$0 to $10K Per Month With YouTube Week 10 | How To Make Money Online With YouTube

Seventy days after uploading the very first video to a brand new channel with zero subscribers, zero followers, and zero views, this is what the scoreboard looks like: 54 subscribers and a YouTube Short that hit 2,000 views in three hours. A tiny channel by any standard, and yet the data is already telling a clear story about what works and what does not.

This is Week 10 of the $0 to $10K per month YouTube series. Every week Alston Godbolt documents what is happening on a hidden channel so you can see the real numbers, not a highlight reel. The goal is to reach $10,000 per month within one year using a brand new channel starting from absolute scratch. Here is everything that happened this week.

What You’ll Walk Out With

The exact view counts from the top five performing videos on a 54-subscriber channel
Why YouTube Shorts are called “overpowered” and what that means for a brand new creator in 2023
The content format beyond Shorts that is pulling over 1,000 views on a small channel
Four monetization strategies being pursued before the YouTube Partner Program even enters the picture
Three honest areas that need to improve before growth accelerates
A simple thumbnail technique that appears to be improving click rates
A free tool at finder.platformproof.com to identify the exact type of content you should be creating based on the skills you already have

Week 10 Snapshot: The Real Numbers at 70 Days

At the 70-day mark, the channel sits at 54 subscribers. That number matters less than you might think, because the monetization plan was never built around subscriber count. The focus from day one has been on building content that earns through affiliate marketing, physical product sales, brand deals, and eventually the YouTube Partner Program. Subscribers are a signal, not the primary metric being chased.

The channel is intentionally hidden. The URL is not shared publicly because the entire point is to remove any artificial boost this main channel or its audience could provide. If viewers from this established channel found the new one and subscribed out of curiosity, the experiment breaks. The hidden channel has to earn every single view and subscriber the same way a complete stranger starting today would earn them.

There is also a paid Discord at $9.99 per month that gives members a behind-the-scenes look at exactly what is happening on the hidden channel. An important detail: every dollar from that Discord is being set aside, and at the end of 52 weeks all of it gets raffled back to the paying members. The Discord revenue does not count toward the $10K goal and it is not being used to fund the channel or inflate the results.

YouTube Shorts Are Overpowered: Here Are the Actual Numbers

The single most important data point from Week 10 is this: a YouTube Short uploaded three hours before this video was recorded had already collected 2,000 views and 31 likes. The channel had 54 subscribers at the time. That means a video with almost no existing audience behind it reached 2,000 people in 180 minutes.

That is not normal performance for a channel that size on long-form content. On most new channels, a 54-subscriber count would mean single-digit views per video. YouTube Shorts bypass that ceiling entirely because they are served to users who are not subscribed, placed into a discovery feed that works more like TikTok than traditional YouTube search. The algorithm does not require you to have followers for a Short to spread.

Looking at the top 10 videos by view count over the last 28 days, the first five positions are all YouTube Shorts. Here are the exact view counts:

Short #1: 2,300 views
Short #2: 2,100 views
Short #3: 1,700 views
Short #4: 1,600 views
Short #5: 1,100 views

The #6 spot on that top 10 list is a long-form review video with over 1,000 views. All of this is happening on a channel with fewer than 60 subscribers. The Shorts alone have reached nearly 9,000 people in 28 days on a channel most YouTube search tools would not even register as active.

The current content goal is one Short every single day. The Shorts themselves are not entirely separate productions. They are clipped versions of existing long-form videos, recut and optimized. That means every long-form video has the potential to generate multiple Shorts, which multiplies the output without multiplying the work proportionally.

The Long-Form Format That Is Actually Working: Reviews and Unboxings

While Shorts are dominating the view counts, the long-form video with the highest performance on this channel is a review video. This confirms something that gets repeated constantly in the YouTube strategy content: reviews, unboxings, and first impressions are among the most search-friendly formats available to a new creator.

Why do review videos work so well for new channels? Because people searching for them already know what they want to find. Someone searching “review of [product]” is in a completely different mindset than someone browsing a topic generally. They have already decided they want information about a specific thing, and they will click on a result from a small channel if that channel appears relevant and the thumbnail earns their trust.

As an example, Alston mentioned recording a review of a book as part of the Amazon Influencer Program. The Amazon Influencer Program lets creators earn commissions when viewers click through and purchase products after watching a review. That review of a book pulled views even on a tiny channel because the search intent was already there. Someone was already looking for that content and the video answered their question.

The takeaway for new creators: your first long-form videos should not be broad educational pieces trying to explain a whole topic. They should be tight, specific reviews of products, tools, books, or services that people are actively searching for right now. One targeted review will outperform ten generic “how to” videos on a new channel.

