How to Get Monetized on YouTube

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!!