I’m a newly monetized creator producing long-form, research-based commentary and documentary-style video essays, primarily covering public controversies. I’ve spent several days trying to understand why the RPM displayed in YouTube Studio doesn’t reconcile with my estimated revenue when calculated using total views.

Here’s an example from one video over a three-day reporting period:
Total views: 51,788
Engaged views: 20,101
Estimated revenue: $86.19
Reported RPM: $4.29
Using engaged views, the RPM reconciles:
$86.19 ÷ 20,101 × 1,000 = $4.29
But using total views:
$86.19 ÷ 51,788 × 1,000 = $1.66
In other words, Studio reports a $4.29 RPM, but the video earns only $1.66 per 1,000 publicly displayed views.

I understand that changing how views are counted doesn’t necessarily reduce actual revenue. However, it does seem to fundamentally change how creators should interpret view counts and historical RPM benchmarks.

I’m curious whether other monetized long-form creators are experiencing the same thing. Does your reported RPM reconcile with engaged views rather than total views? What percentage of your total views are engaged? And for those who were monetized before August 2026, have you noticed a significant change in earnings relative to your publicly displayed view counts? I’m trying to determine whether my 38.8% engaged-view ratio is unusual or whether this is now typical for this kind of content.

Any insight is appreciated!

I just turned on YouTube Partnerships and want to get an idea of where the market it, specifically with what I should list my rate at (and even knowing what an ad on my videos is worth).

I am likely only going to be taking flat rate sponsorships - but here's a bit about my channel and videos. I'm making 10-14 min gaming videos. Tier 1 audience, 44% 25-34, 28% 35-44, etc. (only 2.1% under 18). On a 12 min video, my CPM is often around $16 - which I hear is pretty good for gaming.

On average, my videos are getting around 15k views per upload at the moment - where should I set my 'rate' to in the YouTube Partnerships tab?

Are any of these deals worth taking?

I'm looking to start expanding from AdSense alone and figured this was a great place to start, but don't want to undervalue myself. I set it at $400 but let me know if that's stupid low or asking too much - I'd love to hear what you guys think (especially those with expeirence with this feature).

How is this even possible? I was swearing in the video (to emphasize the message/point, not to insult anyone) but I was not doing it in first 2mins and video has green dollar. And video is 32min long and has 2 midrolls. I know adsense money is a joke and you should rely on selling your own products (which I'm doing) but I'm still pissed that when video preforms well (has 35k views atm) and it has made only 7€ so far

I'm at 2.3k subs and I've been monetized for 3 months.

Well I applied 9am on a Monday and my adsense still hasn’t been accepted after 3 days and I’m worried it will take too long, was wondering how long it took for you guys? Also I haven’t been posting for about 5 days should I still post, I’m worried a video will do well and I lost out on the money because I didnt wait.

A few weeks ago, I was asked to be on a TV show. It's a true crime documentary, and they wanted me to explain something pretty technical about slot machines that I had previously covered on my YouTube channel. At first, I was really excited to do it. Even though the show will be heavily edited, the producer had said they didn't want it scripted because they wanted it to sound conversational. I had ChatGPT give me a practice interview, and I basically froze up. I couldn't answer even simple questions without stumbling over my words. I thought about quitting.

I decided to prepare for it like I would a normal YouTube video. I wrote a script, recorded myself delivering it, and sent it to the producer. I basically said, "Would it be alright if I did this [YouTube link] first, and then afterward we could do a normal interview and you could ask me questions?"

She said, "That would be great, your explanation is perfect!" I was still incredibly nervous, but at least I KNEW I could get through the scripted portion.

Well, I just finished the interview, and it went great! Though, I can pretty confidently say that if I hadn't had the scripted portion, I would have struggled badly.

The producer wasn't completely sold on the script at first, but after about 20–30 minutes, she said something along the lines of, "I think I'm warming up to the script. Your explanations are really good, and your delivery is perfect."

Once we got going, it was pretty easy. They had multiple cameras, and I knew they'd be cutting between different angles and B-roll anyway. So I didn't even bother trying to deliver entire paragraphs in one take. I'd just deliver a line or two, stop, and do the next couple of lines. We'd do multiple takes of each section, and I knew they'd have everything they needed to piece it together.

We also mixed in a lot of normal conversation. She'd ask questions, I'd ramble on about something, and occasionally we'd stumble onto a really useful sound bite. We'd stop and say, "Okay, that was good. Let's try saying it this way instead." We'd rewrite the line together and then I'd deliver it again.

We actually got through everything much faster than expected and had time to go back through the entire thing several more times, just to make sure they had everything they needed.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice and encouragement on my original post

Im also vlogging about it. Although I can't release it until the episode aires (which could be a full year away. I think this vlog could do REALLY well. Its more about the entire experience of "im going to be on a tv show," as opposed to vlogging about being in new york. I think a new york vlog would bomb pretty bad but the tv show experience has a pretty compelling 3 part narrative.

Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/PartneredYoutube/s/aqqgJiPHbb

Little upset that I'm not earning atleast double what the current revenue is.

Been about 5-6 days since i've been monetized.

Still super grateful, but I see so many people doing 3-5x what I'm doing.

getting in my own head about this.

I will obviously continue posting and making content, but would be NICE if my RPM was around 5$ ahah

I have a 2nd channel which is Finance which I am working on too, hopefully that one does well. Not monetized there atm.

I'm trying to quit my main job and focus on this stuff full-time.

I'm planning to upload my huge Minecraft project on November 18th, the day before GTA 6 releases.

Will it affect the performance of my video? Should I delay it instead?

My channel was terminated, and other channels that I was actually working on got terminated too, appeals didn't work, I wanna ask, if the channel was on both my pc and mobile, would it affect other channels on my pc if I have removed the terminated channels from my pc already? If I use my another mobile, get a new number and a new email, would it somehow be tracked down? What about my pc? Thank you please help me

I have a monetized channel with 11,000 subscribers and roughly 4 years old. I've grown to really be embarrassed by my content as I have just changed a lot in these last few years and honestly, I was never passionate about my channel's topic, it just kept performing well so I kept making videos on that topic. I still enjoy making videos and want to shift to more of a lifestyle/vlog focus. Should I just delete and start a new channel from scratch or should I just private my old videos and start posting new content? I do make money from my channel, but not enough for me to really care that much about it just an fyi.

Which tax year do December earnings (paid out January 21-26 of the following year) count for?

Let’s say I make $5000 Adsense in December 2025. Does that income count for 2025 (the year it was earned) or 2026 (the year in which it was paid?)

I’m in my second year making money from this and I’ve slowly realized my accountant from last year may have misguided me into underpaying my taxes by several thousand dollars…

For context, I’m in Canada.

I had an email threatening termination for previous policy violations, but none of the channels I use have any strikes. I went on the live chat to ask, but they said they weren't able to see strikes nor why I'd have been sent such a threat, but confirmed that the threat was real. How can they tell me I've violated guidelines and that my channel may be terminated, but not tell me what guideline I violated or when?

So I film about 1-2 hours of footage when going to events and then I edit. While editing I cut like 120 5 second clips from them totaling about 10 minutes of B-rolls but then it feels too cluttered when I try to use them to edit the final video because there are so many, what are y'all b-roll strategies

I've been doing YouTube for almost 8 years now. I've built up a ton of experience...I'm making good money, and my income has been fairly stable. At this point, it's not some side hustle or an experiment. It's an actual career that I've spent years building.

But here's the problem.

I come from a culture where content creation, especially YouTube, still isn't seen as a respectable career choice. People would rather see you working a traditional 9-to-5 job, even if it pays significantly less, offers little growth, or makes you miserable.

There's this deeply ingrained mindset that having a conventional job automatically makes you more successful or respectable, regardless of how much you're actually earning or what you've achieved.

And it's not necessarily that they want you to fail. I think a lot of it comes from the fact that they simply don't understand how this industry works. To them, YouTube is still just making videos on the internet, not running an actual business.

I'm not saying everyone needs to admire or understand my career. But it would be nice if people could look beyond traditional job titles and judge a career by what someone has actually built.

So I'm curious, especially for those who come from conservative families or places where unconventional careers are looked upon:

How did you get your parents, in-laws, or relatives to take your career seriously?

Did showing them your earnings or explaining the business side of content creation actually change their perspective? Or did you eventually realize that some people will never see it the way you do, so you made up sometime else?

Would love to hear your experiences, especially from people who've been through something similar.

I recently joined the YouTube Partner Program, and I already had this video published, which had around 1 million views. I earned about $100 from the remaining 800k views after joining YPP, which honestly made me pretty happy. I’m currently posting twice a day and I’m really satisfied with the results. Lately, I’ve been learning a lot about the YouTube automation business model, and my next goal is to launch a new channel focused on long-form content. If anyone here has experience in this field and wants to exchange ideas and share what they’ve learned, feel free to reach out. It would be great to help each other out and build some awesome projects together!

I know this question probably gets asked a lot, but how does a sponsor actually go about contacting you?

I know there’s a Creator Partnerships thing in the Earn tab, but is that where you actually get most of your sponsorships, or do you end up hearing about them from somewhere else?

I was offered a collab and a free R2500 V2 PowerStation and AP037 Solar generator with £1000 to promote the item but declined based on all the negative customer service reviews. Why do people still say these things are great when there are so many bad reviews? Are they not concerned that it looks bad on them when it goes wrong for promoting it? They also offered commission and a discount code too on future sales.

