that, a step, without which you won’t be able to become a YouTuber. All you have to do in order to create a channel on YouTube is sign in to the platform using your Google account and then head over to the Settings menu. Click on the Create a new channel option and then pick a name for your Brand channel . Dedicate some extra time to the process of selecting a name for the channel, because that is the first thing your potential followers are going to notice. The platform lets you start as many as fifty channels with one Gmail ID, and as your channels grow, you can add multiple managers to each channel you’ve started. Click on the Create button when you’re done and that’s it you’re now a proud owner of a YouTube channel.

We have summarized some tips and tricks for creating a YouTube channel account , hope that will help you to create a channel more easily.

2. Choose a Niche and Craft a Video Content Strategy

Devising a plan before you start producing content you are going to share on YouTube is going to give you a sense of direction, since there are so many different types of videos that can attract a large audience. Try to imagine your ideal YouTube follower, and then think about what they are interested in or how you can generate value for them through the content you post on your channel. Attempting to cover a broad spectrum of topics usually doesn’t produce the best results, so instead, you should focus on a specific subject and do your best to offer a unique perspective to your viewers on that subject. More importantly, you need to choose the themes for your videos that are relevant to the audience you would like to reach. Gaming, tutorials, beauty or comedy videos are just a few of the most popular genres of videos on YouTube, although which niche you’re going to pick ultimately depends on your personal interests and reasons why you chose to become a YouTuber in the first place.

Additionally, you should follow the hottest trends on the Internet so that you can find out which topics are drawing the most attention at the moment. Don’t let all these questions trouble you, simply choose a niche in which you feel the most comfortable in and start shooting. Keep a watchful eye on how your followers respond to the videos you share on your channel as time goes on and remain open to new ideas or collaborations.

3. Secure a Fresh Supply of YouTube Video Ideas

Defining your niche is just a beginning because you have to keep producing your videos at a steady pace. Most YouTube experts say that sharing new content at least once a week is necessary if you want to gather a large group of followers on your channel. Consequently, you’ll need a constant supply of ideas for new videos that cover topics your audience is interested in. A simple search on YouTube can help you discover the videos on the platform that have the most views. This should give you a pretty good idea which types of videos are the most popular at the moment and what viewers want to see the most.

Reading the comments section below a YouTube video can be a great way to discover new ideas since viewers often ask questions or search for advice on very specific aspects of the topic that particular video is covering. Moreover, YouTube isn’t the only destination on the Internet where you can find inspiration for your next video since there are countless groups and communities where you can come across interesting topics for your next video.

4. Get the Right Video and Audio Recording Equipment

The list of audio and video recording gear you’re going to need to create a YouTube video depends on the type of video you’re trying to make. Gamers who want to record gameplay and post it on their YouTube channel only need a screen capturing software or a capture card and a microphone. The list of equipment is a bit longer for YouTubers interested in the production of vlogs, comedy or review videos since they are going to need a camera or a Smartphone capable of recording videos at high resolutions, lighting equipment, tripods, steady cams, microphones. If you would like to learn more about the pieces of equipment you are going to need while recording a YouTube video, check our picks of the YouTube Video Shooting Equipment List .

Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video

After you’ve successfully completed the preparation stage it is time to start getting ready for the next step of the process of making a YouTube video. However, you can’t just pick up a camera and start randomly shooting unrelated scenes, instead, you should follow the steps below that make the production of a video much less complicated.

1. Write a Script and Make a Shooting Schedule

Write down all of your ideas for your next video prior to shooting the first shot of that video. A script can be particularly useful if the video you’re planning on making involves a lot of narration since you’ll always know what to say next. Furthermore, you don’t have to record the entire video on the same day, and you have the freedom to plan when and where you are going to record each scene you want to include in the video.

2. Set a Scene

You control what the viewers of your YouTube video are going to see. That’s why you have to choose your shooting locations carefully and to hand-pick each prop that is going to be visible in the shot. Avoid shooting in messy rooms, because the items in the background are going to distract the viewer and reduce the quality of your videos.

3. Pick the Best Camera Positions

Once you know where and when you are going to shoot your video, you should start planning your shots. Most YouTube videos are recorded from a single camera position, but you can also experiment with different shot angles if it helps you to tell the story of the video. Don’t put the actors near direct sources of light like windows or lamps because if you do so you can easily end up ruining the shot.

4. Make Sure that You Have Enough Light in The Shot

Natural sources of light are often not enough to light a scene properly, because the amount of available light you’ll have at your disposal can change in a few minutes. That’s why nearly all YouTubers use lighting kits that enable them to control the amount of light in the shot at any moment.

5. Bonus: Making YouTube Videos Without a Camera

In case using video and audio recording equipment is a bit too technical for you, there is a simple alternative solution since you can capture all activities on your computer’s screen with software products such as Filmora or OBS Studio. This is an excellent option for gamers who want to record gameplay of their favorite video games or skilled educators that would like to share their knowledge and show others how to use a piece of software or perform any other computer-based task.

Besides screencasting, you can also assemble existing footage from old TV shows, movies or cartoons to make a YouTube video. You don’t have to worry about copyright infringements, as long as the footage you’re using is within the public domain. However, if you accidentally end up using footage without permission it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to file a lawsuit, but your video may be removed from your YouTube channel if someone reports that you’ve used footage without the permission from its owners.

Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded

Before you can share the video clips you recorded with a camera, Smartphone or a screencasting software, you should edit them first. Choosing video editing software isn’t always easy since there are so many different options that enable you to perform both basic and advanced video editing tasks. You can check our recommendations about some of the best video editing software for YouTube videos, in case you are still looking for a video editor that is best suited for the price range you’ve had in mind or your skill level. You should choose a video editing app that you feel the most comfortable using since you are going to spend a lot of time editing videos with it.

The video editing techniques you will utilize during the process of piecing together a YouTube video depend on a number of factors that range from the genre of the video to its visual style. However, trimming or cutting the footage, creating opening titles and end credits are among the most common video editing actions you will have to perform on each new project. Mastering these basic video editing techniques is essential for the success of your videos on YouTube since it will enable you to quickly trim a video clip by dragging one of its ends in an inward or outward direction or remove a portion of a clip you don’t want to feature in the final cut of the video from the timeline.

Hard cuts can at times disrupt the flow of a video, but you can easily fix this by adding a transition between two clips. What’s more, nearly all video editing software products on the market come bundled with rich visual and audio effects libraries that make the color grading or audio editing process much faster. Adding opening titles, lower thirds or any other image overlay can help you introduce the characters in the video to the audience, inform the audience about important aspects of the topic you’re covering or summarize the key points of the video.

Creating a soundtrack is also a vital step of the video editing process that largely influences the quality of the final video. That’s why the narration or the dialogues must be recorded professionally since even the slightest background noise can distract the viewer. Whether or not you are going to add music to a video, depends on the type of project you’re working on. Video editing software products like Filmora have their own royalty free music libraries that offer songs from Rock or Electronic and numerous other genres.

When you complete the video editing process, you should export the video to a folder on your hard drive or directly to your YouTube channel if the video editing app you’ve chosen provides that option. How long the rendering of a video is going to take depends on your computer’s processing power, video’s length, and the output resolution.

Adding/Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel

As we already noted you can either upload a video to YouTube directly from a video editing software or from a hard drive after the rendering process is completed. You can upload videos with 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios to your channel, and the platform support videos in resolutions up to 8K. The minimum length of a YouTube video is 33 seconds while a video’s maximum length cannot exceed the twelve-hour limit. The file’s size can’t be larger than 128GB while the frame rates can go as high as 60fps. If you need to edit the uploaded and published YouTube videos, you can check our tips about editing existing YouTube videos , and you can check out our guide about how to make money on YouTube if you would like to learn more about account monetization.

Read More to Get : How to Loop a YouTube Video >>

1. Optimize Your Content for YouTube Searches

Every bit of information you add to the video increases its visibility on the platform. Even the name of the file you’re uploading to your channel should contain a keyword, and once the upload is completed you should add a title, description, and metadata if you would like to increase the video’s visibility on the platform. It is vital to select your YouTube SEO strategy before you actually start adding new videos to your strategy. In case you’re not familiar with the concept of search engine optimization for YouTube, you can find everything you need to know aboutYouTube SEO in our guide.

2. Create Visually Captivating Thumbnails and End Screen Elements

A thumbnail is usually a snapshot of a frame from a video, you’ve created during the video editing process or any other still image that suggests what the video is about. A small thing like adding a thumbnail to a YouTube video can increase both the number of views and the number of likes that video is getting. In addition, YouTube’s video editor enables you to add end screens that last anywhere between five and twenty seconds to your videos, but keep in mind that the video must be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen. There are a number of fully customizable templates available that can be uses to promote your upcoming videos or to invite viewers to subscribe to your channel.

Wanna making YouTube thumbnail yourself? Check some of the best YouTube thumbnail makers list.

3. Publish, Interact and Share

YouTube lets you keep your videos private until you are ready to make them public. Once you decide to make a video available to all YouTube users, you should share it on social media like Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Furthermore, embedding a YouTube video on your blog or website can drastically increase the number of views it’s getting. The YouTube Analytics tool is designed to help you track the metrics that indicate how well your video is performing. Don’t know which analytics tools should use? Check our picks of some useful YouTube Analytics Tools to learn how to analyze your video.

How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer?

Even though you can use almost any video editing software to edit a YouTube video, we recommend trying a versatile video editing app like Filmora to edit videos on Windows PC and Mac which offers both basic and advanced video editing features. Creating a video in Filmora doesn’t require a developed set of video editing skills, since all of the tools and options the editor offers are remarkably easy to use.

When you are ready to start a new project you should simply launch the software, and once the new project loads, you should head over to the File menu and select the Project Settings option that lets you set the resolution, aspect ratio and the frame rate of the video. Proceed to import the footage into the project by selecting one of the available options in the Import drop-down menu or by simply dragging the media assets from a folder on your hard drive and dropping them to the Filmora’s Media Panel. In case you don’t have your own audio and video footage you can download videos, music, visual and audio effects from a stock footage website like Filmstock effects store . Filmora also offers screen casting features, so you can easily record gameplay, show viewers how to use a software or capture any other type of activity on your computer’s screen.

Add each media asset you want to include in the final cut of the video to the timeline and then proceed to remove all unwanted parts of the video and audio clips from the timeline using the Cut or Trim options. Filmora offers rich transitions and visual effects libraries you can use to make the cuts between shot smoother or enhance the colors in the video clips you’re editing. Furthermore, the editor lets you take snapshots of any frame in video clips you’ve placed on the timeline in a single click which can be quite useful if you want to create a thumbnail for your YouTube video. Creating the opening titles, end credits or adding different image overlays to a video is a straight forward process since you just have to select the option that fits the style of the video you’re creating and add it to the timeline. Once you’ve completed the video editing process, you can click on the Export button and decide if you want to export a video directly to your YouTube channel or to a destination on your hard drive.

