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.

Getting Views

How To Get More Views on YouTube

Getting thousands or even millions of YouTube subscribers is a dream for most creators. In the articles below, we'll show you how to turn casual viewers into long-term fans. 

Subscribers

YouTube Subscribers

Do you want to make money on YouTube? Millions of creators are earning a very good living from monetizing the platform and uploading content that drives huge views and engagements. Whether that YouTube income is from advertising revenue, merchandise sales, or brand deals, or subscriptions, we keep you updated with best practices and ideas.

Monetization

How To Make Money on YouTube

Want to see how your channel is performing? Read these YouTube analytics articles to discover what's working and what isn't. You'll learn how to identify which videos have the most Watch Time, clicks, audience retention, revenue, and more.

Analytics

YouTube Analytics

Watch Time is arguably THE most important metric on YouTube right now, and creators won’t be able to monetize their content without 4000 hours of it. But what is it and how can creators increase the amount of Watch Time their videos attract? We keep you updated on the best practices around Watch Time, and how you can increase how much your video content generates.

Watch Time

YouTube Watch Time

YouTube Shorts content is set to explode! 

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

YouTube Shorts

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.

Tips & Tricks

YouTube Tips & Tricks

At vidIQ we have incredible insights into what viewers are searching for on YouTube. Not only can we confirm the top keywords being searched for, we can also show you how you can leverage that interest to create content around trending topics and tentpole events. That's going to give you a clear edge over other creators!

Insights

YouTube Insights

Your In-Depth Guide to Building a Successful YouTube Channel

Amidst the countless creators, getting verified is one of the best ways to distinguish yourself and set your channel apart. Creators that get verified on YouTube are basically recognized by the platform as trusted channels. This can help improve the channel’s visibility and bring various opportunities within and outside the platform.

This is why YouTube verification is highly sought-after status for creators, brands, and businesses alike. This post will delve into the YouTube verification process, explain the necessary steps to qualify, and explore how smaller creators can improve their chances of earning that prestigious checkmark.

What Is YouTube Verification and Why It Matters?

YouTube verification is a process that provides a gray checkmark next to your channel’s name. This symbol is more than just a badge—it indicates to your audience that your channel is authentic, trustworthy, and officially represents the creator, brand, or business it claims to be​.

The checkmark appears across YouTube, from search results to comment sections, making it easier for viewers to distinguish your official account from imposters.

 A verified channel appears more legitimate, making it easier for new viewers to trust and engage with your content​

Verification helps protect your brand from copycat channels and impersonators who may try to capitalize on your name

Verified channels often receive more visibility in search results, increasing the chances of growing your audience.

What are the Eligibility Requirements for YouTube Verification?

To get verified on YouTube, your channel must meet specific criteria. While these requirements may seem stringent, they’re essential for ensuring that only authentic and established channels are granted the checkmark.

For YouTube verification, a channel must meet a few essential criteria that demonstrate its authenticity and activity on the platform. YouTube requires channels to have a minimum of 100,000 subscribers, which shows a significant following and credibility. However, subscriber count alone isn't enough. Your channel must accurately represent the creator, business, or entity it claims to be. This involves having a complete profile, including a well-designed banner, recognizable profile picture, and an informative description that clearly reflects your brand or identity.

Beyond appearance, YouTube values consistent engagement. Channels that actively post content, interact with their audience, and follow community guidelines are much more likely to be approved for verification. In contrast, inactive or dormant channels, regardless of subscriber count, are often rejected. By maintaining both a professional profile and regular activity, your chances of getting verified increase significantly.

How to Get Verified on YouTube: Step-by-Step Process

Once you’ve met the basic requirements, you can apply for YouTube verification. Below is a step-by-step guide to help you through the process.

Ensure your channel meets YouTube’s subscriber and content standards before proceeding. Even if you haven’t hit 100,000 subscribers, building a strong community and consistently creating quality content can improve your chances of approval.

, where you’ll find the form to apply for verification. If your channel qualifies, you will be able to access the form.

You’ll need to input your channel name and ID. If you’re unsure of your Channel ID, you can find it by navigating to your YouTube settings under "View advanced settings."​

Advanced settings feature on YouTube account

Once you’ve filled in your information, submit your application. The review process can take several weeks, and YouTube may ask for additional documentation to confirm your identity​.

