Want to make a splash on YouTube? Even go viral? You've come to the right place. This book is written by two veteran 'Tubers who live their art and know what they're talking about -- especially Alan Lastufka, a.k.a. "fallofautumndistro," who has over 13,000 YouTube subscribers and over 4 million views. Alan and co-author Michael W. Dean show you how to make a quality video, and how to optimize, encode, upload, and promote it. This book can't promise you'll be rich and famous, but it can tell you how to make great video art, and what you need to do to get your work seen. You'll learn about:

• Storytelling and directing

• Shooting, editing, and rendering

• Creating your very own channel

• Broadcasting user-generated content

• Re-broadcasting commercial content

• Cultivating a devoted audience

• Fitting into the YouTube community

• Becoming a success story

Join Alan, who makes part of his living from YouTube, and Michael, a successful filmmaker, author, and D.I.Y. art pioneer. They'll take you from the basics of gear to making it big on YouTube, with a focus on networking and interaction. You'll also sit in on informative interviews with YouTube stars LisaNova, Hank Green (vlogbrothers), WhatTheBuckShow, nalts, and liamkylesullivan. Alan and Michael understand viral marketing -- and they know what it takes to get your work on everyone's YouTube radar. And, once you read this book, so will you.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 20 Ratings

Any marketer will gain a lot from this book - 2009-04-20
Reviewer Rating:
When I picked this one up I could not help but think, "Why? Why would anyone want to be really good at Youtube?" This book gives any marketer more than enough answers.

The authors are not only adepts at YouTube, they have a good background in film and film studies. This combination has allowed the creation of a very pragmatic, hands on guide that really does lead you through how to achieve the goal in the title. Very readable and moves right along, so it is not a heavy tome by any measure.

On another level the book provides some insight on the user generated content space and just how compelling it is. The linked examples in the book are very useful in a study of this space. You see how Youtube has been able to generate such a strong and growing user base. No wonder that the analysts say that Google is losing millions on just the hosting alone for YouTube. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and for how long. Any marketer will gain a lot from this book.

THE book for anyone looking to spice up and improve their content on YouTube - 2009-11-06
Reviewer Rating:
This book is helpful in every way I can think of. Everyone can learn many things from this book if you're just starting out on YouTube or even if you've been involved with it for a while. I got this book after having a YouTube channel and posting videos for a year and it made me completely change and redesign my video posting experience. I started a new channel and made some crucial changes to my content. Now my videos are better than ever, I have a small yet very strong fan base and I have great, positive interaction with those who watch my videos. This book completely transformed my YouTube experience into something more!

There's something for everyone in this Insider's Guide - 2009-08-21
Reviewer Rating:
If you are a new YouTube user, trying to learn the ropes of video sharing online, YouTube: An Insider's Gudie To Climbing the Charts has enough material to get you through the basics. It discusses the critical bases of storytelling, directing, shooting, editing and rendering. You are walked through the process of setting up your very own YouTube channel and how to build an audience for it while you make sure you keep your content accessible and legal (you don't want to find your videos removed or your channel shut down for copyright infringement). You are introduced to ways in which you can monetize your videos (if that's your thing) and the broad world of online video beyond YouTube.

Overall, this is not an ideal starting point for beginners but it has enough references to help someone who is a fast learner to get started. Though advanced users may find most of the content already familiar, there are a ton of tips and hints that are bound to become a treasure of wisdom regardless of how long you've been publishing on YouTube. Most of the intermediate-level readers, who may have done a video or two, but want to get to the next level, will find the book to be an extremely wealthy read.

A Must Have Guide - 2009-03-16
Reviewer Rating:
I knew I had a lot to learn, but I never dreamed I had THIS much to learn! And it's all in one book with lots of detail and simple language. You can even skip to whatever topic you want without feeling lost because you didn't read the previous chapter. If I had to choose one word to describe this guide, that word would be "awesome."

Helpful to an extent, but remember... - 2009-11-01
Reviewer Rating:
First I learned things from this book so it is worth it if you can afford to buy it; I can't so I borrowed it from the library. So, my complaint is that there are so many links embedded in the text. Really, I don't like to sit at my computer and read a book. I'm at my computer enough. It's not like all the links are to resources such as [...]. A lot of the links are to his friends' videos. He'll mention a technique and then say "here look at it in action at so-and-so's YouTube video." It seems like he's promoting a lot of people on YouTube, which is fine too, but if I'm going to get through the book within a decent time frame (everyone considers their time valuable), then I can't go watch every video you give me a link to...it would take too long to get through the book. Not only that, but in every chapter, it seems he's mentioning one of his other books. Someone just bought your YouTube book, and now the author is already hinting / pushing you to buy his other one or two? It's like advertising built in to his book, and he himself says that there is so much money to be made in advertising (he even puts it in italic).

That said, I did learn some important things that will help me out. I'd share what I learned with you, but what each person learns in a book is based on what you don't know or don't consider important. So, to discover what is important for you, you'll have to read the book!

One thing that this book does not point out is that you must be a naturally creative person in order to succeed on YouTube. You have to offer something fresh and new, and it does take money to start out (not a lot, but some). Probably not everyone has a digital camera and a microphone and the $70 some odd dollars it costs to buy the software to edit the video...not to mention a computer fast enough and with enough memory to handle large video files.

So say for example you want to "make it" on YouTube, if you are not a creative person, you basically have to find another way to gain subscribers. He doesn't mention any of the other ways to do this. I can tell you one of those ways: share information with others. Personally I upload some of the same product reviews I upload to amazon up to YouTube, and guess what? My three most viewed videos are the same ones I uploaded to Amazon! (Thanks Amazon for the idea!) I guess the authors approach to YouTube is the only one he considers doable. Now I realize I will not be high on the charts for just uploading reviews of cell phones, but it's at least a place to start until I can make new videos that do catch more attention.

So, to recap, I like the book, but I like to read away from the computer where it's comfortable. (I'm at the computer enough, so I like to "escape" to other places away from the PC.) There is a lot of great information in the book with some shameless self-promotion as well as promotion of other YouTubers. I don't want to take the time to view every clip he gives a link to because I want to get to the "meat" of the information as quickly as possible. So, I skip the links that are not to critical information or sources. And, the author does not state that in order to be at the high top of the charts, you have to have a certain personality or at least be a good enough actor/actress to fake it. And, he does not give additional ways that a video can get lots of views, such as to offer product reviews, which is a way of sharing information.

So, it's worthwhile, but you'll have to buy it if you can't devote the time it takes to view all the URLs at your computer. I guess it'd be easier if you have a laptop.

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Business
Enterprise Computing
Hardware
Internet/Online

Sub-Categories:
Business > Virtual Community
Enterprise Computing > WebSphere
Hardware > WebTV
Internet/Online > World Wide Web