Live workshop: Podcasting on Youtube

00:00 Hello everyone, podcasters, YouTubers. Thank you for joining us.

00:06 We are live today for a Riverside webinar on YouTube for podcasters.

00:12 I'm Kendall, the community manager at Riverside, and this is Stephen, our video producer and YouTuber.

00:18 Usually that says video producer and podcaster, but we decided to stay on theme for this one. So welcome to the webinar.

00:27 Feel free to introduce yourself in the live chat. Drop us a link to your YouTube channel, staying on theme. We're going to get into a couple of different aspects.

00:36 First of all, why YouTube? Talk about setting up your channel. How to set it up for success.

00:42 So we are going to be getting into all of that, including also how to maximize visibility, how to be able to monetize off of YouTube.

00:52 So without further ado, we'll just dive right into it, because we've got a lot that we're going to cover.

00:58 So to begin, I wanted to start with a few questions to kind of put your thinking caps on. I want to hear what you're all thinking.

01:07 So feel free to leave your thoughts in the chat. But I want to go through a few questions.

01:15 There are no right answers here. But first of all, first question. Should there be a difference between your full episode and the episode and whatever you're posting onto YouTube?

01:25 What do you guys think in the comments? I'm very curious of the answers we're gonna see here. Yeah, Hugo says yes.

01:33 They think so. Melissa says probably. Sammy says no. We've got some yeses, some nos all over the place.

01:41 A bit depends. And it's good that we're kind of all over the place because there really is no right answer. Jeff says I don't, but I'm thinking the answer is yes.

01:50 Steven, you want to take this one? For sure. And so I'll echo what Rene Richie, he's the creator liaison for YouTube and Todd Beaupre, who's over the algorithm.

02:00 They say if the content would appeal to the same audience, your normal YouTube content, your long form videos and your podcast, your full episodes, if they would appeal to the same audience in the same genre, in the same topic, go ahead and put them on the same channel.

02:15 If it's different and you think your full episodes would appeal to a different audience, then go ahead and create a second channel for that podcast.

02:23 All right, we're doing kind of rapid fire. So let's just move on to the next one. And some of these also we're going to continue to cover throughout this webinar. So stay tuned.

02:32 two, is it best to leave your YouTube episode long or to break it up into segments? What are you all doing?

02:40 Let us know in the comments. To clip or not to clip? That is the question. clip or not to clip, but I'm not even just talking about like shorts clips.

02:48 I'm talking about like sometimes people are taking chapters from their episodes and posting individual chapters like four minute episodes each.

02:56 So we're getting a lot of leave it long shorts and long form both keep it long.

03:03 I think segments break it up. So Steven, what do you say about this?

03:10 Leave your episode long or break it up into segments? So absolutely leave your episode long in that podcast playlist that we're going to talk about in a few minutes.

03:20 But also posting clips is a great idea, too. My only recommendation would be to really be intentional about the intro to those videos.

03:28 Think of it more as a YouTube video rather than a podcast episode and package it accordingly with a different thumbnail. Think about your title.

03:36 How can you appeal to a wider audience that way? So yes is the answer. So the answer is both, and we're going to be getting into both.

03:46 Next, post your episodes on your YouTube page, or would you recommend a dedicated page for your podcast? So basically a regular YouTube page or a podcasting page.

03:57 I'm gonna it can I answer a question while they all answer that question too? Karen was asking what's a useful amount of time for an episode?

04:06 I think it's an interesting question Thank you very much.

04:09 Yeah, I would say However long the episode is it should provide value the whole time I actually have a video Publishing on the Riverside channel very soon on like keys for

04:19 YouTube and if your episode is valuable entertaining inspiring It's educational as long as there's value the entire time Make it as long as you want.

04:27 can be a two hour episode. But if you find that value dipping or people interest dipping, then you want to think about shortening those episodes and maybe trimming out some of that content.

04:36 that actually reminds me of one of the best pieces of advice that I got from an executive producer that I used to work with.

04:44 And whenever I'd ask him, like, okay, should I make this, like, how long should the video be? He'd say, however long it wants to be.

04:50 To make a video however long it wants to be is kind of like, yeah, you watch it and then you see, like, you can kind of tell the moment where you maybe tap your finger on the screen and see how much of that red bar is still left.

05:01 That's usually around the time that the video wants to be. You don't want to be stretching that out and making people feel like they're leaving for, they're sitting there for longer than they should.

05:09 So, okay. Yes, there's been lots of different answers for this and I think it's interesting because this also depends, like I mentioned before, on audience.

05:19 Will your episodes also appeal to your audience? Or a dedicated page for your podcast. I misunderstood the question.

05:27 Can you... sorry. You mean like on a website, right? Like on your personal website? like if you create a YouTube page, should you just be putting your episode, like a YouTube page regularly and putting them up as regular videos?

05:38 Or I know that you could create like a YouTube podcast kind of page that you can, that you can really.

05:43 Yeah, I would say again, it depends on your audience, but also I'm going to talk about my video podcast that I started earlier this year.

05:49 I actually did create a new channel for that simply because I wasn't sure what the reception would be like, how big the audience would be. And I actually like it on a separate channel.

05:57 But again, if your podcast and your audience Venn diagram for your YouTube channel is like a flat circle, meaning your audience for the podcast is very much like your channel.

06:06 I think putting it on the same page could be worthwhile to. All right, we just got a few more questions here. What's the best thing to publish?

06:14 What does everyone here think in the chat? This is good. I appreciate all the engagement. Alan had some great tips for the last question too.

06:23 someone bumped analytics, Wednesday, Thursday, any day, Friday.

06:33 Also wanted to, someone said bump Kian's question, which Kian said, should you have a long form podcast channel and a separate short medium form clips channel?

06:42 And we're going to talk about that in a little bit, but I think it depends on the size of your channel and how much effort you have into post -production those clips.

06:50 So we'll talk about that in a second. All right, and this is a trick question because, Stephen, what do say the answer to this one is? It really doesn't matter.

06:58 As long as you have great content, publishing a full episode on your YouTube channel, you can do it on any day you'd want with one caveat, which is a metric you can see in your YouTube channel to find out when your audience specifically is on YouTube.

