Social media has opened up various avenues for creators to make money from their content. YouTube is one of the best money-making social media platforms that continues to attract creators worldwide. According to Statista, YouTube’s current top-earning creator, Mr. Beast made an estimated revenue of $82 million in 2023. Several other creators also boast making millions of dollars monthly. Initially, creators simply needed to upload great content, garner millions of views and earn a share of ad revenue to make money on YouTube.
Thanks to the platform’s growing user-base and constant improvements, creators now have even more ways to earn from YouTube. The following article explores the most effective ways to enable you to make money on YouTube.
The YouTube Partner Program
While there are various ways to make money from YouTube, the most straightforward way is through the YouTube Partner Program. It gives you greater access to YouTube resources and monetization features as well as Creator Support teams. The program allows creators to tap into multiple ways to earn money from their content including livestreams, Shorts and long-form videos. Joining the program allows you access to the following;
- Revenue sharing from ads placed between Shorts and during videos
- Revenue sharing from YouTube Premium subscribers who watch your content
- YouTube Shopping to sell products to your audience
- Funds from Super Thanks, Super Chat, Super Stickers and membership fees from your channel’s members.
Through the YouTube Partner Program, the platform has paid over $70 billion to creators, artists and media organizations from 2021 to 2023. Becoming a partner gives you the chance to be part of those big earners, with access to multiple money-making opportunities on the platform.
Besides making money on YouTube, joining the partner program also helps you to connect and grow with a thriving community of other creators. Partners receive exclusive communications and unique perks and benefits to make your experience more fulfilling. The program also allows you to connect with fellow creators at special events and experiences such as Creator Collectives and VidCon in various cities around the globe.
How to Join the YouTube Partner Program
There is an eligibility test that you must pass to join the partner program on YouTube. Here are the key requirements for joining the program;
- 1000 subscribers
- 4K valid public watch hours in the last 12 months or
- 10M public Shorts views in the last 90 days
YouTube Ad Revenues
While meeting the above requirements will earn you a spot in the program, you need to push further to gain more subscribers and engagements to unlock higher revenues. That will enable you to start earning from the revenues generated from the ads featured in your channel. The YouTube ad platform is almost fully automated, with very little room for control. Make sure you turn on ads in your channel.
For long-form videos, YouTube will show a combination of pre and post-roll ads that users may not be able to skip. That means you cannot control the ads displayed before or after your videos. However, you can choose whether to put ads in the middle of videos of eight minutes or longer. That can be done automatically or manually.
Use the Revenue Tab in the YouTube Studio feature to check ad earning reports, including the estimated monthly revenue generated from videos.
Fan Funding
YouTube’s Fan Funding features also offer ways for viewers to support your channel with tips and monthly payments. However, you must first join the Partner program to make money on YouTube via this strategy. The main funding features available currently include Super Chat, Super Thanks and Super Stickers.
These are colorful messages and alerts that your audience can buy to support your channel during videos premieres and livestreams. They highlight a viewer’s comments in the chat box once purchased.
The channel memberships are also great for fun funding, offering paying fans a wide range of exclusive benefits. Create up to six member levels with increasing benefits including channel badges and custom emojis. The benefits can also include exclusive community posts, videos and shorts that only paying members can see. You can also award the subscribers exclusive first-viewing rights for your videos, members-only chat live chat and livestreams.
Fan-funding can also occur outside of the YouTube ecosystem. For example, you could ask for donations for your channel from fans and well-wishers. Various funding platforms exist today that you can use including Patreon, Tipeee, Buy Me a Coffee and Ko-fi. However, you will need to invest in additional content to attract donors and get them to pay.
YouTube Shopping
This is also a great feature that you should check out when seeking to make money on YouTube. It offers an easier way for fans to shop directly from the content that you post on the platform. Internal data from YouTube shows more than 160,000 creators are currently using the shopping feature to sell products and make money on YouTube.
YouTube Shopping allows you to open a storefront on your channel. You can also use it to connect your online store to your channel to display products and services to customers on the platform. It also allows you to tag your products or those from other brands in your videos.
Established e-commerce platforms such as Shopify offer an easy way for creators to connect online stores to their YouTube channels. Using the platform will automatically synchronize your product listings, so customers can check visit YouTube or your online store for an immersive shopping experience.
