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In 2024, The Ultimate Playbook for YouTube Content Innovation
The Ultimate Playbook for YouTube Content Innovation
How to Make YouTube Video
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
Finding the audience for short videos you create, sharing your knowledge of publicizing the music you create has become a much simpler and cheaper process in the last fourteen years. ‘Everyone deserves a voice’ is one of the core values that motivates the founders of YouTube to continue developing the world’s largest video sharing platform. So if you are looking for your own voice, but you’re not really sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place, because in this article we are going to show you how to make attention-grabbing YouTube videos that are going to attract a huge audience.
- Preparation Stage for Making YouTube Video [4 Aspects You Should Consider]
- Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video [5 Tips and Tricks]
- YouTube Video Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
- Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
- How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer? [Step Guide]
Preparation Stage: Getting Ready to Make a YouTube Video
Achieving success on YouTube may only seem easy before you realize how much time and effort it takes to run a successful YouTube channel. Making a YouTube video isn’t much different than making any other type of short or feature film as you have to go through the same stages of the video production process. Everything, including creating YouTube videos starts with an idea, so let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take before you actually start recording your first YouTube video.
1. Start a YouTube Channel
The journey towards success begins with seemingly small and insignificant steps. Creating a YouTube channel is exactly that, a step, without which you won’t be able to become a YouTuber. All you have to do in order to create a channel on YouTube is sign in to the platform using your Google account and then head over to the Settings menu. Click on the Create a new channel option and then pick a name for your Brand channel . Dedicate some extra time to the process of selecting a name for the channel, because that is the first thing your potential followers are going to notice. The platform lets you start as many as fifty channels with one Gmail ID, and as your channels grow, you can add multiple managers to each channel you’ve started. Click on the Create button when you’re done and that’s it you’re now a proud owner of a YouTube channel.
We have summarized some tips and tricks for creating a YouTube channel account , hope that will help you to create a channel more easily.
2. Choose a Niche and Craft a Video Content Strategy
Devising a plan before you start producing content you are going to share on YouTube is going to give you a sense of direction, since there are so many different types of videos that can attract a large audience. Try to imagine your ideal YouTube follower, and then think about what they are interested in or how you can generate value for them through the content you post on your channel. Attempting to cover a broad spectrum of topics usually doesn’t produce the best results, so instead, you should focus on a specific subject and do your best to offer a unique perspective to your viewers on that subject. More importantly, you need to choose the themes for your videos that are relevant to the audience you would like to reach. Gaming, tutorials, beauty or comedy videos are just a few of the most popular genres of videos on YouTube, although which niche you’re going to pick ultimately depends on your personal interests and reasons why you chose to become a YouTuber in the first place.
Additionally, you should follow the hottest trends on the Internet so that you can find out which topics are drawing the most attention at the moment. Don’t let all these questions trouble you, simply choose a niche in which you feel the most comfortable in and start shooting. Keep a watchful eye on how your followers respond to the videos you share on your channel as time goes on and remain open to new ideas or collaborations.
3. Secure a Fresh Supply of YouTube Video Ideas
Defining your niche is just a beginning because you have to keep producing your videos at a steady pace. Most YouTube experts say that sharing new content at least once a week is necessary if you want to gather a large group of followers on your channel. Consequently, you’ll need a constant supply of ideas for new videos that cover topics your audience is interested in. A simple search on YouTube can help you discover the videos on the platform that have the most views. This should give you a pretty good idea which types of videos are the most popular at the moment and what viewers want to see the most.
Reading the comments section below a YouTube video can be a great way to discover new ideas since viewers often ask questions or search for advice on very specific aspects of the topic that particular video is covering. Moreover, YouTube isn’t the only destination on the Internet where you can find inspiration for your next video since there are countless groups and communities where you can come across interesting topics for your next video.
4. Get the Right Video and Audio Recording Equipment
The list of audio and video recording gear you’re going to need to create a YouTube video depends on the type of video you’re trying to make. Gamers who want to record gameplay and post it on their YouTube channel only need a screen capturing software or a capture card and a microphone. The list of equipment is a bit longer for YouTubers interested in the production of vlogs, comedy or review videos since they are going to need a camera or a Smartphone capable of recording videos at high resolutions, lighting equipment, tripods, steady cams, microphones. If you would like to learn more about the pieces of equipment you are going to need while recording a YouTube video, check our picks of the YouTube Video Shooting Equipment List .
Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video
After you’ve successfully completed the preparation stage it is time to start getting ready for the next step of the process of making a YouTube video. However, you can’t just pick up a camera and start randomly shooting unrelated scenes, instead, you should follow the steps below that make the production of a video much less complicated.
1. Write a Script and Make a Shooting Schedule
Write down all of your ideas for your next video prior to shooting the first shot of that video. A script can be particularly useful if the video you’re planning on making involves a lot of narration since you’ll always know what to say next. Furthermore, you don’t have to record the entire video on the same day, and you have the freedom to plan when and where you are going to record each scene you want to include in the video.
2. Set a Scene
You control what the viewers of your YouTube video are going to see. That’s why you have to choose your shooting locations carefully and to hand-pick each prop that is going to be visible in the shot. Avoid shooting in messy rooms, because the items in the background are going to distract the viewer and reduce the quality of your videos.
3. Pick the Best Camera Positions
Once you know where and when you are going to shoot your video, you should start planning your shots. Most YouTube videos are recorded from a single camera position, but you can also experiment with different shot angles if it helps you to tell the story of the video. Don’t put the actors near direct sources of light like windows or lamps because if you do so you can easily end up ruining the shot.
4. Make Sure that You Have Enough Light in The Shot
Natural sources of light are often not enough to light a scene properly, because the amount of available light you’ll have at your disposal can change in a few minutes. That’s why nearly all YouTubers use lighting kits that enable them to control the amount of light in the shot at any moment.
5. Bonus: Making YouTube Videos Without a Camera
In case using video and audio recording equipment is a bit too technical for you, there is a simple alternative solution since you can capture all activities on your computer’s screen with software products such as Filmora or OBS Studio. This is an excellent option for gamers who want to record gameplay of their favorite video games or skilled educators that would like to share their knowledge and show others how to use a piece of software or perform any other computer-based task.
Besides screencasting, you can also assemble existing footage from old TV shows, movies or cartoons to make a YouTube video. You don’t have to worry about copyright infringements, as long as the footage you’re using is within the public domain. However, if you accidentally end up using footage without permission it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to file a lawsuit, but your video may be removed from your YouTube channel if someone reports that you’ve used footage without the permission from its owners.
Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
Before you can share the video clips you recorded with a camera, Smartphone or a screencasting software, you should edit them first. Choosing video editing software isn’t always easy since there are so many different options that enable you to perform both basic and advanced video editing tasks. You can check our recommendations about some of the best video editing software for YouTube videos, in case you are still looking for a video editor that is best suited for the price range you’ve had in mind or your skill level. You should choose a video editing app that you feel the most comfortable using since you are going to spend a lot of time editing videos with it.
The video editing techniques you will utilize during the process of piecing together a YouTube video depend on a number of factors that range from the genre of the video to its visual style. However, trimming or cutting the footage, creating opening titles and end credits are among the most common video editing actions you will have to perform on each new project. Mastering these basic video editing techniques is essential for the success of your videos on YouTube since it will enable you to quickly trim a video clip by dragging one of its ends in an inward or outward direction or remove a portion of a clip you don’t want to feature in the final cut of the video from the timeline.
Hard cuts can at times disrupt the flow of a video, but you can easily fix this by adding a transition between two clips. What’s more, nearly all video editing software products on the market come bundled with rich visual and audio effects libraries that make the color grading or audio editing process much faster. Adding opening titles, lower thirds or any other image overlay can help you introduce the characters in the video to the audience, inform the audience about important aspects of the topic you’re covering or summarize the key points of the video.
Creating a soundtrack is also a vital step of the video editing process that largely influences the quality of the final video. That’s why the narration or the dialogues must be recorded professionally since even the slightest background noise can distract the viewer. Whether or not you are going to add music to a video, depends on the type of project you’re working on. Video editing software products like Filmora have their own royalty free music libraries that offer songs from Rock or Electronic and numerous other genres.
When you complete the video editing process, you should export the video to a folder on your hard drive or directly to your YouTube channel if the video editing app you’ve chosen provides that option. How long the rendering of a video is going to take depends on your computer’s processing power, video’s length, and the output resolution.
Adding/Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
As we already noted you can either upload a video to YouTube directly from a video editing software or from a hard drive after the rendering process is completed. You can upload videos with 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios to your channel, and the platform support videos in resolutions up to 8K. The minimum length of a YouTube video is 33 seconds while a video’s maximum length cannot exceed the twelve-hour limit. The file’s size can’t be larger than 128GB while the frame rates can go as high as 60fps. If you need to edit the uploaded and published YouTube videos, you can check our tips about editing existing YouTube videos , and you can check out our guide about how to make money on YouTube if you would like to learn more about account monetization.
Read More to Get : How to Loop a YouTube Video >>
1. Optimize Your Content for YouTube Searches
Every bit of information you add to the video increases its visibility on the platform. Even the name of the file you’re uploading to your channel should contain a keyword, and once the upload is completed you should add a title, description, and metadata if you would like to increase the video’s visibility on the platform. It is vital to select your YouTube SEO strategy before you actually start adding new videos to your strategy. In case you’re not familiar with the concept of search engine optimization for YouTube, you can find everything you need to know aboutYouTube SEO in our guide.
2. Create Visually Captivating Thumbnails and End Screen Elements
A thumbnail is usually a snapshot of a frame from a video, you’ve created during the video editing process or any other still image that suggests what the video is about. A small thing like adding a thumbnail to a YouTube video can increase both the number of views and the number of likes that video is getting. In addition, YouTube’s video editor enables you to add end screens that last anywhere between five and twenty seconds to your videos, but keep in mind that the video must be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen. There are a number of fully customizable templates available that can be uses to promote your upcoming videos or to invite viewers to subscribe to your channel.
Wanna making YouTube thumbnail yourself? Check some of the best YouTube thumbnail makers list.
