Tag: youtube

How Can You Monetize a Site – Blog vs YouTube Earnings

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 6 January 2022

YouTube and blogging are two powerful ways to earn a fairly passive income online. YouTube is a visual platform that relies on video content while blogging gives you a little more licence to deep dive into ideas with writing, images and videos blended into a comprehensive article.

But how can you monetize your youtube channel and blogs, and what one is more profitable?

Lets look into making money online in the first place. You can make your site a profitable business by monetizing it in the following ways:

Affiliate Marketing

It’s one of the most popular ways that bloggers use to make money. with this type of marketing, you need to promote certain products that belong to other businesses. So, every time a person buys the product through your affiliate link, you earn a commission.

Some of the most popular affiliate programs include:

Amazon associates
Commission junction
ShareASale

Publish Sponsored Blog Posts

You can get paid to write and publish a blog post on your site. This is simply sponsored content, and it offers one of the best ways to improve your blog monetization strategy. A business organization, company, or individual can pay to create content about their products. In some instances, they might prepare the content themselves and then give you for publication. Some of the best blogger networks that can provide you with such opportunities include:

BlogDash
ValuedVoice

Sell Ad Space

If you have ad space on your site, you can sell it at a set price to an interested buyer. This sounds better than getting a small amount of money every time someone clicks on your ad, and you simply charge a flat rate.

Write Product Review

Once you have built your site and become a reputable writer, you can get paid to write reviews. You can try out a sponsored product, write a product review about it, and get paid to do that job. But it’s important to find a niche that you understand and products relevant to your audience. For instance, if your blog is about health and fitness, it will make sense to review supplements, smartwatches, wellness applications, and fitness apparel.

Get AdSense

When you start writing and publishing content for income, advertising is usually at the back of your mind since you want to profit from your work. The easiest way to monetize your blog is by using Google AdSense, i.e., an Ad Network run by Google. AdSense usually displays adverts on websites, and when a visitor clicks on it, you make money.

YouTube.

Just like blogging, there are several ways you can use to monetize your YouTube channel. If you are in the YouTube Partner Program, then you can earn money through:

If you meet YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines, then you can turn on ads. You can check your eligibility by checking out the self-certification examples and guidance found on this platform.

But understand that choosing to turn on adverts doesn’t mean they will automatically appear on your video. Your content must go through the standard ads process that includes human and automated reviews to determine if it meets the guidelines. Besides that, you need to have all the rights to the audio and visual elements in the video. YouTube has two types of ads options; hence you can turn on ads for:

Individual videos
Multiple videos

Merch

YouTube has a merchandise shelf that allows interested creators to sell their branded merchandise on this platform. Note that this feature usually appears on certain video pages that are eligible channels.

Memberships

Allow viewers to join your channels via monthly payments. However, you should be ready to give them members-only perks such as emojis, badges, and other types of goods. YouTube has policies and guidelines to help eligible account holders.

Chat and Super Stickers

You can turn on this feature and connect with your fans during live chat. Making super stickers and chat content can earn you up to$500. Viewers can purchase the super chats option to highlight your message in the live chat.

Premium Revenue

YouTube premium revenue will automatically turn itself on. If a viewer is subscribed to YouTube Premium, then every time they watch what you publish, you will earn part of the fee they pay for their premium account.

In this blog vs YouTube earnings overview, it’s clear that both platforms offer multiple channels of earning money. However, more people prefer to watch videos rather than read blogs, and this is because they have a better chance to view content in a “live” way.

Q: When to get AdSense

If you are a blogger, you can apply for AdSense once your site starts receiving at least 100 unique visitors daily. Blogging rules have changed, and it may be quite difficult to get accepted, especially if your site doesn’t generate a reasonable amount of traffic every day. Besides that, you need to have a Google account, e.g., Gmail, to use AdSense. With YouTube, you need to have at least 1000 subscribers with a total of 4,000 watch hours.

Q: Does AdSense Pay Per Bloggers Per View?

Blog: No. AdSense doesn’t pay bloggers based on ad views. Instead, people get paid using cost-per-click (CPC). This is an established payment system that allows you to receive a portion of your payment when a person from your target audience clicks on the targeted ads by Google AdSense. So, if one of your users clicks on your ad, you should receive 68% of the payment as the publisher.

Q: How Much Does AdSense Pay Per Click/View?

Blog: Your commission is 68% of the total click amount, but this can go down to 51% in AdSense for search. Generally, the amount you get in terms of the commission depends on the existing competition on the Google Search engine platform and the CPC in that niche. The commission per click usually ranges between $0.20 and $15.

YouTube: according to various sources, you can earn between $0.01 and $0.03 per view with YouTube AdSense, but this amount usually averages out at around $0.18 per view. Like blogging, Google will pay you 68% of the generated AdSense revenue, and so for every $100 that the advertiser pays, you get $68 as the publisher.

Q: How Can You Improve Your AdSense Earnings?

For bloggers, AdSense earnings matter. To maximize your AdSense revenue after monetizing your website, here’s what you need to do:

Craft High-Quality Content

Your content is what will make you stand out. Valuable content will always get more clicks, which will organically raise your revenue. This is because it will generate more traffic and leads. By doing so, your chances of getting more clicks will increase, making your site attractive for product or service advertisers.

When crafting content for a specific niche, look at what your competitors are doing first, including their writing styles. This way, you will know what’s expected of you and how you can uniquely craft your content for your audience.

Use the Right Keywords

A combination of engaging, high-quality content with the right keywords will be highly effective in revenue generation. Look for those keywords that people commonly use when searching for specific content. Optimize your keywords so that search engines can easily crawl on your site and rank your content on top of search results.

Of course, more traffic will lead to more clicks, and the result will be more earnings from Google AdSense.

Consider Best Ad Placement Best Practices

Ad placement is important in maximizing your earning. On your homepage, you can increase the click-through rate (CTR) by:
Using 728 x 90 leaderboard ad image unit just right above your homepage’s fold and below the main bar navigation.
Consider testing different ad units, i.e., 300 x 250 medium rectangle or 160 x 600- a wide skyscraper in your sidebar.

On your main blog page, use:

A 336 x 280 large rectangle image for your ad unit right on top of your article.
Consider using a similar type of ad unit before the comments section at the end of your post.

Ad size and style all matter in boosting a blogger’s AdSense earnings. This gives your visitors several chances to notice and then click on your ads. When considering ad style, understand that the goal is to make them more visible while simultaneously reducing ad blindness.

That’s why google usually recommends that you consider using different colors for your links and ad text to make them stand out.

There are three main ad styles that have been proven to be technically effective, and they include:

Color contrast: use ads with colors that easily stand out against your website’s background.
Blend: ensure that your ad units are the same color as your site’s borders.
Complement: use colors that preferably already exist on your website even though they don’t exactly match with the borders or background but easily blend.

Use a Plugin for Ad Management

Ads that generate good revenue must be managed. This makes it possible to group ads depending on the content and where they can be inserted. Some of the useful features of an ad plugin include:

Ad rotation: you can opt to use a timed or on-page rotation for your site’s ad group
Adblocker: it checks if the browser has an ad-block software and then issues notification for it to be disabled.
Expiry date: you can set an expiry date for your ads.

For YouTubers, you can only make money with your YouTube partner account to get AdSense Revenue. The best way to increase your YouTube earnings include:

Publish Quality Videos

In content creation, quality will always sell. There is more to creating videos, which means creating content that can easily captivate the viewer. There are already several other creators in your niche; hence, you should create videos that people can watch. But how can you effectively do this?

Create videos that meet YouTube guidelines

Create a schedule for your video posts- it is important to upload videos to create a schedule that your audience will be in-tune with. Do you want to upload videos twice weekly, 5x monthly, etc.? You can learn more about scheduling here

Create your Thumbnails. Even though YouTube offers you the thumbnail option, it’s great to create your own since you can customize it to meet specific user preferences. You can use a graphic editing app to do this.
Briefly describe what happens in the video in the description area. Note that the summary of the information you provide here should be accurate, and you can even add blogs or websites that you are affiliated with.
Ensure that you sparsely use the relevant keywords to fill out all the details outlined in the title, tags, and description. SEO is also relevant in YouTube.
Create a quick but captivating intro that highlights what the viewer should expect.

Manage your Channel

Only a great channel with a reliable number of viewers will earn you a good income. YouTube success doesn’t come easily, so you must build and manage your channel. Ensure your channel’s description, including colors and logos, matches your niche and user profile. Besides that:

Fill in all your profile information
Customize your site’s color scheme and background
Use a captivating cover photo
Use a captivating cover photo

Channel management also requires you to vary the presentation of your videos. There are those subscribers that love short videos while others love longer versions. Analyze the performance of different videos based on the length and use that information to create relevant content. This way, you can:

Publish video content of varying lengths to cater to the different needs of your target audience

Create your playlist featuring a series of various videos

Lastly, consider your community in content management. There isn’t any successful YouTuber who doesn’t have a community. How can you build your community?

Directly interact with your fans by replying to comments
Ask them to give you their opinions
Make them feel like they are part of your content creation journey

Improve your AdSense Ads

Use your YouTube partnership account to improve your AdSense. Do keyword research to drive more traffic and result in better showing ads. The more traffic you get and the better the quality of the ads, then the more money you will earn.

In this case, consider the type of tags you use. Tags should be ideally used to connect videos with similar characteristics. So, the more connections you get, the better your chances of getting more views.

Market Your Channel

It would be nice for your channel to get more exposure on YouTube and other platforms. A high level of exposure guarantees you more leads and traffic, which leads to more views that generate revenue.

Q: How Many Views Does a Blogger/Youtuber Need to Get Paid?

Blog: There isn’t a specific fixed number you need to get paid. You can get paid with as little as 100 visitors. However, you should understand that every page view generates $0.01 and $0.25. That means that you would earn $1 -$25 monthly.

If you want to make money from blogging, you need to get around 10, 000 views unique visitors monthly. This way, you can monetize your blog easily and use it nicely for a revenue stream. However, the biggest challenge for most people is getting these numbers. For a YouTuber, the views you need can be equated to 4,000 hours of watch time.

Q: What Kind of Blogs/Channels Make More Money?

You can flourish in any niche and earn a modest income if you put in the work. However, there are niches that if you invest in, you are guaranteed more revenue. This is because such niches are popular, and their content is highly demanded.

Popular Blogging Niches with Top Revenue – The top niches that guarantee bloggers more revenue include:

Finance

We “interact” with money almost every day. Whether it’s buying food, transport, paying for accommodation, or even accessing the internet, so, money is an important factor for the sustenance of our livelihoods, and that’s why starting a finance blog will put you a step ahead in ensuring you earn more.

People are always looking for effective ways to handle money, and finance blogs are the best in providing actionable insights that the user might need. Whether it’s a busy professional, a retiree, or a young college student, finance content will never go out of style as it appeals to most people. Some of the aspects of finance you can focus on. Include:

• Passive income – blogging is one of the best ways to earn a passive income or use it as a side hustle.

• Frugal spending

• Investing

• How to save for a side hustle

• Mortgage and early retirement, among others

Marketing Blog

It is currently one of the best niches to focus on since most people are actively looking for ways to make passive or active income through marketing.

With your marketing blog, you can help your target audience learn how they can master e-commerce skills before starting a business. Some of the areas that seem to be attracting big numbers include:

• SEO

• blogging

• Email marketing

• E-commerce marketing

Travel Blog

Travel blogs have become a necessity in this era, with more people keen on exploring their locals, regions, or even international areas.

Travel blogs are quite popular, and you can always make good money, regardless of the zone you decide to focus on. You can make money through affiliate links, accommodation reviews, etc. Additionally, you sell travel apparel on your blog.

Food Blog

If you are a foodie, this is a new area for you to flourish. Food blogs are popular currently, and you can make yours the online recipe book. Teach your target audience how to prepare different tasty dishes, and you can even use some nice photos from your kitchen.

Besides that, you can prepare specific meal recipes that target a certain group of people e.g.

• New moms

• Those struggling with weight loss or weight gain

• Diet time limits

• Fitness enthusiasts

Some of the other areas you can focus on include:

• Restaurant reviews

• DIY meals

• Food and traveling

• Affordable outdoor dining

Fashion Blog

You don’t need your clothing line to write a fashion blog. You can still express your unique sense of style on your blog through product reviews. There are new fashion trends almost every month, and this means that people are always trying to keep up to date with what’s happening in the fashion world. The best thing about being a fashion blogger is that you can link your site to your social media page, become a social media influencer as well, and add affiliate links.

Not all YouTube videos are the same, and there are certain types of videos that tend to perform better than the others, regardless of the publisher. These videos generate more income, and they include:

How-to videos

They are quite popular since people are always looking for popular solutions to fix and do things. How-to videos top the charts since they are better off than instructional manuals. You can cover a wide range of topics ranging from education, travel, and photography.

Product Reviews

These are videos that involve a YouTuber testing out a product then giving the target audience a review, including the downsides and pros, based on their personal experience. According to Google, product reviews have generated more than 50,000 years of YouTube watch time in the last couple of years only.

Vlogs

These are videos that cover a wide range of niches depending on the creator. You can vlog about basically anything but lifestyle topics, including music, comedy, and entertainment

You can learn more about YouTube side hustles here

Q: What’s Easy Monetize, YouTube Channel or a Blog?

It depends on your content and the effort you put in. it takes about six months to start earning from your blog. With YouTube, your channel needs to have t least 1,000 subscribers and a total of 4,000 watch time hours within the last 12 months.

It will take you roughly a year to get to 4,000 watch hours, i.e., 240,000 minutes, if you maintain an average watch time of 20,000 minutes per month. But YouTube divides watch time across the whole channel, and so you can achieve the watch hours in less than a year if you produce a few high-quality videos.

To get quickly monetize your channel and get up to 4,000 hours of watch time, here’s what you can do:

Create fresh content

To be discovered on YouTube can be easy if you upload fresh content that appears on top of YouTube’s search results. Your goal should be to publish videos that remain relevant all year round, and this means that you can continue to earn revenue from the same video for months to come.

The best way to make evergreen content include:

• Interacting with your viewers and asking them about which content they prefer

• Answering their questions as much as you can

• Consider trending topics and offer valuable information regarding them

• Create videos that offer solutions or give deeper insights

Do Livestreams

Of course, your community of fans wants to know and interact with you on a one-to-one basis. The best way to boost viewership and improve your target audience’s confidence is by hosting live stream sessions. Understand that the numbers might be small at first, but the more you do, the better your chances of growing your channel and earning more revenue.

consistently Upload Your Videos

More hours mean that you need to have more videos under your belt. Create viral videos that will quickly give your channel the needed boost to attain those 4,000 hours. Don’t forget to be consistent. There’s a lot that goes in during video creation. Hence you must be ready to put in the work.

