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 this week's episode of YouTube, I spoke with Devin Weber, CEO of Braille Skateboarding, about the techniques the company implemented to become a leader not only on YouTube, but in the hugely competitive skateboarding industry.

Devin shared with us how they found their audience, built a community, and how we can do the same with our own channels. In this episode of TubeTalk you will learn:

How to find a gap in the market and use YouTube to fill it

What NOT to do - including this one BIG mistake

Why being brand and family-friendly underpins long-term success

Why evergreen content is important for longevity

Click on the podcast link above and take a listen!

So, you're a YouTube creator who has listened to all the advice but your channel is still not attracting the views and subscribers you'd hoped it would. What are you doing wrong? Find out what it 

takes to be a successful channel on YouTube

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. Don't foprget to 

 on your favorite podcast application so you never miss an episode!

You can also find the complete list of all the 

We have all heard of niching down, but how about niching up? It's a strategy that Braille Skateboarding used to generate over 5 million YouTube subscribers!

How This Skateboarding Channel Kickflipped its Way to 5M YouTube Subscribers

Have you heard of Patreon, the platform that allows creators to monetize their work? If so, you may have realized that in some ways, it’s a YouTube competitor. The platform helps video creators monetize their talents - whether that’s comedy, cooking, fitness, or another skill - with paid, multi-level memberships.

Typically, YouTubers ask subscribers to extend their loyalty and become Patrons, a nickname for Patreon members. By doing that, creators get to charge viewers for exclusive content, which allows them to earn more money outside of AdSense revenue. Depending on the level of service, these creatives can charge Patrons a few bucks a month or even $100.

Despite this Patreon benefit, the scales are beginning to tip in YouTube’s favor. To compete with Patreon, YouTube developed a tiered service of its own called 

subscribers can stay on the platform and pay creators for exclusive video content

, just like Patrons. For a quick summary on the topic, watch this video from the YouTube Creators Academy about the benefits of Channel Memberships:

If you’re a YouTuber who’s interested in this new opportunity, keep reading! We’ll explain what Channel Memberships are, which channels can access them, and the type of video content viewers will pay for.

How Channels Qualify for YouTube Channel Memberships

As with most YouTube programs, creators must satisfy some basic requirements before offering Channel Memberships. At minimum, you must:

Obtain more than 30,00 subscribers (for regular channels)

Obtain more than 1,000 subscribers (for gaming channels)

Not have a ‘Made For Kids’ YouTube channel

Comply with YouTube’s terms and policies

YouTube is slowly rolling out Channel Memberships. Some creators can access the feature right now, but most likely, those channels are in the minority. To see if you’re eligible, check your YouTube 

What Content Can You Offer via YouTube Channel Memberships?

When you set up Channel Memberships, you can offer some wonderful, exclusive perks to your subscribers. These include custom badges and emojis, videos, live streams, community posts, live chats, and more.

As the creator, you get to decide how these perks are organized and who gets to access them. For example, you might decide level one members get loyalty badges that display when they leave a comment. Or, in addition to that, you might decide level two members get access to your live streams.

No matter what you end up doing, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to mix and match perks. YouTube is allowing creators to have up to five membership levels. Each level must contain 1-5 perks, and perks from lower levels are included in higher levels.

Need a good example to follow? Look no further than 

, a theory channel with 77.3K subscribers and robust membership offerings. The creator of this channel helps viewers become music maestros with three paid plans, as shown below:

In level one, members get loyalty badges, custom emojis, and early access to videos for $1.99 each month. Going a step higher, level two costs $9.99 per month but offers way more content than the first. Members get perks from level one plus exclusive live streams, a members’ group, and behind-the-scenes content. Lastly, level three includes the perks of levels one and two. In addition to that, members can choose video topics, receive feedback on their work, get 10% off on music courses, and receive a personal thank you message, all for $24.99 per month.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? When viewers are ready to opt-in, all they have to do is click the ‘Join’ button below any Music Matters video, as shown below:

How to Turn On YouTube Channel Memberships

When you’re ready to make more money with Channel Memberships, turning on the feature is easy. Here’s a quick, step-by-step guide on how to do that:

Navigate to the left menu and click ‘Monetization’.

