As a YouTube creator, you can learn a lot about your audience by regularly checking the comment section. You’ll discover a few things below each video, such as the number of total comments and how many likes/replies they’ve received. If you go beyond the numbers and read each comment, you’ll learn even more. 

Die-hard viewers often share video ideas and valuable feedback you need to see. The more you 

 and encourage their ideas, the tighter your community will become.

It’s incredible to see helpful suggestions of any kind, especially when you're just starting out. But did you know you can glean extra information from the hundreds of YouTube comments you receive?

What Creators Can Learn From YouTube Comments

On the YouTube mobile app, you’ll find more than a list of comments below each video. YouTube has upgraded the section to include helpful information about who comments on your content.

We don’t have a name for this feature yet (and perhaps YouTube doesn’t either), but here’s what the tool displays:

When the commenter subscribed to your channel.

How many subscribers the commenter has on their channel.

How the commenter interacts with you, such as how many comments they’ve posted on your channel and the likes/replies you’ve left on their comments.

Snippets of previous conversations with commenters, plus the option to jump to the video where each conversation occurred.

The commenter’s YouTube channel banner, which should communicate the creator’s niche (tech, gaming, cooking, beauty, etc.).

To learn more about the new comment feature and its valuable insights, watch our latest video, “Who Posts The Most YouTube Comments on Your Videos?”

How to Find Comment Insights on YouTube [New]

When you want to learn more about the viewers who comment on your videos, follow these steps:

Open the YouTube app on your mobile device.

Navigate to a public video you’ve uploaded, then scroll down to the comment section.

Find a comment/commenter you’d like to investigate. To the left of the comment, click on the channel icon beside the commenter’s name.

Next, you’ll see a screen filled with information about how the commenter interacts with you. It’ll contain everything we listed above, and here’s what the screen looks like:

This tool is filled with information, so be sure to check it out. Regardless of your subscriber count, these highly engaged viewers are worth getting to know!

Do you know who your most engaged viewers are? The ones who comment on most of your videos with encouragement and helpful tips? If not, here's how to find out.

Find Out Who Posts the Most Comments on Your YouTube Videos

. The video-segmenting feature, which allows users to click a timestamp and jump to any point in a video, now comes with a scrolling chapter list. This interactive panel is large, highly browseable, and appears on the right side of a YouTube video.

When you activate the feature, it looks something like this:

 and how to add them to the description of your YouTube videos. 

We also praised their ability to segment multi-layered topics, which helps your audience digest ‘how-to’ content or in-depth reviews. But a lesser-known benefit is how these timestamps can push your video to the top of Google search results. That’s an invaluable resource for growing on YouTube because seriously - who doesn’t want more views from the world’s largest search engine?

Every creator, especially those on YouTube’s competitive platform, deserves a slice of the SEO, video-segmenting pie. To claim yours, just keep reading.

How to Access the YouTube Chapters Upgrade

At first glance, you may overlook the new chapter upgrade because the tool is slightly hidden. To make sure you don’t miss it, follow these steps:

1. Find a YouTube video displaying chapters on its timeline.

 If you can't find one, just watch the video below. It’s our tutorial about how to access the video chapters upgrade, which of course, has several chapters to experiment with:

2. Click play, then navigate to a chapter by clicking any position on the video timeline.

 When you have one selected, the name of the chapter should appear below the video’s progress bar, as shown below.

3. Next to the chapter title, you should see a right-facing arrow.

 Click it to expand a large panel that lets you browse/select all the chapters in a video.

The good thing about this feature is that it’s completely retroactive. If you create timestamps for your existing videos, you'll start to see those upgraded video chapters appear.

On the YouTube mobile app, you get the same functionality. Simply tap on a chapter within the video player, and it will show a list of every chapter associated with the video.

YouTube Video Chapters: Do They Decrease Channel Watch Time?

When we talk about video chapters, we try to emphasize how valuable they are for introducing viewers to your content. Instead of pressing play on a video and wondering what it entails, your audience can essentially view an outline.

However, our viewers - the vidIQ community - always ask the same controversial question about video chapters. They want to know how video chapters affect a channel’s 

. After all, encouraging viewers to skip around to different points in a video cant be good for retention, can it?

