YouTube stars are today’s self-made celebrities—people who have earned an audience by creating content geared toward teaching, entertaining, reviewing, and being awesome on the internet.
Most of these small-screen celebs do what they do just to do it,
to scratch an itch for creating things and being in front of an audience.
Making money might not be your reason for starting
a YouTube channel, but the opportunities to earn are a pleasant
surprise once you realize how many of them there are.
1. Who makes the most
money on YouTube?
2. Who’s going to
watch your YouTube Channel?
3. How to make money
on YouTube
4. How to “sell”
without annoying your audience
5. Are you ready to
monetize your YouTube channel?
Do you get paid for uploading videos on YouTube?
Content creators aren’t paid by YouTube for the videos they
upload. Neither are videos monetized by default. For you to start making money
on YouTube, you have to enable monetization in your YouTube account settings.
From there, you have options to join the YouTube Partners Program or have your
videos listed on YouTube Premium.
How do you make
money from YouTube?
There are a few takeaways from Forbes’ list, putting aside the
millions of dollars made and subscribers gained.
First, YouTube channels can be monetized even if they don’t have
millions of subscribers. Your earning potential isn’t determined solely by the
number of subscribers and views you have, but also by the level of engagement
you generate, the niche you cater to, and the revenue channels you explore.
That’s not to say subscriber count doesn’t matter—check out our tips
to get more subscribers on YouTube.
Second, this list of top 10 earners might give you the
impression that the millions of dollars made comes directly from YouTube. In
fact, each of these channels has its own line of merchandise. These channels
found and built their audiences first, before launching their own merchandise.
If making money on YouTube is in your marketing plan, the first step is the
same for everybody: have a clear understanding of your target audience.
Who’s
going to watch your YouTube channel?
Building your own audience puts you in a great position to monetize
content in a variety of ways. But you’ll only be able to take
full advantage of the opportunities you have if you understand the makeup of
your audience.
For many YouTubers looking to monetize, the more niche your
channel, the better position you’ll be in to work with brands looking to target
specific audiences (more on that later).
You'll want to pay close attention to:
·
The gender of your audience, to see if its skews toward one
particular group.
·
The age range most of your audience falls into.
·
The geographic location—countries or cities—where your videos
are being watched.
·
Your audience’s overall engagement, or “watch time.”
With this demographic information at hand, you’ll have a better
understanding of your own audience and be able to work better with brands. All
demographic insight can be pulled from your YouTube
analytics, but to compare your own channel against others try a tool
like Social Blade.
With that out of the way, we can start talking about the
different ways your YouTube channel can make money.
How to
make money on YouTube
Like learning how
to make money on Instagram or via blogging, your audience might
unlock your YouTube channel’s earning potential. But when you create multiple
revenue streams, through side side
hustles or businesses, it's easier to monetize.
Luckily, there are several ways to accomplish this:
1. Become a YouTube
Partner and earn money from ads.
2. Sell products or
merchandise.
3. Crowdfund your
next creative project.
4. Let your audience
support your work through “fan funding.”
5. License your
content to the media.
6. Work with brands
as an influencer or affiliate.
Let’s take a deeper look at each of these streams.
1. Join
the YouTube Partner Program and earn money from ads
The first revenue stream you’ll likely explore is ads. Whether
you want to earn money on YouTube without creating videos or as a content
creator, joining the YouTube Partners Program and setting up monetization is a
vital step. You can apply for monetization once you’ve hit 1,000 subscribers
and 4,000 watch hours over the past year.
How to enable
monetization on YouTube
1. Sign
in to the YouTube account you want to monetize.
2. Click
the icon for your account in the top right corner.
3. Click
YouTube Studio.
4. In
the left menu, select Other Features > Monetization.
5. Read
and agree to the YouTuber Partner Program terms.
6. Create
a new AdSense account or connect an existing one to your channel. (You need an
AdSense account to get paid.)
7. Set
your monetization preferences.
Once that’s done, head back to the dashboard and click the
Analytics tab on the left side. From there, you’ll need to choose Revenue from
the tabs at the top, then scroll down to the chart Monthly Estimated Revenue to
get an idea of your predicted revenue.
How many views do
you need to make money on YouTube?
The number of views you get doesn’t correlate to revenue earned.
If your video gets thousands of views but no one watches or clicks the ad, you
won’t make any money. This is because of YouTube’s criteria for billing
advertisers: a viewer must click an ad or watch the ad in full (10, 15, or 30
seconds) for you to get paid.
However, with the release of YouTube Premium, you no longer need
to rely on advertisers to create engaging or enticing ads to earn revenue.
Check out YouTube
Premium
YouTube Premium is a paid membership program that allows fans to
watch and support their favorite content creators without ads. For creators,
not much changes, as they will get paid for content consumed by non-members on
YouTube along with content on YouTube Premium.
Creators are paid for YouTube Premium based on how much members
watch their content. Consider revenue earned from YouTube Premium as a
secondary revenue stream in addition to what you’re already earning through
ads.
While it’s easy to set up, earning money through advertising as
a YouTube Partner is far from the most lucrative revenue stream you can create
for yourself.
Why you should look
beyond ads for revenue
YouTube
recently received a lot of backlash due to its decision to be
more transparent about advertising on the platform and what qualifies as
“advertiser friendly” content. Essentially, many creators feared that, due to
the nature of their content, they would lose out on the ad revenue that helps
support their channel.
According to YouTube, your content could get excluded from ad
revenue if it includes:
·
Sexually suggestive content, including partial nudity and sexual
humor
·
Violence, including displays of serious injury and events
related to violent extremism
·
Inappropriate language, including harassment, profanity, and
vulgar language
·
Promotion of drugs and regulated substances, including selling,
use, and abuse of such items
·
Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including
subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters, and tragedies,
even if graphic imagery is not shown
But the reality is that YouTube has been demonetizing content
that it doesn’t deem advertiser-friendly since 2012 via an automated process,
without warning and without the content creator’s knowledge.
Now, the situation is actually better, as creators are notified
when their content is flagged and can contest any time they feel a video was
mistakenly excluded from YouTube’s advertising network.
Advertising might be a common means of generating passive income
for creators, but the trade-off is that YouTube
gets to keep around a 45% share of ad revenue.
In short, YouTubers should explore other revenue streams to
sustain their creative hobby.
Below, we’ll share how to earn money from YouTube without
AdSense.
2. Sell
products or merchandise
There are plenty of products
to sell that can help you make money through your YouTube
channel. Selling merchandise—t-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, snapbacks, you
name it—has a benefit beyond revenue.
Merchandise increases your exposure by putting your online brand
and personality out into the offline world and deepens the relationship between
you and your fans as they literally “buy” into what you're doing.
Roman
Atwood sells a variety of merchandise in his store under his
Smile More brand.
Selling branded swag is easier than it might seem at first.
You can order affordable designs tailored for specific products,
like t-shirts,
using freelance sites such as Fiverr.
And when it comes to handling orders, you can integrate your store with services such as Oberlo or one of the many print-on-demand providers that take care of shipping, fulfillment, and customer support, letting you reap all of the benefits of a dropshipping business that demands less effort on your part.
Free
Training: How to Quickly Start a T-Shirt Store
Learn how to sell t-shirts without worrying about design, inventory or shipping.
Alternatively, you can partner with an existing merchandising
network for creators, such as DFTBA (Don’t
Forget to Be Awesome). However, you’ll be competing with other YouTubers and
have less control over adding products, offering discounts, integrating your
content, and all the advantages that come with owning your own ecommerce site.
You can even go a step further by manufacturing and selling your
own unique products and powering your business through your YouTube channel,
like Luxy
Hair did to sell its hair extensions with hair-related how-to
video tutorials.
As a YouTuber who’s already earned an audience, you’ll have two
advantages from the start that other store owners would be jealous of:
1. A
content engine that consistently drives traffic to your store.
2. Your
audience's trust, which you've earned by regularly serving them your own brand
of content for free.
3.
Crowdfund your next creative project
When money is all that stands between an idea and its execution,
crowdfunding is a good way to make it happen.
Whether you need help buying better equipment, hiring actors, or
covering other production costs, you can call upon your own audience and the
crowdfunding community to pitch in if your idea is compelling enough.
Many successful crowdfunded creative projects tend to offer a
sneak peak or “trailer” that gets people excited, so consider shooting
a video explaining your project or offering a taste of what
it'll be like, such as this popular Kickstarter for Kung
Fury, a short film paying homage to ’80s action movies.
Popular crowdfunding sites with a proven track record of
campaigns from YouTubers include:
·
Kickstarter:
One of the most well-known crowdfunding sites, great for funding cool products
and creative projects. Be sure to set an attainable funding goal because you’ll
only secure it if you actually meet the goal you set.
·
Indiegogo: A
Kickstarter alternative that offers more flexible funding options.
Learn more: 12
Creative Ways to Make Money: Earn Your First $100 on the Side.
4. Let
your audience support your work through “fan funding”
Similar to crowdfunding a project, you can also set up “fan
funding” streams to source donations from your audience.
As a creator, you’re contributing your voice to the internet
without forcing your audience to pay for admission. So, if you’re offering good
content, your audience might be inclined to support you on an ongoing basis.
Many fan funding platforms offer creators another place for
people to discover their content and a way to engage their most loyal audience
and reward them for their support.
Wait
But Why creates more long-form written content than YouTube
videos, but is a great example of receiving support from the Patreon
community.
If you choose the crowdfunding route, be sure to follow a couple
of best practices. First, create transparency around how the money will be
spent. This will get your fanbase invested in your story or mission, and they
will literally buy into the value of your content. Second, offer enticing
rewards for better pledges. The more you can make donors feel like they’re
getting something exclusive for being a loyal fan, the more likely you are to
get donations and higher pledges.
Some popular fan funding options include:
·
YouTube’s Super Chat: Super Chat is a feature used when
going live on YouTube. It lets you create a tipping jar for your viewers to
donate whenever and however much they feel like contributing. You’ll need to
set up your YouTube account for advertising as outlined
above.
·
Patreon: The membership platform that makes it easy for
creators to get paid. Fans can subscribe to their favorite creators for as
little as a dollar a month and receive exclusive rewards.
·
Tipeee: Lets
you get a combination of both one-off and recurring donations
5.
License your content to the media
If you happen to create a viral video with mass appeal—say, a
funny clip featuring your dog—you can license your content in exchange for
money.
TV news outlets, morning shows, online news sites, and other
creators might reach out about rights to use your videos if they happen to go
viral.
You can also list your videos in a marketplace, such as Juken Media,
where your content will be easier for the right people to find and
purchase.
When this
video of a woman wearing a Chewbacca mask went viral, tons of
media outlets wanted in.
6. Work
with brands as an influencer or affiliate
Influencer marketing is going to be one of the advertising
bedrocks of the next decade.
Gary
Vaynerchuk
Brands are investing more and more in influencer marketing,
spending their typically large advertising budgets on influencers who’ve
already won the loyalty of their audiences.
This creates a massive opportunity for you as a creator if you
can negotiate the right deals.
Brendan Gahan, a YouTube
marketing expert and influencer, recommends establishing your baseline flat fee
by looking at the number of views your videos typically get and multiplying it
by 5 to fifteen cents per view (which is around what many brands are willing to
pay for views via YouTube ads).
Depending on your leverage—your audience demographics, content
quality, and how unique and profitable your niche is—you might be able to
negotiate a better deal if the brand is a good fit.
Becoming an influencer on YouTube is reported as the
highest-paid platform for brand partnerships, according to Aqer. But to give you an
idea of what you can potentially charge, a mid-level influencer charges a
brand around $20 per 1,000 subscribers, or $2,000 per $100,000 followers,
according to one study.
The key when partnering on brand-sponsored content is to be
transparent about it, not endorsing anything you don’t actually like or believe
in, and being upfront with your audience about why you’re doing it.
Here are just a handful of the many influencer marketplaces you
can add your channel to and get discovered by brands both big and small:
·
Grapevine
Logic: One of the more popular influencer marketplaces, you only need 1,000
followers to join.
·
Famebit:
With a wide range of brands to work with, you might find a sponsorship
opportunity you’ll be proud to be a part of. You need 5,000 followers to join.
·
Channel Pages:
Partner with other YouTubers as well as brands.
·
Crowdtap:
Complete small content creation “tasks” in exchange for money and other
rewards. There’s no restriction on how many followers you need to join.
Some influencer marketplaces offer you free products, while
others are known for having big brands who are willing to pay more. Capitalize
on the opportunities that best suit your needs, but list yourself in as many
places as you can to ensure maximum visibility for your channel.
Alternatively, you can also become an affiliate
marketer for brands and make residual passive income through
commissions from every sale you generate through your channel. This works
especially well if you review products as part of your YouTube channel. Since
there's no risk involved on the brand’s end (they only pay when they make
sales), there's usually a low bar to getting started.
Popular affiliate programs include Click Bank (1%
to 75% commission, depending on what the vendor sets) and Amazon's Affiliate
network (earn up to 10% per sale). You can also reach out to brands in your
niche that are running their own affiliate programs, which isn’t uncommon in
the ecommerce space.
How to
“sell” without annoying your audience
Many of the above strategies for monetizing involve promoting
products or campaigns (e.g., crowdfunding a video series). But you’ll want to
make sure your promotions don’t sabotage the integrity of your content.
“Selling out” is a real concern for a lot of creators. But if
you never ask, you’ll never get.
There are a number of “placements” you can choose from for
promoting products or campaigns.
Record a
call to action in your videos
“If you liked this video, then hit the Like button and
subscribe.”
Many YouTubers include a call to action along those lines at the
end of their videos to grow their viewership. By suggesting the intended action
you want them to take, your audience is more likely to take it.
You can adapt this approach to direct your audience’s attention
to a revenue-generating opportunity.
Add
well-timed YouTube cards to your videos
Whether it’s part of your deal with a brand or you’re promoting
your own products, YouTube Cards offer an eye-catching way to get the attention
of engaged viewers.
You can set them to pop up at just the right moment, when
they’re most relevant and least distracting to increase their impact.
Add
links in your video descriptions
You can funnel viewers to your store, Patreon page, Kickstarter
campaign, or other revenue-focused part of your online presence by adding links
to your video descriptions.
If you’re a video creator who wants to focus on generating
revenue as an affiliate marketer, look at Unbox Therapy.
Unbox Therapy specializes in product reviews, and it uses affiliate links in
their video descriptions to make money via YouTube audiences. The channel is
signed up as an Amazon affiliate. It places these unique links—pointing to the
reviewed product on Amazon—in video descriptions. If the viewer purchases the
item via clicking that link, the affiliate will earn a small percentage of
revenue share paid to them by Amazon.
If you’re creating videos about your own products and you own or
manage a Shopify store, you can incentivize new customers to buy your products
with buy X get Y promotions or discounts.
Promote
your offer on other platforms
Just because your content is hosted on YouTube doesn’t mean you
shouldn’t be taking advantage of all the other distribution channels out there.
Spread the word about new campaigns or discounts on Twitter,
Facebook, and any other profiles you own.
The more places your message lives, the greater the chance it’ll
be seen. So it’s always a good idea to grow your following beyond YouTube
with social media marketing.
Free Reading List:
Social Media Marketing Tactics
Want to learn more about how social media can help drive sales?
Download our free, curated list of high-impact articles.
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Are you
ready to monetize your YouTube channel?
What compels most creators to create is rarely money. It’s the
thought of making something for the world to enjoy.
But ironically, that puts them in a great position to actually
make money in a content-obsessed world.
While the hard part for many businesses is getting and keeping
their audience’s attention, YouTubers have already figured that bit out.
All that’s left is to get creative—to channel the
entrepreneurial drive to explore ideas—with how you choose to monetize your
passion.
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