[0:00] So, you would like to make money on
[0:01] YouTube? Well, so would I. And luckily
[0:04] for us, YouTube is adding new ways to do
[0:06] that every single year. So, I thought it
[0:07] was about time for an up-to-date
[0:09] monetization guide going over all the
[0:10] ways YouTube currently pays creators and
[0:13] how you can best use them. I will have
[0:15] timestamps down below so you can skip to
[0:17] the ones that you would like to learn
[0:18] more about. So, let's start with the
[0:20] first one, and that is ad revenue. The
[0:22] most popular way people make money on
[0:24] this platform, the first thing you think
[0:26] about when you think making money on
[0:27] YouTube is probably this method. The way
[0:29] it works is that YouTube will pay you
[0:30] for ads that run before, during, and
[0:32] even after your videos. By the way, I'm
[0:34] specifically talking about long- form
[0:36] YouTube videos. We're going to get to
[0:37] shorts in a little bit, but YouTube
[0:39] takes 45%, you get the other 55%. And
[0:42] that is like very basically how it
[0:44] works. As long as you are in the partner
[0:45] program, your videos will just be
[0:47] monetized, and you can start to make
[0:49] money simply by posting videos.
[0:50] Unfortunately though, you can't turn
[0:51] this one on right away. To qualify, you
[0:53] need 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000
[0:56] hours of watch time in the last 12
[0:57] months or 10 million valid shorts views
[1:00] in the last 90 days. Once you hit that
[1:02] though, that is it. You are fully in the
[1:04] YouTube partnership program. Now,
[1:05] unfortunately, not all views in the
[1:06] partnership program pay the same.
[1:08] Depending on your niche and your
[1:09] audience, some videos might pay $20 for
[1:12] every,000 views, while other videos
[1:13] might pay 20 cents for every,000 views.
[1:15] So, for some creators, ad revenue, even
[1:17] early on, can absolutely start paying
[1:19] some bills. For others, not so much.
[1:21] Like I said, it depends on audience and
[1:23] it depends on your niche. If your
[1:24] viewers live in a country where ad rates
[1:26] are generally higher, then advertisers
[1:28] will be paying more in those countries
[1:30] and therefore you will get a larger
[1:31] piece of the pie. But for example, if
[1:33] your audience is younger and advertisers
[1:35] aren't spending as much to reach that
[1:36] particular audience, there's just not as
[1:38] much to go around. And I want to clear
[1:40] up a common myth here, too. Just because
[1:41] your videos are longer doesn't mean
[1:44] they're necessarily going to make more
[1:45] money. Sure, you can spam ads yourself
[1:48] in the video all throughout, but if you
[1:49] if users aren't watching the video long
[1:52] enough to even reach those points where
[1:53] you've placed an ad, they're not going
[1:55] to end up paying out anything. So, when
[1:56] it comes to ad revenue and even getting
[1:58] yourself to the level where you can earn
[1:59] money from ad revenue, it's just about
[2:01] making the very best videos you possibly
[2:03] can and making them no shorter or no
[2:05] longer than they need to be. But that is
[2:06] just one piece of the puzzle. We have a
[2:07] lot more methods to get to. Let's go
[2:08] into shorts real quick. The requirements
[2:10] for unlocking ad revenue for YouTube
[2:12] shorts are exactly the same as ad
[2:14] revenue for long form videos. 1,000
[2:16] subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch
[2:17] time or 10 million shorts views within
[2:19] the last 90 days. Once you're in the
[2:20] partnership program, you can earn
[2:22] revenue on your shorts and you can earn
[2:24] revenue from posting long form videos as
[2:25] well. The way ads run on shorts is a
[2:27] little bit different though. Instead of
[2:28] ads being placed in the middle of a
[2:30] YouTube short, ads play a lot of times
[2:32] in the feed between YouTube shorts. This
[2:34] means the revenue is getting split
[2:35] between you and other creators in that
[2:37] particular pool. And after music
[2:39] licensing deals are done, you usually
[2:41] end up taking away like a 45% chunk of
[2:44] the money that is spent on those ads.
