Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Vote for your favorite November “On The Rise” nominee

In our monthly On The Rise program, we identify four partners whose channels are seeing significant growth but haven’t yet reached the 100,000 subscriber mark. This month, we’re sharing with you four dedicated partners who are getting quite close to hitting that milestone so you can help give them a chance to jumpstart their audience development and channel growth. Our November nominees have already built strong follower networks by sharing their passions about fashion and beauty, VFX and cinematography, songwriting and music, and green science education.

Here’s where you come in - you actually have the chance to help push these partners even further on YouTube. Review their videos below, vote for your favorite here, and one of these candidates will have the opportunity to be featured on the YouTube homepage later this month. In addition to your votes, each channel will be evaluated on criteria such as viewer engagement and channel optimization techniques to decide which partner will be featured on the homepage, Google+, Facebook and Twitter at the end of the month.

In past months, featured On The Rise partners like GoneToTheSnowDogs and RichardGaleFilms have gained many subscribers and seen their careers take off, in large part due to your support. This month’s poll will be open until November 20, 5pm PT, so don’t forget to vote for your favorite channel. Check back to see who secured the homepage feature on November 28.

AllThingsFabulous101
Asia gets back to basics in her videos, offering style and beauty tips and tricks for beginners. A self-described fashion and makeup lover, her channel is a great resource for a ton of easy how-tos, tutorials, and hauls.



polcan99
Simultaneously wearing hats as a director, cinematographer, and animation/video effects artist, Tom Antos has nearly 15 years of experience in the film industry. You can check out a sampling of his projects (which range from music videos to feature films to DIY projects), VFX skills, and even behind-the-scenes tutorials on polcan99, one of several channels Tom manages.



krissysings
Krissy and Ericka Villongco are sisters who play and sing pop-acoustic music. This duo hails from the Philippines and released two albums in 2012 and 2009. Their channel features a variety of their covers and original songs. Check it out for some feel-good music



GREENPOWERSCIENCE
This environmentally-focused channel houses an array of educational videos about electricity, solar energy, and wind power. Dan and Denise, the creator-curators behind this project, also host live classes, but you can let your inner backyard scientist geek out and get a preview over at their channel.



If you’re interested in checking out more rising YouTube Partners, visit our On The Rise channel, which features nominees, trending partners and monthly blog winners.

Devon Storbeck and Christine Wang, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched “The World's Smallest Dog.”

Thursday, November 8, 2012

November 12th Live Stream: YouTube Product Updates and an Interview with OlgaKay

On Monday, November 12th, the YouTube Partner Support team is hosting a Partner Meet-Up in Los Angeles. The event is at capacity so if you’re not already registered to join us in person, be sure to tune in at youtube.com/partnersupport.

During the meet-up, we'll be live streaming an update from the YouTube Product team on changes to your video management features and YouTube / Google+ identity integration. Additionally, we’ll be livestreaming the next episode of “Partner Support Talks With...” featuring OlgaKay. You can find a schedule for the stream below:


TimeSession
2:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. PSTUpdates on YouTube / Google+ Identity Integration
2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. PSTUpdates on New & Upcoming Video Management Features
3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. PSTPartner Supports Talks with... OlgaKay


We want to hear from you! Throughout the stream we’ll be taking live questions from viewers around the world via comments on youtube.com/partnersupport.

We’ll also be soliciting questions in advance for our talk show with OlgaKay. Have questions for Olga? Submit your questions and vote for the questions you like here: http://goo.gl/KWn4i

Can’t tune in? Don’t worry - as always, we'll also post the episode on youtube.com/partnersupport after the show.

John Langan and Devon Storbeck, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched "BUYRAL - Professional Clicking."

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

YouTube Now: How we design our site through experimentation

This is the second of a series called “YouTube Now,” in which we explain how we’re evolving the site, and why. Would you like to suggest a topic of interest to creators for a future YouTube Now? Please drop it in the comments below.

As a creator, you know by now that YouTube is always evolving. Over the past year, we’ve changed how the site looks and works, and these improvements have driven significant gains in subscriptions and the total time your fans are watching YouTube.

Every site change has a purpose. We know we’re doing it right when people subscribe to more channels and spend more time watching them.

When we upgrade YouTube in a major way, we’ll always give our creators advance notice, both here on this blog and at our creator meetups, Hangouts and social media.

