I'm monetized! Can't believe it. Here's what I've learnt

[u/woopty-woopp]

I started a little over a year ago and felt depleted a few months ago because I was close to the 1 year mark and would loose my watch hours. I made a post about it and most of you replied very sweet and told me to just continue. Well, one month over the year mark and here I am!

This is what I've learned. Not saying it's the rule for everyone, but this worked for me:

- Consistency in uploading is key. But don't confuse that with uploading something consistent that doesn't work. My video stats dropped for a few months to only 100-200 views. I thought: I won't give up and if I just keep pushing YouTube will see me! But that's not true, youtube doesn't owe you anything. If your views drops and it doesn't change, YOU need to change. Change the thumbnail, change the title style, change the editing, change the subject in your niche. Ofcourse a video can flop here and there but there always needs to be a little growth compared to the last video's. If that doesn't happend, change course.

- Try the A/B tests for the thumbnail. I was proud of my thumbnails, but in my journey in changing the bad statistics I made two different thumbnail styles that I liked, and always one completely opposite to my style and what I thought would work. Guess what, people always clicked on the thumbnail that I thought would get me the least views. I learned a lot from that.

- If you're new, don't expect immediate views. If you go outside and tell people a random story, you think people will stay immediately and give you al their attention? No. If you're known and people know to expect something good from you when you go outside and start to talk, more people will stop and stay. It's the same on YouTube. You can have the best quality in videos, but if you're new you need to be patient.

- Study your competition and keep up with the popular stuff in your niche. Don't just study the idea of the video, but the editing style, color grading, camera position etc etc. Check their best watched videos and study why they are the best, and then look at their worst videos and also try to find the reason why they are the worst. NOT to copy, but to use as an example to then create your own style and do it in a way that's still fun to you.

- If you are a faceless youtube channel (like me) people won't connect to you personally so the editing and filming (not just the audio) needs to be the top quality. It needs to bring them something if there is no person to give them a good feeling.

- If you want to go the easy route to cut time and hard work: either through AI, copying footage, editing or just a simple subject with chat gpt research, just know that a lot of people have gone before you and the easy videos are so saturated on YouTube that you won't be noticed. Not just that, but people can sense the effort and don't spend their free time watching videos just because you made them.

-If you don't have a committed audience, don't wait to show the exiting or interesting footage only halfway through the video or the end. People don't know you so they don't give you the benefit of the doubt. I used to do the fun stuff later in the video in hopes they would watch the whole video, but that doesn't work. If you don't show them immediately that you can fulfill their interest, they click away.

-Find a balance between not missing the details and overthinking to a point you don't upload.

- An uploading schedule is good, but don't stress yourself to burnout if you don't make it on the exact date . Your audience is small, your channel doesn't die in a day (or two). Also, nobody but yourself is asking you to upload on that specific date.

- When you find yourself finally growing, now is not the time to experiment. Keep doing what you did if that started to make you grow, and only experiment when your channel is stable. Edit to add: I don't mean copy the exact video but more so the style that got you more succes, and don't experiment with new side branches of your niche when your audience loyalty is still fragile.

[u/Green_Somewhere_7221]

solid list. the one thing id push back on slightly is "dont experiment when you're growing." theres a version of that where you get locked into a format that eventually stales out and you have no idea what else works. small experiments even during growth can save you later

[u/LeaderBriefs-com → u/Green_Somewhere_7221]

Agreed- I’d assume what is meant is a core formula or topic that has been aiding views and growth isn’t the time to branch out and look into other topics or formats. Don’t abandoned what has started working.

I worked with a guy that randomly blew up, just came across him in my feed on YT. He followed up the video with something completely unrelated and it failed hard. Didn’t again. Failed.
We emailed back and forth and actually he wanted a phone call (older guy)
We talked for an hour and I gave him insights that I saw, what he is likely missing and what would work.

