YouTube unfortunately kicked off 2018 with a scandal. YouTube star Logan Paul outdid his usual jerkish prank videos by filming himself along with the body of someone who appeared to have committed suicide. After dealing with the fallout, and implementing new policies aimed at creators "who cause harm to the YouTube Community" through their actions, I think things have eventually gotten a bit better. But not without some pain first.
In early February YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki shared the company's five top priorities for Creators in 2018, and strides were made towards those goals, including improved transparency and communication around policy enforcement and features, and directly supporting positive content, including creators of educational content, inspirational "Creators for Change", up-and-coming creators around the world with the NextUp program, and providing assistance to journalists and news organizations through the Google News Initiative.
More stringent requirements for the YouTube Partner Program
In 2017 YouTube suffered backlash when it was noticed that spammy, low quality, and sometimes even terrorist content was showing ads. As a result, eligibility requirements were put in place for the first time since 2012: channels needed at least 10,000 lifetime views to be part of the YouTube Partner Program. And channels could no longer automatically join. Instead they would have to undergo review. That was pretty easy for active channels.But YouTube discovered that they needed an even higher standard to keep "bad actors" out of the program. So in mid-January they announced new eligibility requirements: at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours watch time over the past 12 months. Current Partners had a one month grace period to meet those requirements before being removed from the program.
To put that change into perspective, if your channel had 10,000 views over its lifetime (which could be a decade), averaging 10 minutes per view, that would be about 100,000 watch time minutes, or 1666 hours. The 4000 hours-over-the-past-year requirement limits the program to currently active channels.
According to YouTube, 99% of Partnered channels affected by this change hadn't earned even $100 in the past year, and 90% earned less than $2.50 per month. So the majority of channels kicked out of the Partner Program weren't losing much money, and would be able to reapply.
But for years YouTube has mostly equated "Creators" with "Partners", and so the change in status was more than just money lost. It was also felt a bit like being designated a second-class "creator". For example, one of YouTube's five priorities for 2018 was to give creators more ways to earn money. This rang a little hollow at the time, having been posted shortly after YouTube upped the eligibility requirements for the Partner Program.
But for those channels that are monetized, there have indeed been a few new money-making options in 2018, including more ways to sell merch, channel Memberships and Super Chat with video on demand. And YouTube has been constantly improving the algorithms it uses to determine if video content is advertiser friendly, so there should be fewer false positives.
So overall the changes have been largely positive. The biggest complaint we see now in the YouTube forum is that the human channel reviews to join the Partner Program are taking too long. Currently most reviews are completed within a month, but some channels undergo a secondary review. That secondary review backlog now isn't likely to be completed until February 2019.
If your channel has been under review for months, all you can do is continue uploading original content, to help your channel get approved when it is reviewed.
And if your channel isn't going to be eligible for a long time, and your AdSense account doesn't have quite enough earnings to issue you a payment, you can get paid your outstanding earnings balance by cancelling your AdSense account.
New Features to Increase Engagement
YouTube has also been launching and expanding access to new features that are designed to help build a community of viewers and increase engagement with your channel and videos.
The Community Tab, launched in 2016, and slowly rolled out to larger channels, is now available to all channels with at least 1000 subscribers. The Community Tab replaces the old Discussion tab, and lets channel owners post test, videos, playlists, images, and polls.
Stories, originally announced in late 2017 as Reels, are now available to all channels with at least 10,000 subscribers. YouTube Stories are similar to Stories on Instagram: they let channel owners share unpolished casual content, with stickers (of course), that only is available for a short period.
Premieres were announced at VidCon in June and rolled out to all channels in October - one of YouTube's fastest feature updates. Premiere's let channel owners schedule a pre-recorded video, which lets fans both comment and live chat until the video actually goes live. The live chat can then be replayed after the the Premiere is over. For Partners, this means they can monetize their video on demand content with Super Chat.
Live Streaming on desktop and YouTube Gaming comes home
2018 also saw expansion of YouTube's live streaming features.YouTube Gaming, launched in 2015 as a new home for gamers, and with a focus on live streaming, was merged back into YouTube proper. Instead of separate subscriptions for Gaming and YouTube, those subscriptions were merged. And, along with a dedicated Gaming page, gaming channels are now eligible to be promoted as a Gaming Creator on the Rise.
And, more to my interests, YouTube now lets you live stream from the desktop with no special hardware or encoder software required. All you need is a current browser and a webcam. This doesn't replace Hangouts on Air - it doesn't let multiple people join, webinar style, and there's no screen sharing - but it's an easy way for vloggers to live stream.
