From Raw Footage to YouTube: A Step-by-Step Process Unveiled

How To Upload Videos to YouTube [a Step-by-Step Guide]

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Want to learn how to upload videos to YouTube? Millions of people watch YouTube every day. Creating and posting YouTube videos can be a lot of fun, and if you get a lot of views and become popular you can also make money. YouTube videos are a creative way to connect with people all around the world.

These simple steps can assist you in learning how to upload YouTube videos from a desktop computer. You are going to Learn:

Part 1: Basic Rules You Need to Know Before Uploading
Part 2: Steps to Upload Videos to YouTube

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Part 1: Basic Rules You Need to Know Before Uploading

Clicking the ‘upload’ button is easy, but during the upload process, there are things you can do to help your video get views and maintain its quality. You should also keep an eye on the length and file size limits. The more basic things you need to consider carefully when you upload are the title, description, and tags of your video. These are part of what determines if and where your video comes up in people’s search results. There are also slightly more advanced video specs, like your video’s resolution, which will be helpful for you to understand as somebody who will be producing video content frequently. These sorts of specs will affect how long it takes your videos to upload and how much of the quality they maintain.

1. How Long Can my Video Be?

By default, your YouTube videos can only be 15 minutes long. You can post longer videos by going to the upload page and clicking on ‘Increase your Limit’ at the bottom. After you have followed the steps to verify your account you will be able to post videos that are a maximum of 11 hours long.

2. How Big a File Can I Upload?

Your file size was capped at 20GB, initially. If you follow the same steps for posting videos longer than 15 minutes then you can also increase your maximum file size to 128GB.

3. Other Basics

After you click the ‘upload’ button on YouTube you are taken to a page where you choose a category for your video and add a title, description, and tags. These are all important for getting hits so you should put some thought into them.

Title: Keep your title under 70 characters so none of it disappears into a ‘…’. The best titles make people curious or elicit an emotional response. Terms like ‘video’, ‘how-to’, and ‘tutorial’ are often typed into people’s searches so if they apply to your video it can help to put them in the title.

Description: A short synopsis of your video which includes your most important keyword. You have about three lines before your text is hidden by a ‘show more’ tab. If you are including the URL of your channel or other videos then you should make sure they are above the ‘show more’.

Tags: Use a lot of them. These are the keywords and terms people will be searching for when they find your video. YouTube will suggest some after you start adding. A quick way to find good keywords to use is to search for videos similar to yours and check out their tags. A while ago YouTube started hiding video tags by default but you can download a free, YouTube-certified, extension for Google Chrome which will allow you to see them from vidIQ.com.

4. Digging Deeper

To get your viewers to subscribe to your channel you will need to make sure your videos are not losing quality when you upload them. Here are some things to be aware of if you want your videos to look great on YouTube.

Resolution: the number of pixels in your image. For example when a video has a resolution of 1080p that means it has a grid of pixels that is 1920 x 1080. The more pixels you have the sharper your image.

Bitrate: Bitrate is a measurement of how compressed your file is, and the less compressed it is the more information there is per frame. Higher bitrates mean larger file sizes.

Your resolution and bitrate should complement each other. If you have a higher bitrate than is needed for your video’s resolution your file will be unnecessarily large. If your bitrate is too low for your resolution then you will not see the quality you expect.

YouTube has a list of recommended resolutions and bitrates at support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171.

Aspect Ratio: the dimensions of your video, in terms of width and height. YouTube’s aspect ratio is 16:9, so your videos should also be 16:9. If they are not then you will get black bars on either side of your video after you upload it. The most common way that people end up with the wrong aspect ratio is by creating videos on their smartphones and holding them up and down instead of sideways.

Part 2: Steps to Upload Videos to YouTube

Uploading YouTube Video on Desktop:

1. Sign in to your YouTube account

2. Hit the upload button

3. Select your video type (Public, Private, Unlisted)

4. Manage the upload

5. Choose your thumbnail

In order to upload videos to YouTube, the very first thing you need to do is sign in. The sign-in button is located at the top right corner of the YouTube homepage. If you have multiple accounts registered to one device, you will be asked to choose one to log in to.

Step 2: Hit the upload button

It is a simple step that you will have to follow right after you log in to YouTube. As soon as you enter YouTube, after using your Google account and password for login, you will find the upload button in the top right corner of the screen. Click on this button and it will take you to the dedicated upload page.

Step 3: Select your video type (Public, Private, Unlisted)

Choose your audience. If you wish to make your video available to everyone on YouTube, simply go to the privacy settings and choose the “Public” option from the drop-down menu.

If you do not want your video to be searchable, but still want to be able to easily share a link to it with your friends and family, choose the “Unlisted” option.

Those who wish to keep their video personal can choose the “Private” option from the drop-down menu. You can still share a private video with a limited number of people (as long as they have Google accounts).

The “Scheduled” option is available for choosing a future date and time to make the video available to viewers. Once you have selected your privacy level, simply upload your video from your device storage.

Step 4: Manage the upload

As soon as you have confirmed your video upload, you will find a progress bar on the screen. It will take some time depending on factors such as the resolution of the video and how long it is. In the meanwhile, you can write a title, description and add relevant tags for your video so that YouTube knows what search results to include it in and viewers can find it. Remember that YouTube is the second biggest search engine on the Internet, so take some time to optimize your keywords .

