What Does 'Monetize' Mean on YouTube?

Monetizing Content

'Monetizing' on YouTube refers to enabling YouTube to turn on advertisements on your videos. If you enable ads on your videos, you will earn a cut of the revenue earned from those ads. Not all videos can be monetized, and you must first go through the enabling process, but after you have done so you can enable ads on almost any new upload automatically, as well as monetize all past uploads.

Requirements

In order to be eligible, your videos must first adhere to the YouTube Community Guidelines. This means that all content must abide by YouTube's rules. Your content must also be completely your own -- you are not allowed to profit off of the work of others -- and must be advertiser friendly, which means that if you have any videos flagged for mature content, you cannot enable ads on them.

How to Enable Monetization

To enable ads, you must first have an AdSense account. If you don't have an AdSense account already, log in to your Google account and create one. You will need to provide your address and billing information to proceed, so you must be at least 18 years old to qualify. Once this is complete, you must connect your new AdSense account to your existing YouTube account. This can be done from your Monetization page in your Account Settings.

Monetization Limitations

There are a few different reasons why your account may be ineligible for monetization: if you have applied and been denied previously, or if your account is not in good standing -- for example, if you have had videos deleted for breaking the Community Guidelines. If this is the case, you may need to wait six months for the strikes to vanish from your account. In addition, you won't be eligible if you live in certain countries where monetization is not available.