Does making money on YouTube sounds too good to be true? We have some good news: it is legit and you can absolutely make a lot of money on the world’s largest search engine.
Still can’t believe it? Let’s start with some data that will show you why YouTube has such a huge earning potential. First of all, the social media platform has more than 1.9 billion active users which translates in over 1 billion hours of videos watched a day. Moreover, every minute, there are over 400 hours of video uploaded on the platform. According to Forbes’s recently released list of the highest-paid YouTube stars in 2018, a 7-year-old kid, the host of Ryan ToysReview, has the top-earning channel, earning more than $22 million with his videos. So, you get the idea, you can truly make money online and become a millionaire with this platform.
Yet, easier said than done, right? Making money with YouTube can require a lot of time and effort, but these efforts can certainly bring you a lot of money. Here’s what you need to know:
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Become a partner
The social media platform has a YouTube Partner Program that gives content creators access to multiple special features of the platform including SuperChat, channel memberships, and merchandise shelf. However, it isn’t a must to become a partner in order to make money on the platform. Yet, it does make it a lot easier for you.
In order to become a YouTube partner, you must first set up a channel and grow it until you reach at least 1.000 subscribers and a minimum of 4.000 watch hours over the past 12 months. Next, you must create an AdSense account and enjoy the multitude of monetization features.
From getting ad revenue to getting a portion of the subscription fee of YouTube Premium members or getting SuperChat payments, each of these features can help you start earning with the social media platform.
However, the main trick of earning money as a partner is to make sure that you create content that can qualify as “ad-friendly” content. Simply put, according to YouTube’s requirements, for a video to not be excluded from the opportunity of earning money through ads, it must avoid sexual content (including partial nudity or sexual humor), it mustn’t display any type of violence or inappropriate language, and it mustn’t promote drugs or regulated substances or discuss controversial or sensitive topics.
Create and sell your own merchandise
Another fantastic way to earn money with this platform is to think and act like an entrepreneur. And, one of the most popular ways to promote a brand and increase revenue is to sell merchandise products. Luckily, there is a multitude of products that you can sell via your videos and make money. T-shirts or coffee mugs, bags, books or agendas, and many other more, all of them are great merchandise products that can bring revenue and brand awareness.
First of all, selling merchandise is the best way to define and promote your brand in the online and offline world. All self-made YouTube stars sell something in their videos so, why wouldn’t you?
There are many ways in which you can become an entrepreneur and sell merchandise on your YouTube channel. You could, for example, collaborate with merchandising company that can personalize different products for your brand. Or, you could design and create products that are also related to your videos’ theme.
For example, if you have How-to video tutorials on how to paint better, you can create and sell merchandising products like paintbrushes, canvases, or any other product that you use in your videos to teach your viewers. Next, you can enable your partner merchandise shelf, promote your products in your videos by teaching your viewers how to use them and why they should purchase them, and start selling your products.
Create high-quality content
No matter what strategy you choose to use to make money on YouTube, there is one golden rule that you must always respect. And, that is: creating high-quality content for your subscribers. Like with any type of content advertising, only high-quality and engaging content can attract and retain consumers.
Moreover, apart from attracting and keeping your viewers engaged with your channel, high-quality content can also benefit you by attracting brands to collaborate with you to sell their products. The better the quality of your channel, the bigger chances to earn higher revenue.
But, what does high-quality content actually means? High-quality content, especially on YouTube, translates in content that is relevant, engaging, unique, and useful for your audience.
However, as Meg Hampson, social media marketer and translator at TheWordPoint, explains “ Investing time and a lot of effort into creating fantastic video content for your audience may not be enough if your viewers don’t understand your language. Most video content creators believe that English is spoken by the majority. However, translated subtitles are essential to increase your audience reach, reel in viewers using sound-sensitive environments, and to achieve better audience engagement.”
Publish sponsored content
In today’s digitalized world, when self-made online stars are on the rise, influencer marketing is the newest and most popular trend in the marketing landscape. Today, brands are spending millions of dollars from their budgets to collaborate with the most famous influencers to promote their products or services.
The good news is that you don’t have to be an Instagram influencer to take advantage of this massive opportunity that influencer marketing is offering you. Moreover, you also don’t have to give YouTube any small cut from your earnings as you directly negotiate your revenue with the brand and the payments will be made directly to you.
It all comes to being able to offer brands a large audience that engages with your videos and, at the same time, with their products. Your channel’s quality and your audience’s relevance for the brand can help you negotiate a more advantageous deal with the brand. So, try to look for brands which’s products or services can be easily promoted on your channel.
Becoming an affiliate marketer for the brands you choose to collaborate with and start earning by getting a small commission from every sale that your channel or videos generate is another fantastic idea. Either way, whether you become an affiliate or influencer marketer, make sure that you are fair about it with your viewers by choosing not to promote products or services that you actually don’t like and wouldn’t recommend to your friends. If you do so, you avoid losing your subscribers and viewers because you have recommended something that wasn’t really worth their money.
In today’s world where we are all obsessed about content, making money on YouTube is easier than ever before. From creating content and attracting viewers, selling your own merchandise or collaborating with brands, these are all great opportunities that can help you monetize your passion.
BIO:
Erica Sunarjo is a communications professional with more than five years of experience. Erica runs her own blog BestWritersOnline and is proud of her an uncanny ability to explain the most complex subject in simple terms.
