How I Became a YouTube Partner

Hello Jewells! In today’s blog post I am going to talk to you guys about how I became a YouTube partner, again.

What is a YouTube partner?

YouTube allows creators to monetize their videos and make money from advertising revenue. However, you have to hit the threshold of their requirements in order to qualify.

What are the requirements?

In order to apply to be a YouTube partner your channel must have 1,000+ subscribers and then at least 4,000 watch time hours within the last year.

How To Start a YouTube Channel

If you are interested in starting a YouTube channel, I also have a blog post and YouTube video about it!

The camera I use is a Canon G7x!

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When did I become a YouTube partner?

I actually started my YouTube channel in 2012. Within the first year I was able to monetize my videos. Now, I was making about $0.25 a month.. however, I was just a teen.

Unfortunately, people in my high school started to find out about my YouTube channel and so my insecurities hindered me and I stopped uploading to YouTube.

Between the time I stopped YouTube in high school, and when I found my passion for YouTube again in college, I had lost my qualifications for being a YouTube partner.

I was extremely bummed when I was no longer able to monetize my videos because it felt like I had to prove myself to the platform all over again.

If I could go back in time and just stay consistent, my channel would be so much farther right now.

However, I decided in the spring of 2018 to focus on my goal of becoming a YouTube partner again.

I am officially a partner as of June 2020! So, today I am going to share how I strategically created content in order to monetize my videos again.

How did I hit the 4,000 watch hours

I am not going to lie… this was the hardest obstacle for my channel! I already had 3,000 subscribers in 2018 so all I needed to qualify as a partner was 4,000 watch hours.

Beginning in the summer of 2018, I posted a YouTube video EVERY week. Sometimes I would post 2-4 times a week.

However, it took exactly two years and posting a video every week consistently in order for me to achieve this. I began making longer videos in order to increase watch time.

To learn how I edit my YouTube videos, I have a blog post and YouTube video on that!

Generating 4,000 watch hours in a year is different for everyone! Some people can become a YouTube partner within months and some people, like myself, take years!

Ways I increased SEO

In order to increase views, I began optimizing my search results. I did this by filling out all of the tags in the description of videos, researching good tags to use, and using keywords in my titles and descriptions!

In order to increase your opportunities of coming up in search, I recommend typing out an in-depth description of your videos in the description.

I’ve used tools like:

Vid IQ
Tube Buddy
Google Keyword Planner

How To Grow Your Channel in 2020

I also created a blog post and YouTube video dedicated to growing your channel in 2020!

Stay consistent

I hate to say it… but really the only way I reached this goal was to stay consistent. There were so many times I wanted to give up because I was not seeing results. However, I can tell you that from my experience, consistently posting on YouTube every week for about two years is how I finally reached the 4,000 watch hours.

Apply to YouTube Partner Program

In your YouTube Studio, you have a tab for monetization. This is where you can go to see how close you are to qualifying to apply!

It became a habit of my own to check it weekly.. if not daily!