“YouTube stars are making money on Youtube and they are today’s self-made celebrities—people who have earned an audience on their youtube channels by creating video content geared toward teaching, entertaining, reviewing, and being awesome on the web.”

Making money on YouTube might not be your reason for starting a channel, but the opportunities to earn 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 might unlock your YouTube channel’s earning potential, as is often the case with Instagram influencers or bloggers, but it’s the creation of multiple revenue streams, through side hustles or businesses, that helps you make money.

How to make money on YouTube?

Join the YouTube Partner Program.
Sell products or merchandise.
Crowdfund your next creative project.
Let your audience support you through “fan funding”.
License your content to the media.
Work with brands as an influencer.
Become an affiliate marketer.

Let’s take a deeper look at each of these income streams.

1. Join the YouTube Partner Program

The first revenue stream you’ll likely explore is ads. Whether you want to earn money on YouTube without creating videos or as a content creator, joining the YouTube Partner Program and setting up monetization is a vital step.

You’ll have to agree to follow all of YouTube’s monetization policies and live in a country or region where the YouTube Partner Program is available. Then you can apply for monetization once you’ve hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the past year.

Here’s how to enable monetization on YouTube:

Sign in to the YouTube account you want to monetize.
Click the icon for your account in the top right corner.
Click YouTube Studio.
In the left menu, select Other Features > Monetization.
Read and agree to the YouTuber Partner Program terms and eligibility requirements.
Create a new Google AdSense account or connect an existing one to your channel. (You need an AdSense account to get paid.)
Set your monetization preferences.

Once that’s done, head back to the dashboard and click the Analytics tab on the left side. From there, you’ll need to choose Revenue from the tabs at the top, then scroll down to the chart Monthly Estimated Revenue to get an idea of your predicted YouTube revenue.

What is YouTube Premium?

YouTube Premium is a paid membership program that lets fans watch and support their favorite content creators without ads. For creators, not much changes, as they will get paid for content consumed by non-members on YouTube, along with content on YouTube Premium.

Creators are paid for YouTube Premium based on how much members watch their content. Consider revenue earned from YouTube Premium subscribers as a secondary revenue stream in addition to what you’re already earning through ads.

While it’s easy to set up, earning money through advertising as a YouTube Partner is far from the most lucrative revenue stream you can create for yourself.

Why you should look beyond ads for revenue?

YouTube recently received a lot of backlash due to its decision to be more transparent about advertising on the platform and what qualifies as “advertiser friendly” content.

Essentially, many YouTube creators feared that, due to the nature of their content, they would lose out on the advertising revenue that helps support their channel.

According to YouTube, your content could get excluded from ad revenue if it includes:

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 vulgar language.
Promotion of drugs and regulated substances, including selling, use, and abuse of such items.
Controversial or sensitive subjects and events, including subjects related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters, and tragedies, even if graphic imagery is not shown.

But the reality is that YouTube has been demonetizing content that it doesn’t deem advertiser friendly since 2012 via an automated process, without warning and without the content creator’s knowledge. Now, the situation is actually better, as creators are notified when their content is flagged and can contest any time they feel a video was mistakenly excluded from YouTube’s advertising network.

Advertising might be a common means of generating passive income for creators, but the trade-off is that YouTube’s parent company, Google, gets to keep around a 45% share of ad revenue. In short, YouTubers should explore other revenue streams to sustain their creative hobby.

2. Sell products or merchandise

There are plenty of products to sell that can help you make money through your YouTube channel. Selling merch—t-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, snapbacks, you name it—has a benefit beyond revenue.

Merchandise increases your exposure by putting your online brand and personality out into the offline world and deepens the relationship between you and your fans as they literally “buy” into what you’re doing.

Selling branded swag is easier than it might seem at first. You can order affordable designs tailored for specific products, like t-shirts, using freelance sites such as Fiverr.

