And so, you want to bring together the YouTube Partner Program to monetize your YouTube channel to finally make money with your YouTube channel?

Every bit you probably know, yous have to meet two requirements earlier you can utilize.

  • Become 1,000 YouTube subscribers for your channel.
  • Gain four,000 hours of watch time within the last 365 days. That's what we're going to focus on today.

Getting your first one chiliad subscribers is the piece of cake part! There are over 10.1 meg YouTube channels with more than 1,000 subs, only only 2 million channels have joined the YouTube Partner Program. Yous can learn more about this in my article on How many YouTube channels are in that location?

Today, we volition look at how we can get you lot to iv,000 hours of watch time every bit apace as possible. First, we are going to expect at your watch fourth dimension from three different angles:

  • What's the minimum number of videos that you should brand to become there?
  • How many views does each of your videos have to get?
  • How long should your video be?

Then nosotros explore different strategies and tactics on how to maximize your scout fourth dimension to trigger the YouTube algorithm to quickly grow your aqueduct.

Sounds good? Great!

Then allow's get started...

What Does 4,000 Hours of YouTube Watch Time Hateful?

4000 hours in minutes

When nosotros expect at big numbers, it'due south sometimes difficult to imagine what those numbers really mean. So allow's interruption downward 4000 hours of YouTube watch time into minutes.

The math is simple. One hr equals 60 minutes, so all nosotros have to do is multiply both numbers.

4000 hours x hour = 240,000 minutes!

To go to 4000 hours of YouTube picket time, y'all have to generate 240,000 minutes of YouTube watch fourth dimension.

4000 hours in days

How many days of continuous watching does it accept to go to 4000 hours of watch fourth dimension?

Let'south see...

I mean solar day has 24 hours. That means we can but divide 4000 hours of scout time by 24 to get our respond.

4000 hours / 24 hours = 166 days and sixteen hours

To get 100% of your YouTube watch time from one person, they would take to play your videos on loop for 166 days and 16 hours not-finish.

Of course, that number volition become much smaller if you lot have more than subscribers.

How Does YouTube Calculate the Number of Hours Watched?

There are two things that you lot take to understand nearly watch time.

What counts every bit video watch time?

The first thing that you lot accept to understand is what qualifies as watch time?

Not all content is equal. YouTube only considers PUBLIC watch fourth dimension equally watch time.

That means if you lot set the privacy of i of your videos every bit unlisted or individual. You could get a million hours of watch time, and it wouldn't count!

Keep that in mind when you upload your videos onto YouTube!

If you lot had a viral video two years ago, would information technology count towards your watch time?

Unfortunately not!

iv,000 hours of scout time is not about the total number of watch time people watched during the lifetime of your channel.

It's a moving time frame, and will always look at the last 365 days from whatever date information technology is today.

Imagine this: If yous had accumulated i,000 hours of watch time exactly 500 days earlier today and and so generated another three,000 hours within the concluding 365 days.

How many hours of watch fourth dimension would y'all have?

Hint: It'due south not 4,000...

If you guessed 3,000, you're right on the coin!

The 1,000 hours that you collected 500 days ago are out of the 365 days appointment range.

Now the skillful news is that you just have to get iv,000 hours once.

Once yous qualify for monetization, you lot tin can apply for monetization. And one time you're approved, you're approved. No matter how many hours of picket time you accrue afterward.

Example: If you got monetized one year ago but only had 1,000 hours of sentinel time inside the last 365 days doesn't matter.

You still stay monetized.

What'south the Best Strategy to Get To 4000 Hours of Public Picket Fourth dimension?

What's the minimum number of videos that you should brand? How many views should each of your YouTube videos get? What'due south the ideal length of your videos?

To answer these questions, we have to practice a bit of math first.

i Ten 1-minute video

Imagine that you just created a make-new YouTube channel.

Day 0. You have 0 subscribers and 0 videos.

What if y'all created just one ane-minute video. How many times would people have to watch this ane video to proceeds four,000 hours of watch time?

The answer is pretty uncomplicated.

We merely have to convert 4,000 hours into minutes. iv,000 hours x 60 minutes = 240,000 minutes.

One 1-minute long video would take to exist watched 240,000 times.

Wow, that'due south a big number!

Information technology gets even bigger if we assume that not everybody will sentinel your video all the manner till the cease.

The first person might lookout man for one minute, the 2nd person might scout thirty seconds, and the third person might click away immediately.

What'southward the average watch fourth dimension? (60 seconds + 30 seconds + 0 seconds) / three people = 90 seconds / 3 people = 30 seconds / person.

