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

I'm sure you all have your own horror stories of when you've accidentally deleted your YouTube videos - it’s more common than you think. But there’s a quick and easy solution videos, just pop onto Youtube and download it from there.

When you are logged into YouTube you should see your channel logo in the top right hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that, you have the option to go to 

. This is currently in beta, but will become a standard as 2019 progresses.

This is your new dashboard or analytics homepage and from here you want to click on the Videos tab. This will list all of your videos, with most recent first.

When you roll your mouse over these it will show three dots. Click on this and you should find yourself with a download option. And this part's a bit of a no brainer. Click download to save it to your computer.

You can't officially download other peoples YouTube videos

 although you can download them to watch offline if you are part of the YouTube Premium Service on a mobile application of Youtube.

And there's also this extra little tidbit that you might want to know if you're downloading your own videos from YouTube. The file that you download from Youtube is a radically different beast of the one you originally uploaded. First of all you'll notice just how small it is. In this case, ten percent of the size of the original. You'll also notice that by default the resolution is set to 1280 by 720 which may differ from the original. If nothing else this is a testament to the compression technology over at YouTube because other than resolution, I can't tell a difference.

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

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

Forgot to back up your YouTube uploads? There's a new method of downloading your content from your YouTube Channel and we show you what you need to do.

How to Download a YouTube Video: New Method

The old saying that readers will often judge a book by its cover is true, and the same goes for viewers that judge videos by their thumbnails. So ensure that you have custom thumbnails enabled on your YouTube Channel so you can upload your own images to the viewer as they browse for something interesting or entertaining to watch.

How To Enable Custom Thumbnails on YouTube

When you are logged into YouTube, you should see your profile logo in the top right hand corner. Click this and then go to settings. From here you need to click on the view additional features link, which will then show you all the YouTube features that are available and whether or not you have access to them.

There are no views, subscribers, or watch time requirements to unlock custom thumbnails. All you need to do is verify your YouTube account. And you can do that from this very screen. Next to your profile logo and channel name at the top, you will find a blue verify button. Click that to start the process. To verify your YouTube account, Google will send you a verification code to a phone number either through an automated voice or text message, which you can choose on the screen. Do note so you can only verify two YouTube accounts per phone number, per year.

Once you put your phone number, click submit, and you should see this screen that asks you for that verification code. Whichever solution you decide to use, you should almost instantly get a ping on your phone in this example I requested a text message, which sent me the verification code. Now all you need to do is go back to your computer, input the six digit verification code, click submit and that will verify your account. Which instantly gives you access to adding custom thumbnails to your videos.

Why Custom Thumbnails on YouTube are Critical to Success

Now for a very quick demonstration on why custom thumbnails are so important. This video you see on screen is about how to download a thumbnail from YouTube. But the current thumbnail for this video that's been selected by YouTube automatically is a rather useless picture of myself that tells the viewer absolutely nothing. But with the help of a custom thumbnail, we can tell a much more colorful, intriguing, and direct visual story that might just earn this video an extra click.

Here's a very simple way to look at it. We increase the number of clicks we get on our videos, (this is called click through rates) by more than 100% simply by making better thumbnails. So remember, you can make a fantastic video, but if you can't get people through the door then it is a waste of time. Pay attention to that first impression.

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

Enabling custom thumbnails is one of the easiest but most important things you can do for your YouTube channel. We show you how.

How to Enable Custom Thumbnails On YouTube

If you’re new to YouTube, or you just want to up your YouTube game, then learning how to create the most effective custom thumbnails is absolutely essential. Just as readers judge books by their covers, viewers judge videos by their thumbnails. It's unavoidable. You have just a tiny window of opportunity to grab that person's attention and draw them into your video. So let's jump into how to make custom thumbnails.

Custom Thumbnails on YouTube: Your Winning Feature

When you upload a video to YouTube, the platform will select a few options for thumbnails based on the content of the video. But the chances are very, very high that the frames selected will be off the mark and tell the viewer absolutely nothing. But with the help of a custom thumbnail, we can tell a much more colorful, intriguing, and direct visual story that might just earn this video an extra click.

And here is the good news. To start using custom thumbnails, you don't need a single view, subscriber, or minute of watch time, but you do need to verify your YouTube account. Verifying your YouTube account to unlock custom thumbnails, along with lots of other things, has just jumped to the top of your YouTube priority list. Get it done now. Now you've got access to custom thumbnails, let's have a look at some of the technical aspects of how to create them.

