Congratulations, you've hit the requirements on YouTube to monetize your content - 1,000 subscribers, and 

. It was hard work but you’ve applied for monetization, but then you got stuck in review for weeks, even months. It's frustrating to be stuck in this limbo with no information about when it's going to be resolved and no real way to 

. Until now, because we got an awesome comment from one of the members of our vidIQ community telling us their channel had been in review for three months, and after trying this strategy they got their channel approved in two days. And we wanna share that with you right now.

Asking YouTube for Feedback on Monetization Review

First off, click on your channel logo, and then click on Creator Studio. When you reach your dashboard, click on Channel and then Monetization to get to the monetization screen. SIf your YouTube Channel has been under review for some time then click on ‘Help and Feedback.’ This will bring up a small popup with a range of options, and you want to click ‘Send feedback’. This brings up the Send feedback tool in the middle of the screen, and it takes a screenshot of what's currently on your desktop. In other words, your monetization requirements, which you've met, and allows you to type in a message to YouTube. To give you a little bit of help with what to write, I asked the community member, My Name Is Andong, what he posted to YouTube, and this is what he wrote.

"Hi, YouTube team. "I've been under review for monetization since whenever. "I am well over the required watch time "and subscriber counts. "Please let me know if everything is okay "or who I can get in touch with "to move my application forward."

Now, I don't know about you, but that seems like a very reasonable request to me. Once you've typed it out, you can click on the Send button. Fingers crossed, let's see what happens. Now, a quick disclaimer here, we're not guaranteeing that YouTube are going to respond to your feedback. However, we do know that there's thousands of you out there who are desperately trying to resolve your in-review situation. And it is very hard to contact YouTube, so any opportunity to give them a bit of a nudge is worth a try. Good luck with your monetization requests.

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 approved YouTube monetization dollar sign icon and vidIQ logo.

So your YouTube Channel meets the monetization requirements of 1,000 subscribers & 4,000 hours of Watch Time, but it's still under review and it has been for a considerable length of time. What can you do about it? We show you!

How to Speed Up the 'YouTube Channel in Review' Monetization Process

If you’re thinking about deleting your YouTube channel it’s a fairly easy process. On any YouTube page, click on your profile icon in your top right-hand corner of your screen, and select ‘Settings’, then ‘Advanced Settings’. Now, this is where things start to get a little scary. At the bottom of this screen is a "delete channel" button. Don't worry, if you click this button, nothing happens just yet, as you will first need to provide your password. Once you do that, then you will be on the big decision-making screens.

How to Permanently Delete Your YouTube Channel

Let's start with permanently deleting your channel first. This will delete your videos, the users subscribed to your channel, all forms of engagements, your subscriptions to other channels, and your search and watch history. It also removes not only the videos you have created, but your preferences as a video viewer.

If you feel that this is a step too far, then consider the "Hide Channel" option instead. This will make private your channel, likes, users subscribed to your channel, and your subscriptions to other channels. What it will also do is permanently delete comments you posted, but it will not delete your search and watch history. You will be asked to tick all of the checkboxes to confirm you understand what will happen to your channel. This option however, does allow you to re-enable your channel at any time. When your channel is hidden from public view, you may see the message, "Your YouTube channel has content but is disabled," on your YouTube video manager page.

If you do want to quit YouTube, here's my personal advice. Think really, really hard before you click that button. If you're finding the whole process too frustrating, if you think YouTube is against you, or you're simply burnt out, there is nothing wrong with taking a break. Many video creators do this. I have struggled with the pressures of YouTube in the past. I took an entire year off when I moved to a different country. But when I came back, I had a new fire lit within me. So, even if you think YouTube is not the right fit for you right now, things can and will change. And if you do decide to carry on with your YouTube venture, then don't forget that vidIQ is here to help.

Red YouTube play button labeled "Your Channel" with green arrow pointing to trash bin icon.

Do you want to delete your YouTube Channel, or simply hide it while you take a break and consider your options? We show you how.

How to Delete (or Hide) a YouTube Channel

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

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

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

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

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

You can't officially download other peoples YouTube videos

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

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

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

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

2019 edition YouTube video icon with arrow pointing to yellow download folder symbol.

