Youtube has fast become one of the best free methods of marketing your web site by using videos. But to achieve the best results from YOUR video marketing there are a few important steps to make sure you always remember. To achieve visitors to your site you need viewers watching your video. Here are some tips to ensure success.

In this article we will discuss the best video format for youtube, the size, the upload process, and few things to watch out for.

After creating your YouTube video you need to export or render your video. If you’re working on a PC, the best format to export to is WMV. On a mac, it’s QuickTime.

What about the size (resolution) of your video? Does it matter?

If the goal is a clear video, then yes the output size DOES matter. A video on youtube.com is displayed at 425 (width) by 355 (height). The reason it’s important to be aware, is because if you create a video on your computer at 720 X 480, then export (render) it to 360 X 240 (or smaller) then when it is encoded by youtube, it will be s t r e t c h e d. (Not a good thing.) What does a stretched video look like? Blurry.

If your video is part of your marketing strategy, then clarity and quality are essential.

Although on a windows PC you can export your file to AVI format (which is the highest quality) you won’t be able to upload it because it will be larger than the maximum allowable size. (One quick side note: the maximum length you will be permitting to upload is 10 minutes duration.)

A compressed video must be used. The wmv format will always give good quality while reducing the size of the file.

To avoid your video being stretched, export (render) it close to the size you made the video (typically 720 X 480). In the case of 720 X 480, the online version will be about 75%.

Don’t render it to 360 X 240 as this is smaller than the online size. In the encoding process on YouTube they will be INCREASING the size by roughly 50% of the file you have uploaded. It’s best to make it close to – or a little bigger than the size they will display it at. Then it can be REDUCED if necessary during the encoding process rather than stretched.

Once your video rendering is done, then it’s time to preview it on your computer. Check it on your computer before uploading, to make sure it is clean, and all your effects are exactly as expected.

Now it’s time to upload.

After logging in to your account, click the button on the left UPLOAD A VIDEO. After typing your title, description, tags, and placing it in a category, now you’re ready to upload the file. Uploading itself may take a few minutes depending on the size of the file.

Before jumping off to another site to promote your new creation we still need to check a few things first. Wait until the video has been added to the site. (This may take a few minutes to a half hour.)

You’ll know your video is ready to be previewed online when a little part of your video is now viewable in the preview screen and the title of the video is now clickable.

Does the image represent well the content of your video? If not you will have to make a few changes to the video and upload it again. But editing an existing video on YouTube isn’t allowed you will have to start from step one again (as if you were uploading a new video.)

If the preview image on the screen is acceptable now it’s time to watch your video.

Does the online version of your video look as good as the one you watched? If so, you’re done and ready to start marketing and promoting your new video.

If it’s blurry, then it will be necessary to go back to your editing software and re-render to another format or size; then repeat the process over again. If it’s necessary to do this, be sure to delete the original video you uploaded so you don’t have two versions of the same video (one good one and one bad one).

In a recent experiment I uploaded three marketing videos. The only difference between the three files was the size that I rendered to. One was sized at 100% (720 X 480). The second was sized at 75% (which in this case is very close to the size that is used on the YouTube site. The third was at 50% (remember that if I was to use 50% then as I upload it, the web site will increase its size). The first two were virtually identical. But the one that was reduced had a slight blurry look through the entire video. buy 4000 watch hours on youtube