The minimum recommended resolution is 1280 by 720. If you go any higher, then you're gonna face two problems. First of all, when you start to create really high resolution images, when you shrink them down to thumbnail preview size, they can look a little weird. But more importantly, YouTube has a very restrictive file size when it comes to thumbnails. You have just two meg to play with. Keep that in mind if you intend to create really complex images. And finally, make sure to save your thumbnails in one of the following file formats. JPEG, GIF, or jiff, BMP, and PNG.

Another advantage of creating thumbnails at this resolution is that it matches the aspect ratio of how 99.9% of your potential audience will see them, which is the classic 16 by 9 widescreen shape. If you stick to these basic YouTube thumbnail principles, you should be off and running.

Custom Thumbnails on YouTube: The 10% Rule

Pay attention folks, because if there is one thing you take away from this guide, it's this next tip. It is absolutely crucial for the success of your thumbnails. When you design your thumbnail, you get the whole experience, but everybody else gets a smaller experience, and I like to call it the 10% rule. At full size, this thumbnail looks colorful, but pretty basic. There are maybe three elements to it. A person, and object, and a background. However, when you shrink it down to 10% of its original size, is everything you saw before still recognizable and easy to understand? It's the same for YouTube thumbnails as seen on mobile devices, although this might be more the 25% rule, or the 30% rule. Basically when you create your custom thumbnail, make sure to shrink it down to 10% of its size to see how everybody else is gonna see that thumbnail when it ends up on YouTube.

Great Custom Thumbnails: Higher Click Through Rates

Hopefully every YouTube content creator is aware of their click through rate. Every time a viewer sees one of your thumbnails, that counts as an impression. Every time somebody clicks on one of those thumbnails, that is a view, of course And you can calculate the click-through rate from that. For example, let's say your thumbnail is shown 100 times, and it's clicked on 10 times, that's 10% click-through rate. Basically, click-through rate is a representation of how powerful and effective your titles and your thumbnails are.

To review the click-through rate on your channel, you will need to go to the new YouTube Studio beta. From the dashboard screen, click on Analytics, and then from the top row of tabs, click on Reach Viewers, and finally Impressions to click-through rate box. A question that's often asked at this point is, what is a good click-through rate? And YouTube's answer is between 2% and 10%. But what I would say is forget all that and set your current click-through rate as a benchmark and aim to improve on that. The reason I say that is because it's impossible to compare your click-through rate to anybody else's because the type of content, and the style of a channel, and the size of a channel, amongst many other things, can have a huge influence on how many people click on your thumbnails. All that you should be doing is working with the numbers you know and understand. Working with somebody else's numbers is going to drive you utterly insane. The exciting thing is that as click through rate goes up, so does everything else!

Custom Thumbnails: Keep on the Right Side of YouTube

Time for a little bit of fun. Did you know that Google can tell you all sorts of things about your thumbnail, which are unnervingly accurate, including, really importantly for YouTube, whether or not your thumbnail is safe. A great tool for checking a thumbnail is safe is 

, and it’s free to use right now. All you need to do is upload a thumbnail to it and it will spit out the following information. It can tell me, with 94% confidence, that the main emotion in this thumbnail is surprise. It knows this thumbnail contains a person, a man, in fact, and it can even pick out the traffic sign. It's even trying to pick out specific body parts and actions. Perhaps the most important tab, however, is the last one, Safe Search. This tells us how safe Google thinks the image is, and we know that YouTube does analyze thumbnails to ensure that they are safe for the viewer. So if you do create a thumbnail that is a little edgy, it might be a good idea to run it through this first. Cloud Vision is certainly an impressive glance into the world of artificial intelligence.

Beyond the video content itself, custom thumbnails are probably the most important YouTube tool you have in your arsenal. Take a look at our essential guide and get it right first time, every time.

How to Make Custom Thumbnails - The Essential Guide!

As the PewDiePie vs T Series battle continues we’re taking a look back at all the high points and learnings from the race for the Channel with the most subscribers on YouTube. In this post, we ask if PewDiePie really tried to hack YouTube in a bid to hold on to his crown?

 that automatically played at twice the speed as normal. This naturally intrigued us as it brought Watch Time and playback speed into focus. Let's talk about the theory first. You can change playback speed on any YouTube video by going to settings, clicking on speed, and then changing it to a quarter speed or double speed. With some very rudimentary math, that means that you could watch a ten minute video at double speed, and it actually only takes you five minutes to watch. And a lot of people do that, including myself. If I am very short on time, and it's a very conversational video, then I'll watch it at double speed, just so I can get through it quicker and watch more content with the time that I have.

