Around the globe, five billion YouTube videos are watched every day. YouTube is as popular as ever with users spending an average of 40 minutes per YouTube session.
In line with this digital shift, the next thing you should learn is how to make money on YouTube. All you need is video editing software and a computer and you can get started on YouTube.
For example, on Ryan’s Toy Review, young Ryan makes a whopping $22 million by playing around and disassembling toys. Not bad for playing around with gadgets.
Making money on YouTube is no longer exclusive to a select few platinum musicians or huge influencers. There are plenty of opportunities for everyday people to make money from YouTube.
However, you have to be more strategic in your approach.
In this article, I’ll go over the different ways you can start making money on YouTube this year.
Let’s get started.
How to Make Money on YouTube
While it is possible to make significant income from YouTube as a content creator, it is not the easiest either. Four hundred hours of video upload to YouTube every single minute across the world.
Numbers don’t lie. Therefore the competition is pretty intense, and making a lot of money online becomes more challenging. Here are some powerful strategies you can employ to jumpstart your earning potential from YouTube.
1. YouTube Monetization: Use affiliate links on YouTube.
Promoting affiliate links can be a massive earning opportunity for channels that offer in-depth tutorials as well as insightful product reviews. For example, if you recommend a product and a user visits your link to buy, you’ll start earning commissions. You can place these links in the first few lines of your description and speak about your link in your video content.
Posting affiliate links on YouTube shares a typical resemblance to promoting affiliate links on your blog. Thus, you shouldn’t pour affiliate links all over your YouTube content just for the monetary benefit. Don’t forget that viewers will only follow these links when they believe you are a trusted resource.
To build trust with your audience, help them solve concrete problems and provide tutorials. As a bonus, you can create videos that offer solutions you have previously accomplished yourself.
There are plenty of affiliate programs for you to join. You can join many different programs in one place on a popular affiliate network like Shareasale or Awin.
The best step to maximize revenue is to start a blog in unison with your YouTube channel and add affiliate links there too. That way, you’re monetizing YouTube and also have a website on a platform that you own yourself.
The first step to starting a blog is to get started with Bluehost web hosting.
Bluehost is the “official” WordPress.org recommended web hosting platform and you can read my full Bluehost review here.
Here’s how to get started:
- Go to Bluehost.com and click Get Started
- Choose your hosting plan ($2.95/month is cheapest with my link)
- Enter a new website domain name or select one you already own
- Enter your account information, account plan, and billing information
- You can uncheck the add-ons Sitelock Security and Codeguard Basic
- Click Submit and you’re ready to go!
2. Become a YouTube Partner and earn from ads.
For many YouTubers, ads are the most essential revenue stream.
As a YouTube Partner, you make money in different ways. You can make money from ads before your videos, channel memberships, or Google AdSense banner ads.
However, there are some ground rules to observe before becoming a certified YouTube Partner as well as some prerequisites needed to start. Aside from adhering to YouTube’s ad rules, you must amass a minimum of 4,000 video watch hours on your channel in the last 12 months and have 1,000 subscribers.
There is no concrete timeline or format to get these foundational 4,000 hours. You can get 100 hours each on 40 videos or any combination to get your total to 4,000.
For example, the famous international hit Gangnam Style took an enduring five months to achieve 1 billion views. However, Despacito was less patient rushing to 1 billion views in barely 97 days.
After successfully achieving the 4,000 hour-threshold and winning your place as a YouTube Partner, you can start earning from ads.
In your Video Manager, a green “$” next to your videos indicates that you can now tap into YouTube monetization.
With YouTube Premium removing ads for viewers for a monthly fee, YouTube still helps support creators by paying based on the percentage of total watch time.
However, you may not always be able to base your revenue generation on YouTube from advertising alone. There are other avenues by which you can consolidate your earning potential on YouTube.
3. Make Money on YouTube with Funding from Your Fans.
If you’ve built a following of loyal fans, encouraging them to crowdfund your channel can help you fund your new videos and profit.
A platform like Patreon introduces more seamlessness to the process of getting paid for your content. For as little as a dollar, your fans can make subscriptions to their favorite channels, even going home with some exclusive rewards from their favorite content creators. Tipee is another service that allows you to enjoy a combo of recurring and one-time donations.
For-profit and nonprofit channels alike are leveraging this fan-funding with their audience to keep their video operations running smoothly. As long your content is interesting, entertaining, or providing value, you would be amazed at how your viewers open the floodgates of generosity.
4. Master Your YouTube SEO.
For video creators who have not built a significant following yet, you have to step up your game and maximize YouTube SEO this year.
To do that, perform keyword research like you usually would – however, think a little differently based on what people are searching for on YouTube. Next, make sure you are using high-value keywords in your video title, description, and video tags.
Once launched, you can check your YouTube “Traffic Source: YouTube search” report to get an idea of what people are searching for when they find your videos.
In general, Google provides video results for keywords on how to, reviews, tutorials, and funny video terms.
There are also five key YouTube SEO ranking factors to consider:
- Number of comments
- Subscribes after watching a video
- Thumbs up/thumbs down ratio
- Video length
- Click-through-rate on the YouTube search results
5. Make the most of your YouTube marketing funnel.
Optimize your YouTube channel for sales. Choose your niche, become a YouTube partner, and start planning your marketing funnel.
YouTube is one way to spread your message, but you can make more money by using YouTube in unison with a blog. That way you’re collecting more email addresses and eventually selling products to your fan base.
For example, if you write a blog post about an affiliate product you’re recommending, repurpose that content, and create a YouTube video embedded in the post. Then send users from YouTube back to your blog and to the affiliate links to both earn commissions and build blog readers.