Go for Quality

The length of your YouTube video matters in attracting and retaining your target audience. But sometimes, to hit those high numbers, you need more quality content than quantity. A popular video with your audience will generate more traffic, and your channel will quickly hit those hours.

Q: Blog vs YouTube Earnings: Which One Should You Consider?

It all depends on what you have in your hands at your interests. There is a whole blog vs YouTube earnings debate that never seems to go out of style. But here are a few tips to help you consider the right type of platform that suits you:

Rate of earning income

A blog will quickly earn you a reasonable income, especially if you can monetize your ads and work with affiliate links. While YouTube has a better-earning potential, it’s more volatile and only seems more profitable for people who have fully established themselves with short- to medium-term goals. Overall, getting your foot in the blogging field seems easier, and you can get the job done within 3-4 months.

SEO Benefits for Growth

You stand a better chance to grow exponentially if you start with blogging. Blogging can help your YouTube channel to grow. Some of the benefits of starting a blog before a channel include:

• Understanding keyword research and its benefits in content creation

• Improving click-through rates

• Content length and what appeals to your audience

• How to describe photos and videos

With this information, you can create SEO-friendly videos that increase watch-time and more audience retention, leading to more revenue generation. Besides that, you will learn the importance of creating longer videos because they give you more watch time, a better chance of retaining viewers, and provide your target audience with more values. Lastly, you can use your blogging skills to caption and describe your videos using the right keywords. You can learn more about YouTube captions here

Startup Costs

Before you start blogging or vlogging, you need to invest a sustainable amount of money. While there are cheap ways to do this, it remains a fact that you need to put some money aside for content creation.

Blog costs

You will mainly invest in services. Here is a brief overview of blogging costs:

• Hosting: you need a host for your website. Expect to pay at least $60 annually, but this depends on the host you choose.

• Domain name: your blog needs a unique identifier in the form of a domain name. a basic domain name will cost you around $13.00. remember that you should choose a unique domain name that complements your site’s profile.

• Paid theme: while this isn’t a requirement, remember that you want to use your blog to generate revenue. Some bloggers may avoid this and opt to use free themes with limitations. To be on the safe side, ensure that you get a paid theme, and this can cost you around $30.00

YouTube Costs

You need a camera and a good microphone to start a YouTube channel. However, some may argue that you can use your smartphone. However, your success with a smartphone is quite limited based on the 720p to 1080p standard. You will be disadvantaged if you don’t produce high-quality content because your competitors are, and that’s why they are earning more revenue. On average, here’s what you need:

• A camera- a good one should be around $450+

• A camera stand – $15

• A microphone – $60

• Video editing software- $60

You can find more information regarding the tools from alanspicer.com

Starting a blog is cheaper, and you can leverage that to create a good YouTube profile. You will probably have better deals initially as a blogger, and the whole setup process is cheaper.

Selling Your Work

If you need a platform with a good exit strategy, you should probably consider blogging. People sell their websites all the time, which can generate up to 50x of the platform’s monthly average profit. Overall, it’s easy and quite profitable to sell a blog.

Meanwhile, how many times have you heard a person sell their blog? This is because it’s highly unlikely for that to happen. In fact, if you do so, then you will be going against the terms and services of YouTube/Google.

This doesn’t mean that people don’t sell their YouTube channels, but the whole process is complex and involves many backdoor deals.

In conclusion, if you want to grow your target audience quickly with a moderate income, then you should consider starting a blog. But if you are patient, want to build a community, and earn a significant amount of money in the long run, then YouTube should be your go-to solution. To learn more about starting a YouTube channel, here’s what Alan Spicer, a certified YouTube Expert, offers.

Tags adsense, affiliate marketing, blogging, making money online, money, vlogging, youtube

SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Can I Use YouTube Videos In My Online Course?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 3 December 2021
2 Comments on Can I Use YouTube Videos In My Online Course?

YouTube is a veritable cornucopia of informative and educational content, with much of it having the added bonus of being entertaining at the same time. It’s no wonder, then, that many people are looking to use YouTube videos in their online courses, but is that allowed?

As always, the answer to this question will be dramatically different depending on the circumstances in which you are using a YouTube video. There is no rule in YouTube’s terms of use that specifically prohibits the use of YouTube videos in online courses… but there are rules that indirectly make it impossible to do so.

We’re going to get into this, so make yourself a beverage and get comfortable.

Online Courses?

Online courses. They are a great way to impart knowledge and generate some extra revenue. If you are already sharing your wisdom on YouTube, putting together an online course is a natural extension of that, and one that can be very lucrative.

That being said, putting together an online course can be a lot of work, so it will make things a lot easier if you can use some of the content you have already created.

According to Mordor Intelligence, the online courses industry was worth $6,845 million last year.

Using My Own YouTube Videos In Online Courses

There is absolutely no conflict here. You own the copyright on any videos you upload to YouTube, and you are permitted to download your own videos from the site without breaking any of YouTube’s terms, so you can still use your YouTube videos even if you have lost the original files and the only copy exists on YouTube.

If you have the original files, however, YouTube needn’t be a factor at all. You own the rights to the content and you have the files already. In this case, it has nothing to do with YouTube.

Should I Use My YouTube Videos In Online Courses?

So, we’ve established that you can use your YouTube videos, but the next question is should you use them? We can certainly recommend leveraging your existing content to make life a little easier, but you need to consider what you’re putting in your online course.

If your course is just a collection of your existing YouTube content, it will severely reduce the potential revenue your course can generate since users can head over to your YouTube channel and watch it for free. You could take the relevant videos down from your channel, but then they would no longer be generating YouTube revenue for you. Every case is different, of course, but we’re willing to bet that if you’re considering turning your YouTube videos into an online course, they were doing pretty well on your channel.

Using Other People’s YouTube Videos In Online Courses

Here’s where things get a little trickier. Firstly, if you don’t have the permission of the YouTuber whose content it is, there is no way to use that content without breaking a YouTube policy or, more importantly, a law.

YouTube does not permit you to download YouTube videos unless it is through the YouTube app as part of YouTube Premium’s offline watching feature. While it is possible to download YouTube videos using third-party apps, this would be a violation of the terms of use and could see you suspended or banned from the platform if caught. This means that the only way to use the videos without breaking YouTube’s terms is to have the original video files from somewhere. The most obvious place, of course, being from the original creator… which will be hard to do if you do not have their permission to use the video files.

If you decide to go ahead and download the video files regardless—or if you were able to obtain those video files through some other means—and you use the content in your online course without the explicit permission of the creator, you could find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit.

The best-case scenario if you do this and the original creator notices is that they put in a copyright violation against you with the service that is hosting your online course and that course gets taken down. However, as we mentioned above, online courses are very lucrative, and if the original creator suspects you have made a good amount of money from their content, they may decide to pursue you for their share.

Realistically speaking, this shouldn’t be a concern. While there is a lot of money to be made in online courses, the vast majority of course creators will not be making the kind of money that warrants legal action. It simply wouldn’t be worth the legal expenses. But they probably would get your course taken down, putting an end to any earning potential, and they might even make the matter public, dragging your reputation down. This can be a serious problem if you are a successful YouTuber with a brand to look after.

Linking to YouTube Videos

What we have discussed so far is concerned with including the YouTube content itself in your course, but what about linking from your course to other videos? This is a perfectly acceptable way to incorporate YouTube content since you are only linking to it. It is then up to YouTube and the creator what they do with that incoming traffic. If the video is publicly available, the creator can’t complain about people watching it. And, if it is not publicly available, the incoming traffic will simply be told that the content is unavailable.

Final Thoughts

Online courses represent a great way to share your wisdom while getting paid for the privilege. They are a form of passive income since you make the course once and it will continue to generate revenue as long as it has relevant and valuable information for potential students to learn.

Using your existing YouTube content is a good way to lighten the workload, but be wary of putting too much of your YouTube content into your course, as it will just leave students wondering why they didn’t just go to your YouTube channel and save some money.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.

Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

That is why I could not live on YouTube without someone like PlaceIT. They offer custom YouTube Banners, Avatars, YouTube Video Intros and YouTube End Screen Templates that are easy to edit with simple click, upload wizard to help you make amazing professional graphics in minutes.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the StoryBlocks website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags edu, educational, educational content, educational videos, online courses, youtube

SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Can I Use YouTube Videos for Educational Purposes?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 30 November 2021

Any kind of potentially copyright-related YouTube usage can get murky, that includes educational use.

Unfortunately, while many services and laws make exceptions or allowances for educational use, copyright law is not inherently one of them. This does not mean that YouTube is off-limits for educational use, but it is important to understand what constitutes a breach of copyright.

Of course, it wouldn’t be murky if we could just tell you exactly what constitutes a copyright violation in all cases. The reality is far too messy, and often on a case-by-case basis. It is not unusual for certain examples of copyright infringement to remain questionable until there is a court case to settle it.

Fortunately, it is entirely possible to use YouTube for educational purposes in such a way that the question of copyright infringement never needs to rear its ugly head.

What Constitutes Educational?

It is important to understand the word “educational” in a copyright/license sense before grabbing YouTube content, as some YouTubers permit the use of their content for educational purposes.

The first thing to note is that if you are making a profit from the content itself—such as selling an online course and including the content in the course—you are unlikely to get the benefit of the doubt from any content creator. To be considered legitimately educational, you would need to be part of an educational institution, such as a school or university. In almost all cases, if you are working outside of those institutional frameworks, you will struggle to convince any copyright holders or service providers that you are educational.

YouTube Terms of Service

Another important thing to consider is the YouTube Terms of Service, which apply regardless of how you use the content. One particularly relevant point is YouTube’s stance on downloading their content, which is don’t. It is not allowed to download videos from YouTube for any purpose, which means it is not permissible to download videos for educational purposes.

This may not seem like a problem at first, but when combined with the fact that it is also not permitted to broadcast or display YouTube content, it starts to put a bit of a roadblock in the way of using the platform for educational reasons.

Essentially, it means you would be breaking YouTube terms of service by playing a YouTube video to a class of students, but you would also be breaking the terms of service by downloading the content you wish to show and playing that to your class.

How to Use YouTube for Educational Purposes

So, with that in mind, how do you use YouTube videos for educational purposes? The chances of you being caught playing videos in a primary school classroom are pretty slim, but we wouldn’t advise taking chances like that. No matter how slim the risk of being caught is, you are still breaking the terms and conditions.

In all likelihood, the worst YouTube would do is ban a user for violating their terms of service (though legal action is not impossible). However, if you are breaking the terms using an account that represents the educational institution you work for, you could end up getting the entire school in trouble with YouTube, which could see your employer take disciplinary action against you.

So let’s talk about how you can use it.

Sharing YouTube Videos

If the reason you are sharing the videos does not require them to be watching in real-time together, you can always just share the link to the video with your students in the same way you would share the video with friends. There is no rule against sharing the content (as long as you’re not charging people for the link), and anything your students do with the content after that would be their responsibility.

Getting Content From the Source

It may be against YouTube’s terms to broadcast YouTube or play it to large groups of people, and it may be against their terms to download content from YouTube, but the restrictions only refer to the platform, not the content itself.

If there is a piece of content that you think would serve your educational purposes, consider contacting the owner of that content directly and asking them about using it. If they are okay with this, you can also ask them if it would be possible to send you the content directly, so you can play the media without using YouTube.

It should be noted that there is no practical way for YouTube to catch you downloading their content in the vast majority of cases, especially if you have the permission of the creator to use that content. But, once again, it is against their terms of service, so you are taking a risk if you do that.

Most YouTubers are already putting their content out for “free” in a sense and should be open to the idea of their content being played in an educational setting, even if they would not be getting views for it.

Create Your Own Content

In much the same way that the above suggestion gets around the various problems with YouTube’s terms, so too does creating your own content. And, in creating your own content, you can ensure that it shows exactly what you want it to show.

You will still be subject to YouTube’s terms about broadcasting and playing YouTube to groups of people, but you will also be in possession of the original files, so you won’t need YouTube. And, as a nice aside, your content could be made publicly available and, eventually, monetised.

Final Thoughts

While YouTube doesn’t make any special concessions for educational use, the restrictions it places on the use of its platform should not pose any significant hurdle to someone looking to use YouTube to educate. Whether you are a teacher looking to use informative content that is already there, or someone looking to create the informative content for others, there are ways to make it all work!

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags edu, education, educational videos, how to youtube education, youtube, youtube education

TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Can YouTube Premium Be Shared?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 29 November 2021

Can YouTube Premium be shared? Yes — properly, through a Family or Duo plan.

A Family plan shares Premium with up to five other people (six in total), each on their own account — no password swapping. There’s now a two-person Duo plan too. The catch in 2026: everyone must live in the same household, and unlike the old days, YouTube actually enforces that now.

Why trust this? I’m Alan Spicer — a YouTube Certified Expert with two decades on the platform and six Silver Play Buttons. I keep on top of how YouTube’s plans and policies shift, including the recent household-sharing crackdown most guides haven’t caught up with.

Curious how Premium affects creators’ pay? See do YouTubers get paid for Premium.

🔑 Key takeaways

Family plan: manager + up to 5 members = 6 people, each on their own account.
Duo plan: a newer 2-person option.
No password sharing — members join by invitation and keep separate histories.
Same household required — and since 2025 YouTube actively enforces it.
Individual, Student & Lite plans can’t be shared.

📌 Jump to a section:

The short answer
The Family plan
The Duo plan
The same-household rule
Unofficial sharing
Which plans can be shared
Premium perks
How to set up sharing
FAQ

⚡ QUICK ANSWER: Can YouTube Premium be shared?
Yes. The proper route is a Family plan — one manager plus up to 5 members (6 total), each on their own Google account, no password sharing. There’s also a newer Duo plan for two people. The big condition: everyone must live in the same household, and since 2025 YouTube actively enforces this with periodic checks. Individual, Student and Lite plans can’t be shared.

Can YouTube Premium Be Shared? The Short Answer

YouTube Premium frees you from ad interruptions and adds background play, downloads and YouTube Music — so naturally people want to split it. The good news: sharing is built in, and you don’t need to hand anyone your password. The proper way is a Family plan, where each person joins with their own account and keeps their own experience.

The important 2026 update: Premium sharing is designed for a single household. That rule isn’t new, but YouTube spent years not enforcing it — and that changed. Members who don’t live with the plan manager are now being flagged and paused. So the honest answer is: yes, you can share Premium, but the old “split it with mates across the country” trick no longer reliably works.

