So I just got an offer by Youtube to monetize my videos!

Arthil

Except I'm absolutely, completely lost at the idea and in fact a little worried about some of the guidelines. This wont be the longest of OPs, I'll be honest, but I'm seeking advice on a rather specific problem here.

It's pretty obvious that the offer must have come from my two most recent videos which were of a video game, one was not even a minute long and the other about two and a half. Both got views in the range between 5-7 thousand. But here is the big problem, which I'll show by copy/pasting it here:

Which videos are NOT eligible?
Your video is not eligible if it contains content that you didn't create or get permission from its creator to use. You need to be able to show written permission for the following video elements:

Audio: recorded music, live performances, cover songs, background music, etc.
Visuals: images, logos, software, video game footage, etc.
Any other content you don't own worldwide commercial usage rights to.

Seems pretty obvious which one it is. Now I'm not sure if there is a difference between -this- and becoming a Youtube Partner. But if they are the same thing, then I have no idea how various videogame focused channels still make money off of ads.

If anyone has any advice, or information that may clear things up a bit I would greatly appreciate it.

Magell

I think the video game footage may be more like cut scenes or putting up the trailers as opposed to you playing the game and by playing the game you are creating the footage.

TychoCelchuuu

Do you add anything to the video game footage (commentary or anything) or is it just gameplay? If you record commentary, for instance, you can put in the "justification" section that your associated commentary provides instructional value, which covers you, but if it's just raw footage I don't think you have a right to monetize it without permission from the game creators.

Arthil

No commentary, however I've seen quite a few channels that just do play throughs of things rather than the "Let's Play" sort of thing. Whether their videos are monetized is another matter all together.

cooljammer00

Yeah, they have been sending me this stuff too. The only videos they want to monetize is footage I shot of a Jonathan Coulton concert, which I cannot make money off of.

Arthil

I mean It's possible I could do commentary, my mic isn't the worst thing ever. Main difficulty would be getting the full version of FRAPS, honestly... which I'd planned on doing anyway.

Still going to poke around and look for any information I can find. For something involving advertisements, copyrights, and earning money they're pretty damned vague.

Jimmy King

Is it possible that these are fairly automated and just auto send to anyone with a few videos with a good number of views without anyone actually verifying to make sure the videos are eligible? Does the e-mail provide any contact info so that you can just ask them to clarify how your videos are (or could be made) eligible?

skeldare

I've received similiar emails over the last couple years for the same type of videos. I think it's just an automated thing that they send out once a video hits a certain amount of hits. They don't actually check the content.

AtomBomb

I think they sent these out in bulk. I got one yesterday for an account that has just a few videos, none of which have been viewed more than 20 times. I just use it for showing specific people at work how to do something (like resetting the directory on our IP phones). They're public, but obviously no one has been seeking them out.

Darkewolfe

Also, if you're only getting a few thousand hits at most, you're not going to be making money in amounts that are tallied in anything higher than "cents."

Arthil

Well the videos I put up weren't exactly anything special. In fact they were just put together with the free version of fraps+windows movie maker. I'd been thinking of getting the full version of fraps anyway. I've contacted a couple of prominent youtubers who do video game stuff, and so far from what I can tell I have two options. Either put in a disclaimer with every video, including a link to the company who created/published the games TOS. Or join a group like Machinima, or The Game Station.

Dhalphir

I wouldn't bother with the hassle. You are only going to be "monetizing" in the loosest definition of the word in that you will indeed make money. however you will not be able to use that money for anything more than perhaps a single busfare, and that if you save up for weeks or months.

TychoCelchuuu

Dhalphir wrote:

I wouldn't bother with the hassle. You are only going to be "monetizing" in the loosest definition of the word in that you will indeed make money. however you will not be able to use that money for anything more than perhaps a single busfare, and that if you save up for weeks or months.

You only get paid once you earn $100 worth of ad money, which is going to be never unless you're actually making content that gets views. It's not super difficult (I've earned $8 so far in October and I don't really put any work into my channel) but it's certainly not as easy as clicking the monetize button.

Morblitz

As a pretty regular viewer of youtube, and I'm sure we all are, I get really, really annoyed when I have to sit through an ad for a video with <10k views and is also shorter in length than a standard trailer. To me, the whole thing is obnoxious when it's used like that and I find that the more I see this trend, the less I want to keep using youtube. So with what everyone else has said, to me theres two problems: The money doesn't just roll in, and you may piss off anyone who has to sit through an ad for a 30 second video that hasn't exploded virally. It makes the point of it all get a bit murky.

Also whats the deal with skippable ads, sometimes they are, and frustratingly, most of the time they are not?

Edit: Apologies if this isn't in the scope of the thread.

TychoCelchuuu

Those fancy ads are for the higher earners, Arthil's ads would be the ones that pop up after you've watched about 10 seconds of the video and that you can immediately close.

Arthil

Yeah I mean if I were to do anything it'd be play-throughs/Let's Play sort of things. What's on there now is short, but that's just because it's only been me goosing around.

MKR

Arthil wrote:

I mean It's possible I could do commentary, my mic isn't the worst thing ever. Main difficulty would be getting the full version of FRAPS, honestly... which I'd planned on doing anyway.

Still going to poke around and look for any information I can find. For something involving advertisements, copyrights, and earning money they're pretty damned vague.

CamStudio is free.

Arthil

Does it provide the same quality? And can record voice/game sounds fine?

Essee

Arthil wrote:

Does it provide the same quality? And can record voice/game sounds fine?

I think it often even does better... I've seen plenty of people complaining about FRAPS (and you have to pay for it, too). I have no personal experience with it yet, but I've kept track of a lot of people who do Let's Plays and CamStudio seems to be excellent for the job.

MKR

Arthil wrote:

Does it provide the same quality? And can record voice/game sounds fine?

It looks like it'll record in any codec on your system at any quality they support.

Arthil

Gotta say I think the $37 will be worth is simply for the fact that at least Fraps is clear on how to use it. I've recorded multiple tests, but can't for the life of me find where the program is putting them.

MKR

Arthil wrote:

Gotta say I think the $37 will be worth is simply for the fact that at least Fraps is clear on how to use it. I've recorded multiple tests, but can't for the life of me find where the program is putting them.

Options->Program options->Directory for recording

Arthil

Okay well more importantly how do I record the sound from in-game, and perhaps even -more- importantly... what option do I tick so that a game like Minecraft wont even look laggy as all hell in the video? I've the sneaking suspicion this program isn't made to record games.

Edit: Yep, that put the nail in the coffin. Everything I've searched either seems to suggest not using it for game recordings, or it seems like all its good for is recording from emulators. Using Minecraft again as my test, I used Fraps to record the exact same things... and it was perfect. Sound came through, didn't look like a slideshow. As I said before I'd intended to get Fraps anyway.