I started this blog in 2011. Since then I’ve watched more platform pivots than I can count, and I’ve learned to mostly shrug them off — new algorithm, new panic, new “creators are FURIOUS” headline, life goes on.
But this one’s worth actually paying attention to.
In August 2026, YouTube announced that from February 2027, Shorts stop earning ad money unless a channel gets 10 million views on them within 90 days. Ten. Million. Below that, you keep earning — but only on your longer videos. If you’re a brand-new creator trying to get accepted onto the program at all, you now need either 8,000 hours of total watch time in a year, or 20 million Shorts views in 90 days.
I’ll be honest, my first reaction was smugness. I’ve never been a Shorts person. Then my second reaction was: right, well, that means I actually need to get serious about the long stuff.
Why “just go viral on TikTok” was never a real plan
For years the advice for anyone starting out online was some version of “post short clips constantly, get lucky, ride the algorithm.” I tried it. Briefly. It’s exhausting, and it’s built on ground that can shift under you with one blog post from a platform’s news team — which is exactly what just happened.
What doesn’t shift as easily: a video someone genuinely wanted to watch for fifteen minutes. A series someone subscribed to because they wanted the next one. That’s slower to build and much, much harder to fake, which is precisely why it’s more durable.
What I’m actually doing about it
I’ve started filming properly again — two longer videos a week, nothing under ten minutes, no skipping weeks even when I don’t feel inspired. I gave myself six days to work with and accepted that the seventh is just for editing (and, if I’m honest, ignoring the family a bit).
The trick that’s actually made it manageable is giving everything a theme instead of just “here’s my week.” Not “weekly vlog” — something like “waking up early for a week and seeing what changes.” One clear idea, one day of filming, cut into something with a shape. When something does well, I don’t scramble for a new idea — I just do the same theme again with a different angle.
I’ve also started going live sometimes, which I resisted for ages because it felt like admitting I hadn’t prepared anything. Turns out just talking to people in real time, unscripted, for forty-five minutes counts for a lot more toward the numbers that matter than I expected — and it’s genuinely less effort than editing.
If you’re building something online too
You don’t need a studio or a content calendar with fifteen colour-coded categories (though, full disclosure, I am building one of those anyway). You need something you can actually keep up for months, not a burst you’ll burn out on by March.
If any of this is landing because you’re in the same boat — trying to build an income online in your forties, or from scratch, or after redundancy, or just because you fancied it — I’m going to be writing more about how this actually plays out. Numbers included, not just vibes.
More soon.
Photo by Zulfugar Karimov: https://www.pexels.com/photo/youtube-logo-on-smartphone-over-keyboard-33440447/
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