That's the viewer's perspective on playback, but what about the video creator? Is there something to gain from this? It's generally accepted that watch time is the most important metric on YouTube. So does slowing down or indeed speeding up the playback of your videos affect watch times positively or negatively.

In this example, what PewDiePie has done is slow his video down in his video editor, so that when you play back at normal speed it's just excruciating. This forces the viewer to change the playback speed to double speed so that it looks and sounds normal. But in YouTube land what actually counts, the 21 minutes of the actual video length, or the ten and a half minutes of real world time that it took you to watch the video? I'm glad you asked because we have the answer.

Earlier in 2018, we uploaded an 18 minute video and set it to private so nobody else could watch it. Then we watched the entire video at double speed, so that we could check the analytics on it. That single view, watching an 18 minute video at double speed resulted in a watch time of nine minutes, exactly half the length of the video itself. What it also gave us, rather weirdly, was audience retention of exactly 50 percent, which is a little confusing.

The next thing we tested was the complete opposite. We uploaded a one minute video to YouTube, set it to private, and watched it at a quarter speed. That meant that in real life it took us four minutes to watch this one minute video. And what did the analytics say? Yep, you guessed it. Four minutes of watch time and rather impressively, four hundred percent audience retention from a single view. Just to clarify that, You Tube watch time is calculated from your physical presence in the real world watching the video. If, and I hasten to underline that, if PewDiePie was trying to game the YouTube system, he got it all backwards.

The simplest way of looking at this, is if you double the playback speed, you have the watch time. Let's say for argument's sake that five million people watched this PewDiePie video, and they watched a full duration of the video at 20 minutes. That would give you, in normal circumstances, one hundred million minutes of watch time. But if it's played at double speed, that halves the physical amount of time the video is watched, and it brings us down to fifty million minutes of watch time. That's still quite a lot of cost.

If you were going to try and hack the YouTube watch time analytics, which of course we do not recommend, you would have to do this. There you have it folks. If our testing was accurate and the analytics haven't changed since then, this video will have had a detrimental effect on PewDiePie's watch time. Which begs the question, why did the currently most subscribed to You Tube channel on the planet do this? I don't know, it's PewDiePie.

ICYMI: As the PewDiePie vs T Series battle rages on we take a look back at the stunts pulled, including the time PewDiePie may have tried to hack YouTube Watch Time in a bid to hold on to his crown.

Did PewDiePie Really Try to Hack YouTube to Beat T Series?

First of all, let's say congratulations to PewDiePie. The first independent YouTube channel to reach 90 million subscribers. If he was a country, he'd find himself in between Vietnam and Germany. And, of course, let's not forget T Series, who hit the same phenomenal landmark just half an hour later. But, this continued neck-and-neck race between two channels is starting to raise some interesting and hard questions

I think we've all got used to the idea of PewDiePie being overtaken by T Series on occasion. It's happened a number of times, but the curious question is this, having taken a lead, why can't T Series maintain it and indeed stretch it? The gap always seems to be a few thousand subscribers, and doesn't last more than a couple of hours at most. Before by the end of the evening, PewDiePie finds himself maybe 15 to 20,000 subscribers ahead, and then we repeat. As day turns to night or night turns to day, depending on your perspective, PewDiePie has a lead that soon vanishes and now we find T Series once again in the lead. So what's actually going on in the 

PewDiePie vs T Series & the YouTube Algorithm

Now, you could maybe accept this happening for one or two nights in a row while some massive PewDiePie campaign of the likes we've seen before propelling him hundreds of thousands of subscribers ahead. But this type of subscriber fluctuation has been going on for months - almost as if it's being controlled on purpose to help each channel feed off of the continued media interest. It just doesn't make sense for T Series to catch up, and then still not be able to jump ahead of PewDiePie for longer than 24 hours. So what is going on here?

Well, I found a really interesting video by a chap called Mehditation, who talks about a 

. It's really brilliant stuff, and this is what he thinks is happening. We know T Series has been catching up PewDiePie for a long time, years in fact. Before this turned into a race, PewDiePie averaged 30,000 subscribers a day, while T Series would average in excess of 100,000 subscribers a day. Now yes, when it turned into a race PewDiePie got the occasional huge subscriber boost from the YouTube community. But, ultimately, they can only help for so long against a relentless T Series YouTube machine.

