Field notes
Playbooks, teardowns and the occasional argument — everything we have learned helping creators grow across every major platform.
YouTube publishes the categories that limit ads. The opening of a video is weighted hardest, context decides everything, and no word list can see context.
RPM = CPM × your monetized playback rate × your revenue share. At a 40% monetized rate, a $14 CPM is a $3 RPM — and unmonetized views cost you more than YouTube's cut.
TikTok pays creators from a rewards programme measured per 1,000 qualified views, and the rate depends on far more than view count. Here is the mechanism.
Shorts pay from a shared pool at a 45% creator share, not from watch-page ads at 55%. That structural difference explains everything about Shorts income.
RPM vs CPM confuses most creators. One describes what advertisers pay, the other what you keep. Here is the difference and which to track.
How much YouTubers make comes down to four numbers, not one. Here is the calculation, why niche matters more than views, and what the headline figures leave out.