Ask any YouTuber and they will tell you that generating significant views and subscribers isn't easy. But with the right strategy and tools, any video creator can build an engaged subscriber base when they understand what those subscribers want to watch.

Appealing to an audience to watch content you are passionate about making is just the first step, you need to know how to reach them and get your videos discovered. Our guides to how to guide more views on YouTube will give you the best tips to succeed on the platform.

How To Get More Views on YouTube

Do you want to make money on YouTube? Millions of creators are earning a very good living from the platform by uploading content that drives huge views and engagements. Whether that income is from advertising revenue, merch sales, or brand deals, we keep you updated with best practises and ideas.

How To Make Money on YouTube

Do you know how to do keyword research so you understand what videos people are actually searching for on YouTube? Do you know how to create a custom YouTube thumbnail? Do you know how to create a Playlist on YouTube?

vidIQ has a ton of tips that will help every creator maximise their video content. We publish content every week to keep you up to date with all the best practices.

YouTube Tips & Tricks

If you’ve put off creating your own YouTube channel because you’re overwhelmed with the choices you need to make or are panicking because you feel you lack the right skills to succeed, worry no more and welcome to the only resource you’ll need to fulfill your video creator dreams.

If this is your first time here, we have a 

 that aims to educate you on your YouTube journey. And if it is your plan to grow your channel, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, and click on our notification bell so you don't miss any of our latest tips, tricks, advice, and news.

How to Start Your YouTube Channel: 10 Top Tips

We promised 20 tips to kickstart your YouTube channel, so let's start delivering on that promise with 10 tips in this post and 10 tips in the 

. All the tips are covered in this video too:

So amazingly, there are still some people out there who are thinking of starting a YouTube channel and have been for months, possibly even years. My advice to you is, ready or not, start now. And I'm not telling you this as a New Year's resolution. Every moment you hesitate or procrastinate, there are thousands of video creators starting their YouTube channel today, and gobbling up all your potential audience. You don't want that.

Feel the fear, do it anyway. Start, press record. Record whatever you want today. It doesn't matter if it doesn't end up on YouTube. You need to gain experience in getting in front of the camera, getting behind the camera, using your editing program. You need to start creating content to find out whether or not you enjoy making videos before you know whether or not you enjoy being a YouTuber.

Tip #2 Learn How YouTube Works, No Seriously:

The chances are, that the first video you make is going to absolutely suck. Fantastic, you've made a video. You've made the first step, and in six months’ time, you'll look back at that first video and think yeah, that really was terrible, but you've gotta start the journey somewhere. And with that, you've gotta start your YouTube channel somewhere as well, even if you're not ready. Create a YouTube account, upload a video to YouTube. You don't have to publish it, that's the important thing.

You need to gain experience going through the workflow of uploading videos. The last thing you want is having a brilliant video ready to upload, but you don't know how the YouTube system works. Again, experience is going to trump any advice any of us can give you, so record a video, upload it to YouTube. You don't have to publish it.

Tip #3 Develop a Strategy you Will Actually Follow:

While getting some practical experience behind you is obviously a good thing, you also want some form of strategy. So, answer these questions:

What do you want your channel to achieve on YouTube

, and when you're answering this, try and answer it from a viewer's perspective, not your perspective. So I don't want to hear about hitting 10,000 subscribers, a million views, or whatever. If your viewers know that you're in it for your own self-gain, they will see through it and immediately switch off. Viewers want to know what they can gain from the content, and you want to sell that as much as possible in your videos.

 Again, try and be as specific as possible. What age range? What gender, if you are going to a particular gender? What type of demographic? What are they interested in? You need to know who's going to watch your content.

 There are millions of gaming channels out there, hundreds of thousands of Fortnite channels out there. How are you going to distinguish your content from everybody else who's already on YouTube making content? You need to disrupt the status quo, not join it, because you'll never be seen.

how are you going to deliver this content?

 Is it going to be every day, once a week, at a particular time of the day? Think about when your audience is most likely to watch YouTube, and how much YouTube they can watch per week, and then tailor your content to those watching habits, and think about whether you're going to do video on demand, live streams, what's going to be best for you and your audience?

