YouTube’s been full of adverts for a long ol’time — but for users to make money from it, they had to be approved by Google as being popular, in turn becoming a “partner” and grabbing a tiny slice of advertising revenue. Not anymore: now any old Joe can make money out of their video.
The new announcement means that any YouTube user with a single piece of qualifying content can now monetise their video, if they’re based in one of the 20 qualifying countries, by becoming a partner on the spot.
There are a couple of caveats: it’s currently only an option available to existing users and unlike the current partnership scheme, custom banners and thumbnails aren’t included as part of the deal. However, more features are in the pipeline:
“We also recognise that custom thumbnails and banners are sought-after features by many creators. We are working on making these and other features available to more newly-made partners over time, like we have done with long uploads and monetisation.”
As if YouTube wasn’t already full of ads, it’s about to get a whole lot fuller. [YouTube via The Verge]
Image: Rego – d4u.hu under Creative Commons license.