After submitting your application, YouTube will review several factors, including your channel’s age, activity, and authenticity. If everything checks out, your channel will receive the verification badge.

Can You Get Verified Without 100K Subscribers?

It’s widely known that you need at least 100,000 subscribers to apply for verification, but there are exceptions. Smaller channels may qualify if they have a substantial presence outside YouTube.

If your channel represents a well-known brand, celebrity, or entity, YouTube may consider verifying you even with fewer subscribers.​ Musicians can also apply for the Official Artist Channel badge, even with fewer than 100,000 subscribers. This requires having an official music video distributed on YouTube and being part of the YouTube Partner Program.

While it is rare, exceptions can occur, so if you believe you have a significant presence or impact outside YouTube, you can reach out to YouTube’s support team for consideration​.

How to Increase Your Chances of Getting Verified?

Even if your channel doesn’t yet qualify for verification, there are ways to boost your chances. Focus on building a robust channel, improving engagement, and increasing your subscriber base.

1. Create High-Quality, Consistent Content

YouTube prioritizes channels that post regularly and create valuable content. Focus on producing high-quality videos that engage your target audience. Having a consistent upload schedule helps, as it demonstrates your commitment to building your channel.

No More Scrambling: How to Craft a Foolproof YouTube Upload Schedule

Ensure that your profile is complete, professional, and aligned with your brand’s identity. This includes:

Choosing a clear, recognizable profile picture.

Writing a compelling description that explains who you are and what content you create

Customizing your channel banner and organizing playlists to improve user experience.

Actively engaging with your audience through comments, likes, and discussions is a great way to show YouTube that you are dedicated to fostering a community. Encouraging viewers to subscribe and interact with your content signals that your channel is authentic and active​.

How to Use the YouTube Community Tab and Engage with Viewers

Optimizing your videos for YouTube search is crucial for increasing your visibility. By using relevant keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags, you can improve your chances of ranking higher in search results. High-performing videos help demonstrate your channel’s influence and authority.

YouTube SEO: How to Optimize Your Videos for Maximum Views

Approach your channel with a long-term strategy in mind. Focus on building a solid brand, setting goals for content creation, and using data analytics to improve your performance. Collaborating with other creators and being active in the YouTube community can also give your channel the boost it needs

If you thought the hard part was over, you were wrong. Once you’ve earned your verification badge, you must ensure that you remain compliant with YouTube’s rules to maintain it. Some key points to remember are:

Any breach of YouTube’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service could result in your badge being revoked​.

Changing your channel’s name will automatically remove the verification badge. You’ll need to reapply under the new name, which could delay the process.

Keep posting content regularly and continue engaging with your audience to show YouTube that your channel is still relevant.

Getting verified on YouTube is a major milestone that can set your channel apart and boost your credibility. By focusing on growing your audience, optimizing your content, and adhering to YouTube’s guidelines, you can work toward achieving that coveted checkmark. Remember, success on YouTube takes time, patience, and dedication, but with consistency and effort, verification is within reach.

While verification is a worthy goal, it’s more important to build a loyal audience and create a sustainable channel. Verification will come as a natural consequence of your growth and impact on the platform​. If you’re just starting, focus on creating great content and engaging with your viewers. So, what are you waiting for? Get creating and 

Getting verified on YouTube is a dream for most small creators. Get a well-rounded understanding needed to achieve this goal through this post!

How to Get Verified on YouTube

Making content around video games on YouTube has to be some of the most fun you can have on the platform, but getting discovered, maybe not so much.

It's not going to be as easy as hitting record on your next Minecraft building session or wiping the floor with everybody in Fortnite. So the purpose of this post is to help you get discovered on YouTube playing games in 2020.

6 Tips for Starting a Gaming Channel on YouTube

But even if you don't have a gaming channel, don't fret because a lot of this advice I can be applied to several different genres of video on YouTube!

#1 Gaming Channels on YouTube: Find YOUR Niche

Let's first discuss the types of gaming content getting discovered in gaming in 2020. In order to figure that out, we have to ask ourselves, well, what is YouTube? Ultimately, YouTube is a search engine. Now, that may seem obvious, but have you ever made a video titled Bob plays Minecraft episode 12? That's what I'm talking about. Nobody is going to search for the words Bob plays Minecraft episode 12, and the next thing we have to ask ourselves is, well, what are we doing with search engines?