Next, you’ll see the ‘Channel Monetization’ page. Go to the uppermost menu and click ‘Memberships’.

Find the ‘Set-Up Your Memberships Offer’ panel, click ‘Start’, and follow the instructions.

YouTube Channel Memberships Revenue: How Much Money Can You Make?

When it comes to revenue, creators have a great opportunity to make money with Channel Memberships. There are tons of pricing options, and YouTube is letting creators dictate the value of their content.

Right now, creators can set fee levels between $0.99 and $100 per month. After adjusting for currency rates, the same money range applies to other countries where Channel Memberships are available. To see all the pricing options, 

As you start earning, you might realize that all the money doesn’t go directly to you. That’s because while you get to keep 70% of the revenue, YouTube takes a 30% percent cut. Before you set your membership prices, do some calculations to estimate how much money you’d receive charging certain amounts.

The Most Important Thing to Know About Channel Memberships

Now that we’ve discussed the details of Channel Memberships, let’s look at the bigger picture.

First, there’s the issue of quality and consistency. Channel Memberships are an amazing feature, but they’re going to require some extra work on your part. If you’re only used to uploading public videos, engaging a private group of superfans may be new for you. You’ll have to juggle your normal content creation plus the exclusive perks you promised to channel members.

With that being said, consider this: Are you able to provide valuable content under these conditions? After all, YouTube’s free content is outstanding already. Your videos, live chats, badges, and more should entice viewers to open their wallets and pay you each month.

These are just a few things to consider before creating your membership levels. If you’re up for the challenge (which we know you’ll crush), it helps to flesh out your content plan and identify the value in every detail.

As YouTube shares Channel Memberships with more creators, you’ll see the competition thicken for this amazing feature. If you’re lucky enough to have the option right now, become an early adopter to start making more money on YouTube.

Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps today!

And if you’re really serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

. Learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

Want to take control of your YouTube income? Put yourself in the driver’s seat with Channel Memberships, YouTube’s new monetization feature.

Make More Money on YouTube With Channel Memberships

The COVID-19 pandemic just won’t quit. That means school systems in many areas of the world will not be welcoming children back in the next few weeks like they normally would.

It’s great for kids, who will literally and figuratively 'Zoom' through online classes so they can release their cooped up energy in the restricting confines of social distancing. Obviously, the situation isn’t so great for the parents, who typically prefer their young ones participate in engaging, productive classes while the adults quarantine in peace.

So, many parents are still resorting to temporary home schooling.

If you think that sounds like a great—but super intimidating—idea, you’re in luck. YouTube has enough educational content to easily fill entire curriculums for learners of all ages, for as long as COVID-19 continues.

Online Learning on YouTube: Science Class

Rather than locking down your squirming kids for a boring distance learning lecture on human anatomy, let them watch this '

When it’s over, they’ll probably watch more of the channel’s vomit-inducing videos without your prodding. Learning accomplished!

, which is still churning out fun videos during the quarantine, including 

 with an interesting experiment on mask-wearing and bacterial growth.

Online Learning on YouTube: History Class

Juice up dusty old history class with master storyteller Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. As the name warns, these jaunts through history can get intense. Exhibit A: an episode entitled “

” with graphic descriptions of historical schadenfreude told in the ironically soothing crunch of Carlin’s gravelly voice.

This course is for high school and college learners.

Hoards of YouTube videos attempt to make math interesting, but none do it better than Vihart. Armed with mesmerizing 

 and fueled by an obsessive hatred of the 

, Vihart makes arithmetic the most interesting class of the learn-at-home day. Don't believe me? Take a look at how the channel even makes logarithms cool:

Online Learning on YouTube: Philosophy Class

Fresh high school graduates forced into a quarantined gap year can get a head start on their university core curriculum classes with a channel like 

 Host Stephen West summarizes the ideas of philosophers like 

 and concepts such as logical positivism in engaging bite-sized chunks of about 30 minutes.

