Posted August 10, 2016 – Remains in Effect- Urgent Information about WebinarJam
Attention: Recent YouTube changes require you to make adjustments to your YouTube channel settings.
This affects WebinarJam users, and EverWebinar users who have created webinars from their live WebinarJam sessions.
It has come to our attention that Google has made a change to YouTube that may have turned embedding off for your streaming live videos. Embedding is required for the proper function of WebinarJam’s live and replay webinars.
You can read more about this new requirement here.
Here’s how to know if you’re impacted:
Run a test webinar. Login as an attendee. If your video shows the following error, your account has been impacted.
If you see your test video, then all is well with your account- for the moment.
However, because YouTube is known to roll out changes to users in a graduated way, it may be that your account will be impacted in the future.
To be extra cautious, it’s a good idea to follow the “fix” steps now.
As usual, Google doesn’t notify us about changes to their interface, and this time was no exception. However, we have been in contact with them, and we’ve confirmed that following the steps outlined here fixes the issue for account holders having it.
The Issue:
YouTube now requires Monetization to be enabled and a linked AdSense account for you to embed your live stream videos (a requirement for proper functioning of WebinarJam and EverWebinar).
How to resolve the issue:
Step One: Login to YouTube
Login to the YouTube account that you use for WebinarJam. Then visit http://www.youtube.com/features and Enable Monetization, Live Streaming, and Embed Videos. See the red arrows in the image below.
Step Two- Connect Adsense
Once you’ve clicked Enable on Monetization, Live Streaming, and Embed live streams (and agreed to any terms of service indicated, then click on the “active AdSense account” link under Paid Content and you’ll see that you can connect an existing AdSense account or apply for a new one. Follow the system instructions and it will guide you through the process.
After you’ve applied for an AdSense account, you’ll get a response that accounts are under review and will take up to a week for approval. However, Google Help informed us that “applications for AdSense from YouTube are usually reviewed within 48 hours”. At the time of this writing our users are reporting their applications are approved within 12 hours.
Notice that your account may list paid content as “ineligible” as in the photo on the left. You may be ineligible for paid content because your YouTube account has less than 1,000 subscribers. However, this will not prevent you from linking an AdSense account and subsequently embedding videos. YouTube’s eligibility criteria for paid content can be found here https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3249165?hl=en
Step 3- Configure Monetization
Visit https://www.youtube.com/advanced_settings and click the checkbox shown below to allow advertisements to be displayed with your videos.
Don’t worry – as long as your video does not have a content ID claim or match to 3rd party content (i.e. have a copyright issue), ads will only show if you monetize the specific video yourself.
Step 4- Test Your Webinar
Once your AdSense and Monetizations are set up- run a test webinar. Once you confirm the video is functioning by logging in as an attendee, you can turn off video monetizations.
Step 5 – (Optional) Turn Off Monetization
To turn off ads on a specific video, go to the video page. Click the pencil icon to edit the video settings
The click on the Monetization tab under the video, and turn off the toggle switch. In this image, monetization is still on.
To turn off ads on your channel after embed 
is enabled, visit https://www.youtube.com/features
and under Monetization, click the link to View Monetization Settings.
In your monetization settings, click on the button to disable monetization.
Our users report that the embed status continues to work, even if monetization has been turned off on their account.
However, we recommend if you choose this option to turn off monetization you also test a webinar- if you see the correct video as an attendee on the test webinar, you’re good to go.
If not, re-enable monetization and test again.
Step Six (If Needed) – Change Channels
Confirm that you are using the same channel as you have your Adsense on. Or follow the instructions on YouTube to activate Adsense on multiple Channels.
Step Seven (If Needed) – Contact YouTube Support
If you perform all of the above steps and are still getting the video embed error, then please contact YouTube’s support team in two ways.
- We started a support thread on the Hangouts Help Forum. Participate in the conversation there by replying and adding the specifics about your account to the discussion. Visit http://www.webinarjam.com/HangoutsHelp to join the conversation.
- Contact YouTube support directly at https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/3545535 Their email support is available to every channel with monetization enabled.
We apologize for any inconvenience this sudden change has caused. While we wish Google would give developers a heads up if they are going to make changes like this- they don’t… and we learn about the changes, and inform and adapt as quickly as possible.
As always, our support department is standing by to help with any issues you may be having.