And the answer is answering questions. Whenever we think of something we need to know, we type it into YouTube and try and find a video that's going to answer that question or cover that need. Perhaps it's just to find something funny to watch to get you through your lunch break. With that in mind, the types of content that I want you to be focused on when trying to get discovered in gaming on YouTube would be tips and tricks, reviews, tutorials. Like this one:

Cover a glitch that you found in a game or an Easter egg that you found. Maybe nobody else has found it. The next time the game you're playing has some DLC that drops, pick it up right away, review it, and let people know if they should spend their money on it. Maybe you bought it and it was a terrible mistake, but that's a great video right there.

If you're struggling to come up with ideas on what you could be covering around your game, check out 

. Type a search in for the game you're playing, and see what people are watching in real-time. What videos are getting the most views right now?

Not only will this help you figure out what your competition's doing, but it'll also help you figure out what questions people may be asking about your game which brings me to the second topic we need to cover, and that is focusing your channel on just one game.

The best thing you can do for your channel is to become an authority on the game you're playing. If you like to play Call of Duty, then you need to be making Call of Duty videos so YouTube views you as the Call of Duty authority. The more videos you make on one game, the more data YouTube has to focus on when it's trying to figure out what videos to recommend to people when they type in Call of Duty.

Now, for a lot of gaming channels, that's a huge ask. Hey, one game per channel, that's it. If you don't want to make a new channel every time you play a new game I totally understand, and there are plenty of examples of people who didn't have to make a new channel whenever they played a game that they don't normally play. However, I want to stress two things:

One, play a game through and through. Make sure that game is the primary game on your channel at least for a time.

Secondly, when you do finally pivot be sure that the next game you're playing is at least similar to what you were playing before. If you're a Minecraft channel, it'd probably be best if you played another survival, building, crafting game. If you're a Call of Duty channel, it'd be best if you played another first-person shooter. These changes will help you keep your current audience from going and finding somebody else because they already like games similar to the one you're playing.

If you're playing a game that's relatively popular and you're just having some trouble coming up with ideas, maybe check out 

Type in specific channels and see how other people are covering the games that you're covering. Based on how your competitors' videos are doing, you're probably gonna get some good insights into what you should be doing next.

#5 Don’t Upload a Single Gaming Video Without Doing the Work

The next thing we need to address is upload frequency. It is tempting, especially in gaming, to record hours on end of content and break it up into several videos so you have something every single day, and I understand that temptation. However, don't do that.

Since we already have you thinking about making tutorials and reviews, those videos are going to take time, and I would highly recommend spending that time crafting each video to perfection.

, make sure your titles are researched as are your tags and your description. Do the work because that's going to pay off.

Every new video that you post is going to be a new opportunity for somebody new to discover you, so make sure every video is helpful to that end. If you would like to play a game through, make a long-term let's play series, that's okay, but I want you to do that knowing that what you're doing is helping your current audience stay engaged, which there's nothing wrong with doing that, but it does take time away from crafting those more discoverable, searchable videos.

#6 Become an Active Part of the Gaming Community

So, I've told you to stick to one game. Do tutorials, do reviews, and try not to upload ‘Let's Plays’ every single day, but how do we expand and how do we discover different types of content we can make to not only keep our audience engaged, but keep us engaged with the game as well?

And that's where the community comes in around a game. When covering games on YouTube, try to immerse yourself in the community around it. If the game has a modding community, that's great. You can make a video that just kind of showcases different mods every week. If it's a building game like Minecraft, try and find servers that feature amazing builds. Tour them, show people new things they've never seen before.

You'll find once you're discovering different communities within a game that people are creating challenges and playing the game in ways that no one ever imagined. Try to do one of those challenges on your channel or better yet, come up with a way to play your game that no one's thought of before and you make the challenge for someone else to do.

The easiest way to grow any channel on YouTube is to provide value. Although it's tempting to record four hours of gameplay footage and break it up into eight 30-minute videos, that's not going to get you discovered.

Become an expert in your game and answer the questions that people are searching for around it.

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 

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.

Ready to start your gaming channel on YouTube? Here are 6 tips to give you a heads up on the competition.

