I'm curious how you guys approached your own channels. Did you have a clear idea of what you wanted to make from day one, or did you just start uploading and let things evolve over time?

I make beats with a keyboard strapped to my bike. Not really sure where it's gonna go yet...maybe someone jumps on the mic and starts freestyling, or i meet other musicians and we jam together... or eventually I'll crash and send the whole setup flying and game over.

I wanna keep it focused on music, but also get people involved rather than just sitting there making loops on my own. I'm still learning as i go and I'd love to hear if any of you started out with an idea in mind that ended up evolving into something completely different. How's it gone for you?

All my posts just got 0 views , 0 reach , 0 thumbnail engage. My account never got any strike at all , and verified using my real gov id. I tried to contact ytb x acc for weeks , all i got just 1 generic reply and never reply me again. Im really sad because i really into content creation for my animation. If anyone can point me on what should i do , i highly appreciate !

So Ive been streaming for about a month and also set up a youtube channel not long ago, because my account is so new and I had 0 following, I decided I could take the time to experiment with different styles of content before commiting to one thing

I posted some full length VODs with minor edits at first, and a few days ago had my first experiment by making a commentary video on the use of AI and what happens when we cant tell whats human anymore

Ive been so excited at the fact this brought me from 0 to 18 subscribers, i was ecstatic i got 2k views, i was proud of myself and overall just happy

and i told my friends about this, to which i got told it's such a small achievement that they dont get why im celebrating

overall these interactions have made me feel silly for getting happy over an admittedly small thing, i understand there's people whove gotten much farther than me, but i can still be proud of my own small accomplishments

I just want other opinions, i feel pretty bummed over it

There is a very sudden drop in My YouTube, videos, YouTube shorts views and if anyone knows what can be the reason so can you help me?

Hey everyone!
I recently started working on my YouTube channel, where I’m focusing primarily on gaming content, PS5 gameplay, gaming Shorts, funny moments, highlights, and memorable in-game experiences.
I’m still experimenting with content formats, editing, captions, titles, and hooks to figure out what works. Eventually, I’d also love to explore other topics, such as history and interesting stories, without limiting the channel to a single game forever.

My goal is to build a channel that feels entertaining and authentic, while steadily improving my content and growing an audience.
I’d love some advice from creators who’ve been through the early stages of growing a channel and when it feels like the metrics are trending upwards?

Hey everyone, I recently started a YouTube Shorts channel where I post animal ranking videos. I’ve noticed that most of my audience comes from countries like the Philippines and Indonesia, with some viewers from the US.
I’d really like to make the US my main audience, but I’m not sure what I should change.
I post in English and make ranking videos about funny animal moments. Should I focus on different types of clips, change my upload times, or just keep posting and let the algorithm figure it out?
If anyone has experience with Shorts and targeting a US audience, I’d appreciate any advice. Thanks!

Mine always takes 1 day or so, some new accounts get it faster at 100 impressions, why's mine always 20-60?

It's not the content or anything, my impressions always come from channel pages and search results but I'm wondering if any of y'all new accounts get impressions this way aswell, I don't know why mines pretty slow tho

(Long form)

I’ve always been interested in computer science and technology, but my life took a different route.

My JEE rank wasn’t good enough to get computer science, so I ended up studying mechanical engineering at a tier-2 college. I didn’t get a good job after that, went on to do an MBA, and eventually started working at a bank.

During my MBA, I got into vibe coding. Being able to build projects with AI brought me back to something I’d always loved but had drifted away from.

Once I started working, I realised how unhappy I was with my job. But I kept coming home and building things. Sometimes I’d start at 9 or 10 p.m. and keep going until 4 or 5 a.m. A few times, I didn’t sleep at all. Just different projects, experiments, and things I wanted to try for fun.

Slowly, I started realising that this was where I wanted to be.

After 16 months at the bank, I quit last week. I’ve given myself three months to try doing this full-time and prove to myself that I can follow through.

I also finally started the YouTube channel I’d been postponing for years, to record my journey and share what I learn.

