When it comes to making money online, one of the most popular earning platforms is YouTube. However, in many cases, making money on YouTube can be a challenge – and this is something that leaves many people scratching their heads and wondering why they’re not making the big bucks they anticipated.
Nevertheless, while getting started learning how to make money on YouTube can seem like a challenge, it’s not an impossible goal. In fact, with the right strategies in place, you can potentially make a good part-time (or even full-time) income from YouTube alone while doing what you love!
Can You Make Money on YouTube?
If you’ve ever considered starting a YouTube channel, you may wonder whether you can make money through your efforts! Indeed, while many people launch a YouTube channel for the fun of it, there’s nothing wrong with monetizing your content too – and with the right strategies, it’s actually possible to earn a decent amount of money through the YouTube platform!
However, while it is possible to make money on YouTube, it’s important to consider that you’ll need to initially put a lot of your work and time into your channel before you can begin monetizing your content. What’s more, earning money on YouTube is largely dependent on the quality of content that you publish and the number of people who view your content – so, you’ll need to dedicate time to improving your YouTube channel’s stats before you can expect to see good returns.
Fortunately, while making money on YouTube initially can seem like a long slog, it’s not an impossible goal. We’ve outlined some great tips today to help you establish your new YouTube channel and make money from your content; hopefully, these will help you see greater success with monetizing your YouTube channel as well.
Gaining Exposure for Your YouTube Channel and Videos
When launching your new YouTube channel, you’ll need to begin by getting enough exposure before you can look at monetizing your account. This is true, irrelevant of which monetization method you choose; even if you decide to bypass the YouTube Partner Program entirely and focus on other earning opportunities, you’ll still want a large enough subscriber base to ensure a more consistent income from your YouTube channel.
If your YouTube channel has already been running for a while, this may be less difficult, and you may have already begun gaining exposure. However, if you’ve only just launched your YouTube channel, that’s fine too – there are plenty of great tips to help you gain exposure initially.
Choose a Topic That You’re Passionate About
First of all, one of the most important tips we can give to help your YouTube channel gain exposure is to choose a topic that you love. Indeed, in all too many cases, aspiring YouTubers choose to create content on a topic that they assume will bring in big money or lots of views – but there’s a catch here.
To get momentum going on your YouTube channel, you need to create top-quality and engaging content that stands out from the crowd. You need to ensure that your viewers are coming back for more every time you publish a new video. As such, creating content on a topic that you enjoy can be a big help in this regard; videos are often more engaging when you’re invested in what you’re presenting.
It’s also critical that you’re able to publish videos regularly enough to keep your channel users engaged – something that is often difficult if you’re not genuinely invested in the content you’re publishing.
Therefore, whether you’ve already established your channel or if you’re only just getting started, we highly recommend you choose a niche you enjoy. Even if it’s one that’s likely to draw fewer views, it’s better to have fewer viewers who’ll come back every week for new uploads than thousands of viewers who only hang around for a minute or two.
Avoid Using “Clickbait” Titles
If you’re looking to get new views in a hurry, it’s often tempting to use a “clickbait” title for your video. Though the exact definition of what constitutes a clickbait title will vary from person to person, for the sake of this video, we’ll define it as “a title that over-exaggerates the content you’ve produced or offers unrealistic expectations.”
What is a Clickbait Title?
What represents a clickbait title? There are numerous examples, but let’s assume you created a video with a title like “How to Drive 1 Million Views to Your YouTube Channel Overnight, Guaranteed!”
Not only does this offer a highly unrealistic expectation for many of your viewers – getting one million views overnight on a video isn’t impossible. However, to achieve these massive stats, you’ll likely need millions of subscribers in the first place to get these results so quickly (and there’s certainly no guarantee that this will be the case for every video, either).
Use Genuine, Helpful Titles to Drive Loyal Traffic to your Channel
Clickbait titles can drive many views to your channel – but these will likely do more harm to your channel than good. Most people following clickbait titles will only watch your content for a few moments, and these short views likely won’t result in long-term, loyal subscribers. This could actually put people off from subscribing to your account or viewing your other content – losing you subscribers and views as a result!
So, if you’re looking for genuine solutions to drive traffic to your channel, make sure you use reliable, genuine titles for your videos instead! Titles such as “Tips for Driving Traffic to your YouTube Channel” or “How to Boost Your YouTube Channel Views Overnight,” which don’t promise unrealistic results, will often perform much better in the long-term for your channel’s success.
