Making money with YouTube isn’t something new or groundbreaking; people have been doing it for years since the video platform’s inception. PewDiePie, for example, the YouTuber with the most subscribers, has been making millions each year from his “Let’s Play” videos.
This isn’t surprising considering that he has over 63 million followers at the time of writing; at this point it doesn’t matter what he posts, it’s bound to attract a ton of views and, by extension, make exorbitant amounts of money in advertising revenue.
But what if you don’t have millions of followers? What if, like thousands of accounts out there, you’re just starting out and struggling to monetise with only a few thousand followers? We’ll provide some insight on how to turn those views into currency.
YouTube Ads
This is the easiest way to make money with YouTube – include advertisements in your videos. The problem is, it’s not very lucrative. As a rough guide, YouTube pays $2 per 1,000 views. That means, if you were to have 100,000 views on a video (no mean feat), you’d only earn around $200. Earning any meaningful amount of money this way can be tough, especially if you don’t have the audience to back it up with (but check this link on tips on how to get more followers).
However, depending on your channel’s content and other determining factors, the rate at which you get paid for views can fluctuate. And since $2 is better than nothing at all, you may as well opt in for advertising.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves signing up to an affiliate program that many different companies offer – one of the most popular ones in this regard is Amazon Associates.
After signing up, you get a custom link that you put in your YouTube’s channel description.
When a person clicks that link from your channel, you make a certain percentage from every click.
It’s an easy way to make money especially if your YouTube channel is one that uses and could recommend many products.
Crowdfunding
This is arguably the best method of making money regardless of your channel size, because crowdfunding simply requires that your audience is passionate and willing to support your content. It works by acquiring small amounts of money from many people, and is typically done using sites like Patreon.
However, if you have your own website, it’s also a simple enough task to add a link to your PayPal account, through which your followers can donate. If you don’t know how to do this, you can always go through a web provider such as 1&1.
Brand Deals
Brand deals involve cooperating with brands to introduce products or services of a particular brand to your audience via your videos. It’s a great way of making money but also of building relationships with different brands and companies for posterity.
The type of brands you will be able to partner with will depend upon the relevancy of your channel, but it’s safe to say that there’s something out there for everyone.