When it comes to making it big on YouTube, we’ve all seen the giants who make seven or eight figures each year. It would be nice to join them in that tax bracket, but those are the outliers. However, you should know that even if you aren’t bringing in five- or six-figure dollar amounts every month, it’s possible to have a monetized YouTube channel.
Something to understand about making money with a small YouTube channel is that in order to bring in ad revenue, you have to reach specific benchmarks set by YouTube to qualify for their partner program. If you’re wanting to make money as a YouTuber, you’re going to have to find other ways to monetize until you read those benchmarks. Keep reading and I’ll share with you how to make money on YouTube with six simple tips.
Sell Merchandise
You can make money by selling t-shirts, sweatshirts, bags, stickers, and so much more with your YouTube channel. When you have even a small following that loves what you do, they’ll be willing to support you and buy your merchandise even when it’s basic and you’re just starting out.
Beyond making money, when your audience wears your brand out in the world, they’ll function as free advertising for your channel. This will help your YouTube channel grow and eventually bring in more money.
Affiliate Marketing
If you’re not sure what affiliate marketing is, it’s when a company gives you a commission or kickback for driving sales through its website. There are thousands of brands that do affiliate marketing or ambassador programs that will help to fund your efforts. It’s best to choose products and brands that you’re comfortable with and would use yourself so that you can gain the trust of your audience and not feel like you’re simply pushing products for profit. Vet products and brands before you encourage your audience to buy from them.
Create Sponsored Content
Sponsored content can go in several directions. First, you can use your channel to promote your affiliate partnerships. Do product review videos that highlight what you love about the products that you’re endorsing to encourage your audience to buy them. These will work very much like advertisements on your channel, but your audience understands that you have to make money to pay for what you do.
Secondly, get paid advertising deals from companies to place their product in a video. This can be difficult when you’re starting out, but if you choose a small company whose target demographic fits your audience then they’ll be willing to pay out for it. Search for companies that want to reach the same niche as you and reach out to them for advertising opportunities.
Crowdfunding
It might feel a little bit like begging at first, but it doesn’t have to. You can ask your audience to help support you as you grow and there are some members who will be more than happy to help you. Let your audience know that you’re wanting to grow and their support would go a long way to assisting with that. It’s best to send a thank-you of some variety to those who support you financially. This can be exclusive content, a piece of swag like a hat or sticker, or even a personalized videoing thanking them for their donation.
Sell a Service
If you have information or a skill that you can share with your audience, it doesn’t hurt to sell it in some way. This can be anything from teaching beginners about audio/video editing to something unique that you do on your channel. If you do a cooking channel, you can provide your audience with personalized cooking classes to teach them some of the techniques that you use in your videos. Find a way to take what you do and sell that to those who want to learn from you.
Build a Blog
Build your YouTube channel in conjunction with a blog. Google and YouTube are the two largest search engines in the world. By operating a blog with your channel, you’re able to double-dip, as it were, into both of these search engines and show up twice as often. Use your blog to drive traffic to your YouTube channel and vise versa. It will help you grow from the very start.
As a blogger, you can run ads across your site that will payout based on the number of times they’re seen by readers. This can also be a good place to host and sell your merch, build landing pages for affiliate products, and gather email addresses for a mailing list. Your blog and YouTube channel can operate side by side to grow your audience and increase your revenue.
Making Money on YouTube
While it sounds easy enough to get the income streams rolling, the hard part is getting people to click and buy what you’re selling. The best advice anybody can give you is to make good and useful content. If what your audience doesn’t connect with what you’re creating, nothing you do will get them to click the affiliate links or buy your merch to make you money. Make sure that you’re putting in the effort that’s necessary to create the kind of content that your target audience is looking for.
