Monetizing an Atheist Channel

I started my atheist channel exactly two months ago. I have 600 subs and 12 long form videos with about 2000 hours watched (I have no idea if that's good, bad or average).

I project being able to monetize with Youtube in 8 weeks or less. But my understanding is that ad money is pathetic. I haven't seen any small Youtubers do well with merch, even really popular small Youtubers.

Very, very few atheist channels have any sponsors (obviously). One lady does Scentbird and sex toys (neither of which thrill me!).

The only answer seems to be memberships or Patreon. Or am I missing something?

This is too hard to do if I can't make any money.