Five billion YouTube videos are watched every day around the globe. The average time spent on Youtube is 40 minutes per session.
Content creation is lucrative as never before, and YouTube remains the platform of choice for many entrepreneurs looking to cash in on the trend. With over 2 billion users and 5 billion hours watched each day, there has never been a better time to start making money on this platform.
Here are ten ways how to grow and monetize your YouTube audience.
Join the YouTube partner program
The most straightforward way to make money on YouTube is to join the YouTube Partner Program. Choosing this option, you can monetize your content with advertising revenue. Since YouTube is a subsidiary of Google, you’ll need a Google AdSense account to proceed.
To apply for the YouTube Partner Program, you must meet the following requirements:
- 18 + years old (or you need to have a legal guardian 18+ who can manage your AdSense payments);
- Be located in a country where the program is available;
- Have 1,000+ subscribers;
- Have 4000+ hours of watch time within the past 12 months;
- Follow YouTube channel monetization policies.
As you can see, not every channel will be suitable for the program.
Channels displaying certain types of content (anything related to adult content, foul firearms, tobacco, violence, drug use, etc.) are not considered ‘advertiser-friendly’ and cannot be monetized. You can take a look at YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines here.
Once you’ve been accepted into YouTube Partner Program, you can set up your ad preferences and enable monetization on your content. Payments will automatically be issued through AdSense.
YouTube Premium
YouTube Premium is a paid membership for YouTube users. For $11.99 per month, users can benefit from ad-free viewing, background play (videos still play while using other apps or when the screen is locked), YouTube Music Premium. YouTube Premium also allows you to download videos and view them later which is perfect for commuting or traveling.
The revenue YouTube generates from premium subscriptions is shared with content creators based on how much their video gets viewed.
Use affiliate links on YouTube
Promoting affiliate links can be a great earning opportunity for channels that offer tutorial and product reviews. How does that work? If you recommend a product or a service, and a user visits your link to buy, you’ll get a commission.
Keep in mind that you shouldn’t pour affiliate links all over your YouTube content just for the monetary benefit. It will make you look untrustworthy to the audience. Only when viewers believe they can trust you, they will follow the links you suggested to visit.
To build trust, help your audience to solve concrete problems and make sure you mention quality products or services.
Make money with funding from your fans
If you already have loyal fans, encourage them to crowdfund your YouTube channel to make profit. A platform like Patreon introduces a clear process of getting paid for your content. Just for a dollar your fans can make subscriptions to their favorite channels. As long as your content is helpful, entertaining, or provides value, you would be amazed at how many of your subscribers are ready to pay for content you provide.
Become an Amazon influencer
The Amazon influencer program has become increasingly more popular. It allows you to maximize not only your YouTube but general social media presence to make money via recommendations.
After joining the Amazon program, you can review products and direct your viewers to Amazon to purchase via affiliate links. When your viewers make Amazon purchases using your affiliate links, you get your commission – typically 8-10%.
However, not everyone can join this program. The amount of social media followers and other metrics determine the odds of the approval.
Conclusion
It is pretty challenging to make money on YouTube. First, you should work on getting your first 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours within the last 12 months to join the YouTube Partner Program.
Then try to generate more views and monitor your cost per view (CPV) — this metric refers to the price an advertiser pays for every instance that their video ad gets played. Tracking CPV is important to see how much money you make for advertisements.
If you don’t have millions of views yet, monetizing your channel with the help of affiliate marketing can be a great solution. You can also review products and place affiliate links in your video description. That way, you can earn commission on every sale and make more money than your advertising cost per view.
Author: Anna Grechko is a marketing enthusiast and knows the field inside out. She is the marketing specialist at Smart IT. Sharing knowledge is a big part of her career, so Anna actively seeks to spread good vibes, and collaborates with the great tech and marketing minds of the world.