YouTube Creator Blog

Meet marydoodles, our February YouTube Partner On The Rise

2012-02-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

This year’s not-so-short month of February brought us lots of talented YouTube Partners as part of our monthly "On The Rise" program, and in the end, marydoodles, is the partner featured on today's YouTube homepage.

Mary Gutfleisch came to Los Angeles by way of Minnesota and Chicago, and now spends her days making props and costumes for Epic Rap Battles of History. But her true passion is making pictures - her work spans techniques such as watercolor painting, pen and ink, and chalk drawings. And the subjects of Mary’s work are just as varied: she’s covered dragons, teddy bears, zombie-style self portraits, and she’s even captured the elusive narwhal.

Here are a few words from Mary:

First off, I’d love to give a big shout out to every single teacher who caught me drawing in their class but never made me stop. It was very rude of me. I apologize. I’ve always loved creating art and I LOVE movies and making videos! So to be able to combine the two...it feels like the best Christmas ever and it’s not even Christmas. And the most amazing thing is that this is all supported by many many many individuals (like yourself) who watch. So thank YOU! And thanks to the folks at YouTube for recognizing my channel and to all my friends over at Epic Rap Battles of History for letting me ride your coattails (I will dry clean your coat). It’s awesome to be able to connect with other artists and fans alike and I hope to inspire you as much as you’ve inspired me. Art is more accessible now than ever before and I feel lucky to be able to sharedji/kjmOMG! I JUST SPILLED HOT TEA ALL OVER MY ARM!!!

If you’ve enjoyed this monthly On The Rise blog series and want to see more rising YouTube partners, check out our On The Rise Channel. Keep an eye out for next month’s blog post, as your channel may be the next one On The Rise!

Christine Wang and Devon Storbeck, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched "The Orangutan and the Hound."

Learn new skills with YouTube Creator Workshops

2012-02-22T14:22:00.000-08:00

We’re constantly looking for new ways to take your YouTube channel to the next level. To help, we’re excited to announce the first series of YouTube Creator Workshops to help you refine your production and programming techniques, as well as your audience building skills.

The workshops, led by the YouTube Next Lab, are being held both in-person and in online classrooms thanks to Google+, so that anyone can attend from anywhere in the world. In-person workshops are currently limited to 20 YouTube partners to ensure an intimate experience for all attendees.

We have some open seats in the upcoming in-person seminars in New York City. If you’re interested, apply soon:

Making Webisodes 101 (NYC): 2/28/12 from 2-3:30pm, Sign-up
Green Screen Techniques for Beginners (NYC): 3/1/12 from 10-11:30am, Sign-up
The Art of Vlogging (NYC): 3/6/12 from 2-3:30pm, Sign-up

Stay tuned for future workshop in Los Angeles, New York City, as well as online.

What do you want to learn about?
We are already planning more upcoming workshops, but we want to hear from you. Tell us what kinds of workshop topics would be most helpful for you in our Google Moderator on that topic.

Want to be alerted of future workshops and seminars?
Circle us on Google+ (YouTube Creators), follow us on Twitter (@YTCreators), sign-up for your area’s local Creator Club, or let us email you about upcoming seminars that are relevant to you.

Austin Lau, YouTube Partner Development Programs, recently watched "Heavenly Huevos Rancheros."

YouTube Release Notes: More ways to communicate

2012-02-20T15:00:00.000-08:00

You keep adding and watching more videos, so we’re working to keep adding more ways for you to watch, share and enjoy the channels and videos on YouTube. This week in Release Notes we’ve got a new way to promote your Google+ profile on YouTube, more options in the Annotations Editor, posting to your Channel Feed and more.

Google+ profile on YouTube
Want to share your Google+ profile or Google+ Page on your YouTube channel? We’ve added a feature to let you promote your presence on G+. We’re looking for other ways to bring the benefits of Google+ to your YouTube channel, so as always please give us your feedback!

Post videos/playlists to your own feed
You can now share videos and playlists in your Channel Feed by posting a Channel Bulletin. When you’re on your Feed tab you’ll see a box “Post to Feed,” where you can enter a comment and add a link to share a video or a playlist. When you’ve posted the bulletin, it will show up in your Channel Feed with your comment below the video. Viewers who are subscribed to your channel will be notified when you post to your feed in their homepage feed.

Homepage and Channel Feeds
After experiments and lots of your feedback, we’re releasing an update to how events are displayed in the feed. The update focuses on three main changes: (1) the video title is more prominent for upload and sharing events, (2) aggregated events now feature a “+more” button which will bring more attention to the event than the previously smaller notification and (3) adding videos to a playlist has a new cleaner styling.

