Article published on 26 July 2021*

How Make Money From Youtube? Step-by-Step Guide

Create a Youtube channel and earn money

How Make Money From Youtube? Can you make a living from your Youtube videos? What are the steps to make a living from a Youtube channel? WikiCréa tells you everything you need to know to become a professional youtuber.

Creating a Youtube channel and earning money is a dream for many teenagers and adults; it is true that this type of activity has its advantages:

it is possible to work from home,
it is possible to devote oneself to one’s passion (games, culture, cooking, fashion, health, cars, computers, humor, politics…),
the initial financial investment is low.

However, the job of a youtuber is very demanding. You should never get discouraged. You must be regular. You have to aim for the long term. If you need income right away, then forget about making money with Youtube.

Here is everything you need to know to create a Youtube channel and earn money.

How Make Money From Youtube: the needed skills.

Creating a Youtube channel can be a profitable activity, but there is a big gap between the time of the effort and the time of the financial gains. Therefore you will need to be very patient and persistent.

Many professional youtubers give up, due to lack of time, money or discouragement. This will make all the more room for you. Remember that only those who continue succeed!
Peii henry

The first substantial income can be earned after 6 months to 1 year of work if all goes well. As the weeks and months go by, the quality of your videos will improve and you will gain experience about what appeals to the public and what doesn’t. Time is on your side!

Other qualities needed to make a successful living on Youtube are:

love making videos and directing: you must have a creative side,
be passionate and concerned about your subject,
know how to put yourself in other people’s shoes: you must constantly try to understand what people like and are looking for,
be generous: at first, you will indeed give a lot without necessarily getting any return,
be regular in your work. At the beginning, give priority to quality and regularity rather than quantity.

It’s better to make one great video once a week than three poor quality videos a week.
Peii Henry

How Make Money From Youtube: How it works.

Youtube is a platform for uploading videos, accessible to all. Youtube is a start-up founded in 2005 and bought by Google in 2006.

Today, 1.5 billion Internet users consult Youtube regularly. They spend an average of 1 hour per day on the platform, which makes Youtube a potential market more than gigantic, in which it is possible to succeed or drown …

More than 600 hours of videos are uploaded every minute on the Youtube platform. The platform is still growing exponentially.

How does Youtube rank videos? The Youtube referencing system.

If you want to earn money with Youtube, it’s simple: your videos must appear at the top of the list for the keyword concerned.

The ranking system of Youtube videos is very much inspired by the Google system (let’s not forget that Youtube belongs to Google); it is based on an internal search engine itself based on two fundamental elements:

KEYWORDS:

you must use relevant keywords, that is to say, keywords requested by Internet users, if possible in progression, and consistent with the content of your videos. You should insert your keywords in the title of your videos, in the name of your playlists, in the subtitles, in the descriptions and in the tags*, but also in your audio content as many times as possible, without unbalancing your texts or making them difficult to read (because Youtube doesn’t like cheating). Do not hesitate to consult the best keyword trends available in the suggestions of the Youtube search engine, in the Trends tab, or on the Google Trends site or Google Adwords.

THE QUALITY OF YOUR CONTENT:

As we have seen, Youtube ranks videos according to keywords. But it then evolves this ranking according to the quality of content, to present at the top of the list the most satisfactory videos. Youtube has automatic and effective ways to judge the quality of a video:

the number of interactions: comments (and keywords in the comments), “likes”, sharing, bookmarking,
the percentage of the video duration consumed by the visitors: this is the retention rate,
the number of views per day,
the evolution of the attendance,
the number of incoming links (sites or social networks that publish the link of your video),
the importance and the notoriety of your Youtube channel: number of videos published, seniority, number of fans, regularity of your content …

It will therefore be necessary to produce videos that are long enough for users to have time to interact (comment, like), and short enough for the retention rate to remain correct.

Tags are expressions related to the theme of your video. It is important that you use a large number of tags to increase the chances of your content being “found”. For example, if you publish a video titled Learn English for Kids, Lesson #1, you could add the following tags: English lessons for kids, Primary English lessons, First grade English lessons, Introduction to primary English, Introduction to elementary school English, and many more.

How does Youtube earn money?

Youtube is paid by advertising on its site:

ads positioned before, during or after videos (can be disabled or not)
overlay ads: banners appearing at the bottom of videos,
ads located on the right side of the screen,
commercials located on the right side of the videos.

Regarding the videos published by its partners (youtubers recognized as such by the platform), Youtube pays them a percentage of the revenue generated by the ads.

Becoming a professional Youtuber: The Steps.

Here are the main steps to create a Youtube channel and earn money. Each step is important. If you want to succeed, take each step seriously and spend time on it. Nothing should be left to chance.

Step 1: Get equipped and trained.

This is the priority. To become a Youtube professional, you need to have the right equipment to make quality videos and edits. Don’t think you can make a living with videos taken with a cell phone or a simple tablet, unless you have a particularly powerful model.

Here is the recommended material to create Youtube videos worthy of the name:

a professional microphone (around 150 €),
a camera: opt for a camcorder, or ideally a Reflex camera capable of making videos,
a tripod,
a shooting space (studio) and a suitable set (lamp on stand, umbrella lamp, green background…),
a video editing software (for example Adobe Premiere) installed on an adapted computer.

You will also need training on how to shoot and edit videos. There are many free training courses available.

On the other hand, you will also need to learn about Youtube referencing. Again, there are many trainings, some of which are available online and are free. You can also self-train by buying books or specialized guides.

Step 2: Choose the theme of your videos.

