How To Monetize Your YouTube Channel in 2024

YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world, second only to Google. YouTube doubles as a search engine and a social media platform, meaning creators can make good money when they learn how to monetize their YouTube channel.

The larger a channel grows, the more work it takes to sustain‌ it. Time and knowledge are both crucial to a channel’s success, which is why most creators use freelancers to outsource their editing and marketing.

What is YouTube monetization?

YouTube monetization allows creators to profit from the content they create for their YouTube account. If you’ve ever clicked on an interesting video and been bombarded with a slew of ads, that’s because video advertising is one of the top sources of revenue from YouTube monetization. 

Creators who meet YouTube monetization requirements can apply for the YouTube Partnership Program — though this isn’t the only way to make money from YouTube. If approved, they collect a portion of the revenue generated from the ads on individual videos. 

How to monetize your YouTube Channel

There are many avenues for creators to make money aside from the YouTube Partnership Program. If you're wondering about monetization methods for your YouTube channel without 1,000 subscribers, there are plenty of other options.

Apply for YouTube Partnership Program

Find out if you're eligible for the YouTube Partnership Program (YPP) by heading to YouTube Studio. Here, you can access your subscriber count and watch time. 

Subscriber count will be available on the dashboard. Click on your channel analytics for the watch time. Adjust the date in the top right to account for only the last 12 months.

YouTube channel monetization policies and requirements

Creators who want to generate ad revenue need to be eligible for the YouTube Partnership Program by meeting these thresholds:

• Have at least 1,000 subscribers

• Have at least 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months OR

• Have at least 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days

Source

While YouTube continues strengthening monetization requirements to keep out spammers and other bad actors, they've also expanded to be more inclusive. YouTube changed its monetization requirements for 2023. The platform introduced the ability to attain eligibility through YouTube Shorts, offering creators another pathway to YouTube channel monetization.

While the aforementioned requirements are the toughest ones to meet, YouTube also requires the following:

• You live in an area where the YouTube Partner Program is available

• Have no active YouTube Community Guidelines strikes on your channel

• Create an active Google AdSense account

Channels must always follow YouTube’s policies — including their community guidelines, terms of service, advertiser-friendly content guidelines, and copyright guidelines. Creators that go against these rules risk losing their monetization privileges.

Still unsure if you meet the requirements? Head to the “earn” tab on the sidebar. A table will display your progress towards reaching eligibility. If you don’t want to keep checking for updates, opt in for an email notification that'll alert you when you can apply for the YouTube Partnership Program. 

Once you've applied, someone will review your channel. After being accepted, you'll access monetization features such as YouTube ads, shopping, channel memberships, livestreams, and more. For example, viewers can send money via the Super Chat and Super Stickers feature on livestreams. Or they can send it to Shorts creators using the Super Thanks feature.

Optimize your channel properly to get more YouTube subscribers and attain eligibility. If you're struggling to develop content ideas, here are 105 YouTube video ideas to grow subscribers.

Additionally, if you sign up for a YouTube Premium account, you can earn through Watch Page ads and the Shorts Feed Monetization Module.

Find sponsorships

Earn money from your YouTube channel by partnering with brands and creating sponsored content. While you don’t need to be accepted into the YouTube Partnership Program to monetize your channel this way, it helps to have an impressive amount of subscribers and high levels of engagement.

Find brands that align with your channel's subject, demographics, and your target audience. If you create content centered around animals, it'd make sense to reach out to a cat food brand or a dog toy company. Especially when starting, you'll need to do the outreach. When your channel is large and reputable, brands may begin coming to you.

Be open to Brandconnect partnerships, as many brands who sign up for this program can directly reach you. Switch it on within YouTube Studio to create another revenue stream for your channel.

When conducting outreach, share important metrics like your current viewership and engagement stats. Develop a good pitch on how the brand would benefit from advertising its products on your channel and partnering with you. Consider only working with brands that align with your moral values to uphold your channel's integrity. 

According to Statista, YouTubers make, on average, $60–$850 for sponsored content that gets 1,000–10,000 views. Earnings will increase in relation to views. The amount it costs to advertise on YouTube varies on whether the ad is cost-per-click or cost-per-view.

If you monetize your YouTube channel with sponsored content, disclose the paid promotion by checking a box on your YouTube videos before they go live.

Participate in affiliate marketing

Earn additional revenue by including affiliate links in the description of your videos. Research relevant affiliate programs with retailers and receive a custom link to add to your content. 

If your viewers are highly engaged and you're a trustworthy channel, this is a great way to monetize your channel with little effort. Rather than creating custom content tailored to a sponsorship deal, you only need to promote your affiliate link however you want.