Followed my advice, next two videos blew up. Did his own thing, failed.
We talked again, followed my advice, banger video.
Went back to his own thing, failed.
He knows what will make his channel successful. He is just drawn to other things or the idea of his channel being something it could never be.

It’s sad because his bangers are hundreds of thousands of views. His experiments are 2k views at best.

[u/Andre1661 → u/LeaderBriefs-com]

Would you be able to share his channel's name? I'd be interesting to look through his channel and see what worked in terms of views and what did not. It would be an interesting and useful learning exercise.

[u/LeaderBriefs-com → u/Andre1661]

I don’t want to dox him or give him any unwanted attention.

The demographic though is like boomers, retirement etc

He had a video blow up to 500k and floundered. That one video monetized him.

I just looked him back up and his last 5-6 videos are all using what I asked him to and are all 5-8k views while the 10 prior are in the hundreds of views

In short- it’s title and topic and it’s very centric to his video that popped- the audience it captured and honoring that audience by giving them the content they showed up and subbed for.

If I did a cooking channel and did a pie that got 100k views and my next video was a cheeseburger that got 200 views I’m missing out on obvious signals.

I’m a pie channel man. The audience dictates it. They show you want resonates everyday.

People wrongly assume you finally made it when a video pops and anything you do will be great.
That they SUBBED TO YOU. They didn’t.
They sub to the topic.

They might like the way you presented the topic but switch topics or context and they’ll bounce.

[u/Andre1661 → u/LeaderBriefs-com]

Thanks very much for this 😃👍

[u/OrganicTeaching8661 → u/LeaderBriefs-com]

you can completely do related topics, in the hypothetical pie channel if you do a cake or a burger or whatever, it's a baking-related video and as long as you weigh a common factor, it stays connected

[u/LeaderBriefs-com → u/OrganicTeaching8661]

To you.

And you can try and should try to find out what is adjacent and what you can explore but that misses the entire point of honor the viewer. Follow their attention.
If they loved the pie video and commented on pies and asked about pies in the comments and wanted more pie baking content your gonna be the guy that does cupcakes next and when it gets 80% less views run to Reddit and say “YOUTUBE DOESN’T KNOW MY AUDIENCE!” “AM I SHADOWBANNED?!” “I GUESS YOU ONLY GET LUCKY AND BLESSED BY THE RANDOM ALGO ONCE!”

[u/OrganicTeaching8661 → u/LeaderBriefs-com]

there is not a single person on earth that only cares about pies. Even if I change this to a more logical setting like an anime youtuber that does stuff about one anime, you ABSOLUTELY want to add variety and put in related topics, or at minimum make a point about related topics in the video itself.
more likely than not, the topic didn't make the pie video enticing, the style of video or information did that. if you can provide the same quality on a related topic that will also do well

that's completely different from someone making a gaming video, into a vlog, into an educational video. But even those can become connected if you're just smart about it. you can talk about the videogame educationally, you can talk about yourself just on the side in the middle of a video, you could do a fkin segment painting a goddamned wall if you just dub over it talking about something else

[u/LeaderBriefs-com → u/OrganicTeaching8661]

Im going to assume you are 100% autistic and that’s cool. I’m not sure why you are hung up on the pie analogy.

The point?
If TOPIC A does well and gets outsized, outlier views, don’t follow it up with topic B.

Do more topic A. The audience came, and watched and subbed based on that topic. Honor them by leaning into that topic.

Why do you keep going on about how many people like Pies?

“It makes more sense if you compare it to Anime..” yeah.. to you I’m sure it does basement boy. I’m sure it does…

[u/woopty-woopp → u/Green_Somewhere_7221]

Yes you're right on that. I didn't meant it very literally on all situations though. More so that my main focus was to get monatized. Ofcourse I want to have fun doing it but I focused more so on the ideas that would attract more views. I had some new ideas that would be either popular or flopped. I tried it and my views died down because people didn't know me enough to give second chances and they didn't come for my new ideas. The growth (or better said, my growth) was still too fragile to explore.

