Terms Of Service

Have Your YouTube Video’s Been Flagged?

There have been a lot of YouTube channels shut down recently.  And even more video’s on specific channels have been flagged as violating YouTube’s terms of service or community guidelines.  Now this really isn’t anything new.  YouTube actually does a really good job of policing its service.  It was better before Google took it over, but its still pretty decent.

But this series of shutdown’s and flagging’s are a bit different.

You see there is a common signal with all the channels that are getting shut down.

They are all embedded on or talk about the Empower Network.

And in the interest of full disclosure let me say that I am a member of the Empower Network and have been for quite some time.  And as such I have been within several different groups on Facebook that are made up of members.  One particular group managed to make some people angry and before I could separate myself from them I am pretty sure I was put on the chopping block.

Let me back up a bit.

Empower Network Is A Scam

I know you have seen the claims.  David Wood is ripoff artist.  David Sharpe is a drug addict blah blah blah.

They are really hard to ignore these days aren’t they.

People are actually putting out a lot of content out there to make sure that their opinions are heard.  And you have to give them credit.  With all the time and effort people are putting into it you would think they don’t have anything to do with their lives.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not bashing these people.  As a matter of fact, I think its important to do your research on any money making opportunity you get involved in.  But at what point to do you chose to move on?  I mean if they put that much effort into their businesses, imagine where they would be today.

Back To YouTube and Empower

Where YouTube comes into the picture is a little known feature on the site where you can flag video’s that you feel offer no value to the community.  And it has some great uses if your find some kind of content that promotes hate, sex, etc.  But it is also a good way to kill your competitors channels if you were so inclined.  All it really takes is a few people to go in and flag your video and its a goner.

Now considering that there are a lot of EN related channels and video’s getting hammered these day.  It really makes you wonder what is going on.

But the word is out, and it really didn’t take long.

You see there is a internet marketer who shall go unnamed telling his followers to flag all video’s related to the site.  And they are going so far as finding people who are in EN and flagging their video’s as well.   Whether or not they are EN related, guilt by association I guess.

And they are really successful thus far.  I know of at least 30 marketers, including myself, who have been caught up in their drama.

Quite frankly I find it disgusting that anyone would do that.

But such is life on the internet right?

So What To Do?

I say you should just move on.  Now if you have a YouTube channel with ten or less video’s let them do what they do.  It doesn’t matter and it’s not going to destroy your business.

But if you have one with a lot of video’s, I know a lady with over 200, then you better be proactive in protecting your account.  When someone flags your video, make sure you appeal the flag.

If you channel get’s shut down all together, go here and file an appeal.

Aside from that there are a couple other things to keep in mind.

First, make sure your saving a copy of your video’s somewhere else.  Vimeo and DailyMotion are both free options that you can take advantage of.

And get yourself an external drive for backup as well.

Second, don’t depend on just one traffic source to promote your business.  If you think Empower is special and they can’t target your real estate channel one day your wrong.  Everyone is at risk of this.  YouTube is a free service after all, so don’t depend on it.

Third, make sure you read the YouTube TOS and community guidelines.  They are rather clear.  Just remember that it would be impossible for real people to that work for YouTube to be monitoring every single video out there.  That is why the flag feature is there.  So people can raise attention to violators.  But the followup system is fully automated.  A real person won’t look at your video to see if it actually violates anything unless you appeal the flag.  So make sure you do that right away.

I hope you don’t have to go through what this individual set of marketers is going through right now.  But now your prepared to deal with it should it arise.

Please be sure to share this post with other’s who may be marketing online.  Specifcally using video as a medium.  You might be saving them some valuable time and money.

P.S. If You Need A System to Help You Get in Front of More People (and even profit from people that DON’T want to Join. Click Here to See What I Mean

Oh and one more thing here is something to entertain you since I let you know about the dark side of the internet.  ENJOY!!!