3. Publish, Interact and Share
YouTube lets you keep your videos private until you are ready to make them public. Once you decide to make a video available to all YouTube users, you should share it on social media like Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Furthermore, embedding a YouTube video on your blog or website can drastically increase the number of views it’s getting. The YouTube Analytics tool is designed to help you track the metrics that indicate how well your video is performing. Don’t know which analytics tools should use? Check our picks of some useful YouTube Analytics Tools to learn how to analyze your video.
How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer?
Even though you can use almost any video editing software to edit a YouTube video, we recommend trying a versatile video editing app like Filmora to edit videos on Windows PC and Mac which offers both basic and advanced video editing features. Creating a video in Filmora doesn’t require a developed set of video editing skills, since all of the tools and options the editor offers are remarkably easy to use.
When you are ready to start a new project you should simply launch the software, and once the new project loads, you should head over to the File menu and select the Project Settings option that lets you set the resolution, aspect ratio and the frame rate of the video. Proceed to import the footage into the project by selecting one of the available options in the Import drop-down menu or by simply dragging the media assets from a folder on your hard drive and dropping them to the Filmora’s Media Panel. In case you don’t have your own audio and video footage you can download videos, music, visual and audio effects from a stock footage website like Filmstock effects store . Filmora also offers screen casting features, so you can easily record gameplay, show viewers how to use a software or capture any other type of activity on your computer’s screen.
Add each media asset you want to include in the final cut of the video to the timeline and then proceed to remove all unwanted parts of the video and audio clips from the timeline using the Cut or Trim options. Filmora offers rich transitions and visual effects libraries you can use to make the cuts between shot smoother or enhance the colors in the video clips you’re editing. Furthermore, the editor lets you take snapshots of any frame in video clips you’ve placed on the timeline in a single click which can be quite useful if you want to create a thumbnail for your YouTube video. Creating the opening titles, end credits or adding different image overlays to a video is a straight forward process since you just have to select the option that fits the style of the video you’re creating and add it to the timeline. Once you’ve completed the video editing process, you can click on the Export button and decide if you want to export a video directly to your YouTube channel or to a destination on your hard drive.
New to Filmora? Check our beginner guide about How to Edit Videos in Filmora in details or check the quick video tutorial below to find out more details.
Conclusion
Becoming a successful YouTuber requires a lot of dedication and hard work, so if at first, you don’t succeed, you should be patient and persistent. In time, as your channel grows, you will be able to monetize your videos, but only if you keep producing new content at a steady pace. Each step of the YouTube creation process is equally important, and you should dedicate an equal amount of attention to recording high-quality footage, editing, and promotion of the content you share on your YouTube channel. Was this article helpful? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and experiences with us.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
Finding the audience for short videos you create, sharing your knowledge of publicizing the music you create has become a much simpler and cheaper process in the last fourteen years. ‘Everyone deserves a voice’ is one of the core values that motivates the founders of YouTube to continue developing the world’s largest video sharing platform. So if you are looking for your own voice, but you’re not really sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place, because in this article we are going to show you how to make attention-grabbing YouTube videos that are going to attract a huge audience.
- Preparation Stage for Making YouTube Video [4 Aspects You Should Consider]
- Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video [5 Tips and Tricks]
- YouTube Video Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
- Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
- How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer? [Step Guide]
Preparation Stage: Getting Ready to Make a YouTube Video
Achieving success on YouTube may only seem easy before you realize how much time and effort it takes to run a successful YouTube channel. Making a YouTube video isn’t much different than making any other type of short or feature film as you have to go through the same stages of the video production process. Everything, including creating YouTube videos starts with an idea, so let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take before you actually start recording your first YouTube video.
1. Start a YouTube Channel
The journey towards success begins with seemingly small and insignificant steps. Creating a YouTube channel is exactly that, a step, without which you won’t be able to become a YouTuber. All you have to do in order to create a channel on YouTube is sign in to the platform using your Google account and then head over to the Settings menu. Click on the Create a new channel option and then pick a name for your Brand channel . Dedicate some extra time to the process of selecting a name for the channel, because that is the first thing your potential followers are going to notice. The platform lets you start as many as fifty channels with one Gmail ID, and as your channels grow, you can add multiple managers to each channel you’ve started. Click on the Create button when you’re done and that’s it you’re now a proud owner of a YouTube channel.
We have summarized some tips and tricks for creating a YouTube channel account , hope that will help you to create a channel more easily.
2. Choose a Niche and Craft a Video Content Strategy
Devising a plan before you start producing content you are going to share on YouTube is going to give you a sense of direction, since there are so many different types of videos that can attract a large audience. Try to imagine your ideal YouTube follower, and then think about what they are interested in or how you can generate value for them through the content you post on your channel. Attempting to cover a broad spectrum of topics usually doesn’t produce the best results, so instead, you should focus on a specific subject and do your best to offer a unique perspective to your viewers on that subject. More importantly, you need to choose the themes for your videos that are relevant to the audience you would like to reach. Gaming, tutorials, beauty or comedy videos are just a few of the most popular genres of videos on YouTube, although which niche you’re going to pick ultimately depends on your personal interests and reasons why you chose to become a YouTuber in the first place.
Additionally, you should follow the hottest trends on the Internet so that you can find out which topics are drawing the most attention at the moment. Don’t let all these questions trouble you, simply choose a niche in which you feel the most comfortable in and start shooting. Keep a watchful eye on how your followers respond to the videos you share on your channel as time goes on and remain open to new ideas or collaborations.
3. Secure a Fresh Supply of YouTube Video Ideas
Defining your niche is just a beginning because you have to keep producing your videos at a steady pace. Most YouTube experts say that sharing new content at least once a week is necessary if you want to gather a large group of followers on your channel. Consequently, you’ll need a constant supply of ideas for new videos that cover topics your audience is interested in. A simple search on YouTube can help you discover the videos on the platform that have the most views. This should give you a pretty good idea which types of videos are the most popular at the moment and what viewers want to see the most.
Reading the comments section below a YouTube video can be a great way to discover new ideas since viewers often ask questions or search for advice on very specific aspects of the topic that particular video is covering. Moreover, YouTube isn’t the only destination on the Internet where you can find inspiration for your next video since there are countless groups and communities where you can come across interesting topics for your next video.
4. Get the Right Video and Audio Recording Equipment
The list of audio and video recording gear you’re going to need to create a YouTube video depends on the type of video you’re trying to make. Gamers who want to record gameplay and post it on their YouTube channel only need a screen capturing software or a capture card and a microphone. The list of equipment is a bit longer for YouTubers interested in the production of vlogs, comedy or review videos since they are going to need a camera or a Smartphone capable of recording videos at high resolutions, lighting equipment, tripods, steady cams, microphones. If you would like to learn more about the pieces of equipment you are going to need while recording a YouTube video, check our picks of the YouTube Video Shooting Equipment List .
Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video
After you’ve successfully completed the preparation stage it is time to start getting ready for the next step of the process of making a YouTube video. However, you can’t just pick up a camera and start randomly shooting unrelated scenes, instead, you should follow the steps below that make the production of a video much less complicated.
1. Write a Script and Make a Shooting Schedule
Write down all of your ideas for your next video prior to shooting the first shot of that video. A script can be particularly useful if the video you’re planning on making involves a lot of narration since you’ll always know what to say next. Furthermore, you don’t have to record the entire video on the same day, and you have the freedom to plan when and where you are going to record each scene you want to include in the video.
2. Set a Scene
You control what the viewers of your YouTube video are going to see. That’s why you have to choose your shooting locations carefully and to hand-pick each prop that is going to be visible in the shot. Avoid shooting in messy rooms, because the items in the background are going to distract the viewer and reduce the quality of your videos.
3. Pick the Best Camera Positions
Once you know where and when you are going to shoot your video, you should start planning your shots. Most YouTube videos are recorded from a single camera position, but you can also experiment with different shot angles if it helps you to tell the story of the video. Don’t put the actors near direct sources of light like windows or lamps because if you do so you can easily end up ruining the shot.
4. Make Sure that You Have Enough Light in The Shot
Natural sources of light are often not enough to light a scene properly, because the amount of available light you’ll have at your disposal can change in a few minutes. That’s why nearly all YouTubers use lighting kits that enable them to control the amount of light in the shot at any moment.
5. Bonus: Making YouTube Videos Without a Camera
In case using video and audio recording equipment is a bit too technical for you, there is a simple alternative solution since you can capture all activities on your computer’s screen with software products such as Filmora or OBS Studio. This is an excellent option for gamers who want to record gameplay of their favorite video games or skilled educators that would like to share their knowledge and show others how to use a piece of software or perform any other computer-based task.
Besides screencasting, you can also assemble existing footage from old TV shows, movies or cartoons to make a YouTube video. You don’t have to worry about copyright infringements, as long as the footage you’re using is within the public domain. However, if you accidentally end up using footage without permission it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to file a lawsuit, but your video may be removed from your YouTube channel if someone reports that you’ve used footage without the permission from its owners.
Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
Before you can share the video clips you recorded with a camera, Smartphone or a screencasting software, you should edit them first. Choosing video editing software isn’t always easy since there are so many different options that enable you to perform both basic and advanced video editing tasks. You can check our recommendations about some of the best video editing software for YouTube videos, in case you are still looking for a video editor that is best suited for the price range you’ve had in mind or your skill level. You should choose a video editing app that you feel the most comfortable using since you are going to spend a lot of time editing videos with it.
The video editing techniques you will utilize during the process of piecing together a YouTube video depend on a number of factors that range from the genre of the video to its visual style. However, trimming or cutting the footage, creating opening titles and end credits are among the most common video editing actions you will have to perform on each new project. Mastering these basic video editing techniques is essential for the success of your videos on YouTube since it will enable you to quickly trim a video clip by dragging one of its ends in an inward or outward direction or remove a portion of a clip you don’t want to feature in the final cut of the video from the timeline.
Hard cuts can at times disrupt the flow of a video, but you can easily fix this by adding a transition between two clips. What’s more, nearly all video editing software products on the market come bundled with rich visual and audio effects libraries that make the color grading or audio editing process much faster. Adding opening titles, lower thirds or any other image overlay can help you introduce the characters in the video to the audience, inform the audience about important aspects of the topic you’re covering or summarize the key points of the video.
