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YouTube Opinion can you please tell me how much time it took to complete 4000 watch time

Sciency You

New Member
17
4
i want to be ready for the time I am going to invest on Youtube to complete my initial 4000 watch time hours and 1000 subscribers for monetization. i just wat you opinion
 

Randomlifestylevlog

Extremely Well-Known Member
TubeBuddy Pro
408
17
www.linktr.ee
Subscriber Goal
3000
Youtube is a marathon not a sprint and so anyone should be prepared for a long journey. It all depends on a number of things. Firstly if your content is engaging and people are clicking on it. Is your channel optimised enough to help ranking with search etc. Great thumbnails? The more you nail this as best as possible it will help you in the long run. We have been going a year and half and almost at the 450 mark but we focus on what we are creating not subscriber and view counts. If you thought about getting involved in sub for sub dont because that is against youtube and could affect your channel in the long run. So many people get fixated on numbers at the start they will do anything to get them. Focus on good content and promoting it and you will grow
 

nate polmateer

Known Member
153
9
Subscriber Goal
100
I can only really answer from my own experience, here are my thoughts. So It's been two months for me and I am at 189 watch time hours that is 5%...So by the math, I should have completed 1200 hours after 1 year or 30% [5%(for 2 months) x 6months = 30%]. But, I think Youtube math works a bit differently. As you upload more content people not only watch your original content but they watch your new content so that number should grow expeditiously. At this point, I have almost 1 hour of watch time per sub. I am also only at around 20 videos (not including shorts).

The watch time hours I have heard is the hardest part. I have heard that people get to the 1000 subs quicker than the watch time.

If you are about community and bringing value to them and don't focus on the numbers as that can be toxic. Focus on how can you provide an amazing experience and value to your community you are reaching out to. :)
 
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Avocado

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TubeBuddy User
238
12
www.spreadtheavocado.com
Subscriber Goal
1000000
i want to be ready for the time I am going to invest on Youtube to complete my initial 4000 watch time hours and 1000 subscribers for monetization. i just wat you opinion
I am still working on it. Playing make up. After a year, your videos from the year prior you loose those hours. So I am stuck around the same number every week.. Until one day I get a breakout video! lol
 
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SILTHW

Professional cat wrangler
3,619
27
Subscriber Goal
1000
I'll give you a bit of a different take. You will see lots of people here telling you that you need to hit the 50 video, or better - the 100 video milestone before you even really worry about it. Why? Because that's about the number of videos it takes to cement your style and to start to build a real audience. People over-focus on the monetization metrics and then don't understand why they aren't making any money when they get monetized. That's because in that rush to get monetized, you forgot to build an audience for your content. The audience is where the monetization goes from, not the subs or watch time.

Other note - you are unlikely to make a living off of YouTube monetization. AN exceedingly small number of people make real money from YouTube. Instead, they make money from monetizing their audience in multiple ways - Amazon affiliate links, product placement, sponsors, Patreon, etc. In fact, many people make way more money using these avenues and you can start doing that right now today.
 

Kindred

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TubeBuddy User
213
10
Subscriber Goal
1000
I've been doing YouTube for 2 years and still haven't reached it yet - I'm on 1200ish
 
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Beanie Draws

Mythical Poster
2,883
27
www.youtube.com
Subscriber Goal
30000
Interesting question.

I've always been a very niche channel. I draw Dinosaurs, and I started my channel a few months before Jurassic World was released, a reboot of the jurassic franchise, so I have a helping hand with timing.
If you've had your channel for a number of years, you can sort by custom dates if these kind of metrics make you curious about your own journey


It took me 3 months to 4000 hours watch time, but remember, this was during the promotion period for one of the biggest films of the year, and I was drawing original content based on it
4000 hours watch time.PNG




Also notice I didn't have 1000 subscribers, so I still wouldn't have qualified for monetisation at that point.


stats.PNG


See how many uploads I had at the bottom there.54 videos. I uploaded another 4 after that to hit the 1k subscriber mark.


Those were fun times. I really should publish like I used to back then, but it's cool to look back and we all have different journeys. Some will take years before they see their first 1000 subscribers.
 

