YouTube Demonetization & Channel Changes

On January 17th, I received an e-mail from YouTube.  It stated that my channel is no longer eligible for monetization because it doesn’t meet their new threshold of 4,000 hours of watch-time within the past 12 months AND 1,000 subscribers.  As a result, my channel will lose access to all monetization tools and features associated with the YouTube Partner Program on February 20th, unless I surpass this threshold in the next 30 days.

YouTube states in their blog post that they’ve arrived at these new thresholds after a thorough analysis that will allow them to significantly improve their ability to identify creators who contribute positively to the community and help drive more ad revenue to legitimate creators and away from spammers, impersonators, and bad actors.  These higher standards will also help them prevent potentially inappropriate videos from monetizing, which can hurt ad revenue for everyone.  So, by strengthening their requirements for monetization, they’re preventing these “bad actors” from both harming YouTube’s ecosystem and taking advantage of the inspiring and original creators around the world who make their living on YouTube.

I view these changes as basically a layoff of sorts.  YouTube is a business, and in the course of business, it may become necessary to make changes that have a discouraging impact on its subsidiaries. But, they seem to be trying to do what they think is best for everyone.  I am disappointed, but I choose to handle it in a positive way – to challenge myself to improve my channel so that I can meet the new requirements.  I am probably going to fail miserably and become demonetized anyway, but I am not going to allow myself to quit after all of the time and effort that I’ve put into my channel.

I uploaded my first video on my YouTube channel in November 2014* as a way to motivate myself and hold myself accountable to being a more efficient and productive homemaker. [*I deleted my first two or three videos about a few months or so after I uploaded them, so I don’t remember the exact date; the oldest video that I kept was from March 2015.] I greatly benefited from this newfound hobby.  Within the first year, I was able to replace chaos with structure by establishing routines, because people were encouraging and motivating me by watching my videos.  I didn’t monetize my channel until the fall of 2016.  Doing so motivated me to promote my channel with more consistent posts.

Fifteen months post-monetization, and my channel is growing slowly but steadily.  I have YouTube and my viewers and subscribers to thank for that. YouTube provides this amazing, creative platform where I can express myself and be inspired by others; and my subscribers and viewers are so encouraging and supportive as I share my progress of becoming more efficient at managing my home and even my life.

In order to improve my channel, I will:

• Learn from the tools that YouTube provides to help with channel success and apply those concepts to my channel
• Take the 30 Days to a Better YouTube Channel course by Tim Schmoyer of Video Creators
• Change my channel name
• Update my channel description
• Create a channel trailer for newcomers
• Privatize any of my under-performing videos with less than 200 views, with a few exceptions; I’ll hold those to review later for possible deletion

And after I fail that deadline to meet the new threshold – let’s face it, with only 346 subscribers and about 1,200 hours of watch-time over the past 12 months so far, it’s a long shot on a 30-day deadline – I do have the opportunity to be re-monetized after it does meet the new threshold.  Whenever that happens, YouTube will review my channel, and I am hopeful that they’ll re-monetize it after approving it.

I absolutely enjoy everything about being a YouTube content creator.  It’s such an incredibly fun hobby that I take almost as seriously as a part-time job, even though I haven’t had a payment issued to me yet since I’ve been monetized. (I still haven’t met the payment threshold of $100, but I’m over halfway there in my AdSense account!)

Even though I never expected much from this hobby anyway, I am hopeful that I will eventually be able to help contribute financially to our single-income family of five.  And I hope to continue to motivate and inspire, and to be motivated and inspired.  With my community’s help, I know that I can accomplish the goals I have for my channel!