07:11 And if that's the case, you might want to actually put it on that day or time. But long term performance shouldn't affect it what day you post.

07:20 All right, let's go on through what's more valuable, do you all think? One view or one audio download?

07:29 This is one Stephen, yeah, this is one Stephen added. It's a little, he wanted to start some contention in the chat, we love it.

07:36 Hot topic says Jesse, yes, I'll show them the screen, agreed. look at this. Look at this. Everybody's saying, yeah, I posted a question like this on social media or something about video podcasting and it drew the people.

07:47 It drew the comments for sure. Put something controversial and the people will come. So Stephen, what do you say?

07:54 One view or one audio download? A lot of people saying audio in the chat. This is really good.

08:00 I would say whichever one has greater retention and typically that is the audio.

08:06 Usually an audio listener for a podcast is listening to more of an episode like 70 or 80 percent and typically a view is much less percent.

08:15 But if someone's watching your entire video on YouTube, that's really valuable. And if someone's listening to your entire audio, that is valuable too.

08:23 So whichever one listens more but I will say an audio listener is typically more invested. Awesome.

08:30 And the last one, according to YouTube's algorithm, what is the most important metric do you all think?

08:37 And we're going to be answering this one too, but I to see what you all think. David says retention.

08:45 We got another retention. CTR, view retention. It seems across the board that people, the people are saying retention.

08:55 Steven, what have you? I would agree retention is probably one of the most important metrics.

09:02 But if you listen again to Todd Beaupre who's over the algorithm at YouTube, he will say viewer satisfaction.

09:08 That's usually measured by audience retention, how long they watch.

09:12 But is someone satisfied when they watch your video, when they click play, do they watch it all the way through, which is retention, and do they keep coming back to watch more from your channel?

09:21 So viewer satisfaction, which is a little nebulous, and retention is a key metric to measure that.

09:26 So yeah, that was a good chat Awesome. Well, thank you all for answering your questions, answering our questions.

09:32 I just want to do a quick preview and then we're going to talk about setting up your channel.

09:37 So first, really why we're talking about YouTube today is because a new study just came out that said that YouTube is the most popular podcast listening platform.

09:47 So you can see here, 31 % Spotify got 21 and Apple podcast all the way there at 12.

09:54 So my question kind of was, Why this trend? What's going on here?

10:01 And Ashley Carmen from Bloomberg actually said it best, think, which was, maybe the biggest reason Apple Podcasts has faded in its popularity is its lack of focus on video.

10:12 YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok all push podcast clips through their algorithms, driving audiences to check out shows.

10:20 This is really interesting to me. Newer listeners might now associate podcasts with video. more than they did in the past.

10:26 So people might even be watching a podcast and just see it as a video. So that's why we're talking about this today.

10:35 But let me hand it over to Stephen. We're to talk about setting up your channel. Stephen, I'll pass the screen share over to you.

10:44 For sure. So earlier this year, back in January, I actually launched a video podcast. Of course, everything was recorded and edited with Riverside.

10:52 So this is what the channel looks like. Every full length episode edited in Riverside, exported there, and all the shorts.

10:59 And we try to publish a bunch of shorts every week, typically about five or six days a week. So when you think about your channel, obviously you're to have to have some graphics for it.

11:09 Things like the banner up at the top, the profile image. And to start, even step one, is your YouTube channel is attached to your Google account, which I used my personal Google account to set up the channel.

11:20 It's totally free to do. It'll ask you things like the title of your show.

11:24 And I will think about, you know, if you're creating a channel specifically for your podcast, go ahead and title the channel that if you already have an existing channel, great.

11:31 I'll show you how to add a podcast to it. But you're going to have your title, your username, which we went with primary tech show and of course, a description.

11:40 which I use the same description on the YouTube channel as is in my podcast RSS feed. So you're to those graphic. go ahead. Yeah.

11:48 jump in here really quick and point out the used primary technology show.

11:52 Because we were talking earlier about the fact that apparently it's actually these platforms are telling people not to use the word podcast in their title.

12:02 So tell me more about that.

12:04 Yeah, so this was a podcast movement i've been to the last four or five podcast movements and I actually got to speak with some of the members on the apple podcast team And asking

12:12 them about titles and descriptions and they really prefer creators not to put the word podcast in the title of their show So rather than say primary technology podcast We just

12:23 listed it as primary technology and then because we're doing the video component Having primary tech show is kind of the username.

12:31 That's usually how I post about it on social media I say the word show because that's what it is. It is a video show. It is a podcast.

12:38 We could have the discussion of what's the difference. Is it the same thing? But that's what I would recommend is do show rather than putting the word podcast in your title.

12:47 Yeah, I mean, if you think about it, just kind of the nuanced way of even Spotify for podcasters, if they're going to post something about your show or something like that and say, Spotify for podcasters, here's the so -and -so podcast, it just doesn't roll the same.

13:00 So those kinds of thoughts, those kinds of considerations are actually really important for if they're going to put out your show and make content around it or things like that.

13:11 really interesting to consider. for sure, and just a couple other words about setting up your channel. I'm going to go into my YouTube studio here.

13:19 And if you already have a channel or this is your first time creating one, when you go up to the Create tab up here in the top right, you'll see you have the option to start a new podcast right from here in YouTube Studio.

13:32 And when you do that, you'll be given the option to create a new podcast, which I'll show you what that looks like in a second. You can set an existing playlist as a podcast.

13:40 So if you have a playlist with your full length episodes already, you can choose that option. And if you're not doing video yet, you can submit an RSS feed from your podcast host.

13:50 And what YouTube will do is pull the information and every new episode, create a video on your channel using your podcast artwork as kind of a static image, and then have the audio for that video play.

14:03 This way, at least it will be available in the YouTube Music app. as well as on YouTube platform.

14:09 We're going to highly recommend using video and we could talk about the benefits of that as well.

14:14 But when you actually start uploading videos, I'll go over to my playlist here in the channel and you'll see once you mark a playlist as a podcast, you see it marked as podcast

14:24 here and you have the options for actually adding podcast artwork, which is that square image, the title and description, which will be seen in YouTube music.

