Becoming a vlogger and learning how to make money with YouTube is a dream that a lot of people share.
In many ways, this is the ideal living. You’ll be able to make money by talking about things that you are passionate about. You’ll get tons of fan mail and comments from avid followers, and you’ll even gain a level of celebrity as a result.
Being a YouTuber also means creating something tangible that you can be proud of. Many of the best YouTube videos online show a huge amount of creativity and talent.
You’ll be entering a huge community that is highly supportive and collaborative, and you’ll create tons of amazing new career opportunities for yourself. As a YouTuber, you’ll be sent products to review and to sponsor, and you’ll get all kinds of things for free.
(When people recognize you in the street, you might even get to skip the queue!)
If you become big enough, this can even lead to book deals, TV appearances, and more!
And finally, when you learn how to make money with YouTube, you’ll eventually be able to stop trading your time for money. That’s because YouTube revenue is passive. That means that you’ll put in some work at the stat of the week to create a video, and then you’ll enjoy the benefits of earning money while you sleep!
And I know all this because I’m a YouTuber myself. I have 100,00+ subscribers – which puts me at a fairly successful level but still with a lot of room for further growth. I’ve also worked with much bigger YouTuber channels, including one with over 3M followers. This has shown me just how great the potential for earnings and growth really is.
(Tip: it’s huge!)
In this post, I’m going to share with you everything I’ve learned. All the mistakes I’ve made. And all the strategies that I’ve used with great success.
Are you ready? This is how to make money with YouTube. No matter who you are. And no matter WHAT your interests.
How Much Money Can You Make? And How Do You Make It?
Before we dive in, you may first be wondering how much money you can expect to make from YouTube. This question doesn’t have a simple answer.
The primary way that you make money from YouTube is through advertising. As long as you meet certain minimal requirements, Google will allow you to show ads on your videos that will generate revenue each time someone views them, and each time someone clicks on them.
The amount of money a click generates can vary anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars. Usually you will find that it veers closer to the few cents mark. Views get paid per thousand impressions, and these likewise pay out small, but varying amounts.
While the specific numbers vary then, you can expect to get paid about $60 for a video with 40,000 views, or around $1,000 for a video with 1,000,000 views (this is based on experience).
Other factors that influence these numbers depend on the niche (some advertisers will pay more than others based on this), as well as the number of ads you choose to show on each video.
Here’s a post from Investopedia that explains how YouTube ad revenue works in more detail.
How does this correlate with your number of subscribers? Well, this can vary significantly once again, depending very much on the percentage of those viewers who watch on a regular basis.
Some channels have excellent engagement, where lots of people on their subscriber list will watch every single time they put out a video. Likewise, some topics are inherently more appealing to non subscribers.
Look at a channel like Unbox Therapy for instance, and you’ll see that they get millions of views on every single video.
However, the channel I work for with 3M+ subscribers currently struggles with engagement. Views have gone down significantly due to changes to the algorithm, meaning that the company now makes just $5,000 per month! Each video gets anywhere from 20,000 views to 100,000 views.
My own channel with just 121,00 subscribers at the time of writing is making around $1,500.
It also depends on evergreen content. Evergreen content is content that has a value long after it goes live. Breaking news is not evergreen because it becomes almost immediately redundant. Likewise, tech channels struggle with this because they review products that are old one year later.
But a fitness channel will remain relevant, and the videos on high intensity interval training, fasting, or bodybuilding will all keep appearing in search results for years to come. That way, the money generated by those channels will be cumulative.
How long does it take to build up to 100,000 subscribers? Again, that is dependent on MANY factors. But suffice to say that you should expect for it to take a couple of years as an absolute minimum.
Profiting From YouTube
So that brings us to the question of how to make money with YouTube! Given everything we’ve explored, how feasible is this really?
Learning lessons from those numbers, we can initially start by saying that we need to build a high level of engagement. We should also make sure that our content is evergreen and that it appeals to a wider audience. If we can accomplish those two things, then we will start to generate more income on our channel. Videos will grow in numbers, and they will continue generating revenue years after they go online.
How do you build engagement? The key is to be consistent with your content. YouTube’s algorithm is constantly changing, but what it wants to see right now, is that your audience consistently chooses your videos.
If you normally post about fitness but then you randomly post a video about your holiday, you’ll find that a very small fraction of your audience watches that video. This tells YouTube that your channel has poor engagement, and as such, it will stop showing your content on the homefeed.
Another tip is to create high quality thumbnails. This helps your content to stand out. Make sure that you have a strong branding, and that you are able to sell the “value proposition” and intended emotional impact of your videos through these images.
Don’t Rely on Ads
Finally, you need to ensure that you are not just relying on advertising. If you want to earn significant money from YouTube before your videos take off, then you can do so by selling something such as a digital product. Selling an ebook or an online program can help you to earn an additional several hundred dollars per video as long as you price it right, create something worthwhile, and have a good level of engagement (engaged members of your audience will buy).
DON’T rely on sponsors. These can be game changing once you reach higher numbers of subscribers, but there’s also no guarantee that you’ll get contacted.
How to Make Amazing Videos
That’s enough theory, time to get to work!
The first question you might have is how to make a video. How can you create video content for YouTube?
There are lots of things to consider here, but first I’m going to address the production values: the quality of your videos.
You’ll notice that the biggest YouTubers have high production values. That means that they have high quality footage that has been professionally edited. They’ll present the videos well too, and they’ll
You don’t have to do this to be successful. In fact, there are ways to make content for YouTube without even going in front of a camera!
But you do need to edit well. Take a look at a channel like Captain Midnight. This channel relies purely on clips from other videos, as well as still images. However, the editing is on-point, and everything is tied together with strong, consistent branding.
This makes all the difference, and it’s why people choose to watch his channel over the many others.
(Be careful when using other people’s clips like this. You are protected by “fair use” laws, but you need to be very careful and should aim to keep each clip shorter than 10 seconds. Better is to use stock footage, which you can get from signing up to a website such as Envato Elements. Take a look at the channel “Shots of Awe” for a masterclass in how to edit stock footage.)
Some other key things to keep in mind:
- High quality sound is a must. Investing in a microphone is not expensive, but will make a huge difference.
- Don’t cut before the end of a scene.
- Music can also make a big difference, but try to keep it relatively quiet compared to your voice.
- Your presentation may start out rough. This is normal! Don’t worry about it but keep practicing, you will improve the more you do this.
If you do decide to appear in front of the camera, then you should invest in the best camera you can – though even an iPhone will do the trick.
Just as important is the backdrop you choose, and the lighting. A well-lit shot with a professional backdrop will look good even on a lower quality camera: just so long as it is at least 1080p.
Industry standard is to aim for 35p, and if you can manage a little “bokeh” (background blur) then this can add to the apparent quality of the image.
Some Editing Tips
How you edit your footage will make a big different to the impact it makes. Here are some tips that can help.
Note that using any editing software is fine, but it’s advisable to invest in a professional suit such as Vegas Pro, Final Cut, or Adobe Premiere.
Film Lots, Cut Lots
The first tip is to film a lot.
If you are creating b-roll (footage that you will use to bulk up your video), then you should always recognize that you need much more than you think you do.
Meanwhile, when filming regular video, it’s very important that you film a lot and leave pauses both before and after your content. In other words, make sure that you start filming and a little before you begin speaking. This will help to give you more room to cut and to edit and you’ll avoid losing audio or making your video look awkward with a sudden jump.
But while you’re going to be filming plenty of extra footage, it’s also important that you then cut out a lot of footage – and probably more than you think you need to.
This way, you’ll avoid having long videos of people statically talking at the camera and your video will seem like it is constantly moving.
In fact, another tip is to make sure you never have any long periods where nothing is moving. You should always have the subject moving and talking or the camera moving. Still shots and gaps in between will only break the flow and the momentum!
Make Things Easy for Yourself
Editing video is a thankless task. The solution is to make life easy on yourself by approaching your video creation in a logical manner.
For example, one thing that can help is to break your video up into shorter clips and try moving around in the shot in each part. This makes it easy to identify at a glance when a take went well and to see where each clip ends. It also creates a more dynamic ‘jump cut’ style of filming and prevents it from feeling jarring when you go from one post to the next.
Another tip is to try clapping at the start of new takes. This makes it easy for you to see where the take ends and starts at a glance when looking at the audio track – because you can see the spike. Fun fact, this is why directors use ‘clappers’ – it’s to help the editing process later on!
Think ahead and have a plan of action when you approach your filming and your editing – that way it will be much easier for you to put together something amazing in record time!
Closing Comments: It’s About Content
Ultimately though, all of this pales in comparison to the importance of high quality content. That means you need to provide real value in a succinct and entertaining manner.
The more useful information or entertainment you provide in the shorter amount of time, the higher your engagement will be. And remember: it’s really engagement that will lead to views, ad revenue, and sales.
Take an honest look at your videos and ask yourself if they are really valuable. If you are burbling for the first 10 minutes, then cut that out! Don’t waste your viewers’ time. DO inspire them.
And then post regularly.
And don’t give up! That is how to make money with YouTube.
