Has anyone here successfully done it?

I have been trying for awhile and I am getting frustrated. I feel like my ideas for videos are great and should be getting more views than they do. A friend of mine was uploading nonsense to his channel and manage to get over 300 subs and thousands of views. The videos aren't even good quality. I can't make sense of it.

I would love to have a channel where I can earn. Not even get rich. Just make a living. A few thousand a month. It just seems so hard to achieve!

First make sure you are in a country that allows it. Some are blocked from it!

You will be able to become a tier one or tier two depending on the numbers you hit.

Tier one gives you access to superr chats, channel memberships, and other things to do with streaming. You do not get ad revenue though. This tier requires 500 subs, 3 public uploads in the last 90 days, and 3k public watcher outs in the last 12 months OR 3 mil on shorts in the last 90 days.

Tier two is what you want for full monetization. That gives you revenue sharing and premium revenue. You need 1k subs and 4k public watch hours in the last 12 months OR 10 mil with public shorts in the last 90 days.

With that aside, it can take a long time to see growth. Some people luck out and see it right away. Some don't. You have to be patient, as much as I know you probably don't want to hear that.

Yeah this is frustrating but there's a reason your friend's nonsense works

The hard truth: quality doesn't matter as much as consistency and format. Your friend probably figured out a format the algorithm likes and stuck to it. Doesn't matter if the videos are bad and if people watch them and the retention is decent, the algorithm keeps pushing them.

You said your ideas are great but how's your retention? That's the real best idea in the world but if people click off in the first 10 seconds YouTube stops showing it.

Try this for a month:

- Pick one very specific topic and only make videos about that

- Keep them between 5-8 minutes

- Hook in the first 3 seconds (literally state what they'll get from watching)

- Upload same day every week

The people making a living from it aren't always the most talented. They are who stuck with one thing long enough for the algorithm to figure out who to show them to.

What kind of content are you making? May easier to spot the issue with more context.

I have made a few channels. I was never aiming to earn or anything. One was for my Minecraft server. Another was for gaming. And I also had one fore one of my websites.

The one that did the best overall was the Minecraft one and from what I could make of it, is that it was very niche. Minecraft is ONE GAME. Whereas my gaming channel focused on many different games. And the one for my website covered a lot of topics.

Try to be as niche as possible!

On 6/14/2026 at 10:19 AM, simonsays said:

Tier two is what you want for full monetization. That gives you revenue sharing and premium revenue. You need 1k subs and 4k public watch hours in the last 12 months OR 10 mil with public shorts in the last 90 days.

Is this more than before? I feel like this used to be less. Like you only needed 500 subs and 3,000 views. Maybe I am confusing it with tier one. I just don't remember there being a tier one!

I don't have a content calendar. I have a "problems I solved this week" list. Authenticity beats planning.

23 hours ago, Cozmic said:

Is this more than before? I feel like this used to be less. Like you only needed 500 subs and 3,000 views. Maybe I am confusing it with tier one. I just don't remember there being a tier one!

As far as I know, it has been like this for at least 10 years. I don't remember the earlier days of the partner program. I know they kind of sprung it on people around 2009 I want to say. Since I have been paying attention it has been what I listed.

Aside from being niche, try to upload on a regular basis. I don't know what you intend on doing but at least one video a week is good unless it is super long form content (30+ minutes) then you can do every 2 weeks to once a month. Anything under 10 minutes though you should aim for 2 videos a week.

Gave away my entire framework in a thread. Why would anyone buy? They did. Forty-seven sales that week.

On 6/28/2026 at 10:37 AM, Ryyyan said:

Aside from being niche, try to upload on a regular basis. I don't know what you intend on doing but at least one video a week is good unless it is super long form content (30+ minutes) then you can do every 2 weeks to once a month. Anything under 10 minutes though you should aim for 2 videos a week.

Do you (or anyone else) think it is worth doing shorts to boost my channel? I am not sure if I should bother with those if my content is already going to be on the shorter side.

On 7/6/2026 at 9:01 AM, Cozmic said:

Do you (or anyone else) think it is worth doing shorts to boost my channel? I am not sure if I should bother with those if my content is already going to be on the shorter side.

I think it can help. Just experiment with it. I can't see it hurting your channel. I would imagine it would either be neutral or have a positive effect. I think the ideal length for shorts is 15 to 40 seconds. Just best to keep them under a minute unless the niche is some sort of lesson/education based one.

On 7/10/2026 at 10:54 AM, Ryyyan said:

I think it can help. Just experiment with it. I can't see it hurting your channel. I would imagine it would either be neutral or have a positive effect. I think the ideal length for shorts is 15 to 40 seconds. Just best to keep them under a minute unless the niche is some sort of lesson/education based one.

Oh okay, right shorter makes sense. I guess I get throw a few out there and see what happens. I am not going to bank on them doing anything substantial but if they get me more subs and views on my main videos, it is probably worth it.

It has been a bit since I messed with YouTube but I found that making content between 4 and 10 minutes and uploading once or twice a week seemed to do do the best. When I saw once or twice a week, I meant spacing videos out every 3 or 4 days.

On 7/20/2026 at 9:14 AM, Cozmic said:

Oh okay, right shorter makes sense. I guess I get throw a few out there and see what happens. I am not going to bank on them doing anything substantial but if they get me more subs and views on my main videos, it is probably worth it.

I have heard of them helping people boost their channels, so yeah you may as well. Not everyone that watches shorts only watches shorts. People tend to watch both forms of content.

I am attempting it but still trying to figure things out. It is honestly getting harder for me cause I don't see much improvements on the back end. It takes so long to edit videos too which is discouraging for me. At first I enjoyed it but now I am realizing it takes me sometimes 6 hours just to edit and do one video, and I am not making money from it... It stings.

On 7/28/2026 at 9:30 AM, johnnykipp said:

I am attempting it but still trying to figure things out. It is honestly getting harder for me cause I don't see much improvements on the back end. It takes so long to edit videos too which is discouraging for me. At first I enjoyed it but now I am realizing it takes me sometimes 6 hours just to edit and do one video, and I am not making money from it... It stings.

That is the issue with trying to earn through YouTube. You have to be cool with making videos that get no pay and sometimes no views either. I am learning this more and more. I am trying to experiment with different tips people give but have yet to see any substantial growth.

On 8/8/2026 at 12:09 PM, Cozmic said:

That is the issue with trying to earn through YouTube. You have to be cool with making videos that get no pay and sometimes no views either. I am learning this more and more. I am trying to experiment with different tips people give but have yet to see any substantial growth.

I mean yeah, same here. I am trying different things but nothing is working. I have resorted to using one of my channels (I am playing around with 3 atm) to a shorts channel. Just to see if only posting shorts does anything.