If you’re wondering how to make money on YouTube channel, look no further than these 6 strategies for monetizing your channel, creative work, and making money on YouTube.
Making money from YouTube used to be as simple as uploading great content, getting millions of views, and earning a share of advertising revenue. Now, content creators have access to multiple ways to monetize their content on youtube.
YouTube does not pay you for the videos you upload. Neither is videos monetized by default. 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.
Make Money on YouTube
Your YouTube channels can be monetized even if you don’t have millions of subscribers. Your earning potential isn’t determined solely by the number of subscribers and views you have but 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.
This article shares a few tips and strategies on how to make money on YouTube.
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Create and Upload Content
More than 1.5 billion users log in and watch videos on YouTube each month. That’s one important reason why crafting videos for your audience on YouTube can be an enriching experience for your small business or channel. Another is that by sharing videos that inspire, educate, or entertain, you can build a community and get more people talking about your business.
The first step to making money on YouTube is creating and uploading fun and engaging content on your channel. It can range from educational to funny and even downright silly! There’s no limit to what you can create. As long as it’s relevant to the people you want to connect with and engaging, you are bound to have an audience, no matter how small. By creating great video content, you can grow your audience and increase your influence on the Internet.
It is also crucial to upload your content regularly. People have extremely short attention spans, so do not give them a reason to forget about your channel. Consistency is the name of the game.
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Join the YouTube Partner Program and earn money from ads
The first revenue stream you’ll likely explore is ads. This can be done by joining the YouTube Partner program. The partnership gives content creators access to special tools, such as monetizing their videos via Google AdSense. 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.
To qualify as a partner, you must have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of accumulated watch time over the prior 12-month period. By doing so, brands can now auction for ad space on your channel for a fee. Fun fact to know is that Google AdSense pays you for your content, not YouTube.
Advertisers pay based on clicks and impressions. YouTube gives the content creator 55% of this revenue and takes 45% for itself. Content creators must adhere to advertising guidelines. Content that contains foul language, adult content, violence, and other subjects will not have ads placed against them.
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 YouTube Partner Program terms.
- Create a new AdSense account or connect an existing one to your channel. (You need an AdSense account to get paid.)
- 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, and then scroll down to the chart Monthly Estimated Revenue to get an idea of your predicted revenue.
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Get Into Affiliate Marketing
You can also make money on YouTube through affiliate marketing. It involves advertising products or services on your channel. You then get a commission based on the number of sales you bring in. You can start by reviewing products and including your affiliate link in the description. How many people click on your link to make a purchase determines how much you get paid.
This works especially well if reviewing products is part of your YouTube channel content. 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.
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Source for Brand Sponsorships
A lot of brands provide sponsorship to popular YouTube channels as another means of advertisement. You do not have to wait for brands to come to you. Brands are spending their typically large advertising budgets on influencers who have large subscribers. You negotiate directly with the brand, and they pay you directly. No wonder it’s a popular way for YouTubers to make money.
Depending on your leverage, your number of subscribers, content quality, and how unique and profitable your job is, you might be able to negotiate a better deal if the brand is a good fit. Research on which brands are relevant to you, and your audience, send out proposals offering real value. If you’re lucky, some of these brands may reach out to you and thus begins your money-making career on YouTube.
When partnering on brand-sponsored content, the key 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.
5. Let your audience support your content through “fan funding.”
Another popular way to monetize your channel is through channel memberships. YouTube offers the ability to let your viewers pay you to become members of your channel. Fans and followers make recurring monthly payments to get custom emoji, badges, and access to members-only exclusives like Live Chats with you.
YouTube partners who have reached 30,000 subscribers can enable this monetization feature on their account. Top video creators can earn as much as $40,000 per month from fan support. You’ll need to build a promotion strategy to convince people to become members, which may or may not include several tiers of membership.
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License your content to the media
When a video goes viral, every news outlet wants to get their hands on a copy to replay it for their audience. As a content creator, licensing your most successful work to the media can be as simple as making sure you’re easy to find.
If you happen to create a viral video, say, a funny clip or a documentary, you can license your content in exchange for money.
TV news outlets, 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, where your content will be easier for the right people to find and purchase.