Newbie Q: What happens at 4,000 hours mark?

[watchmaker]

Hi, first post here. We have started uploading videos on YouTube couple months ago and at the moment we are at 1,300 subscribers and 2500 hours of view time. However, this traffic is entirely result of inviting our newsletter subscribers to watch and follow us on YT. Should we expect some 'help' from YouTUbe once we reach 4000 hours? For example - our videos appearing on search / suggested page? Thank you for your input.

 

[Ater]

Don't expect anything from 4000 watch hours other than that you will be able to apply for monetization. Other than that everything will continue more or less the same as it did when you where at 3999 watch hours.

But of course you reaching 4000 hours means that your channel is growing and that you are doing something right and if your videos are getting popular there are a greater chance that YouTube will recommend them to others but it's not something that automatically happens at 4000 hours.

 

[watchmaker]

Thank you for your reply. If that is the case then I am really working for YouTube channelling viewers to them, rather than other way around. I am not interested in monetisation because I don't think it is possible to make money on YouTube- the purpose of my videos is educational and technical DIY. But unless YouTube starts recommending them then there will be no growth - ever. The view per video will settle at where it is now, around 1K. Exponential growth would require strong endorsement by YouTube, not once but number of times; getting from 1K to 10K, then to 100K is impossible if only growth comes from my own advertising. The sooner we face the facts, the better. Once again, thank you for your reply.

 

[Ater]

But unless YouTube starts recommending them then there will be no growth - ever.

To most of us YouTube will be a marathon, not a sprint. Most people have to spend years and hundreds if not thousands of videos before their channel "get's big". Your channel is still just a few months old and you only have a handful of videos. YouTube is a search engine and the more videos you have the more ways people have to find your channel. If you just keep on adding a few videos each week like you have been there going to be 100+ ways for people to find your channel in a year.

At 1300 subscribers you are already of to a great start, for me it took about 2.5 years to reach 1000 subscribers. But then 1000 - 2000 only took 9 months, so it really snowballs over time the more content you get if you just keep on improving. My channel is still small and it's a slow journey but by keeping up with the statistics I can stay motivated and see it grow. As an example I got a lot more serous and stepped up my game during 2018, as a smaller channel you may not notice the results since you are not getting millions of views but by looking at my statistics I noticed that my views grew by 185% during 2018 compared to 2017. Then it grew with another 33% during 2019 compared to 2018. And this far into 2020 I'm up 48% compared to 2019. Things like that show that you are on the right track and helps you stay motivated.