YouTube’s new policies hurt small YouTubers
Because some advertisers don’t actually understand how the Internet works or how their ads are viewed when seen on the Internet, YouTube keeps changing its ad policies. With every change, videos that were once considered okay for ads are marked:
“Limited or no ads due to content identified as not suitable for most advertisers.
Review requested. Right now we are only able to review videos with at least 1,000
views in the past 7 days. We'll review your video once it reaches that threshold.”
There are several problems with this:
I specifically post my videos so that they are in line with YouTube’s guidelines. Every one of my videos that I click to monetize is appropriate to do so.
One of the videos that YouTube marked as not suitable was me doing push-ups for Mission 22, a non-profit that deals with veteran suicide awareness. I made a video every day with essentially the same content. But for some reason, day 3 was flagged as inappropriate for advertisers. (It had 4 views at the time it was marked and had been in the system for 14 months.) A comedy video, Hot! Hot! Hot!, was flagged that had been in the system for 4 years; it is about whether or not someone can fry an egg on the sidewalk in the heat.
I often wait about 30 minutes before I send a video out into the world to see if YouTube will mark it as unsuitable. Because of the arbitrariness of the robot decisions and the inability of YouTube to actually tell YouTubers what is an is not appropriate, I can never actually guarantee that something will or will not be flagged regardless of content. When ‘the Dancing Man of Blagoveshchensk’ is flagged as not suitable, you have to wonder why. (I asked; YouTube sent me a form email saying I needed to look at the guidelines.)
Some videos about racism, even when they are educational or about overcoming racism have been marked as well. These are videos I made for a news site I worked for and I marked them as such. However, other videos that are about racism are okay. (See below the Google ad.)
In the case of a video like Hot! Hot! Hot!, while it may get more views, there is no way it will hit the thousand mark threshold in a week. That means that I am losing out on possible revenue because YouTube can’t get its robots to work right and doesn’t have the people to review all the videos that need to be reviewed. Maybe larger channels can handle this type of inconsistency, but a smaller channel like mine requires every view to count.
Maybe, YouTube is like any other workplace, and I just need to roll with it. I have nowhere else to go that is as effective as YouTube at getting my videos out there, and my website where I could publish all of my videos hasn’t been able to generate the kind of traffic that I get through YouTube. Still, it feels like there could be a better way.
YouTube got scared by advertisers pulling their revenue because one of the top YouTubers used racial slurs in his videos. So, like a class of school kids everyone is being punished for one jerk’s actions, even though we all know who it was. While he can take the punishment, the rest of are left wondering when our individual videos will break a threshold that may be impossible for most of us to reach.
“Limited or no ads due to content identified as not suitable for most advertisers.
Review requested. Right now we are only able to review videos with at least 1,000
views in the past 7 days. We'll review your video once it reaches that threshold.”
There are several problems with this:
- The robots get it wrong all the time.
- There is no consistent application of the removal or limiting of advertising.
- Most views of a video, come at the release of the video.
- Out of 1700+ videos, I have only ever had 1 get 1,000 in a week. (It was Tony Dyson talking about creativity.)
I specifically post my videos so that they are in line with YouTube’s guidelines. Every one of my videos that I click to monetize is appropriate to do so.
One of the videos that YouTube marked as not suitable was me doing push-ups for Mission 22, a non-profit that deals with veteran suicide awareness. I made a video every day with essentially the same content. But for some reason, day 3 was flagged as inappropriate for advertisers. (It had 4 views at the time it was marked and had been in the system for 14 months.) A comedy video, Hot! Hot! Hot!, was flagged that had been in the system for 4 years; it is about whether or not someone can fry an egg on the sidewalk in the heat.
I often wait about 30 minutes before I send a video out into the world to see if YouTube will mark it as unsuitable. Because of the arbitrariness of the robot decisions and the inability of YouTube to actually tell YouTubers what is an is not appropriate, I can never actually guarantee that something will or will not be flagged regardless of content. When ‘the Dancing Man of Blagoveshchensk’ is flagged as not suitable, you have to wonder why. (I asked; YouTube sent me a form email saying I needed to look at the guidelines.)
Some videos about racism, even when they are educational or about overcoming racism have been marked as well. These are videos I made for a news site I worked for and I marked them as such. However, other videos that are about racism are okay. (See below the Google ad.)
In the case of a video like Hot! Hot! Hot!, while it may get more views, there is no way it will hit the thousand mark threshold in a week. That means that I am losing out on possible revenue because YouTube can’t get its robots to work right and doesn’t have the people to review all the videos that need to be reviewed. Maybe larger channels can handle this type of inconsistency, but a smaller channel like mine requires every view to count.
Maybe, YouTube is like any other workplace, and I just need to roll with it. I have nowhere else to go that is as effective as YouTube at getting my videos out there, and my website where I could publish all of my videos hasn’t been able to generate the kind of traffic that I get through YouTube. Still, it feels like there could be a better way.
YouTube got scared by advertisers pulling their revenue because one of the top YouTubers used racial slurs in his videos. So, like a class of school kids everyone is being punished for one jerk’s actions, even though we all know who it was. While he can take the punishment, the rest of are left wondering when our individual videos will break a threshold that may be impossible for most of us to reach.
Videos marked as not appropriate for most advertisers
Mission 22 push ups for veteran suicide awareness day 3
Hot! Hot! Hot!
Dr. John McCormick asks questions about racism that we should ponder
Girl tries out a bark collar
Daryl Davis speaks about his relationship with an Imperial Wizard of the KKK
How to put on a condom
Standing in solidarity for undocumented immigrants and against SB1070
No to SB 1070 and its copycats
The Dancing Man of Blagoveshchensk
Hot! Hot! Hot!
Dr. John McCormick asks questions about racism that we should ponder
Girl tries out a bark collar
Daryl Davis speaks about his relationship with an Imperial Wizard of the KKK
How to put on a condom
Standing in solidarity for undocumented immigrants and against SB1070
No to SB 1070 and its copycats
The Dancing Man of Blagoveshchensk