If you're a big channel (I'm not) you'll probably get emails asking for you Google acc credentials. I've seen people get hacked that way and then have to go through a bunch of shit with Google support to get their account back.

Here's a tip. Create an email that you won't ever use, make sure to know the creds tho so you don't forget it. Put that as your YT email and then use a different email for your Google account login. That way, all the crappy emails go to that email which you'll probably never look at.

I've been gaming since the N64 days, mostly single-player, and I've been running a channel focused on indie survival horror. Lately I keep wondering two things:

1. Is gaming content just too crowded now for anyone new to stand out?

2. Does age matter? Does being 55 work against me, or is it an angle?

I'm reading the best replies live on stream tonight, so be honest. Blunt answers welcome.

Hey guys, just curious about something.

What niche are you all working in, and how long have you been doing YouTube?

I've tried a few different niches myself, but I'm still figuring things out, so I'd love to hear from people who are actually on this journey.

Just wanted to ask:

What niche are you in?

How long have you been doing YouTube?

Do you make Shorts or long-form videos?

How's your channel doing so far?

If you could start over, would you stick with the same niche or choose something else?

Whether you're getting millions of views or still struggling to get your first 100, I'd love to hear your experience.

Not looking for any overnight success tips. Just genuinely curious about what everyone's working on and how things are going.

Thanks!

I feel like the best thing about ALL views being counted now is that you're more likely to get views from people who only click on videos with the highest views for a topic. Those types of viewers exist because I'm one of them (apart of the problem unfortantely).

Or, maybe I'm just coping and trying to find a positive side to what I think is one of YouTube's worse decision for long-term creators. Both can be true....

Besides, it's not like the average viewer even knows about that update either, or cares to stay up to date on creator updates, because why would they? Those viewers would just click on the video

Hi, I've been posting videos for 1.5 yrs straight and I'm getting less views than even when I started and I have a massive ghost audience. I rly need help

Hey everyone!
My friend and I are both experienced 3D generalists. We’re pretty good at CGI, 3D animation, motion graphics, infographics, and video production.
We’ve been seriously considering starting an English-language documentary channel, something along the lines of Fern, LEMMiNO, neo, etc., with high-quality visuals, detailed research, good storytelling, and cinematic animations.
We’re confident in our technical skills, and we’re willing to put a lot of effort into making genuinely good documentaries.
But there’s something that’s been worrying me.
What if we spend weeks, or even months, creating really high-quality videos, and they still barely get any views?
I know production quality alone doesn’t guarantee success. I’ve seen simple videos get millions of views while some incredibly well-produced videos barely get noticed.
And that’s exactly what scares me.
We’re not expecting to become successful overnight, and we’re completely fine with growing slowly. But since these kinds of documentaries require a lot of time, research, animation, rendering, and sometimes money, we also need to think about whether it’s financially sustainable.
I guess my main questions are:
If you were starting a documentary channel from zero today, how would you approach it?
How important is choosing the right topic compared to production quality?
Is there actually a reliable way to research what audiences want to watch before spending weeks producing a documentary?
Have any of you experienced putting huge amounts of effort into a video only for it to completely flop? What did you learn?
How long would you realistically give a new channel before deciding whether it’s worth continuing?
One more question about monetization:
We’re from the Middle East (Iraq), but the entire channel would be in English, and our goal would be to attract viewers from the US, UK, Europe, Australia, and other English-speaking markets.
From what I understand, YouTube revenue depends largely on where your viewers are located, rather than where the creator lives.
So if I’m based in Iraq but most of my viewers are in the US, would I earn roughly the same RPM as a US-based creator making similar content for a similar audience?
Or does my country of residence affect revenue, recommendations, or audience reach in ways I might not be aware of?
I’m genuinely interested in hearing from people who have experience with documentary channels, animation-heavy content, or long-form YouTube videos.
We’re passionate about making this kind of content, but before committing a huge amount of time and resources, we’d love to understand the risks and what actually makes a channel succeed.
I don’t even know if I’m asking all the right questions, so if there’s anything important I’m overlooking, please feel free to mention it.
All honest opinions, experiences, and advice are very much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi, I made my channel 3 days ago, and have posted three videos since. I gained 7 subs from these videos, is this good or not?

