How To Make Money on YouTube in 2024: 7 Best Strategies

YouTube is a video-sharing platform and an avenue for anyone to make money. But to make money on YouTube, you must have a channel, subscribers, and enough view time to monetise.

You must consider several strategies to grow your YouTube channel and earn money, like running paid ads or crowdfunding. Depending on the effort you put into building your YouTube channel, building a thriving career on the platform is viable. However, earning revenue on YouTube depends on your subscribers and your views of your content.

YouTubers are self-made millionaires who became such by creating video content for entertainment, education, or product reviews. The platform offers many ways for creative individuals to gain popularity and earn money.

Although you may start a YouTube channel without the intent to make money, the audience you gain can push you to exploit the earning potential on this platform. In this guide, Incorpuk shows you the 7 best strategies to make money on YouTube today.

7 Best Strategies to Make Money on YouTube

YouTube offers users a platform to find entertainment and make money in various ways. However, it all depends on how engaging your content is, your audience (subscribers), and your product or service. We’ll discuss the different strategies to make money on YouTube, and you can find which one matches your goals:

1. The YouTube Partner Program

The most obvious way to earn revenue on YouTube is through ads.

Joining the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) allows you to make money on the platform without publishing videos and monetising. There are monetisation policies you must follow, and you must also reside in a country where the program is available. Apply for monetisation if:

1. Get 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time over a year
2. Get 1,000 subscribers and valid 10 million public views on Shorts views in the last 90 days

So, how do you monetise your YouTube? First, you need to create a YouTube channel to post content, such as videos or shorts.

1. Log in to the YouTube channel you want to monetise
2. Tap on the profile icon at the top right corner.
3. Tap on YouTube Studio from the dropdown menu.
4. Look for Earn from the menu on the left side of the screen.
5. Read the directives on the YouTuber Partner Program terms and eligibility requirements and check the Agree button if you meet them.
6. Register a Google AdSense account. If you already have an account, connect it to your channel.
7. Specify your Monetisation preferences.

Go back to your dashboard, tap on the Analytics tab on the left side, choose revenue from the tabs at the top, and scroll down to locate the chart on Monthly Estimated Revenue. This information will give you a clue about your predicted YouTube revenue.

YouTube Premium

Fans pay a membership fee to watch and support their favourite content on YouTube Premium, which is free to use without ads like on the regular platform. The same goes for creators, who get paid for the content consumed on premium and by non-members on YouTube.

YouTube content creators earn money based on the number of members who watch their content. YouTube Premium subscribers increase creators' revenue through ads, but the two don’t compare.

Look Beyond YouTube Ads

In 2012, YouTube demonetised content they considered unfriendly through an automated process. The move was made without the creator's knowledge, but now they’re notified whenever their content is flagged.

However, if YouTube flags your video mistakenly and excludes it from its advertising network, you can contest the outcome. Although advertising is a popular strategy for creators to generate passive income, the mother company, Google, keeps 45% of the ad earnings and 55% from YouTube shorts.

Once you join the YouTube Partner Program, understand that your channel will be held to higher standards. In addition to the YPP policies, you must follow community guidelines and avoid copyright law. Everything you publish must be original.

2. Sell Your Merchandise

You can also sell your merchandise on your YouTube channel as a content creator. The desire to make money on YouTube identifies you as an entrepreneur, which means you can sell a product. Hence, you can design a marketing strategy to tell your fans about your product. Follow these steps to sell merch on YouTube:

1. Design a product—Presenting a product your audience needs will advance their connection with you. Thus, whatever product you offer them must be unique. You can sell multiple products, but don’t dip all your fingers simultaneously. Begin with one and increase it as time goes by. Influence their decisions by asking what they prefer or creating a poll for them to vote.
2. Source or build the product—If you don’t have your own merchandise to sell, find a manufacturer or supplier who can provide the merchandise you need.
3. Create a shop and landing page—Create an e-commerce store or website to sell the merchandise and embed a link to the store in your videos. Before adding a link to your videos, check YouTube’s provision for an approved merchandise list.
4. Activate YouTube Partner Merchandise Shelf—The shelf feature can help you sell your merchandise, but you must be eligible, as per YouTube's guidelines.
5. Promote the product in your videos—marketing your product is the ultimate charm: wear or use the product in your videos. You can also feature people buying and using the product to demonstrate that it’s worth their money.