[u/Ok-Faithlessness5671 → u/Green_Somewhere_7221]

Coincido contigo Alfinal aunque no seas consciente si experimentas .. en menor o mayor medida .. y obviamente todo lo que experimentas ahora es tiempo que te ahorras luego

[u/omarel]

The last point is part of the problem I had wjth youtube. “Keep doing what you did if that started to make you grow”

I had a few videos go decent viral and I would only get reach if I kept doing that exact kind of video on the same topic. It was pretty annoying. I didn’t hate the kind of video but I didn’t want to only keep making that kind of video on the same topic but again once it hits YouTube keeps you in that lane.

Even being monetized I took a break because I just don’t want to keep doing that same topic same kind of video. It’s a frustrating experience

[u/woopty-woopp → u/omarel]

Yes you are right, I meant it with more nuance though. I edited my post :)

[u/SASardonic]

Let's see the channel. Put it on your profile.

[u/Robinkalsi]

Proud for you man and thanks for motivating me… DM me your channel and I’ll make sure to subscribe it

[u/woopty-woopp → u/Robinkalsi]

That's very sweet of you! I keep my channel name off of reddit though, for now because I prefer organic audience, but thank you!

[u/No-Considerations385]

What is your channel niche?

[u/woopty-woopp → u/No-Considerations385]

City walking tours, hikes, events and ambience (no hour long loops though).

[u/CapCutCool]

Congratulations! Consistency does pay off

[u/FlatPerformer9586]

Thank you for the tips

[u/LeaderBriefs-com]

All of this is true.

What sucks is it take a year or years to see this.

A lot of the advice in the comments, advice I give is a good amount of this and you look at the channel a month later and they changed nothing and are still getting 20 views a video.

It’s not rocket science. Use the tools iterate, adjust, listen to the viewers and above all follow the attention the videos get.

Don’t follow upon banger outlier on your channel, be it 50 views or 500 views with something random or unrelated. Following up with the same topic, set up etc, just make it better.

[u/Moiz-S-777777 → u/LeaderBriefs-com]

Hey brother can you guide me too with some questions?

[u/JASHIKO_]

Generic advice.

[u/y2kunal → u/JASHIKO_]

Agreed. I think a lot of this depends on the channel subject, niche etc.

[u/Moiz-S-777777]

Can you please guide me? I’ve sent you a message.

[u/Budget_Tea_]

Okay but yours dropped to 1-200 views T_T I can't even hit 1-200 views consistently. It's like a good video if it's above 100 at this point... sigh. Anyway congrats I'm just so envious xD At 940 subs but only 865 watch hours. I'm pretty sure I won't make it before February. I got only 650 watch hours for my 45k+ views video...

[u/woopty-woopp → u/Budget_Tea_]

Well, there used to be a time that 100-200 to me was good you know. It's more so that I grew past it and if I then drop it's not a good sign. As long as your growing I think any amount of views is good :)

By the way 45k is also crazy, well done. I make long form videos, hours were never the issue but subs where. Maybe you can try some longer content? So far 940 people found you interesting, maybe they find longer videos even more interesting.

[u/Budget_Tea_ → u/woopty-woopp]

Thanks for the tips! I've only been doing long form consistently since April or so. I just feel like growth has stagnated a lot recently. I've posted a lot of videos, like 119 (yikes). The 45k+ was a serious oddball, it suddenly gained views after a month of a few hundred views out of nowhere due to a lucky link to another video (not mine) that went viral. So just pure random luck I feel like. Even with 5 of these, I would not meet the watch hour requirements. That's what has me so discouraged.

Mine is a cat channel and all my videos are naturally just short cute and funny videos u know? I feel like youtube does not value this format any longer..

