The YouTube Partner Program (YPP) offers creators extra YouTube tools and features such as direct access to the Creator Help team. It also allows income sharing on the content from the advertisements being served on the videos.
The monetization policies of YouTube are a list of policies that allows YouTube channels to be monetized. If you’re a YouTube partner, complying with these monetization rules is necessary by your contract, the YouTube partner program policies, to eventually make money on YouTube.
In this article,
- Why do you need 4000 hours and 1000 subscribers to be eligible for monetization
- Mandatory requirements to be eligible for YouTube Partner Program
- Time for review and approval rate
- How to be notified once your channel is ready for review
- How to submit for monetization review for a faster response
- How to request a review once your channel reached the required threesold
- System Review Process
Latest updates log
🆕 March 2021: With this YouTube update, all creators who are part of the YouTube Partner Program are required to send their Tax info through their associated AdSense account. Creators who do not do so may be subject to the highest tax fee (24%). Read more.
🆕 November 2020: With this YouTube update, you will see commercials being served on videos from channels that are not part of the YouTube Affiliate Network. Read more.
Why do you need 4000 hours and 1000 subscribers to be eligible for monetization
As you know, you then need to have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 legitimate hours of public watch time. When YouTube evaluates channels for Partner Program entry, they need history. So when this threshold is reached, it typically indicates you have more content. The threshold hence allows YouTube to make a more educated judgment on whether their policies and recommendations are satisfied on your channel. If you achieve this threshold, you can apply for YPP.
Mandatory requirements to be eligible for YouTube Partner Program
To be eligible for the Partner Program, your channel needs to meet the following requirements:
- Live in a nation or area where the Partner Program for YouTube is accessible.
- In the last 12 months, your channel must have more than 4,000 legitimate public watch hours.
- Have more than 1,000 subscribers.
- Have an AdSense account that is linked.
Everyone who fits these criteria can apply for YPP, but to be accepted, you need to follow every of the Program requirements and terms. Ultimately, the final decision is up to the YouTube team review.
Also read: Applying for YouTube Monetization? This is what you need (Checklist)
Time for review and approval rate
At the very beginning, the time for a response from YouTube regarding the application used to be around 1 month. As for now, the times have reduced drastically and most channels are approved within just a couple of working days. There may be exceptions of channels taking longer, especially when a channel is borderline and more than one review is necessary.
The success rate is around 60%, but this doesn’t mean much since as long as the content is fine and original, a channel has a 100% chance of being approved.
How to be notified once your channel is ready for review
You can ask YouTube to let you know as soon as your channel meets all the criteria. To do so, go to the monetization tab in your YouTube studio and sign the agreement with YPP. To be alerted, if you are below 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the past 12 months, press “Notify me when I’m eligible to get an email” in your monetization tab.
How to submit for monetization review for a faster response
To have YouTube approve your channel quickly, make sure you have original content and did not get rejected recently. Most importantly, enable 2-Step Authentication for your Google Account, which ensures that your password and an extra computer can secure your account. In your application review, not having 2-Step Verification can trigger a pause, so we strongly suggest doing this. Get started about 2 step verification here.
How to request a review once your channel reached the required threesold
- Sign in to YouTube.
- Tap your profile picture then click on YouTube Studio in the upper right corner.
- Click Monetization on the left-hand menu.
- Sign the YouTube Partner Program agreement
- Ensure that you have just 1 AdSense account*. As part of the application phase, you’ll need to add an AdSense account to get paid.
- On the ‘Sign Up for Google AdSense’ card, press Start.
- Get reviewed
*Use the AdSense that’s already been accepted if you already have an AdSense account. You can link a single AdSense account to as many of your channels as you like.
After you submitted your channel for review, the channel will be placed in a queue for evaluation automatically. Then YouTube’s automated systems and human testers will evaluate your channel to verify whether it meets all the guidelines. At https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UC/monetization, you can review your application status at any time.
If you are admitted into YPP: Compliments! Now you can set up advertising preferences and allow your uploads to be monetized.
If you’re disqualified from YPP: The reviewers have found that YouTube’s policies and guidelines do not align with a large portion of your channel. Thirty days after your dismissal, you can re-apply.
What happens if your channel gets rejected?
If a channel gets rejected upon review, the creator can send a new monetization request after 1 month. Creators can submit reviews unlimited times, but based on our experience once a channel gets rejected a few times in a row the channel gets burnt and response will take longer. The advice here is to not spam, each month, a monetization request in case the channel gets rejected. Rather take your time to make it compliant and once it’s ready, send it to YouTube.
Make sure that YouTube’s rules and recommendations are adopted by your channel. After you submit, to verify whether your channel follows YouTube policies and monetization criteria, your channel will go through a regular evaluation phase from the YouTube review staff. YouTube will only allow channels that fulfil their criteria.
Once your channel has been approved, YouTube will keep scanning its content
Even after a channel gets approved, YouTube automated system still regularly reviews channels to ensure that they manage to follow the platform’s policies and guidelines. This means that if you get approved for posting vlogs, and then once approved you start spamming copyrighted content to make money, your channel’s monetization will be disabled and you will have to ask for a new review.
System Review Process
After you have signed the terms of the YouTube Partner Program and connected to an AdSense account, your application will be put in a queue. To verify if it suits the YouTube monetization policies, YouTube human testers will evaluate the channel as a whole.
As stated by YouTube in their support page, the review will focus specifically on the following aspects
- Main theme
- Most viewed videos
- Newest videos
- Biggest proportion of watch time
- Video metadata (including titles, thumbnails, and descriptions)
Once your channel is examined, YouTube will get back to you with a decision (They say about 1 month after you meet the threshold, but most times it is a matter of days).
Note: You might need to wait longer than a month sometimes. There may be various reasons for delays, such higher-than-usual amounts of queries, system glitches, or YouTube may need to shift their resources briefly.
Can you speed up your application?
Yes an No.
No, because all applications are positioned in a queue and will be handled in the order in which they are submitted. Channels sometimes need multiple reviews, especially if different reviewers disagree with the suitability of your channel for YPP. Multiple evaluations can be requested in these situations, which implies it may take some time for a final decision to be taken.
Yes, because having a channel with 2 step authentication activated, without a history of rejections and fully original content will make the review process faster. This because no further double check will be needed.
To keep earning money, stay active and respect guidelines
It is essential to sustain a strong, active ecosystem of channels as the YouTube Partner Program continues to expand. YouTube may disable monetization on channels that have not uploaded a video or posted to the Community tab for 6 months or more to focus support on creators who are committed and engaging with the community. YouTube may also automatically disable your monetization if their system detects you start uploading copyrighted content or content against YPP guidelines.
Hi my name is morgan and i am needing help to monetize my channel
Hi Morgan, we will soon update the website with more guides and tricks to get monetized. Make sure you come back and most importantly be persistent! It’s just a matter of time before you get there.
-Adam