I recently uploaded a video to YouTube and it was automatically analyzed as “Not suitable for all advertisers”, which in YouTube speak means “No monetization”.

I’ve never made a lot of money from YouTube. The YouTube revenue has probably paid for the software and hardware that I use to create videos. But this made me stop and think about my video strategy.

I created YouTube videos with all the right things:

• intro “In this video we will…”
• custom thumbnail, with branding
• “Remember to Subscribe” lower third animation
• End section with links to other videos and ‘remember to subscribe’ message

But, if YouTube wasn’t going to monetize me, then perhaps I should spread my videos around.

Facebook

So I now create the long form video with the intro but none of the ‘subscribe’ messaging, because that is YouTube only.

In this video I promote my own products rather than rely on YouTube, either my websites, or books or training courses.

I upload this video to Facebook as a native video.

Vimeo

I upload the video to Vimeo as a private video, just in case all the sites go down and I need somewhere to send people to watch the video.

YouTube

While this is uploading to Facebook and Vimeo, I add the ‘subscribe’ and ’end card’ animations, and then upload to YouTube.

Instagram and Linkedin

While this is uploading and processing on YouTube, I edit the video to get it down to under 1 minute.

I upload this video to Trint.com and start the automated transcription process.

I then tidy up the transcription manually and save it as a SubRip file, which I add as Closed Captioning in Camtasia. Then I export the video in a format suitable for uploading to Instagram and LinkedIn.

I add captions to the Instagram and LinkedIn because on mobile the videos autoplay with muted sound.

I stick to the Instagram dimension on LinkedIn and upload directly to both platforms as native video. But in the description I include a link to the YouTube video.

I upload the video directly from the mobile apps, after transferring the short video across to my phone.

Slideshare

After uploading, I create a quick presentation using Markdown and Marp or DeckSet, which I upload to Slideshare, then I add the YouTube video to the Slideshare.

Why?

• LinkedIn has a fairly small description field, so by sending people to YouTube I can take advantage of platform associated with longer length video and longer descriptions - which also have clickable links.
• Facebook I tend not to use very much but native video does quite well there.
• Instagram needs captions on videos otherwise people see a muted talking head.
• Vimeo is a backup, but I can also link to that or embed it on my website so the videos are hosted without ads which is good for business videos that are promoting my own products.
• YouTube is still a major search engine so organic traffic is still important.
• Slideshare allows embedding YouTube videos which also doubles up the Linkedin posting

So in a way, I should thank YouTube for expanding my ideas about where and how I host my videos.

It seems like lot of extra work to create the videos but, having created the video once, everything else can pretty much be done during the rendering and uploading stages of the other sites.