Sharing Properly: The YouTube Premium Family Plan

The Family plan is the intended way to share. One person is the family manager and can invite up to five family members — six people in total — to share the single subscription. What makes it good:

Everyone gets the full benefits — ad-free YouTube, background play, downloads and YouTube Music Premium.
No password sharing. Each member joins with their own Google account via an emailed invitation.
Separate experiences. Everyone keeps their own watch history, recommendations and playlists — nothing gets mixed.
Big savings. Split the Family price several ways and the per-person cost drops well below an individual plan.

The manager must be 18 or over, use a standard (non-Workspace) Google account, and be in a country where Premium is available. One quirk worth knowing: you can only change your family group once every 12 months, so choose your members carefully. For what it costs in your region, see the real cost of YouTube Premium.

The Newer Option: The Duo Plan

If it’s just you and one other person, YouTube now offers a Duo plan — a two-person membership that sits between the Individual and Family tiers on price. It rolled out to more markets after testing, so availability depends on your country, but it’s ideal for couples or a pair of housemates who don’t need all six Family slots. The same household principle still applies.

The Same-Household Rule (and the 2025 Crackdown)

This is the part that’s changed most since this guide was first written.

⚠️ The big change: Family plan members must live at the same residential address as the manager. That rule always existed, but from 2025 YouTube began actively enforcing it — running periodic electronic household checks and emailing members it can’t confirm that their benefits will be paused (typically within about two weeks). Paused members stay in the group and can still watch with ads, but lose ad-free viewing, downloads and the other perks.

Being related, sharing the cost, or simply being in the same country isn’t enough — YouTube treats “household” as an address-based condition. There’s no reliable trick around it, so the safe approach is to keep Family sharing to people who really live with you, and use a separate plan for anyone who doesn’t.

What About Unofficial Sharing?

Historically, people shared Premium by simply handing over their login, or by adding out-of-household friends to a family group. Both are problems now:

Password sharing breaches YouTube’s terms, mixes up everyone’s history and recommendations, and can trigger security prompts — a clumsy solution when the Family plan exists.
Cross-household family members are exactly what the new enforcement targets, so those benefits get paused.

In short: the official invitation-based sharing is easier, cleaner and safer than any workaround — and the workarounds increasingly don’t hold up.

Which YouTube Premium Plans Can Be Shared?

Plan	People	Shareable?	Notes
Individual	1	❌ No	Single account only
Duo	2	✅ Yes	Same household; availability varies
Family	Up to 6	✅ Yes	Manager + 5, same household, own accounts
Student	1	❌ No	Discounted, verified students only
Premium Lite	1	❌ No	Cheaper, limited perks

What Perks Do You Get With YouTube Premium?

Whichever plan you’re on, Premium includes:

Ad-free YouTube — no interruptions across the platform.
Background play — keep audio going with the screen off (something you can otherwise only fudge; see background play without Premium).
Offline downloads — save videos to watch without a connection.
YouTube Music Premium — included ad-free music streaming.

Worth noting for creators: when a Premium subscriber watches your videos ad-free, you still get paid a share of their subscription — so Premium viewers aren’t lost income.

How to Set Up Family Sharing

As the family manager, get a Family plan (or upgrade your individual plan) in your YouTube purchases and memberships settings.
Set up your Google family group and set your household location.
Invite up to 5 members by email or text — each accepts with their own Google account.
Keep all members in the same household to avoid the periodic check pausing their benefits.

Sharing YouTube Premium: FAQ

Can YouTube Premium be shared?

Yes. The proper way is a YouTube Premium Family plan, which lets one family manager share benefits with up to 5 other members — six people in total — each using their own Google account. There’s also a newer Duo plan for two people. All members must live in the same household as the manager, and since 2025 YouTube actively enforces that rule.

How many people can share YouTube Premium?

Up to six on a Family plan — the family manager plus five invited members. The Duo plan covers two people. Individual, Student and Premium Lite plans are for one person and can’t be shared.

Do you have to live in the same house to share YouTube Premium?

Yes. Family plan members must live at the same residential address as the family manager. The rule has always existed, but since 2025 YouTube actively enforces it with periodic electronic household checks, and pauses Premium benefits for members it can’t confirm are in the household.

Can I share YouTube Premium without giving out my password?

Yes — and that’s how it’s designed to work. Each family member joins the group with their own Google account via an invitation, so nobody shares a password, and every member keeps their own watch history, recommendations and playlists separate.

Can you share a YouTube Premium student plan?

No. The Student plan is a discounted individual membership for verified students only and can’t be shared. If you want to share, you need a Family plan or a Duo plan.

What happens if a family member doesn’t live in the same household?

YouTube may email them a warning that their benefits will be paused, then downgrade them to the ad-supported tier if the household can’t be confirmed within the notice period. They stay in the family group and can still watch with ads, but lose Premium perks like ad-free viewing and downloads.

Final Thoughts

So, can YouTube Premium be shared? Yes — and the official way is really good: a Family plan for up to six people, or a Duo plan for two, each on their own account with their own recommendations, and real savings per person. Just build your group around people who actually live with you, because the days of quietly sharing across separate homes are over — YouTube now checks, and pauses anyone who doesn’t fit. Set it up properly and Premium becomes one of the better-value subscriptions going.

📚 Keep reading — YouTube Premium & ads:

Thinking beyond watching — ready to create?

If you’re moving from Premium viewer to creator, a free discovery call gets you a two-decade head start on building a channel that pays.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

A note on this guide: plan structures, member limits and the household rule reflect YouTube’s official family plan help and reported enforcement at the time of writing (July 2026); plans, pricing and availability vary by country and change over time. Check YouTube’s current terms before subscribing.

Tags download youtube, Download YouTube Videos, youtube, youtube downloads, youtube family account, youtube premium, youtube premium account, youtube premium sharing, youtube red, youtube student account

SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Can I Use YouTube Videos on TikTok?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 28 November 2021
1 Comment on Can I Use YouTube Videos on TikTok?

Given the size and reach of TikTok in today’s Internet-centric society, you could be forgiven for thinking the video-sharing platform had been around for much longer than the four years it has. And, like most social media platforms that centre around video-sharing (YouTube, Instagram, Vine, etc) TikTok has made many stars and a lot of money for its more successful users. It makes sense, then, that YouTubers would be looking to expand their brand to this relatively new upstart.

Of course, making content for YouTube is already a lot of work, so adding a new platform to create content for may feel a bit like an overwhelming task. The next logical question is “can I use YouTube videos on TikTok?” Doing allows YouTubers to get a footing on TikTok by leveraging their already significant body of work, exposing them to a new audience in the process.

But, is it allowed? Can you use YouTube videos on TikTok?

Yes, you can use YouTube videos on TikTok. There is no rule on the platform about not uploading content that exists elsewhere online. That being said, it should be your content.

Using Other People’s YouTube Videos

TikTok may not have a specific rule against uploading duplicate content to their platform, but they are subject to the same rules regarding copyright as every other user-generated content platform on the web. This means that they have a mechanism for reporting copyright infringement.

If you upload someone else’s YouTube content without permission, that YouTuber could get your TikTok taken down for copyright violation. Furthermore, while it is highly unlikely in this type of situation, that YouTuber could decide to sue you for damages.

Now, being realistic, the chances of someone going through the hassle and expense of suing you over a TikTok video are very slim. But it could happen, and you have to accept that risk if you decide to use someone else’s content in your TikToks.

Of course, you could ask that YouTube for permission to use the content, removing all of the risks in the process. You could also rely on fair use, but as we’ve talked about both on this blog and on the YouTube channel, fair use is a tricky thing to wield effectively, and can easily backfire on you if you rely on it to avoid ending up in legal trouble.

Using Your Own YouTube Videos on TikTok

Using your own YouTube videos eliminates this risk, of course. As we’ve mentioned, TikTok does not have a rule against uploading content that exists elsewhere on the web, and you own the content you’re uploading. So, unless you plan to put in a copyright complaint against yourself, you should be good to go.

The question then turns from can you do it to how do you do it.

The important thing to remember when cross-posting content across different platforms is that no two platforms are the same, and you need to tailor your posts to suit the platform they are being published on.

This can come in the form of hard limits, such as the length of the video. TikTok videos have an upper limit on the length of 60 seconds. In contrast, unverified YouTube users can upload videos as long as 15 minutes, and verified have no upper limit (though there is a limit on size).

Clearly, then, just uploading your YouTube videos wholesale to TikTok will not be an option in most cases. But beyond the hard limitations, there are other things to consider, such as the fact that TikTok users consume content differently from YouTube users. Or, more accurately, people go to TikTok for a different experience than they expect at YouTube.

TikTok is primarily a light-hearted platform where the content is humorous and entertaining. It is not impossible to succeed with more serious content, but it is less common. If you can make your TikTok video fit that light-hearted mould, you will stand a better chance of success.

You will also need to determine what your goal is. If you are just looking to grow a following on TikTok, you can focus on succeeding on TikTok alone. If you are looking to use TikTok to drive traffic back to your YouTube channel, you will have to find a way to balance your content between being entertaining and engaging enough to draw TikTok users in, while still leaving something for them to want that they will be prepared to head over to YouTube for.

Can You Make Money on TikTok?

An ideal scenario in the world of content creation is one in which you can earn revenue multiple times for the same content. In this case, that would be uploading a YouTube video and earning revenue there, and then uploading that same content (modified as per above) to TikTok and earning more money there.

Well, good news! You can make money directly through TikTok in a very similar fashion to the YouTube Partner Programme. The TikTok creator fund shares a huge pot of money to its top performing content.

The bad news is that the barrier to entry is quite steep. In order to make earn revenue through TikTok, you have to be at least 18 years old, have at least 10,000 followers and have had at least 100,000 video views over the last 30 days. No small feat. Still, if you can reach those levels using your YouTube content, you will be growing your revenue disproportionately to the additional effort you’re putting in.

Final Thoughts

Like other popular video-sharing platforms, TikTok represents an excellent opportunity to expand your brand, drive additional traffic to your YouTube channel, and generally increase your skillsets when it comes to creating content.

The important thing is to remember that every platform is different, and what works on YouTube isn’t guaranteed to work on TikTok (or Instagram or Snapchat, etc). Always try and spend some time on the platform before uploading content to it. Get a feel for what works so that you can apply that to your own TikToks.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. Learn new skills for FREE with Skillshare

I SUCK reading books to learn, but I LOVE online video courses.

Every month I learn something new. Editing, writing, video skills, how to cook, how to run a business – even how to meditate to calm a busy mind.

I find all of these for FREE with Skillshare – Sign up, pick all the courses you want and cancel anytime you need.

5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the Shutterstock website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags content, followers, tik tok, tik tok video, tiktok, tiktok followers, youtube

YOUTUBE

Can I Use YouTube Videos For Facebook Ads?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 26 November 2021

Facebook has proven itself to be a powerful marketing tool over the years, with many people using Facebook—rather than Google or other search engines—to get search for things online and generally consume content. And, of course, with over 2.5 billion monthly users in 2020, the sheer number of eyeballs on the site makes it an invaluable resource for advertisers.

The more instances there are of your content online, the less value each individual instance has. However, when it comes to Facebook ads specifically, just make sure your video doesn’t violate Facebook’s policies regarding ads, make your ad engaging, and you should be fine.

Being a primarily YouTube-centric blog, we’re obviously going to be taking a YouTube angle on this, specifically whether or not you can use YouTube videos for your Facebook ads. On the face of it, this should seem like a no brainer, but, if you’ve read this blog before, you’ll know that there are always little wrinkles to make matters more complicated.

Using YouTube Videos for Facebook Ads

Now, there are a few different ways in which using YouTube videos for Facebook ads can be taken, so let’s cover each separately to avoid any confusion.

Advertising a YouTube Video Link

It’s stretching the definition of “using” a YouTube video, granted, but advertising your YouTube content on Facebook is one way in which you are using YouTube videos for Facebook ads.

The answer to this one is short and sweet; yes you can.

As long as the content of the video does not violate any of Facebook’s advertising guidelines, you can pretty much advertise whatever you like, including YouTube videos. There are question marks over the effectiveness of this strategy, however, but we’ll talk about that in a little more detail below.

Using YouTube Videos In Facebook Ads

There is a bit of mystery surrounding this aspect of YouTube videos as Facebook ads. Technically speaking, using a YouTube video wholesale would count as duplicate content, which Facebook isn’t entirely keen on. Like most platforms, Facebook would rather have content that you can only access on Facebook because it gives users an added incentive to go there.

Now, advertisements would, you would think, be exempt from any kind of duplicate content policy on Facebook, but the truth is we simply don’t know. It could be that Facebook ads that are directly ripped from YouTube have poorer performance, or that they get taken down if they are found out.

In any case, it’s probably worth not putting a YouTube video in your Facebook ads without some kind of modifications to make it unique. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to do this. For example, many Facebook ads incorporate subtitles baked into the actual video. This allows people who are scrolling through their feed somewhere where it would be inappropriate to play sound to follow along with what is happening in the video.

Another trick you can use is to change the aspect ratio of the video. Most users viewing Facebook are doing so on their phones, and that typically means portrait mode. Cropping your video to suit portrait viewing (assuming it wasn’t already a portrait video) is another way to alter the content so that it is not just an identical copy of your original YouTube video.

Using Other People’s YouTube Content in Facebook Ads

From Facebook’s side of things, the case for using other people’s YouTube videos in your Facebook ads is pretty much the same as using your own. Facebook may look poorly on direct duplicate content, but there’s no explicit rule against it.

Where you might run into problems, however, is with the person whose content you have used without permission.

We’ve talked at length about what you can do with other people’s videos on this very blog, but as a general refresher, you should always assume you need permission from the creator unless they have explicitly said permission is not needed, or they have published their video under a public domain license.

Content creators whose content you use in your ads without their permission will be able to get your ad taken down via a copyright claim, and then your ad won’t be achieving anything! In reality, if you have a relatively small online presence, you probably won’t get noticed by any copyright holders, but the fact that you might not get caught is rarely a good reason to do something you’re not supposed to.

Are Facebook Ads a Good Way to Promote YouTube Videos

Things get a little messy when discussing this topic. Facebook is undoubtedly an excellent way to promote things, however, it has been shown that native Facebook video outperforms links to YouTube videos almost all of the time. Of course, if your ad is a native video of the content you want to promote, why would a viewer click through to YouTube? They can watch the content right there on Facebook.

One of the more effective ways to go about this is to use Facebook as a kind of showreel, much like you would with Instagram or TikTok. Select highlights from your content that are entertaining and stand well on their own and use those for your Facebook ads, with the aim being to drive the viewers to your channel for the “full fat” experience.

