How To Join YouTube's Partner Program for Creators

If you’re trying to become a successful creator of original content, get paid, and even make a living making gaming content for your fans and followers, becoming a YouTube Partner is key. But if you aren’t familiar with what that is, it can all be a bit intimidating.

So today, we’ve come up with a quick guide for everything you need to know about the YouTube Partner Program. We’ll walk through what it is, what it does for you, and how you can become one. Let’s dive right in!

What Is the YouTube Partner Program?

The main thing you need to know about the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) is that it’s how you tap into monetization on the platform. If you want your YouTube channel to start bringing you in some big bucks, you need to become a Partner to unlock those earnings. There’s a lot you need to do to become a partner, but we’ll talk more about that in a minute.

Becoming a YouTube Partner allows you to have access to several different contract modules that allow your channel to bring in money. You can activate the modules you qualify for, and those features will be available across your channel for your subs and viewers to engage with.

There are several primary ways that your channel can bring in money: Watch Page ads, Shorts Page ads, channel memberships, shopping, and the Commerce Product Module.

Watch Page Ads

The “Watch Page” is where all of your long-form videos show up. This includes places like YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube Kids. So all the YouTube videos you post to your feed, as well as all of your live streams, fall under the Watch Page section.

If you qualify, you can turn on the Watch Page ads to start collecting a portion of the ad revenue that your videos generate. YouTube takes a 45 percent cut of the ad revenue, but you get to keep the remaining 55 percent.

It may not seem like much, but this is where a big chunk of your money can come from. Video ads play before, after, and during pretty much every video on the platform, so your revenue will grow exponentially as your channel becomes more popular.

Shorts Page Ads

As you might know, short-form videos are a different game than the Watch Page. Shorts is its own section on YouTube with its own rules and ads. So if you qualify for the Watch Page ad revenue, that doesn’t mean you’ll qualify for Shorts Page ad revenue, and vice versa.

But if you do qualify, you’ll get to take a cut of the ads that show between videos on the Shorts feed. However, for Shorts ads, you’ll only get to enjoy 45 percent of the ad revenue your videos help to generate.

Channel Memberships

Channel memberships are a relatively new monetization option on YouTube. They’re a lot like subscriptions or subs on Twitch. People can pay an extra monthly fee to unlock exclusive content, status, perks, and features on your channel. It’s a great way for you to make a reliable, predictable amount of money from your channel.

Memberships start at $4.99 for the viewer, but you can add higher tiers with higher prices. It’s important to know that YouTube creators make a higher percentage of membership revenue than ad revenue. Creators get to pocket 70 percent of the membership fees, which, after taxes, translates to about $3.49 in your wallet per subscriber.

Shopping

Another module you can qualify for is Shopping, which is exactly what it sounds like. You’re able to list your own personal brand and products on your channel, where your subs and viewers can easily check them out and buy them, directly supporting you and your channel.

If you qualify, you can also list other brands’ products in your store, so all of those branding deals you get can be listed right on your page.

Commerce Product Module

The most complex monetization feature on YouTube is the Commerce Product Module (CPM) — but don’t let it intimidate you. Creators can make some serious cash if they capitalize on this feature. The CPM includes things like Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Super Thanks.

Super Chat is a feature you can use in your live streams. Enable it, and your fans can pay a few bucks to have their comments stick out from the rest on your live streams.

Their comments will be highlighted in a bright color, and they’ll get a special animation to go along with it. Make sure you engage with the Super Chat comments and reward those fans who made the extra effort to connect with you and support you!

Super Stickers are similar to Super Chats. They range from 99 cents to $50, and they’re a quick and easy way to let your fans show you some love and support during your streams. Viewers can buy the Stickers, and they appear in chat for the whole live stream to see and admire.

And finally, there are Super Thanks. These are like Super Chats but for long-form videos instead of live streams. Viewers can pay a small amount of money to have their comments highlighted and have a unique animation.

The Super features are helpful because you get to keep 70 percent of all of the revenue they bring in, a much higher percentage than ad revenues. So if you’re looking to make some big bucks and optimize your channel, double down on the CPM.

How Do I Become a YouTube Partner?

Now that you know all of the benefits of becoming a YouTube Partner, it’s time to walk through what you need to do to become one. Not just anyone can qualify, and it’s going to take some work to meet the requirements. But with some hard work and dedication, it’s definitely achievable.

1. Comply With the YouTube Guidelines

First things first, you need to make sure you’re not breaking any of the rules on YouTube. YouTube has a bunch of policies you need to follow in order to monetize, and it’s important that you comply with them, even before you try to become a partner. So make sure you read up and be ready to follow all of these guidelines going forward!

You also need to make sure you’re following YouTube’s general user and creator guidelines. To qualify to become a partner, you can’t have any active YouTube Community Guidelines strikes on your channel.

2. Turn on 2-Step Verification

Your account needs to be secure in order to join the YPP, so make sure that 2-step verification is turned on in your Google account. This is a very simple but important step in the process.

3. Get Access to Advanced Features

In YouTube Studio, you’ll need to have access to the advanced features before you qualify for the YPP. This is fairly easy to do — you’ll just need to have an established channel and show that you have complied with the community guidelines for some time. So most creators who have been around for a bit, even if they’re small, will qualify for advanced features.

Some advanced features include pinning comments, adding links to the description, and embedding live streams.

4. Create an AdSense Account

This is a crucial step in joining the YPP. A Google AdSense account allows you to collect your earnings once the dollars start rolling in. If you haven’t set one up yet, it’s quick and simple. Just go through your YouTube Studio to set one up and link it to your YouTube account.

While you’re there in YouTube Studio, head to the “Earn” area and click “Notify me when I’m eligible.” Now, the next step is to keep growing your channel, and YouTube will send you an email when it’s time to apply for the YPP.

5. Meet the Watch Time Requirements

Finally, and most importantly, you need to meet the views and subscriber thresholds in order to qualify and apply for the YPP. These eligibility criteria are relatively simple, but they do take some work to achieve. You can qualify through YouTube Shorts or through YouTube Watch.

There are only two requirements. Firstly, whether you’re trying to qualify through Shorts or Watch, you need to gain a total of 1,000 subscribers. This is quite a hurdle for new creators, but you can do it!

The second requirement will differ depending on whether you want to qualify through Shorts or Watch. If you want to qualify through Watch, you’ll need to have 4,000 valid public watch hours over the past 12 months. If you want to qualify through Shorts, you’ll need 10 million valid public Shorts views over the past 90 days.

And if you want help getting more mileage out of your long-form video, AI editing tools, like Powder, which helps creators extract short videos automatically from long stream videos can really help so you can populate your channels with engaging content every day and grow faster.

Becoming a YouTube Partner

Once you’ve done those five things, you’re eligible to apply for the YPP. Fill out your application in the Earn section of YouTube Studio, and wait for your application to come back. If your channel complies with the YouTube guidelines, you should get approved and start earning money through all of your hard work making content, streaming, and more.

Now, you’ve got all the tools and knowledge to take your creator career to the next level and start earning hard cash on YouTube. It’ll take some hard work, but the rewards are worth it.
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