How to Start a Gaming Channel on YouTube

Ah, "The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening", a blast from the past, one of the best games I've played all year, and a million times better than the rubbish that is "Breath of the Wild". Anyway, you're probably not interested in that. You want to know how I got this game into the video description. Let's find out.

5 Easy Steps to Add a Video Game in the YouTube Description Box

To do this for any video you have already uploaded to YouTube, on any YouTube page, click on your profile image in the top right-hand corner of the screen and go to the YouTube Studio.

From here, you want to go to the Video section from the navigation panel down the left-hand side.

Next, click on the video you want to edit, and then click on the Advanced tab at the top of the screen.

Halfway down this screen, you will see a ‘Categories’ option, click on this to list all of the available categories and select gaming.

When you do this, a new field will appear to the right and this is where you can type in your game title. The field will auto-complete if the game is in the database, so type it out, click on the correct title, and don't forget to save.

Anyway, if all things have gone right with your video description, it should look something like this.

The title and box artwork of the game will be displayed at the bottom of the viewable description. If you click it, you will be taken to the auto-generated YouTube channel where you can view more videos from channels who are making content on the game.

When viewing a video through the mobile YouTube app, it does work a little differently in that you have to expand the description before you can see the game title and artwork.

Setting Up a Video Game Title When Uploading to YouTube

If you want to set the game title when you are uploading a video, in the new YouTube upload workflow, you will find YouTube categories on page two in the Advanced settings and it works in exactly the same way. Choose Gaming as your category and search for your video game.

With all that said and done, is this guaranteed to get you more views? Let's be clear about one thing, this is not a cheat or a hack or a game unlock, forgive the pun. It's not going to immediately give your video more exposure, more views, more subscribers, and that type of thing.

But it certainly is not going to harm your video. If you give YouTube as much SEO as possible, it will help identify your content and potentially serve it up to the right audience. The fact that it goes into the auto-generated YouTube channel is enough of a reason to do it, as it only takes a couple of seconds.

Oh, and if YouTube's biggest gaming channel does it, that would be PewDiePie, you should probably follow suit. And if you want a lot more help pointing you in the right YouTube direction when it comes to keyword research, video analytics and channel improvement tools, make sure to grab vidIQ. It is free to download (see link below).

Want to add a video game title to your YouTube description? We show you how in 5 easy steps.

How to Add a Video Game Title to Your YouTube Description [2020 Method]

We recently published a video and a post around 

starting a YouTube gaming channel in 2020

, and in that video, I discussed playing just one game. But what if you don't know what game to play? What if you don't know which is the one game for you? This method could help you find out exactly what that could be.

Wait. I just spent all that time telling you to play one game, and now I'm telling you maybe there's another way. Just hold on. I still think sticking to one game is a good strategy, but what if you play lots of different games? What if you play games that have to be kind of similar?

The Benefits of Sticking to One Genre on Your YouTube Gaming Channel

Let's first discuss why it's important to play one game in a lot of cases. And, mainly it's because YouTube is going to understand what your channel is about. That will lead to the platform suggesting your videos among creators who make kind of the same stuff, and among search results for people who are looking for that content.

So, if you play Stardew Valley, then you want YouTube to recommend your videos when someone types in "Stardew Valley." But if you play Stardew Valley and a hundred other games, YouTube doesn't really know where you're at, and it's going to be a little bit harder for the service to put your videos out there for people searching for Stardew Valley.

Now if that sounds like something you're doing right now, let's talk about narrowing down your content a little bit. Let's not dive right into one game so fast. What if we at least dive into a genre? What is Stardew Valley? Stardew Valley is a couple of things. I consider it a farming game, or an RPG.

For hypothetical purposes, let's focus on farming. I like farming games! I like Stardew Valley, I like Farming Simulator, I like games that feature farming. So let's just say that my channel is going to be a farming game channel. Now, that's pretty specific, right? There's probably not a lot of channels that just focus on that one type of game.

Even if you don't play Stardew Valley, you might be thinking to yourself, "Okay, I don't like farming games at all, "but I do like to play a lot of Call of Duty, "so what does a strategy for that look like for me?"

COD is a first-person shooter game, so, now that we know that, now that you have your genre, here's what I suggest doing: Take that game that you like, take that genre that you like, pick one of the games out of it, and go in, and make five videos on it. Make ten videos. Make as many as you're comfortable making.

