YouTube is still crushing it, even after 20 years of being the OG when it comes to creators making money on social media.
People are still hooked on YouTube, racking up about a billion hours of watch time every day—that’s like five billion videos being watched daily. A lot of those views are cashing in, letting creators earn money either directly from those views or through other ways to monetize.
So, if you’re already in the YouTube game and want to level up your earnings, or if you’re thinking about diving in, here are the options you have to monetize.
There are four main ways to get paid on YouTube.
YouTube Partner Program
The YouTube Partner Program allows eligible creators to earn money through revenue sharing from ads and YouTube Premium subscriptions on their videos. When ads pop up on your videos, you get a cut—around $18 per 1,000 ad views, depending on the content.
Plus, if someone is a YouTube Premium subscriber and they’re watching your stuff, you get 55% of what YouTube makes from them.
There’s also YouTube Shopping, where you can sell products straight from your videos, and the YouTube Shorts Fund, which gives you 45% of the ad money from your short videos.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is where you promote a product with a special link or discount code, and when someone buys through that, you get a commission. There are tons of affiliate networks to join, like Amazon Associates, Rakuten or ShareASale.
You can also look for specific types of brands: i.e. supplements if you’re a fitness creator or clothing companies if you’re a fashion creator.
Influencer Marketing
Brands might hit you up to partner as an influencer if you have an audience even just engagement with your audience. That could mean doing a sponsored ad in your video, reviewing a product, or even filming at a cool spot like a store or hotel.
The trick is to keep your audience happy and your business game strong.
Subscriptions, Patrons
You can keep posting your regular stuff but also offer exclusive content to those who subscribe or chip in one-time. This can be through YouTube’s subscription feature or platforms like Patreon, Ko-Fi, or Gumroad. The key here is to give your subscribers some extra love—maybe behind-the-scenes content, meetups, or other perks.
That’s the breakdown—go get that YouTube money!
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