YouTube, commonly known as YouTube, is the world’s largest video website. Five billion YouTube videos are watched every day around the world, and the average time users spend on YouTube is 40 minutes. People spend far more time watching videos than browsing the web.
Many Chinese people are already using YouTube to make money, such as the Office Ono channel , which shoots various creative office meals, and is said to have a monthly income of 4.5 million yuan; the famous Li Ziqi channel , which shoots Chinese rural life and food, has a monthly income of more than 3.7 million yuan. So both Chinese and Chinese people have the opportunity to make money on YouTube.
The most profitable person on YouTube is a kid named Ryan. He used his YouTube channel Ryan’s World to make $26 million in one year through videos of playing with toys and disassembling toys. Therefore, everyone has the opportunity to make money from YouTube.
In this article, I will cover all aspects of making money on YouTube and introduce the many ways to make money on YouTube.
let’s start.
First, let’s see, how much money can you make on YouTube?
According to Forbes, these 10 channels were the highest-grossing channels on YouTube from June 2018 to June 2019 :
- Ryan’s World , $26 million (25 million subscribers)
- Dude Perfect , $20 million (51 million subs)
- Anastasia Radzinskaya , $18 million (54 million subscriptions)
- Rhett and Link , $17.5 million (4.91 million subscriptions)
- Jeffree Star , $17 million (18.1 million subscribers)
- Preston (Preston Arsement) $14 million (13 million subscriptions)
- PewDiePie , $13 million (104 million subscribers)
- Markiplier , $13 million (25 million subscriptions)
- DanTDM , $12 million (23 million subscriptions)
- VanossGaming , $11.5 million (25 million subscriptions)
The above is the income of foreign Youtubers, which makes us feel out of reach. Next, let us take a look at the income of Chinese people on YouTube:
- Office Ono , monthly income of 4.5 million yuan (8.8 million subscriptions)
- Li Ziqi , monthly income 3.7 million yuan (10 million subscriptions)
- Grandpa Amu , monthly income 3 million yuan, (1.09 million subscriptions)
- Brother from West Yunnan , monthly income of 2.5 million yuan (5 million subscriptions)
- TreeMan , a monthly income of 1.2 million yuan (500,000 subscriptions)
- Xiangxiang Battle , monthly income of 600,000 yuan (580,000 subscriptions)
- Food writer Wang Gang , monthly income of 500,000 yuan (1.38 million subscriptions)
- Saturday wild Zoey , monthly income of 300,000 yuan (840,000 subscriptions)
- Adventure Detective Lei , monthly income of 300,000 yuan (630,000 subscriptions)
- Brother Yu talks about movies and earns 200,000 yuan per month (1.38 million subscriptions)
- Teacher Li Yongle , monthly income 200,000 yuan (1.31 million subscriptions)
Even though the income data of these Chinese YouTube bloggers are a bit exaggerated, their income is absolutely considerable.
Next let’s look at the core issues:
How to make money on YouTube?
Compared with the relatively single revenue sources in China, such as the sharing mechanisms of Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, etc., YouTube’s revenue sources are more diversified, mainly including the following:
- YouTube’s own advertising share
- Affiliate affiliate marketing income
- Video embedded advertising
- products for sale
- Crowdfunding creative projects
- Fans tip
- Licensing videos to media
Let’s take a closer look at each of these ways to make money:
1. YouTube advertising share
For many YouTube users, advertising is the most important source of income.
There are basically two styles of YouTube Partner ads: 1. Video ads inserted during video playback, 2. Google AdSense banner ads displayed below the video.
However, in order to become a YouTube Partner, in addition to complying with YouTube’s advertising rules, you must have accumulated at least 4,000 video viewing hours on your channel in the past 12 months and have 1,000 subscribers or fans, so that you can apply for an advertising account. condition.
For 4,000 viewing hours, there is no specific time limit or specific requirements. You can upload 40 videos with an average viewing time of 100 hours per video, for a total viewing time of 4,000 hours, or any other combination, as long as you meet this minimum length requirement.
For example, after the YouTube account of a guy from West Yunnan was opened, it reached 1 million fans in just 3 months, and the number of video views was huge.