But as both channels grind towards 100 million subscribers, the rules of engagement seem to have changed. As if they are magnetized to each other, both channels averaging just under 140,000 subscribers a day. So, how might this happen? Let's go into conspiracy mode. Let's pretend that T Series has millions of fake accounts subscribed to their channel. And as they gather more and more real subscribers, they simply shave off the fake ones. Thus, controlling there ultra consistent subscriber count that they have had for months, if not years. Or, what if it's the complete opposite? What if it's millions of fake accounts that are being pumped into PewDiePie's channel? And as he gains new and legitimate subscribers, the fake ones are simply sliced off the top. Thus, keeping a subscriber pace that PewDiePie's channel has never been able to sustain for such a long period of time. It keeps both channels in the news, and both channels benefit from it.

Now, given the recent numbers, and how the subscriber rate has changed over the last couple of weeks, I find this theory absolutely fascinating with some plausibility. Do I think it's true or not?

In the race for the most subscribers on YouTube, T Series have taken the lead over PewDiePie on many occasions. But why can't they keep a hold of it?

PewDiePie Vs T Series: Why Can't T Series Maintain the Lead?

Want to download your own thumbnail from YouTube? When you are logged into YouTube you should see your channel logo in the top right hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that you have the option to go to 

, this is currently in beta, but will become the standard as 2019 progresses.

To download a thumbnail from one of your own YouTube videos in the new Studio click on the Videos section where you will find all your videos listed with the most recent first. Click on a video to jump to the edit page and under the basics tab you should see a selection of potential thumbnails selected from the video and your current thumbnail if it is a custom one. There should be a box with three dots inside the current thumbnail. If you click on that you have the option to replace it with a new thumbnail or download the existing one.

When you click 'download', the image may appear in a new web browser where you can do the usual right click and save. One thing to note, it doesn't matter what resolution you uploaded the thumbnail as, it will always be downloaded as 1280 by 720.

Now that's how you download your thumbnails, but you can download any thumbnail from any YouTube video. To do this, the video has to be public and you will need the video ID. You can get this from the watch page URL and it will be a random collection of numbers and letters after the equal symbol. So highlight all of that and copy it. On a new browser tab you will need to type in the following URL. All you need to do is replace 'YouTube-video-id' with the actual video ID:

*https://img.youtube.com/vi/youtube-video-id/maxresdefault.jpg*

Once inserted, you should be able to press enter or click go and you should now see the thumbnail from that video. So that's how you download any thumbnail from any video on YouTube. But you have to be careful about why you're doing this. If you just want it for your own personal use, say to look at a larger version of the thumbnail and see if there are any good strategies and tactics you can use in your own thumbnails, that's fine. It's when you want to use it for broadcast or commercial purposes.

Remember, a creator's video is their own copyrighted material and the same goes for the thumbnail. So if you want to use this thumbnail in your own content then you should really ask permission from the video creator. Of course you could use the thumbnails in your content and claim fair usage as educational or transformative content, but that's a topic for another video.....

Did you know that vidIQ has an awesome custom thumbnail generator tool that's free to use? You can create and edit the best thumbnails for your YouTube videos to maximise your click through rates - more details on 

Everything you wanted to know about downloading YouTube thumbnails but were afraid to ask. vidIQ brings you all the details.

How to Download a YouTube Thumbnail (New Method)

PewDiePie has the lead over T Series, once again, in the subscriber race and indeed the chase to 100,000,000 subscribers. The combined subscriber count is approaching 190M and of course, there's absolutely no duplication in numbers here, because there's no crossover between PewDiePie's audience and T Series' audience. Nobody's going to subscribe to both channels, are they? Or, they are and then, they're going to unsubscribe from one channel to bring the numbers down. You can see the issue here.

Now, of course PewDiePie and T Series subscriber sources are private. We're not going to have access to that, but we can investigate where subscribers typically come from for a channel and then you can decide where you think both PewDiePie and T Series' subscribers are generally coming from.

PewDiePie & T Series: Where are Subscribers Coming From?

We're going to be using VidIQ as a reference point to find out all of the different subscriber sources there are and you can do that by going to analytics, clicking the "see more" link on any of the channel-wide graphs, and then selecting subscriber source. If you have your own channel, it might be worth doing this right now to follow along.

