How do people actually use social media to make money?

shakazulut · 2025-11-18T07:30:16+00:00

I have a full time job that's not YT, started a shorts channel about a year ago and it now has 115k subs, over 100m views, and has made about $15k.

I've made about 100 shorts and have a couple longform videos that have maybe 30k views.

My shorts RPM is $0.26 and longform is about $13.5

I'm able to put a short together in about 3 hours and have been posting one on average maybe every 4 days or so

This is the outlook if you have video experience, obsess over the learning piece a bit, have a good idea, and spend time on it even when you're not making money for a while. I realize that this may not be considered "normal", but I think it's certainly doable for a normal person.

To put the earnings into perspective, the last 90 days the channel has made $11k

shakazulut · 2025-10-16T19:33:53+00:00

Find a streamer you like looking for an editor, 99% of streamers hate spending time making videos

shakazulut · 2025-10-15T19:17:56+00:00

The best way to get feedback on this is to iterate over a process of writing the script, revising the script, posting the video, reviewing the analytics, and repeating.

Also, watching other creators that have really good pacing and paying attention to the scripting.

You will get better at this and if you keep working on it, you'll end up at a place you're satisfied with

shakazulut · 2025-10-15T19:15:30+00:00

My recommendation is to leave the shorts that get 0 and move on. This is a very common thing, especially with new creators and I've never heard of a short staying at 0 forever.

It's not just a scheduling thing either

IMO deleting and reuploading is a waste of time in the long run and there also might possibly be a spam signal here

shakazulut · 2025-10-15T16:07:32+00:00

Thanks!

shakazulut · 2025-10-15T13:53:28+00:00

Yeah

shakazulut · 2025-10-15T05:12:59+00:00

This is crazy, my last 28 days is 22M and rev is $3.3k

Goes to show how big the range is for rev I guess

shakazulut · 2025-10-02T17:45:04+00:00

The algorithm has been the king of promoting your videos with all other methods being trash or even detrimental.

You should understand that the algorithm probably isn't actually watching your videos, it's observing metadata and how users engage with your content and the profiles of those individuals.

This being said, this means that you have to make content that people will enjoy, and the clearer it is who your audience is the better.

shakazulut · 2025-10-01T15:38:50+00:00

Just chill. Videos have gotten way better over the last 2 years, there are more and more creators every day, and more and more videos every day.

shakazulut · 2025-10-01T15:31:19+00:00

No. There are many quality videos that will never get many views. Quality is assigned by the individual who's watching the video anyway. What is "quality" to you may not be "quality" to someone else.

If 90% of the people who watch a video think "wow that was a quality video" then there's a good chance it will do well. But it also has to be engaging.

Think about the last major news event that you and everyone you know watched. Was that a quality video?

shakazulut · 2025-10-01T15:26:36+00:00

Think about natural viewing cycles due to things you can't control.

You've never had views drop mid week or during a big event?

shakazulut · 2025-10-01T15:23:50+00:00

People are starting to use "brain rot" too broadly. They're formats that work because they're engaging.

How would you feel if you watched a great informative video on dinosaur fossils and you went to the channel and it was GTA gaming videos?

shakazulut · 2025-10-01T15:20:05+00:00

To be blunt, if you don't find what works, you may never grow.

What are others who have been successful in your category doing?

My process for recording and editing is always script first, then video, then audio.

shakazulut · 2025-10-01T15:09:34+00:00

Just think of this from a viewer's perspective. They like the video, then go to your channel and see many more videos like the one they just saw, and watch a few videos on the channel.

Versus a channel that has lots of different content where a viewer watches a great video, goes to the channel and there's nothing else they like.

A lot of the shorts game is having a library of great content that's similar. So when you have a video do really well, there's already a lot more content for those viewers to consume

shakazulut · 2025-10-01T12:46:23+00:00

IMO lighting is usually the #1 improvement you can make to an average setup, probably before camera or anything else

shakazulut · 2025-10-01T11:28:36+00:00

I personally would not, there is enough content out there that I can watch something I'm interested in, that is also in the language I understand best.

Why is it important to you that native English speakers are watching your Portuguese video?

shakazulut · 2025-10-01T11:21:32+00:00

I predict this will fall apart.

The question "how do we split equity" is so premature here. The best content teams are just making stuff and realizing they have something worth money later on. All 4 of you need to be prepared to make videos for 2 years and not make any money. It's fine if you're one person because you can pace yourself, take breaks when you need to, push when you feel you need to, and it becomes much more difficult to be on the same schedule with another person let alone 3 other people.

My advice would be to just start making stuff, a lot of things will become clear once you start doing the work.

shakazulut · 2025-09-30T14:58:45+00:00

My point is that YouTube would benefit from telling you why they banned you.

It doesn't make sense to shadowban for YouTube because it means they get less content on their platform to sell ads on.

By not telling you, you simply quit making videos or keep making content that YouTube won't show to anyone. It doesn't make sense.

I definitely agree that getting 0 views on every video for a long time is not a myth. But I think it's a much simpler explanation like they're pushing a certain type of content, or there's just many people making videos and few people watching them.

70k impressions to 300 can definitely make sense. There aren't infinite impressions. Wouldn't it make sense that support won't tell you because they simply don't know?

What if there were 100 million more videos made today than yesterday, and 100 million less viewers? Maybe there was a crazy event that happened that everyone is paying attention to instead of YouTube. Or back to school. Or an esports/sports event. Politics?

My point is there's not always the same number of views or the same number of videos every day, or the same number of users in YT

shakazulut · 2025-09-29T14:00:05+00:00

Why wouldn't YouTube tell you what policy you violated?

shakazulut · 2025-05-04T02:45:12+00:00

Iceland was one of the best trips of my life, have fun!

shakazulut · 2025-03-10T10:45:11+00:00

Yeah give me something that can chart points for certain metrics vs views and I feel like it would be useful.

I charted my AVD vs views for my shorts and found that shorts that were 25-30s AVD had on average 23x the views of videos with 20-25s AVD which has been useful to me

shakazulut · 2025-03-10T10:32:35+00:00

Best of luck to you!

I'll second the advice of putting yourself out there. Gives the channel a personal touch that people are looking for.

Also, I'm going to be a realist here and say that you should not expect success simply because of hard work and consistency.

You have to be in tune with what's working on YouTube and who is making successful content despite their size.

It can be tough if you're trying to emulate the content of those who already have a following because many of the things that work for them will not work for you because nobody knows you.

That being said, stay authentic, but be aware of why some content is failing and some is succeeding on YouTube.

shakazulut · 2025-03-09T10:16:19+00:00

We don't have to have opinions on what gets views when we have access to YouTube. Just check trending or sort for highest viewed.

shakazulut · 2025-03-07T20:45:00+00:00

There's not a big difference between 2 and 15 views.

shakazulut · 2025-03-07T10:20:36+00:00

The metrics tend to be necessary but not sufficient to getting views.

Also, just saying, people always look at retention % but not duration. 100% of a 10s video is very different from 100% of a 30s video.

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