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

How To Make Money on YouTube

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

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

YouTube Tips & Tricks

YouTube Shorts content is set to explode! 

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

YouTube Shorts

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

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

How To Get More Views on YouTube

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

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

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

YouTube Partner Program – How to Monetize Your Channel

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

These 5 Videos Aren’t Eligible for YPP Watch Time

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

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

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

prioritize public videos over private or unlisted ones.

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

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

How to set private or unlisted videos to public on YouTube

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Get 4,000 Hours of YouTube Watch Time

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

be intentional with the videos you upload.

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

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

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

Post evergreen content that’s always relevant.

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

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

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

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

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

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

As a YouTube creator, we often tend to get stuck in a cycle: upload a video and watch the analytics. Then upload another video and watch the analytics. Rinse and repeat

But what happens if that process just stops working for us? 

How do you find a way to make that instant connection with your audience so that they want to watch more of your content? How do you make little changes that will have a big impact on your YouTube channel?

,' an awesome book on personal development. Click on the link above and listen as we discuss:

What is a good tip to tell a great story and what do people usually get wrong

Why should you get the audience to "turn up the volume"?

What is 30 days hindsight and what does that mean?

We really hope you enjoy this fascinating episode, and please follow Antonio here

5 Top Tips for a Killer YouTube Custom Thumbnail?

What are the winning elements for a custom thumbnail that attracts viewers to click through to your video? Luckily, you can find out the formula by 

Catch up on the Latest YouTube News With TubeTalk

TubeTalk is one of the most popular and listened to podcasts in the online video industry. Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to TubeTalk on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode!

You can also find the complete list of all the​​

The best movies and TV shows captivate their audience with engaging storytelling. On this episode of TubeTalk, learn to do the same with your YouTube content.

How Mastering the Art of Storytelling Can Transform Your YouTube Content

 from advertisements alone. Part of that revenue is used to pay video creators, so every YouTuber should learn about the service that makes it all possible: 

This invaluable tool helps creators monetize their content with ads. It’s one of the first steps to building a YouTube career, which requires several steps:

Creators join YouTube with two goals in mind: attracting 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of channel Watch Time. When that happens, creators can apply for the 

As part of the YPP application, creators must set up a Google AdSense account to collect ad revenue.

Google AdSense serves ads on creators’ videos. To increase the likelihood of viewers watching those ads, Google AdSense uses 

 to match relevant ads with viewers' interests.

YouTube’s hardworking creators get paid.

Google AdSense and the YouTube journey are complex, so of course, there are fine-print details to understand. The most important aspect is how revenue is calculated. When you join the YPP, you won't earn all of the money that comes from ads; creators earn 55% of the revenue while YouTube takes the remaining 45%.

That’s the high-level summary. But to learn more about how Google AdSense works on YouTube, just keep reading.

What Kind of Ads Are Shown on YouTube Videos?

There are several ad formats on YouTube. When you monetize a video, you may see any of the following 

Desktop ads that appear to the right of a video, directly above YouTube’s video suggestions.

Semi-transparent desktop ads that appear near the bottom of a video.

Desktop, mobile, and TV ads (including gaming consoles) that can be skipped after 5 seconds. These appear at any point in a video.

Desktop and mobile ads that can’t be skipped.

Non-skippable desktop and mobile ads of up to six seconds.

Desktop and mobile ads that show content related to the video’s topic (products, courses, etc.).

How Much Money Can You Make From Google AdSense Revenue?

In July 2020, YouTube announced a new revenue metric called 

 (revenue per mille). It helps creators understand their earnings by showing the total revenue earned per 1,000 video views.

When you want to track your monthly income, this is the number to pay attention to. It includes the ad revenue you’ve earned 

 YouTube takes its 45% cut, which is helpful information. RPM also includes the money you’ve made from YouTube’s extra monetization features, such as 

To view your RPM, go to the YouTube Studio and click the revenue tab on your channel analytics page. If you need a tutorial on how to do that, we’ve got one for you right here:

Because RPM is a new metric, there isn’t much data on the average RPM for creators. CPM, however, is not new. This term stands for cost per millie and represents the cost of every 1,000 ad impressions on YouTube. Viewing this number tells you what YouTube is charging advertisers before the platform takes it’s 45% cut.

CPM focuses on advertising prices alone, so use this metric for a broad view of Google AdSense earnings. According to 

, the average CPM is between $6 and $8 in the U.S. Under this range, advertisers would pay $6 to $8 per 1,000 ad impressions.

Creators don't receive the entire CPM, though. After YouTube takes it’s 45% cut, you can expect to make $3 to $4 per 1,000 video views (on average).