Don’t spend too much time worrying about the numbers. 

Overall, video chapters are a small part of your YouTube channel’s success. They won’t make or break the journey, and the feature provides value for your viewers.

As an example, take a look at one of our top-performing tutorials, “

” This video has more than half a million views, and it has several video chapters throughout. To have reached such a high number, we’re not sacrificing as many views or Watch Time as one might think.

And remember, if your video segment gets recommended on Google search, that’s another reason to keep using video chapters. Those Googe displays consume a lot of real estate on a mobile screen, giving your video a better chance of being clicked on.

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

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

And if you’re really serious about growing your channel, sign up for exclusive access to the 

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube channel in just 30 days. 

Are you using timestamps to create video chapters? If not, YouTube just upgraded the feature so you may want to start.

Why You Should be Using YouTube Video Chapters

Phone numbers, passers-by, and license plate numbers are common things that often end up in YouTube video footage. But according to YouTube’s 

, certain types of sensitive information - even if recorded by mistake - are never OK to post on the platform.

If you need a reliable way to clear your video of anything that really shouldn't be there, YouTube is on top of the problem. 

To reduce the risk of identity theft and violation, the platform has created a tool for blurring objects and faces in creators’ videos. 

Best of all, the tool is free to use and easy to find in the YouTube Studio.

If you haven’t tried YouTube’s blur feature just yet, here’s everything you need to know to get started.

In the top right corner of YouTube, click on your profile icon and go to the YouTube Studio.

’. This will show you all of the uploaded content on your channel.

Mouse over the video you want to edit, then click the pencil icon to jump into that video.

The next thing you’ll see is a page titled ‘

’. On this screen, find the left navigation menu and click ‘

When the next page loads, you’ll see a video timeline. Go directly below this editor and click the link that says ‘

’. You should see two menu options appear, one to create a face blur and another for custom blurring.

For real-time guidance, watch our video tutorial on how to find this section of the YouTube Studio.

If you want to blur anything other than a face, your best option is to use YouTube’s custom blur tool. This feature allows you to place circular or rectangular blurs over different objects in a video.

A few weeks ago, we used the custom blur tool to hide an object in a vidIQ video. Rob, our YouTuber-in-residence recorded himself waving a red ‘subscribe’ button, and we were able to make it disappear - even with all those jerky movements.

This worked because YouTube lets you track the objects you’ve chosen to blur. All you have to do is find the Blur Behavior section on the video editor page and select ‘

’. If you don’t need to blur a moving object, select ‘

’ to keep everything in place. You can see both options in the screenshot below:

Once you make your selection, you can also reposition or resize your blur shape. To make Rob’s subscribe button disappear, we dragged a corner of the blur box, which is shown in the screenshot above, until it was big enough to hide everything underneath it.

Lastly, you can determine when a blur appears in your video. To do this, go to the video timeline and drag the marker to any point. Then navigate upward and use the time indexes to define the duration of your blur, as shown below:

The first time you try to blur a face, YouTube’s editor will spend a couple of minutes detecting all the faces in your video. When it does, you can easily select the ones you want to blur, as shown below:

Luckily, that’s the only piece of new information when it comes to blurring a face. If you want to reposition the blur, track it to a moving face, or make it appear at a certain timestamp, you can repeat the steps we’ve already outlined in the custom blur section.

As you experiment with these blur tools, you may notice that they sometimes behave strangely. That doesn't take away from their helpfulness or convenience, but these small hiccups are good to know about:

The tracking feature doesn't look perfect when you're editing, but it improves a lot when the video is fully processed.

It can take a few hours for edits to stick. In the meantime, viewers will be able to see the original, unblurred video, if it's public.

Sometimes the tool leaves faces unblurred for a fraction of a second, which can be frustrating.

We also noticed an odd error while editing blur timestamps. The message ‘Blur region must contain at least one checkpoint’ kept appearing in the editor. We’re not sure what that’s about, but we fixed it by starting over until the error disappeared.

