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Several years ago earning money on YouTube videos was quite simple: you upload a video, get views, and join a display ad (Google AdSense) program. Over the years new methods of monetizing YouTube channels have appeared. Now that you’ve worked hard on SEO and mastered YouTube algorithms and analytics, it is high time to make some extra money from your videos.
Launched in 2005, YouTube has quickly gained popularity as a video platform and a search engine. In 2007 the platform began experimenting with in-video ads and launched its Partner Program.
According to statistics provided by Omnicore, the total number of monthly active YouTube users is around 2 billion, and the total number of daily active YouTube users is 30 million with an average mobile viewing session of 40 minutes. 500 hours of videos uploaded every minute. YouTube services are available in more than 100 countries in 80 languages; 62% of businesses use YouTube; 70% of YouTube watch time comes from mobile devices; the majority of channels get paid $0.5 per 1 000 views, and YouTube pays $18 per 1 000 ad views on average.
That’s a huge audience and a very powerful search engine. YouTube is the second-largest social platform after Facebook. Don’t forget, many users don’t register to watch videos, so the number of views is even higher.
The good thing is that YouTube channels can be monetized even if you don’t have millions of subscribers. There are other important factors to consider: niche, engagement, and monetization methods you deploy. With the right strategy, you can still make a decent amount of money. One of the most common misunderstandings is that the mainstream of revenue comes from YouTube. Actually, many YouTubers earn money via affiliate marketing, digital products, merchandise, etc.
One of the most popular methods of monetization is joining the YouTube Partner Program, so we can’t skip this method. The program is available for YouTubers with at least 1 000 subscribers and more than 4 000 watch hours over the last 12 months (the previous standard requirement was just 10 000 public views).
To join the YouTube Partner Program, you just sign in, select YouTube Studio, and within Other Features > Monetization. You’ll need an AdSense account to connect with your YouTube channel to get paid. Then you set your monetization preferences and can see Monthly Estimated revenue.
On average, YouTubers can make around $0.01-$0.03 per view with AdSense Anyway, if no one watches the ad or clicks on it, you won’t be paid. Usually, ads are 15 or 20 seconds in length - it depends on regional standards. Non-skippable video ads are of up to 6 seconds; these are ads that must be watched before your video can be viewed. This is YouTube's requirement for advertisers. Well, ads are pretty easy to set up, but earnings from ads aren’t really lucrative.
YouTube Premium represents a paid membership when fans can watch content without ads. YouTubers get paid for Premium based on how much their content is viewed.
Besides in-video ads, there are other money-making strategies and methods. Well, every successful YouTuber might have some secret tools that help to gain profits from YouTube channels. We researched and analyzed several channels, so we share below the key strategies to implement if you want to derive revenue from your videos.
One of the major sources for passive income (check below a case study based on Graham Stephen’s YouTube channel). Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing when an advertiser (brand, service provider, manufacturer) rewards affiliates for a specific action (purchase, sign in, download) performed by the customer. The way you use affiliate links on YouTube resembles the promotion of affiliate offers on your blog or website. If your channel is dedicated to product reviews, affiliate marketing fits very well.
You can work with brands directly, as many companies run their in-house affiliate programs, or via affiliate networks. Affiliate networks are sort of mediators between advertisers and affiliates (“publishers”). Networks cooperate with numerous advertisers (2 000+ brands) from many industries. So, as a publisher, you have multiple options to choose from on a single platform.
One of the most popular affiliate networks, to begin with, is Amazon Associates. First of all, Amazon offers all kinds of products, so whatever product you choose to promote, is highly likely available on Amazon. Second, working with an Amazon affiliate program you get an advantage: whatever product you advertise, when a visitor clicks on your affiliate link, you will get a commission from all products the person purchases. For example, you promote a coffee machine; a person clicks on your link and buys a coffee machine, a spare filter, and Nike shoes. You get your commission from all purchases (yes, you weren’t running ads with Nike shoes, but you’re paid).
How to increase affiliate earnings on YouTube:
Important: You should add an affiliate disclaimer to your channel/videos revealing that you earn money if people buy the products you promote. A disclaimer is also required for other forms of promoted content or products, such as sponsored content.
Brands invest more and more in influencer marketing. YouTubers with established loyal audiences can set a flat fee for brands. The average rate for mid-level influencers is around $20 per 1 000 subscribers (or $20 000 per 100 000 subscribers). OmniCore provides the following numbers: YouTube video influencers with audiences from 500 up to 5 000 people charge on average $315 per video; influencers with an audience 500k+ charge, on average, $3 857 per video. Based on your content quality and audience demographics you may negotiate deals with brands.
Important: whatever the deal is in terms of money, value your audience in the first place and evaluate whether the specific brand partnership will be useful for subscribers; otherwise, you may face a wave of unsubscriptions.
