How will you make money on YouTube?

YouTube is the online video sharing platform. There are other video sharing sites online but YouTube is the one that the vast majority of people use worldwide. If you want people to watch your videos and you want to make money off of them then YouTube is the way to go.

You really can make money by pumping videos out on YouTube. This article will go in-depth on YouTube monetization and everything that comes along with it. 

What’s YouTube monetisation?

YouTube monetisation is the ability for you to make money on YouTube from your videos. If you want to enable YouTube monetisation, you need to meet the requirements set by YouTube and join the YouTube Partner Program.

Joining the YouTube Partner Program will let you get paid from YouTube ads. Do you know those ads that play at the beginning before the main video plays? When you join the YouTube Partner Program, you get money from them.

If you’re eligible for the YouTube Partner Program and successfully join it, you can turn on the ad monetisation for all the videos that are on your channel. This is as long as your videos meet the YouTube content guidelines that makes sure that videos are advertiser friendly. 

PS: You can choose which videos on your channel have ad monetization and which ones don’t. You can also customise the placement of ads on your videos to a certain extent.

Check out our article on How Long Does It Take To Start A Business.

What are the requirements to get monetised on YouTube?

YouTube has some requirements you need to reach in order for your channel to get monetised via the YouTube Partnership Program. 

The main requirements are that you need to have 4000 total watch hours on your videos over the last 12 months and that you have at least 1000 subscribers on your channel. It also really helps if YouTube knows that your YouTube channel is growing at a steady rate in both watch hours and subscriber count.

Basically, if you want to get monetised, you need to put out videos that perform well and get you a generous amount of views and subscribers. 

While those are the main requirements to get into the YouTube Partnership Program, there are other rules and requirements for you to get monetised on YouTube.

Here’s a more detailed list of the minimum eligibility requirements for joining the YouTube Partnership Program.

• Your YouTube channel has at least 1,000 subscribers.
• You have at least 4,000 watch hours on your videos over the last 12 months
• The YouTube Partner Program is available in your country.
• You have a Google AdSense account that’s linked to your YouTube account.
• You do not have any active Community Guidelines strikes on your YouTube channel.
• Your YouTube channel and videos all follow YouTube channel monetisation policies.
• You must use 2-Step Verification on the Google Account associated with your YouTube channel for an extra layer of security
• You’re using 2-Step Verification on your Google Account that’s connected to your YouTube channel.
• Your YouTube channel and videos have no copyright or monetisation mistakes according to YouTube and its policies.

It’s important that you follow YouTube’s copyright and monetisation rules at all times. Don’t make any videos prohibited by YouTube and don’t use any copyrighted work that you’re not allowed to use in your videos.  If you’re caught violating any of YouTube’s policies, you will suffer:

• The removal of ads on your videos.
• The suspension of your YouTube channel from the YouTube Partner Program.
• The complete account suspension or termination of your YouTube account and channel.

How do you apply to the YouTube Partner Program?

Here’s a step-by-step list on how you can apply to the YouTube Partner Program

• Sign in on your YouTube account.
• Click your profile picture.
• Click YouTube Studio.
• Click Monetization.
• If you don’t meet the requirements for the YouTube Partnership Program, click “Notify me when I’m eligible”. You’ll get an email once you meet the requirements. 
• If you do meet the requirements for the YouTube Partnership Program, click “Review Partner Program terms”.
• Finish reading the terms and click “Done” to sign to the YouTube Partner Program agreement.

It’ll take at least a month for your application to be reviewed by YouTube and can even take longer than that. A group of specialists is hired to review each YouTube Partnership Program application but it’s time consuming and there are countless applications that need reviewing at any given time.

If you’re rejected from joining the YouTube Partner Program, just stay calm. YouTube will send you a list of reasons why your YouTube channel was rejected. Go over this list and see what policies your channel failed to follow. 

You can apply for the YouTube Partner Program again after 30 days. Fix any of the issues that caused your application to be rejected and reapply for the program after 30 days.

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8 Other Ways To Make Money On YouTube 

While making money from adrolls and the YouTube Partner Program is the “traditional” route when it comes to making money on the video sharing site, it’s not the only way you can make money on YouTube. 

