Getting support from YouTube has come a long way since the early days of scouring help forums and sending unanswered emails. These days, creators and viewers have faster, smarter, and more direct ways to get the help they need. Whether it’s recovering a hacked account, solving a 

 issue, or general troubleshooting, creators have many more options than they had even 

But with so many options available, knowing the best path to resolution can be confusing.

That’s why we’re going to break down every legitimate way you can contact YouTube Support. Whether you're a new creator or a seasoned YouTube Partner, you'll find clear steps to get fast assistance while dodging endless help center loops.

This may sound crazy, but your first stop should be the

. While it might be a bit overwhelming, the Help Center offers an array of articles covering common issues related to account management, video uploads, monetization, and more.


While it doesn’t offer the individualized support a creator may need, it does provide support documentation for almost any issue a YouTuber can think of. That said, you may need to do some digging. Even with the search function, it can sometimes be tricky to find exactly what you need.

YouTube provides live chat and email support, however, there’s a catch: Only certain creators are eligible to take advantage of it. Eligibility typically requires:

A minimum of 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months

So, while it’s not an option for every creator, the Live Chat and Email Support do provide a more direct way for established YouTubers to iron out their issues. 

You can access support on either desktop or mobile.

To access Live Chat and Email Support on desktop:

Click on your profile picture and select "Help."

Describe your issue and follow the prompts to initiate a chat or send an email.

To access Live Chat and Email Support on mobile:

Open the YouTube app and tap your profile picture.

Tap on "Contact Us" and follow the instructions.

While this is a more direct way to access YouTube support, response times can vary, which means you may need a different option for more pressing issues. Which brings us to…

Without a shadow of a doubt, whether you are a video viewer or a video creator, the best way to get the quickest response from YouTube is to reach out to 

As you can see, they do reply to questions on a very regular basis and are always keen to investigate unusual things that might be happening on the platform. They support nine languages through this feed and seem to operate 24 hours a day.

But be prepared: They are asked a lot of questions. Sometimes they're asked the same question over and over again. So, don't be surprised if you're directed to the help pages from YouTube or automated responses. Also, if you're trying to get specific help with your channel, especially monetization, again, don't be surprised if they give you some standard responses about the team reviewing your channel.

Think of the Team YouTube Twitter account as the catch-all point of contact for the platform. There are already many policies and processes in place that YouTube will want you to go through before they start to give you any personalized assistance.

If Team YouTube can't help, then the official 

 may be able to. Again, this is another resource where you may find answers to your questions, which are answered not only by YouTube, but by YouTube users just like you and me. There are several categories to browse through or you can just flick through the latest post as if it were a forum.

The thing to bear in mind here is that essentially anyone can ask a question, which also means anyone can answer them too. While there are dedicated product experts, you might want to double check the answers that are provided. You can also search through the Community database to see if your question has already been asked and answered or you can ask your own question via the link at the bottom of the screen.

While it may not be a solution for many creator problems, YouTube has recently introduced an AI chatbot to assist creators in recovering hacked accounts.

Accessible through the YouTube Help Center, this tool is designed to guide users through the process of securing their accounts and reversing unauthorized changes.

The AI Chatbot launched in late 2024 and is only accessible in English to a certain segment of YouTube creators, however, there are plans to expand it moving forward.

When in doubt, ask the people! If you’re having a specific issue, it’s likely that some other creators have had that problem as well. This is where asking other users outside of the Help Community can come in handy.

, offer peer-to-peer support (while also serving as a great resource for learning more about the platform). Even though it’s not an official support channel, these communities can provide insights and shared experiences from fellow creators. And if they can’t solve your problem, they can probably at least point you in the right direction.

While it would be awesome for YouTube to engage in one-on-one conversation with every video creator on the platform, that's simply not possible. So live chat is restricted to channels with over 25,000 subscribers and 100,000 hours of Watch Time in the last 12 months.

Yeah, if you thought monetization requirements were tough, this is a whole other level. With all that being said, if you do have access, you can simply fill out a form, click start chat, and be placed in a queue to await the next available customer service representative.

If you are not quite at that level yet, you can login to YouTube Studio, click on “Help” in the upper right hand and select “Contact Us” which will open a chatbot that will guide you to helpful resources.