Which Content Is Considered Advertiser Friendly?

Not all content is suitable for advertisers. If you want to make decent money on YouTube, consider making videos that are 

. That means creating content free of strong profanity and inappropriate themes.

To stay in the clear, refrain from including these 10 things in your content:

The best way to create advertiser-friendly content is to follow 

 shares valuable tips on that subject, so be sure to check it out.

Remember, many advertisers prefer to place ads on positive videos. Therefore, Google AdSense won’t serve ads on content that doesn’t support advertisers’ mission.

How Long Does it Take for YouTube Creators to Receive AdSense Revenue?

Getting your first YouTube check may take a while. Before you can receive the funds in your Google AdSense account, you need to reach the payment threshold in your location.

In the U.S., that amount is $100. When creators have earned that figure or more, YouTube will send the funds to their bank account. If you live outside of the U.S., use 

 to see the payment threshold in your country.

When you reach the payment threshold during any particular month, your earnings appear in Google AdSense near the middle of the following month. So if you earn $200 in January, you’ll see that revenue in your Google AdSense account in mid-February.

Typically, the funds reach your bank account that same month. If they don’t, that means one of three things: There’s a hold on your Google AdSense account, monetization was suspended on your channel, or you violated YouTube’s monetization policies. To troubleshoot, view the YouTube Partner Earnings Overview on 

Google AdSense Revenue and Local Tax Laws

Depending on where you live, your Google Adsense earnings could be taxable income. Local tax laws vary, so YouTube won’t deduct this money from your revenue. Instead, each creator is responsible for handling their taxes, which usually means saving the portion of their income that’s owed to the government.

If your YouTube income is taxable, here are some filing tips:

In some cases, you have to report your Google AdSense revenue on your taxes – especially if you earn more than a specified amount. If so, Google will provide you with the appropriate tax forms. But even if it doesn’t, you should report 

 from your taxes. Be sure to view an updated list of those expenses and use them as a tax write-off.

No matter what, always speak to a tax professional. Our advice (and Google’s) is incomplete and shouldn’t be used by itself when filing taxes.

YouTube and Google AdSense are a complicated pair. But if you take this information and advice to heart, you'll have the power to optimize your ad revenue and make more money on YouTube.

If you take the time to understand how Google AdSense works, you'll be one step closer to making more money on YouTube. Start today by reading this helpful, in-depth guide.

Google AdSense 101: How to Benefit from Ad Revenue on YouTube

When you first set up your YouTube channel, its web address won’t be a snazzy URL of your choosing. The default address will actually include your channel ID - a 24-character “name tag” that helps certain apps identify your channel.

In 2021, a 24-character URL is way too long. Fortunately, YouTube lets creators choose a custom address for their channel. It comes in handy nowadays, especially if you want to build a recognizable brand on the platform.

Creating a custom URL is quick and easy. But before we show you how, you should know whether you meet the requirements to do so. If you’ve completed these three steps, you should have no problem setting up a custom YouTube URL:

Have a channel that’s at least 30 days old.

If you’ve already done these things, congratulations! You’re ready to brand your YouTube channel with a custom URL that’s catchy easy to read.

First, find YouTube’s customization page in the YouTube Studio. This is where you’ll be able to adjust the layout, basic info, and branding on your channel.

Follow these steps to reach the selection page:

On your channel’s homepage, click your profile icon and select 

 tab. Scroll down until you see the Channel URL header.

Need a visual tutorial? Watch our video below for more guidance:

At this point, you’ll see two custom URL options. The first will be a default URL that closely matches your channel name. Of course, it's not always possible to claim this URL. Your channel name may be the same as someone else, which means they've already claimed the URL you want.

If that’s the case, use the second URL option. This will let you type in a custom URL that best represents your channel, as shown below:

 to save your changes and confirm ownership of the URL.

If you make a mistake when choosing your custom URL, don’t worry. You can always remove it in four easy steps:

Return to YouTube’s customization page and make sure the 

Scroll down until you see the Custom URL header. Click 

 right below the text box showing your current URL.

The next thing you’ll see is the About Me page on your Google account. In the about section, click the icon beside your current URL.

 and follow the steps in the previous section to create a new URL.

To clarify, creating or removing a custom URL doesn’t replace the random URL you’ve always had. This collection of characters is your channel ID, and it will always be attached to your account. Setting up a custom URL just keeps it from appearing in your channel’s web address.

Also, you may see /c/ in your URL from time to time, but don’t worry about it. You don’t need to include it in your address when sharing it online. Simply typing YouTube.com/yourchannel works just fine!

