Stats say that around one billion Youtube videos are being watched everyday around the world. And each individual user spends an average of 40 minutes per Youtube session.
Anyone can also create their own videos and upload them onto Youtube.
All you need is some video editing software a computer and an internet connection and it can be the start of your own Youtube career.
To give you some perspective,
A YT channel called Ryan’s Toy Review makes an insane $22 million dollars a year by playing with some toys. Crazy right? And this was 2018, imagine how much more it makes now!
Not a bad way to make a living 🙂
And the best part:
Making money on Youtube is open to anyone – no longer is it restricted to a select few mega influencers, artists, entrepreneurs or world renown musicians.
ANYONE can do it and there are copious amounts of opportunities for the average person to make money from Youtube.
But, you’ve got to have a strategy and a plan.
In this post, I’ll go over some different ways you can start monetizing your channel and start making money on YouTube this year.
Let’s go.
How to Make Money on YouTube
It’s definitely possible to make incredible income from your YouTube channel as a creator, but it’ll take some time, dedication and patience. So enjoy the process, because the process is the destination 🙂
Some stats for ya:
Every minute, 500 hours of video footage is uploaded to YouTube!
And although the competition can be pretty fierce, you can still find ways to monetize your channel if you know the right strategies.
Here are some of the best strategies I’ve gathered to help you get your YouTube engines started and increase your earning potential from your YouTube channel.
#1. Youtube Monetization Method – Affiliate Links in your Videos
This is probably my preferred and most profitable way of using your YouTube channel as a business.
One way you can provide affiliate links underneath your videos (in your descriptions) is to offer your audience in-depth tutorials or product reviews on products that you ALREADY use.
This way you are already familiar with the products and you just need to showcase how you use the product and insert your affiliate link in the description below.
The way this works, is the affiliate provider (ex – amazon) will provide you with an affiliate link you can share with your audience.
And when the user clicks on the link to purchase a product you recommend, you’ll start to earn commissions, usually a percentage of the sale.
This is very resemblant to promoting affiliate links on your blog, but just through the video format.
Don’t go too crazy with these links and promoting 100 products on your YouTube description though, because it’ll just come off as very spammy.
You want your audience to view you as a trusted source and if you just start spamming products, this is an easy way to lose a lot of trust.
One of the best ways, IMHO, is to just showcase how you use the product on a regularly basis.
This way it becomes a win-win-win.
- It helps the product creator get a sale.
- You get a percentage of the commission.
- And your audience gets a great product.
There are many affiliate programs you can join.
There are big popular affiliate networks such as Shareasale or Awin,
And probably the biggest is Amazon.
You can also use a complimentary blog, alongside your YouTube channel to monetize your business even more by adding affiliate links on the blog too.
So you’re growing BOTH from your blog and also your videos.
In order to get started with a blog, you first need some hosting.
A host that I personally like and have used myself when starting out is Siteground web hosting.
It’s cheap, fast (probably the fastest for its price), and has great customer support.
Here are the steps to get started with Siteground:
Go to Siteground.com and click Get Started
Choose your hosting plan ($3.95/month is cheapest with my link)
Enter a new domain name or select one you already own
Enter your account information and billing.
You can uncheck any of the add-ons if you want.
Click Submit and you’re ready to go!
Try Siteground
#2. Becoming a YouTube partner and earn from ads
This is probably the most popular way for YouTubers to earn an income stream.
And there are a few different ways you can monetize your YouTube channel as a YouTube Partner.
Some examples are ads before your videos begin (these are called pre-roll ads), channel memberships or Adsense banner ads.
But there are some prerequisites that you need to get started as a YouTube Partner.
As a general rule, you must have a minimum of 4000 hours of video watch time on your channel in the last 12 months and also have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers to become a YouTube Partner.
But the good news is, there is no fixed timeline or format to get these initial 4000 hours.
For example you may have 1000 hours from twenty of your YouTube videos or you can have 2000 hours from just five of YouTube videos.
The combination doesn’t matter, you just need to get your total views to 4000 hours in order to meet the YouTube requirements.
To give you some inspiration I know many YouTubers who have climbed to 1 million subscribers in just a matter of months.
