Hot Topic New monetization changes: 4k hours & 1k subs (**discussion here only**)

[bigattck]

So Logan recently posted a video featuring a suicide victim literally hanging from a tree. The video thumbnail featured Logan looking wide eyed with the suicide victim hanging in the background. The TLDR version, much furor ensued. At some point YouTube featured the video in their trending feed which strangely, didn't help matters at all.

World wide press coverage followed, universal condemnation of Paul and YouTube. Pauls fan base, predominantly children attempted to defend him, which only made the situation worse. Advertisers examined their ad budgets and no doubt many went with " Facebook looks good this year".

YouTube ad revenue one would assume took a turn for the worse and YouTube took to small Creators as a convenient scapegoat. Logan got a slap on the wrist, most Creators got demonetised (or at least will in February) and the YouTube powers that be, collectively high fived advertisers and made arrangements to catch up at Burning Man this year.

There you go, in a nutshell

And then Facebook was like "no more ads on facebook" and the advertisers give up on social media then spent money on good old tv ads.

 

[Shakycow]

I see a lot of comments complaining about "YouTube screwing over the little guy" or how "without the financial motivation, I no longer see the point or have the urge to create."

If you needed to see the pennies slowing adding up for motivation, why wouldn't a goal of 4k hours and 1k subs?

It's not as though YouTube always had ads. Once upon a time, YouTube was simply a platform to express oneself and share videos with the world. Before long, it allowed ads, but only for very select, very large channels.

Over the years, they slowly opened the floodgates and allowed virtually everyone monetize their videos, but, rather than improve content, the move brought in millions of people aiming only to make a buck.

Quality has dropped and scammers and video theft has increase exponentially. This move *should* help put an end to those trends.



I've also seen a lot of posts bringing up "sub4sub" again... I would avoid that like the plague it is. I would imagine that YouTube has already had that thought and will be investigating all accounts in the coming months.

I'd guess that any fake accounts, accounts with a very sudden influx of channels they're subscribed to, and any channel that subscribes to another account without actually watching a video or two will each find themselves on the 'naughty' list.

 

[ParadigmAU]

I've also seen a lot of posts bringing up "sub4sub" again... I would avoid that like the plague it is. I would imagine that YouTube has already had that thought and will be investigating all accounts in the coming months.

I'd guess that any fake accounts, accounts with a very sudden influx of channels they're subscribed to, and any channel that subscribes to another account without actually watching a video or two will each find themselves on the 'naughty' list.

Have you see the comments on the YouTube Creator blog post where they announced the changes to the partnership requirements? Over 22,000 comments which are largely sub4sub. Crazy stuff, every channel openly breaking the YouTube partner requirements on a YouTube administered blog!

You can't tell me YouTube isn't going to get some intern to parse through those comments and add all the channels to a "special never to be monetised list" at some point in the near future. It's like a honeypot for dummies!

 

[Crazy Ace]

So we just started a channel Jan 1. I thought 10,000 views seemed do able and now they have shifted the standards, but who cares. If you really have something worth watching then it will happen. Otherwise, you need to change. That's the way business is. You swim, sink or learn how to swim really fast. So my plan of attack is still getting subs. People interested in the content that we make is still first goal. It doesn't really matter what youtube does. They are not the only way to make money with the videos you create. You can get corporate sponsors, patreon or even sell your own wares from a website that is linked to your youtube. Please don't let this stand in the way of creating.

 

[zaffron]

I've also seen a lot of posts bringing up "sub4sub" again... I would avoid that like the plague it is. I would imagine that YouTube has already had that thought and will be investigating all accounts in the coming months.

I'd guess that any fake accounts, accounts with a very sudden influx of channels they're subscribed to, and any channel that subscribes to another account without actually watching a video or two will each find themselves on the 'naughty' list.

YouTube will not waste their times watching sub4sub practices. Those small youtubers actually is not recognizing that they need 4K Hours watch Time.

It is Hours. It is NOT minutes.

So they actually need to divide their annual watch time by 60. In this case reaching 1K subscribers will not help them that much without reaching 240 000 minutes watch time.

 

[Hirudov]

Have you seen the comments on the YouTube Creator blog post where they announced the changes to the partnership requirements? Over 22,000 comments which are largely sub4sub. Crazy stuff, every channel openly breaking the YouTube partner requirements on a YouTube administered blog!

You can't tell me YouTube isn't going to get some intern to parse through those comments and add all the channels to a "special never to be monetised list" at some point in the near future. It's like a honeypot for dummies!

Yes, I saw. I've checked some of the channels and most of them won't fit in the requirements anyway, so they did it in a desperate attempt to keep their monetization, but it won't happen anyway. Not much of a concern for YouTube. Plus, watchtime hours needs more dedication anyway. 240,000 1 minute views won't come from nowhere.

 

[antonio33333]

I love new changes!

What i love most about new changes is that every channel that want to be a part of youtube partnership will be examined by real person and then they will decide if that channel is suitable for ads.

If all advertisers left the platform Youtube would be perished and all youtubers would have to find new ways of getting money on other platforms. So tehnically speaking Youtube is doing this for creators.

I work in managment/marketing and thoughts that paid ads of company that i work for is on some crappy channel that can't accumulate at least few hundred views per video, and also is not examined by real person is terrifying. For example you spend thousands of dollars on ads but they end up showing up on videos of some drama channel, you would ask yourself OMG why did i spend money on this ads in the first place?

At the end of the day 4,000 hours of watchtime is about 200,000-300,000 views. 200-300 dollars isn't really that big of a deal. People are acting like Youtube said: "No, we are not new creators in our partnership program anymore."

The most important thing is that those changes will NOT affect discoverability of small creators and their content. So if you really wanna make some money and you want success on Youtube than this is the right time, many people will quit/post less because of motivation but you will know that this really isn't drastic change.

Excuse for mistakes i have made, english is not my first language.

 

[najmul]

Bad news for small creators or people wanting to start a new channel. Good news for those already established.
i don`t know
....................................................................................................

 

[just Moto]

At the end of the day 4,000 hours of watchtime is about 200,000-300,000 views. 200-300 dollars isn't really that big of a deal. People are acting like Youtube said: "No, we are not new creators in our partnership program anymore."

The most important thing is that those changes will NOT affect discoverability of small creators and their content. So if you really wanna make some money and you want success on Youtube than this is the right time, many people will quit/post less because of motivation but you will know that this really isn't drastic change.

Excuse for mistakes i have made, english is not my first language.

Here here, anyone who's in it for the money won't really be bringing value to the platform in the first place. Follow your passion and the money will come later... even if takes 7-10 years. It still comes.

 

[Darren Taylor]

Am I the only one who doesn't care about the YouTube monetization rule change?

I genuinely don't care. I passed the threshold of monetization maybe 2.5 months ago but never activated it. I don't want an advert barrier to my content for viewers (potential subs) while I'm tiny and trying to grow.

Also. the money to be made from YouTube ads from small YouTubers like myself would be tiny! I have 200+ subs and I would be waiting for my first YouTube paycheck for months based on my current growth rate and views.

In my eyes, it's a small annoyance and not the end of the world people are saying it is. Is anyone with me? Or am I missing the point.