---
title: 'Most Of You Will Never Get Monetized Now '
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=klYbu-sVWFA'
video_id: 'klYbu-sVWFA'
date: 2026-09-26
duration_sec: 554
channel: 'Adam Ivy'
---

# Most Of You Will Never Get Monetized Now 

> Source: [Most Of You Will Never Get Monetized Now ](https://youtube.com/watch?v=klYbu-sVWFA)

## Summary

The video addresses the panic surrounding YouTube's updated Partner Program thresholds, which double the required watch hours and Shorts views for new creators. The creator argues that the new numbers are not as daunting as they seem, using his own analytics to show that the financial reward for hitting these thresholds is modest. He emphasizes that the real issue is not the thresholds themselves but the need for creators to build a sustainable business beyond AdSense revenue.

### Key Points

- **Addressing the Panic** [00:00] — The creator notes widespread misinformation and fear-mongering about a YouTube update, with clients feeling demoralized about hitting new thresholds.
- **The Actual Changes** [00:38] — Starting February 1, 2027, new channels need 1,000 subscribers (unchanged) and either 8,000 watch hours in 365 days or 20 million Shorts views in 90 days—both doubled from previous requirements.
- **Grandfathering and Runway** [01:02] — Existing members are grandfathered in, and those close have about six months to hit old numbers and secure their status.
- **Real Numbers Behind the Threshold** [01:15] — The creator's channel did 12,000 watch hours in 28 days with no new uploads (due to back surgery), earning only $858, showing that 8,000 hours translates to roughly $500–$600 a year at his RPM.
- **Perspective on the Threshold** [02:26] — For those far from the threshold, the change is irrelevant—'the finish line of a race you're not running doesn't matter.'
- **The Real Concern: Low Earnings** [03:06] — 67% of creators make less than $10,000 a year, so many are fighting to enter a program where most earn less than a part-time job.
- **Why the Change Happened** [03:32] — The creator suggests the update is a filter to reduce low-effort content, as AdSense is a finite pool; more channels mean smaller shares for everyone.
- **YouTube's Official Reasoning** [05:19] — YouTube cites scale (200 billion Shorts views/day, 1 billion hours/day on TVs), but the creator sees it as a deliberate filter against content that takes minimal effort.
- **Counterargument: Slop Content** [05:57] — Some argue the new Shorts threshold encourages mass-producing low-quality content, but the creator notes such creators earn little and build no real audience.
- **The Real Announcement** [06:50] — YouTube is broadening revenue opportunities beyond ads—bonuses for shopping, brand deals, and trend incentives—signaling a shift toward e-commerce and partnerships.
- **AdSense as a Side Dish** [07:36] — The creator compares AdSense to ranch dressing—nice to have but not the main reason to show up; creators should build offers, services, or email lists.
- **Actionable Advice** [08:02] — Creators have six months to hit current thresholds; focus on building something real (offer, service, product) and earning trust, as the starting line is the finish line to the next goal.

### Conclusion

The update is not a death knell but a nudge toward sustainable creator businesses. Those who build real audiences and diversify revenue will thrive, while those relying solely on AdSense may struggle.

