YouTube Creator Academy
Choosing your soundtrack
Learn how to use sound and music to give your videos dramatic impact.
Activating your community
Find long-term success by building a loyal fanbase. Socially engage with your audience on and off YouTube to see results.
Encourage viewers to watch more
Make it easy for viewers to keep watching your videos! Set up your channel to be well-organized, and guide them to your latest work.
Developing a beauty channel
Beauty and fashion videos on YouTube range from helpful tutorials to personality-driven series. Many successful beauty and fashion channels adopt existing strategies and formats, but often the most successful take a unique approach to their subject that allows them to stand out from the crowd.
Growing your audience
Enhance your channel’s search and discovery potential on YouTube using metadata, collaborations, captions and promotions.
Boosting your watch time
Find new audiences and make it easy for viewers worldwide to discover your channel.
Getting started
Starting a channel on YouTube? Learn the fundamentals to creating your ultimate channel and keep it thriving on YouTube.
Making money with YouTube
Get the scoop on how monetization works on YouTube and ways you can make money on your videos.
Optimizing video distribution
Over 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. So if you want your videos to be seen, a thoughtful distribution strategy is often as crucial as your content or creative strategies. How are videos promoted and discovered? How can you get your message in front of the right viewer at just the right moment?
Pre-production: Before pressing record
With proper planning, you can turn your ideas into great videos. Learn how the experts create scripts, storyboards and more.
Working with creators
YouTube creators can have more influence over today’s teenagers as pop singers or movie stars. Many have built global brands by sharing compelling stories with deep sincerity. And they’re already talking to audiences that you want to reach. Knowing how to find—and collaborate with—these influential creatives can increase your credibility with any demographic.
Creating great content
Ready to grow and sustain a loyal audience on YouTube? Start with a creative foundation and strong, workable ideas.
Grow your audience
Learn tools and strategies to build an audience and keep them coming back for more. Click "Start" to access each of the lessons.
Targeting your audience
Every audience is different. Learn how to reach the viewers you want and make your channel a daily destination for them.
Making sweet music (channels)
Learn how to promote your music, get your fans to tune in and take your channel to the top of the charts.
Production techniques
There are various production-related tools and techniques you can use on YouTube to enrich your channel. Learn more today!
Unlocking your gaming channel
Set your gaming channel up for success with these tools and techniques.
Disclaimer: Different game publishers have different rules around how their games can be used and/or potentially monetized on YouTube. Make sure you understand the terms and conditions for any game footage that you plan on uploading.
Case studies from successful creators
We’ve worked with many of YouTube’s most successful creators to identify what it takes to grow their channel on YouTube. Through this process, we’ve noted their goals, approach, and measured results. For a look into these insights, check out the case studies listed below.
To access the case studies, click Start lesson.
Measuring your success with Analytics
YouTube Analytics is your channel's pulse. Learn how to uncover trends to see what’s working and what's not. Find out who’s watching, what they like to watch, and which videos could make you the most money.
Steps to complete the course:
- Sign in - required for a letter of completion.
- Click into each lesson. Watch the video(s) and read text.
- Try out the activities.
- Check your knowledge.
- Take the course quiz and get 75% correct to receive your letter of completion.
The evolving marketing landscape
Does your organization have a compelling YouTube content marketing strategy? Today’s consumers are more in control of watching what branded messages appear on their screens than ever before. How—and if—you are positioned in the YouTube landscape can have enormous impact on your brand positioning and success.
Building your channel's brand
A strong brand can help viewers visually connect your identity with your videos. Boost your channel's recognition & discovery with rock-star branding.
Production skills
Want your videos to look and sound amazing? Short on cash? Learn visual design, framing, lighting and sound techniques that will help you make magic (without making your bank balance disappear).
This course consists of six lessons and we recommend you take it over a two-week period. To begin, click on the link below.
Creative treatments for video content
Creating branded content for YouTube can be an extremely efficient investment: consider these principles, pioneered by independent creators, to produce sustainable content quickly, and at a reasonable cost. Can you make an unskippable ad? YouTube provides an array of tools to performance-test existing content.
Operations Manager
This course is targeted to business users who manage many channels and assets with access to YouTube's Content Management System (CMS) and Content ID. After taking this course, you will be prepared to:
- Use the Content Management System to set up your channels under an umbrella Content Owner and,
- Provide you with details on the different ways you can bulk upload your content and assets into YouTube, and
- Get you ready to use the right types of reports so you can diagnose how well your channels are performing.
- YouTube Analytics in Creator Studio
- YouTube Analytics for Content Owners
- Downloadable Reports
The art of getting viewers
Learn tips from top YouTube creators and experts to help you improve engagement with your audience in this mini course. The course is self-paced and we recommend the following two week plan:
Week 1 Complete lessons 1-3 to learn creative strategies to get viewers, build your brand, and make an awesome channel trailer.
Week 2 Complete lessons 4-5 to learn quick and easy actions you can take get discovered and understand your audience with YouTube Analytics.
Defining a video content strategy
Brands that succeed on YouTube make content that provides value to viewers: videos that people want to watch. Billions come to YouTube every day to learn something, do something, feel something—and very frequently, because they want to buy something. Brands can integrate content frameworks to make the message more compelling and guide consumer decisions.
Production skills
Captivate your audience with lighting and camera choices. Stir emotions and set the scene with thoughtful visual design.
Building a business on YouTube
Want to turn your channel into a thriving business? We’ve taken the best of what we’ve learned from creators and the businesses, brands, and companies top creators have worked with to get you started with turning your successful YouTube channel into a business.
Engage your audience boot camp
Want to learn how top YouTubers turn viewers into long-term fans? Building and nurturing a community on YouTube can help you grow your audience and improve your content. Learn how you can incentivize your best fans into action. This course has four lessons and we recommend that you take it over two weeks. Watch this playlist, hosted by our own YouTube audience development strategist, for a special welcome to each lesson:
1. Engage on YouTube
2. See what captivates viewers
3. Engage beyond YouTube
4. Learn about your subscribers
360-degree video and virtual reality on YouTube
360-degree video and virtual reality are changing how audiences can experience video. This course will get you acquainted with this new technology, help you decide whether producing videos in 360 is right for your channel and offer some tips to get started.