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

Earning 4,000 hours of Watch Time is the dream for most creators, but it isn’t easy. Gaining 100 hours, sure. But thousands? That’ll test your determination to keep going on YouTube. Essentially, you have to post multiple videos and hope people watch them for long enough.

But once you have 4,000 hours, everything gets easier. You’ll be one step closer to applying to the YouTube Partner Program, which lets you monetize your channel with advertisements. Having those valuable hours allows you to focus on other things, too, like 

. That’s the second milestone required for the YPP.

YouTube Partner Program – How to Monetize Your Channel

When you’re collecting Watch Time hours, it’s easy to overlook certain parts of the process. The biggest, most understated thing, is that 

These 5 Videos Aren’t Eligible for YPP Watch Time

Before you start earning Watch Time, know which videos are in your best interest to create. There are five videos that make it hard – in most cases, impossible – to reach 4,000 hours.

Years ago, private and unlisted videos counted toward YPP Watch Time. 

 when YouTube decided that public videos, not partially viewable content, could accumulate watch hours.

prioritize public videos over private or unlisted ones.

 Unlisted videos can only be watched if certain people have the link. This privacy option benefits creators with specific content plans. They may want to send videos to friends and family or create a webinar for a limited audience.

If you’re trying to monetize your channel, unlisted and private videos aren’t very helpful. Make sure videos that need to be public are, in fact, set to public. That’ll help you reach 4,000 hours and apply to the YPP.

How to set private or unlisted videos to public on YouTube

Log in to YouTube on desktop. Click your profile icon and select 

You’ll see a list of all the videos on your channel. Find the videos you want to make public, then go to the 

 column. Click the eyeball symbol to reveal a menu of options: private, unlisted, members only, and public. Choose 

 from your monetizable total. For example, imagine your channel has 2,000 watch hours. If you delete a video that contributed 500 of those hours, you’ll be left with 1,500. Before you delete anything, check to see how many watch hours your content has earned.

Sometimes deleting a video is inevitable. Maybe you’ve grown as a person since it was first published and want to clean up your image. Or perhaps someone appeared in your video without prior consent, and they want you to take it down. Whatever the reason, make sure it’s worth deleting a video and losing precious watch hours.

Have you created video ads for YouTube? If you were hoping these would help you apply to the YPP, unfortunately, they won’t. Watch hours from advertising campaigns don’t count toward YouTube monetization. Even if you’ve earned 10,000 hours, none of it will go toward the 4,000 hours you need.

This seems fair because ads can get millions of views. If YouTube counts them for YPP acceptance, that’ll create a shortcut to monetization.

Short, vertical videos and how they relate to the YPP is a complicated subject. We know that 

; YouTube made that clear a few months ago. The platform also announced that Watch Time from Shorts doesn’t contribute to a creator’s 4,000-hour goal. But will this change in the future? Is there a monetization program just for Shorts in the works?

Only time will tell. For now, know that Shorts won’t help you monetize your channel – not quickly, at least.

There’s a small caveat to this statement, though. If a Short is viewed on the Shorts shelf, a display area for brief, vertical videos, it won’t earn YPP watch hours. But if the same video is viewed on a regular watch page with YouTube ads and a comment section, you can earn eligible Watch Time.

So while Shorts are mostly viewed on the Shorts shelf, they 

 get played in monetizable areas. If you need all the watch hours you can get, take advantage of this loophole. Those seconds, however small, add up.

Live streams are a great way to increase your Watch Time. These videos are usually lengthy, and if people stick around until the end, you can add several hours to your analytics.

According to YouTube, live streams that aren’t converted to video-on-demand content won’t earn YPP watch hours. The information around this is pretty vague, so we'd suggest making sure your live streams are public when they've ended. Don't archive a live stream by setting it to unlisted or private. 

Just to be sure, we asked YouTube if this advice made sense for creators. 

We didn't get a straightforward answer, but creators chimed in with their personal experience. A few of them said they earn Watch Time both during and after a live stream, which includes video-on-demand viewing.

Whether these hours were recorded for YPP Watch Time is another story. That's why, as soon as possible, we'd recommend checking to see if your live stream is public after it ends. If it's unlisted or private, switch it to public.

How to Get 4,000 Hours of YouTube Watch Time

 That means in addition to regular videos, posting lengthy live streams and experimenting with Shorts. The latter isn’t going to bring you quick success. The Watch Time you earn, if you earn any at all, will depend on where people watch the video. Shorts should complement your regular videos and live streams because all the Watch Time accumulates.

be intentional with the videos you upload.

