How much can you earn on YouTube?
It’s one of the many questions of interested individuals who might want to make money off creating content after hearing how much PewDiePie, Ryan’s World, DanTDM, and others are making on the platform (which is millions, by the way).
It’s not a bad question per se, but it does depend on a number of factors.
A lot of it is based on the success of your channel, which means it depends on a combination of hard work, creativity, and luck.
Knowing how to make money on the internet with YouTube in a variety of ways can help find quicker success.
Yes, many YouTubers have multiple revenue streams to maximize their channel income. Read all about them below.
How to Make Money on the Internet with YouTube
Although it’s the most popular (and might be the easiest) way of earning money on YouTube, ads aren’t the only way. Explore how to make money on the internet with YouTube via different ways below.
Create a Google AdSense Account
Google AdSense is the advertising engine on YouTube. This is how YouTube gets ads and this is how you make money.
You need to have an account so you can connect it to your channel. After you tweak a few settings, you’ll start getting ads on your videos.
The money won’t start coming in until you get a lot of views, though. Even then, you might not make a lot from ads. You only get paid for every impression, such as when someone watches or clicks on an ad on your video.
Note that YouTube also gets a cut from your ad revenue.
Register with the YouTube Partner Program
Once you register your channel with this program, you get access to special features. Of course, this includes more money-making opportunities.
Not any channel can become a partner, though. It must at least have 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 watch hours accumulated in the past 12 months.
YouTube can reject your application if your channel doesn’t uphold their standards.
Once it approves your channel, though, you can start exploring the different ways to earn. For example, you can earn through Channel Memberships, Super Chat, and YouTube Premium.
YouTube Premium allows you to earn money from your viewers who have this membership. You can’t get ad revenue from them because they don’t get ads. Instead, you get a portion of their membership fee each time they watch your video.
Channel Memberships
With Channel Memberships, your followers can join your channel for a monthly fee. In return, they get unique badges and emoji. They also get access to members-only posts and exclusives like a Live Chat with you.
You can also offer custom perks to your channel members. This gives followers more incentive to join.
Super Chat
This feature allows you to interact with your followers and get money from it. It’s something they purchase so their messages get highlighted during a live chat or Premiere. The messages get pinned for a set amount of time depending on how much they paid.
Merchandise
Once you’ve established your brand, you can start selling merch on your channel. All you have to do is to link to approved merchandising sites or sell it through a shelf on your channel.
Your merch still needs to abide by YouTube’s community standards. Examples of good merch are t-shirts, mugs, and other items that might be relevant to your niche.
You can take it further, though. You can develop your product. Write books, for instance, about your YouTube niche.
Sponsored Content
Like influencers on Instagram, you can create sponsored content.
Brands can reach out to you, but you can reach out to them, too.
Find brands relevant to your market. If you have a large, targeted audience, they’ll likely want to get in touch with you. You also can use other websites that help influencers connect with brands.
You’ll have to do some extensive research so you can perfect your pitch. It helps to know what exactly you can offer, also allowing you to come up with a fair deal.
You can do this even if you’re not a YouTube Partner. This means YouTube doesn’t get a cut of whatever deal you make outside their platform.
Crowdfunding
You can also make use of crowdfunding platforms to earn income through your videos. You can ask your followers for a donation for whatever purpose.
You can set up crowdfunding in two ways. One is to ask for a monthly contribution, similar to a Channel Membership. Another is to set up a time-limited fundraising event.
The key is to be clear as to what your goals are. You can ask your followers to support you so you can keep creating content, for instance. In most cases, creators will give their supporters access to stuff like merch, exclusive content, and such.
If you’re raising funds as a one-time event, note that you can’t make this a reliable source of income. Still, it can help you achieve a goal for your channel.
Affiliate Links
Affiliate links are another way to earn money outside YouTube but within the platform. Like with sponsorship, though, you have to take affiliate marketing in your own hands.
You can, for instance, put your affiliate links in the description of your video. It works the same as affiliate marketing in other platforms. You get money each time an affiliate brand gets a sale from your affiliate link.
You have to take into account the nature of your channel, though. Most of the time, affiliate marketing on YouTube is a great option for travel and review channels.
Some popular affiliate programs you can look into include Amazon Affiliate Program, Travelpayouts, and ClickBank.
How to Maximize Your Earning Potential
You don’t have to do all those things above to maximize your earning potential. Sometimes, you can choose only one to three ways, depending on your free time. Remember that you also have to make an effort in building your channel.
Build an Engaged Audience
If you noticed, all the opportunities above rely on the popularity of your channel. You need thousands of views and followers to make at least one of them successful.
Learn ways to increase your followers by promoting your videos and channel on other platforms. What matters most about your followers, though, isn’t the numbers but the quality. You need people who like and support your content.
You need to build your relationship with your existing followers, too. Take the time to reply to their comments and mention them in your videos. Improve engagement by asking questions, which your followers can then answer in the comment section.
Create Relevant Content
To gain quality followers, you must have something good to offer. On YouTube, it’s only one thing – video content.
Whatever your niche is, make sure each video you publish is better than the last. Most monitors and screens today are HD; make sure your video looks good on them.
Invest in good quality equipment and upgrade them as necessary. At the start, make sure to at least have a camera or phone that can shoot in HD. If you need them, get some high-quality headphones and mic, too.
Your background can do a lot for your videos. Shoot in neutral backgrounds if your videos consist of you talking to the camera.
Your content must be original each time, as well. Make your followers look forward to each of your posts.
You’ll have to learn more about your niche as you go, so research doesn’t end. This is important for continually producing top content.
Configure the Videos for SEO
Make your videos searchable by configuring its settings for SEO.
The foundation of SEO in any platform is keywords. Do your research because you need the right keywords to make an effective headline and description.
You also need to choose the right categories and tags for your video. This way, your videos will be easier to find.
You can further entice users to click on your video by creating an attractive thumbnail. Make sure it doesn’t venture too far out in the clickbait category, though. It should represent what users can expect with your video.
Follow the YouTube Guidelines
To avoid getting demonetized, you should be careful about what you post. Advertisers put faith in YouTube. They trust that the platform will show their ads on channels that also portray their values.
As such, YouTube’s Partner Program has strict standards and guidelines you need to uphold. If you violate any of these terms, you risk getting kicked out of the program.
There have been many cases of videos getting demonetized or YouTubers getting kicked out by YPP because of poor behavior. A while back, a popular YouTuber with millions of subscribers lost the support of the platform because of a single controversy. The platform can now also punish creators posting duplicate content.
Turn YouTube Into Your Main Source of Income
For many others, YouTube is only a way of making extra money online. However, if you utilize all the earning potentials above and put effort into growing your channel, you can turn it into your main job – a lucrative one at that.
If YouTube isn’t for you, however, you can learn how to make money on the internet via other ways. Read our guide on how to create an online business for more information.