Tip #4 Find Your Niche and Build the Hell Out of It:

live streams, you'll know this one off by heart. Niche down. Let me give you a quick example. What's your channel about? If you're giving an answer such as, "My channel's about beauty, and it's about travel, "and it's about vlogging," then it's about too many things. 

. It should be about one specific topic, when you start your channel, because you need to appeal to a very specific audience.

Once you've grown your channel, and you've got millions of subscribers who fall in love with you, you can take them on a journey wherever you want, but to begin with, the audience is only interested in the content. They have no investment in you. Try and remember that. It's a cruel lesson to understand, but it will help you when you first start out on YouTube.

Once you've thought about and answered all of these questions, I want you to wrap it all up in a nice little present, called your value proposition. This is your elevator pitch. Try and tell your audience who you are, and why they should watch you, in around about six words.

. It tells you the who, YouTubers, video creators, and why they should watch, because they will learn how to grow their channels. But we've managed to do that in four words. Now it's your turn.

Tip #6 Invest in the Right Audio Equipment:

If you've just started out on YouTube, and you're wondering what your first tech upgrade should be, it is 100% audio, and here's why. Bad audio is so much more distracting than bad video, and everybody hates onboard microphones. 

So if you can, get yourself a dedicated microphone for your camera,

 and if you're recording from a computer, you can't go far wrong with a Blue Yeti.

Tip #7 Create a Formula with Template Videos:

Videos need structure, so when you make your next video, try to think of how you will develop a show formula, that you can use as a template for your future videos. Remember at the beginning of this video, I literally gave you a hook. An introduction, a teaser to what's going to be going on for the rest of this video. Then we have the branded intro, followed by an introduction to who we are for new viewers, a call to action to subscribe to our channel, and then we jumped into the meat of the content where we are right now, and at the end of this video, you'll see how we round this all up.

Your show formula will take time to structure, and it will evolve over the course of your YouTube journey. Try and keep an eye out for this when you watch your favorite YouTubers. As rough and as random as they might appear, there is always structure and story behind each video, and that's why you watch them.

Some people love analytics, others hate them, but there are a couple that are crucial to keep an eye on, whether or not you want to look at that analytics. The first is 

This represents how enticing your titles are, and how clickable your thumbnails are. Check the click-through rate for your channel as a whole, and on individual videos as you test. I'm not going to give you all of the same target to reach. Check what your current click-through rate is, and whether it's two, four, six, or eight percent. I want you to try and improve that by two to three percent this year. It will bring in so many more views.

The other metric, as it always has been, is 

. Generally speaking, the more watch time you get, the more YouTube is going to promote your content. But if you make shorter videos, that doesn't necessarily mean you must make longer videos, because your audience might not react very well to those longer videos.

What I will say is maximize the value of your watch time in the videos that you have. That's by looking at relative audience retention. How does your video stack up to similar videos, in terms of whether people are still watching or not, and try and improve the relative audience retention. Having said that, if your average view duration is 60, 70, 80%, you're doing really well, and it gives you a license to try testing longer videos.

Verify your YouTube account. That will give you access to the most important tool on YouTube, which is custom thumbnails. We've got a video here on how to do it.

Tip #10 Create an Engaging, Interesting Channel Banner:

If I see another generic cityscape, or rolling hills in the channel banner when we do channel audits, I'm going to rip out my hair.

10 more tips or creating and growing your YouTube channel

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and 

 then make sure to download vidIQ. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

Members of the vidIQ family that have upgraded to our Boost and Pro packages get immediate access to the Academy 

 so you can kickstart your YouTube success today! Access to the exclusive vidIQ academy will give you a huge advantage over your competitors from the get-go. 

Kick off your YouTube dreams with the tools you need to launch YOUR channel. We've got the top tips just for you!

How to Start a YouTube Channel: 10 Brilliant Tips

In 2018, sales made on Black Fridays generated 

 in revenue for online retailers, an increase of 24% from the previous year. Consumers are eager for bargains and are turning to platforms like YouTube to scope out reviews on products that want to snap up in the sale.