Alternative Ways to Make Money on YouTube
Although the YouTube Partner Program is the most straightforward way for many creators to make money on YouTube, it is not the only one. Other avenues exist for creators, artists and brands to make money from YouTube including;
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing programs such as product placements are usually very lucrative for content creators. Even if you are still in the infancy stages and without a huge audience, you will still be able to keep the products that you market. Product placement can take various forms on YouTube.
For example, you can show the product to the camera through paid promotions or unboxing videos. You could also get invitations to special events for testing products before they hit the market and filming vlog content.
Creators can earn commissions on YouTube from the affiliate links they provide in the video descriptions. A good example is the Amazon Associates Program. You can earn a commission of up to 10% of the sale when a follower buys a product through your affiliate link.
The amount of money that you can make from YouTube through affiliate marketing varies based on factors such as content category and affiliate payouts. Long-form videos are also an attractive option for maximizing your earnings through affiliate marketing. However, you should tell your audience whether you are profiting from recommending products to them to maintain trust. A quick disclosure before or after the links in the comments section or description box will do.
Influencer Marketing
Many brands are increasingly investing in influencer marketing and sponsorships to drive their reach and engagements on social media. However, you need a sizeable audience to make money on YouTube via influencer marketing. Besides, you should be able to negotiate a good deal with the brands whose products you intend to market.
Transparency is very important when it comes to making partnerships for influencer marketing. Experts advise that you should only endorse products that you actually believe in or like. Shopify Collabs offers easy ways for marketers to find brands that align with their unique content and values. It can also help you to build affiliate partnerships, get paid for selling products and track your activities under one roof.
YouTube BrandConnect allows businesses and brands to find creators to build influencer marketing and sponsored content campaigns that support their goals. This feature uses data about your audience to link your channel to brand partners.
Selling Products on YouTube
Digital and physical products are also a great way for creators to make money on YouTube today. Several creators are currently using YouTube to sell products such as Chamberlain Coffee by Emma Chamberlain and Feastables by Mr. Beast. Selling merchandise could be essential to creators seeking to grow their brand and audience relationships.
There are numerous options when it comes to choosing what to sell. The following are some ideas on how to start selling products on YouTube.
- Merchandise: The idea of merchandising has continually evolved for creators, mainly driven by the increase in the available resources. Apart from the common practice of selling t-shirts, creators have pursued different approaches to make money on YouTube with merchandising. For example, Elliotisacoolguy is a self-taught designer, with over 270,000 YouTube subscribers. He has two options for buying merchandise including, purchasing poster prints from his online store or design collaboration with Casetify.
- Templates: Some creators also opt to sell templates for complex tools such as Notion or Excel. You could even create content about how to make the templates for extra revenue streams.
- Courses: There are several professionals and creators on YouTube making money from teaching people how to do things. Online courses are increasingly becoming a popular way to earn, with creators honing their expertise to attract global audiences. For example, YouTuber Ali Abdaal, revealed that he made about $3 million from selling courses on YouTube in 2022. His YouTube channel currently boasts more than 6 million subscribers.
- Crowdfunding: Although this strategy is almost the same as fun funding, it occurs through a one-time contribution from those who want to support your content. Platforms such as Kicksrater or GoFundMe are ideal for one-time campaigns, especially when you are working on a large project like publishing a book or funding a music video.
Licensing Your Content to the Media
You can also make money on YouTube by licensing your videos to media brands and businesses. For example, if you create a viral video that attracts a lot of engagements, you can license it to other brands for money. TV news outlets, online news sites, morning shows and even other creators and marketers could reach out about the rights to use your viral videos.
A good example is the Laughing Chewbacca Mask Lady. Several media outlets wanted in when the video went viral.
You can also list your viral clips in marketplaces such as Jukin Licensing where the right people can easily find and purchase them.
Maximizing Revenues on YouTube
While you can still monetize your YouTube channel without millions of subscribers, you need a significant following to make the most off the platform. Superior Social Boost can help you to get more YouTube subscribers and drive engagements quickly and conveniently. Besides, your earning potential is also dependent on the level of engagement generated by your content, the niche you are involved in and the revenue channels that you explore. Whether you are a seasoned YouTuber or a beginner looking to make money on YouTube, take time to first understand your target audience and build a loyal following before launching revenue streams.