How to Make Money from YouTube
Around the world, at least five billion YouTube videos are watched each day. Today, YouTube is more popular than ever, with 40 minutes as the user’s average time spent on the platform per session.
For most people, YouTube is a social site where one can spend countless minutes watching their favorite music videos, car videos, or even reviews on video games. For others, YouTube is a way of making money.
Whether you just started your YouTube channel or are looking for ways to monetize your platform, becoming a professional YouTuber requires effort and hard work, like any other business. If you are looking to make quick money, it would be best to look for other options. However, for avid content creators, you can make a living through your YouTube channel if you are willing to put in the extra work.
Making money on YouTube
While one can make a significant amount of money as a content creator on YouTube, it is not the easiest way to earn a living. There are at least 400 hours of content uploaded on YouTube per minute from all over the world. This goes to show that competition for viewership is at an all-time high.
Here’s how to make money from YouTube
Using affiliate links on your YouTube channel
Promotion of affiliate links presents a huge earning chance for channels that focus on product reviews or tutorials. For instance, in affiliate link marketing, the YouTube channel host is required to promote a product or service and prompt the viewer to visit the product website to make purchases. Once your viewers buy after referrals from your channel, you can charge a commission.
These promotional links can be placed within the first few lines of the description, and remember to talk about the link in your video content. Posting affiliate links on your YouTube channels is the same as sharing affiliate links in blogs. You need to ensure you edit the link naturally into your content without overwhelming your viewers with the ad.
Remember, your audience will only click on the link when they feel that they can trust you as an information resource. Therefore, you need to build trust with your audience by helping them to solve issues. When not marketing or reviewing products, you can build trust with your audience by sharing videos that provide solutions to different issues in your niche.
There are numerous affiliate programs one can join with the possibility of joining several at the same time. For affiliate marketing to work well for you, you can start a blog for your channel and also consider having a website.
Earning from ads as a YouTube partner
This is the most common money making option for most YouTubers. When you collaborate with YouTube, you can make money through different avenues. You can choose to place ads in your videos, use google AdSense banner ads, or make money through channel memberships.
Before you can become a certified YouTube partner, you need to observe a few ground rules. First, you need to adhere to YouTube ad terms, and secondly, you must have a minimum of 4000 video watch hours on your channel in 12 months. You also need to have at least 1000 subscribers on your channel to qualify.
Once you meet these requirements, you can start earning money from YouTube ads. From your video manager, the green $ sign means that your channel cannot monetize your videos through ads.
Making money through YouTube funding
This is a money making method that works for YouTube channels with loyal fans. You can encourage your followers to crowdfund for your channel to make it possible for you to upload new videos. Some platforms, such as Patreon, offer a seamless method of getting paid for content. Fans can subscribe to their favourite channels while enjoying exclusive rewards from their favorite content creators.
As long as your content is interesting, valuable, and entertaining, your viewers will always be open to funding your YouTube channel.
Mastering YouTube SEO
Even when you have the best video editor, the best content, or the best video editing agency on your side, you still need to master YouTube SEO to make money. You can put your content in front of a larger audience by mastering the use of the right keywords for your videos. Ensure you use high-level keywords on your video titles, descriptions, and tags.
Before uploading a video, you can check for relevant keywords and key phrases through programs like ‘Traffic Source: YouTube search.’ This will give you a detailed report on what YouTube visitors are searching for in line with your video content.
The most important factors to consider when it comes to YouTube SEO ranking include:
• Number of comments
• Number of subscribed after watching videos
• Video length
• Thumbs up to thumbs down ratio
• Click-through rate on search results
Making the most of YouTube marketing funnel
Optimizing your YouTube channel for sales is also another way of making money on YouTube. Before you can do this, you need to choose your niche and become a YouTube partner to start planning your marketing funnel.
YouTube is one channel for spreading your message and promoting products. However, it could work even better with a blog. This ensures you collect more email addresses, which widens your reach.
For instance, if you write a blog promoting a product, you can repurpose the content and embed a YouTube video in the post. You can then send your YouTube viewers back to the blog and the links you are promoting to make commissions while promoting your blog.
The other option is to connect your YouTube channel to an e-commerce platform like Amazon or eBay. This allows you to promote some products on the platforms and make money from recommending the products to your audience.
Working as an amazon influencer
The influence program from amazon has become increasingly popular in the recent past. This influencer program allows YouTube channel owners to maximize their social media presence by making money through amazon recommendations.
Once you join the program, you get to view and recommend amazon products to your viewers while directing them to purchase from Amazon using affiliate links. You make a commission of between 8% and 10% every time your viewer clicks on the link and makes a purchase.
As lucrative as the amazon affiliate program sounds, it is not open to everyone. To qualify, you must have a large social media following, and they check other channel metrics to determine your odds of approval.
Earning from YouTube red subscribers
YouTube Red makes it possible for users to enjoy ad-free content for a $9.99 fee. Even without these ads, you can make money as a content creator on YouTube. You can make up to 55% in revenue depending on your channel’s view time.
With YouTube Red, your channel’s watch time is the most important factor since there are no ads involved. Ensure you check YouTube analytics for your page to gauge our watch time and video engagement before signing up for this program.
Tips for creating a YouTube channel that can make you money
The highest-paid YouTuber earns $14.5 million, making YouTube a potentially lucrative career. To increase the chances of your channel taking off, there are certain factors to consider.
Find a niche
Finding the right niche for your channel can determine the likelihood of making money from your channel. Some of the most popular niches on YouTube include gossip, gaming, cooking, product reviews, how-to demos, pranks/spoofs, and life hacks. In 2018 alone, five of the highest-earning channels were all in the gaming niche.
Post regularly
The purpose of a YouTube channel is to keep your viewers coming back for more. You can only achieve this if you have fresh content on your channel regularly. By having a video upload schedule, you create a following that comes back whenever they know there is a new video.
With interesting content in a relevant niche, this is one of the easiest ways to create a following on YouTube.
Invest in the right gear
Your viewers will tell when you record from below par gadgets. It is important to invest in high-quality microphones, cameras, and lighting equipment if you want to make videos that will keep your viewers glued to your channel.
Invest in good editing
Properly edited videos will set your channel apart from the hundreds of amateur channels on YouTube. Uploading properly edited content is also one of the ways to keep your viewers interested. People want to see amazing graphics, sound, and pictures online. If you are not a skilled or experienced video editor, it is best not to gamble.
You can collaborate with a YouTube video editing agency to ensure your videos are edited by professionals. A YouTube agency such as Editing Machine has the expertise to turn any raw footage into a work of art. They also have experts in YouTube SEO who can ensure your videos rank high on YouTube search results, thereby increasing your chances of making more money.
Uploading engaging content with high quality and captivating effects will make your videos stand out.
Conclusion
It is possible to make money on YouTube. Once you learn of the right channels to follow, you might be well on your way to becoming the next YouTube millionaire. The best part is that YouTube SEO is not yet as competitive as organic SEO. Now is as good a time as ever to start your channel and grow your following. By this time next year, you will be in a better place when the competition gets more fierce.
