I believe in the power of a white lie to redirect perception, and after YouTube changed its policy for monetizing video content, I had to change my reasons – or better my purpose – to create video content for the platform.

How did I lie to myself? We’ll get there, but first here’s a refresher about the YouTube Partner Program (YPP).

YouTube’s New Policy for Earning Money and My Hurt Feelings

Remember when Google changed the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) raising the bar pretty high for monetizing video content? Cool, because I don’t. I think it was sometime in 2018.

Well, I was going hard with my story blog’s engagement and multiplying content sources. I got discouraged and thought “Well, that sucks.” Just like that, I abandoned creating not only YouTube content but any video content. I took it hard with two raised middle fingers.

…YouTube is a cloud server where I can store high definition videos for free for forever

Later, I adapted my idea of what YouTube is. Instead of a tool to generate income by trading attention, YouTube is a cloud server where I can store high definition videos for free for forever.

BAM! I lied a little bit.

Of course, it’s still a potential income stream, but if I think of YouTube as no more than a free HD video storage platform, I’m less butt-hurt about the views, subscribers, and watch hours. Feels better already.

With respect to the art form of content creation, there are some practical reasons making and publishing videos on YouTube

4 Reasons Why You Should Create Content for YouTube

While talking to myself and listening to the pros, I thought of 4 convincing reasons to create YouTube content right meow:

1. Practice Makes Streamlined – Creating video content is one of those things where the best time to start is right now. You want to get as much practice as you can while you’re not popular. Like Karate, you can only get better with practice. You can even publish videos as Unlisted if you’re not ready for the exposure. Maybe you’ll decide to do something later.
2. Content is the Content – It’s an absolute that you will care more about the quality of your videos than your viewers will. Focus on delivering accurate, high quality, and relevant content that matches your brand/product. The content is more important than the presentation especially online. For proof, watch older videos of some of your favorite YouTubers to compare their beginning content to the videos they pump out now.
3. Get Feedback – Remember that YouTube (or any video hosting platform) is a world stage. Positive and negative feedback will come. Take from the positive feedback ideas for what you should do more of. Take from the negative feedback what does not work for your content.
4. Online Authority – YouTube is the second largest search engine in existence after Google. Not only will you create backlinks to your website, – which helps you rank in Google search results – but Google will begin to your content is published regularly in a particular set of keywords. Google loves fresh content and the affect of being seen as a regular producer of content is that you appear as an authority in that related content.

Infographic: 4 Reasons to Create Content for YouTube

Close

OK, I didn’t actually lie to myself. I just gave myself a better reason to make content for YouTube.

The benefits far outweigh the costs. My advice is to figure out how video content can help your content.

By the way, I do have something special coming for SM₃’s YouTube channel. I’m just creating in the shadows. Sign up for my News Stream; I’m releasing some exclusive short videos to my supporters. Complete the form below!