Everything You Need to Know for Your First YouTube Video

From someone who's posted over 400 YouTube videos, the hardest part to getting started is coming up with your very first video idea and then going through that entire process. So what that video should be, how to feel good on camera, or how not to look awkward on camera, how to film it, and then more importantly, how to avoid any of those first mistakes that happen so frequently on those first videos. So in this video, I'm going to teach you everything from what to say in your first video to how to not feel awkward in your video, all the way to the biggest mistakes I see many people make in their first YouTube video. If you're ready to post your first YouTube video, hit that like button and let's dig in. Hey, guys, my name is Trina. If you are new here in this channel as a place for business owners, entrepreneurs, and content creators who want to learn how to grow their business organically with online video. When I started my YouTube channel four years ago, I had no idea, no plan. I was three months into quitting my perfect job, that stable job that was gonna pay me every single week. My daughter had just turned one, and my master's in business degree literally covered nothing about social media, let alone YouTube. But as I dug more and more into YouTube, I realized this platform was going to be vital for so many business owners in such a huge opportunity for them as well. Especially if you don't have the marketing dollars to dump into Facebook or Instagram ads and really build a community and build a following that is ready to buy from you as soon as you tell them you're offering something. For me, my very first video was my channel trailer. I shared what my channel was going to be all about and what value they were going to get if they subscribed to my channel. Once I published that one, the very next video that I published was all about using Snapchat for your business. Go figure, right? What Snapchat even these days, the reason why I had chosen this Snapchat video as my first video is because at the time I was using Snapchat, I was gaining traction and I was getting a lot of questions from people like, how are you using Snapchat? Like, how are you doing this? How are you doing that? How are you driving leads from Snapchat? And at the time, Snapchat was a really hot topic. So I knew people were searching for that kind of content and I knew they wanted more information about it and how to use it in their business as well. Like I said, since that was my first first video, I didn't have a library of blog content yet. So I just got started with a topic I knew not only my audience wanted, but I knew there was a need for it out in the online world. Here's the thing. When it comes to getting started on any platform, it doesn't matter how perfectly crafted your strategy is. There is no crystal ball. There is no crystal ball to see what's really going to work for you on that platform. But the key here is to start, collect the data, then double down on what's actually working for you on that platform. Just like with Instagram. Did you get started on Instagram with like this perfect strategy with these nine curated photos and the best captions ever? Or what about your blog or your Facebook? Probably not. You probably just got started and kind of rolled with it from there and then figured out a strategy. YouTube's the same way. So if you're stuck on what should be your first video, I want you to look at three places and then pick one. Don't overthink this. When you're getting started, seriously, your first six to eight videos are going to be a test run for you anyways. You're going to be figuring out how to talk to the camera. You're going to be figuring out what kind of content you like to talk about on YouTube, and you're going to be collecting that data to see what kind of content YouTube is pushing you for. For example, I talk a lot about YouTube here, but the biggest topic that YouTube pushes for me is first video ideas. Not about YouTube strategy, not about editing, but first YouTube video ideas. I probably wouldn't have hung my hat on that strategy getting started because I didn't have a crystal ball. But the data showed me and allowed me to perfect my strategy on what was working. Okay, so the first place you're going to go, especially if you already have a library of content, is your blog. Go into your website analytics or check your Pinterest analytics and see what are the top five to 10 blogs or Pinterest pins that you've created that's getting the most traffic, that's signaling to you that people want to hear that content from you, or that's really good content that people are responding from. All you need to do is take that blog post and turn it into a video. You already have the script written for you in blog format. You just need to turn the camera on and turn it into a video. Now before you start getting into your head, like, well, I already did that. Like, why am I going to do a YouTube video, won't people not want to watch it? People consume content differently. People learn better reading. Some people learn better watching. Some people like to watch videos more than reading. So even though you redoing a blog post, you're going to capture even more people who want to watch you on video. And you're going to get the power of video content, not only on Google, but the power of creating content on the second largest search engine, YouTube. And when you embed that video into your blog post, you're giving that blog post even more SEO juice to make it perform even better in Google. It's kind of a win, win, win, win situation for you. The second place you're going to go, especially if you don't have a library of content yet, is YouTube. You're going to go right up to the YouTube search bar and start typing in a topic you think you want to talk about. Once you start typing that in, things are going to start pre populating and those are actual search terms that people are already searching for on YouTube. Go ahead and pick one of those topics, click on it and see what shows up in the search results. The key here is for you to find videos that are getting more views than that channel has subscribers. I use a tool called Vidiq that allows me to see that right here on the search page. But you can just easily pop over to their channel and see how, how many subscribers they have. But if a video topic has more views than that channel has subscribers, that means people like that kind of content. People are watching it outside of their community and YouTube is recommending it. So that's a great piece of content to dig into and figure out why is this topic doing so well. And if you have your own spin and take on it, that's a great place for you to start creating your first YouTube video. Here's a little pro tip. Go to that video and then look at the