The days of a traditional 8 to 5 job being the only source of income are becoming a thing of the past with the advent of online advertising / affiliate programs such as AdSense and Amazon Associates. YouTube is often only seen as a form of entertainment rather than a means to generate a passive income. Without babbling on much more, here are 3 ways to make money on YouTube:
1. Google AdSense
Google AdSense enables website owners (as well as YouTube channel owners) to display Google AdWords advertisements on their websites/channels. Each time someone clicks on one of these advertisements you receive some Benjamins 🙂 With Google AdSense Google pays you. To find out about the difference between Google AdSense and Google AdWords click here.
By monetizing your YouTube videos Google AdSense advertisements are displayed as videos prior to a particular YouTube video being played, or as a traditional advertisement displayed as an overlay on a portion of the video, as well as on the side of the video. For YouTube videos less than 10 minutes only 1 advertisment is shown as an in-stream or overlay ad. See examples of the aforementioned ads which can be shown on a monetized YouTube video:
In-stream ads
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Display ads
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2. Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing programs such as Amazon associates are becoming more and more popular as commissions can be earned from anyone purchasing a product on Amazon who was referred there as a result of someone clicking on your affiliate link displayed in the YouTube video or in the description of the video. These links are commonly found in videos reviewing two products, both of which can be purchased through the affiliate link. This is a highly effective method for generating income through YouTube videos, and this method, combined with Google AdSense, can earn you a decent passive income without breaking your back.
3. External advertising
This form of earning Benjamins only really kicks in when you reach a large number of subcribers on your YouTube channel. Essentially advertisers wishing to showcase their products contact you and propose you review / mention their product in exchange for some greenbacks. This generally only happens when you are reviewing products or uploading videos around a particular subject (e.g Smartphones, Books, Ladies beauty products). Many highly successful YouTube channel owners suggest finding a niche market / area on which to focus, thus making it more appealing to companies wanting to advertise to a particular target audience. As an example if you posted videos about soft drinks (for some strange reason) a likely advertiser would be Coca-Cola. Similarly if you posted videos about website design a likely adversiter would be Vast Exposure (yes we are involved here 🙂
Combining these 3 methods can earn you a decent passive income and could quite possibly become your job / business. Please feel free to comment below!