After a turbulent 2017, YouTube is making another change to its guidelines around channel monetization and advertiser approval. In posts to its Advertiser we had Creator blogs, YouTube details how you are changing the landscape for monetization through your YouTube Partner Program (YPP), from 10,000 lifetime views to 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time within the last 12 months . That means that small creators who have already passed the 10,000 lifetime view mark, but not new goals, will be excluded from the YouTube Partner Program starting on February 20 and will not be able to monetize their videos that way.
Until yesterday, any channels that were newly registered for YPP would have to pass this new threshold in order to monetize videos. On its Creators blog, YouTube explains that the new required milestones “will allow us to improve our ability to recognize creators who contribute positively to the community and help drive more ad revenue to them (and away from bad actors). These high standards will also help us prevent inappropriate videos from making money that could harm public access.”
The company made a point of noting the types of channels that will be affected by the new rules. “Although these changes will affect a significant number of channels, 99 percent of those affected were making less than $100 per year last year, with 90 percent earning less than $2.50 last month .Any channels that do not meet this threshold will be paid what they have already earned based on our AdSense policies.”
Once a creator who used to be part of YPP meets the new guidelines, the channel will be automatically evaluated “under strict criteria.” YouTube will check if the channel complies with the Community Guidelines or if it has multiple instances of abuse, spam, or abuse flags. YouTube did not elaborate on how it will evaluate all the channels that come to be part of the YPP, but it will likely use a combination of 10,000 new human moderators and existing AI software to monitor the website.
Additionally, YouTube will also begin to “manually scan” all Google Preferred channels. This is Google’s top-level advertising program that many of the most famous YouTubers are part of, allowing them to pay more thanks to Google charging more for the ads that appear on those videos. “Ads will only run on videos that have proven to meet our friendly guidelines,” YouTube wrote on its Advertiser blog—meaning that the most popular creators will be under more scrutiny from YouTube, and that it is possible that they will face more demonetization. than they ever had before.
“One of YouTube’s core values is to provide anyone with the opportunity to earn money from a thriving channel, and while our policies will evolve over time, our commitment to that value remains,” YouTube noted. in your Creator blog post.
While that may be true, several changes made in the last year have made it much more difficult for new creators to succeed on YouTube (when success means making money). 1,000 new subscribers / 4,000 hours of clockwork threshold will be difficult to reach for those who have just started a channel, especially with the mysteries of the YouTube algorithm that defines which videos are pushed in front of the eyes users.
The company expressed a similar argument more passionately on its Advertiser blog: “It has become clear in the past few months that we need the right criteria and better signals to identify the right channels to run ads.”
Making money from running ads on your channel is an opportunity and one that some great YouTubers have recently taken advantage of. YouTube dealt with the ad-pocalypse and Pewdiepie controversy this time last year, and recently pulled Logan Paul from Google Preferred after he posted a video of a dead body on his channel, one that has over 15 million subscribers. go.
While YouTube is still an open door for all developers, the main goal of the website is to make money from ads. Google and YouTube have the right to set as many rules as they want for those who want to make money from their videos since the videos, first and foremost, make money for Google. We probably won’t see many changes affecting mid- and top-level channels on March 20, but some small YouTubers who haven’t passed the new benchmarks will have to work too can earn money again from the YouTube Partner Program.