How to Add YouTube Video Cards to Your YouTube Videos

Would you like to drive more traffic to your website from your YouTube videos?

Or maybe you want to raise money for a project you’re working on?

YouTube Video Cards can be a great tool to build engagement and grow your online presence using your YouTube videos.

In this article, you’ll learn how to add YouTube Video Cards to your YouTube videos.

What are YouTube Video Cards?

YouTube Video Cards are a way to make your YouTube videos more interactive.

You do this by adding cards to your videos.

Here’s an example of YouTube Video Cards in a video.

Example of YouTube video cards
Use YouTube Video Cards to deliver a call-to-action to viewers

YouTube Video Cards are similar to annotations.

Right now, cards are not replacing annotations (yet). I would think of them as an evolution of annotations.

Unlike annotations that didn’t work on mobile devices, video cards will!

One other nice feature about video cards is that you can add up to five cards to each of your YouTube videos at a time.

This way you can include a different call-to-action based on the part of the video someone is viewing.

Types of YouTube Video Cards

Adding YouTube Video Cards
Some video cards might need to be enabled

There are six types of YouTube Video Cards you can use with your videos.

1. Associated website

If you have your website setup in your YouTube account, you can use this card to link off to it.

If you need to setup your website on your channel, you can do that here.

2. Fundraising

Encourage users to contribute to your projects or supported fundraising sites.

In order to use the fundraising card, your project needs to be on a white-listed fundraising site.

Approved fundraising sites for YouTube Video Cards include:

  • Indiegogo
  • Patreon
  • Subbable
  • Kickstarter

3. Merchandise

Feature a licensed product on supported merchandise sites from a YouTube Video Card.

Examples of approved merchandising sites include:

  • Google Play
  • iTunes
  • Spreadshirt
  • District Lines
  • Topspin
  • Cafepress
  • Jinx
  • Shopify
  • Songkick

4. Video

If you want to promote another YouTube video, you can use the video card option.

In order to link to a video, it has to be a public YouTube video.

If you link to an individual video in a playlist, your YouTube Video Card will default to the playlist.

5. Playlist

If you want to promote a specific playlist using video cards, you can do that as well.

To do that, go to your playlists on YouTube and copy the URL.

YouTube video playlists
Add single videos or an entire playlist to YouTube Video Cards

5. Fan Funding

Allow fans to show their appreciation for the videos you create my making a monetary contribution.

In order to use the fan funding card, you need to enable this option in the YouTube status and features section.

Fan funding in YouTube Video Cards
Add the fan funding card to let fans back your YouTube videos

To learn more about approved retailers and fundraisers on the whitelisted external URLs page.

Now that you know about the types of cards, let’s take a look at how to add YouTube Video Cards to your own videos.

How to Add YouTube Video Cards to Your Videos

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How to increase YouTube engagement by 374%

Are you struggling with finding ways to increase YouTube engagement?

What if you could make a few changes to your videos to increase YouTube engagement by up to 374%?

If you’re not yet sold on using YouTube in your content marketing, I want you to think about this.

Where else can you can get a consistent number of people search and watching videos month in and month out?

If you already have a YouTube channel and you are already doing content marketing using YouTube videos, but you aren’t seeing the results you would like, I have some techniques for you on what you can do to increase YouTube engagement on your existing content.

If you have at least thought about using your YouTube channel in your social media strategy but aren’t yet convinced, I’m going to share with you some stats on why you should use YouTube in your content marketing to help increase YouTube engagement as you begin to post more video content.

YouTube best practices

If you are not happy with the results you are seeing on YouTube, here are a few tweaks to consider making:

If you have put off adding a thumbnail image to your videos, here’s a tutorial on adding a custom YouTube thumbnail image and a free template to get you started.

When I first started creating YouTube videos, my videos were too long. What did I do to fix them?

I looked at my YouTube analytics to get an idea on where people were stopping in my videos and on future videos, I shortened them!

Today, I average a few thousand views per day as a result!

One other area you want to focus on to increase YouTube engagement is to use your email list!

While these are just some of the ways you can increase YouTube engagement, there are even more things you can be doing.

If you’re ready to start using YouTube to improve your engagement and drive more traffic to your website, consider making these changes to your videos in this infographic from Quicksprout.

How to increase YouTube engagement by 374%

Continue reading How to increase YouTube engagement by 374%

The complete guide to social media dimensions – Infographic

Do you struggle with finding the right dimensions to use on your social media channels?

With  a number of social networks changing their social media dimensions, I understand how frustrating it can be to keep up.

For example, both Facebook and Twitter changed their social media dimensions in 2014.

Here is an example of their new layouts.

Facebook Page redesign
Facebook Page redesign in 2014. Source: Facebook Page redesign news

 

Twitter redeisng
Twitter redesign in 2014. Source: Twitter redesign news

While I love the new look of both channels, it can be frustrating for community managers, social media managers and businesses.

This is because when new redesigns come out, they don’t always tell you what social media dimensions you need to update to.

