YouTube money: How to get paid
YouTube is a giant on the interwebs. As of 2018, YouTube boasted over 7 billion videos for your viewing pleasure. No doubt you’ve heard that people are making a living creating YouTube content. Take PewDiePie, for example. He is a YouTube juggernaut, bringing in more than $11 million a year. That’s not a typo.
So, how do you make money from YouTube?
Ads
Ads are the most common way to monetize your video content. YouTubers can roll ads of various types through their video content. The presence of these ads, depending on the type of ad, and the amount of time spent viewing an ad, will bring you revenue.
Getting to that point, however, does take a bit of work. You can’t simply start running ads on your channel. YouTube has a list of requirements that must be met before you enroll in their YouTube Partner Program (YPP).
The first thing you need is continuous content. The reason for this is because you need to have views. As per YouTube’s requirements, a channel needs “4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months.” Hopefully, you’ll have gained some subscribers at this point, which will hopefully address the next hurdle.
The YPP requires that in order to be eligible, you must have at least 1,000 subscribers to your channel. Assuming you’re posting content on a regular basis and that it’s good, savvy viewers will hopefully subscribe to your channel. Promoting your page through social media and asking people to share your content can help with this.
Once these requirements are met, make sure your channel meets the YPP Policies and Community Guidelines. Read through the policies and make sure your channel and content mesh; otherwise, you might be denied entry into the YPP.
What now?
If you’ve managed to get accepted into the YPP, you are now ready to start monetizing your content. Be aware of “advertiser-friendly content,” however. This is defined as being “appropriate for most audiences and does not feature sensitive topics like drugs, sexually suggestive content, or hateful content.” Make sure to check out the content guidelines to ensure your videos are up to snuff. While more mature content can seem attractive, you most likely won’t see as much revenue from YouTube ads.
Please understand that the financial benefits take a while to show. Give it time and keep pumping out good content, and you will start to see money come in. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.