 It’s easier to earn watch hours when you post videos that are relevant all year. Anything about making more money, product reviews, and video games with lasting popularity are good examples. People continue to search for these evergreen topics on YouTube.

 Instead of posting 30 videos in 30 days, aim to create videos that are entertaining, informative, and completely cover a topic. That could be 15 videos that answer every question about a topic, complete with video chapters and detailed instructions. Provide as much value as you can to make people watch longer.

Create a diverse set of content (regular videos, live streams, Shorts).

Post evergreen content that’s always relevant.

Give your video so much value that people can’t click away.

Make Money on YouTube – How to Get 4000 Hours Watch Time

Earning 4,000 hours of YouTube Watch Time is a major undertaking. If you need more clarification on how to do it, watch our explainer video below:

Put these suggestions to action, and you’ll eventually reach 4,000 hours of Watch Time. But don’t stop there. Your next goal should be applying to the YPP, which you can learn how to do 

You need 4,000 hours of Watch Time to monetize your YouTube channel. Unfortunately, the five videos below may slow your progress toward reaching that big, desirable goal.

YouTube Monetization: Which Videos Count Toward 4,000 Hours of Watch Time?

YouTube just exposed its own algorithm. In a video posted to 

, YouTube product manager Rachel Alves discussed how the video recommendation system works. She explained how videos get discovered, whether that’s on the YouTube homepage or suggested content areas. Then she offered tips to make click-worthy videos for those places.

This is valuable information for creators, and yet, it’s not life-changing advice to help you go viral. It’s good to understand how the system works. But if that’s your only focus, growing on YouTube will be the same challenge its always been.

How to Start a YouTube Channel – 10 Brilliant Tips

The real focus should be your audience, not an algorithm. Viewers are the heart of the system, and the machinery is there to support their intent.

“YouTube’s recommendation system is designed to find videos for viewers, not viewers for videos,” Alves says.

Above all, that statement is what Alves wants you to grasp. In the video below, each secret about the algorithm comes with a caveat: 

Want to learn how YouTube recommends videos? Just keep reading. You can use the secrets below plus 

How YouTube Recommends Your Videos to Viewers

The YouTube algorithm has two goals when recommending videos:

Helping viewers find videos they want to watch

Overall, YouTube wants people to return to the platform because they enjoyed being there. But finding the best way to do that took years of testing and correcting.

In the past, clicks and views were supreme. YouTube recommended popular videos to viewers, even if they included clickbait titles and thumbnails. Around 2011, viewers shared their feedback, and it wasn’t positive. Users didn’t want sensationalized or misleading content on their homepages.

To fix this, YouTube started prioritizing 

 in 2012. In theory, how long someone watches a video should reveal how much they enjoyed it. But like clicks and views, Watch Time wasn’t a perfect metric. Just because someone watches a 15-minute video about dog training, that doesn’t mean they enjoyed the experience. There could be other reasons they watched until the end. Maybe their puppy destroyed three couch pillows, and the owner desperately needed to correct the behavior.

“I’m sure you’ve all spent time bingeing through a series that you watched hours of but you still didn’t feel that good afterward,” Alves says. “What we wanted to identify is how do we define quality or valued Watch Time.”

satisfaction indicates the value of a video.

 Instead of prioritizing how long someone watched, the better question to ask was, did they enjoy it? Would they do it again?

How YouTube Measures Viewer Satisfaction, the Catalyst for Video Recommendations

From 2015 to now, YouTube has prioritized viewer satisfaction. It’s also placed an emphasis on promoting responsible content, which helps viewers fulfill their search intent. If you’re looking for ways to fight hyperpigmentation, for example, it’s best to learn from an authoritative source on YouTube – perhaps an esthetician or a dermatologist.

YouTube does three things to discover and promote satisfying, responsible content:

Ask viewers what they like (via surveys) and optimize for those things.

YouTube trains its prediction models using surveys – millions of them. Even with a large number of surveys going out, viewers aren’t inundated with feedback requests. Alves says they may receive one or two surveys each month. The surveys ask for video ratings and why the viewer enjoyed the video. They’re able to select words such as “informative,” “life-changing,” “inspiring,” and more. The goal is to gauge which videos are truly satisfying and not just highly watchable.

“We no longer consider all Watch Time on YouTube to be equal,” Alves says. “We really focus on satisfaction. Surveys are one of the most important pieces of data we use to train this.”

