How To Make Money On YouTube (Step by Step Guide)

  • Post author:
  • Post last modified:April 20, 2020
  • Reading time:25 mins read

Do you want to make money on YouTube?

Ever wondered, how do YouTubers make money?

One of the most popular ways to make money online is through YouTube. Everyone wants to make money from YouTube and become a YouTube star.

If you’re among one of them and want to know how to make money on YouTube? This post is for you.

Make Money On YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine and the second most popular website in the world after Google.

According to Wikipedia, 400 hours of content is uploaded every minute and 1 billion hours of content is being watched every day on YouTube.

How To Make Money On YouTube

There are almost 1,000,000,000 mobile video views per day on average and hours of content uploaded and watched. What does this mean? This means that YouTube is a very big platform and the scope to earn money from YouTube is very high.

This article is a step by step guide to making money on YouTube and will help you start your money earning YouTube channel.

Articles related to making money online:

If you’re really interested and want to start a successful YouTube channel, you need to read and follow each and every step.

6 Steps To Make Money On YouTube

  1. Find your niche
  2. Set up your YouTube channel
  3. Add quality content (Start uploading YouTube videos)
  4. Promote your videos to get the audience
  5. Monetize your channel
  6. Start making money

1. Find Your Niche

YouTube niche

What is a niche?

I am sure most of you are aware of the term niche but for those who do not know, a niche is the specific topic of your YouTube channel.

How to find the best niche for your YouTube Channel?

Before starting to find out the best niche for your YouTube channel it is necessary to know the importance of niche.

If you want your YouTube channel to succeed and make lots of money for you, it is very important to decide your niche consciously. This is because the topics you are focusing on and sharing with people will decide how much money you will earn on YouTube. That niche will be the base on which your YouTube channel will stand.

If you upload random videos every day you will not get any subscribers. Why? Because people will get confused about your channel. They would have no reason to subscribe to your YouTube channel.

But on another hand, if you start uploading related video content every day like tech videos or travel videos, it will be easy for the audience to decide what you are trying to tell them and they will surely subscribe to your YouTube channel.

How to find a perfect niche for your YouTube channel?

A perfect niche for your YouTube channel would be the combination of Passion and Profitability. But these are not the only points you need to consider while deciding your niche, there are some more important points.

Like I said, first you need to identify your passion. If you want to convert your YouTube channel into your full-time career, you need to be passionate about the things you are doing.

Write down all those things you are passionate about. Once you have written all the topics you’re passionate about, try to find out whether they are profitable or not. Finding the profitability is very important because your ultimate goal is to make money with your YouTube channel.

Find out whether people are searching for the topics in your niche or not (Demand). You can use Google Trends, Google AdWords Keyword Planner or any other tool to find out how popular the topic is and how many times the topic is searched per month.

Find out how competitive is your niche (Competition). You can have an idea of the competition by looking at how many YouTubers are providing the same content.

So, find a niche that has high demand and low competition.

Are you providing enough value to the audience with your YouTube videos or not? Always remember that you are not alone in the game. There will be many other YouTubers in your niche providing the same content/value to the audience. If you want to win the game, provide much better content than others (Value Addition).

Do you have enough content to share with your audience? If you are not able to think of many topics for your YouTube videos in a particular niche then just drop the idea of selecting that niche. Select a niche you are confident about to provide a lot of quality content.

So, these are some of the points you need to consider while deciding the niche for your YouTube channel. Apply these points to all the niches you’re passionate about and find out which will be the best for you.

Popular YouTube Niches

  • Food
  • Fashion
  • Travel
  • Tech Videos
  • Beauty
  • Health & Fitness
  • How-to videos

2. Set Up Your YouTube Channel

The second step to becoming a YouTuber is to set up and create your YouTube channel.

How to start a YouTube channel?

Start A YouTube Channel

Starting a YouTube channel is a very simple and easy step.

First, you need to create a Google account to sign in to YouTube. You can also sign in with your existing Gmail account.

Once you sign in your YouTube account, go to the top right of the screen and click on the user icon and then settings icon.

Click on Create a new Channel.

Here you get two options either to create a personal channel or a business channel so you can name your channel accordingly.

Name your channel in such a way that it itself will describe the channel and its content.

Add a channel art on your YouTube channel. Channel art is basically a cover photo of your YouTube channel. So, add a beautiful, informative channel art keeping in mind that this will help in branding your YouTube channel. A channel art with 2560*1440 pixels and 4MB size is recommended by YouTube.