## Transcript

All right, so I wasn't going to do this video, but I see all these videos coming out with misinformation and fear-mongering about this new YouTube update that everybody is panicked about. And almost nobody has stopped to check what they're actually panicking about.
I had a client that messaged me this morning, and one reason that I decided to shoot this video, and she was genuinely upset. She said it was demoralizing, saying that she's incredibly discouraged, that she's never going to hit 8,000 watch hours even a year from now.
and I sat there, I opened up my analytics and I looked at my own numbers before I typed anything back because I am an empath by nature. But what I wanted to tell her is the part that nobody is saying out loud right now. Now, it's probably not what she wanted to hear
and it might not be what you want to hear either, but we need to start off with what's actually changing. So starting February 1st, 2027, if you're not part of the YouTube partnership program yet and you're a brand new channel or you're just working towards that,
you need to have a thousand subscribers, which did not change, but you'll either have to have 8,000 watch hours within the last 365 days or 20 million short views in the last 90 days, right?
Both of those numbers have doubled. And if you're already in the program, then you're grandfathered in. And if you're close, you have about six months right now as far as a runway to hit those old numbers and be grandfathered in. So take a breath. Nobody is getting removed tomorrow,
but let me show you the numbers that actually made me write this video for you. My channel did 12,000 watch hours in the last 28 days alone. And I need to be clear about something because I didn't upload anything.
I was having back surgery a couple weeks before. As I shoot this video, it's been a month. And that back catalog is doing all the work while I've been recovering from my surgery. 12,000 watch hours in one month.
No new uploads. And guess what that paid me? $858. I'm not talking about thousands of dollars. And I bring that up because I want to run that 8,000 number against that. 8,000 watch hours. That's the new bar that we keep talking about.
Everybody's losing their minds over. At the RPM that I'm experiencing, which might be higher than some and lower than others, and I'm talking about how much money you make per 1,000 views, that's somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 or $600 for a year's worth of work.
That's the prize. That's the shiny object that everybody is calling demoralizing, depressing, discouraging. Look I not saying this to be a jerk I not saying this to be rude I have sympathy and empathy for those who are a little bit bummed about this But I saying this because almost nobody chasing that number actually understands what the other side of it looks like
It's like people who argue with one another on what somebody should do with lottery winnings. They should buy a beach house. They should quit their job, buy a truck, this and that, go on vacations. Yet those people didn't actually buy a ticket. So if you're at 3,800 hours right now, cool.
Like, go after it, bro. Like, you're almost there. You have six months to do it. then you'll be grandfathered in. Now, on the other side of that, let's say you have 500 or 600 watch hours across your entire catalog on your channel right now, and you're super upset that the bar
went from 4,000 watch hours to 8,000 watch hours. What exactly changed for you again? Because you weren't hitting the 4,000 anytime soon. The finish line of a race that you're not running doesn't really matter, does it? Here's the part that should actually concern you, too, because it has nothing
to do with this BS threshold that everybody's talking about. 67% of creators on YouTube make less than $10,000 a year. That's two-thirds of people. So we have a whole lot of people that
are arguing and upset, fighting for entry into a program where the majority of the people that are already inside of it are making less than a part-time job. That's not YouTube's fault, really, is it? It's just what happens when everybody optimizes for a number rather than
actually building a business around the attention and the traffic. And that brings me to why I think this is actually happening on a deeper level. This is where I'm probably going to lose some of you guys, but it's okay because I tell the truth here on this channel. Now, a buddy of mine named Dylan,
he runs a channel called Faster Media. Shout out to Dylan, been a friend of mine for a long time now. He has automotive content, real channel. He spent thousands of dollars on this crazy rig that's bolted to his car with like cameras and remotes on the inside. And he follows incredibly cool
cars around and makes some really, really awesome videos. Now, he goes out and shoots the stuff and He messaged me a little bit earlier today about the update, and he said he wishes that they would turn this thing on tomorrow to get rid of all the $15 and $100 earners out of the pool.
And I'll explain what he meant by that. I'm talking about the word pool, because that's exactly how AdSense operates. It's not infinite like some people think it is. It's a pool where the advertiser's money goes into, and every single monetized channel drinks from that same pool.
Now, when you add hundreds of thousands of new channels to that pool that produce content that nobody actually sits down and chooses to watch everybody cup gets a little bit smaller Everybody gets a little bit less to sip on Dylan words here and I quoting him is they need to dial back on the animation channels