Final Thoughts

While this post has been specifically about using YouTube videos for Facebook ads, it is generally a good idea to avoid duplicate content regardless of the context. The more instances there are of your content online, the less value each individual instance has.

This does not mean never re-using content—the highlight reel method we mentioned above is a great way to find new viewers from other platforms—but taking a video you have uploaded to YouTube and putting it out unchanged in other places around the web will always have a diminishing effect on the original video, since viewers will have several places they can view it, reducing the incentive to head to your channel.

When it comes to Facebook ads specifically, just make sure your video doesn’t violate Facebook’s policies regarding ads, make your ad engaging, and you should be fine. If you can do that without using a YouTube video completely unchanged from its original state, all the better!

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags advertising, content, facebook, facebook ads, facebook video, social media, youtube, youtube facebook videos

SOCIAL MEDIA YOUTUBE

Does YouTube Count Views From VPN?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 24 November 2021
1 Comment on Does YouTube Count Views From VPN?

Short answer: yes, YouTube counts legitimate views from a VPN. A real person watching a video normally counts whether they’re on a VPN or not — YouTube doesn’t block VPNs and doesn’t throw a view away just because it’s encrypted. The nuance is in the word legitimate: views only fail to count when they look artificial, fail location and account checks, or are part of an attempt to inflate the numbers. Here’s exactly how it works in 2026, what a VPN really changes, and why it’s useless for gaming your view count.

The question underneath the question: most people asking this are really asking one of two things — “will my honest viewers on VPNs still count?” (yes), or “can I use a VPN to pump up my views?” (no, and here’s why that backfires).

This guide answers both properly, using how YouTube’s view-validation system actually behaves today — not the folklore from a few years ago.

Why listen to me? I’m Alan Spicer — a YouTube Certified Expert with two decades of self-employment behind me. I’ve coached 500+ creators and helped earn six Silver Play Buttons. I’ve watched view counts wobble, freeze and correct on hundreds of channels, so this is grounded in what actually happens, not guesswork.

Want a real growth plan instead of view tricks? Book a free discovery call.

📌 Jump to a section:

What counts as a view in 2026
Does YouTube count VPN views?
What a VPN actually changes
When VPN views don’t count
Can a VPN boost your views?
What is a VPN, in plain English
Legit reasons to use a VPN
The real way to get more views
FAQ

⚡ QUICK ANSWER: Does YouTube count views from a VPN?
Yes — a genuine, viewer-initiated watch by a real person counts whether or not they’re using a VPN. YouTube doesn’t block VPNs or discard encrypted views. A view only fails to count if it looks artificial (bots, scripts, endless looping) or fails YouTube’s location and account checks. A VPN does change the location your view is attributed to, which can affect analytics and revenue geography — but it can’t be used to reliably inflate your view count, because validation strips artificial views back out.

What Counts as a View on YouTube in 2026?

Before we get to VPNs, you need the foundation, because it’s the whole answer. YouTube’s own definition of a view is simple: a viewer-initiated, intentional play of a video by a real human, that has passed spam checks. Every word does work there. “Viewer-initiated” and “intentional” mean the person actively chose to watch. “Real human” and “passed spam checks” mean YouTube has decided the view isn’t fake.

That produces a clear line between what counts and what doesn’t:

Counts as a view ✅	Doesn’t count ❌
A person clicks a thumbnail, link or play button and watches	Bot traffic and automated scripts
A viewer on a VPN watching normally	Autoplay or hidden embedded videos (no active choice)
A few genuine re-watches of the same video	Rapid, repeated self-refreshing to juice the count
A standard embed where someone clicks play	Purchased or botted views (removed on validation)

🔍 Why your public count sometimes lags: YouTube validates views before showing them publicly, so YouTube Studio often updates faster than the public counter. If a count seems to freeze, stall or drop slightly, that’s the old “301 freeze” behaviour — the validation system auditing a wave of views and removing anything that looks artificial. It’s normal, not a penalty.

Does YouTube Count Views From a VPN?

Now the specific question. If someone watches your video through a VPN, does it count? In almost every normal case, yes.

If the viewer is logged in to a valid YouTube account, YouTube barely cares about the VPN. Only a small slice of the data YouTube wants is tied to location, and a logged-in account confirms the rest — so a real person on a VPN, watching because they chose to, is a real view. YouTube does not block VPNs, and it does not discard views simply for being encrypted or routed through another country.

Anonymous, logged-out views on a VPN are treated a little more cautiously, because YouTube has less certainty about who’s behind them. And VPN server addresses can be flagged over time — reputable providers are treated normally, while addresses tied to malicious activity or obvious abuse get scrutinised or blocked. But none of that changes the headline: an honest viewer on a decent VPN counts.

What a VPN Actually Changes About Your Views

A VPN doesn’t stop a view from counting — but it does change a few things worth understanding, especially if you’re a creator looking at your own analytics.

What a VPN changes	Why it matters
Apparent location	The view is attributed to the VPN’s exit server, not the viewer’s real country — so it can land in the “wrong” country in your analytics
Revenue geography	Ad rates vary by country, so a lot of VPN traffic can skew how your revenue is calculated and reported
Regional availability	A VPN can unlock region-locked videos by placing the viewer in an allowed country
Privacy of viewing history	Encrypts traffic so the viewer’s ISP and network can’t see what’s being watched

For creators, the location point is the one to remember: if you test your own videos through a VPN a lot, don’t be surprised when your analytics show views from a country you’ve never marketed to.

When VPN Views Don’t Count (and When They Get You in Trouble)

A view fails to count when it stops looking like a genuine human choice. That’s true with or without a VPN — but VPNs come up most often in the context people hope will work: inflating numbers. So let’s be blunt about it.

YouTube runs a constant view-validation audit. Its systems are very good at spotting artificial traffic — sudden spikes with no matching engagement, clustered or unusual IP sources, flat retention, and behaviour that doesn’t look human. Independent analyses put YouTube’s detection of artificial traffic in the region of 96%. Anything it flags gets removed, which is why bought or botted view counts deflate over the following days.

⚠️ The terms-of-service line: using a VPN (or anything else) to “artificially inflate” your view count is a direct breach of YouTube’s terms of service. Beyond being caught and reversed, it can put your channel at risk. There is no version of this that’s worth it — the downside is a strike against a channel you’re trying to build, and the upside is views that get deleted anyway.

Can You Use a VPN to Boost Your View Count?

This is the real motivation behind a lot of these searches, so here’s the honest answer: no. It doesn’t work, and it isn’t worth the risk.

Think about the maths for a second. To move the needle on a view count by hand-loading videos through different VPN servers, you’d spend enormous time for a trickle of views — most of which validation strips out anyway. Compare that to spending the same hour improving a thumbnail that lifts your click-through rate across every impression a video ever gets. One is a rounding error that might get you a strike; the other compounds for the life of the video.

The uncomfortable truth every experienced creator learns: there is no shortcut that beats making something people want to click and watch. Which is exactly what the last section of this guide is about.

Chasing views the hard way?

Skip the tricks. On a free discovery call we’ll find the real reasons your videos aren’t getting the views they deserve — and the fastest fixes.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

What Is a VPN, in Plain English?

A VPN — virtual private network — is a private, encrypted network running across the public internet. Think of your home Wi-Fi: the devices on it form a private network outsiders can’t just walk into. A VPN extends that idea across the world. Your device encrypts its traffic, sends it through the VPN to a server somewhere else, and that server passes it on to the wider internet.

The practical upshot is twofold. First, your traffic is encrypted, so your internet provider and network can’t see what you’re doing. Second — the part that matters for YouTube — websites see the VPN server’s location, not yours. If you connect through a server in the United States, YouTube treats you as being in the United States. That’s how a VPN unlocks region-specific content, and it’s also why VPN views land in the server’s country in your analytics.

Legitimate Reasons to Watch YouTube Through a VPN

Plenty of people use a VPN with YouTube for completely reasonable purposes — none of which harm your channel:

Privacy — keeping your viewing history away from your ISP and network.
Region-locked videos — a small slice of the catalogue is restricted by country, and a VPN can unlock it.
Security on public Wi-Fi — encrypting your connection on untrusted networks.
Creator testing — checking how your video appears or whether it’s available in another region (just remember it skews your own analytics).

If you’re choosing a provider, the two things that matter are a genuine no-logs policy and a wide, reputable server network. I break down the option I recommend in my NordVPN review and complete guide.

The Real Way to Get More Views (Skip the VPN Tricks)

If you came here hoping a VPN could grow your channel, here’s the better use of your energy — the levers that actually move views, and the guides that show you how. This is where the time you’d waste on view tricks pays off instead.

✅ Win the click. More views start with more clicks on the impressions you already get. Nail your packaging with the 2026 thumbnail guide and titles that get clicked, and learn what a good click-through rate looks like.

✅ Understand the system. Views follow distribution, and distribution follows the algorithm. Learn how the YouTube algorithm works in 2026 and read your data properly with YouTube analytics explained.

✅ Build a real growth engine. Put it together with a proper YouTube growth strategy, the grow-fast framework, and the SEO checklist — then see what percentage of YouTubers actually make money.

And two tools I use every day to do exactly this — real growth, not fake views:

Tool	What it does	Link
vidIQ	Keyword research, competitor insight and AI thumbnail help so real viewers find you in search and suggested	Try vidIQ free · Review
TubeBuddy	A/B testing, bulk channel management and optimisation tools right inside YouTube Studio	Try TubeBuddy free · Review

VPN & YouTube Views: FAQ

Does YouTube count views from a VPN?

Yes. A view through a VPN counts as long as it is a genuine, viewer-initiated watch by a real person. YouTube does not block VPNs and does not automatically discard a view just because it came through one. The view only fails to count if it looks artificial — a bot, a script, endless looping, or part of an effort to inflate numbers — or if it fails YouTube’s location and account checks.

Can you use a VPN to increase your YouTube views?

No — and you shouldn’t try. YouTube’s view validation systems identify the large majority of artificial traffic and remove it, so inflated views get stripped out. Using a VPN to fake views also breaches YouTube’s terms of service on artificial inflation. It is slower, riskier and far less effective than simply improving your packaging and growing organically.

Does using a VPN hurt your YouTube channel?

Watching or uploading through a VPN for privacy or region access won’t hurt your channel. The risk comes only from using a VPN to break the rules — faking views, evading a ban, or artificial inflation. One thing to be aware of as a creator is that a VPN changes your apparent location, which can skew your own analytics and, for advertisers, the geography your revenue is attributed to.

Does a VPN change where my views are counted from?

Yes. YouTube attributes a view to the location of the VPN’s exit server, not your real location. That means VPN views can show up in the wrong country in your analytics, and because ad rates vary by country, heavy VPN traffic can affect how your revenue is calculated. The view still counts — it’s just attributed to the server’s location.

What counts as a view on YouTube in 2026?

A view is a viewer-initiated, intentional play of a video by a real human that has passed YouTube’s spam checks. The viewer has to actively choose to watch — clicking a thumbnail, link or play button. Autoplaying feeds, hidden or autoplay embeds, bot traffic and rapid self-refreshing do not count as genuine views.

Does YouTube block VPNs?

No. YouTube allows VPN use for normal viewing and uploading. VPN server addresses can be flagged over time, which changes how YouTube treats traffic from them, and addresses tied to malicious activity may be blocked. But an ordinary viewer on a reputable VPN watching normally is fine — users are only banned if they use a VPN to break the terms of service.

Final Thoughts

On balance, YouTube counts views from VPNs when those views are genuine — a real person, actively choosing to watch. If a view behaves like a bot, loops endlessly, or is part of an inflation attempt, validation discounts it, VPN or not. The most useful thing to take away is that a VPN is a privacy and access tool, not a growth tool. It can’t manufacture views that stick.

So if your real goal is more views, put the VPN down and pick up the levers that compound: better packaging, a clearer understanding of the algorithm, and a real strategy. That’s the work that actually moves your numbers — and it’s all one click away below.

📚 Keep reading — get views the real way:

Want views that actually stick?

A free discovery call gets you a two-decade head start on real, sustainable YouTube growth — no tricks, no bought views, just the strategy that works.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

Sources & further reading: YouTube’s definition of a view and how views are counted: YouTube Help. View-validation and artificial-traffic behaviour reflects YouTube’s documented approach and commonly reported detection figures, current at the time of writing (July 2026); YouTube may adjust its systems, so treat specific percentages as indicative. Some links on this page are affiliate links (marked rel=”sponsored”); they never change the price you pay and help fund the free content on this site.

Tags privacy, tracking, views, vpn, youtube, youtube views, youtube vpn, youtube vpns

SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Can YouTube Accounts Be Hacked?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 16 November 2021
2 Comments on Can YouTube Accounts Be Hacked?

Online security has never been such a big part of our collective awareness, and with more and more people finding a way to make their living through YouTube, the prospect of having your YouTube account hacked is more than just an inconvenience, it can be a threat to your livelihood.

Can YouTube Account Be Hacked? – Yes! Any social media can be hacked but its all depends on how far you are willing to go to secure your account.

With that in mind, it’s natural to wonder about how likely it is that your YouTube account could be hacked, and, fortunately, the answer is “not easily”. However, as with any matter of online security, the best protections in the world can be undermined by user error. In this post, we’re going to look at the potential ways your YouTube account could be hacked—as well as how likely they are—and cover how you can keep yourself safe.

How Can YouTube Account Be Hacked?

When talking about hacked accounts on platforms like YouTube, there are a few likely candidates for how it can happen; hacking YouTube, data breaches, and hacking you.

Hacking YouTube

Now, we’ll be honest, this is a very unlikely way for your account to get hacked. Getting hacked is very bad for business, and companies like Google are not interested in anything that is bad for business and have a lot of money to throw at the problem.

The chances of someone breaking into YouTube’s system and accessing your account that way is very low. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, should it actually happen, there would be nothing you could do to prevent it. You would just have to hope the damage isn’t too great and that YouTube can sort out the mess afterwards.

Data Breaches

Data breaches can occur because someone has hacked into a system as we talked about above, but they can also just be a disgruntled employee walking out of the office with a thumb drive full of data. The data will usually be a list of names and passwords that will then go on to be sold on the dark web. Nefarious parties then purchase these usernames and passwords and try them on several platforms to see what works. Incidentally, this is also why it is important not to use the same username and password on different platforms.

The good news here is that an increasing number of services monitor for these kinds of leaks, and can notify you if your username and password emerge on one of them. The other good news is that avoiding this problem is as simple as regularly changing your password, and services that suffer data breaches will usually force you to reset your password.

