An Insider’s Guide to Climbing the Charts
by Dave Roman, GCPCUG Member
This O’Reilly Press book was written by authors Alan Lastufka and Michael W. Dean.
Everybody’s talking about UTUBE on the internet even though it was launched in 2005. It’s an amazing phenomenon and this book tells you all about it in 15 chapters. One of the opening statements tells you what you’re in for. “If you’re smart (and you are smart because you picked this book), talented (and you are talented because this book attracted you and this book is about talent and vision), and have some good ideas, you’ll have a really good chance of getting your work seen.”
Chapter 1 - What is This YouTube of Which You Speak?
This chapter is basically a history of YouTube. You also get information about navigating YouTube and what it means to go viral. A viral video is one that is so funny, so outrageous that it is immediately shared from one viewer to the next and on and only goes like the flu.
The first viral video, which has been viewed 700 million times, is the “Star Wars Kid”. Go to: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6vilBmU (URL 1.4).
Chapter 2 - Storytelling and Directing and Chapter 3 – 99 Cent Film School: Shooting, Editing and Rendering
This chapter tells you about making quality videos that people will watch and pass on to friends. You will also learn how to edit and render videos to upload them to YouTube. The secret is in “story telling” and conflict. You only have two minutes to create a likeable character and a plot.
The 3rd chapter helps you with editing your film. They talk about what not to shoot and why, as well as location, lighting and props. There are good examples of how to edit the film, almost taking you step by step.
Chapter 4 - Creating Your Very Own Channel
This chapter takes you through the step by step process of registering your channel and then “Pimping Your Profile”. What other social networking sites call your profile, YouTube calls your channel, just like a TV channel.
In order to load videos to YouTube, you must register. You can watch videos without registering, but in order to get “into the act”, you must be a registered user. This chapter also covers privacy issues and terms of use.
Chapter 5. Broadcasting Yourself: User-Generated Content
This chapter is about uploading your video to YouTube so everyone can see your production. Make sure your video is appropriate. (Not pornographic or violent), anyone can FLAG a video they deem as inappropriate and they must also click on a reason why they think it is inappropriate. This must be a common happening because there is even a page about “contacting YouTube while upset.”
Chapter 6. Rebroadcasting: Commercial Content
Here he teaches you about using other people’s work in your videos. Why would you worry about using other people’s work? This leads to talking about copyrights, fair use and parody and public domain. Public Domain is material where the copyright has expired. It can be a song, a book or even a work of art. You can find out about public domain and lists of available “stuff” by typing in public domain in your search engine.
This chapter even shows you where to get FREE material for your YouTube project. Go to http://creativecommons.org
One of the tricks for copying YouTube videos is as follows:
1) Copy the video URL as it begins to play.
2) Go to: www.videodl.org
3) Paste in the URL and click GO
4) When the download button appears, click on it
5) After downloading, use rename to change the file type to FLV
6) Then go to www.media-convert.com
7) Select the file in browse
8) Use the “NO VIDEO RESET” and Windows Bitmap settings
9) Accept
10) Then DOWNLOAD when the button appears
I’ve used this procedure a number of times.
Chapter 7. Building Your Audience
This is like creating “traffic” on your web site. They give you ways of building your audience legally.
Chapter 8. The Community: Where Do You Fit In?
This chapter is all about networking and collaborating. It’s just like it sounds. You may like someone’s video and leave a comment. You may even work out a deal to make a video with this person. A cute video recommended in this chapter is
www.youtube.com/user/fiveawesomegirls (URL 8.6).
Chapter 9. Hacking the System: How to Cheat (and Why You Shouldn’t)
In this chapter, one of the authors shares what he’s learned about nefarious dealings on YouTube. They define acceptable behavior and what can get you kicked out for good.
One interesting way of cheating is “autorefreshing”. If you have a video on YouTube, you can continue hitting the refresh button every 5 seconds which is 12 views a minute and 720 views per hour. They say this will rocket your video to the Most Viewed list. That’s a No-No. You’ll learn a few more ways of hacking in this chapter.
Chapter 10. Reaching the World
Here they talk about the social networking world of YouTube, blogging, vlogging, signatures and social bookmarking.
Chapter 11. Money Money Money!
This is the money chapter. They tell you how to monetize your work.
Chapter 12. Beyond The Tube
Learn how to create your own identity, independent of YouTube, and tricks of time budgeting which allows more time away from your computer.
Chapter 13. Becoming a Success Story
This sounds interesting. They tell you how to become featured on YouTube’s front page and maybe even on the evening news. You might even turn up first in Google searches. How’s that for publicity?
Chapter 14. Closing Arguments
This chapter is just a little philosophy by the authors.
Chapter 15. Interviews with Other YouTube Rock Stars
This one is obvious. The authors interview some of the huge stars of YouTube. This is almost like “American Idol”. They interview 5 interesting YouTube people. Lisa Nova is the 24th most subscribed channel of all time on YouTube. She eventually became a MADtv cast member as a result of her YouTube videos. She was also featured in the New York Times, AdWeek, and Wired magazine. You can see her on:
www.youtube.com/user/LisaVisa (URL 15.2)
www.lisanovalive.com (URL 15.3)
This is a great YouTube book. If you know nothing about YouTube, this book will make you an expert, especially if you’re over 30. Do you want to learn from an expert? Ask any kid in High School!
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