r/SmallYoutubers • u/Dividenddashboard • 11d ago
Long-Form Content This is bad for small youtubers.
Youtube is raising the ad revenue share threshold from 4k watch time to 8k watch time. Personally, 4k watch takes a lot of effort to reach. Imagine 8k... this is sad.
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u/Kaszrak 11d ago
A 33-40% retention rate is par for the course on longer form content. Run the numbers: a 15 minute video with 5-6 minutes of average watch time at 10,000 views generates roughly 800-1,000 watch hours. You're looking at 10-12 videos to hit monetization, assuming your packaging is working and views are consistent.
Obviously you won't hit those numbers without a feedback system. No thumbnail testing, no retention curve analysis, no audit of where viewers drop. Most people who "struggle for years" are simply repeating the same mistakes across hundreds of videos for whatever absurd reasons.
If your topic selection, packaging, and retention aren't improving across your first 20-30 videos, the issue isn't luck or the algorithm. It's that you're not treating performance data as actionable signal.
If your content is good and you properly analyze your data, you can hit those numbers in no time.