And when it comes to handling orders, you can integrate your store with services by one of the many print-on-demand providers that take care of shipping, fulfillment, and customer support, letting you reap all of the benefits of a print-on-demand business that requires less effort on your part.

Alternatively, you can partner with an existing merchandising network for creators. However, you’ll be competing with other YouTubers and have less control over adding products, offering discounts, integrating your content, and all the advantages that come with owning your own ecommerce site.

You can even go a step further by manufacturing and selling your own unique products and powering your business through your YouTube channel. As a YouTuber who’s already earned an audience, you’ll have two advantages from the start that other store owners would be jealous of:

A content engine that consistently drives traffic to your store.
Your audience’s trust, which you’ve earned by regularly serving them your own brand of content for free.

3. Crowdfund your next creative project

When money is all that stands between an idea and its execution, crowdfunding is a good way to make it happen. Whether you need help buying better equipment, hiring actors, or covering other production costs, you can call upon your own audience and the crowdfunding community to pitch in, if your idea is compelling enough.

Many successful crowdfunded creative projects tend to offer a sneak peak or “trailer” that gets people excited, so consider shooting a video explaining your project or offering a taste of what it’ll be like, such as this popular Kickstarter for Kung Fury, a short film paying homage to ’80s action movies.

4. Let your audience support you through “fan funding”

Similar to crowdfunding a project, you can also set up “fan funding” streams to source donations from your audience. As a creator, you’re contributing your voice to the internet without forcing your audience to pay for admission. So, if you’re offering good content, your audience might be inclined to support you on an ongoing basis.

Many fan-funding platforms offer creators another place for people to discover their content and a way to engage their most loyal audience and reward them for their support.

5. License your content to the media

If you happen to create a viral video with mass appeal—say, a funny clip featuring your dog—you can license your content in exchange for money. TV news outlets, morning shows, online news sites, and other creators might reach out about rights to use your videos if they happen to go viral. You can also list your videos in a marketplace where your content will be easier for the right people to find and purchase.

6. Work with brands as an influencer

Brands are investing more and more in influencer marketing and sponsorships, spending their typically large advertising budgets on influencers who’ve already won the loyalty of their audiences. This creates a massive opportunity for you as a creator if you can negotiate the right deals. Depending on your leverage—your audience demographics, content quality, and how unique and profitable your niche is—you might be able to negotiate a better deal if the brand is a good fit.

The key when partnering on brand-sponsored content is to be transparent about it, not endorsing anything you don’t actually like or believe in, and being upfront with your audience about why you’re doing it.

7. Become an affiliate marketer

Affiliate marketing refers to earning a commission by promoting a product or service made by another brand. You can become an affiliate marketer for brands and include product placements, endorsements, or other types of content. However, you must disclose the partnerships to viewers in your videos.

This works especially well if you review products as part of your YouTube channel. Since there’s no risk on the brand’s end (they only pay when they make sales), there’s usually a low bar to start with.

Popular affiliate programs include ClickBank (1% to 75% commission, depending on what the vendor sets) and Amazon’s Affiliate network ( up to 10% per sale). You can also reach out to brands in your niche that are running their own affiliate programs, which isn’t uncommon in the ecommerce space.

How many views do you need on YouTube to make money?

The average YouTube channel can receive around $18 per 1,000 ad views, which equals around $3 to $5 per video view, according to data from Influencer Marketing Hub.

The number of views you get doesn’t correlate to revenue earned. If your video gets thousands of views but no one watches or clicks the ad, you won’t make any money. This is because of YouTube’s criteria for billing advertisers: a viewer must click an ad or watch the video ad in full (10, 15, or 30 seconds) for you to get paid.

How to get paid on YouTube?

Publish ads on your channel.
Offer channel subscriptions.
Offer channel memberships.
Sign up for affiliate marketing.

To start earning money directly through YouTube, you must have a least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year. Once you reach that, you can apply to YouTube’s Partner Program and monetize your channel. One area where you can make money as a beginner with a small number of subscribers is affiliate marketing. Niches like food reviews, product openings, and top [X] lists are popular topics for YouTubers. You can earn money when they purchase affiliate products from your video, versus an ad click or video view.