Ensure That Your Video Thumbnails are Effective
We’ve outlined the importance of having reliable and realistic titles for your YouTube videos – however, that isn’t the only way that you can drive loyal, valuable traffic to your channel. Ideally, to increase the number of potential subscribers to your account, you’ll also want to ensure that your video thumbnails are also designed effectively.
Your video thumbnail is one of the first things that potential viewers will see. The power of first impressions can’t be overstated – in fact, it’s often assumed that businesses have only a matter of seconds to make a good first impression.
For YouTube videos, this time is even shorter. Chances are, your video will likely have only a matter of moments to catch the attention of potential viewers while they’re scrolling through their feed or search results!
So, how can you ensure your YouTube video thumbnails can capture the attention of potential viewers and subscribers? There’s no sure-fire way to create a video thumbnail that will capture your viewers’ attention while they’re scrolling. However, some key tips you could follow while designing your thumbnails include the following points:
- Never use a YouTube suggested thumbnail. These are often just screenshots of part of your video and won’t provide any additional information about your content to the viewer.
- Opt for a relatively simplistic design. Video thumbnails are very small. As such, if you include too many design choices on the thumbnail, they’ll likely only look cluttered and poorly thought out – not the sort of impression you want to create for your videos.
- Include bold text and bright colors for your video thumbnails. These will help capture your viewers’ attention while they’re scrolling, particularly if coupled with a suitable background that emphasizes the text itself.
- Any text should be brief – try to limit the text to just a few words, so potential viewers can read it without having to zoom in.
- Choose a complementary color palette for your thumbnail design. Ideally, you should include bright and eye-catching colors. However, you should also try to avoid harder colors for users to look at, as these may put viewers off the channel. A slightly darker shade than the brightest will often be a suitable choice in this regard.
These are just a handful of ways you can create an effective and eye-catching thumbnail for your video content. If you want some good examples, just scroll through YouTube’s trending page to see the kinds of thumbnail designs that the most popular videos are utilizing.
The most important point to remember here is that you want to create a genuine impression of your video as with the video title. Give viewers a taste of the content you have to offer; in turn, this will yield the highest chance of viewers engaging with your content overall. Remember – you’re looking for quality viewers who’ll stick around, not someone who’ll abandon the video after a few seconds!
Use Reliable SEO Strategies to Rank with YouTube’s Algorithm
As a final tip for driving new traffic to your YouTube channel and its videos, we highly recommend implementing effective SEO, or search engine optimization, strategies for your channel and video descriptions and titles.
Of course, you don’t need to be an SEO master to pull this off effectively; a few simple tips should be enough to give your new content a boost and promote its rankings in the search results overall. Some top suggestions to improve the SEO ranking for your videos include the following ideas.
Only Target a Few Relevant Keywords for Each Video
Target a few specific keywords or key phrases for each video. A common SEO mistake that many people make is targeting their video descriptions for too many search terms. Unfortunately, this can leave the videos ranking for none of the targeted terms.
Instead, choose just one or two keywords or phrases to target for each video description and title. Luckily, you can apply different keywords for each video, giving you the best potential to increase the reach of your videos. What’s more, you should always carefully check that your chosen keywords genuinely match the content of your video to avoid “click-baiting,” as we’ve already outlined.
Make Sure Your Descriptions are Long Enough
To give your videos the best chance of ranking in YouTube’s search results, you should ideally aim to create a description that’s at least 200-300 words in length, as this will give you more space to include keywords and key phrases. If you can make the description longer without the content sounding excessively repetitive, that’s even better!
Space Keywords Evenly Throughout Your Description
To boost the chance of your videos showing in search results and reaching your target viewers, aim to carefully spread out your chosen keywords and key phrases throughout the description. If your description is 300 words long, for example, one keyword for every 100 words will often fit nicely and give your videos a boost in the search rankings.
Make Sure You’ve Included Keywords in the Video Title
To boost the SEO potential of your YouTube videos, we highly recommend you include the target keywords in your video titles. This simple step will both provide an SEO boost for your videos and (hopefully) increase the chance of viewers checking out your video content, too – making it a highly valuable option to consider.
