How to earn money with YouTube

How to earn money with YouTube is one of the mysteries of the century. Even more when you observe how YouTube stars do it with an army of subscribers.

But how can you make money with YouTube if you are not a star in this platform?

Becoming a professional YouTuber may sound fun and hopeful, but there are no guarantees of whether it will work. In fact, if you want to monetize your content, you should consider doing it with your blog.

However, if creating videos is your thing and you already have a YouTube channel, you may be interested in learning how to use it for marketing strategies.

But do you need a minimum number of subscribers to earn money?

New Media Rockstars estimates that the best YouTube profiles earn a lot of money based on the type of channel. Even so, these are some of their estimates regarding the volume of subscriber:

• EpicMealTime earns close to 3.1 million dollars with a community of 7 million subscribers.
• Ray William Johnsongets up to 4.2 million dollars thanks to its 10 million subscribers.
• On the other hand, FunToyzCollector earns the amazing amount of 30.4 million dollars with 8 million subscribers.

Does this mean it is absurd to hope to earn money with YouTube if you do not have such large communities? Quite the opposite.

Smaller and more specific channels can also be monetized, as it happens with everything, the number of followers does not determine the quality of the content. But the engagement does.

Let’s see how you can benefit from it.

Defining your own audience places you in an excellent position when the time to monetize your content comes, although you can only get the most out of it if you understand all the aspects surrounding your audience in detail.

For many YouTube users who wish to earn money, locating themselves in one niche or another is the same. But the more specific your channel is, the more likely you are to find specific audiences and earn money.

You should pay special attention to:

• Gender: It is important to determine where your audience leans towards.
• Age: To know the age ranges of most of the users that form your community.
• Geographic location. To determine which countries or cities provide the largest number of users. Brands may be interested in certain locations.
• Play time. Your audience’s engagement is essential to add value to your channel.

With this demographic information at hand, you will better understand your own audience and you will capable of working better with brands.

With this in mind, now you can learn how to earn money with YouTube.

How to earn money with YouTube

1.- Earn money with ads

The first source of income you are likely to explore is advertising, although you will have to subscribe as a YouTube partner in the Creator Studio section of your own account for this.

Once you become a “partner,” you will need an AdSense account to opt for the Google advertising network. In this way, you will be able to receive payments and see advertising revenue reports, such as those in the image.

Once you have done this, you will see a green “$” sign next to your videos in the administrator window itself. This will help you detect whether monetization has really been activated.

However, you should not focus only on ads if you want to generate a good income. According to YouTube, your content may be excluded from the ads if it includes:

• Sexual content. Including partial nudity and sexual humor.
• Including showing serious injuries and events related to violent extremism.
• Inappropriate Language. Including harassment, blasphemy and vulgar language.
• Promotion of drugs and regulated substances. Including the sale, use and abuse of the same.
• Controversial or sensitive topics and events. Including topics related to war, political conflicts, natural disasters and tragedies, even if you do not show graphic images.

The truth is that YouTube has demonetized content it does not consider “compatible with advertisers” since 2012 through an automated process. This leads to many videos that stop generating income without prior notice.

Advertising can be a powerful means to generate passive income. However, YouTube only keeps close to 45% of advertising revenue.

2.- Crowdfound for your projects

When money is the only thing that stands between an idea and its execution, crowdfounding is a good way to overcome this.

Regardless of whether you need help to hire actors or cover production costs, you can turn to your audience to collaborate with you. In fact, many creative projects have been financed in this way in exchange for an advance sample that keeps people excited.

Popular crowdfunding sites with a proven track record of YouTuber campaigns include:

• Kickstarter: one of the best known and best crowdfunding sites to finance good creative projects. You need to make sure to establish a viable funding objective.
• Indiegogo: a Kickstarter alternative which offers more flexible financing options.

3.- License your content

Many times when people ask how to earn money with YouTube, they do not think about the possibility of their content going viral. In that case, you can license it in exchange for money. That is, add some rights to it.

4.- You need to publish 2-3 times per week

Particularly at the beginning. Also, if you wish to become a full-time YouTuber, you should start acting like one. That means you will have to share content very regularly until you establish a standard frequency.

5.- Affiliate links

Affiliate links can be an excellent way to monetize your YouTube channel. In fact, if you have a beauty or fashion channel and you recommend products constantly, this technique is essential.

This means that if someone buys a product using the link that you share on your channel, you will get a small part of the proceeds from the purchase. Therefore, it is important that you register in an affiliate program and add the links in the description box.

Popular affiliate programs include Click Bank (commission of 1% to 75% based on what the provider establishes) and  Amazon’s affiliate network (you can get up to 10% per sale). You can also contact those brands in your niche that run their own affiliate programs.

6.- Product placement and video sponsorship

Companies interested in your channel’s audience have the ability to sponsor your videos and offer you product placement offers in exchange for very little. In fact, you are likely to receive profits per sale.

Among possible corporate partners, you can take a look at ShareASale, Clickbank and CJ Affiliate by Conversant.

7.- Take advantage of your other channels

If you want to be sure you know how to earn money with YouTube, trust your other channels. In this way, you will not only reach a larger audience, but you will get more feedbacks and more benefits.

One alternative is to use email marketing.

If you create an email list, you will be capable of connecting with your audience directly in a closer way. Therefore, it is advisable that you use your videos to promote websites where you will be able to collect email addresses and create relationships by providing extra value.

Once you have encouraged your users to join your email list, send them an email each time you post a new video. In fact, there are many users who will not realize you have posted new content unless you notify them. If you notify them, your videos will be seen by a larger audience that, in addition, is committed to your brand and is part of your potential audience.

On the other hand, you can use your social networks to share your YouTube videos.

8.- Influencers will mark a before and after

Brands invest more and more in influencers marketing to discover how to earn money with YouTube in a way that is guaranteed.

The importance of channels with video functionality is increasing in influencer marketing strategies. The user experience between brands and consumers is more and more valuable. If you introduce an influencer in this equation, the same thing happens and there are greater probabilities of monetizing your contents.

YouTube is the channel par excellence for reviews, to tell personal experiences and even bring a product as close as possible to the consumer. It is the perfect platform for this kind of action. Do not miss the opportunity to contact an influencer that represents you and to collaborate with him/her to earn money.

Coobis is a content marketing platform created to join brands and different media. Or also, in this case, with influencers.

Coobis influencers are very successful among brands. It also allows you to carry out customized actions with selected brands and together with influencers, by being able to carry out a more customized work.

If you are a publisher and you want to take off as influencer, you will be able to find campaigns in which you can participate. Or brands that fit your style and your values ​​to create strong relationships with your readers. Shall we start?