YouTube Changes Its Partner Program Requirements – For The Worse

I never did get a chance to write about the “Adpocalypse” of 2017. Super long story cut short, varying incidents with high profile YouTube content creators resulted in many advertisers pulling their advertising from the platform entirely, due to not wanting to be associated with objectionable content creators.

It got worse recently when a high profile Content Creator went to Japan and, well, was pretty much a fucking idiot. Or so, that’s what people think is the cause of this, but honestly I don’t think this is reactionary to that more as it is to the earlier 2017 advertiser boycott.

Over the past year, YouTube changed some of the requirements for video monetization, and became a bit more strict on showing ads on videos that via tags, titles, or hell, even certain words being mentioned in it, came off as objectionable.

I had a few videos blacklisted this way, actually. I requested that they be reviewed and eventually they did regain monetization, but it took maybe amonth or two, and wasn’t even met with an email alerting me to such. Then again, neither was the demonitization, if memory serves.

Well, yesterday YouTube decided to update things yet again, and not for the better, many, including me, feel.

The new YouTube Partner Program requirements established are simple: A channel has to have ” 4,000 hours of watchtime within the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers” to be eligible for the partner program and thus eligibility to monetize their videos.

These are, for a small content creator, massive requirements. Getting 1000 subscribers is a hard process unless you hit just the right mixture of conditions – 4000 hours view time a year as well is rather tricky, given the short attention span  that seems prominent on YouTube on a whole. That’s 166 days of viewing time, to put it in better perspective.

Of course this affects me as well. I’m sitting here near 350 subscribers, and after I finally figured out how to adjust the scale, I saw that I’m only at about 1,600 hours of view time for the year. Yeah, needless to say, I’m not anywhere close to meeting the criteria.

This, quite simply, in no way benefits the small creator to any degree. That’s obvious, but what many might not see, or more correctly, might not care about, is the fact that this eliminates the primary incentive beyond “the fun of it” to create any content for YouTube.

Let me explain.

Of course anyone making videos will be doing it because they love it, but let’s face it – that takes effort. Getting a little bit of money, even a tiny bit of money from your efforts is nice and, indeed, feels only fair. Of course, that presumes people actually watch the content. It’s incredibly easy to get lost in the shuffle with YouTube, and unless you happen to have something that attracts people (which is almost always a combination of extremely high production values and a certain “trendy” style about you) you just won’t get noticed.

It isn’t just that though….

YouTube is kind of a toxic place. Quite hostile, really, at times. Of course, this depends on the subject, but odds are good the more seen you are the more negative aspects you will face – trolling and general abject hatred – more so than positive ones as you start. It’s actually a strange pattern in channel growth where negative people tend to find the channel more often than those who might support and enjoy the content do – this balances out as the channel grows but it’s a tough time frame for people to get through, and some never do. Of course, it can act as a drive for some other people. It really does depend on the type of person, but the fact remains even though it’s a known element and something people should well expect, that doesn’t change the effect it can have on some people. Everyone’s different.

So in starting off YouTube content creation, you have to hope your videos get seen amongst the flood of day in, day out uploads, that you don’t run into so much general hatred (warranted or not) that it discourages you from making videos, and that you eventually do reach the requirements listed above to eventually begin earning money from your hard work filming, editing, and uploading videos as well as the stress on your computer and electricity used in rendering.

You also will need to always keep producing content – you have to stay “fresh” and while some videos will always get views (I have a few that constantly get hits, and are sort of the staples of my channel) most of your content will be relatively ignored save for when it’s initially produced and then, that’s it. Time to make another video, day in, day out, off and on until eventually they finally decide you are worth paying for your effort. Seriously, we’re talking possibly hundreds of videos before things work out quite right.

Yeah, I think earning at least a few cents per video, the chance for it to eventually add up and get paid, is owed to anyone who uploads any video of whatever quality to the site. The chance to make it big gives people something to hope for – to work for years and get nothing now, until you reach some arbitrary threshold and then begin getting the chance to earn something? No, that’s just not how it should be.

Of course, if a person wants to make content they still can. I just personally see minimal point for most of us to actually put forth the effort now. Getting views and subs requires a combination of elements that you can’t fully control, no matter how much YouTube thinks it’s creators studio “tips” will help you. Why put effort in a video if it gets you noting? Sooner or later, people give up. This isn’t the old days where it was a new platform and just getting your thoughts out there was a big deal. We’re well past that time. Taking away what you gave us, well, why give a damn now?

We’re going to go deeper into this, for sure. Stay tuned, we’ve only just begun on this one.

This closes more doors than it opens, you assholes. Lies. Pure lies. pic.twitter.com/Guh4XZw6KY

— 민일성 (@Kurisu_Yamato) January 17, 2018