Do you publish videos on PeerTube? Would you like more people to follow you on PeerTube and watch your PeerTube videos?
This is a guide to how to make your PeerTube account, channels and videos more discoverable. You don’t have to do everything in this guide, but the more you do here the more discoverable your videos become.
How to publish on PeerTube
If you want more info on how to actually publish videos, see the step-by-step guide to publishing on PeerTube. If you’re a serious video maker you might want to read the section on starting your own server, it’s a lot cheaper and easier than people realise (you don’t need to be rich or a techy person).
Check that your videos are searchable in Sepia Search
PeerTube has an official search engine at SepiaSearch.org ⧉. Check that your published videos are searchable there by searching.
If your videos aren’t searchable, give it some time for the search index to update. If it’s already been a while since your videos were published, add your server’s websites address on the official instances list ⧉.
Suggest your PeerTube account and channels to Fedi.Video
The author of this guide also runs a site at Fedi.Video ⧉ which features a human-curated selection of good PeerTube accounts. If you run a nice PeerTube account, get in touch with the Mastodon account @fedivideo@social.growyourown.services ⧉ to suggest your account be listed.
(For moderation reasons, Fedi.Video generally only includes English-language videos or videos with English-language subtitles.)
Add descriptions to your PeerTube account and channels
It’s really quick, easy and important to describe your PeerTube account and channels. These descriptions are crucial because people use them to decide whether or not to follow you or watch your videos. These descriptions are also used by other Fediverse platforms such as Mastodon for showing your profile and displaying it in search results.
To add an account description:
- Log into PeerTube on your server’s website
- Go to your profile page
- Click Manage Account
- Write your account description in the Description box
- Click the Save Profile button
To add a channel description:
- Log into PeerTube on your server’s website
- Click Channels
- On the channel you want to add a description for, click Update
- Write your channel description in the Description box
- Click the Update Channel button
Add descriptions to all your channels if you can.
Add tags to your videos
If you want to make them discoverable, it’s really important to add tags to your videos. These make people a lot more likely to discover them as a lot of people on the Fediverse follow hashtags, which means your video may automatically appear in the main timelines of people following that tag. Many people also search for hashtags, so including tags on a video it will be in the search results for those tags.
It’s best to add tags to a video before you publish it, you can find out how to add tags in section 7 of the PeerTube publishing guide.
Upload your videos gradually, don’t upload all your videos at once
A lot of people with an back catalogue of existing videos are tempted to just upload all of them at once onto PeerTube, then wait for people to discover them. This generally doesn’t work due to the way Fediverse servers discover and display content.
Most of the Fediverse deliberately doesn’t use algorithms. Instead, people see all the posts from all the accounts they follow displayed chronologically in their main feed. If you upload 500 videos all at once, most people following you will see 500 posts swamping their timeline all at once, and then they won’t see anything else from you until you upload new stuff.
Also, due to the way Fediverse servers “notice” content, uploading after you have gained followers will make your videos a lot more visible to a lot more people on a lot more servers. If you upload before you have any followers at all, the uploaded videos may not be visible at all to most servers.
Most of your potential followers and viewers are on Mastodon!
PeerTube is part of a much larger social network called the Fediverse. Most of your potential followers and viewers aren’t on PeerTube itself but on other Fediverse platforms such as Mastodon etc. Because the Fediverse uses common open technical standards, people on Mastodon etc can follow and interact with you on PeerTube, and it is from these other Fediverse platforms where most of your followers and viewers will come from.
For this reason, you might want to focus promoting your PeerTube on other Fediverse platforms such as Mastodon etc.
Create an account on Mastodon etc. to promote your PeerTube
You might want to create an account on Mastodon to complement your PeerTube. The most successful PeerTube accounts all have Mastodon etc accounts too, which allows them to join in with discussion threads rather than just publishing videos. For example a PeerTube account about gardening might set up a Mastodon account so they can join in with general discussions about gardening.
Share your PeerTube address with people on the Fediverse
You can encourage people on the Fediverse to follow your PeerTube account by telling them your PeerTube fediverse address, which will look something like this:
@(username)@(server)
All accounts on the Fediverse have a unique address in this form, which allows anyone on any Fedi platform to search for an account’s profile. The user can then just click on the profile and click its “Follow” button to follow it, even if they’re on a non-PeerTube platform such as Mastodon etc.
If you’re using Mastodon or another similar Fediverse platform, you can paste a Fediverse address into a post and it will appear as a clickable link that people can click on to see the account’s profile.
When viewed from Mastodon, a PeerTube account profile will contain the PeerTube profile image and text description and clicking follow will follow the PeerTube account itself. Videos published by that PeerTube account after the moment of following will start appearing in the follower’s Mastodon timeline.
You can usually find a PeerTube account’s or channel’s Fediverse address on PeerTube by clicking the ⧉ button next to a username on your PeerTube server’s website, but you may need to add @ to the start so that they work fully on Mastodon etc. (For some reason PeerTube seems to leave off the leading @ on this copy button.)