New to Filmora? Check our beginner guide about How to Edit Videos in Filmora in details or check the quick video tutorial below to find out more details.

Conclusion

Becoming a successful YouTuber requires a lot of dedication and hard work, so if at first, you don’t succeed, you should be patient and persistent. In time, as your channel grows, you will be able to monetize your videos, but only if you keep producing new content at a steady pace. Each step of the YouTube creation process is equally important, and you should dedicate an equal amount of attention to recording high-quality footage, editing, and promotion of the content you share on your YouTube channel. Was this article helpful? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and experiences with us.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Finding the audience for short videos you create, sharing your knowledge of publicizing the music you create has become a much simpler and cheaper process in the last fourteen years. ‘Everyone deserves a voice’ is one of the core values that motivates the founders of YouTube to continue developing the world’s largest video sharing platform. So if you are looking for your own voice, but you’re not really sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place, because in this article we are going to show you how to make attention-grabbing YouTube videos that are going to attract a huge audience.

• Preparation Stage for Making YouTube Video [4 Aspects You Should Consider]
• Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video [5 Tips and Tricks]
• YouTube Video Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
• Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
• How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer? [Step Guide]

Preparation Stage: Getting Ready to Make a YouTube Video

Achieving success on YouTube may only seem easy before you realize how much time and effort it takes to run a successful YouTube channel. Making a YouTube video isn’t much different than making any other type of short or feature film as you have to go through the same stages of the video production process. Everything, including creating YouTube videos starts with an idea, so let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take before you actually start recording your first YouTube video.

1. Start a YouTube Channel

The journey towards success begins with seemingly small and insignificant steps. Creating a YouTube channel is exactly that, a step, without which you won’t be able to become a YouTuber. All you have to do in order to create a channel on YouTube is sign in to the platform using your Google account and then head over to the Settings menu. Click on the Create a new channel option and then pick a name for your Brand channel . Dedicate some extra time to the process of selecting a name for the channel, because that is the first thing your potential followers are going to notice. The platform lets you start as many as fifty channels with one Gmail ID, and as your channels grow, you can add multiple managers to each channel you’ve started. Click on the Create button when you’re done and that’s it you’re now a proud owner of a YouTube channel.

We have summarized some tips and tricks for creating a YouTube channel account , hope that will help you to create a channel more easily.

2. Choose a Niche and Craft a Video Content Strategy

Devising a plan before you start producing content you are going to share on YouTube is going to give you a sense of direction, since there are so many different types of videos that can attract a large audience. Try to imagine your ideal YouTube follower, and then think about what they are interested in or how you can generate value for them through the content you post on your channel. Attempting to cover a broad spectrum of topics usually doesn’t produce the best results, so instead, you should focus on a specific subject and do your best to offer a unique perspective to your viewers on that subject. More importantly, you need to choose the themes for your videos that are relevant to the audience you would like to reach. Gaming, tutorials, beauty or comedy videos are just a few of the most popular genres of videos on YouTube, although which niche you’re going to pick ultimately depends on your personal interests and reasons why you chose to become a YouTuber in the first place.

Additionally, you should follow the hottest trends on the Internet so that you can find out which topics are drawing the most attention at the moment. Don’t let all these questions trouble you, simply choose a niche in which you feel the most comfortable in and start shooting. Keep a watchful eye on how your followers respond to the videos you share on your channel as time goes on and remain open to new ideas or collaborations.

3. Secure a Fresh Supply of YouTube Video Ideas

Defining your niche is just a beginning because you have to keep producing your videos at a steady pace. Most YouTube experts say that sharing new content at least once a week is necessary if you want to gather a large group of followers on your channel. Consequently, you’ll need a constant supply of ideas for new videos that cover topics your audience is interested in. A simple search on YouTube can help you discover the videos on the platform that have the most views. This should give you a pretty good idea which types of videos are the most popular at the moment and what viewers want to see the most.

Reading the comments section below a YouTube video can be a great way to discover new ideas since viewers often ask questions or search for advice on very specific aspects of the topic that particular video is covering. Moreover, YouTube isn’t the only destination on the Internet where you can find inspiration for your next video since there are countless groups and communities where you can come across interesting topics for your next video.

4. Get the Right Video and Audio Recording Equipment

The list of audio and video recording gear you’re going to need to create a YouTube video depends on the type of video you’re trying to make. Gamers who want to record gameplay and post it on their YouTube channel only need a screen capturing software or a capture card and a microphone. The list of equipment is a bit longer for YouTubers interested in the production of vlogs, comedy or review videos since they are going to need a camera or a Smartphone capable of recording videos at high resolutions, lighting equipment, tripods, steady cams, microphones. If you would like to learn more about the pieces of equipment you are going to need while recording a YouTube video, check our picks of the YouTube Video Shooting Equipment List .

Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video

After you’ve successfully completed the preparation stage it is time to start getting ready for the next step of the process of making a YouTube video. However, you can’t just pick up a camera and start randomly shooting unrelated scenes, instead, you should follow the steps below that make the production of a video much less complicated.

1. Write a Script and Make a Shooting Schedule

Write down all of your ideas for your next video prior to shooting the first shot of that video. A script can be particularly useful if the video you’re planning on making involves a lot of narration since you’ll always know what to say next. Furthermore, you don’t have to record the entire video on the same day, and you have the freedom to plan when and where you are going to record each scene you want to include in the video.

