Guest Post: Opportunity for the YouTube community to support marriage equality

The following is guest post by Michael Buckley, creator and host of the What the Buck Show since 2007.

Dear YouTube friends, I want to bring your attention to The Four 2012, an organization supporting marriage equality efforts in four key states this fall -- Maryland, Maine, Minnesota and Washington.  

For marriage equality, momentum is on our side! The Four 2012 is working to give everyone across the country a chance to support marriage equality efforts in these four states. They are looking to use social media to get the word out, and they need creative and compelling videos to use in their efforts. I thought it would be a good idea to reach out to the YouTube Creator community. With enough of us talking, Google+-ing, tweeting and creating and sharing videos about it, we can pass marriage equality in three states and stop a gay marriage ban in another!!!

The Four 2012 is looking for creators to make videos and spread the word, and they plan to feature some of these videos in their social media campaigns. Even if you have never made a YouTube video, this is the perfect time to start!

They need creators from any of the four states, but ANYONE, ANYWHERE can get involved. Simply make and upload a video about what marriage equality may mean for you, your friends, or your family. Be authentic! Then, at the end of the video include the following: "Visit TheFour2012.com to learn more and get involved." When you have created your video, send the link to admin@thefour2012.com!

There are only about 40 days left until the election! I believe in the POWER of the YouTube community and all the amazing things we can do! Turn on your cameras! Spread the word! I know we can do this together!!!

Your friend,
Michael Buckley /WhatTheBuckShow

Our September featured On The Rise partner is GonetotheSnowDogs

Congratulations to Jessica of GonetotheSnowDogs! Her channel, featuring her huskies Shiloh, Shelby, and Oakley, is our September featured “On The Rise” partner. Check out the “Spotlight” section of the YouTube homepage today to meet these quirky, entertaining pups.

Jessica has been filming her dogs and sharing their antics with the world via YouTube, of course for the last three years. While all centered around the three star huskies, the videos run the gamut from fun and entertaining to educational and instructional. Head on over to Jessica’s channel to see Shiloh and Shelby ‘singing’ a duet (it earned them a feature on Animal Planet!) and all three dogs reacting to a new present meant to help them cool down in the summer. If you have a dog of your own, you might be interested in Jessica’s tutorial videos, which cover topics like how to make your own chicken jerky dog treats.



Here are a few words from Jessica:

Almost three years ago, I put up a silly video of my dogs onto YouTube, and look what it has now grown to! I never thought that our dogs would be so loved by people all over the world! It started off as just showing the dogs and the silly things they do day by day, and it has turned into a combination of fun, and educational videos uploaded 3 times a week. You ask, and we will do our best to answer when it comes to questions about Siberian Huskies, or dogs in general! We are always willing to help when we can! We hope you enjoy what you see on our channel! How can someone not love dogs! And with the three we have, you get a variety of personalities you will come to love! Shiloh is the quite one, Shelby is the crazy one, and Oakley is the oddball still finding her place here (we just adopted her this past February.) We want to say thank you to YouTube for giving us this amazing opportunity, Thank you to our fans, friends, and family, for all of your love and support! Thank you to the stars of the channel, Shiloh, Shelby, and Oakley, for allowing me to point a camera at you all the time! Subscribe to our channel, and experience the joy that a dog can bring into your life! 

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 Partner Support, recently watched “The Hunger Games - A Bad Lip Reading.”

Build a global audience on YouTube by translating your captions

Growing a global audience on YouTube means having your videos reach many people, speaking many languages. So today we’ve made it easier for you to translate YouTube video captions into more than 300 languages. See more details in the help center, or follow the step-by-step instructions below:

Getting started
You’ll first need a caption track for your video, so if you don’t yet have one you can learn how to make one here. Select “Request translation” in the YouTube Video Manager, choose the languages you’d like to translate into, and click “Next.” We’ll create caption translation documents that you can now invite anyone to help translate, or you can translate yourself. To translate the captions yourself, select the language, and it’ll open up the caption translation document in the Google Translator Toolkit editor to help your translate faster.





Watch while you translate
To give you context on the captions, we’ve also embedded the YouTube video in the editor so you can watch as you translate. For several languages we’ll provide first draft of the translation using Google’s machine translation technology. We’ll also provide preview of what the translated caption looks like on the video so you can make sure the translated captions fit.



Publish and enjoy
Click “Publish to YouTube” when you’re finished, and we’ll publish the translated caption back to your YouTube video. If you’re not the video owner, we’ll notify the owner via email that there’s a pending translation waiting to be approved and published.

By providing translated captions, you’ll not only make your video globally accessible but also  improve discoverability in other languages. Now you can increase your audience by reaching more people around the world.

Posted by Jeff Chin and Brad Ellis, product managers, who recently watched “Life in a Day” which is subtitled in 26 languages.

Partner Support Talks with... TheBrothersRiedell

On Monday, September 24th, the YouTube Partner Support team will be hosting a partner meet-up in San Bruno. During the meet-up, we'll be live streaming the latest episode of Partner Support Talks with.... featuring a YouTube partner answering questions submitted by YouTube users like you!

In this episode, we'll sit down with Nick and Chris Riedell to talk about how they've achieved success on YouTube. We'll also ask them YOUR questions - live on the air.