Also, a very cool update is automatic live captioning during live streams. This can help anyone in your audience who is hearing impaired, doesn't speak your language or who might have to watch with the sound turned off. It's currently only available to channels with at least 10,000 subscribers with live streams in English. Hopefully this will roll out to more channels and in more languages in the future.
And for fun (and money), you can now link Super Chat payments during live stream chat to real world actions using IFTTT. Let your fans could control your lights or other Internet of Things devices for just a small donation.
Features we lost in 2018
It's always sad to say goodbye.YouTube shut down the private messaging feature. YouTube's Messages was introduced in mid-2014, a Google+-based replacement for the old Inbox. Messages itself was removed this year, without an equivalent replacement. YouTube does have Chat, introduced last year, but that requires mutual friending. Messages has long been separated from Google+, so that wasn't the issue. It's more likely it was the victim of low usage and spam.
YouTube removed most editing tools. Up until September, YouTube offered a suite of video editing tools, where you could rotate the video, splice together clips, add music, and adjust brightness, color and the overall look. It was slow, Flash-based and glitchy, but for folks who don't have video editing software on their favorite device - or who live stream their content so the YouTube archive is their only copy - those tools were very useful. Now there is a more streamlined and up-to-date editor in YouTube Studio, but it only lets you trim the ends, remove a section from the middle, and custom blur faces and objects.
![]() |
The old editing tools |
![]() |
The new editing tools |
What will we see in 2019?
In the coming year some old features will be retired, 2018's newer features will become available to more creators, and there will almost certainly be some surprises.YouTube Studio (beta) has been getting regular updates and is now the default dashboard, video manager and analytics site for most creators. Look for more updates into 2019. Hopefully it will be updated to include all the features currently missing before the old Studio is deprecated.
In January YouTube will be removing all the old Annotations on videos. The Annotations editor was deprecated in May 2017, so this will not affect newer videos. YouTube recommends using Cards and End Screens instead.
YouTube will also be eliminating ad-supported Shows playlists and Movies . Few creators had access to these options, so this isn't likely to affect you personally.
There are sure to be some surprises too.
- Take a look back: 2017 Year in Review: YouTube Creators, Partners and Live Streamers
- Get all creator updates for 2018: Google+, YouTube, Blogger, AdSense, Hangouts and more
2018 YouTube Tutorials
- Live stream on YouTube using only your webcam
- Limit related videos on embedded videos to those from the same YouTube channel
- How to get paid by AdSense, even if you no longer monetize your YouTube channel
- What to do if your YouTube Partner Program application was rejected for Duplication
- YouTube Partners: Assess whether your content is advertiser-friendly
- Google for your business, organization or brand: How to manage your YouTube and Google+ Brand Accounts
- Report and remove bad YouTube ads
- Make your Halloween video spookier
- Manage your YouTube Search and Watch history in the Android YouTube app
- Change your channel privacy settings in the Android YouTube app
YouTube 2018 Creator Update Timeline
YouTube Partner Program (YPP) and Live Streaming (LIVE) updates are highlighted. This doesn't include updates to YouTube Kids, YouTube Music, YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, since those are mostly aimed at consumers, rather than creators (although most of you are probable a bit of both).January
- Logan Paul, and the toxic prank culture that created him, explained
- An open letter to the community from YouTube
- YouTube Removes Logan Paul From Preferred Program, Puts 'Thinning' Sequel on Hold
- After Logan Paul incident, Google Preferred YouTube videos will face further vetting
- YPP An update on monetizing family-oriented Youtube videos
- LIVE The YouTube homepage now highlights channels you subscribe to that are live right now
- YPP Advertisers: A New Approach to YouTube Monetization
- YPP YouTube announces new YouTube Partner Program eligibility requirements Additional changes to the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) to better protect Creators
- New Official Artist Channels provide a single destination for artists and fans to connect
- Increasing YouTube’s investment in Creators for Change
- CEO Susan Wojcicki’s five priorities for Creators in 2018
- YPP: Preventing Harm to the Broader YouTube Community (The new Logan Paul-inspired rules)
- Video viewers in the US will see notices on videos by news broadcasters that receive government or public funding. (BBC News, Russia Today, PBS News Hour, Radio Free Europe all have the notice).
- There are hundreds of new free music tracks in the YouTube Audio Library.