Creating a soundtrack is also a vital step of the video editing process that largely influences the quality of the final video. That’s why the narration or the dialogues must be recorded professionally since even the slightest background noise can distract the viewer. Whether or not you are going to add music to a video, depends on the type of project you’re working on. Video editing software products like Filmora have their own royalty free music libraries that offer songs from Rock or Electronic and numerous other genres.
When you complete the video editing process, you should export the video to a folder on your hard drive or directly to your YouTube channel if the video editing app you’ve chosen provides that option. How long the rendering of a video is going to take depends on your computer’s processing power, video’s length, and the output resolution.
Adding/Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
As we already noted you can either upload a video to YouTube directly from a video editing software or from a hard drive after the rendering process is completed. You can upload videos with 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios to your channel, and the platform support videos in resolutions up to 8K. The minimum length of a YouTube video is 33 seconds while a video’s maximum length cannot exceed the twelve-hour limit. The file’s size can’t be larger than 128GB while the frame rates can go as high as 60fps. If you need to edit the uploaded and published YouTube videos, you can check our tips about editing existing YouTube videos , and you can check out our guide about how to make money on YouTube if you would like to learn more about account monetization.
Read More to Get : How to Loop a YouTube Video >>
1. Optimize Your Content for YouTube Searches
Every bit of information you add to the video increases its visibility on the platform. Even the name of the file you’re uploading to your channel should contain a keyword, and once the upload is completed you should add a title, description, and metadata if you would like to increase the video’s visibility on the platform. It is vital to select your YouTube SEO strategy before you actually start adding new videos to your strategy. In case you’re not familiar with the concept of search engine optimization for YouTube, you can find everything you need to know aboutYouTube SEO in our guide.
2. Create Visually Captivating Thumbnails and End Screen Elements
A thumbnail is usually a snapshot of a frame from a video, you’ve created during the video editing process or any other still image that suggests what the video is about. A small thing like adding a thumbnail to a YouTube video can increase both the number of views and the number of likes that video is getting. In addition, YouTube’s video editor enables you to add end screens that last anywhere between five and twenty seconds to your videos, but keep in mind that the video must be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen. There are a number of fully customizable templates available that can be uses to promote your upcoming videos or to invite viewers to subscribe to your channel.
Wanna making YouTube thumbnail yourself? Check some of the best YouTube thumbnail makers list.
3. Publish, Interact and Share
YouTube lets you keep your videos private until you are ready to make them public. Once you decide to make a video available to all YouTube users, you should share it on social media like Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Furthermore, embedding a YouTube video on your blog or website can drastically increase the number of views it’s getting. The YouTube Analytics tool is designed to help you track the metrics that indicate how well your video is performing. Don’t know which analytics tools should use? Check our picks of some useful YouTube Analytics Tools to learn how to analyze your video.
How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer?
Even though you can use almost any video editing software to edit a YouTube video, we recommend trying a versatile video editing app like Filmora to edit videos on Windows PC and Mac which offers both basic and advanced video editing features. Creating a video in Filmora doesn’t require a developed set of video editing skills, since all of the tools and options the editor offers are remarkably easy to use.
When you are ready to start a new project you should simply launch the software, and once the new project loads, you should head over to the File menu and select the Project Settings option that lets you set the resolution, aspect ratio and the frame rate of the video. Proceed to import the footage into the project by selecting one of the available options in the Import drop-down menu or by simply dragging the media assets from a folder on your hard drive and dropping them to the Filmora’s Media Panel. In case you don’t have your own audio and video footage you can download videos, music, visual and audio effects from a stock footage website like Filmstock effects store . Filmora also offers screen casting features, so you can easily record gameplay, show viewers how to use a software or capture any other type of activity on your computer’s screen.
Add each media asset you want to include in the final cut of the video to the timeline and then proceed to remove all unwanted parts of the video and audio clips from the timeline using the Cut or Trim options. Filmora offers rich transitions and visual effects libraries you can use to make the cuts between shot smoother or enhance the colors in the video clips you’re editing. Furthermore, the editor lets you take snapshots of any frame in video clips you’ve placed on the timeline in a single click which can be quite useful if you want to create a thumbnail for your YouTube video. Creating the opening titles, end credits or adding different image overlays to a video is a straight forward process since you just have to select the option that fits the style of the video you’re creating and add it to the timeline. Once you’ve completed the video editing process, you can click on the Export button and decide if you want to export a video directly to your YouTube channel or to a destination on your hard drive.
New to Filmora? Check our beginner guide about How to Edit Videos in Filmora in details or check the quick video tutorial below to find out more details.
Conclusion
Becoming a successful YouTuber requires a lot of dedication and hard work, so if at first, you don’t succeed, you should be patient and persistent. In time, as your channel grows, you will be able to monetize your videos, but only if you keep producing new content at a steady pace. Each step of the YouTube creation process is equally important, and you should dedicate an equal amount of attention to recording high-quality footage, editing, and promotion of the content you share on your YouTube channel. Was this article helpful? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and experiences with us.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
Finding the audience for short videos you create, sharing your knowledge of publicizing the music you create has become a much simpler and cheaper process in the last fourteen years. ‘Everyone deserves a voice’ is one of the core values that motivates the founders of YouTube to continue developing the world’s largest video sharing platform. So if you are looking for your own voice, but you’re not really sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place, because in this article we are going to show you how to make attention-grabbing YouTube videos that are going to attract a huge audience.
- Preparation Stage for Making YouTube Video [4 Aspects You Should Consider]
- Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video [5 Tips and Tricks]
- YouTube Video Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
- Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
- How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer? [Step Guide]
Preparation Stage: Getting Ready to Make a YouTube Video
Achieving success on YouTube may only seem easy before you realize how much time and effort it takes to run a successful YouTube channel. Making a YouTube video isn’t much different than making any other type of short or feature film as you have to go through the same stages of the video production process. Everything, including creating YouTube videos starts with an idea, so let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take before you actually start recording your first YouTube video.
1. Start a YouTube Channel
The journey towards success begins with seemingly small and insignificant steps. Creating a YouTube channel is exactly that, a step, without which you won’t be able to become a YouTuber. All you have to do in order to create a channel on YouTube is sign in to the platform using your Google account and then head over to the Settings menu. Click on the Create a new channel option and then pick a name for your Brand channel . Dedicate some extra time to the process of selecting a name for the channel, because that is the first thing your potential followers are going to notice. The platform lets you start as many as fifty channels with one Gmail ID, and as your channels grow, you can add multiple managers to each channel you’ve started. Click on the Create button when you’re done and that’s it you’re now a proud owner of a YouTube channel.
We have summarized some tips and tricks for creating a YouTube channel account , hope that will help you to create a channel more easily.
2. Choose a Niche and Craft a Video Content Strategy
Devising a plan before you start producing content you are going to share on YouTube is going to give you a sense of direction, since there are so many different types of videos that can attract a large audience. Try to imagine your ideal YouTube follower, and then think about what they are interested in or how you can generate value for them through the content you post on your channel. Attempting to cover a broad spectrum of topics usually doesn’t produce the best results, so instead, you should focus on a specific subject and do your best to offer a unique perspective to your viewers on that subject. More importantly, you need to choose the themes for your videos that are relevant to the audience you would like to reach. Gaming, tutorials, beauty or comedy videos are just a few of the most popular genres of videos on YouTube, although which niche you’re going to pick ultimately depends on your personal interests and reasons why you chose to become a YouTuber in the first place.
Additionally, you should follow the hottest trends on the Internet so that you can find out which topics are drawing the most attention at the moment. Don’t let all these questions trouble you, simply choose a niche in which you feel the most comfortable in and start shooting. Keep a watchful eye on how your followers respond to the videos you share on your channel as time goes on and remain open to new ideas or collaborations.
3. Secure a Fresh Supply of YouTube Video Ideas
Defining your niche is just a beginning because you have to keep producing your videos at a steady pace. Most YouTube experts say that sharing new content at least once a week is necessary if you want to gather a large group of followers on your channel. Consequently, you’ll need a constant supply of ideas for new videos that cover topics your audience is interested in. A simple search on YouTube can help you discover the videos on the platform that have the most views. This should give you a pretty good idea which types of videos are the most popular at the moment and what viewers want to see the most.
Reading the comments section below a YouTube video can be a great way to discover new ideas since viewers often ask questions or search for advice on very specific aspects of the topic that particular video is covering. Moreover, YouTube isn’t the only destination on the Internet where you can find inspiration for your next video since there are countless groups and communities where you can come across interesting topics for your next video.
4. Get the Right Video and Audio Recording Equipment
The list of audio and video recording gear you’re going to need to create a YouTube video depends on the type of video you’re trying to make. Gamers who want to record gameplay and post it on their YouTube channel only need a screen capturing software or a capture card and a microphone. The list of equipment is a bit longer for YouTubers interested in the production of vlogs, comedy or review videos since they are going to need a camera or a Smartphone capable of recording videos at high resolutions, lighting equipment, tripods, steady cams, microphones. If you would like to learn more about the pieces of equipment you are going to need while recording a YouTube video, check our picks of the YouTube Video Shooting Equipment List .
Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video
After you’ve successfully completed the preparation stage it is time to start getting ready for the next step of the process of making a YouTube video. However, you can’t just pick up a camera and start randomly shooting unrelated scenes, instead, you should follow the steps below that make the production of a video much less complicated.
1. Write a Script and Make a Shooting Schedule
Write down all of your ideas for your next video prior to shooting the first shot of that video. A script can be particularly useful if the video you’re planning on making involves a lot of narration since you’ll always know what to say next. Furthermore, you don’t have to record the entire video on the same day, and you have the freedom to plan when and where you are going to record each scene you want to include in the video.
2. Set a Scene
You control what the viewers of your YouTube video are going to see. That’s why you have to choose your shooting locations carefully and to hand-pick each prop that is going to be visible in the shot. Avoid shooting in messy rooms, because the items in the background are going to distract the viewer and reduce the quality of your videos.
3. Pick the Best Camera Positions
Once you know where and when you are going to shoot your video, you should start planning your shots. Most YouTube videos are recorded from a single camera position, but you can also experiment with different shot angles if it helps you to tell the story of the video. Don’t put the actors near direct sources of light like windows or lamps because if you do so you can easily end up ruining the shot.
