YouTube Terms Violation. Do Not “Sub For Sub” Subscribing Can Get Channel Terminated

 

As a social media manager and YouTube channel video creation coach, I want to share something with you that can really break your chances of growing money-making ad revenue YouTube Channel. I see all kinds of hacks and ways for users to try to grow their channel to meet YouTube’s criteria for monetization.  I am going to share my opinion and share a few YouTube links with you to back up and support this.

Over the past 2 years, YouTube has grown in epic proportions. Just look at these stats

YouTube has paid out millions of dollars in ad revenue to creators. It’s a big business. YouTube creator economy flourishes with $30 billion.

YouTube has also removed millions of videos and terminated millions of accounts. Read the numbers here.

Before you can collect ad revenue from YouTube you must first meet the requirements to apply to have your channel monetized. To get your channel monetized you need 1000 subscribers and 4000 viewing hours in a calendar year. Read more here.

First, let me say this. People will be willing to do anything to get where they want to go, even if it means breaking the rules. I guess they feel like it’s worth the risk. I am going to share something I see across social media on a daily basis that can result in getting your channel terminated, and thousands and thousands of people end up in trouble by participating in the most popular method of growing a channel. I see this in Facebook groups, on pages, in ad promotions, and in a lot of other places. I often wonder how promoting “Sub4Sub” is allowed to pass and get out as much as it does. 

When you see a group post asking you to put your channel link below to get subscribers, run! Do not put your link in the thread.

It is called “Sub4Sub” This is sharing your YouTube link in a group or thread post offering to subscribe to another creator’s channel solely in exchange for them subscribing to your channel, also known as “Sub4Sub,” is not allowed. Creators who offer such exchanges risk losing subscriber numbers, receiving a Terms of Use strike, or even having their channel terminated.

 You can find more information here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6051134

When creators use “sub4sub” to get more subscribers on YouTube, not only it is ineffective in getting subscribers who will actually watch your videos, but it violates YouTube’s Community Guidelines, which is grounds for a YouTube Community Guidelines strike and eventually having your channel terminated.  It falls under YouTube’s Spam, deceptive practices, & scams policies. 

Here are a few links:

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2801973?hl=en

https://www.youtube.com/howyoutubeworks/policies/community-guidelines/

You get a warning and three strikes before a channel is terminated. You can get a Community guidelines strike or a copyright strike, depending on what you have violated.

Read the details about the “Spam, deceptive practices & scams policies,” section of YouTube’s Community Guidelines: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2801973?hl=en

Additionally, services that attempt to boost YouTube subscriber numbers through automated means or via a marketplace violate our Terms of Service, such as:

• Purchasing subscribers from third-party websites

• “Sub4sub” exchanges and services from third-party websites that subscribe you to multiple channels which then subscribe to you back

Professionally speaking, I train my YouTube clients to use all organic methods to grow a channel. You can post your links all over social media, ask friends to promote your channel, put links on blogs, websites, in groups, and more! It’s okay to subscribe to a friend’s channel and vice versa, or to ask your audience to subscribe to your channel. However, if you do this as part of exchange it’s not allowed.”

Fake engagement includes subscriber count. CLICK HERE TO READ

This paragraph below is a direct quote citing from Google’s YouTube Support. Quote from here

“YouTube doesn’t allow anything that artificially increases the number of views, likes, comments, or other metrics either by using automatic systems or serving up videos to unsuspecting viewers. Also, content that solely exists to incentivize viewers for engagement (views, likes, comments, etc) is prohibited.”

“Content and channels that don’t follow this policy may be terminated and removed from YouTube.”

I was part of a Facebook Group “YouTube For Real Estate Agents” owned by a Real Estate YouTube Coach who offered paid services to coach agents on growing YouTube Channels. In the group, posts would encourage agents in a post feed to subscribe to each other and post their links. Agents were getting hundreds of subscribers daily, Sadly, a lot of agents in the group had their channel terminated. Then they did post a notice not to do it. I still see some people saying they are getting flagged by YouTube from participating in the group follow threads.

My advice is don’t do this. Your views will go down because you will only have a bunch of Subs with no video views.

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below, and let’s discuss this topic.