Making money on YouTube means first achieving monetization for your channel. In order to monetize your channel, you need to figure out how to get 4,000 watch hours on YouTube.
This is the minimum requirement set out for YouTube channels looking to access the YouTube partner program. Along with building an audience of at least 1,000 subscribers, you must meet the minimum watch time requirement. After which, generating passive income becomes surprisingly straightforward.
How YouTube Calculate Watch Hours?
Watch time hours are calculated by way of total YouTube video hours of watch time accumulated over the past 12 months. This equates to 240,000 minutes of cumulative watch time, distributed across all your YouTube videos.
Thankfully, videos that were published more than a year ago can still help you reach 4,000 watch hours. It doesn’t matter when your videos were published – what matters is the watch time they generate within the same 12-month period.
The question being – is there an effective hack to qualify for the YPP fast? If not, what can you do to get your subscribers (and the public in general) watching more of your content?
How to Get 4,000 Hours of YouTube Watch Time for your Channel?
Watch time can be boosted in a variety of ways – some of which are much faster than others. Hence, if your goal is to simply get the job done as quickly as possible, this is the way to make it happen:
1) Optimize your YouTube Videos
First up, optimization holds the key to making your videos easier to find in the first place. Embedding SEO-friendly keywords in your titles, descriptions and written content in general will help more people find your videos. The easier your videos are to find, the more likely they are to be watched.
2) Create Longer YouTube Videos
Short-form content can be highly engaging, but can also make it difficult to hit 4,000 hours. By contrast, longer-form YouTube videos don’t need to be watched by nearly as many people to get your target. Producing high-quality long-form content could therefore work in your favor.
3) Use Custom Thumbnails
Thumbnails play a major role in determining who watches your videos and whether they stick around till the end. Not only do thumbnails need to be-eye catching and relevant to your content, they also need to be 100% unique.
4) Do Live Streams
Live streaming can be a fantastic way to boost engagement and watch time. Not only is real-time YouTube content naturally more engaging, but you can also add recording of your stream to your channel for your viewers to watch again. Great for getting more eyes on your channel and your content.
5) Add Video Cards to Your Video
Promoting your videos within your videos is essential. This is basically where you plug your other content using cards in your videos, reminding the viewer to check out your other work. If they like what they see in the current video, they’ll be more than happy to check out what else you have to offer.
6) Add Links and Playlists at End Screens
It’s exactly the same with End Screens, which can (and should) be used to keep the viewer captive. Simply by recommending other videos from your archives or presenting playlists, they’ll be far more likely to stick around. They’ve just watched one of your videos to completion, so chances are they’ll be keen to see what else you can do.
7) Recommend Videos in Your Video Description
Your video descriptions can be the perfect place to include recommendations and links to other videos. Tell them about other videos they’ll be interested in, post links to make them easy to find and use plenty of SEO-friendly keywords to appeal to YouTube’s search algorithm.
8) Be Consistent on Making Videos
Consistency holds the key to pulling in plenty of watch time hours in two ways. Firstly, the quality of the content you produce needs to be consistently flawless. Secondly, consistency in terms of timing and output also needs to be spot on. Publishing to a schedule (as opposed to randomly) almost always results in better long-term viewership.
9) Create Playlists
Creating playlists is all about making it as easy as possible for people to find your best videos. Or perhaps, the specific types of videos from your library they’ll be in interested in. Playlists can be pure dynamite for boosting watch time hours, as they naturally encourage viewers to stick around for longer.
10) Share Playlists
On the same note, this is a neat little hack that can seriously boost watch time hours. All you need to do is choose a playlist that features the video you want to share, open it and select the video. Then, copy the long and complicated URL from the address bar and paste it into a new browser tab. You can then hit the ‘Share’ button in the new window to share the video AND the playlist that contains it.
11) Start Video premiers
Video premiers work a little like live streaming, only in this case with a prerecorded clip as the content. You set a date and time with YouTube, at which your video will be streamed in real-time. Something of an engaging ‘launch party’ for your new content, with the added bonus of live-chat to converse and interact with your viewers.
12) Share on Other Social Media Platforms
The importance of leveraging your other social media accounts cannot be overstated. Promoting every video you publish across as many social platforms as necessary comes highly recommended. As does constantly plugging your past content and posting links to your best videos. Tell your other social audiences to check you out, and they often will.
13) By Buying it
Last up, the single fastest way to fulfill your 4,000 watch hours requirement is to buy it. Top-rated social media growth companies like Media Mister make it safe and simple to buy YouTube watch time hours for an instant boost. A quick and easy way to qualify for the YouTube partner program, which is even covered by a money-back guarantee for total peace of mind.
Conclusion
Getting 4,000 hours of watch time holds the key to generating passive income from your YouTube content. Considering the channel’s immense popularity, the minimum YPP requirement of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch time hours is actually quite modest.
Nevertheless, stacking up this kind of watch time when faced with such staggering competition isn’t easy. Buying watch time hours can be great for steering things in the right direction. But it is ultimately the quality of the videos you publish that will determine the outcome.
If your goal is to make money on YouTube, the whole thing begins and ends with quality content. Give people a good reason to watch your videos and that’s exactly what they’ll do.
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