[2:46] And I'll be honest, the pay, at least
[2:47] right now, for shorts views is way lower
[2:50] than it is for long form views. If
[2:52] you're regularly getting 500,000 or a
[2:54] million views from shorts, you're
[2:56] probably not going to be quitting your
[2:57] day job anytime soon. Ad rates have
[2:58] gotten better, but if you're just
[2:59] relying on shorts, you're going to need
[3:01] millions and millions of views pretty
[3:02] consistently. So, to answer the question
[3:04] we get all the time, can shorts critters
[3:06] really make any real money? The answer
[3:07] is yes, but the bar is really high. You
[3:10] need really highquality shorts that get
[3:12] a lot of views. The third method on the
[3:14] list is YouTube premium revenue. The
[3:17] nice thing about this is that there are
[3:18] no extra requirements. You just need to
[3:20] be in the full YouTube partnership
[3:21] program. So again, 1,000 subscribers,
[3:23] 4,000 hours of watch time, or 10 million
[3:25] shorts views in 90 days. Boom. Partner
[3:27] program. And now you're also getting
[3:28] revenue from the YouTube Premium
[3:30] program. Basically, when someone with
[3:31] YouTube Premium watches your videos,
[3:33] they're not seeing an ad, which means
[3:36] there's no ad revenue to share. Instead,
[3:38] you get a cut of the money that they pay
[3:40] for their subscription to YouTube
[3:41] Premium. But the good news about this is
[3:43] that YouTube Premium viewers are
[3:45] typically paying more than you would
[3:47] normally get from an ad viewer. I just
[3:49] want to stress that just because people
[3:50] watch you with premium, it's not going
[3:51] to double your YouTube ad revenue or
[3:53] your YouTube income overnight. But from
[3:54] what we've seen in terms of your monthly
[3:56] total revenue, YouTube Premium can
[3:58] represent anywhere between like 5 and
[3:59] 15%. Now, before we dive into the next
[4:01] methods for making money, I need to
[4:03] clarify a new thing that happened a
[4:05] couple years ago when it comes to the
[4:06] YouTube partnership program that makes
[4:08] talking about this a little bit
[4:09] confusing. So, in 2023, YouTube launched
[4:11] a brand new type of partnership program
[4:12] that is basically one step lower than
[4:14] the one we've been talking about up till
[4:15] now, where you need 1,000 subscribers
[4:16] and 4,000 hours of watch time.
[4:18] Essentially, once you hit 500
[4:19] subscribers and three videos in the last
[4:21] 90 days and either 3,000 hours of watch
[4:24] time or 3 million shorts views in the
[4:26] last 90 days, you unlock fan funding.
[4:29] This technically means you are in the
[4:30] YouTube partnership program, but you
[4:32] have not yet unlocked ad revenue methods
[4:34] of making money. So, the next few
[4:36] monetization methods we're going through
[4:37] are going to be available to those in
[4:39] that lower tier of the partnership
[4:40] program. First up is channel
[4:42] memberships. How they work is once you
[4:43] set this up, fans of your channel can
[4:45] contribute to you on a monthly basis.