3. Embed Affiliate Links in Your Video

Affiliate marketing is a lucrative strategy for YouTube influencers, especially small channels that don’t qualify for YPP yet.

Influencers get to promote other businesses’ services or products to earn commission from every sale. Once you join an affiliate marketing program, they issue you a unique affiliate link to promote their product. You embed the link in your video, and once a customer clicks on it and buys a product, you receive a portion of the sale.

The amount of commission you make differs between programs, but you generate some income from helping them sell their products or services.

To join an affiliate marketing program and generate sales, look for manufacturers or suppliers offering such opportunities and sign up. Ensure you promote products that align with the content in your videos because your audience is already conversant with it. Plus, you can do thorough research to determine which products offer the highest commissions within your niche.

4. Create Sponsored Content

If your channel has a large, active following, companies can pay you to feature their brands or products in your videos. How do you get here? You can create a brand pitch or approach companies that offer influencer marketing programs to link you with appropriate brands.

Depending on your audience size and video quality, you negotiate your rates based on the value you bring.

Once an arrangement has been reached, sign a contract in writing to ensure your security and that you get everything you deserve. Be transparent about affiliate marketing links in your content to ensure your fans don’t feel cheated or misguided.

5. Crowdfunding

When you have a good idea but no money to execute it, crowdfunding can make it happen. You can crowdfund to purchase better production equipment, cover production costs, or hire actors.

These needs are genuine, and your audience will understand when you ask for a ‘lift me up’ from the crowdfunding community and your fans. Some strategies used by successful funded projects include a trailer that gives people a glimpse of what to expect, leaving them excited for the main event. Consider shooting a brief video explaining your project or giving them a taste of what’s coming.

6. Third-Party Subscription Services

Third-party platforms like Patreon, OnlyFans, and Substack allow many YouTube influencers to offer exclusive content in exchange for premium subscriptions.

The platforms offer subscriptions in tiers, and the higher the tier, the more content and exclusive benefits subscribers receive. YouTubers offer base-tier subscriptions to grant subscribers early access to future content.

Other tiers grant access to more content, such as extended content, behind-the-scenes content, uncensored content for members-only Q&A sessions, or bonus content.

7. YouTube Livestream

YouTube has two features that allow fans to make live donations: Super Chats and Super Stickers. These features allow viewers to interact with YouTubers in real-time.

• Super Chat - During the live stream, messages appear in the live chat panel, are pinned at the top, and are colour-coded to enable influencers to spot them easily.
• Super Stickers - Viewers pay for digital or animated images in live chats. The digital images on Super Chats and Super Stickers cost between $0.99 and $50, and YouTube takes a 30% cut from both features.

These features are donations, but the only difference is that viewers have a better opportunity to interact with YouTubers during live streams.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I grow my audience fast on YouTube?

Posting YouTube shorts will grow your YouTube audience fast. Once you open the platform, shorts are the first thing you see on its homepage. It's a primary strategy for growing your channel, as you can link a long-form video on your channel in shorts.

How long will it take to grow my YouTube channel?

The time it will take you to grow on YouTube isn’t determined, but most successful YouTube channels follow an S-shaped growth curve. A YouTube channel is slow at the beginning, but rapid growth follows as you continue to produce engaging content.

Can I get 1000 subscribers in a day on YouTube?

You can get 1000 subscribers on YouTube by optimising your content for search engines or making your content discoverable. Well-optimised content makes it easy for YouTube's internal search feature to find and expose it to more viewers.

In Summary

How do you make money on YouTube in 2024? It's possible to make money on YouTube, but it’s not easy. You must invest time and proper strategies to get subscribers and monetise your channel.

Some tactical strategies to earn on YouTube include recording quality videos that engage viewers and keep them coming back for more. Growing your channel might take some time before you start to realise any returns on the investment.

However, before you meet the threshold to monetise your channel for ads, there are other ways to earn revenue from YouTube. With 500 videos being published every hour on YouTube, it means it’s a hotbed with ready viewers. You must choose a niche you’re passionate about and create valuable content that offers solutions to existing problems.

Viewers who find value in your content will subscribe to your channel, pushing you closer to attaining a set threshold to monetise or run ads. Smaller creators can use affiliate marketing, sell branded merchandise, create third-party memberships, or create live streams to interact with their audience. Applying these strategies will keep you earning revenue before qualifying for the YouTube Partner Program. Do you have questions on how to make money on YouTube? Kindly contact one of our experts for help today.