14:35 And when it's marked as a podcast, you also have the possibility of it being featured on the podcast page, which I don't know if I have a current episode actually featured there.

14:46 Let's see. If you go over to the. It's just started all up playing.

14:51 If I go over to the podcast page, YouTube has an entire section where they highlight popular episodes across genres and all look and recommended.

14:59 Now I am logged into my own account, so maybe that's why. But you'll see that you're. episodes have a chance to be recommended on this podcast page when it's marked as a podcast.

15:11 And I think, you know, if there's any questions about setting up the channels after that, we can hit that up later. Sam was asking, can you confirm that vidIQ actually helps?

15:19 vidIQ and TubeBuddy are great resources when you're setting up your channel, especially thinking about titles, descriptions, and tags, which we can get into when we talk about the, how many T's is it, Kendall?

15:29 Is it seven T's? Six T's. Yes, yes, we'll do.

15:35 And also there's some great tools from Riverside on getting those keywords and tags as well. all right, so what's next?

15:42 That's setting up the channel, sudden podcast content. What's next? other.

15:48 you would say are great examples of what a good channel can look like? Yes. So some awesome video podcast channels I would highly recommend.

15:57 Jay Clouse he just crossed 100 ,000 subscribers. He did it in about two years. majority of his content is video podcasts.

16:06 And so you'll see here all great video podcasts, thumbnails that highlight his guest, know, just kind of the a pull quote in the thumbnails, which is great.

16:16 His most viewed video, which we're actually going to show an intro, I think in a little bit.

16:20 Is this interview with Jenny Hoyos 3 .4 million views for a video podcast pretty astounding So Jay Clouse is a great example to check out his channel Colin and Samir one

16:31 of the top channels as well 1 .5 million subscribers and just a word on branding their thumbnails are very simple but, when you see one of their thumbnails on your home page, you can immediately tell it's one of their videos It's a solid black background.

16:46 The guest is highlighted in the headshot and there's a pull quote plus their font and color is consistent.

16:53 And so that's a great example of consistent branding. And you just know one of their videos right off the bat. And of course they have excellent content and the intros of their videos are great too.

17:02 And finally, to the last question, someone asked, well, should you have a different channel for clips as the long form episodes?

17:08 So the Waveform Podcast, this is with MKBHD and his co -hosts, he has an entire channel just for the full episodes.

17:16 Again, huge amount of views. He's got 19 million subscribers on his main YouTube channel, so of course his podcast is going to have a lot of views.

17:23 And he does have a separate channel just for clips.

17:27 I would really only recommend this if you have a massive channel already with a huge audience and you're trying to differentiate, give people an even easier way to share those clips.

17:38 But I would say keep it all on one channel. That's what we've been doing for primary technology is keeping all of our clips in long form on the same channel.

17:47 doing more shorts on the same channel and so this is only if you really grow past a certain point I think and it then maybe pays to actually have those clips broken out and

17:56 you're gonna put in the time to do thumbnails titles maybe intros on those as well And we are going to be going into the next part of this topic.

18:10 So let me just pull this up.

18:15 I want to talk about maximizing visibility because there are a few things that you can do if you already have your YouTube channel set up to make sure that you're really getting the most out of it.

18:25 So what we kind of broke it down to is what I like to call the six T's. of YouTube.

18:32 I really wish I wrote YouTube with six T's, but missed opportunity.

18:36 So those are the titles, thumbnails, telephones, transcripts, tags, and timestamps.

18:45 So for titles, I just want to go through each one with you, Stephen.

18:49 So for titles, I actually had this in a different order, but you ended up reordering it because you say that titles is the most important thing.

18:59 to be looking for, or to be cognizant of. So tell me about that. I think titles are huge and this has been our experience even in the primary tech show.

19:10 And if I could share my screen one more time because if I just look at the view counts of four recent episodes, when that title is either interesting, has a trending topic, or really sticks out, it makes a big difference.

19:25 And if you wouldn't mind, Kendall, turning off your screen share and I'll turn mine on for a second. Thank you.

19:31 Just to look again, here you'll see, know, iPhone 16 is huge right now because that's what's trending, that helps, you know, all the exposure.

19:41 And you'll see the last two episodes of the podcast, 2 ,000 views, 1 ,000 views, which is more than normal. You know, we're getting about 500, 700, 900 views on some of them.

19:51 But you'll also notice that even when it's not about a specific trending topic, you know, this episode back here, we put a title that was a little evocative.

20:00 I said perplexity AI is BSing everyone. And that was an interesting topic.

20:05 The click through rating raised, it drove interest and curiosity, 1 .8 thousand views on that episode that was published three months ago.

20:13 And so that was, you we were still even growing there. So titles is a huge deal.

20:17 And another thing I would consider when you're doing titles is I know my titles there were pretty short, but think about when you're looking at

20:26 videos on an iPhone, which is still a majority of where people are consuming YouTube content, titles that are longer are going to get cut off.

20:35 You know, right here you see the title cut off. And, you know, here's a video podcast, Dire of a CEO, another great channel to check out.

20:44 You know, I think that he's cognizant of making sure that title fits in even on a mobile device. So I would try to go for brevity of title.

20:52 If there's a trending topic, put that topic in the title.

20:56 And this is also a great use of AI tools like Riverside Show Notes, because we can give you some title ideas as well and get you started with some pull quotes to make it engaging too.

21:06 So titles is a big deal. Absolutely. I will also hold on. I'll pull back up. What was the next one?

21:14 If anyone remembers what the next one is, feel free to put that in the chat. and thumbnails. Titles and thumbnails.

21:21 I'm pretty sure that's how we ordered it. Yes. was titles and then thumbnails, yes.

21:28 So we're gonna do a quick little poll for you in the chat.

21:34 which of these two of Stephen's incredible thumbnails do you think performed better on the Riverside YouTube channel?

21:44 Right in the side, if it was one or option one on the left, option two on the right.

21:52 We so far have an overwhelming majority it seems saying option one and it's a good thing you joined this webinar because Stephen what's the answer?

22:03 Well, I'm actually going to look to see which YouTube is serving because we did an A -B test on YouTube and the audience is actually right. I think I was wrong when we were planning this yesterday.

