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

YouTube Shorts content is set to explode! 

All the latest tips, tricks, and rock-solid advice you need for this new feature.

YouTube Shorts

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

Six months ago, we told creators to experiment with YouTube Shorts. We advised them to film vertical videos under 60 seconds (as the requirements suggest), post them to YouTube, and create a featured section on their channel to house the content.

Why did we suggest this? In just a few weeks, we saw channels getting thousands of views from Shorts. They mostly came from the YouTube Shorts shelf, a display area where different Shorts are featured. By the time a creator’s video left the shelf, it would have hundreds, thousands, or millions of views.

That’s how powerful Shorts are. With them, you can gain more subscribers in two weeks than you’ve had all year. Without them, you’ll miss a valuable opportunity to get discovered on the platform.

How to Create a YouTube Short: The Complete Beginner's Guide

If you want to know exactly why that is, watch our latest video about Shorts and the competition that’s quickly surrounding them.

The best time to post a Short was months ago. But if you hurry, you can still reap the benefits of creating content that gets played millions of times.

Need a push to get started? Here are three undeniable reasons to experiment with Shorts.

Reason 1: Creators Are Still Getting More Views and Subscribers From YouTube Shorts

The first reason is a little obvious but worth repeating. Extra views from Shorts have helped many channels grow, and they’ve got the numbers to prove it.

. In September 2020, he had 40k total channel views. After posting original, 3D-animated Shorts, he now has more than 3M subscribers and almost 2B views.

How This YouTube Creator Got 1.5 Billion Views In Just 80 Days

Jake isn’t the only creator to reap the benefits of Shorts. There’s also MrBeast, a popular creator who grew his 

 to 4.79M subscribers. Professional YouTube channels such as 

 have Shorts with more than 200k views each. Members of the vidIQ community have seen explosive growth, and some TikTok creators have successfully transitioned to Shorts.

You could be next if you act now. Shorts are viewed 3.5B times each day, so there are plenty of people willing to watch your videos.

Reason 2: Pretty Soon, You’ll Have to Compete With Creators From the U.S.

Did you hear the news? Beginning in March, U.S. creators will get a beta version of the in-app Shorts camera.

The announcement came from Neal Mohan, chief product officer at YouTube. On Feb. 17, he shared the news in a 

“Currently, Shorts is available in beta in India. Since the beginning of December, the number of Indian channels using Shorts creation tools has more than tripled... In the coming weeks, we'll begin expanding the beta to the U.S., unlocking our tools to even more creators so they can get started with Shorts.”

To be clear, anyone can post a Short today. As long as a video is vertical and under 60 seconds, YouTube will recognize it as a Short. What Mohan is mentioning above refers to a TikTok-style camera that’s only available in India. With it, creators can record, edit, and post Shorts directly inside the app, adding music and other special effects to their content.

When the U.S. market gets the Shorts camera, things are going to get very competitive. More creators will have tools for creating better Shorts. Plus, thousands of people who never posted a Short will do so just because there’s a new feature encouraging it.

In the coming weeks, it’s going to be harder to do what creators like Jake, MrBeast, and LegalEagle have done. Rather than wait, it's better to experiment with Shorts right now.

Reason 3: If YouTube Monetizes Shorts, You Can Make More Money

Right now, there’s no way to monetize Shorts. The Shorts display area doesn't support ads, and advertisers may not want to appear on a seconds-long video.

But if you think about YouTube’s history, things are always changing at the company

Just because creators aren’t making money from

Shorts today, that doesn’t mean they won’t in the next five or 10 years.

It's likely YouTube isn’t doing this for free. With content as popular as Shorts, the platform could be searching for ways to monetize it as we type.

Before that happens, put yourself in a position to earn Shorts revenue. If you start posting them now, you can increase your chance of monetizing that content.

Use These Tools to Start Leveraging YouTube Shorts

Even if you decide to post a few Shorts, you’ll need a way to measure their impact on your channel. When you 

, you’ll find two powerful tools within the Chrome extension – one for tracking Shorts views and another for researching popular Shorts on YouTube.

This dashboard is on the top right corner of all YouTube pages. Hover your mouse over the menu to discover how many Shorts views your channel earned in the last 48 hours. For easy access, click the box beside this metric to add it to your dashboard.

This tool lets you research the most-viewed videos on YouTube for any keyword. To access it, go to the YouTube Studio and click 

Type #Shorts into the search bar, then filter the results to show channels with 1,000 or less subscribers. This will show you all of the small channels on YouTube getting tons of views with Shorts. You can use this as motivation to start posting your Shorts or an idea generator for future Shorts.