2. Set a Scene

You control what the viewers of your YouTube video are going to see. That’s why you have to choose your shooting locations carefully and to hand-pick each prop that is going to be visible in the shot. Avoid shooting in messy rooms, because the items in the background are going to distract the viewer and reduce the quality of your videos.

3. Pick the Best Camera Positions

Once you know where and when you are going to shoot your video, you should start planning your shots. Most YouTube videos are recorded from a single camera position, but you can also experiment with different shot angles if it helps you to tell the story of the video. Don’t put the actors near direct sources of light like windows or lamps because if you do so you can easily end up ruining the shot.

4. Make Sure that You Have Enough Light in The Shot

Natural sources of light are often not enough to light a scene properly, because the amount of available light you’ll have at your disposal can change in a few minutes. That’s why nearly all YouTubers use lighting kits that enable them to control the amount of light in the shot at any moment.

5. Bonus: Making YouTube Videos Without a Camera

In case using video and audio recording equipment is a bit too technical for you, there is a simple alternative solution since you can capture all activities on your computer’s screen with software products such as Filmora or OBS Studio. This is an excellent option for gamers who want to record gameplay of their favorite video games or skilled educators that would like to share their knowledge and show others how to use a piece of software or perform any other computer-based task.

Besides screencasting, you can also assemble existing footage from old TV shows, movies or cartoons to make a YouTube video. You don’t have to worry about copyright infringements, as long as the footage you’re using is within the public domain. However, if you accidentally end up using footage without permission it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to file a lawsuit, but your video may be removed from your YouTube channel if someone reports that you’ve used footage without the permission from its owners.

Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded

Before you can share the video clips you recorded with a camera, Smartphone or a screencasting software, you should edit them first. Choosing video editing software isn’t always easy since there are so many different options that enable you to perform both basic and advanced video editing tasks. You can check our recommendations about some of the best video editing software for YouTube videos, in case you are still looking for a video editor that is best suited for the price range you’ve had in mind or your skill level. You should choose a video editing app that you feel the most comfortable using since you are going to spend a lot of time editing videos with it.

The video editing techniques you will utilize during the process of piecing together a YouTube video depend on a number of factors that range from the genre of the video to its visual style. However, trimming or cutting the footage, creating opening titles and end credits are among the most common video editing actions you will have to perform on each new project. Mastering these basic video editing techniques is essential for the success of your videos on YouTube since it will enable you to quickly trim a video clip by dragging one of its ends in an inward or outward direction or remove a portion of a clip you don’t want to feature in the final cut of the video from the timeline.

Hard cuts can at times disrupt the flow of a video, but you can easily fix this by adding a transition between two clips. What’s more, nearly all video editing software products on the market come bundled with rich visual and audio effects libraries that make the color grading or audio editing process much faster. Adding opening titles, lower thirds or any other image overlay can help you introduce the characters in the video to the audience, inform the audience about important aspects of the topic you’re covering or summarize the key points of the video.

Creating a soundtrack is also a vital step of the video editing process that largely influences the quality of the final video. That’s why the narration or the dialogues must be recorded professionally since even the slightest background noise can distract the viewer. Whether or not you are going to add music to a video, depends on the type of project you’re working on. Video editing software products like Filmora have their own royalty free music libraries that offer songs from Rock or Electronic and numerous other genres.

When you complete the video editing process, you should export the video to a folder on your hard drive or directly to your YouTube channel if the video editing app you’ve chosen provides that option. How long the rendering of a video is going to take depends on your computer’s processing power, video’s length, and the output resolution.

Adding/Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel

As we already noted you can either upload a video to YouTube directly from a video editing software or from a hard drive after the rendering process is completed. You can upload videos with 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios to your channel, and the platform support videos in resolutions up to 8K. The minimum length of a YouTube video is 33 seconds while a video’s maximum length cannot exceed the twelve-hour limit. The file’s size can’t be larger than 128GB while the frame rates can go as high as 60fps. If you need to edit the uploaded and published YouTube videos, you can check our tips about editing existing YouTube videos , and you can check out our guide about how to make money on YouTube if you would like to learn more about account monetization.

Read More to Get : How to Loop a YouTube Video >>

1. Optimize Your Content for YouTube Searches

Every bit of information you add to the video increases its visibility on the platform. Even the name of the file you’re uploading to your channel should contain a keyword, and once the upload is completed you should add a title, description, and metadata if you would like to increase the video’s visibility on the platform. It is vital to select your YouTube SEO strategy before you actually start adding new videos to your strategy. In case you’re not familiar with the concept of search engine optimization for YouTube, you can find everything you need to know aboutYouTube SEO in our guide.

2. Create Visually Captivating Thumbnails and End Screen Elements

A thumbnail is usually a snapshot of a frame from a video, you’ve created during the video editing process or any other still image that suggests what the video is about. A small thing like adding a thumbnail to a YouTube video can increase both the number of views and the number of likes that video is getting. In addition, YouTube’s video editor enables you to add end screens that last anywhere between five and twenty seconds to your videos, but keep in mind that the video must be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen. There are a number of fully customizable templates available that can be uses to promote your upcoming videos or to invite viewers to subscribe to your channel.

Wanna making YouTube thumbnail yourself? Check some of the best YouTube thumbnail makers list.

3. Publish, Interact and Share

YouTube lets you keep your videos private until you are ready to make them public. Once you decide to make a video available to all YouTube users, you should share it on social media like Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Furthermore, embedding a YouTube video on your blog or website can drastically increase the number of views it’s getting. The YouTube Analytics tool is designed to help you track the metrics that indicate how well your video is performing. Don’t know which analytics tools should use? Check our picks of some useful YouTube Analytics Tools to learn how to analyze your video.

