- Why do (beeps)
videos get demonetized?
I've got nothing to lose now.
(gun shots)
Oof, it's going to leave a mark.
Let's look at some more reasons.
Oh and for those of you who haven't yet reached
monetization requirements,
consider this your beginner's guide to applying
for the YouTube partner program the right way.
Demonetization is often due to a innocent mistake,
a lack of knowledge.
Creators understand the basic YouTube rules,
but not the finer details.
And all of these finer details
are spread across multiple YouTube policies.
Those include the YouTube community guidelines,
the advertiser friendly content guidelines,
AdSense program policies,
and YouTube's terms of service.
I'll link to all of them in the description,
just below the like button.
Now violating any of these
could lead to demonetization.
But what does that actually mean to your video?
If YouTube de monetizes a video,
that means it's restricting all ads from appearing on it.
And that includes every single type of ad
that is available to creators from display ads,
to overlay ads, sponsored cards and skippable,
and non-skippable video ads.
You won't earn any Google AdSense revenue
from that demonetized content,
but turning off ads on a single video
is just one form of demonetization.
YouTube could, if they decide to suspend monetization
on all of your accounts or remove you completely
from the YouTube partner program.
Now in the past,
it could take ages for YouTube to check your video.
Now here's a quick pop quiz question.
How many monetization statuses do you think there are
in the YouTube studio?
I'll give you five seconds.
(clock ticking)
(bell dings)
The answer's seven.
Some of these statuses are fairly obvious,
others not so much.
For example, the sharing status is
when you've created a video that might be a music cover.
And the publisher of the original music
is sharing that revenue with you.
The escrow status is when you are in dispute
with a copyright owner and the final decision
hasn't been determined,
so YouTube is holding that ad revenue
until it is decided where the ad revenue should go.
You can always check on the state
of any demonetized content on your channel
by going to the YouTube studio
and going to the content screen,
which will show you all of your videos.
There is a filter system in the top left-hand corner
of this big list.
And this will allow you to filter by videos
that are not monetized or videos
that have copyright claims on them.
So that covers the question of how your content
gets demonetized.
Now let's look at why,
and there are plenty of reasons.
Let's start with the content as a whole itself
and not posting repetitious video.
This generally means that you should not post videos
with no recognizable difference.
Now, what this doesn't mean is that
you shouldn't cover topics in depth and great details.
Take ourselves as a prime example of this.
We have done multiple videos
on how to get 1,000 subscribers,
but each one of those videos looks at new strategies
or approaches it from a different point of view
for different type of creators.
The type of repetitious videos
that we are talking about here
is (indistinct) mass-produced, overly templated,
even programmatically generated.
When YouTube starts to detect this type of stuff,
it may be classed as a content farm,
and ultimately in a dream-like scenario,
what YouTube wants to do is reward original creators
with original content.
But of course there is that fine line
between using copyrighted material and repurposed content.
Now, of course, if you use
another creator's intellectual property,
be it songs, clips, images,
then you're likely to receive some copyright claims
on your channel.
And this extends beyond YouTube as well.
Anything on the internet, theoretically,
is copyright of their respective owner.
Now copyright claims are not the end of the world.
Copyright strikes are close to the end of the world,
but when it comes to a copyright claim,
the worst that's going to happen
is that your content is demonetized.
But, what YouTube does generally say
is that it's okay to monetize reused content,
when you're using brief clips for a critical review,
you're adding original commentary to an event,
or you're adding an original storyline
and editing footage from other creators.
This is called transformative content,
but it's not a black or white situation
just because you've changed one thing
that lasts five seconds in a 10 minute video
does not mean, but that's automatically transformative.
Your best bet of course is to use your own content.
But at the same time,
YouTube understands that there are thousands
of reaction channels out there.
And the key thing is how much of your own reaction,
your own voice, your own interpretation,
your own transformation of that original content
are you adding to your YouTube videos?
Now, I am going to state the most obvious thing in the world
that many creators seem to forget almost immediately,
by monetizing your videos,
you are entering into a business relationship with YouTube
and by extension YouTube's users.
And none of them want to be duped.
YouTube wants every viewer to have a positive experience
and no user can do that while being tricked or misled
by deceptive videos and comments.
If you're on the platform for the wrong reasons
like running scams and leading people to shady websites,
YouTube is likely gonna demonetize you at best.
At worst, they're going to terminate your channel.
So as you can see,
there are several deceptive practices
that you should avoid as a creator on YouTube.
But I did just want to highlight one example of this.
That's been pretty rampant in the last few months,
and that is users impersonating large creators.
