In this episode of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast, we chat with Benny Potter from the Comicstorian YouTube channel. Benny has had great success with his channels in growing them into large brands.

Benny Runs Comicstorian, Eligible Monster, Mangastorian and a Youtube Subnetwork N4Gtv which functions through Maker Studios and MakerGEN. He is very knowledgeable in regards to YouTube Networks and we discuss when is the right time to join a network AND when you shouldn’t.

Links Mentioned In This Episode:

YouTube Analytics – A native feature within YouTube that allows you to monitor how well your videos and channel is doing.

TubeBuddy – A tool that makes your YouTube Life EASIER and Helps grow your channel.

Blue Yeti – A Great microphone to start out with when creating your content.

Connect With Benny Here:

Comicstorian YouTube Channel – Mangastorian YouTube Channel

Social: Twitter — Facebook

Support The YouTube Creators Hub Podcast Here:

If this podcast is bringing you value SUPPORT THE SHOW AT THE FOLLOWING LOCATIONS:

TubeBuddy – A tool that makes your YouTube Life EASIER and Helps grow your channel.

Patreon – Get Your Channel Featured On The Show AND Acess to an exclusive YouTube Creators Facebook Group

Audio Blocks – Sign up for $99 PER YEAR for great audio to use in your content.

Bluehost – If you need a website use this link to get a free Domain Name and a great deal on hosting.

Check out this great video from Comicstorian:

When it comes to YouTube and starting your channel one of the most important things is to have places where your viewers (COMMUNITY) can connect with you. YouTube is a great tool BUT there are other things you can do outside of YouTube that will really help your channel grow. One of those main things is creating a website!

In this tutorial, I am going to show you step by step instructions on how to create a WordPress website.

The first thing you have to do is get a domain name (Example: The domain name of this site is www.youtubecreatorshub.com) and you will also need hosting.

I recommend Bluehost for hosting because it is cheap and the service is GREAT. Another benefit is you will receive a FREE DOMAIN NAME when you sign up. (Just a disclaimer if you sign up with my link you will save money each month and get a free domain name, BUT it will also help me as well).

SIGN UP FOR BLUEHOST HERE

Ok, let’s get started!

Step 1 — The first thing you need to do is to sign up for your hosting and register your domain name. Click the green Get Started Now button.

Step 2 — Next, you need to select which plan you want to use. I recommend the middle one as this will allow you to grow and not have to worry about changing anything later.

Step 3 — After you have selected which plan you want to use, you will then be able to register your FREE DOMAIN NAME. There are 2 different options here. You can either register a domain name that you already own OR you can register a new one for free with your new Bluehost package. If you already have a domain name just insert it into the box that says “I have a domain name”, and continue following the steps in this tutorial. If you want to register a NEW domain name just type it in the box that says “New Domain”, and click the blue next button.

Step 4 — Once you have typed in your domain name and clicked the blue next button, if your domain name is available you will then see the signup and payment page next. Once you are here fill out all of your information and click the green submit button at the bottom of the page. Here you will enter all of your personal account information as well as confirm the package that you want to sign up for.

Step 5 — After you have filled out all of your information and have submitted it you now have a hosting account! All you have to do now is use the free WordPress import tool and you are on your way to a website! Now you need to login to your Bluehost account. You should have been provided with your username and password via email. Normally your username is your domain name and password is set by you.

Once you are logged in you are going to be sent to your CPanel. This is the hub from where you will do all of the back-end tasks of your website. We are now going to use the WordPress import tool to setup your site.

Step 6 — Now, you will select the “Install WordPress” button under WordPress builders.

Step 7 — Once you are in the “Install WordPress” tool it’s as simple as following the prompts on the screen to set WordPress up on your site. We are going to be choosing the INSTALL option because we are using a new domain.

After clicking the install button, you will be taken to a new page where you will select your domain name and click “Check Domain”

This may take a couple of minutes but when it is done you will need to accept the terms and conditions and click on the green “Install Now” button.

Once it begins you will see this image pop up.

