Do any of you have a #YouTube channel? YouTube recently announced that for a channel to qualify for #monetization it needs 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours in the last 12 months by 20 February, 2018. Kind of shocking for those channels that have enjoyed receiving the odd check in the post from YouTube and now will receive: NIL. This has caused a flurry of people wanting likes and joining sub for sub groups or posting sub for sub requests on prominent videos where this practice is encouraged. I’m coming from an entrepreneurial background and for me this does not sound like you’re connecting with the right people. They are not going to watch your content, so even if you get the 1000 subscribers you won’t get 4000 watch hours and therefore you wont meet the YouTube monetization requirements anyway. You need to build a brand that people will respect. Have an input that has value. Developing your channel into something special and building a community should be the main thing on your mind.

About TubeBuddy

TubeBuddy is a chrome extension you can add to your browser that will allow you to use a variety of tools on YouTube. It is a YouTube certified tool that works by helping you run your channel seamlessly, share your videos on other social media platforms, and allows you to see the analytic data of your videos.

Using the tools can improve your productivity, help with SEO and promotions, and can help you understand the data analysis of your videos.

You can get help through the forums or by listening to the TubeBuddy podcasts that updates weekly and gives helpful advice for your YouTube channel.

Starting at $9 per month, the pricing is set up in three ways to fit you and your channel’s needs. There’s a tool to help you decide your best option if you are unsure.

This video will teach you the basics:

I wanted to use a tool for my YouTube channel to help me with tags, give me a checklist, and allow me to publish on a schedule and to Facebook.

These were the key elements I wanted from a YouTube tool. I got so much more when I learned how to properly use TubeBuddy.

I’m able to see current videos from the TubeBuddy channel, which could help me with my channel, or any issues I’m having. I can view my videos, comments and messages, and so much more.

I continue to use TubeBuddy because it keeps me on track with uploads. I have a solid schedule system with it, and it shows me the analytics per video and for my channel so I can see what works and what doesn’t.

TubeBuddy is a sound investment in my channel and it increased my productivity, uploading schedule, and channel tags that can bring in more viewers.

TubeBuddy Tools for YouTube

There are a lot of tools that TubeBuddy offers, but I don’t have enough time to go over them all. Here are some of them that I will talk about since they are my favorite ones and most-used tools:

• Keyword/Tag suggestions
• Video analytics
• Scheduling
• Messages and Comments
• Checklist for Video
• Thumbnail Creator
• Syndicate to Facebook

All these tools help me to produce high-quality descriptions, video text, and engage with my audience.

I’ll tell you about them and show you how I use them to my advantage.

Keyword/Tag Suggestions

When you upload a video to YouTube, you may have a few tags in mind as to what your video can be labeled with. Maybe your marketing video will include tags like:

• marketing
• digital marketing
• entrepreneur
• small business
• advertisement

Those tags are not enough to make your video one of the 5 billion videos watched that day! You need more tags, and TubeBuddy has a suggestion tool for that.

In the box below the tags box, the Tag Tools by TubeBuddy has many options. Select the Suggest option for a screen to popup.

The Suggested Tags menu pop ups and two columns of information will begin to load: Suggested for Search and Suggested for Related.

The first option: Suggested for Search is when the keyword/tag is search for in YouTube search, such as “solopreneurs wanting marketing success”, which will hit three tags if we were to select them.

The second option: Suggested for Related is geared towards the video that is searched for in keywords being clicked on and the related videos section.

You can also see three dots in a gray circle, and when clicked, it will give more suggestions for that category. The green plus sign is how you can add the tag to your tags box. Lastly, the eyeball, tag, and pencil are the search rankings of those specific tags. These tags get added to your post with a click of a button. Remember to save the post.

Video Analytics

The cool bit about the video analytics is that it’s not just for my videos. It’s for any video I watch. These analytics show you all the details about the video so you can take the help and make your videos better.

Some of the categories that make this tool handy are:

• the summary of the video
• the views and engagement people have with the video
• the ability to view the channels analytics
• to see what tags are top-ranking and how they use them

These videolytics make understanding the data very easy. It automatically pops up on the right-hand side of the video and displays a lot of data.

Looking at the videolytics overview, we can see the summary that shows us the total views compared to the channels average, how many earnings this video has made, and engagement rate of this video.

Next, we can see the views and watch time category that details the views per hour, the duration of the average view, the average % of the video watched, and more.