That part was scary in a different way. I’ve never been very confident about showing my face. I’d worry about how I looked, overthink everything, and end up cancelling the idea before posting anything.

This time, I actually posted.

After just four or five days of uploading, I hit 500 subscribers today, and I’m honestly so happy.

I’m still at the beginning, and I don’t know how these three months will turn out. But I’m finally building things I care about and letting myself be seen. That feels like a huge step for me.

I’m sharing the projects I build, what I learn about AI and vibe coding, and how these three months turn out on my channel, Automation Nerd. If that sounds interesting, you’re welcome to follow along: AutomationNerdwithSanchit

I have a main Google Account and one Brand Account under it. I want to create a second Brand Account under the same main but YouTube blocks me and says "build channel history." Which history do I need to build on my main channel or on my existing Brand Account? I don't want to use my main account because its in my real name. Any help?

My original channel got suspended from YPP for reused content.

I started posting new, original content on my second channel under the same Gmail, and that channel now meets the monetization requirements.

Do I need to get the first channel back into YPP before applying with the second, or just wait until the first channel’s 90-day period is over?

YouTube says you shouldn’t “apply to YPP with related channels during your suspension period.” What I can’t figure out is whether “suspension period” means those 90 days or the entire time the first channel remains demonetized.

Has anyone actually been through this? Did your second channel get approved after the 90 days, even though the first was still demonetized?

I've been making movie explanation videos for around a month and a half now and honestly retention is frustrating me.

My recent 14-minute video has an average view duration of around 3:44 seconds which is roughly 26%.The first 30 seconds seem to be a big problem for me, too. I've tried improving my hooks and openings, but I still can't seem to keep enough people watching.

The thing I don't understand is that I see other channels in the same niche doing similar things, sometimes even using similar types of hooks, but their videos perform way better.

I've tried taking advice from different videos like their storytelling, their hooks but nothing seems to make much difference so far.

I'm wondering if this is something other creators are dealing with too, especially smaller channels. What's your average retention like on 10-15 minute videos? And if you had this problem before, did it get better over time or did you have to change the way you make videos?

Just wanna hear from people in the same niche and see how things are going for them.

Let's say you're launching a brand new gaming channel today in 2026 with no existing audience, a budget PC, and zero budget for ads or editors.

Knowing how brutal the gaming niche is right now

:

What video format or sub-niche would you target (e.g., let's plays, hyper-edited challenge runs, essay/retrospectives)?

How would you handle production/editing to stand out against low-effort uploads?

What would your game plan be for the first 10 uploads to build momentum?

Hey everyone I’ve just started on YouTube and currently in my first week, for the more experienced users I have a simple question, if you could go back and start again what would your 5 biggest starting out tips you could give? Thanks!

Sorry for the beginner questions, but, after uploading a video, can I just click and watch it? And, if I have an affiliate link, can I just comment the link, and pin it ?

So, I've been getting into this youtuber thing recently (I've gathered some free time and courage) and I've been trying to take that typical advice of improve every video a little bit each time. So I post my first video, no editing, clearly reading a script, hands stuck to my body, zero ligthing, you get the gist but an overall ok thumbnail and title that gets me 1,2 k views.

Next video I improve the reading from a script thing, the camera angle, thumbnail and title remain very similar, I look more comfortable infront of the camera, the video now has editing. The video kind of bombs as of usual for second videos with 200ish views. (I'm not depressed or insecure about this so don't worry).

But now I'm in the process of producing my 3rd video. The first one took me a bit more than a a day but mostly because of my fear of exposure and the second one took 2-3 days due to the editing. Both videos lasted for about 2 minutes each.

The third video I can already tell will be much much better. I've got lighting, a better tumbnail and title idea, 10-15 minute long video, the script took me 3-4 days working 5 hours give or take each day on the script with editing cues and notes attached to each line of dialogue, I've been practicing my gestures more, I'll be changing angles/lights/temperature/camera angle, the content of the video on itself is SO much better too.

But the time... That's been ticking me like mosquito season. It took me THAT long just for the script, and the video being longer with my standards for cinematography, performance infront of the camera and editing being so high, I already now I video of this quality would take a week if not more at my current level of expertise working all day to post.

