YouTube is one of many ways you can make money online. Thousands of YouTubers are living off with their YouTube channels. Yes, they are and it can be possible!
However, only a small crowd is making millions of dollars, whereas the rest either making less or nothing at all. Hence, it all depends on the follower base, influence, patience, and the content you serve.
How do YouTubers make money?
Making money from YouTube is beyond earning from video views or ads though is a major portion of the pie. Yes, getting paid from YouTube was the only way to earn money before and then affiliate marketing, influential marketing arrived.
Now, the game has changed. Thousands of YouTubers and influencers are actually making chunks of money in their own ways while also receiving deposits from YouTube.
The world’s popular YouTuber Felix Arvid Kjellberg who is known mostly as PewDiePie has 105 million subscribers. His net worth estimated to be $40 million.
Let’s now see how does a YouTuber makes money. Fortunately, you can also make a decent income following these ways. So, let’s look into them.
AdSense
So, let’s start with that large piece of the pie. The majority of YouTubers especially the beginners make some bucks out of AdSense. After you hit 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours, you can enable channel monetization. YouTube starts displaying ads on your videos based on the preferences you set. Also, you are paid based on the ad types. Say, you chose CPC (cost per click), then you make money only when someone clicks on the ad displaying or around your video. CPM (cost per mile or cost per 1000 impressions) here YouTube pays you only after the ad is viewed 1000 times.
It’s hard that a YouTube user clicks on the ad while watching a video. So, most people choose the CPM model. There is again a list of niches that make high CPM and the revenue varies from country to country.
Read: How much money do 1 million YouTube views make
YouTube takes 45% of ad revenue from publishers according to its terms. So, you get only 55% of the revenue generated from ad views.
So, it is crystal clear that you can make a living with your YouTube channel if you have a great number of people watching your videos. More the subscribers, the more the views. Hence, your popularity grows, so will your bank balance.
You can also opt-in for the YouTube Partner program in which YouTube has the leverage to place relevant ads in your videos and make money. However, your videos gain more visibility and you get access to free analytics tools and deep insights.
Affiliate Links
You need to digest the fact that you can’t make millions in your first year or at least in your first month. It is almost the same as running a site or blog. So, what most YouTubers do is explore ways to make easy money. One such way is affiliate marketing. You can create a channel in a specific niche and build your audience.
Then join affiliate programs to make money from those links. All you need to do is promote the affiliate products in your videos and inspire your viewers to make purchases through those links. Ensure you promote products or brands that are related to your niche. Do not force your subscribers to buy or annoy them.
As you know people come to YouTube either for entertainment or to find solutions to their problems. So, focus on entertaining them and serving them with answers, they will surely turn as your loyal subscribers and buy the products you suggested.
Sell Own Products
After you have your own follower base or subscriber base, you can start a brand on your own and make handsome money. Most YouTubers start their own businesses selling teeshirts, makeup products, etc. and make money. You can set up yours after you have steady audiences on your channel. So that you don’t go broke.
It will be pretty easy if you have your own business either a cloth store, book store, or any gadget store already. You can upload cool videos on them and drive traffic to your website or even make sales for your physical store if you can provide shipping to any location.
This goes well for product reviewers, people who make videos on how-to, tutorials, etc.
Read: How to Sell Makeup Online
Sponsor Ads
You can earn tons of money with sponsor ads, but you need to wait till you get popular. There are brands that are looking for micro-influencers in micro niches. So if you are one who has a decent following in your niche, chances are odd for brands to reach you with cool proposals. So, update your contact information in your profile bio so that brands can reach you without any hassles.
There are platforms such as Famebit that help influencers with brands and vice versa. This is, of course, an easy way to make money once you have got some fame.
In order to grow your subscriber base, you need to drive your followers on other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram to YouTube.
Read: 5 Ways to Watch Ads for Money and Earn Cash in Your Spare Time
Fan Funding
The other way more than 150,000 creators are earning is Patreon. This is a platform that lets creators make money with memberships while entertaining their fans with faster access to their exclusive content. Thousands of creators are already making money in this way. This way you can make a monthly income and lead a pressure-free life.
YouTube Premium, Membership program also helps you in a similar way. You can ask your subscribers to Join as a paid member for your exclusive and extra content. On the other hand, YouTube pays you when a Premium member watches your videos.
Bottom Line
This is how YouTubers make money for their full time living from YouTube. Following these steps, you can also make money with your content. But let’s not forget that there is no easy money or quick money strategies. So, in order to succeed as a YouTuber and sit in the top-paid YouTubers list, you need to serve users with great content and have some patience.