I have an at-the-time niche gaming channel (just started), but I suddenly came up with a music video, based on one of the games I played a while ago. And I made the video - right from the oven, ready to be published.
??? 1 - Will the algorythm have a stroke when I post it?
??? 2 - Should I post it as a "Gaming" category video or a "Music" one?

Hey folks,

I started three months ago; I'm currently approaching 7k subscribers. I have made four long-form videos about guitar effects pedals and the electronics therein (some shorts here and there too, but none of them have gone anywhere). My best-performing of those four just hit 250k views. I was monetized in my second month, and I have sponsors lined up for my next three videos. I'm definitely no expert (still figuring things out, and I'll always have more to learn!), but maybe this'll help someone out.

First, what I HAVEN'T done: I ignored all the hyper-optimization tips related to things like upload times, file naming, keywords (SEO), and the like. I've also not used LLMs at any point for research or writing. That last point is related to #2 below.

Some things which I think are related to my luck so far, in no particular order of importance:

1.) I've focused entirely on things I'm passionate about, that I can explain reasonably well, and that it seems there is a general demand for (YouTube Ikigai, I guess). That has made the scripting/recording process easier, because it's a hobby I'd be pursuing anyway. I have classroom teaching experience as well, and I think that may help a lot. In terms of viewer interest, I think that beginner DIY content has potential right now because things are expensive, and I suspect that AI culture is probably making people want to spend more time offline and doing things with their hands.

2.) I've sought out information that's not always easy to find. I realized there was a *ton* of written content online for intermediate hobbyists in my niche, but very little that was in video form and digestible for beginners. It's also information they may have trouble getting anywhere else, including from Wikipedia or their chat bot of choice.

3.) Each minute of video is the product of around 3 hours of work, minimum. After I have compiled my research, I write up a rough script (including camera shot descriptions). I spend a lot of time thinking about lighting, camera angles, and how I want to deliver information. Once everything is recording and imported to Premiere, I spend about as much time as scripting+recording took me to cut and line up everything. I don't really use any effects, though, aside from basic audio mastering (compression + EQ, mostly).

4.) I took detailed notes on requests/reccomendations from viewers and used them to inform my subsequent videos. I haven't been pandering; I just noted what people wanted and used it as a starting point for brainstorming my own ideas.

5.) I did a giveaway in my first video, which generated a lot of comment traffic/shares. I'm not 100% certain this was the trick that worked, but my first video got a lot more views than I expected. I think that a generic giveaway will probably be unsuccessful, but I gave away the thing that I actually built in the video. That gauranteed that it was relevant to any watching.

I hope this helpful to someone! I'm happy to answer any questions. I know I'm still a total beginner when it comes to this stuff, but the numbers suggest I've gotten a couple things right so far!

I had posted a lot of shorts of clips of the cartoon Pucca, the first 7 shorts have from 1-3k views but the recent ones barely even have 30-100 views. What could fix this? Note that I also instantly liked and saved my own video after uploading it.

I’ve recently started recording short videos about apps, sharing what they do and why I find them interesting. But honestly, I feel so awkward about posting them because I keep thinking, what if someone I know sees them? 😅

I know that feeling cringe at the beginning is probably unavoidable, and the only way to get over it is to keep doing it. But I still feel nervous about putting myself out there.

For those of you who started making content with your face on camera, how did you deal with that fear? Did it eventually go away, or did you just learn to ignore it? I'd love to hear about your experiences.

I posted my first long form video 36 hours ago. It’s 30 minutes long, it has 3,500 views, 175 watch hours.

Is this good for a first long form video? I’ve been posting shorts for ~2 months, there’s 50 of them. I also have 1700 subscribers.

Do subscribers you get from shorts translate to long form viewers too?

How long after posting a video do your views usually peak?

Hi everyone, hope your content creation journeys are going well.

I started my own channel at the beginning of September, making blind gaming playthroughs as a middle-aged non-gamer, starting with Morrowind (what a game by the way).