While hundreds of thousands of creators have already been publishing content around the topic on YouTube, particlarly around tech and other consumer electronics, but there are still gaps in the market to create new videos around the tentpole event. Let's take a look at the top 10 keywords that YouTube viewers have been searching for on YouTube:

If you're a YouTube creator and are scheduling posts around Black Friday 2019 you need to be up to speed on which keywords viewers are searching for on YouTube right now. Running the keyword 'Black Friday' through the invaluable 

, confirms that the following are the most searched for Black Friday keywords and phrases on YouTube for 2019:

When are Viewers Searching for Black Friday Content on YouTube?

Black Friday happens once a year in the US (and increasingly in other countries for the past few years) so creators need to know when they should publish content around the tentpole event to leverage ranking and visibility on YouTube.

, interest from YouTube viewers in the US in Black Friday starts to peak around mid November, and lasts around a month.

With any tentpole or seasonal event, it pasy to remember that any video content you've uploaded before on the topic can still be maximized for extra views and engagement. 

Evergreen content is the key to more views on YouTube

revisit past Black Friday videos and update your titles and custom thumbnails to see if can leverage the seasonal interest in the content.

Finding Opportunities to Create Black Friday Content on YouTube

Viewers searching for Black Friday on YouTube do so with a particular aim in mind. They may be searching for the best deals retailers have to offer, or reviews for a piece of tech or gadget they have their eye on. Your focus should be on answering those queries with your content, and for an event like this you can do so in a number of ways.

Keyword research is vital for this (take a look at our deep-dive guide into 

). Starting with the keyword set above, plus an eye on the focus of your channel, start thinking of ideas for your Black Friday uploads.

It's very interesting tha both Walmart & Target are among the most searched for keywords around the Black Friday event so there may be an opportunity to combine a review of a product with the retail offer being provided.

 around the event to YouTube, this isn't necessarily the most engaging content for viewers who want more. They know the best retailers are running sales, but they want to know what products and what the best deals are going to be. Talking of deals, let’s take a deeper dive into what viewers are interested in around this category.

Top 5 Black Friday Deals Keywords on YouTube

If you want an idea of the type of Black Friday deal ideas that YouTube viewers love, take a look at this upload from The Deal Guy, published in November 2016. To date, it has generated over 619K views, and is still generating over 650 views per hour nearly a year later! He's taken a tentpole event that viewers search for but turned it on its head for that provocative angle we're all drawn to. It's no wonder that it still ranks and is attracting attention because it still provides value to today's consumer:

Are you planning to publish video content about Black Friday? We confirm the most searched keywords on YouTube around this annual shopping bonanza.

Top 10 Black Friday Keywords on YouTube

Thanksgiving is a beloved holiday in the US, and a hugely important occassion for friends and family to come together to indulge in food, fun, gratitude, and football. Hundreds of thousands of creators have already been publishing content around the topic on YouTube, but there are still big opportunities to create new videos around the tentpole event, or rank again for content created in previous years. Let's take a look at the top keywords that YouTube viewers have been searching for in the last 30 days.

If you are planning on publishing Thanksgiving content, you need to know what keywords YouTube viewers are searching for right now. Of just as much importance is when they are searching for that content so you can maximize your ability to rank on YouTube. Running the keyword 'Thanksgiving' through the invaluable 

, we can confirm that the following are the most searched for Thanksgiving keywords and phrases on YouTube in 2019:

When are Viewers Searching for Thanksgiving Content on YouTube?

Over the past few years, YouTube has become one of the go-to resources for almost any and every topic you can think of. However, viewer interest in that content is often seasonal, particularly when it comes to annual events.

, interest from YouTube viewers in Thanksgiving starts to peak about a week before Halloween, and lasts right through to the end of December. No big surprises there of course but a good strategy would be to publish 2 to 4 weeks ahead of November 24th to attracts those views and engagements.

Don’t forget that engaging tentpole content is typically evergreen in nature so if you’ve published any Thanksgiving clips on YouTube in the past, and you believe the videos are still relevant, 

update your titles and custom thumbnails to see if can leverage the interest in the content that always comes this way this time of year.

Finding Opportunities to Create Thanksgiving Content on YouTube

When viewers are searching for content on YouTube, it’s usually with a clear intent to get an answer to a particular query. Those searching will often use a baseline keyword to start and then build off that search to find the best videos.