[4:47] And you get to set up all the different
[4:48] pricing tiers for how much they pay
[4:50] versus what they get in return. What
[4:52] they get in return is completely up to
[4:53] you. Custom badges, emotes, exclusive
[4:56] videos, even exclusive live streams. All
[4:58] this stuff is available for you to
[4:59] decide what to give in return for this
[5:02] monthly revenue. With YouTube, the cut
[5:04] here is about a 7030 split. You get 70%,
[5:06] YouTube gets 30%. My biggest tip if
[5:08] you're setting up a membership program
[5:10] is to make sure that whatever you offer
[5:12] does not require any more work for you,
[5:14] whether you have one member or a
[5:16] thousand members. For example, I
[5:18] strongly advise against a perk that
[5:20] basically requires you to write a
[5:21] handwritten letter to every new member
[5:23] you get. Instead, doing a regular
[5:25] membersonly live stream can be a great
[5:27] way to give value to any amount of
[5:29] members that you happen to have at that
[5:30] time. To determine what perks work the
[5:32] best, I would just look at other
[5:33] creators in your niche to see what
[5:35] they're offering, to see what the
[5:36] audience of this particular niche has
[5:38] come to expect from different membership
[5:40] programs. Next up, I'm going to combine
[5:41] these two, super chats and super
[5:43] stickers. These unlock at that 500 sub
[5:46] tier of the partnership program. And the
[5:47] way it works is that super chats
[5:49] basically exist while you're live.
[5:51] People can give you a certain amount of
[5:52] money. They can write a message and that
[5:54] message will appear big and colorful in
[5:56] the chat. It'll also pin itself to the
[5:57] top depending on how much they donated.
[5:59] That will determine how long it kind of
[6:00] stays pinned to your chat. I've seen
[6:02] people spend a couple bucks just to say
[6:04] hello or ask a question real quick all
[6:06] the way to $100 just because people
[6:07] really enjoy supporting their favorite
[6:09] creators while they're live. YouTube
[6:10] takes its 30% cut of these as well, but
[6:12] they can be really great if you have an
[6:13] engaged audience who wants to support
[6:15] you financially. Super stickers are
[6:17] basically the same thing, but they're a
[6:18] great alternative for someone who wants
[6:20] to support you, but they don't really
[6:21] want to write a message. And what'll
[6:22] happen is they send one and it's this
[6:24] little animated gift that's just kind of
[6:25] hanging out in chat for a little while.
[6:27] Can small channels benefit from this?
[6:28] Absolutely. Even if you cater to 10 or
[6:31] 20 viewers, you might have people who
[6:32] are willing and able to super chat to
[6:34] you. My tip to you is to make sure you
[6:36] thank people who send you super chats.
[6:37] If they ask a question, absolutely
[6:39] answer that question. If you've ever
[6:40] been in a really large live stream with
[6:42] like thousands of people chatting, you
[6:43] might notice those creators don't really
[6:45] get to all their super chats, that is
[6:47] simply because some of them just make a
[6:49] lot of money and get a lot of super
[6:50] chats all at once and it becomes very
[6:52] difficult to keep up. That does not mean
[6:54] you should follow that example. If you
[6:55] are a small channel and you have the
[6:57] ability to keep up with your super
[6:58] chats, you should absolutely do so.
[7:00] Number seven is also in the super
[7:02] category, but this time it's called
[7:03] super thanks. They're unlocked at that
[7:05] lower level tier of the partnership
[7:06] program. And basically the way they work
[7:08] is if you have a video you've posted,
[7:10] somebody can leave a super thanks
[7:12] comment on the video. They're allowed to
[7:14] give anywhere between $2 all the way up
[7:16] to $500. And before you ask, no, I've
[7:18] not personally seen anybody give a $500
[7:20] super thanks. But let me know in the
[7:22] comments if you have. If this is a
[7:23] feature you have, but you're finding
[7:24] people aren't using it. I would say not
[7:26] to push too hard, but maybe once in a
[7:28] while let people know that if they
[7:30] appreciate the content you're making,
[7:31] they can maybe leave a super thanks down
[7:33] below just to, you know, show their
[7:35] appreciation. Personally though, if I
[7:36] were to ask someone to do anything, it
[7:37] would probably be to get them to watch
[7:38] another video. I think that's them being
[7:40] more likely to support me in the future
[7:42] rather than using my one ask per video
[7:44] if I have that on Super. Thanks. Number
[7:46] eight is YouTube shopping. Think of it
[7:48] as YouTube's version of Tik Tok shop.