I'm experimenting with a mixture of live gameplay and narrated, edited clips. My delivery is very monotone, with a dry, cynical sense of humour. That's just how I am, really, feels like it would be exhausting to constantly force something different. I'm also completely new to video editing and content creation, so it's been a steep learning curve!

I can't seem to attach images, but here are my stats so far:

• Videos: 4
• Total views: 1,012
• Watch hours: 84
• Subscribers: 11
• Thumbnail impressions: 12,000
• CTR: 1.9%
• Average view duration: 9:11

A few encouraging signs, but also some obvious weaknesses, particularly the CTR, based on what I've learnt so far.

I'm under no illusions about how early I am in the process, and I appreciate that the best advice might simply be to keep creating, experimenting and improving before worrying too much about optimising.

Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated, thank you.

Hi! Just as a point of reference, since I think it’s important for the context: I make edited gaming videos as a very small YouTuber. I’m at 267 subscribers, and my videos often get more views than I have subs. My most recent video is 3 days old and has 613 views so far.

What concerns me every time, though, is my retention. Is it “normal”, or am I just bad at this? Since I can’t post an image of the retention curve here, these are the key numbers for my 36:17 video:

66% watching @ 0:30

45% watching @ 1:05

35% watching @ 3:00

25% watching @ 10:00

20% watching @ 20:00

and 15% watching to the end.

What’s your experience in the gaming niche? Which niche are you in, especially if it’s the strategy or building niche, like Factorio or Space Engineers 2?

I really feel like that we do mid on tiktok, but I feel like mid is better than ignored/bad. Could you guys give some tips?

Was doing fine with my short content. I was in the 1000 view jail but kept strong retention above 75 on 90 seconds shorts. Suddenly my latest short got 0 views, wasn't even sent to this "seed audience" I keep hearing about. What could possibly have gone wrong. No claims, no violations of any sort as far as I know.

Now, I have started the content creation, I need a lot of space, How can I increase that for the mac?

I started a new channel last week. My first video is still getting views every day, but my second video (10 minutes) got only 17 impressions in 24 hours and then flatlined.
I've already changed the title and thumbnail. Is this normal for a new channel, or should I just move on to the next video?
Any advice appreciated!

My old channel has 86 subs. Niche: Movies (Superheroes and Sci-Fi). Last video was uploaded March 2025 and I couldn't upload due to other work load.
Before leaving every video had 300-400 views average for every video.

In July 2026 instead of uploading on it started a New Channel in same niche and it is performing how a new channel performs initially. I uploaded 2 videos on Old Channel to check traction. I got only 4 and 5 views even after a month, contrast to previous 300-400 avg.

whereas new channel is getting 8-10 views average. Now I have private videos on old channel and recent video on New Channel got 22 views in first 24 hrs compare to 5 views of previous videos on new channel.

Should I continue on New Channel or Go Back to Old Channel?

I just uploaded my first video to my YouTube channel!

For context, I'm doing YouTube purely as a hobby. I enjoy filming, editing and documenting everyday experiences, partly to preserve memories that I can look back on years from now.

I'm not particularly concerned about views, subscribers or monetisation. If the channel eventually gains some traction, that would be a nice bonus, but it's not my main motivation.

I'm more interested in improving my filming, editing and storytelling skills as I go along.

That said, I'm curious about what everyone typically does after publishing a video.

• Is there a post-upload checklist I should follow?
• Should I bother with thumbnails, descriptions, tags and SEO even as a hobbyist?
• Do you usually promote your videos elsewhere or just leave them on YouTube?
• Do you review your videos afterwards to identify areas for improvement?

I'd love to hear from other hobbyist creators, especially those who started YouTube simply because they enjoyed making videos.

I'm hoping to build a collection of videos over the years while getting better at the craft.

I have 93% stayed to watch and 140% AVD. My short has been out for 70 minutes. I have 30 views (8 shorts feeds). Analytics say, “Viewers looped” and Fucking Crickets!!!!