comments and see what are people saying? What are they really enjoying? Are there questions that haven't been answered about that video? Could you do your own take on some of those questions that people are having? This is such a great place to do your research and come up with your first YouTube video in the comments of somebody else's YouTube video. Now, the third place you're gonna go for your first YouTube idea is your audience. What questions are you getting asked all the time? What questions are you seeing asked all the time on Instagram or on Facebook that you constantly see coming up when it is pertaining to your niche? And what do you want to Create for your audience. Remember, your first YouTube video is not going to make or break your success on YouTube. Trust me, if mine was based on my first video, I probably would have long ago been canceled. So I've know I said this before, but don't overthink that first YouTube video. Just get it out there, get it off of your to do list and the next one will be a lot easier. And the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Now the biggest question I get after what your first YouTube video should be is how long should it be? Here's the secret. There is no right answer. Alright? You just want to be creating a video that is valuable and solves a pain point for your audience. So what can you do in a two minute video or a 20 minute video that's completely value packed that people will want to watch the whole thing? That's the key. People need to want to watch the whole thing. In fact, when I sit down to film these, I have no idea how long this video is going to be until I get it back from my editor. So there's no real secret on how long your video needs to be. Just make sure it's good content and it's valuable the whole way through. The next question that I get is how often should you be posting? So ideally I recommend posting once a week. So you're putting fresh content out there for more people to find you, for YouTube to pick you up as a content creator, like a consistent content creator. And it's going to help you get better and better every single video you post. But if you can only do one every other week or one once a month, that's great as well, because one a month is better than zero a month. Especially when you're putting content up on the world's second largest search engine. And then the key to crafting your best YouTube strategy and making sure your videos pay off and people see it on YouTube is collecting the data from that video and really understanding what you should do next with that data. When you decide to start a YouTube channel after you figured out what you were going to say in your first video, the next thought that probably comes to mind is okay, how am I going to look and feel confident on camera? Most of the time I hear from students and clients that they feel super awkward on camera and they think they are the most awkward person ever to put themselves on camera. But I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. Even though it may look that I'm confident and comfortable here talking on Camera it is. Did not start that way. And I still don't really enjoy watching my own videos back. But if you seriously watch one of my first videos, you will see the huge journey that I've had finding my own personality and finding my own confidence here on camera. I first want to start explaining what made the biggest difference for me finding that confidence on camera. From going to that super cringy person in those first couple of videos to feeling better about it now. That was lessening the amount that I scripted. Now, I still vouch that a script is absolutely important and I have one right here off to the side of my camera right now that I'm going off of. But what happened for me was I would script everything word for word, and I'd be so wrapped into my perfectionist mindset that I needed to say everything on that script word for word. So what happened was I became very robotic and uptight, just stressing out over saying everything in that script instead of allowing myself to speak the way I normally speak to my friends and giving myself that freedom to flow with what I'm talking about. So what I actually do now is I will write mostly what my video is about and I will just deliver a couple pieces of that script on video right now. And I will pause for a second and the camera still running. This is something that we edit out in the editing process. But I will go for a little bit, I will take a pause, I will look over here at my script and see what the next piece of content is that I'm going to be talking about. Get it in my head, come here, look back up into the camera and deliver a little bit of content at a time. This one allows me to be more me, allows me to not be so stressed out, and it actually makes the filming process go a lot quicker because I'm not rambling on, forgetting what I'm saying, going on a tangent. I'm staying very on task. So it allows filming to go quicker and it allows my editor to edit a lot quicker. Another thing that I had to let go, coming from a masters of business side of things and being a really suit and tie type person, was letting go of perfectionism and trying to be perfect on video. I thought I had to be this very perfect professional person to build authority and for people to trust me. But in reality, people just want to be able to connect with you. When you get so wrapped up in being perfect, you end up kind of looking like a robot. And nobody ever really connects with a robot unless you're that One from Saved by the Bell that Screech had. So when you can open up yourself and give yourself the freedom to let more of your personality shine through, even though it feels weird and it feels vulnerable, that's where you're going to see a change and where you're going to connect with your audience so you can actually let in your stumbles, let in your mistakes. It makes you human and really allows people to connect with you. If you watch a couple of my videos from a few weeks ago, I let in content where my kid was in the background because we have been quarantined for months and there's no way around it. Kids are going to pop into my video at first some point in time. So just get over trying to make everything perfect and let more of you come through. Another way to feel confident on camera is to talk about your zone of genius. Now, we may get all strategic on videos and you may think this is the exact video that you need to talk about, but it may not necessarily be your zone of genius. When you are here on YouTube, it's really important for you to talk about your passion because you're going to be much more confident talking about it and people are going to be able to see it shine through on you. I know for me, if I'm talking about something that I'm not 100% on, but you've asked me for a