Are you a YouTube Partner without branding options?
Let me guess – your account is enabled for monetization and you just went to use some of the other YouTube Partner features such as branding and promotion but they were unavailable for you?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
My YouTube account has been enabled for monetization for over a year now and I just assumed that I was a “full YouTube Partner” with all of the bells and whistles.
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When I accessed the YouTube Partner sign-up page and clicked on “get started” it just took me to my YouTube account settings confirming that I was authorized for monetization. Great.
Well today, after a lot of digging, I stumbled upon a thread informing me that after April 12, 2012, branding options were disabled for new YouTube Partners.
Remember – I’m just the messenger here.
YouTube posted an official article documenting the changes and did not highlight the fact that they were removing the option for YouTube Partners to upload custom banners. They did, however, release this subtle statement regarding YouTube Partner branding options in the future:
“We also recognize that custom thumbnails and banners are sought-after features by many creators. We are working on making these and other features available to more newly-made partners over time, like we have done with long uploads and monetization.“
This was a big disappointment for me when I found out and I hate to be the bearer of bad news but at least you can stop searching your YouTube channel for the branding features.
I’ll update this article as more information becomes available!
