How to Set Up a Mermaid YouTube and Make Money

Getting Started with YouTube!

Before You Launch, a few Helpful Tips:

• In each video, start and finish by reminding people to like and subscribe to your videos. These numbers help with the YouTube algorithm and help your videos show up to new people.
  
  
• Avoid using any copyrighted material. I will show you how to get free and legal music to use. If you use any copyrighted music, you won’t be able to make money from the videos.
  
  
• Though I have personally made long videos, I have been working toward shorter ones. Shorter ones from a learning standpoint work better and tend to get more views. 3-4 minutes seems to be the sweet spot!
  
  
• If you don’t have fiberOp it can take a while for your videos to upload to YouTube. Before I got fiberOp I would upload when I went to bed and publish when I got up in the morning.

 

• Videos do better with an attractive thumbnail. Once you upload your video and been approved as a partner. you can replace the thumbnail with something custom you have made. Otherwise you'll get to choose between a few stills! Choose the best one.
  

After you sign up for YouTube, you’ll be able to customize your page and have access to several menus.

Your main YouTube page will default to an image like this. You will see your icon for your menu at the top right hand corner.

The icon is your profile drop down menu.
The bell is your notifications.
The grid is a Youtube menu that you won’t often use as a creator.
The arrow is a direct button for uploading.

There is also a menu on the top left-hand corner. Clicking it creates the following drop down

This let’s you see feeds for other videos, along with your watch history, videos you’ve liked, and any playlists you’ve created. Playlisting your own videos is very helpful for organizing them.
Returning to the top right menu, let’s explore your personal drop down. Click the icon. (you’ll be able to change it if you haven’t already).

"My Channel” is where you can customize how your channel appears to viewers.

“Creator Studio” is where you can keep track of videos you’ve created, moderate comments, apply minor edits to existing videos, see your analytics/views, and follow up on any copyright or flagged content.

“Switch account” allows you to manage multiple accounts and channels at once
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“Dark Theme” is a setting for if you’re working in a darker area.

Let’s check out “Creator Studio”.

The default for “Creator Studio” will show you a summary page. This is a snapshot of the last 30 days on your account. You may not see much here if you’ve just made an account or only have a few videos.

This top bar indicates that I am a “YouTube Partner”. This means I make money from YouTube. I’ll teach you how to do that- don’t worry. You can see my current pageviews and subscribers. There’s also an “add widget” button I can customize. If I want to quickly visit my front page – what viewers see- I can click “view channel”

Down below, you see a snap shot of my analytics.

You can click “view all” to see more details. The “estimated revenue” doesn’t appear to be accurate or to change drastically. However, if you make money from YouTube you’ll get a check or auto-deposit once a month if you’ve reached the $100 threshold of earnings. Looking at these insights will show you which types of videos are the most popular, and which are making you the most money. You can also see a preview of information for your most recent videos, and a tip card that will change daily.

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We have another dropdown menu on the left. This is your “creator studio dashboard”.

“Video Manager” is where you can few insights for individual videos, moderate comments, make videos private or delete them, and multi-select videos to add or remove from playlists.

“Live Streaming” is where you can set up a livestream, very similar to Facebook.

“Community” is a summary of your comments. We’ll look at this in more detail shortly.

“Channel” allows you to make specific channel – wide changes. We’ll look at this more specifically shortly.

“Analytics” is a more detailed deep dive into your data.

“Translations” is where you can upload closed captioning in various translations.

“Create” is where you can get FREE music and sound effects to use in your videos. If you use the content provided here- you can make money off your videos. You can preview, search, and download. You can also see is you’re legally allowed to use a copyrighted piece of music, and the limitations.

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By clicking “video manager” I can see all of my videos.  I can see if the video is monetized and making money (green icon), if it can be viewed world wide (earth), how many comments have been approved, and how many likes/dislikes it has received. I also see if the video is in HD.
Along the left-hand side there is a sub menu, I can see playlists, if I’ve gotten any copyright notices, and retractions for dealing with disputes.

Using the “actions” button and the selection boxes next to each video I get a number of actions I can apply, such as making the video private, unlisted, deleting, changing tags, etc.

Once I have uploaded a video, this is where I go to make any changes or set the settings. Once I click on “edit” this is what you will see:

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In this menu I can change the tags, apply translations, apply to monetize my video, share it on social media, select a new thumbnail and more. If someone else helped me with the video on YouTube, there is even a button for giving that user credit. Under the monetization tab you can select the way you want ads to appear once you're a partner, see the status, and toggle on or off. Note: YouTube will sometimes inappropriately tag something as not being advertiser friendly. If this happens to you, no worries. I’ll show you how to fix it.

Under “Advanced Settings” you can select how to moderate comments. I suggest what I have selected here. This means you’ll have to approve every comment. Or you can turn them off all together. You can see there are many other options you can change as well.

At the top of the screen are other tabs for edits you can make to your video. You can easily change/replace music, make minor edits, and add annotations. “Enhancements” will allow you to do some very minor edits.

