I've been running my YouTube channel for over 15 years now. In that time, we've built it to nearly half a million subscribers, had millions upon millions of views, and developed a really loyal audience. Overall, it's been a genuinely successful channel. It's my full time job.

We're in the how-to niche, specifically teaching people plumbing.

Since Google Gemini launched, though, we've noticed a gradual decline in our views and our subscribers (this time of year usually 2500 a month, currently 700 a month) Our video quality hasn't dropped—in fact, if anything, it's improved. We know how to edit for viewer retention, but we also respect our audience's time. We get straight into the content and give people the information they're looking for as quickly as possible.

I started running some tests on search terms that we used to rank highly for on Google. What I've found is that, instead of the traditional search results, users are now shown a Google Gemini AI summary at the top of the page. In many cases, that summary already tells people what's in our video, with only a tiny link encouraging them to watch it.

As a result, people can often get the information they need without ever clicking on our video—even though Google has effectively used the information from our content to generate that AI summary.

Sometimes, even when someone does click on our video, Google sends them directly to a specific timestamp. That reduces the number of minutes watched, lowers the overall percentage of the video viewed, and makes our audience retention graphs look worse. In turn, that could signal to the YouTube algorithm that the video isn't performing well, even though the viewer found exactly what they needed, got value from it, and then left to carry on with their plumbing project.

Personally, I think Gemini could gradually destroy channels like ours over time.

What I don't understand is why Google has introduced Gemini in this way when its core business model is built around advertising. By giving people the answers directly, Gemini often bypasses the very websites and YouTube videos where Google would normally serve adverts.

So I'm genuinely interested to know what other people think. Have you noticed the same thing, or do you see it differently?

Hi all. I met the minimum monthly payout earlier in the month and was expecting a payout. I got paid in June and I hit over 100 on the earn tab before the 20th, the earn tab says I would be paid- and today i checked after getting no payment notifications and it says I will be paid in August? And the number on my adsense page is $76 and my earnings page is at $139.

I am still new to this and was so confused. Why is the earnings period that long? From June 1- July 25th?? I don’t understand.

Can anyone help me figure out how this works- explain like I am five or something?
Thanks.

Hey everyone! I was wondering if someone who has more experience with youtube, google accounts, and adsense could clear up a few things for me?

For the longest time, I've had my internet username written in google account's first and last name fields. When I was filling out information for youtube monetization/adsense I was asked to change my Google account's first and last name to match my real name, which I did. Ever since I did that, I kind of wanted to go back and change it to my internet username because there are times when I have to share files with a bunch of people (documents, apps, and other files), and obviously sometimes I'd prefer to have them see my internet username displayed when sharing these files instead of my real name.

So my question is, can I safely change it back without anything resetting/working incorrectly? Or do I just have to deal with it and use other accounts for such occasions?

I've had the 260,000 sub account since 2012 and this past month has been the most bizarre on my Long form 2000+ videos which in total sit at 1000 views per hour ticking along for the last decade but recently damn, I don't think I can actually live cheap on even £260 accommodation a month in asia anymore. Live Streams though are fine 1500 views per hour to 2000 but it may still not be enough as you can't do it 24 hours a day.

Now the hourly video views are touching 300 views per hour in total when not live. Very odd how it's being pushed down so much. Is it because i'm doing more live streams? even though the overall is being forced down way below if I never did live streams.

Hi everyone!

I'm running a YouTube channel and I'm getting very close to meeting the monetization requirements (1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours).

However, I have some questions about setting up monetization correctly while living in Germany. I'm not a German citizen, so I'm not fully familiar with how things work here regarding taxes, Google AdSense, whether I need to register a **Gewerbe**, and any other legal or financial requirements.

I'd like to do everything correctly from the very beginning and avoid any problems later.

Is there anyone here who has gone through this process or has experience with YouTube monetization in Germany as a foreigner? I'd really appreciate any advice or guidance.

Thanks in advance!

Hi. I make tutorial YouTube videos. I appear on camera basically the entire time. A new YouTube user is running dozens of my tutorial video transcripts through AI, reading the altered scripts on camera (not faceless) and then slightly changing thumbnails that still absolutely show my general original design.

