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

How To Make Money on YouTube

Do you know how to do keyword research so you understand what videos people are actually searching for on YouTube? Do you know how to create a custom YouTube thumbnail? Do you know how to create a Playlist on YouTube?

vidIQ has a ton of tips that will help every creator maximise their video content. We publish content every week to keep you up to date with all the best practices.

YouTube Tips & Tricks

YouTube Shorts content is set to explode! 

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

YouTube Shorts

Ask any YouTuber and they will tell you that generating significant views and subscribers isn't easy. But with the right strategy and tools, any video creator can build an engaged subscriber base when they understand what those subscribers want to watch.

Appealing to an audience to watch content you are passionate about making is just the first step, you need to know how to reach them and get your videos discovered. Our guides to how to guide more views on YouTube will give you the best tips to succeed on the platform.

How To Get More Views on YouTube

If you’ve put off creating your own YouTube channel because you’re overwhelmed with the choices you need to make or are panicking because you feel you lack the right skills to succeed, worry no more and welcome to the only resource you’ll need to fulfill your video creator dreams.

If this is your first time here, we have a 

 that aims to educate you on your YouTube journey. And if it is your plan to grow your channel, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, and click on our notification bell so you don't miss any of our latest tips, tricks, advice, and news.

How to Start Your YouTube Channel: 10 Top Tips

We promised 20 tips to kickstart your YouTube channel, so let's start delivering on that promise with 10 tips in this post and 10 tips in the 

. All the tips are covered in this video too:

So amazingly, there are still some people out there who are thinking of starting a YouTube channel and have been for months, possibly even years. My advice to you is, ready or not, start now. And I'm not telling you this as a New Year's resolution. Every moment you hesitate or procrastinate, there are thousands of video creators starting their YouTube channel today, and gobbling up all your potential audience. You don't want that.

Feel the fear, do it anyway. Start, press record. Record whatever you want today. It doesn't matter if it doesn't end up on YouTube. You need to gain experience in getting in front of the camera, getting behind the camera, using your editing program. You need to start creating content to find out whether or not you enjoy making videos before you know whether or not you enjoy being a YouTuber.

Tip #2 Learn How YouTube Works, No Seriously:

The chances are, that the first video you make is going to absolutely suck. Fantastic, you've made a video. You've made the first step, and in six months’ time, you'll look back at that first video and think yeah, that really was terrible, but you've gotta start the journey somewhere. And with that, you've gotta start your YouTube channel somewhere as well, even if you're not ready. Create a YouTube account, upload a video to YouTube. You don't have to publish it, that's the important thing.

You need to gain experience going through the workflow of uploading videos. The last thing you want is having a brilliant video ready to upload, but you don't know how the YouTube system works. Again, experience is going to trump any advice any of us can give you, so record a video, upload it to YouTube. You don't have to publish it.

Tip #3 Develop a Strategy you Will Actually Follow:

While getting some practical experience behind you is obviously a good thing, you also want some form of strategy. So, answer these questions:

What do you want your channel to achieve on YouTube

, and when you're answering this, try and answer it from a viewer's perspective, not your perspective. So I don't want to hear about hitting 10,000 subscribers, a million views, or whatever. If your viewers know that you're in it for your own self-gain, they will see through it and immediately switch off. Viewers want to know what they can gain from the content, and you want to sell that as much as possible in your videos.

 Again, try and be as specific as possible. What age range? What gender, if you are going to a particular gender? What type of demographic? What are they interested in? You need to know who's going to watch your content.

 There are millions of gaming channels out there, hundreds of thousands of Fortnite channels out there. How are you going to distinguish your content from everybody else who's already on YouTube making content? You need to disrupt the status quo, not join it, because you'll never be seen.

how are you going to deliver this content?

 Is it going to be every day, once a week, at a particular time of the day? Think about when your audience is most likely to watch YouTube, and how much YouTube they can watch per week, and then tailor your content to those watching habits, and think about whether you're going to do video on demand, live streams, what's going to be best for you and your audience?

