Yes, you need to sell something that earns you money beyond the YouTube advertising. I've had a channel for years and sell books, courses, Clarity calls and consulting.

YouTube is a great platform for selling yourself and your expertise but as more people come on board, the revenues from advertising falls.

Arrange a call if you'd like to brainstorm some ideas.

Cheers.

David C Barnett

It's much better to view YouTube's Adsense as just the cherry on the cake. Unless you're pulling in SIGNIFICANT views, it likely won't amount to very much regardless, and even then, not as much as you could get from other areas. Sponsorship of your videos can bring in many times more income than what YouTube's monetization offers, so finding brands that want to partner with you and/or starting a Patreon where viewers can donate in exchange for perks, can be great ways to bring in a lot more money than Adsense will. Beyond that of course is having your own products/services to offer which you can promote through anything from encouraging sign ups to your email newsletter to just mentioning right in the video when appropriate. Feel free to schedule a call to discuss the different ways I've monetized my YouTube channel and go over ideas more specific to your situation!

Yes and No - I have run a couple of youtube channels for the last 5 years - FULL TIME - and i can tell you no matter what you do your ad revenue will continue to fall - If you are relying on youtube advertising and your sole income you might be in some trouble - I was in a similiar situation to yourself - the main problem is your content does not appeal to major advertisers - this requires you to get thousands of views for a few dollars - there are multiple ways to monitize and to use your traffic - i would be able to help you out with all of this - just be careful - if youtube in your income just imagine one day you log into your youtube account and all your content has been removed - will you be ok?