In other words, l% of the total video length.

In reality, fifty% would be a pretty good result for whatsoever video shorter than 10 minutes.

For longer videos, 30% or more is more realistic.

With our i-minute video, 50% boilerplate lookout fourth dimension would double the number of required views.

240,000 1-infinitesimal views / 50% = 480,000 views!

Yeah, we are non going to practice that.

Nosotros need something style more achievable!

365 10 i-minute videos

Ok, so what if we made one 1-infinitesimal video every day instead?

How many views would nosotros need?

Let's accept our previous number of 480,000 views and carve up information technology by 365 days.

And yes, I am simplifying a little here: The first video you upload on 24-hour interval one has 365 days left to gain more views. While the last video that y'all upload on day 364 but has 1 24-hour interval left to gain more views and should therefore become a much smaller number of views. In my examples, we just pretend that all videos are the same.

What'southward the result?

480,000 views / 365 videos = 1,315 views / video

Now that'southward style more doable, wouldn't you lot say?

1,315 people to view a video vs. 480,000 people to view a video...

But, we tin practise fifty-fifty amend.

365 Ten 10-minute videos

What if nosotros simply made longer videos?

10-infinitesimal long videos instead of one-infinitesimal videos?

Well, in this case, we can divide everything by 10.

1,315 views per video / ten = 132 views per video

Let'due south bank check the number and come across if we're right.

365 video x 10 minutes x 132 views per video x fifty% average watch length = 240,900 minutes = 4,015 hours

Boo-ya! Accept that algebra! 😜

Permit's exist existent

Now all of these numbers make sense on paper, but they might not work in practice.

For once, coming up with skillful video ideas takes time and requires mental energy to be creative.

If you want to make 365 unique videos that are all equally good, you might burn out pretty speedily.

And non just because you bleed your creativity daily (unless you live stream video games on Twitch), just besides considering of the fourth dimension spent on product, editing, and promotion, which can hands take upward a few hours per video if you want to exercise a skilful task.

What's a more realistic option that would piece of work for most people?

Here is what I recommend:

  • Create 1, 2 or 3 videos per week. Each ten to 15 minutes long.
  • Create either a weekly or monthly livestream of 60 minutes.
  • Focus on content quality and promotion.

Let's take a look at how these numbers play out.

For this example, I volition calculate the total number of unique content start and then combine information technology with our alive stream minutes.

  • 1 10 weekly video of 15 minutes: 52 weeks ten 1 x xv minutes = 780 minutes of video content.
  • 2 x weekly video of 15 minutes: 52 weeks 10 two x xv minutes = 1,560 minutes of video content.
  • 3 10 weekly video of fifteen minutes: 52 weeks x 3 x xv minutes = 2,340 minutes of video content.

Now, let'south summate our live stream minutes.

  • i x weekly video of lx minutes: 52 weeks 10 1 10 sixty minutes = 3,120 minutes of alive stream content.
  • one ten monthly video of 60 minutes: 12 months ten 1 ten lx minutes = 720 minutes of live stream content.

At present, all y'all take to exercise is combine these ii numbers. If you don't desire to do live-streaming, just skip it.

For instance, if I want to create 3 weekly videos and do ane monthly live stream: 2,340 minutes of video content + 720 minutes of live stream content = 3,060 minutes of unique video content or 51 hours.

In this case, I would need to become 78 views per video or live stream to accomplish iv,000 hours of lookout man time. Hither is the math: 4,000 hours / 51 hours of unique video content.

You'll never have the aforementioned number of views for each of your videos or live streams. Some videos will have a few hundred views; others will have less than 50.

What's important is that those numbers average out in the long run.

And this is what this article will focus on.

Taking the best possible actions to ensure that each video has the best risk of success to get as many video views and watch time as possible.

How to Become To 4,000 Hours of YouTube Watch Time Fast

If you want to bring together the YouTube partner program, y'all have to get a lot of watch fourth dimension fast. Let's expect at some of the best YouTube watch fourth dimension hacks that volition assistance yous grow your aqueduct exponentially.

Create longer YouTube videos

Let me evidence yous a existent-world case from my YouTube channel. Here are two of my elevation-performing videos at the time of writing.

  • How to get 500 connections on LinkedIn. 7 minutes and 31 seconds long. 1,490 views created 69.2 hours of watch time.
  • How to become your first 10,000 followers on LinkedIn. 47 minutes and vi seconds long. 456 views created fifty.2 hours of watch fourth dimension.

