Understanding YouTube better...

Let me start with one statement - I Used to love YouTube! I spent way too much time on it. I have lots of videos on You Tube of me playing different instruments. I used to love the Channel - Social vibe. I love the viral nature of YouTube with hundreds of sites online using content and watching thousands of people view and comment on video clips I have posted. I love the fact I can add video anywhere with simple Copy/Paste code. I love reading comments and responding when asked a question. I Still like You Tube overall. I don't like many of the changes GOOGLE has made to bank profits and kill the You in YOU Tube.... If they keep it up, this will be THEM TUBE soon....

A little about me....

I am a Sax Player, known as SAXBOY online, given the name Greg Vail at birth. I run lost of sites and have many Socials, and have worked hard to get the most out of the web in everything I do. I have become a really good Search Engine Optimizer  from trying different things and lots of reading on SEO and tracking and improving my sites for high rank online.

The following covers the specific things I have learned working You Tube and developing high ranking content for YouTube. I hope you will read, learn and share this site and use some of the ideas presented here for successful - VIEWED - videos. That was the reason you put them up in the first place was it not????

You Tube for Video Search

There are 2 ways to search for Videos online. Old school would be a search term using GOOGLE or your favorite search engine. Over the past few years, YouTube has so branded the name for Videos online that many just start on YouTube and put a search term in the box.

You Tube Surfing - usually starts with a  basic search for what you are looking for, and this is the most popular method to find good music videos. Just go to You Tube and search "smooth jazz sax" for instance, and you will find a bunch of videos that rated high on You Tube Search for "smooth jazz sax".

It is important to understand; a search engine has no quality rating. If you search "BEST Sax Player in the World" you WILL get video results. These results are not founded in some worldwide poll showing you videos of the best sax player ever. They show results for the highest rank for that search term. Often the sax video could be horrible. It might be really good, but it is never going to be the BEST sax video ever! These results are controlled by the words used in the title, keywords and description from the person that posted that video!! More on this later....

To get good results in any search, try to use more specific words that you think best define what you want to see!

How people find Videos on YouTube

If Basic Search on You Tube is the most popular technique for finding videos, what are some of the other ways people find videos?

Probably the second most used You Tube tool is Related Videos. I have found many great Music Videos moving from a search term to Related Videos, and I bet many of you have done the same! The Related Videos show on the right side of the page and usually are similar in content (still based on the information the person posting the clip used), but often a keyword might have 2 meanings so look before clicking! "Naked Brothers Band" will have some Related Videos that are more Naked than you might have been looking for, and not of the band! This is because Video Search is limited to the words used, since a computer can't watch a video and then list what it was about.

UPDATE - That was the way it was - today if you search it you will find 2 videos and a playlist in the returns. You Tube is not putting the most obvious related videos in that list for some unknown reason, although it can be assumed there is financial reasons.Related Video views accounted for 40% of my video views a year ago - today it is 18% for March 2012 - lifetime percentage is almost 30% with lifetime YouTube search showing 35%. I always showed more related views than Search views because I am more unknown on YouTube than many of the bigger names in my industry, but I also won fans over that way - very cool. At least it used to be cool. Now you find very few Greg Vail clips in any other sax players Related Videos list.
As suggested above, keywords used to play 100% of the role for placing videos in the right column of the You Tube Video Page for Related Videos. Today there is no rhyme or reason to how the place these.

You Tube Channels

Another way I have discovered new video is thru You Tube Channels. If you find a video you really love on You Tube, you can click the name of the person that posted that clip. This link will take you to that persons Channel, which is a personal page for that You Tube member.

Each You Tube Member has a Channel that lists all Videos posted and liked by that person. Often, a person that has posted a vid clip will have more clips in the same category that you will like too! You can subscribe, favorite, become friends and message people on their pages! I have discovered tons of great video clips clicking the posters Channel.

Your Friends

I often have YouTube sharing sessions with friends. Today we receive a video or 2 everyday in our in box from a friend. Sharing is easy on you tube! Many of the silly clips I have watched are directly linked to a friend that shared it. When it is in an email, forwarding it makes it even easier.

You might also try looking at a friends Channel on You Tube, or check out the friends on a You Tube Channel you really like to find more people with similar interests and more cool clips. This is a good way to see what other people post and favorite, and can open a whole new world of Video to enjoy online. Many people have yet to discover the networking tools available thru 'channels' and friends on You Tube!

It is kind of a Social Network vibe and can be a great tool to discover new music and silly clips on the king of VIDEO - You Tube!

Understanding YouTube

Understanding how YouTube works and how to better search online  will greatly increase your enjoyment of YouTube and the Video content you find! The most important thing to remember is, video content can't be understood by a computer spider - SO - any search return you get when searching for videos is based on the information the person "said the Video is about". When people mislead, lie, or try and post really bad stuff - we all can report it and YouTube kills the clip and often the channel and account!

How Do I Get My Videos Seen???

Page 2 on YouTube is for you guys and gals posting clips on YouTube. I would guess most of you have videos that have very low view numbers and don't know where or how to understand YouTube Analytics. Did you know every member has a Channel and Analytics with interesting information for only you to see????

NEXT - YOUTUBE VIDEO RANK