After you publish ten videos on one game, you're probably going to come away with some pretty decent stats, which is good. Data is always good for testing purposes like we're about to, you know, theoretically do.

So for me, that game happened to be Stardew Valley. Let's say I make ten Stardew Valley videos, and I'm like "Okay, I finished the Community Center, "and I got a bunch of money, "and I'm pretty happy with my progress in Stardew, "I'm kind of tired of it right now. "I'm going to swap over. "I'm going to make ten videos on Farming Simulator."

Now, after every Farming Simulator video I post, I'm going to be looking to see what my numbers are doing, and how my audience is responding to that content. In the comments, are they saying, "Aw man, I really miss Stardew Valley"? Hey, it's still good that they showed up, right? They like you, they're watching your Farming Simulator video and they came in to say, "Yeah, I kinda liked Stardew better," but at least they came in! Maybe they'll stick around, maybe they enjoy the farming games as much as you do. Or maybe you notice a whole bunch of people commenting on your video that weren't there before! Hey, okay! People really like this Farming Simulator game.

I know I'm just using two games as an example, I'd probably recommend trying this with a wider spread of farming games in this case, but I just happen to really like these two farming games, and if I'm being honest, there's not a lot of farming games that I really play. So, maybe not a perfect example. But, play as many games as you need to play in your genre.

If it's MMORPGs, then play the various MMOs that you like to play. If it happens to be first-person shooters, play those. If it happens to be games like Minecraft, survival games, building games, play as many as you can get your hands on that you'll enjoy. The most important thing is to upload these videos regularly. So, I want to stick to a schedule, and I want to upload games that are at least similar to one another.

Know Your Gaming Genre and Find New Opportunities

So I've hypothetically made my videos about Stardew Valley, I got tired of it, I made my videos about Farming Simulator, and I'm noticing some trends. Let's take a look at this.

Now obviously I didn't record any Stardew Valley or Farming Simulator videos, these are all kind of hypotheticals to get you thinking. But let's just say I did. What I want to know is what's going on in Farming Simulator? All right, so if you were to record farming simulator videos you'll see that your volume and competition look pretty good. This is actually a pretty decent search term - but is it though?

There's a lot of people playing Farming Simulator on YouTube, what if playing Farming Simulator won’t get me discovered? What if it's the word "simulator" that’s the key?

As somebody who plays a lot of games, I know that the simulator genre is actually really popular. Competition is pretty high, but there's a high search volume for people looking for the word "simulator".

Now, what have I just discovered about my content? So far as I can tell, this is not a bad idea! What if people like simulator games as much as they like farming games? What I've just done is given myself an opportunity to explore a whole genre of games that I didn't even think of at first!

Now don't get me wrong, I know this is a very specific example. We're talking about farming games, now we're talking about simulator games, and if this isn't anywhere near your genre, just know that there's a lot of different ways we can categorize games.

Games are cool because they have more than one genre, they're more than one thing a lot of times. Take Fallout, for example. Fallout 4, you could argue it's a first-person shooter game, but you could also argue, because it has a currency system built in it, and quests, it's actually an RPG. So as you're playing Fallout 4 on your channel and you're starting to get kind of tired of it, what if you played another RPG?

What if you were tired of first-person shooters at that point, but you thought, "Man, I could really go for some "Stardew Valley!" Well, Stardew Valley isn't just a farming game, it's an RPG. It has a currency system, it has quests you can do, and in some ways, Stardew Valley is similar to Fallout 4, believe it or not.

So by now, I assume you kind of get it, right? You don't have to play just one game on your channel, you could be playing all these random games. And people might ask you, "Why do you play so many random games?" And you can go, "I don't play random games. "I play simulator games! "I play Farming Simulator, I play Truck Simulator, "I play Thief Simulator." These are now your genre. Now you are the authority on simulator games.

But for those of you sitting there going, "Okay, but I actually kind of like playing just one game, "I was on board with your last plan, "what are you doing to me, you're driving me crazy!" And to those of you who are thinking that, I want to say, there is always an opportunity to niche down your content and be just the Truck Simulator person.

