Getting Started on YouTube

The creator, Irina, begins by expressing her intent to inspire viewers to start their own YouTube channels, acknowledging the early challenges but emphasizing the rewarding nature of the platform. She shares her background as a real estate agent and the content scope of her channel, which includes real estate news, developments in the workforce and economy, and personal vlogs.

YouTube Monetization Criteria

Irina explains YouTube's current criteria for monetization, which requires channels to have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 public watch hours within the past 12 months. She reinforces the importance of meeting these requirements before any revenue can be earned, and suggests setting up a Google AdSense account early to receive payments smoothly once monetized.

Building the Channel

Detailing her own experience, Irina shares that she committed to posting one video per week, a schedule she found challenging but manageable. Despite being a solo content creator responsible for all aspects of video production, she remained consistent, which is crucial for YouTube's algorithm to pick up a channel. After posting consistently for nearly a year, her channel started gaining traction around July 2021, and she was monetized by January 2022.

Insights into Earnings and Analytics

Irina provides insight into how YouTube pays its creators and navigates through the back end of her YouTube Creator Studio. She breaks down key metrics like Revenue Per Mille (RPM) and Cost Per Mille (CPM), which gauge earning per 1,000 views and the cost an advertiser pays per 1,000 ad impressions, respectively. She shows real numbers from her own analytics to give a transparent overview of the earning potential for smaller YouTube channels.

Encouragement and Future Content

The video concludes with Irina encouraging viewers to persevere with content creation, highlighting that learning from less successful videos is part of the growth process. She expresses her willingness to share more instructional content on YouTube growth strategies if her viewers are interested.