There are many well-known names and faces on YouTube. You probably also know some bigger YouTubers. They should all be more than just wealthy by now. Over the years, YouTube has blossomed into the largest video platform and second-largest search engine after Google. Anyone who has “made it” here not only reaps a lot of media attention, but also huge amounts of income. Because yes: earning money with YouTube is still very possible today… or rather, the YouTube market is still developing and growing every day.
Many young people dream of one day making a name for themselves as an “influencer”. YouTube is considered the mother of all platforms because here you can not only generate a few hundred thousand or a few million followers. Instead, the most successful YouTube channels in the world have almost 100 million subscribers. This means enormous value for the advertising industry. Therefore, you can still make very good money with YouTube.
The competition on YouTube is growing
In addition to their enormous reach and their probably equally enormous revenues, many of the big names on the platform have something else in common: they started their YouTube careers many years ago. Back then, the competition wasn’t as big as it is now. Because if you think becoming a YouTube star yourself is easy, you’re very wrong.
YouTube has around 1.5 billion active users. Certainly, not everyone wants to make money from YouTube one day. But even if only a fraction has plans to become professional YouTubers, you can imagine the endless mass of influencers and influencer wannabes. If you want to stand out from this crowd, you need a unique selling proposition. You’ll also need professional videos, a lot of hard work, money for basic investments like a camera, and a little bit of luck. You can only partially influence whether you hit the vein of the times and the right target group finds you. You have to leave the rest to chance.
Step by step to becoming an influencer
So you want to be an influencer, YouTube star, entrepreneur – or whatever you want to call it? Then clicks, shares, subscriptions, and comments are your currency from now on. The more attention you generate, especially of a positive nature, the greater your income will be.
The Google Adsense ads are only the first step. If your reach grows, you can land paid product placements, advertising deals, or even your own collections, games & co – depending on which genre you are in. You have to become a brand. The well-known strategies from marketing are used.
Also, don’t just focus on YouTube. Instead, you have to be omnipresent for your followers – on Instagram, Facebook, and all other relevant platforms. The more tangible you become for your fans, the more they will trust you. And this trust, in turn, ensures that your followers believe your words. Many of your fans will imitate you. They will wear the same hairstyle as you, buy the same clothes and play the same games. It is precisely this connection to the followers that make influencer advertising so effective.
But that also makes it clear: Influencer is a full-time job. With an attitude à la “I’ll make a few videos and I’ll get rich with it” you won’t get far. Instead, you need to set up a professional channel, engage in professional marketing, and develop professional revenue streams.
Content is king
But you don’t necessarily have to become an absolute influencer to make money with YouTube. The most important thing is actually that you load good content onto the platform that people like and want to consume.
Think about an interesting topic in which you have a lot of experience, or in which you are also very interested. Then just start producing content and upload it to your YouTube channel.
It will probably take a while before you get a lot of views, but once you get used to making videos, you’ll get better and better and your videos will be seen by more and more people.
Of course, it is also important that you optimize your videos and the video description, as well as the video title so that people can also find your content. You will find a few helpful tips further down in the article.
Make money with YouTube: There are these sources of income
Sounds pretty professional, doesn’t it? It’s still possible to make money with YouTube, but due to the competition, it’s not as easy as it used to be. Everything has become more professional here, including the advertising industry. A few years ago, they still knew very little about the platform.
In the meantime, however, she has recognized the value of YouTubers and has therefore found numerous ways to sell her advertising via the platform. For you, this means a large selection of active and passive sources of income – once you have achieved influencer status. And even if not, you can use YouTube to your advantage by using it to brand your business or to position yourself as a professional for a job application. Now only question marks are buzzing through your head? Then read on to learn more about the different revenue opportunities.
GOOGLE ADSENSE AND ADS
Google AdSense and Ads video ads can be automatically imported before or while your videos are called up. You will receive a fee of a few cents or euros per click. If you generate a lot of views, you can earn money with it. Nevertheless, these forms of advertising play a rather subordinate role for influencers.
AFFILIATE LINKS
Affiliate links earn you a commission, so to speak if your followers buy the product or service as a result of your link. Let’s say you make a beauty tutorial and link to the curling iron used. For every purchase, you will now receive around one to ten percent of the proceeds – depending on the affiliate program. Here too, however, it is more likely to achieve ancillary income than lucrative income.
