YouTube cracked down on Gleam, a popular contest management service, in early 2019. Two dozen small content creators got community guideline warnings for having Gleam links in the description. Nobody cared about them. When JayzTwoCents got a warning for using Gleam for his giveaway, it became a real big deal. He could have avoided the warning if he had paid attention to YouTube policy changes. I’ll explain what happened then, what changed since then, and JayzTwoCents’s new giveaway.
Gleam 2019
YouTube made two policy changes in early 2019.
A three strikes policy for violating community guidelines. The first violation would result in a one-time warning. Three consecutive violations in a 90-day period would result in the following consequences.
- A one-week freeze on uploading new content and livestreaming.
- A two-week freeze on uploading new content and livestreaming.
- Channel termination.
This policy doesn’t apply to 98% of content creators.
A fake engagement policy against artificially inflating metrics from third-party apps. The metrics, also known as vanity metrics, included comment, subscribe, and view counts.
Gleam had four “actions” for interacting with YouTube in 2019.
- Commenting on a video.
- Subscribing to the channel.
- Watching a video.
- Visit the channel.
Gleam retired the first three actions and recommended the last action for giveaways.
Small content creators used frequent giveaways to grow fast on YouTube. Without the ability to drive up vanity metrics, giveaways became less popular for fast growth.
Tech YouTubers used giveaways to reward their community on YouTube. That changed after JayzTwoCents got his warning. Most posted their Gleam links on Twitter and told viewers to go there for the giveaways. Others stopped giveaways altogether.
Everyone blamed YouTube for ruining giveaways.
Gleam in 2021
Gleam has three actions for YouTube giveaways in 2021:
- YouTube entry (requires login).
- Submit a YouTube video.
- Visit a YouTube channel.
The first two actions I haven’t seen in any of the giveaways I’ve looked at. The last action is still considered the safest option on YouTube.
Gleam links returned to the description of giveaway videos. Content creators are no longer telling viewers to go to Twitter for the link to the giveaways.
YouTube changed the way they communicate with content creators. The YouTube Studio website page has five useful features:
- News
- Ideas for You
- YouTube Known Issues
- Creator Insider
- What’s New in Studio.
No longer do content creators have to wait for an angry reaction video to inform them of policy changes. Content creators still have an obligation to inform themselves of these changes.
JayzTwoCents’s New Giveaway
This week JayzTwoCents is having a video card giveaway.
- First winner gets an Nvidia 3080 GPU
- Second winner gets an Nvidia 2080 Ti GPU
- Third winner gets an Nvidia 3060 GPU
The giveaway ends on October 31, 2021, and winners announced on Twitter.
With the return of giveaways on YouTube in 2021, he included the Gleam link in the description. What does JayzTwoCents’s Gleam entry look like?
When you first land on the page, you have two actions for entering.
- Follow JayzTwoCents on Twitch
- Visit JayzTwoCents on YouTube
If you complete both actions, you get five more actions to enter.
- Visit JayzTwoCars on YouTube.
- Follow on @JayzTwoCents on Twitter.
- Visit @JayzTwoCents on Instagram.
- Visit the merch store.
- Tweet on Twitter.
That’s how you do a Gleam giveaway without running afoul of YouTube’s current policies.