After that we can move on to engagement where we can see:

• the like ratio of how many comments
• the ratio of comments to viewers
• how many subscribers came from this video link

The SEO part shows the creator suggested tags vs total tags used, the tags in the title and description, and the rating of your ranked tags.

The videolytics even let you see the channel category with the total viewers and subscribers, with the ability to view their channelytics. Lastly, you can see the tags used and at the very top you can compare these analytics to your own video.

Scheduling Content

I love scheduling my content because it keeps me ahead of schedule, on point every day, and completes a daily task for me.

I can schedule content months in advance depending on how many video uploads I need to take care of.

Scheduling my videos on TubeBuddy allows me to:

• work more on other projects until I need to upload more videos.
• free up some time from uploading daily and work with more clients.
• gives me the time to engage with commenters and reply to messages.

In your video manager, click on the TB logo to bring up the tools. To the right hand side, you will see Schedule and underneath it will be Scheduled Publish. Clicking on that will bring up this menu:

From here, you can choose the publish date/time, set the privacy (mine always go from unlisted to public), add to a playlist if you want, and set a reminder if necessary. Hit schedule publish and the toll will do the rest. You can see your publishing date and the privacy that will be changed, and then you can close it and know your video will be uploaded.

Finally, if you do forget about your uploads and where you are on your schedule, you can rest easy knowing it’s within clicking distance from your video manager.

At the top of your video manager, you can see the TB button with a calendar next to it. Click it and your schedule will pop up. On the schedule, you can see each video that is scheduled and when. This makes it easy to remember where you’re at on your tasks and how far you’re ahead.

Messages and Comments

I like the ease of having your comments and messages right on your channel page. I always have trouble finding where my messages are and how to get to them, that I often will just forget about them.

I don’t have to do that anymore.

With TubeBuddy, it’s in a convenient spot that I can easily go to get my messages and view my comments.

Being able to find my messages and view all my comments in one place is a game changer. I can finally respond to those interested in engaging with me, and my comments are organized and neat I can see every detail.

On your message page, you can see the messages you have, switch between filters, and get to your comments through the Creator Studio sidebar under Community. Want to reply to a message, just click on it.

On your comments page, you can choose the section you want to look at, pick filters, hide hidden comments, see who commented when and on what. You can even reply to the comments directly from this page. This makes it very easy to see who you’ve replied to and who you haven’t.

Checklist

I usually make a hand-written checklist before I finish uploading my video. I make sure to include things like:

• catchy title
• quality description
• tags and keywords
• the publish date

That’s all I really have for a video checklist, and it’s awful. Having a 10-item list to complete is perfect for me. I can check it off as I go, or what I like to do is to check it off after I finish everything so I can double check my work.

This tool is great to have, and it’s right next to all the text boxes.

This checklist has everything I wrote down and then some. TubeBuddy makes sure to give you the tools that you need for your videos to be successful, how you use them is entirely up to you.

Thumbnail Generator

If you aren’t familiar with making a thumbnail, or the way you’ve been making one is time-consuming, you’ll take comfort in knowing TubeBuddy offers a Thumbnail Generator.

You can make a thumbnail in five stress-free steps:

1. You will need to upload or edit your video and select the Create Thumbnail button.

1. The popup with begin the thumbnail making process. It will ask you for the type of background you want to use. You can choose from three options, I will opt for a solid background. Select continue.

1. You will advance to the next page where you will pick the color of your background/upload an image/pick a still frame. Select continue.

1. The next part is where you will add in any text, images, shapes, and pick from templates to design your thumbnail. Choose what you want to add in, click add, and then place your text and designs around the background. Select continue.

1. The last step is to look it over and make sure the preview is what you want. If not, go back and edit the thumbnail, otherwise, click on save & publish.

Syndicate Videos to Facebook

Hands down – this is my favorite part of TubeBuddy.

I really enjoy being able to publish my videos seamlessly to my FB page. TubeBuddy makes it effortless by:

• it fills in all the details
• includes my custom thumbnail
• allows me to publish it when I want
• takes seconds to complete

First, go to your video and click on the TubeBuddy button and select Publish to Facebook under Syndicate.

Next, all the details will be filled in, and you can choose when to publish before publishing it to your Facebook page.

Being Productive with TubeBuddy

I find that more work gets done when I work with TubeBuddy. TubeBuddy takes care of my uploads according to my schedule and helps me to publish to Facebook as directed.

This frees up time for me to work on other projects and interact with my audience. I enjoy having more time to be productive elsewhere.

If you find that you’re having trouble with finding the right balance between uploading and scheduling on YouTube, maybe you should consider giving TubeBuddy a try.