- Some channels will never get monetized on YouTube
and the single biggest reason for this is creator mindset.
(logos popping)
And let's start with those two numbers
that hang like menacing clouds above your head from day one.
1000 subscribers, 4,000 hours of watch time.
Getting 1,000 people to press that red button
a thousand times is the equivalent
of you putting on a performance
in your local school gymnasium
and having it filled to the rafters.
On the other hand, 4,000 hours
of watch time is 240,000 minutes.
Or the equivalent of a single person watching
your YouTube content continuously without any breaks
for 166 days, or nearly half a year.
And because those two numbers represent
the financial Holy Grail of YouTube,
so many creators start their channels
with this mindset of monetizing their channel.
And that from day one is a tough ask.
That's because for the average YouTube channel,
you're probably looking at day 365, or your first year,
to reach those two requirements to monetize your channel.
And if you are looking so far into the distance,
you're not looking at the here and now.
Trying to determine and find out whether
or not you as a creator have a passion for video content.
And reaching out to an audience
and building a relationship with them.
I guarantee that the moment you switch your mindset
to this philosophy,
and start to celebrate your first 10 subscribers,
25 subscribers, your first 100 hours,
you will find YouTube so much more satisfying.
So mindset number one, forget about 1,000 subscribers,
forget about 4,000 hours of watch time,
start making content.
Of course the content should always be
at the forefront of your mindset
when you are a YouTube creator.
But it doubly, triply, quadruply more important,
I don't even know if those are words,
but it's super important to focus on content
when you first start your channel
because content leads to momentum.
The hard truth is the first videos you post
on YouTube may not get 100 views.
They may not even get 10 views.
Your first three or four videos
may not even generate five subscribers,
unless you're inviting your friends and family.
Which you should probably do just to get
over the 10 subscriber mark.
But it sucks, right?
It sucks not to be noticed on YouTube.
It's sucks that you're putting all
of his hard work into your content and nobody's watching it.
But here's the honest truth.
Your first videos are likely to suck, but that's okay.
It's fine to suck.
It's fantastic to suck, actually.
Everybody sucks at YouTube when they first start,
including myself, I sucked royally at YouTube.
And I'm gonna stop using the word suck now
because it just doesn't quite sound right coming
out of my British voice.
Everybody starts somewhere,
and everybody has to start somewhere.
You don't learn how to drive, swim,
or breathe by reading books
or watching YouTube videos, you learn by doing.
And that is YouTube.
You work out how to improve your lighting,
frame the camera better,
present better in front of the camera.
And then piece all of that content together
through the video editing process.
And uploading to YouTube,
including those all important thumbnails.
And you don't learn any of that
by expecting, no hoping, to get to 1000 subscribers,
and 4,000 hours of watch time,
just because you are on YouTube.
Starting YouTube is your opportunity to enjoy YouTube.
The more practice you have at it, the better you become,
the more videos you publish, and slowly the momentum builds.
Some of those videos will catch fire.
Some will turn into evergreen content
which always feeds you the numbers
that you require for monetizations.
Yes, to begin with, it can be soul destroying
to get hardly any views and any subscribers.
If you're thinking about that.
But then in three to six months, if you apply your mindset
into improving your YouTube content,
you'll have two X, four X, 10 X those first few days.
You'll be getting 10 or 20 subscribers a day,
hundreds of views a day, thousands of views a week.
It may feel like it takes forever to reach 10 subscribers.
But then it takes a fraction
of the time to reach 20 subscribers.
The same for 100 subscribers.
It seems so far in the distance, but once you get there,
it takes no time at all to get to 200 subscribers.
And again, if it's in the back of your mind,
rather right in front of you,
turning into a blinding, shining light,
you will reach 1000 subscribers within that first year.
Along with 4,000 hours of watch time.
Now let's move on specifically to 4,000 hours of watch time.
Because a lot of people simply don't quite understand
how this works.
So YouTube officially phrased this requirement
as 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months.
But what does that actually mean?
Let's take a look at a simple example to begin with.
In half a year, this channel has hit 10,000 hours
of watch time.
That's more than enough,
along with 6 1/2 thousand subscribers
to qualify for monetization.
Case closed, no problem.
