Did you know you can restrict certain ads so they don't run against your videos if you have monetized your channel? Many creators aren’t aware of this feature, but it comes in handy when you want to keep your channel controversy-free.

Right now, political campaigns and religious beliefs are two of the most heavily debated topics on the internet. There’s a 2020 presidential election approaching in the U.S., and year-round, religious debates float from one corner of the internet to the next. By blocking such ads, you can stop awkward, sometimes off-putting messages from reaching your viewers.

Want to restrict these ads right now? Here’s what you need to do.

How to Block Unwanted Ads on Your YouTube Videos

 account.
2. Once you’re in, select ‘Blocking Controls’ from the left menu.
3. In the expanded menu below ‘Blocking Controls’, click ‘YouTube Host’.
4. In the new page that opens, click the ‘Sensitive Categories’ block in the middle of the screen.
5. Next, you'll see a list of ad topics. Disable the ones you don’t want to see by switching the toggle button from ‘Allowed’ to ‘Blocked’.

Want a visual rundown of these instructions? Watch our video tutorial for helpful screenshots highlighting exactly where to click:

From drugs and supplements to get rich quick schemes, the list of ads you can block or allow is pretty long. Scroll to the bottom, and you’ll even see which ads may appear on YouTube videos that are already ad-restricted, such as alcohol and gambling.

If you want, you get really granular and block specific websites from advertising on your channel. To do that, return to the previous page and click ‘Advertiser URLs’ in the middle of the screen. From here, you can type in any URL and block ads that lead to those websites.

Lastly, you can restrict entire advertising categories on your channel. Simply return to the previous page, click ‘General Categories’, and explore all the topics you’d like to block. There are layers upon layers to choose from, so you have tons of customization options here. For example, you can click ‘Beauty & Personal Care’, and that brings up another list of topics to consider. You could end up disabling ads about deodorant, shaving cream, toothpaste, or whatever you’d like to eliminate, as shown below:

What to Consider Before Blocking YouTube Advertisers

As you explore your AdSense account, keep in mind that restricting or allowing certain ads is a balancing act. Of course, it makes sense to restrict advertisers when you don't like what they’re promoting. But at the same time, you don't want to under-monetize your videos to keep one advertiser away. Just remember to handle your selections with care!

In addition to that, here are some extra things to know:

- If you’ve joined a multichannel network (MCN), you may not be able to block ads via AdSense. Instead, contact the network directly.
- Be careful when blocking entire ad categories. You may accidentally restrict ads you’re perfectly happy with.
- If you decide to block an ad category, bookmark the AdSense website, and set a reminder to check those categories in a few months. You don’t want to lose tons of money by accident!

Placing ads on your videos may seem like an easy, innocent thing. However, we sometimes forget the consequences of this practice. We know ads can earn creators money, but in the long run, no one knows which ads will play. If you have strong ethical beliefs and don’t want to see these ads, do what you feel is right - even if that means turning them off.

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and get more views on YouTube then make sure to 

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

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

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel.

Joe Biden and Donald Trump with red blocked symbol and text "BLOCKED!"

Tired of seeing cringey political messages and other sensitive ads on your videos? Block them from your channel in five easy steps.

How to Block Unwanted Ads on Your YouTube Content

YouTube cards are in-video notifications that help promote your brand and other videos on your channel. If you haven’t used this feature before, here’s how it works for the viewer:

In the upper-right corner of the frame, a teaser box appears during a video.

The teaser box shows a message preview, which you can designate in the YouTube Studio.

When the teaser is clicked, the box expands to show a ‘card’. These can feature a video, playlist, channel, or outside link.

Finally, viewers click/tap on one of these elements to view the content.

As a YouTube creator, this process for showcasing your work is invaluable. Informational cards can boost views on older videos and help you cross-promote different parts of your brand, such as a website that houses all your content.

If that sounds good to you, let’s explore how this brand-boosting, cross-promotion magic happens. There are two ways to add YouTube cards to your videos, and we’re going to show you each method, step-by-step.

