How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel – 5+ Effective Strategies
Are you a YouTuber interested in using the platform seriously and earning money from it? To become a professional YouTuber, you must create incredible material, garner a large number of views, and build a dedicated following so that you may eventually monetize your channel.
YouTube’s YouTube Partner Program makes revenue easier for creators.
While many YouTubers make money by including affiliate links in their video descriptions, the option to monetize videos or live broadcasts on YouTube is a significant step forward in any content creator’s career.
To monetize your material as a YouTuber, you’ll need to put in the time and effort to meet one or more of the YouTube Partner Program goals. We’ll go over this in more detail later in the article.
The good news for YouTubers is that there are a few different revenue avenues to choose from when it comes to YouTube video monetization. While there are a variety of ways to monetize YouTube material, there are a few things to consider while doing so.
Things to consider when monetizing a YouTube channel are discussed below. We’ll talk about how to find a target audience, why a YouTuber might want to monetize their channel, and how to do so. We’ll also go over the benefits and drawbacks of YouTube monetization.
Are you ready to learn some simple tactics for monetizing your YouTube channel? Then let’s get started!
How to Monetize Your YouTube Channel
Techniques and Practices
If you’re a blogger, vlogger, or other content producer interested in making money on YouTube, there are a number of things you should know before starting to monetize your channel.
Marketing and branding are important considerations when creating and maintaining a YouTube account, while eligibility, standards, and best practises are also important.
I understand that this may seem like a lot to consider, but if you are serious about starting a YouTube channel that can eventually be monetized, you will be glad you did.
One of the most important things to understand is how to qualify for the YouTube Partner Program, YouTubers must live in a country or region where this is an option. Click here to see if your country is eligible.
Now, here’s some essential advise that I didn’t realise until recently but that many new YouTubers should know: don’t instantly commercialise and enable adverts.
Why? Because a recent YouTube upgrade prevents producers from monetizing their channels unless they have more than 4,000 valid public watch hours and 1,000 subscribers in the previous 12 months. As a result, when you see people on TikTok promoting side hustles about monetizing YouTube videos and the amount of money content producers make, understand that this isn’t going to happen quickly.
Additionally, YouTubers must have an AdSense account linked to their channel (more on this below in the “Monetizing Content” section). I realise this sounds restricting, but the benefit of this restriction is that it allows you to focus on the content of your channel. Before monetization, you have time to create an audience and log views.
And, when you’re initially starting out on YouTube, the focus should be on producing high-quality material and growing a following, rather than thinking about making money.
What if your channel has already surpassed these YouTube milestones? If you believe you don’t have the time, money, or talents to consistently produce high-quality material, I recommend deferring commercialization. Some YouTubers will be prepared, while others will be unprepared. Just make sure you’re not in a hurry if you don’t have to be.
Related Article: How to Start a YouTube Channel (Complete Guide)
Uncovering your target audience and niche
If you understand marketing, you should already be aware of how to find a YouTube audience, but if you don’t, keep reading.
The first step is to determine your niche and the audience that your content targets. A “target audience” is the group of people you’re seeking to reach.
If you wish to focus on Health & Wellness, for example, your target audience can be those who care about their mind, body, and soul. Focus on sub-niches such as personal care, nutrition, preventative medicine, and alternative treatments in this sector. You’ve contributed to the health and wellness sector by purchasing a gluten-free product at the grocery store.
If you’re a gamer, you might want to focus on a younger demographic and games they enjoy, such as Fortnite or Minecraft. Another option is to start a gaming channel dedicated to a certain subset of gamers, such as mobile gamers, PC gamers, console gamers, tabletop gamers, and so on.
You’ll be able to create distinctive and interesting material that will help you grow a fan base if you discover the correct target audience. Various monetization streams can be developed once you’ve found your target fanbase.
Relevant content
If you want some sound advise, pay attention to the material you create in order to expand your audience and appropriately monetise your YouTube channel. Why? Because YouTube can flag any videos that are judged inappropriate for all audiences with a yellow dollar sign.
Because only a restricted number of sponsors will be broadcast on the channels, any videos featuring profanities, frightening content, misleading thumbnails, or controversial opinions will be unable to garner as much cash.
Related Article: 5 Important Steps To Be A Successful YouTube Video Creator
Production + optimization
The audio and video quality of the most popular monetized YouTube channels is one of its distinguishing features. Examine the videos of YouTubers in your specialty to evaluate how well-produced the audio and video is, and figure out what works for them in terms of delivering a compelling presentation.
Figure out what styles would be appropriate for your personality, topic, and interests while studying the rivals in your niche to generate excellent content that drives results.
When advertisers search for channels to advertise on, they look at the metadata that leads them to customers. This is expected for internet advertising. So, if you want to grab advertisers’ attention, give your videos the titles, descriptions, and YouTube tags that will enhance your channel’s search engine optimization (SEO).
YouTube monetization rules
Before you can monetize your Youtube channel, each channel must be reviewed to make sure it is following YouTube’s monetization rules. Once a YouTuber has signed the YouTube Partner Program terms and connected to an AdSense account, their channel automatically enters a review queue.
Once under review, YouTube’s automated systems and human reviewers review a channel’s content to check if it follows all of the platform’s guidelines.
During this review, YouTube checks that creators are following its Community Guidelines, Terms of Service, Copyright, and Google AdSense program policies. And if YouTubers want to monetize content, they must also meet the platform’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines.
The Community Guidelines restrict spam, nudity, hate speech, cyberbullying, and other harmful or deceptive content.
AdSense guidelines, on the other hand, prevent things like repetitious content, where multiple YouTuber videos seem almost identical; or reused content, which is content recycled from another YouTuber’s account.
