There’s lots of money to be made on YouTube if you take the right steps.
While Google Adsense is definitely a great starting point, there are other ways to diversify the way you monetize your YouTube channel.
In this article we’ll go over the ways you can make money from YouTube. Before we begin though, here’s a primer on Adsense along with pros and cons of using it.
Google Adsense & YouTube Monetization
YouTube offers their Partner Program, which allows you to monetize your videos through ads. To become a partner, you must apply through the Creator Studio section of your YouTube account under ‘Channel’ and then ‘Monetization’.
You will also require a Google Adsense account for payment and a minimum of 10,000 total views to be eligible.
Adsense is an advertising network run by Google that helps publishers place targeted ads onto mediums such as YouTube videos. When a user clicks their ad, the publisher will be charged a certain amount in hopes that user will return a greater profit.
As a content creator allowing ads to be placed onto your channel, you will paid through something called CPM (Cost per mileage). In this case, CPM is actually per 1,000 views and can be anywhere from $1-3 on average. This means if you were to receive 10,000 views on a monetized video, you could expect $10-$30 in ad revenue.
Pros of using Adsense:
- Passive income.
- Great for YouTuber’s new to monetizing their channel
- Easy and quick setup.
Cons of using Adsense:
- Lack of other revenue streams.
- CPM varies and can require very high view count to be sustainable income.
By all means use Adsense as a strategy to monetize your channel, but if you want to approach it like a business, you need to diversify. Try out at least one of the following ways to make more money from YouTube and you’ll see a healthy jump in revenue.
YouTube Merchandise
Never forget that you have a brand that people follow and support. You’ll be very surprised at how many people will be willing to pay you for branded merchandise to show off as a fan. This is a route many YouTuber’s take that can generate high amounts of revenue depending on your subscriber base.
So, what exactly should you sell? Here are some ideas:
- T-shirts
- Hoodies
- Hats
- Bags
Luckily for you there are many companies like Printful that will print your designs on products like these and ship them around the world.
You can create graphics using Photoshop or Gimp (which are free) and upload them to their website. When you receive an order you simply plug in your customers information, choose the right product and design then it’s shipped away.
If you’d like to work more intimately with a design company, search for local ones and pitch them your idea. You can hold onto bulk orders of merchandise and ship it to subscribers yourself, which they’ll deeply appreciate.
We recommend that you use a storefront such as Shopify or Shoplo to start selling. Both require a monthly subscription but give you an online store capable of taking payments, creating blog posts, and much more. WordPress and Woocommerce, are free but will require you to pay for web hosting.
You should also go through YouTube’s official guide on creating merchandise for your channel.
Affiliate Marketing on YouTube
One of the most effective ways to generate passive income through YouTube is by using affiliate marketing. This is a simple business model that involves you promoting another business’ products for commission.
You don’t have to worry about shipping, tracking numbers, inventory and all of the other responsibilities. Once you refer a customer, you get paid and don’t have to worry about anything else. It’s YouTube channel monetization made easy.
If you visit many of the top YouTuber’s like Casey Neistat, you’ll notice that they place affiliate links in their video descriptions. Normally these are links to the gear they use themselves which they make some very nice commissions from.
There’s no better affiliate marketing program to begin with than Amazon’s. You can sign up and start promoting any products you want through YouTube and your other social media profiles. If you have a website as well, add links to content but make sure that it’s relevant.
You don’t have just stick to Amazon though, there are endless affiliate programs that you can use to make money from your YouTube videos. To find some, visit Google and enter searches such as:
- Keyword + affiliate program
- Keyword + affiliate network
- Keyword + become an affiliate
Enter any keywords that are related to the kinds of videos you make. Check out a few different programs and apply to them. They should display their commission rate and what products you’ll be promoting. Once you get accepted, add some affiliate links to your videos and you’ll have another avenue from which you can make money off of your YouTube videos!
Writing E-books
Promoting other people’s products is cool and all, but nothing is better than creating your own. It can often be daunting to think about developing something yourself, but it’s actually pretty simple.
The best place to start is by writing an e-book because it has no upfront costs and knowledge never goes out of style. You’re bound to be an expert on at least one topic, so consider what you’re good at and how you can turn that into a book. Most importantly, brainstorm what books your audience would actually enjoy.
If you make videos on digital marketing for example, you could create e-books around:
- 50 website traffic secrets.
- How to start an online business in one day.
- Email marketing for dummies.
- How to get more views on YouTube
These are just some basic ideas of course but the point is to make it useful for your viewers. Of course you need a medium to sell your books which is why we recommend signing up for Amazon’s Kindle program. For no upfront costs you can upload your e-books to Amazon for Kindle users to purchase and you get up to 70% royalties.
Once the book is live, let your subscribers know that you’ve published a new book they may enjoy and give them the link.
Creating a Dropshipping Business
If you’ve dabbled in internet marketing even for a little bit, you’ve definitely come across dropshipping. It has been all the craze within the past couple of years but for good reason.
It’s a low risk and high reward business model that’s perfect for beginners. You list a wholesalers products on an online store such as Shopify and fulfill the order through the supplier once a customer pays you. Normally it will take place as such:
- You add the suppliers products to your online store.
- A user purchases from you through a payment gateway such as PayPal.
- You order through the supplier and they ship it to the customers address.
- You’re left with the remaining profit.
Either you will manually mark up the price or you’ll be given a special discount code when you order through the supplier. With a solid YouTube channel like yours, you can expect to make some steady sales.
I highly suggest that you begin sourcing products from Aliexpress since you can begin instantly and there are great profit margins to be made. If you happen to use Shopify, there’s an app called Oberlo that will save you tons of time by bulk importing products. They also have a great amount of documentation on dropshipping to get you started.
If you want to find domestic wholesalers, search Google for:
- Keyword + wholesaler
- Keyword + dropship
- Keyword + resell
Reach out to any you find through email or phone explaining you’re a new business looking to source products. It’s wise to mention that you have an established YouTube channel and social media profiles, so you just need products to begin. You should get plenty of responses doing so and they’ll assist you in getting started.
Become a middleman by marketing these products on your YouTube videos and channels you’ll begin to see even more profits from your YouTube activity.
Selling Courses
Everyone can teach something. Sure an e-book might get the point across, but a course gives users much more knowledge, practice and experience.
To create an online course you don’t have to be the best teacher in the world either. You just have to think of what your subscribers would like to learn, map out the steps and format it.
You’re a YouTuber after all, so why not teach them how to grow a channel or edit videos perhaps? Feel free to create courses on anything you’re passionate about that intertwines with your content.
I’d highly recommend that if you go this route you invest in a WordPress website and installing Woocommerce. There are free plugins such as LearnPress, CoursePress and many others that will turn your website into an online school. You will be able to create courses, assignments, quizzes, and everything your students need to learn.
If you want to bootstrap your adventure into creating courses, give Udemy a try. It is a free platform in which you can upload courses to earn money. If you refer a student through your channel, you get all of the profits.
For the users that search Udemy and stumble upon your course, you’ll earn 50% of the price you set the course at. Not bad seeing as you’re getting free exposure through their platform.
That wraps up our article on 5 ways to monetize your YouTube channel. What have you found to be the most effective way of making money from YouTube?