[7:50] This one's pretty new, but right now you
[7:52] can attach products to videos, shorts,
[7:54] live streams, and people can actually
[7:56] find and buy those products from
[7:58] YouTube's page, and they don't have to
[7:59] Google anything. If someone does that,
[8:01] you get a cut of that sale. To have
[8:03] access to this feature though, you need
[8:04] to be in the top tier partnership
[8:06] program, that 1,000 subscriber, 4,000
[8:07] hour threshold. From there, you can set
[8:09] up a shop through Shopify, Spreadshirt,
[8:12] FourthWall, or a service like that. From
[8:13] there, you can tag products directly
[8:15] within your content, and you can even
[8:16] set up a store tab on your YouTube
[8:18] channel. Do you have to have your own
[8:19] merch to use the shopping feature? No,
[8:21] actually, you do not. You can actually
[8:23] tag approved products from different
[8:25] brands, and you can earn commissions off
[8:27] those sales. In fact, YouTube even has
[8:28] an affiliate program that offers
[8:30] creators with 15,000 subs or more to get
[8:32] paid 5 to 20% commissions every time
[8:34] their audience buys something. The tip
[8:36] here that I have for you is to make sure
[8:37] if you're using this that the product
[8:38] you're pitching is relevant to your
[8:40] audience. Fitness creators who tag a
[8:42] resistance band, yeah, that seems to
[8:44] make sense. A gaming channel all of a
[8:46] sudden pitching you to buy a blender,
[8:48] not so much. This is a relatively new
[8:49] feature, and I would argue it's kind of
[8:51] underused at the moment, so it could be
[8:52] a huge opportunity to make some money.
[8:54] But I would also caution that it's not
[8:56] the beall endall. Number nine is YouTube
[8:58] Brand Connect. And this is where we get
[9:00] into sponsored content. This though is a
[9:02] built-in service that YouTube actually
[9:04] runs where brands can come to you and
[9:06] offer you different deals for pitching
[9:08] their products or services in your
[9:09] videos. Instead of you reaching out to
[9:11] brands yourself, YouTube can set up the
[9:13] connection for you. Basically, what you
[9:15] get from turning this on are more
[9:16] opportunities because there are already
[9:18] brands who are looking for creators in
[9:19] your niche to promote their products or
[9:21] services. and YouTube is letting them
[9:23] use this tool to find you for you. You
[9:25] get all these different tools that allow
[9:26] you to accept offers, manage the
[9:28] campaigns. You can even get your creator
[9:30] brief inside of YouTube Studio. Another
[9:31] thing you get is the custom media kit.
[9:33] And this could be something that you can
[9:34] basically print out from YouTube. And it
[9:36] has all of your channel metrics on there
[9:37] that a brand would be interested in. And
[9:39] from there, you can bring that to brands
[9:41] yourself to prove where you're at on
[9:43] YouTube right now in terms of how many
[9:44] views you get, your demographics, things
[9:45] like that. In short, Brand Connect is
[9:47] here to take the headache away from
[9:48] finding brand deals and sponsorships.
[9:50] The contracts are standardized, the
[9:51] payments all go through YouTube, and you
[9:53] get to find sponsors without actually
[9:55] having to go and hunt for them. If this
[9:56] is something you decide to use though
[9:58] and you qualify for it, I'm going to
[9:59] caution you not to just take any brand
[10:01] deal just because you have the
[10:02] opportunity to. If you're a cooking
[10:04] channel, maybe promoting board games is
[10:05] not the right fit. A good example,
[10:07] though, is that if you were a channel
[10:08] that perhaps educated people on how to
[10:10] grow on YouTube and you happen to have a
[10:11] product that also helped people grow
[10:12] their channels and it happened to be
[10:14] called Vid IQ, then maybe that would be
[10:16] like a good fit. And then what you could
[10:17] do is like on every video you could like
[10:19] leave a link to that thing at the bottom
[10:21] and tell people it's like free. You can
[10:22] just try it and yeah there are paid
[10:24] tools too that kind of unlock a lot for
[10:26] you and it can it could really offer a
[10:28] lot of insights and value and you know
[10:30] you could say the link is down below and
[10:32] it offers an exclusive deal to people
[10:33] who watch your videos. You'd say things
[10:35] like that, right? And it would provide
[10:37] value to the the audience because it'd
[10:39] be a good fit because you would be a
[10:40] YouTube education channel providing an
[10:42] education product. Anyway, it's a great
[10:45] way to land sponsorship deals, but just
[10:47] like every good way to make money, it
[10:49] can be used incorrectly. So, make sure
[10:51] you're taking deals that make sense.
