Youtube has a new rule to be able to make money off your videos. You must have 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months and 1,000 subscribers.
Thus, I’m no longer in their Partner Program. I have 640 watch hours in the past 12 months and 362 subscribers. I supposed with some effort, I could reach the required numbers.
I never put forth much focused attention on Youtube. Just some random hits.
I’ve had one video get 6.8 million views… in 2009.
That was sheer luck. Oprah was filming the first show of her last season right outside my work window. The producers wanted to surprise her with a mob dance scene. I just stood at the window and recorded the performance. This was before Youtube shared any money with video creators. So I’ve earned zero bucks on that one.
My second most-watched video is “Hot Wheels cars in Shelbyville, Indiana“. Yup. Shelbyville, Indiana.
I stopped off at a random flea market with a booth full of Hot Wheels cars, shot a simple 12-second video, and posted. Lifetime 347,000 views. That made me $214! I never even knew I made money off that video, because I never checked my youtube analytics. Like, ever. I’m guessing when the check came in for that, I just assumed it was part of my Google ads revenue. Well, now it’s part of zero revenue. LOL.
I’ll continue to post random videos to my Youtube channel at youtube.com/spudart. Like, the “two minutes on” series where I simply point my camera at something for two minutes. A fun way to grab a scene. Everything these days is so fast and edited. This is just a way to relax and see a moving photo for two minutes.
My most recent two-minute video features the flag of Dominica outside a Walgreens window. The one before that is a two-minute video of two ducks swimming on the Chicago River. It has eight views. Enjoy!
I wonder if this whole Youtube-kicking-people-out-of-their-partner-platform will actually make it easier to make money on Youtube. Less competition.