YouTube is on the “hunt”. The video platform is trying to put a stop to negative videos and “bad actors” (content creators) by enforcing strict rules when it comes to monetization. The only downside to this is that their new guidelines will affect all YouTubers and will make it even harder for small channels to gain recognition.
The company announced that, starting with February 20th, owners of channels with less than 4,000 hours of viewing time in the last 12 months and fewer than 1,000 subscribers will lose all privileges from the YouTube’s Partner Program. They won’t be able to gain income from ads any longer. “They [the new rules] will allow us to significantly improve our ability to identify creators who contribute positively to the community and help drive more ad revenue to them (and away from bad actors).”, explained YouTube.
Before coming to this decision, the company welcomed videomakers in the YPP with one request only – to have 10,000 public views. This is how folks like this guy, @TheKingofEloHell, joined and thrived with a total amount of 541,020 lifetime views (on January 15th). Now, though, his channel is being demonetized in 30 days by YouTube. Turns out, while he scored 5,500 hours in the last 12 months, he has less than the required 1,000 subscribers.
The irony, right?! He’s not the only one in this position, as a comment to his videos proves: “Hey i got one of these emails today too, it sucks, I’m a small channel and not even close to the numbers needed, but I felt the same way as you when making my vids, maybe just maybe i can get one to go big or even get some regular views and comments would have been nice. hell i was happy to get 10 views on a video.”
Small channel owners don’t stand a chance, it appears. On the other hand, YouTube isn’t the big, bad wolf here. After the Logan Paul fiasco, where the influencer found fit to record a video of a dead body in a Japanese forest and then, publish it there to the horror of many, the new rules seem a bit more reasonable.
If you ask us, this was one of the reasons YouTube is making changes. The company is also helping advertisers in Google Preferred make sure their ads run only on safe, positive videos. How? By putting actual people verify the quality of videos that are part of the program.
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