Tip #4 Find Your Niche and Build the Hell Out of It:

live streams, you'll know this one off by heart. Niche down. Let me give you a quick example. What's your channel about? If you're giving an answer such as, "My channel's about beauty, and it's about travel, "and it's about vlogging," then it's about too many things. 

. It should be about one specific topic, when you start your channel, because you need to appeal to a very specific audience.

Once you've grown your channel, and you've got millions of subscribers who fall in love with you, you can take them on a journey wherever you want, but to begin with, the audience is only interested in the content. They have no investment in you. Try and remember that. It's a cruel lesson to understand, but it will help you when you first start out on YouTube.

Once you've thought about and answered all of these questions, I want you to wrap it all up in a nice little present, called your value proposition. This is your elevator pitch. Try and tell your audience who you are, and why they should watch you, in around about six words.

. It tells you the who, YouTubers, video creators, and why they should watch, because they will learn how to grow their channels. But we've managed to do that in four words. Now it's your turn.

Tip #6 Invest in the Right Audio Equipment:

If you've just started out on YouTube, and you're wondering what your first tech upgrade should be, it is 100% audio, and here's why. Bad audio is so much more distracting than bad video, and everybody hates onboard microphones. 

So if you can, get yourself a dedicated microphone for your camera,

 and if you're recording from a computer, you can't go far wrong with a Blue Yeti.

Tip #7 Create a Formula with Template Videos:

Videos need structure, so when you make your next video, try to think of how you will develop a show formula, that you can use as a template for your future videos. Remember at the beginning of this video, I literally gave you a hook. An introduction, a teaser to what's going to be going on for the rest of this video. Then we have the branded intro, followed by an introduction to who we are for new viewers, a call to action to subscribe to our channel, and then we jumped into the meat of the content where we are right now, and at the end of this video, you'll see how we round this all up.

Your show formula will take time to structure, and it will evolve over the course of your YouTube journey. Try and keep an eye out for this when you watch your favorite YouTubers. As rough and as random as they might appear, there is always structure and story behind each video, and that's why you watch them.

Some people love analytics, others hate them, but there are a couple that are crucial to keep an eye on, whether or not you want to look at that analytics. The first is 

This represents how enticing your titles are, and how clickable your thumbnails are. Check the click-through rate for your channel as a whole, and on individual videos as you test. I'm not going to give you all of the same target to reach. Check what your current click-through rate is, and whether it's two, four, six, or eight percent. I want you to try and improve that by two to three percent this year. It will bring in so many more views.

The other metric, as it always has been, is 

. Generally speaking, the more watch time you get, the more YouTube is going to promote your content. But if you make shorter videos, that doesn't necessarily mean you must make longer videos, because your audience might not react very well to those longer videos.

What I will say is maximize the value of your watch time in the videos that you have. That's by looking at relative audience retention. How does your video stack up to similar videos, in terms of whether people are still watching or not, and try and improve the relative audience retention. Having said that, if your average view duration is 60, 70, 80%, you're doing really well, and it gives you a license to try testing longer videos.

Verify your YouTube account. That will give you access to the most important tool on YouTube, which is custom thumbnails. We've got a video here on how to do it.

Tip #10 Create an Engaging, Interesting Channel Banner:

If I see another generic cityscape, or rolling hills in the channel banner when we do channel audits, I'm going to rip out my hair.

10 more tips or creating and growing your YouTube channel

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 

Members of the vidIQ family that have upgraded to our Boost and Pro packages get immediate access to the Academy 

 so you can kickstart your YouTube success today! Access to the exclusive vidIQ academy will give you a huge advantage over your competitors from the get-go. 

Kick off your YouTube dreams with the tools you need to launch YOUR channel. We've got the top tips just for you!

How to Start a YouTube Channel: 10 Brilliant Tips

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

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

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

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

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

Click ‘Settings’ in the left navigation bar.

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

In the uppermost menu, click ‘Feature Eligibility’.

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

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

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

Who’s Eligible For a Custom YouTube URL?

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

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

Growing your YouTube channel to at least 

Reaching the 30-day milestone for having a channel.

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

Finding the Custom URL Screen In YouTube Studio

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

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

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

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

How to Set a Custom URL for Your YouTube Channel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 then make sure to download vidIQ for more subscriber insights. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps. 

