Took me 14 months to hit partner and here's what actually moved the needle
Finally got monetized last month after grinding for over a year. Want to share some stuff that actually helped cause I wasted alot of time early on doing things that didn't matter.
Biggest lesson was learning that making good videos isn't enough. You need to learn packaging. That's topic selection, thumbnail, title, and your hook in the first 30 seconds. This is what gets people to click and stay. I spent months making what I thought was quality content but nobody clicked cause my packaging was trash.
What helped me improve was studying mid-sized creators in my niche. Not the huge ones cause they're playing a different game. Find channels with maybe 50k to 200k subs who recently had videos pop off and break down why. What topic did they pick? What does the thumbnail promise? How does the title create curiosity? What happens in the first 15 seconds. I learned more doing this for a few weeks than i did in months of just uploading and hoping.
Patience is the other thing. Progress feels random for a long time and that's normal. But once you start understanding how youtube actually works, what thumbnail title combos tend to hit, how timing matters, things start clicking. You get more confident and it feels less like gambling.
One thing that frustrated me was timing with monetization. I had a video take off right before I got approved and by the time I was partnered it had already done most of its views. Missed out on probably a few hundred dollars of revenue because the review took a while.
I know some people go all in on youtube and failure isn't an option for them. That pressure can be motivating but also stressful. I had a day job the whole time so I could experiment without panicking about money.
My setup in case anyone curious: decent mic on a boom arm, neewer ring light for consistent lighting and emeet pixy for camera (saves my settings and i dont have to adjust every time). Spent way more energy on learning packaging than on gear.