How To Get Monetized On YouTube - A Comprehensive Guide

Hi everyone, Ed from YT Tracker here. Today, let’s go over the enigma that can be the ‘YouTube monetization’. You know, those Subscribers, watch time, and Shorts views, these three criteria everyone keeps talking about.

For many aspiring YouTubers, the race often boils down to gathering subscribers, reaching that magical 1,000 subscriber count to cross one major hurdle towards monetization. But really, the subscriber count is just one part of the equation, and it may not be the most challenging one.

Watch time is another aspect that often leaves YouTubers scratching their heads. You need to accumulate 4,000 watch hours over the past 365 days. And by this YouTube doesn’t mean that you have 365 days to reach 4,000 hours, and then if you fail, you start from zero. Nope, it’s a rolling calculation that always checks your stats from the last 365 days. Sounds obvious for many, but full-clarity is better than working towards a goal that some do not fully understand.

Keep in mind the only watch time that counts towards your monetization goal is the watch time you get on public long form videos.

• The Watch time earned on private or unlisted videos will not count.
• The Watch time earned via Advertising campaign (where you pay to drive traffic to your videos) will not count.
• The Watch time generated on any of your YouTube Shorts will not count towards the YouTube Partner Program monetization target.
• The Watch time on livestreams will count if you convert your stream into a normal video people get to see on your channel afterwards.

Now, here’s where things get interesting. YouTube recently introduced another path to monetization: racking up a enormous amount fo Shorts views, 10 millions to be exact) within the last 3 months (90 days).

Track your progress towards YouTube Monetization with YT Tracker.

So, you see, you’ve got options. You can aim for high watch hours, or if your content is hitting it off in the Shorts department, aim for those 10 million views. You don’t need to nail both, just one or the other, along with the mandatory 1,000 subscribers.

Now, how can you practically achieve these goals? In my experience running YT Tracker for the last 5 years, the blueprint is clear. Forget about subscribers entirely and set your focus on creating great content and marketing it.

Easier said that done you will say. Overall, it comes down to:

1. Creating better and better content targeted to your audience
2. Growing your reach over time aka ‘marketing’

1. Creating better YouTube content to get monetized faster

Creating good content starts with simply creating and uploading content, period. It won’t be good at first but with every new video, whether it is long form, or Shorts, you need to try to improve one element compared to your previous video. That’s for the content quality.

What will happen when you content quality increases? People will stick around longer. They might watch your video until then end when before they wouldn’t. They might start watching another of your videos since they like the previous one so much. What does that do? It increases your watch time. But it also sends a message to YouTube that your content is getting better at keeping viewers on YouTube. And that’s a massive positive signal sent to the YouTube algorithm. It screans “recommend this channel’s content more'. Which leads us to my second point about reaching a bigger audience.

How can you use YouTube Analytics to improve your content quality?

YT Tracker’s audience retention analysis, provides a deep understanding of your viewer’s behavior. It pinpoints the moment viewers tend to drop off. So you can adjust your content to keep your audience’s attention for longer. It’s all about refining and improving things with each new video you upload, and this tool is your guide. Understanding your audience’s engagement patterns is crucial to enhancing those watch hours and building a loyal subscriber base.

Understand how to improve your video quality with YT Tracker’s audience retention feature.

2. Growing your YouTube reach

When you begin, you reach is pretty much 0, then you start talking about your content to friends & family members. Though they are not necessarily your target audience, it’s always good to get things going. What comes next is critical. You need to find where you target audience hangs out online and promote your content there. You need to build a presence on other social media platforms to find new viewers that will be interested in your content and engage with them on these other platforms.

YT Tracker offers a social sharing feature, for instance, which allows you to effortlessly share your YouTube content across various platforms, pulling in more views and potential subscribers. It’s all about broadening your reach and visibility. The more you share, the better your chances of boosting those watch hours or Shorts views.

Promote your videos with YT Tracker’s content creation tool.

Where do we go from here?

Now it’s on you to decide whether to focus on Shorts views or Watch time. Certainly not both, so pick a side and go all in. I’ll cover my recommended approach in a future article.

To wrap up, it’s also essential to understand that the YouTube Partner Program isn’t the only way to monetize your content. There are numerous other ways to turn your YouTube channel into a revenue-generating machine, which I will uncover in future articles. So, stick around, and let’s continue this journey together.

Until then, remember, it’s not about the destination but the journey itself. Let’s make it a great one with YT Tracker by your side!

If you liked this article, feel free to talk about YT Tracker to your content creator friends. That would go a long way in supporting my work on this project which started almost 6 years ago now.

Until next time. Peace!