Figuring out how to make money on YouTube is the goal of almost every content creator. Contrary to popular belief, YouTube Ads are not the only option for generating income. There’s money to be made in social media advertising, but there are other ways to profit on YouTube.
Learning how to get paid on YouTube begins with deciding which approach is most appropriate for you. A single viral video can generate huge revenues but isn’t something you can count on. The best way to earn money on YouTube as a video creator is to target ongoing and consistent income.
Whichever way you decide to go, it takes time and effort to start getting paid on YouTube. But once those first payments start rolling in, you’ll know it was a time and effort well invested.
How to Make Money on YouTube?
The best thing about making money on YouTube is the potential to benefit from a passive income stream. You make videos, you publish them on your channel, and they generate ongoing revenues.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be an all-out, self-made celebrity to succeed on YouTube. Many thousands of businesses are making good money on the platform, along with entrepreneurs from all backgrounds. In all instances, the journey towards getting paid on YouTube follows the same basic steps:
1. Join the YouTube Partner Program
First up, you need to gain entry to the YouTube Partner Program to start making money. Monetising a YouTube channel is not nearly as easy as it used to be. You need to demonstrate to YouTube that you are a legit publisher with a library of content worth taking seriously.
Of course, joining the YouTube Partner Program is not the only option available for making money from your content. Nevertheless, this approach to monetization holds the key to generating the biggest revenues of all. Basically, these are the steps you need to take to monetize your channel:
Start a YouTube Channel
Obviously, you’re going to need to launch a YouTube Channel in the first place, which isn’t particularly difficult. However, your channel won’t be considered eligible for the YouTube Partner Program without meeting the platforms and fairly strict criteria.
Boost your Channel’s Performance and Popularity
Thankfully, you don’t need a million subscribers or 100 million YouTube views to monetize your channel. More is always better, as ad revenue is determined by who watches your videos and how often. But as things stand right now, you need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the previous 12 months to qualify. Hence, you need to do everything possible to get more YouTube subscribers as quickly as possible.
Set up an AdSense Account
There’s a quick and easy tutorial on YouTube that takes publishers through the process of setting up an AdSense account. This is basically the platform via which you will be making money, in accordance with ad views, ad clicks, and subsequent conversions.
Start Making Money
Once you have been accepted by the YouTube Partner Program, you can monetize your channel in a variety of ways. Along with generating ad revenues, other options for making money on YouTube include:
- YouTube Premium Revenues
- Channel Memberships
- Merchandise Sales
- Super Chat Payments
Maintain the Highest Quality Standards
From then on, it is absolutely essential to keep a close eye on the quality of your output. YouTube will conduct regular reviews of your channel and your content, ensuring you are abiding by the platform’s Community Guidelines and all terms and conditions applicable to the YouTube Partner Program.
2. Sell Products and Merchandise
YouTube has always been a fantastic platform for product marketing and strategic product placement. The simple fact of the matter is that products and services of any kind can be showcased to an enormous global audience on YouTube.
Research has shown that video content is far more engaging than any other type of content, making it much easier to attract and influence potential buyers. The basic steps involved in selling products and services via YouTube are as follows:
Get Your Products and Services in Order
You are going to need something of genuine value to sell in the first place, with a clearly defined USP. Successful eCommerce is all about satisfying the wants and needs of customers with products and services they cannot already buy elsewhere.
Create an Ecommerce Website
This can be surprisingly simple – particularly where WordPress and Shopify are concerned. There are plenty of online tutorials available that will guide you through the initial setup process, or you can hire a third party to set up your store at a low price.
Market Your Products and Link to Your Pages
All that’s left to do now is create compelling content that convinces customers to purchase your products and services. While doing so, be sure to include links to your product pages and your external online store. Don’t forget – including an influencer of some kind in your content can be pure gold for generating interest in your merchandise.
3. Become An Affiliate Partner
Affiliate marketing is a little like sponsorship but much easier for you to get into. With affiliate marketing, affiliate links are placed in your content and on your pages, directing your viewers to third-party websites and retailers.
With each customer you refer, you earn a commission based on the subsequent action they take. For example, if they purchase a product from a third party, you collect a percentage of the total price paid. Finding an appropriate affiliate marketing program for your YouTube Channel should be fairly easy.
Simply conduct an online search for affiliate marketing programs in your niche, or contact third parties directly to see if they would like to sponsor your channel. The best thing about affiliate marketing programs is that they are not only easy to join but also 100% free of charge. This makes them risk-free, as you won’t be liable for any costs – irrespective of the outcome.
4. Fan Funding
Earning money by way of fan funding means convincing your audience members to support your channel. Hence, you need to be putting out the most outstanding content people are actually willing to pay for. There are a few different ways of converting the loyalty of your viewers into cash:
Super chat
The Super Chat feature was introduced in 2017 as a replacement for the previous Fan Funding feature. It is a feature available exclusively to YouTube Partners during live streams, where those taking part can pay to have their comments pinned and highlighted for a specific period of time.
Channel Memberships
There’s also now the option of paid channel memberships, where additional incentives are offered to those who pay to subscribe to your channel. Examples of these include custom badges, emojis, and merchandise, or the option of taking part in exclusive Live Q&A sessions.
Premium Memberships
An indirect way of making money, but a way to make money, nonetheless. When paid YouTube Premium members watch your content, a small percentage of their subscription fee is sent your way. You could therefore encourage your viewers to sign up for a YouTube Premium account to boost your income.
5. Crowd Funding
Earning money by way of crowdfunding doesn’t technically involve your YouTube account. Though it’s hard to convince people to back you without making it clear you’re a legit YouTube star in the making. The steps involved in setting up a crowdfunding initiative are quite straightforward:
- Set up an account with your chosen crowdfunding platform.
- Create content describing your campaign and objectives.
- Make it clear why you need the money and what they can expect in return.
- Publish regular updates and continuously communicate your appreciation.
- Promote your crowdfunding venture via as many channels as possible.
Crowdfunding can be a great way of encouraging your fans, followers, and subscribers to dig into their pockets and help you out. However, they will only do so if they know their money is contributing to something worthwhile. If your goal is simply to make more money to live a more affluent lifestyle, it’s not going to happen.
6. Get Influencers On Board
Last up, getting sponsors in the traditional sense is fairly outdated for most YouTube publishers. Today, what holds the greatest potential of all is influencer marketing. This is where you convince one or more influential figures within your niche to help you out.
This could mean recommending your products, your services, your brand, your content, or your channel. A single positive mention from a high-profile influencer can be all it takes to go viral. Something that could maximize the money-making potential of your YouTube content.
Just don’t make the mistake of waiting for influencers to do the hard work and reach out to you. Successful influencer marketing calls for a proactive approach, so you need to get your networking game in order. Pitch your channel, sell yourself and show them how supporting you will further boost their own profile.
How Much Money Can You Make on YouTube?
The question on most publishers’ minds when starting out is almost always the same: How much money can you make on YouTube? Unsurprisingly, it’s a question with no simple answer. There are countless factors that influence how much money you can expect to make per 1,000 views, 100,000 views, or 10 million views.
Examples of these include demographics, geographies, and the products/services you’re advertising. As a very rough guideline, 1,000 video views on YouTube will typically generate between $2.00 and $5.00.
This may not sound like much but can actually add up to a small fortune when regularly pulling in millions of views. To put things into context, here’s a brief rundown of the 20 richest YouTube stars in the World today:
- Jeffree Star – net worth of $200 million
- Ryan’s World – net worth of $50 million
- PewDiePie – net worth of $40 million
- Markiplier – net worth of $35 million
- DanTDM – net worth of $35 million
- Rhett & Link – net worth of $32 million combined
- Dude Perfect – net worth of $30 million
- Vanoss Gaming – net worth of $25 million
- Ninja – net worth of $25 million
- James Charles – net worth of $25 million
- Preston – net worth of $20 million
- Like Nastya – net worth of $20 million
- David Dobrik – net worth of $20 million
- Jake Paul – net worth of $20 million
- Lilly Singh – net worth of $20 million
- Logan Paul – net worth of $19 million
- MrBeast – net worth of $16 million
- Blippi – net worth of $16 million
- KSI – net worth of $15 million
- Roman Atwood – net worth of $14.5 million
All of whom started out with nothing more than an empty YouTube channel and a dream of making it big. A good idea of what’s possible if you know how to target the right people with the right content.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How Much Money Do 1 Million YouTube Views Make?
Again, the amount of money you can expect to make per 1 million views will vary on the basis of multiple factors. However, a recent study from Business Advisor found that the AdSense value of a million views typically falls between $3,000 and $40,000.
2. How Many Subscribers Do You Need to Make Money on YouTube?
Membership to the YouTube Partner Program is exclusive to those with a minimum of 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours during the past year. Check out our tips and tricks on how to get more YouTube subscribers and how to get more views on YouTube.
3. How Can You Make Money on YouTube Without Making Videos?
Technically speaking, it’s possible to make money on YouTube by republishing content that’s already out there. However, this is only possible with content you have the original creator’s permission to use or fall under the Creative Commons license. But as this content is already publicly available, it isn’t easy to make money from.