Or, let's say you feel like Farming Simulator has so much more depth than all the other simulator games, and that's all you want to play from now on, that's probably a smart move if your audience has really been taking to it very well. Maybe, if you're lucky, Farming Simulator has some of the best views on your channel and that's more of a reason to just stick to that one game.

The point is, there's no wrong way to do this, and every channel is going to be different, and there's never one secret sauce that I can give you that's going to work for everybody watching. I just want to get you thinking. I just want you to think about games in terms of genre.

Maybe that is a way for you to play multiple games, or at the very least test to see which one game happens to be the best for you. We talk a lot here on this channel about getting discovered, a lot of our videos and advice is to that end. You want to be discovered by people out there on YouTube, looking for things.

But when we're talking about video games, it's even more important to stress this one thing: Please play games you actually enjoy. The most important thing that you can do on a gaming channel is to play games that you enjoy, because your audience is going to sense when you're not invested in the game, and in turn, they won't be invested in your video.

So to those of you out there playing games and trying to find yourselves on YouTube, I hope this was helpful. I hope I managed to kind of enlighten you to a new strategy or two for finding not only your game but your audience.

If you're thinking of starting a gaming channel on YouTube make sure you have the right content strategy from the get-go.

How to Start a Gaming Channel On YouTube The RIGHT Way!

If you've got a YouTube kids' channel, you must be freaking out right about now. Yes, YouTube has released a new update to their policies, and how they will be handling kids' content starting in January 2020. But what's actually going on? How will this affect your videos? How will this affect your revenue? How will this affect basically everything you do on YouTube? If you've got a kids' channel and you want answers, this is the episode of TubeTalk for you.

Today we're dealing with something new, something bigger than the ad apocalypse where people lost some revenue from their ads. Today we're talking about kids' channels, and the complete change to the way YouTube handles that kind of content. YouTube was recently fined by the FTC $170 million for collecting data on young viewers and then targeting them with ads, something that the Child Online Privacy Protection Act clearly doesn't allow you to do. In turn, 

YouTube has released new policies, new documentation, and new processes of how they're going to handle kids' content.

However, the new direction YouTube is taking is still a little vague so we still need real answers. We are fortunate enough to be able to speak to our good friend Shaun McKnight, who has spoken to the people at YouTube to understand what the changes are, and how they will affect kids' content channel. Now to be clear, Shaun does not speak on behalf of YouTube. This is purely his interpretation of the conversation and what he has been told, and the questions that he has asked, and he's just sharing the conversation with us. Shaun does not represent YouTube, just want to be clear.

Sean, and his wife Mindy are the team behind the highly-successful 

 YouTube channel one year later. Their family of channels, which include 

, now has over 15.5 Million subscribers and more than 2.6 Billion video views.

Subscribe to TubeTalk: The Video Marketing Podcast!

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. Subscribe today so you never miss an episode! You can find vidIQ's TubeTalk at:

New YouTube Policy on Children's Content: Full Transcript

Liron Segev: Without further ado, let's dive in. Shaun, welcome to TubeTalk.

Shaun McKnight: Hey, thanks for having me.

Liron Segev:	So, fun and games today as news is breaking and sweeping the world. Lots of changes with kids' content. Before we dive into what's going on, do you want to give us a quick overview of the kind of channels that you manage and that you own?

Shaun McKnight: Yeah, we have three family channels. The first channel we started 10 years ago, called Cute Girls Hairstyles. My wife teaches moms and single dads, or basically mom and dads everywhere, how to do their young daughter's hair in less than five minutes, so it's kind of a time saver channel. We upload two vlogs a month on that channel. My twin daughters, Brooklyn and Bailey, have been on YouTube for six years now. They're very, very popular, some of the top influencers on YouTube. They create lifestyle content and they're now in college, so they're aging up their content from what used to be high school to now college-aged content.

And then we have another daughter, Kamri Noel, who is in high school, and she does photography and some lifestyle content on her channel. We have three additional channels that we own, but do not actually create content for as a family. We have independent contractors who upload to those channels, and one of those three is actually a kids' channel that is affected by this new policy. Four of the channels are over 1 million total. We're at 15 and a half million subscribers and about 2.6 billion views.

Liron Segev:	Now YouTube says, "Okay, ladies and gentlemen, if you are making content to do with kids, we have to talk." Tell me what's happening, what's going on?

