Ready to Upload to YouTube?

Hey guys, 

[CUE DRUMROLL…] 

We’ve come to the end of our Five-Part Series on the content creation process! Thank you for coming on this journey with us. Get ready for Part Five of… 

ANATOMY OF AN UPLOAD

A Five-Part Guide to Better Posting

Last month we covered the post-production editing process—how to collaborate with great editors to deliver your best possible cut. Now it’s time for the final step: The Upload. (We may be biased because of our name, but this might be our favorite part!)

Weirdly, the upload step is both the easiest and hardest part of a creator’s job. Technically, it’s just a few clicks: finalizing your thumbnail, entering metadata, choosing a few hashtags and content categories… Nothing compared to a grueling shoot day or a 12-hour editing session. 

But (as we said in our very first newsletter), it’s always a bit scary to click that final button and share your creative baby with the world. But here’s the thing: the upload isn’t the end… It's the beginning. 

YOUR PRE-UPLOAD TO-DO LIST

Publishing can feel like a mad scramble if you don’t prepare. Bring some order to this phase by making yourself a standard checklist:

 It might look something like:

• Finalize Title and Thumbnail Asset(s)

• Upload & Schedule a few days in advance (e.g. resolve any copyright issues due to licensed music)

• Proofread Video Description 

• NOT over-doing it with tags (please everyone, 3-5 tags is enough!)

• Etc., Etc.

Prioritize the steps you most often leave til the last minute. Making a standard checklist builds routine, and reduces pre-upload panic.

YOUR POST-UPLOAD TO-DO LIST

Pssst! Your job isn’t done just because you clicked ‘Publish.’ Now is the time for your Data Analytics brain to kick in. Your video’s first seven days on a platform make up the critical window that will determine its long-term performance. During this window, you have the freedom to tweak almost anything about the packaging that might be holding you back. (Sometimes the packaging can have more impact on your stats than the content itself!)

• The first few hours: do nothing. Yes, this is an actual step. Even seasoned creators have been known to post a video, then panic — saying “I need to change the thumbnail, the title, the keywords… or maybe this whole post was a mistake???” Resist any violent reactions in those first few hours. 

  NOTE: the more niche a creator you are, the longer this lag may last. A channel with several million subscribers should see robust data returns within 4-6 hours. Whereas a creator with less than 100K subs might not see usable stats for the first two or more days. (More data= more accuracy.) Either way, give YouTube’s algo the chance to do its thing. It’s been doing it for 20 years now, anyway… 

• The first 24 hours = your Core Audience test. Typically, YouTube will spend the first 24 hours (sometimes more) of your post putting it in front of your most reliable viewers. This is your Core Audience: subscribers and folks who click frequently on your stuff, and watch most of the video. If your video performs well for this crowd on Day 1, YouTube will then push it out to a much wider circle. Whereas if your post is struggling to engage your core fans, it’ll be much less likely to pop into total strangers’ feeds down the line. Keep your eye on stats like impressions, viewership (of course), average view duration, and especially click-through rate.

  
  NOTE: You don’t have to be a math whiz to crunch these numbers; YouTube does it for you in your channel’s dashboard. Look at your video’s ‘Last 10’ ranking: how well it’s performing vs. your previous nine posts. If the new vid is sitting at ‘3 of 10’ or higher, you’re in pretty good shape IMO. If it’s at ‘7 of 10’ or below? It could be time to tweak your packaging. Change the title and thumbnail to better reflect the motive you’re expressing to the viewer (why should they click?). You have the power to change these things while your video is live. Even better? Have a plan B & C for your title and thumbnail before you upload.

• The first 7 days predict your next 28. Once your video’s been live for a week, you’ll have a richer sense of its performance trajectory. Is your CTR decreasing consistently overtime? Average View Duration on an aggressive downslope? How many new users have you attracted vs returning users? Has that ‘2 of 10’ ranking slipped to a 5 of 10? Clocking these patterns will give you an even more reliable sense of how the video is performing.

  
  NOTE: If you’re still unsure about your packaging after the first 24 hours, Days 2–7 are your next best window to make changes. Try to update your title or thumbnail within this first week, since performance during those seven days often determines your video’s long-term trajectory (*though this can vary based on your channel size).

• Remember: in the end, no one post is going to make or break your channel. If you have a super-viral post, great! Don’t be surprised if next week’s post reverts to the mean. And if one video is a dud - understand why it did poorly, and next week you can snap right back. 

BEWARE THE ANXIETY ELF

A couple months back, in our pre-production issue, we introduced you to the Algo Devil: the trend-hungry, fad-driven urge you have to chuck your content strategy at the last minute.

But did you know this guy has a sister? Introducing… THE ANXIETY ELF.

This sneaky gal is the one who makes the posting process so nervewracking. The one who keeps whispering, “Hm, did you triple-check your category settings? Are you SURE that edit at the 20-second mark works? Maybe you’d better open ProTools again… ;-)” 

She’s the creator equivalent of leaving the house and worrying you left the stove on, so you go back up to check. And of course the stove’s off, so you leave again, but then you worry you didn’t lock the door, so you go back to check, and so on…

The Anxiety Elf makes it seem like clicking “Publish” is the biggest deal in the world, and if you made a mistake, your channel will be cancelled forever. But the ultimate goal is to feel confident, almost casual, about uploading. Of course you’re aiming for wins with every post. But if a video winds up performing just so-so…  so what? It’s still contributing to your success long-term. There are lessons you can take away from every post, just like a great athlete learns from every loss. And even the average-performing posts help you build resilience, cadence, and comfort with clicking Upload. You want to get to a point where posting feels as natural as breathing: organic, normal, and life-sustaining. 

–  Hayley

P.S. That’s a wrap on our first series for The Upload Club newsletter! Next month, we’ll be going deep on YouTube mythbusting. Got a burning question? Write to us at [email protected] and we may answer it in a future post!