How Make An Income On YouTube.

My Disclaimer: I am working on information I’ve learned from other YouTubers and attempting to start a few YouTube Channels. I am just trying to make an income on YouTube feed my other passive income generators(PIG’s). Another source of income, to grow my PIGs.

We often hear too much information mish-mashed so that it is overloaded. Let’s get down to Can, How, and When can we make money on YouTube, and more importantly, can it be made passive?

Can You Make Money With A YouTube Channel?

I have not, but my best channel, too neglected due to life responsibilities, has only 60+ subscribers and 500+ viewing hours, far below the minimum 1000 subscribers and 4000+ viewer hours needed to become monetized. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72857?hl=en

So, based on others’ experiences. Yes, you can make money on YouTube.

Is YouTube A Good Source Of Income?

I found most people I come across state yes; YouTube can be a good source of income.

I was worried this was a “survivor bias” situation presenting itself. Still, with a little deduction, you can make money on YouTube if you apply yourself, learn from your mistakes, focus on your strengths, and show perseverance.

And more importantly, it can be a good source of income.

Can You Make Passive Income On YouTube?

This is where I need help. Can generating money on YouTube be passive? I need help finding during the initial start-up of a channel unless you have the start-up cash to hire a full-time on day one.

However, I cannot do this, so I must accept that an actual level of work is necessary to develop a good channel with enough traffic to generate income.

There are different methods to generate income on YouTube, which I will discuss, but as of now, I will ask you if you have noticed.

How many successful bloggers have you found that a single-person operation? I found many.

How many successful YouTubers have you found that a single-person operation? I found few.

Often I see very successful YouTube Channels that have a team of experts helping with their creation, from producers to writers and, of course, video editors.

Am I Discouraged?

I said before that I was dabbling in several YouTube Channels, but I never mentioned if I had a team. I do not have a team.

I do have a very encouraging Son and a very judgemental Daughter. They are my review team when I get their time, and they help me by allowing me to bounce ideas off them.

The amount of effort they offer is minimal and often requires me to try and elicit a response from them, so yes, I consider myself a single-person operation.

However, my efforts and experiences will be shared here, hoping I can inspire others to create additional income and receive feedback from my readers about my experiences.

How Do You Make An Income On YouTube?

Some methods for making money on a YouTube channel are like money-making ventures with Blogging.

Some money-making methods on YouTube.

YouTube Ads.
Membership Fees
Affiliate Sales
Sponsorships
Etc.

I only wanted to address the most common money-making methods I find advertised online.

YouTube Ads:

Let’s address the most common method talked about, YouTube Ads.

These are fees collected by YouTube and shared with channel content creators, often split into a flat percentage fee defined by YouTube.

Anytime you go to YouTube and search how to make money, this is the method most often spoken about since, realistically, it can be the least involved method of making money since it’s based on just creating videos.

YouTube does all the advertisement and collection of ad revenue, and passes your percentage off to you, the channel creator. We’ll talk about how this might not be the first revenue you make as a YouTube content creator later.

Membership Fees:

Now this revenue can come in a couple of forms, and you can offer a special membership or content only available to your subscribers.

Or, you ask people to support your channel directly with no notable rewards so that they feel they are contributing to a growing channel.

One of the services I noticed was Patron, where a viewer can sign up and send money to the YouTube content creator. With a timed subscription fee.

Now there are others, like private videos, and pre-release video privileges, other YouTubers use, but I only know about them and have yet to be a member of any channel that does this.

Often this is the easiest way to make money by asking viewers for support. Try it.

Affiliate Sales:

Now Affiliate Sales is when you recommend a product or service, and when your viewer makes a purchase, the seller shares a commission with you.

Sort of a finders-fee for sending customers to their site.

Amazon is the most common affiliate program I found, although there are others like Clickbank, Share-a-Sale, and too many to list. You include a link to sellers in your video or video description for your viewers to click on. Easy -Peasy.

Sponsors:

These are videos you are paid to create reviewing services or products for your viewers.

I’m sure you’ve seen videos created around the review and recommendation of a product or service. These videos usually have a disclaimer somewhere in the text, or the speaker mentions the video is sponsored, so they are open to possible biased opinions they might have.

