The stars of YouTube are the self-taught celebrities of today: people who have won a hearing by creating content oriented towards teaching, entertainment, review and the impressive on the Internet.
And most do it just to do it – so you don't want to create things and be in front of an audience.
Earning money from a YouTube channel is probably not the reason why you will start one, but the opportunities to win are a pleasant surprise once you realize how many there are.
How many subscribers do you need to make money on YouTube?
New Media Rockstars believes that the best YouTubers earn millions, some even tens of millions. Revenues can fluctuate considerably depending on the premise of the chain.
Here are some of their estimates and the number of subscribers of these YouTubers:
EpicMealTime makes about 3.1 million million (7 million subscribers)
Ray William Johnson stands at 4.2 million (10 million subscribers)
FunToyzCollector weighs 30.4 million million (8 million subscribers)
However, YouTube channels on the small side can still be monetized. Your earning potential is not only determined by the number of subscribers and views you have, but also by the level of commitment you generate, the niche you use, and the revenue channels you explore. This is not to say that the number of subscribers does not matter – check out our tips to attract more subscribers to YouTube.
But before you tackle the question of how to make money on YouTube, you need to have a clear idea of what your audience looks like.
Understanding the demographics of your audience
Building your own audience puts you in an excellent position to monetize in various ways. But you will not be able to take full advantage of the opportunities you have if you understand the composition of your audience.
For many YouTubers seeking to monetize, the more your channel is specialized, the better your position to work with brands that seek to target specific audiences (more details later).
You will want to pay special attention to:
Gender for the distribution of men and women, and if your audience distorts meaning.
The ages in which most members of your audience are found.
Geographical location for countries or cities where your viewers watch your videos and some brands might want to focus.
Watch Time: The overall commitment of your audience when playing your videos.
A combination of the above to paint a more accurate picture of your audience by looking at things like the number of male spectators you have in a specific age range.
With this demographic information at your fingertips, you will have a better understanding of your own audience and will also be able to work better with brands. You can also use Social Blade to compare your own channel to others.
Now, with that out of the way, we can start talking about the different ways you can actually make money.
How to make money on Youtube
Just like being a Instagram influencer or blogger, your audience might unlock your earning potential, but it's creating several sources of revenue that helps you earn money.
Fortunately, there are several ways to make money on Youtube:
Become a YouTube partner and earn money with ads.
Earn money on YouTube by selling products or merchandise.
Crowdfund your next creative project.
Let your audience support your work with "fan financing".
Allow your content on the media.
Work with brands as an influencer or affiliate.
Let's take a deeper look at each one of them.
1. Become a YouTube partner and earn money through ads
The first revenue stream you'll probably be exploring is the ads.
You must configure yourself as a YouTube partner, which is easily done in the Creator Studio section of your YouTube account by accessing the channel menu to validate your account and enable monetization (click here to access it directly).
Once you have become a partner, you must have an AdSense account to access the Google advertising network in order to be actually paid and view the advertising revenue reports like the one below. If you don't, you can ask for one here.
Once done, you will notice a green "$" next to your videos in the video manager, indicating if it has been enabled for monetization, on which you can click to access the monetization settings for each movie.
It's easy to set up, but advertising as a YouTube partner is far from being the most lucrative source of revenue you can create for yourself.
Why you should look beyond the ads for income
YouTube has recently been the subject of many negative reactions because of its decision to be more transparent about the advertising on the platform and what is described as content "user friendly to the advertisers". In essence, many creators were afraid of losing the advertising revenues that support their channel because of the nature of their content.
According to YouTube, your content could be excluded from the ads if it includes:
Sexually suggestive content, including partial nudity and sexual humour
Violence, including the posting of serious injuries and events related to violent extremism
Inappropriate language, including harassment, blasphemy and vulgar language
Promotion of drugs and controlled substances, including the sale, use and abuse of such products
Controversial or sensitive topics and events, including war-related topics, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown.