A look at top most searched-for keywords for Thanksgiving shows that users are most interested in content around traditional Thanksgiving food, especially the old favorites, turkey & stuffing. Let’s take a deeper dive into what viewers are interested in around this category:

Top 10 Thanksgiving Food Keywords on YouTube

If you want an idea of the type of Thanksgiving food and recipe ideas that YouTube viewers love, take a look at this upload from BuzzFeed's Tasty, published in November 2016. To date, it has generated over 2.1M views, and is still generating over 150 views per hour at time of writing:

Top 5 Thanksgiving Decor Keywords on YouTube

Apart from the glorious food, Thanksgiving is also a time when homes and offices are decked out in a wonderful array of festive decor. Video content around table decorations, and Thanksgiving DIY decor is incredibly popular with viewers as they turn to YouTube for inspiration. Here are the top 5 keywords in this category:

This enthusiastic video about decorating your Thanksgiving home celebrity style was only uploaded by Amber Scholl on November 6th 2019, and has already generated an impressive 304K views:

It's nearly Thanksgiving time again in the US, and here are the most searched keywords on YouTube in 2019 around this national holiday.

Top 10 Thanksgiving Keywords on YouTube

ASMR. It is a huge topic on YouTube, generating Billions of views, with many creators wanting to get into this space. But how do you do that? We found a channel that's growing fast, and they have the perfect strategy.

ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response or auto sensory meridian response. It's an experience characterized by static-like tingling, and it is a cultural phenomenon on YouTube. So if you are a video creator who's been thinking about doing ASMR, stop thinking and start acting. Or whispering, in this case.

Now, I know what you might be saying at this point. I've seen ASMR, but the competition is so fierce. There are so many channels out there, how can I start a YouTube channel today and expect to have any success in this topic on YouTube? Well, the channel we are looking at today did just that.

 started an ASMR YouTube channel just a few months ago in the middle of 2019, and after 30 videos, they already have nearly 2,000 subscribers and tens of thousands of views. We're going to look at how they achieved this. Let's have a look at some of the fundamentals as to why this channel is already successful before looking at the topic of ASMR.

ASMR Success on YouTube: Standout Custom Thumbnails

First of all, take a look at the channel thumbnails. They all have rich, vibrant colors, and the saturation is definitely being upped in each of these videos so that the colors really shine through. These are the type of thumbnails that make you stop swiping or scrolling through a feed because they just catch your attention.

And there are some subtle consistencies throughout each of these videos. I'm not talking about the logo, which could probably do with a bit of work, but the red lipstick, and the action of placing food towards those lips in an eating motion. You see that through every single thumbnail. These are the type of thumbnails that you could mix in with lots of other ASMR channels, but you would always know that these thumbnails come from ASMR Mag UK.

ASMR Success on YouTube: Best Titles & Descriptions

Another consistency that you see throughout all of the videos is the titling strategy. Look at the first two or three words of every single video. And they always start the same ASMR Eating or ASMR Eating Edible. This video creator is telling YouTube every single time exactly what their video is about, very plainly and very clearly. And that helps YouTube serve this content to the right audience time and time again. And you can see that through the views.

This channel has 1,700 subscribers, but each video is hitting that mark or a little beyond because the content is so consistent. This creator has dialed in their audience perfectly with ASMR Eating or Eating Edibles.

Now, this SEO richness is reinforced throughout the metadata - on the channel and for the videos. In the description, the creator continues to talk about ASMR Edibles, but not only that, the creator talks about what's in it for the viewer. What's in it for you, not what's in it for the creator. And a lot of people make that mistake of being a little too self-indulgent about what they want and what they want to get out of a channel, rather than the value that they're giving to their audience. In the video descriptions, it's the same type of thing. Always reinforcing the keywords they want to use.

And although tags aren't that important these days, it's clear that this creator has done their research into the ASMR keyword topic, and includes all of those words wherever they can in some of the titles, descriptions, and tags, the channel description. It's all about the consistency of content.

What you'll also notice is there is also a very consistent video length. The creator seems to be aiming for a sweet spot between eight and twelve minutes. And generally speaking, the advice is to make longer videos and create more watch time. But obviously, you need to appreciate your audience. Through me doing this process myself I'm understanding that ASMR appeals to a more relaxed, slow-paced type of video. Hence why this video is going on longer than usual.

