Nowadays, more and more people become famous video bloggers off of their YouTube channels. Regardless the sphere of activity – political debating, scientific experiments, do-it-yourself and other hobbies – they still find their followership. All over the world among people, who share their interests and like their video content. This contributes to the popularity of YouTube channel owners and makes them rich.
Video bloggers of all stripes have different paths towards monetizing their YouTube channels.
Some start their video blogs as pure enthusiasts, driven by nothing more than the sincere desire to share their knowledge and skills. Some demonstrate their extraordinary abilities and talents, attracting attention to social issues. Many simply entertain through humor or even shocking footage. They love what they’re doing and that is exactly what enables them to attract the attention of millions of people, who constitute their audience. As the channel starts growing the moment comes, when you can earn money by monetizing YouTube videos.
Others view their YouTube channel as an income source from the very beginning and try to make money from it straight away. They proceed working on their video content more deliberately viewing it as an integral part of their business plan. In this regard YouTube can be used to promote a product or service.
Monetizing your YouTube channel, takes a great deal of preparation. Start by analyzing the scope of your outreach. Make sure to select the right targeting settings for your viewers, and decide on the particular ways you are going to engage it.
Audience remains to be the most important aspect of analysis. Winning the attention of your audience and gaining followers is a significant step towards making your YouTube channel profitable.
So, start by forming a viewer profile of your target audience: specify sex and age of your soon-to-be followers, their geographical location. Also, watch the average time view time of your videos on YouTube Analytics section and compare the statistics to other channels in your niche with Social Blade. It will help you find your own unique place among other similar creators. By offering something truly fresh and exceptional to your viewers, you are definitely going to succeed, especially if you back it with your personal charisma.
After you are done identifying your target audience, proceed to the next group of aspects essential to monetizing your channel – the mechanisms and sources of possible YouTube earnings, in particular. Several main mechanisms should be considered.
YouTube Ads
It is the simplest and the most popular source of income. The only requirement you have to meet is to have the necessary specified minimum of followers and views.
If you are new to YouTube, you might wonder how to set up ads on your. The answer is simple – everything is automated. If the numbers of views and followers qualify to monetize your channel and
- you have already joined the YouTube Partner Program,
- just sign up for AdSense,
- get your account connected to it,
- choose the monetization preferences,
- apply for the reviewing process
- and wait until your channel is approved.
Having verified your account, you can also select individual settings for every video you upload.
The more ad views the more you earn.
Seems fairly easy, doesn’t it? It is indeed, however, this model is far from being the most profitable.
Mind also the fact that certain videos are more likely to be excluded from the advertising system, without prior notice, for violating the community guidelines. So, you should be aware of these rules. YouTube policies and community guidelines forbit the following types of content:
- videos that describe nudity and involve sexually explicit content,
- advertise weapons and drugs,
- demonstrate violence, hateful, traumatic or dangerous activity, harassment, threats and cyberbullying,
- contain spam and fraudulent products,
- impersonation or any other information which may harm certain social, ethnic, religious or other groups,
- adult content.
Such videos are banned.
YouTube shares only 55% of the ad earnings collected, not more. Some find this monetization model to be unfairly skewed towards the platform and advertisers.
Though Youtube advertising is a relatively good source of income, there are many opportunities that are more profitable.
Selling Goods and Services
This can work for you if you manage to skillfully present your products.
In this regard YouTube also offers partnership deals with trading networks. It means working via a separate agreement as their “sales agent,” equipped with a limited toolset for product promotion, restricted system of discounts and competition with other video bloggers, who advertise the same product as you
Crowdfunding
Your channel simply hosts the promotional materials for your creative project without relying on YouTube advertisement. Your audience simply donates funds for anything that you offer in return. Everything is done through the third-party crowdfunding platform of your choice. The most popular are Kickstarter, Patreon and Go Fund Me. The money can be put into a creative project or a noble cause.
YouTube Live Streams
Live donations are a popular source of income for streamers, however, this type of content is a whole different beast. Streamers are considered a separate breed of content creators who usually do it on Livestream.com. Regular YouTubers with enough personality tend to organize livestreams on occasional basis for their fans. On YouTube people donate by the means of a tip feature that allows transferring money with ease. However, this monetization model cannot serve as a reliable source of revenue due to its instability.
Sell Your Content to Mass Media.
The type of videos which mass media are usually very much eager to purchase are mostly entertainment. These videos get featured on TV and the authors are well compensated.
Becoming an Influencer
As influencer marketing is starting to get more and more budgeting, video bloggers who have a large following, find a good source of income. If you are trusted by your viewerbase, in certain cases you can offer unboxing videos and product reviews. With this model you don’t have to plug the product directly and do it justice in the video opinion instead. By doing this, one way or another, you are directing a lot of attention towards the product.
In this case it’s important to:
- continue producing the content appreciated by your followers;
- tell the truth and demonstrate only high-quality goods;
- refrain from promoting the products you don’t believe in.
Further down the road, you can get affiliate sponsorships. The product brand would give you a direct link to the online shop with interest from the purchases or visits made by the customers. As for direct advertising, there are ways to do it moderately. Be clear that you are being sponsored and you can plug short announcements throughout your video.
So, these are the most popular ways to make money on YouTube. You can, combine many of these and make a decent revenue to grow your channel.
To conclude with, here is a Bonus Tip:
7. Keep Up a Solid Social Media Presence
This is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other popular networks. It’s a free way to advertise your channel and build your own little community. All-in-all believe in yourself! All of the modern YouTube stars have started small and you can find your audience if you invest enough effort.
Good Luck!