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

If you haven’t heard of YouTube Shorts yet, it's a new feature that lets creators 

 and add special, TikTok-style effects to their content. 

Eligible creators can access the Shorts camera in the YouTube app, but for everyone else, uploading a vertical video under 60 seconds with the hashtag #Shorts achieves the same thing. 

To learn more about the feature, read our blog post on “

YouTube Shorts: What We Know About How They Work.

” It shares some early testing results of YouTube Shorts, how to create your own, and predictions for the future.

However, if you've been following us for a while, you know what Shorts are, and that we started a 

 to test the feature. We've also posted some of these shorts on our main channel. 

They’re doing well so far, and we’ve heard similar stories of success from other YouTube creators.

To witness their testimonies, watch our latest video about how YouTube Shorts is affecting creators:

When we first analyzed YouTube Shorts, we didn’t have enough data to know whether they’d hurt or help creators on the platform. We didn’t know if they’d cause a decrease in channel 

 or if viewers would unsubscribe after watching short videos they never asked for. 

To some extent, we still don’t know how bad the outcome could be. But for now, despite some unknowns, we know YouTube creators are getting more views with YouTube Shorts.

How to Analyze Your YouTube Shorts Performance

Let’s start our YouTube Shorts analysis with a video we posted on the main vidIQ channel called, “YouTube Shorts: The @MrBeast Effect.” So far, it's given us the data we need to understand how Shorts are performing.

While you’re here, go ahead and watch it for maximum clarity.

As with any video launched on a channel with many subscribers, most of our initial views came from YouTube notifications. Eventually, this spike in views decreases as dedicated viewers stop watching.

However, our video didn’t follow that script entirely. There was a small boost in views long after uploading, so we had to figure out what was happening. Our theory was that YouTube was featuring the video on its Stories and Short Videos shelf. 

This is a newer feature in the app that lets viewers explore short content in a never-ending, TikTok-style format. To learn more about how that works, read our blog post, “

Can You Get 1 Million YouTube Views By Making Short Videos

To confirm whether our video was being featured, we opened the YouTube Studio and viewed the traffic sources list. Many creators hypothesized that views from the 

shelf showed up as direct or unknown views, which ended up being true. In fact, while viewing our real-time analytics, we found a surge in direct or unknown views for our short video. That means it was being discovered on YouTube’s new shelf.

Just to confirm, we didn’t post the Short on social media, YouTube’s community tab, or anywhere else. To make sure our data was conclusive, we made zero attempts to boost the video’s views.

Optimizing a short video isn’t too different from optimizing a normal YouTube video. For each YouTube Short, we made sure to:

However, those things don’t impact whether your video appears as a Short. And as many creators have shared, it takes days before YouTube decides to test (or feature) a video on the Stories and Short Videos shelf, where exposure leads to more views.

The big takeaway is YouTube Shorts don’t perform like normal videos, where the first 48 hours are crucial for getting more views.

 The video could take off at any time in the first couple of weeks.

Testimonials and Lessons From Creators Using YouTube Shorts

We told the vidIQ community about YouTube Shorts before they even had a name, so creators have had a few weeks to test the feature. And interestingly, there are plenty of success stories.

 has nearly 600 subscribers and got 11K views on a Shorts video. Read what they had to say about that experience below:

For those wondering about the aspect ratios of vertical videos, Interesting Igloo is having success with the 9:16 format. This channel also pointed out that Mr. Beast is using the same format for his Shorts, as shown below:

 is going all-in with the new feature and started a Shorts channel about his funny dog. The new channel only has 10 subscribers, but he's getting 400 views on some of his shorts. Read more on that below:

 gave YouTube Shorts a try and one of their videos suddenly collected more direct and unknown views before normalizing again. One interesting thing to note is LeigerGaming's thumbnails suit both landscape videos and vertical Shorts. If YouTube ever decides to use custom thumbnails in the Shorts shelf, that decision could pay off. Check out LeigerGaming’s thumbnail and comment below:

Nicksbankrpt told us a video of his from March 2019 recently took off with 1,000 views. We asked him to check the traffic sources and they all came from direct or unknown views, as shown below:

Wealth Insiders is gaining subscribers from YouTube Shorts, which is an interesting outcome. Check out their comment below:

Despite this channel’s success, there is a danger to testing YouTube Shorts on your main channel. For one, you're testing your audience's patience with completely different content. Many viewers subscribe to a channel expecting videos of several minutes, possibly more - and not all of them want to see shorter content.