As you can come across, even though the 10,000 followers video but had about 23% of the combined views, it most had 42% of the combined watch time.

That'due south why longer videos are and so powerful!

Even though the boilerplate watch time pct is lower than shorter videos, longer videos make more than up for it when defended viewers spotter them all the style till the cease!

Longer videos get shared more than frequently than shorter videos.

Optimize your YouTube videos

When you're starting a new YouTube channel, the odds are stacked against you.

YouTube volition – initially – non recommend your videos to new people, and your aqueduct will not abound organically because it doesn't know enough about you lot, your channel, your videos, and who would be interested in watching them.

The good news is, you can get around this by optimizing your videos for YouTube search.

Yous accept to discover video topics that many people are searching for on YouTube, with very few competing videos in the search results.

Create a targeted video for this topic once you institute a high search volume and low competition keyword. Then optimize your video championship, clarification, and keywords for YouTube SEO.

YouTube SEO is one of the most powerful tools to optimize the click-through charge per unit of your YouTube videos.

If in that location are only 5 videos about topic Ten, including yours, then your video will show up on page 1 of YouTube's search results for your targeted keyword.

So, how do you find these keywords?

By using a software called TubeBuddy! I utilize information technology for all of my videos. It connects straight to YouTube'south API and pulls up the number of searches for any keyword I blazon in. And information technology likewise tells me how many competitor videos show up.

Based on these ii numbers TubeBuddy will calculate a score between 0 and 100 points. The college, the better.

I then use these keywords to find ideas for new video titles and optimize my videos to get more organic attain.

Create custom thumbnails for your YouTube videos

Want to know an incredible hack to increase your YouTube watch time?

Optimize your video thumbnails for clicks!

You could have the best video in the world, only if nobody clicks on it, your watch time will be zero.

Together with your video title, YouTube thumbnails are the most of import success factors for high video click-through rates.

A nifty thumbnail communicates the value of watching your video to viewers when they browse their YouTube newsfeed.

By default, YouTube will select 3 freeze-frames from your video equally thumbnail suggestions during the upload of your video.

But you should always design and upload your own unique video thumbnail to stand up out from other videos.

Y'all will get the all-time results if yous programme for the thumbnail before writing your video script. I wrote an in-depth commodity on how to programme, design, and optimize your YouTube thumbnails. Make sure to check information technology out!

Add video cards to your videos

You likewise have to get more people to spotter more than of your videos to get more watch fourth dimension. 1 of the easiest ways is by recommending someone 1 of your related videos via video cards.

Those are the lilliputian info icons that appear in the top right corner of your videos. You tin recommend up to 5 videos per video, and I highly recommend incorporating this strategy for all of your videos.

When you're just starting, you might not have enough videos to recommend. Only don't worry. You tin can e'er go dorsum and add cards subsequently once you have enough material.

Create end screens for your videos

If your video is fun and entertaining to lookout man and someone stays all the way till the end, ask them to watch some of your other videos via your video end screens.

You tin can add together up to 4 videos and video playlists to the last xx seconds of your videos that viewers can lookout man with the click of a button.

I recommend using TubeBuddy to replace all of your video end screens with your about popular videos in majority.

Recommend related videos in your video clarification and comments

Another awesome manner to promote your videos to new viewers is by sharing links to some of your videos and playlists in the description of your videos.

For my videos, I oft review my top-performing videos in terms of watch fourth dimension, views, and engagement. I copy all video links in a text file and add together the video title in front end or higher up each link.

Next, I add links to my website, social media accounts, and products and then use TubeBuddy to replace the description in all of my videos with the click of a button.

Sometimes, especially if I want to recommend very specific videos, I follow a slightly unlike approach.

Instead of sharing the video URL that I mentioned in my video in the description, I share them in a comment and then pin the comment to the top.

Add your videos to playlists

Every YouTube channel should take at least one playlist!

You can kickoff by creating one for all of your videos and so, look for it... add all of your public videos to it! Genius!

The idea of why you should create playlists is that information technology creates a very convenient way for viewers to bulk-spotter your content.

I too create several topic-specific playlists for all of my LinkedIn and YouTube training videos on my channel.

Take advantage of series-playlists

If yous want to turbo-accuse your YouTube playlists, you must take advantage of a picayune-known yet super-powerful characteristic called series playlists.

Call up of information technology like this.

Yous made a travel documentary nearly your last vacation and split it into 3 movies. Nonetheless, it would make sense to lookout them in sequential society.

