YouTube Reduces Monetization Requirements, Time Removes Paywall, and 2 Weird Niche Sites

<p><!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Interested in setting up a YouTube channel?</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Spencer and co-host Jared Bauman of <a href= "https://www.nichepursuits.com/201creative" target="_blank" rel= "noreferrer noopener nofollow">201 Creative</a> explore some exciting updates for content creators today on Niche Pursuits News.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>First up is a new announcement from YouTube that they're lowering the threshold for channel monetization!</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>While content creators used to need 1000 subscribers and 4000 long-form watch hours, now you need just 500 subscribers and 3000 long-form watch hours in the last 12 months to start earning money on the platform.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Jared and Spencer talk about why they think YouTube changed the rules, and they also discuss other ways to monetize using the platform, such as channel memberships.</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Then they move on to talk about how <em>Time</em> magazine <a href= "https://www.axios.com/2023/04/27/time-removes-digital-paywall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced its plans</a> to remove its digital paywall and give everyone their content for free. Their plan is to monetize with display ads, using the same model many bloggers and content creators are using. </p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>The hosts move on to discuss data in a SEMRush report that revealed interesting statistics about search engine users, like the percentage who change their keywords before clicking and how very few searches led to clicks on the first result in the SERPs in 2022. It’s clear that user patterns of search are changing. What does this mean for us?</p> <p><!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --></p> <p>Jared and Spencer also discuss a recent article in <a href= "https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-aims-to