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YouTube Changes Their Monetization Rules

Recently, YouTube announced changes to their monetization policy. As I do not monetize my YouTube channel, I didn’t take the time to look any further at the changes. However, that changed when I saw a few concerned tweets from some active members of my outdoor recreation and public lands online communities.I have visited the channels of these outdoor YouTubers to view their gear reviews, survival tips, and hiking summaries. So, I felt compelled to read more on the issues and was sad to learn that the changes were restrictive for our niche outdoor community on social media. 

Many outdoor folks in our community earn small revenues from monetizing their YouTube videos. These revenues, usually less than $100 a year based on several comments I’ve read, help to supplement their online endeavors. Those small revenues can help offset the costs of video editing software, blog hosting, gear purchases, etc. Every bit helps.

What can I do to help?

Subscribe to their channels! In order to be able to monetize their YouTube channels, our friends need to have 1,000 subscribers. On top of that, they also need to have 4,000 viewing hours. While it would be difficult to coordinate a viewing marathon, it is pretty easy for us to subscribe to their channels. Honestly, it only takes a few seconds to subscribe to a channel and you can even turn off notifications if you so desire. 

How to Subscribe (and Change Notification Settings)

Subscribing to a YouTube channel is really easy. From the homepage of the channel, click the Red Subscribe button (see image below).

Once you have subscribed, the red button will turn gray (see image below). You will also see a new bell notification icon next to the button. By default, notifications for that channel will be turned OFF. This means you will not receive notifications of any new videos on this channel.  You will still see new videos they post on your YouTube homepage, but you will not receive notifications. If you just want to help your fellow outdoors folks reach their goals, but don’t want to know when they have new posts, this is your best bet.

If you DO want to receive notifications when they post a new video, click the bell notification icon. The icon will now show “ringing” waves to indicate that your notifications for this page have been turned on. When you are notified of a new video, your notification will appear in the upper right corner of your account with a red number (similar to an iPhone).

Which Outdoor Youtubers to Follow 

While I hadn’t focused a lot on YouTube in the past, I started seeking out more outdoor YouTubers to follow after learning about the changes. I was inspired by the following tweet from @DanHuman:

While there was good engagement on the post, I wanted to put together a more permanent list that could grow over time. So with that in mind, I have put together a few sub-lists based on the primary purpose of these channels:

Gear Reviews/Survival

• Happily Ever Outdoors 
• Nature Tech Family
• Outbound Dan (aka, Dan Human)
• Sam Wentzell

Hiking

• Darwin OnTheTrail
• Hiking Steve
• Homemade Wanderlust
• Nkrumah Frazier
• Todd the Hiker
• Trail Bound

National Park

• Not So Jr. Rangers
• Ranger Kaiti May

Outdoor Mixed Bag (aka, a little bit of everything)

• Eddie Graberitz
• IlluminationsFromTheAttic
• Inner Compass

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Did I Miss Your Personal/Favorite Outdoor YouTube Channel?

If you have a YouTube Channel and I didn’t list you above, please leave a direct link to your channel in the comments below! It doesn’t matter if you are super active and post weekly or if you only post occasionally, like me. Also, it’s a good time to remind folks that this is all about community over competition, so if you have a favorite channel to follow that you didn’t see, feel free to also drop that link in the comments below!

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If you want to learn more about social media for outdoor folks, check out these posts.