Disclosure: OneHourProfessor is reader-supported. When you buy through links on my site, I may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

YouTube is a great place to make a living. I have a YouTube channel with over 1,000,000 views and have made over $12,000 just with YouTube ad revenue.

YouTube ad revenue

I’ll admit that I’ve only scratched the surface, and there are content creators out there making more than my lifetime earnings every month.

So, how do other YouTuber influencers like PewDiePie, Jeffree Star, and Dude Perfect rake in seven and even eight-figure incomes every year and create incredibly successful digital real estate assets?

In this guide on how to make money on YouTube, I’ll share some of the best strategies that the top YouTubers use to make money on YouTube and show you how you can do the same, even if it’s on a smaller scale.

1. Build a Blog to Compliment YouTube

YouTube is great for building your brand to create fans, drive lots of conversions, and increase your business revenue.

Not only that, but as the second-largest search engine, YouTube offers immense opportunities to get your brand in front of your ideal audience and grow your audience in other areas.

How do I know this? Because as a marketer, it’s one of the things I’ve done to grow the blog you’re reading right now.

build a blog to compliment on YouTube

The screenshot above shows you how many visitors I got to my blog last month. As you can see, an additional 6,924 visitors in a single month is nothing to sneeze at.

But what’s most important to understand is that a blog will almost always outearn any successful YouTube channel because it’s a platform that allows you to connect with your audience on a deeper and more personal level, such as through email and so on. 

Blogs can also show display ads, have many alternatives to Adsense so you’re less reliant on Google, and usually have higher click-through rates on affiliate links from popular affiliate programs and other ad revenue channels.

How to Get Started

Step 1: Start a Blog

The first step in this process is to start a blog under the same branding you’ve already created. The key is to ensure that your blog has the same look and feel as your YouTube channel. You can either do this on WordPress like myself or choose a website builder if you want something a little more intuitive.

After that, you can either hire a graphic designer or use graphic design software if you’re a DIY type of person. While I recommend WordPress, you can always use your preferred web design software if you’d.

You can click right here to join my free IGNITION course if you want to start today. It’ll walk you through the process step-by-step.

ignition course cover

Step 2: Share Your Blog to YouTube For More Traffic

Once you’ve started a blog, the next step is to share the content you’ve already created with your YouTube channel. There are a few ways you can do this;

  • Mention blog posts in videos and tell people to check them out in the description
  • Create evergreen content to post in the description of your videos

The key here is to get people off the platform and over to your blog so that you can get them more deeply immersed in your brand.

Unfortunately, YouTube is notoriously bad for gathering information about viewers. Still, connecting it with a blog allows you to diversify touchpoints to build a deeper relationship with your biggest fans.

Think of it this way.

What would you do if tomorrow you woke up and your YouTube channel was deleted?

Aside from panic, if you don’t have another platform you’re connected with your audience, all of your hard work will vanish overnight.

Step 3: Capture Blog Visitor Email Addresses

The key to making more money with your blog is to get visitors (whether they’re from YouTube or otherwise) to sign up for your email list.

The reason?

Generally speaking, email marketing is one of the best ways to make money from your following. Studies have shown that for every $1 spent, you’ll see a return of $36.

average ROI

(Source)

Achieving that ROI through any other means is very difficult to do. Use your blog to offer something of value to your readers in exchange for their email.

For example, if people sign up for one of my free courses, I get their email addresses. I then deliver a TON of value with the course to their inbox and keep in touch with them to promote other things.

But it doesn’t have to be a course. You can try creating a downloadable PDF as a checklist, outline, ebook, offer a Audible hosted audiobook, guide, or anything your audience will find helpful. Then, once you’ve figured out what you’re going to offer, you can use my list of email marketing software to figure out the best platform for you.

Step 4: Use Email to Grow and Make Recommendations

Once you have an email address, you can grow your following and make recommendations to bring in more from your revenue streams.

In terms of growth, don’t be afraid to send out an email for every blog post or YouTube video you create.

Or, if you already have affiliate products that you can make money from by recommending, send those over in an email and sit back as the commissions pile in.

But note that with great power comes great responsibility and demand for more YouTube premium content.

If you abuse the trust your following has given you by constantly emailing them, they’re likely to unsubscribe. If you’re worried about that, consider sending an email once a week with all of the new developments that your audience needs to know about.

This will ensure they get the information they need, and you won’t overwhelm them.

2. Create a Faceless YouTube Channel

One of the ways that my wife and I discovered to make money online from YouTube views is to make, what I call, a “faceless” YouTube channel.

When people think of having a YouTube channel, they picture themselves as a full-fledged video creator in front of a camera, recording and editing videos with editing software and video manager until their eyes bleed.

But the idea here is similar to what I do with websites, and it’s quite an exciting business model.

You create a channel full of videos around a specific topic or theme, and when those videos rank or get recommended by the algorithm, you make passive YouTube income from ad views.

The best part is you don’t need to go through the stress of recording or uploading videos yourself. Instead, you incorporate content from others that you’re legally allowed to use or follow copyright laws to develop high-quality and exciting content for your channel. You can find many of these assets, like videos and images, on Shutterstock.

Keep in mind YouTube is the second largest search engine and continues to grow with more self-accomplished youtube content creators year after year. So that’s why we got on this trend in 2020; we think it’s set to explode.

I’d love to say that I came up with this myself, but that’s not true. I found out about this whole business model through Matt Par. He hosts a webinar on this concept that you can attend by clicking here.

A few things to know:

  • Matt makes over $30,000/month with this method (He shows proof of income in the course he sells
  • Matt is a young guy and looks like he could be the friend of your son or daughter. But don’t be fooled by his age. His methods do work, and his course is solid.
  • In my opinion, Matt is a bit pushy with his sales tactics, but I’m sure he does it for one simple reason, it works. If you can overlook the sales tactics, his course is excellent and full of value.
  • You can join a webinar to better understand this whole thing by clicking here.

My wife and I started experimenting with two channels and multiple videos, and I can say with 100% certainty that this does work, and it’s showing promising results.

Below is the first channel that we’ve created using this method.

I don’t even mind sharing this channel with you because it’s all in Portuguese (my wife speaks it fluently), and the revenue per 1,000 views (EPM) is meager because of the market (which primarily serves people in Brazil, not the USA).

The channel name is Diva Makeup, and the focus of the videos is makeup compilations. You can see a snapshot of the YouTube views and general analytics below.

Diva Makeup channel

This was the first channel where we decided to try his methods, and they actually worked for us, so we decided to go after a more lucrative United States market. We don’t upload new videos on this channel anymore because the EPM is too low.

Our second channel converted an old YouTube account she had in the USA market.

second channel

I can’t share the name of this channel with you because I don’t want more competition. But obviously, this shows that the methods work.

This model gets interesting when you start outsourcing the whole process. While it seems daunting, it isn’t all that complicated. To create a successful video, you need to:

  • Use VidIQ or TubeBuddy to complete keyword research to find a topic
  • Research to find footage or images
  • Editing to make the content
  • A script and a voiceover, or you can use Murf.ai to be your voiceover instead (Full Murf Review Here)
  • Someone to post the video and optimize the videos for SEO

To sum it up, this is a valid business model, and one that I think isn’t very saturated as the idea hasn’t gone mainstream yet and is as stressful as making videos from scratch.

I suggest checking out his webinar to understand it thoroughly for anyone thinking this may be a good idea.

3. Join the YouTube Partner Program

If you’re wondering how to make money on YouTube, this is the most common answer.

The concept is pretty simple; you join the YouTube Partner Program, earn money, and earn ad revenue through video ads that show before, during, or after your videos.

You consent to run YouTube ads before, during, or after your videos. Then, you get to choose what type of ad placements you’re comfortable with, press a few buttons, and Google company does the rest.

Once set up, Google can show ads on your videos, and every time someone sees (or clicks) those ads, both you and YouTube split the fee that Google charges the advertiser. The split is 45% for YouTube and 55% for the creator.

As an example, let’s say that you have a vlog channel on YouTube, and halfway through one of your videos, a Netflix commercial plays talking about their latest and most fantastic Netflix original series.

We’ll assume that Netflix is willing to pay $1 for that placement on your entire video for easy math.

Once that Netflix commercial pops up to the viewer, Google will take $0.45, and you will earn $0.55 in your partner YouTube account.

This doesn’t sound like much money, but these numbers can add up when you get thousands or even hundreds of thousands of views per day.

How to Get Started

Step 1: Start a YouTube Channel

It’s safe to say that you need your own channel to start to get any views on YouTube. YouTube walks you through the process on this page, but I’ve also embedded a video below to help.

Step 2: Making YouTube Videos

The next step to any YouTube channel is to click Youtube Studio and log in. Then, start making YouTube videos that YouTube users and your audience will love. From my experience, it’s best to focus on a particular niche and dive into the content that they’ll enjoy.

For instance, on my YouTube channel, I like to discuss all things related to online business. So naturally, this attracts YouTube premium subscribers and pretty much anyone interested in working from home and loves the idea of building something of their own.

This is the tricky part about any YouTube channel, even for the highest-paid Youtubers – because when you start, it’s unlikely that anyone will see your videos.

But I promise you that this won’t happen forever.

As long as you keep creating content such as vlogs, music videos, music, and more that your audience will enjoy, the algorithm will eventually start recommending your videos to people and begin subscribing to you. So, naturally, with these subscribers comes more income.

Pro-tip: Tutorials are a GREAT way to get started with YouTube if it’s possible in your niche.

Step 3: Meet the YouTube Partner Program Eligibility Requirements

While YouTube formerly allowed any channel to join its partnership program right after it started, people began to abuse the system. As a result, the platform had to change things to ensure the channels were legitimate.

This ended up creating the YouTube Partner Program Eligibility Requirements.

At the time of this writing, the minimum eligibility requirements to join the YouTube partner program are simple:

  • Your channel needs to have at least 4,000 watch hours of video in the past 12 months above the video length requirement before you can apply to monetize your videos, vlogs, music videos, and more.
  • You also need to have over 1,000 subscribers to your channel.
  • You must be at least 18 years of age before you apply to join YouTube’s partner program.

There’s no specified timeframe in which to meet these requirements. However, once you successfully achieve them, you’ll be able to enable monetization features and begin earning while making content for your target audience.

Step 4: Set up a linked AdSense account to get paid on YouTube

Once you’ve met the eligibility requirements for an AdSense Account, you can then apply. This linked AdSense Account will ultimately be how you make money on YouTube from ads, so take your time answering everything correctly when you sign up for your AdSense Account.

Step 5: Configure Your Newly Available Monetization Methods

Once you’ve been accepted to the YouTube Partner Program, there are many different methods to begin making money on your channel.

  • Ad Revenue: To begin making ad revenue, you need to turn on ads on YouTube. Doing so will make it so the ads will play when people see your videos, which will lead to you getting paid for making videos. Again, pay attention to your CPM metrics here; this is crucial to know how much YouTube pays and how much you can make with more views.
  • YouTube Red (Premium) Revenue: Every time a YouTube premium account watches your videos, you’ll get a small portion of their subscription fee. This isn’t a ton of extra money, but it also doesn’t take any extra effort on your behalf to make it happen.
  • Channel Memberships: Once your YouTube account and channel have over 1,000 subscribers, you can set up channel memberships for your subscribers. Channel Memberships allows you to charge a fee every month for them to see some of your exclusive content, and you can even offer other perks for members of different tiered levels in your channel memberships.
  • Launch Your Merchandise Shelf: Depending on how many members you have, say over 10,000 subscribers, you’d be eligible to launch a merchandise shelf on your YouTube account. This allows you to sell merchandise directly on your channel below your videos, like an eCommerce site. This is great if you have a saying or catch-phrase like top YouTube influencers that resonates with your following. Like Pewdiepie and his famous “brofist.”
  • Super Chat and Super Sticker: These interactive elements allow users to pay to be seen in your live streams by purchasing a “super chat” or “super sticker” so that you see them. You can set this up as long as your channel has 1,000 subscribers.

Step 6: Continue Making Content and Don’t Violate YouTube Guidelines

Once your channel grows and you’re making money, the sky becomes the limit for your channel. You mustn’t violate any YouTube community guidelines related to Spam/Deception, sensitive content, banner ads, violent/dangerous content, misinformation, or regulated goods while creating videos. You can read all about their guidelines here.

Bonus: How to Maximize Earnings With YouTube Ad Revenue

  • Manually insert ads when possible:  I do this when I have a cliffhanger of sorts. Meaning I start a sentence and then play the ad in the middle of the sentence because the user wants to hear the rest of it. An example, “The thing that you absolutely must know about affiliate marketing is”….(add)……the rest of the statement. This approach will keep your users engaged enough to finish the ad instead of clicking off the video like other YouTubers while creating content from Youtube and social media platforms.
  • Keep your channel advertiser-friendly: Don’t swear or say controversial things that advertisers don’t want to participate in your videos. Remember, you make money when advertisers advertise. So advertiser-friendly content is crucial to achieving this goal.
  • Make as many videos as possible:  YouTube is ultimately a numbers game, and the number of views is the essential factor to success. People don’t like to hear it, but it’s 100% true. The more videos you post, the more likely you will succeed because of the number of video views your channel will get.
  • For most big YouTubers, advertising revenue is the most passive way to make money. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg to make money on YouTube.

Don’t Forget About YouTube Premium Subscribers

While Adsense can pay quite a bit itself, don’t forget that YouTube has a premium subscriber feature on its platform. So if you’re able to get these subscribers to your content, you’ll make additional income from that.

Unfortunately, many YouTubers don’t pay attention to this opportunity, and you can’t do a lot to target these specific users. Still, it’s pretty lucrative if you get them to your channel.

4. Create and Sell a Course

Yet another terrific way to earn money on YouTube is to create and sell a digital course. If you have the knowledge to share and can offer great value to your followers for their watch time, they will gladly buy your course to learn more about how you can help them improve their lives.

You can teach various topics, including fitness and health, personal development, digital marketing, and professional or curriculum courses.

Many YouTube content creators are doing this successfully, including Meet Kevin, a well-known entrepreneur who runs a 7-figure business. He heavily uses his videos to drive the public, especially YouTube premium subscribers, to his online training programs that teach people how to invest and make money in real estate.

How does he generate sales for the courses with his YouTube views? 

He adds his courses in his video descriptions with a solid call to action to help drive viewers into action, so they purchase his courses.

Learn from Kevin

This is a great way to make money on the YouTube platform and successfully sell courses. You must create high-quality, practical, and unique content that offers immense value to your viewers.

After all, no one will want to purchase a course if its information is just a rehashing of what everyone else has already said. 

How to Maximize Earnings With Courses on your YouTube Account

  • Put course links in your description sections.
  • Refer to the course in videos once in a while (Don’t be too pushy)
  • Use YouTube cards sometimes to push people to your course (But not too much)
  • Use the best online course platform for your situation and experience level.

5. Affiliate Marketing

You may not always rely on video ads for revenue generation on your YouTube video investment. The good news is that there are other monetization methods to choose from – such as affiliate marketing.

I currently make thousands of dollars every month from a few of my favorite affiliate programs, as shown below.

affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is an excellent idea if you have an affinity with followers. Large marketing agencies don’t depend entirely on their channels of content distribution.

Often, they find it more profitable to pay YouTube channels that already have a solid fan base to promote their products. 

Interested brands watch out for how many subscribers a video creator has before partnering with them. In addition, they expect content creators to be a YouTube marketing expert by selling their products or services in the language that their community understands.

So, yes, sponsorship programs are determined primarily by how many youtube views and watch time a channel gets.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to boost your earning potential on this platform if you’ve already built a large following. However, even with a smaller number of followers and high-quality YouTube videos, you can still make a good living on this platform – provided you use an effective marketing strategy like other YouTubers. 

To use this YouTube monetization technique, sign up with companies or affiliate programs in your niche to get affiliate links for products that your audience might want. You can then recommend these products on your channel and get paid a commission for every sale. 

A straightforward way to get sales is by linking to the affiliate products in your video descriptions. But, of course, the higher your conversions, the more money you’ll make.

Here is an excellent example of how Graham Stephan, a successful video content creator on this platform, makes an income with Amazon affiliate links to camera and recording equipment. He has a link below his video descriptions which takes his YouTube audience to this page:

Graham Stephan

As you can see, whenever someone clicks on one of those Amazon products and purchases something, he’ll make a small commission. But these small commissions add up.

For example, the most recent business insider video about his income indicated that he made around $2000/month from these affiliate links under his videos. 

But it doesn’t have to stop with physical products. If you go to a platform like ShareaSale, you can promote many products and software to generate income streams and make money.  

How to Maximize Earnings With YouTube Affiliate Marketing

  • Use VidIQ or TubeBuddy to find your YouTube video title to complete keyword research.
  • Leave affiliate marketing links in the description of videos for YouTube SEO
  • Pin the first comment with affiliate links
  • Refer to affiliate links in videos (like YouTube shorts fund for monetization preferences)
  • Add YouTube cards in your video pointing to affiliate links

Note: It’s important to note that understanding disclosure requires continuously making money on YouTube through affiliate networks and marketing. This is simply a formal statement explaining to your readers that you have an affiliate relationship with the manufacturers of the products that you talk about in your digital content.

If you are in the U.S., you can follow the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) guidelines on how to craft a clear disclaimer. In addition, follow the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) guidelines.

6. Review Products or Software

Affiliate marketing doesn’t just have to be for physical products. You can use it to earn money from YouTube with any products you like. For instance, you can do software or product reviews on your YouTube channel for various companies in your niche and earn money from brands seeking exposure and sales.

I have done this on my YouTube channel. This is a review on Instacart, excellent grocery delivery and pickup service that helps you save money and time.

Instacart

Knowing how to make money on YouTube using certain tactics works exceptionally well because it can be beneficial for your followers – provided it’s a good market fit. So you get paid, your viewers get helpful information, and the brand gets more exposure – everyone wins.

How to Maximize Earnings With Reviews on YouTube

  • Use VidIQ or TubeBuddy to complete keyword research to find a topic
  • Include a link in the pinned comment and video description
  • Use YouTube cards when it makes sense with links pointing to the affiliate offer
  • Refer to your links and disclose how people clicking on them will help you (people want to help creators usually)

7. Work with Sponsorships

Working with sponsorships is a great way to boost your earnings here. As your audience and viewership grow, brands will approach you to create videos on their behalf with product placements.

Most brands pay exceptionally well for quality videos that help them achieve their business objectives, and YouTube influencer marketing seems to be growing in popularity.

I have done this myself and made $500 on one video with this monetization method.

If you want to use sponsorships to add income streams to your YouTube videos like many YouTube influencers out there, it’s important to note that some niches have a lot more placements than others.

For example, you’ll find tons more opportunities in industries like makeup and beauty than you would in many other sectors.

The trick to success in this area is to use your channel to showcase your skill and expertise to potential contractors. This indirect monetization strategy is highly effective and involves advertising yourself to be hired for paid opportunities to create videos for brands and create channel memberships. 

Direct promotion of this kind is basically like affiliate marketing, but with a slight difference. 

The advertising companies pay you a fixed amount to collaborate with your YouTube channel. The amount you charge varies, and it depends on the quality of your videos and your popularity while your video receives recognition from your target audience.

Remember, when you create sponsored content or “sponcon” advertising, you need to be transparent about it on your YouTube channel. Also, make sure you adhere to Google’s Ad Policies of the Adsense account to avoid possible issues with your accounts, such as suspension or even termination.

Follow the FTC and ASA guidelines for sponsored content to ensure that your audience knows that you are advertising to them. Then, use YouTube’s disclosure feature to add transparency to avoid legal issues and build a stronger relationship with your viewers.

How to Maximize Earnings With Sponsorship

  • Focus on quality videos that are thorough and helpful
  • Create unpaid reviews first; this will attract competition
  • Negotiate when contacted and ask for 50% upfront to protect yourself
  • Request additional products along with payment

8. Sell Services

Selling services like masterminds, group consulting, etc., to your followers is another effective way to leverage your channel into paid opportunities hence earning Money from YouTube. Although this type of monetization can be slow initially, it can be very lucrative once you hit critical mass. 

sell services

(Source)

For example, if you had a YouTube channel focused on retail arbitrage, you could create a service helping others by reviewing their accounts and helping them be successful.

In addition to making money on YouTube selling your services, you will also develop a strong community around the services you offer. This is similar to how you can make Money on Reddit as well. Simply provide or perform a service for someone, and they’ll pay you for your work.

Service promotions are another winner when trying to figure out how to make money on YouTube. Whether as a freelancer, small business, or eCommerce shop owner.

All you need to do is begin uploading video content related to your brand and use a compelling call to action to get viewers to try out your services.

How to Maximize Earnings by Selling Services on YouTube

  • Sell group consulting and calls
  • Price yourself high
  • Offer pre-packaged services and limit clients for premier pricing

9. Sell Products with Live Streams

Another way to make money from YouTube is to sell YouTube live streams. This monetization strategy works particularly well in popular niches like beauty and fashion. The idea here is to sell products to a live streaming audience. 

To make this even more profitable, you might consider creating your own products and offers that you can sell to your avid viewers.

For example, you can create a digital course, an ebook, or anything else that your audience would appreciate. Or, you can use this strategy to sell products on Etsy, a Poshmark shop you own, or even a Shopify store if you have one.

Alternatively, if you already have a walk-in store or business, you can use the channel to drive leads to your products with links to affiliate products that can also be found with search engines

The key to successfully selling products with a live stream is to develop a strong sense of trust among your followers for videos or earn using a YouTube shorts fund. The more they trust you, the more likely they will pull out their credit card to purchase your products on your profile or watch pages with an affiliate network.

Then, once you have your product ready to sell, you can use a tool like Gumroad to accept payments during your live sessions.

How to Maximize Earnings by Selling Products on YouTube Live Streams

  • Offer exclusive products
  • Create your products for a higher profit margin
  • Have these types of streams consistently
  • Offer samples of your products as a promotional technique
  • Use limited-time promo codes

10. Sell Merch to Subscribers

One of the easiest ways to make money on YouTube is to sell your own line of products, such as t-shirts, and more, to your followers. This is because the platform has a section called a merchandise shelf – another revenue streams for Youtubers .

As an online creator, you must have a large enough following before you can expect to make any real money with this strategy, but you can start small and gradually build up to the level where you’re making a consistent income from your merch sales.

If you’d like to sell products yourself and would like to keep more of the revenue you generate without the restrictions that merchandise shelf has, consider using Sellfy instead. I’ve written a full review of the product here so you can learn more.

To give you an idea of the potential revenue you can earn from selling merch to subscribers, here are a few Youtube stars who are doing this successfully:

Report of the Week

This channel makes a chart monthly estimated revenue of over $3.1K from merchandise sales like t-shirts. Official branded merchandise like this is a massive industry.

You can get your share of it by selling your merch to loyal fans and your YouTube premium members, who will gladly spend their money to support their favorite YouTube creator. 

PewDiePie

Another YouTube Star, who also happens to be the highest-paid Youtuber, is PewDiePie, whose recent merchandise launch sold out in just minutes, snapped up by his dedicated base of 105 million subscribers.

Though he mostly got big playing video games on platforms like Steam or other independent games, his merchandise sales are estimated to bring in a cool $6.83 million every year.

Suppose you have successfully branded yourself and gained a lot of loyal fans. In that case, this is a significant monetization preference and strategy because people who love your work will gladly buy your merchandise.

How to Maximize Earnings by Selling Merch on YouTube

  • Have a large number of subscribers
  • Know your subscriber demographics – do they want merch?
  • Create a tagline
  • Price it reasonably
  • Use limited edition merch

11. Live Streams and Superchat

Superchat and Super Stickers are another great way to make money with YouTube’s video platform, especially is you host a popular podcast in tandem with your channel. It’s the feature that replaced YouTube’s “Fan Funding” in 2017. As a YouTube Partner, this feature is available to you while you live stream, as many YouTube partners do on their super chat.

Super chat makes your viewers’ comments more visible. Depending on how much viewers pay, they are highlighted and pinned in a prominent place in the live chat stream for a specific period of time.

Subscribers to your YouTube channel can donate in Super chat on live streams or pay a monthly fee and become members of your channel.

In addition, they’ll get custom badges and emojis that make them stand out during your live sessions and super chat streams. They also access your members-only exclusive rewards, such as live chats with you.

This video explains how Live streams and Super chat work in further detail.

This monetization method is facilitated through YouTube’s Partner Program, and there are a lot of creators (YouTube Partners) who are successfully using it to promote their brands and channels.

However, to make the most of this money-making technique, you will build a YouTube SEO promotion strategy to convince your subscribers and visitors to become members.

In a way, it’s almost as if you’re selling YouTube advertising within your live chat feeds. Of course, with live sessions and Super chat, you will rely on fans for income – but you will also be able to grow a strong community and make money from YouTube.

To sell channel memberships to your audience, you must be over 18 years of age, and you need to have at least 30,000 subscribers.

Getting your fans to pay you directly is a great way to make money on YouTube if you already have a strong, loyal following.

Fans love to show their appreciation by whipping out their credit cards, and you will have a reliable income stream just by continuing to provide value on your channel. 

Just make sure that you make it as easy as possible for them to donate. If the process of giving you money is lengthy or hard, even your most dedicated followers are likely to give up before completing it.

How to Maximize Earning Money With Live Sessions and Superchat on YouTube

  • Encourage your viewers to become channel members.
  • Explain how Superchat and becoming a member works (not many people understand it)
  • Promote your channel or personal brand during live chat feed

12.  License Viral Content to the Media

Content Bible

(Source)

Another way to make money on YouTube is to license viral video content to the media. Media outlets are always on the lookout for high-quality content, and whenever you post videos go viral, they want a copy to replay for their respective audiences.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be only viral videos online that you share with them. You can also share timely footage that they deem newsworthy, and many companies will pay you for using your video and make money on YouTube.

if you have any successful viral video content that media outlets might be interested in, make sure they are easy to find. Include a business email in a prominent place on your channel profile and your description sections. This will make it easy for companies that want your video to contact you. 

You can also submit your high-quality videos to sites like The Content Bible

Many popular media networks like FOX, CNN, NBC, CBS, and The Weather Channel use this site to find video content for their websites. Here, you will find plenty of opportunities to creative commons to license your content to the media to add to your YouTube revenue stream.

How to Maximize Earning Money With Licensing on YouTube

  • Include a business email in the channel profile and description sections for licensing purposes
  • Sign up with Jukin Media and other video sites
  • Highlight the most successful content on your channel

13.  Use Patreon with YouTube

Patreon is a popular online platform that offers artists and creators a place to easily share their work with “Patrons” to earn money. As a content creator, you can use Patreon to leverage the power of your audience and make more money with your YouTube videos and boost your YouTube earnings.

You can enable monetization of your work as YouTube content creators by creating a Patreon account and releasing exclusive YouTube content or perks for your Patrons with high watch time for monetized videos.

Patreon works in almost the same way that average YouTube channel memberships do, except that you can set your prices and decide precisely how you want to charge for your content.

It’s a platform that focuses on crowdfunding, and so long as you have an engaged audience, it can be a viable method to increase YouTube revenue

You can choose to be paid either a fixed monthly payment to offer access to exclusive content on the platform or charge Patrons on a per-post basis.

One YouTube channel, The East Fam, features Shawn Johnson, a former Olympic gymnast, and offers tiers of Patreon memberships that range from just $2/month for ad-free videos, all the way to $100/month, which includes personalized merchandise, as well as a credit as a producer.

The East Fam

William “Suede” DuFresneis is another example of YouTube video creators making a healthy income from their subscribers through this platform.

Although he has a relatively small audience, he monetizes his videos well by providing high-quality content that keeps his audience engaged enough to equate to YouTube premium revenue while he gets videos monetized.

The secret to success on Patreon is to keep your audience motivated. The emphasis on this platform is on the community, and Suede keeps his viewers coming back for more by producing consistent quality and using his personality and good communication to persuade viewers to purchase his products.

To keep a revenue-generating platform like Patreon going, users need to constantly respond to their chat messages and keep the messages highlighted for future reference.

You can drive traffic to your Patreon platform, and that’s how to make money on YouTube with the help of Patreon.

How to Maximize Earnings With Patreon and YouTube

  • Make sure exclusive content goes on Patreon
  • Do your best to push people toward the platform
  • Regularly ask for input to keep your subscribers engaged
  • Offer tiers of Patreon memberships (other than your Youtube channel memberships)

How Much Money Can You Make on YouTube?

Certain YouTubers can earn upwards of 6 figures each month but these are the most popular, most successful of the bunch. Those who are just starting out will have to be patient because they’ll be making between $10 and $100 each month.

But, if you get sponsorship and start increasing your view counts to the tens of thousands, you’ll gradually start earning more. Become one of the largest YouTube channels in the world and you’ll be making a lot more.

Wrapping Things Up

And that’s a wrap. You now have all the information you need to understand how to make money on your YouTube account. I’m convinced that these ideas are perfect for anyone interested but perfect for college students looking for an online job.

All you need to do now is to take action on everything you’ve learned so you can start building and growing your audience on this lucrative platform.

Are there any other YouTube monetization strategies that you know of? Let me know in the comments section below!

  • Great info! I’m wondering, if you make tutorial videos on how to play popular songs on guitar, can you get in trouble for copyright infringement? It’s educational, so I’m not sure if that’s a valid loophole.

    • Hey Doug! I personally feel like you would be fine, but to be clear, this is NOT legal advice. I would advise you to speak to a lawyer directly to discuss. Or, maybe try JustAnswer.com.

    • You won’t get copyright as long as you talk in the videos, you also need an intro and a logo to stand out.
      I know many channels that does it, even without showing their face.
      Example: Search for FINGERSTYLE on YouTube.
      He gets lots of views and is monetized.
      I hope this helps.

  • Hey Ron, great post.

    Will be taking a look around your site over the next few days.

    In the meantime, a couple of questions for you.

    1) I’m interested in trying option 1. Had a quick look at your Diva Makeup channel. My understanding is that these types of channels are built using free / stock video footage from third party sources that are combined to create a new video. I do not see any attributions for the videos on Diva Makeup – are they from a source that does not require them? Are you able to recommend some good sources?

    2) I’m looking to create an additional income stream to supplement my income as a web developer. I don’t need to earn millions, $1K per month would be great, $2k per month fantastic. I wonder which approach you would suggest as most suitable given the following:

    * I’m already busy with a day job and freelance work so it needs to be something I can work on slowly over time
    * I’m not interested in selling products

    Cheers,
    Rich

    • Great Rich, happy to hear!

      1) That channel is in the Brazilian market and things there are different with copyright from my understanding. I actually am not sure where my wife got all of those videos to be honest. I’d have to ask her on that. It may have been social media, but now that we’re doing it with other channels we’re always giving proper attribution as we’re in the English market.

      2) I’d tell you to steer away from YouTube and focus on a blog. While YouTube can be a winner for sure, your current experience will serve you well and there are a ton of ways to monetize them. I’d say to sign up for my free IGNITION course (https://onehourprofessor.com/courses/) and see what ideas that gives you. YouTube is great, but it’s mostly display ads and hard to go beyond that. Blogs have many more options and are very easy to outsource.

      • Hey Ron, thanks for the response.

        TBH I’ve looked into blogs in the past and decided I did not know enough about / was not passionate enough about a subject to spend time writing about it. I also go the impression it would be very time consuming and require a lot more than just writing.

        I’ll take a look at your course though, perhaps I’ll be enlightened :0)

        • Well, if blogs are a no-go maybe then just take the free YouTube course. That’ll help you too 🙂

  • Wow Harsh, amazing post! I only read over it, so I’ll go over it again later! The ways to make money are a real eye-opener! Giving away fantastic stuff that I have just spent hours crafting is extremely difficult for me, but like you say, it has to be done!!

  • Prof. Ron,

    Thank you for creating such a great post! I stumbled across Matt Par’s content several weeks ago and wondered if he was legit. Seeing your shoutout to him, here, compels me to check out his stuff more closely.

    I’m interested in the “faceless” channel option. Has it become too saturated, yet? It’s 2:30 AM and I’m awake brainstorming ideas to create value that I can exchange for cash on the barrelhead.

    $10,000/month, net, would be fantastic. I’m willing to put in the time to make it happen. I can devote 8 hours/day, right now.

    You have a new fan; I signed up for your blog course and look forward to following you.

    Kindest Regards,
    Anthony

    • Hey Anthony, thanks for the kind comment!

      I’ll 100% back Matt Par with his course. He has a good course and is very supportive of his students. I think the way he sells it and the “shiny cars/big money promise” is what turns people off. While I don’t love the sales tactics, the course itself is actually very good.

      YouTube is far from saturated. Specifically faceless channels. I feel like many people have no idea how lucrative is can be….yet. My wife and I do this ourselves and it takes a little adjusting, but it’s definitely a valid business model. I’m pumped as my wife continues to build her YT channel empire and I can sit back and help strategize.

      In terms of income goals, make $100/month your goal first and then just keep moving the needle each month. I think $10,000 is definitely possible, but it will take you some time to get there.

      Thanks for subscribing, I hope the IGNITION course helps!

  • Ron, thank you for this bountiful information! I hope it’s still relevant. I plan to really study it and create a plan to go on.

  • {"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}
    >