Now is the time to add a great Channel description. Tell the people what content they can expect from your YouTube channel and how you’re going to help them.

And finally, add a channel Icon which again helps in branding your channel. If you can create your channel art and icon yourself, well and good. Otherwise, you can hire some freelancers to do the same.

3. Add Quality Content (Start Uploading YouTube Videos)

Now that you have chosen your niche and created your YouTube channel, its time to add great YouTube content on your channel.

If you want to be a successful YouTuber then this step is very important for you. You need to create great and unique content for YouTube in order to grow and succeed.

It should be totally clear in your mind that what content you’re gonna provide to your subscribers.

Uploading two or three videos on YouTube is not a big task. But if you want to run your YouTube channel for a long time then you need to keep uploading quality videos on a consistent basis.

How to create great quality content for YouTube?

For creating great quality content for YouTube you need to develop a creative content strategy and brainstorm various YouTube content ideas.

Research, what other people in your niche are offering and try to offer much better content than them.

Your content should be unique, trendy, attractive and targeted to the audience in your niche. Generate content that has the potential to go viral and people would want to share that.

You can learn to create great content from YouTube Creator Academy’s course where you can learn the fundamentals of a creative strategy.

YouTube Creator Academy

Remember, it is necessary to maintain a balance between quality and quantity. Even if you do not have good quality content, in the beginning, it is quite necessary to provide the content to your subscribers so that they will not unsubscribe you.

So, try to upload YouTube videos consistently even if they are not as good in quality at first and improve the quality of content in the process.

4. Promote Your Videos To Get Audience

The fourth step to make money on YouTube is to promote your YouTube videos and channel.

Promoting your videos and channel is as essential as creating great content or maybe much more. You have put a lot of efforts to create your content and now is the time to show it to the world. If you do not promote your videos or channel, your work will never be seen by the audience.

No audience means no money. You need people to watch your videos and make money from YouTube. You can not make money on YouTube if no one is watching your videos or content.

So, promote aggressively.

How to Promote YouTube Videos?

There are a lot of platforms (both free and paid) where you can promote your YouTube channel and content.

If you can afford, use Google Adwords to promote your videos. This way you can promote your channel to YouTube viewers with PPC (pay per click) ads.

If you want to promote YouTube videos for free follow these steps:

  • Find Great Keyword: Use Google Adwords keyword tool namely Google Keyword Planner.
  • Use Concise and Descriptive Video Titles: if you’re not able to find video titles, use Google search and YouTube search to have an idea of what people are searching for. Don’t forget to use Keyword(s) in your Video Title.
  • Use Proper Video Tags: Add your main keywords in title tags. Use various related keywords that describe your content. You can install TubeBuddy Chrome Extension (recommended) to find the best tags used by other high ranking videos and use them in your own videos.
  • Use Custom Thumbnails: Use free tools like Canva to design your Thumbnails. Create eye-catching custom thumbnails for all your YouTube videos.
  • Video description: Make use of the video description column to promote your content. Put your main keywords and important information in the video description to make your content be easily discovered by the YouTube search system.
  • Engage with your YouTube community: Let your YouTube community be involved in various activities on your YouTube channel. Ask your viewers to post their queries in the comment section and try to respond to them as much as possible.
  • Encourage people to take action: All the YouTubers ask viewers to like, comment, share and subscribe at the end of their videos. This really works. Tell viewers how their actions inspire you to provide more useful content to them. This simple step can take your channel to the next level.
  • Create Playlist(s): A playlist is a collection of similar types of videos put together in one place. A great thing about the playlist is that it keeps viewers for more time on your YouTube channel and makes them watch more and more content.
  • Use Social Media: Use all social media platforms to share and promote your content. Promote YouTube videos on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and others to get more traffic, more views and more subscribers.

You can also promote your YouTube videos on your blog (existing or create new). If you’re thinking of becoming a full-time YouTuber, you should definitely start a blog. This way you can send the traffic from your blog to your YouTube channel. You can buy a domain name similar to your YouTube channel.

5. Monetize Your Channel

YouTube Monetization is the next step to make money on YouTube and probably the most awaited step by you.

You have followed all the steps carefully, created good content and started getting views. Now is the time to start making money on YouTube by monetizing your YouTube channel.

