How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel

How to Monetize Your Youtube Videos Online
(Last Updated On: June 4, 2021)

This article is all about how one can monetize their content in form of videos on YouTube to start generating revenue through Google AdSense. There are four golden rules to make money on YouTube, and they are:

  1. You need to have more than 1,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel.
  2. Your videos have more than 4,000 Watch hours over the last 12 months.
  3. You abide by all YouTube’s policies and guidelines.
  4. You have a Google Adsense account set up.

YouTube Partner Program application checklist:

YouTube Partner Program

Everyone who meets our threshold can apply for YPP, but you do need to meet some of our guidelines to be considered. This checklist is meant to guide you through the application process.

  1. Make sure your channel follows our policies and guidelines.
  2. Enable 2-Step Verification for your Google Account.
  3. Have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 valid public watch hours.
  4. Sign YPP terms.
  5. Make sure you only have 1 AdSense account.
  6. Get reviewed.

#1 The YouTube Partner Program Requirements

YouTube Partner Program is commonly known as YPP in short. To start with this amazing program you will need to fulfill all four requirements before your YouTube channel will be accepted for monetization.

You have to start with the 1,000 subscribers. It is pretty straightforward, it doesn’t matter how long it will take you to get to 1,000 subscribers, once you hit that milestone in terms of subscribers, you’ve fulfilled that requirement.

Apart from 1,000 subscribers, you also need a public Watch Time of 4,000 hours on your videos over the last 12 months. This is all about how much video content is watched on your channel by the online audience all across the world. It’s all those hours of videos that have been watched on your YouTube channel in the last 12 months (from any given date). You could well have in total 4,000 hours of valid Watch Time over the lifetime of your channel, but it is only the last 12 months that count for applying for the YouTube Partner Program requirements.

Another couple of things to tell you about Watch Time are that the Live streams do count towards that cumulative total watch hours. Unlisted videos uploaded on the channel also count towards that total. But if you delete any videos, that Watch Time will be automatically removed from your channel’s Watch Time hours. And one more final thing, if you are already in the YouTube Partner Program, and if your channel falls below 4,000 hours of Watch Time, YouTube won’t automatically remove you from the partner program, but they can do it at their discretion.

If you want to check the progress of the above requirements, you can do so by going to your YouTube channel analytics part and clicking on your logo in the top right-hand corner of most YouTube pages, and then clicking on YouTube Studio Beta.

You can view all of your analytics here, but to quickly check progress on monetization, hover your mouse over “Other features”, and then click on “Status and Features”. On this screen, you should see a monetization box, and if you click “Learn more”, it will tell you exactly where you currently stand with subscribers and Watch Time hours.

#2 Copyright and Monetization Policies on YouTube

Among YouTube, policies, and guidelines are the matter of copyrighted material. Essentially, while posting videos over this video search engine, if you use other people’s work whether knowingly or unknowingly, then you could be using copyrighted work without their consent, and YouTube does not want you to do that. Eventually, this will certainly get you demonetized or permanently prevent you from entering the YouTube Partner Program. Let’s look at this in a little more detail.

For most of you, this is the most essential monetization policy. You have to make sure that you’re adding some value to any content you monetize, and that your content has significant value, originality, or you have the copyright to reproduce and market it on social media. And let’s be clear, that still might not be enough. In some cases, YouTube doesn’t give you a license to use other people’s content in your videos, because if you do, YouTube may use this as a chief argument not to monetize your content.

YouTube confirms in one of its statement that if all or most of your channel’s content is dedicated to some other party or channel, and you’re not transforming the originality of that work by adding your own uniqueness, then your channel is not fully eligible for the YouTube Partner Program. The highlight of this policy is to make sure that YouTube is intensifying original and unique content into the YouTube Partner Program, and YouTube is fully try to protect and reward the creator who work hard by providing original content to his viewers.

Now, some users may see this YouTube’s spirit of a policy as a lame excuse to demonetize channels they do not want in their monetization program. But let’s have a look at it from this point of view. You spent hours, days creating a splendid piece of content, and someday it goes viral on YouTube. And then a dozen of random creators steal that content, make one video, upload it, generate hundreds of thousands of views, and end up profiting that views in monetary terms. How would you feel if that happened to you? That’s what YouTube is trying to protect – original content from the video creators.