In this case, you create a regular playlist. Add all three videos in the right order. And and so switch it from "normal" to "serial".

With a "normal" or no playlist at all, there was no manner of knowing if YouTube would suggest part 2 every bit the next recommended video if someone were watching office 1. Frequently random videos would exist recommended. Frequently from other channels.

With a "serial" playlist, this is different. Now, the probability that part 2 will exist suggested is almost guaranteed.

Why is this so powerful?

Considering YouTube will auto-play videos subsequently each video past default.

And if you tin sneak in more of your videos at the terminate, that means extra picket fourth dimension, and yous become to 4,000 hours much faster!

Another way you lot can take advantage of video playlists is by sharing playlists instead of individual video links.

First, find a playlist of your choice that contains the video that you want to share.

Open information technology so select the video you want to share. Y'all'll detect that the URL changes into a long, convoluted address.

Select it, copy it, and paste it into a new tab in your browser.

It should play your video AND then continue with other videos from your playlist.

If it works, share this far and broad.

Not everybody will keep to spotter your entire playlist.

Simply some will, and that's all that matters! More sentry time for your channel.

Promote your videos on social media

You lot must bulldoze equally much traffic to your own videos as possible!

Don't rely on YouTube. This is a win-win partnership.

YouTube volition advantage those who help themselves.

When you send viewers to your videos, a couple of things will happen.

  1. You lot bring fresh users to the YouTube platform. This allows YouTube to show them ads which translates into extra revenue for YouTube. Outcome? YouTube volition advantage yous with organic impressions.
  2. You know your audition best. By recommending your videos to people you know are interested in the content, you allow YouTube to create lookalike audiences. It works similar to Amazon'due south "people who bought this likewise bought these" feature. Once YouTube is able to meet patterns among viewers, information technology volition be able to brand educated guesses what other YouTube videos and creators you might be interested in.
  3. Yous brand your own luck. Or in this case your own watch time. The more that you promote your own videos, the quicker you'll become to iv,000 hours of watch time.
  4. Yous too make it convenient for others to share your video on social media. (If yous want to dig deep to larn why people share content online and how you lot can motivate your audience to share more, hither'southward the article.) It's quite a big step to take, to motivate someone who is already on YouTube, to open their Twitter account, to write a tweet so to link one of your videos. But if y'all're the one sharing the video on Twitter and someone on Twitter watches your YouTube video, it'southward another matter. Now, all it takes is the click to retweet your video to their followers, and smash! New potential viewers that didn't know annihilation about you before clicking right to your video.

Become live on YouTube

We talked well-nigh the importance of longer videos earlier. With longer videos, you lot need a much smaller number of viewers to get to the same number of lookout hours.

Since you don't have your kickoff 1,000 subscribers nonetheless, that'south generally a good thing.

I recommend recording longer videos of 10-15 minutes. But if yous actually want to amp up your watch time, y'all'll demand significantly longer videos.

Now, unless you lot have the talent to produce hour-long movies every week without burning out, at that place is a much easier mode to become your watch fourth dimension upwards to speed.

Going Live on YouTube.

I recommend having a regular schedule, for example, every Monday evening, so your audience can class a addiction of attention your live streams.

Start video premieres

A cool method to increase the number of initial views for new videos is to publish them as a video premiere.

It's similar a picket party for your new video. Simply select a date and fourth dimension, and YouTube volition alive-stream your new video at your specified time. Viewers tin bring together the alive conversation and interact with you.

Afterward, information technology volition turn into a regular video that people tin watch whenever they want.

The benefit of premieres is that it's a unique experience. Yous can only always watch it for the first time, and then information technology's over.

Because of this novelty factor, yous'll get a lot more people to watch your premieres in comparison to publishing videos the regular way.

Utilise YouTube to live-stream your webinars

If you exercise webinars for your business organisation, why not live-stream them on YouTube. I use ii tools for all of my webinars that let me to live stream to YouTube: WebinarJam and Restream.

Why should you practice this?

Because webinars are usually last from 30 minutes to 2-3 hours. And that ways a massive boost in watch time every time you lot have a new webinar.

Make certain that you set your live stream to the public. Otherwise, YouTube won't count it towards your 4,000 hours of spotter time.

Create an online course and host your videos on YouTube

Have you ever thought most creating an online class equally a lead magnet? I apply Thrivecart to host my online courses.

Only yous can go on it super simple. Merely create a hidden page on your website and add all course videos every bit embedded YouTube videos.