4. Make Sure that You Have Enough Light in The Shot
Natural sources of light are often not enough to light a scene properly, because the amount of available light you’ll have at your disposal can change in a few minutes. That’s why nearly all YouTubers use lighting kits that enable them to control the amount of light in the shot at any moment.
5. Bonus: Making YouTube Videos Without a Camera
In case using video and audio recording equipment is a bit too technical for you, there is a simple alternative solution since you can capture all activities on your computer’s screen with software products such as Filmora or OBS Studio. This is an excellent option for gamers who want to record gameplay of their favorite video games or skilled educators that would like to share their knowledge and show others how to use a piece of software or perform any other computer-based task.
Besides screencasting, you can also assemble existing footage from old TV shows, movies or cartoons to make a YouTube video. You don’t have to worry about copyright infringements, as long as the footage you’re using is within the public domain. However, if you accidentally end up using footage without permission it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to file a lawsuit, but your video may be removed from your YouTube channel if someone reports that you’ve used footage without the permission from its owners.
Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
Before you can share the video clips you recorded with a camera, Smartphone or a screencasting software, you should edit them first. Choosing video editing software isn’t always easy since there are so many different options that enable you to perform both basic and advanced video editing tasks. You can check our recommendations about some of the best video editing software for YouTube videos, in case you are still looking for a video editor that is best suited for the price range you’ve had in mind or your skill level. You should choose a video editing app that you feel the most comfortable using since you are going to spend a lot of time editing videos with it.
The video editing techniques you will utilize during the process of piecing together a YouTube video depend on a number of factors that range from the genre of the video to its visual style. However, trimming or cutting the footage, creating opening titles and end credits are among the most common video editing actions you will have to perform on each new project. Mastering these basic video editing techniques is essential for the success of your videos on YouTube since it will enable you to quickly trim a video clip by dragging one of its ends in an inward or outward direction or remove a portion of a clip you don’t want to feature in the final cut of the video from the timeline.
Hard cuts can at times disrupt the flow of a video, but you can easily fix this by adding a transition between two clips. What’s more, nearly all video editing software products on the market come bundled with rich visual and audio effects libraries that make the color grading or audio editing process much faster. Adding opening titles, lower thirds or any other image overlay can help you introduce the characters in the video to the audience, inform the audience about important aspects of the topic you’re covering or summarize the key points of the video.
Creating a soundtrack is also a vital step of the video editing process that largely influences the quality of the final video. That’s why the narration or the dialogues must be recorded professionally since even the slightest background noise can distract the viewer. Whether or not you are going to add music to a video, depends on the type of project you’re working on. Video editing software products like Filmora have their own royalty free music libraries that offer songs from Rock or Electronic and numerous other genres.
When you complete the video editing process, you should export the video to a folder on your hard drive or directly to your YouTube channel if the video editing app you’ve chosen provides that option. How long the rendering of a video is going to take depends on your computer’s processing power, video’s length, and the output resolution.
Adding/Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
As we already noted you can either upload a video to YouTube directly from a video editing software or from a hard drive after the rendering process is completed. You can upload videos with 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios to your channel, and the platform support videos in resolutions up to 8K. The minimum length of a YouTube video is 33 seconds while a video’s maximum length cannot exceed the twelve-hour limit. The file’s size can’t be larger than 128GB while the frame rates can go as high as 60fps. If you need to edit the uploaded and published YouTube videos, you can check our tips about editing existing YouTube videos , and you can check out our guide about how to make money on YouTube if you would like to learn more about account monetization.
Read More to Get : How to Loop a YouTube Video >>
1. Optimize Your Content for YouTube Searches
Every bit of information you add to the video increases its visibility on the platform. Even the name of the file you’re uploading to your channel should contain a keyword, and once the upload is completed you should add a title, description, and metadata if you would like to increase the video’s visibility on the platform. It is vital to select your YouTube SEO strategy before you actually start adding new videos to your strategy. In case you’re not familiar with the concept of search engine optimization for YouTube, you can find everything you need to know aboutYouTube SEO in our guide.
2. Create Visually Captivating Thumbnails and End Screen Elements
A thumbnail is usually a snapshot of a frame from a video, you’ve created during the video editing process or any other still image that suggests what the video is about. A small thing like adding a thumbnail to a YouTube video can increase both the number of views and the number of likes that video is getting. In addition, YouTube’s video editor enables you to add end screens that last anywhere between five and twenty seconds to your videos, but keep in mind that the video must be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen. There are a number of fully customizable templates available that can be uses to promote your upcoming videos or to invite viewers to subscribe to your channel.
Wanna making YouTube thumbnail yourself? Check some of the best YouTube thumbnail makers list.
3. Publish, Interact and Share
YouTube lets you keep your videos private until you are ready to make them public. Once you decide to make a video available to all YouTube users, you should share it on social media like Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Furthermore, embedding a YouTube video on your blog or website can drastically increase the number of views it’s getting. The YouTube Analytics tool is designed to help you track the metrics that indicate how well your video is performing. Don’t know which analytics tools should use? Check our picks of some useful YouTube Analytics Tools to learn how to analyze your video.
How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer?
Even though you can use almost any video editing software to edit a YouTube video, we recommend trying a versatile video editing app like Filmora to edit videos on Windows PC and Mac which offers both basic and advanced video editing features. Creating a video in Filmora doesn’t require a developed set of video editing skills, since all of the tools and options the editor offers are remarkably easy to use.
When you are ready to start a new project you should simply launch the software, and once the new project loads, you should head over to the File menu and select the Project Settings option that lets you set the resolution, aspect ratio and the frame rate of the video. Proceed to import the footage into the project by selecting one of the available options in the Import drop-down menu or by simply dragging the media assets from a folder on your hard drive and dropping them to the Filmora’s Media Panel. In case you don’t have your own audio and video footage you can download videos, music, visual and audio effects from a stock footage website like Filmstock effects store . Filmora also offers screen casting features, so you can easily record gameplay, show viewers how to use a software or capture any other type of activity on your computer’s screen.
Add each media asset you want to include in the final cut of the video to the timeline and then proceed to remove all unwanted parts of the video and audio clips from the timeline using the Cut or Trim options. Filmora offers rich transitions and visual effects libraries you can use to make the cuts between shot smoother or enhance the colors in the video clips you’re editing. Furthermore, the editor lets you take snapshots of any frame in video clips you’ve placed on the timeline in a single click which can be quite useful if you want to create a thumbnail for your YouTube video. Creating the opening titles, end credits or adding different image overlays to a video is a straight forward process since you just have to select the option that fits the style of the video you’re creating and add it to the timeline. Once you’ve completed the video editing process, you can click on the Export button and decide if you want to export a video directly to your YouTube channel or to a destination on your hard drive.
New to Filmora? Check our beginner guide about How to Edit Videos in Filmora in details or check the quick video tutorial below to find out more details.
Conclusion
Becoming a successful YouTuber requires a lot of dedication and hard work, so if at first, you don’t succeed, you should be patient and persistent. In time, as your channel grows, you will be able to monetize your videos, but only if you keep producing new content at a steady pace. Each step of the YouTube creation process is equally important, and you should dedicate an equal amount of attention to recording high-quality footage, editing, and promotion of the content you share on your YouTube channel. Was this article helpful? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and experiences with us.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
Finding the audience for short videos you create, sharing your knowledge of publicizing the music you create has become a much simpler and cheaper process in the last fourteen years. ‘Everyone deserves a voice’ is one of the core values that motivates the founders of YouTube to continue developing the world’s largest video sharing platform. So if you are looking for your own voice, but you’re not really sure where to start, you’ve come to the right place, because in this article we are going to show you how to make attention-grabbing YouTube videos that are going to attract a huge audience.
- Preparation Stage for Making YouTube Video [4 Aspects You Should Consider]
- Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video [5 Tips and Tricks]
- YouTube Video Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
- Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
- How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer? [Step Guide]
Preparation Stage: Getting Ready to Make a YouTube Video
Achieving success on YouTube may only seem easy before you realize how much time and effort it takes to run a successful YouTube channel. Making a YouTube video isn’t much different than making any other type of short or feature film as you have to go through the same stages of the video production process. Everything, including creating YouTube videos starts with an idea, so let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take before you actually start recording your first YouTube video.
1. Start a YouTube Channel
The journey towards success begins with seemingly small and insignificant steps. Creating a YouTube channel is exactly that, a step, without which you won’t be able to become a YouTuber. All you have to do in order to create a channel on YouTube is sign in to the platform using your Google account and then head over to the Settings menu. Click on the Create a new channel option and then pick a name for your Brand channel . Dedicate some extra time to the process of selecting a name for the channel, because that is the first thing your potential followers are going to notice. The platform lets you start as many as fifty channels with one Gmail ID, and as your channels grow, you can add multiple managers to each channel you’ve started. Click on the Create button when you’re done and that’s it you’re now a proud owner of a YouTube channel.
We have summarized some tips and tricks for creating a YouTube channel account , hope that will help you to create a channel more easily.
2. Choose a Niche and Craft a Video Content Strategy
Devising a plan before you start producing content you are going to share on YouTube is going to give you a sense of direction, since there are so many different types of videos that can attract a large audience. Try to imagine your ideal YouTube follower, and then think about what they are interested in or how you can generate value for them through the content you post on your channel. Attempting to cover a broad spectrum of topics usually doesn’t produce the best results, so instead, you should focus on a specific subject and do your best to offer a unique perspective to your viewers on that subject. More importantly, you need to choose the themes for your videos that are relevant to the audience you would like to reach. Gaming, tutorials, beauty or comedy videos are just a few of the most popular genres of videos on YouTube, although which niche you’re going to pick ultimately depends on your personal interests and reasons why you chose to become a YouTuber in the first place.
Additionally, you should follow the hottest trends on the Internet so that you can find out which topics are drawing the most attention at the moment. Don’t let all these questions trouble you, simply choose a niche in which you feel the most comfortable in and start shooting. Keep a watchful eye on how your followers respond to the videos you share on your channel as time goes on and remain open to new ideas or collaborations.
3. Secure a Fresh Supply of YouTube Video Ideas
Defining your niche is just a beginning because you have to keep producing your videos at a steady pace. Most YouTube experts say that sharing new content at least once a week is necessary if you want to gather a large group of followers on your channel. Consequently, you’ll need a constant supply of ideas for new videos that cover topics your audience is interested in. A simple search on YouTube can help you discover the videos on the platform that have the most views. This should give you a pretty good idea which types of videos are the most popular at the moment and what viewers want to see the most.
