10 Different Ways You Can Make Money From YouTube in 2024

YouTube has changed people’s lives because how much money you can actually make from YouTube is actually limitless. You probably think that the only way to actually do that is just to create videos, and YouTube Ads pays you for those videos. No!

There's way more options than you think for making some money with your YouTube videos in 2024. Whether you're already deep into YouTube life or just getting started, this article will give you all the details on opportunities to monetize your channel.

Maybe you're wondering if all the work can actually pay off - well, it definitely can if you explore the different ways YouTube pays creators. We'll go over ad revenue, sponsorships, selling merch, online courses, affiliate marketing, and more.

So whether you're an long-established YouTuber looking to diversify, a beginner deciding if it's worth your time, or just casually curious, you'll learn all about the money-making possibilities on the platform in this article. 

You’ve probably heard about the channels on YouTube that make millions of dollars per year. For example, top YouTuber Ryan’s world makes an estimated amount of nearly 30 million dollars per year.

Now, obviously, the money that you make from YouTube depends on many different factors, which we have already clairifed in our previous article. 

If this channel Ryan’s world is out here making millions of dollars, where the center of his videos are kind of just him, his life, him opening gifts, then that means you can most definitely take advantage of YouTube as well.

Now, the first thing that you need to decide whenever you are starting a YouTube channel is what niche are you selecting for your content. Since, it is the most crucial factor and foundation of your youtube career, you have to spend most time to select a perfect youtube niche for you. 

We have already an article on finding the perfect niche, which can help you while choosing one for you.

Next, decide whether or not you want to show your face or not. You probably don’t/didn’t know, but you can start a faceless YouTube channel, and you can create videos without even showing your face. Don’t think that you have to be this big influencer to actually take advantage of being a YouTuber.

Ad Revenue

The first way that YouTubers make money is through their advertising revenue. When people watch your videos, you will receive revenue from ads that are attached to them. It will be up to you to choose how many ads are on that video, as long as the video is eight minutes or longer.

While more ads generate more revenue, keep in mind that viewers might get annoyed if there are too many ads. So, you definitely want to lower it to risk lower engagement. On average, YouTubers make $3 to 5 dollars per 1,000 views. 

But, it can depend on the factor like RPM and CPM which differs from countries to country. This is usually the mainstream of income for YouTubers that YouTubers rely on to make money.

Sponserships

The next way that people make money from their YouTube channels is through doing sponsorships. A key part of making money on YouTube is by doing sponsorships with brands. 

This means, in exchange for a sum of money, you promote a brand product in your videos or in the description of your videos. Brands will pay you just for you to shout them out and advertise them in your videos.

You can start getting sponsorships in two ways. You can either let them come to you, which is kind of my style. I don’t usually do any outreach personally for any of my YouTube channels, or they will come to you with an offer.

Once your YouTube channel starts getting more views, you will definitely have an influx of brands reaching out to you. But this is also why it’s important to keep your social medias kind of growing at the same time. So, don’t just focus on just YouTube.

I would start an Instagram page, start a TikTok page, start a Facebook page, start anything that you want to start. And having any other additional social media will really help you not only grow your YouTube channel, but it’ll also help you get more brand deals as well. 

When I say brand deals and sponsorships, I’m basically talking about endorsements.

Channel Membership

Another way is channel membership. You can create channel memberships for viewers to buy in order to access exclusive content from your channel. 

This includes member-only videos, member-only live streams, member-only live chats, or member-only community posts. You can also create custom badges and emojis that they can use in comments or live streams.

I was actually scrolling through the YouTube blog, and I found this creator that made over a hundred thousand dollars just from their YouTube channel memberships. She’s actually a content that works to help people learn more about financial literacy. 

So, she gained her audience through those kinds of videos. You don’t have to do a bunch of crazy pranks or go out in public in order to get subscribers on YouTube.

Super Chats and Super Stickers

The next way that you can make money through YouTube is by doing live streams. You are able to really get in touch with your audience through live streams. 

So, not only will this benefit you and you’ll be able to really get closer to your audience by doing live streams, but they can also send you gifts while you’re doing live streams. This is called super chats and super stickers. 

Your viewers can purchase these stickers and send them to you, which translate to money.

