Do you wish to earn money through YouTube?
If that’s the case, we’ve got good news for you. Compared to a few years before, there are now a lot more ways to monetize on YouTube.
In this article, you will find different methods to make money on YouTube along with some answers to commonly asked questions.
Let’s get started.
How to Earn Money on YouTube
Here are your options if you want to earn with YouTube:
1. Join the YouTube Partner Program
Have you seen those ads running at the start and end of every video on YouTube?
It’s likely that the creators of the video you’re watching are earning revenue from those ads. In a nutshell, this is the YouTube Partner Program.
On the down side, joining the program isn’t that simple. There are minimum eligibility requirements you need to pass.
Here are the requirements:
● Adherence to all YouTube channel monetization policies
● Reside in a country or region where the program is available
● No active community guidelines strike on your channel
● More than 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last twelve months
● More than 1,000 subscribers
● Linked Google AdSense account
Of all the items above, gaining more than 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours are usually the hardest obstacles.
When you achieve those primary requirements, the monetization module in your YouTube Studio will show you more options.
How to join the YouTube Partner Program
When you’re ready to join the program, simply follow these steps:
● Navigate to the YouTube channel that you want to monetize
● Go to the YouTube Studio through the upper-right corner options
Once your in YouTube Studio, go to the “Monetization” module from the left panel:
If you’re still starting out, what you see on this page are indicators on how far you are from being eligible to earn money through the program.
If you’re already eligible by this time:
● Click the “Start” button
● Accept the terms and conditions
Note that you will have to link your Google AdSense to YouTube to receive payments. There will be a page where you can either sign up for an account or simply check whether or not the details are correct.
After completing the application process, all you can do is wait for YouTube to review your application and receive their verdict.
It might take a month or longer before you can receive any response, so don’t panic if it has been a while since you completed the application.
2. Experiment with YouTube Shorts
Did you know that it’s now possible to earn money through YouTube Shorts?
Well, there is now a YouTube Shorts Fund, which was announced last August 2021. This new program is YouTube’s attempt to challenge TikTok.
What’s unique here is that YouTube will directly invite eligible creators to claim a payment from the fund — with payouts ranging from $100 to $10,000.
How to become eligible for YouTube Shorts Fund
Unlike the YouTube Partner Program, there is no application process here. If you’re eligible, YouTube will reach out to you.
On the bright side, they did release a guideline for eligibility for a bonus from the YouTube Shorts Fund.
These are the requirements:
● Uploaded one eligible short video in the last 180 days
● Adherence to community guidelines, copyright rules, and monetization policies
● Videos should not have any watermarks or logo from other social media platforms
● Videos must be original (no unedited clips from movies and shows)
● No reuploaded content from other channels
● Creators must be in the age of majority (younger creators need a parent or guardian to accept the terms)
● Creators must come from eligible countries
What’s even better here is that you don’t need to be a part of the partner program to qualify.
If you’re qualified to receive a bonus, YouTube will send you an email and a notification in the YouTube app in the first week of the month.
If you need more information on this, here’s the link to the official documentation of YouTube Shorts Fund.
3. Invite your fans to become channel members
How do you feel about fans paying you directly?
Besides the two methods above, YouTube has other tricks under its sleeve to help you earn money through its platform.
There are three ways for this to happen:
● Super Chat
● Channel membership
● Premium membership
Note that for these monetization methods (except for premium membership), you need to become a YouTube Partner to activate these features.
YouTube Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Super Thanks
This was already a feature even way before — though it was known then by a different name.
Basically, Super Chat and Super Stickers allow fans who are viewing your live stream to highlight their comment (or post a sticker) for a set amount of time by paying money.
Super Thanks is a newer feature where viewers can directly show their support to the channel on a regular (non-live) video.
Some notes here:
● Super Chat and Super Stickers are available only to YouTube Partners.
● The amount of time the comment stays up depends on how much the fan paid.
In terms of the revenue share, you get 70% of the total revenue confirmed by Google (calculated after local sales tax and iOS App Store fees).
Channel membership
You may have already seen the “Join” button on some of the channels out there:
Think of this as an in-platform membership feature where fans can become paid members of your channel in exchange for members-only perks.
If you want to go this route, you need to have a promotion strategy in place and really awesome perks to lure people in.
YouTube Premium
Technically, this is an indirect way of earning from YouTube since fans don’t actually hand over the money to you straight away.
When someone subscribes to YouTube Premium, ads will stop showing on the videos they watch on YouTube.
However, those channels with videos that a premium member has watched will receive a share of the revenue of the subscription fee.
4. Sign up for affiliate marketing
Did you notice content creators on YouTube recommending certain products or services?
Many of them earn a commission whenever someone buys a product or service they recommend — usually through a link in the description section.
