30 Video Hints and Tips on How To Make a YouTube Movie

This guy’s desk doesn’t even have legs! I sure hope his video editing skills are better!

I still have a VERY long way to go in my video blogging / video making / editting skills, but I found a bunch of very useful hints and tips that I thought I would share.

Please share your own hints and tips here if you would… I need all the help I can get!

30 Video Hints and Tips That Have Helped Me:

1. Video settings: MPEG-4 (MP4) container, H.264 or MPEG-2 codec, <= 1400 kbps bitrate
2. Audio settings: MPEG-4 (MP4) container, MP3 or AAC codec
3. FFMPEG is a command-line tool for converting video
4. Do not add letterbox or pillarbox bars – sites will do that automatically to fit viewer
5. Be very specific in picking a CATEGORY for your video – it matters!
6. Be “hard-skinned” and DO NOT feed the trolls
7. Use very descriptive titles – include short purpose blurb, if possible – keywords!
8. Really attempt to learn about video making techniques – quality does matter to some degree
9. If can be done in 30 seconds to 2 minutes, then do it in less than 2 minutes!  Period!
10. Create an appropriate scene – the background does matter – be amateur with class!
11. Have some form of ‘hook’ to entice and keep people coming back
12. Be energetic, funny, entertaining (when appropriate) and DO NOT MUMBLE!
13. Give people a reason to forward your video around
14. Have some form of familiar routine sign-on or sign-off… build that relationship
15. Present a call-to-action in every video – get those engaged who want to be engaged
16. Try to treat every video as a stand-alone – don’t depend too much on others in your library
17. Try something new every once in a while: scene change, more ‘actors’, new format, et cetera
18. Put your link at the beginning and end of every video (and in between when it counts)
19. Give credit where credit is due somewhere in your video
20. Put your homepage / blog link in your video description – hey, some people check it!
21. Use a BUNCH of tags and use them well – consider making a standard list / template
22. Put up some ‘notes’ for the show on your website – give them something tangible
23. Consider doing “video response” replies to other videos you really enjoy – tag it up nicely
24. Make playlists for your video channels when you can – make it easy for the viewers
25. Don’t forget to favorite and share the videos you really enjoy – it gets noticed!
26. Cater to your super-fans: they are putting in good time for you – do the same!
27. Ensure you have adequate lighting – dark, blurry, grainy videos don’t do anyone any good!
28. Ensure you have decent sound – what’s the point of a presentation if you can be heard clearly?
29. Consider using http://www.tubemogul.com/ to spread your video to multiple video sites
30. You don’t have to do it all in one day – shoot one day, process another, & upload shortly after

Check out some more from Chris Pirillo’s post.

Go make a video now, and when you’re ready, learn how to get more traffic to your videos!