Making money on YouTube used to be as simple as uploading great content, getting millions of views, and taking a cut of the ad revenue. Content creators can now monetize their work in a variety of ways. In addition to advertising, this could include corporate sponsorships from a major brand, fan funding, or merchandise sales.
IMPORTANT TAKEAWAYS
Content creators can join the YouTube Partner programme after accumulating 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time.
This provides creators with revenue-generating tools such as advertising, crowdsourcing, and merchandise sales.
YouTube celebrities can earn up to $20 million per year. The majority, on the other hand, earn significantly less or nothing at all.
Google’s AdWords
The first step toward making money on YouTube is to join the YouTube Partner programme. Content creators benefit from the partnership because it gives them access to unique tools like the ability to monetize their videos with Google Adsense. To qualify, content creators must have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time in the previous 12 months.
YouTube monetizes videos with pre-roll, display, and other ad formats. Advertisers are paid based on how many clicks and impressions they receive. YouTube keeps 45 percent of the revenue while giving the content creator 55 percent.
Content creators must adhere to advertising guidelines. Ads will not be displayed next to content that contains profanity, adult content, violence, or other controversial topics. This could include a discussion of sensitive current events.
A brand’s sponsorship
In the world of digital marketing, brand sponsorship, also known as “influencer marketing,” is a lucrative form of advertising. A business will pay a content creator to use a video to promote a product or a brand. With her popular make-up tutorials, Michelle Phan, for example, drew the attention of cosmetics brand Lancôme early in her YouTube career.
As of 2019, more than 700 agencies matched brands with social media influencers on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Google bought Famebit, a YouTube-related company, and rebranded it as YouTube BrandConnect.
Crowdfunding
Another popular way to monetize a channel is through channel memberships. Fans and followers pay a monthly subscription fee in exchange for perks such as badges, emojis, special videos, live chats, and other goodies. YouTube partners with 1,000 subscribers have access to this monetization feature.
Video creators can also monetize their fan base by selling monthly memberships through third-party services like Patreon. Top video creators can earn up to $40,000 per month from fan support.
Merchandise sales are one of the most important aspects of a business.
YouTube partners can sell up to 12 items of merchandise to their audience by enabling this feature in their account. Jeffree Starr has made a fortune selling lipstick, highlighters, and eye shadow palettes to his fans.
YouTube Tips and Tricks
To increase their chances of attracting a large audience, creators should adhere to established YouTube best practises. One of the most basic best practises is to create rich, engaging content.
YouTube viewers come to be entertained or to find a solution to a problem they are experiencing. If you create great content, your video is more likely to be viewed and shared.
The more views a video has, the more valuable it is to YouTube, and the more likely it is to appear higher in search results.
Optimizing videos for YouTube search is another way for content creators to increase viewership. This includes using the Google keyword planner to find words that a lot of people search for and including those keywords in the description and tags of the YouTube video page. Promoting a YouTube video on social media and through paid media advertising is another popular way to increase traffic to it.
Revenue-Generation Roadblocks
Even if all of these best practises are followed, YouTube video creators will still face revenue challenges. The median cost per thousand (CPM) ad rate charged to advertisers in the first quarter of 2020 was just $3.53. Because creators are only compensated for monetized views rather than total views, their effective CPM can be significantly reduced.
Conclusion
Despite these challenges, people who can build a large and loyal YouTube following can make a lot of money. The highest-paid YouTube video creators earn nearly $20 million per year, according to Forbes, so it’s easy to see why so many people are drawn to this seemingly limitless source of income.