Join the YouTube partner program to make money from YouTube Ads.

What are YouTube monetization requirements?

As per the YouTube monetization policy, you have to meet some requirements to monetize your channel and videos.

You need to have more than 1000 subscribers and at least 4000 watch hours in the previous 12 months in order to start making money on YouTube with YouTube Partner Program (YPP).

This also answers the question, How many subscribers do you need to make money on YouTube? Because making money with Ads through YPP is the easiest and most common way to make money on YouTube. So you need a minimum of 1000 subscribers to start earning money on YouTube with YouTube Ads.

There are different features of YPP and each feature has its own requirements.

YouTube Partner Program requirements

When you apply for the YouTube Partner Program, your channel is reviewed by YouTube. It takes about a month to review your application.

You are able to earn money on YouTube if you’re accepted for the YouTube partner program. If you are rejected from YPP then you need to wait for 30 more days to re-apply.

YPP Review process

You’re required to meet all the policies and guidelines of YouTube. Only channels that meet them are accepted into the program.

How to enable YouTube monetization and make money on YouTube?

You have met all YouTube monetization requirements and are now ready to enable YouTube monetization. Let’s go through the steps:

  • Sign in to YouTube
  • Click the account icon on the top right corner
  • Click YouTube Studio (beta)
  • Go to the left-hand side to find channel menu and click on Other Feature > Monetization
  • Under Monetization click Enable

AdSense Account

You need to set up an AdSense account to receive payments. If you have an already approved AdSense account you can use that and if you don’t have one you can create while applying for YouTube Partner Program. Connect your YouTube channel with Google AdSense account. Adsense will pay you for the number of views on your YouTube channel and videos.

How much money do you make per 1000 views on YouTube?

Depending upon your content you can get anything between $.8 to $1 for 1000 views (CPM – Cost Per Thousand Impression)

5. Start Making Money on YouTube

Make Money with YouTube

So, now everything is set and you are ready to make money with YouTube videos. You already have monetized your YouTube account and this is what every YouTuber do to make money with YouTube Ads.

But this is not the only way to make money on YouTube. There are a lot of different ways to make money on YouTube and so is the potential to earn money on YouTube.

So, how much money can you make on YouTube?

As I said, the potential to make money on YouTube is very huge. There are many YouTubers who are making more than $1,000,000 per month. One among them is PewDiePie (Real name Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg).

Do you know how much money PewDiePie make?

He makes approximately $15 million per year. PewDiePie has more than 100,000,000 subscribers on YouTube.

However, no one can exactly tell you how much money can you make with YouTube but an average YouTuber is making around $500 to $5000 per month. It all depends on how good is your content, how much people have subscribed to your channel and how much views your videos are getting.

Best Ways to make money on YouTube without AdSense

Have you ever thought, how do people earn money from YouTube? Well, they use different ways to make money on YouTube. Making money with AdSense is not the only way to make money from YouTube. You can also make money from YouTube without AdSense.

Different ways to make money from YouTube:

1. Affiliate marketing: This is one of the most popular methods to earn money from YouTube. Here you sell other people’s products and get a commission on every item you sell. Among various affiliate marketing programs available, the Amazon Associates Program is the most popular one for beginners.

2. Sell your own products: Selling other people’s products will give you only a certain percentage of commission. But if you want to make 100% profit then you need to create your own product and sell it to people. You can start selling your own products like T-shirts, eBooks, online training programs, etc.

3. Sponsorship and brand deals: Another popular way to make money on YouTube without AdSense is through sponsorship. In sponsorship and brand deals you are required to promote the brand in your YouTube videos.

4. Subscriptions and memberships: Through subscriptions and memberships you get the monthly recurring fee from members for providing high-quality content.

5. Consulting: You can also provide paid consultancy services to other video creators and small businesses to grow.

Conclusion

So, this was all about how to start a YouTube channel and make money with it.

The article, how to make money on YouTube (step by step guide) covers everything you need to know for starting and running a successful YouTube channel.

I hope you have learned a lot about starting your YouTube channel. So what are you waiting for? Create your YouTube channel and start making money online.

Also Read: How To Start An Amazon FBA Business With Little Money (Beginner’s Guide)

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. rohit kumar

    reall nice

    1. Yash Pal

      Thank you so much Rohit.

  2. Micheline

    Very good post. I certainly appreciate this website.

    Keep it up!

Comments are closed.