How to make money on YouTube as a creator: 12 tips for success

Commerce
Updated: June 14, 2024
How to make money on YouTube as a creator: 12 tips for success
19 min read
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Creating a YouTube channel helps creators to build an audience, promote valuable content, and scale their business. And it’s a popular choice.

Our State of the Creator Economy Report found that 21% of creators plan to use YouTube to grow their business in 2024, with sponsorship coach Justin Moore saying:

YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world (behind Google), so if your business is educational, it’s a no-brainer to have a presence on YouTube.

But, turning YouTube from a new marketing channel into a business growth machine requires understanding how to monetize your channel and its content.

In this article, we explain how to make money on YouTube, grow your creator business, and share real-life examples of creators doing exactly that.

Option 1: Earn money by joining the YouTube Partner Program

YouTube offers several monetization programs, such as ads, memberships, and merchandise. These are built right into the YouTube Partner Program.

To become eligible for the program, your channel needs to meet specific requirements.

You need 1,000 subscribers and a minimum of 4,000 watch hours over the last 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days.

YouTube Partner Program eligibility: 1000 subscribers + 4000 public watch hours (in the last 12 months) or 10M public short views (in the last 90 days)

You also need to live in a country or region where the YouTube Partner Program is available and have an active AdSense YouTube account.

Get the details in official help docs:

Here’s how to make money on YouTube by joining the Partner Program:

  1. YouTube ad revenue
  2. Income from YouTube premium
  3. YouTube channel memberships
  4. YouTube Shopping
  5. Super Chat and Super Stickers
  6. Super Thanks

1. Run ads on your YouTube channel

Ads are an easy way to monetize your growing audience and video views.

When YouTube plays ads during your video, you can get a chunk of those ads’ revenue.

And they make a lot: In the first quarter of 2024 alone, YouTube earned $8.1 billion in ad sales, its highest Q1 in history.

You can run ads on your videos, on YouTube search, and on your channel page.

To earn money from ad revenue, you must first meet the above eligibility criteria for joining the YouTube Partner Program. You must also be at least 18 years old or have a legal guardian who can handle your payments, live in a location where the YouTube Partner Program is available, and meet advertiser-friendly content guidelines.

Then, you need to set up an Adsense account to run ads on your videos.

2. Earn a portion of YouTube Premium income

YouTube Premium is a paid YouTube membership with benefits like watching videos without ads, downloading videos for offline watching, playing background on mobile, and more.

Instead of ad revenue, you earn a chunk of revenue YouTube makes from Premium members based on how much of your content they’ve watched. This includes the content they’ve downloaded or watched in the background.

Learn everything about YouTube Premium revenue here.

3. Get paid with YouTube channel memberships

With YouTube channel memberships, you can offer exclusive perks like loyalty badges, emojis, videos, and live chats. You can create different tiers—for example, $0.99, $4.99, and $9.99 per month—that your members choose from and pay on a monthly basis.

This is recurring revenue for you and for your fans, it’s an easy way to join your inner circle.

To use channel memberships, you need a minimum of 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 public watch hours on long-form videos in the last year or three million public Shorts views in the last 90 days. You also must be at least 18 years old, live in a location where memberships are available, and have a channel that isn’t primarily made for kids.

Find all the channel membership policies and guidelines here.

4. Set up YouTube Shopping

Thanks to YouTube Shopping, you can integrate your existing store or promote products from other brands. Once you set this up, you unlock a shopping tab on your YouTube channel and the option to tag products in your videos or list them on a product shelf below your videos.

Eligibility criteria for YouTube Shopping varies:

  • If you want to sell your own products, you need a minimum of 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 public watch hours on long-form videos in the last year or three million public Shorts views in the last 90 days. Your channel also needs to be free from community guideline strikes and can’t be made for kids.
  • If you want to sell other brands’ products, you need a minimum of 20,000 subscribers and either 4,000 public watch hours on long-form videos in the last year or 10 million public Shorts views in the last 90 days. You need to be based in the United States or South Korea, not have a music channel, and make sure your content isn’t made for kids.

