How To Monetize Your YouTube Channel (9 Easy Ways)

This post contains affiliate links.

If you have ever thought about starting a YouTube channel, now is the time to do it! The video site has more than one billion users, and it’s only getting bigger every day. It’s not as hard as you might think to make money from your channel, and there are tons of ways to do it.

This guide will teach you everything you need to know about how to monetize your YouTube channel so that you can make some money while doing what you love most!

Table of Contents

Getting Started

There are several ways you can monetize your channel. Some of them are standard and well-known, while others may be specific to your niche.

The most common way is through advertisements, but you can also make money by selling merchandise directly on your channel (via an affiliate program like TeeSpring or Merch by Amazon) or connecting with sponsors for sponsored content.

Look at your audience and think about how they would likely want to buy from you in order to best determine how to monetize your YouTube channel. Here are some ideas of ways that work for other channels.

1. Get Sponsored by Brands

If you’re a well-known YouTuber, getting paid by brands is easy; all you have to do is mention them in your videos. (Don’t worry about violating Google’s terms of service — there are workarounds.)

If you can score a few brand deals, it will make running your channel even more lucrative. But don’t expect that free camera from Nikon to pay for itself! By applying these tips, you can monetize your channel and have fun doing it.

Before we get into those details, let’s talk about how brands work with YouTubers. At first, there is a lot of negotiation back and forth: what is your audience like? What kind of content will you make? How often will you post videos? But once a deal is reached, most sponsors won’t ask for a ton of control over your content — some even leave it up to you on what products or services you want to promote in each video.

And most importantly, brands want their campaigns to be authentic. That means that if your audience would react negatively if they saw an Adidas logo splashed across your face at random points during your videos, then don’t use that brand unless it really makes sense for that specific piece of content.

2. Affiliate Marketing with YouTube

You can monetize your Youtube channel by starting an affiliate marketing business with youtube. You have a lot of freedom over what you market, but it’s important to be genuine and trustworthy when endorsing a product.

In most cases, people will look up videos because they want more information on a product they are considering buying; so keep that in mind while making your videos.

The amount of money you earn depends entirely on how much time and effort you put into it; if you make a large number of high-quality videos, affiliate marketing could become very lucrative. Many people already do it full-time and even quit their day jobs!

3. YouTube Partner Program

When it comes to making money off of your content, there’s no faster way than joining YouTube’s Partner Program. It allows you to monetize your channel and earn a percentage of all ad revenue generated by your videos—like any other job, right? If you have more than 10,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months, you can apply right here. (YouTube’s requirements vary depending on location.)

4. Run a T-Shirt Store

Some of us make videos for a living, others do it for fun, but all of us can set up a T-shirt store. There’s no question that T-shirts are hot, and by expanding your brand beyond just online you can sell more gear and make more money.

Monetizing your YouTube channel isn’t as straightforward as it is with a traditional website or store; however, there are still many ways to make money off YouTube without going headfirst into advertising. A simple Google search for sell T-shirts online will reveal some helpful tools and software you can use right away to get started selling merch on your site.

5. Create an Online Course/Workshop

Though it might not seem like it at first, starting an online course or workshop is almost exactly like creating a niche website. The idea is that you create one resource that will teach people something specific. In exchange for teaching them that skill, you get access to their money on a recurring basis (usually through PayPal or credit card processors).

Just as with websites, what you’ll teach depends on your business and who you’re targeting as an audience. Keep in mind that when we talk about monetizing a YouTube channel, we’re talking about earning passive income.

The most common ways of doing so are through sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and advertising revenues. Make sure you know what policies are in place before monetizing your videos!

6. Sell an Ebook

If you have a large and engaged audience on your YouTube channel, it’s possible to sell an ebook through Amazon. People love books that serve as resources for their favourite activities, especially if you can present those resources in a fun or unique way. For example, we know a guy who creates colouring books based on movies and TV shows.

He sells these colouring books directly from his own website (we didn’t say he was subtle). If you create an unofficial book about your area of expertise—and then pitch it on your site and any other platforms where you have a following—you could easily make $1,000 per month. It isn’t passive income, but it could turn into something substantial over time.

7. Youtube Channel Membership

Setting up a membership allows you to subscribe to a channel so that you can access exclusive content. However, in order for anyone else to subscribe, they have to pay a certain amount of money (whatever you decide).

So while it may seem like there are no benefits at first glance, it actually works out well for both parties: You set up an account on Stripe and include instructions so your fans can enter their credit card information and sign up for membership.

Conclusion

Putting it all together, monetizing your YouTube channel involves setting up ads on your video page and/or directly in your videos. Consider how much of your content you’re willing to let someone else control with an ad before making a decision about advertising. While it may take a few years for your channel to be successful enough to monetize, remember that small successes build confidence—and confidence makes success far more likely. Good luck!

This post contains affiliate links.