vidIQ, 548 Market Street, San Francisco, CA (2026)

08/14/2026

Comment "claude" and I'll send you the copy-and-paste link to connect your YouTube channel to Claude

YouTube is doubling the watch hours new creators need to join the Partner Program.

Starting February 1, new applicants will need 8,000 qualified watch hours in the past year, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the past 90 days.

The current requirements are 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours, or 1,000 subscribers plus 10 million Shorts views. Shorts creators are taking the bigger hit, since that threshold is going up by 10 million.

Creators already in the Partner Program are not affected.

There's also a new rule for Shorts payouts. Channels need 10 million Shorts views every 90 days to keep earning from the Shorts Creators Pool. Fall below it and you stay in the program and keep earning on long-form, with Shorts revenue restarting once you cross the line again.

YouTube says the increases are meant to keep pace with its own growth, citing over 200 billion daily Shorts views.

The same announcement expanded Premium Lite to every country where Premium is available. Subscription revenue is split 55% to long-form creators and 45% to Shorts creators.

If you're close to the current numbers, you have until February 1.

08/14/2026

Not all YouTube views count equally toward monetization.

YouTube has clarified exactly what “qualified” means for the YouTube Partner Program.

For Shorts, a qualified view must come from a public Short and be an engaged view. That means the viewer watched past the initial seconds. Loops do not count.

For long-form content, qualified watch hours must come from:

• Public long-form videos
• Public podcasts
• Archived livestreams

Watch time from private, unlisted, or deleted videos, ad campaigns, and unarchived livestreams does not qualify.

One important distinction: Shorts watch time does not contribute to your long-form watch-hour total. The long-form and Shorts routes are separate, regardless of how much time viewers spend watching your Shorts.

You can check engaged views for individual videos directly in YouTube Analytics.

This matters even more with the full YPP entry requirements changing for new applicants on February 1, 2027:

• 4,000 to 8,000 qualified watch hours
• 10 million to 20 million qualified Shorts views

The current thresholds remain in effect until then.

Which route are you building toward: long-form watch hours or qualified Shorts views?

Full breakdown from YouTube:
https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/youtube-monetization-qualified-watch-hours-shorts-views/

08/14/2026

If monetization is your goal, the next five months matter.

We know 4,000 watch hours can represent months of learning, creating, and continuing to show up when growth feels slow.

Starting February 1, YouTube will double the full YPP watch-time threshold for new applicants from 4,000 to 8,000 hours.

At vidIQ, we want to support creators making the push. We’re starting by offering 40% off one of our most powerful plans, vidIQ MAX, which includes:

• Personalized video ideas
• Trend research
• Title and thumbnail tools
• Deeper support from AI Coach

This is only the beginning. We have more coming.

For now, join the Race to 4K 👇
https://link.vidiq.com/raceto4k

08/13/2026

Comment "data" and I'll send you the link to connect your YouTube channel to Claude

YouTube is doubling the watch hours new creators need to join the Partner Program.

Starting February 1, new applicants will need 8,000 qualified watch hours in the past year, or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the past 90 days.

The current requirements are 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours, or 1,000 subscribers plus 10 million Shorts views. Shorts creators are taking the bigger hit, since that threshold is going up by 10 million.

Creators already in the Partner Program are not affected.

There's also a new rule for Shorts payouts. Channels need 10 million Shorts views every 90 days to keep earning from the Shorts Creators Pool. Fall below it and you stay in the program and keep earning on long-form, with Shorts revenue restarting once you cross the line again.

YouTube says the increases are meant to keep pace with its own growth, citing over 200 billion daily Shorts views.

The same announcement expanded Premium Lite to every country where Premium is available. Subscription revenue is split 55% to long-form creators and 45% to Shorts creators.

If you're close to the current numbers, you have until February 1.

08/13/2026

YouTube’s new Shorts monetization rules include a number that could matter even more than the 20 million-view entry requirement.

