Most of us probably subscribe to a YouTube channel whose owners make a great deal from their channel, and we have heard of how some celebrities can make hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. And while you may not necessarily want to run a channel full-time, the idea of making some videos and earning a little cash on the side is appealing to anyone.
But making money through YouTube is not as simple as opening a popular channel and watching the ad revenue roll in. There are ways to maximize the amount of money you get from each viewer and other ways to earn money through YouTube beyond advertising. Here are a few things you can do to maximize your revenue from YouTube.
1. Understand how YouTube advertising works
Many people assume that YouTube views equal cash, but that is not quite the case. Remember that YouTube channels often make money through advertising. If a million people watch a YouTube channel weekly, but all of them skip the ads or use ad-blocking software, the medium may not make money.
If you run a YouTube channel, you control what kind of advertisements are allowed on your track. YouTube has a list of what kind of advertisements it uses, and you should think carefully about which type of ads you want to allow.
For example, non-skippable, 30-second advertisements will make you more money per viewer than advertisements that can be skipped after five seconds. But if your channel is filled with many short videos, placing a 30-second ad before each one will turn off viewers.
2. Find your niche
If you are starting a YouTube channel to make money, do something else. Making money should be an incidental goal, while the real goal should be to disseminate information or talk about something you care about.
This is not some poetic “follow your passions” malarkey but practical advice. Running a YouTube channel that will get viewership is hard, and you will not see results for a while. You must regularly post videos to make sure that people visit your channel, and getting those first few hundred visitors is harder. As Hickok45, a viral YouTube star, observed, “I need to have fun with the videos, or I’m in jeopardy of getting burned out.”[1]
View your YouTube channel as a hobby that you enjoy, not as a job. And that means your channel should be about something you like to discuss.
3. Link YouTube with your blogs or websites
You don’t have to create money with just your YouTube channel. Think about how businesses use YouTube to advertise and link to their website or e-commerce store. Even if you do not own a small business, you may have a store on Shopify or a blog where you earn money through hits.
If you have another website, do not hesitate to mention it and post a link at the end of the videos and on your channel. If you can create exciting content on YouTube, people will assume that you can do it elsewhere and will easily gravitate towards it if you let them know it exists.
4. Look into affiliate marketing
One of the biggest problems with trying to advertise on YouTube is that Google takes a substantial cut, so you may want to look into other forms of marketing. Affiliate marketing is a form where you discuss a product in your video instead of in an advertisement beforehand. This is an excellent way to generate a video income method. For example, the NBA highlight channel, Free Dawkins, often devotes the beginning segment of its videos to advertising various athletic programs before showing the highlights.
The catch with affiliate marketing is that it will only work if you have a reliable fan base that will sit and listen when you talk about some company’s products. Once your channel is big enough, look into it and make sure you link to the advertiser’s website in the video description.
5. Consider fan funding
If the money you make from a YouTube channel comes from viewership engagement, then why not just directly ask the viewers for cash? You can set up an account on YouTube’s Fan Funding or Patreon, which essentially serves as a donation box where viewers can show how much they appreciate your work.
Patreon users often offer additional content such as sneak video previews or behind-the-scenes postage to encourage fans to donate. Still, you want to clarify that you are asking for a donation instead of charging for payment. Remember that your YouTube channel will often compete with other media that offer somewhat similar content. Viewers who think you are essentially setting them for your videos will flock to a competitor unless you can produce compelling content.