On the 13th April 2012 YouTube announced that they would be extending the partnership program to everyone but what did this actually mean? Loads of users presumed that they were a full partner but this isn’t true.

Here are the facts: YouTube did not make everyone a partner, all they did was allow any account to monetize their videos straightaway. Since the end of last year YouTube was introducing this slowly across existing accounts and now it is open to all without meeting any criteria.

Full YouTube partnership is still available but in a different capacity, YouTube have taken away the partnership apply form which means you don’t have to apply to become a partner but instead YouTube will invite you to become a partner.

The new partnership level is nothing new and isn’t really partnership it just means your account is monetized and your able to make money by placing ads on your videos. Also with this level you will NOT get any extra features like a channel banner or scheduled uploads, these features are only available for FULL partnership accounts.

I have personally tested this on a new account and without uploading a video I had all options to monetize and when I uploaded my first video I was able to monetize that video straightaway.

I guess YouTube got users hopes up but on the bright side, your able to make money from your videos straightaway without meeting a criteria.