How Do I Make Money from YouTube?

So, you’ve finally reached the threshold for YouTube monetisation with 4000 watch hours of videos in the past 12 months and over 1000 subscribers. Maybe this makes you happy, or maybe this makes you worried. After all, while it’s a great accomplishment to become eligible, does it really mean that you’ll be able to successfully leverage the platform to make money?

Don’t worry – you definitely can! Let’s talk about some easy ways you can use your YouTube channel to earn cash, like so many others.

How to Make Money on YouTube

Your growing fanbase can help you unlock the earning potential of your YouTube channel, as is frequently the case with Instagram influencers or bloggers. But the reality is that it’s the establishment of numerous revenue sources, such as side hustles, that allows you to generate exponential amounts of money. That, coupled with your efforts to build a YouTube enterprise, can be the key to huge earning potential.

Let’s take a look at some money-generating tips as well as some side hustles you can start on YouTube that can help you monetise your channel.

1. Join the YouTube Partner Programme

YouTube Ads will most likely be the first revenue stream you explore. Joining the YouTube Partner Programme and setting up monetisation is a critical step, whether you want to earn money on YouTube without making videos or as a video content provider.

You must agree to adhere to all of YouTube’s monetisation rules and reside in a nation or area where the YouTube Partner Programme is available. Additionally, you can apply for monetisation only after you’ve gotten 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours in the preceding year.

Here’s how to enable YouTube monetisation:

• Sign in to the YouTube account you want to monetise.
• Click the account icon in the top right corner.
• Go to YouTube Studio.
• Select Other Features > Monetisation from the left menu.
• Read the YouTube Partner Programme rules and eligibility conditions and agree to them.
• Set up a new Google AdSense account or link an existing one to your channel. You need to have an AdSense account in order to get paid.
• Configure your monetisation choices.

After that, return to the dashboard and choose the Analytics option on the left side. To get an indication of your projected YouTube revenue, choose Revenue from the top-level tabs, then scroll down to the chart for Monthly Estimated Revenue.

How do I get paid for Google Ads?

By connecting your YouTube channel to your Google AdSense account, you can monetise it and get paid. AdSense is a free service that allows you to quickly and easily show relevant Google ads on your channel. You earn a cut of the ad income when consumers click on an ad on your channel.

2. Build Your YouTube Videos around a Single Keyword/Topic

The easiest strategy to increase traffic and develop your YouTube following is to build your YouTube video around a specific topic or keyword. Marketers that are unfamiliar with YouTube SEO risk skipping this step when ranking YouTube videos – but it’s critical if you want your YouTube videos to receive more visitors and make more money for you.

It’s important to choose your keyword before creating your YouTube video content since it will help you produce the greatest material around that specific topic. It also helps you insert your keyword naturally throughout the content, so that YouTube can pick it up when closed captions are introduced.

Additionally, YouTube SEO is one of the most important aspects to consider when creating a video. How will users find your video? The key is to create a title that includes keywords that are relevant to your YouTube video and to what people might be searching for on YouTube. It’s just like search engine optimisation (SEO) for websites. You want your YouTube video to be found by the right people, at the right time.

One way to think about this is by brainstorming some potential questions that your audience might have, then figuring out what words they would use to ask those questions on Google or YouTube. Once you’ve done this, plug those words into a tool like KeywordTool.io, to find the most searched terms in the niche you wish to target.

Another great tactic is to conduct a Google search for relevant keywords and see what videos are ranking high on the first page of Google results, then add those keywords to your YouTube video’s title.

Ultimately, YouTube SEO is about optimising your content for search engines so that more people can find you. It’s the same kind of thing you’d use to get viewers on a regular website; in fact, when you’re optimising for YouTube SEO, it’s a good idea to think about how your videos would rank on other search engines as well. 

Google and Bing also rank results by looking at the words on a website, and then trying to figure out which words are related to what people are searching for. They also look at other factors, like how many links are pointing to a website.

If you want your YouTube videos to rank high in the search results, it’s important to understand this basic principle of YouTube SEO and think about how YouTube decides which videos are most relevant to each search term. As explained above, titles and tags are very important in this process.

Ultimately, when more users find your YouTube channel because of your efforts to put your videos in front of people, the more subscribers you’ll be able to attract. And when you have more subscribers, you’ll not only be able to become eligible for YouTube’s monetisation, but also attract brands and businesses to partner with in exchange for sponsored and affiliate content.

3. Sell Products or Merchandise

Selling goods and merchandise is a very popular method of making money using YouTube. There are several products you can offer that can make money for you. What’s more, selling merchandise – t-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, snapbacks, and more – provides other benefits in addition to cash.

