I primarily use my channel for featuring my fanvideos, and if I participate in a collab, I will also upload the parts I did for the collab (but I keep them in a separate playlist, so those interested can go see them without it clogging up my channel feed). I actually just uploaded a new video today, a Doctor Who video
https://www.youtube.com/user/mkitten13?feature=watch
As for your question, Ventus. I'm not sure what could be defined as "making it" in terms of youtube. I vid for several different fandoms, and the response I generate differs depending on which fandom the video belongs to. Subs are a good indicator, of course, but I think it needs to be measured up to hitcount, likes, not to mention comments (although g+ has completely ruined that, now), not to mention what can be expected for the kind of videos a specific youtuber make and their upload ratio.
Also, sometimes specific words in the title may drastically increase the viewcount. To give an example, I posted two videos for the same fandom only days apart. One was a quick video, but with a title (I always title my videos according to the songs I use) that coincided with a new scene from the fandom, the other video was one I put a lot more work into, but had a song title that didn't link directly to the fandom itself. The first video gained about 14k hits in 6 months, the second gained about 4k in the same time period.
I personally have 417 subs right now, and total a viewcount of around 111k, but I view myself as mostly scratching the surface. I only post a couple of videos each year, so I don't expect to "make it", nor has it ever been one of my goals. But hopefully some people see them and like them enough to give me feedback.