No other video-sharing platforms offer earning opportunities like YouTube, making the platform most attractive for content creators who want to monetize their creative skills. The principle of earning money from YouTube sounds simple because it depends on creating great content that grabs all attention and enjoys wide sharing. However, applying the principle might not be as easy as many ambitious content creators have experienced who set high expectations of earning but failed to achieve their targets.
Yet, achieving some moderate earning is not that hard, provided you have that creative instinct that resonates with the followers. Connecting with the followers at the right level by matching their expectations is the secret to success in monetizing your creative efforts on YouTube. The popularity of the content and the extent of sharing are factors that impact your earnings from YouTube that offer various means of revenue generation.
Adhering to the YouTube best practices is essential to create high-quality content that strikes a chord with the audience instantly and multiplies the followers rapidly. The number of followers is a sign of the abilities of the content creator in creating rich, engaging content that receives a lot of sharing, and occasionally, some might even go viral. Meeting the viewers’ expectations is the key to creating the best content because it should either provide some solutions that viewers are looking for, or it must be entertaining. Engagements matter most for YouTube videos because it points to the value of the video content. Higher is the engagement rate better will be the search rankings.
Once you join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), you can explore several earning options from the uploaded content.
Earning From Advertisements
YPP content creators gain access to special tools that help them monetize their content by earning a share of the advertisement revenue. However, you cannot start earning overnight because you must fulfill certain conditions like clocking 4,000 hours watch time over 12 months and having at least 1,000 subscribers. Considering that Google made $146.92 billion from ads in 2020, content creators can always stake their claim for a share of the revenue pie, which YouTube is ready to part with 68% of ad revenue collected from Google AdSense. YouTube does not dishearten content creators because they can earn between $3 and $5 for 1,000 views according to the current level of revenue generation.
YouTube uses various advertisement formats like display, pre-roll, etc., and receives payment from advertisers based on impressions and clicks, also known as pay-per-click advertising. Content sharing between YouTube and content creators follows the 55:45 model. Content creators must strictly follow Google’s content creation guidelines to ensure that the content is worthy of placing ads.
Sell Merchandise
The opportunity to diversify the income channels on YouTube is a huge blessing for content creators. To help content creators multiply their income rapidly and provide an additional revenue generation stream, YouTube allows selling YouTuber merch on the platform. You can sell up to 12 items on YouTube, and depending on the size of your follower base and the brand equity that you enjoy on the platform, you could earn handsomely from selling some products that outshine your warning from advertisements. By selling merchandise on YouTube, you can earn between $170 and $870 in a month, whereas you earn a maximum of $20 from 5000 views of your content.
Influencer Marketing or Brand Sponsorship
Influencer marketing is a powerful marketing tool in the sphere of digital marketing, which many people know as brand sponsorship. Companies are ready to pay a content creator for promoting a product or brand through their content. Since popular content creators have a large follower base and wield a lot of influence, companies are ready to pay the creator to reach out to an audience interested in buying the products or services promoted in the content. Since the audience believes a lot in the influencer’s views and opinions, the trust automatically passes on to the promoted products that increase the chances of selling.
Fan Funding
After developing a trusted fan base by serving content free of cost, content creators can explore the opportunity of monetizing the channel through memberships. Viewers of the channel must subscribe to it by paying monthly subscriptions and, in exchange, receive emojis, badges, live chats, podcasts, special videos, webinars, and other content. To unlock this feature, YouTube partners must have at least 1000 subscribers. However, the earning capability depends on the individual because those who create high-quality videos in a professional setting can earn as much as $40,000 a month.
Despite plenty of earning opportunities on YouTube, challenges remain because YouTube pays creators only for monetized views. Creators receive payment only when someone views the content and even clicks on the advertisement. Therefore, calculating the earning based on total views acquired by the content is highly misleading because it does not indicate the earning capability of the content. However, more significant is the follower base higher is the earning potential of the creators.