This is an essential point, which will determine your ability to earn money with Youtube. The theme of your channel should be chosen with great care:

First of all, you must own all the rights to your videos: in other words, you can only show what you own or create yourself. It is not allowed to make videos of an electronic game, software, or nice cars owned by others.
your theme should not be too general: specialize rather on a niche to be sure to break through. Example of themes that are too broad and too competitive: the new iPhone, MineCraft…
your theme should be trendy, fashionable.
You must choose a theme that speaks to you, that you master well, that you are passionate about. Create a real identity, which will not be found anywhere else.
the most successful themes are the ones that are fun, surprising, impressive, or that create loyalty.
ask yourself the question of the language to use: the potential is much greater in English than in French…

Some examples of themes: online training (courses, technical learning, languages, etc.), tutorials, personal performances (sports, humor, editorials, music, body art), amazing experiences, animals with specificities, fashion, product tests…

Step 3: Produce a first test video.

Produce a first video and test it with your friends. Take a step back from your production. Try it again, and again.

Step 4: Plan your production and develop your scenarios.

Plan your video series. For each one, define a scenario, a work plan or a story board.

Get a head start by producing 4 or 5 videos that you will broadcast in a short period of time (two the first day and then one a day for example). The following videos can be produced and broadcast at a regular rate, for example once a week.

Step 5: Relay your videos.

Relay as much as possible your videos on social networks, through your personal accounts. Invite your friends to subscribe to your channel. Inform your friends and family. Try to generate a maximum of back-links (links to your channel).

6th step: Produce, analyze, redirect.

Persevere in the production of content. Listen to feedback and traffic statistics. Reorient your content positioning: specialize in the topics that attract the most visitors.

Don’t get discouraged. The more content you publish, the more your traffic will increase.

Start monetizing as soon as your channel exceeds 10,000 total views.

How Make Money From Youtube: the monetization stage.

Create a Youtube channel and earn money: here we are! Your channel is ready to generate income because it has enough traffic.

Enable Youtube monetization.

To activate the monetization of your videos, follow the instructions provided by Google support.

Note that your channel must reach 10,000 views in public mode to be considered by Youtube and join the “Partner Program”.

You will have to sign a charter, create a Google Adsense account to collect your revenues (see below), choose your monetization preferences (ad placement), and wait for the acceptance of Youtube.

Be careful! Do not click on your own ads because Youtube could immediately terminate your partnership!

Get money from your Youtube channel.

To be able to collect the money generated by your Youtube channel, you will have to link it with a Google Adsense account (Google’s advertising partnership system), itself linked with a bank or Paypal account. You will also have to create a company, it is mandatory even if your income is low (see below).

How many views to earn money on Youtube?

How much do you pay on Youtube? The calculation depends on many parameters (duration, theme, content of the video …). We estimate the remuneration to be around 1$ per 1000 views (or even less), i.e. 1000 € per 1 million views. In reality, your remuneration can vary between 200$ and 3000$ per million views.

Adding ads to videos

To monetize your YouTube channel, you can simply add ads in your videos. This can be sidebar ads, full-screen ads before the video starts, etc. Feel free to enable all types of ads.

If you offer unique and quality videos, you will have no trouble attracting viewers and generating a large number of views. It is important to note that it is not only the number of views that counts to earn money on YouTube, but also the number of likes, the number of subscriptions, the number of comments and the duration of viewing. These parameters are all taken into account by YouTube.

In addition, earnings vary depending on the ads you have enabled, the advertisers and your channel. To earn a nice sum, focus on short, relevant content that lasts less than 5 minutes, but can hold viewers’ attention until the end. Make sure they watch at least 30 seconds of your video, as many ads are only paid after 30 seconds of viewing. Grab visitors’ attention from the very first seconds!

Appeal for donations

More and more YouTubers are calling for participatory funding, so don’t hesitate to do the same. This principle consists in asking for donations to be able to provide quality videos. You can for example ask your fans to support you financially for a project, or simply to improve your videos and produce others. This will allow you to earn money without having to activate ads or do product placement.

Many YouTubers earn more than 1 000 € per month with participatory funding, this is the case of the YouTubeur specializing in history, Nota Bene, who earns about 1 300 € per month through donations. Of course, you need to have a major audience to be able to earn such an amount and propose quality videos.

Doing product placement

This involves making a sponsored video, which talks about a brand or a company with its products and services, in exchange for a fee. The biggest advantage of this concept is that you have complete freedom over the script and the video, as long as you talk about the brand or company.

Make sure you are always honest and tell the truth about the product, without leaving out any less positive details. Also, don’t forget to mention that it’s a sponsored video, as your fans will be able to understand if you are transparent with them. You will have more chances to be approached by brands if you have a lot of subscribers, product placement is a great way to monetize your videos.

Sell products or merchandise

To make money with YouTube, you can also sell your products or merchandise via your channel. Many YouTubers use this method to make it their main source of income. First of all, try to find out what your audience is looking for before you offer a particular product. Once you know what your audience is looking for, all you have to do is create a website to host your products and redirect people to it.

Turn to sponsorship or affiliation

Sponsorship consists in presenting products or services in your videos and being paid for each purchase. Many YouTubers are affiliated with sites such as Amazon, so don’t hesitate to do it to earn money with your videos. You will get a commission if someone buys the product(s) from the purchase link you provide.

Transparency: I may receive affiliate compensation for some of the links below, at no cost to you if you decide to purchase a paid plan. You can read our affiliate statement in our privacy policy. This site is not intended to provide financial advice. It is for entertainment purposes only.

Share with friends and family

Addicted to Free Traffic

Members

Discover for free the Strategy I use to generate over $40,000 per month with SEO.