6 Ways to Make Money on YouTube in 2023

YouTube has a video monetization scheme called the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), which compensates you for hosting advertisements in your videos.

Once enrolled, you’ll get paid each time a regular viewer watches an ad in full. For views from YouTube Premium members (who don’t see ads), you’ll get a certain amount of money based on how much of your content they’ve consumed. 1

To qualify for the YouTube Partner Program, you’ll need to set up an AdSense account and meet the following requirements: 2

• Live in a YPP-eligible country
• Have no active Community Guidelines strikes on your channel
• Turn on the two-step verification on your Google account
• Have access to advanced features on YouTube
• Have at least 1,000 subscribers AND either 4,000 valid watch hours from the past year or 10 million Shorts views from the past 90 days

YouTube will notify you via email when you’re eligible to apply for the YPP. To monitor your subscribers and watch hours, simply navigate to your YouTube account details and click on “YouTube Studio.”

One exciting new feature of the YPP is that you can now monetize YouTube Shorts, which are short videos similar to those on TikTok. You’ll be paid each time a viewer watches a full ad in between YouTube Shorts.

What types of content may be excluded from ad revenue?

One of YouTube’s monetization policies is that the content you post needs to be advertiser friendly. This means your videos cannot contain the following material:

• Violent content
• Sexual content
• Deceitful content
• Demeaning content
• Vulgar language
• Content perpetrating hatred
• Inappropriate content for children

You can check out the full list of topics that aren’t advertiser friendly on Google’s support page, which also elaborates on their definition of each topic.

To check if YouTube has demonetized your channel, click on “Earn” in the left-hand menu of your YouTube Studio. In the same column, you can also submit an appeal by clicking on “Content” if you believe YouTube has mistakenly blocked one of your videos.

Some companies will offer YouTubers money, products, or services in exchange for a sponsored mention, a sponsored video, or some other publicity benefit. The catch is that you generally need to have a pretty big following in order to attract the attention of major brands.

Brands looking to form sponsorship deals look for YouTubers who have already established a large viewership among the company’s target demographic. For instance, an online counseling company may offer up a sponsorship deal if you have a widely successful YouTube channel dedicated to mental health.

Don’t rush to form sponsorships with just any brand—you may lose subscribers if people dislike the products you’re promoting. When deciding which brands to work with, live by the following rules:

• Partner with brands that fit the style of your content
• Only endorse brands you like and trust
• Be transparent with your audience about your sponsorships

How much money you’ll get offered for branded content depends on the number of subscribers you have, how profitable your niche is, and your audience demographics.

Affiliate marketing is a common way to earn money as a YouTuber by promoting products or services on your channel because you don’t necessarily need to be a superstar to get started.

In contrast to brand sponsorships, affiliate marketing deals often give you more control over your content. However, you don’t get paid upfront—instead, your income is based on the number of sales you inspire.

To start earning money through affiliate marketing on YouTube, simply browse companies relevant to your subject matter and find one that has an affiliate program. You’ll get a personalized affiliate link to add to a video’s description box, and then you’ll earn a commission each time one of your viewers uses that link to make a qualifying purchase.

Examples of popular YouTube affiliate programs include Amazon Associates, the Shopify Affiliate Program, and ClickBank. Be sure to clearly disclose your brand affiliations in your videos.

Fan funding is a way for your audience to support your work through donations. In exchange, you may offer special perks, like access to exclusive content.

Here are some of the most common types of fan funding:

• YouTube channel memberships: Viewers can support you by signing up for a YouTube membership to your channel. They’ll make recurring monthly payments, and in return, they’ll receive member-only perks, such as access to exclusive behind-the-scenes videos.
• Super Thanks: Super Thanks is a program that allows viewers to show appreciation for content creators. Viewers have a few pricing options to choose from, and in exchange for payment, they’ll get to see a one-time animation across your videos and get to post a colorful comment that’ll stand out in your comment section.
• Super Chat and Super Stickers: Super Chat and Super Stickers are other YouTube programs that allow viewers to post highlighted comments or stickers in the live chats of live streams in exchange for payment. The larger the donation, the more noticeable the comment or sticker will be.
• Third-party donation programs: In addition to enrolling in YouTube’s own membership and donation programs, you can set up donation portals on websites like Patreon or Buy Me a Coffee. Simply create an account and add your donation page’s URL to the description box for one or more of your videos. In exchange, you can provide these fans with exclusive perks, content, or rewards.