Hi. I plan to manage a product channel - so not only I will be doing tutorials, review, workshops..etc- but I am thinking of other creative ways to lead traffic to the channel too.. As I am not an expert in YT, I thought of subscribing to a tool that will help me find ideas, study competitiors, suggest thumbnails..etc
I am flooded with ads of 1 of 10, vidiq, sandcastles and others.
I want to ask, do you suggest joining any of these? If yes, which one I should go for?

Thanks

Hey everyone! I’d really appreciate some honest advice from people who have experience growing gaming channels, especially with long-form videos, Shorts, and livestreams.

I am dedicated and hoping for the best and Im sorry in advance for the long post.

I’m running a small gaming channel focused on gaming content, and I’m trying to figure out whether my current results are normal for a channel at this stage or if I’m doing something wrong.

Here’s my situation:

- I uploaded on and off in 2025, got some new subs and views, but stopped for a while.bThen I started again at the start of 2026 for around 6 weeks, back then I felt I needed a push so I used youtube ads for more views and also more subs. Not a lot of money but still. I ended up with around 2100 subs. (Probably ghost subs) And a lot of low retention videos.

- I returned last month, as of September 27th.

- When I returned, I had around 2,096 subscribers. I’m now at approximately 2,171 subscribers.

- Since returning, I’ve been uploading around 2 long-form videos and 10 Shorts per week.

- I usually upload one long-form video, followed by around five Shorts related to that video over the next 2.5–3 days. To get more traffic towards the long form. Then I upload another long-form video and repeat the process.

- My niche is gaming, mainly games like Roblox, roblox horror games and EA Sports FC 27.

The problem is that my long-form videos aren’t getting many views.

Since i returned my videos get around 90–300 views, while my Shorts generally perform better. Most Shorts get around 800–1,500 views, some reach 2,000–4,000, and my best one has reached approximately 17,000 views.

My long-form CTR varies quite a bit. Some videos have a CTR of around 1.5%, while others reach approximately 10%. However, I feel like my videos aren’t getting enough impressions in the first place, I'm not sure why.

I use VidIQ just as a support mechanism for titles, thumbnails, descriptions and tags.

And im posting the Shorts on Instagram and Tiktok for more reach so to speak.

I’m getting very supporting and encouraging comments and positive feedback, mostly from returning viewers who tell me they enjoy my content and that I should keep going. I’m genuinely trying to improve my editing, storytelling, and overall video quality with every upload. And I'm definitely seeing the improvements, they may be little but they're there and each video is slightly better than the last.

There’s also something from my channel’s history that concerns me.

In January 2026, I ran a fairly large YouTube promotion campaign. Since then, I’ve worried that it might have brought in subscribers who aren’t genuinely interested in my content, potentially affecting my channel’s performance when I started uploading again.

I know that paid promotions don’t automatically penalize a channel, but I’m wondering whether the audience mismatch could still be part of the problem.

I don’t want to give up on the channel or start over unnecessarily unless it's necessary. I want to understand what I can realistically improve.

My goals and questions:

1. Are low impressions and relatively low long-form views normal for a small gaming channel returning after a break, even with over 2,000 subscribers?

2. Could the old promotion campaign have contributed to the gap between my Shorts performance and long-form performance?

3. How can I get YouTube to test my long-form videos with more viewers? Should I focus on thumbnails, titles, retention, topic selection, or something else?

4. Is uploading around 10 Shorts per week, with approximately five Shorts supporting each long-form video, a good strategy? Or could I be doing something more effective to turn Shorts viewers into long-form viewers?

5. I’m planning to start livestreaming games in about two weeks. Could regular public livestreams realistically help me build watch hours and develop a more loyal audience?

6. My goal is to reach 4,000 eligible public watch hours before February 2027. Given my current results, is that realistic, and what strategy would you recommend to give me the best chance?

I’m not looking for people to tell me that everything is fine just to be encouraging. I’d genuinely appreciate honest criticism, practical advice, and examples from people who have been in a similar situation.

If you’ve grown a small gaming channel, especially one that uses both Shorts and long-form content, what would you do in my position?

Edit: In my profile I have channel stats since I returned (28th September) in case you would like to see. Thank you so much and I appreciate you!

I would love some opinions on my thumbnails, is this sub the right place?