Before: After:

Annotations
Customizing your videos is easier with our new annotations features. We’ve been adding more options to the Annotations Editor like a new annotation type, a full color palette and a new timeline. We’ve also added annotation styles, which lets you choose a templated design to apply to your videos. You can quickly pick a design for your annotation and apply it your video. Start using these today in the Editor by clicking the arrow next to any upload in the Video Manager.

The YouTube Team recently watched, “KevJumba vs. NY Yankee Nick Swisher Ping Pong FaceOFF.”

Partner Support Talks with... ChescaLeigh

2012-02-17T12:54:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, February 23rd, the YouTube Partner team will be hosting a partner meet-up in New York City. During the meet-up, we'll be live streaming the latest episode of Partner Support Talks with.... featuring a YouTube partner answering questions submitted by YouTube users like you!

In this episode, Partner Support Talks with...ChescaLeigh! We'll sit down with Franchesca to talk about how she's achieved success on YouTube. We'll also ask her YOUR questions, live, on the air.

Want to know what inspires ChescaLeigh’s top videos? Wondering what it was like to be interviewed by Anderson Cooper? You have until next Monday to submit your questions (and vote for others) here to be answered live: http://goo.gl/3YQHy

Tune in to www.youtube.com/youtube at 5:30pm EST on February 23rd to watch the show live! We'll also post the show on www.youtube.com/partnersupport after the show.

Lindsay Hampton, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched "SUPER BOWL SHOULDER WORKOUT! "Gimme All Your Luvin'"."

A ‘Next’ step for YouTube nonprofits

2012-02-17T11:55:00.000-08:00

Last year we launched YouTube NextUp to accelerate the growth of the next big YouTube stars. Then in October, we announced YouTube Next Chef and YouTube Next Trainer to turbocharge up-and-coming cooking and fitness channels by great YouTube video creators. We’re excited to share the latest addition to the Next Creator family of programs: YouTube Next Cause for nonprofits.

YouTube Next Cause is designed to help organizations that are already changing the world better use online video to drive action. At a one-day summit in San Francisco on April 2, selected participants will get access to everything from training in YouTube fundamentals, to promotion and community engagement tips, to one-on-one consulting sessions to grow their YouTube presence.

We’ve always sought to make YouTube a platform for nonprofits to broadcast their messages. And we’ve seen amazing things happen when the YouTube community comes together in support of great causes. With 4 billion views a day, we want to make sure nonprofits have the tools they need to reach the global audience on YouTube and turn video views into donations, volunteerism and awareness.

Applications for YouTube Next Cause are due on February 27, 2012 at 11:59PM PST, and the selected nonprofits will be announced on March 5th. This program is open to organizations that are part of the YouTube Nonprofit Program (full eligibility requirements). You can apply online at: http://goo.gl/ODbI6.

Check out what nonprofits are doing on YouTube at youtube.com/nonprofits. And tune in around March 5th to learn more about some of the great nonprofit organizations chosen and what they’re doing to change the world!

Hunter Walk, director of product management, recently watched “Using YouTube with a Purpose - Helping Kids in Bangladesh.”

Introducing our February “On The Rise” nominees

2012-02-10T12:00:00.000-08:00

Each month for our On The Rise program, we identify four YouTube Partner Channels who are experiencing big growth in subscribers but haven’t yet reached the 100,000 subscriber mark. This month’s nominees include talented Partners including entertainers and educators. Need a car repair tips or fun baking ideas? Want to learn about music production, or watch a drawing come to life? Look no further than the Partner videos below.

What else can you do? These partners need your support to help one them reach the YouTube homepage: check out their videos below and be sure to vote for your favorite in the top right-hand corner of the Official YouTube blog. In addition to the poll results, a team here at YouTube will evaluate each Channel based on criteria like audience engagement and Channel optimization, and will help decide which Channel we’ll feature on the homepage, Facebook and Twitter at the end of the month.

In past months, Partners like ThePortraitArt and CaliforniaTravelTips have seen growth in their audience and video engagement thanks to your support. You have until February 17th at 5pm PT to vote for your favorite Channel, and check back to see who has secured the homepage feature on February 28th.

marydoodles
Hailing from Los Angeles, Mary’s day job involves creating props and costumes for Epic Rap Battles of History. Her real hobby, though, is drawing - she’s been doing it her whole life. Check out Mary’s channel to witness her talent in motion.

yoyomax12
Need creative baking ideas for Valentine’s day, birthdays, or a special occasion? Whether you’re an experienced baker or just learning to bake, Tammy’s channel offers easy-to-follow instructional videos packed with fun ideas and recipes for cookies, bars, and cupcakes.

wwwboyinabandcom
Dave is passionate about music: he’s in a band, and he’s dedicated his YouTube channel to hosting free music production tutorials. Listen to his original music, learn how to set up a home studio, read music software/hardware reviews, and more on this Telford, England, native’s channel.