Now, where else could we start but with the YouTube watch page? This is when a viewer found the content so valuable that they were compelled to click the "subscribe" button as they were watching the video. PewDiePie's "

" dis-track has amassed 65M views in a week, which has helped him bring in over 1,500,000 subscribers in that time.

Now, not all of those subscribers are coming from one video. PewDiePie produces daily content, after all. But in the previous week, he got 950,000 subscribers. Logic dictates that valuable videos that connects with your audience will bring in more subscribers and it always helps when the video goes viral, even if YouTube never puts it on the "trending page."

Just to make sure we're fair and balanced on this - if we look at this purely from a views versus subscriber perspective, things do get really interesting. Last June, before the subscriber rates really got going, T Series got eight times as many views, but only five times as many subscribers as PewDiePie. If we fast forward to December, when the race was in full effect, PewDiePie doubles his view count, while T Series increased theirs by around 40%.

But when it comes to subscribers, PewDiePie has increased his count by almost 800%. T Series on the other hand, have increased their sub-count 50%. More or less, in line with their increased view count. I think all of this tells us something really interesting on both sides.

PewDiePie & T Series: Views vs Subscribers

First of all, T Series is terrible at converting views into subscribers and that is due to the nature of their very diverse content. You've got all sorts of music genres on one channel and if you've looked at T Series, their views spike depending on what type of video is being pushed out on their channel. As for PewDiePie, 200% increase in views, 800% increase in subscribers. Time for an eyebrow raise. Of course, we kind of have an explanation for that. It's all of these other YouTubers, such as Mr. Beast and Markiplier rallying behind PewDiePie, but just because he gets some subscribers, it doesn't mean he actually gets more viewers from it and build an engaged audience with his channel. In most cases, a channel will get most of its subscribers from the video watch pages.

On the other hand, there are a bundle of subscriber sources that generate virtually no subscribers. Those being, the "subscribe" button on your channel page, subscriptions from the search results based on queries, interactive cards and end screens within videos, and so on. But two subscribe sources that do deserve more scrutiny however, are ‘other’ and ‘other YouTube channel’.

What does ‘other’ refer to? T Series, being a massive Bollywood film and music label, has external ways to encourage people to subscribe to their channel. One such place being their official website. ‘Other YouTube Channel’ is another potential fountain of subscribers too. Again, T Series has the opportunity to combine the might of all of it's YouTube channels to create a network of subscriber opportunities and they do. We took a deeper look into this and it also seems that individual videos from other channels can push subscribers to you too.

Not quite sure how that differs to watch page subscriptions, but if we look at it from this point of view, the T Series channel pushes out three to four videos a day, that's in comparison to PewDiePie, who averages a single video a day. That means, more opportunities for T Series to get videos suggested on other videos and more potential subscribers from that other YouTube channel source.

How YouTube Channels Also Lose Subscribers

Now so far, we've only talked about how each channel can gain subscribers, but don't forget, you can also lose subscribers as well. You can of course, gain and lose subscribers from all sources, but there are only a few that generate negative numbers and of particular interest in the PewDiePie versus T Series race, closed accounts is likely the one that's abnormally high.

If you're familiar with the subscriber race, you'll have seen those moments where either PewDiePie or T Series gain or lose tens of thousands of subscribers in a single second, which is impossible, unless there is a subscriber purge or audit. YouTube do talk about this in their "help" pages, citing spam subscribers and channels that have been terminated. YouTube have done big purges, but you'll see fluctuations of 1,000 subscribers here and there happen on a near daily basis when it comes to PewDiePie versus T Series. Closed accounts are those terminated due to policy violations and spam subscribers are those subscribers gained through artificial means. I'll just say it one more time, 200% increase in views, 800% increase in subscribers.

Since PewDiePie is, once again at time of writing, ahead of T Series in terms of subscribers, we ask where do all these subscribers even come from?

PewDiePie vs T Series: Where Do the Subscribers Come From?

It's no secret that YouTube has been dogged by controversy over these last two years, with questionable content that seemingly gets pushed by the algorithm. Now, it's been confirmed that the platform has been working on two new metrics and they are both designed around the concept of gaging and promoting quality content. So what are these metrics, and what do they potentially mean for video creators?

New YouTube Metrics: Engagement Watch Time?

The first one sounds like a jacked up super enhanced version of session watch time. It will track, not only time spent on the YouTube platform watching videos, but also time spent posting and reading comments. So while posting comments may seem like something that's pretty easy to gain (after all how many sub-comments do you have on your channel?), if YouTube is going to start tracking how long a viewer spends on a Watch page reading comments, that's an entirely different and interesting proposition.