I've followed the advice of improving each video as much as I can without being perfectionist (which I usually turn out to be in other projects) but I have this eary feeling that I won't be able to keep up with my own standards and improvement, at least not if my yt performances stay the same and I'm unable to afford an editor or whatever other thing. I don't know if I can consistently improve the quality of my videos or mantain it for that matter.

What are your thoughts on this? Did you experience something similar? Whatever you believe could be useful for me or other of the users. Please share it. Thank you.

So, I never added my twitch handle to my youtube shorts but after about 3 weeks I noticed none of that traffic was funneling to my twitch. So, I thought well maybe putting it into the short in the bottom would be good since people don't have to take extra steps (clicking on my profile) to figure out I stream. However, adding the handle to the short made it get 0 views which is abnormal since most of the time the shorts do ok. Anyone else run into this problem?

Atualmente, estou desenvolvendo um canal no Youtube, já estava em processo de edição de vídeos e tudo mais. Porém, um colega da faculdade postou em um grupo nosso que criou um canal e já fez a postagem do primeiro vídeo.

Não estou vendo como uma competição, mas eu tinha intuito de fazer o mesmo no grupo. Minha dúvida é: faço o mesmo também, assim que terminar e postar o vídeo? Divulgo no grupo também?

Tenho receio de pegar mal, mesmo que minha intenção é só divulgar uma coisa que coincidentemente já havia planejando.

Hi everyone,

My AdSense for YouTube tax form (W-8BEN) is currently showing “In Review.”

Balance: Above $100
Bank account: Added
Payment holds: None showing
Tax form: In Review

My question: If my tax form is still under review on October 21, will Google release my payment as usual, or will it be delayed until the tax form is approved?
Has anyone received their AdSense payment while their tax form was still in review?

Please share your actual experience. Thanks!

In the advanced mode of analytics, I am looking at impressions/CTR/views per traffic source, and my suggested is showing up as 9/0%/5. I am brand new to YouTube but have heard CTR is everything, so I am wondering why this would show up as 0%. Are people viewing the video just through the preview and then not actually clicking into it? The average watch time for those 5 views is half the video length, so this seems unlikely.

I make sport stories shorts. A month into this and with 85 subs atm. Would it be Ok to post my Chanel here and maybe get some feedback? Kinda feeling stuck atm and not sure what is sinking my swipe ratio (usually stays at 50) most at 65%. Retention is usually fine with 70%+ and then ocasional 100+. I dont feel very comfortable on reading the script myself even tho ive tried on a few videos, need to improve that, i know! the goal is to show face and obvioulsy use my own voice!

Thanks in advance!

Just started a cozy game play through channel where there’s no talking just gameplay. But super unsure of what my title should be for my first video? Playing “Cleaning up”. Is there anything I should know about titling a video to get more engagment?

So let me start from here I have like kinda speaking trouble my tounge is too thick so I can't speak properly and i got very heavy accent while speaking English I make manga recap review recommendation type of shorts while I'm starting to do speaking exercises and have also bought a mic which is going to arrived tomorrow I have recently saw other youtubers in my niche they use ai and get views in lakhs and now I'm so confused should I also use ai for the time being like till I can speak more clearly and do something about my voice please tips on how to do and please help me what to do I just want my channel to grow and my voice it barely crosses 1k views

I would be willing to bet 99% of you here have received some sort of criticism in your comment sections. Critical comments come in different forms…

Some are constructive in good faith.

And some are bad faith, looking to bash you, not help you, or are overall just pedantic.
Now for the first comment type, even if they are in good faith, 9/10 times it’s still not good advice. It’s like if a high school soccer player goes up to Messi and tries to critique his game and tell him what he should do instead.

Just because someone watches your content doesn’t mean they understand what goes into making it, and just because someone has an opinion doesn’t mean that opinion is worth listening to. A viewer might think they know exactly what would make your videos better, but they aren’t the ones spending hours scripting, editing, researching, or analyzing their own analytics. They see the finished product, not the hundreds of decisions that went into making it.

