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This week YT lowered the requirements to qualify for the YPP program. While many beginning creators trying to reach 1000 subs are rejoicing at the news, I believe it is a very negative thing. I believe it is a sign that YT is struggling.
I have been with YT since 2005 and I have watched how YT has changed over the year. When the YPP program first came out, virtually any could join. There was no explicit list of qualifications, you just got an email from YT inviting you to join. I got the email when the program first started and I had less than 100 subs. Over the years, the qualifications to join YPP have always gotten more stringent, not easier. This is the first time YT has LOWERED the qualifications. The question is, WHY?
Well, it is like I have said many times, YT has made some really bad choices in the last couple of years that is driving YPP creators away from the platform, myself included. The main two bad choices were to start chasing TikTok creators by pushing Shorts content and to change the algorithm to favor Binge-worthy content (BWC). YouTube was not created by BWC creators like TikTok was. YT was created by One and Done educational creators. I constantly talk to people on the street about this and ask them, "What do you use YouTube for?" 100% of the time, the response has been, "When I need to learn something." I generally ask this follow-up question, "What do you do after you find a video that teaches you what you wanted to learn?" In every single case, they always say that they leave YT once they find what they are looking for. All of the statistics about YT viewership show that 70% of people use YT for educational purposes (YouTube University). These are undeniable facts, whether anyone likes them or not. This is what the average user thinks of YT as. They do not think of YT as a place to binge-watch gobbledegook amusing videos. They just don't.
Long-form quality educational content takes a lot of work and effort to create. Short-form content takes none or very little. I have a video on TikTok, that is nothing my than a video clip caught on a trail camera set to the X-Files theme music, that is heading for viral status. Yesterday I posted a phone video of my plate of food at a restaurant and it got 1000 views in an hour. These videos took no effort to make and required almost no effort to post. No SEO work is needed. Now contrast this with Long-form YT educational content. It takes a massive amount of work to create, and then a ton of work on YT SEO to post to even get it seen. This is why programs like TubeBuddy exist, because the SEO work required to post a video on YT is massive.
I said last year on this forum that long-form content creators were starting to leave YT because it is no longer worth it to create content for YT, and that is exactly what has happened. They are leaving in droves. YouTube is seeing this and in a desperate attempt to get creators to come to YT they are starting to lower the YPP requirements for the first time in YT history. While new creators trying to qualify may be rejoicing, this is not a good sign. It is the beginning sign that YT is starting to die, just like I said it would if they did not abandon the path they were headed down.
So you may be asking, "Why is Short content such a bad thing for YT?" It is quite simple, there is no money in it! As one creator (can't remember his name) said so eloquently, "No one wants to watch a 30-second ad to see a 30-second video!". YouTube is an AD-driven platform. Long-form content makes a lot more money. TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram have all recently stated that there is no ad revenue in short-form content. Yes, they bring in a lot of views, but it is very difficult to make any significant profit from them. In a recent article CreatorHandbook.net they reveal what TikTok creators earn for 1 million views:
This is because companies are not willing to pay very much to show their ads on short-form content. No company in the right mind would be. In fact, when YT announced that they were going to start showing ads on YT Shorts, over a billion dollars in YT AD contracts were canceled or renegotiated for a much lower price. YT creators across the board saw their earning crash overnight as a result. Mine dropped by 80% and has not recovered since. For most small to medium creators, as a result of YT's decision to push bing-worthy Short-form content and even adjust to the algorithm to favor it over the YT bread and butter long-form educational content, YT is not worth creating content for anymore. It's not from me, and I have been here longer than anyone.
Now I have been sounding this warning bell for a while on here and many have been very outspoken against me because of it, even to the point of attacking pretty viciously. But I was never telling people what I wanted to happen or what I was happy that was going to happen. I was just warning people about what I saw happening and what it could mean. People did not like it because my predictions were not all Positivity, Sweetness, and Light! But this latest development is a clear sign that my predictions were not just made-up imaginations of my mind. There was some meat to them.
Now don't take me the wrong way. I am not happy about any of this. I invested enough time and effort into YT to have earned a doctorate degree at a top university, and now I have almost nothing to show for it. I know that some of you are going to respond, and possibly attack me and what I have said because I am not tooting the whistle on the train of Toxic Positivity to keep everyone "Encouraged". There will be those that will give long reasons for why they think I am completely wrong and how everything is great and this lowering of the YPP standards is a great thing. Just understand this. Before you tell me all your reason for why you think I am wrong, just know that, I hope to goodness that you are all right and that I am wrong. I am not your enemy.
