How to Make Money on YouTube
You’ve probably heard of some celebrities or TV stars who just started on YouTube. Some of
they become so successful that they start out getting some type of sponsorship and soon,
they’re making money on YouTube.
These people made homemade videos and uploaded them not knowing there are people out
there who actually want to see these kinds of videos. A few people view them, share them,
then all of a sudden, they’re everywhere. It usually just starts out just for fun but their content
is so good that they rapidly get thousands, sometimes, millions of views!
But even if you don’t get to that level, even if you don’t make it on national TV, there are still
lots of ways you can make money on YouTube. Sometimes, you don’t even need to get a million
views. Here are some things you should know about how to make money on YouTube.
How Big Is YouTube?
To be able to make money off any platform, it has to be good enough that people actually use
them. 5 billion people watch videos on YouTube every day and these are people from all over
the world. A YouTube user or viewer spends an average of at least 40 minutes. The only way
you can make money out of a website or any online application or platform is when people
spend time on it and it’s no doubt that YouTube is doing that pretty well.
But how do you actually monetize your YouTube channel or generate funds from it?
Making Money on YouTube
So, how does making money on YouTube work? Do you have to be the one making the videos
and do you have to be in them? Not necessarily. There are two ways you can make money on
YouTube.
You can either become an advertiser or turn your YouTube channel into an ad platform.
Becoming an Advertiser
Being an advertiser means you can pay for some of your videos to run or be shown as ads. You
typically have to pay for this in terms of advertising tools like what YouTube calls TrueView ads.
This will get your videos to be shown to potential buyers. Now that you know that, you
probably figured out that yes, you have to have a product or a service that people can pay
you for.
Becoming an Affiliate
The other way you can make money on YouTube is by turning your channel into an ad platform.
This means that instead of running ads yourself for your own products, you will host OTHER’s
content as an ad on your own videos. This is something called being an ad affiliate or YouTube
Partner. If you’ve watched some popular videos on YouTube, you’ve probably seen some
disclaimer on it saying it’s a “Paid Partnership”.
Now, for this to work, your published content needs to have enough views or are being
watched by a considerable number of people, preferably the type of people that advertisers
want to target. Otherwise, they would not invest money in you.
Going the Direct Route: Working Directly with YouTube
You can also just become a partner of YouTube directly. This means you will partner with the
site and to do that, you have to meet the requirements. In past, you need to upload videos that comply
with YouTube’s advertising guidelines only and your content or channel needs to have at least
10,000 views.
New requirements
Now, to get into the YouTube Partner Programme, you need to meet the criteria. You’ll receive an email when you’ve reached 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the past 12 months. . After you submit the application, your channel will get reviewed by YouTube against YouTube monetization policies.
Minimum eligibility requirements to join
- Follow all of the YouTube Channel Monetisation Policies.
- The YouTube Channel Monetisation Policies are a collection of policies that allow you to monetise on YouTube. As a YouTube partner, your agreement including the YouTube Partner Programme policies requires compliance with these monetisation policies to potentially earn money on YouTube.
- Live in a country/region where the YouTube Partner Programme is available.
- Have no active Community Guidelines strikes on your channel.
- Have more than 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months.
- Have more than 1,000 subscribers.
- Have a linked AdSense account.
Once you do that, YouTube offers several ways for YouTubers to earn cash. One strategy for this is making as many videos as you can. If you have 200 videos in your channel, for example, you only need at least 50 views per video to reach the 10,000 views minimum. Imagine if you only have 10 videos. You would have to get at least 1,000 views for
each of them in order to meet the requirement.
Of course, to actually get those views, your videos must either be very helpful and informative
or really entertaining to watch. They must also be shot and uploaded in high quality in order
not to discourage people from watching them.
Other Ways to Make Money on YouTube
Other, less ideal ways to make money on YouTube but are still effective, include using a few
other services. Or, why not combine a few or all of them?
Google AdSense
If you’ve owned a website or a blog before, you’ve probably heard of or even used Google
AdSense. When you become a partner, you connect your YouTube account to Google AdSense
and from there, advertisers can bid for a spot n your videos. These advertisers choose
YouTubers on certain factors like your typical audience, your videos’ categories, and relevant
keywords you use in your titles and descriptions.
You will get paid based on the number of impressions you get. This means how many times and
how many people watch the ad and how many of them click on it or respond to the call to
action. In advertising, a call to action means asking the audience to go to your website, shop at
your store, book an appointment, etc. You should know that YouTube will take a percentage
of the revenues made from these ads.
YouTube Red
If a user subscribes to YouTube Red, they will be able to watch videos uninterrupted meaning
without ads. This ad-free subscription service is another way to make money on YouTube. Your
channel needs to have 1,000 active subscribers in order for you to put your content behind a
paywall and you must allow your viewers to leave messages when you’re doing a live stream.
This feature is called Super Chat.
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Conclusion
The above are just some of the ways people can make money on YouTube. There are definitely
more ways to go about it and if you get really creative, you can most likely partner with other
sites, businesses, and app developers.
The most important thing is that you produce quality content that is truly worth watching. If
you already know how to do that, then you’re halfway there.