Shorts are doing well on YouTube. They’re going to be around for a long time, so don’t wait to post your first vertical, less-than-a-minute video. Do it now to reap the benefits before creators in both India and the U.S. can do the same.

Is it too late to capitalize on the viral nature of YouTube Shorts? No, not yet. But in the coming weeks, it may be harder to stand out with short video content.

3 Reasons to Upload YouTube Shorts Before the Competition Gets Tough

How to get, and how to use, royalty free music is a huge topic (which we'll be covering more of in the future) but for this post, we'll focus on the resource that YouTube itself offers its own creators. What's so great about that? Well:

Royalty free (AKA copyright free) music means that no other person or legal entity owns the rights to that musical composition, and therefore and no royalties are due or must be paid.

So, YouTube creators can use it for their content without fear of attracting a copyright strike or a takedown request. Neither of which you want. So, let's run through our quick guide to YouTube's royalty-free Audio Library to help you add some sparkle to your content.

How to Access Royalty Free Music from YouTube's Audio Library

From any YouTube desktop screen, click your profile image in the top right-hand corner and click on YouTube Studio.

On the left-hand menu, you’ll find a link to an Audio Library you can access

If you want to hear a sample of a track, just click the play button so you can listen and decide if it’s right for you. When you find the right track for you, just click on the download button:

If you want to go hunting for a specific music track, you have four columns that are sortable:

'Genre' and 'Mood' aren't sortable, but they do act as automatic filters. For example, if you mouse over 'Mood' and click the filter button, the Audio Library will now only show you the type of music you want to select from.

The terms and conditions of using music directly from this source are pretty straightforward. As a creator, you are allowed to use any of these tracks and still monetize your videos without fear of a copyright claim. Just make sure you don't distribute the music yourself, or use it in any illegal content.

When it comes to finding and using 100% royalty free music, we always recommend using YouTube's own Audio Library. That way, any music you use from the library is 100% guaranteed to work on your YouTube videos 

Watch our handy guide to royalty free music from YouTube here:

Of course, there are many free, royalty-free services that offer you music off of the YouTube platform. But, just as a word of warning, you use those services at your own risk. 

 offer their music royalty-free, but then change their mind in the future, and there's nothing stopping them from then copyright claiming your content. 

Yes, that is a really sneaky thing to do, and it's not common, but when you get music from outside of the YouTube Audio Library, you're just opening yourself up to that potential danger. 

By the way, did you notice the link to Audio Classic Library remains active (at least for now)?

If you use any audio from this library it will come with an extra setting - Attribution. 

If you use some of the music in this section, you must include particular attribution text in your video description. The new Studio Audio Library does have this filter setting, but I haven't seen any music yet that requires attribution. 

Also, sound effects haven't yet been implemented in the new studio. So you will still have to jump to the Classic Studio section to get to them.

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 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.

YouTube offers creators free access to royalty free music for their own video content - without the risk of attracting any copyright claims. Find out how.

How to Get Royalty Free Music For Your YouTube Videos

At vidIQ, we get asked the same question from new creators all the time: 

How can I get more views and grow my channel? YouTube is so competitive!

You probably weren’t expecting this answer, but we’ve got to say it: 

YouTube Shorts may be the key to getting discovered on the platform.

If you’re unfamiliar with the new feature, it’s basically YouTube’s way of entering the short video universe. The platform has created an in-app Shorts camera, where creators can record and upload short, vertical videos.

You can access this feature right now if you live in India, as that’s where YouTube is testing the Shorts camera. For everyone else, posting a general YouTube Short requires three simple steps:

Record a vertical video under 60 seconds.

Add the hashtag #Shorts to your video’s description or title.

Plenty of YouTubers have already published these micro-videos, and we’ve noticed a 

. A common scenario is witnessing a previously stagnant video skyrocket to hundreds of views - a strong sign that YouTube is featuring it on the new 

. If you want to see what such a feat looks like, watch our latest video about YouTube Shorts:

Now that you have some background knowledge, it’s time to dig deeper. More views are what YouTube dreams are made of, so here’s how to get them with YouTube Shorts.

Small Channels Are Getting More Views With YouTube Shorts

As a creator, it’s important to boldly test new strategies on your channel. After all, you never know what positive discoveries you could make - whether that’s a gateway to more views, subscribers, or both.

 is a good example of this. A few weeks ago, this was just another small gaming channel struggling to gain traction with long-form videos. That partially ended when they decided to test YouTube's short video format and earned thousands of views in the process. The screenshot below shows a bunch of successful videos highlighted in red, plus the low-performing ones this channel was previously uploading.