Reading the comments section below a YouTube video can be a great way to discover new ideas since viewers often ask questions or search for advice on very specific aspects of the topic that particular video is covering. Moreover, YouTube isn’t the only destination on the Internet where you can find inspiration for your next video since there are countless groups and communities where you can come across interesting topics for your next video.
4. Get the Right Video and Audio Recording Equipment
The list of audio and video recording gear you’re going to need to create a YouTube video depends on the type of video you’re trying to make. Gamers who want to record gameplay and post it on their YouTube channel only need a screen capturing software or a capture card and a microphone. The list of equipment is a bit longer for YouTubers interested in the production of vlogs, comedy or review videos since they are going to need a camera or a Smartphone capable of recording videos at high resolutions, lighting equipment, tripods, steady cams, microphones. If you would like to learn more about the pieces of equipment you are going to need while recording a YouTube video, check our picks of the YouTube Video Shooting Equipment List .
Production Stage: Recording a YouTube Video
After you’ve successfully completed the preparation stage it is time to start getting ready for the next step of the process of making a YouTube video. However, you can’t just pick up a camera and start randomly shooting unrelated scenes, instead, you should follow the steps below that make the production of a video much less complicated.
1. Write a Script and Make a Shooting Schedule
Write down all of your ideas for your next video prior to shooting the first shot of that video. A script can be particularly useful if the video you’re planning on making involves a lot of narration since you’ll always know what to say next. Furthermore, you don’t have to record the entire video on the same day, and you have the freedom to plan when and where you are going to record each scene you want to include in the video.
2. Set a Scene
You control what the viewers of your YouTube video are going to see. That’s why you have to choose your shooting locations carefully and to hand-pick each prop that is going to be visible in the shot. Avoid shooting in messy rooms, because the items in the background are going to distract the viewer and reduce the quality of your videos.
3. Pick the Best Camera Positions
Once you know where and when you are going to shoot your video, you should start planning your shots. Most YouTube videos are recorded from a single camera position, but you can also experiment with different shot angles if it helps you to tell the story of the video. Don’t put the actors near direct sources of light like windows or lamps because if you do so you can easily end up ruining the shot.
4. Make Sure that You Have Enough Light in The Shot
Natural sources of light are often not enough to light a scene properly, because the amount of available light you’ll have at your disposal can change in a few minutes. That’s why nearly all YouTubers use lighting kits that enable them to control the amount of light in the shot at any moment.
5. Bonus: Making YouTube Videos Without a Camera
In case using video and audio recording equipment is a bit too technical for you, there is a simple alternative solution since you can capture all activities on your computer’s screen with software products such as Filmora or OBS Studio. This is an excellent option for gamers who want to record gameplay of their favorite video games or skilled educators that would like to share their knowledge and show others how to use a piece of software or perform any other computer-based task.
Besides screencasting, you can also assemble existing footage from old TV shows, movies or cartoons to make a YouTube video. You don’t have to worry about copyright infringements, as long as the footage you’re using is within the public domain. However, if you accidentally end up using footage without permission it is highly unlikely that anyone is going to file a lawsuit, but your video may be removed from your YouTube channel if someone reports that you’ve used footage without the permission from its owners.
Postproduction Stage: Editing the Footage You Recorded
Before you can share the video clips you recorded with a camera, Smartphone or a screencasting software, you should edit them first. Choosing video editing software isn’t always easy since there are so many different options that enable you to perform both basic and advanced video editing tasks. You can check our recommendations about some of the best video editing software for YouTube videos, in case you are still looking for a video editor that is best suited for the price range you’ve had in mind or your skill level. You should choose a video editing app that you feel the most comfortable using since you are going to spend a lot of time editing videos with it.
The video editing techniques you will utilize during the process of piecing together a YouTube video depend on a number of factors that range from the genre of the video to its visual style. However, trimming or cutting the footage, creating opening titles and end credits are among the most common video editing actions you will have to perform on each new project. Mastering these basic video editing techniques is essential for the success of your videos on YouTube since it will enable you to quickly trim a video clip by dragging one of its ends in an inward or outward direction or remove a portion of a clip you don’t want to feature in the final cut of the video from the timeline.
Hard cuts can at times disrupt the flow of a video, but you can easily fix this by adding a transition between two clips. What’s more, nearly all video editing software products on the market come bundled with rich visual and audio effects libraries that make the color grading or audio editing process much faster. Adding opening titles, lower thirds or any other image overlay can help you introduce the characters in the video to the audience, inform the audience about important aspects of the topic you’re covering or summarize the key points of the video.
Creating a soundtrack is also a vital step of the video editing process that largely influences the quality of the final video. That’s why the narration or the dialogues must be recorded professionally since even the slightest background noise can distract the viewer. Whether or not you are going to add music to a video, depends on the type of project you’re working on. Video editing software products like Filmora have their own royalty free music libraries that offer songs from Rock or Electronic and numerous other genres.
When you complete the video editing process, you should export the video to a folder on your hard drive or directly to your YouTube channel if the video editing app you’ve chosen provides that option. How long the rendering of a video is going to take depends on your computer’s processing power, video’s length, and the output resolution.
Adding/Uploading Videos to Your YouTube Channel
As we already noted you can either upload a video to YouTube directly from a video editing software or from a hard drive after the rendering process is completed. You can upload videos with 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratios to your channel, and the platform support videos in resolutions up to 8K. The minimum length of a YouTube video is 33 seconds while a video’s maximum length cannot exceed the twelve-hour limit. The file’s size can’t be larger than 128GB while the frame rates can go as high as 60fps. If you need to edit the uploaded and published YouTube videos, you can check our tips about editing existing YouTube videos , and you can check out our guide about how to make money on YouTube if you would like to learn more about account monetization.
Read More to Get : How to Loop a YouTube Video >>
1. Optimize Your Content for YouTube Searches
Every bit of information you add to the video increases its visibility on the platform. Even the name of the file you’re uploading to your channel should contain a keyword, and once the upload is completed you should add a title, description, and metadata if you would like to increase the video’s visibility on the platform. It is vital to select your YouTube SEO strategy before you actually start adding new videos to your strategy. In case you’re not familiar with the concept of search engine optimization for YouTube, you can find everything you need to know aboutYouTube SEO in our guide.
2. Create Visually Captivating Thumbnails and End Screen Elements
A thumbnail is usually a snapshot of a frame from a video, you’ve created during the video editing process or any other still image that suggests what the video is about. A small thing like adding a thumbnail to a YouTube video can increase both the number of views and the number of likes that video is getting. In addition, YouTube’s video editor enables you to add end screens that last anywhere between five and twenty seconds to your videos, but keep in mind that the video must be at least 25 seconds long to have an end screen. There are a number of fully customizable templates available that can be uses to promote your upcoming videos or to invite viewers to subscribe to your channel.
Wanna making YouTube thumbnail yourself? Check some of the best YouTube thumbnail makers list.
3. Publish, Interact and Share
YouTube lets you keep your videos private until you are ready to make them public. Once you decide to make a video available to all YouTube users, you should share it on social media like Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr. Furthermore, embedding a YouTube video on your blog or website can drastically increase the number of views it’s getting. The YouTube Analytics tool is designed to help you track the metrics that indicate how well your video is performing. Don’t know which analytics tools should use? Check our picks of some useful YouTube Analytics Tools to learn how to analyze your video.
How to Make YouTube Videos from a Mac or PC Computer?
Even though you can use almost any video editing software to edit a YouTube video, we recommend trying a versatile video editing app like Filmora to edit videos on Windows PC and Mac which offers both basic and advanced video editing features. Creating a video in Filmora doesn’t require a developed set of video editing skills, since all of the tools and options the editor offers are remarkably easy to use.
When you are ready to start a new project you should simply launch the software, and once the new project loads, you should head over to the File menu and select the Project Settings option that lets you set the resolution, aspect ratio and the frame rate of the video. Proceed to import the footage into the project by selecting one of the available options in the Import drop-down menu or by simply dragging the media assets from a folder on your hard drive and dropping them to the Filmora’s Media Panel. In case you don’t have your own audio and video footage you can download videos, music, visual and audio effects from a stock footage website like Filmstock effects store . Filmora also offers screen casting features, so you can easily record gameplay, show viewers how to use a software or capture any other type of activity on your computer’s screen.
Add each media asset you want to include in the final cut of the video to the timeline and then proceed to remove all unwanted parts of the video and audio clips from the timeline using the Cut or Trim options. Filmora offers rich transitions and visual effects libraries you can use to make the cuts between shot smoother or enhance the colors in the video clips you’re editing. Furthermore, the editor lets you take snapshots of any frame in video clips you’ve placed on the timeline in a single click which can be quite useful if you want to create a thumbnail for your YouTube video. Creating the opening titles, end credits or adding different image overlays to a video is a straight forward process since you just have to select the option that fits the style of the video you’re creating and add it to the timeline. Once you’ve completed the video editing process, you can click on the Export button and decide if you want to export a video directly to your YouTube channel or to a destination on your hard drive.
New to Filmora? Check our beginner guide about How to Edit Videos in Filmora in details or check the quick video tutorial below to find out more details.
Conclusion
Becoming a successful YouTuber requires a lot of dedication and hard work, so if at first, you don’t succeed, you should be patient and persistent. In time, as your channel grows, you will be able to monetize your videos, but only if you keep producing new content at a steady pace. Each step of the YouTube creation process is equally important, and you should dedicate an equal amount of attention to recording high-quality footage, editing, and promotion of the content you share on your YouTube channel. Was this article helpful? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts and experiences with us.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Unlocking 6 Hidden Sources for Custom YouTube Symbols
6 Completely Different Places to Get Icons and Logos for YouTube Videos
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Whether you need YouTube icons and logos to use as pop-up graphics in your videos, to serve as your channel icon, to use as watermarks, or to liven up your channel art or video thumbnails – don’t worry. There are lots of places to get them.
We’ve made a list of 6 sites where you can download icons and logos for free for YouTub videos, and explained how they work.