Social Engineering

Social engineering is probably the most common type of “hacking” today, and it doesn’t involve typing reams of code in a dark, seedy room, or sneaking into a server room at some high-power corporation. The reality is far more mundane.

Social engineering can come in many forms. For example, someone could literally just strike up a conversation with you in the street and find out enough information to get access to your accounts. All those backup security questions such as our mother’s maiden name are a liability if someone really wants to get at you since they can be easily found out. Have you ever shared one of those “Your Drag Queen Name is Your Grandmother’s First Name and Your First Car” posts? Putting information like that out publicly makes it very easy for any malicious parties to get the information they need. And with AI constantly making life easier for them, they needn’t be looking at you directly to find this information anymore.

Phishing is also a form of social engineering, with the most common form of it is sending a spoof email pretending to be a service or bank, asking the user to log in to their account to deal with some urgent matter. The login page is fake, however, and the malicious parties behind it log the username and password you enter for using themselves. Other versions of this tactic include intercepting traffic going to a legitimate site and redirecting it, and hijacking unattended browser tabs and rewriting them with malicious code.

Protecting yourself in these instances is a matter of general good practice when using the Internet—don’t download files from untrusted sources, don’t click on links from suspicious emails, and never give your username and password out.

Protecting Yourself

For the most part, keeping your YouTube account safe is a matter of common sense. Don’t use a password that you use for other accounts, and try to change that password occasionally. Certainly never give your password to anyone else. Always enabled 2-factor authentication on your Google account, preferably using your phone as the second factor, as this will mean any malicious party looking to break into your account would also need to have access to your phone.

Final Thoughts

While we would be lying if we said that you have the power to prevent absolutely every possibility of your YouTube account being hacked, the vast majority of ways in which it could happen can be prevented by relatively simple steps taken by you, and most of those steps are straightforward and should be considered common practice for anyone using the web.

It is also worth remembering that many of the “up close and personal” methods of gathering information about you are labour-intensive. A spammer could send out a million phishing emails with the click of a button, but someone feigning a romantic interest in you to get information has to put the work in. Another way of looking at this is phishing emails, data breaches, and hacks are not personal, but somebody who gets to know you to find out your place of birth and the name of your first pet so they can gain access to your account is going after you specifically.

And, regardless of external attacks, it’s always a good idea to keep your own backups of your videos. Especially if you have an established channel with hours and hours of content.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags 2 factor authentication, 2fa, email spoofing, hack youtube, how to hack youtube, password, security, youtube, youtube hack, youtube hacking, youtube hacks, youtube password, youtube security

SOCIAL MEDIA YOUTUBE

Can YouTube Play Dolby Atmos?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 8 November 2021

Can YouTube play Dolby Atmos? The short answer is no — not anywhere in the YouTube family.

Standard YouTube, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music and YouTube TV don’t support object-based Dolby Atmos. YouTube tops out at 5.1 surround on compatible content, and an Atmos mix uploaded to it gets downmixed to stereo. Here’s the full picture — across every YouTube product, why, and where to get Atmos instead.

Why trust this? I’m Alan Spicer — a YouTube Certified Expert with two decades on the platform and six Silver Play Buttons. I work with YouTube audio constantly, so I can tell you exactly what the platform does and doesn’t do with immersive sound.

Want your channel’s audio to sound its best within YouTube’s limits? Book a free discovery call.

🔑 Key takeaways

No Dolby Atmos on YouTube, Premium, YouTube Music or YouTube TV.
YouTube supports up to 5.1 surround on compatible content (AAC/Opus codecs).
Upload an Atmos mix and YouTube downmixes it to stereo.
YouTube TV does 5.1 via Dolby Digital on select content — still not Atmos.
For real Atmos: Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Tidal and similar.

📌 Jump to a section:

What is Dolby Atmos?
Can YouTube play Atmos?
What audio YouTube supports
YouTube Music & Atmos
YouTube TV & Atmos
Why YouTube doesn’t support it
Will YouTube add Atmos?
Where to get Atmos instead
What it means for creators
FAQ

⚡ QUICK ANSWER: Can YouTube play Dolby Atmos?
No. Neither standard YouTube, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music nor YouTube TV supports object-based Dolby Atmos. YouTube can play up to 5.1 surround sound on compatible content and devices (via the AAC and Opus codecs), and YouTube TV offers 5.1 through Dolby Digital on select content — but an Atmos mix uploaded to YouTube is downmixed to stereo. For true Atmos, use services like Netflix, Apple TV+ or Apple Music.

What Is Dolby Atmos?

Dolby Atmos is an object-based surround sound technology. Traditional surround formats like 5.1 and 7.1 are channel-based — sound is mapped to a fixed set of speakers around you on a horizontal plane. Atmos treats each sound as an “object” that can be placed anywhere in a 3D space, including overhead height channels, so a helicopter can really pass above you and rain can fall all around. That vertical dimension is what makes it feel so immersive, and it’s why Atmos is now standard in cinemas, on Blu-ray, and across premium streaming — for both film and, increasingly, music.

Can YouTube Play Dolby Atmos?

No — and that surprises people, given YouTube’s scale. The platform simply doesn’t support object-based Atmos audio. When a video is uploaded, YouTube encodes its audio with the AAC and Opus codecs, which handle stereo and up to 5.1 surround efficiently but don’t carry Atmos. In practice that means:

Most YouTube videos are stereo (2.0).
Some content plays in 5.1 surround on compatible devices, if the upload included it.
Atmos uploads get downmixed — your immersive mix is flattened to stereo or 5.1, losing the height and object detail.

There’s one nuance worth knowing: YouTube does support spatial audio for 360° and VR videos using ambisonics (First Order Ambisonics), which is immersive in its own way — but that’s a different technology from Dolby Atmos, and it doesn’t apply to standard 16:9 videos.

What Audio Does YouTube Actually Support?

Here’s the immersive-audio picture across the YouTube family:

YouTube product	Dolby Atmos?	Best surround it does
Standard YouTube	❌ No	Up to 5.1 on compatible content
YouTube Premium	❌ No	Same as standard (up to 5.1)
YouTube Music	❌ No	Stereo
YouTube TV	❌ No	5.1 via Dolby Digital (select content)

Can YouTube Music Play Dolby Atmos?

No. YouTube Music streams in stereo and offers no Atmos or spatial-audio tier. This is one area where rivals are clearly ahead: Apple Music (which markets Atmos as “Spatial Audio”), Tidal, and Amazon Music all offer Dolby Atmos catalogues. If immersive music is your priority, YouTube Music isn’t the service for it.

Can YouTube TV Play Dolby Atmos?

Also no — but it’s the closest of the bunch. YouTube TV supports 5.1 surround sound via the Dolby Digital codec on select content and compatible devices, which is a real step up from stereo for movies and shows. It’s still channel-based surround, though, not the object-based, overhead audio that defines Atmos. So you’ll get a fuller sound than standard YouTube, just not a true Atmos experience.

Why Doesn’t YouTube Support Dolby Atmos?

A few practical reasons:

Bandwidth & storage. Object-based multi-channel audio needs far more data per video — a serious cost at YouTube’s scale of billions of uploads.
Universal compatibility. YouTube prioritises audio that plays on every device, from a phone speaker to a smart TV. Stereo and optional 5.1 hit that bar; Atmos doesn’t, everywhere.
Licensing. Supporting Dolby technology isn’t free, and it’s a big commitment for a platform built on free user-generated content.
The content model. Most creators upload stereo. Building Atmos support for a tiny fraction of immersive uploads is hard to justify.

Will YouTube Add Dolby Atmos?

There’s no confirmed plan to add Dolby Atmos. YouTube has filed patents around 3D audio, and the more likely path is the emerging IAMF (Immersive Audio Model and Formats) — an open immersive-audio standard backed by the Alliance for Open Media, which Google is part of. An open standard sidesteps the licensing question that makes Dolby less attractive for a free platform. So immersive audio may well come to YouTube eventually — just perhaps not in Dolby’s flavour. For now, treat Atmos on YouTube as a “no.”

Where Can You Get Dolby Atmos Instead?

If Atmos is what you’re after, plenty of services deliver it on compatible plans and hardware:

For…	Services with Dolby Atmos
Film & TV	Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, Prime Video (compatible plans)
Music	Apple Music (Spatial Audio), Tidal, Amazon Music
Physical media	4K Blu-ray discs with Atmos soundtracks

Want your videos to sound professional on YouTube?

Atmos isn’t the answer here — a clean, well-mixed stereo track is. On a free discovery call we’ll sharpen your whole audio game.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

What This Means for Creators

If you’re making videos, the takeaway is simple: don’t waste effort on an Atmos mix for YouTube — it’ll be downmixed to stereo anyway. Put that energy into a clean, well-balanced stereo mix, because that’s what almost every viewer will actually hear. Get your levels right, cut the background noise, and export at the correct settings, and your audio will sound better than most of what’s on the platform. Start with recording clean audio, improve it further even without a treated studio, and check whether video quality affects your audio. Nail those and you’ve done far more for your viewers’ ears than Atmos ever would here — see also the best rendering settings and best bitrate to keep your exports clean.

Dolby Atmos on YouTube: FAQ

Can YouTube play Dolby Atmos?

No. Standard YouTube, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music and YouTube TV all lack Dolby Atmos support. YouTube can play up to 5.1 surround sound on compatible content and devices, but not object-based Atmos. If a video with an Atmos mix is uploaded, YouTube downmixes the audio to stereo or 5.1.

Does YouTube support surround sound or 5.1?

Yes, up to 5.1 surround sound on compatible content and devices, using the AAC and Opus audio codecs. It does not support 7.1 or object-based formats like Dolby Atmos. Most standard YouTube videos are stereo, since surround requires the uploaded audio to include it.

Can YouTube Music play Dolby Atmos?

No. YouTube Music streams in stereo and does not offer Dolby Atmos or spatial audio. For Atmos music you’d need a service that supports it, such as Apple Music (marketed as Spatial Audio), Tidal, or Amazon Music.

Does YouTube TV support Dolby Atmos?

No. YouTube TV does not support Dolby Atmos, but it does offer 5.1 surround sound through the Dolby Digital codec on select content and compatible devices. That’s channel-based surround, not the object-based, height-channel audio Atmos provides.

Why doesn’t YouTube support Dolby Atmos?

Mainly bandwidth and storage cost, universal compatibility, and licensing. Multi-channel object audio needs far more data per video, YouTube prioritises formats that work on every device, and supporting Dolby technology isn’t free. With billions of user-uploaded videos, defaulting to efficient stereo and optional 5.1 makes practical sense.

What happens if I upload a Dolby Atmos video to YouTube?

YouTube downmixes it. Your carefully mixed Atmos audio is converted to stereo (or 5.1 where supported), so viewers won’t hear the object-based, overhead elements. If you need to distribute true Atmos, you’ll have to use a platform or service that supports it rather than YouTube.

Where can I watch or listen to Dolby Atmos instead?

For video, services like Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+ and Prime Video support Dolby Atmos on compatible plans and devices. For music, Apple Music, Tidal and Amazon Music offer Atmos tracks. Blu-ray and physical media also carry true Atmos soundtracks.

Final Thoughts

So, can YouTube play Dolby Atmos? No — not on standard YouTube, Premium, YouTube Music or YouTube TV. The platform tops out at 5.1 surround on compatible content and quietly downmixes anything more ambitious to stereo. That’s unlikely to change in Dolby’s form; if immersive audio does arrive, the open IAMF standard looks the more probable route. For now, if you want true Atmos, reach for Netflix, Apple TV+ or Apple Music — and if you’re a creator, forget Atmos for YouTube and pour your effort into a crisp, clean stereo mix, because that’s the sound your audience will actually hear.

📚 Keep reading — YouTube audio & quality:

Make your channel sound as good as it looks.

A free discovery call gets you a two-decade head start on audio, video and everything that turns viewers into subscribers.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

A note on this guide: audio-format support reflects YouTube, YouTube Music and YouTube TV at the time of writing (July 2026); supported formats, codecs and device compatibility change over time, and surround playback depends on your content, device and setup. Check the official help pages for the latest.

Tags 4k, atmos, audio, dolby atmos, music, sound, youtube, youtube audio

HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE SOCIAL MEDIA YOUTUBE

Can YouTube Shorts Be Monetized?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 30 October 2021
2 Comments on Can YouTube Shorts Be Monetized?

YouTube has not been one to shy away from making changes in a bid to keep up with the competition in recent years. From giving YouTubers the option to provide paid memberships to their users as an alternative to services like Patreon, to adding live-streaming to compete with Twitch.

I recently dived deep into everything we know about YouTube shorts – One of their more recent additions is YouTube Shorts, which could be seen as a move to compete with the likes of Snapchat, Instagram, and even Facebook to a degree. Of course, in typical Google fashion, not everything they implement is clearly explained and easy to understand.

YouTube Shorts’ rollout left a lot of questions for users due to its almost unofficial system of placing a hashtag in the description. Things are more clear now, of course, but now that Shorts are a more integrated part of the YouTube platform, many users still have questions over the monetization aspect of it.

Yes, YouTube Shorts CAN be monetized! From 2023 YouTube will be adding adverts to YouTube shorts and revenue shared with creators 45/10/45 with the 10% being for music licensing.

What Are YouTube Shorts?

You might be reading this and wondering “what the hell is a YouTube Short?”, but don’t worry, we’re going to fill you in.

YouTube Shorts are essentially YouTube’s answer to Instagram and Facebook Stories. They are short videos—less than 60 seconds to be precise—that are intended for continuous consumption. In essence, YouTube wants viewers to sit and watch several Shorts one after the other, with the ultimate aim being to keep those viewers on the website for longer. Many of us will happily sit through a 10-15 minute video, and if YouTube can put the right Shorts in front of a viewer, that 10-15 minute window could see them viewing 15-30 Shorts (many Shorts are much less than 60 seconds). These videos are primarily made for mobile viewing, something that is evident when you look at the portrait aspect ratio. While regular YouTube is the kind of experience you can set up in front of your computer or laptop head off down the rabbit hole, YouTube Shorts is more of a “kill five minutes at the bus stop” kind of experience.

Where Is The Money?

If you think about this from a YouTube-centric point of view, you might notice a problem with YouTube Shorts when it comes to generating revenue. If the aim is to keep users watching these short videos, you can’t really go sticking advertisements in between because it will dramatically increase the chances of the viewer clicking away. YouTube knows this, of course, which is why they don’t run advertisements on YouTube Shorts.

With that in mind, where is the money coming from?