Of course, this isn’t all good news for 

. Unfortunately, they tried posting another short video that didn't perform as well as the others. After that, the channel returned to posting long-form content with equally disappointing results, but hey - that comes with the territory of testing new features.

 was definitely getting more views from YouTube Shorts, if only for a brief moment.

 had a similar experience. This channel reached out to us on Twitter and said that after creating a new YouTube channel and uploading a short video, hundreds of views rolled in, as shown below.

If you've ever started a YouTube channel from scratch, you know how difficult it is to get a mere 100 views on your first video. We checked GamingDestiny’s main channel, and again, there was more evidence of short, vertical videos outperforming other content.

We received another success story from Adrienne Smith, who shared her YouTube Shorts experience in our Facebook group. Apparently, one of her Shorts with little to no traction suddenly gained more views on YouTube. You can read her testimonial below:

This is great news, but seriously: How often does that happen to anyone? Is it just another coincidence?

YouTube Shorts and YouTube Analytics: Is There a Connection?

We’re not prepared to say YouTube Shorts is the next big thing. The examples above only represent a small handful of channels, and they’re only getting hundreds of views - not thousands.

However, these channels have a few things in common:

They earned more views than expected from posting YouTube Shorts.

The surge in views all came from the same traffic source on YouTube: Direct or Unknown.

When you see such a high volume of direct or unknown views as a YouTube traffic source, it can be slightly alarming. But when three channels experience the same surge after testing YouTube Shorts, that's a pattern worth exploring.

We Still Have Questions About YouTube Shorts

YouTube hasn’t shared much information when it comes to Shorts. This lack of access can be frustrating for creators, and because of that, we’ve got lots of questions, such as:

How do you know when your content has appeared on YouTube as a Short?

If you don’t use the #Shorts hashtag in descriptions and titles, can a video still be treated as a Short? It's working for older videos, but a confirmation would be nice.

What aspect ratio constitutes a vertical video?

What happens if a video is exactly 60 seconds long? YouTube adds one second to all timestamps, so this would be nice to know.

Will YouTube send notifications to subscribers when Short videos are uploaded?

Do impressions, click-through rates, and Watch Time have any bearing on a YouTube Short?

Does uploading a Short on desktop produce the same results as uploading on a mobile phone?

If you’re a smaller creator, we have enough proof to finally say what many creators want to hear: Yes, you can get more views posting YouTube Shorts. But as for the future of short videos, such as monetization, Watch Time, and other factors, we’ll have to wait and see if YouTube announces any benefits.

 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 

Are you a smaller YouTuber looking for your first big break? If so, give YouTube Shorts a try. Some creators are getting thousands, of views from testing the feature.

How To Get More Views as a Small YouTube Channel 

This year’s Halloween is going to look much different than 2019’s door-to-door conquest for candy. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has 

discouraged traditional trick-or-treating

 during COVID-19, so many are turning online for entertainment and inspiration.

That means we’re going to experience the strangest, most digitally-reconfigured Halloween of all time. In lieu of trick-or-treating through spooky neighborhoods, brands like Mars-Wrigley have created virtual experiences to help families celebrate from home. 

, which gamifies the joy of trick-or-treating. The goal of the game is to get people to give you digital credits for buying real candy, and players achieve that by decorating an attractive virtual door. Of course, that’s not the only example of this year’s virtual Halloween. Costume contests and Halloween parties are appearing across the web, too.

If you’re an up-and-coming YouTuber, your ‘content senses’ should be tingling 

. With all these new ways to celebrate Halloween, plus the fanfare of older traditions, you could get tons of views from timely content.

Need some ideas to get started? Read this guide for the top keywords and content ideas around Halloween 2020.

Using the right keywords in your titles and descriptions is crucial for getting more views on YouTube. According to the 

, a top Halloween keyword with only moderate competition is ‘Halloween 2020’. This term has a monthly search volume of 275,899 on YouTube. Here are nine other terms to keep in mind as you create content:

Animal Crossing and Halloween 2020 Are a Thing 

Did you catch the last keyword in our list above? ‘

’ is a trending keyword right now, and that’s mostly due to a fall update of the popular game. It’s also proof that Halloween and gaming are merging paths this year to become one virtual experience.

If you paste ‘Animal Crossing Halloween update’ into YouTube’s search bar, you’ll find recent videos with hundreds of thousands of views. Some of them explain everything you need to know about the "Animal Crossing" update, and some showcase beautiful yet spooky islands players have designed. 

And then there are videos like the one below, which is a short tutorial on how to buy Halloween costumes and candy in "Animal Crossing":

 (6.61K subscribers) is worth mentioning because it has more than 8K views. If you scroll through their channel, you’ll see that most videos earned between 300 and 3,000 views. So in terms of attracting more viewers and growing a channel, DanieG Gaming’s "Animal Crossing" tutorial was a success. Of course, that success is repeatable if you’re willing to hop on this Halloween trend.

Spirit Halloween 2020 on YouTube: Shopping, Decor, and Costumes

Let’s take a step back and talk about ‘Halloween 2020’. Our star keyword with 275,899 monthly searches is fair game for creators. But there’s a similar keyword to that one gaining some traction, and that’s ‘Spirit Halloween 2020’, which refers to the popular U.S. Halloween store. According to the vidIQ keyword tool, competition for this keyword is low and the search volume is just under 60,000 per month. That's not as high as 'Halloween 2020's' search volume, but smaller creators may benefit from reduced competition around 'Spirit Halloween 2020'.

You can find proof of this on a channel called 

. With only 1.79K subscribers, this creator has managed to get tens of thousands of views on Spirit Halloween shopping videos, like the one below:

This shopping adventure attracted 28K views, which is impressive for a channel that’s only two months old. It’s possible that using ‘Spirit Halloween 2020’ in the title helped the video take off. If you dig through The Wild Ride channel, you’ll see that most of their popular videos contain some variation of that keyword.

But what if you wanted to focus on creating Halloween costumes instead of shopping for Halloween materials? No problem. Channels like 

 are doing exactly that using the ‘Spirit Halloween 2020’ keyword. The only difference is they’re doing epic costume makeovers of spooky animatronic props, like this one:

K&T Do Halloween only has 10K subscribers, but with the right keyword, the video above managed to attract a quarter of a million views.

If you like shopping at Spirit Halloween, try to come up with unique video ideas around that. As you can see from the examples above, the keyword is hot right now and channels of various sizes are reaping the benefits. 

Ultimately, you have two options for YouTube success this Halloween: You can address the virtual side of the holiday or stick to the traditional celebrations we all know and love. Either way, you have the opportunity to get more YouTube views as people stay safe at home this spooky season.

 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.

 2020 is Halloween in quarantine for many of us. Here are the top trending keywords around this spooky holiday in this extraordinary year.


Virtual Halloween 2020: Top Keywords on YouTube

What’s better than sipping on a frosty beer or a minty cool mojito on a hot day? Making money on YouTube while you get your buzz on, that’s what! All you have to do is meet the 1000 subscriber and 

.  Once you've been accepted you can start generating revenue from ads run against your video content.

It’s always a good idea to draw inspiration from already-successful YouTube booze buffs. Here are several high-proof channels to get you rolling.

Drinking on YouTube: Start With Some Cocktails

Cocktail creation is an art form that requires a full range of bartending skills. Whether you’re looking for a YouTube mixologist apprenticeship or simply want to watch a master drink alchemist in action, 

The Educated Barfly is a straightforward repository of cocktail knowledge. Host Leandro DiMonriva delivers a masterclass in bartending with modules on topics like classic drinks, cocktail variations, and home-bar basics.

The tutorials start out with mini history lessons and include all the helpful tips you can drink. Pay close attention and you might even catch a meta tip like the discussion on creating an awesome thumbnail in this video on the Song of the Siren tiki drink.

If you’re seeking cocktail tutorials with a little more entertainment value, check out How to Drink. The channel has much in common with The Educated Barfly (they even did a 

), but How to Drink adds flair to the format with artful close-ups of jigger pours and garnish spritzes, a prohibition-style background song, and plenty of clever overlay text.

How to Drink host Greg Titian waxes poetic about tasting notes and invents drinks based on popular TV shows and movies. For instance, he once concocted a guess at what the 

mysterious liquid in Rick Sanchez’s flask

 is on “Rick and Morty” using pickle juice and Hennessy XO.

There are plenty of content creators on the YouTube beer scene. You may want to start with 

, two channels that are very much on opposite ends of the sudsy spectrum but equally delightful.

The Craft Beer Channel has pretty much everything you need to know about brews. It’s just a couple of regular guys named Jonny and Brad from the UK who are beyond passionate about drinking, brewing, and pairing food with beer.

Take your home-brewing game to the next level with videos like their 

 on making a New England IPA, which includes tips from a renowned craft brewer. Foodies wondering what brewski to match with their favorite pizza can find the answer on The Craft Beer Channel as well.