In 2021, a custom YouTube URL can set you apart from the competition. Other creators may choose to keep their alphanumeric address, but they won’t have the advantage of full branding. After all, no viewer wants to hear, “Subscribe to my YouTube channel at YouTube.com/xTCyaRn56LrjSsY12145TyBq.”

Are you ready to give your YouTube channel a custom URL? Here are the requirements to do so, plus a quick tutorial to help you get it done.

How To Get a Custom URL For Your YouTube Channel [2021 Update]

What does undeniable, record-smashing YouTube domination look like for you? Is it producing a video that’s optimized so well, it reaches 500,000 views in 30 days? Or is it a matter of studying your competition so closely that you never run out of evergreen video ideas?

No matter what your YouTube goal is, vidIQ has you covered. 

It’s hard to grow a YouTube channel without advanced data, analytics, and insights, but we 

Join over 1 million users who use vidIQ to help them on their YouTube journey. 

 to kickstart your success and then take a deep-dive into the following features:

YouTube Subscriber Counts For Other Channels

Sometimes you just need an overview of your channel’s performance without digging too deep for data. Our real-time analytics dashboard does exactly that, plus it's at the top of your homepage for easy access.

In the screenshot above, the dashboard shows:

How many views the vidIQ YouTube channel earned in the last 60 minutes

How many people are subscribed to our channel

To make more details appear, hover your mouse over the dashboard to see additional metrics, such as your channel’s 

 over the last week. And if you want to see even more stats on the dashboard, you have the option to add several. The real-time stats bar is customizable!

2. YouTube Likes to Dislikes Ratio Counter

Want an easy way to gauge viewer sentiment? A good way to start measuring this stat is to look at the ratio of likes to dislikes on your videos.

Unfortunately, YouTube itself only counts the number of likes and dislikes. If you wanted to find the overall percentage of likes to dislikes, you’d have to do some math, and well… who has time for that?

With our tool, this percentage appears right beside videos that publicly display likes and dislikes. That way, you can quickly gauge the sentiment viewers have toward a video and gain some valuable insight about your content.

When you watch a video and have vidIQ installed, you'll see the comprehensive scorecard shown above. It has several sections, and you can minimize each one or hide the whole scorecard using the master controls at the top.

Also, the tabs at the top of the scorecard show the historical performance of any video. With this feature, you can review in-depth metrics, such as video views per hour and social reach on Twitter.

SEO is an important part of being discovered on YouTube. To help you do this, we’ve developed an SEO tool that grades your videos and shares basic steps to make your content more searchable.

Based on the title, description, and tags associated with your video, the SEO tool scores the quality of your metadata. A score closer to 100 means your video is properly optimized and will perform well on YouTube.

Many of the panels in this tool contain extra information about your video’s SEO. To see actionable improvements any creator can make, spend some time exploring these finer details.

Want to track the performance of your videos? Take our video comparison tool for a spin. This wonderful dashboard lets you analyze the performance of the video you’re watching against other valuable metrics.

For example, you might want to know the average video views for an entire channel. In the screenshot above, the comparison tool shows that one video (the blue line) performed below a channel’s average (the pink line). As the blue line slopes upward, you can see that the video steadily gained more views within a period of 28 days.

That suggests the video in question is evergreen content. If you want to take things a step further, you can use the dropdown menu to compare the video you're watching against another channel, your channel, or any other video on YouTube.

If a creator has done their keyword research, it’s likely they've added some valuable terms to their video tags, as shown above. Wouldn’t it be great if you could copy this information and add it to your own research?

Well, you’re in luck! That’s exactly what our video tags tool does. Thanks to the paperclip icon in this panel, you can copy and save these valuable keywords onto your computer.

Oh, and if you're wondering what the numbers beside the keywords represent, the innermost number shows how high or low the video you’re watching ranks on YouTube for that search term. Finally, the outermost number is vidIQ’s keyword score.

On a YouTube search results page, this panel appears on the right side and shows you loads of interesting data. Of course, if it’s too overwhelming, you can hide and expand the panel as you see fit.

However, we think you’re going to love having this tool around. The data in this panel shows how often videos for a search term get recycled, as well as which creator appears most often in the search rankings. Chances are, that creator is doing the right things on YouTube. It would be wise to follow them, watch their content, and pick up some useful strategies of your own.

We mentioned this keyword score tool earlier, but let’s go into more detail. In a nutshell, it analyzes the volume of a search term against the volume of content on YouTube. Think of it as basic supply and demand. Ideally, you, as a creator, want to make content for a search term that’s in demand with little competition from other YouTubers. The closer this keyword score is to 100, the more opportunity there is for you to rank highly.

