Fig 1.0 Click on the CREATE ACCOUNT link to continue
Fig 1.1 Check the availability of your username first and then fill in the rest of the YouTube Account Application Form to continue
| CREATE A YOUTUBE ACCOUNT |
In this day and age more and more people are moving their Hobbies, Community Newsletters, Camera Recordings and so on into the Internet Video age, especially with the FREE Video Upload website service from Google called YouTube. Just in case you are not aware, YouTube Video accounts are not just for "Wannabe Singers", "Idiots Messing Around" and "Various News Shows". They can also be used for your Community Projects, Hobby, GumTree Classified Advertisement, Website and so on. In this example I am going to show you how to set up a FREE YouTube Account so that you can then upload videos into that account (also known as a Video Channel) and subscribe to someone else's Video Channel. Therefore letting other people see what video entertainment you like as well as what videos you have made yourself.
To begin. First take your web browser (i.e. Internet Explorer) to the website address http://www.youtube.com and then click on the CREATE ACCOUNT link (in the top-right corner) to continue. Doing so will take you to the YouTube Account Application Form (Fig 1.1).
The first and most important field (edit box) in the application form is the Username, otherwise known as your Account Name or more importantly your
Video Channel Name. Do not get confused. In YouTube's eyes it is definitely your Username, but YouTube also assigns it as your Account Name and more
importantly as your Video Channel Name. So pick your Username very carefully. For example. I want to use the username touringtheuk (Touring The UK)
and after clicking on the CHECK AVAILABILITY link (above) I was surprised to see this username available - I would of thought a travel website would
of taken it. And this is a point I want to make about the username. Think ahead. Someone might snatch your username one day.
The rest of the application form is just standard detail. So assuming your username is available, and you have filled in the rest of the application form,
click on the I ACCEPT (the Terms & Conditions) button to continue.
After clicking on the I ACCEPT button you are then asked if you would like this new YouTube Account attaching to your existing Google Account, if you have an existing Google Account of course. In this example I assuming you do not have an existing Google Account and therefore need to create one, in which case fill in the form on the right of the page (below) to create a new Google Account.
Having a Google Account gives you extra benefits, but these benefits tend to be for Website Owners and not really for YouTube Members. Anyway. When you have filled in this easy Google Account application form, which will then automatically be attached to your new YouTube Account, click on the CREATE NEW ACCOUNT AND FINISH button (below) to continue. The WORD VERIFICATION edit box is in place to let Google/YouTube know that a human is the one applying for the Google Account and not a malicious piece of software.
After clicking on the CREATE NEW ACCOUNT AND FINISH button the following success message will appear, asking you to check your email in order to verify ownership of the email address you supplied in the Google Account application form. So the next thing you should do is close this window, as it will not be needed again, and then go and check your email from the supplied email address.
The eagle-eyed will notice that the SIGN OUT link (above) is active. This is the SIGN OUT link for the YouTube Account you are signed into, which you cannot really do anything with at this point until your email address has been verified/approved. Closing the window will not sign you out of your new YouTube Account, but in this example you should not worry about this because you want to be signed in - Normally when you have finished with something like this you sign out of course but in this example the confirmation email will need you signed in, preferably.
When your supplied email address has been verified a new web browser window will open to display the YouTube website. Remember. Your YouTube Account is still signed in, so you can now continue by clicking on your Video Channel's (Username's) drop-down menu and selecting the MY VIDEOS menu-item. This will take you to the My Videos page (Fig 1.8 below) where you can then upload a new video for example.
To upload a new video, from the My Videos page, click on the NEW drop-down menu (on the left-side of the page) and then select the VIDEO UPLOAD menu-item (below). You could also click on the yellow UPLOAD button (in the top-right corner of the page) which does the same thing. Either way will take you to the Video File Upload page (Fig 1.9) where you then need to click on the UPLOAD button. Doing so will then bring up a file requester that asks you to select the video file you want uploading to YouTube (Fig 1.10).
When the file requester appears (above) navigate it to the video file you want uploading to YouTube, select that video file and then click on the OPEN
button to continue. Your selected video file will then be uploaded to the YouTube server (computer) where it will then be processed and put into your
video account storage area, if the video file is accepted by YouTube of course.
YouTube is a little fussy when it comes to file types/formats and the length of videos, so try and use .wmv, .flv, .mov, .avi or .mpg formatted videos
with mp3 audio where possible. And try to keep the display size (resolution) down to 640 x 480. WebCam format basically. The higher the quality the
better simply because YouTube tends to downgrade a video's quality, for whatever reason(s).
While your video file is being uploaded, or even after it has been uploaded, you can enter a Title, Description and some Tags (Keywords) to help the
viewer of your video understand what it is about, even before playing it. In this example (above) I have used the Description to promote the Touring The
UK website and also mentioned what this intro video is doing - Explaining what they will see on the tour. The tags should contain high ranking words
that best describe your video content and more importantly words that a viewer is likely to use in order to search out your video in the first place.
After entering the Title, Description and Tags you then need to select a Category, from the CATEGORY drop-down menu, for your video. In this example the
TRAVEL & EVENTS category. Once that is done you then need to decide whether or not to make your video Public or Private by select the appropriate
SHARE or PRIVATE setting. When you have decided which option to use click on the SAVE CHANGES button to continue.
With your video uploaded and settings saved; Go back to the My Videos page, by selecting the MY VIDEOS menu-item from your Video Channel (Username) drop-down menu, and there you should see your video (Fig 1.15).
If you click on one of your videos it will be displayed just like it appears in YouTube. From here you could click on the ACCOUNT menu-item to check whether anyone has commented about your video and so on. Remember. If you chose to share your video with the world they are entitled to comment on it! Saying this, you can change a video's COMMENTS setting, PRIVACY setting and so on by clicking on its EDIT button.
The Accounts page gives you more options such as creating Playlists, checking your subscriptions and much much more. If someone likes your video(s) they may subscribe to your channel, so that anytime you upload more videos they are automatically informed. You can do the same - Click on the SUBSCRIBE button when you see a video, or collection of videos, you like. You have control over subscriptions and comments though (i.e. you can ignore/delete them). Basically explore the rest of the Accounts page as it is out of scope for this example to cover the vast features of YouTube. The above examples were created to show you what else the internet has to offer.
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