This data isn’t available to creators yet, but Alves says YouTube is working on it.

Likes, Dislikes, Shares, and Not Interested Signals 

When someone likes your video, that tells YouTube your content is satisfying. The same logic is applied to video shares. Additionally, YouTube is paying attention to interest level, or how often viewers say they’re “not interested” in a video.

Now that you know likes and dislikes serve a purpose on YouTube, always aim to please. And be sure to 

 to see the percentage of likes and dislikes on every video. These percentages are green when videos have lots of likes and red when there are more dislikes. Going forward, you can do an audit of your channel and 

see which videos are producing more likes than dislikes.

 Videos in the dislike category may reveal what you can tweak in your content strategy.

For most channels, Alves says the YouTube homepage and suggested content areas are top traffic sources. The homepage recommends videos based on a user’s watch history. Suggested content appears alongside a video someone is currently watching.

No matter how hard you try, there’s nothing you can do, statistically, to influence these traffic areas.

“A lot of creators ask, ‘How do I optimize my content so I get more views from the homepage or suggested videos,’ ” Alves says. “The difficult answer is you can’t. You can’t optimize for a traffic source. You can only optimize for people or viewers.”

YouTube uses two categories to rank homepage videos. The first is 

All of this has to do with how videos perform on homepages. Before making a recommendation, YouTube wants to know if people watched those videos, selected “not interested” or performed other actions.

Personalization is the second category. YouTube pays attention to viewers’ watch history, including how often they watch videos from certain channels.

3 Ways to Make Your Videos Stand Out on the YouTube Homepage

 Make them eye-catching but easy to understand in less than a second. Remember, the homepage is where many viewers discover content for the first time. Using a colorful graphic with minimal text is a good way to catch their attention.

. Knowing the “language” of your audience will help you use terms and phrases they’re already searching for on YouTube.

 Humans love routines. You can train your viewers to expect weekly videos by sticking to a schedule. Subconsciously, that may inspire them to click on your videos when they appear on the homepage.

How to Make Custom Thumbnails – The Essential Guide!

Do you need help making better thumbnails? 

will reveal how your graphics look against those from other creators. You can type in a keyword and see which style(s) channels are using for any topic. Then you’ll know exactly what to do to make yours stand out.

 for free to start using this tool. Then read our guide about 

Ranking Content For the ‘Suggested Videos’ System

YouTube suggests videos to viewers based on two things:

Sometimes it goes even the deeper than that. Videos that are watched one after the other, as well as topically-related content, are fair game.

4 Tips to Make Your Content Suggestion-Worthy

Build a series of videos around certain topics.

 This gives YouTube more content to suggest as people watch videos of the same topic.

Don’t let people leave your content domain.

 Use playlists and end-screens to keep them in a loop, constantly displaying your channel’s best content.

 It sounds simple, but you get what you ask for. Make the verbal request and see how many viewers oblige.

 Strong branding helps a viewer remember you and your content. People should be able to identify your videos in a suggested content list.

How to Make Videos That Satisfy Your Audience

With YouTube tracking viewer satisfaction, that means one thing for you and your content: 

You can’t just make informative videos and expect to get more views.

 They have to be enjoyable too, or YouTube won’t recommend them.

You can start by copying what YouTube is doing. You can 

 how they feel about your videos and encourage them to leave comments. Maybe you're testing a new filming background or a different teaching method on YouTube. To know if your videos are truly enjoyable, get some feedback.

There are lots of little ways to make satisfying videos too. You should always:

Let your personality shine through. Be witty, relaxed, friendly – whichever represents you.

Use visual aids to help viewers understand your message.

Be relatable by showing your vulnerabilities.

Having YouTube recommend your videos to viewers is a gift. But are you ready for the next step? Once you have new viewers on your channel, learn 

YouTube doesn't 'recommend' every video to its viewers. Keep reading to learn which type of content – or rather, which performance metric – is fueling the system.

YouTube Algorithm Guide: How Your Videos Are Recommended to Viewers

 is no longer a secret. Getting invited to the app is still a challenge, but it’s worth the effort once you’re inside. You can network with experts in almost every industry. There are clubs for real estate agents, digital marketers, musicians, actors, and of course, YouTube creators. Clubhouse is audio-only, so conversations often feel like conferences. There are different rooms, stages, hosts, and moderators. Audience members listen along, sometimes with muted mics.

 created a YouTube club for small creators. They called it Rising YouTuber, and at the time, they were still rising themselves. They both had channels with around 1,000 subscribers.

