Now That You Started Making Videos Here’s How To Get More Views on YouTube

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It feels so amazing to know that I have inspired many of you guys to start a YouTube Channel. I'm really pleased to see you stepping outside of your comfort zone and getting in front of the camera or recording video screencasts and uploading them to YouTube.

As a new YouTuber, you'll need some creative ideas and strategies to get more views on YouTube and grow your audience. The competition is tough so it's important to make your videos stand out above the others. There are hundreds of hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute of the day and we're all clamoring for attention from the massive influx of viewers visiting the site searching for entertainment and looking for quick fixes to resolve the issues they face in their daily routine of life.

In this post, I'll cover one of the awesome features you can take advantage of to help you get more YouTube video views and get more YouTube subscribers on your channel.

Keep Up With YouTube's Changes

The YouTube platform has evolved tremendously in the past few months and they continue to introduce new features to help you with promoting your videos and your channel. One of the key aspects of growing your audience on YouTube is to keep up with the new features they introduce and use them to your advantage. I use Scoop.it to curate content dedicated to all the latest tips, tutorials and announcements from the YouTube Creator's hub.

For example, the chart below gives you a snapshot of the increase in views on my channel over past 3 years. Each time they made major changes to the channel layout or added new features there is a big spike and increase in YouTube views on my videos. The biggest traffic jumps occurred around the end of 2012 when they updated the channel design and again when the current new Channel One design was introduced at the beginning of 2013.

Get More Views on YouTube

Get More Views On YouTube with InVideo Programming

YouTube doesn't get all the credit. I had a few tricks up my sleeve too, like making videos in response to your questions and going out of my way to be sure I post topical videos that serve as a resource library for you on topics like WordPress Blogging Tips, Google AdSense, Google Chrome Extensions and of course let's not forget the obvious one – YouTube.

One of the coolest features that you can implement on your YouTube videos is called Video Annotations. Using annotations make your videos stand out by adding more interest and making your videos look more polished. There are millions of potential viewers who have never encountered annotations before and they'll be impressed and curious enough to click them to see where they lead. For those who are already aware of of annotations, they might be surprised to see that you know how to implement them correctly. It might take a few weeks, but I found that using InVideo Programming, helps answer the question that I hear asked time and time again because everyone wants to know how to get YouTube subscribers.

The first kind of annotation I want to introduce you to is InVideo Programming. Watch YouTube Annotations Part 1 How To Use InVideo Programming

In this video I walk you through the process of setting up InVideo programming and here's what else you'll learn:

  • Explain the 2 types of InVideo Programming
  • Three places to access the interface for YouTube In-Video Programming
  • Set up the Annotation for your Featured Channel
  • Select from four options for the position of the Featured Channel Annotation
  • Set the time you want the Annotation to appear during the video
  • Choose the length of time the Annotation will be displayed
  • Set up the Annotation for your Featured Video
  • Change to a different Featured Video for the Annotation

Brand your channel with InVideo Programming and you'll end up getting more views on YouTube and more YouTube subscribers. You can also target one video that you want to give more attention to or that best represents the quality of the videos on your YouTube channel. After a few weeks have gone by, check your YouTube subscriber stats in analytics to see how effective these annotations are. You might find that you need to move them up to an earlier spot in the video or adjust their placement.

I hope you have been inspired to upload a video and experiment with these annotations to see if you can do a better job of getting YouTube views. It makes sense to integrate YouTube in your content marketing strategy as part of a holistic approach to building your authority online.

Earlier I mentioned that some of my friends were inspired to start YouTube channels after hearing me talk about it all the time here and on my podcast. Here are a few that I would like to mention and I hope that you take the time to check out the videos I linked to and subscribe to their channels.

Stay tuned for Part Two in this video series about using Annotations and how to get YouTube Subscribers and views.

Recommended: How To Schedule YouTube Video Uploads and Add a Custom Thumbnail

Leave a comment here to let me know what you think or if I need to add your name to the list of bloggers who I inspired to start a YouTube channel.

Video Transcript:

One way to get more subscribers on YouTube is by using a feature that is available to all YouTubers called Video Annotations.
This is the first in a two-part series where I'll show you how to access the interface to set up the annotations. I'll describe how they're different and how you can use each one to your advantage.

The first type of annotation we'll discuss is called InVideo programming.

Now what's really cool about integrating InVideo programming and using it to promote your channel is that you have two different types of  InVideo Programming. One as you'll see at the top here is a link for someone to subscribe to your channel. The other one I've placed at the bottom right and that's a link to a popular video that I wanna bring attention to. So now let's see how to setup InVideo Programming.

Up at the top right hand side click on the down arrow go to YouTube Settings and then view additional features from there go to the nav bar on the left and you'll see InVideo Programming.

