Remember that viral spelling video you chuckled at over breakfast this morning? That video could have earned the creator more than N100,000. Here’s how!
It’s not a joke when we say you can earn serious money from YouTube videos. And what is more? You get to enjoy it all along.
Unfortunately, it is not a get rich quick idea that you just snap your fingers and it starts raining money like magic, but making money out of YouTube videos is still a relatively simple concept.
Since we’d love for you to earn some cash, we’ve prepared this step-by-step guide. You can thank us later by sending us some of your earnings *wink.
How much money can you make?
Yeah! That is the killer question we always get, to be honest, the answer is a bit mixed.
Though it is possible you might get lucky in waking up to find your video has gone viral, this is very unlikely. That said, if you have managed to record something funny or interesting on film, by all means give it a shot.
It’s more likely to generate revenue by getting audience (subscribers) through regular contents, that is vlogs (video blogs), funny videos, mashups or just some video of you counting millet.
Few years ago, a young vlogger revealed he’d earned ~$26,000 a year from recording walkthroughs for Grand Theft Auto. That’s crazy right? Roughly N9 million.
But as we mentioned, it isn’t all a jovial walk in the park. A beauty vlogger from Brighton says her earnings fluctuates from thousands of Dollars one month to just a meager $55 the next, and some people only report earning a few thousands of Naira here and there.
How much can you realistically expect to make?
As a benchmark, you can expect to make around N540/1000 views. This means that one million views = N540,000.
However, some of these channels or vloggers sign advertising contracts with certain companies or even promote their own merchandise, which can earn them even more on top of their views alone.
It’s very hard to put a total on this but the possibilities are endless depending on what your videos are about – much like making cash as a blogger, it really counts on you having an interesting niche!
How does the YouTube Partner Program work?
Your first step on cashing out this is Google AdSense – a program that allows you to monetize your website or videos with adverts.
If you have a Gmail account, congratulations!!! You also have a YouTube channel. If not quickly signup!
Remember, before you can monetize your channel/videos you will need a minimum of 4000 cumulative views on your videos and 1000 subscribers. That’s easy! Collect all your friends, family neighbors’ smartphone, navigate to your newly created channel watch a video and hit Subscribe!
After you’ve signed up with Gmail/ YouTube and built a decent amount of followers/views, you’ll receive an email asking if you want to monetize your videos (yes please!). You’ll then be able to select your best videos to make money from.
The basic gist of this is that companies pay Google to advertise on your videos, and you’ll get a cut of the profit.
Just to be clear, you can’t monetize any videos with copyrighted material in them. This includes films, songs and even some instrumental beats.
What do you need to get started?
Depending on what you’re planning to capture on film, you’ll need to get the right set-up sorted from the beginning.
A decent set-up goes a long way towards showing that you’re serious and having people respect your videos.
You’ll need:
- A decent camera – Quality is important, this could be your 13MP smartphone or you buy a video camera and you’ll need to record your videos in full HD.
- Video editing software – Both PCs and Macs have pretty decent video editing software (Movie maker & iMovie) but Adobe Premier is a decent option for advanced users (or grab a free alternative).
- Sound recording equipment – Most cameras come with a microphone, but if you’re looking for top sound quality you might need to purchase a decent microphone.
- A decent background – If you’re filming a vlog, you might want to set up a decent background. You can stick with a plain colour or mix it up a bit with a collection of posters for example (although plain normally works a bit better).
How to make the best YouTube videos
To put it simply – the way this works is you get popular then you get paid. You can’t sign up to monetize videos that no one has watched yet.
Annoying as this is, it makes sense really – who wants to pay to advertise on a billboard down in an area that no one walks past? Yet while building up a decent audience might seem daunting, there are some easy tips that might help you get there sooner:
- Choose your niche: Take some time to think about what you can do well and whether you think people would be interested in it. One of the most popular genres on Youtube is gaming walk-throughs, but it’s pretty competitive. Other genres that work well are: product reviews, comedy, beauty vlogs, and general ‘how to’ guides.
- Choose a good username: Sounds simple, but trust us, it isn’t. You need to make your username memorable and stay away from numbers and random characters. Yes, that means Xxx_AleKolo86_xxX is a no go. Sorry.
- Catchy, relevant titles: Make your title both catchy and relevant. That way people will remember it, and more people will stumble across it if they’re searching for something similar.
- Upload content regularly: You won’t build an audience if you not posting stuff for people to watch! Remember, the longer you keep that audience locked in, the more monies you get.
- Be original: There’s nothing wrong with tried-and-tested formats such as product reviews or cat videos, but you have to make sure you stand out from the crowd. This is where finding your niche comes in handy – go forth and be different, guys!
Always make sure to follow the rules too; no inappropriate content, copyright or spamming. Play nice and you’ll be (earning) gold.
How to make more money on YouTube
If you’ve built up a pretty sizeable vid collection and have a dedicated audience, there’s one other avenue to explore aside from Google Adsense and YouTube itself.
Patreon is a great little web tool that allows your fans to sign up and donate money directly each time you post something new.
The key to this is building up an audience that really appreciates what you post – if they like what you do, the chances are they can be persuaded to spare a few bob each time you upload.
Also, as mentioned above, you can approach companies to talk about advertising or at the very least free samples and products for you to review/talk about.
You might even want to branch out into creating your own merchandise if/once you make a name for yourself.
Some of the big shots on here are earning about three thousand dollars every time they post a new video. Yes, you read that right.
Have you decided to give YouTube video-ing a try? We’d love to see your efforts and hear how it went! Make sure to hit us up in the comments below.
Still looking for more ideas on how to make money?
James Adeniji
Nice right up