And I also know some YouTubers who have to climb to the 100,000 subscriber mark in only a month so there’s a lot of hope for new YouTubers to start making some dough on YT 🙂
However, even though you become a partner of YouTube this may not be your best source of revenue for your business or for your YouTube channel.
There are many other ways by which you can increase your earning potential on YouTube.
And we have already talked about this, but if you have a dedicated fanbase that watches your videos and watches your live streams then products you recommend, they may want to buy it from you.
Another way you can monetize your channel is with the power of your fans. There are some features on YouTube that pay the creator, like super chats and super stickers and people can also make donations.
This is just another revenue stream in your arsenal of monetizing your channel so that you can keep doing what you love and keep doing it for the long term.
#3. Make money on YouTube with a loyal fan base
This one is very straightforward, if you have a very dedicated fan base then you can encourage them to help fund your channel ideas and videos so you can keep making it for them.
A popular option is something like Patreon which introduces an easy way for your fans to pay for your more “premium content.”
This premium content can be anything, from behind the scenes footage, to you answering any other questions. It can even be footage that may be released to the smaller group before it gets published to YouTube.
On a platform like patreon even with a little as a dollar, they can subscribe to this premium content and you can reward them by creating exclusive content for them.
Another service is called Tipee that allows you to have recurring memberships along with 1 time donations.
For most creators you want to be able to create content that attracts a solid fan base so that people are compelled to watch your videos.
So, overall be a good creator by providing value to others which may come in the form of laughter, smiles, good information or just being a fun and good human being :).
#4. Master Your YouTube SEO
For most of us starting out in our YouTube channel You need to be able to reach the top of the YouTube search engine and in order to do that we need some knowledge about how the YouTube search function operates.
This is where YouTube SEO enters stage left.
In order to be able to rank highly in YouTube searches you need to do a little bit of keyword research.
You have to be able to think outside of the box and getting to the head of what people are searching for on YouTube.
In order to trigger the SEO algorithm make sure that you have your targeted keyword in your video title description video tags I do lie multiple times.
And once you have finally launched your YouTube channel you can actually go to your report section under traffic source and YouTube search to get an idea of what kind of keywords people are searching for when they find your videos.
It also seems that YouTube favors some of these SEO factors when considering to rank a video:
- Number of comments
- Subscribers after watching a video
- Video length
- Engagement Time
- Thumbs-up and thumbs-down ratio
- and the CTR are on the YouTube search results
Source: tagseoblog.com
Some other basics of SEO and general is having great contents and also getting links from other high-quality channels.
Getting links from other high-quality channels means that you are a trusted source in YouTube’s eyes..
Note that SEO is not an overnight process but of course it can be accelerated with the strategies that we are discussing but it will take some time and usually even months before you start to rank highly for your targeted keywords. And you line
Another great way of getting not only traffic but a link to your YouTube channel Canby through Partnerships and collaborations with other people in your niche.
You can collaborate with other YouTube video creators by featuring one of their videos in your own channel and vice versa so that you can bring a fresh new audience to your content.
This is very easy to do.
You simply can go on to YouTube and find similar Channels with similar amounts of subscribers and reach out to them see if they are down for a collaboration.
What does collaboration you can simply shout out your partner in one of your videos and they can also mention your channel and their videos as well.
This is a great way to start branching out into other channels and then gaining new subscribers when getting started on YouTube.
#5. The YouTube Marketing Funnel
YouTube It’s definitely one way you can start to bring in some income but there are many other creative ways you can use to expand not only your channel but also your business.
As I have mentioned before I also running a Blog alongside your YouTube channel you can create substantially more income then you can by just having a single source of income like having your YouTube channel.
End this way not only will you have more touch points with cold traffic but you can also start collecting email addresses and eventually selling the audience product or service that aligns with their values.
For example you can create a blog post about a product review that you want to recommend to your audience and you can then we use that same contents to create a YouTube video around that product.
You can then on your blog post embed that YouTube video into the post so that it has more value in terms of SEO so that it ranks higher.
Source: clatterchatter.com
This way you are both helping your blog while also creating a video that can get more traffic.