Although the YouTube Shorts we’ve tested on our main channel are getting decent views, they do seem to be ticking off subscribers. We’ve lost a few whenever we post a Short, so that’s one analytic to keep an eye on.

Our last testimonial is probably the most interesting. It’s from 

, and that channel’s comment recounts a private video meeting with YouTube about how Shorts really work:

YouTube hasn’t separated Shorts from regular content yet.

Channel audience view duration will decrease when you make Shorts.

When someone doesn’t watch the full 15 or 60 seconds of a Short, that could hurt your previously positive analytics.

You don’t need to use #Shorts in the title/description of your video. YouTube knows it’s a Short if the video is vertical and within certain time constraints.

Many of these points contradict what YouTube is saying publicly about Shorts. For instance, YouTube publicly instructed creators to use the hashtag #Shorts, but this comment suggests it’s not needed.

Whether that’s true, false, or somewhere in between, only time will tell.

Will YouTube Shorts be the next big thing? We don’t know for sure. But we can confirm YouTube Shorts is no longer a mild curiosity for the platform. It’s definitely a real, concrete thing. And while TikTok continues to be in turmoil, YouTube Shorts has the potential to keep growing.

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 

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.

Can you get more views from YouTube Shorts? The evidence so far says - Yes. Here are a few testimonials from creators who’ve earned more views with short content.


How Creators Can Get More Views With YouTube Shorts

At vidIQ, we encourage YouTube creators to 

niche down on content if they want to successfully grow their channel

 in terms of views and subscribers. This is especially true when we see that their channel covers a range of topics that can often prove confusing to the viewer.

However, we're often met with resistance from more skeptical creators. But in this episode of TubeTalk, we chat with Abbey Howe, who was also skeptical at first but she went for it anyway and her 

Will niching down limit your opportunities?

How a focused channel grows without the "whiplash effect"

Process of creating new content when you are in a niche

If you're a YouTube creator who has listened to all the expert advice but your channel is still not attracting the views and subscribers you'd hoped it would what can you do now? Well, take a listen to this episode of TubeTalk and find out what it takes 

TubeTalk has been informing video creators and marketers for 8 years, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to TubeTalk on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode!

You can also find the complete list of all the TubeTalk episodes here!

Focusing on one specific type of content can really make you stand out as a creator. It can also make your YouTube channel grow fast! Find out more on this episode of TubeTalk.

Why You Must 'Niche Down' if You Want to Succeed on YouTube

A ‘let’s play’ is or gameplay video is content that almost any gaming creator can make. It involves one or more gamers who collaborate on Roblox, Fortnite, Fall Guys, or any of the popular games circulating the web right now.

With so many fun titles about, let's play videos are extremely popular - and for good reason. They're hugely entertaining for both the participants and the viewer, plus that type of content can be an important part of 

With that being said, you need to have a specific strategy when posting gameplay content. To discover what this strategy entails and whether you can 

How Popular Are Let's Play & Gameplay Videos on YouTube?

Before we dive in, let’s discuss how popular these types of videos are on YouTube. We had a gut feeling that gamers loved them, but we decided to get an official answer using a vidIQ community poll. 

We had one simple question to ask our audience: In your free time, what type of gaming videos do you watch on YouTube?

As we suspected, let's play videos won in a landslide with 53% of votes. Montages of funny gaming moments came in second with 23% of voters choosing that option.

Like most gamers, you may have built your channel around those topics. But even with this extra fanfare around them, you might not be seeing significant growth. Now, this doesn’t mean you should stop making let’s play videos or gaming montages. There will always be a time and place for gamers to sit down, hit record, and play games with their audience.

However, if that’s the only content you create, it's time to rethink your strategy. 

To get more views in the gaming space, try your hand at informative content too, such as how to's, reviews, and listicles. 

, and that’s what’s going to help you grow your channel over time. 

To learn more about this, watch our explainer video about gameplay content and how it should be executed within your YouTube strategy:

Do a search on YouTube using the terms ‘lets play’ and 'gameplay' and you’ll see a list of videos from massive, million-subscriber channels. That’s your competition, and the only way to stand out is by sharing with valuable, informative content.

Roblox Let's Play Videos: Could You Rank on YouTube For the Term?

To determine just how stacked the competition can be for lets plays, we used vidIQ’s keyword tool to get a score for certain search terms. A low score means a video optimized with a specific keyword may not perform well on YouTube; a high score means it could get many views. For our keyword test, we typed ‘Roblox lets play’ into YouTube’s search bar.

