How long should your YouTube video be? When you’re thinking about the length of your videos, you have a lot of factors to consider. Is it a live video or edited content? Are you a beginner or a veteran video blogger? Who’s your audience? Because of all these factors, the answer will be different for each person. That’s why this post is dedicated for entrepreneurs and vloggers who are just getting started on YouTube.

How long should your YouTube video be?

What does your audience want?

The number one thing to consider is your audience. Why is your audience watching you on YouTube? This may depend on your content, but if you don’t have an audience, you have to think about who you want to watch your videos.

You don’t want to build a list of random subscribers because that would be useless to you. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re basically on YouTube to market and make money, so you should keep who your target audience is in mind. Everyone else who subscribes is a bonus or a future client because you never know.

Let’s say your target audience is entrepreneurs who are moms. They have busy lives because they’re balancing their business, their family, and their personal lives. If they’re going on YouTube, they’re searching for the shortest video that can help them. I’m the same. If I go on YouTube to search for something, I always choose the shortest video.

If you’re a beginner creating content, basically you should be asking ‘Does my target audience have time for this?’ If you don’t know, then research other YouTube videos  (competitors in your niche, because every genre is different) and see what they’re doing. While you’re researching, check how many subscribers they have. If it’s a big number, check how many videos they’ve created and then look through their middle videos because we all know the first videos we create are not great and with their newer videos, they can get away with creating longer content if they have a huge following of loyal fans.

Get more confident on YouTube

Get Your YouTube Script Template for Free!

Grab your script here!

Should you create a script for your YouTube videos? The short answer is yes. The long answer is also yes. If you’re not creating scripts for your YouTube videos, then you’re not being efficient. If you think about it, every content has a script. TV shows, movies, news programs, interviews, radio shows and blog posts have scripts. This blog post has a script too. The script for this post is the outline I create before I start the rough draft.

I’m not telling you to write out a whole play. Just at least have an outline of what you’re going to talk about in your video. Here are the reasons why you should create a script for your YouTube video and how you’ll create awesome YouTube videos every time.

Why you should create a script for your YouTube videos

Saves time and energy

For me, this is the number 1 reason you should create a script for your YouTube video. You save so much time and energy. This is why I create an outline for everything I do. Whether that’s writing a blog or giving a presentation, I have one prepared in advance.

For a script, I would recommend having a template so that you can use it over and over again. We’ll go over this rinse and repeat method later because you’re not creating a template with the same exact words, unless you have some signature line you want to use over and over again, like ‘This is Paigon signing off with the Natasha Lane Design Co. daily report. Until the next time’. Cue cheesy wink and finger-pointing. That would be hella awesome!

When you create a template for your script, you’ll just create an outline of what you need for your video, but you’ll still have to think of new content every time.

Building a brand

When you create a script, you’re actually helping to form your brand (Ah, everything relates back to branding *wink wink*). By creating a script, especially if you have a template, you’re creating consistency in your video. Even though the content is different in every video, you’re still keeping elements of your video consistent.

When you create consistency within your script, your audience will know what to expect when you release your videos. It’s kind of like watching those Marvel superhero movies. First, something bad will happen, maybe a villain origin story or a revenge plot, then the superhero (a male lead) will be born or face some adversity to ‘supposedly’ become stronger, and then the superhero beats the villain.

*Warning, useless rambling that has nothing to do with the blog post* Can we take a moment to realize that all the superheroes are men and that the character, Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson is only a normal woman. If a normal woman can keep up with superheroes, then how awesome would a female superhero be. If I had my way though, I would create a female super villain character with awesome character development. Maybe like a female version of Lex Luthor.

*Getting back on track*

Every television show, live or scripted, follows a format, and we the viewers expect it. It’s part of the brand created for that show. As someone who’s creating video content consistently, you should treat your channel like a real television station. This alone will help you stand out from other channels who are creating random things and don’t have any type of format.

How to create a script for your YouTube videos

When you’re thinking about creating a script or template for your script, you need to keep it simple. All you have to do is think of the important aspects you want to add to every video. Don’t think about the actual content, but make sure you have a beginning, middle, and end. If you create content without a beginning, middle, and end, you still have content, but it’s probably bad content. Here’s what you need to know to create a script for your YouTube videos.

Get more confident on YouTube

Get Your YouTube Script Template for Free!

Grab your script here!

Are you typing in a description for your YouTube videos? If not, you definitely should be. Why? Because it’s important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It helps your videos get in front of your target audience. As an added bonus, you can also add important links and information to your description.  So what should you put in your YouTube description?  Keep reading to find out and I’ll also show you the easy way to add all the information you want to put in your description and never have to think about it again.