22:11 The arrows actually won. The arrows won because our channel and your channel may have this ability to is to actually upload multiple thumbnails at a time.

22:21 YouTube will serve that to the audience and then keep the one that is most clicked on. And if you go to the Riverside channel right now, you will see that arrow thumbnail as the main thumbnail.

22:31 And so, yes, if you said one, you are correct. And as people in the chat have pointed out, I haven't been using the lower thirds as much today.

22:39 So you said YouTube channel, more Steven on YouTube. Feel free to click that link and you're welcome to those in the chat.

22:49 We do, we do. All right, now you passed the first test, even though Steven told me it was option two before we came here. So luckily I didn't write the winner on there.

22:59 Okay, for Steven's channel, which one performed better, option one or option two? Yeah, this was tough. Because this was on a topic that's not typically on my channel.

23:09 More mixed answers. Yeah, yeah. One, one, two, two. All right, drum roll, Stephen.

23:19 Option one, won it out. It was the more popular option.

23:24 And I think iPhone crossed out was evocative, but also, what we have found on the Riverside channel and on my personal channel, faces and thumbnails are a big deal.

23:35 And so showing your face, yeah, and some people are saying face. Candice, Ivan Ho, a human is in the pic. his face.

23:43 I'm taking up, I'm making up for the lost time on the lower thirds, forgive me. is correct. so faces and thumbnails are a big deal.

23:51 If you're not comfortable with that yet, I'd encourage you to experiment with putting your own face in your thumbnails. It's a big deal. It's a big deal.

23:59 Awesome. when we're so those are some a few tips about thumbnails. Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about with thumbnails before we before we move on to the next T?

24:09 The only thing I'll say is I've watched a lot of content recently about titles and thumbnails and you know people really only see them for less than a second each and so

24:19 simplicity sometimes or at least drawing someone's attention in a thumbnail to what you're wanting to draw attention to is key and again I would just scroll your YouTube home tab

24:29 and see what appeals to you what jumps out to you personally and whatever elements that thumbnail has that appeals to you likely will appeal to other people and that can help you know, really format and formulate how you make your thumbnail.

24:42 So just see what jumps out to you. Take those elements and ideas and apply it to your thumbnails. I want to jump in really quick with a question from Paul who says, a question about thumbnails.

24:52 My show is a group discussion. Can I include the screenshot of all of the participants?

25:00 I think what I would do even more so is like if you look at the MKBHD waveform podcast or even Primary Tech My Show, I typically will cut out the faces on the video and how I do

25:12 that is I'll literally download the 4K versions from Riverside of my video tracks.

25:18 I will take a screenshot from the video, usually one where we're like laughing or smiling, and there is a built -in tool in Apple Photos that is just remove background.

25:28 You can do it with that. You can do it with tools like Pixelmator or Photoshop. I remove the background and just kind of place the heads on the thumbnail.

25:36 Rather than doing just kind of a static screenshot, I think you can make it look more professional by just pulling out the head shots and just download the 4K files from your

25:45 Riverside account, take screenshots, cut out the background, and then arrange them nicely on a thumbnail.

25:50 And that goes along way Awesome. We also have another question while we're on this topic. This one is from James.

25:59 Is it important to mix up every thumbnail for every episode as opposed to a general one with a new title?

26:04 Especially for podcasters, I see all the time that they'll have the playlist that has all of the different episodes.

26:11 I think having consistency in your thumbnails is positive. And so you'll see like MKBHD's episode thumbnails.

26:19 It the episode number, it has an image of maybe something they talked about, and it has their heads. And this is three people in one thumbnail. I kind of emulate that same idea.

26:28 I put me and my co -host, our headshots are in every thumbnail, and then the thumbnail is filled with other things.

26:34 And I put the episode number, you know, I don't think a lot of people care about the episode number, but it signifies that this is a full podcast episode.

26:41 So if someone sees this thumbnail on their home tab and they're looking for the latest episode, they'll know that this is actually a full length episode rather than just a clip.

26:50 And so I would say follow a similar format.

26:52 So people get in the habit of seeing your thumbnails, knowing it's your show and clicking play and then changing it up with the different facial expressions, pull an image from that week's video.

27:03 and then whatever other elements you put in the thumbnail to kind of vary it, you can change it up that way.

27:08 Actually before, you checked out, but I was gonna say before you close out, we had forgotten to talk about during setup about playlists.

27:16 Do you recommend having a playlist for your full show, for your full podcast? Yeah, and that's exactly how you do it in YouTube.

27:26 So if you go over to your content tab and go to playlists, I have a playlist. It's marked as a podcast. You can do that here.

27:34 Set a playlist as a podcast. Or if you go up to that create tab and do new podcast, it'll automatically create a new playlist marked as a podcast for you.

27:44 Then you'll also see I have a primary tech clips as a different playlist here.

27:48 And when you go over to the playlist on the channel, like publicly, You'll see that podcast playlist has a little podcast symbol.

27:55 So it kind of delineates that and a view full podcast page, which this is what when you designate a playlist as a podcast, that's when you can put that podcast artwork, the

28:06 podcast description, and then all the episodes in reverse chronological order appear there as well. Awesome.

28:12 And yeah, just to be able to make sure that everyone can smoothly watch your podcast if they want to go from one episode to the other.

28:19 Think about ways to make it as easy as possible for them to binge on your show. As Stephen was saying, also it shows some user satisfaction.

28:27 DJ had asked this while we were talking about this channel, are we talking about how you did the A -B test like you were mentioning before?

28:38 Yes, that is, so the A -B thumbnail test is what I was doing. I think that's what they're asking. I could show it real quick.

28:46 Yeah, if we want to do that. Yeah, so if you let us, let me share my screen. So yeah, if you're going to do an A -B test, you know, let's say you're uploading a video.

28:56 Let me actually have to go to a past video. And here on.

29:00 going to pull up Steve's comment to note that whatever you call the playlist is what the podcast title will be in YouTube Music Really great note, Steve.

29:08 Thanks for sharing that. Title your playlist what you want your podcast title to be called. That's great.

29:12 So here in the video details page, like when you go into edit a video, you have your thumbnail here, but you can click the three dots and not all channels have this, but most do.

