Hi Cyrus,

I have checked Kwadwo Sheldon out and I get your point.
This will also be a long discussion. I hope you are able to read long messages.Lol. So somewhere last year, Youtube updated their policies and made these statements.
Let me copy and send you exactly what it said.
“”Ads may appear on your uploaded videos even if you haven’t monetized the videos yourself. If your video contains content to which you don’t own all necessary rights, the rights holder may have chosen to place ads on it. YouTube may also place ads on videos in channels not in the YouTube Partner Program””
You can check more info about this here using this link from Google.
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2475463?hl=en#:~:text=Ads%20may%20appear%20on%20your,in%20the%20YouTube%20Partner%20Program.

What this change means is that now you may see ads running on a Channel with 100 subscribers, or channels which are not monetized.

It seems Youtube wants more money and is now placing ads on non-monetized channels.
This can really deceive a lot of people who are just starting Youtube because they may look at channels which have lower subscribers than 1000 and see they have ads on their channels, they may also see channels which have a lot of subscribers but are showing copyright materials and still see ads on them. The ads may show on channels with copyright materials because now whether your channel is monetized or not,Youtube can put ads on them. I have noticed that for these two types of channels, Youtube places the ads right before the videos begin and you may not necessarily find ads after the video starts or in the middle like properly monetized channels or you may not even see the ads at all. This can make you think that channels using copyright materials like Kwadwo Sheldon have been accepted unto the Youtube Partner Program but it may not be so at all. They are using other means to make money on Youtube since they wont get money from Youtube. And the other ways to make money also brings in a decent income especially if you have a lot of subscribers. We will talk about how Kwadwo Sheldon may be making money.
Look at the 2nd line of what Youtube Said :
“If your video contains content to which you don’t own all necessary rights, the rights holder may have chosen to place ads on it.”
This is what the above line from Youtube also means. It means that the owner of the copyright content you have used may not ask you to remove it from your channel but they may claim ownership and what this means is that all of the money made from the ads of that video will go to the Owner or artist.

Hence any money from the ads from that video goes straight to them(that is the rightful owners of the content) and not the Youtuber showing that video.
And who does not want extra money, so the artist may allow you to use the video, but they make money off your views and not you.

It may also be that the Youtuber has friendship or deals with the artists or have asked permission to use their videos, and depending on the relationship he may be allowed to use it or not.

So you always have to ask. They may give you permission to use it and not claim ownership, but Youtube will still see it as Copyright material and hence they will not accept you unto the Program, you will not even try to apply for monetization knowing you have copyright content on your channel. And this is what many Youtubers do, they will never apply because they know they will not be accepted. So they find another way to make money. If people like the content and you get views and subscribers you can go for it and forget about Youtube Adsense revenue, and you can still make money other ways.

Because of this problem most Youtubers knowing they cant make money off this kind of channel they try to make money other ways locally. What Kwadwo may be doing is , because he is aware that he may not get accepted onto the Youtube Partner program, he has found another way of making money off his channel. And this is what is called Sponsorships. Because he has over 300,000 subscribers, he can easily make money doing things this way. If you watch his videos, he puts this template on his videos while he is editing it, he goes like “FOR SPONSORSHIP call (his telephone number).” I have seen adverts from “Tap Tap Send” on his videos, this is local company who wants him to advertise their product for him. So for instance he goes to “Tap Tap send” company and tells them ” I have a channel with over 300,000 subscribers who watch my videos, I can insert an advert of any of your product into my video and if my subscribers watch the video you have over 300,000 people seeing your product”. Tap Tap Send company or any Ghanaian company will like this idea, knowing especially that his subscribers are mostly Ghanaians. And Tap Tap send wants to reach as many Ghanaians as possible to use their product so they can make money. The company will now ask Kwadwo, how much will you charge us for this?. Then he charges Tap Tap send and then makes money from them. The other way round, if a company sees ” For Sponsorship call this number “on his videos and they call Kwadwo that they want him to put an advert of their company on his video, he will charge them and do it for them. Companies pay people with big platforms like TV and Radio stations to advertise for them. And Youtube is more or less like TV. People come there to watch content. And it is same with artist songs, if a Ghanaian artist releases a song and wants it to become popular in Ghana, he can pay for sponsorship to Kwadwo, and then he will play the songs on his channel for them, since he has a lot of Subscribers from Ghana and maybe Nigeria. So Kwadwo can now make money this way even though he cannot make any YouTube Revenue from adsense.
Check this latest video of his you will see a Tap Tap send advert template on his video right at the beginning and getting to the end of the video he puts his number there for paid sponsorships.
https://youtu.be/VRMbBSQRum8
Sponsorships is not free, companies will pay him. What you can do is you can call him on the number and intentionally ask him how much he will charge you if he puts your product on his video and advertise it for you. And you will see that it is not free.
Other times he can sell tickets to football matches or movies and make money that way as well.

So Cyrus,

If this is the way you want to go, it is good if only you accept the fact that you may not make money from Youtube monetization itself, but you can still make a decent income from other ways on Youtube depending on the niche you select especially if you have a lot of followers and you get a lot of views for your videos.
So before you start, sit down and ask yourself how else you can make money in your niche if you do not get accepted onto the YPP. If those ways are also good, go for it.