 To monetize or not to monetize that is the question Okay, maybe that isn't quite how Shakespeare said it but guys in today's video on best practices for avoiding spam We're gonna talk about whether or not it's good to monetize your videos or not monetize them Now I get it if you guys are watching this video chances are in 99 out of 100 of you If not all of you do monetize your videos your freedom partners you want to you know follow the best practices great Don't feel bad about that in fact feel good about that because the short answer is yes You should monetize your videos and almost all circumstances now with that out of the way I know me personally and probably you guys too. We get a lot of comments on videos that say hey I just do this because I love to make videos. I don't want to make any money at it So I'm an amateur and you know, I don't monetize my videos and great And you know what there's nothing wrong with that again There's nothing wrong with that if you're not doing this I'll address this first if you're not making videos because you love to do it You're probably in the wrong business or you're doing the wrong thing with your time You got to do this because you love doing it first and foremost if you make money at it great If you can support a family great if you come a superstar awesome, but most importantly enjoy what you do That's probably why you're doing this and I support you completely in that that being said like I said those types of comments Do get me thinking personally like what if I didn't monetize my videos? Would I actually get more views? short answer No, you will get fewer of yours and fewer views and here's why let's do a quick thought experiment Two videos are made one by you one by me your video is a follow-up for a video And it just came out and it's got great content. My video is a follow-up for video. I just posted it It's got great content. They're almost exactly the same to YouTube and Google The only difference is your video is monetized my video is not when somebody searches for what our types of videos Which one is Google gonna show the monetized video or the non-monetized video easy answer They're always gonna show the monetized video. Why because Google and YouTube aren't charities They do this to make money. They do charitable things no doubt, but at the end of the day They want to make money. They got to do that So they are gonna show your video over mine, even though I don't want to make money or etc Your video still gonna get shown So if you're not monetizing your videos and I understand why you're not doing it and it is noble My recommendation to you is to go ahead and monetize your videos and then send that money Whatever you make to a charity that you support or a cause that you support Just because you will get more views if you're monetized just from a simple business perspective That's pretty much a fact. So go ahead monetize give your money or whatever you make send it to charity Etc. Etc. And then if you do monetize your videos, don't feel bad about it. Feel good about it It's good for you because the more people that see your videos the more Influence you have the more clouds you have the more people that get your message see what you do and at the end of the day That matters too. All right guys that out of the way Let's talk about this second spam indicator or best practice as we like to call it around here that you should be aware of Alright guys this second best practice is not putting dollar signs in your title descriptions or your video descriptions are on your about us page We're on the topic of money and monetizing so this makes sense guys If you've got a dollar sign in your in your name or in your title description unless you're Kesha Don't do it. Here's why YouTube flags that type of stuff traditionally dollar signs and stuff like that are Not linked directly, but they're very very correlated with spammy sites with spam sites that like to do affiliate scams Or they like to send people to their website and then try and sell them products that are scammy I'm not saying all that everybody that does that Everybody that has a dollar sign does that they don't but it is linked with that or it's correlated with that And they do put them under the microscope So I'm gonna assume that you're not that kind of video maker So if you have the choice of putting it in there or not putting it in there simply don't do it also Channels that have zero monetized videos that I mean zero Those are also we looked at and kind of frowned upon too because that's also a scammy slash You know spammy tactic why channels that don't care about making money on YouTube Well, they'll just batch upload a bunch of copycat videos not turn the monetization button on assuming that they're not gonna get caught And then they're gonna try and drive traffic through annotations and links in their descriptions And and links on their about page to a website or some sort of web Property that they can go ahead and then make money off that often in illegitimate way. So guys, that's my advice to you today Monetize your videos if you don't feel good about making money off of it give it to charity But click that yes switch guys. This is your boy, big C. I'll be back more with some more videos. Check it out