On the other hand, this channel over the last 12 months,
hasn't quite met the requirements.
Now for the subscriber count, this isn't a problem.
There is no time restriction on this.
It doesn't matter how long it takes,
once you hit 1000 subscribers, you're good.
But for this channel, which is just shy of 4,000 hours
of watch time, there might be some bumps in the road.
Now, just to be crystal clear of this point,
your watch time never resets.
If in the first year you don't reach 4,000 hours,
it doesn't reset to zero and a new year begins.
It just takes your watch time
for the last rolling 12 months.
The problem for this channel is
that it's been unable to maintain it's consistent momentum.
And these big seemingly viral chunks
of watch time will expire over the next 12 months.
And since we don't know how the channel may perform
in the future, it may seem like your watch time requirements
for monetization are actually going down.
Admittedly, it is rare that you have these viral moments
that you're not able to capitalize on.
So just in case you're not aware
of what you should be doing,
when you have videos that do well on your channel,
follow-up with more similar content.
A couple more things to remember.
For those videos to count towards your watch time,
they must be public on YouTube.
So you can't unlist them, you shouldn't private them,
and definitely don't delete them.
And that includes live streams as well.
And unfortunately, as of now, if somebody watches one
of your videos through the YouTube shorts player,
none of that watch time counts.
The easiest way to keep track of both
of your requirements is to go to the monetization screen
in the YouTube Studio for your channel
where it will tell you exactly how many watch time hours
and subscribers you have.
And you can download the vidIQ Chrome extension,
which will add a real-time stats bar
to all areas of YouTube
and show you your progress to 4,000 hours of watch time.
It is free to download, so you might as well.
The vast majority of channels never get
to monetize their content because they never reach
the YouTube Partner Program requirements.
But at the same time,
there are many channels who do meet those requirements
but are not accepted into the YouTube Partner Program
because their content doesn't align with YouTube's values.
Now, broadly speaking, when I talk about YouTube's values,
I am referring to their community guidelines.
Which have evolved tremendously over the past five years.
So if you've never done this before, now might be the time
to check out YouTube's community guidelines, to ensure
that your content is broadly following those guidelines
so that you don't have any problems
when you reach monetization requirements.
While a lot of YouTube is controlled
and governed by automated systems,
one key area which is still left up
to humans is the YouTube monetization application process.
A human being will sit and look at your channel
and ensure that it does follow these guidelines.
So if you have been cheating the system up until then,
that's where you're gonna fall foul
of a human who can tell
the difference between right and wrong.
Or at least what YouTube decides is right and wrong.
On top of this, you've also got
to consider copyrighted content,
or reused material on YouTube.
I think YouTube's ultimate desire
is for every single creator to make original content
that is valuable to their audiences.
But unfortunately that doesn't always happen.
Because YouTube is so big,
and there's so many opportunities on the platform,
there are many people out there who just want
to exploit the system.
I know that all of you as creators spend hours
on your content.
Only to find when you're browsing through YouTube
that you see some creator,
who's just ripping content off other creators,
or downloading TikTok videos,
and uploading it as their own content.
And they're getting millions
of views profiting from other people's work.
That is so infuriating.
If you are, unfortunately, of those unscrupulous creators,
then I'm afraid you are watching the wrong video
on the wrong channel.
We can't help you.
We are here to educate, and inspire,
and empower creators to share their own passions,
their own creativity, their own content.
And we know there are no shortcuts to this.
It is damn hard work, that is for sure.
So again, if you are a smaller channel,
possibly, currently frustrated with your growth on YouTube,
don't fall for those easy temptations
which may give you those short-term boosts.
But in the longterm, YouTube, and I,
personally hope that you are found out as a content fraud.
And let me stress here,
I'm not trying to target those creators
who perhaps don't quite understand fair use,
and the gray areas of copyright.
I'm looking directly at the creators
who simply steal other people's content
and use it as their own.
And they can't avoid content ID,
because it's, let's say Instagram content or TikTak,
Tic-tac-toe, you know what I mean, TikTok content.
You know what, when it comes to monetization,
and indeed the success or failure of a YouTube channel,
it usually boils down to this,
the creator's capacity to listen.