On your YouTube Channel, access the Creator Studio then click on the monetization section. On this screen, click on the help and feedback button at the bottom left and then click on send feedback. This will display a pop up where you can take a screenshot and send YouTube a message.

We’ve already made a dedicated video on how this can 

speed up your YouTube monetization application

, and had many successful testimonials on this strategy working. Of course the send feedback tool isn't just for asking about monetization. You can use it to report any issue on YouTube, and the advantage with this contact method is that it's available on almost all YouTube pages. So whatever it is you need to report, use this function.

If you have a general interest in what YouTube is up to, then the 

 is one you should definitely subscribe to. It's actually run by the YouTube team, and they upload regular updates about new features, bugs, and questions the YouTube community has about the platform.

They will also reply to viewer comments within videos, but you may not want to use this as a way to contact YouTube about a specific issue you have. It's more about general conversation on YouTube as a whole.


Now, if you haven't quite made it into the 21st century yet, there are some old fashioned ways you can contact YouTube.

YouTube does have a physical headquarters in San Bruno, California, USA, although there are more YouTube offices dotted throughout the world. You could try and contact YouTube through snail mail, if you’d like.

, where they include their address and fax number, along with lots of other links to various departments where you can directly speak to YouTube.

YouTube play button with text "How to contact" and vidIQ logo on blue background

Contacting YouTube can be tricky, but it is possible. We bring you the most up-to-date guide on reaching out to YouTube Support.

How to Contact YouTube Support - The ULTIMATE Guide

When you launch your YouTube channel, remember that you are entitled to absolutely nothing, especially subscribers. You need to work hard, and hustle day and night to earn every single view and every single subscriber. On that note, let us give you 10 expert tips that should get you thinking about how to build your super-engaged subscriber fanbase:

#1 Make Building a Relationship With Your Audience a Priority

Subscribers are earned by building up a relationship with your audience, and that can be done in many different ways. Of course, the most obvious one would appear to be on a personal level. You're standing in front of a camera, meaning the audience can connect with you directly, and vloggers certainly will build up subscribers as they tell more of their story.

But it can also be on an educational level. I know of many videos where I've watched something, and I've had that light bulb moment in the video, and that makes me click subscribe immediately. That sort of subscription happens a lot with educational and How To channels. The problem with that is that the user usually just wants a specific answer to a specific question that you gave them, and then, they're not interested in anymore of your content. But that's the nature of YouTube - subscribers can have different values to different people.

I think ultimately, if you can establish a relationship with your audience and build up a certain level of trust, those are going to be your most valuable subscribers who will invest not only in the video that they have just watched, but in future content on your channel. I think all of the tips that you're gonna see in this post relate back to this one.

#2 Double Down on the Video Content That’s Working For You

Now, there is one tried and tested, guaranteed to work shortcut to getting more subscribers, and that's sub for sub. 

, but there is a hack to getting more subscribers faster, and that's to analyze the data on your own channel to see what videos convert videos into subscribers. This can be done through one of the VidIQ tools. It's called the Channel Audit, and when you open it up, there is a section dedicated to videos getting the most subscribers for your channel. It stands to reason if those videos are turning viewers into subscribers, you should do more content on those themes. The Channel Audit, by the way, is part of our huge VidIQ arsenal that will help you research YouTube, analyze videos, audit your channel as you've just seen, and take optimal steps to help grow your channel. 

#3 Be Consistent with Your Upload Schedule - Give Viewers a REASON to Subscribe

Being consistent comes in many different shapes and sizes, but one of the most important ones is consistency of schedule. Make sure you keep posting so people come back to your content, but most importantly, keep consistent in your choice of topic. Let's say it takes three videos to convert a viewer into a subscriber:

The first video creates awareness of who you are and what potentially you do on YouTube.

The second video creates that consistency. Now, they know what you do and that they like the content.

The third video, build more momentum of what we talked about in tip one, trust, and that's where the subscription may come.

If you're jumping from topic to topic to topic, you may never get past the awareness stage of your content. I know this may sound counter productive at this point, but you really need to focus down on one specific topic. The thing that you're most passionate about and that you can tell the best stories about.

