I have been blogging since 2008 and got serious about my own YouTube channel in 2022, which is long enough to have made a fair number of the mistakes this library covers. Video also shows up in nearly every Fractional CMO engagement I take on, because I am always encouraging my clients to publish more and more video. I teach social media marketing at Rutgers Business School and influencer marketing at UCLA Extension, and video comes up in both rooms every term.
Video marketing is the practice of using video to attract, teach, and convert an audience, both on your own site and on the platforms where people already watch. From what I have seen, businesses get this wrong in three familiar ways. They buy gear before they have decided what to film. They push the same clip to every platform in the same aspect ratio and wonder why nothing lands. And they judge a channel on subscriber count, which is probably the number least connected to what a video actually does for the business.
The library below is organized by the job you are trying to do rather than by publish date. Fundamentals and strategy come first, then channel building, Shorts, getting found, and making money. Tools sit at the end on purpose. Decide what you are going to film first, then pick the thing you film it with.
Start here if you are still building the internal case for video, or if you are trying to work out where YouTube actually sits next to everything else you publish.
Video Marketing Statistics: 20 Numbers That Actually Matter in 2026. The business case in twenty numbers, including the finding that 91% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool and that the formats marketers rank highest for return on investment are all video.
25 Shocking YouTube Stats That Will Change Your Marketing Strategy in 2026. Twenty-five numbers on YouTube specifically, gathered to shape a channel plan for the year.
Is YouTube Social Media? Why the Answer Matters for Your Marketing Strategy. My answer is yes, on the evidence of user content, community, virality, and an algorithmic feed, and most brands still run YouTube as if it were a video host.
The 11 Types of Short-Form Video. Eleven short-form formats named and explained, for anyone who has been told to make more video and has no idea what to point the camera at.
Blogging vs Vlogging: Which Should You Do?. I get asked this constantly, and I answer it as someone who has done both since 2008 and 2022 respectively.
TikTok vs. YouTube: Which Is the Best for Content Creators in 2026?. A goal-by-goal map, where steady income points to YouTube, fast reach from a standing start points to TikTok, long-form depth points back to YouTube, and a Gen Z audience points to TikTok.
Once video is a yes, the next question is what goes in front of the camera. These cover the planning side, the formats that earn their keep, and the creative decisions that come before any editing happens.
15 Killer Video Marketing Tips to Succeed in 2026. Fifteen tips sorted into the four production phases, from pre-production through post-production.
Social Media Videos: How to Use Video to Grow Your Business in 2026. My practitioner guide to seven formats that convert, filming on a budget with the phone you already own, platform-by-platform fit, and the KPIs worth tracking.
Top 10 YouTube Video Ideas to Boost Your Content and Attract New Subscribers. Ten ideas for the reader staring at an empty upload schedule.
Brand Video: 10 Examples, 10 Types & 6 Tips to Inspire You. Ten types of brand video sorted into four groups: your company, your product, your customers, and experiential.
Product Videos: 7 Types (with Examples) and 6 Tips to Inspire Yours. Product video does its best work when it is built to inform and educate rather than to close, and this walks through seven types that do exactly that.
Animation or Real People in Your Online Video: Which is More Effective?. Jayson Duncan takes both sides of an argument that comes down to what the video is for.
The channel-level work, which is the part people tend to rush past on their way to uploading.
How to Create a YouTube Channel from Start to Finish. The full setup walkthrough for a platform with 2.7 billion monthly active users.
How to Become a YouTuber in 2026: 19 Steps to Success. Nineteen steps for anyone treating the channel as more than a hobby.
How to Get Subscribers on YouTube: What Works, and What My Own Analytics Say About the Number. Subscribers accounted for 3.2% of watch time on my own channel, and I use that number to explain what the subscribe button is and is not worth.
A Complete Guide to Branding for YouTube Creators. Brand accounts, video style, the watermark, and the channel page itself.
YouTube Cards. What cards are and how to use them, written for the businesses that upload a video with a title and a description and stop there.
How to Start Podcasting on YouTube. In 2025, 40% of podcast consumers named YouTube as their primary podcast app, ahead of Spotify and Apple Podcasts, so this covers channel setup, the Partner Program, and growing the audience.
How to Start a Faceless YouTube Automation Channel. You do not have to be on camera to build a channel, and this covers the automation systems behind faceless ones.
Shorts behave differently enough from long-form video that they get their own set of posts, from making a first one to working out why it went nowhere.
How to Make YouTube Shorts: A Guide for Newbies. The starting point if you have never published a Short.
15 Viral YouTube Shorts Ideas. Fifteen ideas spread across humor, how-to, unboxing, and brand story formats.
YouTube Shorts Looping: How to Do It and Why It Increases Video Views. A five-part method for turning replays into watch time.
Why are My YouTube Shorts Not Getting Views? 4 Potential Reasons. Four reasons a Short stalls, and what to change in each case.
When is the Best Time to Post Your YouTube Shorts? Try This.. My answer is to check YouTube Studio rather than copy a posting chart built on somebody else’s audience.
YouTube Shorts Monetization: What You Need to Know. Shorts pay out of an allocated Creator Pool at a 45% share, and the ads run between Shorts rather than on your video.