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

How to Download a YouTube Video: New Method

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

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

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

https://www.youtube.com/view_all_playlists

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

One more thing, if you have the VidIQ Chrome extension installed, we have a cool 

. It shows you loads of things about your channel, but at the very bottom of this report card, it tells you which videos on your channel are not currently in Playlists. All you need to do is click through the screens and that will take you directly to the video edit page for that video, where you can add it to a Playlist. Problem solved in no more than thirty seconds.

YouTube icon with green arrow pointing to a playlist of four numbered video thumbnails.

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

How to Create a Playlist On YouTube

Do you know which video category your Channel falls under? To check, log into Creator Studio on YouTube, go to ‘Settings’ which you’ll find in the left hand navigation menu. From the pop-up, go to ‘Upload Defaults’ followed by the ‘Advanced’ tab. On this page in the top right hand corner you will find the category drop down which allows you to select from one of 15 categories. This is the video upload category default, but if you want to change the category of an existing video you can go to the ‘Video’ section in the Creator Studio, click on the video you want to adjust, click on the ‘Advanced’ tab and change the video category.

Why are YouTube Categories Important for Creators?

What's the point in confirming the right YouTube category for your video? That’s an interesting question because when you search on YouTube and filter, there is no option to sort by video category. Also, if you click on the trending page your category options are limited too. Also, to the best of our knowledge, there is no algorithmic boost or penalty if you do indeed put the video in the right or wrong category.

However, when it comes to advertisers finding the right videos to place their adverts on setting a video category is important. So to make sure you get football related adverts from your football content make sure to put it in the sports category so you get more clicks from those adverts and earn more money.

Now sometimes these categories will not be a perfect fit for your channel. For example vidIQ could be in the how to and style section, the education section, or even science and technology. Personally I think it should be in the comedy section, but as long as you put the video in generally the right category you should be fine.

YouTube categories icon with gaming, cars, sports, science, finance, and education symbols.

YouTube creators who monetize their content should ensure they select the right category before publishing. We show you how to change your YouTube categories by default or from video to video.

How to Change Your YouTube Video Category: Easy Tutorial

Video creators using Facebook as a distribution channel face a different set of opportunities and challenges than YouTube. Fortunately, Facebook wants to support creators and publishers who navigate the platform and have 

announced a change to their video algorithm

 “to help talented video creators find their audience and build profitable video businesses on Facebook.” The changes, which will be rolled out over the next few months, will impact video content in the News Feed, the 'More Videos' feature, and also on Facebook Watch.

Facebook confirmed it has 2.4B monthly active users so the potential audience for your videos is huge, but it's no secret that the platform has been under severe scrutiny over problems with spammy or questionable content. To ensure only the most relevant video content is surfaced, Facebook has issued new guidelines to reward creators who publish original video content, attract repeat views, and upload videos over three minutes long.

So what do creators and publishers need to know about the new changes? Let's take a look at the three ranking factors Facebook announced on 6th May 2019:

 Facebook is clamping down hard on any video content that's been repurposed and is going to hugely restrict the visibility and the monetization opportunities for unoriginal content.

Over the past few years we've seen millions of Facebook Pages built around aggregated content thrive. But a huge number of these Pages have grown followers by using content that's either been licensed from other creators, or re-uploaded without credit. In the land grab for Facebook views, many publishers have also participated in 

 (large-scale distribution of third party video content) but this approach is about to become even more unsustainable as the platform “will more strongly limit distribution and monetization for this kind of content".

 The platform is looking to boost the ranking signal of video content that users search out, and return to, on a regular basis. Repeat views for the videos you upload should be one of the main goals for any Facebook video creator going forward, as videos that get users to return will be surfaced more often across Facebook.

 Videos that keep viewers engaged for an extended period of time also get a ranking signals boost. The platform confirmed that videos that last longer than three minutes will benefit the most, so creators and publishers need to build this new metric into their video marketing strategy as of right now.

