RSVP for our last 2012 YouTube Partner Meet-Ups

Registration is still open for our remaining 2012 YouTube partner meet-ups! We are excited to meet with more of the YouTube community and facilitate our partners mingling with each other. Each of these meetups will offer you a chance to meet your fellow partners, learn about program and product updates, and take your content creation and audience development techniques to the next level.

Details and registration forms are at these links:

• NYC meet-up Oct. 29: http://goo.gl/WSnWB
• Note: form closes Oct. 8
• Our schedule in NYC includes:
• Another episode of "Partner Support Talks with..." featuring ImprovEverywhere.
• Panels on audience development and Creator Playbook updates.
• Product updates and announcements.
• Opportunities to discuss channel optimization directly with Partner Support.
• LA meet-up Nov. 12: http://goo.gl/QG9aM
• Note: form closes Oct. 12
• Our schedule in LA includes:
• Presentations by well-known partners such as LisBug and RatedRR, who will discuss their experience with audience engagement, production/post-production, and Analytics.
• An episode of "Partner Support Talks with..." featuring OlgaKay.
• Product updates and announcements.
• Group critiques of sample videos and channels, and an opportunity to discuss optimization best practices.

Space is limited, so please take note of the date each form closes and RSVP soon! We'll be sending confirmation emails with details to those we can accommodate.

We look forward to seeing you at these upcoming events!

Devon Storbeck, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched “11 Month Old Twins Dancing to Daddy's Guitar.”

Want to use your full name on YouTube? Partners can opt in now

Until June, cutepuppies99 was stuck with a name he may have outgrown, and origamigirl1981 couldn’t reveal the name of the person with the skills. We wanted to fix this, so we started allowing them to use their name from their Google+ profiles on YouTube.

Today, we are happy to announce that YouTube partners can now get in on the action by opting in.

Opting in allows you to replace your username with your Google+ profile name (spaces included!), replace your photo  with any you’ve uploaded, and include a direct link to your profile.  See this example from creator Rob Scallon, formerly known as “robs70986987”:



This provides you with a seamless way to connect with and be discovered by your audience across YouTube and Google.

Despite some nifty benefits, opting into a Google+ profile isn’t for everyone. Currently, YouTube only supports using a Google+ profile identity, which is designed for individuals who want to use their full names. If your channel is built around a brand or organization, and you want to use that name instead, you should wait until Google+ Pages are available to be connected with channels. (We’re working hard on that, too.) Google+ Pages can be named after a brand or organization, and up to 50 people may administer the account. (You’ll also be able administer up to 50 channels from an account.)

If you think a Google+ profile is a good fit for you, you can start opting in by going to the advanced section of your account settings and clicking “Begin using my full name on YouTube.” Note that this is only available if you have your Google+ profile on the same account as your Channel.

And if you change your mind, you can always switch back to cutepuppies99.

For more information on Google identities on YouTube, visit our help center.

David Boyle, YouTube staff, recently watched “Oppa Gangnam Style”

Our August featured “On The Rise” partner is thevfxbro!

Congratulations to Aaron of thevfxbro! As a result of strong fan support and recognizable efforts to optimize his channel and videos according to our best practices, Aaron is our featured “On The Rise” YouTube partner for August. His channel and four engaging videos are featured on the YouTube homepage today.

As a film student at Biola University, Aaron perfected his video editing skills and special effects knowledge while mastering programs like Final Cut and Adobe AfterEffects. This work was a natural fit for YouTube, and he’s found success by sharing his expertise with the YouTube world. The thevfxbro channel hosts such videos as the walkthrough of the video effects Aaron used in his “I Am Legend” spoof, his adorable “copy cat,” and how the “Hunt for Pikachu” video was created. Check out his library of video editing tutorials as well as behind-the-scenes footage explaining how Aaron - and his friend Zach from FinalCutKing - use special effects to create their videos.



