Skip to content 
Looking to learn how to monetize your YouTube channel? YouTube is one of the best and most lucrative ways to make money while online. If you are looking for some of the best online platforms to make money, you might want to check out how you can get on YouTube, start posting unique videos, enable monetization on your channel, and make lots of money doing next to nothing.
Can anyone monetize YouTube videos?
There are over one billion active users on YouTube.
This is a massive audience.
Because many people visit and use YouTube, it is a trendy marketplace.
Lots of people are making money through the platform.
What’s more?
There are different ways you can make money on YouTube.
However, there may be different requirements attached to these programs before money can made from it.
For example, if you are a content creator for YouTube, you get paid per thousand views.
This means that you do not get paid if your video view count falls below the 1,000-view count.
For each 1,000 views, the video creator can get about $2 and $4.
While the amount doesn’t seem like much, if you think about creating about 100 videos with each video getting about 5,000 views, this will roughly make you between $1,000 and $2,000.
This is not a bad amount of money for a new video creator on YouTube.
Globally
About five billion videos from YouTube are watched daily.
YouTube is the biggest video sharing platform on the internet and offers users to watch your videos free of charge, at least for a start.
The platform is trendy, and each user can spend about 40 minutes watching videos each time they get on YouTube.
Due to this massive earning potential, lots of people are looking towards making lots of money from YouTube.
Those with existing channels are looking to enable monetization on their channels.
In the same way, people without any YouTube account are getting on the platform, creating unique videos.
And they monetize their channels to be able to make money from YouTube.
Creating videos isn’t difficult.
As all you will need is a video camera, a computer, and software for editing videos.
With this minimal equipment, anyone with passion and determination can make money on YouTube.
Some of the highest earners on YouTube
The best way to show you how to make money on YouTube, to begin with, people who already earn on the platform?
YouTube, as a platform for massive money-making opportunities, has already created some millionaires.
These millionaires are neither Harvard Business School graduates or CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
Instead, they are ordinary people like you and me, except that they have one special thing when it comes to YouTube: the passion for creating people-friendly videos.
The following are the names of video creators on YouTube that got the highest revenue in 2019.
Ryan Kaji made about $26 million in 2019 and was the top earner on YouTube last year.
The platform, Dude Perfect, was able to rake in $20 million to come in second place after Ryan Kaji.
Then, Anastasia Radzinskaya made $18 million and was the third-highest earner on YouTube in the year 2019.
In the same year, Rhett and Link earned about $17.5 million,
clinching the fourth position.
In the fifth position is Jeffree Star, with about $17 million.
In sixth place is Preston, with total revenue of $14 million.
While popular YouTube sensation, PewDiePie tied up with Markiplier, in the seventh spot as they both earned $13 million.
DanTDM came in the eight positions with $12 million.
In the ninth spot, VanossGaming earned about $11.5 million.
How people make money on YouTube?
Anyone can make money on YouTube because it is such a straightforward platform that involves creating videos and growing your subscribers.
However, doing this is never easy.
About five hundred hours of YouTube videos get uploaded every single minute from all over the world.
With these glaring statistics, it is pretty apparent that making money on YouTube is pretty competitive.
Due to the number of people present online looking to do the same thing, making money becomes pretty intense and challenging.
However, with the help of several strategies for making money, YouTube users need not limit themselves to one YouTube revenue program.
YouTube is a goldmine to make money, whether you are a trained college professor or a home-based freelancer.
Anyone can take advantage of the platform, turn monetization on, and watch the money pile up.
The following methods are the ten best ways to monetize your YouTube channel.
1). Promoting affiliate links
The promotion of affiliate links on your YouTube platform is one great way to monetize your channel on YouTube.
If you have YouTube channels that promote products and services, you could make lots of money if you enable monetization.
For instance, you can make money when you suggest a product to your users, and they click on the provided link to purchase the product.
To earn money by promoting affiliate links on YouTube, you must know how to embed these links on YouTube channels.
The links should be in the first noticeable lines of the video description.
Additionally, you can promote your affiliate products by using the video to instruct people to buy your products through the link.
RELATED: AFFILIATE MARKETING IN 2020: HOW TO START?
It is not difficult to make money through YouTube promotion of affiliate links.
You promote the YouTube affiliate links the same way you would promote those on your blog.
However, it is important not to crowd up your YouTube space with unnecessary links to make money.
Your viewers will only click on the links if they find the product useful and trust your judgment.
This affiliate scheme is a partner program whereby you team up with product owners to promote their products with your videos on YouTube.
Audience
However, to make your audience interested in your videos, you have to make them find you trustworthy and resourceful.
To achieve this, you will have to provide solutions to their problems by creating video tutorials.
Additionally, you can make new videos to explain how you could solve some severe problems on your own.
Note that all videos should relate to your affiliate products.
If you create videos on how to bathe dogs, you may want to start promoting dog products like dog soap, collars, chains, brushes, etc.
If you love to sell things online or know how to generate sales by promoting other people’s products online, this affiliate partner program is for you.
When it comes to affiliate programs, there are numerous platforms online that have their affiliate programs.
One of the ideal ways to maximize the amount of money you earn on the video-sharing platform is to create a blog and complement it with your channel on YouTube.
You can add your unique affiliate links to your YouTube channel and your blog.
2). The YouTube Partner Program
One other ideal way you can monetize your channel is to become a member of the YouTube Partner Program and make money through the ads that appear on your channel.
Most high earners on YouTube mainly prefer the Partner Program as an essential source of revenue.
The YouTube Partner program allows owners of YouTube accounts to make money on the platform in different ways.
One popular way is earning for total videos watched.
Some ground rules have to follow before someone becomes an approved member of the YouTube Partner Program.
This means that there are some requirements that every YouTube account owner has to meet before they start earning with this program.
YouTube rules
Apart from obeying specific YouTube rules about the ad program, YouTube channel owners will have to achieve nothing lower than 4,000 video hours on their channels within the previous 12 months.
By 4,000 video hours, this means that the total running time of all watched videos on your YouTube channel must be 4,000 and above.
Furthermore, YouTube channel owners should have nothing less than 1,000 subscribers also to be eligible for the Partner Program.
To get these 4,000 hours, there are no specific rules for every video’s total number of hours.
YouTube account owners can get up to 100 hours for every 40 videos on their channels.
Any combination of complete video watched time that amounts to either 4,000 or more is acceptable.
The amount of time taken to achieve a particular amount of watch time varies in the video-sharing platform.
Some internationally popular music videos have taken as low as five months to get a billion views.
The moment you get the 4,000 hour-mark with an active subscriber base of 1,000, you will be eligible for the YouTube Partner Program.
Then you can start making money from YouTube ads.
When can you start monetizing on YouTube?
Several indicators let you know when you can enable monetization with the Partner Program.
You can get into your account and check the Video Manager.
While there, you would see a green “dollar sign” close to your uploaded videos.
This shows that you can now start making money from your videos.
For this program, to complete eligibility requirements, you will have to set your Google AdSense account.
The AdSense account is where you shall receive all your monetary proceeds from this program.
3). Get money from fan funding
Getting money from your fans on YouTube is one other way that you can monetize your channel.
If you have a fan base that is very loyal to you, you could encourage them to crowdfund your YouTube channel.
The money raised from this funding venture can finance any new videos that you may be looking to create.
The funds can also help you in providing other technical support to keep your channel up and running.
There are several platforms that you can take advantage of to get money for your YouTube videos.
For example, Patreon has an effective platform that allows YouTube content creators to get funding from fans.
Fan funding is mainly used in cases when YouTube owners are financially limited to do specific video projects.
Apart from Patreon, other crowdfunding platforms like are Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and so on.
This method of YouTube monetization is useful when, as a YouTube content creator, if you are looking to fund any part of your video production.
To source for funds from your audience, you will have to pitch the idea to them.
To ensure success, you will have to craft a compelling presentation.