Close-up of Facebook login page on a web browser with URL and security padlock visible

Facebook has announced an update to the way it is going to rank videos - and creators and publishers need to take note.

Facebook is Changing its Video Algorithm to Reward Original Content and Loyal Viewers

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and users flock to the site in their billions to find answers to questions on all sorts of topics. The challenge for YouTubers is not only to create the content they are most passionate about, but to find the gaps in the YouTube space where the competition is less fierce for that content.

Take Mother's Day for instance. The short-tail term "Mother's Day' is the most searched for term around the celebration in 2019. No massive surprise there - and neither is the volume of content that's published around that keyword phrase. If you have an established channel with a loyal and engaged subscriber base that has been uploading content around lifetsyle and family for years, then YouTube may return your videos pretty high up in the search results for that term. But if you are a new channel, you may struggle to gain any visibility outside of your own audience, due to the sheer volume of uploaded content around this major tentpole event.

If you plan on creating a Mother's Day's video then you will want to fully understand what keywords people are searching for and when they are searching so your video has the best chance of being seen during this very competitive U.S. holiday.

Luckily, viewers are searching for all sorts of terms around Mother's Day that you can take advantage of to drive views and subscribers to your channel. Here are the top 20 search terms for 2019:

YouTube: Top 20 Mother’s Day Keywords To Use

Are any of the keywords listed above a surprise to you as a YouTube creator? Are there any ideas that you can think of around some of the topics? These terms are being actively searched for right now so you have the opportunity to rank in the results if you can create an engaging and entertaining video using these keywords as a kick-off point. But remember to OPTIMIZE your custom thumbnails, titles, tags, and descriptions accordingly so YouTube knows exactly what your video is all about.

When are Viewers Searching for Mother's Day Content on YouTube?

In 2018, most of the interest for Mother’s Day keywords happened between April 9th and May 27th according to 

. We suggest getting your content out around the 1st of May and expect it to start losing steam around the end of May.

However, even though this is a once-a-year event, your video has the opportunity of becoming evergreen content that will attract views and engagements year after year.

We've listed the most searched for Mother's Day keywords on YouTube. Now let's show you some examples of content that's driving those terms. At #2 is a keyphrase I'd never thought I'd see but "

" is proving popular with viewers as they tune in to watch this hilarious promotion from KFC's on-point marketing campaign. Featuring the Chickendales, the video has generated over 551K views since being uploaded on the 25th of April.

While the KFC video might have a short shelf life (see what we did there), the following upload from HGTV Handmade is a fantastic example of combining the tent pole event with another YouTube favorite - DIY. Uploaded on April 29th, the '9 DIY Mother’s Day Gift Ideas' has already generated 1.3M views.

Sticking with the DIY theme, 'Fix This Build That' created a video that showed off 6 different gift projects for Mom's special day. What's so interesting about this content is that while the channel's focus is squarely on a range of DIY projects, they saw an opportunity to create a video around this tentpole event that fits right in with their genre. That means it's not confusing the subscriber base but offers an opportunity for the video to rank well for Mother's Day terms.

If you want to discover your own keyword opportunities, and 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 

Red heart graffiti with "Mom's" banner on yellow brick wall background mural.

Mother's Day content is huge on YouTube - and here are the top 20 most searched keywords around this major tentpole event.

Top 20 Mother's Day Keywords on YouTube

Many new YouTube creators have serious concerns like: it's too late to start a channel in 2019, my topic on YouTube is too saturated, I'll never be able to compete with the big boys, or my channel’s too small it'll never get shared on YouTube. All of this is absolute rubbish and I've been waiting for an opportunity to show you how it is still possible to start a channel in 2019 and be successful.

This video is all sparked from something that we do on a regular basis here at VidIQ. We audit channels on YouTube for free 11 a.m. PST every single week (

). One of the channels we listed recently made me go wow, this is what I've been trying to tell video creators for years and it still works.

How a New Tech Channel Generates More YouTube Views

’ is a YouTube tech channel like many that have come before it. and the channel description tells us that it reviews smartphones, tablets and overheard tech. Now if you're a regular visitor to VidIQ especially the 

, I know what you're about to say. That's all very well, smartphones, tablets, home tech, but where is the focus, where's the niche?