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.

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

How To Get a Custom URL For Your YouTube Channel

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

The real money comes from working with brands - but how do you even do that?

 And will those brands want to work with you if you're not a huge creator?

In this episode of TubeTalk, we chat with Addison, Talent Manager at 

, about how YouTube creators can work with brands. In this podcast you will learn:

What brands actually look for when working with a creator

Whether you have to have a large subscriber base to start working with brands

How can you convince brands that you are a good fit?

How to know how much to charge for a brand deal

Should you ask for a budget or have a rate card?

What are the advantages of working with a Talent Manager?

Don't forget to click on any of the podcast links above to hear this invaluable advice. You can catch up with Addison

Want to Know How to Get MORE Brand Deals as a YouTuber?

A huge number of YouTubers are partnering with brands to promote products or services online. But what are brands looking for? We tell you in this 

TubeTalk has been informing video creators and marketers since 2014, and is one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to TubeTalk on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode!

You can also find the complete list of all the 

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

How to Get a Brand Deal as a Smaller YouTube Channel

When viewers come to your YouTube channel, they need a quick summary of who you are and what they can learn from you. The faster they discover those things, the more likely they'll be to watch your content, engage with it, and subscribe to your channel.

The best way to make sure that happens is by customizing your YouTube channel homepage. There are many features to experiment with, and depending on how you organize them, you can take your channel from novice to pro YouTuber - at least visually. A YouTube channel with these five assets is in a better position to get more views and subscribers:

A profile icon that looks good in a small, circular format

A featured playlist(s) section to showcase your topics/niche

A channel trailer that explains your content

Visually, those are the things you need to set yourself apart from the competition.

If you want to know how to set up these features, keep reading. We’ll walk you through the various steps of customizing your YouTube channel homepage - something every creator should learn how to do.

How to Find The YouTube Channel Customization Screen

Let’s start by customizing the layout of your YouTube channel homepage. You can make these changes and more in the YouTube Studio via the customization screen. Before you start tinkering with the settings, keep in mind that all changes affect your channel’s layout on both desktop and mobile.

Follow these steps to reach the customization screen:

From most YouTube desktop screens, click on your profile image in the top right corner and go to the YouTube Studio.

Go to the left menu panel and click ‘Customization’. Next, you should see a page that allows you to add a channel trailer, featured sections, featured channels, profile icon, channel banner, video watermark, an about section, channel links, and more.

Need a quick visual walkthrough? Watch our video tutorial about how to customize your YouTube channel:

The customization screen - and all the features mentioned above - is divided into three tabs. The layout tab helps you build the visual foundation of your channel. The branding tab is for adding specific styles, colors, and creating an overall design. And lastly, the basic info tab lets you add text and clickable links to your channel.

Be sure to hit ‘Publish’ in the top right corner of the screen when you’re finished editing. Otherwise, the changes won’t appear on your YouTube channel!

Adding a Trailer to Your YouTube Channel Homepage

Now that you’ve reached the customization screen, let’s take a look at the video spotlight feature. You can find it under the layout section, here:

This screen lets you add a trailer to your channel, which is a video that introduces you and your content. It automatically plays when a viewer arrives on your channel, so it’s a good thing to have on your homepage.

If you want to show different trailers to specific viewers, YouTube has some convenient options. For example, you can show one trailer to non-subscribers and a different trailer to people who’ve already subscribed.

To change either of these settings, mouse over the appropriate box below ‘Video spotlight’ and click the three dots to either remove or change the trailer, like this:

In the pop-up screen that appears, search your channel for the video you want to feature, select it, then publish the changes.

At this point, you may not have a suitable video for your channel trailer, and that’s OK. As soon as you’re ready, use these tips to create the best introductory video:

Keep it brief. Aim to make your video no longer than 45 seconds.

Include some B-roll of your best content as you introduce yourself.

Tell viewers who your content is for and why they should watch.

Inject as much personality into the video as you can.

How to Add, Edit, or Remove Featured Sections on YouTube

Below the video spotlight section is an area for featured content. When you want to quickly communicate your niche to viewers, you can add topic-based playlists or video collections to this section.

