How to make money on YouTube

Making money on YouTube used to be as easy as posting great videos, gaining millions of views, and receiving a share of advertising revenue. But now, content creators have access to a number of ways to monetize their content. In addition to advertising, this may include corporate sponsorships from major brands, fan funding, or merchandise sales.

Google Ads

The first step in making money on YouTube is to join the YouTube Partner network. [thirstylink ids="4399"]The partnership allows content creators access to unique resources, such as the opportunity to monetize their videos through Google Adsense.[/thirstylink] In order to apply, content creators must have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of total watch time over the previous 12-month span.

Visit Google Ads

YouTube monetizes videos using pre-roll, show, and other advertisement formats. Advertisers pay based on clicks and prints. YouTube provides the content creator with 55 percent of this revenue and pays for 45 percent of it. Content creators must comply with the advertisement guidelines. Material that includes offensive language, pornographic material, abuse, and other topics does not have advertisements put on them. This could also involve coverage of current news events, such as the coronavirus pandemic.

Brand Sponsorship

One lucrative type of advertising is brand sponsorship, also known in the digital marketing field as 'influencing marketing.' A corporation may pay the content producer to advertise a brand or product inside a video. For example, early in her YouTube career, Michelle Phan attracted the attention of the cosmetics company Lancôme to her famous make-up tutorials.  As of 2019, there were more than 700 companies helping to align brands with social media influencers on sites such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter.

Fan Funding

Another common way to monetize a channel is through the membership of a channel. Fans and supporters make monthly payments in return for bonus items such as badges, emojis, exclusive photos, live chats, and other material.

YouTube partners that have exceeded 30,000 subscribers will make this monetization option available on their account. Third-party sites such as Patreon can help content creators monetize their fan base through monthly memberships. Top video creators receive as much as $40,000 a month through community support.

Merchandise Sale

YouTube partners also have the potential to sell up to 12 items of product to their followers by allowing this option in their account. You can sell merchandise to your customer base and this can also help you gain more customers as it advertises your brand.

YouTube Best Practices

In order to improve their chances of gaining a broad follower base, creators will follow proven YouTube best practices. One of the most important good practices in the production of rich, engaging material. Viewers come to YouTube to be amused or to find a solution to the dilemma they face. Through producing quality content, the video is more likely to be viewed and shared.

Another way to increase viewership is for content owners to customize their YouTube search videos. This involves using the Google keyword planner to identify terms that a large number of people are looking for and using keywords in the definition and tags of the YouTube video page.  Supporting YouTube video through the use of social media and paid media ads is another common way to generate additional video traffic.  

Revenue Generation Challenges

While all of these best practices are being practiced, there are several revenue generation challenges that YouTube video creators face. The median cost per thousand (CPM) ad prices charged to advertisers was just $10 at the end of 2018. Because creators are paying for monetized views, and not total views, the successful CPM they receive can be much lower.

Despite these obstacles, people who are able to attract a broad and loyal follower can Making money from YouTube used to be as easy as posting great videos, gaining millions of views, and receiving a share of advertising revenue. . According to Forbes, the highest-paid YouTube video makers are pulling up to $20 million a year, so it's easy to see why others are pursuing this as their career.