If you think that the channel’s focus is not specific enough, you’re absolutely right. If your first video is about a Lava Lamp and your ninth video is about a wireless doorbell and your 17th video is about a Black & Decker Multipro two in one cordless vacuum cleaner, you are going to get a confused audience not knowing what to expect next. Now for a new channel this is perfectly acceptable, the video creator is trying to find their feet on a platform. Learn how to make videos and publish them and they're in the hustle stage. They're trying to find out what content they like making which resonates with an audience.

And in the early stages of this channel, they had some success. Incredibly, their second video on a gas meter got 5,000 views. But what did they do next? A video about Google Home Hub which does nothing. Then a video about a thermostat that did well. Then a video about a tablet that does even better. A follow-up video to that tablet that doubles of views again. Then a video about a light bulb that somehow does even better. Another video about a smart meter that doesn't do as well, followed by a video on a smart Samsung device that completely tanks.

So I was curious - here’s a new channel making videos about fairly different tech products and it’s getting good views. That leads me to two conclusions; either the video creator was playing around with Google AdWords, just to artificially inflate the viewing figures a little bit but legitimately of course, or the video creator was strategically targeting a couple of very niche areas such as a specific tablet or smart energy thermostats and working out which one would be most successful for that channel. I think it was probably a combination of a two. But let's continue to see where this video creator goes on their journey.

It continues on the theme of random bits of tech until we hit a breakthrough video on a mobile phone. 17,000 views for a small channel is a hit. and quite rightly the video creator follows this up with another video but that one absolutely tanks. Now I would have liked to have seen this video creator have a couple more attempts at this keyword and this device but given that the second video did really poorly and the lights of dislikes ratio is relatively low, maybe the video creator lost their confidence on the topic. So let's move on. The next set of video see reviews of smartcams, a kitchen vacuum sealer and of a tablet video, a quick revisit of that phone which does okay, some headphones, smart energy savers and that vacuum cleaner. So I think it's pretty clear at this point that the video creator is basically reviewing anything that they buy for their own house. And you know what, that is absolutely fine.

As a new video creator you can't expect brands to just send you products to review. We've always said that this shouldn’t be a barrier to entry, you just work with what you have. And the next thing this creator gets, changes absolutely everything. Aaaah, the Samsung Galaxy Tab s5e. You've all heard of it, right? No, me neither. I thought Android tablets disappeared five years ago. Anyway, this is a brand new tech device and a trending one at that.

 clearly illustrate this. High search volume, low competition score. That's a keyword of interest. Click on the keyword tag itself from one of these videos and this launches the VidIQ keyword inspector, where we can see the keyword started to trend a few weeks ago, and interest is peaking now. That's a keyword of great interest. What the video creator did a month ago was create a preview video on this tablet. Now given that this video has a very low likes and dislikes ratio, people didn't react to it very well. But it did give the video creator more views than they've had in any of the previous five to 10 videos. So that was an indication of some kind that YouTube did like this content. The audience just wasn't that keen. However, and quite rightly, the video creator pressed on and released an Unboxing video. Not only was that much better received in terms of ratings, it brought in lots of views too.

Now a legitimate question you might be asking at this point is how does a channel with a couple of hundred subscribers, get a video with 8,000 views when it might be competing against big tech channels. And I think the answer is all to do with timing. I had a quick check to see when the device was officially released and Google tells me it was April of 26. But this creator was able to release an Unboxing video six days before that. Being able to create content before or during a release date of a product, show or service, gives a creator a huge boost. Because while information is scarce, the people who are searching for that information will consume every resource they can find.

There's nothing particularly special about this video. A seven-minute top-down recording of unboxing a product, it's been done thousands of times before and done better. But here's a principle I've talked about before, most successful channels are bigger, better and before anyone else with the content. This creator has one of those elements. Their video was before most of a competition. And when you have a video on your channel it's done really well and you're before the rest of the competition, there's only one thing you can do. Make more content as soon as possible.

Double Down on YouTube Content That Works!