video, I don't feel as confident on camera. But when it comes to topics like how to be confident on camera or YouTube strategy or filming a video, that's my passion. And that's where you can really see a difference in my video and my camera Persona is when I'm talking about the things that I love. And a pro tip here, don't worry about what somebody might say, somebody that you deem an expert might say on your video. Honestly, they're probably too busy to one, know you exist, or two, be watching your YouTube video. So don't think if you say something wrong or you're worried about sharing your own personal opinion on something that somebody's going to call you out. It's 99.9% not going to happen. So get over that. You'll be fine. Another thing to remember is it will take time to feel and find yourself on camera, but practice. And there are some great places that you can practice, like Instagram stories and those suckers disappear in 24 hours. Or you can delete them if you don't want to show them. And they have filters, so they're gonna instantly make you look 100 times better, or film a couple practice YouTube videos, act like you're doing them for real and do some test runs. Start to find your vibe on video, and then just delete them if you want to or use them. Because you're probably going to be your own biggest critic. And those videos are probably great. But you need to start practicing to be able to get to a point where you feel more comfortable and confident on camera. And really remember, don't get so fixated on being perfect. I can tell you right now, I hate my teeth and I have crooked bottom teeth, and that's all I see on video. But nobody else sees that on video. And we ourselves are gonna pick out our biggest weaknesses and critique ourselves to a point that is totally not fair to ourselves. And most people aren't even going to recognize it. So get out of your head, stop picking yourself apart, and just allow yourself to be you on camera. Your friends like you after all. Your family loves you after all. Another thing, don't let your confidence get so wrapped up on your background. For example, today my husband is working in my office. My kids are in there, and I'm trying to shoot video when I can since everybody is now at home thanks to COVID 19. So just get over the fact that your background may not be perfect, but it doesn't have to be perfect for you to film, okay? Your background should not reflect your confidence on camera. If you got a plain white wall behind you, rock it. Be confident with it. You know, that is you, and that's where you're going to be filming. So allow it to not affect. Affect how you're going to show up on camera. For me, I know no matter where I sit, I'm showing up here and I'm talking to you directly to this camera lens where I know you're on the other side and I'm here to help you get started on video. That's why I show up, and that's why I don't care if there's birds chirping in the background, if you hear a lawnmower or I'm on my back porch. That is why I show up. And hopefully that is why you watch this channel. Some other external things that could boost your confidence and making you feel better is thinking about, you know, your hair and makeup. And I am no professional hair and makeup person. Everything that I've learned has been from YouTube tutorials. So maybe put some makeup on. I put tinted chapstick on. That's as far as I go. Put something on, does that make you feel confident? Do you feel good in that? If not, don't wear it because you think it's professional. Wear what makes you feel good. For me, it's T shirts. That's why you will see me in a lot of tips T shirts, especially over the summer. Because that is me, that is who I am. I'm a jeans and T shirts kind of gal and that's what I'm most comfortable in. So show up on video if you're confident with no makeup. Rock no makeup. If you need some makeup, don't think it needs to be professional. Professionally done makeup, you know, just go with what makes you feel good. My secret tip here is have a dance party before you turn on the camera. I have a playlist on Spotify that I will turn on a lot of 90s, pop some Taylor Swift and just dance it out. Get hyped up, maybe get some caffeine. I have a soda here to the side. But just get that energy in you because the camera will suck out a lot of your energy. So you do have to turn it up a bit and be a little bit more energetic on camera so that it shows through. So do what you can to really get that energy pumping right before you turn the camera on. If you're going to create video content, you want it to look professional. Even if it's your first YouTube video. And if you're going to launch your YouTube channel with that video content, you want to make sure you do it with a bang. There's just one problem. You aren't a video person and the whole video tech stuff just isn't in your wheelhouse. Don't worry, I am not a tech person at all. But I've got 10 tips today to help you shoot your first YouTube video and make sure it looks professional. And we're just gonna jump right into these 10 tips. First, you need to pick a place where you're going to film your videos. Now, before you start freaking out about this, you need to remember one thing. People are not going to see the entire room. So you're only seeing me filming right here and you're not actually seeing what's all on the floor. If I would show you that, he would see that I have blankets down. I have a post it note board. There's a tv, My water post its. There's just a mess in here. So don't freak out about having the perfect room. Just think about having this perfect little rectangle. The best part about YouTube is you can really see what your audience engages with most. In the past four years, I've been in three different houses. I've shot in a purple room, I've shot in an ugly beige room. I've shot here in this office, I've shot outside. And so you can look at your audience retention graph and actually see what your audience is connecting with and watching longer. You'd be surprised at what that might be. The second tip is to find your lighting. And this doesn't mean going out and buying super fancy lighting equipment. Seriously, all you need is a window. My best advice is I have this window right here, so it's about to get bright and I could seriously just place my phone on this ledge right here and get better lighting than what you're seeing right now. You really want to work with what you already have. And don't make creating video more complicated than it needs to be, otherwise you won't do it. Now, if you can't shoot your videos during the day when there is sunlight, there are things like ring lights that are at the higher end of your budget. But you can also buy umbrella lights that are probably a good budget alternative that's going to do the work for you. The third thing you need to make sure