A Note About YouTube Monetization

I recently posted a video which asked YouTube visitors to subscribe to channels they like. It’s a fairly benign request, but one that perhaps warrants further explanation.

YouTube recently changed the way they pay their content creators. It’s perhaps not well known, but those ads you see before many videos are not available to all channels. Only those channels that meet certain criteria are allowed to run ads and generate revenue based on their content.

Why should you care? Most content creators strive to make somewhat professional videos. This often entails upgrading mics, cameras, lighting, video production software, etc. A little bit of ad revenue each month helps offset those costs.

What are the requirements? Previously, a YouTube channel had to have 10,000 total channel views (a combined total of views for all content created by a channel). Under the new rules,

It’s worth noting here that YouTube is still monetizing videos on channels that haven’t yet met their requirements to collect money, but he content creators are not seeing any revenue from that monetization.

I for one am not opposed to the rule changes. What I think this will do is eliminate or at least mitigate the amount of click-bait style channels that exist in the sim racing world only to produce videos to the effect of “the 5 best ever cars in sim racing ever” with poor production value and very little value to back up the claim. Most of us will skip ahead and miss most of the video, and we definitely won’t subscribe. This person will then not make any money off of his videos which are uploaded only to exploit the curiosity of the viewer.

There are, however, some channels that end up as collateral damage from these newly imposed rules. In the sim racing world, there are countless excellent channels that we all watch that will either be delayed in monetizing, or have their previous monetization benefits revoked. This is a shame.

The remedy for this is simply to do what the internet is made to do; vote with your clicks. If you see a great channel, subscribe. If someone’s content is lacking, do not subscribe. The internet is the most democratic system we currently have, so let’s take advantage of it.

As a point of reference, someone with 1,000 subscribers can only expect to make about $20-$50 per month. It’s not much, but it could mean a lot to a few channels. It costs the viewer nothing but about 6 seconds of his or her time.

Please get out there and support the great channels!