If you’re new to YouTube, you may keep hearing about the 4000 watch hours on YouTube and wonder why people are obsessed with this number. We’re going to explain:
- What the whole 4000 watch hours means.
- How to get to 4000 watch hours fast.
- Common questions people ask about watch hours.
And if you’re just starting your YouTube journey, we highly recommend that you read our guide on the most profitable YouTube niches and how to collaborate to get more views and watch hours.
What are 4000 Watch Hours on YouTube?
YouTube’s Partner Program is the reason why you want to hit 4000 watch hours on your channel. YouTube’s own channel uploaded a video explaining how to get monetized that you can watch here.
For the longest time, creators needed to hit 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers to be monetized.
But there’s good news.
A new program is available in select countries, such as the U.S., U.K., Canada and South Korea, that offers monetization at:
- 3000 watch hours
- 500 subscribers
Unfortunately, with the lower threshold, you can only earn from paid channel memberships, Super Chats, Thanks and Stickers and through promoting products on the channel.
If you want to earn money from ads on your videos, you must hit 4k watch hours and 1k subscribers.
How to Get 4000 YouTube Watch Hours Fast
So, if you’re excited by seeing how much YouTubers make with 300k views and want to get monetized so that you can begin earning money from your channel, you can follow the expert tips below.👇
1. Use End Screens and Info Cards
Are you telling your viewers what to do when they reach the end of your video? If not, it’s a wasted opportunity to get more view hours. You only need to tell the person to watch more of your videos and make recommendations.
You’ll find Canva is a great tool to help you add in end screens and info cards.
Tips💡that will go a long way here are:
- Add links to two videos that are similar to the one the person just watched.
- Add a subscribe button to turn one-off viewers into subscribers.
If you only create an outro and don’t use an end screen, you’re reducing your potential watch hours drastically. Creating a template for your end screen in Canva is easy and a great way to streamline your video creation, too.
Info cards can also be added to your videos and will make your videos more interactive.
Adding in info cards is as simple as:
- Going to YouTube Studio
- Clicking “edit” on the video
- Entering the editor
- Adding up to 5 info cards in the content
If you use info cards the right way. It will funnel viewers to more and more of your videos.
2. Create Playlists to Keep People Watching
If it hasn’t dawned on you yet, it’s worthwhile to create playlists that keep people watching your videos. You can categorize your videos and add them to respective playlists all with similar content that you think people will enjoy watching.
Imagine if you were teaching people how to market on social media. You may have a playlist for each social media platform, such as X, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and others.
Narrowing down your list further, you might have lists on specific topics, such as hidden features for every social platform.
Your use of playlists will:
- Intrigue viewers to watch more videos
- Keep people watching
- Help you boost your watch hours to 4k and beyond
And over time, you can continue refining the playlists you make to try and answer all of a viewer’s questions as in-depth as possible.
3. Respond to Comments to Drive Engagement
Comments drive engagement, build loyalty and will help you grow your channel’s watch hours. You can and should go through your videos and respond to things, such as:
- Top comments
- Questions people ask
Over time, this attention-to-detail will allow you to add view hours because people know that you’re vested in your channel and audience and care for them. You’ll build a very strong community with comments.
But there’s another comment hack that will provide exceptional results.
Add a canned response to your comments using a template and ask the viewer questions, such as what they thought of the video or a specific element in it. People will see the comments from you and engage more.
And if you ask about something toward the end of the video, people may rewatch the section, increasing watch hours.
4. Create Content on Proven Topics
Some topics are proven to work, and you need to find this unicorn in your own niche to make them work for you. You’ll need to do quite a bit of research for this to work, but it’s worth the effort.
You can find proven topics by:
- Creating a list of the top 10 channels in your industry
- Review the top videos for each channel
- Note similarities in topics that seem to get loads of views
Make use of YouTube’s sort by “Most popular” filter and create a database of topics that seem to work well every time.
Don’t steal these topics but try to use them for inspiration to create videos that people want to see YouTubers create.
5. Publish Videos When Your Audience is Most Active
Imagine if your favorite YouTuber posted only in the middle of the night when you’re sleeping. If you have a lot of people that you subscribe to, there’s a good chance that you’ll miss their videos.
And if you miss the creator’s videos, it leads to an immediate drop in potential watch hours.
Hitting 4,000 watch hours on YouTube has a lot to do with knowing your audience and when they’re most active.
You can reach this goal by doing the following:
- Tap your profile picture
- Go to Analytics > Audience
You’ll be able to see when your viewers were online in the last 28 days. Schedule out your videos around this time to increase the odds that subscribers will watch them.
6. Master the Art of Storytelling
If you watch the best YouTube creators in the world, you’ll realize that they have mastered the art of storytelling. Your “story” has many elements that must come together to tell your story:
- Focus on your thumbnails and titles to invoke interest in your videos
- Add emotional triggers into the title
- Create a strong, initial hook at the start of your videos to attract the viewer’s attention
Add breaks and transitions into your video as a way to force people to keep watching and hold their attention better.
7. Add Captions to Your Videos
Did you know that a lot of people watch videos on mute? If you don’t add captions to your content, then you could lose these viewers because they won’t know what’s going on in your videos.
Viewers also prefer captions on longer videos because it makes it easier to follow along.
If you have a global audience, then adding subtitles will help ensure that everyone can enjoy your content. You can translate your captions to multiple languages, allowing you to connect with a much wider audience.
8. Create Evergreen Videos
Evergreen content is content that will always be relevant, useful and enjoyable. These types of topics are great for racking up your watch time because people will be searching for them regularly.
Here are some examples of evergreen videos:
- How to change careers
- How to cook rice
- How to make friends
Evergreen videos are often search-based, so you can use data from keyword research to get ideas for your niche.
But you can also get ideas for evergreen content by:
- Viewing your analytics data. Which videos get the most watch time? Can you expand on these topics?
- Asking yourself – what do my viewers care about the most?
In the long run, building a channel on evergreen content will help you get 4000 watch hours faster than focusing on trending topics or current events.
9. Host Livestreams
Here’s a really engaging and fun way to reach your goal of 4000 watch hours: host livestreams.
The watch time from livestreams will count toward your watch hour goal. If you can get 100+ viewers to join in at a time, then you can easily boost your watch time.
Just make sure that you convert your streams to video-on-demand content, or else the watch hours won’t count.
To keep viewers around, make sure that your streams are engaging. Have a plan for what you want to announce or talk about during your streams. Many YouTubers use livestreaming to answer questions from their subscribers, so if you’re out of ideas, you can host a live Q&A.
The great thing about a Q&A is that people will want to see what your answers are and which questions will be asked next.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Does It Take to Get 4000 Watch Hours on YouTube?
The length of time it takes to get 4000 watch hours depends on your channel and how quickly you can get views. But let’s say that you consistently maintain 20,000 minutes of watch time per month. It would take one year to hit the 4000-watch-hour mark. Remember that the more videos you publish, the easier it will be to hit your goal.
How Many Views Equal 4000 Watch Hours?
The number of views you need to hit 4000 watch hours depends on how long each person is watching your video. Let’s say that people only watch your video for one minute. You’ll need 240K views to get 4000 watch hours. If each person watches two minutes of your video, then you’ll need 120K views. If your average view duration jumps to four minutes, then you only need 60K views.
What Happens When You Reach 4000 Watch Hours and 1000 Subscribers?
Once you get 4000 watch hours and gain 1000 subscribers, you can finally monetize your account. You can now enable ads on your videos to start generating income from video views.