You may have heard us refer to this as the Double Down concept. And over the last two weeks that's all the video creator has done. That same keyword title Samsung Galaxy Tab s5e, followed by whatever aspect the Creator wants to investigate with a fine-tooth comb. The big YouTube channels review these devices and move on, the smaller creators provide the real value to those who have decided to buy it and use it on a daily basis.

Remember the journey so far, this channel could get 1,000 views per video or they could get 20 views per video. Now with an absolute focus on a trending topic, they are guaranteed 1,000 views and occasionally 10 times as many as that. People often ask us this question here at VidIQ, when it comes to YouTube what's more important, quantity or quality? And the answer like many things on YouTube is that it depends.

In this particular example because the video creator has a trending topic and it's not gonna last forever, quantity is more important. You want to try and get as many videos out on a topic to hit that keyword over and over again and it's working for this channel. If there is less time sensitivity about your content then obviously quality is more important. I know we've specifically talked about tech in this particular case of it but you can apply this strategy to any topic on YouTube.

There is almost always something to talk about or something to talk about in a completely new way. And when you find the videos that hit, don't go on to something else. Really just nail down on up topic and grow your channel. For small channels, this is the quickfire hack way to get more views and build an audience.

So come on, don't tell me that it's too late to start a YouTube channel in 2019 because this channel has just proved you can go from hundreds of views a day to thousands of views a day. I have no doubt that you work hard, you've just got to think smart as well.

Want To Get More YouTube Views & Subscribers?

Comparison of random videos with 54 views vs focused videos with 10K views for growth.

How does a relatively new channel on YouTube get an impressive number of views in just a couple of weeks? Well it comes from a very simple strategy that we explain in detail.

How to Get More YouTube Views: 20x Increase in 2 Weeks!

For many users of YouTube - both viewers and creators - the subscriber count for a channel has been a hugely valuable resource for a number of reasons. It's a badge of honor for creators who have spent time and resources into building up their audience, and it's also a clear benchmark for viewers of the perceived popularity of a creator.

YouTube has always been transparent regarding subscriber counts, and while individual channels have the option to make sub counts private, those who choose to keep them public will find that data is also accessible via third-party sites like Social Blade.

However, today YouTube announced that from August 2019, it will 

no longer display the exact number of subscribers

 a channel has. In a blog post, the platform confirmed that it will only show abbreviated subscriber numbers publicly across "all public YouTube surfaces" - a decision that will also directly affect third party sites that pull subscriber numbers from the YouTube API. Individual channels will still have full access to their own sub counts via YouTube Studio.

Abbreviated YouTube Subscriber Counts: What Does This Mean?

Followers of vidIQ will know that we've followed the 

 race to the top of YouTube very closely. It's been an entertaining journey based entirely on which channel has the most subscribers on YouTube, and we've been able to bring you the news based on exact sub counts. Going forward, we'll know when either channel hits a new milestone (say 100M subscribers) but unless the two channels have vastly differing subscriber counts going forward, we won't know which one is exactly in the lead.

While exact subscriber numbers fuelled the PewDiePie vs T Series game across the world, monitoring the numbers can also have a detrimental effect on creators caught up in off-platform drama (i.e. James Charles vs Tati Westbrook). While social media can be a difficult space to navigate, the so-called 'Cancel Culture' that affected Charles and Westbrook has been particularly brutal, and the abbreviation of exact subscriber numbers may help curb this particular trend.

YouTube have confirmed that for channels with less than 1,000 subscribers, the exact subscriber count will still be shown. However, once a YouTube channel exceeds 1000 subscribers, it will start to abbreviate those numbers "on a sliding scale."

In other words, if a YouTube channel has 133,017 subscribers, the public subscriber count will read “133K” until the channel reaches 134,000.

Close-up of illuminated vintage mechanical scoreboard numbers in metal grid display.

YouTube has announced it is abbreviating exact subscriber numbers for channels with over 1000 subscribers. What does this mean for the YouTube community?