In this example,
supposedly Graham Stephan is replying to this user,
asking them to send a direct WhatsApp message to them.
But if you know anything about the YouTube platform,
you would realize that there is no check mark
against Graham Stephan's name.
So is clearly an impersonator.
It probably won't come as a surprise to you,
but YouTube doesn't tolerate hate speech.
If it does come as a surprise to you,
then maybe YouTube isn't the platform for you.
If you want to successfully monetize your videos,
don't say all type harmful, offensive things.
YouTube will demonetize your content.
If you're inciting violence or hate against specific groups.
Avoiding hate speech should be relatively easy.
Think of all of the ways people discriminate against others
and simply avoid saying those things in your videos.
The most egregious hate speech revolves around age,
sexual orientation, gender, race, disabilities, religion,
immigration status, and veteran status.
Now then can you use profanity in your YouTube videos?
The answer is yes,
but my interpretation of profanity
is likely different to your interpretation of profanity,
which is likely different to YouTube's interpretation
of profanity, and they have to draw the line somewhere.
That's going to satisfy over 2 billion users.
So for example, YouTube won't likely
demonetize your video for using words
such as hell or damn
because that's considered light profanity.
Most people aren't going to be offended by those terms,
but when we get to vulgar words,
then you're more likely to get in trouble.
And not slight repeatingly F bomb multiple times
or saying the B word.
And then there are some words that will
definitely lead to demonetization,
such as a particular C word,
a couple of F words, and a very definite N word.
And you can also add dozens more hateful slurs
on top of those.
And even if these words are intentionally misspelled
in the video itself, or in metadata,
such as titles, thumbnails and descriptions,
you're effectively trying to deceive YouTube,
which we've already established
isn't the right way to go about business.
Now having said all of this YouTube is aware
that different audiences watch different creators,
where the use of profanity may be expected
by the creator and the audience.
YouTube doesn't want to put a creative
(indistinct) on you and inhibit your creative passions,
but at the same time,
pretty much any viewer can watch any video on YouTube.
And you have to be aware
of who might be watching your content at all times.
Now then, before I talk about the next batch
of reasons why your videos may be demonetized,
I want to preface them all with this,
video intent and video context matter.
If you do make content,
that is considered borderline by YouTube,
then consider be creator intent
and try and answer these questions before you press record.
Is the video meant to educate? Like a documentary.
Or is the video meant to inform? like a news update.
If your intent is not to glorify these things,
but to actually educate viewers
on these aspects of the world,
then it may be that your videos will still be monetized
or they could be ad-restricted.
But what that doesn't mean
is that you can go and film a dead body in a forest
like Logan Paul did for entertainment purposes,
or go and taser rats like Logan Paul did,
which resulted in each channel
temporarily being demonetized.
If you're glorifying drugs, firearms,
internet hacking, or other questionable illegal activities,
all of that stuff is definitely going to get demonetized.
As is posting sexually explicit content.
That is an absolute no brainer on YouTube.
Definitely don't do it
way beyond the demonetization question.
You can throw shocking and disturbing videos
into that pot as well.
Now, what we're not talking about here are plot twists
and unexpected endings.
Shocking content is simply hard to watch.
These are videos that create a bad experience
for the viewers, and to be honest,
advertisers are less likely to support them anyway.
Most of that is going to get demonetized on the spot
and it's the same for very graphic violence.
YouTube will demonetize gory, gruesome visuals.
And that typically happens when the video has no context
outside of what you're seeing, the brutal violence.
Even if you're showing a video game.
And remember when I said pretty much anyone
can watch a YouTube video, because of that,
child's safety is paramount on the platform.
Lots of kids watch videos on the main app
and not the YouTube kids app,
even though technically
they're not supposed to until they're 13.
Now let's talk about controversial and/or sensitive issues.
What YouTube considers to be controversial or sensitive
is not what most people think when they hear those terms.
We are talking about political debates
or unpopular opinions here.
YouTube defines controversity and sensitivity
as topics that may be unsettling,
and the result of human tragedy.
YouTube will demonetize video that glorifies
any of these controversial and sensitive issues.
And then we have current events and topics.
If there is an event that caused widespread suffering,
then those videos may be demonetized.
Big example of this over the last two years,
has been COVID-19?
But,
what about a similar event that happened 100 years ago?
The Spanish flu, that is in much more of a
historical educational context.
Now let's be honest about this.
Most of us as creators will not encounter
most of these issues because we all use
a little bit of common sense.
But the one demonetization issue
that we all encounter at some point is copywriting.
If you want to learn a lot more
about the differences between claims and strikes
then check out the video over here.