29:23 Test and compare is what you're looking for. And here you can upload up to three thumbnails and YouTube will test them all against the audience and choose a winner and then set that as the default.

29:35 I've even seen some channels go as far as running multiple tests.

29:39 So they'll do three thumbnails, very different styles, see which one YouTube says wins that, and then they'll create three more nuanced change thumbnails, like using the winner

29:52 and then maybe changing a word in the thumbnail or changing a slight thing and then running it again to see how it performs.

29:59 So you can A -B test multiple times even if you'd want. Awesome, and then let's keep going and we're gonna keep getting to your questions as we go.

30:09 But I know that we had some anticipation over the third T, which is telephones.

30:17 Telephones is my way of keeping up with the T's. But basically it's to keep in mind that all, like most of the people that are looking at YouTube are actually on their phones.

30:28 So for example, you're going to wanna make titles that aren't going to create this like ellipses, the dot dot dot that you see when you put up your title.

30:38 And if you are, try to make the most important part of your title upfront. Same thing for the descriptions.

30:45 You're going to be seeing less of the description when you're on your mobile phone.

30:48 So just keeping those things in mind while you're putting your content on YouTube is that you need to be thinking about mobile devices and people watching your content on mobile devices.

30:59 Steven, was there anything you wanted to add to that T? Yeah, I think it's great to think that and also, you know, think about the titles.

31:06 Thumbnails also think about, you know, how small is the text am I putting on the thumbnail? Is that even visible when someone's swiping here on their phone?

31:15 And also we're talking about YouTube today, but I will just mention that video file you export from Riverside when you're done recording, you upload it to your YouTube channel, but you can also upload it to Spotify and you can actually do that per episode.

31:29 And you'll see here on the Spotify app on phones. You can have that same video file be able to be played here as well.

31:36 And I found a lot of people find it on Spotify as well. It's actually increased to the impressions and my audience in Spotify when I started adding video to each episode.

31:45 So you can use that video multiple places. All right.

31:52 The third to the sixth. What number T are we on? Where are we? The fourth T, transcript.

32:00 So as you know, if you're using Riverside, you get a full AI transcript of your recording.

32:06 Stephen, let's talk about how to use it, why to use it, and why it's important for YouTube. This is such a big deal and if I could share my screen one more time.

32:15 Yeah, I'm so sorry, sorry. So the screen share is, or I'm sorry, the transcript, huge deal.

32:23 First of all, not only when editing, which you know, this is the Riverside editor, this is where I edit my video podcast.

32:29 Editing via the transcript is great because I can also search for it, which is really helpful if I'm trying to find a clip or edit something out.

32:35 But I also use the generated chapter markers. which Riverside does automatically. I've found it getting more more accurate all the time.

32:43 And I can copy that chapters list right here from the Riverside editor, put it in my YouTube video description, and now I have chapters for my YouTube video, which is a huge deal.

32:53 But also, when you're on your recording page, this was the last episode we recorded, we have our amazing generate show notes feature.

33:00 And I waited to generate it so you could all see it in real time. I'm to click generate show notes that fast. That is how fast.

33:08 The show notes appeared and you get so much key information here. Someone was asking earlier in the chat about tags. I don't know what to put there.

33:16 We give it to you right here. Your keywords and a comma separated list. You can literally just click copy right there, paste it in your YouTube tags and you're good to go.

33:25 We provide a... sorry, sorry, sorry. That was a little ahead. Would you also get the summary? Great.

33:32 You can massage that or just put it as your video description.

33:35 Takeaways, which this is helpful if you're also thinking about your titles, which we do put Suggestions for titles right here, but kind of combining what pulls from the takeaway

33:45 and titles and put that and also You know if you remember the Colin and Samir Thumbnails or even Jay Clouse where there's like a pull quote on the thumbnail.

33:54 Look at this. You can have Soundbites right here.

33:56 Maybe you want to use one of those on your thumbnails and again the chapter list boom right here And we usually have people ask well How do I get those chapters and all that information after I make an edit?

34:09 Well, you can totally do that once you've edited your full episode. So I'll actually go back. Here's my full episode.

34:16 I can click into that edit that I've made and now generate show notes on that edit, which will now give you even more accurate chapter markers.

34:26 It'll give you titles, descriptions and tags based on that edit. This one takes a little longer because it's actually going to generate it totally new based on this edit.

34:34 But you can do that per edit, is a big deal. So transcript, huge. And also, posting the full transcript on your website.

34:41 A lot of websites do that. The Decoder podcast, which is recorded with Riverside with Neil Apatel and The Verge. They have a web page with the full transcript.

34:49 Great for SEO, but also just to refer people. And third party apps are now supporting transcripts that you upload through your podcast host.

34:58 So the Pocket Cast third party app, which is on iPhone and Android. My transcripts that I take from Riverside uploaded to my podcast host.

35:07 You can actually see that transcript in the Pocket Cast app. That's kind of the first time it's available in a third party app and Apple Podcast.

35:14 You can also upload your transcript there as well. Big deal. also, yeah, and also like the transcripts are able to, YouTube can read these transcripts and they're able to understand more about your show.

35:25 They're able to understand more about like, a lot of people are using YouTube as kind of this, as kind of an SEO search.

35:32 I was saying to the other day that, I think it was in a virtual meetup that we were doing, that I found myself the other day when I was looking at interior design type of content,

35:43 that I was actually using YouTube and TikTok both as, basically Google, like Googling different thing, well, not Googling, but looking up different search terms and people are using it like that all the time.

35:55 So YouTube is able to analyze those transcripts and get your content in front of more people because it understands what your content is all about.

36:04 And before we move on to this next T, Jesse had asked if we could touch on captions now that we're speaking on transcripts, burned in or toggleable captions for long videos.

36:15 And is there a different answer for short videos?

36:18 100 % and so when you're editing with Riverside and you finished your edit you can go here and copy the transcript both as an SRT or a text format and the download subtitles you get

36:31 that SRT format which you can upload to YouTube and that will give you more accurate captions than the auto -generated but also they can turn them on and off so if you're a

36:39 full long form episodes just upload those SRT captions and let people enable or disable and you can actually see analytics for how many people watch with captions on, which is really interesting.

