YouTube has decided to spread the wealth. Two years after unveiling its partner programme that focused on regular and popular contributors it has decided that popular and unforgettable once-off videos should be rewarded too.
“We first launched the YouTube Partnership Program (YPP) to help some of our more popular users make money from their videos on YouTube,” explained Shenaz Zack, product manager at YouTube, in a post on the official Google blog.
“While we’ve focused on accepting prolific users who regularly produce videos that reach a wide audience — like Fred and ValsArtDiary — we’ve occasionally extended the program to include some of the site’s more unforgettable videos, such as the Battle of Kruger, David after dentist and Otters holding hands. These individual video partnerships recognize the role popular “one-off” videos play on YouTube, and have helped many people earn thousands of dollars a month as their videos went viral and endured over time.
“We decided it was time to spread the wealth. Today we’re excited to announce that we’re extending the YouTube Partnership Program to include individual popular videos on our site. Now, when you upload a video to YouTube that accumulates lots of views, we may invite you to monetise that video and start earning revenue from it.”
To determine whether a particular video is eligible for monetisation, Zack says YouTube will look at factors like the number of views, the video’s virality and compliance with the YouTube Terms of Service.
“If your video is eligible for monetisation, you will receive an email and see an ‘Enable Revenue Sharing’ message next to your video on the watch page, as well as in other places in your account. Once you’ve chosen to enable revenue sharing YouTube will sell advertising against your video and pay you are revenue share into your Google AdSense account each month.”
Zack has encouraged video creators to join the YouTube Partnership Programme to ensure that they have the right resources to profit from their products.
The Partnership Programme is currently only available in the US but the plan is to make the programme with its content management tools and other infrastructure available internationally in the coming year.
“Now that we’re ready to share these opportunities with a wider audience, we’re excited to see how individual video partnerships will help even more people make money from their success on YouTube,” Zack concluded.
By John Kennedy
