On January 16th, 2018 the new Youtube monetization rules were announced. This raised many questions and controversy in the creator’s community. This came unexpectedly and nobody knew how to react. As a small YouTuber myself this had me thinking if youtube is just trying to make the smaller YouTubers fade and give the bigger YouTubers more advantage. These new eligibility requirements may seem unfair, but with some logic thinking and some research, you might just agree with the new youtube monetization rules. Well, before you start raging let me explain a bit more.
Youtube’s new monetization rules: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72851?hl=en
What is monetization exactly?
Before we start arguing if this was the right step for YouTube to take let me briefly explain what monetization involves. If you are part of the YouTube Partner Program you are eligible to start making money out of ads. Monetization is basically allowing ads to play before or next to your videos and getting revenue from it. This is how most YouTubers make money, but keep in mind this is not the only way YouTubers are making money. Most YouTubers are making money out of brand deals, sponsorships, merch and affiliate links. As an influencer, a lot of brands are interested in working with you, because this expands the mouth to mouth advertising. This also means the bigger reach you have the more brands will contact you. So, if you are a smaller youtuber you are probably only making money through monetization.
The new monetization rules vs. the old ones
Previously the requirement to join the YouTube Partner Program was 10,000-lifetime views. After reaching 10,000 total views you were eligible to start making money out of Ads. This means Youtube will review your channel and make you part of their Partner Program. This means even if you weren’t a real YouTuber, but only posted one video that went viral you were still making money out of YouTube. You were able to make money even if you didn’t have many subscribers, but this will be history starting February 20, 2018. Now, once your channel reaches 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers it will be reviewed to join the YouTube Partner Program. YouTube gave creators one month before implementing this new rule to give smaller Youtubers a chance. If you were previously in the YouTube Partner Program and you do not meet these new criteria you will be kicked out of the YouTube Partner Program until you are able to collect the amount of watch time and subscribers needed.
Why did YouTube Take this step?
YouTube has had a lot of issues affecting the community in the past year. These new rules are important to protect the community from spammers, impersonators, and inappropriate videos. Most marketers that are paying to advertise their videos on YouTube don’t want their ads to be played on inappropriate videos. This can bring bad publicity for their brand. This will also help real creators to be found and to get a more stable revenue out of monetization. A lot more creators are starting to make a living out of YouTube. YouTube is putting higher standards to avoid people who are not creators but only making money out of one video. YouTube wants to promote people who are putting quality content out there. This will drive more revenue to the creators who are positively contributing to YouTube.
Will this kill off smaller YouTubers?
There is not a solid yes or no to this question. Most smaller YouTubers were making less than 100$ a year through monetization with 90% earning less than 2.50$ a month. This means even if these small YouTubers are kicked out of the YouTube Partner Program this will not have a significant impact on their earnings. These new rules might just benefit smaller YouTubers. Most small creators are working to build their channel and are not so focused on making money yet. Once you hit this new threshold you’ll be earning a lot more than 2.50$ a month. YouTube will be able to send more traffic to your videos since there won’t be a lot of random videos that are monetized. This will help you get a more stable revenue. This means YouTube is taking content creators more serious. If you are a passionate content creator these new rules will not discourage you and it will actually make you work harder. YouTube wants content creators to benefit from this instead of random viral videos that have no meaning to the community.
Is this Logan Paul’s fault?
Logan Paul is a big content creator for YouTube with 16 million subscribers. After making a vlog in the Japanese Suicide Forest filming a dead body the YouTube community was outraged. This video was monetized…he made actual money out of the video. I personally don’t think these new monetization rules is Logan Paul’s fault, but this was definitely a wakeup call that YouTube needs stricter guidelines. This is not the first time videos like these are monetized. I am not sure if I should laugh or cry. These new monetization rules will most likely affect only the smaller YouTubers, but YouTube promises to have stricter rules that will also hold bigger YouTubers accountable for their actions.
YouTube’s killing spree
Aside from kicking a bunch of people out of the YouTube Partner Program, Youtube has been going on a “killing spree”. YouTube has been deleting channels that haven’t been active for a long time and/or that seems pretty suspicious. This means a lot of content creators have been experiencing view drops on their videos. So, if you ever bought views then you will most likely lose all of them. YouTube has also been scanning through videos to see if they are following YouTube’s guidelines. In addition to this YouTube has finally decided to use actual humans to evaluate videos for monetization. No more bots. It has been a reoccurring problem that perfectly “normal” videos (as normal as YouTube gets) get demonetized by the bots that Google use. So, now Google is actually paying real human beings to evaluate everything.
This is the beginning of a new era for content creators. The amount of social media Influencers are growing rapidly and more and more people are making a living out of the digital world. This means that not only YouTube but other social media platforms have to start taking these creators and jobs more seriously. YouTube has taken the first steps into this new age. Soon, most content creators will be able to successfully make a living on the internet. I personally think it’s a good change. YouTube is finally taking the community more serious and I am excited to see what’s to come. As a content creator, I expect to get a lot more opportunity and traffic through these changes. I’ll leave a link to my channel below so you can check it out.
My channel: www.youtube.com/nicolemanzo