- YouTube monetization and making money
on YouTube is something more of you want to know
about as content creators.
So today, I'm gonna tell you
nine things you probably don't know
about YouTube monetization.
Number one, this is a recent update
to YouTube monetization
that goes under YouTube shopping.
YouTube Shopping used to be
the YouTube merch shelf,
where you could sell print on-demand products
below your videos,
but now it's a lot more than that.
First of all, you don't have to hit 10,000
subscribers to have access to it.
They gave it to every single content creator
that has 1,000 subscribers
as long as you're monetized
in the YouTube Partner Program,
but there is a twist on this.
Now you don't just get to sell stuff
with Spring for Creators and Spreadshop,
where I sell my merch.
You also get to sell with Shopify,
which opens you up to digital products,
manufactured and handcrafting products
as an option.
You also don't get to just sell
in the merch shelf below your videos,
you also have a new feature
with YouTube tag products.
And so this allows people
to click directly interactively
with the videos and be directed to the ability
to buy a product that is featured in the video.
This is huge for creators and something
you probably didn't know.
Number two, you can earn from
YouTube Shorts content
without being in the YouTube Partner Program,
and an officially monetize channel
through the YouTube Shorts Creator Fund.
Now I need to make a dedicated video,
about how all of that works.
Now, this is great news
because about roughly 50% of the content creators
who are earning from YouTube Shorts,
aren't even in the YouTube Partner Program,
which just means there are more options to earn,
even if you have like a viral video
as a Shorts creator,
but you don't quite meet
the monetization requirements.
So this is good news and like I said,
I need to make a dedicated video about it.
Number three, YouTube taxes.
I bet you didn't know
that YouTube doesn't pay taxes for you.
It doesn't take out
any of the money from your YouTube earnings.
It takes its cut,
but it doesn't take any of those earnings
for taxes,
and doesn't pay those for you like an employer.
You are not an employee of YouTube.
You're an independent contractor.
You don't get a W2.
If you're in the United States,
you get what's called a 1099,
like a freelancer,
like when I was doing work for clients.
So what's gonna happen is you're gonna have to
pay your own taxes as a YouTube content creator.
It's super scary if you're new to this,
and I did an entire video all about it.
Number four, YouTube Shorts do not count
towards your 4,000 hours of watch time
to get monetized
or at least most of them don't.
YouTube Shorts,
they might as well just tell you
it doesn't count
toward your monetization requirement
for the 4,000 watch hours
because what they mean is it doesn't count
if those are views from the Short shelf,
but that's where videos go viral,
and that's how you get all of those views.
So that's really what matters here.
If it's viewed in the regular watch page
on a desktop or laptop,
then those views and that watch time counts,
but let's be real,
that's not the majority of it,
and it's not going to be.
So you might as well just say Shorts
don't matter when it comes to getting monetized
on YouTube unless they help you get
the 1000 subscribers.
Number five.
I bet you didn't know all the details
of the YouTube revenue splits
when you get monetized.
If you're a seasoned creator,
you probably know this,
but for those of you not in the know,
when it comes to your ad revenue,
it's a 55-45 split between YouTube,
and the creator and the creator gets the 55.
We get the lion share.
Yay for us.
And that is displayed
in your dashboard under your estimated earnings.
However, and there's a big however,
YouTube takes 30% in some other areas,
and you get to keep 70%.
And those areas are YouTube channel memberships,
which some of you may not be familiar with.
YouTube Super Chats
Super Stickers and Super Thanks,
but they take $0 of any sales
that come from YouTube Shopping,
and you selling products directly
to your audience.
Number six, this is one of those things
where what you don't know can hurt you a lot.
This one is about the YouTube Partner Program
in AdSense. and what happens when you sign up.
If you get this wrong, it's gonna hurt.
YouTube needs to confirm your identity,
and so the name that you're using
for your legal documents and the name
on your ID that you submit
to confirm that identity,
all of it has to match perfectly
or you could find yourself in a position
where you never get to claim
your YouTube Ad Revenue.
And this has happened to a lot of creators.
It's a really bad horror story.
You don't want it to be you.
The other thing is,
you need to sign up for your AdSense account
from the country that you are a resident of
when you do it because otherwise,
you also could be in a situation
where you never get to claim
your YouTube ad revenue.