In short, the answer is nowhere. With no ad being run against YouTube Shorts, there is no money coming in for those views. It could be argued that there is some revenue coming from YouTube Premium users, but that money is coming in regardless. And, since there are no ads on YouTube Shorts, they are unlikely to bring in new YouTube Premium subscribers since the biggest attraction of that service is the removal of ads.

Why Have Shorts If There’s No Money In It?

Just a quick note; there’s no money for YouTube. YouTubers can still get paid, more on that below.

Ultimately, as much as we might like to believe that our favourite companies are acting in our best interests, all decisions ultimately come back to money. YouTube Shorts may not directly make YouTube money, but their inclusion has been judged good for YouTube’s bottom line in the long run.

The most obvious way this works is by exposing viewers to more content. As mentioned above, in the same amount of time you might take to watch one 15 minute video, you could watch 20 Shorts. The more content you watch, the better idea YouTube’s algorithm gets of what you like, and the more successful it can be at recommending content to you. That in turn increases the likelihood of you sticking around, which increases the opportunity to serve you ads. There is also an argument to be made that adding this alternative way of consuming media may attract users that wouldn’t typically spend that much time on YouTube, though we’re not sure TikTok will be quaking in their boots at the thought of YouTube Shorts.

YouTube Shorts Fund Explained

We’ve teased you enough. How do you make money from YouTube Shorts? Through the YouTube Shorts Fund. Since there is no revenue being directly generated from YouTube Shorts, YouTube has to create their own incentives for creatives, and they’ve done this in the form of the YouTube Shorts Fund.

This is a $100M fund set up to reward creators. Bonuses are awarded monthly to creators who have had success with their Shorts, with YouTube stating that they’ll reach out to “thousands” of creators each month to award between $100 and $10,000, which is paid directly into your AdSense account. There is no stated qualification criteria, such as a certain number of views, so the recipients of these bonuses would appear to be entirely at YouTube’s discretion at this stage.

There are some criteria you have to meet in order to be eligible for a YouTube Shorts Fund bonus, however;

Have uploaded at least one eligible Short in the last 180 days
Channel must abide by community guidelines
Channel must not be uploading unoriginal content or content with watermarks (like the TikTok logo)
Creator must be in an eligible region (see link above)
Creator must be 13 years (or the age of majority outside of United States)
Creators under 18 must have a parent or guardian accept terms and set up an AdSense account.

Channels do not need to be monetized in order to be eligible for the YouTube Shorts Fund, however, but you will still be eligible if you are part of the YouTube Partner Programme or an affiliate under a Multi-Channel Network.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags best way to make money on youtube, make money online, monetization, money, passive income, youtube, YouTube Monetization, youtube shorts

SOCIAL MEDIA YOUTUBE

Does YouTube Track You?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 22 October 2021
1 Comment on Does YouTube Track You?

It seems we can’t go anywhere on the Internet without worrying about being tracked by someone. Online security is a more pressing matter than ever, with so much of our lives being online, it makes sense that we’d all be more concerned about keeping our privacy private.

Being a Google company, there won’t be many people out there who are naive enough to think that YouTube doesn’t engage in a little tracking of its own, but there are levels to that tracking. So, if you’re looking for a short answer to the question posed in this post’s title, yes, YouTube can and does track you, but if you’d like to know a bit more about what that tracking entails, keep reading.

Logged In Vs Anonymous

The first distinction to make here is the difference between a YouTube user who is logged in and one who is not. Obviously, when you are logged in, YouTube knows a great deal about you and is able to explicitly keep a detailed log of your activities. Indeed, their tracking in this respect is a feature of the platform. YouTube can’t make recommendations based on your interests and viewing history if they do not keep track of what that viewing history is! This, unfortunately, is an unavoidable aspect of using the platform. There is no way to opt out of being tracked in this regard, even if you pay for YouTube Premium to get rid of ads. Ads are, ultimately, the reason for tracking you in the first place, since advertisers want to serve you the most relevant ads possible.

But YouTube can’t be sure that you won’t cancel your Premium subscription in the future, and if and when that happens, they want to have all their data on you for the ads they’re going to start serving you again.

Of course, anonymous users are not exempt from being tracked on YouTube, but they have a little more privacy than their logged in counterparts. For one thing, YouTube does not have the user data that you enter when you sign up for an account, such as your date of birth, gender, and other information of that nature.

Still, YouTube (and any other platform for that matter) can keep personalised records for anonymous users thanks to their “digital fingerprint”. This is a swath of data that they can read about you, such as the device you are using to view YouTube, your IP address, what operating system you have… even what fonts you have installed! All of this information makes combines to paint a picture almost as unique as a fingerprint, and certainly unique enough for YouTube to keep tabs on you.

Again, this is all for the purpose of advertising. YouTube will try to build as accurate a picture of you as possible so that they can serve the most relevant ads. The more relevant the ads, the higher the chance that you’ll click them, and the more you click those ads, the better the perceived performance of YouTube as an advertising platform resulting in more advertisers being willing to put their money into YouTube.

Is Being Tracked by YouTube Bad?

People have varying opinions about the ethics of companies like YouTube tracking your online activities but it’s worth remembering that YouTube is a service that—if you’re not paying for YouTube Premium—is free, but being free to you does not mean YouTube do not still have monumental bills to pay from all the bandwidth and employees and more.

Tracking the people who use their service is part of the mechanism by which YouTube makes money, which is an integral part of them being able to provide the service at all. At the end of the day, you are choosing to use YouTube, and in doing so, you agree to the way they run the platform, which includes tracking you. If you are not comfortable with the tracking, you don’t have to use YouTube.

This may seem like an impractical alternative since YouTube is pretty much the only game in town for a certain kind of content creator, but it is, ethically speaking, the only alternative to accepting the tracking you will face if you use their platform.

Can I Avoid Being Tracked by YouTube?

With that being said, what if you still want to circumvent YouTube’s tracking? Well, the first thing to note is that it is impossible if you are logged in. Logged in users will always have their viewing history and viewing habits logged.

If you are prepared to use YouTube without being logged in, you can get around YouTube’s anonymous tracking to a degree by doing things like using different devices and proxy servers. Of course, most of us only have access to a limited number of devices, which makes this a rather limited solution, but there are also virtual machines as an option.

Deleting YouTube History

You can’t control everything YouTube stores about you, but if you are a logged-in user, you can choose to erase your viewing history, which constitutes a significant part of the data YouTube keeps on its users.

To do this, head over to the Watch History on YouTube and click “See All”, where you will find a variety of controls at your disposal These include the ability to clear all of your watch history, pause your watch history (so views won’t be recorded to your watch history), as well as controls relating to search history and comments. You can also remove individual videos from your watch history from within the video page itself.

Final Thoughts

Tracking is, unfortunately, an unavoidable reality of the modern Internet. Privacy is an understandable hot-button issue, but the fact is many web services and online platforms we rely on would not be able to deliver the services they do if they couldn’t track their users in this manner.

That being said, you are not completely powerless. If this is an important thing for you, you can try using YouTube logged out and through a proxy.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags data privacy, privacy, tracking, tracking data, vpn, youtube, youtube privacy

HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE SOCIAL MEDIA YOUTUBE

Fake Views on YouTube [Are they worth it?]

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 18 October 2021

YouTube is big business, and, unfortunately, that means a lot of people are willing to take risks to get an edge when searching for success on the platform. One of the more obvious ways of doing this is to literally buy your success. You can buy likes, subscribers, and, the focus of this post, views.

Unfortunately, life is rarely easy, and YouTube is no different. Shortcuts like these invariable end in metaphorical tears, so we thought we’d outline what we mean by fake views, and why you should steer clear of them if you want to succeed on the platform.

What Are Fake Views?

When we talk about fake views, we are not simply talking about views you have paid for. After all, when you pay YouTube to promote your channel through their advertising platform, you are essentially paying for views. The difference is that there is no guarantee on how many views you will get since you are paying for advertising.

The kind of fake views we are referring to are typically sold in amounts, and though there may be a margin for error in the number of views you actually get, the seller will often specify a number, and perhaps even guarantee that that as a minimum.

But how can that work?

Think about it, you can’t guarantee a viewer will want to watch any given video, that’s not how people work. The seller would have to have an enormous pool of YouTube viewers ready and waiting, spanning a diverse range of interests so that when you come along ready to pay for their eyeball time, the seller will be able to find enough viewers to meet the number of views they have promised.

And then there’s the compensation for those viewers. If you’re going to have a large pool of YouTube viewers on retainer, they’re probably going to want something in return. The promise of engaging content that interests them won’t be much of a draw, since that’s the same promise that YouTube makes for simply having an account. Then consider that you’re only being charged a few pounds or dollars (or whatever your local currency is) for these views, how much can the seller really offer these viewers?

Well, the answer is, of course, nothing. There are often no human eyeballs on the other side of these views, just bots. The seller can afford to give you 10,000 views for £5 (or whatever the going rate is) because they have already invested whatever time or money they need to in building their bot farm, and the rest is simply a matter of entering your video’s URL and clicking a button.

But, with that being said, are these views any good?

Do Fake Views Work?

Whether or not these fake views works is a subjective question, since “working” depends on what your goal is. If you just want to inflate your view counts for the appearance, then yes, fake views are effective. The numbers under your video will go up and it will look like you have far more viewers than you actually did.

This is a bit of a hollow game, however, since these views don’t translate into anything more than the numbers themselves. And, if you don’t have that many real human viewers, nobody will really care that you have tens of thousands of views.

What about more material metrics of success? Let’s face it, the thing most of us are concerned with when it comes to YouTube success is how much revenue our channel can generate for us. Well, that’s where fake views really start to fall apart as a path to success.

Revenue is generated from ad views and YouTube Premium subscriptions. Clearly, the fake viewer seller is not going to be buying YouTube Premium subscriptions for their bots—that would be a quick way to lose a lot of money. As for ad views, a sizable portion of ad views earn their money on interaction (clicking the ads) and bots don’t do that.

There is still money to be made from simply viewing an ad, of course, but YouTube—or, more specifically, Google—have built their business on selling advertising, and they’re not about to let that business collapse because advertisers are sick of wasting their money on fake views that don’t generate leads.

In other words, YouTube is very good at sniffing out fake views, and the improvement of that skill is one that is in constant and active development. It can also affect the numbers game we mentioned above since YouTube has been known to erase fake views from a video’s view count after the fact.

Another negative side of fake views is the way YouTube sees your channel. Even if a fake view gets through YouTube’s elite fake view defences, YouTube is going to see your channel getting a lot of views and very little engagement, which is a bad sign for your recommendation prospects. This means that, not only are fake views not helping you succeed in the short term, they can actively harm your chances of succeeding the right way in the long term.

Are Fake Views Allowed?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but fake views are not permitted under YouTube terms of service. Or, rather, you are not permitted to artificially inflate viewing figures.

Practically speaking, if you are not a serial offender, the worst you’ll face is probably your fake views being removed and your money wasted. That being said, YouTube could decide to take more severe action against you—such as banning you from the platform—and you should be prepared for that eventuality if you decide to take this risk.

Final Thoughts

Like many shortcuts in life, fake views are not worth it in the long term. And, with YouTube constantly improving their fake view prevention mechanisms, it is increasingly becoming the case that fake views offer little benefit in the short term, also.

It takes patience, but genuine, organic growth is the way to go, and there are plenty of resources right here on this blog to help you do just that!

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags buy youtube views, buying views, fake views, fake youtube views, get more views, views, youtube, youtube views

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE LISTS SOCIAL MEDIA YOUTUBE

Top YouTube Alternatives

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 18 October 2021

Given the body of work on this website and the YouTube channel, this topic may seem a little unexpected. It shouldn’t be, however, as knowing your alternatives allows you to make the best of any situation. There are times where YouTube isn’t the best platform for a particular piece of content, and it’s not necessarily a failing on YouTube’s part.

In this post, we’re going to look at some of the top YouTube alternatives, outline what makes them different (if anything), and talk about when and why you might want to use them over YouTube in some cases. But, before we get into the alternatives, there’s something we need to address.

Online Platform Competition

It’s perfectly normal to think of comparisons like this as a competition, but that’s not really applicable most of the time. When you consider services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, you can make a direct comparison because the services are essentially offering the same thing. They can enter into this kind of battle because there is a lot of subjectivity about who is better. If you like the shows on Netflix more, you’re going to prefer that service. In this manner, both services can co-exist.

Things are a little different for platforms like YouTube. Essentially, everyone is striving to offer something a little different, because going into direct competition is dangerous. If one platform manages to get a significant upper hand, it can spell the end for the other platform.

So, what does this mean for this post? Simply put, when directly comparing YouTube to an alternative, the “best” platform will often come down to how you are using it.

Anyway, enough of the caveats, let’s get to the alternatives!

Top YouTube Alternatives

Bear in mind that these alternatives are in no particular order. We’re not saying the first on the list is the “best”.

Twitch

Probably the most widely known user-generated video streaming service out there is Twitch, the Amazon-owned gaming platform. Now, if you know anything about Twitch, you will already know an important difference here.

Twitch is primarily a live streaming service.

While YouTube has recently started moving into the live streaming business in a big way, Twitch is mostly focused on it. There is some functionality to upload videos to Twitch as you would with YouTube, but you need to have Partner or Affiliate status to gain access to that functionality. Additionally, the service really isn’t intended for this kind of content, so don’t expect anywhere near the levels of engagement (or revenue) as you would get from a YouTube upload.

For live streaming, however, Twitch is really the only other game in town. In fact, it’s more than fair to say (for now) that Twitch is the top dog when it comes to live streaming. If your content is heavy on the live streaming, you won’t find a more ideal platform with as large a potential audience as Twitch can offer, other than YouTube that is.

DailyMotion

When talking about direct competition for YouTube, DailyMotion is probably the closest thing you will get to a service that tries to beat YouTube at its own game. It even has a similar layout and many of the same features, such as playlists, recommendations, and categories.

The main appeal of DailyMotion is the restrictions, of which there are fewer. Of course, there are still limitations on what you can upload, but you are far less likely to run into trouble with DailyMotion over things like graphic content and nudity than you are with YouTube.

There are also fewer users, which in turn means less money to be made. The flip side of this is that the general quality of user-generated content tends to be higher. Another downside is that users are limited to 4GB of uploads unless they are a pro user, which means paying a subscription fee.

Metacafe

Metacafe, like DailyMotion, offers a recognisably YouTube-like service, though it actually predates YouTube having been around since 2003. The focus for Metacafe is on shorter content (imagine some kind of lovechild between TikTok and YouTube), and tends to be of a lighthearted nature.

