7 Ways You Can Make Money On YouTube (Even If You’re New)

We’re going to share with you the 7 most common ways that content creators make money on YouTube, because a lot of people think that YouTube ads and super chats and memberships is how people make money on YouTube.

But, we’re here to tell you there are actually a lot of ways that people make money. So we’re going to tell you what each one is and then explain it to you. By the time you’ve read this, you’ll be able to walk away knowing different ways that you can start making money right away. You can also learn of some other side hustles to make some extra income you may not have thought of.

Affiliate Marketing

When it comes to making money from your YouTube channel, the very first option that is a great start for content creators is affiliate marketing. If you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing, it’s where you sign up for an affiliate program which can be found by searching for the type of content that you make and putting the words “affiliate program” after it.

Then you sign up for affiliate programs that are a good fit for what it is that you’re trying to do with your YouTube channel. Something that will bring and add value to your audience, and, of course, it makes sense with the type of content that you make.

Once you’ve found the perfect product or service to promote, they’ll give you a unique tracking ID that you can put in your video description. When you then recommend that product or service, and people click on that link and go make a purchase, you get a commission from sending them through your link.

A few quick tips for you if you decide to use affiliate marketing for one of the ways you’re going to monetize your content. The first tip is to make sure that the thing you are bringing attention to is a great fit for your audience, because if you don’t, then people aren’t going to click it. Also make sure that you consider viewer intent. What this means is if somebody’s looking for a review video on a particular product and they hop on YouTube to look for a review then they are already considering making a purchase.

Merchandising

Next on the list is merchandise. Now, when it comes to merchandise, a lot of content creators are timid about offering merchandise because they think nobody will buy it or that it’s not worth the effort. However, we can tell you that people do indeed buy merch.

When it comes to merch, you can use an outlet like Spreadshop where all you have to do is have a graphic made or you can create your own graphics through a site link Canva. And then upload your graphics into Spreadshop, and then when somebody buys whatever merch you have available with that graphic on it, then you get a commission.

A lot of content creators think you have to be in the YouTube partner program to use it because of the list that you see underneath the videos where they’re selling merch. However, you can create a store on Spreadshop, grab the link to your store, and then just drop that in your video description.

The best one would be Merch by Amazon though.

Crowdfunding

So, with crowdfunding, what you do is set up an account at some place like Buy Me a Coffee or a Ko-fi or Patreon. Depending on which one you use, it’s kind of like a tip jar.

However, if you’re going with Patreon, you can charge more but you typically have to upload exclusive content to the people who are subscribing to you. All of these services are free to use with the exception of taking a percentage of the income-generated from those particular platforms.

Digital Product

A digital product is something that you would make on your computer or on your phone, and then you make that available for sale. It could be eBooks that you make available for sale. It could be videos that you make available for sale, maybe in a course-like format and you could put them on Patreon for example.

Another thing you could do is create a newsletter for your industry that people actually pay for, or you can combine affiliate marketing with your newsletter and promote products as well as give people value through your email newsletter.

The great thing about digital products is that anyone can create them. And depending on what it is you create, you may or may not need to ever upgrade it again. So you can create it once, and you can make money on it forever. In some cases, you will need to update it from time to time or maybe even on a regular basis.

However, the idea is once you create it and you get the bulk of the project done, then all you have to do is find different ways to sell it. You can do it through your YouTube channel, you can do it through advertising, you can do it in any way that you want to, but the idea is that you can just create something that is of value to other people, and then you can sell it online. An easy way to sell it online is through the content that you’re already making on your YouTube channel.

Services

When it comes to services, this is where you have to lean on your skill set. Of course, everyone makes different types of content though. So what you have to think about when it comes to services though is about either past life experiences that you have that you would be able to offer as a service, or you can think about the skills that you’ve developed as a content creator.

For example, if you’re reading this, you may already make videos. As a result of this, you could have a really good understanding of the process of editing videos. Therefore, that could be a service. You have to make sure that your audience is a good fit for the service you choose though.

However, with a lot of types of content, you can offer some type of consulting, or where you can hop on calls with people and give them advice based on your experience in the industry that you’re operating in. You may be thinking that no one would pay for any consulting with the type of content you make but you have to remember that you already have a good understanding of what it is you’re doing.

That’s why you’re making videos about it. In every industry, there’s still new people coming into it all the time. And in that situation, people always have the choice of taking the time to learn the thing on their own or short cutting that process by spending a little bit of money.

Sponsorship

You can have brands pay you money to promote them in your videos. For this you are going to have a lot more doors open for you if you do have some type of consistent view count, and your channel’s heading the right way, and you’re building your brand and all those types of things. But some people, depending on your business savvy, can get sponsorships very early in their YouTube journey.

And look, at the very least, if you’re not there yet to where you’re comfortable reaching out to a company because you’re not sure of the value that you can bring to them, go ahead and start interacting with them on social media. Anytime you make a video that happens to mention their product anyway, go ahead and just tweet at them and let them know that you’ve made that video. Same thing with LinkedIn.

By doing this, your influence grows, and you’re going to be bringing that to their attention as well. You will at least be on their radar then.

Physical Products

Now, when it comes to physical products, technically, merch could fall under this, but you can also do things like write books. My friends on YouTube, they write books, and people buy these all the time, because they’re value-packed, right?

They add tons of value to the people that read them. And these are physical products. So how these work is you upload your book to Amazon, and when people actually order it, then Amazon prints it and sends it out to people. So then it becomes a physical product.

And, of course, you can work with people to actually get these onto bookshelves as well. When it comes to physical products, you also have cool things like the SwitchPod made by Pat Flynn, or any other you can possibly think of. But keep in mind, with all of these types of things, with the exception of Amazon and the merch, they will cost money.

We mean, you can’t just upload this to the internet and then they print it when somebody needs it. But the idea with physical products is they are tangible things that people can actually hold in their hands. And one other option that you would have as well when it comes to physical products if you would like is you could look into white labeling, which is where you take another product, you put your brand name on it, and then you would be able to sell it through your YouTube channel that way.