EricTheCarGuy
Eric is a certified master technician dedicated to the art of auto repair and helping the “do-it-yourselfer.” He attended art school, but then shifted his focus to automotives and fell in love with it. Check out his channel to learn how to drive a stick shift, replace a fuel pump, or shim a starter.

If you’re interested in checking out more rising YouTube Partners, visit our On The Rise channel, which features nominees, trending partners and monthly blog winners.

Devon Storbeck and Christine Wang, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched “9 Year Old Jonny Mizzone - How Mountain Girls Can Love - Sleepy Man Banjo Boys.”

Partner Support Talks with... LiamKyleSullivan and ChesterSee on February16th

2012-02-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, February 16th, the YouTube Partner Support team will be hosting a partner meet-up in Los Angeles. During the meet-up, we'll be filming the latest episode of Partner Support Talks with.... featuring a YouTube partner answering questions submitted by YouTube users like you!

In this episode we'll sit down with two partners - LiamKyleSullivan and ChesterSee - to talk about how they've achieved success on YouTube. We'll also ask them YOUR questions!

Is there something you'd like to ask Liam about his YouTube history? Want Chester's advice on best practices? You have until next Wednesday (2/15) to submit your questions (and vote for others) here to be answered live: http://goo.gl/2rb4L

We'll post the show on www.youtube.com/ytcreators after the show.

Lindsay Hampton, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched "FootballWife - Super Bowl 46 Highlights: Giants Win! Eli Manning."

After NextUp, Next Chef and Next Trainer, What’s Next? You tell us!

2012-02-06T13:34:00.000-08:00

One of the most rewarding projects I worked on in 2011 was the Next Creator program (comprised of YouTube NextUp, YouTube Next Chef, and YouTube Next Trainer), which has catapulted 91 content creators’ careers across 15 different countries by providing them with production and audience development training, new video equipment, heavy promotion on and off the platform, and mentoring by leading movers like YouTube stars DeStorm, FreddieW and Michelle Phan and industry experts like Chow.com and Billy Blanks.

But what’s next for the Next Creator program? There are still millions of creators who could benefit from participating in the program, so we’re excited to continue to expand the program further. That’s where YOU come in! We'd like to hear which type of content we should launch for the next round. Maybe you're a budding beauty guru and want to see YouTube Next Beautician; or, perhaps you're a habitual big personality vlogger and have been waiting for YouTube Next Vlogger.

Whatever you want to see next, let us know by voting on some categories and by suggesting your own here. You may vote and submit as many as you’d like before February 19th. We'll then evaluate the top-voted suggestions and bring some of these to you this year!

2012 is going to be an incredibly exciting year for YouTube creators. Stay tuned for more initiatives that will empower you to take your YouTube career to the next level--coming very soon!

Posted by Bing Chen, Global Creator Initiatives Manager, recently watched Ryan The Truth Higa’s “Swog”

Partner Meet-Ups in February & March!

2012-02-03T11:36:00.000-08:00

We are excited about our upcoming meet-ups and to meet with more of the partner community. Here's info on where we will be when as well as how to sign up for the events or stay in touch with us!

Los Angeles -- Thursday, February 16 -- Meet with our support team and our product team to learn more about YouTube and managing your channel. If you're interested, fill out this form: goo.gl/qMTjD by Monday, February 6.

New York -- Thursday, February 23 -- Livestream event in the late afternoon. The topics will include Google+ and interacting with the community as well as interview with Chescaleigh. If you're interested, fill out this form: goo.gl/Txe9t by Monday, February 13.

Austin -- Monday, March 12 -- Our team will be at SXSW and hosting a meet-up at the Tap Room in the late afternoon. If you are a partner and plan on being in Austin or attending SXSW, let us know at this form: goo.gl/pFSsI.

Orlando -- Friday, March 24 & Saturday, March 25 -- We'll be at Playlist Live in Orlando! If you are a partner and plan on attending Playlist Live, let us know at this form: goo.gl/1qNiW.

We are looking forward to seeing you at these upcoming events!

Taylor Marcus, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched "Keyboard Cat Redux."

Changing the Channels by March 7

2012-02-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

As we shared in December, we want you to have more options for how you organize and showcase your content on your YouTube Channel so you can continue to grow your audience. To that end, we launched a new design for Channels, which allows you to select one of four templates to better fit your needs as a creator, as well as customizations to keep your viewers engaged and coming back.

In order to provide your viewers with a consistent experience across YouTube, we’d like you to migrate your current Channel to the new design by March 7. We will automatically convert all Channels on the site to the new design on March 7, so update yours before then to make sure it is set up to your liking.

If you haven’t already, you can opt in by clicking the blue “Try the new design” button on the top of your Channel page. You may also switch back to the old Channels design repeatedly before March 7 by clicking the “Switch Back” button in the appearance tab of the Edit Channel menu on your new Channel.

