YouTube Studio: The ultimate beginner's guide to what YouTube Studio is, how to find it, and how to monetize it

Wanna be a content creator? Dream of turning your passion for videos into a full-fledged business? You’re not alone. 

When it comes to content creation, all paths can be lucrative. But statistics show that video content is by far the highest-performing across the internet as a whole – in 2024, people are 52% more likely to share video content than any other type of content. And 75% of internet users are watching video content on their mobile devices.

Thousands of creators around the world are using platforms like YouTube to share their creativity, connect with audiences, and—eventually—earn money. But while other video-based platforms like TikTok have a seamless, smooth sign-up process and minimal backend logistics to learn; YouTube and YouTube Studio (the platform’s backend) do have somewhat of a learning curve. 

In this guide, we’ll take you through the ins and outs of YouTube Studio. Whether you’re a complete beginner or have some experience, we’ll walk you through how to set up your account, upload and edit videos, navigate your dashboard, and dive deep into your analytics to understand what’s working and what isn’t. 

And, of course, we’ll show you how to turn your passion into a potential income stream, giving you all the tools you need to start monetizing your content.

What is YouTube Studio?

YouTube Studio is a backend dashboard for creators to manage their channels, upload and edit videos, monitor analytics, and engage with audiences. It helps creators track all video metrics, view and respond to comments, and optimize their content for better reach. 

Once signed in to YouTube, creators can navigate to their studio and find a variety of features and tools that are key to not only creating, but refining and even promoting your YouTube content. These tools include real-time video performance metrics, detailed analytics, a comment dashboard for audience engagement, and options to customize your channel’s branding.

YouTube Studio also gives creators access to video editing tools, so you can fine-tune content directly on the platform before uploading – super handy if you’re unfamiliar with video-editing software (guilty). 

But let’s talk dollars. Because for most creators, earning even a side income (if not enough to replace their full-time job) is the long-term goal.

Well, YouTube Studio makes it easier for creators to monitor earnings, check monetization status, and access revenue reports, helping you turn your passion into a potential income stream.

What is YouTube Studio used for?

As promised, this is the ultimate beginner’s guide to getting started with YouTube Studio.

So, while you now understand that YouTube Studio is the place to manage your channel, upload and edit videos, monitor analytics, engage with audiences, track metrics, and respond to comments (and more, but you get the picture), let’s break down each of these step by step. 

We’ve even included some walk-through screenshots to help you navigate along with us. 

Remember, YouTube Studio is here to help you streamline tasks, understand your performance, and engage with your audience – so knowing your way around is pretty important. 

Let’s jump in:

Managing your channel

As you can guess, this is the backbone of YouTube Studio.

One of the primary uses of YouTube Studio is to manage your channel settings. 

Once you navigate to YouTube Studio, you can customize your channel’s appearance, adjust privacy settings, and set up monetization features (we’ll get into this a bit later). 

You can add channel art, update your profile picture, and edit your About section. This is where you ensure your channel represents your brand effectively and remains aligned with your goals.

Pro tip: Having an aesthetically pleasing profile picture, banner, and thumbnails can go a long way in boosting your exposure. Think about it, the more people scroll past your thumbnails, the less YouTube is going to recommend your videos. 

Until you get the hang of designing (or can pay somebody else to do it) you can use software like Canva to design visual assets for your channel – they have templates for design novices, and you can even save your brand colors, logo, and imagery into a brand kit! 

Uploading and editing videos

YouTube Studio allows you to not only upload but also edit and even organize your video content. 

When uploading videos, you can adjust the title, description, tags, and thumbnail directly within the platform. You can also set video visibility settings, such as public, unlisted, or private, depending on how you want to share your content with the world. 

For most of you, public is the way to go. If you’re selling masterclasses or access to bonus content, you can consider unlisted videos that require a URL to access. 

And yes, you can edit your videos directly within YouTube Studio too, which is awesome for beginners who don’t know their way around more advanced video editing software. 

Editing features like trimming, adding end screens, and adjusting video details make it easier to perfect your content right on the platform.

Monitoring your performance

Every social media platform provides creators with a place to track performance and analytics, and YouTube is no different. In fact, YouTube Studio is probably one of the more comprehensive creator dashboards. 

Your YouTube Studio analytics dashboard lets you track the performance of your videos by showing key metrics such as views, watch time, subscriber growth, and engagement rates. 

Understanding these statistics is essential for creators to optimize their content strategy and determine what resonates with their audience.

For example, you might notice your watch time is much higher on certain styles of video, and lower on others, meaning you now know where to focus more of your time and energy. It’s also handy to know where most of your viewers reside because it might not always be your home country. 