your videos are looking professional is good audio. And this can be tricky depending on the room you're in. So if you're in a big room that echoes a lot, you're going to probably have some problems with your audio unless you have a mic that's attached to you. So like a lapel mic or something like this. This is my blue yeti mic that I've used for years. And if that room also has hardwood floors or tiling, you're going to get more echoing again. So you'll want to throw down like blankets or comforters or pillows to really soak up that echoing. That's actually what I do here in this room. It is a tile floor and I have blankets all over the place. Here's the proof. You see, I got a comforter here, I've got a blanket over there and another comforter over here. So it doesn't take a really fancy microphone to make your audio sound good. You really want to think about where you are recording as well. You're shooting video. So the fourth tip is cameras. And don't get fancy here. Trust me. I first started out on a DSLR camera and I had no idea what I was doing and I didn't want to take the time to figure it out. I shot my first five videos completely blurry and so from then on, I decided to keep it simple. One of the simplest ways you can record video is your phone. Seriously, this camera and the selfie camera even is a perfect place to get started. You're going to get as good as video quality here than most cameras. So seriously, your phone is good enough. The next camera option that I bumped up to was this Canon G7X. This is the first version and you can find this on Amazon relatively cheap for a couple hundred dollars. And the reason why I use this for five years was this flip up screen so I could see myself, I could make sure I was in frame, I can make sure I wasn't blurry. And this guy did I don't even know how many hundreds of hours of video and was a great first camera. I've now moved on to the Canon eos. I just bought that the past couple of months. So you don't need to start fancy. Get started with what you have. Moving on to tip number five. And it's with the tech setup again, we want to keep everything as simple as possible because the more complicated you make it, the more excuses you're going to have to not do video. So for a long time, like I said, I used this camera and my blue Yeti microphone. Now that was two separate files. I would have my video file from my camera camera and then my blue Yeti microphone was plugged into my laptop and I had an audio file. So when I went to edit in imovie, I had to sync those up because the microphone on this camera just wasn't that good. It was a little bit tingy. I sounded kind of like I was in a drain or something. And so that's why I needed to use a separate microphone. So that was just an extra step. The program that I used for my blue Yeti Mic was called QuickTime and that just came free on my Mac laptop. Another tip that I have for you is to plan out your content. Now, what I mean by this, it's not scripting. We're going to talk about that here in a couple minutes. But I'm talking about figuring out how you want to make your videos engaging. Think about callout text, think about B roll, think about any kind of GIFs or GIFs, however you want to say it. Think about the extra things that you can add to your video to keep them engaging. Also think about if you're going to move the camera. So you've noticed in this video that I've just changed the angle just a little bit to help you stay engaged. It's really important to have this game plan before you turn on the camera because once you kind of get in this zone, you're going to go and you're going to go with it and you're going to forget about those things. So plan that out if you want to make your videos look more professional. Seven is Research Now, I know if you're creating content here on YouTube, you probably have an end goal in mind. You're probably wanting to grow your audience, get more people to hire you, get more people to buy your online course or digital products. So you need to do your research first before you shoot your content, especially if you want it to do its job. So what I mean by research is I want you to figure out what topic you're going to do. I want you to also figure out what title your video is going to be and I also want you to decide what your thumbnail is going to look like before you even hit record on your video. Trust me, this is going to really separate you from the pack on YouTube and make your content in your videos look more professional. Especially if you're just getting started from scratch. The next thing you need to do to make your videos look as professional as possible is to script them. I talk about scripting a lot and I'll link to a video right up here where I break down how I script my videos. But scripting is going to be a game changer for you. A few tips on scripting though. Not everybody needs to write down word for word what you're going to say in the video. You need to decide which way you like. For me personally, if I wrote down everything word for word that I wanted to say in my video, I get too uptight and I get too into my head and want to be a perfection about it and I try to say every single word. Whereas I would just write down my game plan with some bullet points and kind of free flow with it. The two things that I do script out very specifically is the hook of my video. So the first five to 15 seconds because I want to make sure I really hook you in to keep watching my video. And then the end the call to action because I really want to make sure you're either 1 watching another video of mine or 2 getting on my email list, getting my free opt in so that I can start to bring you more into my world. And I'll just add this here too. I get asked so many times about teleprompters and again, I personally don't like teleprompters I feel I can tell when people are reading from teleprompters. What I do is, like I said, I just have bullet points on what I want to talk about. I will talk for a little bit here. I will stop, pause, look at my next section and then look at the camera and start going there. I don't read from a teleprompter. I don't read word for word on my script because I feel like that's sucks out my ability to show you all my personality and be able to be more me. So when it comes to teleprompters, my always advice is no. Because you get too in your head about reading that teleprompter and you can't be yourself. You can't really let who you are shine. This tip is a big one and it's going to be hard to accept, but you have got to get out of your head. I've had clients after clients after clients tell me they're not good on video. They hate the way they sound. This video is terrible when we piece it all together and we edit it and we show it to other people other than them. People love it. The thing is, we end up being our own biggest critic and