How to Expand Your YouTube Community Without Burning Out

At first, the goal was to connect with creators and brands. Ghatt, who is a seasoned Pinterest marketer, was seeking community. Lewis was networking to land sponsorships for her beauty channel. Everything changed when creators on Clubhouse asked Lewis for 

. That’s when Ghatt and Lewis started the Rising YouTuber club to help small creators grow.

“When we joined, there were a lot of YouTubers around,” Ghatt says. “We would go into different rooms, and because some creators were larger, they would use terms like KPI (key performance indicator), CPM (cost per mille), and CTR (click-through rate). They would use those acronyms, but they wouldn’t break them down. We said to ourselves, there are smaller creators in this audience that have no idea what they’re talking about."

Solving those problems helped Ghatt and Lewis become Clubhouse experts. They became in-demand moderators and gained YouTube subscribers along the way.

In this episode of TubeTalk, we chat with Lewis and Ghatt about how Clubhouse benefits YouTube creators. They share their experience as Clubhouse moderators and give networking advice to creators.

To network like a pro, do these five things on Clubhouse:

Many Clubhouse rooms operate differently, so observe before speaking. Sometimes listeners can take the stage at any point. In other rooms, audience members speak during a specific time – a Q&A session, for example.

If you’re on stage, let people know you have a channel. 

Say the name of your channel. Spell it out. Lewis used this strategy to gain new subscribers.

Make sure your introduction is an accurate representation of your lifestyle. Don’t say you offer a service or expertise you don’t have. The real experts will call you out!

Lewis found that even large creators follow small creator clubs. People in those rooms dissect everything about YouTube because they’re trying to grow. Some even do channel audits.

 Clubhouse conversations feel like podcast episodes. However, everything is live, so pay attention. Don’t miss your chance to ask questions or introduce yourself.

Clubhouse is popular, especially during the pandemic. But how long will the popularity last? That’s what everyone wants to know as businesses reopen and in-person events resume.

Ghatt says Clubhouse will survive. It’s a way to connect with people without worrying about what you look like; on Zoom, there’s constant pressure to look presentable. Lewis agrees but says Clubhouse will be around for a different reason – one that coincides with the pandemic ending.

“Podcasting meets LinkedIn,” Lewis says. “That’s basically Clubhouse. I think it will still work because people can turn their digital events into live events.”

TubeTalk is one of the most popular 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 podcast episodes 

Can YouTube creators benefit from Clubhouse? This week, we chat with two experts to learn the app's true value. Plus, keep reading for Clubhouse networking tips!

How to Network on Clubhouse as a YouTube Creator

The YouTube homepage is turning into a social media feed. Open the mobile app, and you’ll see that in addition to videos, there are extra posts from creators you’re subscribed to. These may be:

. They’re not just on the homepage of the app; you can also find them on a channel’s Community tab.

If you’ve passed 1,000 subscribers, you have access to the Community tab and its channel-boosting magic. As often as possible, you should use it to connect with viewers and increase your channel’s exposure.

How to Use The Community tab in YouTube Studio

Consider this, for example. What if you could reach your core audience multiple times a day without posting a video – only polls, GIFs, and text? What if your next poll gets 50,000 votes because YouTube’s algorithm promotes it across the app?

That’s what’s happening right now. Our vidIQ polls receive a jaw-dropping number of votes. The exposure introduces our channel to thousands of viewers we’ve never reached on YouTube.

Can the same thing happen to you? Absolutely.

Reaching a New Audience With YouTube Community Posts

Every Wednesday, we host a live stream on the vidIQ channel. One of our viewers, the 

, asked an important question during the Q&A session: 

Should creators use the Community tab and how does it affect channel growth?

“Yes” was our answer. To prove it, we voted on one of ChessGeek’s polls. Our theory was that, when someone engages with a Community post, they’ll see more posts from that channel.

Guess what happened less than 24 hours later? The morning following that live stream, a Community post from the ChessGeek was on our homepage. It nearly covered the entire screen.

Days later, we saw more Community posts from this creator – and we never watched a single video of theirs.

So we proved our theory. On YouTube, it’s possible to:

Encourage the algorithm to show more posts to that viewer.

Watch our video below for more examples of how the Community tab fuels your growth:

Does the Community Tab Have Its Own Algorithm?

