Well this certainly changes some things...
You know sometimes life just throws you curveballs, or lemons, or lemon curveballs
apparently... Last week, YouTube announced some changes to its Partnership Program.
So, to bring you up to speed, here's what's changing. Creators with
over 10,000 lifetime views on their channel can currently apply to be a part
of what's called the YouTube Partnership Program. Now in this program, YouTube
gives you some more video creation features, as well as the ability to
monetize your videos. This is done through an ad sharing program where
YouTube gives you a cut of the ad revenue that they make by running ads on
your videos. Now there's no watch time requirement, no subscriber requirements,
and it's a relatively low bar for entry. But as of February 20th 2018, all of that
is changing. At that point moving forward, creators must have a thousand
subscribers on their channel, and four thousand hours of watch time, which is
240,000 minutes of people's eyeballs on your content within a 365 day window in
order to apply to be a part of the YouTube Partnership Program. Now YouTube
has pitched this as a thing that won't affect the majority of creators, and as a
way to deal with some of their "bad actors" and copyright violations they've
had running rampant on the platform lately. In its blog post about the change,
YouTube says: Though these changes will affect a significant number of channels,
99% of those affected were making less than $100 per year in the last year with
90% earning less than two dollars and fifty cents in the last month." Which
sounds ok right? It's only the hobby creators who aren't trying to be a part of
the big game anyway that this hurts. And if it makes the platform safer and less
prone to copyright violations then it's totally worth it. And in some ways, I
agree with this logic. I want the platform to be better and
safer too, but the lack of acknowledgment to some key ways that this
disproportionately affects smaller and newer creators is, quite frankly, just
really frustrating! I've explained some of the issues associated with this
policy shift in great detail in a recent medium blog post - link is in the
description - but as this is about YouTube I thought I should, you know, make
a video about these policy changes, what you need to know, and how this affects
creators moving forward. First off, I want to talk about feelings. We small creators
feel really disenfranchised, let down, and like YouTube is pulling the rug out from
under us. They've changed the rules mid game and it's a blatant judgment from
YouTube that our content is not valuable to them because it doesn't make them
money. Which kind of stings. It's kind of like running a 5k and when you're like
50 meters from what you thought was the finish line, you find out that the race
directors have actually moved the finish line another 5k up the road...oh and there
aren't any more water stations either. So yeah, it all feels kind of crappy. But
this is about way more than just feelings. On the money side of things,
there's been this kind of toxic idea floating around created by YouTube, and
perpetuated by some of the larger creators, that says "well these smaller
creators weren't making any money anyway, so what's the big deal?" Yeah we're aware
we're not making any money...also not the point. So the way the system works
currently, you can see the pennies of ad revenue creep up over time and when you
reach $100 YouTube cuts you a check. Woohoo! The argument is that these new
standards are pretty much equivalent to that hundred dollar mark, and so if you
weren't hitting these metrics, than you weren't making money anyway. But here's
where the issue of pacing comes in. So I've been monetizing this channel for
about a year to a year and a half or so. Over that time, I've watched the money
trickle up to a grand whopping total of $60. Now, 60 bucks is not much in the
grand scheme of things, but I'd probably be hitting that hundred dollar mark at
some point this year, which is pretty motivating. But these new changes require
a higher level of watch time within the last year, and prevent this slow and
steady accrual of pennies over several years. So if I wanted to keep on pace
with making a hundred dollars every year and a half or every two years I can't do
that anymore. And that hundred dollars every two, or three years might mean a
new piece of equipment or software to try something cool, it might mean helping
to pay a bill that month, or it might just be some extra walking around pocket
cash, but the point is it has value even if it's accrued over a longer time frame.
