How To Monetize Your YouTube Videos In 2021

So you've been accepted into the YouTube Partner Program. Let's give you a couple of tips to help you start earning some money from your video content.

So, it sounds like you've hit 1,000 subscribers, and 4,000 hours of watch time, and you've applied for and been accepted into the YouTube Partner Program. Congratulations is in order. Let's give you a couple of tips to help you start earning some money from your video content.

How to Manage the Monetization of Your Content on YouTube

To be clear, this tutorial is not about how to unlock monetization on your channel. It's about how to manage the monetization of your content once you are in the YouTube Partner Program. To do this:

Click on your profile image in the top right-hand corner of the screen, and then click on the YouTube Studio link.

This is the new YouTube Creator Studio, and from here, you want to click on 'Monetization' from the left-hand navigation panel. (While there are several ways to earn money on YouTube, if you have just been accepted into the Partner Program, you will likely only have access to video advertising. For an in-depth look at super chats, merchandising, and memberships, check out this post.)

Click on the 'Video Advertising' link, where you can confirm your current monetization status, as well as review and change your current settings.

Now if you want to essentially flip the big switch and turn monetization on for all of your future videos, go to 'Settings' on the left-hand navigation panel.

Then click on 'Upload Defaults', followed by the 'Extras' tab

At the bottom of this screen, you will see your video content advertisement options. By changing these settings, all future uploads on your YouTube channel will take these defaults.

However, if you want to change monetization settings on individual videos, you can do that too by going to the 'Video' section of the Creator Studio to see a list of all your videos.

One of the columns in this list shows the monetization status of each video, which you can quickly toggle on or off.

Once you make the change, don't forget to save it, and once you have saved it, a green dollar icon will display for that video if all is good.

If you want to tweak the advertising settings for each video, click on the video itself, and then click on the Monetization link on the left-hand navigation bar.

At the top of this screen, you have the option to turn on or off monetization for the individual video, and below that are the various ways you can advertise your content, from display ads to sponsored cards, non-skippable ads, and so on.

If your video is longer than 10 minutes, you'll have the additional options to put ads before, during, and after the video itself.

Now, let's check out one final important setting:

Again, in the Creator Studio, go to Settings, and this time, hover your mouse over 'Other Settings', and then click on 'Advanced Channel' settings.

As of time of recording, this throws you back into the classic Studio, and you want to make sure that this check box labeled Disable interest-based ads is unchecked.

If it's ticked, YouTube cannot target the viewer of your video with personalized ads based on their interest, and it may significantly reduce the ad revenue you receive from your videos.

Now then, just in case YouTube are watching, in the classic Studio, you used to be able to select multiple videos and then apply monetization changes to all of them, which was really handy. Alas in the new studio, that option is, well, no longer an option. Get it sorted please, YouTube.