Sam's Teach Yourself YouTube in 10 Minutes

The book, Sam’s Teach Yourself YouTube in 10 Minutes by Michael Miller, is about learning YouTube, as you probably could have guessed. There are 26 lessons to be read, which deal with various aspects both on, and off YouTube. 

            The first thing that I noticed about the book, was that it started off at the basics, as if the reader knows nothing about YouTube. That is good for anyone who has not had any experience at all with YouTube, but for many the book will start slow because of that. The first few lessons comprise of tutorials on customizing YouTube to your liking, creating an account, how to search for videos, and how to watch a video. These are necessary fundamentals, but if you already know these fundamentals, you can likely skip ahead a few lessons. The next thing that I notice was the ease of use and fluidity of the steps when a process is given. Many pictures are given so that the reader can visually see what they are supposed to do at times, and the results that they should be receiving.

            This book does not deal with just beginner level topics though. Lessons teach you what various features do, and how to get full use out of them. There are lessons that teach the reader about how to use playlists, saving favorite videos, email videos, embedding videos in a website, posting a video to your blog, and much more. None of these are required to use YouTube, but many of them will help the user get the most enjoyment out of their YouTube experience.

            YouTube is not just about watching videos, but about uploading new videos as well. This book teaches the reader about uploading their videos to YouTube. I must say though that the examples are more geared towards business product advertisements, but all of the lessons will be useful to almost anybody looking to upload a video. The book teaches not just about uploading the file to YouTube, but tips and tricks to capturing the video footage itself. Some of the tips teach the reader about adding light sources, the rule of thirds, and background selections. The book also discusses how cameras and their specifications will affect the resulting video. Transferring the video to your computer and uploading it to YouTube is also discussed. All of these tutorials are in an easy to follow, step-by-step format.

            Much like the subject of Web 2.0, YouTube is always changing and evolving. That means that books written on a subject dealing with Web 2.0 become outdate rapidly. Unfortunately, this is the case with this book. Most of the information is still up-to-date and accurate, but parts of earlier lessons are slightly outdated. Because YouTube underwent a style redesign on their video player and menus recently, many of the pictures will not match up. Most of the instructions and procedures are still relevant and correct, but on a few procedures the reader may need to figure out where the option or menu has been moved to. 

            If you are a beginner, this book will teach you everything you need to know to use YouTube, but because YouTube is changing frequently, some of the instructions may seem outdated. Even if you feel you know everything about YouTube, you still may learn a thing or two. Overall, this is a good book for everyone to read who wants to know anything about YouTube. It is easy to follow, easy to understand, and divided into clear concise sections.