To help you get your Channel fully ready, we have resources within the Help Center.

Your feedback on the new design has been tremendously helpful as we continue to make refinements to improve both your and your viewers’ experiences.

We hope that you have a successful transition to this new design.

The YouTube Partnerships Team

CaliforniaTravelTips is January’s rising YouTube partner

2012-01-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

If you’ve been to the YouTube homepage today, you may have noticed CaliforniaTravelTips featured in the Spotlight. Veronica Hill, the woman behind CaliforniaTravelTips, is our featured “On The Rise” partner for January.

Born and raised in California, Veronica has 30+ years of travel experience that she’s translated into an informative YouTube series about all the Golden State has to offer. Ever wondered what the best strategy is for tackling Disneyland? Planning a trip to San Diego and want advice about must-do sites and activities? Think you want to visit Yosemite but want a preview of the best wilderness hiking trails? Answer any of these questions and more with Veronica’s detailed and digestible travel videos, with more than 150 video reviews to watch.

Here are a few words from Veronica:

California is one of the most diverse and wonderful places in the world! We have sandy beaches, snow-capped mountains, breathtaking national forests, and vast stretches of lonely desert. After 20 years as an editor and writer for magazines, books and newspapers, I decided to try something new. In 2007, Tim Carter of AsktheBuilder.com suggested that we start a YouTube channel. That weekend, my husband, Jason, and I went to the local camera store and bought a cheap digital video camera, tripod and Radio Shack mic. We began filming our favorite vacation spots and attractions throughout California... We want to thank the YouTube community and everyone who voted. You guys are awesome, and we couldn't have done it without your support!

YouTube Release Notes: Updates to Browse page, Video Editor and Video Manager

2012-01-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

This week we’re kicking off our recurring Release Notes post for 2012, highlighting some of the most recent updates to YouTube. Our scrappy engineers have been hard at work to make your experience even better, and here’s what’s new.

New look for Browse

Today we're giving the Browse page a fresh look-and-feel, to help you find even more great Channels on YouTube. Alongside the top lists like Most Viewed Today, you can now discover and subscribe to more YouTube Channels on browse pages, which will then regularly update on your homepage. You can also discover more content under categories including Entertainment, People & Blogs, Science & Technology and more. You’ll find it all on YouTube.com/browse.

Video Editor with new features

We first announced the YouTube Video Editor back in June of 2010 and since then we’ve added dozens of features that we hope you’ve enjoyed. With the recent YouTube homepage update we felt it was time to give the Video Editor a visual overhaul, as well as adding a cool new timeline, easier clip trimming and a moving playhead. Head over to YouTube.com/editor to see the changes. Here’s a shot of what it looks like:

Video Manager with oldies and new goodies

We’ve listened to your feedback from the Video Manager update in December, and have a bunch of new features and improvements. Along with a visual update, the Video Manager includes search history, and an improved display of scheduled uploads and claimed videos. You also wanted us to add back in the likes and dislikes statistics as well as sorting videos by popularity, so those features have returned. This will be rolling out over the next few days, and here’s a screenshot of what it looks like:

David Wang, product specialist, recently watched “Somebody That I Used to Know - Walk off the Earth (Gotye - Cover),” Alan deLespinasse, software engineer, recently watched “Extreme Sheep LED Art [HQ],” and Jung Kim, User Experience Designer, recently watched “[M/V] ITAEWON FREEDOM (with J.Y. Park).”

Upcoming improvements to accuracy of subscriber counts

2012-01-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

UPDATE (2/6/12):

We are ready to proceed with removing closed accounts from all user subscriber counts on Thursday, February 9th. A mentioned previously, all users will see a one-time adjustment to their total subscriber counts. For further details about how this affects your channel, you should view your YouTube Analytics "Subscribers" reports.

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UPDATE (1/11/12):

We will be holding off on the single day adjustment (the January 12th date is being postponed) until we can address some discrepancies we found in synchronizing the public counts with YouTube Analytics. Everyone involved in this project is determined to ensure that this change is clearly understood by users, so we will postpone the single day adjustment until we can ensure that both the public count and YouTube Analytics data are consistent and unambiguous. We will let everyone know once we have a firm date in mind.
However, the enhanced techniques for despamming new subscriptions will be implemented as scheduled (tomorrow), as there are no such complications. We will continue to keep everyone up to date on how this develops.

-----------------------------------------
1/10/12

At YouTube, we take the accuracy of subscriber counts seriously. Subscriber counts are a reflection of a creator’s level of engagement with viewers, and a serious source of pride in the community. Many creators also use subscriber counts to measure their expectations for how many views their new videos should receive, by comparing total subscriber counts to number of views received from subscription sources in YouTube Analytics.

