YouTube stars are today’s self-made celebrities — people who have earned an audience by creating video content designed to educate, entertain, review, and be great on the web.
Making money on YouTube might not be your reason to start a channel, but the earning opportunities are a pleasant surprise once you realize how many of them there are. Luckily, there are some creative ways to make money on YouTube.
Your audience may be tapping into the earning potential of your YouTube channel, as is often the case with Instagram influencers or bloggers, but it is the creation of multiple revenue streams through side hustles or businesses that will help you make money.
How to make money on YouTube
Join the YouTube Partner Program
sell products or goods
Crowdfunding for your next creative project
Get support from your audience through “Fan Funding”.
License your content to the media
Work with brands as an influencer
Become an affiliate marketer
Let’s take a closer look at each of these revenue streams.
The first source of income you will likely explore is ads. Whether you want to make money on YouTube without making videos or as a content creator, joining the YouTube Affiliate Program and setting up monetization is an important step.
You must agree to follow all YouTube monetization policies and live in a country or region where the YouTube Partners Program is available. Then you can apply for monetization once you reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last year.
To enable monetization on YouTube:
Sign in to the YouTube account you want to monetize.
Click on your account icon in the top right corner.
Click YouTube Studio.
From the left menu, select More Features > Monetization.
Read and agree to the YouTuber Partner Program Terms of Service and Eligibility Requirements.
Create a new Google AdSense account or connect an existing account to your channel. (You need an AdSense account to get paid.)
Set your monetization preferences.
Once that is done, go back to the dashboard and click on the Analytics tab on the left side. From there, you need to select “Earnings” from the tabs at the top, then scroll down to the “Monthly Estimated Earnings” chart to get an idea of your projected YouTube earnings.
What is YouTube Premium?
YouTube Premium is a paid membership program that allows fans to watch and support their favorite content creators without ads. Not much changes for YouTubers as they get paid for content consumed by non-members on YouTube, along with content on YouTube Premium.
YouTubers get paid for YouTube Premium based on how many members watch their content. Consider YouTube Premium subscriber earnings as a secondary revenue stream on top of what you already earn from ads.
While easy to set up, making money from advertising as a YouTube affiliate is far from the most lucrative revenue stream you can create for yourself.
Why you should look beyond advertising for revenue
YouTube has recently received a lot of backlash for its decision to make advertising on the platform more transparent and what is considered “ad-friendly” content.
Essentially, many YouTube creators feared that due to the nature of their content, they would lose ad revenue that helps support their channel.
According to YouTube, your content could be excluded from advertising revenue if it contains:
Sexually suggestive content, including partial nudity and sexual humor
Violence, including displays of serious injury and events related to violent extremism
Inappropriate language, including harassment, profanity and profanity
Advertising drugs and regulated substances, including the sale, use and abuse of such items
Controversial or sensitive issues and events, including issues related to war, political conflict, natural disasters and tragedy, even if no graphic images are shown
But the reality is that since 2012, YouTube has been demoing content it deems not ad-friendly via an automated process without warning and without the knowledge of the content creator.
The situation is actually better now, as creators are notified when their content is reported and can opt out at any time if they believe a video has been incorrectly banned from the YouTube Network.
Advertising may be a common way to generate passive income for creators, but the trade-off is that YouTube’s parent company, Google, retains a roughly 45% share of advertising revenue.
In short, YouTubers should explore other sources of income to keep their creative hobby going. Here’s how to make money on YouTube without AdSense.
- Sell products or vendors