Use quality control
If you upload lots of videos regardless of how useful or interesting they may be to others, it will make it much harder for people to notice your good videos.
People will be a lot more likely to follow your PeerTube if you only upload videos that you know people will enjoy watching. The PeerTube accounts with the largest follower numbers are ones that only upload high quality edited videos, or at least video clips they have chosen carefully.
Nicely edited videos are wonderful of course, but you don’t have to be an expert video editor to exert quality control. For example some popular channels just show unedited clips of wildlife, but they only show clips they consider interesting or entertaining.
Engage with your viewers
If someone has commented on your video you will see a notification about this when you’re logged into PeerTube. Reply to their comment, engage with them, answer their questions or thank them for their feedback. People will be a lot more likely to follow you and watch your videos if they know there is a friendly human being behind them.
Think about time zones when publishing videos
Most people on the Fediverse browse non-algorithmic chronlogical timelines, so they see every post from every account they follow at the moment it is published.
If you have a video aimed at people in a particular time zone, publish it when people from that time zone are most likely to be browsing their timelines. If you’re trying to reach multiple timezones, try to find a sweet spot when most people are awake in those time zones (for example the evening in Europe is the morning in the Americas).
Use nice thumbnails on your videos
By default videos will just show a still from the video as their thumbnail. However, it’s usually a good idea to upload a custom thumbnail so that people get a good idea of what your video is about. To add a thumbnail:
- Log onto your PeerTube server’s website
- Click Videos
- On the video you want to add a thumbnail to, click Update
- Click the Advanced Settings tab
- In the Video Thumbnail section click Select From Your Device and select the thumbnail image file
- When the thumbnail has finished uploading, click the Update button at the bottom of the screen
You can monetise PeerTube by having sponsors and patrons
There is no advertising system on PeerTube so there are no adverts inserted into videos. However, PeerTube accounts can receive an income through sponsors and patrons, and you may see sponsors’ messages and/or there may be a list of patrons being thanked.
PeerTube has an option to upload videos to unlisted URLs and/or password-protected URLs. These can be used to give patrons early access to your videos.
You can also include a “support” link on your videos which people can click to find out how to donate to you. To add a support link in PeerTube:
- Log onto your PeerTube server’s website
- Click Channels
- On the channel you want to add a support link for, click Update Channel
- In the Support box add some explanatory text and links to your donation platforms (Ko-fi, Liberapay, Patreon etc)
- Click Update Channel
If you’re uploading VODs of livestreams, either edit out the leadup or have a countdown timer
It can be very frustrating for people watching VODs (videos on demand) of livestreams to see it begin with a “starting soon” placeholder that goes on for many minutes without any clue as to when it actually starts. A lot of people will simply bail out and won’t even skip ahead.
People are much more likely to watch your VODs if the intro is either edited out or if there is a countdown timer visible so that people can skip forward easily.
People can also follow your PeerTube channels from podcast apps such as Apple Podcasts, or RSS-compatible news feed readers
As well as follows from PeerTube and other Fediverse platforms like Mastodon etc, PeerTube channels can also be followed by people totally outside the Fediverse who may not even have social media accounts.
All PeerTube channels have an RSS feed which is podcast-compatible, which means people can follow any PeerTube channel from any podcasting app that supports adding podcast addresses (such as Apple Podcasts) or any RSS news feed reader app. See the guide to following PeerTube from podcast apps for more details.
If people follow you from podcast apps or RSS apps, they won’t show up in your PeerTube follower numbers but they will show up in your PeerTube viewing figures.
Update your videos if you want to
PeerTube lets people upload new versions of their videos without breaking any links or losing any comments. To update a video:
- Log onto your PeerTube server’s website
- Click Videos
- On the video you want to update, click Update
- Click the Advanced Settings tab
- In the Replace Video File section click Select the file to upload and select the video file from your device
- The new video file will now start uploading, indicated by a progress bar at the top. Wait for it to finish uploading.
- After the new version of the video has uploaded, click the Update button at the bottom of the screen.
If you can’t see an option for replacing video files, ask your PeerTube admin to activate this option in Administration > Settings > Configuration > Basic > Videos > Allow users to upload a new version of their video
You can optionally allow people to download your videos directly
If you want to spread your PeerTube videos as far and wide as possible, for example if you’re running a public service account or distributing Creative Commons and public domain content, you might want to optionally let people download your videos so they can watch it offline, share it with others or upload them elsewhere.
To activate the download option for a particular video:
- Log onto your PeerTube server’s website
- Click Videos
- On the video you want to allow downloads for, click Update
- Click the Advanced Settings tab
- Tick the box marked Enable Download
- Click the Update button at the bottom of the screen
After you’ve done this, people viewing that video on PeerTube will be able to download it as a DRM-free file by clicking ⋯ and Download.
This option has to be activated video by video, there is no way to activate it for all your videos at once.