One of the beautiful things about YouTube is that you,
the creator, have 100% control of your destiny.
You decide everything that happens on your channel,
the content you create, how you present it,
how you pitch it to YouTube, and so on, and so on.
And you can choose to listen to whoever you want,
or ignore whoever you want,
and do exactly what you want to do.
But here's a key thing
because you are 100% in control of your channel,
you are 100% accountable for your actions.
And usually, if somebody works in a vacuum,
without any help, advice, or influence from outside parties,
then unfortunately those people may fail,
or at least progress a lot more slowly
in their desired outcomes.
Now, I am not saying for one second
that you should take what I say as YouTube gospel.
I try my best not to come across as the defacto expert,
who must be listened to.
In fact, I don't even consider myself an expert, per se.
What I am is a passionate YouTube educator
with experience I want to share with you.
And through my decades worth of time on a platform,
hundreds of thousands of subscribers,
tens of millions of views,
I think I have value that is worth sharing.
And a lot of you hopefully agree.
However, if you decide not to take any of my advice,
and you become really successful on YouTube,
and do far better than anything
that I have done here at vidIQ, then I applaud you.
And I just hope that you can share your wisdom
with fellow creators and inspire them
to do what you've done on the platform.
The creators I worry about most
are those who say they do listen to us
and other YouTube educators,
but then their channel suggests otherwise.
They'll say in comments that,
"I've followed every single piece of advice
that you've said on your videos,
applied it to my channel, and it's made no difference."
I'll visit their channel,
and I'll immediately see within 10 seconds
that their thumbnails still aren't improving.
Or their channel focus is still all over the place.
As I said earlier, you can listen
to all of the advice in the world,
but if you don't actually do something about it,
then you'll never be able to learn, adapt, and improve.
It's the same with YouTube data.
You can choose to look at impressions,
click through rate, average view duration,
views from subscribers, and everything else that YouTube,
and vidIQ has to offer you.
But if you just look at it
and don't actually determine a plan
to address those potential issues on your channel,
then you'll be stuck in this cycle of thinking
that you deserve more from YouTube,
simply because you're making content.
And then, of course, most importantly, your audience.
Listen to your audience.
Whether it's through comments,
or whether it's because certain videos get more views
than others, you will get the data, the information,
the influence you need from your audience
over the first three to six months of your channels life.
And if you listen to your audience,
and give them more of what they value on your channel,
then you'll start to see momentum.
Then you'll start to see progress.
Then you'll start to see those milestones hit.
And ultimately, eventually, hopefully, fingers crossed,
you will hit 1,000 subscribers, 4,000 hours of watch time,
apply for, and be accepted into the YouTube Partner Program.
And whilst you're on this journey, don't try to look
for excuses that the YouTube system is against you.
For example, YouTube recently announced
that channels not yet in the YouTube Partner Program
may see adverts on their content.
Meaning YouTube earns revenue from you
when you can't earn a penny.
Yes, in principle, that is, I'm gonna use that word again,
a little sucky, but let me simply ask you this.
So what?
Does this policy update exclude any creator
from eventually monetizing their content
when they're in the YouTube Partner Program?
No.
Does it prevent in any way, shape or form the progress
to 1000 subscribers, and 4,000 hours of watch time?
No.
And for every person who's whining,
and bitching, and complaining,
and not getting any actual YouTube work done
because of this YouTube policy update,
there are many more who are getting
on with the job, and I can prove it.
I sent out a voting poll to our community to ask how
these monetization updates may affect them as creators.
And two thirds of you said
that they were now more determined
to make a success of their YouTube channels
and reach monetization.
That right there folks
is all the inspiration you should ever need.
So yeah, there is a hard truth.
Some creators will never be able to monetize their content.
But I will say this, if you're listening to me right now,
if you've made it through to the end of this video,
I think you have a far greater chance of reaching that goal.
Not just because you've watched this video,
but it's because you're passionate
and determined about being a success on YouTube.
Because you put the time and effort
into listening to what I have to say,
but you also put the time and effort
into the content that you make.
And also paying attention to how you can become
a better creator.
Oh, and I also think you'll succeed
because he just gave us 15 minutes of watch time.
Thank you, I love you.