Successful YouTubers are the self-made stars of today — entrepreneurs who have created an audience by coming up with compelling content based on reviewing products, entertaining their fanbase, and having the reputation of being an expert in their field. Many people on YouTube do social media because they love to share their knowledge with their audience. Making money on YouTube may not be the reason they started, but the potential to earn money is a nice surprise after a person learns how many ways there are to make money. Below are some examples of ways to make money online and we also delve into this deeper in a free webinar training that you can register to attend.
The Balance Small Business provides a brief overview of how much YouTubers make per year and how many of them make it happen.
Top YouTubers can make millions each year, and that includes 5 year-olds. Take PewDiePie who has made more than $15 million filming himself playing video games. But you don’t need millions of viewers to make money on YouTube.
Some ideas for valuable videos include how-tos such as recipes, unboxing (where you open a product for viewers), food and travel reviews, music videos, comedy skits, and so on.
Here's how to make money on YouTube:
Set up your YouTube channel, the place where your videos will live.
Upload videos consistently and be specific when describing the content in your video. Make sure your videos are high-quality and contain useful or entertaining content. You don't need a fancy camera to get going; a smartphone will suffice in the beginning.
Put the word out on your social media platforms like Facebook and your email marketing list. You should also share the videos on social media or embed them on your blog or website.
Respond to comments from viewers to create a fan base. Your job is to attract and keep viewers.
Monetize your undertaking by allowing YouTube to include ads in your videos. When viewers click on an ad, you split the fee with Google. The more views, the more revenue for you.
One other thing to mention, you don't have to get in front of a camera to make money with YouTube videos. Many of the most successful YouTube channels are screen capture videos with tutorials of software or videos where you are seeing someone do something or do a voiceover; never having to actually appear on camera.
Shopify says the key to making a living on YouTube is by understanding your audience demographics. Once you focus in on your audience’s age group and their interests you will be much more likely to succeed. This will also give you the opportunity to build a larger audience.
Building your own audience puts you in a great position to monetize in a variety of ways. But you’ll only be able to take full advantage of the opportunities you have if you understand the makeup of your audience.
For many YouTubers looking to monetize, the more niche your channel is, the better a position you’ll be in to work with brands looking to target specific audiences (more on that later).
You'll want to pay especially close attention to:
Gender for the distribution of male and female, and if your audience skews one way.
Age for the ranges that most of your audience members fall into.
Geographic location for the countries or cities where your viewers are watching your videos and some brands might want to focus on.
Watch Time: The overall engagement of your audience wihen watching your videos.
A combinations of the above to paint a more accurate picture of your audience by looking at things like the number of male viewers you have in a specific age range.
With this demographic information at hand, you'll have a better understanding of your own audience and also be able to work better with brands. You can also use Social Blade to compare your own channel against others. For more on interpreting your YouTube analytics, be sure to check out this post.
Now, with that out of the way, we can start talking about the different ways you can actually make money.
Entrepreneur Transition recommends using YouTube to attract live speaking engagements. Having the opportunity to speak at certain engagements can open many doors to developing a profitable business online.
Finally, leverage your YouTube reputation and attract live speaking engagements. If the YouTube channel you produce is focused on a specific niche or audience, do some research about annual conferences or other industry events that have keynote speakers. Then, utilize your YouTube statistics and some of your best clips, to put together a package and pitch to the directors of these events.
Live speaking engagements can be very lucrative. It’s possible to generate thousands of dollars from just an hourlong presentation. So, make sure you’re seeking out these opportunities. and never disregard a chance to grow your audience.
Another way to use YouTube to make money is by becoming a YouTube partner and making money from ads. Shopify goes into this in greater detail below and explains how ads on YouTube can pave the way.
The first revenue stream you’ll likely explore is ads.
You'll need to set yourself up as a YouTube Partner, which is easily done in the Creator Studio section of your YouTube account by going to the Channel menu to verify your account and enable Monetization.
After you become a Partner, you'll need to have an AdSense account to opt into Google's advertising network to actually get paid and see ad revenue reports.
Once that's done, you'll notice a green “$” next to your videos in the Video Manager, indicating whether it's been enabled for monetization, which you can click on to access the monetization settings for each video.
It's easy to set up, but advertising as a YouTube partner is far from being the most lucrative revenue stream you can create for yourself.
HubSpot further explains how to become an advertiser on YouTube. They also discuss the difference between YouTube ads and ads that are more specifically catered to your audience.
As an advertiser on YouTube, you're populating your YouTube channel with video advertisements made by you. The difference between YouTube ads and, say, TV commercials, is that you get to show YouTube ads to more specific and often more engaged audience segments. You'll pay YouTube to host your ads on other, highly watched YouTube channels that appeal to the same viewership you're targeting.
The channels on which you host your video ads can range from big brands all the way to individual users who've made videos that are a hit with your audience.
When advertising on YouTube, you should know going in that you're playing the long game. It can be scary to pay others for top video slots that don't guarantee you'll be seen by your ideal buyer — let alone get click-throughs to your website that you can convert into long-term customers.
But studies show these ads do pay off for advertisers during their time on YouTube: Those who see a TrueView ad (we'll explain what those are in a second) are reportedly 10 times more likely to take the action prompted in the ad than the viewer would be on their own.
My Work From Home Money explains yet another way to make money on YouTube, and that’s through sponsored videos. If you’d rather not rely on ads this might be a great method for you to try.
Sponsored videos are another way to monetize your YouTube channel without having to rely on embedded ads. Again, this works the same way as sponsored posts on your blog.
Talking with other video creators, I’ve found an average rate of between $0.05 and $0.15 per view for sponsored videos. So if you get an average of 500 views each video, you can charge a sponsor about $50 to mention them during the video.
That’s more than 20-times what you’d make from YouTube advertising!
The final way to make money on YouTube, and this should be your goal in blogging as well, is to create your own courses and products. Any time you remove the advertiser and connect directly with your viewers for your own products, you are going to make more money.
This means quick products like self-publishing and printables as well as the higher-value products like video courses. If you can convert just one viewer in every 1,000 views to your $250 video course, you’ll have made $0.25 per view…more than 59-times what you would make with YouTube ads.
Ready to give a YouTube business a try? During our free webinar training, we will give you some excellent tips on how to skyrocket your business toward success and how with some hard work and dedication you can develop a lucrative company online starting today.
Sources: The Balance Small Business, Shopify, HubSpot, My Work From Home Money, Entrepreneur
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