#4 Treat Viewers as Guests - Make it Easy for Them to Understand What Your Channel is All About

Consider viewers as your guests, and welcome them warmly into your home. Give them a guided tour so they know where everything is, and those guests will soon become friends. What do I mean by that metaphor? Sort out your channel page! This will include creating a channel banner that visually tells your audience what you do in five seconds, and uploading a channel trailer video that best represents the kind of content that you do.

Also, always create Playlists that help inform the visitor on the topics that you cover and show recent uploads so people know you are still producing content.

#5 Ask Viewers to Subscribe - They Probably Will

Sometimes, you've just got to tell your viewers what to do because they won't do it themselves. There's nothing wrong with occasionally asking for a little bit of help from your audience, and if you do it too much, your audience will let you know. If you've never tried it before, definitely give it a go, and try and make it something fun.

#6 Get Inventive with Calls to Actions (CTAs)

Generally speaking, when you ask your audience to do something, it's what's known as a call to action. But you can be more subtle. You could have graphics appear on screen that you don't even reference. Simply search for 'subscribe animation green screen', and you'll find plenty of free options on the Internet

#7 Get Savvy with Your Branding Watermark

Want to know about something that could increase subscriber growth by 500% - your branding watermark. Many video creators simply use their channel logo. But we recommend using a subscribe button like this because when you mouse over this button on a desktop, you can subscribe to the channel. It does exactly what it says on the tin.

When we switched to this subscriber button, our subscribe rates from that source increased by over 500%! As a free gift to you, 

. For more information about how to implement this on your own YouTube channel, check out this video: '

#8 Reach Out Via Community Tab & YouTube Stories

Not every video creator can produce videos every single day, but you should still produce content every single day. How? well, if you have more than 1,000 subscribers, you can post status updates, ask questions, post voting polls, and promote videos through the 

. If you only have time to post one video a week, you always have five minutes to post an update on your Community tab.

 if you have access to it. Create short vertical form video clips that you can quickly record to keep your audience up to date with what you're up to. You can even do video responses to questions through this feature, which is pretty awesome for building relationships and establishing trust with your audience.

Now, I know what you're thinking at this point. The Community tab and YouTube Stories are all very well and good for my subscribers, but what difference does that make to non-subscribers? Well, here's the weird thing. Those community posts and YouTube Stories can hit people who have not subscribed to your content but have watched your content or it's related content to what that viewer is interested in. It's true! We post regularly in our Community tab, and we often get comments from users who aren't subscribed to our channel. There's nothing we can do about it, but we do appreciate YouTube reaching out to a new audience on our behalf :-)

#10 Reference Your Subscribers in Your Content

Maybe you don't have access to the Community tab, or to YouTube Stories yet. Fair enough, you still have access to YouTube comments. You 

 be responding to every single comment you can, because this all links back to tip number one, building relationships and building trust with your audience. It's always a great feeling for the commenter to know that the video creator is paying attention to what they say and responding to their comments. And we try and do that on VidIQ with every single video that we do. And there's other ways to acknowledge your community, as well, such as referencing them directly in videos. If you can make your audience feel special, there's a much higher chance of them investing in you.

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

Man thinking with YouTube subscribe button and cursor icon on blue background.

Want more YouTube subscribers in 2019? We have 10 expert tips and tricks to build up your YouTube subscriber base starting right now!

10 Killer Tips to Get More Subscribers on YouTube

Note: The impact of Coronavirus is being updated by the hour. The content of this article is correct at time of writing but is, of course, subject to change.

Coronavirus, COVID-19, whatever you want to call it. How do we tackle such a topic? As a YouTube creator, or a viewer, what does coronavirus mean to you right now?

 rapidly changing news story, and what I say right now may not be relevant or accurate in a day or a week. This is the biggest global news story to hit in this new digital media age, and it is one that is impacting billions of lives. It's affecting everything we know and we have to take this topic very seriously. So, from one creator to another, if you are going to post videos on the coronavirus, please do it responsibly.

Coronavirus: How it Changed Everything in Less Than a Week

In the past few days, we've learned that all of the major North American sports leagues, such as NBA, NHL, MLS, have postponed their seasons to prevent large gatherings of people. Schools are closing everywhere and shops are running low on supplies.