How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer?

Even though you can use almost any video editing software to edit a YouTube video, we recommend trying a versatile video editing app like Filmora to edit videos on Windows PC and Mac which offers both basic and advanced video editing features. Creating a video in Filmora doesn’t require a developed set of video editing skills, since all of the tools and options the editor offers are remarkably easy to use.

When you are ready to start a new project you should simply launch the software, and once the new project loads, you should head over to the File menu and select the Project Settings option that lets you set the resolution, aspect ratio and the frame rate of the video. Proceed to import the footage into the project by selecting one of the available options in the Import drop-down menu or by simply dragging the media assets from a folder on your hard drive and dropping them to the Filmora’s Media Panel. In case you don’t have your own audio and video footage you can download videos, music, visual and audio effects from a stock footage website like Filmstock effects store . Filmora also offers screen casting features, so you can easily record gameplay, show viewers how to use a software or capture any other type of activity on your computer’s screen.

Add each media asset you want to include in the final cut of the video to the timeline and then proceed to remove all unwanted parts of the video and audio clips from the timeline using the Cut or Trim options. Filmora offers rich transitions and visual effects libraries you can use to make the cuts between shot smoother or enhance the colors in the video clips you’re editing. Furthermore, the editor lets you take snapshots of any frame in video clips you’ve placed on the timeline in a single click which can be quite useful if you want to create a thumbnail for your YouTube video. Creating the opening titles, end credits or adding different image overlays to a video is a straight forward process since you just have to select the option that fits the style of the video you’re creating and add it to the timeline. Once you’ve completed the video editing process, you can click on the Export button and decide if you want to export a video directly to your YouTube channel or to a destination on your hard drive.

New to Filmora? Check our beginner guide about How to Edit Videos in Filmora in details or check the quick video tutorial below to find out more details.

Conclusion

Becoming a successful YouTuber requires a lot of dedication and hard work, so if at first, you don’t succeed, you should be patient and persistent. In time, as your channel grows, you will be able to monetize your videos, but only if you keep producing new content at a steady pace. Each step of the YouTube creation process is equally important, and you should dedicate an equal amount of attention to recording high-quality footage, editing, and promotion of the content you share on your YouTube channel. Was this article helpful? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and experiences with us.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Finding the audience for short videos you create, sharing your knowledge of publicizing the music you create has become a much simpler and cheaper process in the last fourteen years. ‘Everyone deserves a voice’ is one of the core values that motivates the founders of YouTube to continue developing the world’s largest video sharing platform. So if you are looking for your own voice, but you’re not really sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place, because in this article we are going to show you how to make attention-grabbing YouTube videos that are going to attract a huge audience.

• Preparation Stage for Making YouTube Video [4 Aspects You Should Consider]
• Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video [5 Tips and Tricks]
• YouTube Video Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
• Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
• How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer? [Step Guide]

Preparation Stage: Getting Ready to Make a YouTube Video

Achieving success on YouTube may only seem easy before you realize how much time and effort it takes to run a successful YouTube channel. Making a YouTube video isn’t much different than making any other type of short or feature film as you have to go through the same stages of the video production process. Everything, including creating YouTube videos starts with an idea, so let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take before you actually start recording your first YouTube video.

1. Start a YouTube Channel

The journey towards success begins with seemingly small and insignificant steps. Creating a YouTube channel is exactly that, a step, without which you won’t be able to become a YouTuber. All you have to do in order to create a channel on YouTube is sign in to the platform using your Google account and then head over to the Settings menu. Click on the Create a new channel option and then pick a name for your Brand channel . Dedicate some extra time to the process of selecting a name for the channel, because that is the first thing your potential followers are going to notice. The platform lets you start as many as fifty channels with one Gmail ID, and as your channels grow, you can add multiple managers to each channel you’ve started. Click on the Create button when you’re done and that’s it you’re now a proud owner of a YouTube channel.

We have summarized some tips and tricks for creating a YouTube channel account , hope that will help you to create a channel more easily.

2. Choose a Niche and Craft a Video Content Strategy

Devising a plan before you start producing content you are going to share on YouTube is going to give you a sense of direction, since there are so many different types of videos that can attract a large audience. Try to imagine your ideal YouTube follower, and then think about what they are interested in or how you can generate value for them through the content you post on your channel. Attempting to cover a broad spectrum of topics usually doesn’t produce the best results, so instead, you should focus on a specific subject and do your best to offer a unique perspective to your viewers on that subject. More importantly, you need to choose the themes for your videos that are relevant to the audience you would like to reach. Gaming, tutorials, beauty or comedy videos are just a few of the most popular genres of videos on YouTube, although which niche you’re going to pick ultimately depends on your personal interests and reasons why you chose to become a YouTuber in the first place.

Additionally, you should follow the hottest trends on the Internet so that you can find out which topics are drawing the most attention at the moment. Don’t let all these questions trouble you, simply choose a niche in which you feel the most comfortable in and start shooting. Keep a watchful eye on how your followers respond to the videos you share on your channel as time goes on and remain open to new ideas or collaborations.

3. Secure a Fresh Supply of YouTube Video Ideas

Defining your niche is just a beginning because you have to keep producing your videos at a steady pace. Most YouTube experts say that sharing new content at least once a week is necessary if you want to gather a large group of followers on your channel. Consequently, you’ll need a constant supply of ideas for new videos that cover topics your audience is interested in. A simple search on YouTube can help you discover the videos on the platform that have the most views. This should give you a pretty good idea which types of videos are the most popular at the moment and what viewers want to see the most.

