Dipo Olowookere
In this article, we’ve put together a list of some of the lesser-known hacks, tips, and features offered by YouTube. With these, you’ll be able to save a lot of your time and effort. You’ll be able to get the best out of the platform.
Here are the 8 Hacks You Probably Didn’t Know You Could Do on YouTube:
Turn Videos into GIFs
In the social media world, everyone loves to use GIFs. But, there’re very few knowing how to make one. Well, here’s a little URL trick with which you can make GIFs out of YouTube videos.
Firstly, play a YouTube video of your choice. Secondly, copy the URL at the top of your browser. Thirdly, open a new tab, paste the copied URL, and make a small edit. You need to just type “gif” right before the domain name in the URL. Here’s what your edited URL would look like – “www.gifyoutube.com/[your-video-tag].”
Finally, you’ll be redirected to gifs.com. Here, you’ll find your video already uploaded. You’ll now be just left to do edits to your video, make GIFs, download it, and share it with others.
Access Transcripts of Videos
Did you ever wish to see the transcript of a YouTube video but weren’t able to? Well, then this is the hack you need. YouTube automatically generates transcripts for every uploaded video.
Well, you have access to see the transcript of all videos. But you can’t see the transcript of videos where the uploader has manually hidden them. First, you’ll need to open a video Second, click the three-dot ellipsis. Thirdly, select ‘Transcript’ from the drop-down menu and voila, you’ll see the transcript of the video.
Add Cards
Using ‘Cards’ not only can you make your video more engaging but also cross-promote other content. They are most effective when they appear with calls to action, such as a link to other channels, videos or playlists, and other destinations.
To add cards, first, you’ll have to click the video you’d like to edit in the YouTube Studio. Then, you need to click the Cards box, select Add card, and finally, select Create. All you’ll have to do now is customize, adjust, and create the card.
Use End Screens for Promotion
End screens are nothing but whatever viewers see in the last 5-20 seconds of a video. You can use it to insert several CTAs and redirect viewers to different destinations. You can direct viewers to subscribe to your channel, other videos, playlist, visit another channel, etc. You can also buy YouTube subscribers as an add-on to this hack.
All you need to do is select a video in the YouTube Studio. Then select Editor from the left menu and, finally, select ‘Add End Screen’. It’s all done.
Create a Branded YouTube URL
URLs of YouTube videos and channels are usually presented in binary & unmemorable strings of letters or numbers. But there’s a way that you can create your custom URLs. Luckily, we’ve got this hack covered for you.
To create a branded URL, your YouTube channel should satisfy some prerequisites. First, the channel needs to have a minimum of 100 subscribers, an icon, and channel art, and should be a minimum one-month-old. Once all these are satisfied, you can click your profile picture, go to ‘Settings’, and click ‘advanced settings’. There under channel settings, you’ll see a custom URL box, which you can use to add letters and numbers. Finally, as soon as you agree to custom URL terms of use, your unique branded URL would be ready.
Clear Your YouTube History
We are sure that there must have been times when you wanted to delete items from your YouTube search history. We’re also sure that just like most YouTube users out there, you also must not be aware of how to do it. So, here’s how it’s done.
To clear your YouTube history on desktop or mobile, first, you need to navigate to the “Watch History” menu. There you’ll get to see all the options such as “clear all watch history”, “pause watch history”, or individually remove videos from your history.
Explore & Compare Popular YouTube Search Terms Over Time
At some point, you must have used Google Trends to find the popularity of specific search terms over time. But, did you ever use it to compare the popularity of YouTube search terms specifically? Well, if not, read on.
To start with, open Google Trends. Then, go to the “Explore topics” search bar at the top and type a search term. As soon as the page opens up, click on “Web Search”. All you have to do now is just choose “YouTube Search” from the drop-down menu. Now, you can specifically explore and compare popular YouTube search terms.
YouTube Kids.
If you’re a parent who does not want their kids to have access to everything on YouTube, this hack is for you. YouTube has a kids’ version popularly known as the YouTube kids. You can use this feature to have more control of what kids are watching and finding.
Conclusion
We hope that these YouTube hacks would be useful to you. The platform certainly is further going to evolve and competition on it is going to be more cut-throat in the coming days. Remember you can always rely on the best sites to buy YouTube likes to get desired results on YouTube. It is probably one of the best hacks you should know.