36:49 Then if you're doing short clips, whether it's just a segment of your video that's seven or eight minutes long, I would think about doing animated captions on that.

36:58 And then for short form vertical video, 100%. Use the Riverside animated captions tool and put those animated captions burned on the video for that short form video, for sure.

37:10 I can also answer a random question that Maggie asked earlier because, yeah, she called me out. She said, have a random question.

37:17 Steven is wearing AirPods. I thought they were not recommended with Riverside. You're absolutely right, Maggie. I didn't have time to get my wired ones in today.

37:26 I have my wired headphones. they just fell out. I have my wired headphones right here. And I 100 % wear those when I do my video podcast recording and all of that.

37:34 I will say my setup never changes. And so I know my audio level and everything with mic technique, it's consistent.

37:42 I've used it for like two years now. And so monitoring my own voice, I know typically what it sounds like, but most of the time, yes, I use the wired headphones.

37:51 Highly recommend, Maggie. Thanks for calling me out. I appreciate it. I put Maggie's cheeky smiley face on the screen. Love it.

37:58 I like when somebody takes over the, takes the keys to the car of calling out Stephen, because that's usually me.

38:06 So good, good. Okay. Next T is tags. You got a little ahead of yourself earlier.

38:14 So let's talk tags. And I'm remembering that it's timestamps after that. Yeah, know, it's tags and time stamps.

38:21 And I will just say tags, you're trying to make them applicable to your content for sure.

38:26 YouTube does use those as far as when someone is searching for a topic, say iPhone 16, is your video having to do with that?

38:34 Remember, trying to game the tags is not going to work. So if you try to put iPhone 16 in your tags and you're doing an interior decorating video, YouTube is not going to look favorably on that.

38:43 So I would make sure those tags... Apply to your content, copy and paste those tags directly from Riverside. It makes it just way easier.

38:51 But I also wouldn't, don't worry about spending hours on the tags. You when it comes to priority, this is why we put it towards the bottom.

38:58 Thumbnails, titles, how valuable your content is, your intro, all of that is way higher on the list.

39:04 And so those generate show notes from Riverside make tags a lot easier. And then the final one, which is the timestamps.

39:13 yeah, so both those, like both for the tags and for the chapter timestamps, those are both going to be included in your AI show notes.

39:24 So the great thing about those timestamps is that it just makes your content more scannable.

39:31 So if you're looking, especially for your long form content, if you're looking at a video that's 45 minutes and you're like, my gosh, I don't know anything that's kind of going to be in there and it's just kind of one big red line.

39:43 You're going to want to put in those chapter timestamps.

39:48 So all you have to really do is in your description, write timecode and then put like you can copy and paste the time codes that you get for the AI chapters.

39:57 Yes. And put them right at the bottom and that will create those chapters for you.

40:02 And I'm not saying that people are going to be skipping ahead for your content and stuff like that to go to different chapters, especially if it's a conversation and one topic kind of flows in the next.

40:11 But it really does give an overview for people of what to expect. And so if they're really looking forward to a topic that's gonna be later, then that's really great to include in there.

40:23 And we've touched on a lot and I wanna make sure, Stephen, feel free to jump in.

40:27 No, no, was going to say, just so you know, it really is just as easy as copy and pasting that text into the description box of your video, and YouTube takes care of the rest,

40:36 making the chapters appear here in the timeline, and then when you click a chapter, putting them over here to select them is there.

40:43 And then also people can share a specific chapter timestamp. So if I select a chapter here, there's a share button, and it will create a link that jumps to that timestamp.

40:52 So just another cool feature of having those chapters.

40:55 Yeah, and so we've been touching on a lot of really interesting topics, but I want to make sure that we leave some time for some monetization strategies.

41:08 So, Stephen, what would you recommend for somebody that has an established YouTube channel but wants to start to monetize on it?

41:17 Yeah, so for YouTube, it takes a thousand subscribers and four thousand watch hours to be able to monetize.

41:24 And even then, you know, you can get thousands of views. It's not going to be a huge monetization strategy. And so I'll just be 100 percent transparent.

41:32 This is my video podcast. Thirteen hundred subscribers in the last 28 days. We've had twenty thousand views over two thousand watch hours and we made a whole forty six dollars.

41:43 Now, that's still money. Like, that's amazing. Like.

41:46 It's monetized and that's just in the last month and that will obviously grow over time But what we have found is having other monetization strategies that could be direct patronage.

41:57 That could be bonus content Those are actually really great strategies as well And so we actually have we make more money that way right now as a podcast Than just the YouTube

42:08 monetization and a great sale for sponsors if you have a video version of your podcast I get to tell sponsors.

42:14 Hey listen We're going to do your audio ad. It's going to be baked in. It's going to go to thousands of listeners. And it's also going to be on YouTube.

42:22 And so if you have a visual component to what you want to advertise, it's going to be on our YouTube channel as well. And that's just part of the ad package.

42:30 And so that's a great selling point for sponsors. And then if you think about other methods of monetization, Patreon page, it could be member full.

42:39 You can offer bonus content and we do that every week. And I actually do that via video.

42:44 And so For our bonus content members, they can pay either $5 a month or $50 a year.

42:50 And we actually have our bonus episodes unlisted here on the YouTube channel. And I send that out privately to the members that support us directly.

43:00 And we have members that support us in memberful and directly in Apple podcasts, which the conversion rate is much higher there because people already have an Apple account.

43:08 It's easy to sign up. You could do a free trial and then it automatically starts recurring. So offering bonus content.

43:14 ad -free content, early access content, and then having that be a paid benefit is a big deal.

43:21 So yeah, that's how I would recommend doing it, especially if you're a smaller channel just starting out and you can't court the bigger sponsors.

43:27 And one other word I will say, we launched the podcast with a sponsor having zero listeners.

43:33 And the only way we were able to do that was I developed a relationship with certain brands. And I did that basically like our sponsor was Audio Hijack, which was an application for the Mac.

43:44 And I basically used them in the past. I made YouTube tutorials about it. And I asked them, hey, would you sponsor the show?

