YT warning: "Post videos as Private or Unlisted to maximize revenue." What?

Jungle Explorer

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How many of you are seeing this warning when listing a video? The warning tells you to "list video as Private or Unlisted to ensure Ad Suitability to maximize revenue." Two things I don't understand.

1. What does listing as video as private or unlisted have to do with whether it is suitable for ads?
2. Does the phrase "Maximize Revenue", mean that if you do list your video as Private or Unlisted, that YT is going to place better quality ads on it?

Does anyone know what YT is talking about? @Crown
 

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I think it's referring to letting the YouTube AI pre-screen the videos before making a video go live. Putting the video as private / unlisted instead of letting the video immediately go live after uploading gives YouTube time to flag it appropriately. If it is flagged for demonitization before it goes live, it gives you a chance to take the video down, make edits, and re-upload to try to make the video more advertiser-friendly. Making videos advertiser-friendly helps you maximize possible revenue from a video. :)
 

Crown

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How many of you are seeing this warning when listing a video? The warning tells you to "list video as Private or Unlisted to ensure Ad Suitability to maximize revenue." Two things I don't understand.

1. What does listing as video as private or unlisted have to do with whether it is suitable for ads?
2. Does the phrase "Maximize Revenue", mean that if you do list your video as Private or Unlisted, that YT is going to place better quality ads on it?

Does anyone know what YT is talking about? @Crown

My interpretation is the same as @KatyAdelson - The advice to make a video private / unlisted before it goes live ensures the video will hit the ground running with ads when it does go live.
 

Jungle Explorer

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I think it's referring to letting the YouTube AI pre-screen the videos before making a video go live. Putting the video as private / unlisted instead of letting the video immediately go live after uploading gives YouTube time to flag it appropriately. If it is flagged for demonitization before it goes live, it gives you a chance to take the video down, make edits, and re-upload to try to make the video more advertiser-friendly. Making videos advertiser-friendly helps you maximize possible revenue from a video. :)
I figured that, but to me it does not make logical sense. I monetize my videos whether I post them public or unlisted. How you post them has does not affect whether they are monetized. That is a separate function. Last week I posted a video unlisted that got 600 views in 24 hours from a facebook post. I don't understand how posting a video unlisted makes a difference. Also, YT has me fill out that AD Suitability page before I post a video. Why have me fill that out, if it does not do anything? What is the purpose of answering those questions, if they are not going to believe my answers? Not once have I ever lied or misled them. If they are not going to grant me trust, why keep asking me the questions? You see what I mean. It makes no sense.

Another thing is that they don't give you a timeline. They ask you to list as private or unlisted, but they don't say for how long. For a day? For a week? For a month? How long do they want us to wait before making a video public? And back to the Maximize Revenue thing; the counter implication of their statement is that if you don't list your videos as not public first, that you will not make as much on them. If that were not the case, then what logical reason would anyone have to not go ahead and list them as public. The way that statement is phrased is a Request with the potential of a Reward. If there is no reward for doing so, and no punishment for not doing so, then why even make the request? What is the motivating factor for acquiescing to their request?

I hate things that are illogical and that go against critical thinking. Nothing about that statement makes any logical sense. If it said, "Please do not monetize your video for 24-hours until the system has scanned it and assessed it for ad suitability." that would make a little more sense. But even that seems a bit insulting since they just asked you to fill out a full-page questioner about ad suitability of your video. It is kind of like a person asking a bunch of questions and then slapping you in the face and saying, "I DON"T BELIEVE YOU, and I am going to check everything out myself!" Okay! If you pre-decided that you were not going to believe me, THEN WHY DID YOU ASK ME THE QUESTIONS?

I sometimes wonder if the people that work at YT are on drugs. Having worked in a drug addiction treatment center as a counselor, and dealt with many drug addicts, I know first hand how they can be extremely smart about technological stuff, but lack any and all common sense and critical thinking skills.
 

