A video recently uploaded to the CreatorInsider channel attempts to shed light on the differences between Community and Advertiser Friendly guidelines on YouTube, attempting to clarify misconceptions about them.
YouTube has become one of the most profitable online ventures of all time. This climb that the video streaming platform's seen has not been a quick one. It's seen a lot of shifts, both cultural and tonal, to get to where it is today. Creators back in the day made entire fanbases out of nothing more than grainy cameras and a minute's worth of footage. Nowadays creators have to rely on entire teams of editors and production staff, relying on high quality gear to make it. Of course this isn't to say that these things are necessary. Many YouTubers such as Joanna Ceddia and Draw Gooden have made their mark on the platform with nothing more than a single camera and editing work themselves. Even their videos, however, are quite different from those found in the early days.
YouTube's community guidelines have stayed more or less stagnant since those days, with minor changes here or there. The community guidelines apply to YouTubers that are uploading content, but aren't looking to monetize it. These guidelines simply bar the presence of some very intense or even sexual imagery, but there's still quite a lot of creative freedom that can be expressed. However, these are different from Advertiser friendly guidelines, which the CreatorInsider video describes as being more stringent. Advertisers want to make money and they thus generally prefer safe, clean videos. Therefore, intense imagery is further toned down on for videos running ad revenue.
YouTube has a tier system for its monetized videos. Red means that the video's content cannot be monetized, yellow means that while ads could be limited due to the continent's nature, they will not be blocked. Green means that everything's clean, advertiser friendly, and good to go. It's a system that has derived some manner of criticism, especially since the definition of yellow, red, and green content can be subjective to say the least.
The point of the video, however, is to ensure that community members can differentiate between the guidelines, and therefore be able to fully chart out the sort of content they want to make.
Read next: YouTube Is Widely Rolling Out 'New To You' Filter, Which Will Recommend Videos That Users Haven't Seen Before
YouTube has become one of the most profitable online ventures of all time. This climb that the video streaming platform's seen has not been a quick one. It's seen a lot of shifts, both cultural and tonal, to get to where it is today. Creators back in the day made entire fanbases out of nothing more than grainy cameras and a minute's worth of footage. Nowadays creators have to rely on entire teams of editors and production staff, relying on high quality gear to make it. Of course this isn't to say that these things are necessary. Many YouTubers such as Joanna Ceddia and Draw Gooden have made their mark on the platform with nothing more than a single camera and editing work themselves. Even their videos, however, are quite different from those found in the early days.
YouTube's community guidelines have stayed more or less stagnant since those days, with minor changes here or there. The community guidelines apply to YouTubers that are uploading content, but aren't looking to monetize it. These guidelines simply bar the presence of some very intense or even sexual imagery, but there's still quite a lot of creative freedom that can be expressed. However, these are different from Advertiser friendly guidelines, which the CreatorInsider video describes as being more stringent. Advertisers want to make money and they thus generally prefer safe, clean videos. Therefore, intense imagery is further toned down on for videos running ad revenue.
YouTube has a tier system for its monetized videos. Red means that the video's content cannot be monetized, yellow means that while ads could be limited due to the continent's nature, they will not be blocked. Green means that everything's clean, advertiser friendly, and good to go. It's a system that has derived some manner of criticism, especially since the definition of yellow, red, and green content can be subjective to say the least.
The point of the video, however, is to ensure that community members can differentiate between the guidelines, and therefore be able to fully chart out the sort of content they want to make.
Read next: YouTube Is Widely Rolling Out 'New To You' Filter, Which Will Recommend Videos That Users Haven't Seen Before