You might also want to check out these YouTube channels offering free profile picture templates .
1. Flaticon.com
Key Points:
- Great selection of icons/logos
- It’s easy to change the colors before you download
I’m putting Flaticon.com right at the top of this list because it has something that really sets it apart from the other sites on this list – it lets you edit pre-made icons before you download them.
You start out on Flaticon by searching for a theme like beauty, gaming, flowers, or emojis. I searched for ‘birds’ and found these cuties.
These aren’t all the birds on Flaticon, just a few. They had a huge selection in all the different searches I tried.
I clicked on the brown bird to open up the download screen, and then clicked into ‘Edit icon’. There may be a pop up that tells you editing tools are only available to registered users, but it’s wrong. Just close it and keep going, unless you want to register.
You can edit the colors in your icon just by clicking on the color you want to replace, and then clicking on the color in the color selector you want to replace it with. I made my birdie FLY.
I never apologize for puns.
Once you like the look of your icon, just click Download. You will be prompted to choose a format. PNG is the most popular because it is supported the most places (including on YouTube), and because it allows for a transparent background.
After clicking on a format you will also be prompted to choose a size for your image. It’s always best to go with the largest image you can – its way easier to shrink things and keep them looking good than it is to have to enlarge them.
Flaticon has a great selection, it’s free, and they make it really easy to edit your creations. I would strongly recommend this site to anyone in the market for an icon or logo.
Flaticon asks that you include an “Icon made by [author link] from <www.flaticon.com> ” somewhere (i.e. video description, channel ‘about’ section) when you use their icons for free.
2. Freepik.com
Key Points:
- Good selection of icons.
- No way to customise them on the site.
- Attribution requried.
On freepik, you start off by searching for a theme (like the genre of your YouTube title or the topic of a video, i.e. ‘makeup’ or ‘music’). I searched for ‘cat’.
A few of the sets available on freepik. The crown icon means you need to be a paying Premium member, but most things are free.
You can’t edit on freepik, and in order to download for free you need to include an attribution/credit to freepik where you use the images.
You do not choose what format to download your images in on freepik. When you hit ‘Free Download’ it will automatically download a zip file which will contain both a .jpg and a .eps. The EPS is editable in any ‘vector graphics editor’, like Adobe Illustrator, and YouTube supports .jpg files.
3. Seeklogo.net
Key Points:
- Logos from major brands
- Great for channels that do product reviews
Seeklogo.net has a slightly more corporate slant than some of the other sites on this list. It has logos for a lot of major companies and brands available for download.
In the ‘search’ on Seeklogo.net, you can type in the name of a brand or industry and see if the well-known logo you’re looking for is available. This may be especially useful for people with sports related channels since they have a lot of logos for major teams.
I searched for YouTube – you never know when you might need the YouTube logo.
Although the site does not advertise PNG in the list of formats on their front page, downloads do include PNG versions (which is useful if you need transparency and don’t have a program which can edit vector files, like .eps).
4. IconArchive.com
Key Points:
- Site has an office/business slant.
- Detailed search tool lets you sort by color, theme, etc.
IconArchive has a huge selection of icons with somewhat of an office/business slant. I searched for ‘flower’ and half the results were of file-folders with flowers on them.
Could be cool for a lifestyle video about school or work?
My favorite thing about IconArchive is its search features. It allows you to filter results by color, size (down to the specific resolution), category, background color, style, and a lot more.
Color is under ‘Display’, meaning that it won’t filter out results that have different colors it’ll just list the color you select first.
The ‘Category’ filter is useful because there are some genres you probably recognize there, like ‘Lifestyle’. However, you should be careful not to over-filter. This site is pretty literal in how it categorizes. For example – there are no ‘flower’ images under ‘Lifestyle’.
Downloads are available in different sizes and formats including PNG. PNG is always a good option because it is supported by YouTube and includes transparent backgrounds.
Note that all of your different download buttons will be located underneath your image. They favor those ads that look like ‘download’ or ‘start now’ buttons, and the ads sit right next to the images on the right, so it’s easy to get confused and click on the ad.
5. Logaster.com
Key Points:
- You’ll have to pay for larger images.
- Focused more on businesses.
- Incorporates your channel name.
Logaster is really a service for businesses – they make and sell business cards, letterheads, and other office-y things like that. However, they are still a good choice for YouTubers because they have a free logo creator. Sort of.
You actually have to pay $9.99 to get larger images and remove the watermark, but the process is free.
When you arrive on Logaster there’s a button right on their home page that says ‘Create a logo for free’. Click on it.
In Step 1 it’ll ask for your company name and an activity type. You just need to put in your channel name and choose something from the activity drop down that you focus on in your videos.
My heart burns with the secret desire to be YouTube’s Neil Degrasse Tyson (it doesn’t really, but he is super cool) so I tried ‘Katie Does Science’ and ‘Science, Studies, Education’. Here’s what it came up with:
There are 10 pages of suggestions!
You can see how, unless you have a short channel name, you’re probably not going to be able to use any of these as an icon, but a lot of them would look cool on a banner. There’s an ‘Edit Logo Concept’ button which allows you to make changes to the layout, but you can still only choose from preset layouts. For example, some logo concepts allow you to choose whether the icon is above your text or next to it.
After you click ‘save’ in the last step you’ll be prompted to provide an email address and password. Once you sign in, you’ll be able to download a small logo for free, or purchase the higher resolution image.
I personally wouldn’t recommend buying an image from here unless your channel is for your small business and you need things like branded business cards and letterhead. This site might be better for gathering inspiration than actually downloading a logo from.
6. Icons8.com
Key Points:
- You need to link back to them to use their icons.
- You can edit the colors on the site and even add details.
- There’s a size limit on the free service (100x100px)
At Icons8 they have free and paid services. If you download an icon for free it will be a PNG file (which should be fine, YouTube supports PNG and it’s good for transparency) that is no larger than 100x100px. This is not ideal since YouTube recommends 800x800px for profile pictures, but it’s not necessarily a deal breaker either. Profile pictures render down to much smaller than that.
You will also need to link to Icons8 if you use their icons for free (i.e. in the ‘about’ section of your channel page).
To get started on Icons8, type something into the search bar on the home page that you think might work as an icon or as part of whatever graphics you have planned. I typed in ‘game’ for this one, since gaming is the biggest genre on YouTube. Here are a few of the results that came up:
Lower down in the results there were different kinds of sports balls, hand-held gaming systems, playing cards, joy sticks, baseball caps and more.
After you find an icon you like, click on it and it will appear on the right side of your screen where you’ll be able to make a few changes (an editing screen will pop up once you start clicking on things). You can edit your colors, overlay small decals, add text, and add a border, change your background and adjust your size. Here’s the editing screen:
You can give your icon a pretty different look from its default. Check this out:
You cannot download your icon from the editing screen. You need to click Save, and then download it from the main display screen here:
You can change the size with that drop down menu, but you’ll be limited in your options if you don’t want to pay.
I downloaded my image and tried to see how it would look as an icon/profile picture. As you can see, it was pretty blurry in the preview:
However, the preview is larger than the actual profile picture. Once I set it, it looked alright.
Looking for somewhere you can build your own icon/logo from scratch? Check out this list of logo makers .
After downloading the icons or logos, it is time to add them to your YouTube video. Here I recommend our Wondershare Filmora video editor . Below is a video tutorial about how to add a logo to video in Filmora . Remember to download the free trial version to test.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Whether you need YouTube icons and logos to use as pop-up graphics in your videos, to serve as your channel icon, to use as watermarks, or to liven up your channel art or video thumbnails – don’t worry. There are lots of places to get them.
We’ve made a list of 6 sites where you can download icons and logos for free for YouTub videos, and explained how they work.
You might also want to check out these YouTube channels offering free profile picture templates .
1. Flaticon.com
Key Points:
- Great selection of icons/logos
- It’s easy to change the colors before you download
I’m putting Flaticon.com right at the top of this list because it has something that really sets it apart from the other sites on this list – it lets you edit pre-made icons before you download them.
You start out on Flaticon by searching for a theme like beauty, gaming, flowers, or emojis. I searched for ‘birds’ and found these cuties.
These aren’t all the birds on Flaticon, just a few. They had a huge selection in all the different searches I tried.
I clicked on the brown bird to open up the download screen, and then clicked into ‘Edit icon’. There may be a pop up that tells you editing tools are only available to registered users, but it’s wrong. Just close it and keep going, unless you want to register.
You can edit the colors in your icon just by clicking on the color you want to replace, and then clicking on the color in the color selector you want to replace it with. I made my birdie FLY.
I never apologize for puns.
Once you like the look of your icon, just click Download. You will be prompted to choose a format. PNG is the most popular because it is supported the most places (including on YouTube), and because it allows for a transparent background.
After clicking on a format you will also be prompted to choose a size for your image. It’s always best to go with the largest image you can – its way easier to shrink things and keep them looking good than it is to have to enlarge them.
Flaticon has a great selection, it’s free, and they make it really easy to edit your creations. I would strongly recommend this site to anyone in the market for an icon or logo.
Flaticon asks that you include an “Icon made by [author link] from <www.flaticon.com> ” somewhere (i.e. video description, channel ‘about’ section) when you use their icons for free.
2. Freepik.com
Key Points:
- Good selection of icons.
- No way to customise them on the site.
- Attribution requried.
On freepik, you start off by searching for a theme (like the genre of your YouTube title or the topic of a video, i.e. ‘makeup’ or ‘music’). I searched for ‘cat’.
A few of the sets available on freepik. The crown icon means you need to be a paying Premium member, but most things are free.
You can’t edit on freepik, and in order to download for free you need to include an attribution/credit to freepik where you use the images.
You do not choose what format to download your images in on freepik. When you hit ‘Free Download’ it will automatically download a zip file which will contain both a .jpg and a .eps. The EPS is editable in any ‘vector graphics editor’, like Adobe Illustrator, and YouTube supports .jpg files.
3. Seeklogo.net
Key Points:
- Logos from major brands
- Great for channels that do product reviews
Seeklogo.net has a slightly more corporate slant than some of the other sites on this list. It has logos for a lot of major companies and brands available for download.
In the ‘search’ on Seeklogo.net, you can type in the name of a brand or industry and see if the well-known logo you’re looking for is available. This may be especially useful for people with sports related channels since they have a lot of logos for major teams.