Essentially, in the real, physical world, authorities all over the globe are cautioning their citizens against social interaction, and, as a result, technology, the internet, the connected digital world, is going to be tested like it never has been before.

People are being forced into self-isolation or self-quarantine. And if there's nothing to do outside the four walls of their own house, they are naturally going to gravitate towards the Internet for entertainment, and that includes video.

But that comes with an incredible amount of responsibility, especially on a platform such as YouTube, where creators are sharing their information with an audience hungry for answers.

So, YouTube, Coronavirus, creator, viewer. How does this all work? Well, let's start with this question that I do not want to ask, but YouTube must answer. As a creator, how can I get more views and more subscribers and grow my channel from coronavirus?

As I said earlier, in my opinion, I think this is the largest global event of the digital media age, and unavoidably, this creates opportunity.

Coronavirus didn't even register as a search term at the beginning of 2020. Today, it's seemingly the only thing that's searched for. Typing the word into the YouTube search bar, and into 

 will tell you that it has massive search volume, but content to support that keyword hasn't yet quite caught up. Demand outstrips supply, and when that happens, those who have supply capitalize.

Coronavirus: One of the Most Searched For Keywords on YouTube

Forgive me for a second, but I want you to cast your mind back to a much simpler time where the stakes were a lot less important, but the concept was still the same. 

 that anticipated that this may become one of the biggest YouTube stories of the year, and set up a livestream to follow the subscriber counts. That channel benefited with hundreds of millions of views and 2.5 million subscribers. It's probably not going to surprise you, but there are channels out there who are applying exactly the same formula to the coronavirus.

As I search for the term on YouTube and filter by livestreams only, there is one channel called Roylab Stats that began a livestream on the Coronavirus at the end of January, when the concern and the keyword interest was at a fraction of the size it is today.

Right now, there are over 40,000 people watching the numbers the stats, and the graph trends upwards. This channel had less than 1,000 subscribers at the end of January. It's now growing at a rate of over 5,000 subscribers a day.

From purely an objective point of view, this is YouTube at its finest. A creator has discovered a topic that was going to trend in the future and created content before anyone else. They've pitched it well with SEO, and now, a mass audience is desperate for information on this keyword, so are flocking to this video.

Of course, YouTube is a search engine and a very good one at that. It's always trying to predict what you are searching for, and then serving up the content that you want to watch.

As you well know, when you type words into the YouTube search bar, it will auto-complete with predicted searches. Today, if you type in how to, the top search result is ‘how to make hand sanitizer’, along with some other coronavirus-related searches.

In this sense, YouTube is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you are worried about Coronavirus, it's in YouTube's search and discovery nature to tell you about it, and once again, YouTube will reward those who seize this trending topic.

Coronavirus, YouTube, & Late Night Content

So, it's fair to say that, currently, Coronavirus is a huge searchable topic on YouTube with channels of all sizes benefiting from it, whether rightly or wrongly. You could argue that we've looked at fairly safe styles of delivery, a factual livestream and an educational video on how to prevent catching Coronavirus. But what about when the lines get a little blurred?

The YouTube Trending Tab has always been a source of controversy, especially for creators who believe that it doesn't reflect what's really trending on the platform, and instead, favors certain channels, chief among those, North American late-night talk shows.

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" is one such channel, and a recent clip from his show found its way onto the trending page of YouTube.

The clip itself is a collection of news stories, obviously delivered in a comedic way, and Coronavirus takes up no more than 30 seconds of a five-minute video. But the decision was made by the YouTube channel manager to include Coronavirus both in the title and the video description of this content. They wanted people to find this because of the Coronavirus mention:

I think, at this stage, most people will take this content at face value, as a light-hearted piece of fun, but at the other end of the spectrum, there are people who are being seriously affected by Coronavirus and are searching for information on it.

Now, one thing that should happen at the slightest mention of Coronavirus in a video is that YouTube will display info cards and panels relevant to your location that push you to trusted information, and this video is a test in itself of that process.

This is one of the many measures YouTube is taking to try and stay on the right side of this topic. It is also promoting authoritative sources in search and recommendations and showing information panels on relevant videos.