Publishing is the easy half. These posts cover the work that decides whether anyone ever sees the video.
YouTube SEO: Powerful Tips for Optimizing Your Channel and Videos. Syed Balkhi runs through eight channel-level checks and six per-video checks, plus captions, playlists, end screens, and the retention, CTR, and watch time numbers behind them.
8 Video SEO Best Practices Every Marketer Should Know. An eight-practice playbook covering hosting strategy, SEO-friendly content, metadata and captions, structured data, and promotion.
YouTube Thumbnail Best Practices: The Definitive Guide. Roughly 90% of top-performing videos use a custom thumbnail, and this covers what makes one earn the click.
The Best 15 Thumbnail Makers for YouTube. Fifteen thumbnail tools compared, for when you know what the thumbnail needs to say and need somewhere to build it.
7 Simple and Free YouTube Transcript Generators. Seven transcript tools that are free and skip the sign-up, which is what you want when captions are the goal.
The money questions get asked more than any others in this category, and the answers are less exciting than most people expect.
How to Make Money on YouTube in 2026: 7 Proven Revenue Streams for Creators. Seven revenue streams, from ad revenue and channel memberships to fan funding and brand partnerships, with the eligibility threshold attached to each one.
The Real YouTube Pay Per View: Uncovering Creator Earnings & Latest Rates (2026). YouTube pays per ad view rather than per view, and your rate moves with your niche and its advertisers, your audience geography, and your video length.
How Much Do YouTubers Make in 2026?. Most of what the big creators earn does not come from ad revenue at all.
Estimate Your YouTube Earnings with These 13 Money Calculators. Thirteen calculators and what each one asks you for, from views plus CPM to a channel URL.
7 Best Ways How to Promote Your Shopify Store on YouTube. For ecommerce owners, starting with the eligibility gate: the same admin email on both accounts, full monetization approval, a channel not marked as made for kids, and a supported country.
AI has changed the production side of video faster than any other part of marketing. These are the tool categories I have been testing, sorted by the job each one does.
How to Make AI Videos: The Definitive Guide. AI drafts the video and you still do the editing.
17 Amazing AI Video Generators to Start Using Today. A category I have been experimenting with for a while, where the best fits are explainer video, training video, and b-roll.
15 Magical AI YouTube Video Makers. Pick the one that matches what you already publish rather than the one with the longest feature list.
15 Incredible Text to Video AI Tools. Fifteen tools grouped by approach: avatar presenters, stock and template, and style transfer.
13 Script to Video AI Generators for Instant Video Creation. Thirteen tools that handle the text, the visuals, and the voice in one pass.
15 Free and Awesome AI Script Generators for Your Next Video. Scripting tools that turn a rough idea into something you can film.
19 AI Video Editors to Scale Your Video Marketing. Nineteen editors sorted into four types: avatar generators, template makers, clip repurposers, and timeline editors.
15 AI Video Enhancer Tools to Improve Your Videos. For footage you already shot that suffers from blur, shake, or low resolution.
25 Best AI Video Translators to Grow Your Audience. Twenty-five translators across three capability tiers: subtitles only, subtitles plus dubbing, and voice clone with lip sync.
Tools come after strategy rather than instead of it, which is why this section sits last. Once you know what you are filming and who it is for, these are the roundups I keep updated.
Which is the Best Video Editing App? Choose from These 17. Seventeen apps compared, and the answer starts with the device you edit on.
The 15 Best Free Video Editing Apps for the iPhone in 2026. Fifteen free iPhone apps sorted by skill level and use case.
13 Recommended Online Video Editors for Every Content Creator. Free and paid picks, stock footage and templates, captions and formats, and which editor fits which use case.
15 Cool Instagram Video Editors to Up Your Reels Game. Fifteen editors aimed squarely at Reels that hold attention.
The 23 Best Video Marketing Tools for 2026. Twenty-three tools organized by production stage, from creation through YouTube SEO.
15 Powerful YouTube Tools You Need to Grow Your YouTube Audience. Fifteen tools across six job types, on the principle that most channels need only one tool per job.
13 YouTube Video Summarizer Tools to Check Out. Thirteen tools that pull the main talking points out of a long video, which is as useful for research as it is for repurposing.
If you have never made a marketing video, read them in this order: Video Marketing Statistics for the business case, then Social Media Videos for the formats, then 15 Killer Video Marketing Tips for the production sequence, then Which is the Best Video Editing App to pick your editor. That is four posts and about an afternoon, and you will come out of it knowing what to film and what to film it with.
If you are already publishing and the numbers are flat, skip all of that. Read 8 Video SEO Best Practices, then YouTube Thumbnail Best Practices, then How to Get Subscribers on YouTube. From what I have seen, flat results are almost never a production problem. They are a discovery problem, and those three posts cover the three places discovery usually breaks.
Want the wider strategy that video plugs into? Grab the free preview of Digital Threads, my book on building a digital-first marketing operation.
And if you would rather have someone in the room helping you build this out, that is what I do as a Fractional CMO.
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You want more subscribers on YouTube. Fair enough. The subscribe button is the one thing every creator asks you to press, and the count sits at the top of your channel like a scoreboard. So let me answer the question…
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