Your audience will likely be more willing to make donations if you continue to publish quality content and are candid about how you’ll use the money you’re given.

A successful YouTube channel is a great platform for selling products or merchandise. You could make and sell t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, tote bags, or even your own book.

Many YouTubers will create products that align with their channel content. For instance, if you have a cooking channel, you might want to develop your own brand of kitchen utensils and promote them in your videos.

Coming up with something to sell doesn’t have to be difficult—start by thinking about the defining characteristics of your channel. For example, if you have a catchphrase you say in each of your videos, you can print it on your merchandise.

When you upload a video to YouTube, you own the copyright to that content, and nobody else (apart from other YouTubers) can use it without your permission. 3 With this power comes the opportunity to charge high fees for usage rights.

Posting valuable footage or high-quality content is the most obvious way to make this work for you as a video monetization strategy. Ultimately, however, whether it’s a feasible option for you is beyond your control—it really comes down to how much other people want to reuse your videos.

For example, should one of your YouTube videos go viral, media outlets may ask you if they can show it on their website or other platforms. If that happens, they may send you a content licensing agreement granting them the right to redistribute your content. In other cases, you may have to draft you own contract.

Your licensing agreement should clearly lay out what the other party can and can’t do with your content, how much you’re charging, and how they’ll compensate you. If you’re not sure where to start, consider consulting an attorney.

Here are steps you can take to grow your viewership and increase audience engagement:

• Consistently upload new videos: The only way to establish a devoted fan base is to regularly post quality content. If you don’t, people will simply stop watching. A reasonable target could be 1 video per week or up to 1 per day, depending on the type of content you’re producing.
• Know your audience: To keep people coming back to your channel, you need to know what they want to see. On this point, a major influencing factor is viewer demographics (e.g., age range, gender, or geographic location). Do some research on your fans to produce targeted content that’ll appeal to them.
• Add a call to action: You’ve probably seen a thousand videos end with a call-to-action phrase like “Don’t forget to like and subscribe if you liked this video.” This is a popular tactic YouTubers use to increase their number of viewers.
• Mix it up: You can increase your video output by uploading videos that require less time and effort to create. For instance, you won’t need to worry about cinematography if you post audio-only videos or tutorials on your channel.
• Collaborate with other YouTubers: Featuring other YouTubers on your channel and vice versa can help both you and your peers gain exposure and increase the profitability of your channels.

Like the case with any side hustle, starting a YouTube channel and monetizing your videos is the perfect job for some people but not a good option for others. Until you try making it as a pro YouTuber, it’s impossible to know how much you’ll actually be able to make or how variable your earnings will be.

If you already have a successful YouTube channel, then monetizing your content should be easy and definitely worthwhile. On the other hand, if you’re still building a following or you haven’t even started your YouTube channel yet, then you’ll have to do deeper deliberation to decide whether it’s worth it.

How much money can you make on YouTube?

Estimates from different sources show that as a YouTuber, you can get paid anywhere in the range of $1.61–$30.00 for every 1,000 views you get. 4 5

Plenty of YouTubers will tell you that you can make thousands of dollars per month by posting videos, but the truth is that not everyone will get the same results.

Your income from YouTube will partly depend on the quality of your content, but it will also come down to your marketing skills, the monetization strategies you use, how consistently you post new videos, and good old-fashioned luck.

Alternatives to making money on YouTube

If you love the ideal of generating an income digitally but you’re struggling to make it big as a YouTuber, you can explore monetization options on other media platforms.

Here are a few ideas:

• Become a social media influencer: Making money on social media sites and apps works in much the same way as it does on YouTube. You can work with brands to promote products on your social media accounts, create branded posts, or sell your own merch.
• Live stream: Believe it or not, you can actually get paid to play video games. A popular side hustle among gamers is signing up for Twitch, a platform specifically built for live streaming. Once you’ve established an audience, you can monetize your content through the Twitch Affiliate Program.
• Sign up for websites and apps that pay you: There are plenty of ways to easily earn extra cash remotely online. For example, you could watch ads for money or take paid surveys.

Beyond these options, you can also explore countless other side hustles that fit in with your lifestyle. There are plenty of other creative side hustles that may suit you if you love the artistic or cinematographic aspects of creating YouTube videos.