43:51 have no idea how many listeners, how many views we're going to get. But I would love for you to sponsor it. And they did. And they agreed.

43:57 And so developing those long -term relationships, making content about a brand, whatever it may be, and then using that in your pitch to say, hey, I covered your brand.

44:06 It was really well received. There was engagement in the comments about your product. Would you mind sponsoring? Not would you mind?

44:13 I would say something different like we would be honored if you would sponsor an episode or a month of episodes and we'll have it a decreased rate because we're still starting out.

44:22 So those are just some some tips for them. Those are great tips. You had also before a tar sent me a clip from Jay Clouse.

44:29 Do you want me to play that and we'll talk about talk about why you why you think it's a great clip. sure. Yeah, so this is Jay Clouse.

44:37 This was that Jenny Hoyos interview. This is the intro to his video podcast.

44:41 It's highly produced and I know you're probably going to think there's no way I can do that, but I want to share just a couple tidbits of what you can learn for your channel and podcast from this clip.

44:50 So yeah, let's go ahead. Let's play it.

45:40 Yeah. So obviously that was highly produced. That got him his most video most viewed video ever. Millions of views.

45:48 And he actually got like 20 ,000 subscribers just from that video on his YouTube channel, which is wild. Couple of things.

45:56 Yes, it's highly produced. But the biggest the key that you can take for your content is he had incredibly valuable information in that video that he teased in the first 30 seconds.

46:08 There were a couple moments where she was about to say something. She like, all you need to do is and he like blurred out with a fun sound effect and like there's this moment of like, really want to know what she just said.

46:19 Huge deal. That's generating curiosity. It's foreshadowing a great way to intro your podcast using that.

46:27 And plus in that intro, he was about to list off the three things you're going to learn, which is another huge strategy for any YouTube video.

46:34 Here's what you're going to learn by watching this video. and make sure everything you're about to list is super valuable, like you're going to learn X, Y, and Z.

46:42 And I want to show you how easy it can be to actually create those kinds of intros.

46:47 So when you're in Riverside and you're editing your content, let's say there's a segment that was just really engaging, really impacting, and you want to tease that at the beginning.

46:56 Well, all you have to do is select that text here in the transcript of the editor.

47:00 I can literally copy it like I'm copying from a Word document, go up to the top,

47:05 and then I can literally paste and I paste that content and now I've pulled that short clip from later in my episode right here at the beginning and now I can do things like add

47:16 image overlays, text overlays, I can insert a clip if I would like and that's just a great way to pull some of the more engaging moments from earlier or later in your episode and

47:27 video to the beginning and that's just, you should go watch the whole video because just a great strategy.

47:34 for hooking people at the beginning and providing value throughout that entire video podcast. Yeah, and Jake also said I'll show his comment on screen.

47:42 This intro method has boosted views on YouTube for our most recent videos in comparison to previous videos.

47:49 I will also say I love like an intro like that or even a cold open.

47:54 So for example, I'll take I'll use my magic clips and I'll take those magic clips like one of my favorite ones and put it in the intro.

48:03 And so it teases out a little bit of the conversation.

48:05 But another thing that I love to do

48:07 as part of exactly kind of what Jay was doing, was I always recommend for creators to, sometimes we tend to put answers in our reels, in our videos, in our intros, but I wanna actually challenge you to put questions in there.

48:24 So saying, what do you think is, if we're gonna take this webinar, for example, and I'm saying, what's the best day to post on YouTube?

48:32 What are the best things to do to maximize visibility? taking all of those questions, it leaves you wanting those answers.

48:40 So it leaves you sticking around.

48:42 when, and then we're that, which leads me also quickly to back to my little presentation, the metrics that you want to follow.

48:53 So I want to definitely touch on this before, before we run out of time, but metrics to follow, these are the top three that we'd recommend.

49:01 So click through rate, Steven, if you want to explain that one.

49:06 click through rate is the impressions your video gets, meaning how many people saw your thumbnail and title on their home tab versus how many people actually clicked it and went to the video.

49:16 You know, an amazing click through rate might be 10, 15 % or higher, lower might be 3 to 5%.

49:22 And so keep an eye on what videos have that higher click through rate and try to emulate those thumbnails and titles in future content.

49:30 rate the next one is average view duration.

49:34 So if I could share my screen one more time, I'm going to go back to one of early questions, which is what's more quote unquote worthwhile, an audio download or a video view?

49:44 And one of our recent episodes of our podcast, this is the audio downloads. It got 2 ,600 audio downloads.

49:52 And the same episode on YouTube got 2 ,000 views. So pretty close views on YouTube versus audio downloads.

50:01 Well, when you go to the metrics here, on YouTube for that episode, you'll see the average view duration was 17 minutes of a one hour and 15 minute episode.

50:12 And that means average percentage viewed is 23%.

50:17 To compare that, here's the same episode in Apple Podcasts, and you'll see average consumption, which is like that view duration, 71%.

50:27 So the same episode. Audio version, 71 % is the average amount listened, meaning most people listen to 71 % of this episode versus the YouTube.

50:38 Most people watched 23 % of the video. And so that is a key metric to keep an eye on.

50:44 And also on YouTube, you get this both in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

50:49 This is your retention graph where you'll see dips and spikes in listening and views. Kendall, can you guess what this little dip is right here?

50:57 Right at the 36. I'm gonna guess. It's exactly right. And you'll see the same thing here. People skipped ads.

51:05 Same. We had the same ad in the video version and then a spike after that.

51:09 So having just those metrics and those retention graphs in mind, checking them just to see where did people drop off and where might people have come back in.

51:19 And that'll tell you what was engaging to people. And so, yeah, that's where you can find that Apple podcast, Spotify dashboards for your audio and then on the video analytics.

51:29 for the view duration and average percentage view. And the question came in, why do you think that is the case as far as the difference between YouTube and your Apple Podcast metrics?

51:41 I think it's the case for pretty much any show and typically an audio listener in order to actually listen to a podcast, think about how many steps that usually takes.

51:52 Most often people are searching for a podcast and their podcast player. Maybe they'll follow the show.

51:57 They download the episode and then they click play and it is a longer process to get to that audio version.

