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Investing in you: more tools to build your channels

By The YouTube Team

If you’re with us and the thousands of video fans at VidCon, you’ll hear about more ways we’re investing in you on YouTube. We’re here to help you: from promotion to channel management to content optimization, we have the resources and programs to support you. That’s why more of you with accounts in good standing will be able to use a bunch of features you’ve been asking for: live streaming, custom thumbnails, external annotations and series playlists.

Start live streaming if you have 100+ subscribers: All channels in good standing with at least a hundred subscribers will be able to live stream, within the next few weeks. Check your Account Features page for an “Enable” button, and click it if you're interested.

Choose your best thumbnail: Help your video stand out by using a custom thumbnail. Make sure you only upload images that are representative of what viewers will see, like prominent stills from the video.

Drive traffic to your merch: Want viewers to buy that new t-shirt you’re wearing in your video? You can now use annotations to link externally to various online stores and your associated websites.

Program related videos for viewers: Help viewers watch more of your videos by placing them in a series playlist. When you group videos that belong together, we’ll show viewers of your videos the next episode from the series and a link to the whole playlist. Just mark your playlist as a “series” in the playlist settings.

If you want tips on the best ways to use any of these features, learn more from the YouTube Creator Playbook

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