Boost YouTube Watch Time for Monetization

My channel has not yet unlocked monetization because I still need to hit the 4,000-hour watch-time threshold. The immediate goal is to increase watch time—subscriber growth and ad-placement tweaks can wait.

Here’s the scope I’m after:
• Audit my existing videos and playlists to pinpoint retention drop-offs.
• Provide a concise, step-by-step strategy to lift total watch hours fast, covering video length, topic clustering, playlists, end screens, and cards.
• Suggest keywords, titles, thumbnails, and upload cadence for the next five videos.
• List the exact metrics I should track in YouTube Analytics to measure progress toward monetization.

Feel free to draw insights from YouTube Analytics, TubeBuddy, VidIQ, or similar tools, but keep the recommendations practical so I can implement them myself without paid advertising. A focused, high-impact action plan delivered within a few days is all that’s required.