As a creator, you can get paid making content on Metacafe, with the going rate being about $5.00 per 1,000 views.

Vimeo

Vimeo started out very much a YouTube competitor, but over the years has grown into a more specific niche that has worked very well for it. If we could offer a single phrase to compare Vimeo to YouTube, it would be “quality over quantity”.

Don’t get us wrong, we love YouTube, but there is a lot of low-quality content on there. Vimeo isn’t going to give your fill of funny animal videos, but you will find award-winning shorts, premium events, and a range of other high-quality types of content.

Vimeo enforces strict quality guidelines to ensure that this level of quality is maintained. They also place quite heavy restrictions on their users, such as a 500MB per month upload limit, though you can pay to upgrade to a 5GB per month limit.

Final Thoughts

If you were looking for an alternative to YouTube that offers exactly the same service, the closest thing you’re going to find is DailyMotion, though the service isn’t identical, and the userbase is far smaller. For users making independent movies or other types of higher-quality content, Vimeo is probably the way to go. Streamers need look no further than Twitch.

Ultimately, every service has its strengths and weaknesses, but for the service offered by YouTube, you’re not going to find a like-for-like alternative that does things as well. It’s all about deciding what you need and looking for the service that does that the best.

Of course, these are certainly not the only alternatives online, so we thought we’d include a few honourable mentions that didn’t make the cut;

Vevo
9GAG TV
DTube
Crackle
Internet Archives Video Section

Some of these are alternatives in a purely viewing sense, but again, it’s all about what you need from your video streaming service.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags social media, youtube, youtube alternatives, youtube videos

TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Can I Use YouTube to Store My Videos?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 15 October 2021

Many great features and services have spawned from people using online platforms in ways that the creators had either not intended or not even considered. For example, way back in the early days of Twitter, users started including the “@” symbol to signify they were speaking to someone and the “#” symbol to denote a topic long before it was ever a feature officially implemented by Twitter. Sometimes using a platform in a way the creators hadn’t intended can cause them to incorporate new features, sometimes it can just be a cool little trick to make your life easier.

YouTube is usually the first place anyone thinks of when the subject of user-generated video online comes up. Of course, the site is intended as a platform for uploading and viewing that content, but can you use YouTube to store your videos?

The short answer is yes, you can use YouTube to store your videos. As always, however, there’s plenty more to talk about with this topic.

Using YouTube To Store Your Videos

While YouTube technically is not intended for storing videos, the functionality of the platforms allows for it with absolutely no “hacking” or playing the system. When you upload a video, you have the option to have it be public, private, or unlisted.

Naturally, most YouTubers want their videos to be public, as this is how viewers get to see those videos. But when you have your videos marked as private, you are essentially just storing them on YouTube’s servers. YouTube does not presently impose any restrictions on how many videos you can upload or how long you can keep them on YouTube’s servers, regardless of whether they are public and making revenue for YouTube or private and just taking up storage space.

Technically speaking, you are using YouTube to store your videos even when those videos are public and available to view and generate revenue, since you can always get to them, and they can serve as a backup should anything happen to your original files.

Why Use YouTube To Store Videos

The most obvious reason to use YouTube to store your videos is that video files are notoriously large and YouTube is free. If you were going to store tens—even hundreds—of gigabytes of video files on a service like Dropbox, you would almost certainly end up having to pay for that service.

While YouTube reserves the right to leverage any videos you upload for promotional purposes and to display ads against, they do not charge you for the privilege. And, if you are not concerned about keeping the videos private, you could even make some money yourself. What’s more, if the videos you are uploading are videos you would be making regardless, any revenue you generate through YouTube would be truly passive income.

It should be noted that YouTube applies a lot of compression to get the bandwidth costs of streaming down and downloading a video through YouTube Studio will return that compressed video, not the original full-quality video that you uploaded. If this is an issue, you can go to takeout.google.com, which allows you to request any data YouTube has stored about you… which can be a lot. Scroll down to YouTube and request an archive of your video files. These video files will be the original uncompressed files, however, you cannot pick and choose which video files to download. If you have a lot of high-quality videos, getting a single video back this way will involve a lengthy download including every other video you uploaded.

The Risk

Few good things in life are completely without risk, and this is no different. The risk in this case is that YouTube are in total control of their platform—as you would expect—and are at liberty to make changes to how things are run at any time.

YouTube has been a notorious money pit in the past, and while Google’s record for putting unprofitable ventures out to pasture would imply YouTube has at least reached a stage where it is breaking even, it would certainly not be out of character for Google to make drastic changes to balance YouTube’s books.

Now, there has been no wording, actions, or rhetoric that suggest YouTube might be about to impose restrictions on video uploads, or perhaps require any uploaded content to be public so that they can advertise on it, but they could make those changes if they wished. In using YouTube as a method for storing your videos, you run the risk of this kind of change happening.

Remember, YouTube is not intended to be used as a video storage tool, so there are no guarantees offered in that regard. In contrast, services like Dropbox and OneDrive will give certain assurances because their business model is built around offering file storage. It would be a poor offering if they said your files could go missing at any time. In contrast, YouTube’s business is providing a platform for user generated content, and their assurances will revolve around that side of things.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that, while storing a video isn’t free, it is the watching of those videos and the continual use of bandwidth that really racks up the bills for YouTube.

Final Thoughts

YouTube can certainly be used as a free tool to backup your video files, but it certainly shouldn’t be your only storage solution. If you are looking for a home for your files because you intend to delete them from your hard drive, you should absolutely seek out an additional backup, even if it is physical media, such as a DVD. Putting all of your eggs in the YouTube basket could come back to bite you in the future, and making decisions like that based on the hope that nothing bad happens is rarely a good strategy. After all, that’s why you have backups in the first place.

That being said, if the videos you are storing are also videos you are happy to have publicly viewable, you will probably be safe from such a hypothetical scenario, since any change like that would undoubtedly be driven by the need to make improve revenue.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. Learn new skills for FREE with Skillshare

I SUCK reading books to learn, but I LOVE online video courses.

Every month I learn something new. Editing, writing, video skills, how to cook, how to run a business – even how to meditate to calm a busy mind.

I find all of these for FREE with Skillshare – Sign up, pick all the courses you want and cancel anytime you need.

5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags backup, data storage, file storage, free video storage, storage, upload youtube videos, video, video storage, youtube

LISTS MARKETING TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

5 Free Branding Tools Every YouTube Vlogger Should Know

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 26 August 2021

Vlogging is all about your brand. You need people to recognize you on other socials as well as YouTube and post your videos out from them. Branding yourself carefully at the beginning is a great way to set yourself up for success. Here are five free branding tools that every YouTube vlogger should know.

LogoCreator

LogoCreator is a free logo maker that is full of hundreds of templates that you can use and alter to suit your needs. You can convert your logo into a variety of formats for free download and use it in any way you like.

Why Use It?

When you brand your vlog with a logo, you show your fans who you are and the style of your brand personality. Give people something to easily recognize when they watch your vlogs. This way, when they see another pop up on YouTube or your logo head a photo you post for content on Instagram, they will know that it is you. This is how you develop a brand following for your business.

Canva

Canva is an online design tool that allows vloggers to use customizable templated videos to create content for their socials and vlogs. They offer hundreds of templates for free and you can alter them to suit your brand.

Why Use it?

Using a video template can be a great way to ensure your vlog looks professional every time. You can use it to put across your branding in your video, which makes your business easier for consumers to follow and associate with.

Biteable

Biteable offers a vast array of customizable videos. Much like Canva, but with more features. Biteable is a dedicated video site, offering free video templates as long as you have their watermark on the vlog. If you want to lose their logo and add your own, price plans start at just under £14 per month.

Why Use it?

If you want to set up a vlog but don’t have the technical or creative know-how to create videos yet, then a template can help get you started. Once you are a master vlogger, you might want to move to a different tool, but for the beginner, Biteable has almost no competition.

Open Broadcaster

Open Broadcaster, or OBS is a great piece of software for the more experienced vlogger. It is a free open-source piece of software that is designed for video streaming and recording. Many people use it to stream themselves playing games or vlog about certain topics. It is sponsored by Twitch, Facebook and YouTube so you can rely on it to be updated fairly often. You can add graphics and overlays to your OBS to sync it with your brand.

Why Use It?

OBS offers an enormous amount of guidance with how to use their software. They have a downloadable quick start guide, a more detailed OBS Studio overview and a Discord community forum. All of this assistance means that vloggers can feel supported and get the help they need when creating their videos.

Shotcut

Shotcut is an open-source video editor that can be used cross platforms. It offers an incredibly detailed repertoire of features. Shotcut offers wide-angle support, device transfer options and a sleek, intuitive interface. They offer an astounding amount of video and audio options that can help you brand your vlog. They also have an option to add a watermark which can be great for branding if you use your logo.

Why Use it?

Shotcut has all of its previous versions available for download and a detailed site map available with FAQs, contact options and an active forum. It is a great bit of kit if you are looking do get in deep with vlogging.

When vlogging it is important to brand your videos to create a direct link between your socials, emails, website and videos. Your brand is also the first point of contact for most of your audience so branding your vlogs is a sure-fire way to get viewers acknowledging you brand and building a relationship via association.

Tags branding, branding tools, free, free tools, free youtube tools, tools, Vlogger, vloggers, youtube, youtube tools

SEO TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How to Write a YouTube Bio

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 21 August 2021
1 Comment on How to Write a YouTube Bio

So you’ve decided to start a YouTube channel? Perhaps you’ve had one for a while and just never got around to writing a bio. Regardless of the reason you’re here right now, the important thing is that you are here.

The YouTube bio—or “about” page—is often overlooked, and not without good reason. Think about it; how often do you check out a YouTuber’s about page? It’s a few clicks off the beaten path, and the chances are you already know what you need to know about them from the video. And, of course, the fact that so many people neglect their YouTube bio is another reason why so many other people never bother to look at them.

A good YouTube bio about us page summarises in the first 170 characters the core premise of the channel. WHY they would watch your content, what value they will get from you. Do not lead with who you are, you can add that later in the bio. Your bio is there to hook people – make them curious.

These are perfectly valid reasons for thinking a YouTube bio is unnecessary. However, they are built on a flawed premised. You see, the YouTube bio isn’t for viewers.

Of course, it should be there if they want it, but the reason to have a well written bio has more to do with Google than it does the person clicking on your videos.

Why a YouTube Bio is Important

One word. Or, rather, one acronym; SEO. Search engine optimisation is the reason you should put some effort into your YouTube bio. And your video descriptions, for that matter, but that deserves a post of its own.

The YouTube recommendation algorithm is not the be-all and end-all of video discovery. Sure, getting favoured by the algorithm will see mountains of traffic flowing your way, but Google’s regular old search engine shouldn’t be neglected.

Many people come across YouTubers, not through searching YouTube itself, but through searching Google and having a few video recommendations thrown their way. But Google needs to know that the videos—and the YouTuber making them—are relevant to the search term in question, which is where you bio comes in.

How to Write a YouTube Bio

So, hopefully we’ve impressed upon you how important your bio is for comprehensive growth, but how do you go about making sure it is up to the task of bringing in those organic search results? Why, with our handy list of tips, that’s how!

Tell Viewers What to Expect From Your Channel

This one isn’t as important from an SEO point of view—though search engines are getting smarter all the time—but it is important for those few intrepid users who do find their way to your about page.

Remember, even if the only reason a page exists is for SEO purposes, you should always aim to write it so that it reads naturally and contains useful information. If for no other reason than search engines are always improving, and they could well come up with a way to detect whether your bio reads naturally before long. It’s better to write good content from the start than have to go back and change things because of a search engine update.

Put the Important Stuff First

Humans, sadly, have a remarkably short attention span. And its getting shorter all the time. If you have something important, something that you want viewers to know if they read your about page, put it at the top.

More than that, make it compelling. In an ideal world, someone reading your bio would take in the whole thing before moving on, but in the absence of that ideal world, you should aim to make sure they take in the vital stuff before they click away.

Use Keywords

This is where we start getting into that SEO we talked about. You’re going to want to squeeze a few keywords in there. Again, your priority should be to write useful, natural-sounding copy, so you might need to put your thinking cap on for some of the more awkward keywords.

As for what those keywords are, this is where you’ll need to do a little research. There are many ways—both free and paid—to find keywords, including just using Google auto-suggest. The trick is to find keywords that are as underserved as possible while still being in demand enough to bring an audience. A plumbing company in Toronto would be foolish to try and target “plumbing” for their keyword because there would be far too much competition, but “emergency plumbers Toronto” would be a good fit with a smaller audience.

If you focus on a specific type of content, highlight that. If you primarily do Photoshop tutorials, don’t just target “image editing”, mention Photoshop.

Treat it Like a Business Page

This part is important because, SEO aside, a lot of people who seek out your about page will be looking to contact you for some reason or other. In the best cases, that reason will be something like a brand deal offer, or to talk about a collaboration.

Make sure your contact details are up-to-date. Google hides your contact details, so you don’t just get inundated with spam from bots scraping the page, but you want legitimate enquiries to be able to reach you. You can also take this opportunity to politely mention any kind of correspondence you are not interested in. For example, tutorial channels often get inundated with requests for direct help, which, for larger channels, is not feasible. In these cases, a little note asking people not to use these contact details for that reason might save you a lot of time in the long run.

Final Thoughts

In truth, your bio is not the most important thing you will craft for your YouTube channel. Organic Google search traffic is important, but, for most YouTubers, it is far from the largest source of traffic. And most of the organic search traffic ends up going directly to a video page.

Still, if you are looking to get noticed on YouTube, there is no denying that SEO is a factor, so there is no sense in neglecting your bio for the sake of half an hour’s work. Just remember to research keywords, put the important information up top, and give an accurate account of what your channel is for.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags about us, bio, contact, get more subscribers, get more views, seo, viewers, why, youtube, youtube seo

TIPS & TRICKS

Do YouTubers Need a Business License?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 21 August 2021
1 Comment on Do YouTubers Need a Business License?

Many YouTubers find themselves caught off-guard by the realities of their success. It is one thing to get millions of views on a viral video and achieve a brief moment of Internet fame, but it is quite another to start making good money as a result of that success.

As much as people in certain parts of the political spectrum may be unhappy about it, we each live in a society that requires certain things of us, namely contributions to that society in the form of taxes. In an ideal world, we would all voluntarily contribute, but the reality of human nature means that governments have to take steps to make sure we all do our part, and business licenses are part of that system.

What is a Business License?

Before we get into this, we should point out that business licences are primarily a United States thing, with India also using them. We will do our best to explain the purpose of a business licence, and for those of you living in countries or regions that don’t use them, you should be able to identify the equivalent systems where you are.