This sounds like a metric that might be called Engagement Watch Time. But, on the other hand, earlier on in the year YouTube was forced into a sweeping blanket 

ban of comments on videos containing children

, and while YouTube are slowly resolving this problem, if you do have comments disabled on your videos, for any reason, how do you benefit from this particular metric?

The second metric is simply and mysteriously called ‘Quality Watch Time’ which as of now, nobody outside Google completely understands. However, 

 that the new metric aims to “spot content that achieves something more constructive than just keeping users glued to their phones or desktops.”

What this potentially means is that YouTube maybe starting to distance themselves from what is considered the most important metric on YouTube, raw Watch Time. With the consensus being that more outlandish, more risque content leads to more Watch Time which is something YouTube keeps being dogged by because of controversial content.

Bloomberg goes on to say “the changes are supposed to reward videos that are more palatable to advertisers and the broader public, and help YouTube ward off criticism that its service is addictive and socially corrosive.” Did you notice an important word there? Advertisers. Does that mean search and discovery of your content could be influenced by whether or not its monetized in the future?

Are you ready for a brand-new YouTube metric? One that could change the entire course of a platform and the fate of your channel. Here’s what we know about Quality Watch Time.

Quality Watch Time: YouTube's New Metric Could Change Everything

 Let's jump straight into this one with a question. What do the most impactful thumbnails have in common? The answer is, while they are all a very high-quality images, they are pretty simple with only two or three main elements. That means that when you shrink them down to 10% of their original design size, in other words: thumbnail preview size.

 The best thumbnails are custom - not just still frames from the videos. They are dedicated, professionally shot, professionally edited images, designed to tease you about what's inside the video.

 Unless you capture the perfect moment during your film, and the chances are you will need to create a prepared shot. If you're wondering how video creators get the YouTuber look, they often create poses in front of the camera, then create interesting foregrounds and backgrounds that contrast with each event. This way, you ensure the viewer directs their eyes to the things you want to highlight in your thumbnail.

 The next question you need to ask is, does the image show emotion and, or excitement? If you’re including a face in the thumbnail you’ll want to focus in on the whites of the eyes - that creates a better human relationship.

 Of course, not all thumbnails can convey emotion - particularly if there's not a person in the thumbnail. But they should all be able to tell some sort of story. If the viewer can take an educated guess at the content of the video from the thumbnail, then the thumbnail is doing its job. Custom thumbnails should create intrigue, entertainment or excitement, while teasing a simple, yet powerful message, that compels you to click and find out more.

 Another common trait of awesome thumbnails is consistency. And we're not just talking about quality. Each channel creates a style that you can see throughout their thumbnails. The goal should be to create thumbnails the viewer can instantly recognize as your thumbnails from your channel.

 A vibrant thumbnail is a great thumbnail. But this isn't achieved without a little work. Video creators edit their images to be more colorful and sharper at a smaller size so they pop out of the screen. In Photoshop, you can add an image adjustment layer on top of a simple thumbnail to increase the saturation to make the color pop just that little bit harder. The effect may seem subtle but when you throw it onto YouTube, where it's competing against everybody else's thumbnails, it can have a huge impact.

 Text should be used very sparingly. No more than two or three words. Remember, you have a video title to do that - and the last thing you want to do is regurgitate your title in the thumbnail. That’s a very common mistake. As with everything, there are exceptions to this rule. And if you are doing something that is very educational and needs to say exactly what it does on a tin, then it may be valuable to use a text. But try and keep it as limited as possible. Probably no more than five or six words.

 Always remember YouTube alignments. You cannot avoid this timestamp blotting your thumbnail. Just be aware that it is always on the bottom right hand corner of your thumbnail or you'll end up with a problem.

 Now there is something to remember about all of these thumbnail tips, tricks and guidance. Once you know them, don't be afraid to break them. Which brings us back to the most efficient thumbnail ever created on YouTube. One color, 17 million views. This is a disruptor. Something that follows no rules and because of that it stands out as something totally unique. It helps that the title is perfect too. It challenges your understanding and compels you to click, to get an answer to the question that's in your head, which is, what does this mean?