As helpful as YouTube’s blur tool can be, most creators probably use off-platform software to blur faces and objects. Of course, not every video editor has that kind of technology. And to be fair, YouTube does a good job of blurring and tracking objects with its free tool.

However, if the tool doesn’t perform as promised, go back a few steps to catch the root of the problem. As frustrating as that sounds, it’s a better alternative than exposing someone’s identity or information (or your own) without permission.

Want To Learn More YouTube Tips and Tricks?

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

And if you’re really serious about growing your YouTube views and subscribers, sign up for exclusive access to the 

 and learn how to launch a successful YouTube Channel in just 30 days.

Have you ever needed to blur a face or a logo in one of your YouTube videos? Here's a quick and easy guide on how to do just that in YouTube Studio

How to Blur Anything You Need to in Your YouTube Video

Have you ever wished the YouTube Studio had a dashboard just for the 

? Perhaps a panel showing how many likes and comments your posts have earned?

YouTube seems to agree, and as a result, a new page to do all that and more has appeared in the YouTube Studio. Here’s how it works.

How to Find the Community Posts Page in YouTube Studio

In the top right corner of YouTube, click on your profile image and go to the YouTube Studio.

Find the left navigation menu and click 'Content'.

On the next page, you'll see some tabs at the top. Click on the one called ‘Posts’ to see all the community posts you've published on your channel.

For real-time guidance, watch our video tutorial on how to find and use this new section of YouTube:

This list of community posts is in chronological order by default, but the columns are sortable. If you want to know something specific, such as which community posts have the most comments or likes, you can easily shuffle through the data.

We did some exploring and discovered some interesting things about vidIQ's community posts, such as:

Posts that get the most comments pose a question but don't always contain an image.

Community posts with the most likes usually contain an image - in our case, the YouTube play button.

Polls are a great way to engage viewers, and our polls get tens of thousands of votes.

How to Use YouTube’s Community Posts Page

 you can post on the community tab, including images, videos, polls, plain text messages, and animated GIFs.

When you’re browsing the community posts page, these content types will appear in different ways. Plain text posts display an alphabet symbol, ‘Aa’, to quickly represent non-media messages. Any post with an image or video will be shown with the image it comes with, while voting polls are displayed with three blue horizontal lines. 

If you mouse over each community post, you’ll notice a drop-down menu with more options for managing the feature. The first one lets you edit a post directly from the YouTube Studio, which is pretty cool. You can also manage and respond to comments or click a link to take you to the original community post on YouTube.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that you can’t edit polls.

 This is probably a safeguard to stop creators from changing the answer choices once voting begins.

Lastly, there’s an option to filter community posts. This lets you view only the posts you want to see, such as plain text or animated GIFs. You can even filter the posts to see which ones have been published or scheduled for future publication.

YouTube’s Community Tab Connects You With Your Audience

We at vidIQ are strong supporters of the YouTube community tab. For years, it's helped creators stay in touch with their audience, especially when only one or two videos are published each week. Our only complaint, and it’s a pretty big one, would be the fact that creators need 1,000 subscribers to access these amazing community tools.

But if you're lucky enough to have a community tab on your channel, start using it! Challenge yourself to post something every day for the next three to six months - polls, animated GIFs, or anything that brings you closer to your audience.

YouTube has added a dedicated dashboard for managing community tab posts, and trust us - you'll want to use this feature.

How to Use The Community Tab in YouTube Studio

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!

YouTube cards are in-video notifications that help promote your brand and other videos on your channel. If you haven’t used this feature before, here’s how it works for the viewer:

In the upper-right corner of the frame, a teaser box appears during a video.

The teaser box shows a message preview, which you can designate in the YouTube Studio.

When the teaser is clicked, the box expands to show a ‘card’. These can feature a video, playlist, channel, or outside link.

Finally, viewers click/tap on one of these elements to view the content.

As a YouTube creator, this process for showcasing your work is invaluable. Informational cards can boost views on older videos and help you cross-promote different parts of your brand, such as a website that houses all your content.

If that sounds good to you, let’s explore how this brand-boosting, cross-promotion magic happens. There are two ways to add YouTube cards to your videos, and we’re going to show you each method, step-by-step.