Pro tip: Posting when people are online and active boosts your exposure in the algorithm by increasing your clicks and views. Find out where most of your audience is, find out when they’re online, and work this into your upload schedule.

Engaging with your audience

So many creators forget about the whole, you know, social aspect of social media. 

While things like regular posting, trends, and cross-promoting are important, there’s one thing that’s equally so, and so often overlooked: engaging. 

Only logging on to upload your next video is one of the best ways to kill your growth on YouTube. 

Audiences aren’t dumb, and they can smell authenticity from a mile away. If you want a supportive audience, you need to be a supportive creator, and that means engaging back with the people who watch your content. 

YouTube Studio isn't just about uploading videos and tracking performance; it's also a space for fostering a community. Remember, these are the people who give you the ability to eventually monetize your YouTube content, so you want to keep them happy! 

You can use your YouTube Studio dashboard to view and respond to comments, communicate with your subscribers, and manage feedback. 

Monetizing your content

Finally, YouTube Studio is the place you’ll go for monetizing your content. 

After meeting YouTube’s eligibility criteria, you can apply for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) directly within YouTube Studio. 

In the US, the eligibility criteria include having at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time over the last 12 months, along with adhering to YouTube's community guidelines and terms of service. For other countries, you can check the requirements here.

Once you're accepted into YPP, you can enable ads, offer memberships, and start generating income through YouTube’s built-in monetization features. Psst – we break these features down one by one later on. 

So wait, what’s the difference between YouTube and YouTube Studio?

YouTube is the platform itself where users watch, upload, and engage with video content. It’s where you, as a viewer, go to discover new videos, subscribe to channels, like, comment, and share content. 

YouTube Studio, on the other hand, is the creator’s backend or command center. It’s a tool designed specifically for YouTube content creators to manage, optimize, and grow their channels. YouTube Studio is where you upload and edit videos, monitor performance through analytics, interact with your audience, and manage monetization efforts.

Where is YouTube Studio and how do you get to it?

First, sign in to your YouTube account and click on your profile icon in the top right corner of the screen. From the dropdown menu, select YouTube Studio to open the dashboard.

Alternatively, you can also visit YouTube Studio by entering https://studio.youtube.com directly in your browser. 

Once you're in YouTube Studio, you’ll find all the tools needed to manage your videos, track performance, and interact with your audience.

How to use YouTube Studio: A beginner’s guide

And we’ve arrived at the good part. Honestly, there would be no point getting here without having explained everything above. You’ve gained a solid understanding now of what YouTube Studio is, why it’s important, and what features it gives you access to. 

Now, we’ll learn how to use it – together! 

1. Create your YouTube account

Before you can dive into YouTube Studio, you need to create a YouTube account. 

If you already have a Google account, you’re in luck! YouTube is tied to Google, so you can use your existing credentials to sign up. Here’s how you can create your YouTube account:

Go to YouTube and sign in

Head to YouTube’s homepage. In the top right corner, you’ll see a "Sign in" button. Click that, and enter your Google account details (if you have them).

If not, you can complete the sign-up process manually. 

2. Create your channel

After signing in, you’ll be prompted to create your YouTube channel. Click on your profile icon in the top right, and then select Your Channel. 

If this is your first time, you’ll be asked to create a name for your channel. Choose something that reflects the content you plan to create. You could use your name, or come up with a brand. 

Remember, you can always change your channel name down the line, so don’t put too much pressure on it to begin with. 

Once you’ve created your channel, it’s go time! I.e, you’re ready to move on to YouTube Studio and begin uploading your content. 

3. Upload a video to YouTube Studio

Now that you have your account set up, let’s upload your first video. Here’s how:

Go to YouTube Studio

You can access YouTube Studio by clicking on your profile icon in the top right corner and selecting YouTube Studio, or by going directly to studio.youtube.com.

Click the upload button

In YouTube Studio, you’ll see a camera icon with a plus sign at the top right of your dashboard. Click this and select Upload Video.

Select your video

You’ll be prompted to select a video from your computer to upload. Once you pick your video, it will start uploading to YouTube.

Fill in video details

After your video uploads, YouTube Studio will prompt you to add details. This includes the video’s title, description, and tags.

While many new creators overlook the importance of these finer details, they matter. 

Try to use keywords in your title, and keep it concise. When it comes to descriptions, more detail is good – you can even include things like timestamps to guide your audience through and know what to expect, particularly for longer videos. 

If you’re posting YouTube Shorts, keep captions short and sweet with a few keywords – and yes, hashtags work on YouTube shorts! They can significantly boost your reach to the right people. 

Choose privacy settings

You can decide if you want the video to be public, unlisted, or private. Public means anyone can view it, while private or unlisted restricts the audience. 