You might find useful such platforms like Grapevine Village, a platform that unites reliable and mission-driven brands with creators and requires 10 000 subscribers to join it. FameBit, a platform that helps creators to discover and find brands to partner with, make business proposals and complete the campaign. US-based YouTubers with 25k+ subscribers are legit for FameBit Full Service via YouTube Studio. Try to join as many platforms as possible to increase the visibility of your channel.
This is a method very similar to influencer marketing and a true gold mine on YouTube. It differs from influencer marketing with its longer duration. When you have a loyal established audience, brands will approach you to mention their products in your videos. It is never too early to begin. But still, the brand and the product should match your chosen niche. The challenge is to demonstrate your expertise and skills to potential sponsors.
Let’s say, you advertise yourself to get new monetization opportunities via sponsorship. Somehow this method is similar to affiliate marketing as you promote a product/service/brand, but there is a slight difference: sponsors pay you a fixed amount for the promotion of their brand or a product. It can be a single video or a series of videos, and the rate and terms depend on the popularity of your channel and the quality of videos you create.
Important: Sponsored content must comply with Google Ad Policy to avoid any potential problems with your account. Follow FTA (for the US) and ASA (for the UK) guidelines for disclosure to prevent any legal issues.
It depends on your specialty. You can sell digital products like eBooks, online courses, and training webinars. Coaching and consulting services are also in demand if you are an expert in a specific field. Whatever field you’re specialized in, you can create a unique course with useful practical recommendations.
Many YouTubers successfully sell training courses across various niches, including digital marketing, professional — you must be an expert in the field and offer really high-quality content that will provide value to your audience. The process might develop slowly in the beginning, but with more recognition, it can be pretty lucrative. To maximize earnings, you can sell group consulting (group webinars) and offer pre-packaged products (ebooks, tutorials, etc.)
Another option is sales during YouTube live streams. It works well for e-commerce and Nutra niches. Digital products’ sales work also well during the live stream. The core component of live stream sales is trust. When you’ve succeeded to build trust with your followers, they will follow your advice to purchase a product or buy your premium product/service as they believe it to be valuable. As an additional stimulus, you can use special promo-codes for a limited time or provide free samples (offer a free chapter of your ebook to draw more interest and prove the value of the product).
MeetKevin is a YouTube channel with 940 000 subscribers. Maybe to some of you, the number of subscribers doesn’t seem huge, but 28-year old Kevin, a real estate broker, and investor, owns more than $10 million in real estate and $4 million in stocks. Kevin successfully sells his own course on real estate investing, sales, property management, or stocks/finance. He heavily, and pretty successfully, promotes his courses on YouTube.
From time to time Kevin shares his income reports and financial status:
Kevin doesn’t reveal his YouTube-only earnings but shares his stock market insights and recommendations.
And here is the typical video description from Kevin:
All his videos contain valuable information and a strong Call-to-Action to buy his courses.
YouTube is a great platform for building your own brand, increasing its visibility and revenue. YouTube is the second-largest search engine, so it helps you to attract and reach the target audience. Many webmasters use the junction of a website and YouTube channel for better results. More than 90% of consumers discover new brands on YouTube — a weighty reason to build your brand on YouTube.
As for selling merchandise, it is one of the fastest ways to make money on YouTube granted that your audience is large enough. Anyway, you may start and step-by-step expand your influence. Some YouTubers mastered this strategy.
The channel TheReportOfTheWeek makes around $3 100 per month (on average) from selling merchandise.
Just give a look at the channel’s estimated earnings for recent months:
This is a massive industry to join and get a share from selling branded products. Definitely, you’ve heard about Print-on-Demand. This is when your design or logo is printed on merchandise, such as mugs, t-shirts, sweatshirts, key chains, etc. There are companies specialized in this field — you upload your design onto various products and when a customer makes an order, the company will ship the order directly to the customer. You aren’t involved in the manufacturing, printing, and shipping process (it is called dropshipping). You may check platforms like Printify and Printful, or find other dropshipping companies.
Another YouTuber who successfully sells merchandise is PewDiePie. With 107 million subscribers, the recently launched merchandise was sold out in no time. By the way, in 2019 Felix Kjellberg (PewDiePie) earned around $15.5 million.
Every year PewDiePie might make over $6 million from merch sales. The estimated earnings for the recent period look like this:
The numbers do not come from anywhere, as both channels were built step-by-step, earning trust and loyalty. First, you invest and then you reap the harvest. At all rates, this is a great monetization strategy. There are some important aspects to keep in mind:
Limited edition and promo-offers might facilitate sales.