Affiliate marketing can be quite luxurious since there are companies that pay high commissions to affiliates. Imagine getting at least $100 for a single purchase.
This is quite effective especially for channels that:
● Review products and services
● Curate products and services under a theme
● Provide guidance to a specific type of audience
If you want to start with affiliate marketing, simply sign up for affiliate programs like:
In websites like ClickBank and Impact Partnership, you will be able to submit proposals to companies and businesses that have products you want to promote.
For Amazon Associates and similar programs out there, you can basically promote anything being sold at the platform (like Amazon).
To credit a sale to you:
● You need to ask your viewers to click a link in the description section (or show the link in the video itself).
● Other companies also give a code (which the company associates with you) that your viewers enter when buying a product or service.
Note that if you want to use affiliate marketing in YouTube and include product placements or endorsements, you will need to disclose the partnership in the video.
5. Sell products or merchandise
Instead of promoting the products of other people, how about selling your own?
There are a lot of products (or even services) that you can sell — think about coffee mugs, bags, shirts, hoodies — whatever you can think about.
Selling your own products is a great way to imprint your business and online personality to your fans and do an “offline bonding” with them.
This is what many content creators in YouTube do:
In terms of selling your merchs, it might even be easier than selling affiliate products since many of your loyal fans will not mind buying your products.
If you want to get started with it, the first step is to design a product or two that represents a good connection with your fans.
If you’re not good at designs yourself, you can order designs for specific items from the following:
● Fiverr
Then, you will need to create your product. In this case, you may need to find a supplier or a manufacturer to do the work for you.
If your products revolve around printables, then you can also make use print-on-demand services like:
● Printful
● Printify
Once you have that covered, all that’s left is to create your shop and landing page (in short — an ecommerce site) to handle the purchases.
If you need help with it, here’s a guide we prepared on how to build an ecommerce site. Make use of our affordable web hosting plans too to get started.
6. Partner with brands for sponsored content
Have you heard your favorite content creator saying something like “let me introduce you to our sponsors” and proceed to explain about the sponsors product?
That’s because brands are seeing how important influencer marketing is. They are now spending a lot in advertising through sponsorships.
Creating sponsored content is also a great idea for monetization because YouTube doesn’t have a cut on your earnings. Brands pay you directly.
Before you seek out brands to partner with, make sure you have the following:
● Large enough channel (at least 10,000 subscribers)
● Engaged audience (lots of views on your videos)
● Relevant content (tech brands reach out to tech-related channels)
The better your leverage, the better the deal you will be able to make with brands, the more money you make through sponsored content.
Fortunately, finding brands doesn’t have to be that complicated. There are influencer marketplaces where brands can discover you:
● Aspire
In terms of price, you will have to go through with one where you’re comfortable. If you need reference, webfx has a a pricing model:
● $200 per video for those with 10,000 subscribers
● $2,000 per video for those with 100,000 subscribers
● $20,000 per video for those with 1 million subscribers
Note that you will have to be transparent about your sponsored content — both in the video and through the disclosure feature in YouTube.
By the way, YouTube also has its own monetization service now that connects creators to brands and provides campaign management resources.
Unfortunately, YouTube BrandConnect is available only to YouTube Partners. It’s also currently an invite-only platform.
However, you may want to connect with brands directly instead of using YouTube. The exchange of YouTube BrandConnect is a cut on your earnings.
7. Use approved crowdfunding sites
How about directly soliciting your fans for a donation?
Well, that’s basically the idea of crowdfunding. You can ask your fans to donate money for a project — like buying a new equipment or funding a trip.
If you want to go this route, you will need to set up a crowdfunding account first on your platform of choice:
● Patreon
● GoFundMe
Patreon is usually the top choice for recurring funding. Other sites are great for one-off campaigns or projects.
If you want to make it easier for your audience to donate to you, try the Buy me a coffee option since it enables your supporters to donate in small amounts.
After you set up your crowdfunding account, make sure to promote your crowdfunding campaign in your videos.
Here are some strategies you can apply:
● Create specific goals that donors could track
● Offer enticing rewards or perks for your fans who donated
● Communicate open with your donors throughout the process
● Don’t forget the promises you have made during the campaign
8. Join a video/audio rights marketplace
Did you know that you can earn from your content when others want to use them?
This could happen when a person or entity — like those from a news company — want to use your video and replay it for their own audience.
Another case is for music creators. If people like your music and want to use it in their own content, you can license the audio and receive revenue when someone uses it.
There are various platforms out there that you can use to license your content:
● Jukin Media
● AWAL
Jukin Media is a good place to use especially if your content isn’t the type to get a lot of hype. Naturally, you will be able to earn more if you have “newsworthy” content or clips.
After licensing your content, you may want to update your contact details both in YouTube and in social media platforms.