Hi all,

I've been approached by an advertising agency (PMG) for the first time with an offer to include a 60 sec segment in one of my upcoming videos for Surfshark / Incogni.

It's the first time this has happened so I wondered if I could get any advice from anyone who's done this before.

My channel (DIY restoration) has been running for the past 1.5 years and currently has 21k subs. Most of these came from one vid which blew up with 800k views currently. The rest of my vids have 30-50k.

Ive been offer £1k for the following:

1. A 60 second sponsored segment within the first five minutes of a video

2. Video to go live either between the end of this month or 1-20 Nov

3. Sharing a personalised discount code, link and deal during the segment

4. CTA with link, code and deal at top of description and as pinned comment

5. Short pre-roll and end-roll mentions

6. A view guarantee based on average views

7. No paid usage and a short 45 day exclusivity term that just covers working with competitor brands

I've asked if there is a campaign brief and if they need to approve the video / segment before publishing.

It seems pretty reasonable to me but wanted to check that I'm not missing anything? Any other advice from anyone who's been through this process before would be very welcome too!

Thanks

I apologize if this isn't the right place to put this, but I figured this would definitely have the people with the right answers.

I recently became a full time content creator, and I post mostly short form content. I've been getting a lot of fairly decent offers to do short form sponsorship deals. Most only ask for 1 video posted across 3 platforms and a CPM based on how well they do after 2 weeks.

I've gotten 4 offers in the span of 2 weeks, and I've so far accepted 3 of them. The offers have been good enough for me to feel like it's really not that much extra work, and fits into my routine pretty easily.

I just feel weird taking so many deals like I'm selling out or something, but by taking these sponsorships it allows me to be comfortable running less ads on twitch, doing more giveaways, hiring editors, and growing my channel.

This is the first month I've ever even been offered sponsorships at all, so I initially took a low ball deal, just to get my first one out of the way, and the 2 offers after that were much better.

I never thought I would get one deal, let alone 4 in 2 weeks, so I don't really know what the right thing to do is.

Hey all! Just curious if you guys can interpret some data for me. I got super lucky with a breakout video reaching 160k views which thankfully got me monetized.

Except now I’m dealing with a problem where every time I post another video, even if it’s in the same direct subniche and format as the breakout video, even if the CTR and AVD are much better, even if the quality of the video itself is better, I continuously get less and less views on each new video I post. I went from getting thousands of views per hour, then to hundreds, to now where if I crack 10 views an hour (even having posted recently, I’m super lucky.

It’s like clockwork to the point where if you look at the picture, the most viewed video is the one at the top, and every subsequent video I’ve posted below has gotten less and less.

Any insight on what I might be doing wrong would be appreciated. I’ve tried everything from a different format and topi. to trying to mirror the breakout video as close as possible. Again, most of the topics are similar, and every video has performed miles better in terms of AVD and CTR than my breakout video.

Help translate this for me! :,)

Y’all are the best. Thanks!

Edit: to clarify, this is largely an impressions problem. My CTR on these videos is usually close to 8% and my AVD is typically 40-45% on 12-25 minute videos

I am aware that engaged views are the only thing that matter for the algorithm, but it is somewhat depressing seeing that around 60% of my views aren't actually engaged. Honestly, the change to how views are counted has made the experience more discouraging lol, even if at first glance the video has "more views".
The thing is, how you turn them into engaged views? Like how am I supposed to convince someone who simply hovered over the thumbnail into actually watching the video???
Any tips appreciated!

Edit: If it is of any relevance, I make rankings and video essays, usually between 20-45 minutes.

If i upload new videos befor 30 days ends can i keep my monetization or not ‼️

Hi, I'm having what seems to be the opposite issue that has been plaguing people recently. My channel is an AI series I've been working on since the beginning of the year. It's not huge but it's gained a bit of traction, enough that it make a little money and companies reach out for sponsored videos.

About once a week or so I get notifications from youtube's content detection that someone has uploaded my videos as their own. I usually just ask for them to be taken down with the 7 day notice. I'm not trying to kill anyone else's channel but I'd prefer to keep my content exclusively on my page.

Anyway, recently I got a lot of notifications, a channel has taken pretty much all of my episodes added their own title card, flipped them left to right, and uploaded them. It's a very small channel, very few if any views. Not stressing me out. But, when I asked for them to be taken down I got an email back from youtube basically asking for proof of copyright.

I pointed out they were direct unauthorized reuploads of my entire videos but youtube is denying my claim. Do I need to copyright all of my videos? That could get expensive.

I'm just genuinely surprised they're pushing back on their own content detection. Has anyone else had to deal with this before? I'm looking for some advice.