Four Ways This Channel Plans to Make Money Before YPP

The YouTube Partner Program, which requires 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours before you can run ads, is described here as “icing on the cake.” It is not the goal. It is a bonus if it happens. The real monetization plan has four tracks running at the same time, and none of them require 1,000 subscribers to start.

Affiliate marketing is the first track. The niche this hidden channel operates in already has well-known affiliate programs attached to it. Whenever a viewer clicks a link in the video description or mentioned in a video and buys something, the channel earns a commission. This can begin generating revenue from the first video, not the thousandth.

Physical products are the second track. The niche is described as one with a strong physical product category. The approach being considered is either dropshipping or white-label merchandise. Dropshipping means selling products you never hold in inventory, with a supplier shipping directly to the customer. White-label merch means creating branded products under your own name using a manufacturer who produces the item. Neither approach requires a warehouse or upfront bulk inventory.

Brand deals and sponsorships are the third track. Once a channel reaches a few thousand monthly views in a specific niche, companies selling to that audience will pay for exposure. The subscriber count matters less than the audience size and targeting precision. A 500-subscriber channel covering a specific hobby with 20,000 monthly views can often land small sponsorships faster than a general channel with 5,000 subscribers and scattered content.

The YouTube Partner Program is the fourth track. At 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, ads turn on. At that point the other three revenue streams are already running and ad revenue becomes a fourth layer, not the foundation everything depends on.

Not sure which of these four paths fits your skills and situation?

The Platform Proof Finder walks you through a quick assessment and tells you exactly where to focus first. Try it free at finder.platformproof.com.

Honest Drawbacks: Three Things That Need to Improve

The Week 10 update does not only cover what is going well. Three specific areas are flagged as problems holding the channel back from faster growth.

Long-form upload consistency is falling short. The target is four long-form videos per week. The actual output has been two or three per week. This is the single biggest lever available right now. More long-form content means more surface area for search, more raw material for Shorts, and a faster path to the 4,000 watch hours needed for YPP. Missing the four-per-week target slows everything downstream.

Comment count is low. Very few viewers are leaving comments on the videos. Comments are a ranking signal for YouTube’s algorithm. A video with strong engagement signals, including comments, is more likely to be recommended to new viewers. Building a habit of ending each video with a specific question or call to action that invites a short comment can improve this without requiring any changes to the content itself.

Thumbnails still need work. The current thumbnails are getting better but are not yet at the level where they can compete with established channels in the niche. Thumbnails are the first decision a viewer makes about whether to click. A weak thumbnail wastes the view potential of a strong video.

The Thumbnail Technique That Is Working Right Now

One specific thumbnail adjustment has been showing results: turning up the contrast. High-contrast thumbnails stand out in the YouTube feed, which is filled with dozens of images competing for attention simultaneously. When someone is scrolling, a thumbnail with strong contrast versus an image with muted tones will catch the eye faster.

Beyond contrast, the broader strategy is to study what is already working in your niche. Look at the channels in your topic area that are getting the most views, and look specifically at their thumbnails. What colors do they use? What text format? Are faces prominent, or is it object-focused? The goal is not to copy a specific thumbnail but to identify the visual grammar that already earns clicks in that niche and apply it to your own content.

New creators often make thumbnails based on what looks good to them personally. Experienced creators make thumbnails based on what the data shows earns clicks from the specific audience they are targeting. Those are very different design briefs.

Step-by-Step: How to Apply This Exact Approach in 2023

The Week 10 results give a clear replicable framework. Here is the sequence as it has been laid out through this series:

Pick a niche that has physical products, affiliate programs, or brand deal potential already built in. You want multiple monetization paths available from day one.
Start with YouTube Shorts. One Short per day is the target. Clip them from your long-form content so you are not creating separate productions.
For long-form content, start with review and unboxing videos on specific products people are already searching for in your niche. Review content earns trust with search intent viewers faster than educational content on a new channel.
Study the top-performing thumbnails in your niche before making your own. Match the visual grammar of what already earns clicks, then adjust contrast higher to stand out in the feed.
Build affiliate links into every video description from day one. You do not need thousands of subscribers to earn affiliate commissions. You need targeted viewers with purchase intent.
Hit four long-form uploads per week consistently. Two or three per week is better than zero, but four is where the compounding begins. Each video is a permanent search asset that can keep pulling views months later.
End every video with a question that invites a comment. Comments are an engagement signal and they also give you content ideas for future videos based on what your audience actually wants to know.