As a result, we are enhancing our efforts to ensure that all subscriber counts are as accurate as possible. On January 12th, we will take the following steps to improve the quality and integrity of subscriber counts across the site:

Remove inactive and closed accounts from total subscriber counts. We will remove all such accounts from subscriber numbers on January 12th, and continually update subscriber counts as subscribers become inactive or close their accounts.

Improve techniques for preventing artificial inflation of subscriber counts. Recently, we’ve seen a rise in creative agencies and vendors that claim to increase subscribers while complying with the YouTube Terms of Service. In most cases, those claims are false; the purchase or gaming of subscribers is a violation of our Terms of Service. Accordingly, we are taking the following steps to prevent some users from artificially inflating their subscriber counts:

Effective January 12th, we will implement a more rigorous system that will prevent new subscriptions generated from these malicious sources from being added to subscriber counts.

Beginning January 12th, we will retroactively adjust subscriber counts to not include subscriptions generated by artificial sources on an ongoing basis.

Please note: While we are updating subscriber counts to remove such subscriptions from the totals, we will not stop delivering videos to these subscribers, even if they are artificially created accounts. This means that even if we mistakenly remove a subscriber from a subscription account as invalid, this will in no way affect your views.

By ensuring the quality of subscriber counts, we hope that this metric will be a more valuable data point for creators. Creators who have not attempted to inflate their subscriber counts should only see a limited drop--resulting from the removal of inactive and closed accounts--while users who have benefitted from abuse will get a reality check.

David Boyle, YouTube Staff, recently watched "2012 Taipei 101 New Year Fireworks HD complete 台北101煙火 Taiwan 2011 / 2012 (UFO ?)."

Partner Support talks with.... GloZell1 on January 17

2012-01-10T09:30:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, January 17th, the YouTube Partner Support team will be hosting a partner meet-up at YouTube Headquarters. During the meet-up, we'll be live streaming the latest episode of Partner Support Talks with.... featuring a YouTube partner answering questions submitted by YouTube users like you!

In this episode, Partner Support Talks with...GloZell1, we'll sit down with the one and only GloZell to talk about how she's achieved success on YouTube. We'll also ask her YOUR questions, live, on the air.

Is there something you'd like to ask GloZell about her YouTube history? Want her advice on best practices? You have until next Monday to submit your questions (and vote for others) here to be answered live: http://goo.gl/udXvj

Tune in to www.youtube.com/youtube at 4:30pm PST on January 17th to watch the show live! We'll also post the show on www.youtube.com/ytcreators after the show.

Lindsay Hampton, YouTube Partner Team, recently watched "NFL Wild Card Playoff Recap with the FootballWife."

Help January’s “On The Rise” nominees reach the homepage!

2012-01-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012! The new year brings with it a new batch of talented YouTube partners for the January edition of our monthly On The Rise program.

For those new to the series, here’s how it works: we identify four YouTube Partners who are steadily growing but haven’t yet hit the 100,000 subscriber mark. You watch their videos, then vote for your favorite in the top right corner of this blog. The channel with the most votes at the end of the week will be featured on the YouTube homepage and videos page. In past months, winners like evmoneyTV and ThePortraitArt have seen growth in their audience and video engagement thanks to your support.

This month we’re featuring four promising partners whose content is geared toward getting you moving - whether that means action sport stunts, gardening, fitness, or travel. You have until January 16th at 5pm PT to vote for your favorite channel, and the one with the most votes at the end of the week will secure the homepage feature on January 30th.

AlliSports
If you’re into action sports, you’ve probably heard of Alli: they promote various sports and tours for skateboarding, BMX, motocross, and snowboarding. Their channel features professional interviews as well as stunt tips and analysis.

growingyourgreens
Ever considered - or attempted - growing your produce in your own backyard? Don’t let inexperience or an urban environment discourage you! John’s channel is full of tips for how to grow your own food at home.

yogatoday
Based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, yogatoday produces instructional yoga videos set in pristine mountain locations. Whether or not you’ve tried yoga before, these informative video classes foster relaxation and a healthy lifestyle.

CaliforniaTravelTips
California native Veronica Hill has made a career of promoting her home state, publishing reviews for restaurants, vacation spots, and more, all over the state. Her YouTube channel features videos of various locations, attractions, and travel tips to help locals and tourists alike navigate all California has to offer.

If you’re interested in checking out more rising YouTube Partners, visit our On The Rise channel, which features nominees, trending partners and monthly blog winners.

Devon Storbeck, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched “never a dull moment on the nyc subway.”

Views and 3rd party services

2012-01-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

Viewcounts are incredibly important to us here at YouTube. They serve as a way to recognize and surface great content, and are one of the most scrutinized measures of popularity on YouTube. Careers have been made because of viewcounts - whether you’re simply making a music video with friends or on the way back from the dentist, views matter.