- YPP: YouTube channels in the Partner Program that don’t meet the new eligibility requirements were demonetized.
- YouTube removed some data from the YouTube Analytics Demographics report in order to better protect viewer privacy.
- YPP: YouTube improves monetization classifier, should reduce flipping back and forth between yellow and green icon
- Bringing the power of YouTube to more than 130 countries with YouTube Go
- YouTube Creator Community closed February 28th
- LIVE: New YouTube Live features: Super Chat triggers real world events, live chat replay, auto-captions, location sharing and more
- New Metrics in YouTube Studio: Impressions, unique viewers, personalized recommendations
- YouTube Gaming and YouTube subscriptions merged
- LIVE: YouTube Gaming Creators with Sponsorships can now upload 4 more emoji — even if you don't have any sponsors yet
- YouTube Studio: Better Insights, New Metrics (Impressions!) & Faster Access to News
- LIVE: Making it easier to Go Live: webcam live streaming (tutorial)
- YouTube Space Dubai: A new home for creators in the Middle East and North Africa
- Android YouTube Player adapts to the shape of the video you’re viewing
- Dark theme rolling out on iOS
- YPP: YouTube will be launching an ads policy compliance confirmation checkbox for monetizing videos
- YouTube Android app video player now automatically adapts to the shape of the video you're watching
- YouTube introduces new Silver and Gold Creator Awards, for eligible channels that play by the rules
- Shooting at YouTube HQ
- YPP: Advertiser update: ight, sound and scale: Introducing TrueView for reach
- New YouTube metrics - Impressions, Unique Viewers, and Click Through Rate - are rolling out to more YouTube Creators.
- LIVE YouTube Gamers: reward sponsors with loyalty badges
- An update on YouTube’s 2018 priorities
- New policy around content featuring firearms and firearm accessories.
- More information, faster removals, more people - an update on what YouTube is doing to enforce YouTube’s Community Guidelines
- YouTube has launched a new “Report History” page that lets you see the status of the videos you have flagged at https://www.youtube.com/reporthistory
- YouTube is now piloting a Copyright Match feature, which lets creators see when their video has been uploaded by a different channel
- YPP New advertising opportunities on YouTube on TV screens and YouTube TV
- Live YouTube Gaming launches Sponsorship Loyalty Badges
- Meet the 2018 Creators for Change Global Ambassadors
- Introducing YouTube Premium
- LIVE: YouTube Streamers: Super Chat revenue will now be broken out per video in YouTube Analytics for new videos moving forward
- YPP: New YouTube Originals (and more options for advertisers)
- After a tease, YouTube Music starts rolling out
- YouTube launches new improved music charts in 44 countries
- YouTube adds artist, songwriter, label and publisher credits to videos with recorded music
- YouTube Shines a light on next generation of superstars with Artist on the Rise program
- Get a scheduled digest of notifications
- YouTube mentioned they had been testing algorithmic sorting of the subscription feed, and they got an earful of (mostly negative) feedback.
- YouTube Analytics no longer shows deleted videos, channels or playlists
- YouTube's updated firearms-related content policy has gone into effect
- Automatic captions on live streams rolling out to YouTube channels with more than 10,000 subscribers
- VR180 Creator for Mac or Linux offers simple VR video editing
- YouTube Music and YouTube Premium launch in 17 countries
- Google launches new Ad Settings, to more easily understand and control how ads are tailored to you
- YouTube Industry Keynote Address at VidCon
- YPP: Vidcon update: Channel memberships, merch shelf, Premieres with Super Chat
- YouTube launches Premieres: debut pre-recorded video live and watch with your fans
- New tools for creative storytelling (i.e. ads) on YouTube
- Introduction of YouTube Creative Suite, a collection of tools for video marketers, which includes Video Experiments in AdWords, Video Creative Analytics, Director Mix, and Video Ad Sequencing
- YouTube ran a test where 0.3% of users saw automatic thumbnails, rather than the Creator’s custom thumbs. Despite assurances from YouTube that this shouldn’t affect their views, Creators weren't happy
- YouTube makes picture-in-picture video (mostly) free for Android users in the US
- YouTube now lets you hold potentially inappropriate comments for review
- YouTube retired the private direct messaging system (www.youtube.com/messages) on July 9. They suggest two alternatives: add a business email address on your channel’s About tab (which is only visible on desktop), or use YouTube Contacts to chat privately
- YPP: New ad formats for YouTube: TrueView for Reach, TrueView for Action