I searched for YouTube – you never know when you might need the YouTube logo.
Although the site does not advertise PNG in the list of formats on their front page, downloads do include PNG versions (which is useful if you need transparency and don’t have a program which can edit vector files, like .eps).
4. IconArchive.com
Key Points:
- Site has an office/business slant.
- Detailed search tool lets you sort by color, theme, etc.
IconArchive has a huge selection of icons with somewhat of an office/business slant. I searched for ‘flower’ and half the results were of file-folders with flowers on them.
Could be cool for a lifestyle video about school or work?
My favorite thing about IconArchive is its search features. It allows you to filter results by color, size (down to the specific resolution), category, background color, style, and a lot more.
Color is under ‘Display’, meaning that it won’t filter out results that have different colors it’ll just list the color you select first.
The ‘Category’ filter is useful because there are some genres you probably recognize there, like ‘Lifestyle’. However, you should be careful not to over-filter. This site is pretty literal in how it categorizes. For example – there are no ‘flower’ images under ‘Lifestyle’.
Downloads are available in different sizes and formats including PNG. PNG is always a good option because it is supported by YouTube and includes transparent backgrounds.
Note that all of your different download buttons will be located underneath your image. They favor those ads that look like ‘download’ or ‘start now’ buttons, and the ads sit right next to the images on the right, so it’s easy to get confused and click on the ad.
5. Logaster.com
Key Points:
- You’ll have to pay for larger images.
- Focused more on businesses.
- Incorporates your channel name.
Logaster is really a service for businesses – they make and sell business cards, letterheads, and other office-y things like that. However, they are still a good choice for YouTubers because they have a free logo creator. Sort of.
You actually have to pay $9.99 to get larger images and remove the watermark, but the process is free.
When you arrive on Logaster there’s a button right on their home page that says ‘Create a logo for free’. Click on it.
In Step 1 it’ll ask for your company name and an activity type. You just need to put in your channel name and choose something from the activity drop down that you focus on in your videos.
My heart burns with the secret desire to be YouTube’s Neil Degrasse Tyson (it doesn’t really, but he is super cool) so I tried ‘Katie Does Science’ and ‘Science, Studies, Education’. Here’s what it came up with:
There are 10 pages of suggestions!
You can see how, unless you have a short channel name, you’re probably not going to be able to use any of these as an icon, but a lot of them would look cool on a banner. There’s an ‘Edit Logo Concept’ button which allows you to make changes to the layout, but you can still only choose from preset layouts. For example, some logo concepts allow you to choose whether the icon is above your text or next to it.
After you click ‘save’ in the last step you’ll be prompted to provide an email address and password. Once you sign in, you’ll be able to download a small logo for free, or purchase the higher resolution image.
I personally wouldn’t recommend buying an image from here unless your channel is for your small business and you need things like branded business cards and letterhead. This site might be better for gathering inspiration than actually downloading a logo from.
6. Icons8.com
Key Points:
- You need to link back to them to use their icons.
- You can edit the colors on the site and even add details.
- There’s a size limit on the free service (100x100px)
At Icons8 they have free and paid services. If you download an icon for free it will be a PNG file (which should be fine, YouTube supports PNG and it’s good for transparency) that is no larger than 100x100px. This is not ideal since YouTube recommends 800x800px for profile pictures, but it’s not necessarily a deal breaker either. Profile pictures render down to much smaller than that.
You will also need to link to Icons8 if you use their icons for free (i.e. in the ‘about’ section of your channel page).
To get started on Icons8, type something into the search bar on the home page that you think might work as an icon or as part of whatever graphics you have planned. I typed in ‘game’ for this one, since gaming is the biggest genre on YouTube. Here are a few of the results that came up:
Lower down in the results there were different kinds of sports balls, hand-held gaming systems, playing cards, joy sticks, baseball caps and more.
After you find an icon you like, click on it and it will appear on the right side of your screen where you’ll be able to make a few changes (an editing screen will pop up once you start clicking on things). You can edit your colors, overlay small decals, add text, and add a border, change your background and adjust your size. Here’s the editing screen:
You can give your icon a pretty different look from its default. Check this out:
You cannot download your icon from the editing screen. You need to click Save, and then download it from the main display screen here:
You can change the size with that drop down menu, but you’ll be limited in your options if you don’t want to pay.
I downloaded my image and tried to see how it would look as an icon/profile picture. As you can see, it was pretty blurry in the preview:
However, the preview is larger than the actual profile picture. Once I set it, it looked alright.
Looking for somewhere you can build your own icon/logo from scratch? Check out this list of logo makers .
After downloading the icons or logos, it is time to add them to your YouTube video. Here I recommend our Wondershare Filmora video editor . Below is a video tutorial about how to add a logo to video in Filmora . Remember to download the free trial version to test.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Whether you need YouTube icons and logos to use as pop-up graphics in your videos, to serve as your channel icon, to use as watermarks, or to liven up your channel art or video thumbnails – don’t worry. There are lots of places to get them.
We’ve made a list of 6 sites where you can download icons and logos for free for YouTub videos, and explained how they work.
You might also want to check out these YouTube channels offering free profile picture templates .
1. Flaticon.com
Key Points:
- Great selection of icons/logos
- It’s easy to change the colors before you download
I’m putting Flaticon.com right at the top of this list because it has something that really sets it apart from the other sites on this list – it lets you edit pre-made icons before you download them.
You start out on Flaticon by searching for a theme like beauty, gaming, flowers, or emojis. I searched for ‘birds’ and found these cuties.
These aren’t all the birds on Flaticon, just a few. They had a huge selection in all the different searches I tried.
I clicked on the brown bird to open up the download screen, and then clicked into ‘Edit icon’. There may be a pop up that tells you editing tools are only available to registered users, but it’s wrong. Just close it and keep going, unless you want to register.
You can edit the colors in your icon just by clicking on the color you want to replace, and then clicking on the color in the color selector you want to replace it with. I made my birdie FLY.
I never apologize for puns.
Once you like the look of your icon, just click Download. You will be prompted to choose a format. PNG is the most popular because it is supported the most places (including on YouTube), and because it allows for a transparent background.
After clicking on a format you will also be prompted to choose a size for your image. It’s always best to go with the largest image you can – its way easier to shrink things and keep them looking good than it is to have to enlarge them.
Flaticon has a great selection, it’s free, and they make it really easy to edit your creations. I would strongly recommend this site to anyone in the market for an icon or logo.
Flaticon asks that you include an “Icon made by [author link] from <www.flaticon.com> ” somewhere (i.e. video description, channel ‘about’ section) when you use their icons for free.
2. Freepik.com
Key Points:
- Good selection of icons.
- No way to customise them on the site.
- Attribution requried.
On freepik, you start off by searching for a theme (like the genre of your YouTube title or the topic of a video, i.e. ‘makeup’ or ‘music’). I searched for ‘cat’.
A few of the sets available on freepik. The crown icon means you need to be a paying Premium member, but most things are free.
You can’t edit on freepik, and in order to download for free you need to include an attribution/credit to freepik where you use the images.
You do not choose what format to download your images in on freepik. When you hit ‘Free Download’ it will automatically download a zip file which will contain both a .jpg and a .eps. The EPS is editable in any ‘vector graphics editor’, like Adobe Illustrator, and YouTube supports .jpg files.
3. Seeklogo.net
Key Points:
- Logos from major brands
- Great for channels that do product reviews
Seeklogo.net has a slightly more corporate slant than some of the other sites on this list. It has logos for a lot of major companies and brands available for download.
In the ‘search’ on Seeklogo.net, you can type in the name of a brand or industry and see if the well-known logo you’re looking for is available. This may be especially useful for people with sports related channels since they have a lot of logos for major teams.
I searched for YouTube – you never know when you might need the YouTube logo.
Although the site does not advertise PNG in the list of formats on their front page, downloads do include PNG versions (which is useful if you need transparency and don’t have a program which can edit vector files, like .eps).
4. IconArchive.com
Key Points:
- Site has an office/business slant.
- Detailed search tool lets you sort by color, theme, etc.
IconArchive has a huge selection of icons with somewhat of an office/business slant. I searched for ‘flower’ and half the results were of file-folders with flowers on them.
Could be cool for a lifestyle video about school or work?
My favorite thing about IconArchive is its search features. It allows you to filter results by color, size (down to the specific resolution), category, background color, style, and a lot more.
Color is under ‘Display’, meaning that it won’t filter out results that have different colors it’ll just list the color you select first.
The ‘Category’ filter is useful because there are some genres you probably recognize there, like ‘Lifestyle’. However, you should be careful not to over-filter. This site is pretty literal in how it categorizes. For example – there are no ‘flower’ images under ‘Lifestyle’.
Downloads are available in different sizes and formats including PNG. PNG is always a good option because it is supported by YouTube and includes transparent backgrounds.
Note that all of your different download buttons will be located underneath your image. They favor those ads that look like ‘download’ or ‘start now’ buttons, and the ads sit right next to the images on the right, so it’s easy to get confused and click on the ad.
5. Logaster.com
Key Points:
- You’ll have to pay for larger images.
- Focused more on businesses.
- Incorporates your channel name.
Logaster is really a service for businesses – they make and sell business cards, letterheads, and other office-y things like that. However, they are still a good choice for YouTubers because they have a free logo creator. Sort of.
You actually have to pay $9.99 to get larger images and remove the watermark, but the process is free.
When you arrive on Logaster there’s a button right on their home page that says ‘Create a logo for free’. Click on it.
In Step 1 it’ll ask for your company name and an activity type. You just need to put in your channel name and choose something from the activity drop down that you focus on in your videos.
My heart burns with the secret desire to be YouTube’s Neil Degrasse Tyson (it doesn’t really, but he is super cool) so I tried ‘Katie Does Science’ and ‘Science, Studies, Education’. Here’s what it came up with:
There are 10 pages of suggestions!
You can see how, unless you have a short channel name, you’re probably not going to be able to use any of these as an icon, but a lot of them would look cool on a banner. There’s an ‘Edit Logo Concept’ button which allows you to make changes to the layout, but you can still only choose from preset layouts. For example, some logo concepts allow you to choose whether the icon is above your text or next to it.