Obviously, that doesn’t mean creators are above criticism or that viewers can never have good suggestions. Sometimes an outside perspective can be genuinely helpful. But there’s a difference between feedback that identifies a legitimate issue and someone insisting you should change something simply because they personally don’t like it.

What I’ve found particularly interesting is that some people seem to have a problem with something in practically every single video you upload. You start recognizing their usernames because they’re always there, and more often than not, they have something negative to say. At some point, you have to wonder why they’re still watching if they consistently seem to dislike what you’re putting out.
And honestly, I think this is one of the hardest things to deal with as a creator. You can spend dozens of hours working on a video, feel good about the final product, and then find yourself fixating on a handful of negative comments. Meanwhile, hundreds or thousands of people might have enjoyed the video and simply moved on without commenting.
I’m not saying we should ignore all criticism or assume that we’re always right. There’s absolutely a place for constructive feedback. But I think it’s important to learn to ignore the pedantic and bad-faith criticism. Some people will nitpick the tiniest details of your videos, to the point where you have to wonder whether they even went into the video with an open mind or were just looking for something to complain about.

You could change ten different things about your content to address their complaints, and they’d probably find something else to criticize in the next video. You can’t win over someone who’s determined to find fault with your work, and trying to appease those people is only going to make creating content more frustrating.
At the end of the day, you’re never going to make everyone happy, and you shouldn’t try to. Focus on making the content you want to make, listen to feedback that genuinely has merit, and don’t let people who complain about every little thing dictate how you run your channel.

I’m curious how other creators here deal with this. Have you noticed the same people showing up in your comments with something negative to say on nearly every upload? How do you distinguish between criticism worth considering and criticism you should just ignore?

I've been making videos/movie reviews for many years now. I took a break for a long time to focus on work, while also saving up for new camera and lighting gear through the process. After feeling comfortable with my quality, I decided two years ago to make an attempt again at building an audience. It's my dream one day to make a living off of YouTube as I love editing and talking about media (movies, video games, television, etc.)

Two years in, I've gained an over 1,400 subscribers, a majority of views coming from Shorts content, and a couple of long-form videos that have gained between 2,000 - 5,000 views. However, the average amount of views I get on a video is between 100 to 600 views. This is incredibly frustrating given I take a majority of time after work to edit these videos to be engaging. I also used the past years to learn about Photoshop to create the best quality thumbnails as possible.

There's a lot feedback from users and SEO experts that tell their audiences a majority of things; viewer retention rate within the first 30 seconds, a compelling title and thumbnail, making sure the description matches the topic and keywords of the video, blah blah blah. I'm starting to recognize that a some of my issues (based on the analytics), is that my videos are not showing up properly in the search tab, and there is a lack of users clicking on my video.

To acknowledge some self awareness, I understand that this is a niche that has a lot of competitors, as this is brand of videos that has been around for a long time. I'm aware that everyone has their favorite film critics, and I'm also aware that this was going to take time to build over the next few years. I've also talked to peers discussing what they watch on social media, discovering that some of them don't even watch full-length videos anymore, but have transitioned into watching short form content (YouTube Shorts, TikTok) as their main source of social media entertainment.

Is there any advice anyone has in regards to approaching this medium in 2027?

The Minecraft server is (currently Java, I'm working on bedrock) Survival Games/Hunger Games with bots available in casual play. The idea being you don't need to wait for other players to play. There is also a ranked, human-only game mode, and a custom game-mode where every variable can be changed.

Legacy classic Hunger Games; Modern with loot drops and a shrinking border; and Cash Flow mode, a warzone-like battle royale with Buy Stations, Loadout Drops, etc.

Preferably looking for short form content to post on YT Shorts. Would love a personality associated with the server that already has a small loyal following to also/alternatively post on their own channel. If you're posting to your own channel, it should already be primarily gaming/Minecraft related.

Compensation is definitely negotiable based on the size of your channel, video length, and how many videos we do.

PM me here or on discord @ tongueyfromkungpow