Fortunately, the team at  Insight180 put together an extremely helpful infographic that features the latest social media dimensions for:

This infographic shows you which social media dimensions you need to use and also includes the right sizes for images you include in your posts as well.

So what social media dimensions you should be using for 2014?

Social media dimensions (May 2014)

Continue reading The complete guide to social media dimensions – Infographic

How to link to a specific time on a YouTube video

There are a number of ways to include a YouTube video link that links to a specific time in a YouTube video. For example, you can include a hyperlink, which takes users right to the time you specified when they click your URL.

While this YouTube video trick works great when you’re sharing links to your videos on Facebook, Twitter, or on your own website, what about your YouTube channel subscribers?

This second way to link to a specific time on a YouTube video works within the description of your video.

Follow these instructions if you want to link to a specific time on a YouTube video.

How to include a YouTube video link to a specific time in a video

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Using a YouTube timecode to improve video conversions

One of the frustrating things about online video is that if a video is really long, you’re forced to wait for it to load completely before you can jump to different points in the video. Today we’re going to show you a shortcut using a YouTube timecode to jump viewers to a specific point in a YouTube video.

This way, instead of having to fast-forward through the video, viewers can jump straight to the part they want to watch on YouTube.

Use cases for a YouTube timecode

YouTube timecodes can used in a  number of different ways.

Here are some of our favorite ways to use timecodes on YouTube:

  • Break a long event video using a YouTube timecode
  • Break long videos using timecodes for sharing on social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter
  • Include videos using YouTube timecodes in an email signature
  • Instead of sending viewers to watch a video again, use a YouTube timecode to jump them to the part that answers their question
  • Create a blog post and include a YouTube video that jumps to a specific timecode that relates to the blog post

To learn how to add a YouTube timecode to your videos, follow the instructions listed below.

How to jump to a specific place in a video using a YouTube timecode

Continue reading Using a YouTube timecode to improve video conversions

Grow your views with a YouTube subscribe button – Video

Publishing content on YouTube is a great way to grow your presence using video. Unfortunately, the number of views you get can be inconsistent. One easy, but powerful way to improve your views is to add a YouTube subscribe button to your site.

YouTube subscribe button

Adding a YouTube subscribe button is a great way to let your blog readers know that you have a YouTube presence. Also, each time you upload a new video, your subscribers are notified.

This can lead to a significantly consistent number of views each time you upload a YouTube video.

How to add a YouTube subscribe button to your blog

Continue reading Grow your views with a YouTube subscribe button – Video

70 time-saving social media shortcuts [Infographic]

Whether it’s figuring out how to squeeze more time out of our daily lives or how to more productive on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube. We’re always looking for a shortcut. As we share more and more of our personal lives through social media, it’s time that we created social media shortcuts to help us learn how to get more efficient in the limited amount of time that we have.

According to Experian Marketing Services, Americans spend 16 minutes of every hour online on social networks. That’s nearly 25% of every hour being spent on a social media site. While we won’t go into what users do on social media sites. that’s a lot of time to be spending checking updates from others and less time that we can be productive.

The team at Quintly put together this infographic featuring 70 social media shortcuts to help you get more done on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube. In addition to the social media shortcuts listed, they’ve also included a few easter eggs (hidden features).

While these shortcuts only work when you’re on your computer and not on your mobile device such as your smartphone or tablet, they’re very handy to learn and can help reduce the amount of time you waste from senseless clicks online.

70 time-saving social media shortcuts

Continue reading 70 time-saving social media shortcuts [Infographic]

How to Contact YouTube – No Static Here!

One of my favorite social networks to use is YouTube. I love using YouTube because it allows me to be creative and to help solve problems. One area I find challenging though is how to contact YouTube when issues arise. For example, filing trademark complaints, having issues with watching videos and more. To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of the best way’s for you to contact YouTube about any issues you are having with the service. This way you can get your issues resolved in a timely manner.

How to contact YouTube

How to contact YouTube

Continue reading How to Contact YouTube – No Static Here!

YouTube Channel Art: A Complete Guide

YouTube has started rolling out a new unified design.  With the new design comes a new feature, YouTube channel art. YouTube channel art is an image that get’s displayed at the top of your YouTube channel. Here is an example of YouTube channel art.

YouTube channel art template

 

What is YouTube Channel Art?

Continue reading YouTube Channel Art: A Complete Guide

YouTube Channel Art Template [free download]

YouTube channel art template

YouTube recently updated the design and layout of your YouTube channel. One of the new features that was added is called YouTube channel art. As you can see from the above image, YouTube channel art is a way for you to customize your YouTube channel and make it more inviting to subscribers.  If you’re a business, YouTube channel art is a great way to market and promote your business.  If you’re not a business, you can use YouTube channel art to create a custom look for your YouTube channel and to showcase what your YouTube channel offers.  To help you out, I’ve created a downloadable YouTube channel art template (PSD) for you to use.

Download Free YouTube channel art template:

Continue reading YouTube Channel Art Template [free download]