End of YouTube video you can also send viewers to an affiliate link and you can start earning commissions from both your blog and also your YouTube video.
Another great option is to create an e-commerce store on platforms such as Shopify end start cell merch around your Channel or your brand.
Shopify is a great way to start an e-commerce brand and I have heard many success stories by utilizing this platform sell merch and products and generating a lot of profit from the traffic they receive on their YouTube videos.
Some examples of Youtube merch (pics)
#6. Become An Amazon Affiliate with Amazon Influencer
There’s a program that Amazon offers called the Amazon influencer program.
This program allows you to use any source of social media including YouTube to make some commissions via Amazon recommendations.
When you joined the program you can start to review and recommend products directly to your audience via affiliate links which you will get a small percentage of the sales.
When your viewers click on any of these links and makes a purchase on Amazon you get a cut of the commission’s typically anywhere from 8 to 10% of the sales.
And it’s not just the product that you are recommending it is 8 to 10% of their entire cart that you get a percentage of Saudis cells can really add up.
In addition to product reviews and becoming an affiliate of Amazon you can also utilize Amazon’s own fulfillment center called f b a to promote and create your own merch line. that means if someone buys your merch you don’t just get a commission of the sale you get full prophets of the entire sale.
Source: amazon.com
You can monetize your YouTube channel and your fan base by leveraging Amazon’s own line of warehouses without even having to fulfill and ship the orders yourself!
APA has become such a popular way start generating an income through social media and you can get started yourself as well.
the Amazon influencer program however isn’t open to everyone and they look at social media follower count and other relevant metrics to approve people to come on board the influencer program.
#7. Youtube Premium Comissions
you may have heard of a this function where you can pay premium of $9.99 4 ad free YouTube viewing.
you can also listen to U2 while having the app close just like you would when you are listening to music.
This way even without YouTube ad Revenue video creators can still make commissions paste on view time end this amount is estimated to be around 55% of the revenue.
For now though there are many mixed reviews on does YouTube premium function so make sure to check your metrics under YouTube Analytics to watch your stats such as video engagement and watch time.
Source: youtube.com
With YouTube premium the watch time matters and you can check your stats in the YouTube backend with Analytics so make sure to utilize those features.
How much money can you make on YouTube?
Honestly, it depends.
Like I’ve mentioned, can monetize your channel by using ads, affiliate links, sponsored placements in your video oh, and running a Blog side-by-side your Channel so there are quite some ways in which you can start to collect money from your YT channel.
But here let me briefly talked about YouTube ads specifically.
With YouTube ads a typical creator can calculate their ad Revenue with see p.m. which stands for cost per impression and a typical Creator will make around $7.60 per 1000 views.
Of course Google will keep around 45% of this while the Creator gets to keep around 55% of earnings accrued from the advertisements in Adair videos.
This is different from affiliate marketing in which advertisers will usually pay you per sale or lead instead of per view. So affiliate marketing is directly correlated with the number of conversions and sales you get to the advertiser.
another way that people can make money on YouTube is through sponsored product placements in their videos.
Now the amount that a YouTuber gets for these product placements can differ greatly but it simply ranges around 20 to $50 for every few thousand views that you get on your videos.
For example, if a video on your Channel with a sponsored product hits a million views you can expect the sponsor to pay you anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000 for just one video!
So pound-for-pound sponsored placements will usually pay you a lot more then then Google ads that are placed in the pre-roll and during your videos.
How much money do YouTubers make?
You’re not going to like this answer but it depends.
But the majority of YouTubers around the world they will make close to nothing at all.
But for popular YouTubers they can be generating 8 figures or more per year!
In 2021, Mr Beast was estimated to have made $54 million dollars!
It also depends on which Niche you are in some niches pay more to their creators than other niches.
For example someone in the finance space might be making a lot more in ad revenue and then someone in the entertainment space.
So a rough estimate is that a driven you can range anywhere from 0.25 cents to $5 per view with the safe assumption being about $1 per 1000 views
Source: Statistica.com
Another popular question is how many views do you need to cash out on YouTube?
Once you have a balance of a $100 YouTube will pay you out.
Can you earn from YouTube on a paper subscriber bases?