that's what holds us back. I can tell you right now. I waited a couple days till I shot these videos because I thought my hair looked terrible. I recently got my hair done and I wasn't sure if I liked it and it held me back from getting on video. I also hate the way my teeth look, but I know that that's probably not something you're going to pick out right now. You're here on this video to learn how to make your videos more professional. So I want you to think about that. You really got to get out of your head and stop picking yourself apart when it comes to how you look and sound on video. Because odds are, it's really not as bad as you think. This tip is another big one. You have to just create videos. You aren't going to get better on video if you don't practice at it. It's like when you're trying to learn an instrument. You're not going to pick up a flute or a saxophone and instantly be Kenny G. Wow, that really outdates me and how old I am. But honestly, you are not going to pick up video and be perfect on it. I've been doing this for four years and I'm at a point now where I feel pretty good about talking on camera now. But it's been four years so my biggest tip and my biggest piece of advice for you right now is to just start creating video content. You're always going to look at your first ones and cringe. Trust me, my first ones are still up there. You can look at them and cringe with me. But I want you to see that you have to start somewhere. Marie Forleo, Amy Porterfield, James Wedmore, they all started somewhere. And if you look at their first videos, they are a huge distance from what their videos are now. So just understand you're not going to come right out of the gate with these perfect videos, but you're not going to get to where you want to be without actually practicing on video. Wondering how to post your very first YouTube video. Or if you've already been posting videos you want to see behind the scenes scenes and how I upload, schedule, post all the back end stuff like end screens, cards, description box, content of my videos and my clients videos. Since this is all behind the scenes YouTube stuff, we're going to go switch over to my computer so you can see exactly how I upload all the settings that I have, what I write in my description box, and how I schedule all my videos and my clients videos. So let's go over there. Okay, so what I do is I come up here to this little red plus create button and I just go to upload video from there. I'm going to select my video. I have it right here on my desktop. I'm going to go ahead and open it. And depending on your Internet speed is going to depend on how long it's going to take to upload the video. Understand that video files are huge. This one in particular is over a gig of data. So it's going to take a little bit. Right now it shows 0% uploaded right now and it's going to start chugging. So, so while that's happening, what I'm going to do is go ahead and type in the title of this video. And this is something that I've already determined. If we go over here to my YouTube plan and I look at this particular video, you see that I started with the title what should your first YouTube video be? I've also screen captured a couple tags or a couple topics that I had wanted to hit in this particular video. This is a video that I have tags on a video that I currently have that's performing really well. And then these are coming from my analytics search terms, the top search terms that are driving my channel traffic. I want to make sure I'm incorporating these in because I want to double down on the things that YouTube is putting my channel out there for. I'm going to come in here and I think this is pretty much the title I'm going to be using now. I've been trying different ways to title these, so with caps, no caps, first letter capitalized in each letter. So I'm just going to go ahead and see what this one does. So while it's still uploading, I got the title in here. I'm going to go ahead and write a description. Remember, in the description box you really want to make sure that first line grabs people's attention too, because if they look at your title and they look at your thumbnail in the search, they can also see that first line of your description box. So this is a great way if they're on the fence of clicking onto your video, this could help them get over that. This is what I've written so far. I want to double check the tags that I'm targeting as well. I'm going to go back here and just see is there any type of words or phrases that I could also add in the description box while I'm writing this. So what to make your first YouTube video about? Video ideas. First video. What should your first video be about? What to say. Since this just seems to be a summary. I do talk about video length and also how to launch your channel. I'm going to come back here and just see. Are there any other topics that would fit? I don't think so. So I'm just going to write exactly what I talk about. Now I do have a opt in or a lead magnet for this particular video. So I want to make sure this is included. I'm going to pop it in right here so that they could still see it without clicking the see more. Also going to highlight this and just double check. That my link is correct is always important. You want to make sure all the right links are always in your description box. Yep, that's good. Then I want to add some emojis again just to make things stand out. So I'm on a Mac and the buttons I push to get an emoji keyboard is command control space and then the emojis pop right up there and I'm going to pick something that's going to grab people's attention because I want to get as many people to sign up for my roadmap as possible. I'm just cleaning this up a little bit now that I know how I have this set up. And now I want to go ahead and add my tags. I do have a video on everything that I add here in my description box. So I'll link that as well in the description box of this video for you to know what I put in there. And then I'm coming down here. I want to add this to a playlist, if I have one. So this is the first of a playlist I'm creating. So I haven't created one yet. But if you have a playlist that you want to add a video, all you have to do is click on that. This is not made specifically for kids. I can also add my thumbnail while I'm waiting. So I'm going to go ahead and upload that now. And as you can see, YouTube doesn't even have the option for tags right here. That just solidifies the fact that tags aren't critical for YouTube anymore to really figure out where your video should be or for your video to succeed. So to get tags, you're going to click here, more options, and then here's where you're going to add your tag. The first thing I'm going to do is copy my title, make that my first tag. Then the next thing I'm going to do is come back in here