Hello!
In this post, I ask the question. Can you make money from YouTube? I never really knew how YouTube worked. I would watch it but didn’t know that people were claiming to be making money from YouTube videos they created. Now that I have started in affiliate marketing, I am paying more attention to what people are showing on YouTube, especially in my same niche. I want to talk about how to get started with YouTube, how you can use YouTube without joining the YouTube Partner Program, how to join the Partner Program and what it takes to qualify to be accepted and the top 2 highest paid YouTubers. Answer the question, can you make money from YouTube?
How to get Started with YouTube
To actually get started on YouTube, you will need to create a business channel.
- Sign into YouTube
- Click on user icon at the top right of screen
- Click Creat a New Channel
- Choose your Business Name or Other Name
- Add your Brand Name and Click Create
You have just created your own YouTube Channel, if you followed these
instructions. To draw people to your YouTube channel, you will need to
fill out a profile and description of your channel. Here you will want
to describe your channel. Let your viewers know what to expect from
your channel. This description will appear in many places, so make it
good! YouTube walks you through all the steps for creating a new
channel. If you have a website and a YouTube channel you can
add your videos to your webpage or add them to your blog posts by having
this combination will increase on how you earn money on YouTube by adding links for your products you are selling or reviewing.
How to use YouTube without Joining Partner Program?
There are a few options of how to use YouTube without joining the partner program, which I will discuss what it takes to join that program later.
Affiliate Marketing – Since I started with Wealthy Affiliate over a month ago, I have been wondering how to use YouTube to possibly promote my niche. I have a gardening niche, “Gardening At The Simongetti North” and I have all sorts of ideas for videos. I live on 20 wooded-acres, and have lots of projects I could video, explain and promote products I am using from my affiliate links. Anyone doing affiliate marketing could do this idea for any niche. Just like for your posts, you can do reviews but with YouTube do a review and demonstration, which could be more effective. If you are new to affiliate marketing, it’s a way to promote other peoples products and services. You can learn more about it by clicking this link to read my post for 2021 Review for Wealthy Affiliate.
Make A Video for your Website or Blog – If you have a website or blog you can promote them by using YouTube. By using YouTube you can include links to your website or blog. This will encourage traffic to your website by letting YouTube do the work. By making video’s promoting your website or blog you can post them on your website and share them on social media to get more shares, likes and traffic to your website.
Market your own Products or Services – Do you have a product to sell? Do you make crafts, baked or canned goods, hunting gadgets? Do you have a service you want to promote? Photography, Cleaning, Car detailing, Daycare any type of service can be promoted through YouTube. Make videos of your products or services, make them interesting and catchy. This would be a good way to sell your own products or services.
Using advertising and sponsors – This method works for people who already have a following. It is possible to get ad’s before joining the partner program. There is a potential to actually earn more money through ads then with joining the partner program. If you pursue companies, tell them who you are with your YouTube channel information. Explain what your niche is and how it relates to their business. If you already have a good following on your YouTube channel you can give them stats about your channel. Pitch your idea on how your channel can help their business and be ready to share with them how you plan to advertise them. There are sponsor platforms out there that can help with this.
How to Join the Partner Program – What it takes!
To be able to join Partner Programs there are a few things to qualify you to be excepted.
- Follow all the YouTube monetization policies. YouTube requires compliance of these polices, make sure you know what they are.
- Live in a country or region where YouTube Partner Program is available
- You need more then 4,000 public watched hours in the last 12 months
- You must have more than 1,000 subscribers
- Have a linked AdSense account
According to YouTube everyone who meets their threshold can apply for YouTube Partner Program YPP, but you don’t need to meet all of the guidelines to be considered, but I think you have to be pretty close. YouTube Partner Program has a checklist to guide someone through the application process.
- Make sure your channel follows YPP guidelines and policies
- Enable 2-Step Verification for your Google Account (set one up if you don’t currently have one)
- Need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 valid public watched hours
- You will need to sign YPP terms and agreement
- Make sure you have only 1 AdSense Account – you will need to connect an AdSense account to get paid
- Then wait for your Review!
The review process, typically takes about a month after you meet the threshold. If you get accepted, you are on your way to be able to set up ad preferences and enable monetization on your uploads. If you get rejected, your channel probably doesn’t meet criteria and can re-apply after 30 day of the rejection.
The Highest Paid YouTubers in 2020
According to The Guardian Report, December 25, 2020 Article, that a nine-year-old boy from Texas has been named as the highest-paid YouTuber of 2020. Ryan Kaji has reportedly earned $29.5 million from his YouTube channel “Ryan’s World” as well as a further estimated $200 million from Ryan’s World branded toys and clothing. The nine-year-old has also reportedly signed a deal for his own TV series on Nickelodeon.
Forbes recently reported, December 18, 2020 article, that in total the top 10 biggest-earning YouTube stars took home a
total of $211 million. The second-highest-paid YouTuber was Jimmy Donaldson, otherwise known as “Mr. Beast” who became famous for his philanthropic efforts and stunts. Donaldson reportedly earned an estimated $24 million.
My Final Thought about YouTube
Like in any business, it takes time, patience and dedication. Can you make money on YouTube? Yes, you certainly can but it will not happen overnight. Be creative, If you have a website promoting your business, an affiliate marketer promoting products for others to earn a commission or just creating a YouTube channel for fun and see where it goes.
Once you get rolling with YouTube, you might consider purchasing ad’s to increase your viewership and followers. Since I am considering starting my own YouTube channel in the future I wanted to know how to go about it and thought other people would like the same information.
I hope you found this information helpful and useful
Please leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you.
Cheers!
Chris
Excellent article, very helpful and informative. YouTube has come a long way since it’s earlier day of being on their own. Now that Google is the owner, the sky is the limit of making money on YouTube. We can make videos on whatever we are interested or experienced in and start making money from the start by adding affiliate marketing programs that are relevant to the video made. Once you have established yourself and have over 1000 subscribers and over 4000 public watched hours up you can make extra money with the YouTube partner program. Sounds like a win win to me if you can make videos and show you face. Don’t be shy, don’t just give it a try, do it and you will be surprised at the results if you are committed and consistent every day.
Hi Jason,
Thank you for your comments. I am considering taking the YouTube plunge but I don’t know. I guess we will see how it goes. I probably will do it, once I have my own projects for my gardening niche can begin, I can start recording those and can be fun do it.
Wow, I heard of people who are able to feed themselves just by creating YouTube videos, but I never expect that they can make so much money. Now I understand why some younger people want to become a famous YouTuber when they become an adult. My dad also interested to become one, but his talent is in language teaching. Is it possible to generate high income by creating language videos in YouTube?
Hi Alblue,
Thank you for your comments. I would think you could do any type of teaching on YouTube and make money. I am not sure how high of an income, i guess it would depend on a lot of factors. Like anything its what you put into the business for what you get out of it.
I’ve made a youtube channel in the past but it was hard to keep up with it because I’m not that crazy about the heavy technical side of it (shooting and editing videos, uploading, audio/visual, etc) so I burned out. It was hard to be consistent with something that really didn’t come naturally to me (verbal communication). It was hard to get to the first 1000 subs and 4,000 hours of watch time when the algorithm doesn’t really see you at that point.
But it can be done! It’s just not my medium. I think if I had help with the technical side of things then I would have gotten the hang of it. It’s actually the place where I consume the most of my media! You can learn a lot on YouTube and there are plenty of people watching!
Hi Nicole,
Thank you for your comments, I am considering starting a YouTube Channel. Well I started the channel but no video’s as of yet. I have the same concerns you mentioned. I was thinking short and sweet videos but I don’t know.
i do not currently have a YouTube channel but have been looking at starting one as so many people are making a lot of money with it. I guess it has been a big question as to where do I get visitors from and how do I drive traffic to my channel.
Do you have recommendations as to the best way to generate traffic to a YouTube channel?
I have also been thinking about starting a YouTube channel. The reason for the research and post about it. From what I have been learning is to just get video content out there. Even many short videos or 1 or 2 regular videos weekly. I also learned to post them on the same day of the week and time. Like affiliate marketing websites, it all takes time. I have created the channel but not any videos yet.
What the heck! A nine-year old!!! That’s absolutely nuts.
The idea of a youtube channel makes me pretty nervous personally… I’m not really sure what I would show. My niche is “self care”, so I’m not really sure what kind of videos people would want. I thought about doing something small and cartoony with my art skills, “relatable” funny videos but I’m not really motivated to do those. I would really rather just stick to writing.
Hi Christina,
Thank you for your comments. I am still on the fence about using YouTube as well. Doing research for writing my blog can be time consuming. I was thinking maybe short video’s that I can incorporate within my blog. I created the channel but no video’s as of yet. I am doing my research first before doing any video. I am not sure I want to be in my video’s but watching what other people do first before jumping in.
Hi, I’m pleased to meet you. I have gone through the information you shared, and I find it to be very important, educative and interesting. Well, I had never thought there’s some way of making money from youtube. I always watch videos there, so I understood it to be only an advertising platform or where one can express some views, hobbies or share knowledge. This is helpful.
Hello!,
Thank you for your comments