- If you're watching this video,
it means that you're probably trying to monetize
your YouTube channel and enter into the
YouTube Partner Program so you can start earning revenue
from uploading your videos to YouTube.
What you need to know is that in the
first quarter of the year,
the YouTube Partner Program has actually changed
and might be a little bit different than you might remember.
There's also some really good information
if you're not familiar with YouTube monetization
or have not previously had a monetized YouTube channel,
this is gonna be extremely important to you.
One of the newest features of the YouTube Partner Program
and monetization is that you actually get
direct chat support with YouTube Creator Support
in your YouTube dashboard
and you'll be able to reach out to them.
And I know this because I actually just
monetized my podcast channel very recently
and so I can tell you the latest requirements
for the YouTube Partner Program and some updates
to YouTube monetization that you may not be aware of.
One of the most important things is
that the actual requirements
for YouTube monetization have changed,
and so if you're not aware,
you still do need 1,000 subscribers,
which we will talk about,
4,000 hours of watch time in 12 months,
you're gonna need to do two-factor authentication,
which means probably a mobile device
like your smartphone to do that two-factor authentication
and a lot of this is for security.
There have been a lot of people whose YouTube
and adsense accounts have been hacked,
have been compromised, so you'll definitely wanna do that.
Also, you need to make sure that you have
zero community guideline strikes on your YouTube channel
and you also have to be in compliance with all of
YouTube's monetization policies,
which also have been updated.
And you wanna make sure you're checking
on whether you are still in compliance with those things
if you haven't been monetized previously.
With regard to getting the 1,000 subscribers
for YouTube monetization, there's no time limit on that.
However, when it comes to the 4,000 hours of watch time,
it is 12 months.
Now, a lot of people have asked questions
in the comments on videos like this about, well,
what do they mean by 12 months?
Does it go back to zero after 12 months or not?
It is basically every 365 days,
so it's the last 12 months.
It is a rolling, continuous thing.
So if 12 months confuses you,
just think of it as the last 365 days
and that shouldn't be a problem.
With regard to community guideline strikes,
these are very different from YouTube copyright strikes
and copyright claims.
Copyright strikes do not affect your eligibility
for the YouTube Partner Program.
However, a large number of content claims
might end up making you ineligible
because it means that you're not using original content.
And if your channel has a habit
of not using original content
or not really being within the bounds of true fair use,
then you could be disqualified
from being eligible to even apply
for YouTube channel monetization.
As for the monetization policy rules,
this has to do with a few different categories,
things like reused content,
also not having those copyright claims of, you know,
using other people's content without permission.
Also, there are gonna be some quality guidelines
if you're making children's content.
These are policies that could update and change over time,
so you'll want to constantly be aware of them
and you'll definitely wanna check back
on my YouTube channel because when major things happen
in YouTube or the platform as a whole,
I try to cover them on the channel and keep you up to date.
You also have to make sure that your content is eligible
for monetization when it comes to covering things
like sensitive topics and also avoiding
overly graphic content.
The general usual stuff.
At some point, I will definitely make a video
on what types of content are likely to get you demonetized
on YouTube or get you to a point where you're ineligible
to monetize your content,
but a lot of this is very straightforward.
My simple rule is this.
If you think you'd be suspended at school
for doing this or watching this
or if it's the kind of thing that
if you were watching this at your job and you got caught
or you were saying or doing these things
at your job and you got caught, then you'd be fired,
then that's probably something you don't need to
be uploading to YouTube is you usually my common sense
rule of thumb for this type of thing.
Now, 'cause a lot of you have questions about
YouTube Shorts, it's important for you to know that
YouTube Shorts do not count towards your 4,000 hours
of watch time to be eligible for the
YouTube Partner Program.
The other thing that doesn't count is videos
that are privated, deleted, or unlisted.
Also, if you do a livestream that's over 12 hours,
it will not be archived and that will not count
toward your monetization watch time
for the YouTube Partner Program either.
None of those things count towards you being monetized.
