Can You Make Money as a YouTuber?

They say “do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life”, but is it really that simple? Transforming a simple hobby or a side hustle into a full-blown career sounds daunting and, quite frankly, too good to be true. Still, YouTube monetization might just be a lucky exception that turns this dream into reality. 

Creators usually look for monetization as a way to earn money doing what they already know and love. Given all the guidelines and policies that come with earning money on YouTube, getting monetized is also a way for creators to keep themselves accountable and constantly improve their content. It makes it possible for them to scale up their channels, invest more time and money, grow their teams, and diversify their content. 

If you’re a video creator on a mission to start monetizing your channel, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll answer the burning question: can you make money as a YouTuber? We’ll follow up with more answers on monetization methods, eligibility, and guidelines, as well as some actionable tips for growing your YouTube channel and increasing your ad revenue. 

Stay tuned!

Does your YouTube channel qualify for monetization?

Dreaming of multiple revenue streams and exciting brand sponsorships is nice, but it doesn’t pay the bills (just yet). Before embarking on your quest to turn views into cash, you should be asking yourself: does my channel even qualify for monetization? If you don’t know the answer right away, it’s alright. That’s what we’re here for. 

To start earning money from YouTube, you will mostly likely choose one or both of these paths: 

• Incorporate ads in your videos with AdSense by joining the YouTube Partner Program
• Get sponsorships from different brands that support your content

Both of these methods can be incredibly profitable on their own, depending on your channel size. However, one of them comes with some pretty strict eligibility requirements that you’ll need to meet before you can get monetized, and that’s the YouTube Partner Program. 

We’ll go into more detail about all monetization methods later on, but for now, what you need to know about YouTube Partner Program eligibility is that: 

1. You need to be living in one of the countries where the YouTube Partner Program is available.
2. Your channel must have no Community Guidelines strikes.  
3. You need to have an AdSense account linked to your YouTube channel (AdSense is Google's advertising platform)
4. Your channel must have at least 1000 subscribers with 4000 public watch hours in the last 12 months OR 1000 subscribers with 10 million public views in the last 90 days.
5. You must have Two-Step Verification enabled for your channel.
6. Your content must adhere to YouTube’s advertising guidelines and policies. 

Once you meet all YouTube monetization requirements, you can apply for the Partner Program, and wait while your channel gets reviewed. Once your request is approved, you’ll officially be on your way to earning money from your content. 

When it comes to sponsorships, there are no formal eligibility requirements. However, brands are most likely to collaborate with established channels with high visibility (views) and will rarely take a chance on creators who are just starting out (unless they are targeting a specific niche that the brand is focused on). 

How to earn money on YouTube: an overview of monetization methods

So you’ve done all the prep work and set up YouTube channel monetization. That’s awesome! 

Now, the question everybody’s thinking is: How do you earn money on YouTube? Which are the main methods of monetization on this platform, what are their strengths and challenges, and which one is the right choice for your monetization goals? 

Let’s dive in. 

#1: Ads via Google Adsense 

We mentioned earlier that Google AdSense is YouTube’s ad network, which allows creators like you to earn money from the content they publish on the platform. 

How it works

Essentially, AdSense works by placing ads on videos and rewarding creators based on views and ad interactions. YouTube automatically selects ads for your videos based on factors like your video’s metadata, context, and whether the content is suitable for advertisers.

Ideally, the more views you get, the higher your income is. In reality, your earnings can vary quite a lot depending on the number and type of ads you run, your target audience, and advertisers’ bids. Also, keep in mind that video views are not the same as ad views. It’s estimated that only 50% of your total views will actually get monetized. 

Advertisers place different bids to have their ads shown, and YouTube, through its auction system, decides which ads will win based on relevance and bid amount. Creators get a fraction of the revenue generated by these ads. 