So do not sign up and try to get into
the YouTube Partner Program and apply for that
while you're in vacation,
and you're in another country.
I wouldn't even do it
when you're in another state.
Do it when you're at home.
Just do it that way,
and call it a day
because you could easily end up
in a situation where your identity
is not properly confirmed,
and they just don't pay you your AdSense.
So yeah, you might wanna just focus on that one.
It's really important.
I did an entire video
about the YouTube monetization process
step-by-step.
The application, the approval,
and review process.
If you are even thinking of applying
for the YouTube Partner Program,
you should probably watch that.
You should probably watch that
the day that you're actually going
to go through the process
'cuz it's that important to get it right.
Number seven.
There is a way to block specific advertisers
that you don't like from advertising
on your YouTube channel
if you don't want their money.
And this is really important,
if you don't like political ads
or there are people that are doing very
scummy ads on your channel,
and you don't like it,
you can actually block them forever.
To accomplish this,
you do have to go into the AdSense website
as an AdSense publisher.
You cannot do this directly from your YouTube
channel or your monetization panel there.
I wish it would
because that's all YouTubers really understand.
They don't ever really go
into the AdSense side of it.
They don't do anything outside of the YouTube
app on their phone or the creator dashboard.
So I wish they would just put it there,
but you have to log into
the AdSense publisher website,
and then you can filter down,
and you can block certain ads.
I'm a big fan of blocking political ads,
and I have been blocking political ads
on this channel for eight years now.
You're welcome.
Speaking of eight, here's tip number eight.
Did you know that all views on YouTube
are not valued equally and do not pay equally?
Well, if you're a long-time viewer
of this channel
you actually do know that.
Now this is how drastic it is.
It could be the difference
for as much as 20 times,
the amount of money on your YouTube CPM rates
that you get for every
1,000 views on your video.
You could be in a niche like gaming for example,
and you could gain one or $2 CPM rates,
and be like,
"Eh, at least I'm getting something."
You could even be getting up to $5 CPM rates.
Where meanwhile, somebody that's in say
business real estate and you know, renovations,
and home improvement could be getting
$20 to $50 CPMs.
That's a big leap of difference,
and therefore that means
that some creators are getting less views
but making much more money.
And just remember that those of us
who make regular content
or even live streams and longer form content
make a lot more money
than people who make shorts
or make very, very short videos
that, you know it doesn't even make sense
to run an add on.
Remember that if you have videos
over eight minutes,
you can have multiple ads on the same video.
So longer form content podcast,
obviously, they make more money,
but shorter content, less than that,
less ads, less add revenue,
even if they got more views,
but also the niche that you're in
matters a lot too
because even if you get literally
millions of more views than another creator,
you could be making less than half of the money
that they're making.
Sometimes you could be making 10 times less,
even if you make 10 times more views.
So just remember,
not all views are valued equally,
which also leads us into number nine,
a ninth thing you probably didn't know
specifically is that how drastically this is,
is that YouTube ad rates are not the same
depending on where your viewers live.
YouTube preferential ads,
based ads rates and ad revenue
based on a lot of the behavior of your audience.
But this also includes whether your audience
is in a place where they can even see
the most profitable advertising.
Most of the profitable advertising
is done in English-speaking countries,
and what you know we call
first-world countries
along with first-world problems.
Those have the highest ad rates.
They have the highest frequency
of monetized views and ads,
and views in other countries,
there's not ads to serve to 'em a lot of times,
and they're not worth nearly as much.
And it's not going,
in most cases be the overwhelming
majority of your audience.
So that is something to kind of keep in mind
looking at your audience, demographics,
and understanding the impact
that has on your ad revenue.
For some of you,
there's not a lot you can do about it,
but for those of you who might be
travel channels, language channels,
this is something to consider.
And there you go,
nine things you probably didn't know
about YouTube AdSense and monetization.
In fact, question of the day.
How many of these things didn't you know,
and which things did you know?
Let me know in the comment section.
If you like this video,
you'll probably like my video
on the eight most profitable niches in YouTube.
Also, you probably wanna watch my videos
on how to make money on YouTube.
That playlist and video
will be in the description down below.
As always, thank you so much for watching,
and don't forget
go out there and create something awesome today.
Take care.