What’s really going on with these suspended accounts?
Hi all, I have been hearing all sorts of news about YouTube suspending several accounts that are related to the Internet Marketing Niche.
Many of them are my own marketer friends. Several of them High-end marketers.
Needless to say, this makes me nervous. Not just for you, me, my friends, but also for YouTube. If Youtube is doing this intentionally, then they are potentially shooting themselves in the foot. Who would want to risk loosing all of their video content?
Think about this…people with 300 videos, suddenly canceled…ouch!!!
I had a similar experience happen to me last year. Youtube, without warning, canceled my account. All of those YouTube videos were original tutorial videos, without third party music. They asked me to join the revenue sharing program, and then the next day a warning email, 2 hours later, complete suspension without an explanation. I tried to get in touch with YouTube, but just like Fort knocks, they were hard to crack.
I was distraught and dumbfounded as to why it happened. However after it did, it made me think.
Why did I just rely so heavily on YouTube’s platform?
(At the time I was writing my YouTube Revealed book. So I transitioned into writing a portion of it about how to avoid getting your account suspended and ways to use video on YouTube, but also video on your own site.)
I had to scramble to get all 60 videos that I had hosted with YouTube on my site, replaced. So after 3 days of having to re-upload all of the original video folders to now Amazon S3, It was finally done. Why did I use Amazon S3? Because it’s a cloud sever that you control-that you pay for. When I say pay, I mean literally pennies to use.
(Learn More About Amazon S3 Here.)
I realized that putting all my eggs in one basket (ie. YouTube ) created a big problem. Don’t get me wrong, I love YouTube. Well, love it and hate it. I have the capacity to use YouTube to gain access to the first page of Google within a particular niche. Some of my channels have videos that get thousands of visitors a day, that then filter that traffic back to my sites. But what I want you to do is think about this….Are you paying for YouTube?
Also, are you paying for Facebook? ( another topic onto itself)
You’re not paying a dime for use of the social media sites, so why do you think they own you anything? (I wish they did-I wish YouTube and Facebook were not free)
Even if you’re paying for promoted advertisement, you can still get your account removed. Either in Facebook or in YouTube. No one is safe.
So the bottom line is…
Don’t place your whole world into the huge social media sites without first knowledge and then protection, because your channel or account could be slashed next.
(You can learn how to exporting Facebook contacts here )
I created a small list of things that might help avoiding YouTube suspension and cancellation. This is for marketers, entrepreneurs, etc.
1. Avoid using anything that has to do with Money in the title of your channel. Or ‘making money online’—or ‘MARKETING’. Youtube hates claims. So if your channel is all about claiming that you can make someone 5000 in a minute , YouTube will see that as spam/scam.(even if it’s true)
2. Mix up your videos on your channel. If you are an internet marketer, try to vary your channel content. Don’t just have screen capture tutorials. Show yourself on screen. I know some of us are deathly afraid of doing this, but believe me, you want YouTube to see a person behind your channel. Put up family videos, impromptu videos directly to YouTube, Fun videos, etc. MIX IT UP.
3. If you are using automation software or are buying views. Stop!!! YouTube can tell when you buy views. Now some people think they can’t, but I am thinking it is best to avoid that issue. Automation software is best to avoid if you don’t know how to use it responsibly.
4. Avoid keyword spamming. Try to have your video keywords relevant to your video. Don’t have a video about kittens and then throw in a long tail keyword about ‘making money online’. That’s a bit obvious!
5. Don’t over keyword ‘make money online’, ‘how to make money’, ‘internet marketing’ , ‘online marketing’…The reason I say this is because if there is/are, Rogue Spammers out there creating dummy channels in the thousands, using automated flagging software to purposefully remove marketer’s accounts, the way they are doing that is through specific keyword targeted videos. So, lighten those keywords up, because if it they are targeting your keywords then your account could be next.
6. If YouTube asks you to join the revenue sharing program, think before you leap. If you are a marketer, once you allow YouTube to dig deeper into your videos and business, that increases your chance of getting canceled. Even if you have never done anything even mildly suspicious, occasionally, you are clumped together into that ‘con-artist’ mentality that Marketers, MLMer’s and Networkers get a bad rap for which dates back to what happened during the “Dot-Com” era. (come on guys that was like 10 years ago, enough already). If you have videos that are doing well, and YouTube asks you to join the revenue sharing program, think about what happened to me. Be careful. The only thing you get out of the partnership program (unless you have 10 million visitors and 100k subscribers ) is a cool clickable banner. (Ok, you also get better customer service and the chance to be featured more, but for marketers…do you want to take that risk). Also the revenue sharing is not great, especially not great enough to where all of your valuable video real estate can be wiped away without a second glance. Please be aware that only until this blows over, or I get in touch with YouTube and they ease my concern on the subject of marketer targeting, my stance remains the same-Caution!