Party-beer purists who gag at the thought of a hoppy IPA also have a safe space on YouTube in You Betcha. It’s a channel run by a content creator from North Dakota named Myles Montplaisir who has an almost unhealthy obsession with Busch Light.

The channel isn’t exclusively focused on beer—it’s more of a general comedic take on life in the Midwest—but 

, a simple cell phone video of him comparing Busch Light to a craft beer from Wisconsin drove the channel to its current success. And if Anheuser-Busch isn’t sponsoring You Betcha, they must be benefiting fiscally from the free product placement in virtually every video on the channel.

Learning how to enjoy wine can be an intimidating process filled with highfaluting terminology and behavioral protocols. To make wine-tasting more palatable for newbies, certified sommelier Madeline Puckette and her friends started a YouTube channel called 

“The inspiration for Wine Folly was based on an observation I’d made while serving, Basically, 

people want to know more about wine but they don’t know where to start. The goal of Wine Folly is to share wine knowledge in a way to encourage and inspire new drinkers.”

Wine Folly accomplishes that vision by delivering the full-bodied richness of wine culture without the condescending pretentiousness that excludes the uninitiated. Puckette explains everything from tannins and identifying sweetness in wine to how to properly clink glasses, always keeping it light and engaging.

She even goes so far as to crack jokes you’d never hear from a fancy sommelier at a wine tasting. Exhibit A is a video on 

 in which she refers to the price of a bottle of bubbly as “a lot of money for something you’re gonna pee out.”

In addition to Adsense, these channels use resources like affiliate links, Patreon membership, and merch to maximize their earnings. Plus, their growing subscription numbers and high-performing videos make them attractive to off-platform sponsorships.

But the most important takeaway is this: 

These YouTubers create value that keeps their audiences returning for more.

Whether you want to give sloppy beer-bong tutorials or embrace the snobby side of fine wines, the first step toward success on YouTube is to find a need and fill it with quality.

If you want to take your YouTube drinking 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 

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 in just 30 days.

Crack open a cold one, turn on your camera, and start learning how to make money on YouTube by drinking your favorite adult beverages.

Career Goals: Make Money Drinking Boozy Beverages on YouTube

On YouTube, finding the perfect publishing frequency isn’t always that easy. If you post too often, your subscribers won’t have the time or energy to watch your content. And if you post too sporadically, viewers may abandon your channel when videos are slow to appear.

The sweet spot is different for each creator, and you'll only discover it by uploading more content and learning as much as you can about your audience. 

Posting more videos gives YouTube a chance to share some audience data with you, such as how many unique viewers you’re attracting each month. From there, you can determine how much content your audience is willing to consume, and thus, the best uploading frequency for your channel.

For more details, watch our latest video about finding that perfect number:

Whether you have years of experience or you’re just starting out, these powerful tips will help you upload the right amount of content to YouTube.

Can You Publish Too Much Content to YouTube?

Consistency is important on YouTube, but it only pays off when you have a reasonable uploading cadence. After all, your audience only has so much time in a day. YouTube understands this, and that’s why the platform will only send 

 to your subscribers every 24 hours. So for example

, if you post five videos in a day, only three of them will reach the notification bar on 

That’s why you should post a maximum of three videos every 24 hours.

Anything more may be pointless, especially if you want your video to be recommended across YouTube.

Here’s how that scenario works: In the first three to six hours of publishing a video, most of your views will come from subscribers clicking a notification. It’s the initial push that gets your video noticed, and the more clicks you get, the more 

 you’ll receive. Once YouTube realizes your video has a high view duration, the platform will share your content with more people.

If you plan to publish three videos daily, be sure to stagger them throughout the day - perhaps one for the morning, afternoon, and evening. Getting three notifications from the same channel at once is jarring, even for die-hard fans.

Can You Upload Too Little Content to YouTube?

On the other end of the spectrum, it’s possible to post way too sparingly on YouTube. Whether that can hurt your channel or not, the answer truly depends on the situation.

For example, an audience of 18 and younger may be more connected to the digital world. They're likely to be on YouTube and other social media platforms daily, and if you're a gaming channel, that’s ideal. Your audience could easily watch one of your videos every day, potentially more.

But on the flip side, what if your audience is busy mothers who work during the week? They may have only an hour or two on Sunday nights to watch your content. So in some way, your upload schedule has to align with your viewers’ lifestyle.

There's a good chance your viewing habits on YouTube, as a creator, are somewhat aligned with your target audience. Ask yourself these four questions to gain more insight:

Are you a loyal subscriber who’s willing to wait for new content?

How often should you publish videos to YouTube? You can’t answer that without doing some audience analysis, so here’s everything you need to know.

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