The first chance you’ll get to add cards to your videos is when you upload them. To kick off the process, go ahead and upload a video as you normally would.

As you move through the workflow, you’ll eventually reach an uppermost menu in the upload panel. From the options listed there, click ‘Video Elements’. A new page will open, and you’ll see an ‘Add Cards’ section near the bottom of the screen. This is where you can add new cards that send viewers to other videos and playlists you’ve created, as shown below:

Alternatively, you can add cards to videos you’ve already uploaded to YouTube. Here are the steps:

Click your profile image in the top-right corner and go to the YouTube Studio.

Click ‘Videos’ in the left navigation menu.

Hover your mouse over the video you want to add cards to and click the ‘Details’ button (pencil icon).

About halfway down this page and on the right side, you’ll see a ‘Cards’ section. Click the pencil icon to open the video-editing window.

You’ll know you’re in the right place when you see the screen below:

To add a card, go to the video timeline. Move the horizontal bar, which marks where you are in the video, to the point where you want to add the card. Next, you’ll go to the top left corner of the editing window to select the type of card you want to add: video, playlist, channel, or link. Finally, make your selection by clicking the blue plus sign next to either option.

Additionally, you can achieve the same thing by clicking the ‘i’ symbol in the bottom left corner of the editing window. This will display the same card options mentioned above, and you can add one anywhere in the video timeline.

If you’re adding a video or playlist card, YouTube will display a search window where you can find and select the content of your choice. Once you’ve made your selection, this is how the info card will look:

When a card pops up, the viewer will see it for about five seconds before it shrinks to a clickable “i” symbol.

Need to see the instructions in real-time? Watch our tutorial about how to add YouTube info cards to your videos:

If you want to change a card’s display text, you can do that in the same video-editing window. Find the box labeled ‘Teaser Text’ and type in the phrase you want viewers to see. It’s best to keep your message short and sweet in this section, as you only have 30 characters to play with. To see what teaser text looks like, check out the previous screenshot above this section.

Next, let’s add a custom message to your card. These are optional, but you can add one if you want another message to appear when viewers click your teaser. Here’s what looks custom messages look like in action:

To add one, simply navigate to the ‘Custom Message’ box and type in the text of your choice.

Keep in mind that for longer videos, the video-editing timeline compresses like a tightly-bound slinky toy. That makes it hard to see the blue markers indicating where your cards are positioned, and that can lead to tons of errors. To work around this, use the zoom feature to expand the timeline and get to the exact timestamp you need to edit.

Once you make that simple adjustment, everything gets easier. With fewer errors, you can quickly drag and drop cards into new positions on the timeline.

However, if you do make a mistake, there are undo and redo buttons on the left side of the timeline. If in the end, you decide an info card isn’t needed, delete it using the bin icon at the top of the edit window.

Important Things to Know About YouTube Cards

While YouTube allows you to add videos, playlists, channels, and outside links to your cards, there are some extra details to be aware of. Here are the most important things to know:

You can add any public playlist to a card, even if you didn’t create the playlist.

You have to add both teaser and custom text to YouTube channel cards.

To add website links to cards, you need to be part of the 

Only approved links can appear on cards. These include crowdfunding, merchandising, and brand-specific sites associated with your channel.

To take advantage of that last part, navigate to the advanced tab of your channel settings. In that window, you can add the website of your choice, a card title, a call to action message, and some teaser text. Additionally, you’ll need to upload a custom image.

Now that you know how to add cards, let’s address the elephant in the room: Watch Time. While cards are great for promotion, you may be wondering if they’re actually worth the effort. After all, when a viewer clicks a card, they’re abandoning the current video to view other content.

When it comes down to it, you’ll have to define the longterm goal of your videos. Ask yourself which videos need to have your audience’s full attention and which ones are beneficial for cross-promotion.

If you choose the cross-promotion route, here are some best practices for when and where to add cards in your videos:

Save info cards for the second half of the video, after you’ve already provided some value to the viewer.

Use info cards sparingly in longer content, as you can only add five per video.

In shorter videos, avoid stacking cards on top of each other. Create a 20- to 30-second gap between each one.

Use This vidIQ Tool to Automate Card Management

Want to automate the management of your video cards? If so, we've got just the tool for you.

When you install vidIQ, you’ll see a button with our logo next to each video. Click that, and from the options displayed, click the ‘Copy Cards’ feature. From here, you’ll be taken to a window where you can copy info cards from one video to the next.

If you're new to vidIQ, our creator-obsessed goal is to educate you on your YouTube journey. We help you 

 and create an outstanding career on YouTube, one you can be proud of. For competitor research tools, video analysis, and helpful channel audits, 

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

Man pointing at YouTube play button with text "Make This Now" on blue background

Info cards allow YouTube creators to add an extra layer of interactivity to their videos. Here's how to set them up.

How to Add Info Cards to Your YouTube Video

As you settle into your journey as a YouTube creator, a simple but curious question may cross your mind: Do any really popular YouTubers follow my channel?

There are plenty of reasons you might want to know something like this. Other than simply being curious, perhaps you want to know if your content is valuable to creators with a larger following. Or maybe, as a growing channel, you want to see if these accomplished YouTubers are direct competitors in your niche. Those are all valid reasons, and you should explore them if you want to 

Before we dive into a tutorial on how to do that via locating your most popular subscribers, watch this video for an overview on the topic:

How to View Your Largest Subscribers on YouTube

 From any YouTube desktop page, click your profile image at the top right-hand corner of the screen and go to the YouTube Studio.

 On this dashboard screen, you should find exactly what you're looking for via the Recent Subscribers panel. Click the ‘see all’ link to access the pop-up subscriber screen.

When the panel expands, you’ll see a pre-sorted list of the most subscribed-to channels who’ve subscribed to you in the last 90 days

However, those are not your most subscribed-to followers, so here’s the next step: Click the time period box and switch it from ‘90 days’ to ‘Lifetime’. And voila! These are your biggest YouTube fans - not necessarily your most important ones, but the ones with the most fans out of all your subscribers.

Notice how the list changes when you switch the period box from ‘90 days’ to ‘Lifetime’. We tried it for ourselves, and it made a big difference in the results. By making that simple distinction, our most popular subscriber of 3.53M (originally) was knocked to the bottom of the list, allowing a channel with 15.2M subscribers to appear at the top:

One thing to keep in mind is that you can subscribe back to any of these channels directly from this page. If you’d like to check out their content first, you can click a channel’s thumbnail icon to jump straight to their YouTube channel homepage. You can even increase the number of channels displayed per page and navigate through the full list, if you have the time.

Alternatively, if you want to see your oldest public subscriber, stay in this expanded panel. From the ‘Subscriber Count’ column, navigate to your immediate left and find the ‘Date Subscribed’ section. Click this column a few times to re-order the list from oldest to newest subscribers.

 to find our longest-serving vidIQ subscriber. We took the time to say thank you to that particular channel (Hi, 

!) for being such an early supporter, way back in 2013.

Improve Your YouTube Channel with Your Largest Subscribers List

Once you have a list of your most subscribed-to followers, you may be wondering what to do with the information. One thing you want to avoid is spamming those channels with messages requesting collaborations. There are better ways to grow your channel, and honestly, any kind of mass outreach might seem a bit spammy. Plus, huge channels get hundreds of messages and yours could easily go unnoticed.

But there is one silver lining in all this. If larger channels are subscribing to your channel, that means you’re making valuable, entertaining content - which should be any creator’s goal!

Knowing this, it can be really useful to study the larger YouTubers who follow you. Discovering what kind of videos they post and what they’re talking about on their channel can give you more insight into why they followed you.

The best way to keep tabs on these creators is with the 

. When you add these channels to your competitors list, you’ll see their uploads all in once place. Then in the future, if your content aligns with anything those channels are posting, you can join the conversation.

In that case, you have a couple options: You could do a reaction video to their content or post your own video adding your thoughts on the topic. And if you time it just right, you may get a decent amount of views, subscribers, or even a nod from the larger channel.

Possible Upgrades to the YouTube Subscriber Panel

Okay, back to our chat about YouTube subscribers. When I talk about these tools, I always like to suggest some ways YouTube could make them bigger and better. Here are a couple of upgrades I'd to see when it comes to finding your most subscribed-to followers:

How many followers my most-subscribed fans and I have in common

The total number of subscribers from all the channels subscribed to me

The first upgrade could reveal some audience cross-over statistics, which is always helpful. Meanwhile, the second one satisfies my inner nerd. I know it would probably be a huge, whopping that doesn't mean much for creators, but I just love that type of data.

Use vidIQ’s Subscriber Insight Tool For More Data

Until YouTube makes the improvements listed above, take our subscriber insight tool for a spin. This tool takes a sample size of your subscribers and shows you who they are subscribing to, what videos they are engaging with, and when they are most active on YouTube. The ultimate goal of all of this information is to help you, the video creator, get a better understanding of your target audience. Who are they? What do they watch? And when do they watch it on YouTube?

To reach this tool, click the ‘IQ’ button on your web browser extension and go to ‘Subscriber Insights’. Once you do that, you'll have a wealth of knowledge and resources at your fingertips for analyzing your audience.

Now that you know who your largest subscribers are, it’s time to do two important things. The first is determining whether these channels are competitors, and the second is giving yourself a pat on the back! Because let's be honest. Someone with a larger audience subscribing to your channel? That has to feel good.

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

 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 

YouTube channel subscriber counts highlighted with green arrows and vidIQ logo.

Which subscribers on your YouTube channel have the most subscribers themselves? We’ll show you how to find out quickly.

How to Find the Most Popular Subscribers to YOUR YouTube Channel

Of course, YouTube has some auto-captioning capabilities, but that feature can be very inaccurate, and can possibly hurt your video content much more than it helps. In this week’s episode of TubeTalk, I chat with Ryan P. Sweeney, Head of Partnerships at 

 about how adding your own captions and subtitles can help you as a creator. 

Click on the podcast links above to listen

What are captions and subtitles and why they matter

What’s the difference between human and machine-automated captions

Do captions really help your video’s performance

Listen to this episode which is about the 

5 Critical Mistakes Revealed From Hundreds of YouTube Channel Audits

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 

Man in plaid shirt sitting on white couch with TubeTalk logo on blue background.

Do closed captions really help your videos rank higher on YouTube? And if so, how does that even work? Find out in this episode of TubeTalk.

Closed Captions: Do They Really Help Your Videos Rank on YouTube?

Getting support from YouTube has come a long way since the early days of scouring help forums and sending unanswered emails. These days, creators and viewers have faster, smarter, and more direct ways to get the help they need. Whether it’s recovering a hacked account, solving a 

 issue, or general troubleshooting, creators have many more options than they had even 

But with so many options available, knowing the best path to resolution can be confusing.

That’s why we’re going to break down every legitimate way you can contact YouTube Support. Whether you're a new creator or a seasoned YouTube Partner, you'll find clear steps to get fast assistance while dodging endless help center loops.

This may sound crazy, but your first stop should be the

. While it might be a bit overwhelming, the Help Center offers an array of articles covering common issues related to account management, video uploads, monetization, and more.


While it doesn’t offer the individualized support a creator may need, it does provide support documentation for almost any issue a YouTuber can think of. That said, you may need to do some digging. Even with the search function, it can sometimes be tricky to find exactly what you need.

YouTube provides live chat and email support, however, there’s a catch: Only certain creators are eligible to take advantage of it. Eligibility typically requires:

A minimum of 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months

So, while it’s not an option for every creator, the Live Chat and Email Support do provide a more direct way for established YouTubers to iron out their issues. 

