How To Make Money On YouTube | 5 Easy Steps for Beginners

With over 2.5 billion users, YouTube is one of the best destinations to make money online. By the time you finish reading this paragraph, more than 300 hours of video will have been uploaded to YouTube.

YouTube is really big, and so are the chances of making money here. You might not believe that the channel PewDiePiemade made $15 billion+ in 2016. There are many more YouTube stars who make billions every year uploading videos on YouTube. In this article, we will discuss every little thing that you need to get started with YouTube in order to make money.

You might not become a millionaire overnight, but wouldn’t it be a great help if you could make your living and some extra money from YouTube? I am 100% sure that with continuous efforts, dedication, and patience, everyone can make good money on YouTube or any other online business. Let’s Discuss Why YouTube is So Popular for Making Money:

Why is YouTube a Great Place to Make Money?

1. YouTube is Big

How big is YouTube? Well, 2,500,000,000+ people use it. 5 billion+ videos are being watched every day. About 30 million people visit YouTube daily. All this makes sure that as soon as you upload a video on YouTube, it will be available to billions of users.

2. Zero Investment

Google is already paying $6,350,000,000 every year to run and maintain YouTube for you. So you do not need to spend any money on a domain name or hosting, like you do when you set up a blog or website. In this way, you can start making money on YouTube without any investment. All you have to do is spend time creating great content.

• 20 Ways to Make Money Online With Zero Investment

3. Setting Up YouTube Channel is Easy

Setting up a YouTube channel is very easy, if I compare it to setting up a blog. You do not need to install themes and plugins here.YouTube already has an outstanding user interface. Users can navigate YouTube in 76 different languages, and a local version of it is available in more than 88 countries.

4. Getting AdSense Approval is Extremely Easy

Google AdSense has always been very strict about approving blogs and websites. Even after writing hundreds of articles, many bloggers struggle to get their AdSense application approved. In countries like India and China, your blog needs to be at least 6 months old to become eligible for AdSense.

On the other hand, you can get AdSense ads on your YouTube channel with the very first video. You need to have at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours in order to apply for AdSense.

• How to Solve Site Does Not Comply with Google Polices Problem

How do I make money online on YouTube?

Before you can make your first dollar from YouTube, you are required to follow some steps that almost every YouTuber follows. Here is your to-do list:

1. Identify Your Niche or Topic

This is the first and most important part of the game. Topic/Niche means what you are going to offer on your YouTube channel. There must be something you always talk about. There must be something that you are passionate about. You must find your interests and passion.

If you always talk about phones and your opinions matter to your friends and family while buying a new phone, then you can start reviewing phones on your YouTube channel. If you like cooking, you can start making videos of your recipes to upload on your channel. Are you good at teaching and learning? Record some lectures and upload them on YouTube.

I know this is overwhelming, and there is a lot of competition in every field or niche, but believe me, in the end, your passion is going to win over the competition.

Here are some tips you can follow to find your field:

• Make a list of your interests and hobbies
• Is there anything your friends often seek your opinions about? If there is, it can be the topic of your channel.
• Do you help people solve some specific kinds of problems? Because you can help many more by making “how to solve…” videos.

Now if you have a certain topic in mind and you have to decide to make videos about it, then you are ready to move on to the second step.

2. Set up YouTube Channel

Do you have a Gmail account? If not, create one. If yes, then follow these steps:steps:

Create Channel

• Go to YouTube.com and click on Sign in Button
• Log in with your Gmail credentials.
• Click on My Channel Panel from the left panel, and a box will be opened as shown below if you are doing this for the first time. Fill up the details and click on Create Channel. You have successfully created your channel.

Channel Name

Select a unique channel name that reflects your brand and is relevant to your niche. Attractive names always have benefits.

Add Channel Description

The channel description tells your visitor who you are and what you offer. You get an opportunity to tell people what they can expect from your channel. In order to add a channel description, do the following:

• Click on My Channel from the left panel. You will be redirected to your channel page, where you will see a box to add a description.

If you are confused about what to write, you can see descriptions of other popular channels. Here is an example Channel description from Discovery Network:

Upload the channel icon and Channel Art

Channel icons and art help make a channel unique, memorable, and distinguishable. Channel icons and art should be relevant to the content you often post. You can simply get more attention by looking amusing, good, and interesting.

There are websites available that might help you create an attractive logo and artwork. To upload channel icons and channel art, click on My Channel, and at the top, you have pencil-like edit buttons to upload icons and art.

Get a Custom YouTube Channel URL

Click on my channel and look at the address bar in the browser. You will see a URL like https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2wCYhYREnUgAxmA4-aEng. This is the YouTube default URL for your channel. Is it easy to remember? Obviously not. This is why you need to have a custom URL for your channel. You can get a custom URL by following these steps:

• Click on the top right channel icon>>Setting/Gear Icon. You will be redirected to the YouTube Account Setting page.
• Click on advanced and you have an option there to set a custom and easy-to-remember web address that would look like Youtube.com/user/YourChannelName

Note: You must have at least 100 subscribers, channel art, and a channel icon, and your account must be at least 30 days old before you can get a custom URL.

3. Make and Upload Some Great Videos

Making Videos

You must create quality content if you want your videos to stand out in the crowd. Once you have a topic in mind, search for what others are doing in the same category. There might be other similar videos already, so you have to add your own flavor to the videos to make them unique and useful. You might need some editing skills. Here are some tips that will help you make good videos:

• Get the proper tools. A good camera for recording and a microphone for audio.
• Research what kinds of videos people like. Make and post some.
• If you are making long videos, then you can consider creating an intro for your videos.
• Choose a location with good lighting for shooting videos.
• Ask your friends to contribute
• If you are doing a how-to video related to computer, then you use screen recorders
• After shooting videos, you will need editing software to give them the final touch before uploading. Here are some popular names YouTubers often use: Flexclip, Sony Vegas, Window Movie Maker, Photoshop,  iMovie, Blender, and Final Cut Pro

Making videos seems difficult at first, and your first video might stink, but you will notice an improvement in your skills as time passes. It happens to everyone.

