YouTube Partner Program: How to Make Money from Your Channel

If you’re a video creator on YouTube, one of your goals may be to monetize your content to begin to earn revenue from it. If you’re still growing as a channel, the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) is a great way to do that.

You may have heard a lot about the Partner Program, but what is it exactly, and what do you need to do to qualify?

YouTube Partner Program: The Basics

YouTube is a free-to-use platform, both for creators and viewers. It’s also the second biggest search engine in the world. With over 1.7 billion visits a month, YouTube’s business model has always been to generate substantial profit for its parent company, Google. 

However, that very business model relies heavily on you, the creator, constantly publishing fresh and engaging content that will appeal to viewers and the advertisers who pour billions of dollars into promotion on the site every day.

The YPP allows creators who reach specific criteria (more to come on what that is) to benefit from a slice of the advertisement pie. It’s a revenue-sharing model, so when a creator enables ads on their YouTube videos and viewers watch those ads, the revenue is split between the creator and YouTube itself. 

Right now, the creator receives 55% of the ad revenue share, while YouTube holds on to the remaining 45%.

Considering that YouTube doesn’t charge any creator a fee for hosting, we think that’s a pretty great deal.

However, YouTube is still a business at the end of the day, so it needs to keep advertisers happy so they keep spending their ad dollars on the platform. Not every creator gets to participate in the YPP. YouTube wants to see that you’re capable of building a subscriber base, plus publish content that will keep viewers tuned in.

YouTube Partner Program: What You Need to Apply

Before you can apply to the YPP, you need to hit two crucial goals on the platform:

• Generate 4,000 hours of public watch time within a 12-month period.
• Attract at least 1,000 subscribers to your YouTube channel.

While these aren’t the easiest goals for any creator, they prove to YouTube that you might be a good fit for the monetization feature.

Read our blog post, “6 Ways to Generate 4,000 Hours of YouTube Watch Time FASTER!” to reach the required watch time. It’s full of advice on building watch time for your channel, no matter where you are right now. Stay tuned for more strategic advice around building your channel’s subscriber base so you hit that magic 1,000!

How to Apply to the YouTube Partner Program

If you have reached 4,000 hours of watch time and 1,000 subscribers, you’re now eligible to apply.

Just complete your application in your YouTube Studio. In the left-hand menu of your dashboard, click on ‘Monetization.’ This will open up the YPP application page, which requires three steps before you can press submit. You’ll need to:

• Review and agree to the YPP’s Terms of Service.
• Set up and connect a Google AdSense account to your channel.
• Wait for YouTube to review your channel and inform you of its decision.

YouTube can take up to a month to reply to your request, so don’t worry if you don’t hear back straight away. In the meantime, take this opportunity to keep creating and publishing the content you know that works for you. Oh, and don’t worry if you miss the moment when you match the requirements. YouTube will send you an email when you’re eligible to apply.

Please note that while admission to the YPP is potentially available to any creator, your request may be refused in some instances. Take a look at our guide about YouTube’s Advertiser Guidelines to see if any of your content may trigger a reason not to monetize your channel.

For more information about making money on YouTube, take advice from the platform itself in the following video:

Many creators are active on YouTube to share information or entertain, but making some income from your content is a good reason too!! Just keep giving the platform what it wants and needs (engaging, watchable content), and it will reward you with a way to monetize that content. Best of luck with your application!