Today I’m making a little money doing both. It’s not a lot. It helps pay a bill or two each month or puts a little extra spending money in my pocket. I’m not getting rich off of this anytime soon.
I started my YouTube channel in July of 2014 because I had received some free products from Influenster and YouTube videos were one of the types of content they were looking for. I honestly wasn’t thinking about making regular videos or growing my channel until 2015. That’s when I started posting videos about my hair journey.
(This information is not meant to be advice and is just for educational purposes. I am not a financial or content expert. This post includes affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission.)
In late 2015/early 2016 I was approved to be part of the YouTube Partner Program and could monetize my videos but I was only making pennies every few days or weeks. So while I knew I could make some money it wasn’t enough to entice me to be more consistent with posting on YouTube. This was too bad because in 2017 and 2018 YouTube changed the approval requirements and made them stricter. My channel was no longer qualified for the Partner Program.
Related read: How To Start Making Money With Your Blog
The YouTube Partner Program requirements
Before we get into those things let me outline what is required to get accepted into the YouTube Partner Program- Get 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months, or get 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days
- A Google Adsense account (You can apply for this prior to being accepted to the program)
- Make sure your channel follows all of the YouTube monetization policies
Tips for meeting the requirements
There are no shortcuts to getting accepted into the YouTube Partner Program but there are some things you can do that could help you reach the requirements quicker.1. Promote your videos everywhere
This will help get your views up to help reach the 4,000 public watch hours requirements. I use Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and my blog to promote and push out my videos to my audience.2. Encourage subscriptions
You can do this by simply asking your viewers to subscribe to your channel at the beginning and/or end of your videos. One thing I like to do is let viewers know why they should subscribe, and how it benefits them.This can help you reach that 1,000 subscriber requirement. Also having more subscribers can help with increasing watch time as subscribers are more likely to watch more of your videos.
Related read: Start Making Money With The Amazon Influencer Program
3. Edit longer videos
This can help increase how many watch hours you rack up. Now you do have to be careful with this that you don’t have videos that are unnecessarily too long and viewers start to drop off. You’ll need to find that perfect balance. Looking at your channel and individual analytics can provide indicators as to what video length your viewers prefer.4. Get to the point quicker
While having longer videos can help with increasing views you want to make sure that you aren’t rambling, taking forever to get to the point, or having long intros. The reason is your viewers may quickly lose interest and drop out of the video early on. This can limit your overall channel watch time and could signal to the YouTube algorithm that your videos aren’t interesting enough. Both can hurt your channel. Personally, I’m the type of person who likes to get right to the point and I try to do that in all of my videos.5. Design enticing title cards
What is enticing can be subjective and can vary by audience, video topics, industry, etc. Though there are many factors to consider there are a few overall best practices for creating title cards that every YouTuber should follow- Use the correct dimensions
- 1280 x 720 pixels
- Minimum width: 640 pixels
- Recommended ratio: 16:9
- Maximum file size: 2MB
- File types: .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG
- Keep the text simple: Less is more. I try to come up with a shortened version of my video title to use on the tile card. It makes it easier to read and get the video topic across when viewed on a smaller screen.
6. Create videos for your viewers
What I mean by this is you want to stick to topics and content that your subscribers and viewers watch the most. You can find this out by taking a look at a couple of things in your YouTube analytics- Which videos have been getting you the most watch time hours?
- What terms and phrases searched on YouTube have driven more traffic to your channel and videos?
7. Post shorts
Yes, shorts can help you grow your channel and reach the qualifications for YouTube monetization. When I'm not posting long-form videos I try to upload a few shorts every now and then. When I do that I see a small jump in my watch hours and also a modest but steady increase in subscribers.
The shorts you post can be the same videos you post on your other social channels, or even cut downs of your long-form videos.
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