You receive a commission every time a viewer purchases using your link. Some affiliate programs even offer a discount code you can share with your views, which will further encourage spending. 

Affiliate marketing is a low-effort technique that can be highly rewarding if your affiliate links are relevant and your audience is engaged.

The YouTube channel "Our Pets Health" places affiliate links in the description of all their videos. The creator is an Amazon Associate who curates a list of Amazon products that he recommends and shares with his viewers. 

putting affiliate links in video description

All purchases made through this link earn him up to 10% in commission. Many YouTube creators sign up to be Amazon Associate since Amazon boasts a variety of products, perfect for nearly any niche. There are many other affiliate programs you can sign up for. Do your research and ensure the business and product you're promoting are reputable, or you risk losing your audience's trust. Remember to disclose this information as well.

Make merchandise sales

As a YouTube Partnership Program member, you unlock the ability to sell merchandise directly on YouTube once you hit 10,000 subscribers. View your monetization on YouTube Studio by clicking on the "earnings" tab, where you can follow prompts to upload the merch you'd like to sell. 

There’s no need to reach that milestone before you begin selling merchandise, however. As long as you’re confident that your fanbase is interested in whatever merchandise you create, you can begin monetizing your channel this way at any time.

Selling your merchandise is as easy as creating your website or selling through a third-party platform. Don't go overboard — gauge your audience's interest by only offering one or two items. From there, you can expand. 

Popular YouTuber Sam, the Cooking Guy, has made a successful line of merchandise off his brand. If you haven't figured it out already, his channel is a cooking channel. On his merch site, he sells everything from graphic t-shirts to cast irons to his own line of seasonings.

If you sell merchandise, make sure to wear/use your own products in your videos and promote them regularly. 

Consider crowdfunding

It’s not uncommon nowadays for YouTubers to set up a crowdfunding account as a means of monetizing their YouTube channel. It’s a great way to gain fan funding that funnels back into your channel, meaning viewers can contribute to the exciting content you’re producing.

Even if you’re not trying to accumulate funds for a larger project, you can offer subscribers the option to pay a set amount each month. In exchange, most creators offer bonus content, a Discord channel for their community, and even rewards. 

Consider setting up a tiered pricing model, so fans have different ways to participate — and different perks to earn. Patreon is a popular platform for crowdfunding, boasting over 8 million monthly active patrons. Some creators also use sites like Kickstarter or GoFundMe. 

YouTube channel Beleaf in Fatherhood has over 1 million subscribers, and the creator, Henry Glen, funnels many of those viewers to their Patreon channel. The creator offers his audience a behind-the-scenes look at how they create content to inspire those with similar goals to do the same. 

“The membership model became realistic to me when I saw the depth of how people were being affected by the content,” Glen says to Patreon. “It’s not so much about finding the audience that will support you financially, it’s more about finding the people that you can affect on a deep enough level that they would want to.” 

Using crowdfunding as a monetization avenue allows creators to build a deeper connection with their audience. It also allows them to hear directly from their viewers on what content they want to see most. 

Tips to increase your YouTube earnings

Now that you know all the different ways you can monetize your YouTube, it's time to learn how to increase those earnings further. While it takes time to monetize your YouTube — if you follow these steps — you'll optimize your earnings in no time.

1. Identify a specific topic or area of interest and create content around it 

Successful channels identify a target audience and create content specifically for this group of people. You can’t — and shouldn’t try — to appeal to everyone. 

It’s helpful to know what niche you want to target before you create your YouTube channel so you can come up with a relevant name. You can always change subject areas later, but make sure you’re creating content that you’re interested in. 

“If you pick a topic you're not passionate about, you'll likely burn out or lose interest before reaching YouTube's monetization threshold,” says David Lynch, Content Lead at Payette Forward. ”Be consistent and don't get discouraged early on. Your first videos probably aren't going to get tons of views. It takes time to build an audience, but patience, hard work, and consistency will be rewarded.”

Payette Forward’s YouTube channel started in 2017 and now has almost 1.3 million subscribers. The key to their success? Creating high-quality content with HD video and great audio, while making sure to include every possible fix a viewer could try from home. They also create videos that have the potential to go viral alongside SEO videos that'd answer relevant Google searches. 

“It's important to continually scale up if you want your YouTube channel to grow. Delegating some of the work you're doing gives you more time to focus on what you're best at, and allows you to publish videos at a faster rate,” says Lynch. “We're always looking for excellent graphic designers who can create high-quality YouTube thumbnails, as good thumbnails are essential to people actually clicking on your video.”