YouTube to Limit Access to Full Subscriber Counts

Although K-pop has been alive and kicking in the hearts of its fans for over a decade, this year's cracker of a summer smash, 'Boy with Luv' from BTS featuring Halsey, has firmly cemented its place in global pop culture. Not only is 'Boy with Luv' the most viewed music video uploaded to YouTube within 24 hours, 'BTS' is the most searched for K-pop keyword on the platform, with 

 the search volume than that of another crazy popular K-pop band, Blackpink. Such is the popularity of BTS content on YouTube, the group is searched for over 

 than the genre of music they represent. Mind blown.

Before we jump into some more keyword data, take a listen to 'Boy with Luv' and get a taste for the K-pop phenonenom:

, we can confirm that the following are the most searched for K-pop terms on YouTube right now, based on monthly search volume. They include band names, and generic terms, with 'Boy with Luv' the 15th most searched for K-pop song:

 data for the last 12 months confirms our findings. Searches for BTS and Blackpink are on the rise, and are surpassing searches for the main Kpop keyword term.

BTS are arguably THE most popular K-pop band in the world right now. AKA The Bangtan Boys, they are a 7-piece boy band founded in Seoul in 2013, and while they are smashing records across the world as a group, there is also intense interest on YouTube for each member of the band. In order of popularity, here are the BTS boys being searched for on YouTube each month:

(Data corrected 7-26-19 based on Twitter feedback)

Finding Opportunities to Create K-pop Content on YouTube

While BTS is the most searched for K-pop term on YouTube right now, it's also one of the most competitive. Unless you're BTS yourself, the chances of ranking high for that very specific term are pretty hard. However, finding a keyword or phrase with low competition but a decent search volume means you could be creating content that viewers are looking for but not many YouTubers are making. That's a win win for you and the viewer.

Also using vidIQ's Keyword Tool, we took a look at some of those possible search terms to see what gaps there were and came up with the following:

And while we're not saying that creating content around those specific keyphrases will bring in tens of thousands of views, you have a much better chance of ranking for them than going after the main K-pop keywords. Our data shows that viewers are searching for very specific terms around the genre, the bands, and the culture so take advantage of that interest and find your own niche.

Seven male performers in suits posing on stage with colorful lighting and cameras behind them

Did you know that there are 67M searches for BTS on YouTube every month, and that Jungkook is the most searched for member of the band on the platform? Read on for more K-pop facts on YouTube.

Top 20 K-Pop Keywords on YouTube 2019: BTS Top Search Term

Even the most dedicated YouTuber can feel like they are creating content in a vacuum without access to the data that lets them know how their videos are performing. Even if you create the most niche and specialist videos, you'll want to know how they are doing against similar content, so you can improve with every upload.

Luckily, along with a host of other incredible tools, vidIQ has just launched a '

' feature to its suite which will enable a creator to compare views against:

Yes - at last you can get real-time stats for view comparisons on YouTube for all of the above. Just think what a competitive edge that will give you as a video creator!

Compare Views of YouTube Videos After Uploading

The hours after you publish your video to YouTube are the most important time for any creator. The more velocity your video has in those first minutes and hours, the more chance it has of turning into evergreen content for you. Hey, it might even pick up the pace enough for it turn viral for you!

With our brand new ‘Compare Views’ tool you can track the velocity of ANY video on YouTube and then compare it to ANY video or ANY channel on YouTube. That's going to give you some invaluable insights - whether you're following fellow creators, or keeping a very close eye on a trending topic or news story. Understanding how many views a video is picking up in the first few hours after upload will tell you what the audience appetite is for that content, and how much the YouTube algorithm favors it over similar content.

How to Compare Views for Any YouTube Video

, you'll find out about the different options in the 'Compare Views' tool. But let's try it out on a real video to show you what it can actually do.

Let's take a look at one of the best performing videos that vidIQ has uploaded in the past few months - '

PewDiePie Vs T Series: Who Just Fooled Who?

'. This particular video has generated over 815K views to date, but I'm curious to see how it performed against similar content. You can select a timeframe from 0, 1, 2, 3, 7 or 28 days - for this example, as the video was uploaded to YouTube on the 1st April 2019, I'm going to select the 28 day view option.

