YouTube Opportunities and Features Revisited; Support Sam

Help support Sam and his family

Some of you may have heard that my friend (and Video and Livestreaming Show co-host) Sam Proof recently had the misfortune of a house fire.

The good news is that the humans and foster kittens are all safe and accounted for.

The bad news is that there was some property damage and it's probably going to take some time and community support for this family to get back on its feet.

If you're not aware, Sam and Amanda look after foster kittens so they can find their "fur-ever" homes. You can check out CuteAvalanche for more on that front.

If you can help, please find the link to the fundraiser below.

YouTube Opportunities

I realise this is a subject I pull out of my back pocket from time to time. I am a big fan of talking about the fundamentals. Sure they're not as sexy as new and novel things, but they are often much more useful.

When it comes to opportunities, though, the thing I try to tell people (myself included) is:

Opportunities are everywhere, but opportunity cost is real.

There are an infinite number of things you could do in theory, but there are very real limits on your time, energy, motivation and money. You can't do it all; and it's important for your mental and physical health that you don't try to do the impossible.

So as I unpack these opportunities live later in the week, please know that you don't need to do all of them. I just want to create some awareness of what the platform offers. You can revisit these at any time, but I don't want you to be overwhelmed.

YouTube Videos

There are three main types of videos that you can share on YouTube:

• YouTube Videos/VODs ("Video On Demand): Traditional horizontal videos.
• YouTube Shorts: Vertical videos with a limit of 59 seconds.
• YouTube Live: You can livestream to YouTube (either from within YouTube or via third party tools and services like StreamYard, Restream, OBS Studio, Ecamm Live).

When you upload a video, you have a lot options to explore in terms of things like:

• Video title
• Video description
• Thumbnail image
• Tags
• Category

You will have the ability to add:

• Subtitles / captioning resources (which is an important accessibility consideration)
• End cards: Options for your viewers to watch other content or subscribe to your channel

Your YouTube Channel

Your YouTube channel is a corner of YouTube just for you and your content. It's a great idea to think about how to best present yourself as it is likely the place you'll be sending potential viewers/subscribers to.

Elements of your YouTube channel include:

• Your handle: This is the way people can reference your channel in other videos, comments and community. You can link to it as well. Make sure it's memorable. https://www.youtube.com/handle
• Your layout options: You can choose what you display on your channel. You can include things like: Channel trailer; featured video; featured sections (to feature content, playlists and videos).
• Your branding elements: Your profile picture; your banner image (this is a large image and different parts of it will be visible on different devices); your video watermark.
• Your basic info: Your channel name; your handle; a description of your channel; your links; your contact information.

YouTube Playlists

Ideally there would be a unifying subject, theme, idea or through line for the content on your channel. Avoid trying to be 'everything to everybody.'

But even if you have a specific niche there's likely to be recurring content that is even more granular. This might be about specific topics (tutorials on a specific piece of software) or content types (your live show, podcast episodes, your appearances of other peoples' shows and videos) or even just highlights (the best of your content or the most recent).

Playlists are a great way of organising this content.

Playlists can be private (only visible to you), public (visible to everyone) or unlisted (visible to people you give a specific link to).

They can include your content, other people's content, or a combination of the two.

YouTube Community

Community is a group of people you build over time, but it's also a feature of your YouTube Channel (though there is some eligibility criteria).

If you have access to the community tab on your YouTube channel you can share:

• Text posts
• Image posts
• Image polls
• Text polls
• Quiz questions
• Videos

This is a great opportunity to use YouTube Handles too. If you've had a guest on your livestream show, post about it in your YouTube Community tab and use the handle to tag that person so they know about it. (The Handle will be hyperlinked to their channel too, making it easy for visitors to find their content too.)

Join me live!

I'll be talking all things YouTube this week on The Video and Livestreaming Show. Check out the event invites for the day and time in your local time zone.

• YouTube Features: Options and opportunities (Watch on YouTube)
• YouTube Features: Options and opportunities (Watch on LinkedIn?)

Have a great week

I hope you have a great week. Remember, if you're interested in video, livestreaming and content creation:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn?
• Subscribe to the Learn Livestreaming channel on YouTube. Currently sitting on 368 subscribers —thank you! ??

Look after yourself!

BONUS: 4 More OBS Studio Plugins

Last week on the show, I was joined by the Facilitainer himself, Said Saddouk as we took a look at another four great free OBS Studio plugins.

We looked at:

• Scene Tree Folder
• Advanced Masks
• Composite Blur
• Move

Looking for more OBS Studio content? Check out the Learn OBS Studio newsletter