Step 8 — Once the install is finished you will receive an email with your WordPress admin login credentials. This is the information you will need to login to the back-end of your WordPress site to begin adding content. MAKE SURE YOU WRITE THIS DOWN SOMEWHERE

Step 9 — Now, the last thing you have to do is go to your Admin URL provided in that email and type your username and password and you are now in the back-end of WordPress. You can now begin to customize your site and add content!

If you have any questions feel free to email me and I will help you with anything that I can!

Watch This Video For More Detailed Instructions:

In this article we are going to discuss YouTube Annotations. First, we need to understand what an Annotation is. If you are watching a video and you see a clickable link on top of the video, that is an annotation. If you look at the picture below the Annotation is in the upper right hand corner of the video and it is linking to the subscribe button for the channel.

YouTube annotations are a great way to drive traffic to your other videos. If you have links to similar videos OR on topics that you are discussing in your video, I have found that this is a great traffic generator for older content.

In order to add an annotation to your videos you need to login to your YouTube account and go to your video manager. If you don’t know how to get there just click your username in the upper right hand corner when logged into YouTube and you will see some options. Click on Video Manager. For a full rundown of your Video Manager and how to use it Click Here.

Once you are in your Video Manager click on “Edit” below the video that you want to add Annotations to.

After you have clicked the edit button below the video you want to add annotations to, you will then be presented with multiple customization options for your video. You want to click the Annotations tab above the video. It will look like this.

Once you are in the annotations editor you will see many different options.

The first thing you need to decide is what type of annotation you want to add to your video. Here are the different types of Annotations and what they are below.

• Speech Bubble – This annotations looks like a cartoon Speech Bubble. It is great to put in vlogs beside you if you are speaking about a specific topic or video that you want to link to.
• Note – The note annotations is very similar to the Speech Bubble except it doesn’t have the line and bubble shape. It is great as well for linking to videos and topics.
• Title – This annotation is one that allows you to draw a box around large text within your video to link to a video.
• Spotlight – This is a great annotation to use around videos or pictures. I use this at the end of my videos to link to similar videos. If you want to see an example of this go watch this video and fast forward to the last 45 seconds.
• Label – The label annotation is similar to the Spotlight annotations except it has text and a box border to place around objects and text within your video.

As far as which one is the best to use it all depends on the content you create as well as the way you are going to use them. I prefer the spotlight and label annotations for my videos because you can actually have some other videos/images at the end of your video that link directly to them and it is visual. I think the visual aspect of those annotations make a big difference in CTR (Click Through Rate).

The purpose of putting annotations on your videos is to have you viewer watching your content longer. The thought is if they have direct and convenient links to your other content they will be more likely to stay on your channel page and then in the long run possible subscribe to your channel.

Tips and Tricks When Using Annotations

• Do NOT Clutter your video with to many annotations. There is nothing more annoying than trying to watch a video with annotations littered all across the screen to the point you can’t even see what the video is about. Use them in moderation.
• DO NOT link to outside links and affiliate links. This is frowned upon within the YouTube space. You cannot link to another website UNLESS it is your connected personal site that you have linked to your YouTube channel.
• Make sure you spell things correctly. It looks extremely bad when you are trying to gain more viewers and you have misspelled something on your annotation.
• EXPERIMENT – Growing a youtube channel is a process and sometimes it boils down to trial and error. Try different types of annotations and see which one works best for your content!

Here is a video tutorial talking about YouTube Annotations and How To Use Them:

In this tutorial you will learn how to embed a YouTube video to your website. If you are trying to place a video on your website first off make sure that you have the rights to do so. If it is not your video then ask the creator if this is ok for you to do. If they say yes, follow these steps to get the video onto your website.

1.) After you have located the video that you are wanting to embed on your website go right below the video to where it says “Share”.

2.) Click on the share tab. Once you have done that you will then see all of the sharing options for the video. Click on the “Embed” tab.