, which gives you an unfiltered account of videos with the most views over a certain period of time, the majority of the content about Coronavirus seems to be coming from those American late night talk show hosts.

This isn't necessarily a measure of what YouTube is recommending most to viewers, but it does seem to be a useful insight into the psyche of the average YouTube user right now. In these times of great uncertainty, they still want to be entertained.

Update: YouTube is now allowing videos about Coronavirus to be monetized on a limited number of channels

Now, for those creators who are finding, I don't want to say success, more traction on their channel because of Coronavirus content, does that mean they are actually going to profit from it? Well, in this case, I think YouTube have definitely taken the right approach, and that is no.

YouTube already has in place comprehensive advertiser guidelines that state what type of content may have limited ads or no ads at all, and the Coronavirus clearly falls into one of these categories, a global health crisis.

So, if your intention as a creator is to tackle the Coronavirus topic head-on, like we have in this video, you wouldn't expect to monetize your content, and that would be fair, right?

Well, hang on. Remember the video from earlier on, that was all about making homemade hand sanitizer? It was clearly being made with the Coronavirus in mind, but not exclusively about the Coronavirus, and it's not the first how to make hand sanitizer video on YouTube.

Almost four years ago, the WhatsUpMoms channel posted a DIY hand sanitizer video, and for years, that video has trundled along at less than 50 views per hour. But now, in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak, the video is getting over 1,200 views per hour, and in recent weeks, there are people commenting on how they've arrived at this video.

It is clear that this video has gained traction recently from the Coronavirus outbreak, but (at time of writing) it is missing any YouTube information about the Coronavirus. However, if we visit the 

 that includes the keyword in the title, there you will find Coronavirus info cards from YouTube.

Now, also at time of writing, the WhatsUpMom DIY hand sanitizer video from four years ago still has ads running on it. The other channel is too small to be even in the YouTube Partner Program, so we can't be sure whether this video would be monetized, but I would suspect not, since the Creator Blog does go on to state that YouTube currently does not allow monetization if a video includes more than a passing mention of the Coronavirus.

YouTube does recognize that there may be a need to adjust its policies on this issue. Its 

"It's becoming clear this issue is now an ongoing and important part of everyday conversation, and we want to make sure news organizations and creators can continue producing quality videos in a sustainable way. In the days ahead, we will enable ads for content discussing the Coronavirus on a limited number of channels, including creators who accurately self-certify "and a range of news partners.”

YouTube has policies in place that confirm if there is a global health crisis and you create content on that topic it is going to limit or show no ads on that content. But if that global health crisis goes on for six weeks, and may go on for six months to a year, then, yeah, actually, we think you may have permission to monetize your content, as long as we trust you as creators.

That, again, is putting a lot of responsibility both on YouTube and creators to do the right thing.

YouTube is already well-prepared for self-certification, as it already has mechanisms in place. You will have all seen the 

 requirements crop up on your channel, but what you may not yet have seen are the ad-friendly self-certification screens that YouTube have been trialing for over a year now.

Presumably, YouTube are adapting the self-certifications for Coronavirus content, and we’ll know more in the coming weeks. Clearly, there is a lot to talk about, and by no means are we or YouTube done with this topic.

I see this as a starting point for a conversation about how the Coronavirus is impacting YouTube, especially creators just like you, and I want you to help us guide this conversation.

Person in protective suit showing a gloved hand with a red play button icon overlay

Coronavirus is affecting everyone and everything across the globe right now, including YouTube. Let's take a look at its impact on you, the creator.

Coronavirus: The Impact on YouTube and YouTubers

YouTube are shutting down comments on videos featuring under-18s, in an attempt to "better protect children and families". Obviously this is going to have serious implications for a lot of video creators. We've just 

done a video on the child exploitation scandal

 that is ripping through YouTube right now, and making advertisers very jumpy. With the eyes of the world looking to YouTube to aggressively address the issue, they have confirmed they are taking drastic steps to protect children who appear in videos uploaded to one of the biggest social platforms in the world.

Over a week after the child exploitation story broke, YouTube have 

finally posted an update on their creator blog page

. In it they summarize what they have done so far but also more importantly what they intend to do next. And this is where things start to look a little uncomfortable for video creators.

