In this video, I rank the best all the way to the worst ways to make money with YouTube—both the “how you grow” side (like Shorts automation vs personal brand) and the “how you monetize” side (ads, products, affiliates). I can speak on it because I’ve run multiple channels (personal brands and automation channels) and YouTube has been a major driver behind my $188,000 net worth. I show real earnings examples, including Shorts automation channels that had huge months and then slowly fell off a cliff. My big takeaways: personal brand is S-tier because trust compounds and you don’t lose progress the second a trend dies. YouTube Search is also S-tier because it’s ridiculously consistent—when you rank for a keyword, views and revenue can climb in a straight line without extra work (and it doesn’t require a massive subscriber count if you pick high-volume, low-competition terms). On monetization, long-form ad revenue is fine as a supplement (think $2–$10 per 1,000 views), but it’s not the end goal. Shorts ad revenue can be A+ if you repurpose across platforms, and affiliate software with recurring commissions (like Repurpose) is S-tier because it compounds monthly.