Since views are so important, it’s no surprise that there are companies whose entire business model is built on converting your cash into views. We understand that promotion can be a highly effective way to grow your audience, and we encourage you to promote your content on and off of YouTube. However, we want to be clear that paying for views obtained through some of these companies could very well be a violation of our terms, and one that we take very seriously.

So what do we mean exactly? Let’s get specific.

What is a view?
We consider a view to be an action users want to do. Generally, this means that they initiate the view; for example, they click on something they want to watch or decide not to skip something, and they watch it. Pretty straightforward, right?

A view should be a metric that reflects genuine user interest. In other words, a viewer has a choice, and that choice determines whether or not we count something as a view. It shouldn’t be a gauge of how many people accidentally or unintentionally ended up watching your video.

What isn’t ok?
Services that attempt to gain views through automated means or that force or trick viewers into watching videos are not ok. This could be through a variety of means, including, among other things, deceptive layouts on third party websites that trick viewers into playing a video when they click unrelated elements on the page. It might also be serving up embedded videos instead of intended content, serving pop-unders, re-directing and/or a variety of other methods people use to try to inflate viewership.

At the end of the day, anything that artificially increases the number of views, either through the use of automatic systems or by serving up videos to unsuspecting viewers, is against our terms. Videos and accounts that are found to be in violation of our terms may be closed down and removed from YouTube.

Buyer beware
If you are going to contract someone to help promote your content, it should be someone you absolutely trust, as you may be putting the fate of your channel (and your business on YouTube) in their hands. If they are using methods that aren’t within our terms, you will be the one to pay the price, as it will be your videos and your channel that get taken down. And don’t just take their word for it - ask the tough questions, find out how they promote your content and do your due diligence. Ultimately, you are responsible for knowing and abiding by our terms - this means understanding the nature of the traffic on your channel and making sure you are in compliance with our terms. Ignorance of bad traffic or other actions taken on your behalf may lead to your account being removed from YouTube.

Stefan Vraspir, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched DJ Earworm Mashup - United State of Pop 2011 (World Go Boom)

Update on Frozen Viewcounts

2012-01-03T14:23:00.000-08:00

We've heard from creators over the past few days that some public viewcounts have been frozen. We're sorry for the issue and we're close to fixing it. In the meantime, here's what you need to know:

While the public viewcount is stuck, all your views are still being recorded, and are visible in YouTube Analytics.

AdSense impressions are not affected by this data backlog.

You should see the results of our fixes within the next couple of days, and until all public viewcount updates have occurred, YouTube Analytics remains the most timely and accurate source of views data.

Thank you for your patience with these fixes, and hope your 2012 is off to a great start.

David Boyle, YouTube Staff, recently watched "Rebecca Black 'Person of Interest' (Brock's Dub)."

December’s “On The Rise” Partner is ThePortraitArt

2011-12-30T09:00:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Xiaonan, the talent behind the portraits featured on ThePortraitArt. This channel received the most votes for the December On The Rise poll, and will be featured on the YouTube homepage today.

Xiaonan Sun is a self-taught artist, and producing lifelike portraits is his passion. Since 2008, Xiaonan has used YouTube to document his talent through timelapse videos that showcase not only the final product but the full creative process. Some of his most popular pieces are pop-culture celebrity likenesses, but he also produces personal portraits by commission. And if you thought traditional portrayals and media were the limits of Xiaonan’s skill, you’re in for a treat: he can create the illusion of reality with his portraits, and he doesn’t limit himself to using simply pencils and erasers

Here are a few words from our December On The Rise star himself:

“I make my art videos to share my creation process, which I think could be every bit as compelling as the final product. But I also make these videos to relax your mind, calm your thoughts and uplift your mood. After all, today's people are so often stuck in thoughts, dealing with its worries and day to day concerns, that most rarely calm their mind down to feel the presence of the moment, which is the only thing there really is and ever could be. I want more people to be in this state more often, to see things not through the limited and rigid mind or the fearful ego, but through a heart that loves to express and create. I like to express my deep appreciation for all those who voted for me and watch my videos, and my sincere gratitude to youtube for providing the canvas, for my channel is a drawing, and each video a stroke on its paper.”

If you’ve enjoyed this monthly On The Rise blog series and want to see more rising YouTube partners, check out our On The Rise channel or look for our playlists on the browse page. Keep an eye out for next month’s blog post, as your channel may be the next one On The Rise!

Devon Storbeck, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched “Downhill extreme: Rollerman overtaking motocycle!”

Subscriptions and Publishing: Updates and FAQs

2011-12-28T13:28:00.000-08:00

We know there have been issues with subscriptions and publishing reliability for some time, and today we wanted to give you an update on the issues we're facing and where we are with resolving them. We know we haven't met your expectations with this, and here's how we're trying to fix that.

To start, here’s some background on how publishing works at YouTube. Delivering your videos is a two phased system—we process your video and then we deliver that video to your subscribers.

