- Your channel still under review for monetization, is it?
Yeah, I think you're gonna have to wait until.
(ominous music)
It's gonna leave a mark, is that.
- vidIQ. - vidIQ
- [Announcer] vidIQ.com
- And its not just the wait time
that you've got to deal with
because YouTube has new buzzword
and it goes by the name of duplication.
Hello vidIQers, my name is Rob and welcome to vidIQ,
the YouTube tool and channel that aims to help you get
more views in less time by educating you
on your YouTube journey.
Our Chrome extension, which is free to download,
will help you research YouTube, analyze videos,
audit your channel and take actionable steps
through the link in the video description.
Now the hot potato we've been juggling all year,
as represented by these socks, is YouTube monetization.
There's finally been another update,
you're not going to like it, so let's take a look right now.
This post titled Recent YouTube Partner Program Reviews
and Removals including duplication
was posted a couple of weeks ago
and was hidden away in the Google product forums.
We'll return to this top section later,
first let's get to the important section
about channels still under review.
It states we know many of you applying for YPP still see
channel under review in the Creator Studio.
This means our review team has not come to a clear decision
during the initial review, so we're putting extra effort
and resources into reviewing your channel multiple times
before making a final decision.
We are hoping to share our final decisions with all
of these channels by the end of the year.
In the meantime, the best thing you can do
is keep uploading original content as the more info/content
to review, the better.
All the best practices and policies shared above
are relevant for you too!
So, yet again, YouTube have set themselves a time frame,
two months to try and get all of those channels currently
in review out of review by the end of the year.
We're going to canvas your opinion on
that particular question, but we think we already know
what your answer's going to be.
The problem is YouTube's track record on delivering
on this particular promise hasn't been good.
When YouTube introduced the new monetization requirements
in February, which are of course, 1000 subscribers,
4000 hours of watch time
and you have met those requirements,
one of three things would happen.
You would get accepted into a program,
rejected or moved into review 'cause YouTube
needed more information.
The problem was, many channels didn't get any decision
as we moved into summer.
I think, at this post, YouTube had realized how much
of a backlog they had created by these new requirements.
- So, by the end of June, if a channel
had been waiting 30 days or more,
they will be reviewed by the team.
- The problem was, a lot of those channels
did get a decision and that was to be put into review
and they have been there every since.
So we're not just talking about channels
that have just entered the in review stage,
these channels have been there for six months,
maybe even an entire year.
Now YouTube know that this is a hot potato,
well, actually this just a pair of socks,
but they do know that monetization is a huge issue
for many channels and YouTube users.
So they posted a video about this.
Unfortunately for some video creators who were
right in the middle of this in review process
this video may have done more harm than good.
- And do we have a rough ETA for how long
that secondary review might take?
- We're hoping most of that will be done with in
the next couple of weeks, actually,
but, yes, we'll keep people updated
and we'll communicate as much as we can.
- And I know some of you at this point are going ooh,
if there's one thing YouTube
has failed on in the whole saga, it's communication.
Because once you submit your channel for review
there is no one you can contact at YouTube about this.
You wait, and you wait and even when you do get a decision,
it can be vague and downright unhelpful.
Now, okay, an automated email, such as this one,
that puts you in review, we can accept.
But when the following email, which rejects a channel
from the program is also automated,
this is where frustration can start to mount.
At this stage a video creator doesn't want
to read general guidelines and policies.
They want to know exactly what videos
and what content is causing a concern for YouTube.
- In this case, the final call's
always made by a human being.
We use all kinds of systems, machine-learning stuff,
of course, to give those people information,
to give them signals about
what's going on with a given channel.
But a person who makes the final call.
- And I think, for most video creators,
this is what it boils down to.
If a human is going to review my channel
and make the final decision,
then I, as a video creator deserve a human response
not a automated response, but something that tells me
what policy I'm maybe not following
and which videos, precisely, are the ones causing the issue
so that I can go and rectify that
and apply again in the future.
It won't surprise you to know that we had a lot more
to say on this subject so we posted a comment
on that video from Creator Insider.
There is a link onscreen now.
Do go check it out.
Now while we did say there was no official way to contact,
hang on, right.
While I did say there's no official way
to contact YouTube on this topic,
there are a couple of suggestions we do have
which may jab then in the right place.
The Team YouTube Twitter account is there
to answer questions so you have absolutely nothing
to lose by firing off a quick tweet to them.
We also made a tutorial video about how you can use
the feedback tool within YouTube to ask them
what's going on with your YPP application.
We're delighted to read of success stories coming
from this technique so if you want to know more
click and watch the video onscreen now.
Alright, let's now say that your channel has been in review
and you did get a response
but its that dreaded duplication.
What does that mean?
- A lot of time that refers to content
that's coming from other sources,
where the creator really isn't adding much to it.
So that could be videos from other platforms
or it could be TV content.
- On the surface, that sounds relatively straightforward,
however, there is some really important wording
in the forum post we showed you at the start of this video
that sheds more light.
It says it's important to note that duplicative content
is not just about copyright, the spirit of this YPP policy
is to make sure we're only allowing channels into
the program when the content adds value,
and is original and relevant.
There's two crucial elements there.
First of all the spirit of the YouTube Partner Program.
This element adds judgment to the requirement.
So not only do you need 1000 subscribers
and 4000 hours of watch time,
but your content has to fit the spirit of the program.
And that gives YouTube carte blanche
to say whatever they want, in effect.
And I can understand that.
What it also tells us is that you could
be using content legally from other sources
if its creative commons, for example,
however, if you the video creator,
add nothing to that conversation or that content
then that is against the spirit of YouTube.
And again, I completely understand
that from YouTube's perspective.
- Videos where the channel is
just collecting public content,
the video uses a computer generated voice,
a channel re-uploads other people's content,
and generally, like, content farms that just,
you know, are producing content to try
and kind of game the system,
will not be monetizatable.
(cow moos)
- Now I know what you are going to say at this point,
aren't I guilty of this exact thing in this very video?
I am indeed using clips from
the Creator Insider Channel for this video,
the difference is fair use.
In a nutshell, fair use allows people
to use copyrighted content without the owner's permission
if it meets various guidelines that,
due to the nature of video content,
can be very subjective.
We feel the video you are watching now
is both educational and transformative
from the original we have used.
In other words, it adds new meaning to the topic
rather than copying it,
and these are two fundamental aspects of fair use.
We could do a whole video on this topic itself too,
but to start you off you should check out this page
YouTube have dedicated to fair use.
A link is in the video description.
Now the lines are very blurred here,
I am probably going to spend
about 10 hours making this video,
but then I'll go onto YouTube
and find Fortnite Montage Channels which probably take
half an hour to put all the content together
and none of it's theirs
and its still monetized.
And then you'll see other channels
which are just putting on WWE content
without making any changes
and they're somehow getting away with it.
And then on the flip side we have other channels
being pulled up for duplication where their content
is 100% original and there seems no explanation for that.
I think the only I can give to you is that,
if you're gaming the system and you know you're doing it,
the more likelihood you're going to be caught up by YouTube
and your channel won't get monetized.
In summary then, you may have to wait until 2019
to get your channel monetized
and YouTube have been a lot more aggressive
with duplicated content.
We will, of course, continue to cover
this hot topic on YouTube.
We have our playlist right here,
and I know you always have some awesome stories
to share on this topic.
We want to hear them.
Let us know in the comments below.