First, let's see how this one video compares against our YouTube Channel average. As you can see, with 815K views within the first 28 days, it's one of our best performing videos by a mile.

We know our vidIQ YouTube viewers have loved our 

 uploads to YouTube over the past view months because most of these videos have soared past the 500K view mark. I'm interested to see how the video above compares to our most viewed in the series - '

'. This particular video has garnered over 1.1M organic views for us did it really perform better than the video we're checking?

Our video actually performed nearly as well as our most viewed video on the PewDiePie shenanigans. Whilst our video generated 555K views in 3 days, the 'Mr Beast' upload was a little more of a slow burner, only overtaking our video in comparable views around the day 25 mark.

OK - so what does that tell us? Well, by the time we published the 'Who Just Fooled Who?' video, we'd already established the vidIQ YouTube channel as an authority on the subject. By putting in the heavy lifting, YouTube rewarded us with visibility for every PDP vs TS video we subsequently published, meaning we gained substantial video velocity in just a matter of hours. Analysing your content this way will provide insights into what's working and you can easily feed that data into your video strategy around a trending topic - just like we did.

While we're on the subject of PewDiePie, let's see how our video channel compares against his in terms of views over the past 28 days:

With 96M subscribers compared to just over 353K for the 

, of course Pewds is going to generate much more views than we are, but it's fun to compare a video view against an entire channel once in a while.

 and dive right in to the 'Compare Views' tool and start finding out insights for your own video content. We guarantee that the insights will be informative and fascinating!

YouTube video view velocity comparison graph showing views 7 days after publish.

Have you ever wanted to compare a video to any other video, channel, or Playlist on YouTube? Now you can - and it's going to give any video creator a true competitive edge!

How to Compare YouTube Views with Any Other Video, Channel, or Playlist!

The 4th of July is one of the top tentpole events in the US, and like Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are huge opportunities to create content around this national holiday that will appeal to YouTube viewers. But what keywords and terms are YouTube users searching for around this event? Let's take a look.

Top 15 4th of July 2019 Keywords on YouTube

If you plan on creating a 4th of July video then start by understanding what keywords viewers are searching for, and also when they are searching for the content. Knowledge of both will give you a heads up on what and when to publish.

, we can confirm that the following are the most searched for 4th of July keywords and phrases on YouTube right now:

We also took a look at whether there was a significant difference in the average number of people who searched for either 'Fourth of July' or '4th of July' on YouTube each month. Interestingly, there wasn't a lot in it, so you're safe to use either (or both) in your YouTube titles and descriptions:

 - 26.8K searches average monthly searches

When are Viewers Searching for 4th of July Content on YouTube?

Just as important for any YouTuber creating videos around a tent-pole (and potentially evergreen) event is to know just when viewer interest is peaking. 

 data for the last 5 years confirms that the holiday trends between 29th June - 5th July so publishing videos this week would give you the best chance of being seen so you can attract those views and subscibers.

Finding Opportunities to Create 4th of July Content on YouTube

Alongside the main keywords being searched for, we took a deeper dive into the food and DIY categories, both of which land themselves very well to content ideas. When it comes to food for the celebration, it's no surprise that snacks, and party food top the list:

Top 10 4th of July Food Keywords: YouTube

If you want an idea of the type of 4th of July recipe ideas that YouTube viewers love, take a look at this upload, published by Twisted on July 2nd 2018. To date, it has generated 1.3M views, and still attracts around 150 views per hour:

4th of July and DIY is also a very popular content theme with 'Dollar Tree' topping the list of keywords associated on YouTube with this tentpole event.

An excellent example of a channel that uploaded content that took advantage of the viewer's interest in 4th of July plus DIY'ing the celebrations using Dollar Tree is 'My DIY Home'. It uploaded a video on May 27th 2019 which has already generated a healthy 28.5K views:

Hand holding lit sparkler and small American flag on dark background celebrating USA.

4th of July videos are hugely popular on YouTube - here are the top most searched keywords around this major U.S. tentpole event.

Carla Marshall

Posts Written By Carla Marshall