How to Make Money With YouTube
February 23rd, 2022
The basic idea is that if you have enough people subscribing, watching your videos, liking them, sharing them with their friends, etc., the site will reward you by letting you earn advertising revenue off the traffic/views your content gets. But it requires much more than just uploading funny cat videos to YouTube. You are not going to be getting rich overnight or without putting in some serious effort. If someone tells you otherwise then they are lying! Sorry :(
The Basics
To kick things off here is some basic information about YouTube and how it works in terms of making money:
1) If you don't already have an idea for a video that might get viral (tons of views) then forget it right now. The only way I've gotten any views in my life is by doing video responses to popular videos on YouTube so in order to gain popularity you need to know what's popular. The best way not only to learn but also stay up-to-date with what's "hot" on YouTube is simply by using their search feature. There are usually a ton of videos on popular topics which you can pick up on the way by simply being observant and logging into YouTube regularly.
2) Make good use of tags/keywords! When I first started making videos, I never bothered with them. But when my views improved dramatically, I realized how important they are for getting your video to show up on relevant searches. Not only will this help people find your video even more easily but using certain tags can also improve your chances of getting picked up by Google's "preferred" partners (despite having relatively few subscribers or views). You're not guaranteed to get partnered with the big boys just because you tag your videos correctly but it's better than having the chance of your video getting lost in YouTube's search.
3) Just because you have a channel now does NOT mean you are going to make money anytime soon! You need to gain an audience for this to happen and it's important you understand that gaining views is not always easy especially if you're making videos that are "niche." Even though everyone seems to be using YouTube as their personal video blog, there are still millions of people out there who use it as their primary source for watching music videos or uploading videos they've made/edited! What I'm saying is that by uploading funny homemade skits etc., you're not going to get much attention. Almost everyone uploads that stuff and there is just way too much content for you to possibly compete. Aim higher! If your goal is to get rich then aim to make viral videos and if it's not, then aim at getting regular viewers who enjoy your content.
The best way to increase your views/subscribers is by making quality videos that will be enjoyed by people. Eventually, the cream will rise top but this takes time. Especially if you're new because even though everyone has the first video, nobody has their second! My first video was shit but since I knew what kind of videos I wanted to upload, I stuck with it until I improved.
4) Make full use of annotations!
Annotations are pretty simple to use and are almost guaranteed to make you more money. This is because since they are "attached" to the video, they play automatically without any work from the user! You can get creative with annotations but my advice is not to annoy people by putting too many of them on one video. Also, I'd recommend avoiding using them on music videos. If someone has spent time listening to your song then I doubt they want some random dumb popup trying to sell them some product or whatever :P
Now that you know how it works in theory, let's move on with an example that will also show you how much money you might be making depending on views/how popular your channel is.
Let's say that you have a total of 200 views on all your videos and from these views, you've been getting an average of 50 ad clicks per video for total revenue of $1. In other words, each click has earned you roughly 2 cents (that's 1/50). It may not sound like much but it could be a lot worse! Also, keep in mind that these earnings are split between YouTube AND the content creator so chances are if you use the AdSense option mentioned below, you'll get less than what I'm saying here.
The next step is to sign up to become a YouTube partner which is something I recommend doing unless you do not mind your videos not being monetized. Once you're a partner, you get to use AdSense and select ads to run on your videos. The ad rates vary depending on the type of video and its content but let's say that each time a video is played, you earn roughly 1 cent (assuming the advertiser pays for their spot). In other words, if I had 200 views with 50 clicks then my revenue would be $2 meaning that my earnings per view have dropped from 2 cents to 1/200 = .5 cents! You might be wondering how this can possibly go up? Well, even though it will probably never happen, if some of your videos were to get a million hits then you'd make a lot more money! Obviously, the key to all this is getting your videos to go viral on YouTube and stick out from the crowd.
Promote other channels' content. There are two main reasons why you should promote other people's content on your channel:
1) You'll be doing them a favor which they may repay later
2) It doesn't hurt your views because people will still watch it even if they don't subscribe etc. As long as you provide some kind of value for their viewers, there's no reason why they would mind!
Don't worry about competing with 'YouTube celebrities'. Most people upload things like movie clips, trailers, funny videos, etc. But what does everyone else upload? Gaming videos of course! Since this is something new (at least in comparison to say a movie review), there might not be a lot of competition yet and you could find yourself having an audience with barely anyone who even knows about other gaming channels. Also, you could make better quality videos if you want to take it further down the road but for now, anything will do as long as it's entertaining enough :P I'd recommend putting effort into your first few clips though because that way people will get hooked thinking that every video will be just as good!
In conclusion, becoming popular on YouTube is only possible if you upload interesting content that people will want to watch. No one wants to listen to your crappy voice for an hour and you'll definitely lose viewers if all you do is talk about something that has nothing to do with the title (like me rambling on about Google's AdSense). Not everyone will have a good camera quality or editing software but don't let it discourage you! As long as YOU believe in your videos, there are going to be some people who enjoy watching them! Also, depending on how much time you put into your channel, chances are that competition won't be a problem so just go ahead and have fun with it :)