Why Starting in Late 2022 or Early 2023 Is the Right Move

YouTube Short monetization was changing in January and February 2023, meaning creators who built their Shorts library before that date would be positioned to benefit from the new structure. The advice in this Week 10 update is to start creating Shorts now, even if you cannot commit to long-form content yet. Get your channel and your content habit established before the monetization rules change, so you are not starting from zero when the opportunity opens.

There is no excuse to not have started. In 2022, the tools available to a new creator are better than they have ever been. You do not need expensive equipment. Several of the videos on this hidden channel do not include a face on camera at all. Some are recorded with a simple phone camera. The constraint is not resources, it is the decision to begin.

The accountability structure offered here is to launch your channel alongside this series and share your channel link in the comments. Alston commits to checking those links and approving non-spammy channels so that viewers can potentially help each other grow. A channel started today has the same Shorts algorithm advantage the hidden channel is exploiting right now.

The Numbers Compared: Where Week 10 Stands vs. a “Normal” Channel

To put the Week 10 numbers in context, here is a rough comparison. A typical new YouTube channel at the 70-day mark, uploading inconsistently, not using Shorts, and creating broad generic content might have somewhere between 10 and 30 subscribers with 200 to 500 total views across all videos.

The hidden channel at 70 days has 54 subscribers and a single Short that hit 2,000 views in three hours. The top five videos in the last 28 days represent nearly 9,000 views combined. The review video in position six has cleared 1,000 views. The total views this channel has gathered from Shorts and targeted review content is several times what the “normal” baseline would look like.

This gap is entirely explained by two decisions: using Shorts aggressively and publishing review content with specific search intent. Neither of those decisions required more money, more equipment, or more time than the “normal” channel approach. They required a different strategy applied consistently.

Find Your X

The right niche, the right content format, and the right monetization track are different for every creator. If you are not sure which path fits your skills, your schedule, and the kind of income you are trying to build, the Platform Proof Finder was built to answer that question in under five minutes. Try it free at finder.platformproof.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many subscribers does this channel have at Week 10?

At the 70-day mark, the channel has 54 subscribers. The subscriber count is intentionally not the primary metric. The focus is on monthly views, affiliate link clicks, and eventually revenue from multiple streams.

Why is the channel hidden and not revealed publicly?

Revealing the channel to an existing audience would artificially boost the subscriber count and views, which would break the validity of the experiment. The whole point is to demonstrate what any beginner can achieve starting from zero with no existing audience to borrow from.

How many views did YouTube Shorts get in the last 28 days?

The top five videos on the channel over the last 28 days are all YouTube Shorts, with individual view counts of 2,300, 2,100, 1,700, 1,600, and 1,100. A Short uploaded just three hours before the Week 10 recording already had 2,000 views and 31 likes.

Does the $9.99 Discord revenue count toward the $10K goal?

No. The Discord is kept at a low price specifically to filter for serious members, not as a revenue stream. At the end of 52 weeks, all Discord subscription money is being raffled back to the paying members in full. It does not count as proof of concept for the channel monetization experiment.

What type of long-form content is performing best on this small channel?

Review videos with specific search intent are the strongest long-form performers. A review video on the channel crossed 1,000 views, ranking as the sixth highest viewed piece of content in the last 28 days. Review and unboxing content works because viewers are already searching for a verdict on a specific thing rather than browsing broadly.

What are the four monetization plans for this channel?

The four tracks are affiliate marketing, physical products (via dropshipping or white-label merchandise), brand deals and sponsorships, and the YouTube Partner Program. The first three can start generating revenue before the 1,000-subscriber YPP threshold is reached. YPP is treated as a bonus layer, not the foundation.

What thumbnail technique is currently being tested?

Turning up the contrast on thumbnails is the current adjustment. Higher contrast images stand out more in a scrolling feed filled with competing thumbnails. Beyond contrast, the strategy is to study the thumbnails of the highest-performing channels in the niche and match the visual patterns that already earn clicks in that specific space.

How do you balance YouTube Shorts with long-form content when you have limited time?

The approach here is to make Shorts a byproduct of long-form rather than a separate production track. Record a long-form video, then clip and optimize segments from it for Shorts. This way a single recording session produces both the main video and several Shorts. If you genuinely cannot manage long-form yet, start with Shorts only and build the long-form habit over time. Consistency on Shorts alone is more valuable than inconsistency across both formats.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “$0 to $10K Per Month With YouTube Week 10”, YouTube, 2022 (transcript sourced from video captions)
YouTube Partner Program eligibility: 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, per YouTube Help
Amazon Influencer Program: amazon.com/influencer-program