YouTube’s copyright policies prevent YouTubers from using copyrighted material in their content. That means the review process will check for copyrighted audio and video.
So, if you’re looking for a solution to this copyrighted material, check out Videvo subscription libraries of music, sound effects, and stock footage site.
The review process typically takes a month to complete. If your channel is rejected from the YouTube Partner Program, creators can re-apply in 30 days. YouTube has an FAQ section that details how creators can strengthen their applications. Note that YouTube does a review periodically to ensure that YouTubers are sticking to YouTube’s monetization rules.
Related Article: 15+ Best Royalty-Free Sound Effects Websites
Want to Learn More About Photography?
Become a better photographer with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Gain access to exclusive video lessons taught by photography masters, including Jimmy Chin, Annie Leibovitz, Tyler Mitchell and more.
Monetizing content
If you look at the video material of today’s most successful YouTubers, you’ll see that they all generate money from ad revenue on YouTube. The ad model generates the majority of ad revenue for YouTubers (AdSense).
Google’s AdSense program, which allows content providers to make money on YouTube by running adverts at the beginning or throughout a video, is frequently employed by YouTube’s parent corporation.
YouTubers can monetize their content by running paid product placements and endorsements in addition to earning money from AdSense. Keep in mind that with this sort of advertising, you must alert YouTube and viewers ahead of time.
Using the Paid Content feature is another approach to monetize your YouTube channel. YouTubers can use the Paid Content feature to sell viewers access to a certain piece of content. The price is established by the content creators, who then split the earnings with YouTube.
The only problem with Paid Content is if you’re building your channel it may not go over well with an audience and limit your viewership and subscription.
If paid content is not for you, you may want to look into using the platform Patreon instead. Patreon allows a more direct relationship between the creator and fans (patrons), where YouTubers can offer their audience merchandise and special content for either a subscription or individual release fee.
Channel Membership is another popular way of monetizing YouTube content. In this setup, viewers join a channel through monthly payments, which allows them to get members-only goods like badges, emojis, and other things of value. With the Merchandise Shelf, YouTubers can sell their own branded merchandise much like a merchandise table at a musical concert selling swag like t-shirts, keychains, toys, and other collectibles.
If that type of monetization is not your thing; you can use other money-making methods like Super Chat & Super Stickers. This form of generating money allows viewers to purchase chat messages that are highlighted in a YouTube live-stream chat feed; and YouTube Premium Revenue, which gives YouTubers a cut of a YouTube Premium subscriber’s subscription fee when they watch the creator’s content.
Side Note How To Monetize Your YouTube Channel: Something to keep in mind when using these monetization types is that they include their own set of guidelines, and each type has a subscriber or view threshold that is required for monetization eligibility.
Related Article: 5+ Effective Ways to Earn Passive Income Opportunities as a Content Creator
Become an affiliate
One of the best ways to on how to monetize your YouTube channel if you haven’t been approved for the YouTube Partner Program yet is to become an affiliate.
Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.
Companies like Amazon, Shareasale, SkimLinks, and CJ Links Affiliate allow you to post and share special links to products on a particular approved product and make money off of purchases.
You can also become an affiliate of a brand like Amazon and post an affiliate link under your YouTube video. You earn money whenever someone becomes a subscriber through your link.
If you’re interested in becoming an affiliate, click the highlighted links above to sign up and begin promoting products via your YouTube channel.
Related Article: 15 Best YouTube Tools Creators Need to Help Grow Their Channel
Summary
With each of the different types of ways on how to monetize your YouTube Channel, there will always be some pros and cons to evaluate before you start.
Let’s take live-streaming and make money off of Super Chat & Super Stickers, for example, your viewers who pay for that service will probably expect to get some engagement. While this is certainly a cool feature, it does produce more work for YouTubers in this type of engagement that goes beyond simply making videos and publishing them.
Something that I want to stress again, that many TikTok influencers don’t mention in their quick rich scheme side hustles through YouTube monetization, is that if you want to make money that would replace a full-time income, a YouTuber needs to have at least a million views to see worthwhile profits.
As for Channel Membership, it may sound good, but YouTubers who make money off this strategy will need to build a rather large and loyal audience. While there are YouTubers that have done this, it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes hard work and commitment.
If you are a YouTuber thinking about selling merch and paid content, keep in mind that this is quite a bit different from creating and publishing videos. It means that YouTubers will start apparel and physical products business that can be intimidating.
While there are some great ways mentioned to Monetize your YouTube channel that will fit right for you, there is something else you should pay attention to if you want to monetize content on YouTube, and that is copyright claims.
If a YouTuber uses other people’s videos, photos, music, or any other content in their videos, then they run the risk of copyright claims and DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices, and this is something that no YouTuber wants.
If you receive three copyright claims by using other YouTuber’s content it can lead to a permanent ban. And a ban means no more monetization.
An easy solution for YouTubers who want to use footage, music, and sound effects for their content is to consider a subscription service like Videvo, which offers royalty-free music and sound effects and royalty-stock footage from Videvo.
Having access to these audio-visual materials will help aspiring YouTubers create better content, not just for themselves but for their viewers without worrying about breaking YouTube’s monetization rules.
Peekatthis.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Peekatthis also participates in affiliate programs with B&H, Adorama, Clickbank, CJ, and other sites.
If you found this post useful, please consider sharing it or letting your friends know via social media. Have something to add? Please feel free to do so in the comments section below. I really appreciate it!
📌 Don’t forget to save the blog for later, pin the image below!
About the author: Trent (IMDB | Youtube) has spent 10+ years working on an assortment of film and television projects. He writes about his experiences to help (and amuse) others. If he’s not working, he’s either traveling, reading or writing about travel/film, or planning travel/film projects.
