Buying Up and Purchasing Channels
First, a disclaimer: I do not sell channels nor engage in artificial view stacking.
Getting your YouTube channel approved for the YPP (YouTube Partner Program) usually takes at least a month, often up to half a year or more under ideal circumstances.
Many creators simply cannot meet the 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscriber thresholds.
If you have reached the 4,000 hours but lack subscribers (e.g., only 700), buying views is an option. It costs only a few dollars to reach the 1,000-subscriber mark.
However, if you have the subs but watch hours aren’t ticking up, consider buying watch time. But this is expensive and risky; it could cost over $1,000, effectively amounting to buying a channel outright.
The best approach? Buy a channel. Starting from day one of your operation, you can test how traffic brings in revenue—even if it’s just a few cents better than zero.
After purchasing a channel, you can still create a brand-new channel for bidirectional sync testing. This allows you to prove that talent isn’t hindered by acquiring a channel, and the two strategies complement each other perfectly.
Most people persist for one or two years, only to find they’re still miles away from YPP approval—sometimes indefinitely short of that final step.
And yet, they remain too honest, refusing to buy views or channels.
7x Revenue Potential
Do not get excited prematurely. YouTube earns in US dollars. Ideally, your content should be recommended to audiences in Europe and America—not only do ads pay more there, but the audience size is also larger.
However, if your primary audience is India or Southeast Asia, your revenue per unit will be extremely low, or even non-existent.
YouTube pays in USD, with an exchange rate of roughly 7:1 relative to many local currencies. $20 might buy you nothing more than a few coffees abroad, but here at home, it could equate to a full day’s salary.
Therefore, to maximize revenue, prioritize creating content for European and American audiences. They offer higher ad CPMs (Cost Per Mille), tipping culture, greater engagement, and higher quality content volumes, creating a positive feedback loop.
There is a nuance here: If you create in Chinese, advertising volume will be relatively low with lower unit prices—roughly one-fifth or less of Western rates—and the audience is smaller.
In contrast, English creates a polarized outcome: you are either pushed to Western audiences or entirely to Indian audiences (since many Indians speak English as their primary language). If your data analysis shows a predominantly Indian audience, your channel becomes dangerous to monetize effectively.
Multiple Channels
One of the reasons people love YouTube is that one account can host multiple channels; for example, you could create five.
Let’s start with one principle: No self-media creator likes mixed content, nor do users.
I do not recommend mixing today’s food videos, tomorrow’s technical tutorials, and the day after that pet videos, let alone finance advice the next day.
It is better to have a cohesive niche system with relatively uniform content. For instance, a Homelab channel can cover Raspberry Pi, ESP32, Docker, PVE, or NAS, as long as it remains consistent.
Multiple channels allow you to explore various domains simultaneously: one for food, one for Vlogs, one for technology, one for consumer electronics.
This way, you can identify which domain generates the best-performing videos.
In contrast, in China, the “one ID per person” rule applies, and algorithms immediately push content to your social circle—friends and family, school classmates, colleagues—and nothing is off-limits even if you opt out of privacy settings.
This limits the ability to test different niches via multiple accounts while forcing exposure within intimate social networks.
To succeed in self-media, one must implicitly accept that their work will be seen by acquaintances globally.
This applies to TikTok, WeChat Official Accounts, and beyond.
Tips
In summary:
- If you have funds, consider buying a channel.
- If your data is promising but close to the finish line, consider stacking views to cross the threshold; otherwise, prepare for up to half a year with zero progress.
- For English content, actively target European and American audiences due to high unit rates. Being pushed to an Indian audience by YouTube is “Hell mode.”
- Use multiple channels to test different domains. Retain the one with the best-performing data. Do not mix multiple types of content within a single channel; nobody likes that.
This means you should consider buying and stacking views from day one. If you don’t buy or stack, then stick diligently to creating original content—do not even dream of repurposing others’ work unless you are prepared to be “honest” (a euphemism for struggling alone).
Do not wait until six months later to regret that you didn’t buy a YPP-ready channel from the start.
Similarly, when working in Chinese, prepare for lower unit rates and potential toxicity from trolls.
Think of it this way: Google searches for Chinese content do not necessarily outperform Baidu, whereas Google excels with English searches.
Identify several niches that suit you, then test across multiple channels. Do not start with a “one-stop-shop” format on a single channel.
Platforms love consistency; users prefer consistency too.
All the above are matters of foresight.
There are some things that can only be done well in advance, such as preparing for CET-4/6 or IELTS/TOEFL exams, upgrading from associate to bachelor degrees, or getting your driver’s license.
Missing registration deadlines means waiting a year or two for the next cycle.