YouTube has started to roll out a subscription service 2 YouTubers who can monetize their Channel with a high follower count.
The elements of a successful YouTube channel break down
so let’s take a look at what it takes to be a successful YouTube channel, by looking at one of the most successful ones:
Mr. Beast
end this example I’m going to be using a finance Channel by the YouTuber named off Graham Stephan.
Let’s take a look at the channel art.
this is the image that will appear at the top of your channel and the first things that people see when they click on your channel so it’s a great place to put in some relevant information and a call to action.
you can also add a picture of your face so people will recognize put Channel it is.
This will give your viewers a bird’s eye view of what they can expect from your Channel and I kind of contents they will be watching.
you can also add in your social medias and also a call to action to your website.
The call to action is there so that it tells your audience what you want them to do next.
Next is the profile picture
take some time on your profile picture because this is going to be the face of your Channel.
make sure you choose a high-quality picture and a smile always helps create rapport with the audience so small big 🙂
next is your YouTube channel name
in some cases people will use their own names as their channel name but it can be anything you want so be creative and come up with a good channel name.
Channel trailer
the channel trailer is a short video that plays when the viewer lens on your YouTube channel come page.
this can be different from channel to channel but I like to keep my Channel videos short engaging and that is relevant to the channel. It can also be a summary of what the channel is all about and the type of content that you will be posting.
This channel trailer is make a first impression to your viewers before they can become a subscriber
the first few seconds are the most crucial so make sure that you have an engaging video and place.
think of it like a movie trailer give the audience a preview of what’s to come and make sure it is engaging.
Then the recent uploads section is where your latest videos will be.
You can also create playlists so that your audience can easily digest your content within certain categories.
How to make money on YouTube FAQ
Here is the TL;DR list, but if you stick around I’ll get into the meat and bones of the list.
- Putting affiliate links in your video descriptions are recommending products so that you can earn a commission on every sale.
- Selling merch, your own products, are you been having your own platform like Shopify and you’ll receive 100% of the sales.
- Selling your own digital products and online courses or even writing your own book and selling it on Amazon.
- Once you have built up your audience you can get sponsorship from brands and they will pay you for mentioning their brand and your videos.
- You can become a consultant or a coach and offer your services to your audience if you are an expert in your field.
Is it hard to make money on YouTube?
At first yes it can be a climb to make a lot of money on YouTube but it doesn’t mean that it’s not possible.
The current guidelines for YouTube monetization is to have 1,000 subscribers and the 4000 hours of watchtime within the last 12 months to become part of their partner program. Then you’ll be included in there add a program where you will be able to receive money based on the number of ads that viewers watch.
But if you don’t quite have millions of subscribers yet or millions of use another great way is with affiliate marketing by placing affiliate links in your descriptions under your videos.
An easy way to do this is to review products or have a product walkthrough or unbox one of these products that way people can benefit by watching your videos and they can decide if they want to purchase the product by watching your videos without purchasing the product first. and if they do purchase a product they can do so via your affiliate link and which you will get a commission on the sale that you make.
this can be a lot easier than getting millions of views because you can start to use this right away without having to be included in Youtube’s partner program.
Like I have mentioned before is recommended that you start a blog with your own hosting alongside your YouTube channel so that you can promote your affiliate links in both video format and written format to help you get more views and also help you get more sales.
how much is 1000 views worth on YouTube?
there are many factors that goes into how much and you 2 / 10 make per 1000 views but let’s talk about CPM
It also depends on the advertisers because they can either choose to pay for the ads based on cost per view CPV or cost-per-click CPC.
If it is based on cost per click for example you could get $0.05 for one View and $5 for another view if that viewer clicks on an advertisement that is of higher value.
a general rule is to assume that you are earned anywhere between 0.25 cents through $1 for every 1000 views if you are using banner ads and $6 to $7 per 1000 views if you use any ads in your pre-rolls
how many subscribers do you need to make money?
Well to be included in the YouTube Partner program do you need at least 1,000 subscribers and also 4000 hours of watchtime within the last 12 months and after that you have to apply to become accepted.
Who is the highest paid YouTuber?
Doing some research online and coming up with the most recent list (this is in the year 2024) here’s a list of the highest paid YouTubers based on Revenue in 2024.