3.) Now you will be able to adjust the size of the video once it is placed onto your website. You will see a drop down menu below the HTML code that has a bunch of numbers. This is the Width and Height of the video when placed onto a website.

4.) After you have clicked on the embed tab you will see a box with a bunch of HTML code in it. This is the code that you need to COPY and PASTE into your website. Go ahead and select all of the HTML text and copy it.

5.) Once you have the size of the video selected and you have copied the HTML text you need to go paste it into your websites HTML editor. If you have WordPress it will be the “Text” tab, BUT for most website builders there will be HTML “blocks” or diferent options where you can place the code.

6.) After you have placed the code onto your website you now can preview your post on your website and make sure you have the video size and location the way that you want it.

Here is a video tutorial on How To Embed YouTube Videos

In this article you will learn how to monetize YouTube videos and make money from them. The word monetize means to make money from. In this tutorial I will be showing you the step by step process on how to monetize and start making money from your YouTube channel.

Before we get started there are a few things you need to know and understand before getting started.

• Your channel has to be in good standing and cannot have any copyright strikes or YouTube policy violations.
• You must have a Google Adsense account in order to monetize your videos. Signup For Adsense Here
• Some countries are not able to take part in the YouTube partner program and may not be able to monetize their channel.
• You MUST be 18 years or older. (You can have your parents do this if you are younger).
• In order to receive a payment from YouTube you HAVE to make atleast $100.00

Ok, now that we have that stuff out of the way lets look at how to setup our YouTube account to start making money.

1.) The first thing that you need to do is signup and setup a Google Adsnese account. Click Here to go to the sign up page. This is an easy process. All you need to do is provide Google with you street address, name, bank information, and some other personal information to get started.

2.) After you have signed up and have an Adsense account you need to login to your YouTube channel and click on your profile image and username in the upper right hand corner. You should now see a few different options. Click on YouTube Settings.

3.) Once you are under the YouTube settings you can then see the different YouTube features that you have access to. The one that you want to look for is “Monetization”.

4.) Click on the “Enable” button beside the Monetization tab. Once you do that you will see another option come up that tells you about your account and where it stands, and if it is eligible for monetization features.  Click on the “Enable Account Button”.

5.) After you have clicked the “Enable My Account” button you will then be prompted to read and accept the YouTube Monetizations policies and procedures. After you have done that you are ready to begin monetizing your videos.

6.) You will now be taken to your YouTube Video Manager Where all of your videos are. (If you want to learn more about your YouTube Video Manager Go Here). Once you are there you will now see a new icon next to your videos that looks like a money symbol. It should be greyed out, this means that the video is NOT monetized.

7.) The next step is to actually monetize your video. Click on the grey money symbol beside the video that you want to monetize and put ads on. You will then be presented with the monetization panel. Put a check by the “Monetize With Ads” option and then you will see the different types of ads.

8.) Select the ad types that you want and then click on the save changes button in the lower right hand side of the screen. Your video will now have ads placed on it and will begin to make money!

Here are a few things to remember when monetizing your YouTube videos.

1. DO NOT just make videos to make money. You will be disappointed and your content will not be any good.
2. You MUST have signed up with the same email address for your Adsense account as your YouTube channel to make sure they are linked up.
3. You will need to provide your bank account information to Google Adsense so that when you meet the $100.00 threshold you will be paid.

Making money for your time and effort is a great thing and it will allow you to produce content more often and it will be more polished BUT make sure that you are not just putting out videos for a pay check.

In this tutorial you will learn how to change your YouTube username as well as your YouTube profile URL. There are a few things that you need to know before you start trying to change your YouTube Username.

• This requires you to have a Google+ profile
• If you have linked your Google+ and YouTube profiles in the past 14 days YOU WILL BE ABLE TO CHANGE YOUR NAME TO ONE WORD.
• If you HAVE LINKED YOUR GOOGLE+ AND YOUTUBE PROFILES OVER 14 DAYS AGO YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CHANGE YOUR USERNAME TO ONE WORD.
• When you change your YouTube username it will show up as that name from now on.