YouTube states that over the past week they have disabled comments on tens of millions of videos that could have been subject to predatory behavior. These efforts are focused on videos featuring 'young' and 'older' minors and the platform will continue to identify videos at risk over the next few months.

YouTube also confirmed that the platform has been working on creating a much more effective ‘classifer’ that will identify and automatically remove comments that are considered predatory, creepy or harmful. As part of its general safety policy, they are proactively removing content and terminating channels that attempt to harm or endanger children.

YouTube also confirmed that a small number of family and children-friendly creators 

 be able to keep comments enabled on these types of videos. However, these select channels will be required to actively moderate their comments beyond just using the standard moderation tools, and the comments must demonstrate a low risk of predatory behavior.

When YouTube states a small number of creators, we can assume that it's probably the largest creators on the platform, the ones that bring in tens of millions of views. And those creators are going to have to prove that their comments are safe. But how does that work in the practical world?

YouTube's New Comment Policy: How Will it Work in the Wild?

The new policy confirms that comments are going to be banned from tens of millions of videos, and millions of video creator channels. These creators are no longer going to be able to interact directly with their audience and that changes the whole dynamic of how you build an engaged audience and a community on YouTube.

For the select few channels who will be able to keep comments enabled, how will they work with YouTube and how much manual hands-on work will be required by those channels and the teams at YouTube? If we’re talking about some of the biggest kid-friendly properties, each video uploaded can bring in 10K+ comments, and moderating that kind of volume will require a 

Child surprised with hands over mouth next to a no comments symbol on blue background

YouTube have just announced that they're going to ban comments on most videos featuring children. What does that mean for family vloggers?

YouTube Bans Comments on Videos Featuring Kids: What That Means for Family Channels

I assume you're a Fortnite player if you’re reading this post so you’ll want to know how to rank for that content on YouTube, right? Here are 6 ways you can rank for Fortnite topics on YouTube right now:

Find a trending topic around the game i.e. 'fps boost on Fortnite' and double down on it

Create content ahead of a new season or feature

Jump on a live stream if a Fortnite topic is trending or about to!

Edit the livestream to create more content for your gaming channel

Optimize for keywords like ‘Nexus Orb’ or ‘Season 10’ (or both together)

Create evergreen content designed to inform and entertain over a period of time

I think it's fair to say that Fortnite has been going through a downswing in recent months, and we'll come back to that later. But it is still one of the most popular games on YouTube to make videos about. And it helps that new items, and secrets, and seasons are always being announced and released that keep the Fortnite topic fresh with new content on YouTube. And Fortnite season 10 is being released on the 1st of August, 2019.

How to Rank for Fortnite Topics on YouTube Now

Now we have already talked about small YouTube channels trying to find their niche in this huge Fortnite area. And, once again, I have a perfect example. There is something about Fortnite and boosting frames per second that YouTube viewers really get a kick out of. And this enterprising video creator with less than 500 subscribers stuck a video on YouTube a month ago, and now it ranks top of the list with 50,000 views (video has been removed from YouTube).

Now, it's probably a little bit of a creative license with the title there, I mean, how could you make this video when season 10 wasn't released a month ago? But it is getting positive engagement, so the content must be providing value. Also the second channel and video in the search rankings, we've come across this chap before. You might call him the YouTube authority on frames per second boost on Fortnite, because he pivoted his entire channel to the endeavor and has gained tens of thousands of subscribers and millions of views over the past 12 months from it. And how do we know all of this? Well it's because we did a case study on the channel last year. And you can 

Jump on the Demand for Trending Fortnite Content

Now that was an example of Evergreen content. It's designed to be relevant and valuable to viewers for awhile, say, two or three months. But what I want to show you now are the extreme gains you can potentially get from trending content that may only have a shelf life of a couple of days.

Now I will confess, I am not a Fortnite player, so I don't know all of the jargon and terminology in the game. But when I did a search on YouTube for Fortnite, this particular video and its title caught my interest.

First and foremost, it's a live stream and the title suggests something is happening right now in the Fortnite universe. Interesting, yes. But what is happening? And what are people likely to be searching for? Season 10 or season X I understand is a new release, but what's this Nexus Orb thing mean? That sounds like the most specific keyword phrase in the title, so I decided to find out what that was all about.

