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Why Ethiopia is a gold mine country to make money online?
Did you know more than 1.9 billion users visit YouTube each month? That is roughly half of the internet users.
Even though half of the internet users are on YouTube to entertain and get information worldwide, there are still comparable channel owners (YouTubers) and creators trying to get some eyes. So there is still high competition for viewers.
Luckily that is not the case in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is one of the countries that have a high fraction of YouTube viewers compared to channel owners.
That means if you decide to start a youTube channel, Ethiopia is a gold mine. You can find a lot of visitors with lesser effort than any other country in the world.
And that is because of the simple fact that Ethiopia has higher YouTube visitors and lower YouTube channel owners.
Does it mean it is easy to make money on YouTube in Ethiopia?
When I interview those 5 popular Ethiopian YouTubers, I do understand one thing. Making money on YouTube is not an easy job to do. Even if you live in a country with low competition, you still need to do hard to get views and subscribers.
You don’t need to beg for subscribers to be successful YouTubers. Content matters. And also originality & patience.
If you think you will get views the next day, that is not the case. Just like any other business, it needs time and effort. You might not get any result until a year or so.
In general, just know you might work for months before getting your first cent. If you are not ready, find another way. But if you are determined, that is good. Let’s pass on the requirement to start making money on YouTube in Ethiopia.
What are the minimum eligibility requirements to start making money on YouTube in Ethiopia?
- You should live in an eligable country.
- Have more than 4,000 valid watch hours in the last 12 months.
- Have more than 1,000 subscribers.
- A linked AdSense account – according to the new YouTube rule, you need to achieve a 4000-hour view and 1000 subscribers to link to the AdSense account. It makes sense because what is the point of linking AdSense if you are not ready to display the ad on your channel.
- Your channel should follow YouTube monetization policies. It includes community guidelines, terms of service, copyright, and Google AdSense program policies. You can click on the links are read more.
what are eligible countries?
There are hundreds of eligible countries. But Ethiopia is not one of them. That is one of the big problems.
Ethiopia is not one of the YouTube eligible countries. That means the YouTube partner program is not available in Ethiopia.
For years (one of the popular Ethiopian YouTubers) accepted this truth and wait until Ethiopia become one of the eligible countries for the YouTube partner program. Four years later, he finds out there is one easy trick. And using that you can make money on Youtube while living in Ethiopia.
Before telling you the trick, you need to understand one thing. The trick is not legit and YouTube can delete your channel anytime. But almost all Ethiopian YouTubers use this method to make money on YouTube.
The trick is just changing your channel country to another eligible country like Kenya or the USA for example. That way you can pass the first step of the monetization process.
I still don’t understand how Google fall for that though. Google (which owns a YouTube company) uses a sophisticated algorism to detect your country while using the internet from the IP address. But for some reason, I have never heard a single YouTube channel closed due to this reason.
Anyways after taking care of the country eligibility issue by changing your country to another eligible country, you need to make sure to fulfill other requirements.
How long does it take to get 1,000 subscribers and 4000 valid watch hours?
The time highly depends on your effort and your content type.
For example, in Ethiopia, entertainment and news channel have more viewers. So focus on those niches, do keyword research before making your video, and upload more quality videos as much as possible.
I would say the video quality shouldn’t matter at first. Go and see every channel’s first few videos, they look outdated right. These things will be corrected along the way.
Of course quality matters for your success but it is not a requirement at first.
Doing all that, your channel should be able to exceed the magic number with in 8 – 12 months. Again as I told you earlier, it might be higher or lower than that.
In the meantime make sure you enable eligibility notification. That means you don’t need to check your subscriber number and watching hour every day. Youtube will send you a reminder when it reaches the number of eligibility.
To turn on the notification
- Click on your profile picture found in the top right corner
- Click on YouTube studio –> monetization
- Then click on ‘Notify me when I’m eligible’.
- Then you will get the notification when the number is full.
What should I do after I get the required number of subscribers and views?
After you get 1000 subscribers and 4000 valid watch hours, you need to link your AdSense account with YouTube.
If you already have an Adsense account, you don’t need to create another account. It is not allowed to have 2 Adsense accounts. You can always add channels and websites to a single account.
So if you already have an Adsense account, just link your YouTube channel with it.
If you don’t have an AdSense account, click here to learn how. (But make sure you fill in the correct information like your country and address on Adsense. Because even if Ethiopia is not eligible for YouTube, AdSense accepts Ethiopia as a country. and also AdSense uses the information to verify your account and send the money you make so you should fill the country as Ethiopia on AdSense.)
What do I do after I link my channel with AdSense?
So far, you fill another eligible country, get 1000 subscribers and 4000 views and link Adsense account and make sure your channel follows YouTube monetization policies.
That means you already complete the requirements.
So the next step is getting reviewed.
After you sign the YouTube partner program terms and connect an AdSense account, your channel will automatically be put in a review queue.
YouTube will check your channel content to check if it follows all the guidelines. The review process takes up to 1 month. Sometimes even more than that. Then they will send you an acceptance email.
What if I am rejected? What should I do before re-apply?
If you are rejected, that means a significant portion of your channel doesn’t meet the guideline.
But don’t worry. You can re-apply 30 days after the rejection by improving your site.
To improve your site you need to read your rejection email first. They usually write the reason for rejection.
You can also review your videos against the policies and try to identify the problem. And delete if any video is against the policy and guidelines of Youtube. Then re-apply after 30 days.
What are different methods of making money after you are accepted to the youtube partner program?
There are around five methods of making money in the YouTube partner program.
- Advertising with Google AdSense
- Channel memberships – If you prepare a membership content and get paid from monthly recurring payment. To get payment from membership you need to be at least 18 years old and have more than 30,000 subscribers.
- Merch shelf – You can sell your brand to your fans. For example, a teeshirt that has your channel name or motto. To sell your product on Youtube you need to be at least 18 years old and have more than 10,000 subscribers.
- Super chat & Super stickers – Your fans pay to get their messages highlighted in chat streams. But you need to be at least 18 years old and you must live in a country where the super chat is available.
- YouTube Premium Revenue – Get part of a YouTube Premium subscriber’s subscription fee when they watch your content.
Sadly from the above methods only AdSense is allowed in Ethiopia.
That means you will allow AdSense to Advertise on your channel and get paid with clicks or views. The payment varies depending on the minute advert seen on your channel and the country where it is shown. Ethiopia has a lower-paid rate than the USA.
for example, many popular Ethiopian YouTubers is currently making around 150 – 200 dollars per month just with ads.
It will not bring tons of money to an account. But it is something.
Is there any method of making money online in Ethiopia without accepted to the Youtube partner program?
Yes. There is a way. But it is not as passive and as easy as AdSense money.
Read this article to know different ways of Making Money on YouTube Besides the Partner Program.
