ICYMI Alert: YouTube Gives Smaller Creators Earlier Access to YPP

Bonus breaking news edition of ICYMI

This is a bonus Tuesday breaking news edition of ICYMI. YouTube gave me a heads up on a big announcement they were making this morning that I wanted to cover sooner than Friday’s newsletter since it has financial implications for smaller creators and brands in the company’s affiliate program. 

💻 ROADMAP

YouTube just announced that it would introduce earlier access to YPP (YouTube Partner Program) by lowering the eligibility criteria to help creators start earning sooner — opening up access to fan funding features like channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Thanks and more. 

The company also plans to expand the YouTube Shopping affiliate program in the US for bigger creators, giving them the ability to earn commissions on the sale of products tagged in their videos and Shorts.

YPP Lite 

Starting today, eligible creators will be able to apply to YPP once they’ve met a threshold of:

• 500 subscribers

• 3 public uploads in the last 90 days

• Either 3K watch hours in the past year or 3M Shorts views in the last 90 days 

YPP is widely seen as the gold standard of platform monetization features. This new version is part of a partner program tier (I’m calling it YPP lite) that YouTube promised to create in September 2022 to support smaller creators. 

Creators in YPP lite will be able to unlock access to fan funding features like channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks, and the ability to promote their own products with YouTube Shopping

Rev share on ads and other benefits typically associated with access to YPP starts once these creator channels reach the existing YPP eligibility criteria. 

The new YPP access will be rolled out to creators in the US, UK, Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea, first and then earlier access to YPP will be rolled out across all countries where YPP is available over time. 

YouTube Shopping affiliate program

YouTube is expanding access to its Shopping affiliate program to all eligible US-based creators who are in YPP with over 20K subscribers.

The affiliate program allows creators to feature products from other brands and creators in their content and be eligible for commission rates on sales of products tagged in their videos and Shorts. 

YouTube partnered with over 50 brands in beauty, tech, home and apparel categories — such as Nordstrom, Sephora, Anthropologie, and West Elm — whose products can be featured and tagged on videos and Shorts.

Eligible creators will see the option to join the affiliate program in YouTube Studio.

The Takeaway

Creator loyalty is up for grabs and YouTube is hanging out a neon Welcome sign.

Wacky corporate priorities, punitive creator policies and government regulations have led to a great creator migration as people explore potentially more lucrative and, in some cases, more creator-friendly platforms.

By lowering the eligibility criteria for YPP, YouTube is providing a sustainable path forward for smaller creators which could be a deciding factor in where creators decide to focus their efforts.

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🗞️ EARLY HEADLINES

• Reddit goes down just as a site-wide protest against its unpopular new API policy kicks off -TechCrunch

• Creators say it takes five months to earn the first dollar, 13 months to go full-time, and 18 months to fully support themselves -The Tilt

• MrBeast smashes his own YouTube views record from Squid Game video in only 24 hours -Dexerto

• 5 Ways Creators Can Make Money On Social Platforms -Forbes

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