You can use YouTube Shorts to grow your subscribers
and that will help you with meeting that particular goal,
but remember, it doesn't help you with regard to watch time.
As far as getting paid from YouTube Shorts,
that's something that's very different.
I think it deserves its own dedicated video on the channel,
so that would be another reason to subscribe
to my YouTube channel is if you want a video
on YouTube Shorts and the Creator Fund and how to monetize
YouTube Shorts content,
get paid for those short-form videos,
then I'll definitely be covering that.
What you do need to know is that you do not have to be part
of the YouTube Partner Program
and have regular adsense monetization
in order to qualify for the YouTube Shorts Creator Fund
and be paid off of that content.
In fact, right now,
about roughly 40% or more of the creators
that have earned money with YouTube Shorts are not part
of the YouTube Partner Program and regular monetization.
Just kind of keep in mind that YouTube Shorts
is a separate thing,
so don't put these two things together in your head.
They're just separate things that you have to
have a separate set of requirements and goals for.
When your channel is monetized,
you'll also get access to YouTube's copyright claim tool
for yourself in case somebody uploads
or steals your content.
This is something that creators did not have access to
unless they had 100,000 subscribers in the past.
So now, even with just 1,000 subscribers
and meeting the monetization requirements,
you get access to this.
Also, you used to have to have a monetized channel
to be able to get access to the YouTube community tab
that required 1,000 subscribers,
this is no longer the case.
You have access to that at 500 subscribers
regardless of your monetization status.
The same thing for live streaming from mobile devices,
this is also something that used to require
1,000 subscribers similar to monetization.
It not only requires 50 subscribers to livestream
from mobile, but if you livestream from desktop,
it requires zero subscribers.
So just understand that YouTube monetization only unlocks
certain types of features for you,
mostly revolving around how you can earn money from YouTube.
It's not as much of a barrier to entry
to other features in the platform,
but there are features like the access to creator support
through chat and access to things like
the copyright claim tool,
those are something tied to monetization on YouTube.
Another important update that I know a lot of you
are very sensitive to is some of you probably have been
seeing ads on your YouTube videos
and wondering why you're not getting paid for them.
Some of you have even asked me, Roberto,
do I just need to like connect my adsense account from
Google and will that just mean that I'm getting ads
even though I don't have 1,000 subscribers?
Did they lower the requirements and not tell people?
The answer is that YouTube has a new monetization policy
called the right to monetize.
I actually did a dedicated video
about this if you're interested.
And what that means is YouTube has the right to
run advertising and to monetize content
without giving creators a share of that
or allowing them to earn money on that.
Now, that might sound really weird to you
or it might sound unfair.
You just need to understand
that this is actually how it used to be on YouTube
for a very long time in the beginning
and that it's actually not as bad as you think.
The main thing would be that, number one,
you probably will not meet the $100 threshold
for ad revenue if you have less than 1,000 subscribers
and are not capable of earning 4,000 hours
of watch time in the first place.
It's very unlikely that you would make money
that would allow you to receive a payment from YouTube
if that's the case.
Also, something that I've talked about is
that the average YouTube creator makes a 10th
of a penny per view.
A 10th of a penny per view.
That's not a lot of money.
What it really comes down to is that it might take some
of you as much as one million views to make even
$100 and get paid out.
So as a small YouTuber,
even just the fact that they might be running ads
on your channel without paying you,
it would be very unlikely that if you can't meet
the monetization threshold anyway
that you would make enough money to receive payment at all.
And this is something that happens
more often than you would think.
There is a silver lining.
If your channel has ads on it,
it means that once you meet the requirements
for the YouTube Partner Program and you apply
and if you're accepted,
then you have an indicator that
your channel is going to be making money and that
they are going to run some pretty decent ads on it
and you should get an idea of that.