And this is where we come to the issue of time, which is perhaps my biggest beef
with this policy. So I work to upload videos about every two
weeks. And I haven't been completely consistent with that over the last
couple of years, partly because life is a thing, and because I've had other
priorities, but also because of production time. So in order to compete
with a lot of the other content that's on YouTube, I'm working long and hard on
my videos to make them as high-quality as possible. Now I do this to make my
content more discoverable on YouTube, and to be more friendly with the YouTube
algorithm, but I also do it because it's important to me to make high quality
content for my audience. But this shift to the yearly watch time requirement
means that I would have to MORE THAN TRIPLE my current yearly watch time
within a 365 day window in order to meet this new standard to qualify for YouTube
monetization. It effectively requires me to shift my entire strategy and go all
into YouTube in order to make that possible,
and frankly that's not always feasible for smaller creators like me who are
doing YouTube as a part of their larger creative endeavors. Now, as a corporate
business decision, and as a way to address some of the larger problems that
YouTube is facing, I completely understand this policy. But from the
perspective of a small creator, we just got shown the door and told that we're
not welcome here. Now the bar for entry into the "cool kids club" is too high for
most small creators, or for new creators to justify the cost. Frankly, I'll be
shocked if we don't see a steep decline in the number of new channels starting
over the next year because of this policy. The last major issue I have with
this policy centers around the idea of value. So with this change, older content
which has been making us a little bit of money in the background all the way
along, will cease making money going forward until we hit these new metrics
again. So YouTube has basically said "hey, so you know how do you were slowly
accruing money on that really great content you made on your channel a few
years ago? Yeah well we're gonna stop giving you money for that going forward.
Oh, and also, you're gonna have to work really hard on your channel for free
over the next year in order to have the opportunity to get paid for the same
content again...that's cool right?" No! Not cool! It's especially insulting because
it basically says your content was once valuable, but it's not anymore.
Which, okay, I get content may depreciate in value over time, but the slap in the
face is that the content will suddenly have
value again when we hit these completely arbitrary metrics that YouTube has
decided to hang its value hat on. Oh, and by the way, who's to say that if I bust
my butt to hit these new metrics that YouTube's not just gonna turn around and
change the rules again anyway? Okay, so I'm getting all worked up over this
again, so I'm gonna shift my focus a little bit to the question of: "okay, well
now what do we do?" So over the last week or so we've already seen this huge surge
in smaller creators mobilizing their communities to help each other out and
that's super awesome to see! These are just a few of the hashtags you can
follow on Twitter, and I'm sure there are similar ones on Instagram and Facebook,
that are leveraging the power of smaller communities to help increase subscriber
counts and watch times for those who are close to the new metrics. And here's why
I say if you've ever thought about supporting a smaller creator now is the
time! And this is also when I put in my special plea, not necessarily for this
channel - though if you would like to please hit subscribe because every
little bit helps. But I'd really love it if you'd consider subscribing to the
National Lutheran Choir's YouTube channel, which I help manage. I've been singing
with this choir for twelve years, and they're like my second family. And over
the last year or so, I've been consulting with them on growing their YouTube
channel. Over there you'll find some really great videos and playlists of
some cool choral music that we've done over the last couple of years, as well as
some full streams from some of our recent performances, including one with a
world premiere piece that we did in Washington DC, last fall which was
amazing! So choral music is your thing at all, or if you want to support some of
the other consulting work that I do in this YouTube space, please subscribe over
there as it will help us out a ton. I've also compiled a list down in the
description of some smaller creators who have added considerable value to my life,
so check them out if you're looking for some great creators to support. The
WeCreateEdu community is also rallying around some of its smaller creators, and
has created a few playlists, so if you want to learn something and help support
some smaller creators check that out as well. And what's next for me and for this
channel? I'm honestly not sure but I do know that it doesn't really make sense
for me at this point to pour my entire being into trying to grow a channel just
for the sake of monetizing content again. But online video has
provided me a ton of professional and personal value beyond ad revenue, so I
don't really see myself leaving this space anytime soon. But some things may
change around here, and I'm not exactly sure what that's gonna look like moving
forward but I'll keep you posted as things develop. And honestly, the best way
to continue to support my work is by contributing over on Patreon. Every
little bit helps me be able to make online videos and other creative things
that you might value. Lastly, I just want to say thank you. Thank you to everybody
who has risen up to support the small YouTube community, and everyone who
subscribed to this channel, and followed along in my youtube journey so far. Your
well wishes, comments, questions and just general awesomeness have made this
journey totally worth it. So I want to hear from you: Are you a
small video creator? And if so, how do these recent policy shifts at YouTube
affect the direction of your own channel? Are you gonna keep uploading videos? Are
you gonna shift into a new direction? What's your plan? And if you love
watching smaller creators, who are some of your favorites right now, and what
other things are happening in the small YouTube community that are exciting to
you? Please share below and comments I want to keep this conversation going! And
hey, it's like I keep saying on this channel, we gotta keep going and keep
growing...and apparently perfecting that curveball lemonade recipe... So that's what
I plan to do, and I hope you'll join me for the ride.
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