Jungle Explorer

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My interpretation is the same as @KatyAdelson - The advice to make a video private / unlisted before it goes live ensures the video will hit the ground running with ads when it does go live.
What about scheduling it as a premier? That is actually how I post most of my videos anyway. As I said to @KatyAdelson, posting as unlisted does not prevent monetization or viewing, so I see no logic in YT's reasoning. And what is the timeframe to post it private/unlisted before going public? 10 minutes. an hour, a month?

For me "Hitting the ground running" means nothing. My videos don't start building traffic for months. My top videos right now were all released over a year ago. I don't know how other tubers get all these views in the first 24-hours, and then they get nothing. What are they posting, the latest news videos, or something?

This whole, "hitting the ground running" mentality makes no sense to me. You post a video, and it slowly worked its way into the YT metrics and it's ranking grows based on its popularity. How do people post a video and get a bunch of organic views? Not one of my videos has ever done this. The only video that has ever done this was one in which somebody sicked a bot herd on my video and it got 2,500 views in 24-hour. I posted a thread about this because it really scared me that someone was trying to get my account banned. But to get a bunch of views Organically, I don't know how that is done; not right out of the shoot, unless you have millions of subs that are all sitting around waiting for your latest video. That is not me! LOL! and I doubt it applies to very many tubers.
 

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Private and unlisted are not promoted by YT. Private has to be shared directly, by the creator, via email.

By posting private or unlisted it gives you time to work out any yellow icon issues before you get a bunch of views. YT gives a boost the first couple days a video is released, and you can waste that if it gets a yellow icon.
 
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Jungle Explorer

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Private and unlisted are not promoted by YT. Private has to be shared directly, by the creator, via email.

By posting private or unlisted it gives you time to work out any yellow icon issues before you get a bunch of views. YT gives a boost the first couple days a video is released, and you can waste that if it gets a yellow icon.
I guess that makes sense. I don't get yellow icons, so I don't have to worry about this. I cleaned up my video list back in 2017, and just avoid doing anything questionable. I naturally don't cuss, I abore sexual content. About the only thing I do that is not favorable is hunting, but I produce maybe one video a year about hunting, and then I mark it as such. Hunting videos are my lowest performer anyway, so I don't even try to monetize them unless I see a spike in view, which never happens.
 

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It is kind of like a person asking a bunch of questions and then slapping you in the face and saying, "I DON"T BELIEVE YOU, and I am going to check everything out myself!" Okay! If you pre-decided that you were not going to believe me, THEN WHY DID YOU ASK ME THE QUESTIONS?
I think the questionnaire is for trust-building. YouTube is trying to figure out if you can correctly identify whether your video is suitable for advertisers. If you answer the questions one particulary way, and the screening of the video leads to the same result, then you gain more autonomy for marking your own video monetization on or off based on if you think it follows the rules. Creator Insider posted a video about this a while ago. I think it was an attempt to reduce how often the computerized bot marked too many "completely fine" videos for demonitization by assuming creators "know their content best." If one fails the trust test, then I think the content continues to be screened by bots.
 

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What you are saying makes since. But it is jot the way it is working. I hear what has been said, but my o observation if the actual facts show a pattern that does not align with what has been claimed.

Out of 300 videos, I have like three videos with yellow icons and only one in the last 18 months. I think I have earned the right to be trusted, but I am still getting this warning.
 

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I think the questionnaire is for trust-building. YouTube is trying to figure out if you can correctly identify whether your video is suitable for advertisers. If you answer the questions one particulary way, and the screening of the video leads to the same result, then you gain more autonomy for marking your own video monetization on or off based on if you think it follows the rules. Creator Insider posted a video about this a while ago. I think it was an attempt to reduce how often the computerized bot marked too many "completely fine" videos for demonitization by assuming creators "know their content best." If one fails the trust test, then I think the content continues to be screened by bots.
Yeah, very shortly after the self certify system started I got a popup telling me that my self certification has been very accurate and I will get faster approval for monetization. I swear like an old sailor, or cook (I am both), but I do not swear in the first minute - they say do not swear in the first 30 seconds ha ha. But I rarely get yellow icons since they made it clear what they want (I used to get them 3 out of 5 vids).