You can access support on either desktop or mobile.

To access Live Chat and Email Support on desktop:

Click on your profile picture and select "Help."

Describe your issue and follow the prompts to initiate a chat or send an email.

To access Live Chat and Email Support on mobile:

Open the YouTube app and tap your profile picture.

Tap on "Contact Us" and follow the instructions.

While this is a more direct way to access YouTube support, response times can vary, which means you may need a different option for more pressing issues. Which brings us to…

Without a shadow of a doubt, whether you are a video viewer or a video creator, the best way to get the quickest response from YouTube is to reach out to 

As you can see, they do reply to questions on a very regular basis and are always keen to investigate unusual things that might be happening on the platform. They support nine languages through this feed and seem to operate 24 hours a day.

But be prepared: They are asked a lot of questions. Sometimes they're asked the same question over and over again. So, don't be surprised if you're directed to the help pages from YouTube or automated responses. Also, if you're trying to get specific help with your channel, especially monetization, again, don't be surprised if they give you some standard responses about the team reviewing your channel.

Think of the Team YouTube Twitter account as the catch-all point of contact for the platform. There are already many policies and processes in place that YouTube will want you to go through before they start to give you any personalized assistance.

If Team YouTube can't help, then the official 

 may be able to. Again, this is another resource where you may find answers to your questions, which are answered not only by YouTube, but by YouTube users just like you and me. There are several categories to browse through or you can just flick through the latest post as if it were a forum.

The thing to bear in mind here is that essentially anyone can ask a question, which also means anyone can answer them too. While there are dedicated product experts, you might want to double check the answers that are provided. You can also search through the Community database to see if your question has already been asked and answered or you can ask your own question via the link at the bottom of the screen.

While it may not be a solution for many creator problems, YouTube has recently introduced an AI chatbot to assist creators in recovering hacked accounts.

Accessible through the YouTube Help Center, this tool is designed to guide users through the process of securing their accounts and reversing unauthorized changes.

The AI Chatbot launched in late 2024 and is only accessible in English to a certain segment of YouTube creators, however, there are plans to expand it moving forward.

When in doubt, ask the people! If you’re having a specific issue, it’s likely that some other creators have had that problem as well. This is where asking other users outside of the Help Community can come in handy.

, offer peer-to-peer support (while also serving as a great resource for learning more about the platform). Even though it’s not an official support channel, these communities can provide insights and shared experiences from fellow creators. And if they can’t solve your problem, they can probably at least point you in the right direction.

While it would be awesome for YouTube to engage in one-on-one conversation with every video creator on the platform, that's simply not possible. So live chat is restricted to channels with over 25,000 subscribers and 100,000 hours of Watch Time in the last 12 months.

Yeah, if you thought monetization requirements were tough, this is a whole other level. With all that being said, if you do have access, you can simply fill out a form, click start chat, and be placed in a queue to await the next available customer service representative.

If you are not quite at that level yet, you can login to YouTube Studio, click on “Help” in the upper right hand and select “Contact Us” which will open a chatbot that will guide you to helpful resources.

On your YouTube Channel, access the Creator Studio then click on the monetization section. On this screen, click on the help and feedback button at the bottom left and then click on send feedback. This will display a pop up where you can take a screenshot and send YouTube a message.

We’ve already made a dedicated video on how this can 

speed up your YouTube monetization application

, and had many successful testimonials on this strategy working. Of course the send feedback tool isn't just for asking about monetization. You can use it to report any issue on YouTube, and the advantage with this contact method is that it's available on almost all YouTube pages. So whatever it is you need to report, use this function.

If you have a general interest in what YouTube is up to, then the 

 is one you should definitely subscribe to. It's actually run by the YouTube team, and they upload regular updates about new features, bugs, and questions the YouTube community has about the platform.