Beating the YouTube algorithm is something we’d never encourage you to do. It’s virtually impossible, and there are better things to focus on. Building an audience is more rewarding than chasing dozens of viral videos.

Still, we’re curious about the algorithm behind YouTube’s Community posts. Is it a separate algorithm or is it the same one that recommends videos to viewers? It feels like there’s an independent algorithm for both.

"At this point, every creator with more than 1,000 subscribers should be posting something on their Community tab." – vidIQ

But if that’s true, it means a user is just as likely to see Community posts as they are videos. And we know which one takes longer to create. You can spend two minutes crafting a Community post. Videos take hours.

We’re not going to say Community posts will get you more views. But we can’t deny that the exposure could lead to more views and subscribers for your channel. At this point, every creator with more than 1,000 subscribers should be posting 

Videos and Community posts are very different, but they both have their place on YouTube. That’s why it’s smart to post each type on your channel. If you’re making videos while never posting on the Community tab, you’ll miss a chance to connect with viewers. In fact, sometimes Community posts get 

For example, we posted a Community poll about whether YouTube should hide dislikes on videos. A whopping 29,000 people voted. There were hundreds of comments and more than 2,000 likes. 

We received all this by posting one question and two emojis.

Engaging with a Community post is simple. It often takes one tap. With a video, viewers have to watch for several minutes before seeing something they can comment on – if they comment at all.

To get the most engagement from your Community posts, be sure to:

Never over-promote your videos; that’s what YouTube recommendations are for.

If you’re doing polls, let one of the answer choices be “Other - Comment Below.” That should help you get more comments.

As with anything on YouTube, provide value.

Connecting with your audience helps you grow your YouTube channel. Before you do that on any other platform, learn 

Have you passed 1,000 YouTube subscribers? You can gain even more by posting on the Community tab. Keep reading to learn how.

YouTube Community Tab: The Underrated Growth Tool You NEED to Use

It’s rare to watch someone repeatedly go viral on YouTube. That kind of success usually takes years to achieve. But maybe this model of gradually chipping away at YouTube success is changing. With 

, it feels like anything is possible. Creators can post vertical videos of less than 60 seconds, have them featured on the Shorts shelf, and quickly gain millions of views.

. The 3D artist posted animated Among Us Shorts that viewers found irresistible. In just 80 days, he gained 1.5 billion views and became a true animator, using the same software Disney uses to create movies.

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

A few months have passed since his first wave of success. Now Fellman has more than 4 million subscribers to his Shorts channel and almost 3 billion views. The popularity of Among Us helped him get there, but now that's starting to wane. To keep his channel relevant, Fellman is making Shorts that feature other video games, such as Minecraft.

“In January and February, my videos were averaging 20 million views each day,” Fellman says. “And then they started averaging 15. The reality is, it’s going to get more saturated as time goes on. Now I’m just going to make the best content I can with the information I have.”

Will Fellman’s viral moment last forever? No one knows indefinitely. But it’s better to have gone viral than to never, ever, 

In this episode of TubeTalk, Fellman talks about everything that led to his viral success. He shares his advice for leveraging YouTube, and most importantly, knowing when to pivot.

The value of bringing your talents to YouTube.

 Fellman was a 3D artist and used his skills to gain a large audience. Going viral is easier if you’re an expert in your niche.

Why trends are the key to creating viral content.

 Among Us was popular at the height of the pandemic. Fellman used that information to reach a global audience of serious and casual gamers.

 If you want to go viral, entertain everyone. Fellman’s videos were accessible because they had no language barriers. All viewers had to interpret was music and animation.

How short videos can create viral moments.

 It’s not just YouTube. Short videos go viral on TikTok and Instagram. Creators should consider this when seeking more views.

How to identify which videos are working.

 When Fellman’s first batch of Among Us Shorts went viral, he didn’t stop creating them. He analyzed the results and capitalized on what worked.

Why it’s important to plan beyond trending moments.

 Few things in life are popular forever. YouTube creators should look to the future and create content with staying power.

In addition to these tips, Fellman adds one more piece of advice: Just be consistent. The likelihood of going viral increases when you dedicate yourself to that journey.

“My advice is that you have to do something a lot of times, and you have to do it every day,” Fellman says. “The reason I’ve been able to make good content or crack the code repeatedly is because I’ve done it hundreds of times.”

Is it your dream to go viral on YouTube? In this episode of TubeTalk, we chat with a creator who has gained billions of views with YouTube Shorts. Here's what you need to know to do the same.

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