To start tinkering with this feature, return to the layout tab in the customization screen, then scroll down to ‘Feature sections’.

This will show you all the sections you’re currently displaying on your YouTube channel homepage. To reorder these, simply click and drag the three-lined icon next to any section up or down. To display a new section, go to the top right corner of the screen and click ‘Add Section’. A drop-down menu will appear with several featured content options, including recent uploads, popular uploads, live streams, and more.

For each section, you can click the three dots on the right to edit the content there. In some cases, it will allow you to change a playlist. But no matter what, you’ll always have the option to view or delete one, as shown below:

Want to create a featured section that encourages people to watch and subscribe? If so, keep these four important things in mind:

You can add a maximum of 10 sections to your YouTube channel homepage. Create as many as possible to summarize your channel for new viewers.

Create a playlist that shows viewers what type of content you make. On the vidIQ channel, our introductory playlist includes videos about how to get 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of Watch Time on YouTube. That’s our niche!

Create a recent uploads playlist. It’ll help new visitors understand that they’ve landed on an active, consistent channel.

Write descriptions for your featured playlists. The text shows up in the featured section and adds more context to your video collections.

How to Customize YouTube’s Featured Channels Section [2021 Update]

Right now, the featured channels section appears on the right side of your YouTube channel homepage. It’s been there for years, but apparently, that’s going to change in 2021. Here’s the notification from YouTube explaining exactly what’s happening:

As you can see, YouTube is letting creators display featured channels in the same area as playlists and video collections. You can make the switch today if you want, so here’s how to make it happen:

Click ‘Add Section Now”, as shown in the screenshot above.

Next, a pop-up screen will appear. In the top right corner, type some brief, explanatory text that will become the title of your section.

Navigate to the search bar and type the name of any YouTube channel. Select the one you want to make it appear in your featured channels section.

Once you have a few channels in this section, you can click + drag each one to reorder the list. You can also remove channels from this section.

When you’re done, here’s what the new section will look like:

How to Add a YouTube Profile Picture and Channel Banner

Next, let’s explore YouTube channel branding. To see all your options, click the branding tab on YouTube’s customization screen. You should see a variety of settings for adding logos to different parts of your channel, which helps you build a reputation on YouTube.

We’ll start with the first item on the list, the YouTube channel profile picture. Adding one is simple - all you need to do is click the ‘Change’ or ‘Remove’ buttons on the customization screen to add a new image. This is the same process for adding a channel banner, which we’ll explain very soon.

Beyond that, there are a few things to keep in mind about YouTube profile pictures. Although you’re uploading a square image, it will be displayed on YouTube as a circular image. That means you’ll have to crop your profile picture using YouTube’s uploader, so don’t put important information in the corner of the image.

There are even more things to consider with your channel banner. First, it needs to fit the dimensions of three media types: TV, desktop, and mobile. When you upload a banner image, YouTube will show you how it looks on different devices. If you need to, you can click and drag the corners of the image to resize it.

Another thing to consider is how visually complex the image is. It’s best to keep it simple and communicate what your channel is about with minimal text, plus some breathing room in your design. 

As a side note, you can change both images - the profile picture and channel banner - by going to your homepage, mousing over either one, and clicking the camera icon.

 This will redirect you back to the customization page in the YouTube Studio.

How to Add Watermarks to Your YouTube Videos

The next branding feature is video watermarks. Enable this setting on your channel, and a small square image will be added to the bottom-right corner of your videos. It’s great for displaying your logo or serving as a call-to-action, encouraging viewers to mouse over the image, and subscribe to your channel.

That's why we recommend adding a subscription-style image rather than a logo. As an added bonus, 

 to download an image that works perfectly as a ‘subscribe now’ button. Use it as you please:

Adding a watermark to your videos is the same process as adding a profile picture or channel banner. While on the YouTube customization screen, click the branding tab, scroll to the watermark section, and click ‘Change’ or ‘Remove’.

Once you have your button, you can decide when (and how long) the watermark appears in your videos. We recommend having it visible the entire time, as that gives your viewers more opportunities to subscribe.