But for this creator, each video is almost exactly the same length. So again, the viewer knows exactly what they're getting into every time they see one of her videos and click into it.

So those are several foundations of a solid channel, which any video creator would be proud of. But for this channel, this is where the magic happens. When you start to read the video titles, and you look at the thumbnails, something doesn't add up. It makes you stop for a second and go, how on earth can you eat a Coca-Cola bottle, or spanners and tools, or a Starbucks coffee cup, an iPhone 11?

All these things the creator talks about are very nonedible somewhat impossible items to eat. So how on earth does this person achieve this? As a viewer, you have me intrigued and you've earned my click.

But the big question is, do these videos deliver the valued prize in the title and the thumbnail? Well, as you can see from the views, and the continued growth of the channel, the answer very much is yes, because this creator's unique superpower on YouTube is to create edible versions of these items. Of course, it goes without saying that people want to watch good content. But when you can provide not only good content but something completely unique, in a very popular topic, that is a winning combination.

ASMR: How to Combine With Other YouTube Trends

And then beyond all of what we've already talked about so far, the video creator is trend warping. How can you take the topic of ASMR and combine it with the most popular smartphone release of the year, the iPhone 11? Well, 

! That is a very unique skill, and it is being expertly executed. Now on this particular occasion, the video didn't go viral, but the creator is giving themselves the best opportunity of doing that, and potentially in the future.

They've tried to do this with the Pixel 4 and Frozen 2, as both of those big releases loom. It's only going to take one of these videos to and a huge audience is going to see this content, and the channel will grow very, very rapidly.

For a channel that is so young at this point, less than six months old, it is incredible to see the channel focus, the discipline, to create videos on one topic. And this is a niche within ASMR. Making items and then eating them, with the audience watching. And the creator is already very farsighted because they added two other ASMR channels. They want to create silos within this topic. They have a channel about eating general foods, and another one for sleep relaxation.

Now those channels are very small right now, but as I've already said, it just requires one of these channels to blow up, and then the views will circulate through all of the channels very rapidly, and very effectively. The key to this success so far is the focus, and if they continue with this channel focus, they will get big rewards very soon. The channel right now is growing at over 500 subscribers per month. A third of its size.

Don't be surprised if this time next year they have tens of thousands of subscribers. And you can do the same in any topic if you follow those fundamental strategies.

Is it possible to be successful with a brand new YouTube channel that uploads content around something so popular as ASMR? The answer is yes, and we show you why and how.

How to Start an ASMR Channel on YouTube [Real Life Case Study]

 to the way it treats kid’s content on the platform, and how those changes affect every single creator. Whether they publish child-focused content or not.

We wrote about the devastating impact the September 2019 

FTC decision would have on YouTube creators who publish kid's content

, and now in a new video (see below), the Head of Family Partnerships at YouTube confirmed how these changes will affect the upload process, your existing library of content, and “potentially” the way you monetize that content. The changes come into effect after 

YouTube settled with the FTC over the platform's COPPA Rule violations

. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a 1998 U.S. law created to protect the privacy of children under 13. Under the law, digital entities are restricted from collecting personal information from users aged under 13 without the express permission of their parents or guardians.

COPPA and YouTube: 11 Things Creators Need to Know Right Now

#1 How does the new COPPA law affect me as a YouTube Creator?

In order to help you comply with the law, YouTube now requires you to mark all of your videos as made for kids or not. The platform has rolled out a new audience setting that lets you tell it whether your videos are made for kids or not. YouTube is using machine learning systems to help them find content that is clearly made for kids. But, it advises creators NOT to rely on that method as it’s not perfect.

#2 As a creator, will I really face a fine of over $42K if I don't comply?

Potentially, yes. Under COPPA, the FTC is entitled to seek around $42,000 for 

. If your entire channel is comprised of content aimed at kids that's going to a huge monetary penalty.

#3 What if I don't label my content as aimed at kids?

If you don't set your own audience or if YouTube detects any sign error or abuse, it has warned that it may set your audience for you.

#4 How do I comply with COPPA law on YouTube?

 to comply with COPPA law; at the individual video level or at the channel level:

#5 How do I update my Audience settings at video level?

