YouTube SEO Guide for 2014

The following guide provides detailed directions to properly optimize your YouTube channel and videos.

YouTube SEO - Channel

Advanced settings:
To view advanced settings, navigate to the “Creator Studio”. You can access it by selecting  your channel’s icon located in the top-right of YouTube’s home page.

Selecting the “Creator Studio” will open your channel’s dashboard. Using the left-hand navigation menu, select  Channel>Advanced to view advanced settings.

Make the following adjustments to properly optimize your channel:

• Channel name: Make sure your business name is used as the name of your channel. Note: Changes to your name will also apply to the Google+ account associated with your channel.
• Channel icon: Your icon should be simple and accurately portray your business. Company logos are often used for this purpose. YouTube recommends using a 800 X 800 px image. Note: Changes to your icon will also apply to the Google+ account associated with your channel.
• Channel keywords: This is the most important part of channel optimization. Choose three to five relevant keywords that are the same ones you use on your website. Separate each keyword with quotation marks to look like this: "art school Pennsylvania" “international relations degree" "pennsylvania engineering schools"

Channel settings:
To access channel settings, return to your dashboard and select “View Channel”.

On your channel’s “Home” tab, you can add or edit  channel art. Channel art should be both attractive and relevant to your business. YouTube recommends using a 2560 X 1440 px image.   

Select the “About” tab to access additional channel settings.

Make the following changes to properly optimize your channel:

• Channel description: In a few sentences, briefly highlight the content of your channel. Include the name of your business and your targeted keywords.
• Links: Select the “Links” option and make the following changes:
• Email for Business Inquiries: This option applies only to businesses who wish to provide a public email address for business inquiries.
• Custom Links: Enter your company’s website address in the “URL” field. In 30 characters or less, provide an accurate description of the link in the “Link Title” field.
  
• Social Links: Provide links to the primary social media pages associated with your business. YouTube automatically provides a link to your Google+ account page. However, you can add up to four custom social links.
  

Custom and social links will appear overlaying your channel art.

YouTube SEO - Video

Content:

• Create high-quality, engaging video content.
• Choose video content related to your targeted keywords.
• Mention the targeted keywords in the video's script.

Video file name:
Before uploading your video, rename the video file to include your targeted keywords.

Upload options | Basic info:
To upload your video, select the “Upload” option in the top-right corner of YouTube’s homepage.

Once you start the upload process, you can begin to edit your video settings.

• Video title: With limited plain text for search engines to crawl, the title of your video is probably the most important SEO factor to consider. Titles for YouTube videos should include relevant keywords to ensure high rankings in Google and YouTube search, while still being compelling enough to encourage clicks and views.
• Video description: Write lengthy descriptions. Generally, you should aim for descriptions that are at least 150 words. Both YouTube and Google rely heavily on the text surrounding the video to understand your video’s topic. The more YouTube knows about your video, the more confidently it can rank it for your targeted keywords. When writing a description, you should also:
• Put your company's URL at the beginning of the description.
• Mention the company name after the company URL.
• Include three to five of your targeted keywords.
• Include links to your Facebook and Twitter pages at the end of the video description.
• Tags: Tags are very important in optimizing videos for search. To set strong tags:
• Choose three to five keywords you want to target.
• Separate each keyword using quotation marks, like you did when you entered tags for the channel. They should look like this: "art school Pennsylvania" “international relations degree" "pennsylvania engineering schools"
• Thumbnail: Note: Custom thumbnails are only available for accounts that have been verified and are in good standing. To verify your account visit the following URL: https://www.youtube.com/verify. Obtaining a good standing account is accomplished by adhering to YouTube’s Community Guidelines and Copyright rules. Once the thumbnail feature is available on your account, follow these steps:
• Before uploading your thumbnail, rename the image file to include your targeted keywords.
• Choose a visually appealing thumbnail to make the video more inviting to viewers. The thumbnail should be relevant to the video’s content. Thumbnails often include brief descriptive text. YouTube recommends that you use 1280 X 720 px images,
• Broadcasting and social sharing:
  These settings are located on the right side of the “Basic info” page.
  
• Privacy: Set to public
• Message: The “message” field is only relevant when sharing your video on social media. It should include a brief and appealing description of the video’s content.
• Sharing options: Select any social networks where you wish to share your message and video. Note: YouTube automatically selects the Google+ sharing option.
• Playlist: If you plan on creating a series of videos that share similar content, it is best to place these into playlists. Playlists allow for better channel organization. You can easily create a new playlist by selecting Add to playlist>Create new playlist. A playlist title should accurately describe the entire series of videos.

Upload options | Advanced settings
To view advanced settings, select the “Advanced settings” tab.

• Comments:
• Check “Allow comments” and select “all”
• Check “Users can  view rating for this video”
• License and rights ownership: Select the “Standard YouTube License”
• Captions certification: Choose an option that applies to your video
• Distribution options:
• Check “Allow embedding”
• Check “Notify subscribers”
• Age restrictions: Uncheck “Enable age restriction”. This option applies only to videos that contain content that may be offensive to younger audiences.
• Category: Choose an option that applies to the content of your video
• Video location: Set the location to your business address
• Video language: Choose the appropriate language
• 3D video: Select “No preference”z

How to Watch Amazon Prime Instant Video on Android Tablet or Cell Phone

Unless you're a Kindle Fire owner, you may have found it difficult or impossible to stream Amazon Instant on Android. This article explains how you can easily watch Amazon Prime Instant Video on any Android device.

 If you are reading this article, it is probably because the solutions you've found are no longer solutions to this issue. Most sources that I've found tell people to use Adobe Flash with Dolphin Browser. However, this method is dated, and will no longer work on your devices. Luckily, there is another way to watch Amazon Instant on your Android. Here is how I did it:

1. Download FlashFox from the Google Play Store. There is a free version that displays ads or you can buy the pro version for $2.99. FlashFox is a browser that uses Adobe Flash.