Immediately, we got some promising data. ‘Roblox lets play’ had a high search volume, which means people were actively looking for that kind of content. But unfortunately, competition for the search term was too high to capitalize on. That resulted in a low score, as shown below:

This data tells us everything we need to know about the likelihood of a Roblox lets play video taking off on YouTube. And guess what? The search results page tells us even more.

At the top of the list, we saw a channel with ‘let's play’ in its name dominating with at least three videos. Below that were videos from creators with millions of subscribers who post regular Roblox content, which is hard to compete with. 

An additional search using the term ‘Roblox gameplay’ displayed some older but popular videos. This is what we call evergreen content. These videos were at the top of the search results, and new creators would have a hard time ranking for the keywords attached to those videos.

If you're a small to medium-sized channel, your competition is established YouTubers. Some of them may have teams helping them do their research and create clickable thumbnails. This is why we at vidIQ encourage creators to upload high-value videos, such as how to's and listicles. It may not be the content you search for on YouTube, but understand that this content isn't for you - it's for your audience.

How to Get Your Videos Recommended To Viewers on YouTube

When YouTube recommends your gaming videos to viewers, that does three things for your channel:

Helps you penetrate YouTube’s competitive gaming niche

Here’s an example of how this works in real-time. Let’s say popular YouTuber 

 uploads a let’s play video about a new Minecraft mod: rocket boots. He doesn’t cover the subject deeply, which sparks some curiosity among his fans about the mod’s finer details. You see this as an opportunity to stand out, so you upload an in-depth video about the mod, improving upon the information Jelly left out.

Most likely, Jelly’s fans will search for more Minecraft rocket boots content after he addresses it on his channel. Fortunately, that gives your rocket boots video a good chance of being discovered on YouTube. In fact, if enough people stumble upon your video while searching the term ‘rocket boots in Minecraft’, YouTube may recommend it alongside larger creators’ Minecraft videos.

From there, it's just a matter of letting YouTube’s algorithm work its magic. Your video will be shown to more viewers, and that could lead to higher views and new subscribers.

To Make Your Content Stand Out, Do Some Video Research

As you can see, the method above requires research. You have to be willing to watch videos on the topic you’re planning to cover and create even better content to reach success. This usually includes researching the title, length, and thumbnails of other videos.

If you’ve never thought about your toughest competitors’ video thumbnails, it’s time to make it a priority! Thumbnails are often the first thing viewers see and play a huge role in their decision to click on a video.

Luckily, there’s a vidIQ tool that can help you in this department. When you’re on a video upload page, navigate to the left side of the screen and find a section that reads ‘what search term do you want to rank for?’ There should be a text box below, and in that, you can type your term of choice. When you’re done, click the blue button that reads ‘preview in search results’.

Next, your video’s thumbnail will appear alongside other videos currently ranking for that term. By doing a visual sweep, you can decide whether your thumbnail stands out among the competition, as shown below:

Let's play content should be a part of your YouTube gaming strategy. If you’re a gamer who creates tutorials people love, uploading a gameplay video now and then will keep your subscribers interested in what you have to say. You don’t have to do this often, but some content diversity will keep your channel fresh and help it continue to grow.

Plus, if you're just starting out on YouTube, creating let's play content helps you learn the video-making process. You’ll sit down in a room, by yourself, and slowly overcome the growing pains of being confident on camera. You’ll learn how to use various editing software and have tons of fun playing the games you love.

Just remember that let’s play videos are hard to rank for on YouTube. You’ll need to do your research and niche down to specific topics/tutorials to attract the number of views you want to see.

Want To Get More Views as a Gamer on YouTube?

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

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

Are you a gamer working toward your first 1,000 subscribers? Here’s how let's play videos can give you a boost.

How to Reach 1000 YouTube Subscribers with Gameplay Videos

If you want to get a significant amount of views on a video, ranking highly on YouTube is a must. But securing a place in the top spot isn't an easy task. Even when you do everything right it doesn't guarantee that you will be in the top position when someone searches for your keyword.

So what can you do? How can you get your videos to rank and how do the YouTube algorithms actually work? In this episode you will learn:

How YouTube research plays into creating your titles

Are you really competing against other creators for ranking?

Even perfect SEO doesn't guarantee a good position in the search results

 for more tips, tricks, and advice on being the best creator you can be.

How to Rank #1 on YouTube with Keyword Research

Everyone knows that keyword research is hard work - but it's a skill that every video creator should have in their toolbox. 