Find everything you need to know about YouTube Shopping here.

5. Accept payments via Super Chat and Super Stickers

When you offer your viewers a live video experience, like a live stream or a YouTube Premiere, they can pay for Super Chat or Super Stickers to connect with you during that time.

These are features that make their live chat message stand out. As a creator, you get to define the tiers and costs of your Super Chat and Super Stickers—the more they spend, the longer their message or sticker stays at the top of the chat feed.

To use Super Chat and Super Stickers, you need a minimum of 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 public watch hours on long-form videos in the last year or three million public Shorts views in the last 90 days. You also must be at least 18 years old and live in a location where these features are available.

Find details on Super Chat and Super Stickers here.

6. Get paid with Super Thanks

Another way subscribers can stand out is Super Thanks—a button they can click on either long-form videos or Shorts to buy a fun one-time animation and a distinct, colorful comment in your comments section.

It’s similar to Super Chat and Super Sticker options but for pre-recorded videos.

To use Super Thanks, you need a minimum of 500 subscribers, three public uploads in the last 90 days, and either 3,000 public watch hours on long-form videos in the last year or three million public Shorts views in the last 90 days. You also must be at least 18 years old, live in a location where Super Thanks is available, and not have a music channel under SRAV (sound recording audio-visual agreement).

Learn about Super Thanks here.

Option 2: Turn your YouTube channel into other paid opportunities

If the Partner Program or running ads doesn’t feel like the right strategy for your business, there are other ways to make money on YouTube by leveraging the channel for other opportunities.

As author and speaker, Shama Hyder wrote:

Don’t discount indirect monetization. I don’t do any direct advertising, but we get tons of leads for Zen Media, and I get booked for keynotes from the videos.

If you want to get more strategic with your YouTube income, consider:

  1. Affiliate marketing commissions
  2. Virtual tips for your YouTube videos
  3. Exclusive Patreon content
  4. Brand sponsorships
  5. Merchandise sales
  6. Paid product promotion

7. Earn commissions with affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing promotes someone else’s product in exchange for a percentage of the sales you generate. This strategy is ideal for you if you want to stick with video content, don’t have a large subscriber base, and have lower earning goals.

It’s easy to set up—all you need to do is sign up for affiliate programs of brands and products mentioned in your videos. You can do so by:

  • Becoming an Amazon Associate for any Amazon product you like, including books, tech gear, clothes, homeware, and more
  • Applying for an existing affiliate program with a company you like, from physical goods to software
  • Reaching out directly to a company to propose an affiliate partnership with them

Want even more mileage out of your affiliate partnerships? Check out more ways you can promote your affiliate links.

Affiliate example on YouTube: Matt Ragland

Matt Ragland is a productivity YouTuber who often focuses on planning and productivity systems with Bullet Journal. In his videos, he shares affiliate links to Bullet Journal products he mentioned and showed in the video and other related products and resources—also affiliate links.

This way, he makes his viewer’s learning journey thorough and complete.

Matt Ragland lists his affiliate links in video descriptions. Image via Matt Ragland on YouTube.

8. Receive tips for your YouTube videos

Don’t have access to features like Super Chat, Super Stickers, or Super Thanks? There’s an easy alternative: a virtual tip jar you link to in your YouTube video description.

It’s a perfect strategy even if you’re just getting started and have lower earning goals.

You can easily set yours up with Kit in just a few minutes, and unlike the 30% you lose with YouTube’s features, you only pay 3.5% + 30c in each transaction—the rest is all yours, even on Kit’s free plan.

Digital tip jar example for YouTube content: Weaving Lessons

Kelly Casanova creates videos on her Weaving Lessons YouTube channel. With over 350 videos, she shares in-depth tutorials about looms, yarn, patterns, and so much more—and encourages virtual tips with a link to her Kit virtual tip jar in her video descriptions.

Kelly Casanova lists a digital tip jar link in all of her YouTube videos. Image via Kelly Casanova on YouTube.

9. Get paid for exclusive content via Patreon

Want to give your subscribers access to exclusive content?

