9 tips on how to succeed on YouTube
More than a billion people visit YouTube every month, according to statistics from the site. Every minute, more than 100 hours of content is uploaded. In Sweden, 8 out of 10 internet users use YouTube, half of them on a weekly basis.
- A growing number subscribe to channels or accounts, which shows that people are becoming more committed. Comedy, gaming and music channels are common to follow, says digital strategist Johanna Lindskog-Lindell.
On YouTube, you can reach the whole world with your music and at the same time be in full control of your brand and content. However, competition is fierce, so how can you stand out and make your channel engaging and attractive? These are some handy tips from Johanna Lindskog-Lindell.
1) Register an account
Everyone can watch YouTube, but to upload your own content, you need an account. Since Google owns YouTube, you can easily log on via Gmail.
2) Work with the picture
Name your channel and use different themes and colors, as well as background pictures. Put some effort into this. Think about how the picture reflects your brand. Preferably use a picture with a wide angle, like a panorama picture, and remember that the centre of the picture will be partly covered by videos and text.
3) Channel type: musician
Under “Settings” in your channel you can select musician as your channel type. Now you can add performer information and publish a schedule of show dates by enabling the “events dates” module.
4) Add links to your website
Linking to your website or other purchase pages is an effective way to encourage sales. You can also link to your album in you biography in social platforms. To create a link, simply enter the URL of your store page and YouTube will hyperlink it. Also, be sure to include a website or buy link in the first sentence of your video description for every video you make.
5) Tagga
Tags are very important. Tags are keywords that help people find your video in YouTube’s search engine. List the words that can be related to the content of your video, like venue names, band name (correct spelling and misspellings), song names, song writer, city, genre and other relevant keywords. To add tags to your YouTube channel, look under Settings. To add tags to an individual video, click Videos from the drop down menu at the top right of your screen. Then click edit next to the video you want to add tags to. Also make sure that the title is easy to search for.
6) Add a variety of content
Mix things up. Not everything has to be a traditional music videos. Interview your bandmates and a fan! It will not only make your fans feel appreciated, but it will also inspire others to comment on your videos. Try starting the comments off yourself by asking a question or pointing out something interesting in the video.
8) Share
Click the ”share-button” under the video you want to share with friends and subscribers on social media or via email.
9) Check your statistics
Under the ”show video statistics-link” you can see where your video is the most popular, as well as who is listening and watching. This will give you much information to consider.
How to get royalty payments
As affiliated to Stim, you have the right to get paid for the music you publish on YouTube. You have to do two things to make this happen.
– Start by registering your song at Stim. Then we can check our data base with YouTube´s, says Daniel Jäger, Rightsholder Relations Manager at på Stim.
The next step is to contact a digital distributor, or an aggregator, who is partner with YouTube, to provide them your music file. The aggregator provides YouTube with the music file, and use it as reference to identify your work on videos on YouTube. Affiliated to Stim are represented directly by Stim in 34 territories. Right now, the limit for payments is 5 000 views during one month, in the same geographic area that Stim is licensing.
– In other countries Stim collects royalties from partners, meaning collecting societies abroad, says Daniel Jäger.