Reading the comments section below a YouTube video can be a great way to discover new ideas since viewers often ask questions or search for advice on very specific aspects of the topic that particular video is covering. Moreover, YouTube isn’t the only destination on the Internet where you can find inspiration for your next video since there are countless groups and communities where you can come across interesting topics for your next video.

4. Get the Right Video and Audio Recording Equipment

The list of audio and video recording gear you’re going to need to create a YouTube video depends on the type of video you’re trying to make. Gamers who want to record gameplay and post it on their YouTube channel only need a screen capturing software or a capture card and a microphone. The list of equipment is a bit longer for YouTubers interested in the production of vlogs, comedy or review videos since they are going to need a camera or a Smartphone capable of recording videos at high resolutions, lighting equipment, tripods, steady cams, microphones. If you would like to learn more about the pieces of equipment you are going to need while recording a YouTube video, check our picks of the YouTube Video Shooting Equipment List .

Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video

After you’ve successfully completed the preparation stage it is time to start getting ready for the next step of the process of making a YouTube video. However, you can’t just pick up a camera and start randomly shooting unrelated scenes, instead, you should follow the steps below that make the production of a video much less complicated.

1. Write a Script and Make a Shooting Schedule

Write down all of your ideas for your next video prior to shooting the first shot of that video. A script can be particularly useful if the video you’re planning on making involves a lot of narration since you’ll always know what to say next. Furthermore, you don’t have to record the entire video on the same day, and you have the freedom to plan when and where you are going to record each scene you want to include in the video.

2. Set a Scene

You control what the viewers of your YouTube video are going to see. That’s why you have to choose your shooting locations carefully and to hand-pick each prop that is going to be visible in the shot. Avoid shooting in messy rooms, because the items in the background are going to distract the viewer and reduce the quality of your videos.

3. Pick the Best Camera Positions

Once you know where and when you are going to shoot your video, you should start planning your shots. Most YouTube videos are recorded from a single camera position, but you can also experiment with different shot angles if it helps you to tell the story of the video. Don’t put the actors near direct sources of light like windows or lamps because if you do so you can easily end up ruining the shot.

4. Make Sure that You Have Enough Light in The Shot

Natural sources of light are often not enough to light a scene properly, because the amount of available light you’ll have at your disposal can change in a few minutes. That’s why nearly all YouTubers use lighting kits that enable them to control the amount of light in the shot at any moment.

5. Bonus: Making YouTube Videos Without a Camera

In case using video and audio recording equipment is a bit too technical for you, there is a simple alternative solution since you can capture all activities on your computer’s screen with software products such as Filmora or OBS Studio. This is an excellent option for gamers who want to record gameplay of their favorite video games or skilled educators that would like to share their knowledge and show others how to use a piece of software or perform any other computer-based task.

Besides screencasting, you can also assemble existing footage from old TV shows, movies or cartoons to make a YouTube video. You don’t have to worry about copyright infringements, as long as the footage you’re using is within the public domain. However, if you accidentally end up using footage without permission it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to file a lawsuit, but your video may be removed from your YouTube channel if someone reports that you’ve used footage without the permission from its owners.

Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded

Before you can share the video clips you recorded with a camera, Smartphone or a screencasting software, you should edit them first. Choosing video editing software isn’t always easy since there are so many different options that enable you to perform both basic and advanced video editing tasks. You can check our recommendations about some of the best video editing software for YouTube videos, in case you are still looking for a video editor that is best suited for the price range you’ve had in mind or your skill level. You should choose a video editing app that you feel the most comfortable using since you are going to spend a lot of time editing videos with it.

The video editing techniques you will utilize during the process of piecing together a YouTube video depend on a number of factors that range from the genre of the video to its visual style. However, trimming or cutting the footage, creating opening titles and end credits are among the most common video editing actions you will have to perform on each new project. Mastering these basic video editing techniques is essential for the success of your videos on YouTube since it will enable you to quickly trim a video clip by dragging one of its ends in an inward or outward direction or remove a portion of a clip you don’t want to feature in the final cut of the video from the timeline.

Hard cuts can at times disrupt the flow of a video, but you can easily fix this by adding a transition between two clips. What’s more, nearly all video editing software products on the market come bundled with rich visual and audio effects libraries that make the color grading or audio editing process much faster. Adding opening titles, lower thirds or any other image overlay can help you introduce the characters in the video to the audience, inform the audience about important aspects of the topic you’re covering or summarize the key points of the video.

Creating a soundtrack is also a vital step of the video editing process that largely influences the quality of the final video. That’s why the narration or the dialogues must be recorded professionally since even the slightest background noise can distract the viewer. Whether or not you are going to add music to a video, depends on the type of project you’re working on. Video editing software products like Filmora have their own royalty free music libraries that offer songs from Rock or Electronic and numerous other genres.

When you complete the video editing process, you should export the video to a folder on your hard drive or directly to your YouTube channel if the video editing app you’ve chosen provides that option. How long the rendering of a video is going to take depends on your computer’s processing power, video’s length, and the output resolution.

Adding/Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel

As we already noted you can either upload a video to YouTube directly from a video editing software or from a hard drive after the rendering process is completed. You can upload videos with 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios to your channel, and the platform support videos in resolutions up to 8K. The minimum length of a YouTube video is 33 seconds while a video’s maximum length cannot exceed the twelve-hour limit. The file’s size can’t be larger than 128GB while the frame rates can go as high as 60fps. If you need to edit the uploaded and published YouTube videos, you can check our tips about editing existing YouTube videos , and you can check out our guide about how to make money on YouTube if you would like to learn more about account monetization.