and I'm looking at all of these things that YouTube is recommending me for first and use those as tags. Then I'm going to come up to these that are on the other video that's performing really well on my channel. And I'm hoping that this particular video will show up and suggested of this one. And I'm just gonna leave it there. You see, you can use up to 500 characters. I got 280. I think that's a good start for now. I did not add my name there. And the next thing that I can do is I can use the tag tool here for TubeBuddy. They're gonna recommend some tag ideas as well. So what I'm actually looking for are these little green ones because that means I have a better chance of ranking or showing up on search. So what I'm going to do is just go ahead and add that from TubeBuddy. I'm going to come down here and see if there are any more green ones. Go ahead and add that. I think that's good enough. We're up to 431 characters. You'll see that it still has eight minutes left to upload. So while it's uploading, I'm doing all of this. I'm going to go to next. I'm going to, since I have monetization on my channel, turn it on for this video. Hit done. I'm going to hit next. The next thing is it wants to make sure your video is suitable for ads. So what you need to do is determine do you have inappropriate language, adult content, violence? Just go through all of these. Does your video have these or not? Mine does not. So I have none of the above. Next is the video elements. And you cannot add video elements until your video has been completely uploaded and processed on YouTube. So you're just going to have to come back after that video is uploaded. I'm going to hit next and I always do mine private. This allows me to do all of the back end stuff. Then once it's uploaded, get everything nice and pretty and then I can schedule it. If you do it public or unlisted, you will not be able to schedule in the future. Now I could come in here and schedule it for a specific date right now, but I'd rather go in it and schedule it. After I have every single thing done on my video. The next thing I'm going to do is hit save and it's going to continue uploading in the background. It'll tell you to keep this browser tab open until uploading is complete. We'll be back in six minutes. Once your video is done processing, you're going to come into this little pencil and this is where you're going to edit and schedule your videos. You see everything we added here is the same from earlier. You're going to come down here. The next thing that I do is I will add my end screens and these can be added for the last 20 seconds. So what happens is I will add in this particular graphic, you see, you see this little pink so that there's space for me to add a video and also a subscribe button. Now in every single video I do have a specific call to action to a particular video. So if you listen here, Roadmap also has links to to tutorials on how to do certain steps. So you can easily get this done by the end of the day. Once you download that roadmap, make sure you watch the video that's on your screen right now because it's going to walk you through all the steps you need to do to make that first video and make sure it looks professional. So I'm talking about making that first video. So what I'm going to do is add an element. I'm going to add a video. I'm going to go to choose specific video And I'm going to pull from my videos. I'm going to start scroll down here. You see right here it is how to make your first YouTube video. I'm going to pull it over here to the watch more area where the arrow goes. And I also want to add my link to my lead magnet. So what I'm going to do here is add this and I'm going to add a link. You can only add these links if you are monetized. So you need 1,000 subscribers, 4,000 hours of watch time. So my particular link is www.in YouTube sees it's an improved site. We're gonna hit apply. I'm gonna say get the road map here and you can change the call to action download and edit the image. I went ahead and downloaded that and hit apply. Then we can see what this all looks like. We can come back here. Want to move this down here. And then we're going to hit play and see what it looks like. With everything set up, get started. That roadmap also has links to tutorials on how to do certain steps. What I can actually do is I can move this over here and also add another element, the subscribe button element. Since I do have a call to action right here. I think that should fit right there. Then it looks like this. You can easily get this done by the end of the day once you download. My next step is cards. So anytime you're referencing a specific video, make sure you add cards. I also know about halfway through the video people start tending to drop off. So I'm gonna add a card. Generally around the three minute mark. I'm gonna listen to what I'm saying to see if I've got a good video for them to pop over to if they're getting bored with this video. So I think a good video would be probably five things to say in your video. I'm also going to jump a little bit further down in the video. Alright, I'm talking about blog posts here. So I think a good playlist for this would be business basics so people can see, okay, there's more than just YouTube. There's other parts of this YouTube channel that can make it a business. And I'm going to add a link to my approved site right up here because I'm talking about that roadmap. I'm going to hit hit next. You see this is the image that it's pulling. I'm going to create that card. Now I have all my cards done so I'm going to go back to my Final video. I've added end screens, I've added cards. I've got all of my information in here. The next thing I'm going to do is come in here, hit schedule, and I like to publish my videos at 11:30 every day this month. So we're going to come in here July 6th at 11:30am and you could set it as a premiere if you want to be on that video live when it goes live. Having a premiere is a great way to engage with your audience because you're all watching it at the same time. So this is great for like big videos, like if you're releasing something or maybe it's your first video, you're launching your YouTube channel, something like that. But I don't generally do a premiere since it's not an abnormal video. It's just my educational video. So I'm gonna hit done, I'm gonna hit save. And when I come back to my video tab, you'll see that this video is scheduled and it says it's currently private and is scheduled to become public on July 6th at 11:30am There are quite a few things that could go wrong when you go to publish your first YouTube video, or really any YouTube video, if you want to make sure every single video you publish here on YouTube does its job, gets views and drive your business leads. Make sure you continue watching because I'm going to share with