The first chance you’ll get to add cards to your videos is when you upload them. To kick off the process, go ahead and upload a video as you normally would.

As you move through the workflow, you’ll eventually reach an uppermost menu in the upload panel. From the options listed there, click ‘Video Elements’. A new page will open, and you’ll see an ‘Add Cards’ section near the bottom of the screen. This is where you can add new cards that send viewers to other videos and playlists you’ve created, as shown below:

Alternatively, you can add cards to videos you’ve already uploaded to YouTube. Here are the steps:

Click your profile image in the top-right corner and go to the YouTube Studio.

Click ‘Videos’ in the left navigation menu.

Hover your mouse over the video you want to add cards to and click the ‘Details’ button (pencil icon).

About halfway down this page and on the right side, you’ll see a ‘Cards’ section. Click the pencil icon to open the video-editing window.

You’ll know you’re in the right place when you see the screen below:

To add a card, go to the video timeline. Move the horizontal bar, which marks where you are in the video, to the point where you want to add the card. Next, you’ll go to the top left corner of the editing window to select the type of card you want to add: video, playlist, channel, or link. Finally, make your selection by clicking the blue plus sign next to either option.

Additionally, you can achieve the same thing by clicking the ‘i’ symbol in the bottom left corner of the editing window. This will display the same card options mentioned above, and you can add one anywhere in the video timeline.

If you’re adding a video or playlist card, YouTube will display a search window where you can find and select the content of your choice. Once you’ve made your selection, this is how the info card will look:

When a card pops up, the viewer will see it for about five seconds before it shrinks to a clickable “i” symbol.

Need to see the instructions in real-time? Watch our tutorial about how to add YouTube info cards to your videos:

If you want to change a card’s display text, you can do that in the same video-editing window. Find the box labeled ‘Teaser Text’ and type in the phrase you want viewers to see. It’s best to keep your message short and sweet in this section, as you only have 30 characters to play with. To see what teaser text looks like, check out the previous screenshot above this section.

Next, let’s add a custom message to your card. These are optional, but you can add one if you want another message to appear when viewers click your teaser. Here’s what looks custom messages look like in action:

To add one, simply navigate to the ‘Custom Message’ box and type in the text of your choice.

Keep in mind that for longer videos, the video-editing timeline compresses like a tightly-bound slinky toy. That makes it hard to see the blue markers indicating where your cards are positioned, and that can lead to tons of errors. To work around this, use the zoom feature to expand the timeline and get to the exact timestamp you need to edit.

Once you make that simple adjustment, everything gets easier. With fewer errors, you can quickly drag and drop cards into new positions on the timeline.

However, if you do make a mistake, there are undo and redo buttons on the left side of the timeline. If in the end, you decide an info card isn’t needed, delete it using the bin icon at the top of the edit window.

Important Things to Know About YouTube Cards

While YouTube allows you to add videos, playlists, channels, and outside links to your cards, there are some extra details to be aware of. Here are the most important things to know:

You can add any public playlist to a card, even if you didn’t create the playlist.

You have to add both teaser and custom text to YouTube channel cards.

To add website links to cards, you need to be part of the 

Only approved links can appear on cards. These include crowdfunding, merchandising, and brand-specific sites associated with your channel.

To take advantage of that last part, navigate to the advanced tab of your channel settings. In that window, you can add the website of your choice, a card title, a call to action message, and some teaser text. Additionally, you’ll need to upload a custom image.

Now that you know how to add cards, let’s address the elephant in the room: Watch Time. While cards are great for promotion, you may be wondering if they’re actually worth the effort. After all, when a viewer clicks a card, they’re abandoning the current video to view other content.

When it comes down to it, you’ll have to define the longterm goal of your videos. Ask yourself which videos need to have your audience’s full attention and which ones are beneficial for cross-promotion.

If you choose the cross-promotion route, here are some best practices for when and where to add cards in your videos:

Save info cards for the second half of the video, after you’ve already provided some value to the viewer.

Use info cards sparingly in longer content, as you can only add five per video.

Info cards allow YouTube creators to add an extra layer of interactivity to their videos. Here's how to set them up.

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