So again, while you're in the beginning phase
of your YouTube journey,
this might seem unfair or discouraging,
but the reality is that most YouTube content creators
cannot make a livable amount of money off of their
YouTube channel for the first three to five years anyway
and in terms of effort and value and ROI,
it actually sometimes ends up being a net negative
even if you are monetized with YouTube ads.
The majority of creators actually tend to earn
a full-time living by diversifying their income
and not off of their ad revenue.
The primary way that most full-time content creators
earn is typically brand deals
and also selling something directly.
But that's a subject for another video.
As far as being approved for the YouTube Partner Program,
I do think that that deserves its own video
and I plan to make one,
so that would actually be a very good reason to subscribe
to my YouTube of channel
if you want some kind of specific information around that.
You can definitely leave comments in the comments section
if there's a specific part of the requirements
that you're not familiar with
or that you want explained in detail.
However, from having another channel recently monetized,
in this case, my podcast channel,
I actually learned a lot of interesting things
about the application process.
For one thing,
I definitely believe it's in your best interest to go ahead
and sign up for a Google adsense account
before you even apply to the YouTube Partner Program
and you also wanna make sure you're familiar
with that system when it comes
to setting that up to get paid.
You also need to know that YouTube cannot send that money,
at least not right now currently,
it does not pay out to a PayPal account
or Venmo or any of those,
so you need to be aware of that and you might
need to set up a bank account that specifically
is gonna be tied to how you're making money online
on your YouTube adsense.
I've talked about this in my videos about YouTube taxes,
how you kind of wanna have these things separated
as far as your personal income
and this side hustle or business income for tax purposes.
You definitely wanna have that separated.
They are gonna make you fill out some information,
so you will have to disclose your identity
to Google and YouTube in order for that to be
tracked so you can pay the appropriate taxes.
They are not gonna do that for you.
You're gonna need to submit all of those things
to the IRS when the time comes.
And so you just wanna make sure
that you're in full compliance with all
of these things and you're doing it legal.
I know that sounds a little intimidating,
but it's just something you have to get through.
When you apply to the YouTube Partner Program,
typically, they tell you that the approval process
and the review, which is done by human beings,
it's something that takes place within a 30-day period
and you'll know whether you're accepted or rejected
into the program.
Once that happens, though,
it's you who has to turn ads on for your channel.
They will not automatically monetize
all of your previous videos.
You have to actually do that
in the YouTube dashboard yourself.
So that's important.
If you don't do that, you're not gonna get paid.
So this is something you should not have
skipped over in the video.
Now, in terms of how long it actually takes
once you apply to the Partner Program,
it used to be a much longer queue for some reason
and they had a lot of trouble getting through
the review process before.
I understand that a lot of you have complained about that.
Now, it's actually going very smoothly, and in fact,
my podcast channel was monetized
in less than 24 hours worth of applying.
And I think in my case,
it was the fact that the podcast channel was easy to verify
and confirm that it wasn't copyright material.
It was all original content and
that it met the requirements and it was non-controversial.
I think that was just very easy,
especially with long-form content, to be able to do that.
It'll be very interesting to see
if there are any issues with my music channel
because I do have a music channel, Zen Buster Music,
and that's all like original in-house produced music
and we do make mixtapes.
So I'm going to verify whether that affects
the reused content policy 'cause I know that's something
people have a lot of questions about specifically.
My understanding is they're trying to avoid
like regurgitated content and content that can be automated
is really what they're looking at,
or very low effort content.
The way that I do the mixtapes for my channel
involves some after effects animation,
so I don't think they'll consider that low effort content,
but I'll let you know once that channel is fully monetized.
There are a ton of other things I could tell you about
YouTube monetization and I've made some other videos
around specific topics.
If you enjoyed this video,
you might wanna actually watch my video
on the highest paying niches in YouTube.
I actually talk about that and how much
certain creators get paid based
on the topic of their videos and get those high ad rates.
That'll be linked in the description.
Also, you might be very interested
in my other content for making money online
'cause you can monetize outside of YouTube.
As always, thank you so much for watching and don't forget,
go out there and create something awesome today.
Take care.