While most of your videos are likely to be public (this is the only way to grow your audience), you can use private or unlisted for a few reasons, too:

Practice: It’s nerve-wracking uploading content for the first time. You might wish to upload private or unlisted videos to watch back yourself, get comfortable with seeing yourself on camera, and even send to a few trusted friends for feedback. 

Paid access: Some YouTubers will sell paid access to unlisted or privately listed videos and provide customers with the URL to view them. 

Add to a playlist

If you have playlists on your channel, you can choose whether to add uploaded videos for better organization and discoverability.

Publish

Once all the details are added, click Publish to make your video live.

That’s it! Your video is now uploaded to YouTube, and you can manage it through YouTube Studio.

4. Edit your videos in YouTube Studio

As I promised, you can even use YouTube Studio to edit videos directly on the platform without needing external editing software.

Here’s how:

Access your video

Go to Content on the left sidebar in YouTube Studio. This is where all your uploaded videos are stored. Find the video you want to edit and click on it.

Click the pencil icon

This will open the Video Details section, where you can edit the title, description, and more.

Edit thumbnail

You can also upload a custom thumbnail or choose one from the automatically generated options.

Trim or cut

Under the Editor tab, you can trim your video to remove unwanted parts. This is especially useful if you need to cut out a section or shorten your video.

Add cards and end screens

These are interactive elements you can add to encourage viewers to check out more of your videos, subscribe, or visit external links.

Save changes!

After making your edits, be sure to click Save to apply the changes to your video.

As you can see from the screenshots above, YouTube Studio’s editing tools make it easy to tweak your videos as you’re uploading them without advanced software or skills.

Navigating your YouTube dashboard and understanding your analytics

Once you've uploaded and edited your videos in YouTube Studio, the next step is to understand how your content is performing. This is where the Dashboard and Analytics sections come in. 

These tools give you a deeper look into how your videos are resonating with your audience and provide valuable data to help you grow your channel.

The YouTube Studio dashboard

When you log into YouTube Studio, you'll land on your Dashboard, which serves as the central hub for managing your channel. The Dashboard provides an overview of your channel’s recent activity, video performance, and key updates. It gives you a quick look at how your content is doing without needing to dive into deeper analytics.

At the top of the Dashboard, you’ll see key performance indicators such as views, subscribers, and any updates or alerts from YouTube. These alerts can include new comments on your videos, notifications about community guidelines strikes, and other important information that may require your attention. 

You’ll also see a summary of the most recent videos and their performance, so you can easily track how new content is being received. The subscriber count and view totals are prominently displayed in the top left corner, helping you keep tabs on your channel’s growth.

The Dashboard is ideal for staying on top of your channel’s general health and activity, but to dig deeper into how specific videos are performing, you’ll need to explore the Analytics section.

YouTube Studio analytics

The Analytics tab in YouTube Studio is where you can really start to understand what’s working and what’s not. This section gives you a detailed breakdown of how your videos are performing in several key areas:

The Overview section provides a high-level summary, showing you total views, watch time, and revenue (if you're monetized). It’s here you can get a snapshot of your channel’s overall performance over a selected time.

For a more detailed look at video performance, you can navigate to the Advanced Settings tab. This tells you how people are finding your content, including metrics like Impressions and Click-Through Rate (CTR). 

Impressions show how often your video thumbnail was shown to potential viewers, while the CTR tells you what percentage of people actually clicked on the video after seeing the thumbnail. 

A low CTR might indicate that your thumbnails or titles aren’t as compelling as they could be, so you might want to experiment with different designs or wording to see what drives more clicks.

The advanced section also offers engagement insights. It shows metrics like watch time and average view duration. These are crucial for understanding if people are engaging with your content or dropping off early. 

If your average view duration is low, it could suggest that your content isn’t engaging enough or your viewers are losing interest quickly. You can use this data to refine your video content, pacing, or structure to keep viewers watching for longer periods.

Finally, the Audience tab provides demographics, showing you who is watching your videos, their ages, genders, and locations. This section also tells you how many of your viewers are returning versus new viewers, which can help you gauge whether your content is creating loyal fans or if you're mostly attracting new people. 

Plus, there’s a feature in the audience tab that tells you when your viewers are online! You can use this to guide you in scheduling future uploads for maximum reach.

Managing comments and engaging with viewers

Another critical element of the YouTube Studio is the Comments section, where you can interact directly with your audience. 

We said it earlier, and we meant it: building a relationship with your viewers is a must if you want to grow your channel. A super simple way to build a relationship with your audience is by simply responding to comments. 

This section gives you a full overview of all the comments on your videos in one place, making it easy to monitor and respond to feedback. You can also filter comments to see the ones that are most relevant to you, such as those that need a reply, or comments that are potentially spammy or inappropriate.