6. Become an Amazon Influencer.
The Amazon influencer program is becoming more popular. This influencer program allows you to maximize your YouTube (social media in general) presence to make money via Amazon recommendations.
After joining the program, you can review and recommend products and direct your viewers to Amazon to purchase via affiliate links. When your viewers click through and make Amazon purchase, you get your cut of the commissions – typically 8-10%.
However, this program isn’t open to everyone. Social media follower count and other metrics dictate approval odds.
7. Explore extra gains from YouTube Red Subscribers.
YouTube Red allows users to pay $9.99 for ad-free YouTube viewing. Even without ads, content creators can still generate money and make 55% of revenue, based on view time. There are mixed reviews on whether YouTube Red increases or decreases CPM rates.
With YouTube Red, your watch time matters, so check your YouTube Analytics to view your statistics like watch time and video engagement.
How Much Money Can You Make on YouTube?
The short answer: it depends.
By using ad monetization, affiliate links, and selling sponsored placements in your videos, you can maximize your revenue potential.
On YouTube, you can make money from ads on a CPM, CPV, and CPC basis. With cost per impression (CPM), a typical YouTuber makes $7.60 per 1,000 views.
Nonetheless, by Google policy, creators get 55% of earnings accrued from advertisements while Google keeps 45%.
Now if you are using affiliate marketing as a channel owner, advertisers disburse payment with different models – typically cost per sale or cost per lead. Here, your earnings directly correlate with the number of conversions and sale commissions you get from advertisers.
You can also sell sponsored product placements in your videos. Here YouTubers make money by selling either short mentions or more extended product recommendations on brands looking for exposure.
However, if you have been able to build a measurable following on your channel, brands will pay you. This price may range from $20 to $50 for every few thousand views they get on your channel.
So if for example, their video on your channel hits millions of views, you can be dancing to the bank anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000. This strategy is a better way to monetize when you aren’t generating millions of views.
How Much Money Do YouTubers Make?
For thousands of YouTubers, this answer may be nothing, or barely anything. For popular YouTubers, this could be a million dollars or more per year.
It’s getting tougher to make money, as ad revenue can range from $0.35 to $5 per view, with the safe assumption being $1 per 1,000 views.
The profitability of your channel is tied to both your views and your niche.
YouTubers in highly-viewed niches like listicles, news, celebrity gossip, makeup and beauty, and popular fails quickly pull in revenue with millions of views.
There are also YouTube revenue calculators to help you understand how much you can make based on video views and engagement.
How many views do you need to cash out on YouTube? Once you attain a balance of $100, YouTube pays you.
And can you earn from YouTube on a pay-per-subscriber basis? YouTubers just rolled out a subscription service to YouTubers with high follower counts.
How to Make Money on YouTube FAQ.
How can I make money on YouTube without ads?
If you aren’t making a lot of money with advertisements, there are plenty of other ways to generate an income from your channel. Here are some of the best options:
1. Add affiliate links to your video descriptions to recommend products and earn commissions on every sale.
2. Sell merchandise, t-shirts, and physical products linked to an ecommerce platform like Shopify.
3. Sell digital products, online courses, and eBooks.
4. Build your audience and get a YouTube sponsorship from a brand.
5. Use crowdfunding and ask for donations.
5. If you’re an expert in your niche, sell coaching and consulting services and charge an hourly rate.
Is it hard to make money on YouTube?
It is pretty challenging to make money on YouTube. First, you must have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within the last 12 months to join the YouTube Partner Program. Then you have to generate a lot of views and monitor your cost per view (CPV) to see how much money you make for advertisements.
If you don’t have millions of views, one great way to monetize your channel is with affiliate marketing. You can review products or perform product tutorials and place affiliate links in your video description. That way, you can earn commissions on every sale and make more money than your advertising CPV.
I recommend you start a blog and couple that with your YouTube account. That way you can promote affiliate links on both your YouTube channel and blog and embed your videos in your blog posts to get more views (and help your search engine rankings).
How much is 1,000 views worth on YouTube?
There is no definitive answer to how much 1,000 views is worth. Factors to consider include the industry you’re in, how many people click on your advertisements, and the country you are located in. This all factors into your average CPM.
Additionally, advertisers create a Google AdWords account to place YouTube ads then choose their ad strategy based on either paying on a cost per view (CPV) or cost per click (CPC) basis.
For example, you could get $0 for one view and $5 for another view if that viewer clicks on a high-value advertisement. A good rule of thumb is to assume that you will earn $0.75 – $1.00 for 1,000 views if you use banner ads, or $6-7 per 1,000 views if you use ads that play before your video starts.
How many subscribers do you need to make money?
Based on the YouTube Partner Program eligibility requirements, you need 1,000 or more subscribers to be able to monetize your channel. You also need at least 4,000 watch hours within the last 12 months and have an active Google AdSense account. Once you apply and are accepted into YPP, you are allowed to set ad preferences and enable monetization for the videos you upload.
Who is the highest-paid YouTuber?
The top YouTube stars like Logan Paul and PewDiePie bring in millions of dollars a year by monetizing their channels. Whether reviewing and playing video games or creating engaging content, these YouTubers put in a ton of work to increase their viewership. Here is a list of the highest-paid YouTubers based on yearly revenue in 2019:
1. Ryan Kaji: $26 million.
2. Dude Perfect: $20 million.
3. Anastasia Radzinskaya: $18 million.
4. Rhett and Link: $17.5 million.
5. Jeffree Star: $17 million.
6. Preston: $14 million.
7. PewDiePie: $13 million.
8. Markiplier: $13 million.
8. DanTDM: $12 million.