To confirm whether previous uploads are content that was made for children, go to your ‘Videos’ tab in YouTube Studio, then select the videos you need to edit, then go to ‘Audience.’ On this page, you will now be prompted to answer this question every time you upload a new video. Of course, if you've already set your audience at the channel level, then this setting will be automatically selected for you.

#6 How do I update my Audience settings at channel level?

YouTube states that if you can confirm your entire channel features uploaded video that are either made for kids, or not made for kids, you can confirm this by going into ‘Settings’ in the YouTube Studio, then clicking on the ‘Channel’ tab, then on ‘Advanced Settings’, then go to the Audience’ section and choose an option that best describes your channel’s focus. By doing this, you will update the settings to all older videos and your new uploads too.

__#7 What is considered as “Kid’s Content” anyway?: __

YouTube stated that when deciding whether your video content is aimed at kid’s or not, 

What is the subject matter of your video?

Whether children are your intended audience for the video

Whether the video includes child actors or models

Whether the video includes characters, celebrities or toys that appeal to children, including animated characters or cartoon figures.

Whether the language of the video is intended for children to understand

Whether the video includes activities that appeal to children

Whether the video includes songs, stories, or poems that appeal to children

__#8 How old is a kid under the new rules? __

__#9 If I set my content as made for kids, what does this mean for my channel? __

YouTube clearly states that if your video content is aimed towards children, the platform now HAS to start limiting the data it collects on these viewers. It will also remove features including:

Personalized ads (so some creators may see a decrease in revenue).

The ability for viewers to save videos, watch them later, or save to a playlist.

#10 What happens if YouTube thinks my video was made for kids but I disagree. Can I appeal?

You have the option to send feedback to YouTube on this.

__#11 What happens if creators mark their video's audience incorrectly? __

This will result in compliance issues under COPPA and may “result in consequences for your channel or videos.”

Stay tuned for more information on this topic from vidIQ.

Huge changes were made on YouTube today regarding kid's content that EVERY creator needs to act on. Find out how COPPA will affect your YouTube channel and content settings from now on.

11 Things You Need to Know About COPPA and Kid's Content on YouTube TODAY

So you've been diligently working away on your YouTube channel, trying to get to 4,000 hours of Watch Time to monetize your content, and checking YouTube to see how your progress is getting on. Then all of a sudden, you've lost a huge amount of those Watch Time hours. What on Earth just happened?

Now if you have been a regular visitor to vidIQ, you will know that I love to keep you up to date with all things monetization on YouTube. But this little news story came out of nowhere, and caught me completely by surprise.

What Just Happened to your Watch Time on YouTube?

If you are a video creator working towards 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of Watch Time, you'll be very familiar with the monetization eligibility screen which tells you exactly how close you are to meeting those requirements. That screen is very much part of the classic YouTube Creator Studio, and if you are a video creator, you should know by now that there is a new Creator Studio with lots of new analytics and features. For more information about that, 

But this screen is old and it needs updating, and YouTube has done just that. Creators working towards their monetization goal have a new much cleaner and simpler screen to reference. But what they also seem to have is new and much-reduced Watch Time hours than they saw before. I'm sorry if this has raised any alarm bells for you, but you might want to go check your monetization page right now.

The problem is unless you have a real eagle eye and have been checking these statistics every single day, you might now be sure whether or not your numbers have changed. Over the last few days, I've been seeing several 

 that creators have lost hours from their channels just as they thought they were going to hit the new monetization threshold. This is what YouTube are saying:

They fixed this technical issue in the new Studio sign-up page to clarify whether you're eligible to monetize. So that means one of two things, both of which are a little worrying to be honest. Either YouTube have been showing you the wrong numbers for eligibility for years, in which case, shame on you YouTube. Or YouTube have changed their policy a little bit and haven't clearly communicated that.

The reason I say that is because I asked YouTube over 12 months ago whether private and unlisted videos count towards your Watch Time hours for monetization. And at the time, they said private doesn't, but unlisted hours do. Now it could've been a miscommunication in the conversation I was having, but have YouTube quietly removed unlisted hours from videos?