Want to know what inspires their top videos? Want their advice on best practices? Submit your questions (and vote for others) here to be answered live: goo.gl/HnPMO

Then, tune in to youtube.com/partnersupport at 4:30pm PT on September 24th to watch the show! We'll also post the episode on youtube.com/partnersupport after the show.

Brandon Feldman, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched "Caine's Arcade 2: The Global Cardboard Challenge & Imagination Foundation."

Channels just got simpler to navigate

Today we’re simplifying the browsing experience on channel pages by merging the Feed and Videos tabs into one “Browse videos” tab.

This new tab will house all Channel activity: uploads, playlists, likes, activity, and comments. Upon clicking the “Browse videos” tab, by default your viewers will be taken to Uploads, but they can easily view other activity using the menu. For example, everything you used to see on the Feed tab can be viewed by clicking on “Activity.” 



Our testing showed that this change makes Channels easier to navigate. Read about the changes in more detail here, and let us know what you think.

Tim, Software Engineer on the Channels team, recently watched Starry Night - Vincent van Dominogh

Meet our September “On The Rise” nominees!

Reaching 100,000 subscribers is a big milestone for our dedicated YouTube partners. 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, and we give them a chance to jumpstart their audience development and channel growth. This September, our candidates for the On The Rise feature are still in the early stages relative to that milestone, but their content is engaging and they’re passionate about building their YouTube presence.

We’re sharing their channels with you so you can help them grow their presence on YouTube: one of these candidates will have the opportunity to be featured on the YouTube homepage later this month. Check out their videos below and vote for your favorite here. 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 thevfxbro and mikeyssmail 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 September 19, 5pm PT, so don’t forget to vote for your favorite channel. Check back to see who secured the homepage feature on September 27.

stampwithtami
Tami White loves to stamp! She’s created hundreds of cards for all occasions using stamps, sponges, ink pads, and cardstock. Her channel hosts tutorials on how to make different themed cards and crafts using different stamping techniques and tools.



wcfoodies
Rebecca Lando of Working Class Foodies focuses on making inexpensive dishes using local and seasonal foods. Not a great cook? Not to worry, her channel has instructional recipe videos for all experience levels.



photoshopCAFE
Designers, photographers, and videographers - if you’re looking for editing assistance, look no further than photoshopCAFE! Colin Smith has aggregated some of his best samples of tutorials on Adobe editing solutions, backed up by his website forums where you’re guaranteed to find advice and tips from like-minded artists.



GoneToTheSnowDogs
Your dog may be able to sit and stay, but has she been featured on a lottery ticket, vacuum ad, or Animal Planet show? Even if your answer is yes, we’re pretty sure you’ll admire these fun and often educational videos featuring huskies Shiloh, Shelby, and Oakley.



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 “Edward and Bella - A Bad Lip Reading of Twilight.”

Connecting with your viewers on the new YouTube app for iPhone and iPod touch

We’re launching a new app for iPhone and iPod that helps viewers find your channel, and gives them more ways to enjoy and share your videos. The new YouTube app helps iPhone users:  

• Watch your channel instantly: We’ve integrated a swipe-out guide so your subscribers can now instantly access your channel.
• Find videos faster: We’ve bulked up search tools, like auto-suggesting videos and searching specifically for channels.

• Share with others: Viewers can now share directly on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, email, or text message from within the app.

You can use the app on your iPad too, but stay tuned for a made-for-iPad experience in the coming months.

To help your audience get the best experience on iOS, download the app, and encourage your audience to do the same by annotating this link: http://itunes.apple.com/app/youtube/id544007664

Eric Meyerson, head of content creator communications, recently watched “Sifl & Olly Episode 1: Kinetic Demo.”

Three tips to help potential viewers find your channel

This is part of an ongoing series sharing tips from the YouTube Creator Playbook, a resource of best practices and tips you can start using on your channel and videos right away.

Think of your channel description as an advertisement for your channel -- a great ad can win you some new fans, while a bad ad is a surefire way to get ignored.

On YouTube, it’s important to think about how your channel appears in search results, on the video watch page, or in our channel recommendations. The channel page is the best way that users can learn everything there is to know about your content, but a viewer is more likely to get to your channel if they have a sense of what they’ll see.

In the future, displaying an interesting and informative channel description is going to become even more important, as we add more features that will help users discover collections of channels.

For example, do you have any idea of what this (fictional) channel is about, based on how it looks in search results?

Here are a few pieces of advice to help out.

First, pick an appealing avatar and channel name. They’re the most visually prominent aspects of your channel in search results.

• Your avatar should reflect your channel brand. Use images and colors that are consistent with what you use on your channel. Avoid using abstract designs or a logo by itself, and remember that it should be recognizable at smaller sizes.
• Try to be both descriptive  and succinct with your channel title so a potential viewer can quickly understand your genre or content category. Double check how your channel description appears in search results, and adjust the length accordingly.

Second, make the most of your channel description. It is an important opportunity to reach a new audience, so, make every word count. Your first 45 characters should say what your channel is about. If you upload a video every Friday, that can wait until further down in the description.

Finally, your featured video is still your best asset for giving viewers a taste of your channel. It should act as a short preview of your channel content that quickly convinces new viewers to subscribe to your channel. Your most engaging content should be up front with a catchy intro.

Learn more best practices and strategies about how to build your audience in the Creator Playbook.

Benoît de Boursetty, YouTube Product Manager, recently watched the NASA control room during the landing of the Curiosity rover.