I Have Been Demonetized On YouTube

I Have Been Demonetized On YouTube

Well it is has finally happened. One of my video’s has been demonetized on YouTube. In the big picture of things, this isn’t a horrible thing because I have over 250 videos that are still deemed to be “worthy of advertisers”, however I am a little bummed about the one they chose to say “No, you can’t earn any money on this video, because we said so.” That irritates me. So please forgive me, but this post is going to be a little bit of a rant of why I am upset with my video being demonetized on YouTube.

But why did it happen? I had a feeling it would, because of the topic I am sharing in the video…25 ways to earn money. Yes, it seems that sharing ideas with people of how to earn extra money is extremely controversial. If you aren’t a YouTube creator, you may not know of the demonetization that has been happening on YouTube, so let me explain.

What is Demonetization on YouTube?

A while back, about a year ago, YouTube changed the way they paid creators. Yes, you can earn money by making videos and posting them on YouTube. The advertisers pulled a lot of money out of YouTube and this was called the ad-apocalypse.

Many creators saw a dramatic reduction in their earnings. And in order for YouTube to get that money back, they had to come up with a system to make the advertisers feel better about the money they were investing into YouTube. So they created an AI bot to skim through videos and look for anything they deemed to be inappropriate and when the bot finds something it determines to be unworthy of earning money, YouTube shuts off the advertisements, and the creator is not able to earn any money on the video.

No Money For You

And the rules are very vague as to what deems a video to not be advertiser friendly. It is very subjective, and not very clear. When I made my video, I had an idea they would deem it to be unfriendly to advertisers, but I also thought it would be a good video to help others in their quest to earn some extra money so I made it.

My thinking was right, and YouTube decided my video is not advertiser friendly, so I am not allowed to make any money on it.

Making Videos Is Not Cheap

I am not a huge YouTuber by any means. And the video in question will probably only make a few dollars. But every month, those dollars add up. And if I make more videos that YouTube deems unworthy, that will effect my earning potential. This really makes me think about the work I put into videos that I make. It takes a lot of work to create a video from start to finish with the filming, production and editing, it’s not simply turning on a camera and recording. It take a lot of work and dedication to create content for YouTube.

There are costs involved in every single video that is produced. You have to consider the cost of the equipment, the cost for a product if you are doing a product review and your time. If you are making videos to supplement your income, or in my husbands case, making videos for a YouTube channel as a part of your monthly income, this is huge. If you lose 50% of your income, but still have the cost to get to that income, you just took a huge pay cut. Think about it this way, if your boss came and told you that the company has decided to cut your hourly wage in half, but you still have to do the same amount of work, how would you react?

Everything Changes

No matter what, the only thing you can depend on is change. In every aspect of your every day life there are changes that occur. An there is no exception to YouTube. They are always tweeking their algorithm, and they are always changing something. And typically, these changes do consider the creators. However this time, it seems to favor the advertisers. I guess that makes sense, in a way. But when the people who have helped YouTube get to where they are today, I think this is where I have a problem with it.

It’s A Two Way Street YouTube

A lot of people will point out that YouTube gives creators a chance to earn money without charging them to upload their videos, and they give creators a chance to advertise themselves for free. And this is true. However, YouTube has become a monster, the second largest search engine in the world because of all of the videos produced by people like me.

Over 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every single minute of the day. And people go to YouTube day after day to watch new videos created by their favorite creators. And because of this, YouTube makes a LOT of money, on the backs of the creators who produce free content for them. Without the creators, YouTube would cease to exist. So the money machine would stop, and YouTube would be like one of the thousands of previous businesses, and disappear. I doubt that would happen, but it could. Especially if YouTube forgets about the little people who have helped to propel YouTube to where it is today.

If the creators stop producing videos, people will find another place to consume video content, and another avenue to make some extra money.

Lesson Learned

This has been a learning experience for me. I wanted to make a video that would help others, even though I knew it would probably be flagged as controversial. Because we all know that giving people different ideas of making money is extremely controversial. (That’s sarcasm in case you were wondering.) But I did it anyway, because I wanted to share my thoughts with my subscribers, and they asked for it.

This has led me to determine other ways that I can earn a little extra money to support my horse habit.

And it has also taught me a lesson that you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. I will continue to create videos, because I love to do it, but I will look for options of how I get my videos out there for my subscribers. I will search for other ways, outside of YouTube to produce fun content for my peeps.

Maybe I will have to get angry again when I upload my next video sharing ideas of how to stay motivated to make extra money. I will be uploading it next week as a follow up to my first demonetized video, because I feel it offers helpful information. My pride will just have to deal with that, and hope that when people watch it, maybe they will watch one of my monetized videos.

Time will tell how this all plays out, but could this be the end of YouTube? I doubt it. But I do think it will cut the quality and quantity of videos created, and possibly cut into the wallets of the YouTube executives. Just like it has cut into the earnings of the people who helped YouTube become what it is today. Hopefully I am wrong and YouTube will remember all of us little guys, maybe…ok, this is the end of my rant.