How much do YouTubers make? — a YouTuber’s guide

5 min


Most people use YouTube as a way to kill time, relax or learn something new. But only a few people see YouTube as a source of income or a creative outlet, and it’s the individuals who succeed. But how much do YouTubers make, how to become a successful youtuber and make huge money from videos? That’s what we’re going to tell you in this article.

How much do YouTubers make? – A YouTuber’s guide
YouTube doesn’t pay creators to make videos. Image: natanaelginting

YouTube doesn’t pay creators to make videos — YouTube pays to show ads to users who watch the videos. YouTube takes a portion of the ad revenue, while the rest of the YouTube channel income stays with the creator of the video. YouTube video pays the author 55% of ad revenue for video views, and 45% for short videos. For additional user purchases within the channel (paid subscriptions and donations), the creator receives 70% of the YouTube channel income. 

How many views do you need to get paid on YouTube?

To earn YouTube video pay, you need to monetize your channel. This is done in the creator’s YouTube account when the account has 1,000 subscribers, 4,000 hours of video views, and 20,000 video views. When you enable monetization, users will have ads displayed in your videos.

How much do a YouTuber make per view?

The amount of monetization YouTube income is directly related to how many people watch your videos — the more people watch videos on your channel, the more monetization YouTube income you get. Also, YouTube pay per views differently in different countries.

However, YouTube pays for a fixed number of views, so the author will not get any YouTube income for a single view. It’s estimated that YouTube pay per view is between $0.003 and $0.005.

How much do YouTubers make? – A YouTuber’s guide
YouTube pays for a fixed number of views. Image by Freepik

How much does a YouTuber with 1 million subscribers make?

If a channel has more than 1000000 subscribers, then the author of the channel can count on good YouTube income from monetization. On average, an author with 1 million subscribers gets YouTube video pay $5000 per month, however, this figure depends on the number of views on videos, the author’s region, the theme of the channel and videos, as well as other factors related to the limitations of this video hosting.

How much do YouTubers make per 1000 views?

Depending on the country, YouTube pays authors $2 to $37 per 1,000 views. However, this is YouTube’s own data. In fact, most authors say that these figures are greatly exaggerated. But how much do small YouTubers make in fact? YouTubers agree that the price per 1000 views varies from $0.5 to $1, or even less. So small youtubers make about $100 to $500 a month.

Different ways to make money as a YouTuber

There are five main ways to make YouTube channel income besides monetization:

  • Ad placement;
  • Traffic arbitrage;
  • Donations;
  • Sponsorships;
  • Own content.

Let’s look at each of the methods separately.

Advertising placement

When a channel gains a certain audience, different advertisers who are interested in promoting their products or services become interested in it.

The author of the channel can contact such advertisers and start promoting their goods or services in his videos by inserting advertisements in them. Usually, such advertising is divided into the following types:

  • Native advertising is an ad that organically fits into the plot of the video. This format is the most popular and effective, as it attracts the attention of the audience without distracting from the main topic of the video;
  • Video inserts — short video ads that may not correspond to the theme of the main video;
  • Block Ad — an image added to the video during editing, usually a clickable card;
  • Promotional mention — a mention of a product or service by the blogger in the video. This way of earning is especially suitable for those who already have a loyal audience that trusts the author;
  • Links — advertising placed on the channel itself or the description of the video, sometimes seen in the anchored comments. This is often used as an addition to native advertising or advertising inserts.

Traffic Arbitrage

Using affiliate programs to make money on YouTube is also very popular, as well as advertising. However, not everyone can become an affiliate, let alone make good money from it. If you wonder what affiliate marketing is, you can learn it here.

To effectively get YouTube channel income from an affiliate program, you need to get a large number of engaged subscribers (10,000 subscribers and more). After that, you need to find a good affiliate program with favorable conditions for the offerer.

Depending on the conditions, the author of the channel will receive money for watching videos, clicking on ads or targeted actions, for example, purchases on the site of the company that opened the affiliate program. To start pouring traffic from videos, place a link in the description of the video, in the comments or integrate a clickable link into the video. Most often, traffic is poured from YouTube to offers in the following verticals:

  • Downloads;
  • HR-offers;
  • E-commerce;
  • Finance;
  • Crypto.

Find the best affiliate programs for YouTube traffic arbitrage in our new section with rankings of affiliate programs. Follow our blog to make sure you don’t miss this new feature.

How much do YouTubers make? – A YouTuber’s guide
Your viewers on YouTube can support you with donations. Image: Racool_studio

Donations

Donations to the author from the audience to support your YouTube channel. In order to use this method of earning, develop additional videos that are available only to those subscribers who have donated. Also, you can create an account on the Patreon platform, which provides an opportunity to earn on regular donations from subscribers of your YouTube channel.

It is important to remember that the effectiveness of earning money from donations directly depends on the number of active viewers and the quality of your relationship with your audience. When creating content, pay attention to its quality and build trust with your audience.

Sponsorship

If your YouTube channel is popular, you have a large number of subscribers, your videos collect a lot of views and likes, you may be interested in large companies and offer you cooperation. You will be paid for advertising integration of the company’s goods and services, reviews of various products of the sponsoring company and so on. 

Own content

Bloggers who have achieved a certain popularity and a high level of trust with their audience often create their own online products, for example, paid educational courses on self-development, making money, sports programs and so on. Also, popular bloggers sell their own branded products, for example, writing books or making their own designer clothing items.

Who are the top-paid Youtubers? 

There are some people who were able to make it to the Forbes list because of their content on YouTube. Among the highest paid youtuber, we can highlight three authors:

  • MrBeast — $54 million a year. Highest paid youtuber, became popular by making videos with various challenges and tricks;
  • Jake Paul — 45 million dollars a year. YouTuber who became popular due to his boxing career and making scandalous videos;
  • Markiplier — $38 million a year. YouTuber who has made a career out of making video game videos.

Conclusion

As we have found out, on YouTube you can generate income not only from monetization, but also from other sources. However, all these ways are somehow related to the number of subscribers and the amount of their engagement. To earn a really good YouTube income, it is very important to make quality content that users will like and regularly get into recommendations.

Remember that earning on YouTube is very unstable and depends on both internal factors of the platform and external factors, such as the political and economic situation in your country. Read our other guides to learn about new promising ways to make money in digital.

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