and everything else that you can make sitting down without getting on camera. Now, I certainly am not naive enough to think that you guys are all going to agree with my perspective, Dylan's perspective, or anybody else for that matter. We all have our own viewpoints on this.
But what we're talking about is the why behind it. And that's the thing that every other video covering this update seems to be dancing around or ignoring completely. YouTube said it's because of scale. 200 billion short views a day,
over a billion hours a day are being watched on TVs now. And that's true. But when you double the cost of entry at the exact moment that the platform is drowning in content that takes somebody two hours a week to produce, that's not a coincidence.
That's a filter. And I'm not mad about it at all because I've been saying this for years, guys. This platform is supposed to be about human stories and human experience. And if you guys want to check out my ultimate YouTube growth guide, I'll put it in the link in the description
box below. If you're a human, if you're not afraid to get on camera, that guide has been downloaded over 7,000 times in the last four months alone. I think you'll enjoy it and it's absolutely free. So go check it out. And like I mentioned earlier, I had no intention of doing this video. So I know
a lot of you guys are not going to always agree with all of my perspectives, but I've been doing this a long time and hopefully you can at least open or expand your thoughts on why things might be happening or not happening. There is a counter argument, but I think there's some validity behind
and I want to share it before you guys are yelling at it, yelling at me about it in the comments. Some people are saying that it actually makes the slop content problem worse. Because if it takes 20 million short views within 90 days to get into the partner program,
what's stopping somebody from making 50,000 pieces of slop content in 90 days and getting into the program? Nothing is stopping them, really. And that's a fair point. But think about where that person ends up. Because we've seen this before. They got 20 million views on content that nobody wanted to watch.
Shorts revenue, that really doesn't pin anything, especially for that type of content. They have no audience that actually subscribes and cares about them or their content. They didn't really choose to watch any of it themselves. They spent 90 days building a machine that pays them almost nothing
and produces zero people who actually will ever buy from them, actually care about them, and actually remember even subscribing if they did. That scam didn't get any easier for those people. It actually got twice as hard, in my opinion.
That brings me to the most important thing in this entire announcement Now I watched multiple people in the last few days put this up I tell people don worry about it right YouTube word for word wrote that they are broadening revenue opportunities for creators
rather than relying solely on the ad revenue. Then they put a list of what they mean by it, such as bonuses for YouTube shopping, incentives for brand deals, earning boosts for starting and then growing trends. It's crazy because YouTube just told 3 million partnered creators that ads are not the model going forward,
that they're pushing money towards e-com, they're pushing money towards partnerships, to people that are actually building something real with their channel, their brand, their following, not just individual videos. They also said they expect to pay creators more in 2027 than they did in 2026.
So it's not like they're getting cheap. It's not like they're reducing our percentages. They're just moving money somewhere else and telling us exactly where it's going. Now, I put out a video a few months ago where I said that AdSense is like ranch dressing or blue cheese at a Wings place.
it's a nice to have but it's not why you show up in the first place and then youtube pushes out a blog post and an update that basically says the same thing in corporate speak so look if adsense was your entire plan this update is a little bit of a problem for you and you should treat it like
one because here's the deal you still have about six months to hit those numbers that are still in place today then they go to 4 000 to 8 000 10 million to 20 million but if you've been sitting there building something real with your channel like i've been preaching since day one maybe an
offer a service, maybe a product, building your email list, something that a human can say yes to, then almost nothing changes here. Because you still need people to find you. You need to just stay with it. You need to earn the trust. You need to build your name in the space that you're in.
You just take one step at a time. That was true at 4,000. It's true at 8,000. It's true if they ever change it again. The starting line is the finish line to the other thing, right? You hit a certain milestone, it's off to the next thing. So you're going to hit 4,000, you're going to hit
8,000. I'm going to tell you this right now. Once you hit 4,000, 8,000 is nothing. Now, with that being said, I'd love to hear your take on this in the comments below. Let me know what you agree on. Let me know if I changed your perspective at all, or if you just blatantly disagree with everything
I said. Either way, let's have a conversation. Watch this video next if you're ready to go all in on your YouTube channel. If you haven't yet, click that little subscribe button to join the channel family here where we have honest open conversations every single week and until next
time i appreciate you watching