Source: Statistica.com
What is the best way to make money on YouTube?
Honestly and this is my personal opinion it is to become an affiliate for products that you are already using. this way you are promoting products that are great value to your audience while also getting paid at the same time.
of course doing what you love and creating content that you are passionate about is also one of the best ways that you can make money on YouTube because you’re both enjoying yourself while creating an income.
so keep putting your art out there and giving your gift to the world and soon enough people will start to pay attention.
Why aren’t my videos making any money?
there are many ways to answer this question first way is maybe you don’t have enough viewers.
Secondly your viewers might not be interested and watching the ads that you took places for them.
your videos may also not be engaging enough for people to watch the ads.
and maybe the channel itself isn’t relevant to the ads that are being placed on their videos.
just know that it takes a lot more views than you think for you to be generating a lot of Revenue on YouTube.
What kind of equipment do you need for you to?
You don’t need much equipment at all you just need a computer and a camera.
In fact you don’t even need a computer you can even get away by just using your smartphone and uploading your videos from there (although not recommended).
It’s recommended to have a great camera but also great audio quality because people pay more attention to audio quality then to the actual video.
studies show that if you have poor quality people will click away more so than if you have poor video.
Where can I get video editing software to make YouTube videos?
YouTube itself is a video editing software.
Adult it’s not as flexible as some of the paid versions out there you can add intros and outros speed up or slow down some parts of your video change your music add Anna background music and make small changes to your videos so this is a good free way to get started.
If you are looking for more flexibility and is also beginner-friendly I would recommend using either Final Cut Pro if you are on the Mac or DaVinci Resolve if you are using PC.
Adobe Premiere adult powerful can become too costly for new users because they charge you on a month-by-month basis but Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve are both a one-time payment.
how do you become popular on YouTube?
Create great engaging videos with good contents and do it consistently and over time you will get a lot of viewers which will in turn become subscribers and then eventually to become loyal fans.
So putting some effort into doing the research on your topic and learning to edit videos quitting high quality videos you’ll start to generate more and more of a bigger audience and therefore raise your popularity.
Can I use copyrighted music in my videos?
The quick answer is no you cannot use copyrighted music in your videos.
YouTube will Mark your video with a copyright claim and restrict monetization from this video.
There are many alternatives to use great music in your videos so it’s not recommended to use any copyrighted music.
some great resources for some awesome music are listed here
Epidemic Sound
How much does it cost to start a channel on YouTube?
0! You can start a channel right away!
What should i title my videos on YouTube?
There are two ways to go about this in my opinion
you can create titles out of curiosity what’s our called clickbait and I will raise your ctr’s
but another way is for SEO purposes in which you can use the targeted keyword in your titles so that you can rank higher in the search results on YouTube.
this way people who are searching for specific things can find your videos a lot easier and you would generate more traffic to your Channel.
For example if people are searching for how to tie a tie and if you’re title is named how to tie a tie you can expect more people to click on it because it is relevant to what they are searching for.
I think that is all for now on how to make money on YouTube in 2024.
making money on YouTube is definitely possible because there are so many people out there making substantial living off of YouTube.
but again you don’t want to just rely on YouTube alone you can also utilize platforms that are outside of YouTube as a secondary traffic source.
My recommendation is to start your own blog so that you have two ways instead of just one to be able to make money with your YouTube channel.
And I believe one of the best ways to starting a blog is with Siteground.
Is one of the easiest ways to start your blog and start hosting your own content while combining the power of YouTube’s traffic and leveraging both videos and written contents to spread your message across the world.
Reminder: here’s how to get started:
Here are the steps to get started with Siteground:
Go to Siteground.com and click Get Started
Choose your hosting plan ($3.95/month is cheapest with my link)
Enter a new domain name or select one you already own
Enter your account information and billing.
You can uncheck any of the add-ons if you want.
Click Submit and you’re ready to go!
Try Siteground
For further reading make sure to check out some of my other posts:
Best Course Platforms Comparison
Best Virtual Conference Platform Comparison
How RAS Works
Reviewing Namehero
SiteGround Hosting Review
Bluehost vs GoDaddy Showdown