A word to the wise home learner: West advises his work is “beginner-friendly if listened to in order.”

Gym class at home could be as simple as releasing your kids into the back yard. Alternatively, you could provide a little structure with a channel called Cosmic Kids Yoga. Each episode is an adventure set in a different world (

) so little ones don’t get bored and start bouncing off the walls again.

 by offering free workouts to kids (and adults) while households were on full lockdown during the pandemic. Here's taster of a recent fun exercise routine from him:

Older learners can draw inspiration from 

When the time for art class arrives, check out the daily painting challenges posted by 

. The step-by-step tutorials even include links to Google Drive patterns and other resources in the descriptions to make sure you have everything you need. Each episode is backed by a soundtrack of relaxing piano music.

If you want to get a little more wild and messy, click over to 

 and learn some amazing acrylic pouring techniques.

Online Learning on YouTube: Social Studies Class

Leave the social studies to Mr. Beat, YouTube’s resident civics professor. The bulk of his content is about US social studies, but he dips into international topics from time to time as well.

He’s made kid-friendly videos on everything from impactful 

 of the South American nations of Uruguay and Paraguay.

Online Learning on YouTube: English Class

It would be irresponsible to build a YouTube curriculum without including Khan Academy, and the channel features an excellent 

 that’s perfect for an at-home English class.

You can also mix in some English literature with Ted-Ed’s beautifully narrated and animated series 

After creating your own YouTube curriculum for learning from home, you might just want to keep using it when schools reopen. There may even be other conventions to replace with online content.

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

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

Here’s how to create a full curriculum of courses around YouTube videos to get your kids through COVID-19 school shutdowns.

How YouTube Can Unlock Back to School Success

Online harassment is an unfortunate but well known problem in digital communities. According to a Pew Research 

, four in 10 Americans have personally experienced some form of unacceptable online behavior, from offensive name-calling to physical threats.

While no one can erase the chance of being harassed online, YouTube is doing everything it can to help creators thrive on its platform. In fact, last month, YouTube did three powerful things to promote online safety: It took a stand against harassment, resurfaced its community guidelines, and called attention to the safety tools available to creators.

Today, we’re following YouTube’s lead. To make sure you succeed as a creator, we’re sharing the platform’s online harassment solutions - specifically the safety tools. We’re going to cover what they are, how to use them, and where to find them when you truly need them.

But first, here's a quick video summarizing everything mentioned below:

The first thing you should know is that there are three ‘protection’ categories when it comes to harassment on YouTube. At the most basic levels, you can:

adjust the privacy settings of your videos

Of course, that’s the super-simplified overview. Dig a bit deeper, and you’ll find that these tools have multiple protection options. Whether you want a harmful video taken down or your comments disabled, you can fully customize your YouTube experience. Let’s take a look at some of the options below:

The most effective way to block harmful users is by tackling those nasty, hurtful comments in your spam folder. Here’s how:

1. Go to your channel’s homepage and click the profile icon in the top-right corner of the screen. From the drop-down menu, select ‘YouTube Studio’.

2. Go to the left-hand navigation bar and click ‘Comments’.

The next thing you’ll see is the ‘Channel Comments’ panel. In this section, select the ‘Likely Spam’ column to display this category of comments. These can often be your most inappropriate comments, so start here when you need to block certain users.

To do this, simply click the ban icon underneath the comment in question. This is known as the ‘hide user from channel’ tool, which prevents users from engaging with your content.

This tool doesn’t ban anyone from your channel officially, but it’s great for blocking unruly members of your audience. For example, if you post a video or live stream to YouTube, hidden users will still have the ability to watch your content. What they won’t be able to do, however, is leave comments on your videos.