Natural Content is Crucial
As a final SEO tip for your YouTube videos, you should always keep all of your video titles and descriptions sounding as natural as possible. Indeed, search engines (including YouTube) often frown upon “keyword stuffing” tactics. As such, you should write all descriptions and titles naturally and space keywords in appropriately.
What do we mean by “natural-sounding keywords”? Well, let’s consider the following example.
Assume you’re trying to create a video that will rank for the key phrase, “boost YouTube earnings”. Including this exact phrase in your description would likely sound unnatural and clunky with generally poor grammatical structure. As such, a better way to include this keyword would be “how to boost your YouTube earnings” or “it’s possible to boost your YouTube earnings.”
Struggling with SEO? Partner With Other Channels to Boost Your Performance
If you’re struggling to get your channel off the ground with SEO strategies alone, another valuable tactic may be to try a collab with other already-established channels. If you can offer genuine support and new information for an established channel, they may be willing to partner with you for a collab video – and this can be a great way to begin driving more traffic to your channel as a result.
This method works in a very similar manner to backlinks for standard SEO practices, so it’s well worth considering as part of your overall SEO efforts.
How to Make Money on YouTube
We’ve outlined some of the key methods to begin getting exposure and views to your YouTube channel; luckily, that’s most of the hard work done! All that’s left now is to continue producing top-quality content to drive new views and subscribers, and monetize your account.
As such, it’s critical that you’ve considered the different monetization opportunities for your account – and implement some (or all) of these for your account. We’ve picked out five of our top recommendations for how to make money on YouTube as follows – and we sincerely hope that these will help you make the most of your account!
#1 Join the YouTube Partner Program
When we think about ways to earn money on YouTube, one of the most obvious earning opportunities has to be through Google Adsense and ad revenue. Indeed, in many cases, ad revenue is one of the main sources of income for most YouTube creators – and for a good reason, too!
It’s one of the simplest ways to make money on YouTube, and setting up an Adsense account only takes a few moments. Before long, you’ll begin to make money on your content through advert revenue – and it’s worth noting that income for YouTube views can often be higher than income for generic website adverts!
Earning Through Ad Revenue
However, if you’re looking to earn a full-time income from home using the YouTube Partner Program alone, you’ll need to be prepared to put in enough time to drive large numbers of views for your channel.
If your videos only get a few thousand views or less, the income you can earn through the YouTube Partner Program will likely be limited to coffee money. This is since most YouTube creators receive around $0.50 per 1000 views on average; it is possible to earn more in some cases, though. However, a notable benefit of ad revenue is that it’s directly tied to the number of views you receive on your content. Hence, as your channel grows, your income potential will likely continue to increase proportionally.
How the Numbers Add Up
Let’s assume a relatively low target for new YouTube content creators of 20,000 views per video within the first week (after implementing effective SEO). If you publish two videos per week, you’ll likely earn around $1k per year. After one year, you’ll also have around 180 videos on your account. If each of these continues to bring in a relatively modest 100 views per day, you’ll also be looking at an additional passive income of over $3k.
That’s not bad for a relatively new YouTube channel. What’s more, it’s worth considering that, as your channel grows in popularity and video numbers, this income potential will further increase over time.
So, what do these numbers mean from the long-term perspective? Well, by Year 3, you could be looking at a $10k per year passive income from existing content alone. By Year 5, if your channel continued getting new views per day, you could then be looking at over $16k passive income.
Other Earning Options with the YouTube Partner Program
Earning advert revenue is one of the most obvious ways to earn through YouTube – but that’s not to say it’s the best earning opportunity. If you’re looking to make higher revenues with your YouTube account, other solutions may be more effective. For example, as we’ve already mentioned, the YouTube Partner Program also offers many other earning options which can bolster your income, with the merchandise shelf and YouTube Premium revenue being among the most notable.
How to Become a YouTube Partner Program Member
Beginning to earn through the YouTube Partner Program, you’ll need to meet the following simple criteria. These criteria mean that initially, you’ll need to establish your channel for free; however, once you’ve begun attracting subscribers, you can start looking to generate revenue on your work through the program.
- Be over 18 years of age
- Have over 1,000 subscribers (or 10,000 subscribers if you want to open a Merch shelf)
- Existing videos must have gained over 4,000 hours of watch time
- For a single 12-minute video, that equates to 20,000 full views
- For twenty 12-minute videos, you’d need an average of 1000 full views per video
- Create advertiser-friendly content that doesn’t breach YouTube’s advertiser terms
- Live in a country where certain features (such as Super Chats) are available
#2 Run Live Streams for Donations
If you’re looking to bolster your income as a YouTube content creator, running live streams is often a good way to go about this. Live streams allow your fans and viewers to donate money to support your work. Over time, live streams also allow you to build a community of fans who’ll be more willing to support your work.
