How to Get Monetized on YouTube
Nowadays, anyone opening a YouTube channel has a
question back of his / her mind. Can I make money from my videos? Through
YouTube, you can reach a huge audience and communicate your thoughts, and yes,
you can earn money. But, to earn from your channel, you need to follow certain
strategies processes.
Thumb rules to make money out of your YouTube
Channel:
1. Have 1000 subscribers on your YouTube Channel
2. Videos must be watched for more than 4000 hours
in the last 12 months
3. No deviation from YouTube policies and guidelines
4. Your Google Ad Sense account is active and linked
to your bank account
5. Participation in the YouTube Partner Program
What is the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)
Now Let’s start from Point no. Five as without
taking part in the YPP, you cannot make money on YouTube. And to take part in
YPP, you have to satisfy all four preconditions (Point 1 to 4). To
understand more about YPP click here!!
Getting 1000
subscribers on your channel
This is the first major hurdle. Once you start a
channel:
·
You
call up your friends,
·
Send
Share the YouTube video link WhatsApp messages,
·
Post
your videos on your social media pages, on your blog and so on
·
In
this phase, you must also understand whom you are reaching out to and how they
can further influence others. For
example, if you have decided to make videos on new recipes, make sure your
foodie friends who love cooking / own a restaurant / are food bloggers are
notified. Take their view; collaborate with them while making your
videos.
Please follow a few basic steps while creating your
channel:
·
Populate
your channel with several videos … just one video will not (even if it is the
best quality) attract people to subscribe.
·
Please
select a subject you like, make videos on the same, and stick to it (gardening,
pet care, films, traveling, DIY projects … anything). Videos of unrelated
subjects distract people
·
While
sharing your videos, please ask your viewers like share and subscribe to your
channel… a reminder can always help. The same needs to be repeated in the video
content also. Asking them to subscribe to the channel and hit the bell icon
will ensure people are updated about any new content
Videos watched for 4000 hours (in last 12 months) –
A Monumental Task
Getting 1000 subscribers is relatively easy than
getting 4000 watch hours in a year. Following are the imperatives here:
·
You
are uploading new videos regularly, and subscribers are watching them
·
They
are watching the full video or at least a significant part of it
·
They
are still excited about the channel (spreading the buzz resulting in new
subscribers)
·
The
videos are long enough (Ensuring enough watch hours per video)
·
For
example, to gain 4000 Hours or 2, 40,000 minutes, let’s assume your 1000
subscribers (accumulated within the first month) watch all your videos full
length. Thus one subscriber needs to watch 240 minutes of content in a year. If
you make 5-minute videos … will have to produce 48 videos. But if you decide to
make 10-minute videos, you need 24 such videos only.
·
There
is a flipside. You may also produce eight videos of 30 min or four videos of
60min. But viewers’ attention span is limited. Most probably, you will lose
them midway … or even they might avoid seeing that long a video. Moreover, such
long videos would consume more time, money, and effort.
Some More Content Strategies to Follow:
·
Avoid
controversial subjects and sensationalism … because it may help in the short
run but may defuse people’s expectations
·
A
good script, proper video timeline, and proper description, proper tags are
essential
·
Quality
is king – Video, Audio, Graphics, and Good Editing… trial and error can correct
a lot of things with basic amenities
·
Avoid
plagiarism
Following YouTube Policies and Guidelines:
While creating and publishing the content, you must
constantly ensure you follow the YouTube
policies & guidelines.
YouTube constantly monitors your content. Apart from
10,000 people dedicated to this job, your channel members and other viewers can
report being inappropriate.
A video can be demonetized, if it is deemed to be
showing nudity, spam or scam, hate speech, harassment or cyber bullying,
violent graphic content, etc. It is wise to read the policies in detail. Also,
you need to ensure the content you are using is not copyrighted. A song, video
footage, a tune, if used without the copyright holder’s consent, YouTube can
remove your video, demonetize, or even close the channel altogether. Creating
original content is essential. A good background score for your video can
attract the audience … but always ensure you are not violating
copyright-related issues.
Activate Google Ad Sense account and link it with
your bank account
YouTube will not pay you for your videos unless you
have a Google Ad Sense account linked with your bank account. If you have
multiple channels, you can still link that your sole Google Ad Sense account.
If you don’t have an Ad Sense account, you can create the same while applying
for the YouTube Partner Program.
Applying for YPP:
We started off explaining what YPP is. Now that you
have met all your preconditions, it’s time to apply for YPP. The YPP selection
process is done manually by YouTube officials. Thus in certain cases, the
applications are approved within days and in certain cases, not within a year.
So being patient is the only solution here.
What if Your YPP application is rejected?
If the YPP application is rejected, YouTube gives a
generic reason. They don’t specify if a specific video caused the rejection.
However, one can reapply for YPP, 30 days after the rejection. The best way to
reappear for the exam is to reassess what may have gone wrong. Please go
through all your content. Try and understand which of your content fence-sitters
in terms of YouTube guidelines are. Because once you are part of the YPP, it’s
all about enormous opportunities.
In YPP, you can also expand your monetization possibilities like Super Chats, Membership, and Merchandises. So, create great content and follow the suggestions mentioned above. Success would be yours!!