Look at that baby YouTuber.

2. You can create a thumbnail image for your video with a free app.

My friend, JayMunee (an expert YouTuber), introduced me to a beautiful app called PicsArt (get it for Android from Google Play here; get it for iPad/iPhone here), and I am in love with it so much that I may need to marry it. (Sorry, Looey Q!) This app allows you to place text on a photo, cut out an item in an image and paste it onto another image, and so much more! It’s like Photoshop, but more user-friendly, and – Did I mention? – it’s FREE!

3. You can choose a thumbnail for your video, but the resolution of the image must be 1280×720 or lower.

I don’t know how to make the resolution lower or higher on photos. I had my graphic-designer husband (LooeyQ) decrease the resolution of my thumbnail image so it would fit. I intend to learn to do this myself, and might write a blog post on how to do it (preferably without using Photoshop); let me know in the comments if a post about this would interest you.

 4. YouTube has basic features that allow you to enhance your video.

You can do things like brighten up a video, for free. For example, I brightened up my YouTube channel welcome video a bit before posting (if you’re interested, you can watch the video by clicking here). 
If you just want to get the video up and enhance it later, YouTube lets you go back and edit the video even after you’ve posted it.

5. You can put music on your video using the “Audio” editing feature on YouTube.

The music available is ad-free and eligible for monetization. You can position the music to begin or end whenever you like in your video.

6. Filming with my camcorder did not result in the crispest video quality.

I used my iPad to film my welcome intro video, and the picture quality was ok, but I wanted it to be better and crisper, so I used a Sony Handycam HDR-CX405 to film my Loot Crate Unboxing/Review video, but it did not give me the picture clarity that I was hoping for. I have to learn if my camera has a setting available to create a crisper image, use better lighting, or if I need to get a whole new camera to get less grainy footage. If you’re in the market to buy a YouTubing camera, I’ve noticed that several YouTubers use a Canon Powershot G7X and their footage is ultracrispy and easy on the eyes.


7. Editing video is hard.

We use a free program we got off the internet (Hit Film Express 2017, you can download it from their site by clicking here), and my husband knows exactly how to use it because he took a video editing class in college. He says that Hit Film is almost the same as the video editing software that comes with Mac computers.

8. Tagging your video appropriately can make all the difference.

I watched a video on Brian G. Johnson’s channel on how to tag your videos so that they can be found easily in a search. If you’re a new YouTuber, like me, you can learn a lot from his videos.

9. When you’re just starting out, make your videos short to keep your viewers interested.

Cut out any unnecessary or quiet parts. If you’ve watched my Lootcrate Unboxing/Review Video, you probably noticed that there are a few quiet, awkward, or lagging parts that could have been cut out or sped up, and this is something that I will definitely work on in my next YouTube video.
This advice is money and comes from expert YouTuber, JayMunee. Thank you for all of your help and advice!

 

That’s all I have for now. I’ll make sure to share more advice/tips as I learn them.

 

If you have any tips for newbie YouTubers, like me, please leave a comment below and school me. I’ve got lots to learn.

 

If this post helped you on your YouTube journey, please subscribe to my blog and leave a comment below, I’m going to be posting plenty of juicy YouTube info as I learn it.

See ya later! Thanks for reading!