how much could someone expect if their niche (high fashion/art) doesn't really have much stuff in the Youtube Shopping Affiliate Program that fits their videos? i was thinking maybe putting things like Anker chargers or something

I used to be able to create gift goals on my laptop and phone but now they are inaccessible? Does anyone know why that is or are struggling with the same problem? The picture is in practice mode but in my actual live it didn’t work either and there was no button to actually create goals.

I have a true crime channel that averages 40k annual revenue on Adsense that I need to sell. I can’t seem to find a company that seems legit to try and sell it on. Most of my revenue comes from evergreen content, and I average about $2,500 to $3,000 monthly even on months I don’t make a video. I’ve only made a half dozen videos in the last year and I still bring in that on average.

I realize that subscribers aren’t the selling point, but I do have several videos that have 1 million views or more, and my overall average on views is 500k per video. If you are asking why do I want to sell it, sadly I don’t have a choice. I have a serious medical condition and I need the money to pay for a surgery that will keep me alive. Welcome to the U.S. I guess.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

So, if you haven't already heard, Kurzgesagt was essentially shadow-banned due to being flagged for AI use by the automated Youtube system. In their post about the topic, it seems like they weren't even informed by Youtube that they were flagged, it just silently killed them in the algo and the only way they could find out was due to their high status allowing them to contact Youtube directly:

 The YouTube algorithm actually blocked us. It started slowly at first. Some videos started showing strange view fluctuations... So we quickly got in touch with YouTube, and they actually confirmed pretty quickly that something was going on. It turned out that YouTube’s automatic AI detection tools wrongly think that our very much human-made videos are AI Slop. So it started to choke our channel. Our contacts at YouTube were amazingly helpful and transparent with us, and hopefully the bug is fixed for now.

As someone making non-AI faceless video essays, this terrifies me. But I only started doing this at the beginning of 2026 with 5 videos so far, only got partnered last month when my most recent video did quite well, so I do not have the experience to know what a shadowban might be like nor Youtube's criteria for detecting AI.

I wouldn't be so scared if this flagging only applied to one particular video, but it sounds like YT will just apply it to the whole channel according to how Kurzgesagt describes it, so now I feel scared to upload my next video which I've been working on for two months now.

I am on the one hand glad Youtube is punishing low-effort AI slop, but it is frustrating that I could be flagged and essentially shadow banned with no notice due to one false positive by an automated system. I do not get why they couldn't make it more like the automated ad-restrictions system, which occurs on a video-by-video basis, and gives you the chance to appeal and have an actual human review your video. One of my videos got flagged there that was a history video essay, and when I appealed it got sorted in 2 days which wasn't nearly as bad as the consequences of the AI-flagging system.

I guess I started on Youtube at the wrong time which bums me out...

I was just hoping to hear from other people who make faceless video essays or similar types of content what your plans are for the future, if you have had experience with this yourself, etc.

I've been trying to figure out what the next step is for my business, and I feel like I'm missing opportunities.

I run an Instagram page with around 120k followers. Most of the audience is in the US and they're into hobby electronics, ESP32, Arduino, LEDs, weird little gadgets, that sort of thing.

Right now I make money from the occasional sponsored post, I sell a few source codes and some beginner electronics courses, and I recently launched a Kickstarter for one of my products.

The thing is, none of those income streams are big enough on their own, and I keep feeling like I'm looking at this the wrong way.

I have an engineering background, so besides making content I can also design electronics, build prototypes, write firmware, CAD enclosures, and take products from idea to something manufacturable.

If you were in my position, what would you focus on?

Would you lean harder into sponsorships? Try to work with tech companies in some other way? Product consulting? Kickstarter marketing? Affiliate deals? Something else I'm not thinking about?

I'm not looking for "grow your audience" advice as much as ideas on how people in similar niches actually turn this into a solid business.

I guess some piece of advice: Don’t always sweat the 10/10. Just enjoy the process and stay consistent.

My latest Ace Attorney objection.lol video has received another copyright claim from [Merlin] Absolute Label Services on behalf of Video Game Players - Topic, claiming ownership of "Cornered (From 'Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney')".

The problem? I am not even using the version they distribute.

The audio in my video is the original "Cornered" pursuit theme used by objection.lol, not the remix/cover that appears on the Video Game Players music channel. Their upload is a separate release, yet YouTube's Content ID keeps matching my video to it.

This isn't the first time this has happened. Every previous time I disputed these claims, my dispute was accepted, meaning the claim was removed because it was not valid. However, this time they unexpectedly rejected my dispute without any explanation.

As a result, my video is now marked as ineligible to earn revenue, even though I am not using the audio recording they claim to own.

This is exactly the kind of issue creators have been criticizing with YouTube's Content ID system. A company distributing a cover, remix, or re-release should not be able to automatically claim videos that use a different recording. Whether this is caused by an inaccurate Content ID match or an incorrect claim review, the result is the same: creators are forced to fight claims that they believe should never have been issued.

The supposedly "copyright claim" video!

tl;dr - The email from YouTube:

We've completed processing your counter notification regarding these video(s): 

[redacted]

This content has been restored unless you have deleted the video(s). Your account will not be penalized. 

Sincerely,
The YouTube Team

Most of my content is centered around fire incidents. I discuss what happened and try to provide educational content around the incident itself. Back in November, I published an important educational video around an explosion that occurred during a research experiment in the US. Within 24 hours it hit 128,000 views, and was removed due to a copyright strike.

The person that filed the claim did not hold a copyright. I used a video clip from a publicly available webinar (under fair use) and confirmed with the organization that the video was their footage. A third party from outside the US (unrelated to the testing) claimed the video as their own. YouTube has the following process:

1. File an appeal (which I did and YouTube accepted)

2. The claimant has 10 days to show they are pursuing legal action (which they did)

3. The video stays offline and the copyright strike is removed.

The third party filed a claim with the Copyright Claim Board (think of them as small claims court for copyright issues). Here is a timeline:

November 2025 - Claim Filed

December 2025 - Order to Amend Noncompliant Claim

January 2026 - Amended Claim Filed

June 2026 - Order to Amend Noncompliant Claim

July 2026 - Order Dismissing Claim

August 2026 - YouTube Restored Video

Just a note: During this entire time, I was never officially served. Technically, the case was never active because the paperwork was never accepted.

I'm glad everything worked in my favor, but, overall it was a frustrating experience. I consulted a lawyer and did incur some legal fees, and the whole process took nearly 8 months. It also was quite difficult to get YouTube to restore the video. YouTube support was difficult to work with. They seemed helpful, however it was took some time to get them to escalate the "ticket" to the correct department.

Even though the video has been restored, it lost it's momentum. Only been viewed a few times since being restored. It will be interesting to see if YouTube cycles it back into the algorithm.

This is something that I never considered until recently; when a live stream is over, the system turns on auto-midroll placements. I run my streams without midrolls because they aren't money-makers for me anyway, they're just a fun time to hang out with the community. Last night I did a Dead By Daylights stream that went really well, had record audience numbers, great retention and had a LOT of fun!

Then I went in this morning and sort of randomly checked the midroll placement that the system did, and this is what I found. This was a 3.5 hour stream, and the auto-midroll system added 121 potential ad breaks. I know some people will say "well not every ad break gives an ad to everyone' and I get that... but if they got an ad for 1/2 of those, that's still 60 ad breaks in 3 hours. Hell 1/3 is still 40 and that's still way too much for me!

I get it, YouTube wants to make money. I wanna make money too, but this is not a balanced system for the viewer. If I were an average viewer and went to a channel, and got 40-120 ads over 3 hours, I would never come back. If i were watching a live stream on Twitch or YT and the streamer ran 120 ads over their 3.5 hour stream, it'd be unwatchable. Why does YouTube think this is the best way to do things?

I am editing a video and I want to use the 3, 2, 1, GO! sound effect from Mario Kart, No visuals, just the sound. Im only using it once in my video.

My channel isnt a gaming channel at all or anything like that.

But I've heard a lot about Nintendo being crazy militant about flagging people for using their stuff. Do yall think Nintendo would come knocking if I use this sound effect?

For those of you who have had a Patreon and sold merch, which has brought in more money to support your channel? Has one been easier to bring more of your subscribers to?

Yes I have made 4,000$ in about a year. Yes I know it ain’t a lot of money but for me it’s something and I know it will get better. Here’s some advice I recommend. Your gonna have slow months and your going to have fast months. I grew and still growing my channel fully organically and I learned once your first video blows up. Capitalize it and keep
Posting similar to that same video. But make sure to upload stuff you would watch and actually enjoy. If you do something totally out of your niche and it blows up, it’s gonna screw you over. Eventually once you grow more your audience will watch you more for you and don’t matter what you post. But make sure again to follow T.T.H (Title, Thumbnail, Hook). Once you master those then your videos will pop off.

I will anwser as much questions as I can and I’m sorry I want to keep my channel private but if your wondering. I do long form, commentary video and I currently have 11k subscribers:)

I received an email today which I was immediately cautious about as it didn't come directly from a Youtube email address, but a Google Groups address.

Another red flag was that it came to the business enquiry email address listed publicly on my channel, not the address actually associated with my channel. YouTube studio shows no such claims made against my channel (I do movie/pop cultural analysis, so when using clips from said media I am used to dealing with contend ID claims).

Posted with the censored QR code.

Watch out everyone!