Shaun McKnight: Well, before we can really identify what's going on, and who should really be angry and so forth, we have to think of YouTube for what it actually was. The intent of the platform. It's not an entertainment company. We as creators are the "entertainment company". YouTube is a software platform that hosts that content, right? And it has always been an age 13 and over platform, so in order to create an account or a YouTube channel, you have to certify and state that, "I'm over the age of 13."

So it was never intended to be a place where kids were going to consume content, right? So this new issue has kind of arisen over the past eight years. Toy unboxing channels were kind of the first real foray into kids' content on YouTube, and they really took off and everybody was, "Me too. I want one, I want one." And then there was the superhero genre, and there was the Frozen, Elsa, Spider-Man genre, and then a plethora of family bloggers mixed in throughout those eight years, right?

But I think that that content type that was never intended to be hosted on YouTube and consumed on YouTube grew to probably ... my guess, my estimate is about 33% of views were coming from younger kids under the age of 13 consuming content on the main YouTube platform. And then YouTube's attempt to try and create YouTube Kids as an off, standalone app was great. It's not a perfect solution, but it just seems easier for parents to just hand over their phone to a YouTube that they're currently logged in on using their profile. And kids were watching videos, and because of the suggestion algorithm that YouTube puts in place, kids were being deviated from Peppa the Pig to content that wasn't necessarily appropriate for children of that age.

Liron Segev: Those who don't know, there is a YouTube Kids app that's highly curated. The criteria as a creator to fit into that is so specific, in fact, most people actually don't qualify. Now things have changed. I mean, we've seen live streams of Peppa Pig being streamed for 24 hours. Is this who the intended audience that YouTube is kind of saying, "Look, we need to talk"?

Shaun McKnight: Yes, I believe so. Some of the advertiser issues we've had in the past that have been in the press, yes, that's fair because bad actors have been in there manipulating the algorithm, and creating content that wasn't intended to be for children. This has to do with data collection through cookies and viewer behavior. The FTC has an issue with YouTube collecting that data, presuming that it is an adult because it was created by an adult. They have to certify that they're over the age of 13.

I think it was pretty clear to a lot of people that there were children using parents' accounts. And that's where the FTC had a problem was knowing that children were consuming content on the platform, and then YouTube was using that viewer behavior to serve targeted ads. That's what the system does, right? It's not something someone's consciously doing. It's programmed to do that.

And so there was a sharing of data from kids under the age of 13 happening, where advertisers and ads were being served based on targeted data that were provided by kids under the age of 13. That's why we're in this situation.

Liron Segev:	And that's the crux of this matter. It's just, it's all to do with tracking and ads.

Shaun McKnight: Yes. Because there's pretty staunch laws, COPPA laws, to protect children from advertisements. And you know, kids are delicate. This is more of a parent issue than it really is a YouTube issue or even a government issue. We're in this situation because of parents.

And also as creators, we have a responsibility to know what the playing field is, to not put the software company that is hosting our content in jeopardy. Since we're the media creators, we're the media companies, it's not YouTube's fault per se. Yes, there's some things they could have done earlier, but this really is a parent issue. We should not be handing an iPad logged into YouTube proper to our children just because there's a Peppa Pig video there, assuming that all they're going to watch is Peppa Pig or Snoopy, or Looney Tunes or whatever it may be. That's not the way the program was intended. That's not the way the algorithm works.

Liron Segev:	So now let's put a creator hat on. I have a kids channel, I've put lots of quality and educational videos up, I spent lots of time with my animators. What's going to happen to my channel as it’s targeted specifically at under-13s?

Shaun McKnight: It's really sad because, yeah, this has affected me. Fortunately, I didn't put a lot of money and resources and time into our kids' channel, so having lost the monetization on that and the engagement ability through that channel isn't really affecting me. If I had invested a lot more time and money, it would be really, really hard for me. I would struggle with this decision, particularly because I know the content I create is safe for kids.

But I also kind of have to look at it as, okay, that content was never really meant to be on YouTube proper. It's almost like for the past seven years, every time I do the laundry, I've been finding money in the pocket of those pants, right? It was never really supposed to be there, but it was a benefit to me and I'm grateful to it. But to the point that I become expectant that every week when I do my laundry there's going to be money in that pocket, and then all of a sudden it isn't. I can't be mad at the washer. I can't be mad at the pants.