Step 5: Choose your thumbnail

Once your video uploading is complete, it is time to choose a creative thumbnail for your video. The system provides you with three options to choose from automatically, all of which will be screenshots from your video. It is usually better to upload your own custom thumbnail , as thumbnails are a very important factor in attracting viewers. Hit the “Done” button or use the “Publish” button to finalize your upload.

That’s how to upload a video on YouTube! Any questions?

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Analyzing View Count to Cash Out on YouTube

How much does YouTube pay for 1 million views? As a YouTuber, you become a business, and it helps to know the YouTube views to money earned.

If you are trying to earn a living on YouTube, one of the most excellent marks of a successful creator is often earning 1 million views on the platform (click here for tips on how to do that ). It usually serves as a benchmark for a time at which a channel is relatively sustainable. However, rather than meaning a YouTuber has made it big financially, reaching 1 million views is more likely to say they can expect to start making real money.

When you hit 1 million views on any video on YouTube, you’ll have a nice paycheck. You’ll likely have to hit 1 million views on at least a few other videos before you could consider quitting your full-time job and doing YouTube as your primary source of income. This article will explore what 1 million views mean for your YouTube channel. We will look more into how revenue is calculated on YouTube and what you can expect to earn-out of a video with 1 million views.

$2000 for 1 Million Views

In a case study performed by Standupbits and Josef Holm, a YouTube channel is created with over 3500 comedy clips that a comedian and stand up actor had put together over the years. The YouTube clips took extensive time to upload, and the library was prevalent. The YouTube ad revenue only equated to around $2000.

Although StandUpBits had uploaded thousands of clips and received over 1 million views on their channel, their library was only able to earn around $2000 from the ad revenue sharing. It’s estimated the group had spent approximately $25,000 to finish off the clips, edit them, and upload them, which means they invested far more in the channel than they earned.

If you are thinking about a career on YouTube, reaching 1 million views might seem like an excellent target for making a successful page, and it is, but reaching 1 million views doesn’t magically guarantee financial success.

How Revenue is Calculated

In order to understand how revenue is calculated over the YouTube marketplace, a YouTube user needs to first understand what the partnership program entails. Basically, a YouTube partner has the ability to monetize their videos and serve ads on their content.

In order to join this program you need to be able to commit to uploading ad-friendly (nothing controversial) content that is completely original and high quality and which also adheres to all of the community guidelines and YouTube’s Terms of Service (YouTube actually just introduced a couple of stricter rules - click here for YouTube Monetization 2018 ).

As of February 2018, to qualify for ad revenue, the YouTube channel must have:

1. You will need to have 1,000 subscribers.

2. You will need to have accumulated 4,000 hours of watch time over the last 12 months.

The AdSense revenue that you earn through YouTube will vary depending on a large number of factors related to the specific ads running and what type of content you produce.

Understanding CPM and CPCs

What is CPM?

CPM stands as the ‘cost per mille’ or ‘cost per thousand.’

Your CPM is the amount you earn for 1000 ad impressions (1000 viewers clicking on an ad or watching a skippable ad). Your CPM is usually related to the demographics of your users, the content you regularly post, the length of time on the videos that you post, and the gender of your viewers. YouTube CPMs can vary depending on the advertising bid the company has submitted with Google. The lowest bids can be around .33 cents per thousand views, and other advertisers can spend as much as $10 for 1000 views.

For example, gaming is the most prominent genre on YouTube, and there are many gaming-related ads to go around, but most of them are very low-paying (i.e., ads for free online games). Only YouTube gamers with extensive subscriber bases get higher-paying ads.

What is CPC?

CPC means ‘cost per click.’ A CPC ad interprets an ‘ad impression’ as a click on an ad rather than a viewer merely seeing it. Most YouTube ads are CPC ads, but skippable video ads are CPV (cost per view), and impressions are based on viewers watching the ad instead of skipping it.

Changes on YouTube and How You Can Earn More

Changes that have affected the way that revenue is calculated are the ability to skip ads and the lower click rates on advertising through YouTube. A huge portion of viewers uses ad blockers, which eliminates them as potential sources of revenue.

Ultimately earning ad revenue is a big game of reaching targeted demographics and achieving ongoing viewership for your videos. It does matter where your viewers are going to be viewing from, and the audience that your viewers are in (viewers from areas with more disposable income to spend on the products advertised to them are worth more to advertisers, as are viewers who are interested in higher-cost items).

Forming relationships with brands and doing product placements or sponsored videos can be a great way to earn more revenue than you will through AdSense. Just make sure the brands you build relationships with are relevant to your audience and that you incorporate the advertising in ways that don’t annoy your viewers.

Use the right keywords in your titles, descriptions, and tags. Without this keyword information, YouTube may pair your video with advertisers that aren’t right for your audience. First, using the wrong keywords won’t put your content in front of the viewers who want to see it, and, second, the ads that run won’t be a good fit and thus are less likely to be clicked on. It’s also imperative that you focus on the metadata of every video. It can take some extra time to add in all of this information for each video, but it is well worth it if you are trying to get paid from YouTube.

Click here for 4 ways to start growing your channel faster.

So, how much does YouTube pay for 1 million views? Not as much as you might think. But don’t give up, because ad revenue is not the only way to make money through YouTube. Here are 4 alternative ways to make money as a YouTuber .

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02 How is the revenue calculated?

03 CPMs and CPCs

04 How monetization is changing