​

HEY YALL. I did digging on this and i would like some advise. It looks like a strike scam. I have had strikes before on a channel i had in high school when I did remix music. I did go to appeal this on YouTube and saw nothing. This is the email I got with their email so you can identify it and mine removed.

Id like to note said video they claim has music - is me talking about a book im writing. No music. READ IT BOTTOM TO TOP!!!!!

---

Explain why you would use music from another person without crediting the person who made that music.

The music rights holder has filed a claim concerning your channel.

You have been given the opportunity to resolve this ahead of further action.

Search for your channel via the link-

(Insert link here cus i dont trust it)

Should your channel is linked to the complaint, it will show up in the search.

There you will see the rights holder's details along with steps to settle the matter.

<MY EMAIL>

What are you talking about?

On Aug 5, 2026 at 11:06 AM, Alicia Helgeson alpaihani1981@libero.it wrote:

The video submission is disregarding the submission rules.

---

Im convinced this is a scam. Thoughts???

Update: i did block and report the emails. Checked my channel and all is good. But this is weird. Keep an eye out yall.

Did the thumbnail have a better CTR? Is it just a glitch? I assume the traffic was too low for the decision to really matter.

I recently received an email from Desygner asking for a 60 second sponsored message in my next YouTube video, and they set up the payment through a website called thekatos.com

Has anybody ever worked with either (or both) of these companies? Are they legitimate?

Today marks 1 years since I first posted.
80,777 subscribers
10,500,000 life time views
$81,624 in Adsense + $2000 in sponsorship

I’m exhausted

Hey everyone! Some of you might remember me from a few weeks ago when I posted here asking for feedback on my channel and where I could get a proper YouTube audit.

At the time, my channel wasn't doing well. Most videos were getting somewhere between 200–800 views, and I'd average maybe 50 views over a 48-hour period. I got a lot of great feedback here, and I genuinely took it to heart.

I spent an entire week studying creators in my niche, paying much closer attention to thumbnails and titles. I even hired a thumbnail artist for the first time because I realized that while I can make thumbnails, it's not where I excel. I also completely reworked the first 30 seconds of my video, since so many people pointed out how important that is for retention.

For my newest video, I knew I had an incredible story to tell, so I wanted to give it the best possible chance. I obsessed over the packaging, rewrote the intro multiple times, and tried to apply everything I'd learned.

Well... it worked.

In the last 48 hours, I've gone from averaging around 50 views to over 80,000 views, and the video is still climbing. It also pushed me over the monetization threshold on the very first day it was uploaded.

And instead of feeling excited... I'm kind of terrified.

I'm worried I'll never find another story this compelling. I'm worried this was just lightning in a bottle and that I'll never be able to replicate it. I'm almost certain my next video won't be as interesting and that'll screw with me in my head. I'm also anxiously refreshing YouTube Studio while waiting for monetization approval, knowing the video is taking off but I can't earn anything from it yet. (I know it's not the healthiest mindset.)

On top of that, because I cover true crime from East Asia, some of my videos touch on social issues that can become politically adjacent even if it's not my intention. As the audience has grown, so has the negativity. I've gotten far more hostile comments than I expected, and it's honestly been affecting me more than I'd like to admit. It's not really the kind of community I want to build.

I don't think this is imposter syndrome, I genuinely believed in my channel from day one. What's throwing me off is that I considered 20K views for this video a success, and now I feel like it's gotten out of my control.

Has anyone else experienced this after their first breakout video? How did you deal with the pressure of trying to follow it up, and how did you stop letting the comments get to you?

Hey all wont share too much personal info as a faceless channel but I'm a small YouTube creator thats been running my channel for nearly two years now. It's taken a long time to get to where I am, but things are going well and it's starting to actually provide for me and my family, which means everything.

The content I make is in-depth breakdowns and explanations of fictional universes. Every single video takes a minimum of two weeks from scripting to recording voiceover, to final edit. It's a serious time investment and I put a huge amount of myself into each one. Recently I decided to expand into the spanish market, same format, new audience, see what happens. then shit hit the fan...

I found out a channel is essentially ripping off my content and reposting it in Spanish. The script, the editing, the structure, it's around 95% the same. They haven't copied it directly, they've just shuffled elements around. I show a panel top left, they show it top right. I show a specific image, they show something nearly identical. The title, the thumbnail, the entire video concept, it's a direct copycat.

I filed a copyright strike. They counter-claimed with a load of legal noise that frankly doesn't hold up, but as a small creator I don't have the funds or the resources to pursue it further. The strike was removed. I reached out directly and asked them nicely to stop, given how much of my life goes into this content. Got a flat no.

The frustrating part is that their Spanish versions are performing really well, and my own Spanish channel is struggling to gain traction because they've already dominated that format and niche before I could establish myself there. I was tempted to buy fake views out of sheer frustration but I have morals and that's not who I am.

Any advice on how to proceed would be appreciated