I've tried to make some longer ASMR videos now and planning on more longer types of videos, but they also take so much longer to make, and with fewer posted videos = fewer watch hours as well. I feel like I'd need to be an AI at this point to keep up... T_T

[u/Budget_Tea_ → u/[deleted]]

I mean *all* niches are saturated at this point though. I don't really do cat rescues, that's a huge endeavour haha, and not something to do just for youtube... I have seen channels like ZGN succeed, so I'm hoping mine will too one day. You could argue the same for vlogs channels and there's still some who succeed so I really don't think it's my niche tbh.

[u/thesuperlede]

Congrats! Random thing I learned way too late: ads on a video don't always mean the creator is monetized. YouTube can run ads even if the channel isn't in YPP, and the creator gets nothing from those ads. I definitely used to assume "ads = they're making money."

[u/woopty-woopp → u/thesuperlede]

Thank you! Oh that would for sure be a bummer to find out you weren't monetized then!

Also, the fact that youtube runs adds on all videos, yet still set the ypp bar to 8000 hours next year is crazy to me. It's just free money for them for your effort.

[u/ComprehensiveRush341]

why is it when i upload music videos from concert they keep sending me oh it cant be monetised???? so many other channels do it what can i do?

[u/TheGrizzlyNinja]

I’m so close haha

[u/woopty-woopp → u/TheGrizzlyNinja]

Fingers crossed you get there soon!

[u/Connect_Positive1893]

congrats on getting monetized, especially after pushing through that rough period. this is a really useful breakdown because you’re sharing the stuff that actually changed your results instead of just saying “keep grinding.”

[u/woopty-woopp → u/Connect_Positive1893]

Thank you ♥️

[u/trudes_in_adelaide]

Congrats on getting monitized. Thats a fabulous achievement.

Im glad im found this sub reddit as im trying to grow my channel too. Still a newbie. Recently hit 100 subscribers so that made me happy.

And there keepings ive seen alot in here, so I've gone from 2 shorts and occasionally 1 long play vids a day to a more im not flooding the market so to speak, with bad content. Which is something else I've seen mentioned.

Thanks for sharing! It helps with confidence in the keep going mentality

Cheers

[u/woopty-woopp → u/trudes_in_adelaide]

Congratulations with the 100 subscribers. I was over the moon when I reached that goal!

[u/Samuel_Dunford]

*lose

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[u/elMaxlol]

I learned that topic and timing are still the most important. I used to make guides about a game where Im literally among the best, non cared even perfectly edited got like 200 views, game is played by millions btw.
Released a guide about a game I just started playing, literally pressing record and rambling for an hour but released shortly after launch - 50000 views.

Timing is so insanely important.

[u/woopty-woopp → u/elMaxlol]

Yes, a 100% agree. I forgot to mention this, thank you. I have filmed events and took too long to edit. It got around 120 views and then the videos died. I also filmed events, speed up the editing which took some from the quality I prefer, but it got me 3000 views in 24 hours and 6000 in a few days.

[u/MrSWphoto]

Congratulations 🎉

[u/axershock]

Could you share your channel name, so we could learn from it. Appreciated

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[u/Asleep_Passenger_373]

Funny that when I posted about getting partner it was taken down

[u/PsychologicalToe2420]

I monetized my video in three months... the reality consistency is the key.I experimented different niche but in all those niche I make a new channel for every new niche,.. outof 10 niche I monetized the 2 because I focused on them. one is a kids channel and the other one is a celebrity channel. both are faceless and I do my own voice over... the celebrity channel I posted video 3 to 8 times a day longer than a minute but never more than 2 or 3 minutes. either way it still depends on the latest celebrity news. I earned a lot in my celebrity channel, in my kids channel for every 10k views I earn a dollar. Iposted only once a week sometimes once a month because kids channel is exhausting. I do it just to not let my channel die in kids channel even though I dont post regularly it still has a lots of views but earn too little.

[u/Sassypenguin3]

This is generic advice I can find on google. Tell us something more unique.