In addition to comments, YouTube Studio also offers a way to moderate your community and handle any inappropriate content. If you’ve enabled features like live chat or super chats for live streaming, you can also manage these interactions in YouTube Studio.

Can you make money with YouTube Studio?

Yes! Not only can you, but YouTube Studio is how your favorite creators make money directly on YouTube. Well, that, and leveraging their audience externally (which I’m getting to). 

But first, let’s cover making money with YouTube Studio. Once you start uploading content regularly and building an audience, YouTube offers several ways to earn money directly from the platform:

Ad revenue

One of the most popular ways for YouTubers to earn money is through ads placed on videos. 

YouTube offers several ad formats, including display ads, overlay ads, skippable video ads, and non-skippable video ads. 

These ads appear before, during, or alongside your video content, and you earn revenue based on views and engagement.

Channel memberships

If you have over 30,000 subscribers, you can enable channel memberships, which allow viewers to become paying members of your channel. 

Memberships give them access to perks such as exclusive badges, emojis, and members-only content. This is a great way to build a community and generate recurring income. But, YouTube can take pretty hefty cuts of membership earnings. 

Pro tip: Consider moving your subscribers over to another platform where you can share private video content, create member communities, host live videos, and more – like Whop. Plus, when you funnel your audience externally to your whop hub, we only take 3% of your earnings. 

Super chat and super stickers

These are fun features creators can monetize from during YouTube live streams. 

Super chat allows your viewers to pay to highlight their messages, while super stickers let them purchase animated stickers to show support during live broadcasts. Both are effective ways to engage your audience and monetize live content.

YouTube premium revenue

YouTube Premium subscribers pay for an ad-free experience, and you, as a creator, earn a share of the revenue generated from Premium subscribers who watch your content. This is a passive form of income that’s based on the watch time of YouTube Premium members.

Merchandise shelf

With over 10,000 subscribers, you can use the merchandise shelf feature in YouTube Studio, which lets you sell your own branded merchandise directly through YouTube. 

You can partner with platforms like Teespring or Spreadshop to display your products on your channel page and videos. 

Monetize your YouTube channel with Whop

While YouTube Studio offers built-in monetization tools, it also takes some pretty hefty chunks from creator earnings. 

But hang on, let’s rewind. I mentioned that while you can use YouTube Studio to monetize your content, your favorite creators have another method of monetization that brings in even more cashflow: leveraging their audiences externally. 

What do I mean by this?

I mean they cleverly circumnavigate YouTube’s fees by directing their viewers to another platform, where they can offer subscriptions, bonus content, and more – all while keeping more of their money. That’s where Whop comes in. 

By funneling your YouTube audience, subscribers, and top fans to your own whop, you can:

• Sell digital products like eBooks, courses, templates, and tutorials to your audience.
• Offer exclusive memberships for fans who want premium content or access to special perks that go beyond what YouTube’s membership tools allow.
• Manage subscriptions and other payments directly from your audience, without needing to rely solely on YouTube’s ad revenue.

Whop integrates seamlessly with your YouTube presence, allowing you to direct traffic from your videos to your Whop, where you can monetize in ways that YouTube doesn’t directly support, and keep more of your hard-earned cash. 

It’s time to move beyond ads and leverage your YouTube content and audience fully.

Sign up as a creator on Whop today to funnel your viewers and start keeping more of what you earn.

FAQS

What is YouTube Studio used for?

YouTube Studio is a platform that helps creators manage their YouTube channels. It allows users to upload videos, monitor performance analytics, interact with viewers through comments, and customize channel settings. 

Creators can also manage monetization options, edit video details, and optimize their content to improve their reach and engagement.

Can anyone use YouTube Studio?

Yes, anyone with a YouTube account can access YouTube Studio. However, you must be at least 13 years old (or the minimum age required in your country) to create a YouTube account. 

YouTube Studio is available in most countries, but some features (like monetization) may not be available in certain regions due to local laws or YouTube’s policies. Additionally, YouTube will likely restrict access to accounts that have violated community guidelines.

How do I access YouTube Studio?

To access YouTube Studio, sign in to your YouTube account, click on your profile icon in the top-right corner, and select YouTube Studio from the dropdown menu. 

Alternatively, you can go directly to studio.youtube.com for easy access, or simply enter it into Google and click the first result. 

Can YouTube Studio be used to edit videos?

Yes, YouTube Studio offers basic video editing features, such as trimming, adding music, or blurring parts of your video. 

For more advanced edits, creators typically need to use external video editing software before uploading to the platform.

How can I see my YouTube video analytics?

In YouTube Studio, go to the Analytics tab to view detailed insights about your videos. You can track metrics like views, watch time, audience demographics, and traffic sources, helping you measure performance and optimize your content.