Processing your video
Our engineers are working hard to make video processing even faster, more reliable, and continue adding related features that make your life easier like resumable uploads. We have more to do here in 2012, and will keep you updated with our progress.

Delivering your video
Over the last few weeks we’ve rolled out a subscriptions delivery system that’s 20 times faster and more powerful, able to deliver your videos to even more subscribers as your Channels continue to grow. It’s like upgrading from a unicycle to a racecar.

Once our processing improvements are complete, all the pieces should fall into place to make publishing a seamless and uneventful experience (as it should be). Until that happens, here are some tips to avoid common problems.

The 0% Published problem
What it means: What this generally means is that the video is waiting on processing to complete, before attempting to publish. Until the video has processed in all formats, the status will stay at 0%.

What you can do: Don’t delete your video and reupload. Just wait for your video to become available on all formats you would expect--for a 1920x1080 video that means everything from 240p through 1080p--and then the 0% published should go away very quickly once all formats have processed.

What we’re doing to fix this: We’ve removed the confusing 0% published notification from the new video manager. The icon will now say “Sending to subscribers feeds” instead.

Published video isn’t appearing in feeds
What it means: In almost all reports of this problems, the issue isn’t that videos aren’t appearing in feeds at all, but it’s that the videos are not appearing at the top of the feed, in chronological order. This is because the position of videos in the chronology of the feeds reflects the uploaded time rather than published time. This commonly happens when you upload a video as private or unlisted, then make it public 48 hours later.

What you can do: If you expect to keep your video private or unlisted for an extended period of time before marking it public, consider using scheduled publishing to ensure it gets to the top of user feeds.

What we’re doing: We’re looking at ways to make sure the order of videos reflects the published time rather than the original upload time.

As we are rolling out improvements, we’ll continue to provide updates through the Creator Blog and please keep sharing your feedback in the Partner Forum.

David Boyle, YouTube Staff, recently watched "Wham! - Last Christmas."

Build your audiences....on TV!

2011-12-20T18:52:00.000-08:00

You're already driving over 3 billion views every day around the world--whether it's on a laptop or phone. We're excited to share that you can now increase that reach even further: through the Xbox 360--on TV.

Through the YouTube application on the Xbox 360 that we announced last week, you can reach your fans in ways that you never could before--and engage with them even more. This is particularly valuable for partners who may have gaming related-content in their videos.

Watch some of the things that gaming partners are saying about the experience below.

Sang Kim, Gaming Partner Development, recently watched “Mahalo Video Games Guide: Youtube for Xbox."

Check out the new Video Manager

2011-12-09T11:00:00.000-08:00

You put a lot of work into your videos, so we’re putting a lot of work into making sure they look their best on YouTube. Today we’re rolling out an updated Video Manager with some new features that’ll help you handle all your videos. To try out the new design, go to the Video Manager and click “try it now.”

Highlights of the new Video Manager are:

Simplified top and left navigation bars to help you get to the tools you need more quickly
Icons to indicate privacy status, if monetization is enabled and scheduled publish status
Badges to indicate whether videos are HD, Creative Commons and/or captioned
A new look that’s consistent with our fresh coat of digital paint

We also cleaned up our suite of editing tools and improved the navigation used to get between these tools:

To learn more, watch this video walkthrough or check out our Help Center.

Have feedback? On the left side of the page click the “send feedback” button, where we’ll be reviewing all of your comments on the design. We’re planning on fully releasing this interface early next year, so submit your ideas before then. You can also share your thoughts in our forum.

Dan Auclair, Web Developer, recently watched “Halloween Light Show 2011 - Party Rock Anthem.”

Easier copyright management on YouTube

2011-12-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

From Justin Bieber to The Gregory Brothers, YouTube is a platform for anyone with a passion for performing to showcase their musical talents and get noticed across the web. Smart copyright management is an important part of this online video service—it helps songwriters and performers to be appropriately compensated for their works, while also allowing for those works to be used in new ways.

YouTube has had a longstanding commitment to solving the really tough challenges around online copyright—how to manage content rights in a quickly evolving technology world. We’ve already invested tens of millions of dollars in content management technology such as Content ID and, with over 3,000 major media companies using it, we’ve come a long way in just a few years. But we want to keep pushing things forward.

Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve acquired RightsFlow, a New York-based company that helps songwriters, recording artists, record labels, distributors and online music services manage music rights. As new ways of consuming music have emerged, RightsFlow has been at the forefront of solving the complex issues of licensing and royalty payment management. We couldn’t think of a better team to bring on board to further YouTube’s support of the creative community.

By combining RightsFlow’s expertise and technology with YouTube’s platform, we hope to more rapidly and efficiently license music on YouTube, meaning more music for you all to enjoy, and more money for the talented people producing the music. From music videos to live-streamed concerts, YouTube has become a launch-pad for both aspiring musicians and more established independent artists—which is why we have and will continue to invest in tools that make it easier for copyright owners to manage their content online.