Some topics/niches tend to pay more than others. For instance, business, investing and health seem to be some of the most relevant niches for advertisers. If your videos naturally gravitate around these topics, that’s great, but if they don’t, it’s not worth trying to force your content to switch to these niches just to get more bids from advertisers.

And that is, in a nutshell, how AdSense monetization works. 

Types of YouTube ads 

1. Pre-Roll Ads: These ads start playing as soon as a user clicks on your video.
2. Mid-Roll Ads: These ads appear in the middle of longer videos (over 8 minutes).
3. Bumper Ads: These are brief, non-skippable ads that play before a video.
4. Overlay Ads: These semi-transparent ads take up significantly less space on the screen and appear at the bottom of a video.
5. Skippable Ads: Ads that viewers can skip after 5 seconds.
6. Non-Skippable Ads: Ads that viewers must watch full before the video plays.

How much money can you get from YouTube ads? 

Estimating your future YouTube ad revenue before starting can be quite challenging. It doesn’t help that most creators don’t reveal their earnings for fear of losing relatability. 

However, you can get a rough idea of how much you can earn through YouTube AdSense by checking the official AdSense Calculator, where you can enter your region and content category and get an estimated annual potential income. 

You can also have a look at the industry averages to know what to excerpt in terms of YouTube ad earnings: 

Demonetization

By joining the YouTube Partner Program, you also promise to adhere to YouTube’s advertising guidelines and policies. If you intentionally or accidentally tackle certain topics or include certain elements that are not advertiser-friendly, you risk earning less from ads, or worse, getting fully demonetized. 

Here are some of the topics, themes, or visual elements you should avoid if you don’t want to risk getting demonetized: 

• Violence 
• Adult content
• Inappropriate language 
• Controversial issues
• Harmful acts
• Hateful content 

#2: Sponsorships

Following ads, the next major way to earn money on YouTube is by doing sponsorships. These happen when brands collaborate with creators to promote their products and services. Typically, companies are the ones to reach out to certain creators that match their target audience, but you, as a creator, can also pitch a sponsorship to a brand you really like or relate to. 

Sponsorship deals usually include mentioning the sponsor at some point in the video, using their products or services on screen, or adding affiliate links in the video descriptions. Most sponsored videos follow this common structure: 

• Mentioning the sponsor and describing their brand/service
• Inserting personal experience with the brand for extra credibility and authenticity
• Adding a call to action, encouraging viewers to click on a link, make a purchase, etc. 

In terms of rewards, companies usually offer payment, free products or other incentives. These can (and should) be negotiated beforehand, covering rates, guidelines, and deliverables. 

As a rule of thumb, you should never disclose any sponsorship payment details. This will make sponsors less likely to do business with you again. 

Other methods of earning money from YouTube 

Between AdSense and sponsorships, YouTubers can expect to make a significant amount of money from sharing their content on the platform. However, if you’re looking to diversify your revenue streams, there are other options available: 

Channel memberships – Through channel memberships, your subscribers can sign up to become members of your YouTube. In exchange for a monthly fee, they get access to exclusive content, such as videos and live streams and other benefits. Content creators receive 70% of membership revenue (after taxes), so it’s a pretty solid option if you want to expand your monetization strategy. 

Live streams – You can also earn money by doing live streams and actively engaging with your community through features such as Super Chats and Super Stickers. These essentially enable your viewers to make donations to your channel. 

Affiliate marketing – A great method of generating passive income on YouTube is by linking to products you’re affiliated with in the video description and getting a commission every time one of your viewers makes a purchase from the link. 

YouTube Shorts monetization – As of February 1, 2023, creators who join the YouTube Partner Program can also earn money from Shorts ads, which are displayed in the Shorts feed. YouTube pools the revenue of all Shorts ads and distributes it evenly among creators. 

Tips for growing your YouTube channel and increasing your revenue

No matter how you choose to earn money on YouTube, your content should be primed for greatness. That means you should consistently strive to create better content, expand your reach, and scale up your business. 