Here at vidIQ, our thumbnails have consistent branding, consistent themes, and consistent colors. Above are all the thumbnail guidelines we’ve started to follow more religiously in the last year. And the results speak for themselves. We've increased click-through rate (that's how many times people click on our thumbnails) by 100% in the last 12 months. If you're unfamiliar with how click-through rate works we cover this in detail with our thumbnails essential guide. Check the 

Here's my challenge to you. The next time you're on YouTube watching your favorite video creators, take a look at their thumbnails and ask yourself, why do I click on this content? Take those answers and spend twice as long as you usually would do creating your next thumbnail. Because as I said at the top of this video, better thumbnails lead to more clicks. Let's do this.

Awesome custom thumbnails lead to more views and more clicks. It's as simple as that. Here are 10 reasons why some custom thumbnails work and others don't.

10 Reasons Why Some Custom Thumbnails Work and Others Don't

On April 1st PewDiePie retook the lead for the most subscribed to Channel, in the 

' diss track which now has over 80 million views. PewDiePie went a few hundred thousand subscribers ahead, and then T Series slowly clawed that back. But that difference accelerated when T Series were about 50,000 subscribers behind, and then 24 hours later, they got to 80,000 subscribers ahead. A pretty significant difference, especially in T Series' favor. And what can we credit this sudden influx of subscribers to? Put simply, it's YouTube views.

Anything PewDiePie can do in terms of generating views, T Series can do more frequently and with a lot more resources. And although 

T Series is absolutely terrible at converting views into subscribers

, ultimately for this subscriber race that doesn't matter.

And now things have turned legal, PewDiePie's diss tracks have irritated T Series enough for the case to go to court. With those videos no longer viewable in India. Is this just the start of potential legal wranglings between the two? Now of course, as we all know you write off PewDiePie in the subscriber race at your peril. But for six months he was the one being chased and now the roles have reversed, the pendulum has swung. PewDiePie has to chase T Series down to 100 million subscribers. Everything seems to be flowing in one direction. But you know who we haven't heard from for a while? PewDiePie himself - don’t write him off.

While the title for the most subscribed to YouTube Channel flip flops between the two, we ask - how much longer can PewDiePie actually hold T Series off for good?

PewDiePie vs T Series- How Much Longer Can PewDiePie Hold T Series Off For Good?

How do you create a Playlist on YouTube? When you are logged in to YouTube, you should see your channel logo in the top right hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that, you have the option to go to YouTube Studio (this is currently in beta, but will become the standard as 2019 progresses). Within the new Studio, click on the videos section that lists all of your most recent videos. Next to each video is a checkbox and if you click it more options will become available at the top. One of the new options is ‘Add to Playlist.’ If you click on this, you can add the currently selected videos to an existing Playlist or at the very bottom, you can create a brand new Playlist. Simply create a title and set the Playlist visibility. For example, you may want to set the Playlist to private until you have several videos in that Playlist.

Playlists are very much underused and undervalued by video creators on YouTube. A proven way to grow your channel is to get viewers to not only watch one of your videos, but a series of videos that are all related together, and that is where Playlists come into play (forgive the pun.) You want to create a binge watch mentality, so not only do you get Watch Time from one video, but session Watch Time from several of your videos.

At the time of writing, how to manage Playlists is a little confusing because the functionality is not yet available in the new creators studio. So if you point your browser to 

https://www.youtube.com/view_all_playlists

, you will reach a page where you can start to edit your Playlists in terms of order of videos, add description, and so on.

A proven way to grow your YouTube Channel is to get viewers to watch more than one of your videos - that's why setting up Playlists is a must.

Your In-Depth Guide to Building a Successful YouTube Channel

How to Download a YouTube Video: New Method

Published

How to Enable Custom Thumbnails On YouTube

Published

How to Make Custom Thumbnails - The Essential Guide!

Published

Did PewDiePie Really Try to Hack YouTube to Beat T Series?

Published

PewDiePie Vs T Series: Why Can't T Series Maintain the Lead?

Published

How to Download a YouTube Thumbnail (New Method)

Published

PewDiePie vs T Series: Where Do the Subscribers Come From?

Published

Quality Watch Time: YouTube's New Metric Could Change Everything

Published

10 Reasons Why Some Custom Thumbnails Work and Others Don't

Published

PewDiePie vs T Series- How Much Longer Can PewDiePie Hold T Series Off For Good?

Published

How to Create a Playlist On YouTube 2019 [New Method]

Published

How Updating Custom Thumbnails Generated Millions of Extra Views for Vevo

Published