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The barrier to entry to becoming a youtuber is so low that all you literally need is a camera and internet connection. The possibilities are endless! Having heard of rags to rich stories of people who catapulted to fame because of youtube, it is not so surprising to hear that Millennials and Gen Z’s have included “becoming a youtuber” or “influencer” in their list of viable career options.
Not just anyone can make it into a successful, lucrative career though. Like with any endeavor, becoming a youtuber and earning money from it requires another level of patience, dedication and creativity to produce content that stands out from the rest. The principles of marketing still applies and if you treat your youtube channel as a brand, you’re doubling the chance of earning an incredible amount of money from it!
Check out our list of 17 Youtube Video Ideas Without Showing your Face and Voice.
But whether or not you’re only a hobbyist or planning to ditch your 9-5 job to become a full time youtuber, earning money from doing what you love sounds like a great deal right?
So how does one earn money from youtube?
1. Adsense
Google Adsense is one of the most popular ways to monetize your youtube account. Adsense is owned by Google and it also owns Youtube.
There’s no way you haven’t come across those advertisements playing before or during the videos while you’re on youtube. Well, youtubers who have chosen to monetize their channel allowed for Google to place advertisements on their videos. In turn, they’ll get a cut of what those advertisers pay them depending on the number of views (Cost Per View) and clicks per ads (Cost Per Click). The rates per ads vary depending on your country, your demographic and topic of your video.
CPV (Cost per View) and CPC (Cost per Click) are two models that advertisers can choose from. If it’s a CPV, you’ll be paid depending on the number of views; but if it’s a CPC, you’ll get paid if your viewers click on the ads. In the second model, it doesn’t matter if you’ve racked 1 Million views or 1000 views, if no one clicked on your ad, you’ll have no earnings.
Just to give you and idea on how much they pay, for every 1000 video views (CPV), they’ll pay you somewhere in between $1 to $5. So for every 1 million views, you’ll get $1000 to as much as $5000. As I’ve said, of course it depends on your country and the demographic of your viewers. For example, you’ll have relatively higher earnings if your viewers are from the United States or Europe; more so if they click on your ads. Demographics from Asian countries like The Philippines, India, Nepal, Vietnam, etc. will give you relatively lower earnings.
In order to rack up the number of views and subscribers, it is imperative that you post consistently (once a week, twice a week, just as long as you keep on updating them) and your videos should provide high entertainment value for your viewers so they’d come back for more. Those successful youtubers were able to make it because of their loyal fans who continuously watch their content.
The type of content you put out also affects monetization. Do not make videos that are sexually explicit, show nudity, and promote self-harm or injury. It is best to check out and read Youtube’s policy thoroughly before diving in head first.
Just recently though, Youtube released a new guideline before you’ll be able to earn money from the YPP (Youtube Partnership Program) to qualify for Adsense.
To quality:
- Your channel should’ve had 4000 legit and valid public watch hours in the last 12 months
- Your channel should have more than 1000 subscribers
- You should have a valid Adsense account
- You should live in a country where the YPP program is available
- You should follow all the Youtube monetization policies
2. Sponsorships
So you’ve read about Adsense and probably thought that your earnings potential is a bit small considering the amount of effort and time spent in filming and editing. Dont fret though, because Adsense is just one way to monetize your site (and for the record, your adsense earnings grow over time).
Now, let’s talk about the lucrative part of becoming a youtuber… sponsorships!
The sky is the limit with sponsorships. Basically what you do is wait for companies to contact you for collaboration, or if you want, you could contact the companies for sponsorships especially if their brand is related with your niche. They’ll ask you to post a video to promote their products or sometimes they’ll ask you to drop a little shoutout about their brand.
It’s up to you to negotiate the price, but if you’ve amassed thousands and millions of followers, you have the upper hand as to dictate the price per promotion or shoutout because you have the target audiences that the company needs to reach out to.
Compared to other social networking sites like facebook or instagram, advertisers pay a higher amount to youtubers as sponsored videos need to be well-edited and creating them requires more time and effort from the influencers.
Partnering up with youtubers is one of the most effective ways of spreading brand awareness about a company’s products and to gain more revenue. But what are some of the metrics that advertisers look for when partnering up with a youtuber?
- Niche – advertisers look for youtubers who talk about topics that are in line with the company’s philosophy, values and products.
- Competition – advertisers check out if there are lots of competition for a particular niche. For example, if there are thousands of youtubers who are talking about Iphones, advertisers can start off with a low fee. The lower the competition for a particular niche, the higher the fee.
- Number of subscribers and average views per videos – it is not rocket science to think that youtubers who have gained millions of subscribers can actually negotiate for higher sponsorship fees. They have the leverage as they have the audiences. However, most companies do not only rely on the number of subscribers. One important metric that they also look at is the average number of views per videos. It doesn’t matter if you have low subscriber counts, but if you have high views per videos, that just means that your reach is as relevant as those channels with more subscribers.
- Engagement– advertisers also look at the number of likes per video and the number of comments. The higher the engagement, the higher the sponsorship earnings.
