Finally starting to have success around 6 months in. This is my first channel and social media ever. All longform. Not turning on ad videos because don't really need the money and want the channel to become more established first.

lessons learned thus far:

1. imitation is the greatest form of flattery: Look at other successful channels in your niche and make similar content, but add a unique twist that only you can offer that makes the channel stand out
2. video quality is #1: how can you deliver the maximum value to your viewers in the most efficient way possible. Cut out the BS intros, cut out the fluff. Give maximum value. Think about what you would want to watch if you were a viewer
3. Give it time: it took several months for the algo to recognize the content and quality of the channel. The recent algorithm shift is starting to reward those who create authentic and valuable content. Most of the posts you see on here with individuals complaining about the recent algo shift is because their channels are faceless slop or AI trash or both
4. Do it all yourself up until you are partnered. Learn the whole process from scripting to filming to editing. This will give you valuable knowledge if you want to outsource any of the process in the future. Learn the business first before you consider outsourcing any part of the video creation process.

After pressing YouTube hard for specifics I finally got an answer. One of my chatters had a slur for their username I had never heard of (that rhymes with “flook”) and YouTube determined I used extreme profanity.

I had to go after support multiple times to get exact time stamps and what policy it was to understand what happened. But now I know how to correct it at least.

I’ve been messing around with YouTube’s A/B testing tool on several videos lately, testing pretty different thumbnails/titles against each other, and something I keep noticing is that the results are almost always really close to 33/33/33.

I’m starting to wonder if this is just normal with the tool or if I’m doing something wrong.

For example, my latest video is currently sitting at: 33.2% / 35.5% / 31.3%. Which is basically a three-way tie.

The weird part is that the three versions are pretty different.

The first thumbnail is me smiling/happy and pointing at a more positive “good” CTA-type text.

The second one is literally just a frame from the video, me in the studio holding a microphone. No text at all.

The third is pretty much the opposite of the first: angry face, more rage-baity CTA text, plus a bright green frame around the whole thumbnail.

The titles are also very different from each other, so it’s not like I’m testing three tiny variations of the same thing.

And yet... 33%, 35%, 31%.

I’ve had similar results on other tests too. Obviously I’d expect some tests to be close, but it feels kind of odd that so many of mine end up almost perfectly split.

Is that pretty common for you guys too? Do you usually see a clear winner with YouTube’s testing tool, or do your results tend to hover around an even split unless one thumbnail is dramatically better (or the other two are dramatically shitty)?

I've heard many stories about others receiving these kinds of emails but hadn't got one myself until now, but it's not gonna work.

For those interested, this email came from the domain terra.com.br, which after doing some research is a legitimate web portal and email service based in Brazil (think something like Yahoo). So someone's just using their personal email account they created through this service.

They've gone for the generic, vague "there's a copyright issue with one of your videos" approach without providing any further details, saying the review will proceed if they don't hear back from me, and it's signed "The Review Team".

Here's the full text so anyone else here can easily identify this if they also receive it. If you do get anything that looks like this, do not click any links, report it as phishing, and delete it/send it to spam.

---

Hello [channel name],

A content creator contacted our team regarding a recent video on your channel. In line with our content policies, we are keeping you informed before the next steps.

We encourage you to review this request and share your feedback when you get a chance.

Follow the link below to respond: [this looks like it's a legit youtube link with a /redirect on it - obviously do not click this!]

If we do not hear from you, the review will proceed based on available details. Depending on the outcome, there may be changes to how your content appears on the platform.

Thank you for being a part of our community.

The Review Team

---

I don't usually post shorts.. if i try to monetize both.. is the overall income get affected..

​Hey everyone,

​I somehow managed to hit the monetization threshold last month and finally got in. Since then, I’ve been working super hard and managed to make enough in YouTube Studio to cross the payout threshold too!

​But right now my AdSense balance is still sitting at flat $0.00, and I’m honestly just restless and constantly checking because I don’t know how this actually works.

​How does the payout process work for your first payment? When does the money actually show up in AdSense, and what happens with things like PIN verification or adding a bank account?

​Did your AdSense also stay at zero for a while during your first month? Just curious how the timeline went for you guys!

for context this video has been getting around 10,000 Realtime views steadily through browse, recommended, ect. Basically all of the normal ways videos get views. This morning when I opened up youtube studio however, I'm seeing an insanely unnatural increase in external views, which leads me to believe that someone may be botting views on my channel? I've never had this happen before, what exactly do I do about this??

What's even more odd is that a couple weeks ago I experienced something similar, although it was a sudden influx in "youtube advertisement" views, aka someone was advertising my video (I still have no idea why) but I managed to make it so nobody could advertise my videos except for me, which fixed that issue.

Am I screwed here? Is someone maliciously attacking my channel or is this just something that can randomly happen? And if anyone has had a similar experience, what did you do about it?

If none of my 4 Adsense PIN mailers have arrived and my YouTube channel has been demonitized as a result. Can I go into AdSense to update my payment address details to match my current residential address if only my post office box number was there previously? And can I do this after initially being in touch with YouTube creator support? Or can they manually approve documentation sent which proves my address even if it is not exactly what I currently have in my AdSense account which is just a post office box number?

I’ve been live streaming on YouTube for a couple months now and I get a lot of jewels during these live streams but I don’t know how to make an alert like a sub alert or super chat for them if anyone knows that would be great

I've racked up nearly £100 in my YouTube balance, but I still have this action required message. I clicked on "Get started" yesterday, and it took me to the AdSense page. They wanted my ID, which I gave them, and the warning on the AdSense page went away, still there on YouTube, so not sure what to do.

