Youtube Terminated My Account! *Official Survival & Prevention Guide*

Help! “Youtube Terminated My Account!” (Is this You?!)

For anyone who has used Youtube to build their online brand, create a better relationship with their followers and drive more targeted traffic to their website, you can only image the horror they would experience, if they woke up to their Youtube account terminated…

Youtube Account Termination Notice!

Scott Colby

This is EXACTLY what happened to one of our Video Traffic Academy members just a few short weeks ago.  His name is Scott Colby, he is a Fitness Guru and Abs Expert who uses his videos to teach workout and exercise tips that help shed that unwanted belly fat and get you in great shape!  Considering that he had been using Youtube for a few a years and has over 200 videos that total to over 1.5 Million Views, he was devastated when Youtube gave him the boot!  Not only was his channel gone, but the views, the traffic, even any videos he had embedded on his blog were suddenly non-existent!

This story does have a happy ending, and Scott was able to retrieve his account in just a few short days (more on that in a moment), but this is a serious issue, and innocent victims are being eliminated from Youtube’s database daily.  Individuals like Scott are good, honest people providing real, valuable content to the Youtube Community, so what happened?  Why did this happen?  …and more importantly, could it happen to you?

Account Termination Prevention:

The serious issue at hand is that anyone’s account is at the mercy of being terminated at the moment.  Yes, this means that your account could be next. (yikes!)  The good news is there are a few steps we can all take to play within Youtube’s rules and increase our chances of remaining active.  Although it is impossible to know exactly why Youtube is terminating & suspending so many accounts, nor is possible to know what criteria they look at to judge who is deemed “safe” or not, there are some clues that allow us to draw a few conclusions.

Youtube Terminated Account

It is safe to assume that Youtube is performing a bit of a “house-cleaning,” because there is a lot of junk out there.  With over 40 hours of footage uploaded every single minute, Youtube knows that a lot of this content comes from the Spammers & Scammers looking for quick traffic & easy affiliate money.  None of this stuff adds any real value to the community. As Youtube continues to evolve and play a major role on how mainstream media is distributed online (more on that in another article!), it would only be nature that they begin to “get rid of the crap.”

With this in mind, here are a few tips for  Preventing Youtube Account Termination:

1. Create “Videos of Value!”
If you are using Youtube to promote your business, then videos will highly reflect your personal brand.  You don’t want any content on your channel that is “spammy” or simply reeks of low-quality affiliate offers.  If your mother (or a high-paying client!) were to watch all of your videos, would they be proud of you, or dissapointed? Focus on giving value to your audience first and you’ll be aligned with Youtube’s rules & regulations! This is the easiest advice to give, but for some seems challenging to follow.  Are your videos all providing value?!

2. Watch for the Trigger Words!
One theory is that a few of these booted-accounts that are undeserving of termination have some similarities among them.  One of these similiarities refers to certain keyword phrases that automatically trigger a red flag such as “Make Money Online!” Ironically, in my interview with Scott Colby, he believes his account was terminated due to the use of a keyword phrase he used: “One Weird Trick.”  For those familiar with the fitness industry, that phrase has been over-used to sell and promote Scammy Acai-Berry Offers and other get-skinny-quick offers time and time again.  Could this be the source of Scott’s termination, no one will ever know!  But avoiding keyword phrases that could peak suspicion levels from Youtube would be very advantageous!

3. No Fake-Views or Fake Friends!
The magic word here is “Organic!” There are plenty of services that exist that will “ping” your videos again and again giving you plenty of fake views that don’t do anything but give you higher stats.  There are a LOT of factors to getting your videos viewed and buying fake views from a robot is NOT one of them.  So not only do these services not work or produce you any real results, they may also be another reason for Account Termination.  Avoid at all costs!  It’s simply not worth it.

4.   No Copyrighted Content!
This is another serious issue that Youtube Users are running into!  Avoid using any copyrighted material at all costs.  This includes music, video, pictures, etc.  Once you find a few resources for “safe” content, you won’t have to worry too much about this one.  I use iMovie’s Royalty Free Music Collection (comes with iMovie!) as well as Pond5.com for my music selections. (There are plenty of “royalty free music” resources available to you, just Google it!) Make sure your content is yours and 100% original-it’s just not worth the risk!

Gideon Shalwick’s Youtube Prevention Strategies

Gideon is a good friend and brilliant marketer!  And he recently created a GREAT video outlining some of the similiar content above as well as a few other strategies in a video.  I have posted it below for reference…

*Gideon also posted a blog post on Youtube Termination Prevention Here!

Youtube Account Redemption Action Guide

Everyone in the Video Traffic Academy Private Group was holding their breathe waiting to see if Scott would get his account back, and it was the biggest relief when he did!  So, that’s the good news! It IS possible to get your account back if you feel it has been wrongfully terminated.  Below is an extensive interview I did with Scott as he shares with us the exact steps he took to get his account back online!

Scott Colby’s Step-by-Step Account Re-Activation Process

Here are the exact steps that Scott took to get his account back…

1. Contact Youtube
As soon as Scott discovered his account had been terminated, he was given a link to a form that could be filled out on Youtube.  Although Scott admits that this first step had little (if any) effect on getting his account re-instated, he started by asking politely for more feedback as to why his account was deleted.  This is a great place to start, but don’t stop here…

2. Write an Open Letter to Youtube
Scott’s second step was to wrtie “An Open Letter to Youtube” asking for an explanation for why his account had been wrongly terminated.  The key here is to keep the letter friendly and kind.  Do not bad-mouth or discriminate against Youtube.  Upon posting this letter, prove to Youtube that you have a following and share this post to everyone in your Spehere of Influence AND request that they all leave comments!  Here is the exact post that Scott wrote on his blog: http://theabsexpert.com/blog/dear-youtube-why-did-you-dump-me-an-open-letter-to-youtube/

3. Write & Publish a Press Release
The third &  most-powerful step in Scott’s strategy was to write a “newsworthy” press release and get it syndicated on PRWeb.com  Scott went for one of the more expensive packages so his press release would be seen by more eyeballs.  Then he shared the press release with his fans and followers.  Seven hours later his account was back!  Here is the link to the press release Scott wrote: http://www.prweb.com/releases/youtube/bansfitnessaccount/prweb8931939.htm

4. Show Gratitude!
After Scott got his account back, he promptly wrote a blog post & created a video expressing his thanks to Youtube and his followers for all their support!  This is a simple yet extremely important step! …so don’t forget it! 

Final Thoughts…

Getting your Youtube Account Terminated is NOT fun! Do not risk this ever happening to you.  Follow our prevention-guidelines above to make sure you stay in alignment with Youtube’s true wishes for content-producers.  And if your account has already been terminated, follow the same steps as Scott did above and hope for the best!  If you have kept a backup of all your videos, at the very least you can start a new channel and begin re-uploading your videos.

I hope this post was of value to every Youtube User-not just those who have had their accounts terminated.

Related posts: