You’ve probably all seen the incredible YouTube stats…over 3 billion views a day, content upload every week that’s equivalent to 240,000 full length films, and so on.
And if you’re going to do use Video in your Content Marketing then YouTube should be one of the primary channels you explore, as it’s the 800lb gorilla of Video Marketing.
But there’s a caveat that comes with YouTube:
You Don’t Own Your YouTube Channel
Effectively you rent your YouTube channel from Google (the owners of YouTube). And the lease fee is that you upload interesting content for users of YouTube – and that you don’t contravene the Terms Of Service.
So always have that in the back of your mind. The guys at Copyblogger call people who build their primary web presence on other platforms (e.g. Facebook, Tumblr, blogs hosted by WordPress or Blogger, etc) Digital Sharecroppers.
What’s The Big Deal With Being A ‘Digital Sharecropper?’
The big deal is this – because you don’t own your YouTube channel, you’ve no control over it.
Imagine this ‘worst case’ scenario: you spend a year adding a video a week to your channel and building up your following and then bang out of the blue you get an email from YouTube saying something like this:
“Dear User – Your account has been suspended for 6 months.”
And then you found that not only could you not log in to your YouTube account, but that there’s a message that says something like this:
“This Video has been removed as a violation of YouTube’s policy against spam, scams, and commercially deceptive content. Sorry about that.”
Think that can’t happen to you – then go read this post by Darren Rowse of Problogger:
Dear YouTube: You Broke My Heart
And yep, that’s the Darren Rowse and the Problogger. Now Darren’s story had a happy ending – because his fan base took to Twitter and caused enough of a bad PR he got his account reinstated within 12 hours. Almost certainly you WON’T be so lucky.
To stop this happening to YOU, you need Account Suspension Insurance!
So What ‘Account Suspension Insurance’ Can You Take Out?
Despite this potential headache, here’s a 4 Step Plan of simple things you can do now to mitigate this disaster if it ever happens:
- Don’t make videos that contravene YouTube’s terms of service. This especially means no copyrighted material (music and images), and nothing that’s too overtly commercial. YouTube is a social media website, not a place for you to store your videos for free and piggyback off their bandwidth. If you want to make some commercial videos as part of your marketing blend….self host them. If in doubt, don’t post to YouTube.
- If your videos are less than 100 mb in size and 10 minutes in length, then sign up for a free account at TubeMogul and upload your videos there first. Not only does this count as a back up, but you can also upload your videos to sites other than YouTube. Then if the worst ever happens, then it’s relatively simple to start over. (Remember I said relatively simple, it’s still a major PITA).
- Have back ups of every video you make. On your computer. And on external hard drives. And – for the ultra paranoid (like me) – on Amazon’s S3 server. (It’s cheap and easy to use).
- This is the most important tip – make sure you are posting calls to action on your channel page and in your videos to get people off YouTube, and to your website and subscribing to your list. Then if the worst happens…you’ve got a list of names and email addresses to market too.
Summary
You don’t own your YouTube channel. Never forget that. Make my 4 Step ‘Account Suspension Insurance Plan’ an integral part of your video marketing strategy.
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{ 15 comments }
Wow,
I’m definitely glad I keep backups of every video I post to YouTube… How terrible would that be to lose everything.
Thanks for the Heads Up Paul.
Ryan H.
Ryan
Although it’s not common….it CAN happen. Have a read of the Terms and Conditions….and check your accoutn status from time to time.
Paul
This is an excellent point. Same goes for hosts like eBay. You can build a business using their service but it can all be taken away in a heartbeat. Insurance is essential!
Thanks for the reminder Paul.
Hey Honor
Yep – you always have to bear in mind that essentially you’re building a part of YouTube’s platform, and not your own. So always back up…and just as importantly, always be finding ways to steer people back to your website.
Looking forward to meeting you in Guildford.
Paul
Looking forward to Guildford too! Stoked that you’ll be there too
Hey Paul,
Thank you for the incredible advice with your 4-part account suspension insurance, really spot on.
I do have one small question regarding this matter though, I uploaded a quick video for Christmas and after a few days I started receiving this ‘warning’ about possibly having copyrighted material (music) on that video.
