Northridge California
September 9
“We Have A Situation”
“Your channel remains ineligible for monetization”
A Reaction to Action
I was on my YouTube channel uploading a new video yesterday, and noticed that the monetization was now gone!
It was there the day before!
This startling news arrived via notice from YouTube informing me, as the creator of the channel, that the YouTube Team had disabled monetization for my channel.
Initially my reaction was quiet confusion which quickly turned to quiet fury.
I had worked so hard to qualify for monetization and didn’t know/wasn’t aware they could just take it away.
Seemingly arbitrarily.
And why?
❓⁉️
After researching possible explanations found examples:
“Your content might have violated community standards”
“Used somebody else’s material” N/A
“Misrepresented your content” N/A
But I Am Innocent Of These Reasons!
Updated April 2024: The language in our program policies has been updated to clarify the meaning of Repetitious and Reused content for creators. Our Repetitious and Reused content policies have not changed.
Hey! Sometimes Change Is Good!
THE RABBIT HOLE:
Warning: Click on Links at your own risk! Alternatively, you can simply view them!
If you’re monetizing on YouTube, it’s important that your channel follows YouTube monetization policies.
These include policies described below, as well as YouTube’s Community Guidelines, Terms of Service, Copyright, Rights Clearance Adjustment policies, and our program policies.
These policies apply to anyone in, or looking to apply to, the YouTube Partner Program.
The YouTube Shorts monetization policies also apply if you’re monetizing Shorts on YouTube.
All content monetizing with ads must follow our advertiser-friendly content guidelines.
To earn revenue from fan funding features, first time users must accept the Commerce Product Module (CPM) before turning on the individual features.
You must also follow the Commerce Products monetization policies when monetizing with fan funding features.
Fan funding includes these monetization features:
Channel memberships: Your members make recurring monthly payments in exchange for members-only perks that you offer. N/A
Super Chat & Super Stickers: Your fans pay to get their messages or animated images highlighted in live chat streams. N/A
Super Thanks: Your fans pay to view a fun animation and have their message highlighted in your Shorts and long form video’s comments section. N/A
Here’s a quick overview of each major policy.
Make sure you read each policy thoroughly, as these policies are used to check if a channel is suitable to monetize.
Our reviewers regularly check to see whether monetizing channels follow these policies.
Ah But could it be this?
YouTube doesn’t allow anything that artificially increases the number of views, likes, comments, or other metrics either by using automatic systems or serving up videos to unsuspecting N/A viewers.
Also, content that solely exists to incentivize viewers for engagement (views, likes, comments, etc) is prohibited. N/A
Content and channels that don't follow this policy may be terminated and removed from YouTube.
But I did use a channel manager to augment some numbers without knowing or asking how.
All content monetizing with ads must follow our advertiser-friendly content guidelines
Here are all the main topics that are not advertiser-friendly:
N/A None Of the Following are Applicable because I don’t have any of these in my family friendly channel content!
The Above Does Not Apply To Me
My Channel Is Family Friendly and I'm a mom!
Ah But could it be this?
Important:
If you hire someone to promote your channel, their decisions may impact your channel.
Any method that violates our policies may result in content removal or a channel takedown, whether it's an action taken by you or someone you've hired.
We consider engagement to be legitimate when a human user’s primary intent is to authentically interact with the content.
We consider engagement illegitimate, for example, when it results from coercion or deception, or when the sole purpose of the engagement is financial gain. N/A
I do not use coercion or deception but I did hire someone to perfect SEO on my channel and he added a trailer for a movie that did NOT represent my channel.
I want to revoke his authorization to do this or anything else without my permission first.
Because this might be the reason!? It is certainly not solely for financial gain!
I only made $1.98 in 2 months!
Ah but could it be this?
I am trying to figure this out and I wonder if the “thumbnail-gate” contributed to this decision?
Misleading Metadata or Thumbnails:
Using the title, thumbnails, description to trick users into believing the content is something it is not.
I did recently add VidQ to my subscriptions and one of the features offered is to increase your score by using AI to enhance your title or thumbnail. These are options designed to show an eye catching thumbnail with an intriguing title to attract the viewers attention. You want to let the viewer know what this video is about and describe your content accurately. Not trick them because they will get mad
The last four or five thumbnails for my videos have been created this way and by tweaking the image options.
But I don't believe that it is deceptive. Since this is something I’ve done differently recently, I need to check it.
After reading for a while, I tried with no success to create a dispute in response to this decision then finally reached the “Chat Help” option.
There is no actual phone number available to reach YouTube help or support and no one you can call to discuss your issues and have them resolved.
Even getting a hold of any real human person over there on YouTube is extremely difficult and frustrating.
No one I know likes talking to a bot.
I wanted to know which specific video it was that violated any standards or what these reasons were exactly.
Because I was still trying to understand the what, the why and the WTF of a multitude of other ridiculous reasons that do not apply to me.
Long story short, after chatting online with the YouTube dude (who ultimately wasn’t able to help) I was informed that the decision was made, it was final and I could reapply for monetizing again in December.
Final? What?
December?❓⁉️ What?❓
BUT I WAS ALREADY MONETIZED!
I can't wait until December!
I am So Confused!
Pages and pages to read with links to follow resulting with entrance to a portal leading down a veritable rabbit hole of community standards and YouTube policies and practices.
Dare you enter?
Finally said goodbye to my YouTube guy (who may or may not have been a bot but you don't know for certain because there's no way to reveal who you're chatting with and bots do a lot of chatting) when he abruptly ended the chat when I mentioned I would like an attorney to review the chat.
Remember, the purpose was not to hire a lawyer for legal action, but simply to review the chat and provide advice and clarification
My intuition told me that I was communicating with a real live human being and not a bot,
But he never did disclose the exact reason for my dilemma resulting from a “YouTube Team” final decision, except to point out (possibly as a hint?) that the 4000 watch hours (necessary to qualify for monetization) on my channel had gone down or some other ridiculousness.
Was that it?
My hope and goal is to generate an income from my channel filled with all of these videos I spend so many hours every day of my life creating.
I deserve to be compensated and my content is good enough to accomplish that.
But monetization must be restored before that can happen.
I was so upset with this entire episode that I felt like deleting the entire channel.N/A
But that is a reaction and I am learning that being reactive is not the best approach to achieve a desired result.
Advice: Take a breath and allow yourself a moment before you engage with an emotional bias.
Being angry also makes it difficult to hear what the other person is saying objectively.
So what are you saying?
Your channel remains ineligible for monetization.
Our reviewers found that your appeal wasn’t successful.
You still have the opportunity to reapply for monetization.
CONCLUSION?
Still to be determined
(To be determined — used to indicate that the time or place of something has not yet been decided and will be announced at a later time)
Come On YouTube team!
I am an asset not a liability!
I make cool videos and you should be complementing and compensating me instead of doing the opposite.
TBD
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You subscribe to mine I'll subscribe to yours.
YouTube
What Do You Think?
Accept What You Cannot Change?
Or Fight For Whats Right And Change What's Wrong?
Know The Difference Between The Two and Go Fight
Please check out the channel and let me know!
OR You Can Just Cry About It!
We appreciate your visit to our website and thank you for your patience in reading this blog post!
Mama,We hope You Tube reverses that bad decision to take away the monetization you earned! Love, Your Canine Family