One other point that I want you to understand is that if you have already built your channel up, and already have brand/channel recognition it is NOT a good idea to change your name.

Here are the steps you need to follow to change your YouTube username

1.) Once you are logged into your YouTube channel, click on your profile image/name in the upper right hand corner. Once you do this you will see a few different options. Click on YouTube Settings.

2.) Once under YouTube settings you may see a few different things.

If you have not connected your YouTube Channel to your Google+ profile you will see a link that says “Connect Channel With Google+”

If this is the case and you have not linked the 2 accounts just click on that link and then it will ask you what you want your name to be. Whatever you type in here will be your Google+ name as well as your YouTube channel’s name. This name can be either one or two words.

If you have connected your YouTube channel to Google+ you will see your channel name and then a link that says “Edit on Google+”

3.) Click on the “Edit on Google+” link. This will then take you over to your Google+ profile page.

4.) Once you are on your Google+ profile page you can click on your username at the tope of the page to change your name.

5.) When you have clicked on your username a box will then come up asking you to type in what you want your new username to be. THIS WILL BE YOUR GOOGLE+ PROFILE NAME AND YOUTUBE CHANNEL NAME.

6.) Once you have typed your username in the box click on the blue save button.

You have just changed your YouTube and Google+ usernames!

Here is a video tutorial on How To Change Your YouTube Username:

Within YouTube, the Video Manager is your main hub as a creator to see what is going on with your videos. From the Video Manager you can Edit, Delete, and Add videos to playlists. You can also turn monetization on and off. Basically if you want to become successful on YouTube, you need to take control of your Video Manager.

Here is what the video manager page looks like:

As you can see within the Video manager you can see all of your uploaded videos, their title, upload date, monetization settings, views, likes and comments.

Lets take a look at each of these individually.

On the right hand side of the screen next to each uploaded video you are going to see 3 different icons that look like this.

• The Blue Globe lets you know that your video is public. Which means everyone searching YouTube can find and watch your video.
• The Grey Check means that your video has been distributed out to all of your subscribers. If you see an icon here that is not the check this means that you have chosen to not send this video to your subscribers OR that it has not finished being sent over to them yet.
• The Green Money Icon shows if your video is monetized or not. If you see a Green Icon with a White Money symbol in the middle this means your video is monetized and has ads running on it. If you see a green icon with a white question mark on it, this means that YouTube is still in the process of reviewing this video for monetization. If this icon is Greyed out, this means that this video has been rejected for monetization for various reasons.

To the right of these 3 icons you will see your videos stats. It will look like this:

The top stat that has the vertical lines on it is your videos total views. The stat below that is how many Likes and Dislikes that your video has. (The Thumbs Up being the Likes and the Thumbs Down being the Dislikes). Below that you will see a chat bubble and then another number, this is your videos total comments.

There are 2 different view options within the Video Manager. The first one is a list with all of the data to the right of the video that looks like this:

The second view option has your videos in a box view that lets you see your videos title and thumbnail image, and it looks like this:

If you want to change your view option within the Video Manager go to the upper right hand side of the screen and choose your option there. It looks like this.

You can also add videos to playlists within the video manager as well. All you have to do is check the videos that you want to add to a playlists and then click on the playlist drop down menu at the top of the screen and choose a playlist that you want to add the vide to.

*If you need to know how to create a playlist go here*

If you have a video that you would like to delete from your YouTube channel and from YouTube all together you can do that from the Video Manager as well. Just check off the video or videos that you would like to delete and then click the Action drop down menu from the top of the screen and select Delete.

If you are wanting to edit one of your videos you can do that easily within the Video Manager as well. Just click on the edit drop down menu below the video that you are wanting to edit. You will then see all of the different options that you have for editing your specific video.

You can also search for a specific video by using the search uploads option in the upper right hand side of the Video Manager page.

The video manager plays a large part in being able to create and run a successful YouTube Channel. If you know how to optimize and use all of the tools found within the Video Manager you will be ahead of the game.