Admittedly, the broad gray area on YouTube is reused, duplicate, and copyright content, and they don’t always get it right. And you may scroll to these channels on YouTube and see that they’re clearly flaunting the rules of YPP. Well, you don’t know what their circumstances are, or they may have permissible permissions to use some else’s video content, or they may get caught in the easy money earning race, and you don’t want to follow the examples of these channels that are doing this kind of activities. It’s not a road to success.

Ultimately YouTube is the gatekeeper. Sooner or later whether the YouTube team or YouTube search algorithm will detect these irregularities and take some action based upon its guidelines.

#3 Following YouTube Rules for Monetization

Next on the list is the YouTube’s rule book. If you want to monetize your content, you need to make sure you stick to it, as YouTube state:

At first, when you apply for the YouTube Partner Program, you’ll go through a stringent standard review process to see whether your video channel meets YouTube’s policies and guidelines. Only the channels that meet all of its guidelines will be accepted for the program.

These policies and guidelines are very widespread, given YouTube’s massive incubation to have had of finding the right balance between viewers, creators, and advertisers. We highly recommend you all familiarizing yourself with these policies and guidelines if you want to monetize your content and make your channel eligible to pass any laid criteria to the earliest in the future.

To summarize, apply common sense. If you think a video might be inappropriate, then the chances are it is, and you make such content at your own risk.

#4 Linking a Google Adsense Account with a YouTube Channel

If you are about to earn money from your YouTube videos, then the video search engine giant needs a way to pay you, and at least, to begin with, this will be done through a Google AdSense account. A few things more you need to address, if you already have an AdSense account, then you can use that. You can connect multiple channels such as websites, blogs, and of course YouTube channels to one AdSense account, and if you haven’t got a Google AdSense account, then you can set one up during the YouTube Partner Program application process.

#5 Applying to the YouTube Partner Program

Let’s remind ourselves of those requirements one more time: You need:

  1. 1,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel.
  2. 4,000 valid watch time hours on your overall videos over the last 12 months.
  3. To comply with all YouTube’s guidelines and policies.
  4. Have a Google AdSense account set up.

When you’ve applied for YouTube Partner Program, your channel will automatically be put in a review queue. It may take up to a month for the platform to make a specific decision based upon your request. That’s because instead of automated algorithms, actual humans will review your channel so it’s a manual process and takes time. Based upon the early parameters, some of the channels have been approved in few days, so it could be quicker. However, if it does take longer than a month duration, then probably your channel will usually be placed in further review. When this happens, unfortunately, the wait times can get very long to go with. It varies from 3, 6, possibly even 12 months. In some unfortunate cases, YouTube never seems to come to a decision, leaving the creator in monetization midpoint.

#6 Being Rejected from the YouTube Partner Program: Next Steps

Now let’s imagine that you’ve applied for the YouTube Partner Program, but for any reason you’ve been rejected. What can you do?

When you are rejected from the YouTube Monetization Program, YouTube will give you some general reasons. Unfortunately, they won’t tell you, particularly which video or content is causing the issue to refrain from this partnership program, so you may be left blindly adjusting your channel. However, the good news is you can reapply for the program again after 30 days of time.

Again, this is where you will have to make use of your common sense. If you think that there are some videos that are ruling out the community guideline and policies tightrope, then they most likely are and you need to adjust them accordingly without affecting the efficiency of your quality content. If there are having videos that have some copyright issue on them then those are most likely causing a problem with YouTube as well, so you will need to delete them.

Creators mostly asked when they apply for the YouTube partner program; will having a copyright strike or community guideline strike against my channel will prevent me from getting into this program? The answer is probably no, it definitely won’t prevent you, but it is surely going to have an impact.

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About Sunny Kumar 42 Articles
Sunny is passionate about Digital Marketing and building Brand Awareness. He is an experimental blogger. He holds a Google Certification in Google Analytics & Digital Marketing having a wide range of industry experience to his credit.