The other way you can access InVideo Programming is if you're in your Video Manager. Once again, over on the left hand side
you'll see Channel Settings and then InVideo Programming. And there's one last option for accessing this also you can access it from your dashboard and here again there's the Channel Settings and the InVideo Programming.

Now you'll see here you can set the featured channel which is the subscription one that I showed you earlier or featured video you get the choice of putting at the top right left, bottom left, for the bottom right this is something that you need to test based on what's going on in most of your videos because remember with InVideo programming these features are going to appear in all of the videos now across your channel.

So think about the videos that you have and think about what might be the best placement. The next option you can choose is whether you want the featured channel to appear at the end of the video, at a custom start time or throughout the entire video. In this case I've decided that I want it at the end of the video.

Then you can say how long you want it to last and this would just be in seconds. Now you also have these same choices with the featured video. I decided to use this one particular video that I have that's called What to Wear Your YouTube Videos and by the way if you haven't seen that video yet – check it out cuz it's kinda funny.

But if I decided that I wanted to use a different video, I would just come here and remove it then this would give me that option to pic another video. Either the most recent upload or choose the video. Now I'm just gonna put that one back in there.

I want this featured video to appear a little bit sooner then that feature channel. Play around with these times and test them and see which works best for you.

In the next video we'll talk about the other annotations that you can apply to individual videos.

So make sure you subscribe to this channel which is called Ms Ileane Speaks and I'll see you in the next video!

44 thoughts on “Now That You Started Making Videos Here’s How To Get More Views on YouTube”

  1. Scott Craighead

    I often back away from YouTube videos that use annotations. Because it feels like a fly on my TV screen. I just want it to go away! Often I have to hit annotation off and that’s why I’m not on youtube much anymore. Playlist something and back to browsing. – Scott Craighead

    2. Justin Germino

      Some of it is definitely overuse, just look at many of the game hosted gamecasts, minecraft videos to see how obnoxious it can be, also the limitation of not being able to link to anything but another video kind of hurts, I would love to do in-linking that can go to a more detailed written blog post on my site, instead I have to settle for putting link in description.

      2. Scott Craighead

        I agree with that. Instead we have to use the description the box. I wouldn’t mind something that like myself. Link to blog on video face. But my video will be just an image. saying “GO HERE!”

  2. Sanjeev

    Thanks for the mention Ileane!
    Annotation is a great way to promote the channel on YouTube, I am also using it for promoting Makewebworld youtube channel. Just want to mention that we need to use it carefully as it may become intrusive with massive use, also it should not obstruct the view for the user..so while recording we need to remember the placement of the Annotation and record accordingly….

    1. Ileane

      Hey Sanjeev! I’m really enjoying your YouTube videos, keep up the great work. I agree that sometimes we can overdo it with annotations. I’m still testing to find the sweet spot for placing the InVideo Programming and it’s a little tricky because I have over 150 videos. A lot of my older video which are still very popular and get a lot of views have all sorts of things going on that will interfere with the annotations. That’s why I decided to put them at the end because I know that most people never really make it to the end of the video – but if they do – more than likely they will end up subscribing or watching another video. Hope that makes sense.

      Thanks for your support Sanjeev. I see that you shared this post on Facebook and Google+ already. I really appreciate that.

      Have a wonderful day.

      1. Sanjeev

        I agree, with so many videos, finding the sweet spot will be tough…I am also currently using it at the end of the video and checking the response from the users.

  3. Tom Jamieson

    Ileane – this is a great post full of good YouTube advice. While I haven’t taken that step of faith yet, I know that when I do, I’ll be frequenting your blog a lot more often. Thanks for sharing your insight.

    1. Ileane

      Tom,

      Have you ever thought about doing a Google Hangout? Let me know if you have a webcam and perhaps we can get you started with video by being a HOA guest. Let me know.

      Thanks.

      1. Tom Jamieson

        Ileane – I’ve been involved in one hangout before and it went pretty well. I would love to participate. Thanks so much for the invite. 🙂

  4. Mitch Mitchell

    Great stuff Ileane. Of course it works best when one is doing tutorials like the type of thing you and Lisa are doing. I’m not sure this advice works well with the types of things I normally do, at least on my main YouTube channel; opinion stuff is quite dicey unless one can also be very entertaining, which I’ve yet to get the full hang of so far.

    1. Ileane

      Hi Mitch, I really think it’s something that you need to test out to see if it will work. In fact, I think that “talking head” videos are the best kind to use annotations for, here’s why. If someone is actually taking the time to watch a talking head video (versus just listening to it) that means you really have their full attention and I think it might be cool to see a little annotation popup on the screen featuring another video that they might be interested in. That’s just how I look at it but really you should test it out by featuring one of your most popular videos and see if that gets you any extra views.