Updating your contact details is especially important if you’re a music creator. Businesses will need a contact point for business inquiries.
Frequently Asked Questions About Making Money on YouTube
Here are answers to some of the most commonly asked questions regarding this topic:
How many views do you need to get paid on YouTube?
If you’re referring to the views you need to start getting paid, then you need at least 4,000 public watch hours in the past 12 months.
Watch time and subscriber count are treated as the most difficult eligibility requirements in the YouTube Partner Program.
On the other hand, if you’re referring to the balance you need so YouTube can pay once you’re inside the program, then the answer is $100 (minimum balance).
How to make money on YouTube without making videos?
The only way to make money on YouTube without making your own videos is to reupload other’s content that has a creative common license.
Unfortunately, this isn’t a great way to monetize your channel. Videos under a creative common license aren’t being searched or watched that much.
If you use licensed content (like videos from other content creators or clips from movies or shows), you will not be able to earn from your videos since the revenue will go to the creator.
How do you get paid on YouTube?
This primarily depends on the monetization method that you’re using.
If you’re in the YouTube Partner Program, then you Google AdSense will handle the payment for you using the following options:
● Check
● Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)
● Rapida
● Wire Transfer
For the other methods, you can usually use PayPal and or straight to bank payment options. You may even negotiate on the method with the platform you’re using.
Do you get paid for uploading videos on YouTube?
If you’re in the YouTube Partner Program, then you can earn by uploading videos that meet the community guidelines.
Unfortunately, without any off-platform monetization like affiliate marketing or sponsored content, simply uploading videos won’t earn you anything.
How many views do you need to make $1,000 on YouTube?
Strictly speaking, there are a lot of factors that play here, so there’s no one way to guarantee how many views you need to make a certain amount of money from YouTube.
The actual rates that advertisers pay also vary. It’s usually around $0.10 to $0.30 per view, with an average at $0.18 per view.
If you base it on the average alone, that means you need more or less 55,500 views in your channel (around $18 per 1,000 ad views).
How much do YouTube content creators make?
Once again, there is no one way to determine how much content creators make on YouTube.
You need to consider not only their earnings from the partner program, but also from all the methods they use outside the platform.
To give you an idea, here are the estimated annual earnings of the top channel creators in 2021:
● Mr. Beast: $54 million
● Jake Paul: $45 million
● Markiplier: $38 million
● Rhett and Link: $30 million
● Unspeakable: $28.5 million
Take note, however, that the channel creators above are superstars. Regular YouTube content creators need a combination of monetization methods to earn a significant amount.
Will you still be able to make money if your viewers skip ads?
Unfortunately, when your viewers skip ads or use ad-blocking software on their computer, you will see a significant dip in how much you will earn from the ad revenue.
That’s because advertisers only pay when the viewers watch the ads. On the bright side, it’s unlikely that all your viewers will skip ads.
Actually, skipping ads is the reason why YouTube encourages advertisers to create entertaining ads that people want to watch.
For your other monetization methods, skipping ads won’t have any effect, which is why it’s better if you have more than one way to earn from YouTube.
What strategies to implement if you want to sell on YouTube?
Many of the methods to earn from YouTube include promoting products or services. After all, you may not get anything if you don’t “ask” your viewers.
On the other hand, you need to make sure that inserting your promotions in your videos doesn’t compromise the quality of your content.
Here are some strategies you can implement when selling on YouTube:
● Make sure the products you’re selling relate to your audience: You need to consider the niche and identity of your channel. In fact, if you sell a product to the wrong audience, you might lose your subscribers.
● Make sure to include a call to action in your videos: You need to actually say or suggest what it is that you want your viewers to do. Link in the description? Click a card in the video? Visit a website?
● Make sure to add links in the video descriptions: You need to make it easy for you viewers to visit a link or another video. The way to do that is by making use of your description section.
● Make sure to include info cards in your videos: Info cards are interactive cards that can feature a video, playlist, channel, or link. Viewers can then click on them directly to go where you want them to go.
Naturally, don’t forget to promote your products outside the platform too. Many of your fans and viewers would want to interact with you too outside YouTube.
If there’s one rule you must remember, it’s that “never sell anything that your audience wouldn’t like or wouldn’t make sense to them”.
Making Money From YouTube
As you have seen, there are a lot of ways for you to earn money from YouTube. Plenty of people make it their career to create content on YouTube.
In summary, here are the different methods you can use to earn money from YouTube:
- Join the YouTube Partner Program
- Experiment with YouTube Shorts
- Invite your fans to become channel members
- Sign up for affiliate marketing
- Sell products or merchandise
- Partner with brands for sponsored content
- Use approved crowdfunding websites
- Join a video/audio rights marketplace
It’s also a great idea to not stick to one method only. Diversification is the key especially when you want to make the most out of the platform.
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