If you need a brief overview of how all this works, watch our brief tutorial on how to block users from your channel:

Additionally, you can block someone who has already posted an offensive comment. To do that, keep the ‘Channel Comments’ panel open. Navigate to the ‘Published’ column and click the three circles underneath any comment. This will display the same ‘hide user from channel’ option as before.

Did you know you can automate the comment review process on YouTube? Instead of deleting harmful messages that are already public, you can set up filters to stop negative comments from publishing. Here’s how it works:

2. Go to the left-hand navigation bar and click ‘Settings’.

3. In the settings menu, click ‘Community.’

4. In the ‘Automated Filters’ column, scroll down to the ‘Blocked Words’ section.

In this box, type all the words you’d find offensive or don’t want to see in your comment section. These could be racial slurs, curse words, or lewd, sexual terms that shouldn’t be shared on a public forum. When you have all the words typed out, do a quick skim to make sure each one is separated by a comma, as YouTube requires.

And now, here’s the good news: When a user submits a comment using any of your blocked words, that comment will be held for review instead of publishing instantly.

To access these comments, return to the ‘Channel Comments’ panel mentioned above. Navigate to the ‘Held For Review’ column, and you’ll find a list of questionable comments that may be inappropriate for public display.

Overall, this word-filtering process is extremely helpful. Even still, it won’t stop every instance of harassment on your channel. When rude comments seem to fall through the cracks, take these extra steps to fight back:

These may seem like drastic measures, but don’t be afraid to use them. If someone is negatively impacting you as a creator, things will only worsen if you let it go unchecked.

How to Change Your Video’s Privacy Settings

When it comes to video visibility, there are levels of ‘reach’ that determine who gets to watch and share your content on YouTube. Luckily, you can tweak these settings to make your videos public, unlisted, or private.

, anyone can watch and share it across the web. On YouTube, the video will appear in search results and related video lists.

 videos won’t appear on your channel or in YouTube search results. These videos can only be viewed and shared by people who have a link to that content.

 videos can only be viewed by you (and anyone else you grant permission). Like unlisted videos, they won’t appear on your channel or in YouTube search results.

So, how do you restrict the access people have to your videos, especially when you’re being harassed online? Here’s the rundown:

2. Go to the left-hand navigation bar and click ‘Videos’.

3. Find the video you want to update, then head to the ‘Visibility’ column.

4. From the drop-down menu, select ‘Public’, ‘Unlisted’, or ‘Private’.

If you upload videos about controversial topics, this feature will be invaluable to you. Oftentimes, viewers’ opinions can straddle the line between criticism and outright harassment. When something like that happens, disabling the comment section might not be enough. If you’re being attacked across the web, consider changing a video’s privacy settings to restrict its reach.

How to Request a Video Removal on YouTube

If someone uploads a video of you and you didn't consent to it, the poster may have violated 

. This resource states that creators shouldn’t expose details about someone’s identity online, which can include a person’s:

If this happens to you, reach out to the uploader and ask them to take down the video. If for some reason they don’t agree to do it, you can request to have the video removed. YouTube has a 

 for users who feel like their safety is in jeopardy.

YouTube has an amazing ecosystem of safety tools, but there are additional resources to help you cope with online harassment and bullying. Follow these organizations for more information around online privacy and safety:

YouTube is a wonderful community of creators, but unfortunately, every user doesn’t mean well. Once you feel secure in your own YouTube journey (from a harassment standpoint), keep the platform positive by 

. That one, simple act goes a long way in fighting online harassment.

If you’ve been harassed online, it’s time to take matters into your own hands. These safety tools from YouTube can help.

How YouTube Can Help You Tackle Harassment and Bullying

No ads, original content, and videos that play in the background: For video fanatics, this is just a small taste of what 

 offers to subscribers. Formerly known as YouTube Red, this rebranded service combines a variety of features for the perfect YouTube binge.

Here’s a complete list of all the exciting Premium features:

Offline video viewing (download and watch later)

Did you know? YouTube Premium doesn't just offer benefits for viewers, it's also an extra way for creators to generate some extra revenue.

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