Do YouTubers get paid for likes?
I get asked thousands of times, thousands of random questions. So, I thought I’d start answering them directly.
Do YouTubers Get Paid For Likes?
In fact, if you have a question that you’d like answered, leave it in the comment section of the video, and I’ll make a dedicated response just to that, just for you. And of course, anybody else that wants to hear the answer.
So, do YouTubers get paid for likes?
YouTube is a weird platform. It’s all based on engagement. So based on who watches, how long they watch and how they interact with you. No doubt, many of times you’ve sat there and you’ve watched PewDiePie or MrBeast, or you’ve watched people like Graham Stephan, and they’re always like “Smash that like button, help me in the YouTube algorithm.”
They’re not too far off the truth if I’m honest, but there’s not a monetary value.
You clicking on that like button down there, you know, just test to see how the button works.
You clicking on that little button down there and turning it blue hasn’t made me any money. That won’t directly pay me 10 cents, that won’t give me coffee or an ice tea at the end of the day. But what it does do is show YouTube that I’m engaging enough to warrant some kind of emotional response, whether it’s a like, or a dislike, whether it’s a comment, whether it’s a share. And that engagement is very good for a YouTuber.
Let’s say that this video is 10 minutes long. I hope it’s not, but let’s say this video is 10 minutes long and you watch it for nine and a half minutes, and then you leave a comment, and then you click on another suggested video that I’m talking about at the end or on the right-hand side.
Well, that shows YouTube that I was able to bring you in, engage you for long enough to care to leave a comment, and then leave based on the suggestions that I’ve given you or the suggestions they have on the right-hand side.
You may have flipped off to one of my videos, or you may be on a video IQ,, or you’ve dived into a PewDiePie video.
YouTube doesn’t necessarily matter where you disappear to just yet. They like the fact that I’ve brought you in, engaged with you, kept you happy enough to want to watch more on YouTube, and then disappear.
So that Like, it’s kind of a small endorsement of that video, but, and this is where people get it twisted. So there’s a Dislike. Is that engagement enough that you felt that what I’ve communicated with you is either right or wrong, where you agree or you disagree, or you’re leaving a downvoting some way shape or form?
Maybe, I’ve asked, “If you like cheese, click vote up, and if you hate cheese, click vote down.”
That’s what you need to bear in mind. It’s an engagement. You’ve made people feel something enough that they’ve not just ignored the video and bounced away after 30 seconds, they physically had to go out of their way to press something on their screen or click something on their computer.
It’s this engagement that then YouTube evaluates.
So, let’s say this video gets 10,000 views and there is 8,000 likes and 2,000 dislikes and hundreds of thousands of comments.
YouTube looks at that and goes, “Okay, 8,000 likes 2,000 dislikes, that’s 10,000 like dislikes, and then there are hundreds of thousands of comments. Okay? So this is clearly engaging enough that people want to ask questions and have a conversation compared to another video where there are 10,000 views, but no likes, no dislikes, no comments. Nobody cares enough to engage. Nobody cares enough to comment or question or build some kind of discussion.”
So the video with likes, dislikes and comments will always rank over the one that doesn’t have any engagement.
What you should be focusing on is audience retention and engagement, and not have to worry about, “Oh, if I click on that, he’s going to get paid.”
Yes, if a video does better in search, and gets more views because of it, then maybe more people will see the adverse place against it, and then they will get paid.
Or in the case of some channels, it’s not about the adverts. Maybe they’ve turned off adverts entirely. What they’re trying to do is engage enough to build the brands, that in the long run, you trust them to buy coaching from them or some kind of thumbnail pack in which you want to improve your thumbnails, and maybe there’s a link in the description, and if there isn’t, keep checking my website in the future.
So that Like in itself, that individual click that you’re just about to leave on this video… No, doesn’t pay me directly, but in the long run it could help me make more money and that’s the same with any other YouTuber and any other video online.
Final Words
Now, if you want your question answered directly and in depth, leave it in the comment section below. I don’t care what it is. It could be as stupid or as simple as you think it needs to be. I can clarify it for you, and then maybe we can make a habit out of these frequently asked questions deep dives, or you can binge this video right here and this playlist on how to make better videos.
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