Turning the green $ sign into yellow?
Many YouTubers lately are alleging that the green $ sign next to many of their YouTube videos have started to turn yellow. They’re wondering as to why’s that, since they think their videos are quite YouTube advertiser friendly. Well the thing is that there is surely something wrong with those videos, that’s why it’s happening so. They just have to figure out where the problem lies for each of those videos, that’s all.

Well, according to YouTube only a few ads might be shown on those videos; where the reality is that no ads will be shown on those, since many videos with green $ sign aren’t getting enough ads now-a-days. It’s because hundreds of thousands of new YouTube channels have come into existence lately and most of them have been approved for monetization as well. Like you and me, many people are now looking forward to earning some money on YouTube. So as a competitive YouTuber you must not leave any of your videos with yellow $ (demonetized) and let your channel ruin. That’s why you need to know how to make your videos YouTube advertiser friendly again. But first things first, come to know why green $ signs are turning yellow in the first place.
Why YouTube would demonetize your videos
Your YouTube videos were monetized so that ads could be shown beside them and viewers are supposed to click on these ads to view the advertisers’ websites and make some purchase of their products/services. Thus YouTube videos are a great way for advertisers to promote their business. But to serve that purpose these videos have to be YouTube advertiser friendly. It means that while watching those videos the viewers must not be in a bad mood. In other words, videos which tend to ruin many viewers’ mode while viewing are termed as NOT YouTube advertiser friendly.
Suppose a viewer is watching a YouTube video which has some violence or hate speech inside it and s/he gets agitated/angry. If any ads show up at a time like this, the respective company’s brand-image may be ruined to that person. Even if s/he previously liked the company and its products/services, they may not like it any more after this incident. So this sort of thing could prove to be even harmful for business organizations instead of doing them any good.
This very scenario stated above has ruined many companies’ image in past times, specially in 2016, so advertisers can’t afford it anymore. That’s why they have put pressure on YouTube to get rid of this situation. YouTube too decided to get rid of these videos and channels, so they terminated many channels a few months back. And the ‘termination spree’ is still continuing, although lately YouTube adopted a new policy: STOP serving ads on videos which are not YouTube advertiser friendly instead of terminating the channels. When they find videos that are not suitable for ads-showing, they mark them with yellow $ sign. YouTube mainly depends on viewers’ reports to decide whether or not a video is YouTube advertiser friendly.
Learn more about YouTube ads crisis: YouTube/Google’s latest condition
Which videos are NOT YouTube advertiser friendly?
YouTube videos that have sensitive and/or controversial content within them are flagged as NOT YouTube advertiser friendly. So as a creator/YouTuber you have to make sure that your videos don’t have such content. Be very careful if your videos are about news and views.
Suppose you published a video on your channel that speaks against Donald Trump, you being a strong supporter of the Democrats. Although this video may entertain many Democrat-supporters as you, it might ruin any Republican supporter’s mood as well. These people then may decide to report your video as inappropriate, they’ll opine that your video contains hate speech. YouTube’s automated system then takes these reports into account and may demonetize your video, that’s when the green $ sign turns yellow/black.
If a few reports are submitted, then it will turn yellow. If a lot of reports are submitted, then it may turn black. A huge number of such reports may even remove your video from YouTube as inappropriate content and impose a community strike on your channel. In a situation like this, you may even lose your channel (being terminated) out of the blue. So you need to keep in mind the factors which make your YouTube videos NOT YouTube advertiser friendly.

Things you need to remember while making a video
While creating a YouTube video based on politics or religion, make sure it doesn’t have any content that is too much sensitive/controversial. Also you should avoid uploading videos that have violence, sexual and harmful content. Suppose you posted a video that shows how to perform a dangerous stunt. This may encourage many youngsters to try the same and get them in danger eventually. So videos that have this sort of content will be easily flagged as inappropriate, leading to NOT YouTube advertiser friendly. The same thing is applicable for videos that teach how to hack or something immoral.
In brief, to make your videos YouTube advertiser friendly, you have to strictly follow YouTube’s community guidelines. Violating those may not only deprive your YouTube videos from getting ads and revenue, but could lead your channel to termination as well. If you must create a video that shows something challenging/dangerous, then be sure to put a disclaimer at beginning. Make sure that viewers of any age/class are not misguided by your videos/channel.
Are your metadata YouTube advertiser friendly?
Apart from those stated above, your video may lose monetization if it contains inappropriate/misleading metadata. The metadata of a YouTube video consists of four parts: title, description, tags and thumbnail. Make sure that they have been appropriately/properly selected and designed. If your videos’ metadata are misleading and were designed only to get more views and revenue, then the green $ signs may quickly turn yellow before you can react at all.
To know more about Metadata: When it becomes misleading and leads your YouTube account to termination
What to do to get monetization status back
If any of your YouTube videos has its green $ sign turned into yellow, then in order to turn it green again, first check whether or not the content within the video is totally clean. To check that be sure to follow YouTube’s community guidelines strictly. If you make a little bit of Google search, you’ll definitely find where to read those guidelines. Also you can read our following article to know more details about YouTube’s community guidelines. Although designed to let the common readers know about the possible reasons of YouTube accounts’ termination, this article surely is a detailed version of the community guidelines laid by YouTube in the first place.
YouTube account suspended for no reason? Well, not really.
After making sure that your content is clean, you need to check out if the problem is with the metadata you provided. If so, try to make a few changes there to turn the video YouTube advertiser friendly once again. In most of the cases, the problem is with thumbnail. So look at your thumbnail first. If it seems controversial, then change it and go to the monetization settings of your video and thus request to review your video again for monetization. It might take 2/3 days for YouTube authority to review it, while you’ll see the notice under the yellow sign that reads ‘under review’.
What happens when the review is complete
If they now find it as YouTube advertiser friendly, they will turn the $ sign green again, otherwise will leave it at that yellow status. Nevertheless you can make another slight change in your video’s metadata and once again request for review. Suppose that even if you provided a decent thumbnail this time, it didn’t work. So now you have to assume that the problem was with the title of the video; think how to make it more decent (less controversial) and YouTube advertiser friendly.
After appealing for another time, if your video is still not back to monetization, then you should take the final attempt: where you need to change everything about your video. This includes all metadata as thumbnail, title, description and tags. After doing these changes request for review again to see what awaits your video’s luck.
A few last words about demonetization of your YouTube videos
Some people upon receiving yellow $ sign on some of their YouTube videos might think that their channel is very close to termination. Well, this is totally a wrong perception; your channel will never be terminated due to demonetization status, rest assured about that.
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