I was lucky to have that money all that time. I mean, that's an oversimplified way of saying it really stinks to be in this situation, and you should be grateful for what you had during that time. But the platform was never meant to host that kind of content, because of the target audience. So it was almost like we played with house money. Now the system is correcting itself, the pendulum is coming back to where it should have been originally. Now as creators we have to find out where do we put it now where we can get the maximum monetization? Because the option on YouTube proper is not going to be there.

I believe, from what I understand, YouTube negotiated pretty heavily with the government who wanted to implement an immediate implementation of this policy. YouTube was able to get that negotiated to four months, which allows the partner managers and basically the community of creators to work together to figure out, "What are we doing with this content type?" There will be, I think, a more concerted effort on YouTube Kids. YouTube has created their own version of YouTube on desktop, like a YouTube proper but only for kids, where this content can be hosted. I think the problem for a lot of creators are that the monetization will not be there immediately like it has been on YouTube proper.

Liron Segev:	We're not talking about little bits of money. I mean, some people have made entire businesses out of this, entire companies. They've got staff, they've got offices, they've got multiple channels, bringing in multiple six-figure income per month from these kids' channels. This is going to go from that, I would assume, to probably virtually zero in a couple of months.

Shaun McKnight: It is, and so that's the other thing. I think it's important for people to understand. It's easy to think, okay, YouTube's the big bad bully here because the government said, "Oh, you're doing this," and YouTube is like, "Well, we're just going to make the creators pay for this."

But think about if what I'm saying is true and roughly 33% of views on YouTube are coming from children under the age of 13 consuming gaming content and kids content and toy unboxing and so forth, YouTube has a split with the creators of 55/45. They're losing 45% of that huge chunk of views per month, so their revenue is being hit too. This wasn't an easy decision by YouTube to do this.

Liron Segev:	That's a good point because not only the creators get a hit because YouTube is not paying them as much anymore, but YouTube isn't being paid either. Everybody takes a hit. It's good for the kids. I mean, we want to be clear. You have to protect the kids. That's non-negotiable.

Liron Segev: This is just basically systems put in place to help do that. The question is, how do we now deal with the situation that we find ourselves in? I like your example of, we've been living on borrowed time anyway. If you have kids channels, you know that you were playing with fire when you started this.

Liron Segev:	Did YouTube tell you what the implications will be? Is there a new processing you have to self-select your content when you upload it in the future?

Shaun McKnight: Yeah, that will be happening in the next coming months. Obviously before January 1st, I think they'll be putting that in place. Currently, there's a beta for channels that have to self-certify against vulgarity, violence, sexual content, and so forth. More for safety for children, but also to make sure YouTube understands what is this video about?

So they know how to rate it. That was self-certification and there's a trust algorithm that goes against that. Meaning, I can certify that my content is safe for all audiences. Then YouTube has its own algorithm that goes in and it knows what's in my video. It's using Google Vision. It can tell whether that matches how I certified and so forth. Over time, I can earn trust in the algorithm, which also helps me in my growth.

All they're going to be doing is adding one more line in there that says, "Is this piece of content targeted to children under the age of 13?" Whether or not we click that box determines, alongside the verifications through the algorithm, how much trust we're gaining. Also, I read yesterday through all of this, there's a lot of press going on.

The FTC has actually made a statement that by YouTube implementing this self-certification and if a creator goes out and intentionally creates content for younger kids and certifies that it is not for children under the age of 13 just simply to bypass the policy and make the higher CPMs on YouTube proper, that that opens up that content creator for exposure to the FTC that they can call out full force on that content creator. That's actually scary to me to hear that. Because YouTube has put enough in place now to protect those children that I, myself as "the media company" uses the software platform to target children under 13 when it wasn't meant to be, the FTC can now come against me directly.

Liron Segev:	Wow. Well, you shouldn't be doing it. At the end of the day, facing the FTC is very different than getting a community strike against your channel.

Shaun McKnight: Correct. Or even losing your own monetization on that channel. You're talking penalties and fines and potential prison and court and legal. I mean it's not something to play with.

On this special episode of TubeTalk, we discuss the bombshell changes YouTube are making to the way kid's content is promoted on the platform and the implication that has for creators. It's a must-listen to!

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