2. Once your have downloaded FlashFox, find the options and make sure Request Desktop Site is checked. This will fool Amazon into thinking you are a desktop user.

3. Log in and start watching Amazon Instant Video on your Android device! It is as easy as that.

Unfortunately, because you are you the desktop version of Amazon, navigation may be a little frustrating, but this wasn't a huge issue on my 10.1 Galaxy Note.

Repentance and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

—John the Baptist, Matthew 3:8

Warning! As this article will cover the entirety of the Assassin’s Creed 4 plot, major spoilers are in order.

“Change your destiny” is a recurring theme in media surrounding heroes. It is not much of a surprise, then, that Ubisoft’s latest game in the Assassin’s Creed line—AC4: Black Flag—centers heavily on that theme. Shortly after completing the game, I read Matthew 3:3, and these words from John the Baptist’s ministry stuck in my mind as I contemplated the course of Edward Kenway’s adventure in Black Flag.

Edward Kenway is the player-controlled character of Black Flag. My first instinct is to label him the player-controlled hero, but that moniker is not entirely accurate. Kenway is sucked into the ages-long conflict between the Assassins and the Templars (the two opposing orders in the Assassin’s Creed universe) while living the life of a privateer (read: pirate) right smack in the beginning 18th century. Pirating isn’t exactly Kenway’s career of choice, but the lull of riches and the promise of an easy retirement that comes with it pulls him away from his sweet Caroline, who emphatically begs him not to leave. Kenway promises her two years away at the most, which, after nearly drowning in a ship battle, killing an assassin and taking his disguise, pirating a ship and becoming its captain, and getting involved in a world-scale conflict, quickly turns into ten.

Oops.

Throughout his ten-year career as a pirate, Kenway is faced several times with a decision: should he keep pursuing the mystical Observatory and the riches that supposedly come with it, or should he abandon this crazy dream and repair his relationship with Caroline?  It wouldn’t make for a very fun adventure if Kenway hangs up his captain hat and goes home, so time and time again he chooses to continue chasing after the Observatory. Each decision usually comes after a tragedy, however, as the body count piles up as Kenway approaches his goal. Friends lose lives and dreams are crushed as he blunders down the destructive path of his dream, just like his companions constantly warn him.  As it turns out, being an assassin can get pretty dangerous.

Despite being told many times to change the course of his life, Kenway finally listens when one of his closest friends tells him just before her death that he can still change. The ghosts of his mates who were slain because of his determination constantly haunt him, and Kenway finally reaches the tipping point with this friend (I’m keeping it a bit vague here for the sake of spoilers). He vows to undo the damage he has caused the best he can just before embarking for the final confrontation.

Though Kenway’s change of heart seems a bit late, the final clip scenes show a man who is willing to give up his own will in order to bring peace to others. He leaves the wealth he established on a secret island to his former friends and leaves for London with his daughter, whom he had never met. A new leaf can’t fix everything, as the Kenway learns of Caroline’s death, but the sequences during the credits show Kenway adjusting to fatherhood and working to mend broken relationships. Overall, the ending is positive, showing us how a disastrous path can be left even when it seems too late.

Prior to Jesus’ ministry, Matthew records a brief moment of John the Baptist’s ministry. John, who is Jesus’ older cousin, dedicates his purpose for preparing the people’s hearts for Jesus. A bit eccentric, John’s highly effective ministry drew many people despite his outward appearance (Camel’s hair clothes and bugs for food? Really?). Or maybe because of his appearance—I’m not sure which it is. What we do know is that John baptized many whose hearts were changed, saying that “after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11).

At one epic moment, though, a bunch of religious leaders (Pharisees and Sadducees) showed up, and John blasted them with these words: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt. 3:7-8). His harsh words for the religious leaders echo Jesus’ later when He speaks similarly, calling the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs” because they only worry about appearing holy (Matt. 23:27). The reason for the tension is that the religious leaders of the time were the keepers of the Law of Moses and often took advantage of the people on account of the extensive knowledge they possessed.

So, here in Matthew 3, we have two groups of people coming to listen to John: people who knew of their sin and openly repented in order to receive forgiveness, and religious leaders who thought that they didn’t need to repent because of their adherence to the Law of their fathers. Jesus’ death and resurrection fulfills the Law and creates a new covenant (i.e., the New Testament) that is based on love and mercy, not strict rules. John saw this coming and fired the first shot at the religious leaders, basically declaring that their time for controlling forgiveness through sacrificial rites would soon be over. To emphasize the point, he says that we should “produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt. 3:8). What does this mean?

To “produce fruit” is a symbolic way of saying “use actions.” Jesus spoke often of fruit, especially how the goodness of a tree is shown by the fruit it makes (Matt. 7:17). In other words, a person’s character can be determined by the deeds that he or she performs. So, John says to “use actions” that are “keeping with repentance,” or “behave like a person who turns away from evil.” A person who repents—turns from evil—doesn’t just change on the inside, but shows the change through his or her actions.

Thus, Edward Kenway shows his inward change by actively trying to repair what he left broken. After all, that’s what sin does: it breaks relationships, lives, and people. It leaves a destructive path. As Kenway began to realize that what he was doing was wrong, he decided to change; with his decision to change came actions that tried to fix what was broken. He couldn’t fix everything: lives were lost and promises were broken, but the changes he made brought peace in the end.

Is there something in your life that leads you down a path of destruction? Is there anger or lust that fractures relationships? Is there greed that sours intentions? Lies that create mistrust? Listen to the words of John, and make a change like Edward Kenway: “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”