Some sponsors pay for a shout-out in videos that do not have a clear connection to the video content. Certain types of wallets are mentioned in video game reviews, or shavers for the privates on a motorcycle channel, etc.

There is money here.

When Can I Expect To Make Money?

The knee-jerk response I get to this question from successful YouTubers is to create content that your viewers want.

As long as your videos are being watched, you attract an audience, and revenue can be generated.

So create content, find your niche, determine what works and doesn’t, and continue. One video might become viral, but having a library of additional videos for viewers to find afterward can drive your viewership.

More views and more YouTube recommend you to additional people. It is a self-feeding system.

YouTube Ad: When Do You Get Monetized On YouTube?

As mentioned, I need to meet the threshold to becoming monit9ized by being invited into the YouTube Partnership Program.

To recap: the current minimum viewer involvement is 1000 subscribers and 4000 viewing hours to a channel, per YouTube.

Once monetized from several sources(too many to list), the average revenue via direct ads is $5-7 per 1000 views.

Revenue Per Milli (1000) is the term I hear most often.

Goal: Get Views and Subscribers.

How: Know your audience, create content worth watching, and additional content that feeds your viewers’ desire to watch.

Membership Fees: How Do I Get Viewers To Pay?

Some viewers will offer money, out of the kindness of their hearts, like tipping a street performer for their work.

To accomplish this, you must create good content with experience and ask your viewers for support, a boldness that will come again with experience.

Some Viewers want something in return for their membership fee.

Some channels offer stickers, which can help advertise your channel.

Some channels offer special access to videos, early access to the public, or exclusive access to private videos.

To get this, you have to create more content; see a theme here that can be held back while your public videos offer content that drives traffic to your membership and the reward of more videos. Again, viewer-focused content is the goal.

It’s on my to-do list to create a patron account and generate revenue by asking for or offering something simple like stickers, but not there yet.

Affiliate Sales: Making Commissions With YouTube Videos.

Now affiliate sales are the easiest method to making money with YouTube, and many of us have experience with this method through Blogging.

You can mention a product you use or do a full review and include a link to the product in your video or video description.

No subscribers or views requirements; create your first video and add a link.

This is easy to do, but I found no one goes to the video description unless you mention it in the video—just a tip.

My experience with this method of directing viewers to click a link is I advertise a blog of mine in my videos, and the videos I create are designed to drive traffic to my Blog.

My Blog has many affiliate links, but with time, I plan to add more affiliate links to my videos as my audience grows.

Sponsorship: When Do I Get Sponsors To Pay Me?

Good question and everyone has mixed answers as far as time, but one thing is common, views. Sponsorship requests can come automatically when you get viewer traffic by creating frequent viewer-focused content.

But, for the bold, you can be in a niche, say classic car care, and you can reach out to companies and pitch the importance of supporting your channel and how you will create content featuring their products.

You can seek out video sponsorships.

My experience with this is with my Blog; I’ve had product manufacturers offering to sponsor my content with ‘free’ products. I’ declined, and I am not interested in sponsorship content yet.

However, if you start seeking sponsorship revenue, there are often conditions associated with accepting the ‘free’ items or money. Read the agreement, and get help with understanding contracts.

Quick Recap.

I am very early in creating my own YouTube content, still trying to work a system around life and get material out faster, but what I’ve learned so far. Generating money from YouTube is like generating money from Blogging.

Blogs have display ads, affiliate links, sponsorships, and membership options.

So moving forward feel Blogging has helped me understand and filter all the information we are bombarded with, get rich quickly, never work another day in your life, blah, blah, you see in constant online advertisements.

So, can you make money on YouTube? Yes, Yes, YOU can. But turning it passive (a big topic on the Blog, but only lightly touched on in this post) can take time and effort.

I plan to outsource video creation steps to others once revenue starts. With time and enough money, I might step back and hire producers and a crew to create videos without me.

This is the ultimate goal of creating a passive income source from YouTube videos.

But the truth is, I like talking to people and helping others through my blogs or videos. And appreciate my audience.

Thank you!

Tom, Growing His Passive Income Generators.