Uploading Videos

Once you have created your video, it’s time to upload it to YouTube. Type anything on YouTube and search. You will get a list of similar videos, but only a few get top spots in search results. If you want to see your video in the first few search results, then pay attention to some important optimization options while uploading the video. Follow these steps to upload and optimize your video:

• First of all, give a relevant filename to your video before uploading.
• Never upload copyrighted content. Original work is required to make money.
• Log in to YouTube and click on the arrow-like upload button at the right top of the screen.
• Browse and Select the video you want to upload
• While your videos are uploading and processing, you have several things to do. Give it a suitable title. Make sure it has at least five words. Don’t forget to add target keywords. For example, if you are reviewing Bluehost, then add “Bluehost Review” in the title.
• Write a great description explaining what the video is all about. After all, Google and YouTube determine the content of a video by looking at your description. Add target keywords in the first few lines and repeat keywords 3–4 times if the video description is long enough.
• Add suitable tags. Tags are relevant keywords for your video. Your video has more chances to come in related videos if you are using the right tags and keywords.
• Upload custom thumbnails. If you don’t upload any thumbnails, then YouTube will use a thumbnail from the video itself, and that might not be suitable. I would suggest you create a custom thumbnail for every video, as users decide what to watch by looking at the thumbnail.
• Click on the publish button. Congratulations. Your video is now available to billions of internet users. You can edit your video by visiting the dashboard. YouTube editors has several useful editing features, like increasing brightness, contrast, hue, slowing down the video, etc.

That’s All. Your video is now uploaded and optimized. Don’t forget to serve videos at regular intervals.

4. Promote Videos and Engage With Viewers

You are expected to share your videos on your social media accounts. Always reply to comments. Gain the trust of your audience. Build Community.

5. Monetize Videos or Apply for Adsense

It’s time to make money. This is all we love. There are several ways you can make money from your YouTube videos. The primary and most popular is Adsense. So without wasting a single minute, check out the below points about how to get AdSense ads enabled on your channel:

• Log into your Youtube account and click on Creator Studio by clicking on the top-right channel icon.
• Click on the channel in the left panel. You will see boxes. The third one is for monetization. Click on Enable to enable monetization, as shown below.
• You have to follow four steps. Read and agree to the terms of the YouTube Partner Program in the first step.
• Sign up for AdSense. If you already have an Adsense account, then you can connect your YouTube channel to it. While signing up for Adsense, fill in all the details accurately. Verify your phone number at the end.
• Once you have connected an Adsense account, set monetization preferences.
• You have successfully applied for AdSense. What’s next?

You need 4000 watch hours and at least 1000 subscribers in order to apply for AdSense. Give YouTube up to 7 days. You will be notified by email once you are approved for showing ads along with your videos.

Even if you don’t get approved, you still have a chance to make money by following other ways:

Divert Your YouTube Channel Traffic to Your Blog

Insert your blog link in the video description and send YouTube traffic to your blog, where you can turn traffic into money through various options.

• How to Make Money from a Blog: The Ultimate Guide

Affiliate Marketing

You can include your referral links in the video description. If viewers follow your link and buy something from the target website, you will get a handsome commission.

Promote Your Products

If you create your own products, you can review them and get some sales.

Sponsored Content/Paid Reviews

Once you become popular, you can attract sponsored content. Sponsored content along with your videos can pay you much more than AdSense.

You can also become a YouTube influencer.

Commonly Asked Question About Youtube Monetization

1. How Much Time Does AdSense Take to Approve a Channel After Applying?

I applied on Saturday evening; the next day was Sunday, and my application was approved in the evening on Monday. Usually, YouTube takes 2 days to approve the AdSense application. It might take up to 7 days in some cases and even more than 7 days in rare cases.

2. How Much Money Can OneOne Make on YouTube?

No one can answer this question exactly. Since your earnings depend on many factors like location of viewers, niche of video, keywords, competition, etc., it’s hard to predict earnings exactly.

Viewers from Tier 1 countries like the USA, Canada, and the UK earn you big numbers, while you get a very low CPM for your Asian viewers. Normally, you get somewhere between $1 and $4 for 1,000 views. When I say 1000 views, I mean 1000 monetized views because YouTube doesn’t play an ad every time a viewer watches a video. So only the number of times an advertisement is shown is important.

3. How do you monetize? You monetize all the videos in one go?

If you have a lot of videos and want to monetize them all at once, then follow the instructions below:

• Go to Creator Studio and Click on Video Manager 
• Select all the videos on the first page, and you will notice a notification: “All 30 videos on this page are selected. Select all your videos”. Click on ‘Select all your videos, and a drop-down menu will appear.
• Select monetization from the drop-down menu and click on Submit finally.

It would take some time to process all the videos, and you cannot do any editing during this process. All your videos will be monetized one by one.

4. Can I upload someone else’s video to my YouTube channel?

Not until you have permission from the owner of the video. You can use someone else’s content, but the advertising revenue earned will be transferred to the original owner.

5. Can I upload clips of movies on YouTube without violating copyright?

You should not upload copyrighted content to your channel. If you do this, then your earnings might go to the original creator’s account (if the original content holder wants). Although you can cut very short clips out of different movies and make a new video by combining them all for fair use,. Don’t forget to give credit to the original creator. Add your own creative element to the clip, transform it, and show its different aspects to the users.

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