Creator Weekly: YouTube AI Monetization Policy, Google Image Search, Beehiiv Communities

Dear readers, did you celebrate World Emoji Day on July 17th 📆 🥳? Party with pictures!

This week there are updates for YouTube creators, Twitch, Google Image Search, beehiiv, Google Vids, Edits and more. 

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Top Updates

• YouTube expanded its Inauthentic Content monetization policy description to provide more examples and more explicitly call out some AI-generated content.
• Google Image Search turned 25 and is getting a Pinterest-like redesign, with easier access to Collections. Google is also adding AI image generation in Search AI Mode.
• Beehiiv launched Communities where you can engage your subscribers. 
• YouTube is testing a redesigned “insights-first” YouTube Studio Analytics (renamed Insights).
• YouTube shared a report highlighting their positive impact on the U.S. economy.
• Twitch lets you create Clips by saying “Twitch, Clip That” during your livestream. 
• Google Vids now has Gemini Omni for video generation and selfie avatars. 
• You can now control the emotion and pacing of AI voiceovers and avatars in Google Vids.
• Automating dubbing and lipsyncing in Instagram Reels is expanding to more languages. Plus caption translation. 
• The Edits video editing app lets you import your own fonts.
• TikTok is launching an AI literacy project.
• Tumblr lets you recover a deleted account for up to 30 days.
• Patreon is blocking AI training crawlers from posts. 
• Facebook no longer lets you create multiple personal profiles. 
• X is boosting visibility of your posts to mutuals.
• Flickr will start removing inactive accounts in August.
• NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook.
• Plus updates for Spotify, Gmail, LinkedIn, Restream and more.

YouTube Updates Monetization Policy

YouTube updated its Inauthentic Content monetization policy, splitting it into 3 types, with additional examples. I’ve written up a detailed overview, but these are the basics.

You are not allowed to monetize:

• Generic or Repetitive Content: Multiple videos minimal variation, mass-produced appearance, and generic templates.
• Unsatisfying or Offputting Content: Videos that rely on shock value without a narrative for views. It includes fake (but realistic-looking) visuals of fake news, like a celebrity death.
• AI Personas for Sensitive Topics: AI-generated personas giving information or advice on health, legal issues, finances or politics.

While it’s not all about AI-generated content, it definitely has that in mind as a common tool used to generate masses of generic content.

YouTube's VP of Trust & Safety Matt Halprin noted that this is not a change in monetization policy. The policy just has more examples now, which should hopefully be more transparent.

Helprin shares more details about the inauthentic content monetization policy in a video with Creator Insider. They had some AI fun.

New Look for Google Image Search 

Google Image Search is 25 years old with a couple new features.

Google Image Search is turning more Pinterest-like with "dynamic, immersive gallery of images ... updated in real time and intelligently tailored to your unique interests."  Your Collections appear as tabs above the main gallery, making it easy to add images and switch between a Collection and the search results. The bad news for creators is that it appears image source details are less visible. This will be available in the US, in English.

Google is also adding image generation with Nana Banana to AI Overviews in Search. That will be available in regions that support image generation in AI Mode.

It will be interesting to see if these changes have an effect on Search traffic to sites with many indexed images. 

Communities in beehiiv

Beehiiv started as a newsletter platform. Over time more features have been added that keep your audience on the platform (or, to look at it another way, meet your audience where they already are). This includes tools to build your website and host your podcast. 

This week beehiiv had their big “Summer Release” event, and the big announcement was Communities. Instead of creating a community on Discord or another 3rd party platform, this lets you and your subscribers engage where they already have an account.

• Available for all paid plans.
• Set your community to free or limit to paying members.
• You can sync your newsletter posts and podcasts to give people something to talk about.
• Customize the look to match your beehiiv website and newsletter.
• Members can post text, images and audio (video coming soon). 
• Members can comment, react, reply and repost, as you would expect in a Community.
• Create custom channels for specific topics. (Similar to Discord and Slack.)
• Each member has their own profile, and you can follow specific profiles.
• Communicate privately with direct messages or group chats.
• Includes moderation tools and analytics.

If your audience is primarily through beehiiv, this could be a good way to build a community around your content and brand. But communities aren’t portable. Even if you could export the contents, there is nowhere to import them.

Also, if you have a significant audience that’s on YouTube or Instagram or that listens to your Podcast on Spotify or elsewhere, this probably isn’t the best option. Beehiiv also offers Discord integration, where you could also have your YouTube Members or other subscribers and fans.

Also announced: 

• Copilot, beehiiv’s in-app AI agent. It can give you performance insights or build automations.
• Native podcast hosting on all plans.
• Rebuilt visual editor for your newsletter, including real-time collaborative editing.
• Programmatic ads. Insert an ad block into your newsletter and beehiiv will fill the slot with the “most relevant, highest-paying opportunity for your audience.”
• Improvements to podcast hosting, digital product selling, the website builder, and paid subscriptions.

YouTube and Video

YouTube is testing a “streamlined insights-first experience” in YouTube Studio. If you are in the test group, send feedback!