Merchandise broadens your visibility by extending your online brand and personality into the actual world, and it strengthens your engagement with your followers by allowing them to practically “buy” into what you’re doing.

And it certainly helps if you’re already popular on YouTube! Famous YouTuber and Instagrammer, PewDiePie, has a following of more than 111 million subscribers and his newly-launched merchandise sold out within minutes. His merchandise, according to a recent survey, is expected to earn him around $7 million every year. Cool, right?

4. Sell a Course

If you’re knowledgeable in a particular niche and can provide valuable content for your subscribers, why not create and sell a digital course? There are various niches that YouTubers offer courses in, including health, SEO, food, social media marketing services , personal development, and more!

Choose the niche you have expertise in and use YouTube to market it. Of course, it certainly helps if you’ve already been able to build an audience on YouTube. But even without a top following, you can use your videos to drive users to your website, where they’ll be able to buy your courses. 

It’s important to use appropriate CTAs and establish yourself as an industry expert so that your viewers will be more likely to trust you and will want to buy from you. Then, every once in a while, refer to your paid courses (but don’t be too sales-y) and insert links to your course website in your video descriptions. You may even use YouTube ads yourself to promote your courses!

5. Work with Brands

Brands are increasingly engaging in influencer marketing and sponsorships, allocating huge portions of their advertising expenditures to influencers who have already earned the trust of their target audiences. A recent study has shown that 93% of marketers use influencer marketing, and the industry is expected to reach $16.4 billion in 2022 – that’s a huge growth from $9.7 billion in 2020!

If you can negotiate the correct terms with brands, this opens up huge possibilities for you as a creator. Brendan Gahan, a YouTube marketing specialist and influencer, suggests calculating your basic flat rate by multiplying the number of views your videos regularly receive by $0.05 to $0.15 each view (which is around what many brands are willing to pay for views via YouTube ads).

According to WebFX research, the estimated average pricing for YouTube influencer marketing is as follows:

• A YouTuber with 10,000 subscribers will earn $200 for each video.
• A YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers will earn $2,000 for every video.
• A YouTuber with 1,000,000 subscribers will earn $20,000 for each video.

If you have quality content, your audience is a good fit for the brand approaching you, and you’ve been able to build a distinctive and successful channel in your niche, you may be able to negotiate a better rate with the brand.

And if you’re interested in sponsored content, make sure that the company sponsoring you writes it for you in a way that fits your brand and is easy for your audience to understand. It’s also important that the product being promoted is something that you would genuinely use or care about yourself. Otherwise, it will look like you’re just selling out.

Sponsored content is only a little more complicated than ads, but not by much! The first thing you’ll need to do is find brands that want to sponsor your videos and reach out to them with a proposal. The key to collaborating on brand-sponsored content is to be open about it, not promoting anything you don’t like or believe in, and being honest with your audience about why you’re doing it. You can also use affiliate marketing to earn some steady income from your YouTube channel.

6. Build a Blog

Sure, that sounds like a great way to make some cash – but where does YouTube come in? Well, as the second-largest social media platform, YouTube is an excellent way to drive traffic from your channel to other platforms such as your blog. 

Blogs help you connect with your audience on a deeper level, building more meaningful relationships. Additionally, blogs also outperform YouTube videos because they provide more ways for bloggers to connect with their audience, such as through email lists. That’s why it’s important to drive your audience from other platforms to your blog. 

Once you’ve gathered regular visitors, you’ll be able to earn through display ads and affiliate links in your blogs which have a higher click-through rate than YouTube ads.

7. Increase Your Uploading Frequency

This may appear daunting at first, but in order to expand your following, you must raise your posting frequency to at least one video per week. Don’t worry; you won’t need the services of a design business or a large advertising agency to do this task. Today’s smartphones have excellent video recording capabilities, and video editing apps make the process simple, allowing you to generate video content on a budget. 

The importance of consistency can’t be overstated! Try to post at the same time every day or week (depending on your frequency), and keep your followers updated as to when new YouTube videos will be released.

This will keep your audience glued to your content and waiting for it – helping you gather a loyal audience that brands are willing to pay sponsored content for. That means more content for your followers, greater exposure for your partner brand, and more money for you!

The Takeaway

With billions of active monthly users, YouTube is a great way to make money using various strategies that can help you build, grow, and retain a loyal audience that you can then use to monetise your channel. 

By following the techniques we’ve mentioned above, you can earn a stable monthly income from your old and new videos alike. So get started on some awesome content creation using our useful tips! Also, don’t forget to check out this article: https://firstpage.com.au/learning-centre/youtube/who-is-the-richest-youtuber-and-why/