Bears and Butters

Known Member
TubeBuddy User
120
10
Subscriber Goal
100000
Everyone has a completely different YouTube journey, even though the struggles may be the same. It took us over 1 year to get the watchtime to meet the requirements to be monetized, but it took us 5 months to get monetized after applying... So it's all relative to how much content you put up, how relatable it is to YouTube audiences, and how much you can continue that momentum.

If I was to give any advice from our journey to monetization... worry about making good quality videos, continue to improve your video editing, and creation skills, and focus on your niche.
 

The Storm is coming

Known Member
100
8
Subscriber Goal
1000
I ain't having much watch time but now at 2.5K but my channel refreshed 6th of June so. But in general I think watchtime is harder in general
 

Bears and Butters

Known Member
TubeBuddy User
120
10
Subscriber Goal
100000
@Bears and Butters I didnΓÇÖt realize you had to wait that long after meeting the requirements. ThatΓÇÖs good to know, thanks!

That isn't the norm... We had a lot of issues with YouTube from the get go.. Majority of people get monetized within a few days to a couple of weeks. We just happened to be one of those cases that was in Limbo for like 5 extra months! It is definitely good to know in case you are waiting a while... it's basically a waiting game!! LOL
 

Damon

Trusted User
Trusted User
2,779
25
www.blackwarriorlures.com
Subscriber Goal
10000
It took me two or three years, but I was monetized before I ever started my YouTube channel. I had a real business making real money, then I put the business on YouTube. I was making money before day one. Build a business first then put the business on YouTube. Your own business and brand is where the real money is.
 

charandperry

Familiar Member
52
7
Subscriber Goal
1000
Every channel is different with reaching monitisation goals. We've had our channel for a few years and not been close sadly, but we are hoping one day we will do :)
 
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KS Moto Cafe

Known Member
TubeBuddy Pro
116
13
linktr.ee
Subscriber Goal
5000
I love questions like this because everyone is thinking it when they start out and realize how hard it is to get hours logged by the viewers. I am not at 4k yet but after 6 months of grinding on Youtube, I just peaked 3k of viewing hrs. With that said, 80% of those hours were logged in the last 90 days; meaning during my first 90 days of starting the channel, I was in the low hundreds of viewing hrs and I was completely demoralized at the rate of growth. The 4k viewing hrs felt like something that I would never achieve within the 365d window. But as others have said, you just need to keep uploading and improving your content for the viewers. Eventually you hit a point when there is enough reach of organic viewers (subscribed or not) that will watch your videos because it meets their entertainment needs. Youtube is very time consuming and plays with your emotions quite a lot - this style of work is not for everyone but anyone can do it (I know, it sounds like I contradicted myself there but there is a distinction). Hope this helped putting things in perspective.
 
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DamoΓÇÖs Paintings

Extremely Well-Known Member
TubeBuddy User
425
16
Subscriber Goal
500000
Hey there good thread, itΓÇÖs a huge battle to get that 1k 4k milestone, IΓÇÖve been at it for a year now and all IΓÇÖve managed to build up is about 138 hours, the struggle is real, but none of that bothers me, IΓÇÖm having fun with my channel :blush:
 

spookyboo

Known Member
TubeBuddy Star
149
13
www.scarystorytime.com
Subscriber Goal
1000000
I get about 800 hours per month with over 2600 subs but only about 50 regular viewers out of 2600. So for mine it would be about 5 months but I just started up again after 3 years and I was getting only about 50 hours per month at the most before March and I've been doing a 35m to 45m premiere almost every night since the end of March. So, depending on how much it picks up or slows down, it could be more or less than 5 because youtube is really unpredictable. Also, spring and summer seem to be slower than fall and winter. My guess is if I had tried this in November - January it would have moved a lot faster.
 

DebuJalanan

Known Member
TubeBuddy User
110
9
Subscriber Goal
1000
I get 60 hours per month. And I think that includes #shorts. :D
To get 4000 hours a year, I need to get 333 hours per month consistently for 12 month, ....aaand without #shorts.
It won't happen this year. That's for sure. :laughing: