YouTube stars are today’s self-made celebrities—people who have earned an audience by creating video content geared toward entertaining, reviewing, teaching, and being awesome online. if you enjoy success on YouTube, there are also many creative ways to make money—even if that may not have been your reason for starting your channel.
Your audience might unlock your YouTube channel’s earning potential, as is often the case with Instagram influencers or bloggers, but it’s the creation of multiple revenue streams, through side hustles or businesses, that helps you make money.
In this article, learn seven strategies for how to make money on YouTube and discover just how much cash successful YouTubers can make.
- Join the YouTube Partner Program
- Sell products or merchandise
- Crowdfund your next creative project
- Let your audience support you through “fan funding”
- License your content to the media
- Work with brands as an influencer
- Become an affiliate marketer.
1. Join the YouTube Partner Program
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 Partner Program (YPP) and setting up monetization is a vital step.
You’ll have to agree to follow all of YouTube’s monetization policies and live in a country or region where the YPP is available. Then, you can apply for monetization once you hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the past year, or 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views within the past 90 days.
Here’s how to enable monetization on YouTube:
- Sign in to the YouTube account you want to monetize
- Click the icon for your account in the top right corner
- Click YouTube Studio
- In the left menu, select Other Features > Monetization
- Read and agree to the YouTuber Partner Program terms and eligibility requirements
- Create a new Google AdSense account or connect an existing one to your channel
- 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 YouTube revenue.
What is YouTube Premium?
YouTube Premium is a paid membership program that lets fans watch and support their favorite content creators without ads. For creators, not much changes, as they’ll 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 subscribers 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 has been demonetizing content it doesn’t deem advertiser friendly since 2012 via an automated process. It was originally done without warning and without the content creator’s knowledge.
Now, 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’s parent company, Google, keeps 45% of ad revenue from standard YouTube videos and 55% from YouTube Shorts.
2. Sell products or merchandise
You can sell different products to make money through your YouTube channel. Selling merch—t-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, snapbacks, you name it—has benefits 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. Creator Roman Atwood sells a variety of merchandise in his store under the Smile More brand.
Alternatively, you can partner with an existing merchandising network for creators, such as DFTBA (Don’t Forget to Be Awesome). However, you’ll have to compete with other YouTubers and you’ll have less control over adding products, offering discounts, integrating your content, and all the advantages that come with owning your own ecommerce site.
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:
- A content engine that consistently drives traffic to your store
- 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 1980s action movies.
4. Let your audience support you 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 Patron 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 Super Chat & Super Stickers. Super Chat is a feature used when doing live streams on YouTube. It lets you create a tipping jar for your viewers to donate whenever and however much they feel like contributing. Super Stickers are animated images that users can surface in a live chat. You’ll need to set up your YouTube account for advertising, as outlined above.
- Channel memberships. Channel memberships let viewers support your channel through monthly payments in exchange for members-only perks. Similar to Super Chat, you must be a part of YouTube’s Partner Program to access this feature.
- Patron. 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.
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.
6. Work with brands as an influencer
Brands are investing more and more in influencer marketing and sponsorships, 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.
7. Become an affiliate marketer
Affiliate marketing refers to earning a commission by promoting a product or service made by another brand. You can become an affiliate marketer for brands and include product placements, endorsements, or other types of content. However, you must disclose the partnerships to viewers in your videos.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.
How to get paid on YouTube
- Publish ads on your channel
- Offer channel subscriptions
- Offer channel memberships
- Sign up for affiliate marketing
To start earning money directly through YouTube, you must have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year, or 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views within the past 90 days. Once you reach either of those, you can apply to YouTube’s Partner Program and monetize your channel.
How many views do you need on YouTube to make money?
The average YouTube channel receives around $0.018 per view, which equals $18 per 1,000 views, according to data from Influencer Marketing Hub.
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 on 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 video ad in full (10, 15, or 30 seconds) for you to get paid.
How do YouTubers get paid?
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.
Second, this list of top YouTube 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 other revenue streams. 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.
Also Read-
How to start Business in Rupees 50000?https://smallbusinessideas.online/how-to-start-business-in-50000-rupees/
What is the most successful Business to start?https://smallbusinessideas.online/what-is-the-most-successful-small-business-to-start/