As illustrated by Payette Forward's most popular videos — one which has 15 million views — thumbnails and titles are a crucial component of any YouTube digital marketing strategy. Not every content creator has the time or knowledge to create eye-catching thumbnails, which is why it’s important to invest in trustworthy external help. 

2. Invest in good equipment and take the time to create well-produced videos that are visually appealing and engaging

With millions of YouTube channels — 51 million to be exact — pumping out content everyday, you need high-quality production to entice people to visit your channel. Sponsors aren’t going to work with you if your content doesn’t meet a certain standard.

If you invest your finances in professional recording equipment, maybe you delegate editing to a freelancer so as not to pour more money into expensive software. A superior production quality is what allowed Payette Forward to stand out from the crowd. Their competitors were creating low-quality videos that didn’t include every step. Taking notice of these small missteps and capitalizing on them allowed them to surge ahead.

3. Hire freelancer experts to create/edit videos

Success doesn’t have to be a solo venture. Freelancers offer their services for almost every stage of the YouTube process now. 

Hire a freelancer to help with everything from scriptwriting to video marketing to audio editing. Nathan Gotch, who runs his own YouTube channel, relies on Fiverr freelancers to edit all of his videos even though he has the knowledge to do so himself. 

“Fiverr freelancers have saved me thousands of hours. Editing videos is very time-consuming, and your time is better spent generating ideas and creating new content,” says Gotch. “The key to success when working with a video editor is to use a script and supply editing instructions. The more you work with one editor, the better the workflow. Yes, you'll need to invest time in working out the kinks. But once you're rolling, the editor will know your style and what you want to do.”

4. Use relevant keywords to make it easier for viewers to find your content through search

If you don’t have any viewers, you won’t find success monetizing your YouTube channel. Ensure your videos are easy to find by taking advantage of hashtags and keywords so your videos reach viewers outside your subscribers. 

Think of YouTube as another search engine, except the results are all in video format. Tailor your content to search by including relevant keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and tags. Keywords help the algorithm better understand your content and feed it to the right people, which in turn allows your audience to grow and empowers you to monetize your channel better. If you're unsure how to conduct research, there are plenty of expert freelancers who specialize in keyword research for YouTube. 

5. Build a community around your channel by engaging with viewers

The more you engage your audience, the likelier you are to amass a large following of supportive viewers. Engaging your audience is low-effort and can be done in any of the following forms:

• Respond to comments

• Create polls

• Ask for feedback (and act on it)

• Run contests

• Create a Discord channel for your community

The more engaged your audience, the easier it is to monetize your channel with sponsorships, as brands want to work with creators who can prove they have a loyal following.

6. Promote your videos to reach a wider audience

It’s always smart to cross-promote your content on various social media platforms. You can easily funnel followers on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, or Facebook to your YouTube channel.

People who already engage with video content on these platforms are the easiest to convert to YouTube subscribers.

Make sure you advertise your YouTube channel on these various platforms because your audience might not know the channel exists. Advertise your YouTube channel on all of the various platforms where your target audience hangs out and continue to repurpose content into different forms.

7. Participate in Fiverr’s Influencer Program

Already partnered with YouTube? Why not do the same with Fiverr? If you have at least 5,000 subscribers, you can apply to join Fiverr’s Influencer Program and participate in one of three different plans. 

Members of Fiverr’s Influencer Program enjoy:

• Fiverr credits. Level up your content creation by partnering with any of Fiverr's expert freelancers. Receive credits that allow you to elevate your content for free.

• Promo codes. Remember those affiliate links we were talking about? Offer your audience exciting Fiverr discounts with a custom code. 

• More engagement. Creating content about Fiver is a win-win. We’ve noticed that influencers’ promotional posts about Fiverr tend to outperform, which means promotion for us and more traffic for you. 

• Higher commission rates. Depending on the partnership plan you choose, experience up to 100% more commission. 

Create more engaging YouTube content with a freelancer to maximize monetization

It’s unrealistic to expect growth and monetization for your YouTube channel if you’re not taking the steps to produce engaging content. It’s also impractical to grow past a certain point without outside help.

“We hired a freelance YouTube strategist to help us with video topic selection, outlining, and scriptwriting. They helped us develop a process document that we've used to outline and script every video we've made over the past nine months,” says Lynch. 

“Having a thorough script makes it easier for us to record and edit videos, as our entire team knows exactly what we're going to say, when we're going to change camera angles, and when we're going to insert b-roll footage. We've been able to record as many as seven videos in a single workday because our planning process has become so streamlined.”

Creating content, marketing it, and monetizing it all take valuable time. Offload some of that work by partnering with a professional instead of doing everything yourself. Join Fiverr today to access the community of talented freelancers who specialize in everything from intro/outro videos to video SEO to crowdfunding.