Merchandise

Another way is channel merchandise. Sometimes you’ll notice you’ll be watching YouTube channels, and they’ll have t-shirts or mugs or print-on-demand items down below under their video. Merch stores on YouTube channels can definitely be a great way to generate income through your YouTube channel.

After doing some research, I found that popular youtuber ‘Dude Perfect’ makes an estimated amount of five hundred thousand dollars just from their merch store on their YouTube channel. 

And it’s easily linked under all his videos, so you can easily find it. And it’s a way for fans to show support to their favorite YouTubers. I really love YouTube for this because you can also put links down in the description.

So, if you have a merch store that is not necessarily linked under your video, you can still link them in the description and kind of shout it out in the video for your fans to buy merch that way as well.

Selling a Course

The next way that you can make money through YouTube is by selling a course. Just say you’re a photographer and you want to sell a course on how to start a photography business. 

Then that would be honestly something great that you could add to your YouTube channel that you could market in the description of each YouTube video.

Not everybody really wants to watch a full playlist of videos like I have on my YouTube channel. I try to keep everything as organized and efficient as possible, especially my free courses playlist. But for other people, it just works better for them if they just focus on selling their course and their description.

So, it really just depends on the channel and what they’re selling and what their niche is. And this leads into my next method of how you can make money from a YouTube channel, which is through mentorships.

Mentorships

There are great mentors out there. I do want to say, I do see on YouTube a lot of scammers. In the online business niche, you just have to be really careful. Not everybody is out there to actually help you and actually cares about you.

Sometimes some people are just trying to sling you into a mentorship program. So, you obviously have to have discernment if you are ever going to buy one. 

But as far as if you are wanting to add that to your channel and add lots of value to your audience, you genuinely want to help other people, then this would honestly be a great option for you to make money.

Crowdfunding

Another way that YouTubers make money from their YouTube channel is through crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is basically when you use sites like Patreon to fund your channel and the activities that you do on your YouTube channel.

People make a Patreon account and they kind of have different tiers of like what you’ll get if you subscribe to this plan or this plan. And it’s like a monthly plan, so they pay you for each month. And they’re basically just subscribed as supporters.

YouTube Premium

The next way you can make money from your YouTube channel is by doing YouTube premium. So, YouTube actually rolled out this new program called YouTube premium. YouTube premium is a subscription program that you subscribe to YouTube in order for people to not have to watch ads. 

And you’d be surprised, a lot of people have already bought this, so they don’t see ads on your videos. But you still get paid from them watching your videos.

Fan Funding

The next way is fan funding. Sites like Buy Me a Coffee and PayPal let your fans toss you a few bucks to support your channel if they're feeling generous. If someone donates, definitely thank them - a quick shoutout or some bonus content just for donors is a nice way to show appreciation. 

Who doesn't love feeling all special, right? It's a win-win: they feel good for helping you out, and you get a little financial boost. Just be sure to make the fans who support you with their hard-earned cash feel all warm and fuzzy inside by delivering the best content on YouTube!

What are the requirements to actually make money from YouTube Ads?

As of right now, you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in order to be monetized and for YouTube to place ads on your videos. Now, that might seem like a lot, but you’d be surprised on how much time kind of racks up if you just get the YouTube videos out there.

You will eventually get monetized, and it really is all a process of consistency and hard work. That honestly is why on YouTube, you should be creating videos on things that you have passions for and love to do.

If you’re just creating YouTube videos about things that you really don’t care about and you’re just trying to get into YouTube just to make money, you’re gonna wind up probably losing interest or something will happen and you just don’t feel like putting the continuous work in that you will need to put in time and effort in order to grow your channel long-term.

Which method should you follow to make money from YouTube?

Whether you choose one of these ways to make money from your YouTube channel, they can really have an impact on how much money you actually generate from your YouTube channel. But I always recommend taking things one step at a time.

It’s so good that you’re reading this article and understanding and learning all the different ways that you can make money with YouTube. But it’s really important to just focus on one thing at a time because if you try to just set up a YouTube channel in general and growing a YouTube channel can be difficult, so if you put all these things onto you when you’re not quite ready for them, that can definitely have an impact on your performance as well.

So, my advice to you is kind of just take it one step at a time. You should focus on your content, on providing value for others, building your YouTube channel. And then you will start to see more and more ways slowly to make more money with your YouTube channel.