Top 5 ways for guitar players and bands to get better YouTube video views
A common complaint by many is that YouTube doesn't deliver video views like it used to.
True? Yes. There are three major reasons why.
Reason 1: A lot more people use it now compared to before.
The number of users on YouTube now compared to 2006 is obviously a lot higher, and that means you're competing against a lot more people.
Reason 2: Using the wrong way to promote yourself.
The worst thing you could ever do is use "Support Local Music". I've talked about this before at length, but all you need to know is that phrase is the calling card of any band that sucks. If you say "Support Local Music", you suck, plain and simple. If you don't want to suck, don't say it. Use other ways of promo. I'll mention those ways in a moment.
Reason 3: A complete disregard by the user (you) of proper video titles, proper video keywords and proper video descriptions.
This is the biggie that everyone gets wrong.
The first thing YouTube indexes for searching is titles, keywords and descriptions. While I'm sure YouTube has speech-to-text technologies that can recognize certain words being said in videos, the main thing they fall back on is the manually typed text by the video uploader.
Here are the 5 ways to get more views fast.
1. List your location
The format of the video title should be this:
Artist Name - Song Name - Location
If I were to do this myself:
Rich Menga - Hurricane - Tampa Florida
Whenever you post a song, use that title format, and also use it for video keywords. As for the description, list HOW to contact you. Put an email address there or Twitter address or whatever you have.
Why list location? Because people search for the location of where they live on YouTube all the time. If you list yours in the title and keywords, other people in and near your area will find your videos faster. Remember, the goal is to be found. Listing your location helps out quite a bit in that respect.
2. Make music videos and not filmed live performances
It's most likely true that when creating your songs, a lot of takes happen, along with multitracking and so on.
Don't film every take. In fact, don't even bother. Get the song done first.
For your video, play along with the song, just like music videos have always been made. These are way easier and faster to make, and since you're using your finalized audio for the sound, it will sound just like you want it to.
3. Share everywhere
It amazes me how many guitar players and bands don't do this.
For any video you upload, go to the video page once it's live, click Share and then share the video out.
How many should you share to? As many as you can. You most likely already have Facebook and Twitter. Use those. Share out to your G+ page since you already have one with your YouTube channel. For Blogger, Tumblr, Pinterest and others, just use as many of those as you can, and do this for every video you upload.
4. Periodically make "talking head" videos
You or another member of your band sits in front of a camera, records what's known as a vlog (that's video and log combined, the video version of blog) that's 2 to 3 minutes long, and you post it. The video does not have to be of good quality since it's just a talking thing. Use your smartphone to record it if you have one.
Why do these? Because fans like seeing members of the band talking about stuff. What stuff should you talk about? Whatever you want. Doesn't matter. Just do it.
5. Link your other videos within your videos
YouTube has this thing called annotations. Go to your YouTube Video Manager, edit a video in the YouTube site, and you'll see it there. It's the thing where you can put little pieces of text on screen in a box and have that box link somewhere if you want.
Learn how to use annotations and link to your other videos. It really works.
"Wow... that's, like... easy?"
Yeah, it is easy and it works. It's only been difficult because you've been making it difficult. Now you know the easy way, so get to it.
Published 2014 Aug 20