Now forgive me, I'm probably gonna get this explanation a little wrong because I don't play Fortnite. But, as far as I understand it, this orb is integral to the launch of season 10 of Fortnite. People have been seeing it on teaser videos in the last couple of days. It's exploding, it's giving you stuff, it's melting stuff, something along those lines. The bottom line is, for a very short window of time, probably around about 72 hours, everybody who's playing Fortnite wants to know what this orb is and what's gonna happen and they want as much information as possible and they want it now. And that's why that search term has gone through the roof.

How to Find the Best Fortnite Keywords to Use on YouTube

Using vidIQ's own keyword inspector tool, we can click on keywords video creators are using and see how a term is trending over time. As you can see, Nexus Orb didn't even register as a term until a week ago, and now interest is spiking because of what's happening on Fortnite right now. And remember, I'm not a Fortnite gamer. I do not understand how that world works. But with a little keyword research intuition, I've been able to identify at least one keyword phrase that looks particularly juicy and if I was a Fortnite gamer, I would be making a video on it right now.

And you know what? When I have a second look at this title, there is another keyword of interest: Dusty Depot. To be honest, I'm not sure what it means because I'm a complete Fortnite noob. But what I do know through vidIQ is that this is another trending keyword phrase - so let's have a look at the keywords individually first.

We've got Fortnite at the top as your topic. That's not going anywhere, it's been around for years. Now we've got something of relevancy today: Season 10. But a lot of other video creators are gonna be using that. Then we're gonna go really specific with those two keywords that started to trend in the last week because potentially, people didn't realize they were gonna be trending more than a week ago. That's Nexus Orb and Dusty Depot. And what happens when you start to put those keywords together? Well that's when channels of all shapes and sizes can have viral moments.

Take this search that combines Season 10 and Dusty Depot. It may be some way down the search results, but this channel with its 250 subscribers has had its own viral moment from a video with 3,000 views. Of course, in the grand scheme of the Fortnite universe, 3,000 views on a video is not a big deal. But it is for the channel itself. If you are a gaming channel that's trying to find its way on YouTube, and you create a video that does 100 times better than your previous video, that's a signal to create more content on the subject, which the video creator has done. And hey, it may only be 200 views. But for a channel with 250 subscribers, that's still pretty good.

Now if Dusty Depot, when, who thought I would ever say Dusty Depot in a YouTube video, if Dusty Depot is an interesting keyword, then Nexus Orb is a fascinating keyword. First of all, the average age of videos appearing at the top of the YouTube search results is just nine days. This is extremely rare, and it means two things. Not only is the search term very hot, but it also means that YouTube is recycling content frequently because there is a lot of fresh stuff coming onto the platform.

Fortnite Live Streams: The Key to YouTube Success

Now I have a question for you. What do a lot of these videos have in common as I scroll through these search results? Have you spot it yet? Yep! I notice that too. A significant number of these videos are actually live streams. And when I tweak the search term to Nexus Orb event, every single video in the search results was a live stream. Yeah, this isn't a trick, I'm not filtered by live stream only videos. And I'm not sure I've ever seen this before. What all of this tells me from a YouTube perspective is that this Nexus Orb event, was so important to Fortnite gamers that Fortnite video creators wanted to stream the event live to capture as many people as possible as they were searching for this new release. And, when you do a live stream, YouTube favors that in a search term.

So while you're currently live, you will find yourself higher up in the search terms. And we've actually discovered this with our own content. Every Tuesday at 11 A.M. PDT for around about an hour, we do a live stream channel audit. You're welcome to join us next time we're on. And every time we have that live stream running, for the hour, we rank much higher in the search term ‘How to Get More Views’. Because that's part of the title of our live streams. If you don't believe me, next Tuesday, 11 A.M., search for how to get more views and you should find us near the top of the search rankings.

Now in all fairness, there's never going to be a surge of interest for the search term How to Get More Views. But, when there is a trending event that has a very small window of opportunity, 24, 48 hours, perhaps even less, it might be more advisable to do a live stream to capture that event, and then you could take the best bits of that live stream and create a smaller, dedicated, specific video a couple of hours later.

