Disclosure: Same company, two things: D3M Follow publishes these YouTube guides and also sells the YouTube services page they link to. The guides charge nothing; the page they send you to is a product of ours.
Direct answer: working on YouTube is five separate tracks rather than one, and most confusion comes from mixing them. Being discovered is one thing; building a channel and producing a video is another; growing and measuring is a third; earning is a fourth with its own numeric thresholds; and protecting the channel from rights problems is a fifth that stands entirely on its own. This page separates the five and points you to the guide that owns each. Every number in these guides comes from an official YouTube or Google page, dated to the day it was read.
Discovery: how YouTube chooses what to show
The recommendation surfaces and how each differs, the signals YouTube names, the truth about shadowbans, and the 24 August 2026 view-counting change. Search, packaging, descriptions and timing branch from here.
Discovery: how YouTube chooses what to show
Growth and measurement
The loop from video to subscriber, the official subscribe prompts, series and playlists, the first thousand subscribers, and what buying numbers does not do. Analytics, live streaming and subtitles sit alongside it.
Start and produce
Creating the channel and picking the right account type, choosing the topic, the name and the handle, the settings you configure once, then production: script, filming, editing, uploading and Shorts.
Monetization
The map of every official route and who each suits, the Partner Program thresholds at both tiers, what YouTube actually pays, AdSense, fan funding, Shopping and sponsorships, and the monetization policies.
Copyright and rights
What copyright covers, how Content ID works, the difference between a claim and a strike, and fair use as United States law that does not transfer automatically. The action page for an incoming claim and the music page sit under it.
The five questions people arrive with
How much does YouTube pay per 1,000 views?
There is no fixed figure and YouTube publishes none. What it does publish are the RPM and CPM definitions and the revenue shares; the rest moves with advertiser demand, the viewer country, the format and the season. the full explanation.
What are the monetization requirements?
Two tiers: 500 subscribers for fan funding, and 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 qualified watch hours in 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days for ads. From 1 February 2027 the requirement for new applicants rises to 8,000 hours or 20 million Shorts views. the full dated checklist.
Why did my views drop?
The documented causes are few and specific, and most have nothing to do with a hidden penalty. Note also that the view count itself changed how it is calculated on 24 August 2026. the algorithm guide.
I received a copyright claim, what now?
First establish whether it is a Content ID claim or a copyright strike, because the process and the consequences are completely different and each path has its own deadline. the claims and strikes page.
How do I start a channel from scratch?
Five minutes to create it; the real decisions are the topic, the name, the first settings and the account type. the start-a-channel guide.
Related services
These guides are educational and sell nothing. If you are looking for D3M Follow paid YouTube services and their stated limits, they are on the YouTube services page.