Use Patreon to create a custom experience for your biggest fans, even more than you could with YouTube’s channel membership options.

This is perfect for every creator stage and audience size, and it’s particularly easy to start with when your channel and audience are still on the small side.

For example, you can offer special Q&As, live streams, invitations to personal meet-and-greets, special content downloads, extended versions of your YouTube content, and more.

Patreon example: Calligraphy by CT

Christy Toney runs Calligraphy by CT, a YouTube channel that covers calligraphy tips and business advice. On top of her paid resources like ebooks and 1:1 coaching, she offers a Patreon membership with three pricing tiers.

Her Patreon perks include exclusive video tutorials, monthly worksheets, monthly projects, Zoom mentorship calls, and project feedback.

Christy Toney links to a visually appealing Patreon button in her video descriptions. Image via Calligraphy by CT on YouTube.

10. Get sponsored by a brand

With brand sponsorships, you partner with a company to promote their products or services in your YouTube videos. It’s a level up from affiliate marketing.

While you can have affiliate links for many different products you passively mention, brand sponsorships give the company you’re working with a more central place in your video, usually early in the video or a dedicated segment later on.

You can work with a brand on a single video, a series of videos, or even get them to sponsor your entire YouTube channel. It’s a mighty strategy that works for small and large channels alike—the most important thing is that the sponsorship is relevant to your audience.

Sponsored YouTube video example: Jules Acree

Jules Acree is a self-care, productivity, and lifestyle creator on YouTube. With Notion being a big part of her productivity system, it’s no surprise Notion sponsors her videos on that topic. According to the FTC, sponsorships need to be clearly labeled as such—Jules emphasizes it’s a paid partnership verbally, on screen, as well as in the video description.

Jules Acree makes her sponsorship disclaimer and link the first point of her video descriptions. Image via Jules Acree on YouTube.

11. Sell merchandise to your fans

For many big YouTubers, there’s a point in their journey in which their audience becomes a fandom—and they want to be seen as such. That’s where branded merchandise like hoodies, t-shirts, hats, and mugs come in.

If you’re approaching that level, consider this avenue using a platform like Printful, which makes it easy to set up your designs so they can be printed and shipped on demand and automatically. Otherwise, you need to print merch in advance, hold lots of inventory, and fulfill orders yourself.

Even with a service like that, make sure your subscriber numbers are high enough to make a profit that fits your goals. And if physical products sound like your thing, check out more product ideas to promote on YouTube.

Merch sales example via YouTube: SWOOP

SWOOP is a YouTube creator who covers unresolved cases, true crime, and problematic social media influencers in hour-long documentary-style videos. In addition to strategies like ad revenue, brand sponsorships, and Patreon, she also monetizes her hard work with custom-made merch like hoodies, jackets, joggers, t-shirts, and hats. Her audience loves it and makes it sell out often.

SWOOP promotes her merch at the top of her video description. Image via SWOOP on YouTube.

If you’ve already built digital products for your ideal audience, YouTube is the perfect place to promote them. The best part? It works for any audience size.

Lower-priced products like ebooks will likely win more sales, on average, than high-ticket ones like courses or coaching—something to keep in mind based on your subscriber numbers and earning goals.

Products you can promote through YouTube include:

Online course example: Ali Abdaal

Ali Abdaal is a doctor-turned-entrepreneur and one of the most popular productivity experts on YouTube. He uses YouTube to promote his flagship course, Part-Time YouTuber Academy, in several ways.

Whenever he discusses YouTube growth, he links to his enrollment page in the video description. But that’s not all he does: He also links to a free lead magnet related to YouTube growth, which turns YouTube viewers into email subscribers and gives him a chance to promote his course to them in the long run—in their inbox.

Check out how he combines Kit and YouTube to make $5 million in revenue.

Ali Abdaal’s YouTube-specific content promotes his paid course and a free lead magnet at the top of the description. Image via Ali Abdaal on YouTube.

Membership example: Jo Franco

Jo Franco made her name as a YouTube creator, but relying on ad revenue and brand sponsorships—and with it, the always-changing YouTube algorithm—led her to burnout.