you 18 mistakes I see creators and business owners make all the time here on YouTube. So we are going to rapid fire these 18 mistakes so you can make sure you don't make any of them when you publish your first YouTube video or your next one. The first mistake that I see is people thinking about their title after they've already shot their video. Like you're uploading your video and you're trying to think, what's the best title for this? That's not what you want to do when you're planning your content. You really want to think about that title before you even shoot your video. So you can make sure your hook, your first five to 15 seconds really ties into the title because that's what the viewer is clicking on. They're clicking on your video based on that title. So you want to make sure they're reassured in the hook of your video that the title matches up to what you're going to say. The second mistake I see is not putting time into thumbnails. And I know thumbnails can be a bit of a tedious job and trying to figure out the best way to do It. Excuse me. Especially if you aren't a graphic designer like me, but your thumbnail is your primary marketing material. It's what's going to stop the scroll on YouTube and get people to click your video. So you really want to think about what you can do in your thumbnail to get people to stop scrolling and click on your video versus everybody else's. And one of the easiest ways to make thumbnails a little bit easier is spend some time in a program like Canva or PicMonkey and create like four to five templates. That way you can just pop your photo from your thumbnail on one of those templates and cycle through them to make the process a lot easier. The third mistake is not scripting your content in a way that you're grabbing attention in the first five to 15 seconds. Listen, your first five to 10 seconds is really going to make or break your content. This is generally where we see the hugest drop in audience retention. So you want to think ahead of time. What's the best way you can grab their attention in that first five seconds? I really like to make my hook personal, make sure I'm connecting with you. Also want to make sure it's kind of fast paced. So can you add call out text, can you add some kind of B roll so that it's really super quick so that people want to stay watching? The fourth mistake is not having a call to action at the end of your video. Specifically for business owners. Now business owners, we really want to use YouTube to grow our email list, right? But we have balance that with also pleasing YouTube here. I would say every other video you have a call to action to your free opt in to your webinar, to your website or your services page, wherever you want to send them. And then the other videos, you need to be having a very strong call to action to watch another video and more detailed a specific video. So you need to really pitch that next video to watch to increase your end screen click through rates, which is so important here on YouTube. The next mistake is research burnouts. So many students inside of Video Strategy Academy come to me saying, trina, I've been researching for hours trying to find the perfect tag or the perfect keyword for my video. Stop. This isn't getting you anywhere. I always like to advise them to set a timer 15 to 20 minutes max on determining what content you're going to create and just do it. Because the problem is you're going to research your eyeballs out and you're not making any progress. So Stop wasting your time trying to find the perfect tag or the perfect keyword because spoiler alert, it doesn't exist and just start creating content after about 20 minutes of researching. Mistake number six is not getting to your content quick enough and one that I struggle with in the beginning. I know you want to connect with your audience and you want to be chatty, but someone brand new to your content is probably clicking on your video for the value you pitched in your title that you put planned in advance. So you want to make sure you're getting to the really meat of your content within the first 20 to 30 seconds. Remember that hook we talked about? That hook's got to be about 10 to 15 seconds. Your intro where you introduce yourself, where I say what this channel is for. Got to be about five seconds and you're really jumping into the meat of the content within 30 seconds. Max. Number seven is signaling your videos over before having your call to action. Remember we talked about a call to action earlier, but what I see so many people doing is that they'll say in my final step or in conclusion or to wrap this video up, as soon as you say that your viewers are gone, they're going to that next video and suggested or they're going back to search. You need to go seamlessly from your content to your call to action. So if you watch at the end of this video, if you stay to the end, you'll see how I transition into my call to action for my YouTube roadmap. Mistake number eight is not sharing your videos. So a lot of people think, you know, we set it here on YouTube, set it and forget it and it's gonna do all this magic. You've got to really promote yourself, especially when you're getting started on YouTube. If you have an email list, tell your email list. If you have followers on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, if that exists. Tell people, share your content, let them know it's out there. Use your built in audience to help you build your audience on YouTube. The more people you can get to watch that video that want to support you, the people quicker YouTube is going to start picking you up and recommending you to more content. So make sure you're sharing your content and not just sitting it there on YouTube. Now mistake number nine is sharing your video with the wrong people. What I mean by this is if you've heard like Instagram Pods, there are YouTube pods where you share your video on a Facebook group and people go and watch it. But the thing is those people aren't your target audience most of the time. And so what they may do is they may click over there, they may like it, and they watch the entire video. So what happens is YouTube sees that the video isn't keeping people's attention throughout the entire video. So that signals to them that this content isn't that good since people aren't watching it the whole way through. So you want to make sure you're not just dropping your YouTube link into Facebook groups or into YouTube pods because it's not going to help you out, it's going to end up hurting you. Mistake number 10 is being too niche. And you're probably thinking like Trina, wait, you tell me. Niche, niche, niche. But what happens is you can get too niche that people aren't even actually searching what you are talking about. So for example, you may think about a niche, busy moms who need to plan