[10:52] Number 10 is affiliate marketing. And I
[10:54] have talked about this already in this
[10:56] video, but this is specifically
[10:57] affiliate marketing outside of YouTube.
[10:59] What's nice about this is that you can
[11:00] turn this on tomorrow. If you have zero
[11:03] subscribers, you can start affiliate
[11:04] marketing today. The way it works is you
[11:06] recommend a product, you provide a
[11:07] unique link, people click that link, you
[11:09] get a commission if they happen to buy
[11:10] something. It really depends on which
[11:12] affiliate programs you join, but
[11:13] commissions can range from like 5% to
[11:15] 20%. A common question here is, "Okay,
[11:17] should I just join the Amazon affiliate
[11:18] program?" And you can, but it's not
[11:20] necessarily for everybody. A lot of
[11:22] different brands have affiliate
[11:23] programs. One you've probably seen a
[11:24] lot, for example, are the different VPN
[11:26] companies. If tech channels happen to
[11:28] talk about a VPN, they'll usually be
[11:29] affiliated with one of the many that
[11:31] there are. If you happen to be a YouTube
[11:33] education channel that educates people
[11:34] on how to grow on YouTube, maybe maybe
[11:36] you would join the Vid IQ affiliate
[11:38] program, which is actually a thing. And
[11:39] you know, find out more information
[11:40] about that link down below. My tip for
[11:42] you is of course not to just say link
[11:43] down below, but to actually show the
[11:45] thing that you are affiliated with. Show
[11:47] yourself using it and show your audience
[11:50] how this thing can provide value to
[11:51] them. This is especially powerful for
[11:53] channels who do any kind of product
[11:55] reviews or things like that. Very often,
[11:56] if they are in the Amazon affiliate
[11:58] program, they'll have affiliate links
[11:59] and you've probably clicked on some
[12:00] yourself. I've done so for sure. It's a
[12:03] great way to kind of support the creator
[12:05] who just showed you this cool thing
[12:06] while not actually giving them any extra
[12:09] money, right? You're going to buy it
[12:10] anyway. Why not give them a cut? I would
[12:11] say if this is something you're going to
[12:12] do, I would tailor your links on a per
[12:14] video basis. If in this video you're
[12:16] using a specific piece of gear or a
[12:19] product or a service, then maybe that's
[12:21] the time to put that affiliate link in.
[12:22] And you can join a lot of different
[12:23] affiliate programs and use the different
[12:25] links throughout different pieces of
[12:26] content. The best part about affiliate
[12:28] programs though is that if you convert a
[12:30] lot of sales, this can be huge if you're
[12:33] going out and looking for potential
[12:34] sponsors later on because it shows that
[12:36] your audience is willing to spend money
[12:37] and you are good at promoting different
[12:40] products. These next two are really new,
[12:42] but number 11, let's start here with
[12:44] YouTube gifts, formerly known as jewels.
[12:46] You won't really see these around
[12:47] YouTube unless you're watching a lot of
[12:49] vertical live streams in the short
[12:50] shelf. They're pretty simple, though.
[12:51] The way it works is that you could be
[12:52] watching a creator on the short shelf
[12:54] while they're live and you can hit the
[12:56] little gift icon and then you can choose
[12:58] what kind of gift you want to give them.
[12:59] Essentially, it shows a little
[13:01] animation, but you're just kind of
[13:02] choosing how much money to give them.