Types of Sponsorships
The types of sponsorships also vary depending on the type of content the youtuber will produce for the advertiser. Will it be a full video dedicated solely for the company’s product? Because if it is, you can expect the sponsorship fee to be higher. If it’s merely a mention of the company’s name or a simple shoutout, the fees will be lower as it doesn’t require much effort.
Some advertisers, on the other hand, just send free products as freebies for the youtuber. This works for youtubers who have gained a substantial number of subscribers and viewers per video but haven’t reached millions yet.
If your niche is travel, some advertisers offer free flights plus accommodation and free tour to the influencer. Imagine being able to travel for free!
At the end of the day, the type of sponsorship depends on the negotiation between the youtuber and the advertiser.
3. Merchandise
Another lucrative way for youtubers to earn money is by selling merchandise. The perfect time to sell merch is when you’ve built a community and you’ve gained loyal following from your subscribers. It is imperative to check your engagement rate to gauge if your customers are active in interacting and clicking on your channel and they’re not just mere spectators of your videos.
Since your youtube channel is a brand per se, selling merchandise will be a way to transform your brand equity from a virtual asset like videos to tangible assets like clothing, products, etc. Your merchandise should be an extension of your brand but it can also become a full fledged business depending on your long term goal. The sky is the limit with selling merch. It can become a highly scaleable business that can help you earn 6 figures or more if you do it right.
But of course there are risk factors to selling your own merchandise. Just like with any startup, you’d have to bear the upfront costs of product development, manufacturing, fulfilment, logistics and delivery. Since you already have a community of loyal fans and subscribers, you’ve already figured out the marketing aspect of the business. Before starting though, ask for feedback from your subscribers to make sure that what you’re about to sell matches with the taste and values of your audiences.
If you have little to no capital and just starting out in the game, you can sell your own merchandise without having to deal with the manufacturing, printing, logistics and delivery. Just upload your designs and let the Print on Demand Fulfilment Companies do it for you!
Here’s a list of Print on Demand companies that will help you easily create and sell your own merch!
- Printify
- Teespring
- Printful
- Redbubble
- Jetprint
- Teelaunch
Selling merchandise is not only limited to selling clothing and accessories. You can branch out into products like makeup, skin care, kitchenwares, nutritional supplements, etc, depending on your niche.
4. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a commission or rewards based monetization strategy. By promoting the affiliate company’s products or services, you’ll be able to earn money from it.
As a youtuber, one of the ways that you can earn money is by promoting the products and services of a partner company. This is called affiliate marketing. This is different from sponsorships because with sponsorships, you’ve already negotiated a fixed fee for promoting their products. With affiliate marketing however, your earnings (as the affiliate) will depend on the commission (or sale every time a customer purchases the product from the affiliate link). Affiliate links are usually placed under the video description or you can annotate them in the video.
If you don’t want to spam your viewers with sponsors, just placing affiliate links below the video is a great alternative.
Be sure to follow Youtube’s guidelines and Terms of Service when posting affiliate links or you might risk being demonetised though. Check out these guidelines:
Which affiliate links are allowed?
Affiliate links can be in the form of promo codes or discount coupons too. These are unique links that are associate with the influencer’s account. This is a great way to increase product sale and commissions while giving your subscribers a good bang for their buck.
5. Sell Ebooks
If your niche is creating educational content, you can sell an ebook to your viewers. The ebook should further expound on the topics discussed on your youtube channel and your content should be fresh and should provide more value to your customers as they are paying premium. It’s up to you if you want to delve into a new niche. If you want to test the market, you can ask for feedback from your subscribers about the content that they want you to write about.
One mistake that most people make is that they just compress all topics from their videos and regurgitate them into ebook form and sell it to their most loyal viewers. This is a major turn off and you risk losing your subscribers.
7. Attend or speak in events
Another way to earn money is by attending and speaking in events. These could be fan meetings or speaking engagements in conferences related to your niche. Usually, companies sponsor youtubers into attending events where you’ll be asked to promote their brand, speak about various topics or interact with your fans. Some advertisers handle your airfare, accommodation and talent fee.
This marketing strategy is very effective because it helps you connect with your subscribers on a personal level. Compared to movie and television personalities, youtubers have this quality of being attainable, approachable and down-to earth that’s why a lot of advertisers choose to partner up with them to boost their customer’s emotional connection with their brand.
8. Creating an app
Another way to boost your earnings from youtube is to create an app related to your field of expertise. One example could be a fitness app that shows various exercises and tracks your progress if your youtube channel is related to fitness and health. Or you could make a Cookbook app if your youtube channel is related to mukbang or cooking recipes.
You could monetize your app by selling an ad space if it’s a free app or you could make your app premium and charge your visitors for a monthly subscription.
Creating an app is only recommended for gurus and influencers who have amassed millions of loyal subscribers because the development and maintenance costs are quite expensive.
9. Donations
This is for hobbyists who prefer not to bombard their viewers with ads or promotions from different sponsors. These youtubers prefer to keep their channel clean by providing only high quality content free of ads. These are heroes who just want to do what they love to do and share their craft with people.
To keep your channel going though, you could ask for support from your most loyal subscribers to send donations to a link in the description box in your videos. Your subscribers will appreciate your hard work and they’d be more than happy to give donations.