David King, Product Manager, recently watched "Danny Macaskill - Industrial Revolutions.”

'Tis the season to decorate: Make your YouTube Channel a home for the holidays and beyond!

2011-12-08T15:18:00.001-08:00

With the holidays upon us, many of you are busy decorating your homes to get into the spirit of the season. What better time to bring this decorative mood to your home on YouTube — your Channel — and help your audience to get more into your videos?

As part of the announcement last week of our new look, we unveiled Channel layouts to help you better showcase your videos. Since this announcement, we’ve been encouraged by data showing logged in usage and subscriptions on the rise. So, we’re moving forward to bring the new YouTube to more of you. Starting this week, all newly created and existing basic Channels will be transitioned to the new design. YouTube Partners can opt into the new design at any point, but their Channels will not be automatically transitioned at this point. When you visit “My Channel” on YouTube, you’ll see your Channel in the new design, and the “Edit Channel” button that’s your gateway to exploring the various layouts. Here are some pointers to help you get started:

1. Fill your feed with great videos: Are you sharing your likes, favorites and subscriptions? Publishing these activities to your feed will keep your Channel fresh with new entertaining videos, even when you’re not uploading videos.

2. Feature your very best content: Have videos or playlists you want to showcase? Add the featured tab to your Channel and choose a template that works best for you. You can do this in just a few clicks -- get started by clicking “Edit Channel.”

3. Write a unique description: Create a description that tells your visitors what to expect from your Channel. Click the “Edit” button in the top right corner of your Channel. You can also add links to Facebook, Twitter and other websites.

4. Share the love: Our viewers look to you for great videos on YouTube. Give the gift of your suggestions by adding the "Other Channels" feature, and encourage other Channel owners to do the same.

Many YouTube Channels have already made the switch, and we’re hoping you’ll join them. You’ll receive the new Channels design over the next few days. Play with the templates and design options to make your channel the most inviting home for your audience. Remember, you can always switch back to the old design by clicking the “Switch back” button in the Appearance tab should you need more time to get your Channel ready for primetime.

Looking for even more inspiration? Visit a gallery of examples, or watch a few YouTube creators tour their new Channels.

We can’t wait to see what you do with your place!

The YouTube team

Project for Awesome: 5 years of doing good

2011-12-08T11:35:00.001-08:00

Today’s guest post comes from Hank and John Green, aka the VlogBrothers, with a special message about how you can dramatically increase the level of awesome that exists around the world this year.

In 2007, we asked everyone on YouTube to upload videos for their favorite causes and charities on December 17. We wanted to help raise awareness and donations for awesome causes that we all care about—big and small, from near and far. This YouTube community-driven movement became known as Project for Awesome.

This year is now the 5th anniversary of Project for Awesome, and we want you to help make it more awesome than ever. Here’s how:

Make an innovative video promoting your favorite charity and upload it on December 17 starting at Noon ET. Make it original, and most importantly, make it awesome. Use this thumbnail as your thumbnail for the video, and tag it with "p4a2011” (here’s info about using thumbnails). It’s our hope that if we all upload on the same day, all of YouTube and the Internet will be taken over by a flurry of awesomeness.

Awesome waits for no one, so here are some ideas to get started:

Organize a campaign with your community and film it. This can be anything from a bake sale to rebuilding a village. There are many non-profits that allow you to build teams such as Charity:Water, Kiva, and Causes.com.
Check out some of our favorite Project for Awesome videos below.
Take one of your existing videos and spend some time using the YouTube Video Editor to make it even better.

On December 17, we hope all of you around the Internet and around the world upload videos for your favorite causes. Then, share your favorites and donate to the causes you think are awesome. Here are some past videos to get you started.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to be awesome.

Hank and John Green of the VlogBrothers recently watched “Pas De Deux - Sean Malone (Remix).”

Submit your questions for KalebNation, FinalCutKing, and BlackBoxTV

2011-12-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

On Monday, December 12th, the YouTube Partner Support team will host a partner meet-up in Los Angeles. During the meet-up we will film a YouTube Partner Panel featuring KalebNation, FinalCutKing and BlackBoxTV. These partners will be answering questions submitted by YouTube users like you!

Is there something you'd like to ask KalebNation about his YouTube history? Want FinalCutKing’s advice on best practices? Wondering what BlackBoxTV considers his best moment on YouTube? You have until next Monday to submit your questions (and vote for others) here to be answered during the panel: http://goo.gl/Ii6LR

Visit www.youtube.com/partnersupport in late December to watch the panel!

Lindsay Hampton, YouTube Partner Support, ""Morning Dew" — a bad lip reading of Bruno Mars, feat. Lady Gaga and Jay-Z."