The video was made with a third party company, with a paid membership and I even paid a little extra for downloading the video along with rights AND music.
At first I was concerned but then I thought ‘what the heck, I paid for this’ and just forgot about it. However, I know that YouTube has closed accounts without prior notice and I mean like huge big revenue accounts, so do you think I should remove that video and stay clear instead?
I’d hate that because like I said before, I paid for that but I rather take it off than risking my account to get banned.
My YT account doesn’t have many videos or anything but it is branded with my “ITSergioFelix” handle and it is already beyond the 15 minute limit (something that was very hard to achieve due to some technical restrictions for Mexico) so I want to make sure I’m not playing with fire here.
Thanks in advance and have a great start of week mate!
Sergio
Hey Sergio
If you go into your account on Youtube you can check whether your account is in ‘good standing’ or not. Some ‘matched content’ may be ok (note i said ‘may’). And the copyright policies of the people who claim the copyright can change over time. Plus you can also dispute the copyright claim in Youtube.
Paul
Awesome, thank you for your lightning fast response Paul.
I do have the alert box with the ‘matched content’ message but I guess I’m going to leave it there anyway.
Sergio
Paul,
This is so true. Pretty much on the same day Darren Rowse got his account closed (temporarily) I got mine closed on youtube (permanently). I still feel I did nothing wrong except having “make money” in one of the video titles. Slightly spammy keywords, but the content was solid.
Of course for a “little” guy like me I couldn’t get anyone at youtube to tell me why, and no way were they reinstating it.
While Youtube (and Google, and blogger, and all other means to get traffic) I agree that it is essential that you
1. Diversify: having all your eggs in any one basket is just asking for trouble
2. Play by their rules.
Your “account insurance” tips are great ways to ensure that you don’t get dinged. I would add staying away from any topics that can even vaguely be seen as spammy… even if you are trying to be strait-forward about it. (like my “make money” video that I think may have caused the problem.
Acai Berry for instance is a well known spammy keywords. You could easily have a video talking about what a scam and spam it is and using it as a point of what not to do online. But if Youtube sees those words “Acai Berry” in the description or Title, it could bust your entire account.
As you pointed out, it is wise to simply air on the side of caution.
Thanks for some great tips on Youtube. I am sure these will really help people to avoid the hassle I went through a few months ago
Hey Steve
I didn’t know you’d had your account suspended. Was this your affiliate website account or your ‘Steve Scott’ website?
The playing by the rules would seem to be common sense…yet I see regular forum posts at the good ole Warrior Forum of people asking if they can do things that are patently spammy. (My ‘favourite’ bad example was a guy who asked if it was acceptable to download someone else’s video and then put HIS website URL on it and re-upload it. Incredible.)
People need to remember that YouTube is a social media platform – and not a place where you can freely piggy back on their traffic and bandwidth.
Good to see ya…
Paul
Hey Paul,
You are right. We must be very careful when uploading our videos to Youtube. Fortunately, I haven’t add any bad experience with You tube (that might be because I haven’t done much Video marketing). But, I have heard various instances of Google deleting Youtube channels, Blogger blogs etc (it must be a really bad experience – especially, if you don’t have any backup of your videos).
I think videos are a great way to market our content. I will surely give it a try. Thanks for all the tips
Youtube will delete people’s accounts if they are not careful. So you have to be careful….and have back up plans in place!
Good article, Paul.
We must also keep in mind that TubeMogul and everyone else has Terms too, not just YouTube. Make a pot of coffee and get reading.
You mention S3. That is a very good place to put your videos. I also like your suggestion about getting your visitor off YouTube, actually off anything and on to your site.
Hey Morris
Getting visitors AWAY from YoUTube and too your website is utterly crucial IMO. And the Terms Of Service thing is just as crucial….it’s just come back to bite me on teh backside….I;’ll write about it this week.
Paul
This scares me because i link to the youtube videos and put them in my blog post. I always have copies of all my videos on my computer and a seperate hard drive so no worries there. is it better to go self hosted on my blog and still upload to all the video services? I wonder.
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