When You Could Make Money on YouTube

29th August 2024

Hey John,

In regards to your video “The Internet is Rigged” something of a side issue that should be addressed is the monetization wall that you likely have no problems with on YouTube. When things started anyone could make money on YouTube and many took advantage of this, but things have changed.

YouTube monetization requires higher and higher standards in the modern day with most YouTubers unable to make money but YouTube able to make money off their work. The barrier is too small for someone like you but for many people it proves difficult.

As of me writing this a creator would need to have uploaded at least three videos in the last ninety days and have more than one thousand subscribers as well as having three thousand watch hours in the last year or so many million shorts views to become eligible for monetization.

If you were to start a new YouTube channel I’m sure this wouldn’t be a problem but for small creators who take years to build a following this prevents them from making any money and yet YouTube keeps getting more and more from the little guy online.

Add that fact that time watched from short video content does not apply to the three thousand hour total and that watch hours are under hard scrutiny and you have a formula for years of hard work for nothing. You can’t simply take a computer and have it watch videos all day to reach that total. YouTube will detect this and refuse to credit the account with the hours.

Further, the rules for what does and does not count as legitimate video viewing are ambiguous and complicated. Anything out of the ordinary like a video doing exceptionally well can be seen as fraudulent. There are services that can promote a video and help boost things but that can also be seen as fake views and the creator may just make nothing no matter how much work goes into content.

There are companies who will monetize a channel and the price varies, but the results can be questionable. The only sure fire way is to know a successful creator and have them help you promote your work. Getting that is often hard. You may just be able to change my life with a few clicks of the mouse but why would you?

In summation, there is nothing good about doing hard work and not getting paid and where as this AI training with the use of your work is bad it is also rather upsetting that many creators put in years of work for nothing. YouTube can be seen as the Rome of the video sharing platforms. No platform can challenge YouTube as the kind of video sharing so YouTube can treat creators as poorly as they want.


Pray for change,



Richard Leland Neal