Being an online personality just might be the best career option ever. But is it possible to make a living as one? Even if you have a creative niche, do you know how to make money on YouTube?
There are a few basic things you can do to start answering these questions and try to monetize your YouTube videos. With a little hard work, these tips might become the secret to reaching your goal to get rich.
6 Ways To Make Money on YouTube
Making money with your video content can take studying and testing the waters. Focus on providing something unique, different or interesting for the viewer. Perhaps you have particular knowledge about a certain subject, along with a compelling way of presenting that knowledge. Maybe you can teach people how to do something at home, like cook or fix things. Or, maybe you just like pulling pranks on people — there are a lot of YouTube videos of pranksters. Here’s more on how to make money on YouTube.
1. Intend To Monetize Your Content
Perhaps the most useful thing you can do is understand your purpose for creating and publishing content on YouTube. If you don’t make up your mind to earn money on the platform, you won’t be intentional about sticking with strategies and tactics that will help you earn money from YouTube. You can learn how to monetize YouTube content, but it could take a considerable amount of effort.
Creating a plan that could be profitable is the key to success. Some good questions to ask yourself to fine tune your vision are:
- What would you like to speak about or create videos on?
- What will your niche be?
- Who do you think your audience is?
- How often will you post new content? Hint: consistency is key, even if it’s only once per week.
- Besides creating videos, how much time can you set aside each week to promote your content, respond to user comments and grow your audience?
Once you’ve fine tuned your vision and put it on paper, it’s time to post consistently and work on engaging and building an audience — you’ll need subscribers if you plan on making money on YouTube.
2. Set Up Your Channel To Earn Money
The next step in how to make money on YouTube consists of setting up your channel the right way.
How Do You Start Making Money on YouTube?
To make money on YouTube, you need to join the YouTube Partner Program. To do this, you need to:
- Follow the YouTube monetization policies
- Live in a country where the program is available
- Have over 1,000 subscribers
- Have over 4,000 valid public watch hours
- Have a linked AdSense account
How Much Money Does 1 Million YouTube Views Make?
YouTubers are making an average of $7.56 per 1,000 views, according to YouTuber Greg Preece. The amount varies by topic, according to Preece, ranging from $13.85 per 1,000 views for videos on “Making Money Online” to $1 per 1,000 views for videos on “Parenting.”
3. Turn on Display Ads
You can earn money on YouTube by permitting ads to appear before, during and after your videos. To turn on ads for one of your videos:
- Sign in to YouTube
- Go to YouTube Studio
- Select Content from the left menu
- Select a video
- Select Monetization in the left menu.
- Choose the type of ad
- Click Save.
Your content will be evaluated to make sure it’s appropriate for the kinds of ads you have selected.
4. Grow Your Audience
The more subscribers you have, the more money you can make. YouTube’s Creator Academy provides some useful tips on growing your audience if you’re just starting your channel. Here are some simple tips that you can use to be found, seen and followed on YouTube:
- Craft content and wording that allows the search algorithm to rank your video appropriately for keywords and phrases.
- Write smart descriptions so other users can find your content related to the searches they are performing.
- Publish content regularly — preferably on a schedule — so users will come back to your channel regularly.
- Create compelling thumbnails to draw people to your videos.
- Add calls to action on end cards so your viewers will take action related to your content.
5. Incorporate Affiliate or Product Marketing
Ad revenue isn’t the only source of income you can get from video marketing. You can also make money online simply by selling other’s people’s products on your YouTube channel. This is known as affiliate marketing, and here’s how it works: You put a link to someone else’s product in the description area below your video. Every time someone clicks on that link, you get paid by the owner of the link.
Many affiliate marketing programs will help you get set up for this. Amazon Associates may be the most popular, simply because you can find nearly anything on Amazon, and everyone uses it. But there are others as well, and you can learn about them, and how to use them, on — you guessed it — YouTube.
6. Create Sponsored Content
Imagine that your views are climbing and you’re getting more subscribers. At this point, you might be prime time enough to start considering sponsored content. If you’ve got a sizable audience with very specific demographics, your voice could be used to promote certain products and services.
Brands will actually pay you to create sponsored videos that promote something they want you to sell to your viewers or find a way to naturally weave it into the content you’re already creating. For example, if you provide instruction videos on how to play guitar, you might consider getting sponsored by a company that makes speaker amps.
Learn, test and repeat what works for your YouTube channel. Learning how to make money online, especially as an online personality, is not an easy feat. But with a lot of determination and hard work, it’s certainly not impossible.
Who Is the Highest-Paid YouTuber?
According to Statista, the highest-paid YouTube star is Mr. Beast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, who has 104 million subscribers and earned $54 million last year. Starting at 13, he is known for money giveaways and conducting large challenges and experiments.
Other people raking in the big bucks on YouTube include:
- Jake Paul — $45 million
- Anastasia Radzinskaya, aka Nastya — $28 million
Whatever you decide to showcase on your YouTube channel, make sure it’s unique to your audience.
Takeaway
There are plenty of opportunities to make money on YouTube. The key to success is building a large audience or subscriber base that keeps coming back for your unique content. Once you’re on a roll, you can expand your earnings through ads, affiliate marketing, sponsorships and even direct product sales. If you’re committed, the sky’s the limit.
Ways To Get Rich Online
- Ways To Get Rich
- Make Money on Amazon
- Make Money on Ebay
- Make Money on Instagram
- Make Money on Online Marketplaces
- Make Money on Robinhood
- Make Money on Snapchat
- Make Money on TaskRabbit
- Make Money on TikTok
- Make Money on Twitch
- Make Money on Upwork
Making Money on YouTube FAQ
- How many views do you need on YouTube to make money?
- Depending on how you set up your YouTube channel, you can start making money selling products to just a few subscribers. However, to join the YouTube Partner Program, you'll need at least 1,000 subscribers and over 4,000 public watch hours.
- How much money does 1,000 YouTube views make you?
- According to YouTuber Greg Preece, the earnings depend on your niche. For example, 1,000 views can bring in $13.85 or as much as $1 per 1,000 views for videos on parenting.
- How many subscribers do you need to get paid on YouTube?
- To join the YouTube Partner Program and start making money, you'll need at least 1,000 subscribers.
Aja McClanahan contributed to the reporting for this article.
Information is accurate as of Sept. 26, 2022.
Editorial Note: This content is not provided by any entity covered in this article. Any opinions, analyses, reviews, ratings or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author alone and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any entity named in this article.