Fan funding is a useful way of making money from YouTube.
Most established YouTube channels use this method to raise funds for their channels and keep the operation running with regularly updated video contents.
YouTube channel owners who use this method are often surprised about how effective the fan funding option is.
One general rule of thumb here is to ensure that you provide your audience with exciting, valuable.
And entertaining videos to keep your audience engaged and supportive of your efforts.
4). YouTube Premium
Another alternative that can use to monetize your channel on YouTube is by using the YouTube Premium system.
The YouTube Premium Program exists besides the YouTube Partner Program.
And is for those who would like to make money from YouTube other than using its Partner Program.
YouTube Premium features a subscription system where people pay to become members.
When they become members, they can then watch your videos without any form of advertisement.
Now, this is one of the fanciest and cool programs that are available on YouTube.
With the YouTube premium, you will not have to do anything as a YouTube video creator.
Just sign up for the program, sit back, and watch the money roll in.
YouTube content creators get paid from the Premium Program when members of the scheme watch their videos.
Like typical YouTube monetization laws for the YouTube Partner Program, most of the money obtained through Premium memberships’ fees are given to the YouTube video creators like yourself.
It is important to note that the total amount of money that you can make from this program strictly depends on the number of Premium members who watch your videos.
Additionally, as a bonus, members of the YouTube premium service can also be able to watch videos offline.
Watching offline videos also counts towards your total watch time.
You shall need your AdSense account for this program.
5). Promoting Video Content
Promoting video content can be another great way to monetize your channel on YouTube.
Business owners and other brands know the leverage that YouTube channels with numerous followers can offer their business; therefore, they tend to take advantage of this.
The moment you have a large number of followers on your YouTube channel, businesses (especially brands with new products or subsidiaries) will contact you to promote their services/products for a fee by using your videos.
While promoting videos contents on YouTube is an ideal way of making extra money on YouTube, you have to be careful about what you promote so as not to offend your followers.
Most of the time, followers on these platforms know when something gets advertised.
This way, you may lose some of your followers if they find your adverts obtrusive.
To keep your active viewers happy, you should promote only products that bring value to your subscribers and viewers.
You can support your YouTube channel as well as yourself with brand deals or sponsorships.
Several online personalities make money from corporations and brands looking to optimize their positioning in the online marketplace.
One great example of a celebrity who makes money this way is Bella Thorne.
She makes close to $65,000 for a single branded-endorsed post on Instagram.
She can also make between $10,000 and $20,000 for brand-endorsed stories on Snapchat and Instagram.
To make money this way, you need to have numerous subscribers and active followers (this will be checked).
When you have enough followers on your YouTube platform, you can contact companies willing to team up with you.
6). Promote your products
Rather than promote someone else’s products, you can use your videos to promote your products.
If you have a functional e-commerce business, promoting your products/services is just one way to monetize your channel on the popular video-sharing platform.
You could provide engaging videos that can lead your followers or any random viewer to your e-commerce store.
This is the ideal way of generating traffic to your e-commerce store.
Numerous owners of e-commerce businesses use this method to establish a deep and clear connection that can transform a casual onlooker to a long-term customer.
It is not difficult to set up an e-commerce store.
Several online tools can help you in this regard.
Finally, whenever you have your e-commerce store, you can then make use of your YouTube channel to drive potential visitors and customers to your e-commerce store.
You could promote any one of your products that relates to the primary subject matter on your YouTube channel.
7). Making money from Super chat and super stickers
One other relatively new way to monetize your channel is to make use of the Super chat tool.
This tool was introduced by YouTube to use for live streaming.
This tool works by allowing every participant in the chat to pay a certain amount of money.
If they do this, their chat messages become highlighted.
With this feature, chat messages from paid members become important and prioritized over other normal chats.
This feature motivates you as a YouTube owner to want to interact with the owners of these highlighted chats.
The Super Chat feature is only currently available for the live video feature.
When your subscribers buy highlighted chat messages, they get pinned on the uppermost section of the comment section.
This way, you can easily see them during live streaming for further interaction.
This way, if you use YouTube live, this feature can be used to make more money from your audience.
The rate of monetization is pegged between $1 and $500.
Furthermore, users note that YouTube takes a 30% cut from every amount you make from the Superchat platform.
If you want to know how to make some money from the Super chat feature, you need to promote and reorganize your live streams.
Your live streams should promote in your videos, different social media outlets.
And every other place where you can easily find your audience.
Money earned from this scheme will be paid into your AdSense account.
8). Create tutorials on different subjects
You can also create video tutorials on certain subjects.
This is another way to monetize your channel on YouTube.
When you create these videos, you build your authority on certain subjects, and people refer to you as an expert in that field.
Video tutorials are very popular on YouTube.
They can be used to create a career out of teaching online tutorials.
For instance, you could create your videos to focus on integrating a new enterprise resource planning software within a company.
And have several establishments contact you to tutor their employees on this new software further.
You can also create a range of videos focusing on different software suites.
This will increase your potential and make you an in-demand personality in the Information Technology world.
If you choose a very relevant niche for your YouTube tutorials, you could be on your way to earning millions of dollars from the exposure that YouTube provides you.
9). YouTube Channel Memberships
YouTube channel memberships are a great way to make money from the platform.
You can monetize your channel when you have over 30,000 subscribers.
With the channel membership, fans who like your videos are able to pay a monthly fee of $4.99 to get their membership packages.
These packages come with several perks like an opportunity first to see a new video before everyone else.
You will need an AdSense account for this.
Other features of the YouTube channel membership tool include exclusive emojis, live chatting for members only, and other features.
Members of the program will be identified when they comment, during live chat, and on the community tap.
The identification will carry out with a special badge, which is only for members.
Most passionate members of your audience will use the Channel memberships tool to get attention.
This way, it is pretty sensible to make use of the channel memberships.
To further promote your channel membership, you can use your videos to let your audience know about the special perks that become a channel member.
You can keep them interested in signing up for the scheme.
10). Get your video contents licensed to media companies
If you create a stunning video, and it eventually goes viral, certain media outlets may find your videos entertaining or informative.
They may want to use this video for a program on their schedule.
Luckily, most established media companies pay for any such content that they use.
To this end, they use lots of YouTube videos to promote their services and keep their viewers entertained.
To make yourself easily seen, you need to use updated contact details when writing your About page.
You should create an official email account that you can use to get inquiries about your business.
The next thing you can do here is to sign up for a marketplace that offers a video’s rights to the original creators of the video.
One ideal place where you can begin this process is Jukin Media.
You do not need to provide a viral video to license your videos out to media companies.
Most media outlets usually use videos and footage of significant events to conclude their periodic reporting.
This need provides a great opportunity to make some more money with a unique video.
For example, you can go to the Jukin outlet.
While there, you can see a collection of valuable cataloged videos.
You can decide to add your videos to this catalog.
For instance, Jukin has an entire catalog of ‘newsworthy’ videos that you can contribute to if you have exclusive footage of a major natural disaster, plane crash, or plague of locusts.
Connecting your Google AdSense account to your channel on YouTube
One of the steps involved in the process of how to get a YouTube channel monetized is to set up your Google AdSense account.
After setting this up, you can then link it with your YouTube account.
If you want to make money off your videos, then you need to provide YouTube a way to send your money to you.
This way is through your Google AdSense account.
Furthermore, some people already have an AdSense account before opening a YouTube channel.
They can also use this to receive their payments.
One good thing about using the AdSense account for YouTube is that a single AdSense account can connect to numerous YouTube channels.
Finally, those with no AdSense account can get one set up if they decide to apply for the Partner Program for YouTube.
Conclusion
This is the ideal guide on the ten best ways to monetize your YouTube channel.
The guide helps you know the needed information required to become part of the online community who earn a living creating videos for their YouTube fans.
The guide on how to set up your YouTube channel for monetization offers you ten of the best options to do this.