52:03 So they're automatically more invested because they spent the time to get there and actually hit play and it's typically not algorithmically driven, meaning my episodes are not being pushed in front of people on a platform.

52:15 Whereas your YouTube video, which is the great part about being on YouTube, is that discovery mechanism.

52:21 YouTube is actually going to serve that video to interested viewers and they might click it even if they've never heard of our show or seen it before.

52:29 But that is the difference in the average view duration and retention. When someone hears that audio podcast, they were very intentional about getting to it and pressing play.

52:38 Whereas that video is going to be served to a lot of people, some who don't know us as co -hosts or hosts or know the content, but they're going to click play because they're interested in the topic.

52:47 It mean they drop out sooner, but it's still exposure. And some of those people who find the show that way on a discovery platform like YouTube are going to stick with it and start following the show long term.

52:58 And that's the point. That's the biggest benefit of having that video on YouTube for people to discover. That is a really great insight.

53:06 And I just want to make sure that we get to the last metric, which is average view percentage.

53:13 And kind of taken together, you're going answer what that is in a second, but what we're talking about here is these metrics to follow as being what Stephen was saying, kind of viewer satisfaction.

53:23 taken together, did they click the or in the thumbnail? was a click bait in the way of like, did it deliver actually what that person clicked on?

53:33 And then once it did, did they continue to stay and watch it? So average view percentage, Stephen, take that one away.

53:40 Yeah, that and you can even keep the slide up because I that's what I showed a second ago It's right under average view duration on your video performance page And it's just

53:48 telling you a percentage of the content in relation to the minutes watched and again valuable Especially comparing that between episodes and and video so, know look at four of your episodes in a row What was my average percentage viewed for each video?

54:03 Which videos were higher? What did we do differently? Do we have a format? Was there too much small talk? Do we jump to popular topics?

54:10 And then you can start correlating that information, like average view percentage, with your topics and format to make content that appeals to your audience.

54:18 Because ultimately that's all we want to make things that actually resonate and that people want to watch. Awesome.

54:29 were kind of, we had already gone through the monetization strategies, but before we go, I wanted to see, Stephen, do you think that there is any one, what would you say is like one

54:42 takeaway, one piece of information that you would recommend to anyone who's really trying to grow on YouTube?

54:50 Honestly, consistency is key. And I think I've heard it from a lot of YouTube creators, myself, I feel this as well.

55:00 You you need to get like hundred episodes, a hundred videos in to get your feet wet, to understand your voice, to really get a hang of what you're doing and how you're doing it.

55:09 And one of the things Jay Clouse talks about in his videos is when you're starting out, go for quantity, go for consistency, create things regularly.

55:19 get in the habit, find your voice, find your flow. After you have that consistency, that quantity, then focus on quality.

55:27 And we're always focusing on quality. That's why we use Riverside, so make sure our video and audio always looks great. But focus on quality of content, maybe making better intros, spending more time on thumbnails.

55:37 Focus on that quality, even if it slows down your production a little bit. Once you nail those things down, the third step is quality quantity.

55:46 Can I make a large amount of content consistently with that higher level of quality and that's where you're really going to get into that growth phase.

55:55 But the key thing is there consistency no matter where you're at no matter what level you feel like your skills are at create something consistent.

56:02 It could be every other week it could be once a month but do consistency this way also your audience knows to expect it and they'll be more inclined to look for it and click play when you post that content on the regular schedule.

56:15 And just a quick story I actually found a recent podcast. It's actually now one of my favorite podcasts through a very long journey of first seeing a clip on TikTok of a creator, Hank Green.

56:26 And from that TikTok, I actually found that his brother is John Green, who wrote the book Fault in Our Stars, where the movie is based off of, and that I heard Hank's brother, John, on another podcast called Rethinking with Adam Grant.

56:39 I loved hearing him on that podcast so much, I looked up and read his book, The Anthropocene. And from that book, said, I actually want even more of these guys, Hank and John.

56:47 And that's when I found out they actually do a podcast together. And now I am a faithful listener of Dear Hank and John, their podcast together.

56:54 And it's just sometimes a long journey. And the only reason I got to their podcast and became a faithful listener is because I saw content on TikTok.

57:03 I heard of them as a guest on another podcast. I saw video clips. And so doing all that together, I know it can be a lot of work, but that's why Riverside is trying to make it easier.

57:12 to produce that amount of content in all those different formats, because that's how you eventually will people will discover your content and eventually lead them to really being a loyal and faithful audience member who just loves what you create.

57:24 And I just dropped that link in there. But really, I think that it's like a great example of the consistency and the fact that somebody might not just watch one video and then immediately become the fan of your show.

57:35 It's also like I follow people on Instagram. And then after months of following them, I'm like, my gosh, I really should listen to their podcast.

57:42 And then I listen and then I download a million of their episodes. So I am totally with you on that.

57:50 And I just want to say that we've had a lot of great insider tips from you, Stephen, today.

57:54 And if you want insider tips on podcast awards, our next webinar is going to be with Michele from the Ambys and Naomi from the International Women's Podcast Awards.

58:08 And we're going to be talking all about strategies to stand out. I'm going to put that lower third on the screen if you want to sign up for that webinar.

58:17 And I will also. put that in the chat if anyone wants to sign up for that.

58:23 And then I also wanted to invite you to join our community of creators. We're on Facebook.

58:32 I actually should update this because the slides from a while ago were 18 ,000 creators on Facebook.

58:37 We also have a Discord channel and for anything else, you can always reach out to me at kendallat riverside .fm.

58:46 There are a few of you here that have reached out and I really always love chatting with you.

58:50 And then, as I always like to say, Steven is a pleasure to listen to and there is a lot more of Steven.

58:58 You could find him on our YouTube channel. I'm keeping that lower third forever.

59:04 You could find more Steven on our YouTube channel and find more of his videos.

59:10 But otherwise, this has been a lot of fun to get to show you guys around.

59:16 and we'll see you all on YouTube and please tag us in what you create.

59:22 We love to hear your feedback on, especially on these webinars, but on anything having to do with Riverside. So let us know.

59:31 Otherwise, thank you all so much for joining and can't wait to see what you create. Thanks guys.

59:39 Thanks for joining.