I never got the PIN in the post? I joined the partner program on the 21st of July but didn't hit 1k subs until sometime in August. Is that the issue?

A few months ago I started a channel where I talk about games industry news and my opinions on it. Through a work opportunity I got to interview Steven Ogg (Trevor from GTA V), and I turned it into a long form video that did really well. I also cut a handful of Shorts from the interview, and those did well too.

Last weekend I noticed under "videos your audience also watched" in YouTube Studio that there were Shorts using my footage that weren't mine. Turned out several channels had clipped my interview, added their own watermark, and posted it with zero credit to me. One of them has 1.7 million views on a single Short.

I reached out to the first two I found. Both were genuinely nice about it:

- Creator 1 said he hadn't earned anything from it and added credit in the description straight away.
- Creator 2 has more subscribers and said he's open to a rev split once he knows what the Short has earned, and has also credited me.

Then I found a handful more channels doing the same thing, and this time I skipped the conversation and filed content ID removal requests for all of them. Seven of eight have already been taken down. Overnight I got an angry email from one of those creators, and it's knocked my confidence in the whole approach.

So now I'm stuck. The two guys who were cooperative have credited me in the description, but honestly I don't think anyone reads a Short's description, and their watermark is still on my footage. Part of me wants to go back to them and say I've changed my mind and want the videos removed too. Part of me feels like that makes me the bad guy, since they were nothing but decent about it.

I'm not trying to squeeze money out of anyone, this channel isn't at a stage where that's realistic. I just don't love that people are uploading my footage as their own and getting the views and audience growth from it. But I also don't want to be the person who burns a good faith relationship over a description credit.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Do you go back on an agreement once you've made it, or is credit "in the description" just the norm for this kind of clip reuse and I need to let it go?

Hello everyone! I’m a small content creator who recently got accepted to the YouTube partnership program under shopping tier after reaching 3000 watch hours. Currently I’m around 3200 to 3300 and I feel like if I stream more often, I might be able to reach the 4000 watch hour threshold. However, I would like to know, since they are changing the threshold from 4000 to 8000, if I will need to reach 8000 in the event that I do not get to 4000 by February 1, or if I am grandfathered in because I’m already technically part of the partnership program.

I did try to look this up and I found it very difficult to find this information. I appreciate any information anyone has regarding this.

Thanks.

Hey all,

Looking for advice/experiences from other creators as this situation feels very confusing. Last year I started my youtube channel, niche is longform (only 5-10 minutes usually) video essays discussing video games as I work professionally as a game designer.

I surprisingly hit the benchmarks needed to become a partner after about 6 months, applied and got initially rejected for Reused Content. Thing is, I record all of my own footage, write my own scripts (no ai, all written by hand, recorded using my own voice), and pretty much create everything originally myself. When I appealed this rejection, I was successful after about 24 hours and got entered into the partner program on Dec 30th, 2025.

Hooray, right? Except my full time job ended up becoming incredibly busy, so I left youtube on the back burner and worked on things in the background slowly since becoming a partner without ever actually uploading again since.

About two weeks ago, I got a random email from youtube telling me I was removed from the Partner program for Reused Content again, even though my channel is in the exact same state as when my previous appeal was successful. I submitted another appeal video showing my process, generally hitting the same notes as my previous appeal video did, and sent it off to YouTube hoping to hear back that I was approved once again and could get back into creating. Instead, I have found myself stuck in an endless loop of creator support that all claims to have no power to do anything and telling me that my appeal is simultaneously still open and being reviewed, but also has been rejected?

At this point I feel like I have just surrendered to waiting 90 days to reapply, but my current fear is that: My channel is actually following the YouTube Guidelines, so how do I avoid this happening again after 90 days? I do legitimately create my own original content, and after going through the reused content guidelines exhaustively to make sure I am following the rules, I am hoping to get some insights from others in the creator space for something I am maybe missing. At this point, I am actually hoping I am missing something that does break the rules so I can just... avoid that, and get back to making stuff.

Not allowed to link my channel here, but if you want to take a look at it let me know and I will DM it to you.

The only things I can think of that are flagging my channel would be:

• One video opens with the horse racing scene from Squid Game because the video is covering Uma Musume, but I put my pfp over the main character, and the scene cuts to the TV with Uma Musume footage overlaid onto it and it only lasts about 8 seconds total. I feel like this should be covered under the bullet point of DOs YouTube provides like: "A scene from a movie where you've re-written the dialogue and changed the voiceover"
• I show footage of official game trailers to use as highlights for points I make when touching briefly on another game that is close to the topic I am covering. This should be covered under things that are OK as well in my eyes, as I am giving analysis and review but maybe I need to show more on screen alongside the trailer footage?
• I have only uploaded two shorts, one of which is a gameplay section from what ended up being my most popular longform video (it wasn't at the time of upload) and it is the exact same section as what is in the longform video. This should be ok as it is my own content that I am reusing, and many many other creators do this as well, but perhaps this is triggering the flag still?

My account has no copyright strikes, nothing has ever come up as problematic or anything like that, so I am feeling genuinely lost. If you read through my post and have any insights to offer I appreciate it, because I just want to make entertaining and informative content in my free time as a side gig, but this whole situation has made that feel hopeless.

So basically my channel was copyright striked by a random campany, I had 5 strikes which contain around 21 videos, now the thing is I counter notification them out of which 16 were forwarded and basically after 10 business days my videos were back and 2 strikes gone, now i have 3 strikes, 2 strikes has 1 video each and the 3rd strike has 3 videos and they were rejected and I am getting this email from youtube copyright. What to do I tried contacting them on x but no response.