But the reality is that YouTube has demonetized content that it does not judge "user friendly" since 2012 via an automated process.
YouTubers were already losing advertising revenues because their videos were sometimes demonetized without warning and unbeknownst to them.
The situation is now better, as creators are warned when this happens and can challenge videos that were excluded by mistake from YouTube's advertising network.
Advertising can be a common way to generate passive income for creators, but the tradeoff is that YouTube keeps about 45% of advertising revenues.
In short, YouTubers should explore other sources of income to support their creative hobby.
So let's do this.
2. Earn money on YouTube by selling products or goods
The sale of T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, snapbacks, etc.
It increases your visibility by putting your brand and personality online in the offline world, and deepens the relationship between you and your fans as they "literally" in what you do.
You can order affordable designs tailored to specific products, such as t-shirts, using independent sites such as Fiverr.
And when it comes to managing orders and customers, you can integrate your store with services such as Oberlo or one of the many on-demand print providers that deal with shipping, order Processing and customer service . Benefits of a dropshipping company that requires less effort on your part.
Alternatively, you can join an existing merchandising network for creators such as DFTBA (don't forget to be awesome). However, you will be competing with other YouTubers in a market and will have less control over adding products, offering discounts, integrating your content and all the benefits associated with owning your own business site Electronic.
You can even go further by manufacturing and selling your own unique products, feeding your business with your YouTube channel as Luxy hair has sold its hair extensions with videos on the hair.
As a YouTuber who has already won a hearing, you will have two advantages from the outset that other store owners would be jealous of:
A content engine that regularly generates traffic to your store.
The confidence of your audience, which you have already won by regularly serving your own brand of free content.
3. Crowdfund your next creative project
When money is everything between an idea and its execution, participatory funding is a good way to achieve it.
Whether you need help buying better equipment, recruiting actors or covering other production costs, you can appeal to your own audience and the crowdfunding community if your idea is convincing enough.
Many creative projects funded by crowdfunded tend to offer a preview or "trailer" that excites people, so consider filming a video explaining your project or offering a taste of what it's going to be like this popular Kickstarter For Kung Fury Short film paying homage to the action movie of the years 80.
Popular crowdfunding sites have proven themselves in YouTubers campaigns include:
Kickstarter: One of the best known crowdfunding sites to finance cool products and creative projects. Be sure to set an achievable fundraising goal because you can only secure it if you actually achieve the goal you set.
Indiegogo: A Kickstarter alternative that offers more flexible financing options.
4. Let your YouTube audience support your work through fan funding
Similar to the participatory funding of a project, you can also set up "fan financing" streams to get donations from your audience.
As a creator, you contribute your voice to the Internet without forcing your audience to pay for admission. So if it's good content, your audience might be inclined to support you on an ongoing basis.
Many fan funding platforms offer creators another place where people can discover their content and find a way to engage their most loyal audience and reward them for their support.
Some popular fan financing options include:
YouTube fan funding: This feature on YouTube basically allows you to create a portfolio for your viewers who wish to donate at any time and whatever their desire to contribute. You need to set up your YouTube account for advertising, as shown above.
Catreon: The membership platform that allows creators to be paid easily. Fans can subscribe to their favorite creators for only one dollar a month and receive exclusive rewards.
TIPEEE: Allows you to get a combination of punctual and recurring donations
5. Sell your content license to the media
If you create a viral video with a mass call, for example, a fun clip starring your dog, you can get a license for your content in exchange for money.
Televised media, morning shows, online news sites and other creators could avail themselves of the rights to use your videos if they become viral.
However, you can also list your videos in a market such as Juken Media, where your content will be easier to find and buy for the right people.
6. Working with brands as an influencer or affiliate
Influence Marketing is going to be one of the pillars of advertising for the next decade.
- Gary Vaynerchuk
Brands are investing more and more in influence marketing, spending their generally important advertising budgets on influencers who have already won the fidelity of their audiences.