Read More to Get : How to Loop a YouTube Video >>

1. Optimize Your Content for YouTube Searches

Every bit of information you add to the video increases its visibility on the platform. Even the name of the file you’re uploading to your channel should contain a keyword, and once the upload is completed you should add a title, description, and metadata if you would like to increase the video’s visibility on the platform. It is vital to select your YouTube SEO strategy before you actually start adding new videos to your strategy. In case you’re not familiar with the concept of search engine optimization for YouTube, you can find everything you need to know aboutYouTube SEO in our guide.

2. Create Visually Captivating Thumbnails and End Screen Elements

A thumbnail is usually a snapshot of a frame from a video, you’ve created during the video editing process or any other still image that suggests what the video is about. A small thing like adding a thumbnail to a YouTube video can increase both the number of views and the number of likes that video is getting. In addition, YouTube’s video editor enables you to add end screens that last anywhere between five and twenty seconds to your videos, but keep in mind that the video must be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen. There are a number of fully customizable templates available that can be uses to promote your upcoming videos or to invite viewers to subscribe to your channel.

Wanna making YouTube thumbnail yourself? Check some of the best YouTube thumbnail makers list.

3. Publish, Interact and Share

YouTube lets you keep your videos private until you are ready to make them public. Once you decide to make a video available to all YouTube users, you should share it on social media like Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Furthermore, embedding a YouTube video on your blog or website can drastically increase the number of views it’s getting. The YouTube Analytics tool is designed to help you track the metrics that indicate how well your video is performing. Don’t know which analytics tools should use? Check our picks of some useful YouTube Analytics Tools to learn how to analyze your video.

How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer?

Even though you can use almost any video editing software to edit a YouTube video, we recommend trying a versatile video editing app like Filmora to edit videos on Windows PC and Mac which offers both basic and advanced video editing features. Creating a video in Filmora doesn’t require a developed set of video editing skills, since all of the tools and options the editor offers are remarkably easy to use.

When you are ready to start a new project you should simply launch the software, and once the new project loads, you should head over to the File menu and select the Project Settings option that lets you set the resolution, aspect ratio and the frame rate of the video. Proceed to import the footage into the project by selecting one of the available options in the Import drop-down menu or by simply dragging the media assets from a folder on your hard drive and dropping them to the Filmora’s Media Panel. In case you don’t have your own audio and video footage you can download videos, music, visual and audio effects from a stock footage website like Filmstock effects store . Filmora also offers screen casting features, so you can easily record gameplay, show viewers how to use a software or capture any other type of activity on your computer’s screen.

Add each media asset you want to include in the final cut of the video to the timeline and then proceed to remove all unwanted parts of the video and audio clips from the timeline using the Cut or Trim options. Filmora offers rich transitions and visual effects libraries you can use to make the cuts between shot smoother or enhance the colors in the video clips you’re editing. Furthermore, the editor lets you take snapshots of any frame in video clips you’ve placed on the timeline in a single click which can be quite useful if you want to create a thumbnail for your YouTube video. Creating the opening titles, end credits or adding different image overlays to a video is a straight forward process since you just have to select the option that fits the style of the video you’re creating and add it to the timeline. Once you’ve completed the video editing process, you can click on the Export button and decide if you want to export a video directly to your YouTube channel or to a destination on your hard drive.

New to Filmora? Check our beginner guide about How to Edit Videos in Filmora in details or check the quick video tutorial below to find out more details.

Conclusion

Becoming a successful YouTuber requires a lot of dedication and hard work, so if at first, you don’t succeed, you should be patient and persistent. In time, as your channel grows, you will be able to monetize your videos, but only if you keep producing new content at a steady pace. Each step of the YouTube creation process is equally important, and you should dedicate an equal amount of attention to recording high-quality footage, editing, and promotion of the content you share on your YouTube channel. Was this article helpful? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and experiences with us.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Perfecting Video Segmentation for Enhanced Viewing Experience on YouTube

How to Add Chapters to YouTube Videos

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you have seen chapter markers on YouTube of our official channel, you might be wondering how someone can create chapters on YouTube? What is the way to mark different parts of the videos, and how can you add markers to all the existing videos on YouTube? Don’t worry; this article will discuss everything about YouTube chapters that you need to know. Keep reading to find all the details and learn the step-by-step instructions to add chapters to your YouTube videos for better engagement.

• Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?
• Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?
• Part 3: Why Add Chapters to Videos?
• Part 4: When Add Chapters on YouTube?
• Part 5: Will Chapter Decrease Watching Time?
• Part 6: Video Chapter Adding Tips
• Part 7: Why YouTube Chapter is Not Working?

Part 1: What Are YouTube Chapters?

YouTube video chapters are an excellent way to optimize your YouTube content. When you have chapters for your YouTube video, each chapter will have an individual preview. Chapters will break your YouTube video into multiple parts allowing your audience to have better context and information.

As per YouTube, chapters let the audience navigate better through videos. Chapters will let your audience watch different video parts, which will eventually lead to better engagement. If you want to organize your YouTube content, chapters are one of the best ways to go about it. By using labeled timestamps, your video will be divided into multiple sections. Your audience will be able to see the preview of the content and easily skip to the part they want to see within the video’s progress bar.

Part 2: How to Add Chapter to YouTube Video Progress Bar?

