Resources for
YouTube creators
Explore answers to the most common creator questions—from getting started to monetizing your channel. Plus, find key YouTube policies and guidelines to help you create with confidence.
Top questions
YouTube Studio is your home base for posting videos and making edits to your channel. To update your channel’s basic info like name, profile picture, and banner, just log in and tap Customization to see your options.
Use the Studio mobile app to manage your channel on the go. It’s useful for things like checking your stats, responding to comments, and publishing and managing your videos from your phone.
- Sign into YouTube using a Google account.
- Click your profile picture and then Settings.
- Click Create a new channel.
- Choose a profile picture, name, and handle.
- Click Create channel.
You can make edits to your channel and post videos in YouTube Studio. To update your channel’s basic info like name, profile picture, and banner, just log in and tap Customization to see your options
You can also make changes to your channel using the Studio mobile app. You can tap Your Channel and then Edit Channel to update and edit how your channel looks to your viewers. Note that you can only change your channel’s name three times every 90 days.
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There are a few ways to get started on YouTube. We offer up different formats and functionalities, giving you the flexibility to create everything from Shorts, which are vertical videos that run 60 seconds or less, to longer form videos.
No matter what you’re creating, you’ll need to start by creating a YouTube channel.
- First you need to Sign into YouTube using a Google Account.
- Once you’re signed in, click Create Account, and choose whether it’s for you or for your business.
- You can then create a YouTube channel on your account, upload videos, leave comments, and create Shorts and playlists.
Next, you’ll want to upload your videos!
- Uploading is easy. You just sign into your YouTube account and then click on the Create icon.
- If you’re planning to upload a longer form video, select Upload video and then choose your desired video file—you can upload 15 files at a time!
- If you’d like to upload a YouTube Short, you’ll need to be signed into YouTube mobile, where you’ll tap Create and then Create a Short. From here you can either upload a video from your camera roll or create using our suite of lightweight tools.
Our search and discovery systems are built to find videos that match viewers’ individual interests. We recommend videos based on things such as: what your audience watches and doesn’t watch, how much time they spend watching, what they like and dislike, if they mark a video as ‘not interested’, and on satisfaction surveys.
So, rather than trying to find a secret code to these systems, focus instead on making videos that you think will resonate with your audience. A great tool here is YouTube Analytics, which provides data that can help you understand how your existing content is performing and provide insights for future videos!
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Promoting your videos is all about getting the word out there. On YouTube, you can use tools like cards, end screens, Stories, and Community Posts to drive viewers to a specific piece of content!
Off-platform, think about promoting your videos on your socials and relevant communities, podcasts, or platforms that align with your content and your intended audience.
Growing your channel is all about creating videos viewers want to watch and accurately presenting them to the audience. When doing so, here’s a few tips to keep in mind.
With each video, think carefully about the title, description, and thumbnail you plan to use - these should all accurately reflect your content and let viewers know what they can expect from the video. If you’re a Shorts creator, think about how the first 1-2 seconds of your content can grab viewers scrolling through the video feed!
Once you’ve got viewers watching, you can redirect their attention via hashtags, playlists, cards, end screens, and more.
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There are lots of ways for creators to make money on YouTube. First, you’ll need to become a member of the YouTube Partner Program.*
Once accepted, you'll begin to gain access to a variety of monetization products, including a share of the Ad and YouTube Premium Revenue generated by your videos; Channel Memberships; Merch Shelf; Super Chat & Super Stickers; and BrandConnect. Each feature has its own performance and eligibility requirements.
* Subject to eligibility requirements
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A copyright strike means that a copyright owner submitted a verified, legal takedown request on a video that uses their content.
To comply with copyright law, we took the video down. A copyright strike is a warning. The first copyright strike is a warning. If you get one, you’ll need to go through Copyright School, which helps you understand copyright and how it’s enforced at YouTube.
