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Chapter 14 Annotating and Linking Your Videos 163

All three types of annotations can include both text and clickable links. You can
link your annotations to other YouTube videos, playlists, channels, groups, and
search queries. What you can’t do is link to any pages not on the YouTube site—
such as your own web page. You have to satisfy yourself with linking to your other
videos or to your channel page.

Note

If you want to link to your own website, you have to promote the video and
add a Call-to-Action Overlay, as discussed in Chapter 23, “Using Call-to-
Action Overlays on Your Videos.”

The overlay for the annotation can be any size and placed anywhere on the video
window. You can place multiple annotations on screen at the same time or you can
use them at different times throughout the video.

Uses for Video Annotations

Annotations are a great way to stuff more information into a YouTube video. How
exactly can you use annotations? Here are some ideas:

• Expand on the information presented verbally in the video—give the
viewer something to read that provides more depth.

• Detail the steps in a how-to video. Instead of just saying “Step 1, do
this,” you can display that text onscreen in an annotation. This makes it
easy for the viewer to pause the video and either digest or write down
the details in the step. For example, if you’re presenting a cooking how-
to, you might list the ingredients for each step in annotations.

• Add interesting but non-essential information, like in those pop-up
videos VH1 used to show. Interesting stuff for anyone who cares to
click it.

• Link to the next video in a series. If you have a long how-to, for exam-
ple, you can break it into multiple parts and use annotations to link
from one part to another.

• Link to a related video. If you have another video that provides useful
background information for the current video, link to it. For example, if
you’re annotating a video about changing the oil in a car, you might
link to a related video that talks about the different types of motor oil.
Figure 14.2 shows just such a supplemental video link, along with an
information box, in a video by Catspit Productions
(www.youtube.com/user/CatspitProductions/).