Monetizing videos with low sub count?

[ParaLefty]

Now this is my second channel and I monetized my videos on the last account and in 10 months I made a whole 4 bucks. is that money really worth it? I personally don't see the reason. I do YouTube to record memories and entertain people. I can't see a reason to monetize videos with less than a certain number of subs or views per video.. what do you think a good number is?

 

[TheSwedishTraveler]

I monetised when I started youtube, but only recently the amount of money earned starts to increase!

 

[Shakycow]

There are numerous threads on this and it's a very divided opinion.

I feel that, if you're not gaining (at a minimum) 10k views a month, there is no point in monetizing. I would recommend setting up an AdSense account and linking it to the YouTube channel... that way, if anything were to take off, you could simply turn monetizing on, but I see no reason to potentially lose a view when every view still matters.

As you said, you've earned $4 in the past 10 months. At that rate, you'll looking at over 20 years before you collect a check.... and, if you don't stick around and wait for that point to come, Google keeps all of the money your videos earned.

Do a quick search and you'll find plenty of threads debating this topic. Read the various opinions from both sides and choose for yourself what you want to do.

 

[CandyPhantom]

I personally don't think that that's a good idea. If your channel is still small and you get a considerable amount of views then you suddenly monetize all your videos, the average amount of views you have on one video will drop. People will stop watching your videos.

 

[Sin B]

I didn't monetize first week or so of videos, after monetized most newer videos with some exceptions. There's a lot of debate over it, ads could scare off potential subs, viewers, etc. They can see you care about the money and not want to watch... and so on, but eh.

Me personally if I see an interesting video I'll click on it and even if an ad starts I'll just skip it after 5 secs if need be. You never know when a video will explode, any random video could get a billion views in one night's sleep and talk about lost profit then. Its 2016 close to 2017, everyone that uses YouTube should know by now that people use YT as a career, as a job, as a way to pay bills, eat, live, etc. Takes a special kind of person to complain about people trying to live off a job that's in front of their face. Just cause you want to live off YouTube doesn't mean you don't care for the content you put out, you're half assing it, trying to make a quick buck...etc. Anyone that seriously wants to live off YouTube you better believe they're busting their chops off trying to make it happen and they're putting out the best content in their power.

 

[Devin]

This is a 50/50 opinion. I personally don't believe it bothers too much in this age, If ads on Youtube actually bothered someone as this point. They need to realize some people need the money and that Youtube is their job, Youtube ads are pretty tame compared to other sites ads, Me personally ads don't bother me.

 

[luckee]

There is nothing wrong in monetizing your channel with low sub count, I did this too when I started and I got my first $100 dollar after 1 year of monetizing my videos. So, it's like waiting for it to become big while making videos. When will you monetized your channel if not now? Waiting for it to have a huge subscribers?

 

[UKHypnotist]

Also remember this...

If you don't monetize from the beginning, you lose every penny you might have earned up to the point you do monetize. YouTube doesn't do retrospective calculations and payments; therefore if you are planning to monetize at all, it's best to set that up at channel founding.

I have multiple channels feeding into my Adsense.

 

[Sin B]

Also remember this...

If you don't monetize from the beginning, you lose every penny you might have earned up to the point you do monetize. YouTube doesn't do retrospective calculations and payments; therefore if you are planning to monetize at all, it's best to set that up at channel founding.

I have multiple channels feeding into my Adsense.

That is indeed something to consider; who knows when just 1 of your videos goes viral while you're asleep and garners 1mil+ views out of nowhere. That is such a profit loss, even more so if it happens when you're a beginner and most your other videos get 10-20 views. If you do everything non profit then no biggie, but if you intend to monetize anything, you may as well start as early as possible.

 

[Hi!MyNameIsJan]

So it is really a game of numbers
Right now you/ every other small channel wouldn´t profit much.
If my next videos this month get the same amount of views then my last 2 (which would be great!) i would maybe be able to make 1 Dollar. Until getting paid out (100 Dollar threshhold) that is a loooong way.
And monetizing has a big negative : You will scare viewers away with ads. I guess you scare away 10% of the viewers and 15% of the subs that you would make in the future.
But there could always be that BOOM, that one viral video which follows into you blowing up and generating 2 million views or something on your channel in one month. That would be a significant amount of money, no doubt. Since for me monetizing would take 2 to 3 days i would miss out on most of it....
But how high is that probability ? If you do compilation, edits etc probably not too bad, with good tags / facebook / reddit work maybe you will get to 100k on a video, but most likely not. My content ? Even lower chance.
So low that for me monetizing is a bad idea since i scare away viewers and don´t support useless ads. There are 2 plus points about smaller channels : Interaction with the creator and no ads. I want to give my viewers both.

But its an personal opionion. Im a math guy so i look at the numbers, a stomach/heart type of person maybe sees his chances of blowing up higher.
Bye