PRODUCT PLACEMENTS
Product placements in your videos bring in significantly more money. While YouTubers with little reach are often satisfied with getting the product for free, you can earn good money with YouTube as your reach increases.
ADVERTISING DEALS
If you have made a name for yourself on YouTube, you can also land advertising deals or engagements that will bring you high income off the platform. This can be TV or print advertising, a catwalk booking from a designer, your own fashion collection, your own (online) game, or anything else.
SALE OF MERCHANDISE ITEMS
Another option is to sell products and merchandise. If you have a certain fan base and a correspondingly high number of followers, you can also use your channel to advertise and sell your own products. In addition, YouTube has its own merchandise area where you can manage your items. These are then displayed to viewers in any order. For this function, however, you must register with the YouTube partner program. With this program, YouTube will be more rigorous in verifying that the creators are honest and that you are following all guidelines.
CROWDFUNDING
If you have a die-hard community, you can also ask them via YouTube to provide you with money for a new project. Followers who are enthusiastic about you and your content can then send you money.
WORKING INDEPENDENTLY AS A SPECIALIST AND CONSULTANT
If you are self-employed or looking for a new job, you can also use YouTube to indirectly increase your income. So you will not achieve a large reach and therefore will not record any or hardly any income via the platform, but you can position yourself as a specialist. You can give important tips in your subject area, act as a consultant or simply provide information.
Think about what might interest your target group – i.e. potential customers or future employers – and how you can reach them. In this case, your viewers are not about quantity, but about quality. Here’s how YouTube can help you land a new, better-paying job or high-profile clients. This strategy is known as “personal branding”.
How Much Money Do You Make From YouTube?
This is a good question that certainly cannot be answered in general terms. Because the amount of your possible earnings depends on various factors, in particular the number of clicks. For example, you will only earn a few euros a month if only a few watch your videos or if many of your viewers use an ad blocker. But if you should manage to build up a large fan base, then an income of several hundred to thousands of euros a month with YouTube is also possible.
For example, with Ads video ads, you get paid whenever a Google ad is shown to a viewer. The more views your video has, the more money you make. Depending on the topic and quality of your videos and your channel as well as a few other factors, the income per 1,000 views is between 1 and 5 euros. So you really need a lot of views if you just want to make a living from advertising alone.
You can earn more money with YouTube through product placement. Here many companies not only give you the product, but you often receive an additional payment for your video about the product. The amount varies between three and four-digit amounts. It is also clear: the larger your channel, the more you can charge for product placement or a promotional video.
How much money do you make on YouTube per Like, View or Subscriber?
In order to earn money with YouTube, it doesn’t matter how many subscribers your channel has. Because you don’t get more or less money for the sheer number of subscribers. Nevertheless, it can be important that you attach importance to the highest possible number of subscribers. Because when it comes to contract negotiations, e.g. for product placement or the costs per click, a high number of subscribers is a good success factor. Because the more subscribers you have, the greater the likelihood that your videos will also be seen by many people.
Likewise, you don’t earn more money with YouTube if your videos have a particularly large number of likes. At least not directly. Because indirectly, many likes under a video ensure that it is listed higher up in the search. And this, in turn, leads to more people watching your video.
Let’s get to the key figure that is crucial to making money with YouTube: the number of views. For example, the revenue from the ads increases the more people have watched your videos since most ads work on a cost-per-click basis. The more successful your video is in terms of clicks, the more money you will earn from YouTube. How much you then earn per click depends on your reputation, quality, and size of the channel.
TWITCH OR TikTok AS A YOUTUBE ALTERNATIVE
If you are in the gaming and eSports sector, you can also use Twitch. The live streaming portal has been around since 2011 and is similar to the principle of YouTube. Again, the content is accessible to everyone. If you register for free with your email address or Facebook account, you get some additional features such as adding friends, the chat function or following certain channels. In order to stream, registered users only need suitable software. The video portal is known for its transmission of professional streams from major eSports events. But Twitch is not exclusively related to gaming, since user-generated content actually makes up the main part of the content here. Professional and larger channels have the opportunity on Twitch to earn money through the partner or affiliate program or through advertisements.
Conclusion: Earning money with YouTube works
As you can see, there are still many ways to make money on YouTube. But no one said it was easy. Due to the competitive situation, it is now almost impossible to make it all the way to the top – but only almost. It is more realistic to generate a small side income with YouTube or to find new ways to use the platform for you. Keyword: personal branding.
