YouTube Monetization: 5 Smart Ways to Make Money from Videos

YouTube monetization: 5 smart ways to make money with videos

If you’ve ever wondered how to make money with YouTube videos, this guide is for you. We’ll explain how to make money with video ads, brand deals, YouTube affiliate links and more.

How to make money on YouTube

The most common way to monetize videos is through the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). Achieving affiliate status is a boost for your channel, as it allows you to place ads in your videos and (potentially) earn money every time you upload content.

YouTube pays creators through the Google AdSense program, but it takes a while to understand how it all works. For now, it’s enough to know that revenue is generated when a viewer watches/clicks an ad in your video. This revenue is then split between you and YouTube, with you getting 55% of the money and YouTube getting the other 45%.

YouTube monetization requirements

YouTube is pretty picky about who it accepts into the monetization program. Before you can apply for the YPP, you need to have the following:

1,000 subscribers4,000 viewing hours on your channel (within 12 months)A willingness to follow YouTube’s rules: the Community Guidelines, the Ad Friendly Content Guidelines, and the Terms of Service.

If you’re struggling to grow your audience, read this guide to getting 1,000 YouTube subscribers.

Once you’ve done that, read these tips to earn 4,000 viewing hours.

How to join the YouTuber affiliate program

Once you’ve met all of YouTube’s requirements, you can apply for the YPP. Here are the steps:

Go to YouTube Studio. Click Monetization in the left navigation bar. When you’re ready to apply, you’ll see a blue button prompting you to do so. Read through the YPP terms and conditions, set up a Google AdSense account and connect it to your channel, and wait patiently. YouTube will review your channel and email you with a decision.

If YouTube rejects your application, you can reapply within 30 days. This gives you time to get rid of anything unpleasant on your channel, such as multiple copyright claims or videos that violate YouTube’s community guidelines.

To enable monetization on YouTube

Once you join YPP, enable monetization for as many videos as you can. You can do this while uploading new content, but it’s safer to wait until you’ve uploaded videos (a few hours).

By then, YouTube will have processed your content. You’ll know if the system has found something that could demonetize the video, such as extreme profanity, adult themes, copyright claims, etc.

Read more: 14 ways to avoid YouTube demonetization

How to enable ads in a YouTube video and earn money:

Go to YouTube Studio.Click Content in the left navigation bar.Select the video you want to monetize.Click Monetization in the left menu.Select the ads you want to show in the video.Click Save.

Not all videos will have ads served, even if you monetize them. The best way to fully monetize a video (and stick with it) is to create content in the range PG to PG -13.

Additional ways to monetize on YouTube

YouTube AdSense is beneficial, but not a reliable source of revenue for creators. Ad rates rise and fall, making it difficult to earn the same amount of money from video ads every year.

That’s why it’s important to know the prices of CPM. CPM (Cost per thousand) refers to the amount of money advertisers pay per 1,000 video views on YouTube. Prices vary depending on your channel’s niche, target demographic, etc.

Read more: YouTube CPM – 7 factors that affect the revenue of your channel

Want to earn a steady income on YouTube? Here are additional ways to make money with your videos.

YouTube sponsorship contracts, brand contracts.

With YouTube brand contracts, you earn money by featuring a product or service in your videos. You can partner with multiple brands if you want, which leads to more money for your channel and less stress with AdSense revenue.

Unlike YPP, you don’t need 1,000 subscribers and a lot of time to take advantage of these offers. Having more subscribers is helpful, of course. However, regular views and an impressive collection of videos are more important. Once you’ve both, you’re ready to go for YouTube sponsorship.

In a small YouTube survey, My Work From Home Money found that creators earn between $100 and $4,000 per sponsored video. So don’t worry about the size of your channel when looking for sponsors. There are brand deals for small channels, mid-sized channels, and the mega-influencers that dominate YouTube. Everyone has a chance.

When you’re ready to start looking, read this post about how to get YouTube sponsors.

YouTube Affiliate Marketing

Did you know that you can earn money by advertising product links on YouTube? It’s called affiliate marketing and it’s an easy revenue stream to set up.

Here’s how it works:

Sign up for different affiliate programs with different brands/companies, get custom product links to share with your YouTube audience, and earn a commission when viewers buy something through your link.

Now let’s talk about how to do affiliate marketing on YouTube. For beginners, we recommend signing up for the Amazon Associates program. You’ll get access to hundreds of custom links for everyday products, and if you add these affiliate links to YouTube videos (in the description section), you can earn commissions.

Tip: Always add relevant affiliate links to your videos. For example, if you make a tutorial for a GoPro camera, ask viewers to use your affiliate link when they buy the product.

According to Amazon, affiliate commissions are up to 10% of each product sale. So if you spend some time promoting the links, you can earn a nice chunk of money.

YouTube Channel Memberships

Channel memberships offer exclusive content and perks to your biggest fans. When viewers hit the join button on your channel, they receive a number of additional incentives: loyalty badges, private live streams, exclusive videos, and more. Creators choose what works best for their audience.

Memberships are a smart way to make money on YouTube because you can set everything yourself – even the price. Creators can charge members between $0.99 and $100 per month.

YouTube Live Streams

If you don’t stream often, you’re probably wondering: how can you make money with YouTube live streams?

Good question! You can monetize a live stream with ads, just like the regular videos you watch on YouTube.

Also, Super Chats are another way to monetize YouTube live streams. These are “donations” or “tips” of $1 to $500 that viewers send to creators during a live stream.

You’re in an excellent position to receive Super Chats if:

You’re a funny or entertaining person, regularly livestream on YouTube, and have die-hard fans who speak up in the live chat area (where Super Chats are donated).

Are YouTube shorts compensated?

YouTube shorts are 60-second videos shot on a smartphone. They’ve the potential to go viral like TikTok videos, but it’s not easy to get paid for such content.

Here’s what you need to know about monetizing YouTube shorts:

YouTube Shorts viewing time doesn’t count toward the 4,000 hours required to monetize a channel. There’s a YouTube Shorts fund that pays a bonus of up to $10,000 per month to eligible short form creators.

Competition for this money is fierce. Last year, we asked creators about their first YouTube Shorts bonus, and here’s what we learned:

TN Craft: $200 for 7 million short film viewsKing Probherbs: $300 for 5 million short film viewsGEVids: $2,300 for 130 million short film views.

So yes, you can turn short YouTube videos into money – even