They will also reply to viewer comments within videos, but you may not want to use this as a way to contact YouTube about a specific issue you have. It's more about general conversation on YouTube as a whole.


Now, if you haven't quite made it into the 21st century yet, there are some old fashioned ways you can contact YouTube.

YouTube does have a physical headquarters in San Bruno, California, USA, although there are more YouTube offices dotted throughout the world. You could try and contact YouTube through snail mail, if you’d like.

, where they include their address and fax number, along with lots of other links to various departments where you can directly speak to YouTube.

YouTube play button with text "How to contact" and vidIQ logo on blue background

Contacting YouTube can be tricky, but it is possible. We bring you the most up-to-date guide on reaching out to YouTube Support.

How to Contact YouTube Support - The ULTIMATE Guide

When you launch your YouTube channel, remember that you are entitled to absolutely nothing, especially subscribers. You need to work hard, and hustle day and night to earn every single view and every single subscriber. On that note, let us give you 10 expert tips that should get you thinking about how to build your super-engaged subscriber fanbase:

#1 Make Building a Relationship With Your Audience a Priority

Subscribers are earned by building up a relationship with your audience, and that can be done in many different ways. Of course, the most obvious one would appear to be on a personal level. You're standing in front of a camera, meaning the audience can connect with you directly, and vloggers certainly will build up subscribers as they tell more of their story.

But it can also be on an educational level. I know of many videos where I've watched something, and I've had that light bulb moment in the video, and that makes me click subscribe immediately. That sort of subscription happens a lot with educational and How To channels. The problem with that is that the user usually just wants a specific answer to a specific question that you gave them, and then, they're not interested in anymore of your content. But that's the nature of YouTube - subscribers can have different values to different people.

I think ultimately, if you can establish a relationship with your audience and build up a certain level of trust, those are going to be your most valuable subscribers who will invest not only in the video that they have just watched, but in future content on your channel. I think all of the tips that you're gonna see in this post relate back to this one.

#2 Double Down on the Video Content That’s Working For You

Now, there is one tried and tested, guaranteed to work shortcut to getting more subscribers, and that's sub for sub. 

, but there is a hack to getting more subscribers faster, and that's to analyze the data on your own channel to see what videos convert videos into subscribers. This can be done through one of the VidIQ tools. It's called the Channel Audit, and when you open it up, there is a section dedicated to videos getting the most subscribers for your channel. It stands to reason if those videos are turning viewers into subscribers, you should do more content on those themes. The Channel Audit, by the way, is part of our huge VidIQ arsenal that will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your channel as you've just seen, and take optimal steps to help grow your channel. 

#3 Be Consistent with Your Upload Schedule - Give Viewers a REASON to Subscribe

Being consistent comes in many different shapes and sizes, but one of the most important ones is consistency of schedule. Make sure you keep posting so people come back to your content, but most importantly, keep consistent in your choice of topic. Let's say it takes three videos to convert a viewer into a subscriber:

The first video creates awareness of who you are and what potentially you do on YouTube.

The second video creates that consistency. Now, they know what you do and that they like the content.

The third video, build more momentum of what we talked about in tip one, trust, and that's where the subscription may come.

If you're jumping from topic to topic to topic, you may never get past the awareness stage of your content. I know this may sound counter productive at this point, but you really need to focus down on one specific topic. The thing that you're most passionate about and that you can tell the best stories about.

#4 Treat Viewers as Guests - Make it Easy for Them to Understand What Your Channel is All About

Consider viewers as your guests, and welcome them warmly into your home. Give them a guided tour so they know where everything is, and those guests will soon become friends. What do I mean by that metaphor? Sort out your channel page! This will include creating a channel banner that visually tells your audience what you do in five seconds, and uploading a channel trailer video that best represents the kind of content that you do.

Also, always create Playlists that help inform the visitor on the topics that you cover and show recent uploads so people know you are still producing content.