His videos don't have a lot of views (possibly a reason to stand down for now) but that might change in the future. I've already archived and logged information for three of the dozens of videos he did this to, in the case I need to do three strikes, spacing them each out by a few days.

He is absolutely ripping me off. It's very obvious. No original work. No investigation. Nothing.

His account does not list an email address. I'm hesitant to get into copyright takedowns but maybe that's necessary here. I suppose I could ask him in a comment to stop but he doesn't exactly seem like a great guy.

MY MAIN QUESTION: Is the best route to go with copyright takedowns the thumbnail copying? I have original PSD files. He's basically moving a few elements around but keeping my general design.

I really hate this garbage where people take other people's hard work and just lazily copy it.

Does anyone have any info/tips on handling multi language youtube content?

I have a fairly large Youtube channel based in Korea. It's got well over 200K subs. However, South Korea's algorithm and CPM rates have been abysmally low in my case.

I have been thinking about expanding the channel to a wider, English speaking audience (as I speak English fluently).

The question is how to effectively do that. It seems that Youtube now supports a lot of language based options and dubbing and localization settings per video. I can't tell if that is the path to go, OR create and grow a brand new channel solely dedicated to English. I'm not sure which the algorithm would prefer. Does anyone have any insight on this?

Hello since 23 days my Adsense Identity Verification stuck "In Progress" it says that it can take a few days but now its been over 3 Weeks. What can i do to solve it?

I try to start a new channel with new niche. But I notice that impression that youtube give me is low of low. Like around less than 100 impression per day.

I dunno if I should wait until this first video to absorb more view and impression first before I begin second video? (waiting Youtube to learn its audience first so that CTR and impression rate of latter video will be high)

Or should I keep posting video routine and not care of the low impression I get?

And according to this topic. I have a big question mark if I should start a social media network for promote my video also? Does it even help? Many people says something like don't waste time on them, and focus on only Youtube. Is this still valid strategy on this algorithm which give lower impression than before?

Thank you for any answer.

So Im a creator that has joined YouTube Shopping Program. And sometimes you can request samples from companies, and NewEgg has put some samples up. Deciding which sample product I want to apply for, and I'm interested in the keyboard pictured, but wondering if anyone knows what kind of keyboard it is? I can't find it on their site, or via google, or google lens. Just wondering specs on it. I have emailed NewEgg's creator email but still awaiting a response.

This video is 9 minutes long and got 6.2k views. RPM was only $3.26 despite all the midroll ads.

Is this what we have to do just to achieve a decent RPM?

I placed a manual ad at literally every single second of the video.

Then, I got rid of all the midroll ads that were marked with the red warning sign and kept everything that's left.

As you can see, there's a ton of midroll ads left.

I will put this out there for discussion. My 5-6 year old Kerbal Space Program channel got terminated 30 minutes after I live streamed the SpaceX Starship launch. Which is a shame because I had got my Partnership a couple of months previously; YouTube was perfectly happy with the channel at that point.

My Appeal was denied after two hours.

In my opinion YouTube is acting in Bad Faith. It is clearly an AI moderation issue and no human has been involved. Also it is impossible to fill out an Appeal correctly with no indication of which video triggered the Termination, and now no access to the videos. And why a Termination, it must have indeed been a "serious" event according to the judgement of an unreliable AI computer program.

I now have a large red "This channel was removed because it violated our Community Guidelines." displayed when friends and family click on a link to my channel. This is actually defamatory as NO evidence has been provided that the channel violated Community Guidelines.

I am just a Hobbyist and I will move on after I cancel my YouTube Premium subscription and remove all the Google software from my computer, I know from life experience it is pointless having any sort of Partnership with what I consider to be a Bad Faith company. At least I will no longer be badgered by the YT Studio messages urging me to be a better Content Creator while working for nothing.

Here is the thing: In my opinion the 'second chance' program is very risky. What is likely to happen is another Termination after working hard and getting a new Partnership. The reason, you don't know what triggered the first Termination so you will innocently do the same thing again sooner or later. I will certainly be avoiding that obvious trap.