YouTube is an amazing platform for content creators to reach a wide audience. It’s also one of the best ways for brands or individuals to market their products, services, and ideas. YouTube has grown into this massive community where anyone can be a content creator and anyone can find just about anything they’re looking for. So how do you make money from your YouTube channel? Read on!
Google AdSense
Google AdSense is probably the easiest and most effective way to make money from a YouTube channel. The amount of money you earn per view depends on how much advertisers are willing to pay. In general, it’s anywhere from $0.05 – $20+ Per Click depending on if you’re getting views or not as well as factors like where those views came from (geography, etc).
The only hard part is getting your YouTube channel monetized. This is done by applying for an AdSense account. Which can only be done when your YouTube channel has at least 1,000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time (over the last 12 months). You can read more about monetizing a YouTube Channel here.
Affiliate Marketing / Product Placement
One of the most common ways that content creators earn money on their channels is through affiliate links or product placements. This means they will promote specific products in their videos with links to where people can buy them. There are many different affiliate marketing companies out there like Viglinks, Rakuten Linkshare, Skimlinks etc… These companies all work differently but ultimately, they pay when someone clicks one of these links in your video description box and buys something on that site.
You can also do product placements on your videos, which basically means you fit a specific brand’s item into the video in an organic way so it doesn’t look intrusive or forced. For example, if I were to review some headphones, I would mention them by name at least once and probably even show them off for most of my talking time during the video. This is especially effective with expensive items because viewers are more likely to want these products after watching someone talk about how great they are, but only if they aren’t too pushy or annoying about it (I’m looking at you PewDiePie).
Merchandise
Merchandise is also another great way to make money through your channel. You can get creative with the type of merchandise you sell, but I usually stick with things like t-shirts and posters because they are relatively low effort (just slap a design on some items, and boom you’re done) while still providing decent returns for not too much initial investment. Just Google what types of products/items would work best for your brand or audience’s needs and go from there!
Sponsorships
This is another one that might not be for everyone, but if you’re in the right place (i.e. are big enough and have a desirable audience), sponsorships can provide some pretty nice income. The fact of the matter is though, this isn’t something to go after until your channel has reached at least decent success because it’s harder to get than most other ways listed here.