Attention YouTube Content Creators, Your Revenue Is Likely Going To Be Negatively Affected

No point sugarcoating it, let’s get straight into it. If you are a YouTube content creator who has a monetized account or were looking to monetize one, you are likely going to be negatively affected by YouTube’s new guidelines as regards channel monetization and advertiser approval.

By negatively affected we mean affected where it hurts the most – the pocket. YouTube is changing the eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP.) The YPP lets creators monetize their content on YouTube where they can earn money from advertisements served on their videos.

In April 2017 the eligibility threshold was set to 10,000 lifetime views. In the wake of recent events, YouTube has decided to set stricter requirements for content partners in an attempt to protect the creator ecosystem and ensuring revenue is more stable. Stability is affected when events like Pewdepie’s ‘racist’ video and Logan Paul’s insensitive dead body video lead to advertiser dissent. 

The eligibility requirement for monetization has now been set to 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers. They say this will help prevent potentially inappropriate videos from monetizing which can hurt revenue for everyone.

Content creators are being given a 30 day grace period. On the 20th of February all channels that do not meet the new requirements will no longer be able to earn money on YouTube. No consideration will be paid to the channel having had met the 10,000 lifetime views in the past.

YouTube acknowledges that this will affect a significant number of channels but also point out that 99% of these channels were making less that $100 per year with 90% earning less than $2.50 in the last month. YouTube points it out as if to make the point that noone is really affected. It may be peanuts in countries like theirs but over here in the third world, it is still something.

Thing is for most of these small channels, that $100 annual revenue would be utilised to grow the channel. It can go a long way to purchasing better cameras, props and so on. It could also contribute to data purchases which allow the creator to upload videos in the first place.

So this move severely limits the growth rate of small channels as it essentially means they are starting from scratch. We are talking about small channels here in the third world to whom the ‘small amounts’ they are talking about mean something.

I’m also curious to see what effect this move will have on music pirates now that for most of them there will be no financial incentive to post other people’s music to their channels. One would have to invest more effort into the channel to be able to monetize.

This will be hard as a pirate because YouTube is going to be stricter going forward. Getting flagged for copyright infringement or any other reason would make it harder to monetize the channel in the future. This could discourage pirates.

What do you think about all this? Do you think the response by YouTube to the Logan Paul scandal is appropriate in the circumstances? Or is it an overreaction which unduly punishes up and coming content creators who actually depend on income from the video site? Let us know in the comments below.