The basic information tab is our last stop when it comes to YouTube channel customization. For this section, we’ll start with something close to many creators' hearts: the name of your YouTube channel.

If your channel name is already the most epic thing ever, you might not need this section today. But if you ever want to change it in the future, the process is simple. While on the customization screen, click the branding tab then look below the ‘Channel name and description’ header. You should see your current channel name, as well as a pencil icon right beside it. Click that icon to type a new name, as shown below:

It’s easy to change your channel name, but you do have to bear in mind the impact it has on your Google accounts. If you have a personal YouTube account and you change your YouTube channel name, that can actually change your Google account name. However, if you have a brand YouTube account, changing the name of your channel doesn't impact your Google account.

We know that sounds really confusing. The topic requires more explaining than we can do here, so watch this video to get all the information you need:

How to Customize Your YouTube Channel’s ‘About’ Section

About a minute ago, while you were reading about YouTube channel names, you may have seen a screenshot showing vidIQ’s channel description. On the front end of YouTube, this is called the ‘About’ section. When viewers want more information about you and your content, they’ll head to this section to find the answers.

That’s why it’s important to speak directly to your target audience when writing your short bio. At the very least, you should:

Explain the value people gain from watching your content.

Include keywords related to your content.

When you’re finished writing your channel bio, go to the basic info tab and paste it in the text box below ‘Channel name and description’.

How to Add Links to Your YouTube Channel Banner

Did you know you can add a maximum of five links to your channel banner? You can use them to promote your website, social media profiles, online store, or other landing pages your audience might find useful.

No matter which links you decide to add, always remember that the first is super important. That’s because on desktop, only the first link includes text. Take a look at our channel banner links and how we draw attention to the most important one:

Underneath the basic info tab on the YouTube customization screen, you’ll see a header that reads ‘Links’. In this section, you can add, remove, and reorder the links in your channel banner as needed. These only appear on desktop; on mobile, links are buried deep in the about section.

How to Add a Contact Email to Your YouTube Channel

Want to collaborate with other creators? Collect inquiries from viewers? First, you’ll need to create and share an email address where people can reach you.

Don't use your YouTube account email as your channel’s contact email. 

This might present a backdoor entrance for hackers. Instead, create a separate email for YouTube inquiries.

When you’re ready to add an email address to your channel, head to the basic info tab. Scroll down to the ‘Contact info’ header and paste your email into the text box.

We hope you find this guide useful! At vidIQ, it’s our mission to educate you on your YouTube journey as you pursue a successful video-making career. If you want more content like this, be sure to subscribe to the 

If you want to take your YouTube channel to the next level and get more views on YouTube then make sure to 

. Join over 1 million other users and use vidIQ to help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your own channel, and take actionable steps to succeed.  ​ ​ ​

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel.

Your YouTube channel will either entice viewers or make them hit the back button on their browser. To get as many views and subscribers as possible, read these channel customization tips! 

How to Customize Your YouTube Channel

How do you get discovered on YouTube, especially as a new creator? In the past, we at vidIQ answered that question by saying, “Focus on your audience.” Whether it was posting evergreen how-to videos or addressing in-demand topics, we knew YouTube success came from answering viewers' search queries.

However, content aside, there are two best practices that creators have always been true about dominating YouTube. If a creator wanted to give the best viewing experience or profit from mid-roll advertisements, their videos had to be:

Months ago, YouTube introduced a new section in its app called 'Stories and Short Videos.' This shelf sits below any video you’re currently watching and only shows vertical videos of less than 60 seconds. 

We weren’t sure how that would affect YouTube, a platform that champions lengthy, landscape videos, so we ‘tested’ the shelf and shared our findings in a blog titled, “

Can You Get 1 Million YouTube Views By Making Short Videos?

” Our answer to that question was ‘maybe’ because to our dismay, the Stories and Short Videos shelf houses unpredictable content. Creators got thousands of views if their short video landed on the shelf, but there was no way to ‘make’ a video appear there using keywords, titles, or any kind of strategy.

Are YouTube Shorts the golden ticket to creator success? How do you even make one? Those are valid questions, so here’s everything you need to know about the new feature!

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