What should you put in your YouTube description

The #1 thing

The first 2 sentences in your description should be relevant to your video. These sentences are important for SEO. Because of this, you should create sentences that include the keywords that your target audience is searching for. For example, if I was creating a video on branding specifically for YouTube, I would write something like:

Are you an entrepreneur who wants to attract their target audience on YouTube? Check out this video on how to brand your YouTube channel to look like the AUTHORITY in your niche.

This sentence has all the keywords I need. I’m targeting entrepreneurs and the video is about ‘how to brand your YouTube channel’. You can get even more specific than this depending on your audience and what your goals are. For example, if I’m targeting female entrepreneurs, I would add that instead of just entrepreneurs.

Utilize the default

After the first 2 sentences, you should put in other information that is helpful to your audience or links that you want your audience to click on. Here is a list of items that you can add to your description.

• Links to your opt-in or freebie
• Affiliate links
• A link to your Facebook group
• Subscribe link
• Email newsletter link
• Links to your social media channels
• An about you section

If you’re going to reuse the same information in your description, then you should create a default description. This will automatically add the information to your video every time you upload a new video. This is what I do for my videos and also my clients’ videos. The first 2 sentences are the only sentences that change in the description.

Here’s an example of my default description:

Read More “What should you put in your YouTube description?”

If you want to be legit on YouTube, it’s not about filming and uploading anymore. With all the competition, users are looking for high-quality content to consume. Everyone knows that audio and video quality are important. In fact, it’s easier than ever to record high-quality content with just your phone. So what’s the next step? Design. To look professional, you need a brand and a website. Here are 5 reasons a Youtuber needs a graphic and web designer.

5 reasons a Youtuber needs a graphic and web designer

It’s time to look professional. I’m not talking about wearing a suit and tie. I’m talking about looking like a legit business, or an authority in whatever content you’re creating.  It has to look like you have a production team producing your video, even though it’s just one person. Besides saving you time and energy to focus on creating your videos, here are the ways that a designer can help elevate your YouTube channel.

01. Logo and branding

One of the first things you must have to look professional is a logo. Your logo will be everywhere and help with brand recognition. You’ll use your logo on your YouTube channel in the channel art, your YouTube video, on your website, media kit (if you plan to apply to affiliates), business card (if you plan to network), and so on.

Besides your logo, you also need a graphic designer to research and develop your brand. Why is branding important? You can think of it as creating a signature style for your channel and other assets. It keeps everything consistent. You’ll use the same fonts, colors, imagery, and so on. Sounds boring, right? Well, this helps with brand recognition. If you keep using the same style, people will start to know you for it. Not only that, but it saves you time in content creation. You’ll never have to guess which font and colors to use because it’s already decided.

02. Title graphics and channel art

A graphic designer can design your channel, title, and thumbnail graphics for your videos. If you already have an established brand, this will help with brand recognition. For your YouTube channel, the cover art is the main graphic on the page. It should showcase the important details of your channel.

Another thing you might not think about is the branding watermark on the bottom right side of the video. This graphic is usually the logo, but it could be a submark or an icon that’s relevant to your brand.

Thumbnails are the first thing people see when they’re browsing videos. Great thumbnails will obviously get more click-throughs. Not only that, but some people will also use title graphics in their videos to showcase what the video is about. Check out this video from Jenn Im for an example of cool title graphics. You’ll see that her thumbnail video and title graphics are completely different. Read More “5 reasons a youtuber needs a graphic and web designer”

So you’ve filmed and edited your video, but now you need to upload it to YouTube. In this video, I’m gonna show you how to upload and schedule your video to YouTube.

Before we upload the video the first thing we need to do is, of course, log in to our YouTube account.

So, I’m already logged in. Now I’m gonna go to this little camera icon with the plus button. When you hover over it, it says ‘create a video or post’. So you just click on it. Then you have the option of uploading a video or going live. So we’re just gonna upload a video. Then you just need to select a file to upload. I’m just gonna pick this video right here.

So then we’re gonna go to the right where it says private. You can either make the video public or you can schedule the video. When you make the video public it’s gonna go live as soon as this video finishes uploading.

But I’m gonna schedule the video.

I’m gonna choose January 10th at 10:00 a.m. Then you see this little button right here, ‘publish on Thursday, January 10th’, and then click, and it’s scheduled. That’s how you upload a video to YouTube.

So now you know how to upload your video, but don’t hit publish yet. In the next video, I’m gonna show you the five things you need to do before you hit publish. So if you’re not subscribed go ahead and subscribe, and hit the little bell notification, and you’ll be notified when the new video comes out. I’ve also created a checklist for you.

Grab your checklist here.

Are you launching a YouTube channel this year? Let me know in the comments below.

– Paigon