Or if you accept an electronic mail list. Ship them a sequence of daily emails, each with the link to a different YouTube video.

People love structure and are more than willing to consume larger amounts of content if presented and structured the right way.

And what does that mean for you lot?

You guessed it! More watch time!

Create a video advert campaign on google ads

If you don't accept the patience, in that location is another mode that you can remember of...

Creating a video ad campaign on Google Ads.

Here is how this works.

Discover a video on your YouTube channel that's reasonably long. Then no shorter than 10 minutes, platonic one-half an hour to an 60 minutes. Webinar replays work amazingly.

Then you create a Google Ads account and prepare a new entrada.

You lot select "brand sensation and accomplish" as the entrada goal and then "video campaign" on the next page.

Give your campaign a proper name.

So select a CPC bidding strategy. I recommend manually setting a low bid cap then you don't accidentally burn your campaign upkeep likewise quickly.

Set up a campaign upkeep too as a start and end engagement. I recommend starting with $10-xx and a fourth dimension frame of 1-2 days to familiarize yourself with how everything works.

In the networks section, select "YouTube videos".

As for targeting options, in that location are 2. Either tailor your campaign to your ideal audience. Or just get for cheap and everyone.

I recommend selection ii to become equally many lookout man hours as possible at the lowest possible cost. And option ane, if you not only want to amp up your watch time but besides gain subscribers with your video ads.

Now it's time to create your video ad. Select a video of your selection from your YouTube channel and design your ad.

I recommend promoting your own YouTube aqueduct in your advertisement copy and and so linking to your channel URL.

Pro-tip: If yous add "?sub_confirmation=1" to the end of your aqueduct URL, people will see a popup that asks them if they want to subscribe.

In the finish, click save and continue. Once your video ad campaign has been reviewed, it'due south ready to go.

I recommend logging into your YouTube Creator Studio and keeping an center on the real-time views. This is what it'll look like on a daily basis once you have many more than subscribers! 🙂

Watch your ain videos on your friend'due south phone

That's a flake of a hack. Next fourth dimension you run into your friend, tell them that yous want to evidence them your new YouTube channel on THEIR telephone.

Then let them watch one of your videos. And while you're at it, why not subscribe to them at the same time... 😜

Every flake helps, and who knows, perhaps they'll turn into i of your most loyal subscribers who watch all of your videos.

Determination

In summary, for y'all to beginning a successful YouTube channel, you've to create a video strategy that works for you.

I recommend publishing iii videos of 10-15 minutes per week and one hour-long live stream per month.

Optimize all of your YouTube videos for SEO with TubeBuddy to generate organic traffic on YouTube. TubeBuddy is an incredible tool and allowed me to grow my channel from naught to 3000 subscribers.

Add upwards to five video cards to each of your videos to promote related videos from your channel to encourage viewers to spotter more of your content.

Create a pinned comment and recommend the same videos you recommended in your video cards.

Add finish screen for your videos and promote at to the lowest degree one of your videos and your playlists. Make sure they're either your most popular videos or playlists and/or closely related to the video someone simply watched.

Add a listing of your most popular, recommended, and related videos in the video clarification of each of your videos.

Organize all of your videos into topic-specific playlists. This allows viewers who are interested in a specific topic to sentry all of your content in bulk.

Take advantage of Series Playlists to ameliorate the likelihood that one of your videos will exist recommended equally "next video to lookout man".

Instead of sharing the direct link, add your videos to playlists and and then share the playlist with your video of option as the currently selected video instead. This volition boost your watch time tremendously!

Make sure that y'all e'er promote all of your videos on social media. I apply SocialBee to do this on autopilot.
Promote your videos on social media

Frequently go Alive on YouTube and utilise the Premiere function to create a more immersive feel with your audience and boost watch fourth dimension.

I use WebinarJam and Restream to live-stream your webinars.

Since webinars usually tend to exist between one and two hours long and the audience retentiveness is high, these are an incredible scout time booster.

You can also create an online grade and host your videos on YouTube to increase the watch fourth dimension on your channel.

If you want to become results even faster, create a video advertisement entrada on Google Ads.

And if all of these are not plenty, bug your friends and force them to watch your videos on their smartphone 😉

If you desire to larn more than about YouTube, make sure that you lot check out my YouTube articles on how to become more views on YouTube, get YouTube subscribers fast, improve your video click-through rate, and design awesome video thumbnails.

If you lot want to learn how I grew my YouTube aqueduct from 0 to 3,000 subscribers with TubeBuddy, check out my TubeBuddy review here.