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A great video tickles our imagination and creates a great impact in our mind. If we find it interesting and worth the effort to share, many of us would not hesitate to do so through our blogs, Twitter and Facebook profiles. With more sharing, there will be more views.
Sounds easy? You will soon find that getting people to take action to spread your video is more challenging than getting your in-laws to like you. But don’t be dismayed as when there’s a will, there ARE ways. To create a video that at the very least yields a decent number of video views, take note of the things highlighted in this post.
1. Content
Content is important even for a video. Great videos with high viewer rates are either entertaining or informative. Extraordinary videos possess both qualities. Let’s take Susan Boyle’s video as an example. Clearly, it has entertainment value and contains a subtle message: Persevere when pursuing our dreams. That message certainly got into me when I first saw the video on YouTube. I sensed her innocent passion for singing and was given a great wake up call.
To produce good content, put yourself into the viewers’ shoe. Is your video worth viewers’ time? Get opinions from other people to make sure that your own assessment on the content quality is not biased.
2. Thumbnail
A good video thumbnail is like a magazine cover. The more attractive it is, the more your video would “sell”.
In the past, YouTube set aside 3 thumbnails, which are extracted at the frame exactly 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 through your video. Understanding the extraction time frame allowed users to manipulate and set the bit of the video they desired as thumbnails. The result of this? A whole lot of thumbnails with sexy bikini girls in them, flooding the YouTube page.
Now that YouTube has changed its policy, thumbnail control is officially history. The current policy, similar to the previous, allows you to choose 1 out of the 3 thumbnails. Just that the thumbnails are now generated through YouTube’s algorithm – systematic to them but random to its users.
Pick the thumbnail that reflects the content of your video best.
Tip: A great channel background might help too!
3. Title & Description
The title is normally the first few things people see. A clear title that contains a couple of related keywords should be sufficient to entice your potential viewers. Try not to be overly creative with your title. People might not understand what you are talking about.
Likewise, your description has to be clear and should have an inviting elaboration on your video content. Make sure that the description is closely related to the title you crafted. Limit it to 2 to 3 sentences because we all know how patient netizens are.
4. Tags
Tags help you label your videos so that people can find them easily. It is important to insert tags, which are relevant to your video content. Add as many as you wish, as long as they are applicable. Try using more adjectives as tags because they are usually the words people use to search for videos. For example: funny commercials, cool web designs, crazy football, world largest shark.
5. Video Response
Video response to other videos of similar content can do wonders. This is especially true if the video you’re responding to has many views. People who are interested in that particular video would probably be looking for related videos or video responses.
6. Comments
Don’t just add a video response, add a comment as well! This will increase your impression in that particular video. However, think twice about what you are going to say before leaving a comment. Everyone likes to hear something witty, original or at the very least, nice. Criticisms, advertisements or spams are definitely a NO-NO and they also leave you with a lot of thumbs down.
7. Attractive YouTube Channel
A couple of great comments and videos would definitely spice up people’s interest in you. Profile checking will be your viewers’ next step so make sure you have a decent and pleasant background to keep their eyes on your Channel.
An attractive YouTube channel background is important if you’re looking to build a strong list of subscribers. Just like a Twitter background, a YouTube background serves as a personal introduction and achieving a good first impression is your goal.
8. Using Other Media
Don’t just rely on YouTube to increase your video viewer rate. Share them elsewhere: Embed your video into your blog, share your video links on Twitter, Friendfeed and Facebook, email your friends about this great video you have created, bookmark your YouTube channel, place the link on your MSN nick…
If you have a video with great content, I’m sure it would reach everyone at lightning speed.
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Peteronhead