But sometimes you may arrive at YouTube and notice that it looks unexpectedly different. Well, here’s what’s up. We experiment and test every change, big or small, by showing it to a small set of viewers. For example, last year we tested removing a thin border from around video thumbnails. Our experiment showed it resulted in a nearly 2% increase in clicks on suggested videos. So we pushed that change to everyone.

We don’t just test YouTube through online experiments, though. We also run in-person focus groups with a diverse set of people, some of whom subscribe to hundreds of channels, some of whom watch YouTube less frequently.

Right now, we’re in a period of intensive testing to build a new YouTube that supports longer viewing sessions and makes fan engagement more rewarding. (TechCrunch recently spotted one of these experiments, for example.)

How can you help us build the best YouTube? On every page there’s a “Send feedback” link. Tell us what’s working for you, and what’s not.

Thanks for your help as we continue to build the next version of YouTube for you and your fans. We’re lucky to have such a deeply engaged community here, and your feedback will help design the future of YouTube.

Eric Meyerson, head of content creator communications, recently watched Prophetic 1995 Student Internet PSA.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Join us for a Hangout On Air chat with TheSlowMoGuys!

Join the Partner Support team this Friday, November 9, at 10am PT / 1pm ET while we chat with Gavin Free of TheSlowMoGuys. Gavin and his co-creator Dan are accomplished YouTubers who have been experimenting with high-speed cameras for many years both professionally and as a hobby. Their channel showcases uniquely creative videos and fascinating insight to the slower side of life. We’ll be chatting with him about his experience on YouTube, how he produces his videos and how he has grown his channel.

As usual, we will be live streaming the hangout on the YouTube Partner Support channel and on Google+ at http://goo.gl/Ncxer.

We'll give plenty of time for Gavin to share his production tips and YouTube stories, but most of all we'd love to make sure he answers all of your questions. If you have a burning question for him about his Channel, how he makes his videos, or any tips he has on how to become a successful YouTube partner, submit them here: http://goo.gl/LfjM2.

Hope to see you this Friday, November 9!

Cheryl Pon, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched "Giant 6ft Water Balloon - The Slow Mo Guys."

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Giving you more control and convenience for publishing videos


Many of you have told us you want more control and convenience when publishing videos to your YouTube channel. You want features that will save you time and give you more flexibility as you build an audience on your channel. Starting today all creators around the world will have three new publishing features: public videos that don’t notify subscribers, adding custom thumbnails while the video uploads, and a new tags editor.

Public videos that don’t notify subscribers

Have you ever wanted to upload a “behind the scenes” video to your channel and don’t want this video to take up valuable real estate in subscribers’ feeds? Or uploaded a long video but also wanted to publish short clips? Maybe you want to publish a quick video without interrupting your publishing schedule?

We’ve heard many creators want to upload public videos that don’t notify their subscribers in their homepage feed, via email (for opted in subscribers), and in youtube.com/my_subscriptions.  Your default will remain that your subscribers are notified about your public uploads, but now you can choose to uncheck this option to “Notify subscribers” in the Advanced Settings section during the upload process.  If you use our batch upload  features in CMS, we also have an equivalent XML tag available. Public videos that you choose not to notify subscribers about will still be discoverable through search, suggested videos, and on your channel.




Upload a custom thumbnail right after the upload begins

In April, we launched one of the most requested features by creators, the ability to set the custom thumbnail directly in the upload interface, while the video is uploading. We received a lot of positive feedback about this change, but many of you pointed out that this would be even more convenient if you could upload the custom thumbnail earlier during the upload process, rather than towards the end.  Beginning today, you can pick your preferred thumbnail right away, shortly after the video upload starts.  

New tags editor

We now have  a simpler interface to input and manage your tags.  Just type in the text for each tag, and either add a comma or hit enter.  This will store the text as a distinct tag.  Once the tag has been entered, the text will be surrounded by a blue box which indicates that the word or phrase you entered has been entered as a tag. 





Keep the feedback coming

We’re constantly working to make the upload process more efficient and effective for creators.  Your feedback is always helpful and appreciated, so let us know at +YouTube Creators how we can continue to improve our publishing tools.

Johannes Leitner, Balazs Dezso, and Duane Barlow, YouTube Upload engineers, recently watched  http://youtu.be/A5Uvdx0IyXo