Here are 7 ways to rank on YouTube using the best keyword research hacks!

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 forget to SUBSCRIBE to TubeTalk on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode!

You can also find the complete list of all th

Are your videos ranking much lower on YouTube than expected? Find out how why on this episode of TubeTalk.

How to Get Your Videos to Rank on YouTube

Have you ever filmed a promo encouraging viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel? Without setting a custom URL for your page, the web address probably looked like this: 

So let’s put an end to long, alpha-numeric addresses. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to set a custom URL for your YouTube channel.

How to See If You’re Eligible For a Custom YouTube URL

Before we dive into the tutorial, let’s check your eligibility for custom URLs. Here’s how you do that:

Go to the YouTube Studio. You can reach it by clicking your channel’s profile image on a desktop screen.

Click ‘Settings’ in the left navigation bar.

Once the settings pop-up appears, click ‘Channel’ in the left navigation bar.

In the uppermost menu, click ‘Feature Eligibility’.

At the bottom of the screen, click ‘Status and Features’.

Next, you’ll see an older-looking YouTube page. If YouTube hasn’t updated it before you read this, you should be able to scroll down and see if you’re eligible for a custom URL, as shown below:

Need a visual breakdown of these steps? Watch our video tutorial to make sure you’re doing everything correctly:

Who’s Eligible For a Custom YouTube URL?

If you’re eligible to set a custom URL, congrats! You can enable this feature in the same ‘Status and Features’ page you’re currently in.

However, if you’re unable to set a custom URL, don’t worry. That just means you have some requirements to meet before turning on the feature, which includes:

Growing your YouTube channel to at least 

Reaching the 30-day milestone for having a channel.

If you haven’t satisfied the last two requirements, you can upload these items to your channel by moving your mouse over the channel icon or channel banner. When the camera button appears, click it to upload your banner/icon art.

Finding the Custom URL Screen In YouTube Studio

Now, if the ‘Status and Features’ page no longer exists, there’s another way to reach the custom URL feature. Simply do this instead:

In the channel section of the settings page, click ‘Advanced Settings’.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click ‘Manage Your YouTube Account’.

Once the account page appears, click ‘Advanced Settings’ in the left navigation menu. At last, a new page will appear with the option to set a custom URL for your channel.

How to Set a Custom URL for Your YouTube Channel

If you watched the tutorial video above, you may have noticed a bit of Russian text - that's because we have a 

, but today, let’s claim a URL for our Russian channel to show the process.

Back on the advanced settings page, all you have to do is click on the ‘You’re eligible for a custom URL, claim it here’ link to get started, which you can see in the previous screenshot.

As you can see in our case, YouTube has already turned our channel name into the custom URL. So, all we need to do now is agree to the terms of service, and double confirm that this is the URL we want for our YouTube channel.

Back on that Status and Feature screen, it now confirms that we’ve claimed our new URL. If we click on the link, it sends us back to our channel homepage without a hitch. Success!

Don't worry if you see the words channel, user, or simply the letter C within your URL. From now on, you can direct people to YouTube.com/yourchannel.

, you can remove your current custom URL and claim a new one up to three times each year. However, we say this with hesitation. YouTube’s tutorial to change/remove a custom URL didn’t match the platform features, so it may be in the middle of updating this feature.

Setting a custom URL turns a jumbled mess of characters (your current channel ID) into something simple, memorable, and readable. Most people use their channel name to personalize a custom URL, but you can set it to anything you want, within reason!

 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. 

If your YouTube channel’s URL contains random characters, it’s time to update that web address. Here’s how!

How To Get a Custom URL For Your YouTube Channel

As a creator, you've found your niche on YouTube and you're building views and subscribers to your channel at a steady rate. So now is a great time to think about monetizing your YouTube channel beyond AdSense and affiliate links. 

You don't need millions of YouTube subscribers to secure a great brand deal. Find out more on this episode of TubeTalk.

How Creators Can Get More Views With YouTube Shorts

Lydia Sweatt

Why You Must 'Niche Down' if You Want to Succeed on YouTube

Liron Segev

How to Reach 1000 YouTube Subscribers with Gameplay Videos

Lydia Sweatt

How to Get Your Videos to Rank on YouTube

Liron Segev

How To Get a Custom URL For Your YouTube Channel

Lydia Sweatt

How to Get a Brand Deal as a Smaller YouTube Channel

Liron Segev

How to Customize Your YouTube Channel

Lydia Sweatt