Starting February 1, 2027, monetized creators will need to maintain 10 million qualified Shorts views every 90 days to keep earning Shorts ad revenue.

And “qualified” is the important word here.

YouTube defines qualified views as engaged views, where someone stays to watch rather than immediately swiping away. That means your total Shorts views may be significantly higher than the number that counts toward monetization.

For example, vidIQ recorded 9.8 million Shorts views over 90 days, but only 5.7 million were engaged views.

Under the new rules, that performance would no longer generate Shorts ad revenue, even though the channel could remain in the YouTube Partner Program.

Here are the three Shorts thresholds creators need to understand, all measured over 90 days:

• 20 million qualified views to apply for YPP
• 10 million qualified views to earn Shorts ad revenue
• 1 million qualified views to remain in YPP

Creators who fall below 10 million may still have access to other monetization opportunities, including YouTube Shopping, brand-deal incentives, fan funding, and other targeted programs.

But for smaller creators, this creates a sharper strategic choice:

Do you pursue Shorts at the scale required to earn ad revenue?

Or do you use Shorts primarily for discovery while investing more time and resources into long-form videos, livestreams, and other revenue streams?

The right answer will depend on your channel. But spreading limited resources across every format may become much harder to justify.

Will these new thresholds change your content strategy?

Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GFbWCCTFgQ

08/12/2026

They're learning 😭

Comment "start" for help starting your own YouTube channel today!

[FULL STORY BELOW]

Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed just took down the Warden in hardcore Minecraft.

It's the first major kill in their run at beating all four of the game's biggest bosses, and it's the one most players avoid entirely. The Warden is blind, tracks you by vibration, and hits hard enough to end a run in a single swing.

Stack 26 blocks and don't fall. The clip is chaos. Torch panic, a witch showing up uninvited, totems getting stacked, hitboxes turned on mid-fight, and both of them screaming "don't move" at the same time.

Three bosses left. Let's see if they can get it done today.

08/12/2026

There is no perfect length for a YouTube video.

Shorter videos do not automatically win because they retain a higher percentage of viewers. Longer videos do not automatically win because they can generate more watch time.

The right length is the shortest version that fully delivers on the promise made by your title and thumbnail.

Start with viewer intent.

A quick answer may need three minutes. A detailed tutorial may deserve 30. Review the top-performing videos for the same topic, but treat their length as a clue, not a formula.

Then study your own data:

• Compare videos of similar lengths and formats
• Track average view duration and percentage viewed
• Review weak intros, dips, spikes, and top moments
• Remove padding before cutting genuinely useful content
• Evaluate Shorts and long-form separately

YouTube considers both absolute and relative watch time. That is why a longer video with a lower percentage viewed can still hold more attention than a short video with high retention.

The rule is simple: if the value continues, keep going. If the video starts repeating itself, stop.

Do not stretch a video for the algorithm. Do not cut valuable content just to inflate retention.

What video length works best for your audience?

08/11/2026

Comment “subs” and I’ll send you the #1 tool that has grown 20M+ YouTube channels FASTER and monetized thousands of creators

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08/10/2026

Comment "subs" to start growing faster on YouTube and MONETIZE your channel before February 1st

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08/10/2026

S-tier community event

Comment “start” for help starting your own YouTube channel today! [FULL STORY BELOW]

YouTuber Phillip Chu Joy turned a fan meetup into a full theater event.

The creator rented out an entire cinema auditorium for his community, and before the movie started, subscribers got to play Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on the massive theater screen.

So instead of just watching a movie together, fans were swinging through New York in front of the whole room.

It’s a smart creator event because it doesn’t feel like a basic meetup. It gives fans something they probably wouldn’t get anywhere else, and it creates clips that make the whole thing easy to share online.

A movie theater, Spider-Man, and fans playing Spider-Man on an 800-inch screen is pretty much built for the internet.

vidIQ

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