      To be honest, most of the time when I’m watching your videos or the Hot Blog Tips videos, I’m doing it on my SmartTV so I don’t get a chance to comment (of course I don’t see any annotations there either). But I just want to let you know that I AM watching. 🙂

  5. QuynhLan

    Very interesting post. Actually annotation is a great way to promote on YouTube. I think the title and the thumbnail are important because they will make the first impression for audiences.

    1. Ileane

      Hi Keeon, how many videos do you have on YouTube so far? If you have more than 2 you can add them to playlists. That will be helpful for getting more views also.

  7. Riddhi Sharma

    Uploading videos on YouTube is just the beginning. Getting maximum number of views is what one aims for. These steps will truly help anyone achieve that.

    Thanks

  8. Nhick

    Haven’t tried inVideo programming.. hope to follow the steps and get more views on my youtube channel..

    Thanks Ileane,
    Nhick

  9. Clair Trebes

    Ileane, Once again you have proved that you are very good at SMM. I just had a skim read and this YouTube article going in my favorite list 😀

    1. Ileane

      Hey Ana, you do such a fantastic job with video. I know that everyone want to see more of them from you. Thanks for the compliment. 🙂 That means a lot coming from you.

  11. Tayyab Nasir

    I am a blogger and I really want to start a youtube channel and upload videos and help people but I am little bit confused that what type of videos I create which are loved by people and go viral . Can you give me a suggestion.

  12. Valentine Belonwu

    A very awesome and informative post as always Ileane. YouTube has really perform lots of wonders for people when it comes to driving traffic and even generating revenue. I’ve not been so serious with my video marketing but, its something I really have to pay more attention to. Thanks for sharing this with the bizsugar community.

    Val

  14. Ti Roberts

    Wonderful post, Ileane.

    YouTube is such a diverse platform and I love that there’s so many features available to help us grow our following; however, the features are confusing and I haven’t really made the time to tinker with them to figure them out.

    Annotations are a really engaging feature. I’ve used them a bit in my own videos but admittedly not as much as I should. From what little bit I have used them, I’ve noticed a increase in the views that I get to my other videos, which proves their effectiveness in increasing views.

    It’s been a while since I’ve recorded and uploaded a video to YT. I really need to get back on it. I miss being in front of the camera and the increased engagement they invoke from my audience.

    Thanks for sharing this guide with us, Ileane. I appreciate it! 🙂

    Ti

    1. Ileane

      Hi Ti,

      It can be challenging to keep up with all the changes on YouTube just like the other social media sites. I follow a few key channels that always share the latest news and feature updates.

      I’m looking forward to seeing some new videos from you soon girlfriend!!

  15. jossef

    oops now I am sure that YouTube is not for me, I cannot do it like that, maybe I need to focus my effort on another marketing strategy and forget about video marketing, it is really hard for me to create videos and now I am sure I cannot create videos like you. 🙁

  17. Jeannette

    Thanks for this information regarding on increasing youtube view. I am frequently upload my video on youtube before but stopped it since my viewer are less or zero. I am gaining a new inspire after reading on this!

  18. Dhiraj Das

    Hi Ileane, this article is really a push to get more serious with YouTube marketing, great tips! thanks

  19. Edwin

    I have been engaging in more YouTube marketing as part of my overall content strategy. These were extremely insightful tips that I know will help me increase my viewership.

  20. Ankit Bansal

    Great post. So many useful tips in a single post. Thanks. I just uploaded 4-5 videos of my own , and some funny videos to atleast get some views. But gave up eventually as it seemed difficult to get views on my videos.
    So you have motivated me again. I will follow all the instructions you gave and see how it turns out. Thanks.

  21. Ferb

    Thanks so much Ileane, I know one of them and I’m so glad to see the other one that I didn’t how to change the video for audience to watch next.

  22. John

    Hi Ileane
    Thank for great tips and video. I really want to start a youtube channel and upload videos and help people but I am little bit confused that what type of videos I create which are loved by people and go viral . Can you give me a suggestion.

  23. Qasim

    Hi Ileane,

    Youtube is the most powerful video sharing website and one of the great ways to increase traffic to your blog or website, however you should learn how to optimize your video, it’s not only the quality of your video but how viewers will find it and what action they will do while watching it, invideo programming add call to action for your video viewers which makes sure that you can send them to another video or give them additional information.

  25. Karen

    I viewed your youtube tutorial on Scoop It and loved it. I was really excited about the potential and then a friend I had spoken with mentioned “what about intellectual property violations resulting from reposting info that scoop it found on the web, blogs, google news, etc.). I have searched everywhere for clarification and can’t find any. Your input or pointing me the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
    Sincerely,
    Karen

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