7. Finally, today I’ve decided to close up some of my well-performing videos that are associated with online marketing and make them private. If the public can’t see my videos, then a potential software can’t scour and flag them. (at least I hope that’s the case)
Sometimes when there are riots in the street, best thing to do is pull down the metal gates and close shop…
Good luck everyone. Please let me know what is happening with you on this subject and comment here and on facebook with your experiences.
Questions, I also welcome them.
Cheers,
Casey
Great post – thanks Casey. I take your point about free services such as YouTube and Facebook. The real problem is we all tend to rely on them heavily but they can drop us in an instant. There’s a good deal of hypocrisy in the way they behave – taking the moral high-ground over legitimate marketers but being total bullies when it suits them.
I wrote about this a few weeks ago on my blog (I understand if you moderate the link) http://leighbeckett.com/facebooks-deaf-auditorium/
Thanks Leigh for sharing. Yes you are right. I was holding a ton of resentment about Youtube as well when my account was initially suspended last fall. I have a full book and video course about YouTube Marketing, and in it I show the love and the hate I had with YouTube. In the course and book I show more ways other then this how you can avoid being suspended. Looks like I didnt launch it soon enough. 🙁
PayPal, YouTube…what’s next? Your cheapo web hosting service 🙂
Joke aside, it occurred to me to search for Tellman Knudson’s videos because they always show him do some crazy things first before he impart some short IM nuggets later. It’s one way to be less direct than a business-like approach and he’s not banned yet thankfully. (YouTube staff, you better not read this!)
I think the lesson here is to take a roundabout or less direct approach to presenting a business via video marketing, at least on YouTube.
In my free 73-page “Dominate Niches With Video Marketing”, I hope to share some ideas on how to make quality videos without being to obvious about wanting to convert a sale or subscription:
http://www.internetmasterycenter.com/videomarketing
dude you need to go back over your article you have 4 or so spelling mistakes
Done and Done, Thanks Paul , i wrote it frantically yesterday. Can you check it again for me? If you have time.
Hey Casey
Thanks for highlighting this situation about YouTube. I had my YouTube account with 91 videos closed down on Monday of this week.
I didn’t get any warning at all, no emails – NOTHING. I have been frantically trying to get in touch with them ever since.. No replies to my email, no acknowledgement whatsoever.
Interestingly enough, just a week after agreeing to join YouTube’s partner program.
Having your YouTube account shut down without warning can be devastating, especially if you are an active marketer who posts a lot of videos on your own blogs and in your guest posts on other people’s blogs.
It has literally taken me days so far to upload all the videos again to a new Youtube Channel, and also to another video sharing site (Viddler)as a backup.. Then to re embed all the posts that now contain non working videos.
But worse is the loss of traffic and all the great comments, etc..
My guess is, if this isn’t multi flagging software that is doing this, then maybe YouTube are either looking at Marketers in general, perhaps the “Make Money” niche as you say.
This could be in advance of impending new legislation regarding claims of income on websites (perhaps videos too)coming in.
I really don’t know why I got suspended, my content is all about instructing people on how to do things, they are not Spammy videos selling crap like a lot of videos out there on YouTube on NON suspended accounts.
My advice would be to back up all your videos onto a device other than your computer, some sort of external hard drive, just in case your computer dies. Use YouTube to show your videos but get another video sharing site too as a backup, or use Amazon S3, via EVP.
And if you are embedding videos (which apparently is against YouTube’s TOC’s) don’t 100% embed YouTube videos, because if they shut you down – you may have a hell of a lot of work after the fallout.
I hope this doesn’t happen to you, but if it does, I just want you to know, their is life after YouTube.. yes they are the biggest, but they are also the most arrogant, treating customers like they just don’t matter.
Keith
Keith my friend. how devastating. I know the experience. It was after they asked me to join the revenue sharing program the first time did that occur. So I am cautioning everyone to avoid joining the partnership program if they are being asked. And yes, put your videos up on youtube still but if you are going to have videos on your site, the best thing you can do for yourself is embed the video on your site from a source such as amazon s3. just like you Keith, i had to REDO all of my website videos and then also re-deposit all of that video real estate back into youtube on a different channel. And you didn’t get any emails?? WOW. Sorry Man.
This is an interesting post.