Continue with another way to make money on Youtube…
2. Be an Advertising Platform
If advertising is a marathon, the next two methods are a sprint … sort of. When you consider how to get paid on YouTube, you are probably thinking of the following options. In this case, you are the one getting paid to host others’ ads — the other side of the YouTube advertising relationship.
Remember that while turning your videos into advert space could get paid more rapidly and directly, it requires more heavy lifting on your part to make a decent profit.
Here are your main options:
YouTube Partner Program
Who does it: T-Series
YouTube revenue: $723,500 – 11.6 million per month
The YouTube Partner Program (YPP) permits the site’s most successful YouTube channels to monetize their content by serving adverts made and paid for by other YouTube users.
The criteria for this program — which changed in 2018 — requires that your channel has reached 4,000 watch hours and 1,000 subscribers in the last 12 months. After you have passed these two milestones, you may apply to join the program by the following steps:
- At the top-right of the YouTube homepage, click on your account icon and choose “Creator Studio.”
- On the left-hand side, click on “Channel” and choose “Status and features.”
- Under the box, “Monetization,” click on “Enable.” Do not be fooled if it says you are already “Eligible” to the left; this just indicates there are no restrictions against you from trying to become a Partner.
- You will be asked to agree to the YPP Terms. Do so, and you will then sign up for an AdSense account so you could receive revenue through your monetized YouTube account.
- Set your advert hosting preferences and follow the prompts to submit your channel for review.
YouTube typically emails you a decision on whether they have accepted you into the YPP within a week of applying, so sit tight. Still attempting to hit the right watch hours and channel subscribers? Remember you need to be posting prolifically — having just one or two videos on your channel that you are personally proud of will not cut it.
T-Series is a prime instance of how volume and consistency could make you a sought-after channel by advertisers on YouTube. This India-based record firm posts numerous music videos for songs written and performed in Bollywood, India. And though the company was founded in 1984 and has been on YouTube for nearly 10 years, keeping with this music video strategy has finally put them a position to dethrone PewDiePie (the well-known video game-focused YouTube user) as the most prevalent YouTube channel in the world — with a whopping 83 million subscribers.
T-Series makes no less than $724 thousand per month from its YouTube channel, according to SocialBlade, much of which comes from advertisers through the YouTube Partner Program.
“Bollywood music is like Russian roulette. You keep on betting, however, you do not know what will be a hit.” -Nerraj Kalyan, President of T-Collection
By publishing multiple videos a week, you could build your viewership, qualify for YPP, and make decent cash. YouTube splits advert revenue 55-45 with its partners — 45% to Google, 55% to you. Which means an advertiser who invests $200 in serving adverts on your channel could bring you $110 for your videos’ real estate.
T-Series’s president attributes their success on YouTube to the fact that the business does not go into any one project thinking it’ll earn cash. Rather, the regular “bets” they place on YouTube increase their chances of capturing its viewers and growing their following as a result.
Affiliate Links
Who does it: Marques Brownlee
YouTube revenue: $6,900 – $109,800 per month
As an affiliate, there is no eligibility requirement — you are taking advertising into your own hands. It is a great option for YouTube channels that offer reviews and how-to’s, and regularly recommend new products to its viewers.
Turn those ideas into paid (but natural) product placements in the description section of your video, as shown below:
Image via Authority Hacker
Working as an affiliate of various brands could make you money — albeit usually less than a YouTube Partner campaign — each time that firm makes a sale off a link you post on one of your videos. In this case, you are earning revenue from the company of which you’re an affiliate, rather than from YouTube and its advertisers.
Begin by joining an affiliate network by websites such as Click Bank or Amazon’s Affiliate Program, and follow the signup instructions. Remember that each program takes a different percentage of a sale as commission, and your success is still tied to the popularity of your YouTube channel.
Travel vloggers could also join Travelpayouts. It’s a travel affiliate program, that permits you to get paid on flight tickets, hotels, tours and other travel services. The affiliate commission (percentage) depends on the service you select and your sales volume.
YouTube personality Marques Brownlee, whose YouTube channel is shown promoting affiliate links in the screenshot above, is a consumer electronics reviewer on YouTube. This makes affiliate advertising the right revenue stream for his channel because his advertisers are effectively paying for Marques to review — and, assuming it is a positive review, promote — their products to his viewers. Marques says he additionally generates revenue through the YouTube Partner Program, according to Recode.
“There’s little things you could do to get people to watch your videos more, however, none of it’ll make as drastic of a difference as the video itself. The video itself has to be what makes people watch it and share it and watch it again.” -Marques Brownlee, tech reviewer on YouTube
In the example above, Marques reviews a pair of headphones by Bose, suggesting they may be the best noise-canceling headphones on the market. This made him an affiliate of Bose — just one piece of a YouTube marketing technique that makes Marques no less than $6,900 per month, according to SocialBlade.
Bonus: Fan-Fund Your YouTube Channel
Who does it: Typical Gamer
What exactly is fan-funding? It is exactly what it sounds like: viewers donate money to your channel if they find your content enjoyable.
It is the perfect option for videos managed by charities and nonprofits, however, even for-profit businesses and independent creatives can publish videos and YouTube Live streams that encourage contributions from their audience. Streaming platforms like Twitch. television, which webcasts video games and general interest content, sees accounts that are two years or older make $80 in “tips” per year on average.
Twitch.tv’s most popular users make thousands.
Obviously YouTube and Twitch have different users, however, YouTube has just as many loyal channel subscribers who would likely pay for exclusive rewards and content. On YouTube, sign up for Fan Funding to permit viewers of a live stream to tip through a chat window related to the video.
YouTube calls them Super Chats, shown on a mobile device below:
You could also sign up for Patreon, which permits you to launch membership-only video channels through YouTube at a small fee per month for regular rewards. Just imagine how much a YouTube channel can generate if it has the 1,000 subscribers required by the YPP. Charge $1 for a new channel with new content, and you can be a solid monthly revenue stream.
There is no shortcut to well-earned cash money, even on YouTube. The great news is video is taking up an increasingly wide slice of global internet bandwidth, and there are numerous methods to produce video content that is great enough for people to pay for.