You may have heard about the money that can be made on YouTube, but you may be wondering how it’s even possible to earn any money with your own YouTube channel. The truth is that it’s more than possible to make money from your YouTube channel, especially if you have the right strategies in place! In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to earn money from YouTube, from video by video to overall earning potential and everything in between.
Keyword research
Earning money online can be tough. In fact, it’s often hard to know where or how to start. While you can do jobs on freelancing sites like Upwork, these are few and far between and don’t allow for long-term financial planning—or earning potential. If you want to build a career online, you need an established presence. You need a following who will pay attention when you promote products and services.
Choose your topic
Now that you’ve decided on your topic, it’s time to determine where your audience will be. As a general rule of thumb, you want to build up an audience around specific topics (and then see if those folks will follow you off-platform). For example, a parenting channel is likely going to have different needs than a travel channel. In other words, while they may both have an online presence—social media accounts and websites—they probably won’t be interested in each other’s content as much. If possible, do some research into what else has been done in your space (i.e., search for keywords related to your topic on Google) and ask yourself whether there are any areas that haven’t been tackled yet.
Grow your subscriber base
Growing your subscriber base is about more than just drawing eyeballs—it’s about creating a community of people who believe in what you have to say. You want them to leave comments, answer questions and talk with each other on your channel. When they subscribe, they are opting into being a part of that community, so it’s important that you foster a warm environment where everyone feels heard and encouraged. When you build an audience and treat them well, they will keep coming back for more! Take time every day (or at least once a week) to record video responses and engage with commenters. Show up in comment threads around related videos too. People want interaction, not just one-way communication.
Optimize your video titles and descriptions
Optimizing your video's title and description will help Google understand what your video is about. More traffic means more views and more income. Pick a title that will get you clicks and convert viewers into subscribers by including valuable keywords in your description, like how-to, guide, or review. For example, if you’re creating a video tutorial on how to fix a bicycle tire, include these words in your title, so someone searching for that information can find it. If they click on it after reading your description, they might end up subscribing to your channel! It’s a win-win situation.
Pick a good thumbnail image
On YouTube, your thumbnail image is often one of (if not) your most important pieces of marketing. This image is what people will see before they click play, so it’s best to pick something interesting and eye-catching. It should reflect what your video is about and you should include calls-to-action that encourage viewers to subscribe or share your content. If you want to learn more about picking a good thumbnail image on YouTube, check out Kineo’s video guide here.
Create high-quality content
One of the biggest misconceptions people have about making money on YouTube is that it’s a get-rich-quick scheme. And while earning an income online can be very lucrative, you won’t get rich overnight by putting up cat videos. If you want to earn money on YouTube, you have to create high-quality content that builds an audience and engages with them on a consistent basis. Creating quality content doesn’t happen overnight—it takes time and dedication. Fortunately, there are tools available (like VidStatsX) that will help track your progress and identify opportunities for improvement if necessary.
Promote your videos on social media
Creating a content strategy for your videos doesn’t just mean creating an outline or plotting out a series of topics. It also means promoting your videos on social media as they’re released. If you have existing social media channels, use them! If not, consider setting up new profiles on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Once you’ve identified your audience on social media and set up profiles, promote your new channel with a video that explains what you want viewers to expect from your content.
Get views without buying them
One of the first steps for anyone trying to make money on YouTube is reaching a certain number of views. If you’re just starting out, though, it can be hard to get noticed. While purchasing views may seem like an easy way out, it can actually hurt your channel by bringing in viewers who aren’t interested in what you have to offer. To build up a solid audience organically, start with posting high-quality content and appealing directly to your target audience.
Monitor your analytics and make improvements
One great way to make money on YouTube is by building your subscriber base. Once you have a small but dedicated following, you can place advertisements in your videos and start earning money. But you’ll need a considerable amount of views before that will happen. So how do you get views quickly? Monitor your analytics to discover which of your videos are performing well, then produce more videos like them in hopes of reaching similar success. It might take a while before ad space becomes available, but if you keep at it, it will be worth it in the end!
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