A lot of creators we talk to have the goal of making a full time income. This is a great goal and totally possible. But unfortunately, many creators think they can do this by just relying on AdSense. The reality is that in order for this to be possible, you would need a HUGE channel and most of us just aren’t there.

But there is good news! There are many monetization opportunities outside of AdSense that so many creators aren’t taking advantage of. Today, I am going to share what those opportunities are and teach you the best ways to utilize them so that you earn more as you grow on YouTube.

The AdSense Myth

So many creators come to us and think AdSense is the best way (or only way) to make money on YouTube. But, this just isn’t true. The truth is that to make lots of money with adsense you need LOTS of views and honestly, it’s niche dependent as well. The advertisers have to be willing to pay to advertise in your space. On average, a YouTuber earns around $0.018 for each view. So (based on this average) for you to make just 75,000 a year, you would need more than 4.1 million views.

But, there are far more lucrative options for making money on YouTube. Much of it starts with looking at yourself as a business. If you have a business attached already, this is easy. We work with real estate agents and insurance companies that are bringing in tons of money with a small audience because they are utilizing their channel to bring in clients for their businesses. But even if you don’t have a stand-alone business attached to your YouTube channel, you can (and should) be a business that has separate streams of income outside of AdSense.

The Importance of a Target Audience

Before I get into the options, I can’t stress enough how important it is to make a connection with your audience. If you don’t know who your audience is, how do you know what they would want to buy? And if they aren’t connected to you or trust you as a person, why would they buy from you? It is basically impossible to pitch products and solutions if you don’t know what your audience wants or needs to begin with. So many of the creators that we see making a great amount of money actually have a small audience. But they have the right audience and a strong connection to them and that’s what matters. (Once again, it all comes down to target audience and connection. BUT, that’s not what this email is about, so I’ll spare you…for now.)

Monetizing Your Audience

Besides AdSense, think of other ways you can monetize your audience. Maybe that could look like having a Patreon or Channel Memberships. To make these profitable, think about what you could offer to your audience that they would pay extra for. We know creators that give behind the scenes access, show some content early, run titles and thumbnails by their audience, or just spend more time with them in a smaller group setting. Other creators we know make quite a bit of money through Livestreams via superchats. People love to give money and see their reactions.

Focus on who your audience is and what value you can offer them, even if it is off of YouTube. Could you offer a course, a book, a consultation, a one on one or group lesson? If you have the tiniest thought that you could do any of this, start putting together an email list. YouTube, patreon, etc could go away at any time. But if you have their email, you can still connect with them and offer them value off the platform.

Affiliate Marketing

Before you are “monetized” on YouTube, you can make money through affiliate marketing. If people use your link to purchase the product, you will receive passive income from the purchase. Our only caution with this is to be careful how you use this call to action in your video because it will send people off the platform which is a negative viewer signal to YouTube. So use it! But, use it wisely.

YouTube Shopping Integrations

If you have a website where you are selling things (tangible or digital), you can link your storefront on YouTube. And soon, you will have the ability to even add specific products and specific timestamps where a link bubble will pop up for them to purchase. This is fantastic because your viewer can purchase directly from your page without leaving YouTube. This is a positive viewer signal to the YouTube algorithm, which we always want to promote.

Sponsorships & Brand Deals

More and more ad companies are coming to YouTube. When thinking about what products/brands to connect with, a good first step if to think first if this is something that fits for you personally and would benefit your audience.

When you approach a brand, you should start by just trying to build the relationship. Especially if you want this to turn into multiple deals over a longer time period, focus more on what you can give rather than what you can get. Give some specific video ideas of how to you could incorporate their brand naturally. This will significantly cut down on people skipping ahead, which is good for them and you.

Power Tip

YouTube will be rolling out a feature soon called, “Pause Comments.” Currently, we just have the option to turn comments off and on, but soon we will also have the option to pause them after a video uploads on a specific video. This will not remove the comments that are already posted, but allows you to pause the comments coming in.

Keep Changing Lives!

Tim Schmoyer

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