- Making it easier to find quality news: supporting the Google News Initiative (GNI), showcasing more local news, providing context
- Building a better news experience on YouTube with the GNI
- Copyright match tool rolls out to channels with at least 100k subscribers
- New copyright issues troubleshooter for everyone
- YouTube again merging channel subscriptions between YouTube Gaming and the main YouTube app
- Mid-year update on YouTube’s five creator priorities for 2018
- New "YouTube Learning" initiative announced
- #hashtags from the video description are now visible above the video title
- The YouTube player now adjusts for the video aspect ratio on desktop
- Google announced several updates for the DayDream VR viewer, including the ability to watch YouTube videos with other people,
- If you own or manage a Brand Account for a YouTube channel or Google+ Page, you can now see the email addresses of other owners and managers
- You can now perform bulk actions in YouTube Studio beta
- Live: YouTube Gaming Lounges have been deprecated
- YouTube's video player automatically adapts to fit the shape of the video you're viewing
- In the YouTube Android app you can mention someone when you reply to their comment
- Most editing tool enhancements removed on August 22
- YPP: All channels in the YouTube Partner Program will be able to run non-skippable ad - opt out, not opt in
- Tools to Take Charge of Your Digital Wellbeing
- Introducing YouTube Giving: New tools for charitable giving on YouTube: Fundraisers (beta), ,Community Fundraisers (beta), Campaign matching (beta), Super Chat for Good
- Meet the creators heading to three special editions of NextUp: #YouTubeLatino, #YouTubeBlack and #WomentoWatch
- Introducing the class of 2018 for YouTube NextUp Delhi
- LIVE: YouTube Live Update: Autoplay of embedded live streams from third-party sites will no longer count for concurrent viewers
- Dark theme in the YouTube Android app
- YPP YouTube Rolls Out New Ad Formats for Mobile-First Audiences
- Gaming gets a new home on YouTube (www.youtube.com/gaming)
- Gamers with 1k subs are eligible for Gaming Creator on the Rise
- Google introducing more video content in the Google Search results
- YPP New MRC accreditations and partners for Google and YouTube ads measurement
- YPP How YouTube direct response interactive ads work, and why Partners should care.
- Google Takeout YouTube update: starting in October, videos older than 6 months may replaced by a high quality compressed version
- YPP: Non-skippable ads update, a Subs bug, Memberships clarification & more! YouTube Newsflash
- First ever YouTube Pop-up Space Delhi opens its doors at Kingdom of Dreams and we’re also bringing the YouTube NextUp Camp to Delhi!
- Browse YouTube privately via Incognito mode on Android
- YPP: Recent YouTube Partner Program Reviews and Removals (including Duplication)
- YPP: What to do if your YouTube Partner Program application was rejected for Duplication
- Introducing the class of 2018 for YouTube NextUp Bangkok
- LIVE: Live stream archives can be up to 12 hours long
- The YouTube embedded video player got a redesign. It now displays the channel’s avatar, and there is no longer a way to hide the title or prevent related videos from appearing at the end. You can, however, limit the related videos to those from the same channel.
- YouTube makes it simple for fans to experience live performances with Eventbrite
- New desktop miniplayer lets you watch while you browse YouTube
- A final update on YouTube Priorities for 2018
- YouTube Learning: Investing in educational creators, resources, and tools for EduTubers
- YouTube Premieres is now available to everyone
- YouTube App available on Nintendo Switch
- New ways to create and watch VR video
- Now you can scroll down to Like, Comment, and Subscribe without ever having to exit full screen on desktop
- YPP: Teespring Merch International Expansion
- Introducing the 2018 Class of YouTube NextUp Brasil
- Introducing the 2018 Class of YouTube NextUp St. Petersburg
- @mention other users when publishing a Community post
- YouTube adds “Known Issues” widget to YouTube Studio (studio.youtube.com)
- Expanding Community Posts on YouTube to channels with 1k subscribers
- Introducing more ways to share your Stories
- YPP: Self-assess your content to determine if it’s advertiser-friendly
- Share a playlist via Community posts
- Use Autoplay on Home on Android and iOS to preview videos
- Faster removals and tackling comments: an update on what YouTube is doing to enforce the Community Guidelines
- Google News Initiative (GNI) YouTube innovation funding: supporting 87 news organizations in 23 countries to build video capabilities and innovate with new formats
Comments
Post a Comment
Spam and personal attacks are not allowed. Any comment may be removed at my own discretion ~ Peggy