How much money do YouTubers make per year?

The top 5 YouTubers as of January 2021 have tens of millions of followers each. Accounts include MrBeast, Jake Paul, Markiplier, Rhett and Link, and Unspeakable. These YouTubers earn upward of $28.5 million per year through their channels. While what they earn is enormous, smaller accounts can still earn a living on YouTube.

Take Justine Leconte’s YouTube channel, for example. She has 913,000 subscribers and 91 million video views on her channel, which helps people dress better and understand fashion. Just off ad revenue, her total estimated earnings are around $259,304, earning $979 per video, on average

Tips for selling on YouTube to Make Money

Many of the above strategies for monetizing involve promoting products or campaigns (e.g., crowdfunding a video series). But you’ll want to make sure your promotions don’t sabotage the integrity of your high-quality content.

“Selling out” is a real concern for a lot of creators. But if you never ask, you’ll never get. There are a number of “placements” you can choose from for promoting products or campaigns.

Understand your audience on YouTube

Building your own audience puts you in a great position to monetize content in a variety of ways. But you’ll only be able to take full advantage of the opportunities you have if you understand the makeup of your audience. For many YouTubers looking to monetize, the more niche your channel, the better position you’ll be in to work with brands looking to target specific audiences (more on that later).

You’ll want to pay close attention to:

The gender of your audience, to see if it skews toward one particular group.
The age range most of your audience falls into.
Your audience’s overall engagement, or “watch time”.

With this demographic information at hand, you’ll have a better understanding of your own audience and be able to work better with brands. All demographic insights visible  from your YouTube analytics, but to compare your own channel against others, try a tool like Social Blade.

Record a call to action in your videos

“If you liked this video, then hit the Like button and subscribe.”

Many YouTubers include a call to action along those lines at the end of their videos to grow their viewership. By suggesting the intended action you want them to take, your audience is more likely to take it. You can adapt this approach to direct your audience’s attention to a revenue-generating opportunity.

Add well-timed YouTube cards to your videos

Whether it’s part of your deal with a brand or you’re promoting your own products, YouTube Cards offer an eye-catching way to get the attention of engaged viewers. You can set them to pop up at just the right moment, when they’re most relevant and least distracting, to increase their impact.

Promote your offer on other platforms

Just because your content is hosted on YouTube doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be taking advantage of all the other distribution channels out there. Spread the word about new campaigns or discounts on Twitter, Facebook, and any other profiles you own.

The more places your message lives, the greater the chance it’ll be seen. So it’s always a good idea to grow your following beyond YouTube with social media marketing.

How to make money on YouTube with product reviews?

Software and tech products are the most common types of product reviews around – probably because they’re also the ones that make the most money. Tech companies often pay YouTubers or supply them with free gear for additional exposure during new product releases. The key to getting paid for product reviews is to find your niche and build a strong community around it.

If your channel is too general you’ll find it difficult to communicate your value to companies looking for exposure, as a niche demonstrates in-depth knowledge and expertise. Companies want to work with experts in their field rather than a generalist who reviews everything from shopping sites to toys and tech. You’ll also find it harder to compete with the thousands of other YouTubers doing the same thing.

Even if you have a smaller number of subscribers, if your community is strong, companies will readily send you free products to review. Check out this video for some tips on how to get free products to review.

Wrapping Up

YouTube as a platform is ever-growing and now you have 10 different ways you can leverage it to make money off it. Remember, your YouTube channel can be monetized even if you don’t have millions of subscribers. Your earning potential isn’t only determined by the number of subscribers and views you have, but also by engagement levels, your niche, and the revenue channels you explore.

If you’re just starting out on YouTube, you would want to know how to buy more likes, views, and subscribers for your YouTube Chanel. You can also check out our packages for YouTube marketing services here.