my cakes never seem to rise high like most of the videos I see. Their cakes seem to rise to the top of the pan and a dome over that.    Sometimes I get a dome but then it sinks. I;m not using large pans they are 8 - 10" wilton pans    what am I doing wrong?

Is your baking powder and/or baking soda fresh? They do deteriorate over time.

No I check both of them all the time.  I use both mixes and scratch. Do I fill the pans 1/2 full or 3/4 full?  Some tutorials and books say one thing then another. When you make a normal layer cake how high do your layers get.

AThe batter I'm using determines whether I fill 1/2 full or 2/3 full. Some rise more than others. What has given me the most predictable, even results has been the using of bake even strips and a metal flower nail in the middle of the cakes. I believe if the cake sinks in the middle upon removing from the oven, your centers are not fully baked. If you aren't using a heating core of some sort, give that a shot.

This is gonna sound like a weird question, but how clean is your oven? Seriously, a dirty ocen can wreak havoc on a cake!

A

I had no idea...eeek! I was waiting until it gets warmer out so u can open my windows while the oven cleans.

This has happended to me in the past... My problem was my oven. My oven was reading 350 degrees but when I bought a oven thermometer to verify my oven,

 I had to set my oven at 365 to reach an actual tempature of 350 degrees.

Hope this was helpfull. Good luck!