[13:04] What's kind of cool about them is that
[13:05] they appear as an overlay for the entire
[13:07] live stream. So, if you give a gift,
[13:08] everybody can see it. Essentially
[13:10] though, these are basically super chats,
[13:11] but just for the vertical live streams
[13:13] rather than the horizontal ones. And
[13:15] then perhaps the newest monetization
[13:16] method that I'm still trying to learn
[13:17] about myself is the YouTube player for
[13:19] education. According to YouTube's help
[13:21] page, if you create educational videos
[13:23] or shorts, our educational partners like
[13:25] schools and teachers may choose to embed
[13:27] your content in their learning
[13:28] materials. When educational partners
[13:29] choose to embed your content or watch
[13:31] your already embedded content, they may
[13:33] be using Player for Education. This
[13:35] gives teachers a way to show your
[13:36] content to their students without having
[13:38] ads on it. It literally says, even
[13:40] though there aren't any ads, you can
[13:42] still earn money from the amount of time
[13:44] people watch your videos in the player.
[13:46] As far as I can tell, this is YouTube
[13:47] basically paying you out of their own
[13:49] pockets so that they can become a
[13:51] stronger force in education across the
[13:54] board. Let me know if this is something
[13:55] you've thought about doing. I think this
[13:56] feature might even still be rolling out,
[13:58] but it's very interesting and I think
[14:00] depending on the kind of content you
[14:01] make, you might be a perfect fit for
[14:02] this program. Perhaps the strangest
[14:04] monetization method though that you're
[14:05] going to hear me talk about today is
[14:06] licensing out your content. This
[14:08] particular money-making method flies
[14:09] under the radar, but it can be very
[14:11] profitable depending on again the kind
[14:13] of content you make. Here's how it
[14:14] works. Basically, media outlets like TV
[14:16] stations or hey, even other creators
[14:19] might see your content and they might
[14:21] want to use it themselves instead of
[14:22] letting them just rip your content and
[14:24] then you sit there and hope for a little
[14:25] bit of credit, you can license that
[14:27] content to them. And there's actually
[14:29] companies that exist that will help you
[14:30] broker these types of deals so that if
[14:32] your content ends up in the evening
[14:33] news, you get something for that. You
[14:35] don't have to go through those programs,
[14:36] though. Let's say you capture a storm
[14:38] that happened that rolled through your
[14:40] community and you got this really
[14:41] awesome footage of it. If the news
[14:43] reaches out to you, you can absolutely
[14:44] set the terms yourself as to how much
[14:46] you want them to give you to license
[14:48] that for their evening story.
[14:49] Oftentimes, if a certain type of clip
[14:51] goes viral, this is something that can
[14:52] absolutely happen to you. Is this kind
[14:53] of thing only for viral creators,
[14:55] though? Absolutely not. Even niche stuff
[14:57] like really rare events or drone footage
[14:59] or very in-depth tutorials can be things
[15:02] that get licensed out. It's kind of like
[15:03] when people use stock footage, only this
[15:05] is like way more specific. Essentially,
[15:06] if you feel like the content you're
[15:07] capturing is really unique, then I would
[15:10] absolutely look into licensing it. So,
[15:11] there you go. over a dozen different
[15:13] ways to make money on YouTube. The big
[15:15] takeaway here is that you don't need all
[15:17] of them. Try to figure out which ones
[15:18] work better for you. Maybe you hit
[15:20] monetization through the partnership
[15:21] program. Maybe you start up a
[15:22] membership. Maybe you have a couple
[15:23] affiliate links. And that's all you
[15:25] really have to do. You don't have to use
[15:27] all of these if you're overwhelmed. It
[15:28] is hard. Monetizing on YouTube is hard.
[15:30] Even getting there is difficult. And
[15:32] that's why this video is here for you.
[15:33] Because if you're finding YouTube to be
[15:34] a struggle, hopefully this will make it
[15:36] a little bit easier.