Now let’s continue and look at how to moderate comments. On the left hand drop down menu, you’re going to want to click “comments”. This will bring you to a new window:

In this window I can see approved comments, comments awaiting moderation, and spam. I see exactly what video they’re attached to. If I approve a comment from the review tab, it moves to this published comments tab. From here I can heart it, vote on it, and reply to it. I can also flag it for abuse or spam (which can also be done on the other tabs) or go ahead and delete it.

On this same menu, you can access messages- but most YouTubers do not use this, so don’t worry.
The “create” menu button on the left, takes you to the free music library.

You can preview these audio files, download them, and use them in your videos. You can also get sound effects. At the top of the page there is usually a blue bar where you can search copyrighted music to see if you can use it. You won’t be able to make money from copyrighted music, but sometimes you’re still allowed to at least use it.

Click the link. You’ll be able to see current pop music along with searching it. Click on the song to see the details:

In this instance, I can use the song on the video, but I won’t be able to make money off it. (unless I record a cover song). I can see that if I use this song people around the world will still be able to watch the video. (this isn’t always the case).
 
Uploading a Video to YouTube:
You can upload a video to YouTube from anytime on your desktop or the ap by clicking the upload arrow we’ve already seen in the top right-hand corner. Once you click, you’ll see this window.

You’ll notice you can decide right away if you want the video public or not. It sometimes helps to put it private until you’ve reviewed it. You can upload the video by dragging it into that space, or by clicking the icon and a pop-up window will prompt you. Note: depending on your browser, dragging make take two tries.
Here is a video that will walk you through the exact steps of uploading a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klVWGHtRTuE
Tips:

• Have a catchy shorter title
• Add a thumbnail that is eye-catching with text
• Add plenty of relevant tags
• Add a description and link your social media
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Once your video is done processing, it’ll appear on your YouTube account.
I like to have playlists for different topics. Then I can organize them on my front page. For instance, I have a playlist called “So You Want to be a Mermaid”. This includes all the videos I have made teaching people about the mer-industry. You can do this manually by clicking the + on each video and selecting the playlist from the drop-down menu. Or you can return to your general front page and use the select button as previously discussed.

On your “my channel” front page, you’ll be able to customize the same way you do on Facebook with a profile and cover picture. You can add a link to your website, and by clicking the “customize” button you can choose which playlists you’d like viewers to see when they visit your page. You can also select a specific video to auto-play with returning viewers visit, and one for when new visitors visit. A lot of people make a “welcome to my YouTube’ video for this purpose. 

If you get a copyright notice on a video, don’t panic. It doesn’t mean you’re in trouble. Most times YouTube will not take your video down, but they will send you a message that you have to agree with. It’ll notify you that you won’t be able to make money off the clip, and any other limitations. Of course, if they do ask you to remove the clip, you must do that. If this was done in error, you can also dispute the claim. As you see I have a copyright claim on this video for music use.

By clicking the hyperlink I am taken to this screen where I can see the limitations, or dispute it if need be:

Sometimes you will run into an issue where your video is accidentally flagged for having “content that isn’t advertiser friendly”. If this is the case, your dollar sign will turn yellow:

Click the "request review" button

How to Apply to Make Money on YouTube

To make that money, you’ll need to meet a few standards:

• You need a total of 4000 watch hours  in a year (meaning people have watched that many hours of your videos, don’t worry, this adds up fast)
• You need 1000 subscribers
• Your chances are better if you don’t use copyrighted content
• Follow the tips for getting more subscribers and viewers: https://youtube-creators.googleblog.com/2018/01/additional-changes-to-youtube-partner.html

 
 
Setting up your channel: (As quoted directly from YouTube)

1. Sign in to YouTube.
2. In the top right, select your account icon > Creator Studio.
3. In the left menu, select Channel > Status and features.
4. Under "Monetization," click Enable.
5. Follow the on-screen steps to accept the YouTube Partner Program Terms.
6. Create a new AdSense account or connect an existing one to your channel. You need an AdSense account to earn money from your videos and get paid. Follow these steps to set up an AdSense account.
7. In order to receive payments, you need to log into your AdSense account and ensure you have resolved any payment holds. Once any holds are resolved, you'll be paid when your earnings reach your local payment threshold (as long as monetization is not suspended for your channel and you're in compliance with our policies).
   
   

Set what types of ads you want to run on your videos and automatically turn on monetization for all your existing and future videos.
When you set this up, you will start earning money as soon as your channel is approved.

1. Confirm you want to monetize for all your existing and future videos.
2. Check the boxes under Ads formats to choose the types of ads you want to show. 
3. Click Save.

You can always change these setting in your monetization default so that every upload is automatically monetized or not monetized, or choose the specific videos you want to monetize.
Once your channel meets the program threshold, we'll review your application to make sure your channel activity adheres to the YouTube Partner Program policies, YouTube Terms of Service, and our Community Guidelines. We'll let you know as soon as the process is complete.
If you don't have enough views for a review yet, keep making original content and growing your audience.

This view count threshold gives us enough information to determine the validity of a channel. It also allows us to confirm if a channel is following our community guidelines and advertiser policies.

Now you’re all set for launching a successful YouTube!
 
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