#5 Ask Viewers to Subscribe - They Probably Will

Sometimes, you've just got to tell your viewers what to do because they won't do it themselves. There's nothing wrong with occasionally asking for a little bit of help from your audience, and if you do it too much, your audience will let you know. If you've never tried it before, definitely give it a go, and try and make it something fun.

#6 Get Inventive with Calls to Actions (CTAs)

Generally speaking, when you ask your audience to do something, it's what's known as a call to action. But you can be more subtle. You could have graphics appear on screen that you don't even reference. Simply search for 'subscribe animation green screen', and you'll find plenty of free options on the Internet

#7 Get Savvy with Your Branding Watermark

Want to know about something that could increase subscriber growth by 500% - your branding watermark. Many video creators simply use their channel logo. But we recommend using a subscribe button like this because when you mouse over this button on a desktop, you can subscribe to the channel. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

When we switched to this subscriber button, our subscribe rates from that source increased by over 500%! As a free gift to you, 

. For more information about how to implement this on your own YouTube channel, check out this video: '

#8 Reach Out Via Community Tab & YouTube Stories

Not every video creator can produce videos every single day, but you should still produce content every single day. How? well, if you have more than 1,000 subscribers, you can post status updates, ask questions, post voting polls, and promote videos through the 

. If you only have time to post one video a week, you always have five minutes to post an update on your Community tab.

 if you have access to it. Create short vertical form video clips that you can quickly record to keep your audience up to date with what you're up to. You can even do video responses to questions through this feature, which is pretty awesome for building relationships and establishing trust with your audience.

Now, I know what you're thinking at this point. The Community tab and YouTube Stories are all very well and good for my subscribers, but what difference does that make to non-subscribers? Well, here's the weird thing. Those community posts and YouTube Stories can hit people who have not subscribed to your content but have watched your content or it's related content to what that viewer is interested in. It's true! We post regularly in our Community tab, and we often get comments from users who aren't subscribed to our channel. There's nothing we can do about it, but we do appreciate YouTube reaching out to a new audience on our behalf :-)

#10 Reference Your Subscribers in Your Content

Maybe you don't have access to the Community tab, or to YouTube Stories yet. Fair enough, you still have access to YouTube comments. You 

 be responding to every single comment you can, because this all links back to tip number one, building relationships and building trust with your audience. It's always a great feeling for the commenter to know that the video creator is paying attention to what they say and responding to their comments. And we try and do that on VidIQ with every single video that we do. And there's other ways to acknowledge your community, as well, such as referencing them directly in videos. If you can make your audience feel special, there's a much higher chance of them investing in you.

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level then make sure to download vidIQ. It will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps 

Man thinking with YouTube subscribe button and cursor icon on blue background.

Want more YouTube subscribers in 2019? We have 10 expert tips and tricks to build up your YouTube subscriber base starting right now!

10 Killer Tips to Get More Subscribers on YouTube

When you are logged into YouTube, you should see your channel logo in the top right-hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that, you have the option to go to YouTube Studio. This is currently in beta, but will become a standard as 2019 progresses. This is your new dashboard or analytics homepage, and from here you want to click on the Settings section down the left-hand side.

YouTube has a little feature that’s guaranteed to get you more subscribers. We show you how to turn it on, and what impact it will have on your channel.

YouTube Tips & Tricks

How to Block Unwanted Ads on Your YouTube Content

How to Add Info Cards to Your YouTube Video

How to Find the Most Popular Subscribers to YOUR YouTube Channel

Closed Captions: Do They Really Help Your Videos Rank on YouTube?

How to Contact YouTube Support - The ULTIMATE Guide

10 Killer Tips to Get More Subscribers on YouTube

How to Get More YouTube Subscribers In ONE MINUTE!

Top 10 Tips to Get Your First 1000 YouTube Subscribers NOW

How to Find Your Very FIRST YouTube Subscriber!

How To Translate Your YouTube Video in to ANY Language

The Secret to YouTube Success: Reply to More Comments!

How to Delete a YouTube Video [Complete Guide]