This is a less known but also effective strategy to earn money from video content. Media platforms are always on the lookout for high-quality unique videos to show to their audiences. Newsworthy videos are in high demand. Just make sure that media resources can find your videos and contact you: post your business email in your YouTube channel profile and descriptions to videos. Another option is to submit your videos to platforms like Jukin Media. Many popular media, such as CNN, NBC, CBS, The Weather Channel, and FOX, use this platform to get videos to their websites. By licensing your video content you can increase your earnings significantly.
In 2017 YouTube introduced the Super Chat option to help creators monetize their channels and live streams. The tool allows anybody watching a live stream to purchase a Super Chat, a highlighted and pinned message in the live chat stream that catches the eye at once. And Super Chats stay pinned to the top of chat for up to 5 hours.
Super Stickers represent another option to make extra money on YouTube: viewers can buy stickers to connect with a YouTuber during live streams. Stickers were launched in 2019 and now they are available to all eligible creators. As of November 2019, there were 100k+ channels, who "received Super Chats, with some streams earning more than $400 per minute." Super Stickers are very easy in use — your viewers "can choose from a wide range of prices".
In 2018 YouTube launched a Membership feature. The feature is available for channels with 30k+ subscribers. For $4.99 per month, YouTubers can offer members-only content and other bonuses for ‘members’ (for example, discounts on merchandise, badges, free ebooks, and tutorials). Channel membership eligibility, policies, and guidelines you can check here.
Another form of membership is via Patreon. This is a platform that allows YouTubers earning a monthly income in exchange for access to exclusive content and custom rewards. The audience (‘patrons’) pays for exclusive content. Creators may charge a fixed monthly fee or per a single post. Patreon reminds of YouTube Membership features with the difference that creators can set their own prices. Moreover, you can set several levels of Patreon membership at different prices.
For example, Philip DeFranco is a well-known YouTuber who uses Patreon. With almost 5.5 million subscribers and almost 2 billion views, he produces exclusive ‘membership’ content funded by ‘patrons’.
Another example is Crash Course. The team is supported by 7 215 patrons. Founded by two brothers, Crash Course offers free educational videos. Brothers strongly believe that high-quality educational videos should be available to everyone for free, so they turned to Patreon. Easy Allies, video game streamers, have 5 537 patrons:
How to Promote Products/Brands and Not to Annoy Your Subscribers:
Well. A single valid answer to this question cannot be given. It depends. It depends on your chosen niche, popularity of your channel, loyalty and paying capacity of your audience. Some YouTubers get barely nothing, while others rake in millions. If you use affiliate marketing, advertisers have different payment models — CPC (cost per click), CPL (cost per lead), CPA (cost per action). CPA rates may also differ significantly, as "action" can stand for various actions, such as download or sale. So, your income depends on the conversion rate and commission rate.
Review is a powerful type of content to promote a product or service. Actually, all of us search for reviews before purchasing a product or service. Reviews are useful for any type of product. As brands need more exposure, you can select a product/service that matches your niche and which you consider valuable for your followers, and create a video review. This strategy is particularly effective for software products, gadgets, beauty products, e-commerce. However, there are many YouTubers in the finance vertical that earn impressive amounts via specialized channels.
It is always good to have an additional platform like a blog or website that you can link to your YouTube channel for generating traffic.
According to Afluencer and Forbes, some YouTubers continually develop their channels and turn them into a lucrative business. Below you see the list of top-earning (per video) YouTubers (not a precise ranking but the examples of high-earners):
There is one common feature that unites top YouTube earners — they were patient, took the idea of developing their channels very seriously, and produced unique content regularly.
You’ve read tons of reviews and articles about monetizing YouTube channels, but should have noticed that video bloggers do not mention a specific time required to get income from channels; some began earning in 3-4 months, while others spent years to grow the audience and make money from their channels. Sometimes creators do not even realize what aspects helped them to maximize the revenue. In fact, there are several key factors involved:
Graham Stephen is a successful YouTuber, who makes an income almost from everything he sets his eye on.
Below is an example of using affiliate links in video descriptions (Graham cooperates with Amazon to promote a camera and editing equipment).
Maybe Amazon commission rates do not impress at once, but whenever a person clicks on the affiliate link, Graham earns some money. As a result, small amounts add up. As Graham Stephen revealed in one of the recent videos, he makes around $2 000 per month from these affiliate links.
Conclusion
At first, monetization of YouTube videos without Google AdSense might seem quite tricky, but after closer inspection, it looks real and even more profitable. Continue creating great content and post it regularly. Study your audience: most demographic data you can get from YouTube analytics: age, gender, geographic location, and even watch time (the parameter that defines "engagement"). That’s the data you can convert into income.
Every minute more than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, so the competition is very intense. But everyone (including top YouTube earners) has started at one moment: use the positive experience of successful creators and develop your strategy. If you don’t give up, your persistence will be paid off.