If you are a YouTube creator and want to know how you can add chapters to your YouTube content, here’s what you need to do. Follow these instructions carefully:

Step 1: First things first, please sign in to your YouTube account.

Step 2: Select the video that you want to edit and add chapters.

Step 3: Click on the edit video option. This option will be there under the video.

Step 4: On the add details page, you will see the description box. Here, you need to add the list of titles and timestamps.

Please keep in mind that you must add the first timestamp with “00:00”. You will have to add a minimum of three timestamps with a minimum of 10 seconds for each chapter. Here is how it looks like in the description after published.

Part 3: Why YouTubers Should Add Chapters to videos?

There are two primary advantages of adding chapters to your YouTube videos. Apart from making your YouTube video look organized and neat, chapters will let you provide a better user experience to everyone watching your video because they will find all the information about your video faster and easier within a video. And the second benefit is that your YouTube video will show up in search results. This is a way to optimize your content for more users to find your content.

YouTube chapters are beneficial for both creators and viewers. On the progress bar, these clickable chapters can be added. This will allow a viewer to skip and scrub through a video quickly and skip to parts they actually want to watch.

This feature is quite helpful for videos that are pretty long. Chapters will let you segment the videos into important chapters so that the viewer can rewatch already watched chapters or skip to other chapters in the video. YouTube chapters have been recently added to this platform for better navigation and engagement.

Better User Experience for Users

Just like Google wants browsers to find what they are looking for when they add a keyword, YouTube also wants to help viewers find what they are looking for. Chapters can be immensely beneficial for extended content. For example, if you are uploading a video of your convert video, let the users jump straight to their favorite songs.

Even in tutorial video content, viewers will now have a chance to get straight to the main part of the video. With chapters being added, viewers will have an opportunity to decide whether they want to watch the whole video or not. They won’t have to keep skipping one part to another blindly. Chapters will allow them to find what they are looking for in an instant.

For Creators: Increased Visibility

If you know about the Google algorithm, you must be aware that it regularly changes its algorithm to let people find the information they are looking for easily. Adding chapters to your video will encourage Google to display them more often when someone searches for them, and this will include adding your videos to its featured snippets.

While adding chapters, you need to make sure that it is labeled with correct keywords, and it is clear and descriptive. YouTube videos are often showed as Google snippet when someone tries to find something on the search engine. Adding a chapter will let Google understand the content better, thereby letting your videos gain more search traffic.

Part 4: When should I add or not chapters on YouTube?

If you are wondering whether all videos on YouTube should have chapters, the answer to this is no. A two minutes long video won’t require chapters because it won’t make sense. Think about whether you would want your audience to have reduced watch time. Another thing to pay attention to is audience retention.

We mentioned earlier that adding chapters to long videos will be a good idea, but before you jump in and start adding chapters, you need to understand whether it will help you and should be done in your particular case?

If you are uploading a video on education, science and technology, how-to, news and politics, Q and A, and other similar videos, adding chapters will definitely help. In these kinds of videos, you will let your audience rewatch a section they liked the most over and over again.

However, if you are uploading music, entertainment, comedy, and film and animation videos, we will recommend not to add chapters because this will reduce the watch time.

Part 5: Do YouTube Video Chapters Decrease Channel Watch Time?

One of the most commonly asked questions regarding adding chapters to YouTube videos is whether it will reduce the watch time of a video. Video chapters are a pretty good feature and can enable your videos to engage with the viewers.

Since chapters allow your audience to skip through video content, they are not really watching the whole video, which can’t be suitable for audience retention! Here’s what we have to say to this: don’t put your 100% focus on watch time right now. Your focus should be creating informative and engaging content, which will keep your audience hooked to their screens. Even if you add chapters, if your audience doesn’t find it engaging, they will choose not to go on with the content.

Video chapters are a tiny part of the overall content. Chapters provide value to your audience, and you should try them. If you are uploading a concise video, animation video, funny video, and more, don’t add chapters.

Even some of the most watched videos on YouTube have chapters. Learn from them. These video makers could have thought about numbers rather than giving value to their audience, but they did just the opposite, and here they are with over a million views!

Part 6: Tips for adding chapters to YouTube video

Each video on YouTube is different, and that’s why there is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are some cases where you should not think about adding chapters at all. Whereas in other cases, you will have to experiment a bit before adding chapters.

Here are some tips that will help you.

Do Some Testing

Before adding chapters to a new video that you are thinking to upload, try adding chapters to an old video. See what happens to that video. Have the views increased? How about average view duration? Track these metrics first, and then try adding chapters to your upcoming videos to benefit from videos. Along with these metrics, you will also have to evaluate if adding chapters decreases or increases the watch time and number of views.

Label Your Chapters Using Keywords

Another thing to do that will help you have better traction is using a good keyword strategy. Look at what people are using while searching for content, which is similar to yours? Using names based on keywords that have better search volume will help your videos to rank higher.

Part 7: Why Video Chapter is Not working? [Problem solved]

There are a few mandatory things that you need to do before adding chapters to your YouTube video. Here are some of the common reasons why the video chapter is not working. See if any one of them is true in your case, and rectify it right away.

• Your video doesn’t have the 00:00 timestamp.
• Your video has less than three chapters.
• You have added a chapter that is less than 10 seconds long.
• You have not added the timestamps in chronological order.
• Rather than using “:” you have entered “.” for timecodes.
• If your channel has active copyright strikes, video chapters won’t work.
• Your channel doesn’t have more than 1k subscribers.
• Your video chapters are not suitable for some viewers.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett