With the growing popularity of YouTube creators, also called YouTubers, it’s extremely noticeable how people try to become those. Even the biggest stars like musicians, actors, comics and other influencers set up their accounts and wave the fans over to YouTube; people finally know its strength. Being creators on every social platform can be profitable nowadays. So, that’s probably why you’re here, too.
Not only creating videos is profitable, but it’s also pleasant for you and your subscribers. Whether you like reviewing games, taking professional photos, drawing, traveling or any other things, there will be people, who’d love to listen to your experience.
Maybe you want to start your account to simply earn money, or you already have one and have no idea how to monetize it. It’s okay either way. We all have different goals. Yet, you have to be prepared for getting public before you start looking at how to earn money on YouTube.
Are You Ready to Work on YouTube
Pros and Cons of Being a Public Figure
Pros:
- you will be honest with your viewers while exposing your private life/interests/success;
- it’s easy to earn a lot of money while being public;
- personal growth is faster and better being a public figure;
- if you talk to people in your community, they can help you;
- you can find good promotions with high numbers of followers;
- your time schedule will completely be under your control;
- there’s a huge possibility to find friends and a significant other.
Cons:
- your income will not be stable at first;
- being a public figure requires a lot of your personal time;
- not all fans are nice, there might be stalkers and harassers;
- you’re exposing your private life, so you’ll be an opened book to anybody;
- you have a huge responsibility for your fans;
- people might start rumors if you do anything wrong.
So, if you weighted both sides and realized you are ready and you can take everything, then we should proceed to another part. We will finally tell you how you can earn money with your YouTube account and videos.
Explore Your Subscribers
You can’t just start with monetization before getting to know your audience, as those people will be the ones who affect your stats and help you make money eventually. When you try the ways to earn money on this website, you’ll have to know:
- gender and age of your target audience (you’ll understand if you need to appear more charming to males or females, and know what kind of products will be interesting for them);
- how much time they spend on watching your videos (realizing how long of a video it’s best to make next so your subscribers don’t lose interest);
- where your subscribers are mainly based (to recommend products or services in their region).
Ways to Earn Money While Creating
1. Advertising products as an influencer
It always depends on what you do and what your audience is, but one of the most popular ways to monetize your content is to perceive yourself as an influencer. It’s not so complicated, you just find products or services to promote/who are willing to pay you for promotion, and count your advertisement fee based on your view and subscriber count.
Be sure to take the product that will really be interesting for the fans, because you’ll lose both fan’s respect and your ad revenue if it doesn’t work. For example, if you’re fond of makeup and you create makeup tutorials or Get Ready With Me styled videos, your perfect pick would be a company that produces makeup products or face care. You can also seek for vitamins and supplements.
Also, tell your fan base that you’re advertising it and why you’re doing so.
2. Creating and selling your merchandise/products
In case your follower count is high and you really gained a lot of fans, it’s nice to promote your own products, too. You can try something simple like cups, T-shirts, hoodies, gaming chairs or computers, etc. Just endorse it in your videos and create your own website.
If you’re a photographer, create an app for fellow ones, or make a special lens. Makeup is your love? Collaborate with a makeup brand and develop a new eyeshadow palette.
It will be costly at first, yet, if your sales take off – you’ll be amazed about how much you’ve earned.
Another idea would be to have a tour. This is very popular right now for big YouTubers that base themselves on stand-up comedy or video reviews. First, you can have a small one around your area and then expand and travel all over the world. Grabbing another creator and collaborating is even better.
3. Being partners with YouTube
When you become a YouTube partner, you can expose your audience to ads before or in your videos which you’ll be paid for. While starting the process is easy, you’ll also have to curate the quality of your content as there are rules, and they are strict. Sometimes YouTube starts demonetizing people’s content and even close the accounts and it infuriates both creators and viewers. It’s better to seek other options along with being a YouTube Partner.
You can’t:
- swear, curse, use inappropriate language;
- talk about sexual themes and make sexual jokes;
- show violence;
- include controversial themes;
- promote drugs or other substances like that.
4. Asking your fans for monetized help
After you gain the trust of your audience, you’ll be able to ask your followers for help right away. The way you do that is you create an account for donations on a platform like:
- Patreon (the most popular pick);
- Fiverr;
- Kickstarter;
- Ko-Fi;
- Liberapay.
Then promote it on your channel, asking for fan donations. Some generous fans will donate just to support your new project or keep your account going. You can also do something for donations, be it your sign, birthday congratulation or a video chat with a devoted fan. Of course, bigger options will cost more.
5. Letting others buy your content
Did one of your videos take off? Maybe you’ve created a cool meme or a picture that took over the web? Then, a wise decision needs to follow.
Media like talk shows, news, and programs or other influencers might want to use your creation, and guess what? You can actually sell what you have or the right for it. Websites you can sell your videos on include Uscreen, Vimeo and Amazon.
All in all, being a YouTuber is a very hard job, especially if you’re new to the content monetization. Yet, it always pays off if you try hard enough. The main part is to start creating what you like, and all the other processes will flow a lot easier than you think. We hope that our guide will help you approach the matter wisely and establish yourself in the YouTube community. We honestly tried our best to expose the main themes and concerns of new creators.
Don’t be scared of trying and experimenting. You won’t strike without a proper trial period. Even if you might fail at first, don’t give up. So, have fun with your new career and good luck!