Business licences are required for any… well… business. The precise nature of these licences will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, as well as depending on what the business actually does.

Businesses are required to pay business taxes, and licences—which are essentially permits—are part of establishing what taxes that business should pay.

Do YouTubers Need a Business License?

There are three answers to this question; yes, no, and yes with an asterisk. Let’s start with the easiest one of these to answer.

If your YouTube channel does not make any money, you are not required to have a business licence for it. There may be some uncommon situations where this is not the case, however.

For example, if your YouTube channel involves owning or renting premises, or any kind of disruption to the local area, you will almost certainly need a business licence regardless of whether you make any money.

The chances of any of that being the case for a YouTube channel that is not already established and profitable, however, are very slim. For most people if, their channel is not making money, they won’t need a licence.

Now, onto the definite yes.

If your channel is making a lot of money, you almost certainly will need a business licence if you are in a part of the world where business licences apply.

But what about that yes with an asterisk?

Now, let’s be absolutely clear; this is not a business advice blog.

You should absolutely check the laws in your locality before making any decisions about things like business licences. That being said, it is worth noting that there has to be a reason for a government agency to come after you. If you make enough without paying taxes, they will notice. If you cause disruptions for your neighbours, and they report you to the authorities, you may bring attention to your YouTube shenanigans. In most laws, if you have a venture that makes any money at all, you should be getting a business licence for it, but the reality is that it is unlikely you will get in trouble if you are only making pennies.

But just to reiterate, the law typically doesn’t deal in likelihoods. If you get caught making pennies that the authorities don’t know about, you will still get in trouble.

Other Systems

There are, of course, many different systems in place across the world—the United States alone has different rules from state to state—so naturally, we can’t cover them all. One particularly relevant example for an English-speaking YouTube audience is the United Kingdom. Here there are no business licences, but you would be expected to declare yourself as a sole trader if you are making money, and become VAT registered if you are making a lot of money.

What Counts as Making Money on YouTube?

This may seem like a bit of a silly section to include, but it is worth pointing that government organisations do not let you off if you play dumb or claim that you have only committed a minor crime.

All of the money you make is, legally speaking, supposed to be declared to your government. It doesn’t matter to them whether that money came as result of the YouTube Partner Programme, Super Chats, merchandise, Patreon, or anything else.

In other words, if you get a business licence for your YouTube channel, you can’t just declare the earnings that come directly from YouTube and hope to play ignorant if the government finds out about your Patreon.

Should I Apply For a Business Licence Straight Away

If you are not making money or doing anything that would warrant being classified as a business, there is no sense in rushing to getting a business licence. They are not prohibitively expensive, but they do cost money. And the process of getting one is rarely long or complicated. After all, business licences are essentially a means for taxing you, and governments aren’t in the habit of making it harder for them to get your money.

How Do I Make Money on YouTube?

All of the above may feel a little like getting ahead of yourself if you’re not sure how to make money on YouTube in the first place. Broadly speaking, it is a case of more views equals more money, but there are a few steps along the way to making that happen.

YouTube Partner Programme

Unless you have a compelling reason not to, your first goal should be to become part of the YouTube Partner Programme. There some requirements for doing this, but one of the advantages is that qualifying for the Partner Programme means you have reached certain milestones that show you are on the right path. Those requirements are;

Adhere to YouTube monetisation policies
Be in a region where the Partner Programme is available
Have at least 4,000 hours of valid public watch time over the last year
Have at least 1,000 subscribers
Have a linked AdSense account

Once you meet that criteria, you will be able to apply to the Partner Programme and, in the vast majority of cases, you will be accepted. From then on, YouTube will begin showing ads on eligible videos, and splitting the revenue generated from those ads with you.

Memberships

If and when you manage to build up a loyal audience, you can start to look at memberships as an option. If you are eligible, you can use YouTube’s built-in membership platform to do this, but there are also services like Patreon that can enable you to do this as well.

The premise is simple enough; users contribute a recurring amount to you to support your content, and as an added sweetener, you can offer exclusive content and other perks to encourage viewers to become members.

Merchandise

Merchandise isn’t for every channel, but for those that it is a good fit for, there are plenty of third party options, as well as YouTube’s own partnership for eligible channels. On-demand services mean you can offer merchandise without having to buy the stock in advance yourself, which significantly reduces the barrier to entry.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a way in which you can leverage your existing content by providing links and offers to your viewers which you get commission for. The most commonly used example of this is Amazon, where channels that review products or talk about new tech or similar can link off to those products through their Amazon affiliate links and earn a little money any time someone buys something through those links.

Affiliate links are handy because they can be used in a range of situations by a variety of channels. For example, a channel about improving your YouTube content might not have anything to sell, but they can leave a list of the equipment they use as affiliate links for people who are interested in using the same gear.

Final Thoughts

Business licences (or the equivalent for your jurisdiction) are the kind of thing that, practically speaking, won’t apply to most YouTubers. Sadly, the vast majority of YouTubers either don’t make any money from their channel, or they make so little that they’re probably never going to have to worry about the IRS paying them a visit.

That being said, if you earn any money from your YouTube channel, you will almost certainly be expected to declare that money to the government. While it’s true that you probably won’t have to worry if you are only making a few dollars here and there, you are still technically obliged to declare that money, and as such, legally in the wrong if you don’t.

Given the reach of YouTube and the many differences between states and countries, it is impossible for us to fit all of the relevant laws and regulations into one post. Always check your local laws and make sure you adhere to them. If you take your chances by not getting a business licence when you should, you do so at your own risk.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. Learn new skills for FREE with Skillshare

I SUCK reading books to learn, but I LOVE online video courses.

Every month I learn something new. Editing, writing, video skills, how to cook, how to run a business – even how to meditate to calm a busy mind.

I find all of these for FREE with Skillshare – Sign up, pick all the courses you want and cancel anytime you need.

5. Shutterstock helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags business, copyright, full time, law, legal, youtube, youtube full time

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

How do Virtual YouTubers Work?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 17 August 2021

Like many new trends on YouTube and beyond, there are plenty of question marks around virtual YouTubing. What sets these questions apart, however, is that the head-scratching over other YouTube trends tends to be along the lines of “why do people watch this?”, whereas, with virtual YouTubers, it is often literally a question of how it works.

Virtual YouTubers, a type of YouTuber that uses a digital avatar as their on-screen persona, typically use innovative motion tracking software to copy their movements in real-time and animate their 3D avatar automatically. There are different ways that this can be achieved, as well as different software options for achieving it.

In this post, we’re going to take as much of an in-depth look into the way virtual YouTubing works as we can without drifting into the realms of computer science and other topics that might need a masters degree to understand. So, if you’re curious and have asked yourself “how do virtual YouTubers work?” keep reading!

What is a Virtual YouTuber?

We’ll keep this section brief as the question of what a virtual YouTuber—or VTuber—is, can be quite in-depth, which is why we already have a dedicated post on that very thing. This post is going to assume you already know (hence why you’re curious how they work) but for anyone who isn’t, here’s a quick primer.

Virtual YouTuber channels present themselves like a regular YouTube channel with the exception that the YouTuber in question is a digital avatar that is brought to life by the person or people behind the channel. These avatars are often in the style of Japanese anime, but there is really no limit to what a virtual YouTuber can be, which is a big part of the appeal for this kind of channel.

How Do Virtual YouTubers Work?

There are a few stages to the process of running a virtual YouTuber channel, and they can each seem a little daunting to the uninitiated.

While it is true that the technology behind much of this is both remarkable and complex, the end-user experience is actually quite simple. It is often a statement on how far technology has come that we can do things on our phone that would have taken a team of experts and a lot of expensive equipment weeks or months to do in the past.

Let’s take a look at the different stages involved and what they entail.

Avatar Creation

We’re going to call this the first step on the road to a virtual YouTube channel. Now, granted, the actual first step would be coming up with a premise for your channel, as well as things like a format and possibly making branding decisions. However, that first step is not unique to virtual YouTubing, since you should be doing that with any new YouTube channel.

A digital avatar is something you can animate that will serve as the on-screen personality. It may just be something to look at while the YouTuber talks, or it may be a fully-fledged persona, like a character that the YouTuber is acting the part of. We’re going to give you three examples of different styles of virtual YouTuber to illustrate (pun intended) the methods used.

It should be noted that not all of these examples refer to themselves as virtual YouTuber, though that does not mean they don’t technically fit the definition.

Old School Animation

Our first example is a channel called Code Bullet. This style of virtual YouTubing is perhaps the most time consuming, and we’d only recommend this as an artistic choice since the money you might need to spend to use the other two methods could easily be justified by the time saved in not doing things this way.

Code Bullet creates videos where he does things like tries to create an AI that can play Tetris, or an AI that can play the perfect game of Snake. The on-screen visuals are accompanied by an illustrated avatar of a human body with an old-school computer monitor for a head.

Now, if you were to adopt this method and animate every frame, you would be in for a difficult time indeed. Code Bullet videos have been known to creep over the half-hour mark on occasion, which would mean a lot of work if he were creating smooth animations for the entire thing.

As it turns out, Code Bullet has a few tricks up his sleeve to lighten the workload. Firstly, his avatar is not on-screen the entire time, which reduces the amount of animation required. And, secondly, the avatar is not properly animated. Instead, individual poses are drawn, and the avatar snaps between them. It would make for a jarring animation style in a cartoon or animated movie, but it works well for Code Bullet and suits the style of video.

For this style of digital avatar, you would need some artistic flair to be able to create the artwork, or perhaps hire an artist or enlist the help of a talented friend to do it for you. It would be ideal if you could do it yourself because you would always be able to get new illustrations as you need them. As we said, though, this method is easily the most time-consuming.

Live 2D Animation

For this style of digital avatar, you would still need the artwork to create your avatar, but the ongoing process of running the channel will be much easier. Our example for this kind of avatar is Gawr Guru, a VTuber who plays videos games through the persona of a girl with questionable maths skills but impressive gaming skills. These 2D avatars are “rigged” so that they can be animated naturally, almost to the point that they look three dimensional.

This is done by moving parts of the 2D animation together so that the overall effect is one of natural motion. For example, move the face to the right a little while keeping the head stationary and you get the effect of the avatar looking a little bit to the side.

There are many applications available for the creation of these very things, making the process of creating a ready-to-animate digital avatar as easy as the average character creator in a video game. Some of these applications also take care of the animation part of the process (which we’ll get to shortly) while others just handle making the avatar itself. It is also possible to pay other people to create a rigged avatar for a relatively small price. The main downside to this style is that the technology is limited in terms of what you can do with the avatar. The above example of moving the face slightly works to great effect… but only if you move the face slightly. If you move it a lot, it starts to look unnatural. And, of course, you can only the parts of the avatar you have the artwork for. The software can’t guess at what the back of your avatar’s head looks like.

Live 3D Animation

Opting for a 3D avatar is probably the most costly option in time or money (or both) in terms of getting things set up. Once you are ready to go, however, the operation of a 3D avatar is no more complicated than a 2D avatar, but with the added bonus that you have far more options in terms of movement.

Our example for this style is AI Angel, a virtual YouTuber who makes a lot of types of content along the same lines as an account like PewDiePie, but does so from the persona of an artificial intelligence.

3D avatars are complete three-dimensional models, meaning they have no limitations on what angle you can film them from, what positions you can put them in, or what props you can have them work with.

The downside to this style is that it takes a lot more work to set up—especially if you want your avatar to look realistic (cartoonish avatars are easier to make). It will also require more computing power, the more detailed your avatar and their environment are. A relatively simple avatar probably won’t tax your system too much, but if your computer is already straining to live stream, record video, and play video games at the same time, adding a complicated 3D avatar into the mix might be the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Animating the Avatars

Once the digital avatar is ready, it’s time to think about animating it. This section only applies to the live 2D and 3D animation styles—if you are using the traditional illustration method mentioned above, your animation style is drawing more frames for your avatar. Like we said; it’s not the quickest method.

The main benefit to having rigged avatars is that they can be animated in real-time; there just needs to be something to animate them. Fortunately, there is plenty of software to take care of this.

Now, you could animate your avatars by hand, though it would be an incredibly time-consuming way to go about it. Granted, it would be much quicker than the traditional method of drawing each frame of your avatars animations, but it would still be far more time-consuming than the alternative.

The alternative in question, of course, is motion capture.

Motion capture works by tracking parts of your body and translating them to the same parts of your avatars body. So, you raise your hand; the software sees that your hand is raised and raises your avatar’s hand. The two most common ways of achieving this motion capture are through video-based motion recognition, and through the use of motion-sensitive devices like virtual reality controllers.

The trade-offs between the two are fairly straight forward. Using motion-sensitive devices such as a VR headset and controllers will usually give you more accurate movements, avoiding the kinds of jerky stuttering movements that can sometimes happen with inaccurate motion-capture. The downside, however, is that you have to wear said devices. This may not be an issue for you, but most people would probably opt to carry out a task without a bulky VR helmet on if they had the option.

Conversely, video-based recognition is much less invasive. It tracks your movements through your webcam, or the camera on your phone, making it far easier to use and more natural feeling. If you hadn’t already guessed, the downside to this method is that it is less accurate, and the range of motion it can track is more limited. For example, if you were to spin around three hundred and sixty degrees, a VR setup would be able to detect that, whereas a video-recognition-based system would likely get confused.

What to Styles and Methods to Choose?

So, you’re ready to start a virtual YouTube channel of your own? Fortunately, the decision-making process is relatively simple here. Firstly, we can almost universally discount traditional animation as an option. Unless you absolutely must have a particular style that can’t be replicated with live animation methods, the additional time it takes to animate your avatar just isn’t worth it.

As for the choice between live 2D and 3D animation, if you intend to do a lot of movement—especially if you are animating a lot of your avatars body and not just the upper part—you should go with 3D. The range of motion available to you with a 2D avatar will not do the trick. On the other hand, if you do not need all that freedom of movement, 2D avatars are easier to make and less resource-intensive on your computer.

As for the method of animating your live avatar, you may be able to rule out VR devices on cost alone. If you have a VR headset and controllers already, or money is no object, and you can afford to buy one, that’s great. But if you don’t have one, you could be looking at a lot of money to get one, which may be enough of a reason to go video-recognition-based. If both options are on the table, go with the VR option if you intend to make a lot of body motion that needs animating. Otherwise, a good webcam and decent lighting will be a far more sensible option.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags ai youtubers, Anime Virtual YouTubers, Non-Anime Virtual YouTubers, virtual influencers, virtual youtubers, vtube, vtubers, youtube