Some YouTubers make a lot of money from their videos on the site. It’s usually because they get billions of cumulative views on their videos and they combine a few of the monetisation methods mentioned in this article.  

Here’s a list of ways you can make money on YouTube besides YouTube ads:

1. Paid Sponsorships

Paid sponsorships are the second most common YouTube monetisation method behind YouTube ads. A paid sponsorship is when a business pays a YouTuber to promote their product in one or more of the YouTuber’s videos. Brand and product sponsorships can be extremely lucrative for YouTubers since companies are always looking to get as many potential customers to see their product as possible. 

Paid sponsorships don’t have a set amount of pay. However, you can expect at least a couple of thousand dollars per sponsorship if you have a big enough YouTube channel. Sponsorships that pay a lot are pretty complicated to get but they’re usually worth it since they pay pretty well.

2. Merchandise

Another popular way for YouTubers to make money is to promote and sell their own merchandise in their videos. Selling your own merchandise is actually an older monetisation method than YouTube ads. For example, Smosh has been selling Smosh T-shirts since before the YouTube Partner Program was introduced. 

Usually, you’d link out to your own Ecommerce shop that sells your merchandise at some point in your video. However, YouTube has a new option for YouTubers to make money off their own merchandise. If you have more than 10,000 subscribers on your channel, you can sell your merchandise on a “merch shelf” that appears on each of your video pages.

3. Affiliate marketing

You can also monetise your YouTube videos using affiliate marketing. You just need to find and join a suitable affiliate program, provide affiliate links to your viewers on your videos then collect money from any successful affiliate sales you make. The more viewers you get, the more affiliate sales you get and the more commission money you collect. 

Affiliate marketing doesn’t pay a lot of money upfront like paid sponsorships. However, you will make passive income from your affiliate links and can potentially make more money compared to paid sponsorships over time.

4. Channel Membership

Channel memberships are when subscribers pay you a monthly fee for various perks related to your YouTube channel. For example, the perks you could give subscribers might be behind the scenes videos, exclusive extra content or customised content just for paid members.  

Membership fees are set differently by each YouTuber but $10 per month is a good amount to charge for a monthly channel membership.

5. Patreon

Patreon lets users support their favourite content creators on YouTube. Viewers can go to their favourite YouTubers Patreon page and pay as much as they’d like to them. This can be as little as $1 or as high as thousands of dollars. 

YouTubers usually offer different tiers for their Patreon donors that offer different perks. For example, lower tier patrons usually get a short shout-out at the end of a YouTubers videos while higher tier patrons get perks like customised content or exclusive merchandise only available from Patreon.

6. YouTube Shorts Fund

The YouTube Shorts Fund is a relatively new way for YouTubers to make money. The $100 million fund was launched in May 2021 and the money from the fund is paid to creators who make successful YouTube Shorts. Successful here means “has an incredible number of views”.  YouTubers get paid $100 to $10,000 depending on how successful their Shorts are.

It needs to be noted that you don’t need to be part of the YouTube Partner Program to get money from the YouTube Shorts Fund. However, you need to meet the requirements set by YouTube to be eligible to get paid from the YouTube Shorts Fund.

7. YouTube Premium

YouTube Premium is YouTube’s main paid subscription service. Basically, users who pay for YouTube Premium get to watch videos without ads. YouTube Premium users also get to download videos, play videos in the background and play videos with their mobile devices’s screens off. 

YouTubers get paid by YouTube Premium. Instead of getting paid money for ads viewed by viewers, you get paid by getting money from the revenue that’s made from YouTube Premium. This amount depends on the number of YouTube Premium users who watch your videos.

8. YouTube BrandConnect

YouTube BrandConnect connects YouTube creators with brand-run content campaigns. It basically connects YouTubers with brands that are running campaigns to form paid partnerships. This option works especially well with content creators that are well known and trusted for their product reviews as well as recommendations.

YouTube BrandConnect is unfortunately available in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Closing

Making videos and posting them is a great way to make money online. There are many ways for you to make money off your videos on YouTube. You don’t need to go old school and rely on just ads and merchandise. 
Do you want to start making money on YouTube? Then you should learn how to grow your YouTube channel! You already know how you can make money with your channel so you should learn how to get eyes on your channel and videos!