Here are a few tips on how you can grow your channel and generate more revenue from it: 
 

1. Post consistently

One thing that YouTubers learn pretty quickly is that if you want to gain visibility, build your community, and eventually make a living off YouTube, you need to be consistent with your uploads. That means sticking to a schedule and essentially setting the right expectations for your audience. 

Hell won’t break loose if you skip one posting day out of 100, but if you don’t have a posting schedule in place, neither your viewers nor the YouTube algorithm will know what to expect from your content. 
 

2. Publish more videos

Growing on YouTube is as much about consistency as it is about sheer volume of videos. In order to boost your income, you should create more video content for your audience to enjoy. We realize that’s easier said than done, but it can be far less challenging if you learn how to streamline your workflow. 

You should automate some processes in your creation process and create some shortcuts that dramatically reduce the time you spend creating every video. For instance, you could learn how to write YouTube video scripts and create a reusable template for each new video.

Or, to address the elephant in the room, you could also simply use Flixier as your personal YouTube clip maker in your browser to create, edit, and publish videos of any size in under 10 minutes. 

3. Boost the quality of your videos

No publishing schedule or large volume of videos will make up for poorly edited, irrelevant, or inappropriate content. Quality should be a priority for any creator who wants to grow their channel and build a large community of loyal viewers. 

Quality in videos goes beyond simply following YouTube's content guidelines. It's about relevance to your audience (which, by the way, you can easily gauge using YouTube analytics). 

Most of all, quality is reflected in how your videos look, sound and feel. It’s about leveling up your editing skills and incorporating dynamic transitions, sound effects, motion titles and animations in your videos, to give your content a better chance to stand out from the crowd and attract more viewers. 

A great tool for breathing some new life into your content is Flixier’s video enhancer, which helps you correct any imbalances, add colorful filters, and essentially transform your videos from the ground up with just a few clicks. 

4. Diversify your content

Even though you feel you may have found the perfect niche, don’t be afraid to experiment with new topics or content formats. It’s important to create a stable identity for your channel that people can easily recognize, but diversifying your content can also help your channel grow and attract new viewers. 

When it comes to monetization, diversifying your content means tapping into alternative ways of earning money. Different topics have varying ad rates, so expanding into fresh subjects could instantly boost your earnings. By branching out and covering content that appeals to different audiences or higher-paying niches, you can increase your ad income and attract more views.

And if you haven’t already, you can switch your strategy by sharing more YouTube Shorts and see how they perform. To make sure you have a steady flow of Shorts good to go, you can rely on Flixier’s YouTube Shorts Maker to make your life easier with social media-friendly editing techniques. 

5. Collaborate with other creators 

The YouTube creators community is growing larger by the second, and chances are, no matter what your niche is or where you live, you will find another creator to collaborate with on exciting content. Between the two (or more) of you, you can create videos that cater to a wider audience.

This type of collaboration can be mutually beneficial in that it can help both of you gain more exposure, attract more viewers, and publish more content. 
 

6. Set up secondary channels 

In the interest of extending your reach, boosting your income, or maybe just having another channel for all the B-rolls that don’t fit into your main channel, you could set up one (or more) secondary channel(s). Multiple channels obviously mean multiple revenue streams, but they also come with a lot more responsibility and an overall busier posting schedule. 

Before creating any additional channels, be sure that you can scale up your business and team to withstand the level of involvement needed for such a project. 

Final thoughts 

Learning how to monetize a YouTube channel can seem daunting, but it pays off (literally) in the end. YouTube’s policies can be a little strict, but they serve to push creators to deliver their very best content and reach out to brands and other creators for fruitful collaborations. 
 

Hopefully, by now, you have a pretty good idea of what you need to do to prepare your channel for monetization and what methods for earning money become available once you do. With the tips we’ve shared for growing your channel and income, surely now you’re on the right track to properly monetizing your YouTube channel and keep doing what you love.