9. YouTube Subscriber Counts For Other Channels

Another cool thing vidIQ shows you are channel subscriber counts. Why is this useful? Well, for example, let’s say you stumble upon a Fortnite video with a quarter of a million views. You’re immediately interested in this accomplishment because you have a Fortnite channel too - the only difference is your videos aren’t attracting massive views. So, you investigate. And in the end, you discover that this channel has a mere 6,000 subscribers.

Obviously, that creator found a way to rank for one of the most competitive search terms on YouTube, Fortnite. As a competitor, it would be wise to research what they did so you can repeat their success.

If you want to do some deep keyword research, this is the tool for you. It helps you build a better keyword strategy by showing every single tag associated with a video. While it is true that video tags aren't as important as they used to be, keyword research is still vital.

Like the video tag tool, this feature allows you to copy the tags you need for your research. Beyond that, you can also click on an individual video tag to learn more about it. This unravels the keyword universe surrounding a topic and even shows trending videos for the term.

Again, you'll see a vidIQ keyword score beside these terms. Also, you can highlight any keywords of interest to copy and use for your own content.

Once you’ve done all the research, put yourself in the mind of your target audience. What do they search for on YouTube? Before you even press record, you can use these tools to get the answer.

With the channel research tool, you can view stats about a channel when you visit its homepage. This gives you a performance snapshot that includes video views per hour, subscriber rank, and how many videos they’re published within any date range. You can see this and more by clicking the stats button on the uppermost menu.

The trending button shows a different set of data. With this feature, you can see which content on the channel is performing well right now, as it sorts videos by views per hour. All of this reveals key insights into content that was created months or even years ago. If you happen to discover any videos that are still popular today, that’s another sign of evergreen content.

Want to see the top YouTube keywords a channel is using? You can get a list of these terms using another tool we’ve developed to advance your research. To see what the feature looks like, check out the screenshot above.

Of course, this is a somewhat chaotic reflection of the keywords used for a tech-heavy channel. To make things easier on yourself, press the download button to get a CSV data file showing how often this creator uses such keywords (plus the keyword score).

Here’s another power tool for you to try and enjoy: the CSV export. For serious creators who need as much data as possible, this tool will download all the public data associated with a channel. Be prepared to go through the numbers with a very, very fine-tooth comb.

The competitors tool allows you to keep tabs on creators within your niche. If they’re reaching success using a topic you make content about, you need to know about it to create some popular content of your own!

When using this tool, you can adjust the timeframe of the videos and how they’re sorted, whether that’s by views per hour, total views, or date uploaded. As with a channel page, you can view the keywords that these creators are using. If several creators are using the same keywords, it's more evidence that you really need to dig into the keyword research that surrounds it.

Think of the competitor tool as an alternative subscription list for when you're in creator mode. You can use the ‘Add Competitor’ button on any channel page to add creators to your list. Alternatively, if you're watching a video and you want to add a channel to your competitor list, click the vidIQ tool button to do it directly from there.

Our trend alert tool tracks the most important keywords you want to monitor on YouTube. By setting up filters, you’ll be notified by email when videos containing a certain keyword trigger a predetermined number of views per hour.

In this example above, we created a very simple trend alert for videos about the iPhone. When new videos on the iPhone get over 100 views per hour over a certain time period, an email will arrive in our inbox. From the data shared there, we could start investigating, researching, and even creating if we decided we could add value to the conversation.

We all know what YouTube's trending page does and doesn't do, right? So, what if you had a tool that simply showed you the most viewed videos on YouTube right now, period?

If you're serious about growing your channel on YouTube, here are 25 ways vidIQ can help right now!

25 vidIQ Tools You Need to Grow Your YouTube Channel NOW!

By now, most creators know that for a video to qualify as a YouTube Short, it needs to be vertical and less than 60 seconds long. However, some people are still confused about the new content type. 

In the comment section of our YouTube videos, creators frequently ask us the same questions about YouTube Shorts, such as:

“Where’s the option to create short videos on YouTube?”

“Why don’t I have access to Shorts?”

This is the same question asked in three different ways, which means the information around YouTube Shorts could be much clearer.

Fortunately, anyone on YouTube can make a Short, so creators don’t have to worry about that kind of limitation. That just leaves three things to demystify, which are how to create, upload, and analyze the performance of YouTube Shorts.

There Are 2 Ways to Create a YouTube Short

When YouTube Shorts were first announced, the platform introduced a 

Here's a simple guide for creating, uploading, and analyzing the YouTube Shorts on your channel.

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