better. Well, yes, that niche works. But if you're just talking about planning over and over, they may not be searching that. So you want to build that out a little bit maybe. Yes, it is busy moms and that's your niche. What are busy moms struggling with? Are they struggling with meal prep? Are they struggling with exercise routines? Are they struggling with balancing their schedule? So don't go so specific that it's going to be really hard for people to find you. Or people aren't even searching that niche into YouTube. The next mistake is not giving people a question to actually answer in the comments. So if you're struggling with getting people to engage on your videos, are you asking them to. Are you giving them a question to make it super simple for them? I even suggest putting your question in the comments as well. Pin it to the top so people can start answering that question and know what to post in your video. They're not going to just magically start posting comments if you aren't asking them to engage. Number 12 goes along with number 11 and that is not responding back. And I'm guilty of this too. I would just run out of time. Like there was not enough time in the day. But now I have a daily to do list that reoccurs every single day. And I spend five to 10 minutes every single day responding to comments on my YouTube channel. Even if there's just one comment on your YouTube channel, respond to it. Engage with that one person who took the time out of their day to leave you a comment. The next mistake is not adding description box content. Now this one is a little tricky because you might be thinking, what should I Even post. So I have a video on that that breaks down everything that you need to be putting in that description box content. But you really want to ensure you're putting a summary in there so YouTube knows what that video is about. You also want to make sure you have links to your other YouTube videos because you want to get people to watch more content so that YouTube knows your videos and your channel is an asset to them and they recommend more of your content. You also want to drop in your link to your lead magnet or your webinar or however you're getting people on your email list. You can put that in your description box. Don't leave that empty. The next mistake is bad audio and lighting. And I'm not telling you to go out and buy all the fancy equipment, just use what you have. For one, you can use a cell phone. This is the greatest camera you can get that you already have. And the best way to get great lighting is to set it in a window. So all I would need to do to use this if I didn't have my own lighting is just set, stick it in this windowsill, prop it up right here and record from there. That natural light is going to be the best lighting that you're going to get. Not even all the fancy lighting equipment will be better than natural light. When it comes to audio, usually the biggest problem is echo. And so one thing that I do in this particular room is lay blankets down because it's a tile room, so there's a lot of echoing. So I lay blankets and comforters and pillows down to make my audio better. Mistake number 15 is not being you. And look, I know it is kind of scary and vulnerable to be talking to this camera lens thinking anybody can watch this content. And I've struggled with it for a long time because my background is in business and I have a master's degree in business. And so a lot of my background is kind of like this suit and tie, button up, professional person. But that does not connect with my audience. They want to connect with a real life human being, somebody that's being them. And yes, I'm going to attract some people and yes, I'm going to detract. Is that a word? Some people. And that's fine. I'm specifically for a certain type of person. And if I'm not for you, that is fine. I'm not going to be for everybody. But when you try to put yourself in this box and try to be perfect and be something for everybody, nobody's going to end up connecting with you because nobody connects with a robot. So really try your best to be you. Let your stumbles in your video, let your crazy hair in your video. If you talk with your hands like I do, let that in your videos because that's what's going to connect with people. The next mistake is not getting a workflow or process in place. Now if you're going to be on YouTube, it's important to stay consistent. And if you're a business owner or content creator, you're probably creating consistent content anyways. So if you're going to be constantly creating video content, you need to put a system in place. I specifically, specifically use Asana. I have every single step that I do inside of Asana so that I make sure I don't miss anything. Because there's nothing worse than going to upload your video and realize, oh, you didn't take a thumbnail photo or oh, you didn't do that ending for Facebook. So if you want to grab my workflow, I do have it for sale. I'll link to it down below. I believe the link is shrinalittle.com YouTubeWorkflow but again, if you want to that I will put that in the description box for you. Moving right along to the next mistake. And that is not creating templates. And by templates I mean workflow templates, end screen templates, thumbnail templates, text templates. So a lot of the times I tell you to use text callout and sometimes that can be time consuming. But once you create one, then you can just copy and paste it using your brand fonts and your brand colors on all your other videos. Another client that I have, she creates her own title screens in Canva. You can create your own text callouts in Canva as well. And once you create that one time, you just have to duplicate it for every single video, changing out the text or changing out whatever it is you wanted to say in that call out. Another mistake is not looking at your data. And it's scary. In YouTube analytics there's a lot of numbers and for me I, I wasn't a numbers person and I pretty much avoided that for a long time. But YouTube gives you all the information in your analytics to tell you how to succeed on YouTube. So if you really want to dig into your analytics and figure out what is actually saying, make sure you watch the video that I'm putting on the screen right now because that shows you exactly how. I analyze all of my clients channels and my channel as well to figure out what kind of content I should be creating to grow my channel. Now that you know how to film that first video, let's take a step back and make sure your YouTube channel is set up for success. Grab the download that's on your screen right now. It's the YouTube roadmap. It'll give you everything you need to know. Then watch the video on your screen right now. It's an in depth tutorial on exactly how to set up your YouTube channel. Click on that video and I'll see you over there.