If that second theory is complete baloney, then let's go back to the first one because it might explain why so many channels have been in review without ever being accepted because they don't technically have the required number of public hours even though they thought they did because that's what YouTube was showing to the creator. This all gets very confusing very quickly, doesn't it?

YouTube Watch Hours: What Creators Need to Know

Let's put these theories to one side however and concentrate on the cold hard facts as shown in this 

. They now talk about valid public Watch hours which is definitely a new term when it comes to monetization, and definitely suggests to me that YouTube wants to clarify this requirement. On the support page it now confirms that "not all watch hours count towards the YouTube Partner Program threshold," and states what does actually count as a valid public watch hour, which is:

Watch hours gained from videos you’ve set public

Watch hours gained through the following types of video 

The Trueview confirmation is interesting - it basically means you can't buy your way to monetization.

And all of this led to a question in my head that I wanted to pose YouTube. What if you have a video that was public? Let's say you do a livestream and then you want to set that livestream to unlisted. If the video is set to unlisted or private, do the views that you gained whilst it was public still count towards the Watch Time hours? And YouTube's answer was yes.

I don't know, I don't sound confident, do I? I'm not sure I'm confident on the answer they gave me either, but that's what they told me. I guess what you could do is set some videos to unlisted for a couple of days and see if that does affect your monetization number. But you don't really want to risk that so I'm not going to suggest you do it.

YouTube has clarified its policy around Watch Time and what it takes to get to the magic 4000 hours so you can monetize your content. If you've seen a recent drop in Watch Time hours on your channel, we know why.

Major 4000 Watch Hours Update From YouTube! [Monetization News]

YouTube is full of an incredible range of content, but is it a good platform to build a successful channel around teaching a skill? On this episode of 

, we talk to a creator that’s done just that.

Gabby Wallace runs a very successful YouTube channel called 

 which teaches American English to learners. She’s generated 

55M views for her videos, and with a growing subscriber base of 1.6M

, she’s tapping into a clear demand from viewers for this type of content.

I was fortunate enough to spend some time with Gabby at one of the recent video conferencing event held in Los Angeles, where we got to unpack her channel, understand her strategy. In this podcast you will learn:

How you can use your skills to teach others on YouTube

How to leverage the huge demand to learn new skills via YouTube

How to monetize your educational content on YouTube

Subscribe to TubeTalk: The Video Marketing Podcast!

TubeTalk has been informing video creators and marketers since 2014, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode! You can find vidIQ's TubeTalk at:

How Teachers Can Use Their Skills to Build a YouTube Channel: Full Transcript

Liron Segev:	So Gabby, for people who don't know, what do you do on your channel? How would you describe it in a tweet?

Gabby Wallace:	Go Natural English helps non-native English speakers to speak and communicate in English fluently and confidently.

Liron Segev:	You're literally the first person I think was able to do it in a tweet.

Gabby Wallace:	Because I say that tweetable all the time, try to explain what I do. So yeah, hopefully that's clear.

Liron Segev:	That's nice and concise, and you know exactly what you're doing. You already know that you're communicating your message clearly.

Gabby Wallace:	And I like to say it in terms of what do I help people do, not what I do because I love it. Because I do love it, but it's to help other people.

Liron Segev:	Perfect. And how often would you say that you currently upload on your channel? How many subscribers have you got? Just to kind of get a mental picture, because again, this is something very different that's not your typical vlogger or your typical something that you would expect on YouTube.

There are also millions of viewers turning to YouTube to learn new skills. If you're a teacher or an educator, find out how you can build a successful channel around teaching these skills on this week's TubeTalk.

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Top 10 Thanksgiving Keywords on YouTube

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How to Start an ASMR Channel on YouTube [Real Life Case Study]

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11 Things You Need to Know About COPPA and Kid's Content on YouTube TODAY

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Major 4000 Watch Hours Update From YouTube! [Monetization News]

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How Teachers Can Use Their Skills to Build a YouTube Channel: TubeTalk 188 wi...

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COPPA, FTC and Your YouTube Channel - Everything You Need To Know!

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No, YouTube Won’t Delete Your Channel Because You’re Not Making Them Money

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How to Make a YouTube Ad That's Good Enough to Watch: TubeTalk 189 with Rob T...

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How To Protect Your YouTube Channel Under COPPA [Beginner's Guide]

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