I have been with YT since 2005 and I have watched how YT has changed over the year. When the YPP program first came out, virtually any could join. There was no explicit list of qualifications, you just got an email from YT inviting you to join. I got the email when the program first started and I had less than 100 subs. Over the years, the qualifications to join YPP have always gotten more stringent, not easier. This is the first time YT has LOWERED the qualifications. The question is, WHY?
Well, it is like I have said many times, YT has made some really bad choices in the last couple of years that is driving YPP creators away from the platform, myself included. The main two bad choices were to start chasing TikTok creators by pushing Shorts content and to change the algorithm to favor Binge-worthy content (BWC). YouTube was not created by BWC creators like TikTok was. YT was created by One and Done educational creators. I constantly talk to people on the street about this and ask them, "What do you use YouTube for?" 100% of the time, the response has been, "When I need to learn something." I generally ask this follow-up question, "What do you do after you find a video that teaches you what you wanted to learn?" In every single case, they always say that they leave YT once they find what they are looking for. All of the statistics about YT viewership show that 70% of people use YT for educational purposes (YouTube University). These are undeniable facts, whether anyone likes them or not. This is what the average user thinks of YT as. They do not think of YT as a place to binge-watch gobbledegook amusing videos. They just don't.
Long-form quality educational content takes a lot of work and effort to create. Short-form content takes none or very little. I have a video on TikTok, that is nothing my than a video clip caught on a trail camera set to the X-Files theme music, that is heading for viral status. Yesterday I posted a phone video of my plate of food at a restaurant and it got 1000 views in an hour. These videos took no effort to make and required almost no effort to post. No SEO work is needed. Now contrast this with Long-form YT educational content. It takes a massive amount of work to create, and then a ton of work on YT SEO to post to even get it seen. This is why programs like TubeBuddy exist, because the SEO work required to post a video on YT is massive.
I said last year on this forum that long-form content creators were starting to leave YT because it is no longer worth it to create content for YT, and that is exactly what has happened. They are leaving in droves. YouTube is seeing this and in a desperate attempt to get creators to come to YT they are starting to lower the YPP requirements for the first time in YT history. While new creators trying to qualify may be rejoicing, this is not a good sign. It is the beginning sign that YT is starting to die, just like I said it would if they did not abandon the path they were headed down.
So you may be asking, "Why is Short content such a bad thing for YT?" It is quite simple, there is no money in it! As one creator (can't remember his name) said so eloquently, "No one wants to watch a 30-second ad to see a 30-second video!". YouTube is an AD-driven platform. Long-form content makes a lot more money. TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram have all recently stated that there is no ad revenue in short-form content. Yes, they bring in a lot of views, but it is very difficult to make any significant profit from them. In a recent article CreatorHandbook.net they reveal what TikTok creators earn for 1 million views:
This is because companies are not willing to pay very much to show their ads on short-form content. No company in the right mind would be. In fact, when YT announced that they were going to start showing ads on YT Shorts, over a billion dollars in YT AD contracts were canceled or renegotiated for a much lower price. YT creators across the board saw their earning crash overnight as a result. Mine dropped by 80% and has not recovered since. For most small to medium creators, as a result of YT's decision to push bing-worthy Short-form content and even adjust to the algorithm to favor it over the YT bread and butter long-form educational content, YT is not worth creating content for anymore. It's not from me, and I have been here longer than anyone.
Now I have been sounding this warning bell for a while on here and many have been very outspoken against me because of it, even to the point of attacking pretty viciously. But I was never telling people what I wanted to happen or what I was happy that was going to happen. I was just warning people about what I saw happening and what it could mean. People did not like it because my predictions were not all Positivity, Sweetness, and Light! But this latest development is a clear sign that my predictions were not just made-up imaginations of my mind. There was some meat to them.
Now don't take me the wrong way. I am not happy about any of this. I invested enough time and effort into YT to have earned a doctorate degree at a top university, and now I have almost nothing to show for it. I know that some of you are going to respond, and possibly attack me and what I have said because I am not tooting the whistle on the train of Toxic Positivity to keep everyone "Encouraged". There will be those that will give long reasons for why they think I am completely wrong and how everything is great and this lowering of the YPP standards is a great thing. Just understand this. Before you tell me all your reason for why you think I am wrong, just know that, I hope to goodness that you are all right and that I am wrong. I am not your enemy.