I have been spending more time in YouTube, for my own efforts and for client projects. One thing has become very clear, many people do not use YouTube correctly, even the most basic options inside YouTube. So here is a quick primer of the six things you should understand how to use in YouTube.

1. The Video Title – By default the title of any video you upload is the filename of the video, example movie.m4v. You NEED to change this. Do not use the default filename as your video title. The default name does not tell anyone anything about the video. Think of a headline, you want something that is going to grab the viewer, while telling something about the video.

2. The Video Description – By default this is empty. Do NOT leave it empty. Some things you want to insert in the description:

• Your website url
• Your Facebook url
• Your Twitter url
• Your online store url
• Tour dates

Be sure you use full urls so they become clickable links. Only the first line is going to be visible without the viewer clicking the More link, so I suggest the first link be your most important url. Then use the rest of the description field to insert great keywords… name drop special guests, locations, venues, album titles, producers, name of artist you are covering, etc.

3. The Video Keywords – By default it will insert your video filename as a keyword. Delete that and insert new keywords. Do NOT leave this blank. Just as you need to add tags to a blog post, YouTube keywords serve the same purpose. They aid in the search results. No keywords, no search result for your video.

Items 1-3 all help your video with search results, inside YouTube and outside such as Google search results. Use all of these fields, fill them out to give your video a chance to be found.

4. Video Privacy Settings – Understand the difference between public, unlisted, private settings of your video.

Public – everyone can see, search and find your video.

Unlisted – Making a video unlisted means that only people who have the link to the video can view it. Unlisted videos won’t appear in any of YouTube’s public spaces, like your channel, search results, or the homepage.

However, your video could appear elsewhere on the web if anyone who knows the video’s link shares it. For example, more people can see the video if somebody with whom you share the video goes on to share the video through an email or posts it on a blog. Remember it can appear in Google search results.

Private – A private video can only be seen by you and up to 50 other people who you invite to view the video. The video won’t appear on your channel, search results, or playlists. This is truly private from anyone finding it.

5. Monetize – Make some money from your video. It is free to setup and takes only a couple minutes to fill out a Google Adsense application and when approved link it to your YouTube account. Then it is just one checkbox to monetize a video.

6. Front & End Bumpers – Every video you upload should have a quick and simple image at the front and end that contains your logo and various urls. Remember your video may get shared and embedded outside of YouTube, where the description won’t be available. For that reason you add these simple bumpers to the video itself so the video contains the important links. People need to know what they are watching and how to find you.