After you click ‘save’ in the last step you’ll be prompted to provide an email address and password. Once you sign in, you’ll be able to download a small logo for free, or purchase the higher resolution image.
I personally wouldn’t recommend buying an image from here unless your channel is for your small business and you need things like branded business cards and letterhead. This site might be better for gathering inspiration than actually downloading a logo from.
6. Icons8.com
Key Points:
- You need to link back to them to use their icons.
- You can edit the colors on the site and even add details.
- There’s a size limit on the free service (100x100px)
At Icons8 they have free and paid services. If you download an icon for free it will be a PNG file (which should be fine, YouTube supports PNG and it’s good for transparency) that is no larger than 100x100px. This is not ideal since YouTube recommends 800x800px for profile pictures, but it’s not necessarily a deal breaker either. Profile pictures render down to much smaller than that.
You will also need to link to Icons8 if you use their icons for free (i.e. in the ‘about’ section of your channel page).
To get started on Icons8, type something into the search bar on the home page that you think might work as an icon or as part of whatever graphics you have planned. I typed in ‘game’ for this one, since gaming is the biggest genre on YouTube. Here are a few of the results that came up:
Lower down in the results there were different kinds of sports balls, hand-held gaming systems, playing cards, joy sticks, baseball caps and more.
After you find an icon you like, click on it and it will appear on the right side of your screen where you’ll be able to make a few changes (an editing screen will pop up once you start clicking on things). You can edit your colors, overlay small decals, add text, and add a border, change your background and adjust your size. Here’s the editing screen:
You can give your icon a pretty different look from its default. Check this out:
You cannot download your icon from the editing screen. You need to click Save, and then download it from the main display screen here:
You can change the size with that drop down menu, but you’ll be limited in your options if you don’t want to pay.
I downloaded my image and tried to see how it would look as an icon/profile picture. As you can see, it was pretty blurry in the preview:
However, the preview is larger than the actual profile picture. Once I set it, it looked alright.
Looking for somewhere you can build your own icon/logo from scratch? Check out this list of logo makers .
After downloading the icons or logos, it is time to add them to your YouTube video. Here I recommend our Wondershare Filmora video editor . Below is a video tutorial about how to add a logo to video in Filmora . Remember to download the free trial version to test.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
Whether you need YouTube icons and logos to use as pop-up graphics in your videos, to serve as your channel icon, to use as watermarks, or to liven up your channel art or video thumbnails – don’t worry. There are lots of places to get them.
We’ve made a list of 6 sites where you can download icons and logos for free for YouTub videos, and explained how they work.
You might also want to check out these YouTube channels offering free profile picture templates .
1. Flaticon.com
Key Points:
- Great selection of icons/logos
- It’s easy to change the colors before you download
I’m putting Flaticon.com right at the top of this list because it has something that really sets it apart from the other sites on this list – it lets you edit pre-made icons before you download them.
You start out on Flaticon by searching for a theme like beauty, gaming, flowers, or emojis. I searched for ‘birds’ and found these cuties.
These aren’t all the birds on Flaticon, just a few. They had a huge selection in all the different searches I tried.
I clicked on the brown bird to open up the download screen, and then clicked into ‘Edit icon’. There may be a pop up that tells you editing tools are only available to registered users, but it’s wrong. Just close it and keep going, unless you want to register.
You can edit the colors in your icon just by clicking on the color you want to replace, and then clicking on the color in the color selector you want to replace it with. I made my birdie FLY.
I never apologize for puns.
Once you like the look of your icon, just click Download. You will be prompted to choose a format. PNG is the most popular because it is supported the most places (including on YouTube), and because it allows for a transparent background.
After clicking on a format you will also be prompted to choose a size for your image. It’s always best to go with the largest image you can – its way easier to shrink things and keep them looking good than it is to have to enlarge them.
Flaticon has a great selection, it’s free, and they make it really easy to edit your creations. I would strongly recommend this site to anyone in the market for an icon or logo.
Flaticon asks that you include an “Icon made by [author link] from <www.flaticon.com> ” somewhere (i.e. video description, channel ‘about’ section) when you use their icons for free.
2. Freepik.com
Key Points:
- Good selection of icons.
- No way to customise them on the site.
- Attribution requried.
On freepik, you start off by searching for a theme (like the genre of your YouTube title or the topic of a video, i.e. ‘makeup’ or ‘music’). I searched for ‘cat’.
A few of the sets available on freepik. The crown icon means you need to be a paying Premium member, but most things are free.
You can’t edit on freepik, and in order to download for free you need to include an attribution/credit to freepik where you use the images.
You do not choose what format to download your images in on freepik. When you hit ‘Free Download’ it will automatically download a zip file which will contain both a .jpg and a .eps. The EPS is editable in any ‘vector graphics editor’, like Adobe Illustrator, and YouTube supports .jpg files.
3. Seeklogo.net
Key Points:
- Logos from major brands
- Great for channels that do product reviews
Seeklogo.net has a slightly more corporate slant than some of the other sites on this list. It has logos for a lot of major companies and brands available for download.
In the ‘search’ on Seeklogo.net, you can type in the name of a brand or industry and see if the well-known logo you’re looking for is available. This may be especially useful for people with sports related channels since they have a lot of logos for major teams.
I searched for YouTube – you never know when you might need the YouTube logo.
Although the site does not advertise PNG in the list of formats on their front page, downloads do include PNG versions (which is useful if you need transparency and don’t have a program which can edit vector files, like .eps).
4. IconArchive.com
Key Points:
- Site has an office/business slant.
- Detailed search tool lets you sort by color, theme, etc.
IconArchive has a huge selection of icons with somewhat of an office/business slant. I searched for ‘flower’ and half the results were of file-folders with flowers on them.
Could be cool for a lifestyle video about school or work?
My favorite thing about IconArchive is its search features. It allows you to filter results by color, size (down to the specific resolution), category, background color, style, and a lot more.
Color is under ‘Display’, meaning that it won’t filter out results that have different colors it’ll just list the color you select first.
The ‘Category’ filter is useful because there are some genres you probably recognize there, like ‘Lifestyle’. However, you should be careful not to over-filter. This site is pretty literal in how it categorizes. For example – there are no ‘flower’ images under ‘Lifestyle’.
Downloads are available in different sizes and formats including PNG. PNG is always a good option because it is supported by YouTube and includes transparent backgrounds.
Note that all of your different download buttons will be located underneath your image. They favor those ads that look like ‘download’ or ‘start now’ buttons, and the ads sit right next to the images on the right, so it’s easy to get confused and click on the ad.
5. Logaster.com
Key Points:
- You’ll have to pay for larger images.
- Focused more on businesses.
- Incorporates your channel name.
Logaster is really a service for businesses – they make and sell business cards, letterheads, and other office-y things like that. However, they are still a good choice for YouTubers because they have a free logo creator. Sort of.
You actually have to pay $9.99 to get larger images and remove the watermark, but the process is free.
When you arrive on Logaster there’s a button right on their home page that says ‘Create a logo for free’. Click on it.
In Step 1 it’ll ask for your company name and an activity type. You just need to put in your channel name and choose something from the activity drop down that you focus on in your videos.
My heart burns with the secret desire to be YouTube’s Neil Degrasse Tyson (it doesn’t really, but he is super cool) so I tried ‘Katie Does Science’ and ‘Science, Studies, Education’. Here’s what it came up with:
There are 10 pages of suggestions!
You can see how, unless you have a short channel name, you’re probably not going to be able to use any of these as an icon, but a lot of them would look cool on a banner. There’s an ‘Edit Logo Concept’ button which allows you to make changes to the layout, but you can still only choose from preset layouts. For example, some logo concepts allow you to choose whether the icon is above your text or next to it.
After you click ‘save’ in the last step you’ll be prompted to provide an email address and password. Once you sign in, you’ll be able to download a small logo for free, or purchase the higher resolution image.
I personally wouldn’t recommend buying an image from here unless your channel is for your small business and you need things like branded business cards and letterhead. This site might be better for gathering inspiration than actually downloading a logo from.
6. Icons8.com
Key Points:
- You need to link back to them to use their icons.
- You can edit the colors on the site and even add details.
- There’s a size limit on the free service (100x100px)
At Icons8 they have free and paid services. If you download an icon for free it will be a PNG file (which should be fine, YouTube supports PNG and it’s good for transparency) that is no larger than 100x100px. This is not ideal since YouTube recommends 800x800px for profile pictures, but it’s not necessarily a deal breaker either. Profile pictures render down to much smaller than that.
You will also need to link to Icons8 if you use their icons for free (i.e. in the ‘about’ section of your channel page).
To get started on Icons8, type something into the search bar on the home page that you think might work as an icon or as part of whatever graphics you have planned. I typed in ‘game’ for this one, since gaming is the biggest genre on YouTube. Here are a few of the results that came up:
Lower down in the results there were different kinds of sports balls, hand-held gaming systems, playing cards, joy sticks, baseball caps and more.
After you find an icon you like, click on it and it will appear on the right side of your screen where you’ll be able to make a few changes (an editing screen will pop up once you start clicking on things). You can edit your colors, overlay small decals, add text, and add a border, change your background and adjust your size. Here’s the editing screen:
You can give your icon a pretty different look from its default. Check this out:
You cannot download your icon from the editing screen. You need to click Save, and then download it from the main display screen here:
You can change the size with that drop down menu, but you’ll be limited in your options if you don’t want to pay.
I downloaded my image and tried to see how it would look as an icon/profile picture. As you can see, it was pretty blurry in the preview:
However, the preview is larger than the actual profile picture. Once I set it, it looked alright.
Looking for somewhere you can build your own icon/logo from scratch? Check out this list of logo makers .
After downloading the icons or logos, it is time to add them to your YouTube video. Here I recommend our Wondershare Filmora video editor . Below is a video tutorial about how to add a logo to video in Filmora . Remember to download the free trial version to test.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
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- Title: In 2024, The Ultimate Playbook for YouTube Content Innovation
- Author: Thomas
- Created at : 2024-05-31 12:41:13
- Updated at : 2024-06-01 12:41:13
- Link: https://youtube-help.techidaily.com/in-2024-the-ultimate-playbook-for-youtube-content-innovation/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
