Your Guide to YouTube Monetization
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With a growth in the number of YouTube users every day, marketers are increasingly making use of this video platform to make money. Today, you can make money through YouTube in several ways as you popularise your channel and gain more YouTube subscribers, as well as YouTube views for your videos. Videos are popular across age groups and can really take your business to another level if you learn more about YouTube monetization and implement it. Apart from the fact that YouTube is video-based and offers a fun way to keep people engaged and make money, another big plus point with YouTube for content creators is that it’s free and accessible to users who don’t necessarily have expensive equipment. Just a smartphone and a video recording device can help you publish content and get more real YouTube subscribers.
So, let’s jump right in.
YouTube’s requirements for monetization
The general rules governing content for monetization are:
- Content should be advertiser-friendly, meaning it should not include:
- Hatred
- Violence
- Nudity
- Cyberbullying
- Harassment
- Threats
- Impersonation
- Spam
- Misleading information
- Scams
- Content must be created by you / you should be permitted to use it commercially.
- You must be able to prove via documentation that you have commercial rights to audio / video used.
- Content that’s been edited from a source can’t be monetized.
- Your content must meet YouTube’s Partner Program policies, Terms of Service, as well as its Community Guidelines.
- YouTube can disable monetization for any account that doesn’t meet its guidelines.
Different types of content uploaded also need to meet certain requirements in order to get monetization clearance, which will be addressed later in this article.
Steps involved in setting up YouTube monetization
Start earning money easily from your content by setting up YouTube monetization through the following steps:
In order to apply for YouTube monetization, you’ll have to:
- Agree to the guidelines of the YouTube Partner Program.
- Sign up for Google AdSense – this will also include agreeing to some terms and conditions while choosing your payment options. Filling in your payment details is crucial as AdSense is what is needed for you to get paid for the ads in your videos.
- Select your monetization preferences – here, you’ll be able to choose the type of ads that can run on your channel once you get approved. All ad formats are enabled by default, so you’ll need to make changes if there are only certain types of ads that you want to allow. In this step, you’ll also need to decide if you want to monetize just a few videos or all your videos. If you’re choosing to monetize just a few, you will have to manually select the videos from your YouTube account.
- Get reviewed – while you may begin with the application process whenever you want, you’ll only be reviewed once you’ve got a minimum of 1000 YouTube subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time in the last 12 months. As soon as you reach this number, your channel will be reviewed through a review process that usually takes a month (at least) by YouTube.
- On acceptance, you’ll be sent an email notification confirming the approval.
Various types of monetization on YouTube
There are a number of ways that you can make money on YouTube.
Advertising revenue
With ads, you can make money through the use of different types of ads in your videos. Display ads, skippable ads, bumper ads, overlay ads, non-skippable ads, and sponsored cards are just some of the many types of ad formats you can enable on your channel in order to make money. YouTube ads are typically generated based on the topic of the video, the location of viewers around the world, as well as the demographics of fans. Partnering directly with YouTube by splitting money from ads is great because this way, you can make a good portion of the profit generated if you manage to bring in the YouTube subscribers and YouTube views. You’ll have to make sure you’re 18 though, or that you have a legal guardian who is at least 18 years old in order to be able to accept payment through AdSense.
Channel memberships
You don’t just have to focus on allowing ads to bring in the money from your YouTube channel. You can also charge a fee on a monthly basis from your dedicated viewers on YouTube. Channel memberships give loyal viewers some extra perks such as access to exclusive content, live chats, emojis that can be displayed on your channel, as well as unique badges. If you manage to hit the minimum requirements for channel memberships (you should be at least 18 years of age and have a minimum of 30000 YouTube subscribers), this can be a great way to bring in recurring revenue.
Merchandise shelf
If you’re gaining popularity with more and more real YouTube subscribers and YouTube views, developing a merchandise shelf for your custom merchandise is an excellent way to bring in the money and allow your YouTube subscribers to directly buy from your page. Whether it’s mugs, shirts, cups, or any other merchandise, you can show it off in your ad-free videos, being assured that those interested will be directed towards making a purchase from your merchandise shelf. In order to be able to do this, you need to be at least 18 years old and have over 10000 YouTube subscribers.
Super Chat
With Super Chat, you can engage with your YouTube subscribers via a chat stream where they are required to spend in order to have their messages pinned on the top of the chat stream and highlighted in bright colors. This will enable you to read their messages in a stream of other messages received. For this, you have to be at least 18 years old, and you should be living in a country that has Super Chat enabled.
YouTube Premium revenue
With YouTube Premium, viewers opt for a paid subscription plan allowing them to watch videos on YouTube without any interruption from ads. Whenever a Premium subscriber views your channel’s content, YouTube will pay you a small fee for it. In order to really be able to make money from such YouTube subscribers, you have to ensure your content is top quality so that it can pull people in to watch it.
Go freemium
You can also generate several leads by utilizing a “freemium” business model. The idea behind this is to offer free content while also holding back some of your best content by requiring your YouTube subscribers to pay for it. A great way to make money, such a model gives viewers a sample of what the content will be like so that those who like it can sign up by paying for the exclusive videos offered as well.
Fill your sales funnel
With YouTube, you can fill your sales funnel easily if you’ve already got an established business online that has email and products on sale. Your videos can do the job of providing useful content to viewers while also directing viewers’ attention to the opt-in shown. When you receive email addresses, you can follow up with them and establish a relationship, ultimately being able to offer your products / services for sale. While this doesn’t directly bring you money, it’s a great way to fill your sales funnel and see a growth in sales and conversions for the future through proper follow-ups.
Affiliate marketing
If you’re up to partner with the creators of another product, you can find a way to benefit from a portion of their revenue through affiliate marketing. All you have to do is promote their products in your YouTube videos and disclose the affiliation in order to get a portion of their revenue.
Sponsors
If your channel experiences enough growth to turn some heads, you can easily sign up your own sponsors in order to reach out through your channel to your target audience.
Other revenue streams on YouTube
Monetization doesn’t just end with sponsors – there are other revenue streams that you can follow to make money if you want to add to your existing revenue or even if you just don’t want to wait around to meet the minimum threshold for monetization on your channel. The third parties mentioned below offer more streams of income.
Worthyt
With Worthyt, you can permit users to pose their questions as well as interact with you through online messenger service in exchange for a small fee.
FameBit
Using FameBit, influencers can get paid for any sponsorship in their videos.
PayPal
With PayPal, you will be able to get donations made by your dedicated fans by adding a PayPal button to your channel.
As great as making money off YouTube sounds, it’s important to remember that you’ll only get there with great content. As already mentioned, you’ll have to meet the requirements in order to even be able to monetize your YouTube channel, and that means consistently putting out video content that captures the attention of viewers and drives engagement rates. You want your videos to be optimized for YouTube’s search engine so that you’re able to reach out to more people and gain more real YouTube subscribers as well as YouTube views on your videos. So, focus on delivering great content and work towards YouTube monetization so that you can start making money from the platform.
