How to make money on YouTube
Remember that viral YouTube video that made you spit your tea out this morning? That video could have earned the creator £1,000s. Here’s how you could make money from YouTube.
We’re not kidding when we say you can earn serious money from YouTube videos. And it might just be the most enjoyable money-making trick out there.
Admittedly, it isn’t as easy as clicking your fingers and the money appearing in your bank account like magic. But nonetheless, making money out of YouTube videos is still a relatively simple concept.
To help you earn some cash, we’ve put together this step-by-step guide. You can thank us later by sending us some of your earnings, yeah?
How much does YouTube pay?
Straight in there with the killer question: how much do YouTubers make? We don’t mess about. But the answer is a bit of a mixed bag if we’re honest.
While you might get lucky in waking up to find your video has gone viral, this is very unlikely. Nowadays, short funny videos tend to go viral on social media instead of YouTube, so the chances of your autotuned cat video (yes, really) exploding overnight on YouTube are relatively low.
You’re much more likely to build up YouTube earnings by getting an audience through regular content publishing. And that can include making vlogs, playing a popular video game, or, yes, filming your cat (autotuned or otherwise).
How much does YouTube pay per view?
We’ve all heard of the likes of Zoella, PewDiePie, and Logan Paul (plus other more agreeable people) earning millions of pounds every year from their YouTube channels. But for the majority of YouTubers, the earnings are a lot more modest.
As a benchmark, you can expect to make around $3 – $5 per 1,000 views (about £2.50 – £4.10 per 1,000 views, at the time of writing). This means that one million views equal $3,000 – $5,000… or between £2,500 – £4,100 to us British folk.
However, more popular channels and videos can earn closer to £6 or £7 per 1,000 views. It quite literally pays to be popular.
How to make the best YouTube videos
As we touched on earlier, you don’t get paid until you get popular – and the more popular you get, the more you get paid. Annoying as this is, it makes sense really. You wouldn’t pay to advertise on a billboard that nobody walks past, so why pay to advertise on a video nobody watches?
Although building up a decent audience might seem daunting, Jack acts as proof that you can still manage it alongside your day-to-day life (he got started while he was still at school!). Here are some of his top tips, plus a few of our own.
How do you make a successful YouTube channel?
Here are some tips on how to get more views on YouTube:
1. Be confident
Nobody wants to watch someone who’s afraid to look at the camera, but being cocky can be off-putting too. Don’t be overly confident to a point where it’s cringy, but don’t be shy either. Convince your audience that they should be watching you.
2. Follow popular trends
Pay attention to what other popular channels are posting right now, and not just what’s done well in the past. If you were to start playing FIFA 17, you wouldn’t get any views since newer editions have come out and that game isn’t relevant anymore.
3. Find your niche and be Unique
This might sound like we’re contradicting ourselves, but Jack agrees: being unique is just as important as following trends. If you do the same thing as someone else, the chances are that people will prefer to watch the person who gets a million views on every video. With that in mind, take some time to think about what you can do well, and whether you think people would be interested in it. Better still, look at the popular trends and figure out how to add something new to them. For example, gaming videos are super popular on YouTube – but as such, it’s also an incredibly competitive area to break into.
4. Choose a good channel name
This might sound trivial, but trust us – it isn’t. Just as you wouldn’t expect an employer to take your CV seriously if you sent it from taylorswiftfan2k17xx@hotmail.co.uk, people are less likely to give your YouTube channel the time of day if your username is… well, taylorswiftfan2k17xx. Look at the usernames of some of your favorite YouTubers for some inspiration on the kind of vibe to go for, but again, keep it unique and distinctive if possible.
5. Be yourself
It’s one of our top tips for making friends at uni, and to be honest, it applies to all areas of life. If you’ve ever tried to take on a new persona, you’ll know it eventually becomes unbearably tiring and that you’ll inevitably let your real self show at some point. And that’s not to mention the fact that, unless you’re a pretty skilled actor, your viewers will probably pick up on the fact that you’re faking it. According to Jack, pretending to be someone you’re not is a depressingly common mistake made by YouTubers.There are countless examples of YouTubers putting on a fake persona for videos and it now backfiring as they don’t want to be that person anymore. People should follow you for who you are.
6. Use catchy, relevant titles and thumbnails
See the header photo at the top of this article. In case you hadn’t realized, it’s parodying the kind of thumbnails you see on YouTube. It’s all in aid of getting people to click on that video over all the others. Clickbait is a necessity nowadays on YouTube. If a video doesn’t look appealing from the thumbnail and title, people won’t click on it. Make sure you have a thumbnail and title that makes your video look interesting and makes people want to find out more. That being said, don’t put something in there that’s not related to the video or is just a complete lie. YouTube has caught people out for this and has banned their channels.
7. Upload content regularly
We mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating: if you want your channel to become popular, and to stay popular, you’ll need to upload content on the regular. What’s more, whether you opt for daily, weekly or monthly videos, try to post them at regular intervals. Posting on a specific day each week helps your viewers keep track of when some new content will drop, and hopefully stops people nagging for the next video.
8. Show that you love your content
It’s not enough to just be yourself or to find a niche. Perhaps the most important thing of all is to show your viewers that you love what you’re doing. Having a passion for your videos and your subject matter will make an impact on how they’re received. If you seem interested, chances are your viewers will be too! On the other hand, if you don’t love what you’re doing, you’ll soon get bored and the videos will start to reflect that. Passion comes first, and money comes second! Always make sure to follow the rules too: no inappropriate content, copyright, or spamming. Play nice and you’ll be making money before long.