Now, let's step back for a second. Why am I advising you to go after trending topics and potentially do that through live streams? Well remember, Fortnite is a huge gaming topic on YouTube with channels that have tens of millions of subscribers. And you've got to find your own little edge to compete against them.

All of which brings me back to the video that first caught my attention. At nearly 200,000 subscribers, by no means is 

 a small channel. But it's not a huge one either in the Fortnite grand scheme of things. But by creating a super keyword-rich video, and making it into a live stream, this channel finds itself at the top of the search rankings. And because it's at the top of trending search rankings, there are thousands of people watching it which is pretty incredible for a channel of this size.

BUT, here’s where you have to be careful both as a viewer and a video creator. On closer inspection Ayvak’s livestream was a 15 minute looped video created a couple of days before the event, which YouTube decided was the best livestream to share amongst viewers searching for that topic.

It is unfortunate that there are many video creators who game the YouTube search system in this way. It is your job as a video creator to give you audience something of real worth and value. After further research into the topic we did find genuine livestreamers who were giving their audience great content. Creators such as 

 and his 10 hour livestream that ranked highly for the topic and earned his 20k subscriber channel 65k views:

Livestreams & Trending Topics on YouTube: Capture the Viewer Interest Now!

If you are going to go after a trending topic, and do it as a live stream, make sure you're doing it for the right reasons and you're giving your audience something of value. Now we have used Fortnite as the example here, but you could apply this to any topic on YouTube. For example, the announcement of a new piece of technology such as the next iPhone. A reaction to the latest movie trailer release, or indeed, a wrestling event.

We always get reactions to the latest pay-per-views such as Summer Slam. Can you tell I'm a wrestling addict? Yeah, you can smell what I'm cooking. I think ultimately, the question you need to ask yourself is this: do I need to know this information as soon as it's available? Do I crave it? Do I need to find out before anyone else? If the answer is yes, then there's probably thousands if not millions of people who feel exactly the same way, and that's where a live stream might be advantageous to your content.

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

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

Hand holding smartphone showing Fortnite game characters and logo on screen.

Season 10 of Fortnite is here, and viewers are all over YouTube looking for the latest news and features. We show you how to rank for Fortnite to capture that interest!

How to Rank for Fortnite on YouTube to Get More Views

When you are logged into YouTube, you should see your channel logo in the top right-hand corner of most YouTube screens. If you click on that, you have the option to go to YouTube Studio. This is currently in beta, but will become a standard as 2019 progresses. This is your new dashboard or analytics homepage, and from here you want to click on the Settings section down the left-hand side.

On this screen click on Channel, and finally you want Branding. This is where you can set a video branding watermark, and what this does is add an image of your choice to the bottom right-hand corner of videos, which viewers can mouse over and use to subscribe to a channel. This branding watermark also appears on the mobile YouTube app, but you cannot use it here to subscribe to a channel. The ideal image should be square, 150 pixels by 150 pixels, and no more than one megabyte.

How to Add a Branding Watermark to Your YouTube Channel

To add a branding watermark, simply click Choose Image, and select one from your computer. You can select when the branding watermark appears on your videos, but we highly recommend choosing the entire video, so that the viewers have the opportunity to subscribe whenever they want. This branding watermark affects all videos on your channel, and don't forget to save before leaving this screen.

This is an absolute no-brainer, it's guaranteed to work, it's a free way to get more subscribers, and it's a YouTube tool. Now you could of course use your own channel logo, and many do, but my question is this. This is a branding watermark, and the call to action is to subscribe to your channel. So it might as well say exactly what it does on the tin. As you can see, when we changed our branding watermark to this current Subscribe button, and set it for the entire length of the video, our subscriber count from that source increased by over 500%, and because we're such lovely people, we want you to enjoy the same success.

This is the ‘Subscribe’ button mentioned in the video

 - just click on that link, download it, and apply it to your channel.

Red YouTube subscribe button with arrow and green arrow showing 500% increase in 60 seconds.

YouTube has a little feature that’s guaranteed to get you more subscribers. We show you how to turn it on, and what impact it will have on your channel.

Carla Marshall

Posts Written By Carla Marshall

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