Here are a few words from Aaron:

Wow! Having started film school 4 years ago I never thought that it would have ended with me running a YouTube channel with an audience that I not only get to share my videos with, but help along the way. The crazy thing about YouTube is that it’s so new and we have no idea where it’s going to take us. I am so excited to see where this platform takes us filmmakers. Feel free to check out my channel that has awesome videos with visual effects as well as training and tutorials to help you take your own videos to the next level! 

If you’ve enjoyed this monthly On The Rise blog series and want to see more rising YouTube partners, check out our On The Rise channel. Keep an eye out for next month’s blog post, as your channel may be the next one On The Rise!

Christine Wang and Devon Storbeck, YouTube Content Partnerships, recently watched “Bentley the Bulldog Puppy is fussy.”

Expanding custom thumbnails to more partners

Over the past few months, we’ve been testing the impact of custom thumbnails on viewer watch time and engagement. Today, we’re expanding access to custom thumbnails for more YouTube partners, and over time, we aim to make them available to all partners in good standing.

Why not just give custom thumbnails to everyone?

As we’ve mentioned before, we focus on watch time when suggesting videos because it improves overall audience engagement on YouTube, and opens up more revenue opportunities for you. We’ll continue to recommend videos whose thumbnails help drive viewers to actually watch them, over videos that are clicked and then quickly abandoned.

When custom thumbnails do not accurately reflect the content they represent, they can annoy and disappoint viewers. These videos perform poorly on watch time, so they will become less prominent on YouTube. We’re continuing to test how partners use this feature to see how they better drive viewership on YouTube.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be granting access in weekly batches to partners. Partners need to have been active for 30 days and in good standing. When you get access, you should only upload images that are representative of your video, ideally featuring prominent stills from your video. Thumbnails must comply with our Community Guidelines, so abuse of this feature can result in strikes against your account and account termination.

Displaying thumbnails that accurately and appealingly represent your content is the best way to ensure long-term growth for your channel.

Andy Stack, YouTube Product Manager, recently watched “Written By A Kid: Scary Smash.”

Channel templates just got simpler and more flexible

To create a simpler and higher-impact experience for creators and viewers on YouTube, today we’re making two changes to channels. 

First, we’re merging the Creator and Network featured tab templates into the Everything template. By default your featured tab will look as it did before, but you will now have the option of showing both playlists and channels. This allows you to more easily feature your content and promote other channels at the same time. This update is happening automatically this week, and requires no changes from you.




Second, we’re introducing a new template called Overview. The Overview template displays a featured video with “shelves” underneath. Shelves are groups of videos or playlists, such as Popular Uploads, Recent Uploads, and Likes. 

Content is automatically populated into shelves based on the shelf type; you don’t have to do anything. When your viewers click on a shelf title, they’re taken to a full page to browse that content type.




These changes simplify creator choices and enhance the browsing experience for viewers. Try out the new templates and let us know what you think.

Stace Peterson, Software Engineer, recently watched Oddisee - You Know Who You Are

New feature: Easily create video intros and outros

We’ve noticed more and more playlists with interstitials in between videos -- short intro or outro videos that recap the previous video and introduce the next one. You’ve been using interstitials to weave individual videos together into a bigger story, and frankly, we’re impressed. For example, Eat Your Kimchi uses interstitials to turn a music playlist into a K-POP news show.

So, to make it easier for you to tell great stories through playlists, we’re making it easy to add interstitials right in the playlist editor.

To do so, create a playlist or go to edit an existing playlist, then click + Introduction:


A window will pop up prompting you to record a video with your webcam:

If you prefer, you can create a text-only video instead:

You can choose from a variety of styles for text introductions and even add royalty-free music tracks. Interstitials will appear as unlisted videos in your account, and are eligible for monetization if they are at least 15 seconds long.

We hope this makes it easier to program great playlists by curating your own and others’ videos!

Eric Lundberg, Software Engineer, recently watched “Falcon Eye - Abu Dhabi 2011”