If you’re new to YouTube and don’t yet have many subscribers, you’ll likely earn less from live stream donations. It’s also worth noting that you’ll need to already be a member of the YouTube Partner Program to enable this monetization option; if you’re not quite there yet, make sure you’ve considered our earlier tips for gaining more exposure on your channel!
#3 Set Up a Funding Platform
It can come as a surprise for many new YouTube content creators just how many people are actually willing to support you financially for high-quality content. What’s more, with just a handful of patrons on sites such as Patreon, you can potentially achieve a good part-time income from donations alone – and so, this is definitely an option you should consider.
Registering with platforms such as Patreon is almost effortless, and you can create numerous different tiers to encourage as many people as possible to support your channel.
It’s with this in mind that we recommend focusing on top-quality content rather than driving poor engagement through clickbait tactics and the like. Indeed, loyal fans will often be willing to support your work, and even small donations of a few dollars per month certainly add up once you’ve begun to get support from your YouTube community.
#4 Seek Sponsorships from Brands
Another common option for earning money through YouTube is to create sponsored content – an option that can drastically increase your earning potential per video.
Generally speaking, you’ll need to have an established channel to attract sponsors to your videos. You’ll also need to inform your viewers that they are watching a sponsored video. Nevertheless, most viewers aren’t fazed by their favorite videos being sponsored. As such, this can be an excellent way to bolster your YouTube revenue and help you to develop a viable full-time or part-time income online.
Most content creators on YouTube provide their sponsors with a “shout-out” at the start or end of the video. In some other, less common cases, YouTubers include sponsorships as a brief “intermission” in the middle of the video – although you should be careful that this tactic doesn’t detract from the overall immersion in the video itself.
However you go about this is up to you, so long as you adhere to the terms required by the sponsor of the video. What’s more, it’s worth noting that different countries will often have different sponsorship legalities requirements, so make sure to know what’s required for your country of residence.
#5 Give Affiliate Marketing a Try
As a final option to generate revenue through your YouTube channel, affiliate marketing is definitely a versatile solution to consider. Indeed, depending on the program you choose, you can easily earn a generous commission for any sales generated thanks to your content.
Be Careful Not to Sound Too Sales-y
You should always clearly inform your viewers that you are reviewing the product as part of an affiliate scheme. With that being said, so long as you focus on reviewing products honestly, this shouldn’t impact your viewers’ final decision too significantly. However, if your review comes across as trying to make a sale rather than giving an impartial review, you’ll likely lose viewers and channel support as a result. So, don’t take this risk; only ever review products you’ve genuinely tried yourself, and always ensure your reviews are fair and unbiased for best results.
Is Affiliate Marketing Effective?
For example, most Amazon Affiliate sales will yield around 10%; meanwhile, commissions from other platforms such as ClickBank can vary between 1% and 75%.
As such, it’s easy to see where the income potential is with affiliate marketing; five sales of an Amazon Affiliate product valued at $200 could give you an income of around $20 per sale, or $100 per video. That’s not a bad income at all – and, depending on the number of people you reach with your videos, this income potential could even increase!
There’s a catch, though. Affiliate marketing is often a little tricky for many YouTubers to get into, and you may be limited as to the types of products you should market. If your channel is primarily focused on gaming, let’s say, then a good affiliate option might be to review the latest new console. However, your channel subscribers would likely meet reviews of the best musical instruments with far less support overall.
So, if you’re considering affiliate marketing, always ensure you’ve picked products that fit your channel’s existing niche for the best results.
Final Thoughts on Making Money on YouTube
Running a YouTube channel is great fun, and many people get involved with YouTube solely for the joy it brings them. However, for many other content creators, it’s also a valuable source of part-time or full-time income – if you’ve implemented the right strategies for how to make money on YouTube, that is.
As such, we sincerely hope that today’s guide will have given you some pointers and ideas on the best ways to make money on YouTube; so, if you’ve given any of today’s tips and ideas a try for your own YouTube account, please let us know how they worked for you. We always love hearing from our users, after all!