• Analytics renamed Insights
• Updated user interface, grouping related metrics and charts
• Click any chart or metric to open Advanced Mode
• Simplified date ranges, custom date ranges only in Advanced Mode
• AI Insight Cards: Channel summary, Content patterns, Audience loyalty, Video summary
• Trends tab turning into Research tab
• Saved Keywords retired (you can export yours as a CSV file or access in Studio Mobile)

YouTube shared their 2025 U.S. Impact Report. This is meant to show how awesome YouTube is for the U.S. economy, so take the numbers with a pinch of salt. But this is what they say the numbers are: 

• YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed $60 billion to the U.S. GDP and supported more than 540,000 “full-time equivalent” jobs (including hiring editors, renting studio space, and buying from local suppliers).
• All 50 states have at least 10 channels with over 1 million monthly views. 
• 76% of small and medium-sized businesses with a YouTube channel, say YouTube helped them grow their customer base. 
• 77% of creators who say they have a media or entertainment career started that career on YouTube
• 67% of viewers discuss a YouTube video with a friend or family on a monthly basis.
• 94% of teachers who use YouTube use YouTube content directly in lessons or assignments.

YouTube’s Creator Insider channel has tips for using Shorts to grow your long form video audience. The tl;dw version:

• Add a related video to your Short.
• Use a verbal call to action, telling people why they should click the related video.
• Reward the click immediately, by making sure your long form video dives right into the content.
• Use vertical live streams.

Twitch now lets you create Clips with just your voice. Say “Twitch, Clip That” while you are live and Twitch creates the clip for you. This is rolling out in English for Partners and Affiliates. You can turn this on or off in your stream Clip Settings. Created Clips appear in your Clip Manager. Learn more.

Restream now lets you create additional clips from a project you have already processed for clips. Clips can be specific selections or AI-selected. Creating Clips require a paid subscription.

Gemini Omni is now available in Google Vids. This means higher quality video generation, edit videos by typing changes, or create a personal selfie avatar to insert into your movies. (Selfie avatars are also available in the YouTube Shorts editor and in the Gemini app.) These new features are available to consumer accounts with a Gemini Pro or Ultra subscription and select Workspace editions. This is not available in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or UK.

If you are using Google Vids AI Avatars or AI Voiceovers, you can now customize the pacing and emotional delivery (like [amused] or [confusion]). Plus you can add sound effects. This is available to all users with personal Google Accounts.

Instagram and Facebook expanded Reels dubbing (with lip syncing) to more languages. And you can translate your captions and voice together.

The Edits video editing app now lets you import your own fonts, generate styleable lyrics from selected music, and video effects search.

TikTok is launching an AI literacy project. As part of that, they are joining the C2PA Steering Committee. They say they have labeled over 3 billion videos as AI-generated content using C2PA Content Credentials (which they implemented 2 years ago), creator labeling tools and their own invisible watermarking technology.

LinkedIn shared video best practices: don’t wait too long to get to the point, don’t assume everyone is listening (use captions), and don’t rely on a single shot (add variety to your visuals).

Web Publishing and Search

Useful information if Google Search Console isn’t indexing your website: Google On Discovered vs Crawled Not Indexed Quality Issues & AI-Generated Content 

Tumblr now lets you recover deleted accounts for up to 30 days. Previously deletion was immediate and permanent. Note that deleted individual sideblogs, rather than entire accounts, cannot be recovered.

You can now connect your apps to AI Mode in Search, just like you can in Gemini. Currently available apps include Instacart, Canva, and YouTube Music.

Social Media

Patreon has partnered with Cloudflare to block AI training crawlers from published posts.

Facebook launched the option to create multiple personal profiles in 2023. The idea was to have the ability to separate your interests and audiences. Apparently it did not catch on. It is now no longer possible to create new profiles. Existing profiles are not affected. (Thanks for the tip Diego!) 

Threads now lets you add a flair when composing a community post.

X tweaked their algorithm to boost visibility of your posts to mutuals (people you follow, who follow you back). They expect that this should increase replies to your posts from people you care about and “help clusters form around interests more easily”.

Tools

The latest version of Snapseed, Google’s pro image editing app, has expanded RAW file support.

Flickr is going to remove inactive accounts starting 30 days after July 15th. Inactive accounts are free accounts with no photos, no comments, no favorites or other activity for at least 90 days. To keep your account active, all you need to do is sign in before August 31st. 

NotebookLM has been renamed Gemini Notebook. Google says it will soon be enabled in AI Mode in Search.

Eligible users can now “Talk to Spotify” (beta) to get more information about what you are listening to or revisit your listening history. It’s not only for music. While listening to a podcast or audio book you can ask about the story, author or participants (“What other podcasts has this guest been on?”). This is rolling out to 18+ Premium subscribers in the US, Ireland and Sweden.

Gmail now lets you customize how you want your writing refined. Previously you could choose a pre-set like Polish, Formalize or Shorten.

There’s a new Google Noto font with 3D emoji. They are offered as open source raw .OBJ files that you can do with what you will.

Thanks for reading 🌼