YouTube have updated their Partner Program and you could be about to lose your revenue… or going to find it a lot harder to start cashing in. But could it be good news for advertisers?
Check out the video above for the lowdown on the latest news from YouTube. Namely, that they are making changes to their partnership scheme – and that means how you make revenue on your videos.
So what are the new requirements for getting on the YouTube Partner Program?
How do you get on the YouTube Partner Program?
As of 16th January 2018, you now need to have had 4000 hours of your videos viewed within the last 12 months and 1000 subscribers. That’s 240,000 minutes which is quite a lot.
PLUS, you need to have been approved so the conditions above are just prerequisites to apply, it does not guarantee that you get on the program.
Gone are the good old days when you just needed to have had 10,000 views across all your videos in your channel’s lifetime so far.
Did I mention that my personal channel was less than 50 views from 10,000 views? It’s ok, I am not salty about this at all…
You might be about to lose your Partner Program status.
If you were on the Partner Program and your channel does not fulfil the new criteria then you have a grace period until 20th February 2018. After that you will be unceremoniously kicked off the program!
If you reached the criteria again you would be automatically considered for going back on the program.
Why is YouTube doing this to us?
YouTube is trying to…
- Improve quality of content across the platform.
- Stop revenue going to inappropriate videos.
- Stop revenue from going to “bad actors.”
No, not that kind…
Advertisers were getting annoyed that their ads were going on dodgy videos, sometimes bad taste videos or even terrorist videos. These new moves are also meant to dis-incentivise those questionable channels who repost other people’s viral video content so they can make a quick buck off the advertising and then disappear.
But what about the small content creators? Reading the comments in YouTube’s announcement about this on their Creator Blog, they are not pleased about it. The gist of it is that YouTube are not supporting the small creators and a “this platform is going down the pan” vibe. They are also trying to find a work around by offering subs for subs.
It does feel a bit like a kick in the teeth (and I would know what that feels like) but I can see why this is happening and how it would benefit advertisers.
In the future, we can expect to see YouTube bringing in more tiers to their partner programs. More even than the current “regular” and “preferred” levels. Exactly how that will work is yet to be seen…
Please do get in touch if you want to talk about building up your YouTube channel.
Video Transcript
Let’s talk about a recent update from YouTube regarding their Partner Program. The Partnership Program basically meant that you could monetise your channel so you could have adverts on your videos and you could create revenue for yourself from that.
The way that it used to be was to get on the Partnership Program you had to have had at least 10,000 views across your channel across its whole lifetime. As of January the 16th 2018 they are changing the eligibility requirements so you have to now have 4000 of watch time within the last twelve months and 1000 subscribers. That’s no guarantee that you would get onto the program, your channel would still be reviewed.
YouTube is saying this is to prevent revenue going to what they refer to as “bad actors” and to stop inappropriate videos from making money.
Channels who are on the Partnership Program that don’t meet this criteria have a grace period until February the 20th after which they will be removed from the program. Youtube are saying that these changes will affect a lot of channels but that these channels aren’t actually making a lot of revenue with 90% earning less than $2.50 in the last month.
With this many channels this would add up to a lot of advertising revenue which I expect will go back into the channels who are on the program. They have the opportunity to make more money.
YouTube have had some flack from advertisers who don’t want their brand to be affiliated with maybe some of the more dodgy content you might find on YouTube and in some way this does discourage reposting of someone else’s content to make a quick buck. So if someone is reposting someone else’s personal content that maybe went viral they might be incentivised to do that to make money off the advertising revenue.
And it could possibly improve quality across the platform but does it discourage smaller creators who really are creating a lot of content for YouTube for free? Does it take away that small incentive for some of them to grow?
In the comments people are pretty annoyed with what YouTube have done here. These are small creaters and they’re asking for subs for subs so they’re finding a way already to kind of move around this system. A lot of people are saying that YouTube aren’t supporting the smaller creators here or people who are just starting out and trying to build up their channels.
My personal channel was less than 50 views away from 10,000 views so I guess that leaves me a little bit salty. I did have plans for this content I was going to create this year on there, maybe it’ll just slightly change the direction I go in with that.
Is this something that will affect your channel? Will it affect the way that you create content? Do you find it discouraging or are you an advertiser who thinks this is going to be beneficial to your brand?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
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