New monetisation policy makes YouTube a tougher platform for small channels to survive

So yesterday i got this e-mail from youtube saying that my channel is no longer eligible for monetisation.

At first I thought it was some kind of a mistake since I already have met the requirements needed for a channel to monetise it's contents. But after reading the whole message I came to know that YouTube have come up with a new policy regarding monetisation.

So What's Changing?

Previously in 2017 the requirement for a channel to be eligible for monetisation was to have 10000 public channel views(total number of views when all the videos of a channel combined). But now in 2018 they have set an even higher standard and this, I think is a mammoth task for those small channels to achieve. YouTube's new policy states that in order to be eligible for monetisation a channel must receive 4000hours of overall watch time within the past 12 months and the channel should have at least 1000 subscribers. The new policy will be enforced from 20, February, 2018.

YouTube has given a 30days notice time. If you can't reach this threshold in this 30days, your monetisation eligibility will be terminated.

What is the reason for this change?

Though there are many reasons behind this, the most important reason would be to ensure quality and standard of the contents. YouTube being one of the most popular websites on the planet, there are so many bad actors in it which harms the original and legitimate creators.

And with this change they also aim to add value to the creators as well as the viewers. YouTube is making it very clear that if you can't make videos which can't bring traffic to the site, we are not going to pay. YouTube's algorithm has always worked according to watch time rather than views. So from now on they just need videos that are interesting, relevant, original and value adding.

Is there anything to worry about?

Honestly speaking no, not really because this policy will be a problem only to those small youtubers including me. But however, the important question is, How much does small creators earn from YouTube? Very less. Less than 5 dollars a month in an average. It's no remuneration for the work put in. Most creators around the world earn a good revenue from sponsored product placements and other revenue models other than just relying on google adsense. So in my opinion there still a lot more ways for your channel to make money other than simply monetising your content. YouTube is looking for consistency from the creators. Just provide quality content and be consistent, you'll be able to achieve the threshold that's for sure.

Just stay positive and believe in what you do. Thank you so much for reading.