After successfully reaching the 4,000 hour threshold and becoming a YouTube Partner, you can start making money from ads.
However, advertising alone is not enough on YouTube. There are other ways to boost your income.
2. Affiliate affiliate marketing income
Just like promoting affiliate links on your blog, you can also publish affiliate links on YouTube. For YouTube channels that provide online tutorials and product reviews, using affiliate marketing is also a major channel to increase revenue. If you recommend a product through your video and a user visits your link and purchases, you will earn a commission.
But be aware that you need to provide videos that are truly useful to your audience in order to attract them to click and purchase. You cannot provide irrelevant links just for monetary gain.
There are many affiliate programs to consider. You can find many affiliate marketing programs on popular affiliate marketing networks like Shareasale or Flexoffers .
If you want to maximize your income, it’s best to open your own website or blog at the same time as your YouTube channel . This will attract viewers to your website and increase customer stickiness. And, if something goes wrong with your YouTube channel, you can also make money with your website or blog. Don’t put your eggs in one basket.
If you want to buy a hosting first to create a blog or website, I recommend Bluehost hosting server. Bluehost is the “official” web hosting platform recommended by WordPress.org , and you can see how to build a website with Bluehost here .
3. Place ads
Similar to the product placement in movies, such as Feng Xiaogang’s movies, you can also place ads in your YouTube videos.
Companies interested in your YouTube channel may be interested in placing ads in your videos, and they pay you to place ads. Of course, channels that can directly attract advertisers must be channels with a certain degree of popularity.
Of course, you must consider the audience’s feelings when inserting video ads. First, the embedded ads must be related to your video content. The higher the fit, the better. Second, the quality of the embedded ads must be good, and you’d better use it yourself. However, only if you have a good experience; thirdly, you must master the quantity and frequency of product placement and try to be as natural as possible so that your fans can accept the product placement more comfortably without causing resentment.
Generally speaking, the income from embedded advertising fees in YouTube videos is relatively high. Because, compared with Facebook or Weibo posts, YouTube video production costs are higher, so the charges are relatively high.
Please note that even if you insert ads, you must ensure that you comply with Google’s advertising policies and follow the law to avoid being penalized by YouTube.
4. Sell products
You can also make money selling products through YouTube videos. You can sell products such as T-shirts, coffee mugs, and backpacks. You can print your channel’s logo on these products and sell them to your fans, thereby increasing the exposure of your channel and deepening your interaction with fans.
The specific operation is to introduce the products you have used in the video and provide a purchase link, and interested viewers may purchase it. For example, Ryan Kaji of the YouTube children’s channel Ryan’s World also makes money by selling toys, T-shirts and other items in addition to advertising. .
You can let others manufacture the physical products for sale, and design them according to the style and logo you want to form a unique product. Of course, you can also sell homemade downloadable content, such as e-books or video tutorials, etc.
Payments can usually be processed using online payment tools such as PayPal.
5. Crowdfunding creative projects
If you have a good creative project such as music, animation, design, etc., but do not have enough funds, you can crowdfund it with your fans.
As long as your idea is compelling enough, you can appeal to your own audience of fans and raise funds through crowdfunding platforms.
Before crowdfunding, you can make a trailer to let your fans see what kind of project you are going to do. This will greatly increase the success rate of crowdfunding.
Popular foreign crowdfunding websites include:
Kickstarter – One of the most famous crowdfunding sites in the world, great for funding cool products and creative projects.
Indiegogo – Another well-known crowdfunding website.
Domestic crowdfunding website:
Modian – a cultural and creative crowdfunding community, the first platform for product crowdfunding.
Jingdong Crowdfunding – The threshold is relatively low, and product crowdfunding can be carried out.
Taobao crowdfunding – Taobao crowdfunding is also quite popular in China.
6. Fans reward
Of course, if you develop a group of loyal fans, you can also invite them to tip on YouTube.
If the content you create is good enough and the audience thinks it is good and useful for work and life, they may give you a reward to show their support.
The form of reward is realized through the Super Chat and Super Sticker functions. Fans can directly reward fans during the mobile live broadcast. After paying the reward, the fan’s chat information can be highlighted at the top of the chat window.