Instead of doubling down on her channel in the long run, she changed her business model and turned to JoClub, her journaling membership business. She chose email as her main focus, using lead magnets to build her email list, connect with her audience, and ultimately promote her membership.

She still creates content on YouTube, but she makes sure to tie it with JoClub and funnel viewers towards her lead magnets. Check out how she makes a higher income from her membership than she did with a YouTube channel with a million subscribers.

Jo Franco lists her free lead magnets below her videos, followed by paid resources. Image via Jo Franco on YouTube.

How to promote and sell your offers on YouTube

Selling your products is the best way to take control of your income as a creator on any platform—YouTube included. If only there were an easy-to-swipe strategy to make YouTube the ultimate strategy that drives sales, right?

You’re in luck because there is, and it’s made of four distinct steps:

  1. Create lead magnets for key YouTube videos: For videos that tackle your most important topics, build free lead magnets like PDFs, worksheets, or ebooks—something so good your target viewer would pay for!
  2. Set up dedicated landing pages to deliver your lead magnet: Have one landing page for each lead magnet so they’re easy to link to whenever you mention that topic.
  3. Promote your landing page’s URL on YouTube: Make your lead magnet irresistible. Show it in the video and link to it in your descriptions whenever it’s relevant to do so.
  4. Use email automations to welcome, nurture, and promote your offers: After your lead magnet lands in someone’s inbox, you can use different automations to deliver other free, useful content and eventually pitch your paid product.

This strategy works because it takes a casual viewer and nurtures them in the long run. It tackles their pain points and helps them solve a problem or hit a goal. So once a paid product promo rolls around, they’re way more likely to make the leap.

It’s exactly how Nick True, the creator behind Mapped Out Money YouTube channel, grew a wildly profitable business. His first lever is publishing a dedicated lead magnet for key videos about once a month. He welcomes new subscribers with an automated welcome sequence, which then leads into his weekly newsletters.

Nick True promotes paid coaching and free checklists and spreadsheets in relevant videos. Image via Mapped Out Money on YouTube.

When he promotes his paid products, he makes sure to follow up with those that didn’t purchase to keep improving his emails. With each next lead magnet, it’s a simple rinse and repeat of the same strategy.

Check out how Nick True built his creator empire by combining YouTube and Kit.

How to make money on YouTube: FAQ

How many views do you need to get paid on YouTube? It depends on the monetization feature you choose.

How much money do you make per 1,000 views on YouTube? It varies by video type, industry, and location, but you can expect to earn between $1 and $8 for every 1,000 views. This metric is called RPM, short for revenue per mille (mille stands for a thousand).

How many views on YouTube do you need to earn $1,000? It depends on your RPM, but if your RPM is $1, you need a million views to hit $1,000. A RPM of $8 would require 125,000 views to net you that same amount.

What are the average earnings of YouTube creators? FinanceBuzz reported average YouTube earnings in the US were around $4,600 per month in 2022. Keep in mind that YouTube’s highest earners make tens of millions of dollars per year, which significantly skews the average.

One more thing to keep in mind is you don’t actually get all the revenue you make on YouTube. Instead, you’ll get 70% of all the payments your fans make for channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Super Thanks. Your share is 55% for ad revenue on regular videos and 45% for Shorts.

Scale your YouTube income with Kit

Use YouTube and Kit together to scale your income. For example, use YouTube to promote a lead magnet, introduce a digital tip jar, or create a landing page where your audience can learn more about your offerings.

Or simply point your audience toward your email list and use email marketing to scale your business further by using automations that send hyper-targeted emails that nurture your viewers, build trust, and promote your products to the right people at the right time—on autopilot.

Kit has everything you need to make it happen. Sign up for a free Kit account now.

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Marijana Kay
Marijana Kay

Marijana Kay is a freelance writer for leading B2B SaaS companies. She uses data-backed, actionable content to help them hit and exceed their growth goals. In her spare time, she collects books and logs running miles. (Read more by Marijana)