This creates a huge opportunity for you as a creator if you can negotiate bargains.
Brendan Gahan, a YouTube marketing expert and Influencer, recommends you establish your basic package by looking at the number of views that your videos usually get and multiplying them by 5 to 15 cents per view (which is what a lot of Brands are willing to pay views via YouTube ads).
Depending on your influence on the demographics of your audience, the quality of the content and the specificity and profitability of your niche, you may be able to negotiate a better offer if the brand is right for you.
To give you another idea of what you can potentially charge, an intermediate-level influencer charges on average between 200 and 500 dollars per post, according to a study.
The same study also shows that about 69% of the YouTubers interviewed do not think that the partnership with the brands is detrimental to their authenticity.
The key when you create a partnership on a brand-sponsored content is to be transparent about it: not approving everything you dislike or not believing, and being honest with your audience about why you do it.
Here are some of the many influential market places you can add your chain to and be discovered by big and small brands:
Grapevine Logic: One of the most popular influence markets, you only need 1000 followers to join you.
Famebit: With a wide range of brands to work with, you might find a sponsorship opportunity that you'll be proud to be a part of. You need 5000 followers to reach you.
Channel Pages: Partner with other YouTubers as well as brands.
Crowdtap: Fill in the small "tasks" of creating content in exchange for money and other rewards. There are no restrictions on the number of subscribers you need to join.
Some influence markets offer you free products, while others are known to have big brands that are willing to pay more. Capitalize on the opportunities that best suit your needs, but register in as many places as possible to ensure maximum visibility to your channel.
Alternatively, you can also become a subsidiary for brands and make a residual passive income through commissions of each sale you generate via your channel. This works especially well if you are looking at products as part of your YouTube channel. Since there is no risk on the end of the brand (they only pay when they make sales), there is usually a bass bar to start with.
Popular affiliate programs include Click Bank (1% to 75% commission based on what the provider defines) and Amazon's affiliate network (earn up to 10% per sale). You can also reach the brands in your niche that run their own affiliate programs, which is not uncommon in the e-commerce space.
How to "sell" without annoying your audience
Most of the monetization strategies mentioned above involve the promotion of products (e.g., your store) or campaigns (for example, participatory funding of a series of videos). You will always have to inform your audience without sabotaging the integrity of your content.
"Selling" to their audience is a real concern for many creators. But if you never ask, you will never get.
You can choose from several "locations" to promote products or your campaigns.
Save a call to action in your videos
"If you liked this video, click the" I like "button and subscribe."
Many YouTubers include a call to action along these lines at the end of their videos to increase their audience. By suggesting the action you want them to take, your audience is more likely to take it.
You can adapt this approach to attract the attention of your audience to a revenue-generating opportunity.
Whether as part of your deal with a brand or promoting your own products, the YouTube cards offer a catchy way to attract the attention of engaged viewers.
You can set them up to appear at the right time when they are the most relevant and least annoying to increase their impact.
Add links to your video descriptions
You can direct viewers to your store, your page, your Kickstarter campaign, or any other part of your online revenue-based presence by adding links to your video descriptions.
Promote your offer on other platforms
It's not because your content is hosted on YouTube that you shouldn't take advantage of all the other channels available for distribution.
Spread the word about new campaigns or discounts on Twitter, Facebook and any other profiles you might own.
The more places your message lives, the more likely it is to be seen. So it's always a good idea to develop your social networks after YouTube.
The ascent of the "YouTubepreneur"
What constrains most creators to create is seldom money. It's the idea of doing something for the world.
But ironically, it puts them in an excellent position to make money in a world obsessed with content.
While the hardest thing for many companies is to get and keep the attention of their audience, the YouTubers have already figured this out.
All that remains to be done is to be creative – to channel the entrepreneurial will to explore ideas – with the way you choose to monetize your passion.