However, there is a threshold for the mobile live broadcast function. Only channel bloggers with 1,000 or more YouTube fans can use it.
As long as your content is interesting or valuable, your audience will still be willing to donate generously.
7. Authorize videos to media
If the video you make is interesting and popular, and the media is interested in your video, you can license your video to the media, and they will pay you a certain amount of compensation.
You can also sell your videos on marketplaces like Jukin Media and people will buy your videos if they are interested.
Of course, such video production needs to be relatively sophisticated and have a certain degree of originality.
For example, the video above of a dog riding a horse is quite interesting and can be sold on the Jukin Media market to make money.
How much money can you make on YouTube?
Everyone’s income is different.
You can display YouTube ads, affiliate links and product placement in your videos to maximize your revenue.
On YouTube, you can monetize ads based on CPM, CPV, and CPC. The typical cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) income is about $7. This income should be the main income of many YouTubers.
However, the advertising revenue in different countries is different. For example, if 1,000 American users watch it, you may get 5 US dollars, but if 1,000 Vietnamese viewers watch it, you may only get less than 1 US dollar, so , your videos try to attract viewers from the United States, so that you can increase your revenue.
According to Google’s policy, Google keeps 45% of the revenue, and creators will receive 55% from advertising.
YouTube revenue calculator
As for exactly how much your videos can make, you can use the YouTube Revenue Calculator tool to see your estimated earnings.
The first tool on the page is used to calculate daily earnings. You can change the parameters on this page to see the estimated daily earnings.
The second tool can be used to check the income of other people’s YouTube channels. By entering their channel URL, you can estimate their income. This way you will have a general idea of whether you can make money from YouTube.
Which type of videos are easier to make money on YouTube?
It is relatively easy to quickly gain fans and make money in some popular areas such as celebrity gossip, makeup and beauty, food, etc. on YouTube. Here is a list of niches that are relatively easy to gain followers on YouTube:
- life skills
- celebrity gossip
- Makeup and Beauty
- Big X list (like top 10 funny videos)
- food channel
- Unboxing reviews of electronic and toy products
- Operation demonstration
- funny animal videos
- prank video
How to make money by starting a YouTube channel?
Regarding how to create a YouTube channel, you can read this tutorial . Here is a more detailed introduction to how to register for YouTube and how to upload videos.
What are some ways to make money on YouTube?
Of course, I still recommend regular people to make money on YouTube by making their own videos, such as food writer Wang Gang. This is more durable and can be your own business for a long time.
But there are also some people who want to use some tricks to make quick money. If you do it carefully, you can indeed transfer a lot of money.
For example, some people will upload other people’s videos in China to YouTube to make money. For example, by aggregating popular Douyin video clips into a relatively long video, and then putting it on YouTube to attract fans and playback, you can also earn considerable income. For example, a channel called Kristino Olsen carries domestic videos and integrates and edits them. It already has 2.38 million fans and its monthly income is expected to be around 500,000 yuan.
There are also people who transfer popular content from site B to YouTube to make money.
However, the fatal weakness of this type of channel is that it has no copyright. If it is reported by the original video author or reported by Douyin and Bilibili, it will be blocked.
Regarding how to make money by converting this type of moving video channel, here is an article: Make money by moving: Douyin article moving brick project , which explains in detail how to make money by moving, you can refer to it.
What tools do you need to make money on YouTube?
If you are overseas and your English is good, please skip this part.
If you are in China and your English is not very good, you need to use two tools:
1. Censorship tool. Since YouTube cannot be used in mainland China, circumvention is a must. It is recommended to use ExpressVPN , which is more stable and fast, and can upload videos quickly.
2. A browser with translation. If you know English level 4 or 6, you don’t need a browser with translation. If not, I recommend using Google Chrome , the built-in Google Translate is more accurate.
write at the end
It is possible to make money on YouTube, but YouTube alone is not safe. It is best to have your own platform, such as a blog or website, to attract YouTube traffic to your own website. In this way, after you have a certain number of users, you can completely break away from YouTube or just use it as one of the income channels to expand your career.
The best place to build a website that is consistent with your YouTube channel is at Bluehost .