You may have noticed how many individuals are beginning to find fame and internet success by creating YouTube videos. YouTube, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, has led to the celebrity and wealth of many. But how do these people find success on YouTube? And more importantly, how are they able to monetize their content in a way that produces long-term financial income?
To use your YouTube content to make money, you must turn your account into an official YouTube channel, know your audience, understand your channel’s key settings, publish your channel so that it is public, add commercials and ads, and cross-promote your videos. While the process may seem easy, there are lots of things that come into play when you start a channel for the sake of making money at home.
Once you understand how to utilize your YouTube channel to make money, you will be able to gauge which content is successful and which does not draw viewers, giving you more control over your channel’s financial success. Keep on reading for our in-depth guide on how to create money-making videos on YouTube.
The Main Requirements of Starting a YouTube Channel
Turn Your YouTube Account into a YouTube Channel
When deciding to start making money off of your YouTube content, it is important to take the right first steps. The first step involves turning your YouTube account into an official YouTube channel. While YouTube accounts are able to upload videos and create playlists, YouTube channels are considered brand channels. This means that rather than being linked to only one individual with a singular email address, the channel will belong to anyone within the company that is assigned to run the channel. Channels are also allowed special offers such as page banners, added personalization options, ad marketing, and sponsored posts. You can turn your YouTube account into a YouTube channel by following these steps:
Step 1: If you do not already have a YouTube account, sign up for one using your name and professional email address.
Step 2: At the top of your screen on the right-hand side, go to ‘settings’ by clicking on your YouTube account icon.
Step 3: Then, choose ‘see all my channels or create a new channel’ at the bottom of the page.
Step 4: Choose ‘create a new channel’ by clicking on the plus sign.
Step 5: Carefully pick the name of your new brand channel account. The best channel name is often your name or the name of your business.
Step 6: Now that you have turned your YouTube account into a branded YouTube channel, it is time to personalize your channel. Add professional high-resolution photographs including a banner and a company logo, or a headshot of yourself.
Your YouTube Content
Once your YouTube account has been turned into a YouTube channel, it is time to decide on what content you will be sharing. Odds are that if you already have a business name, you are clear on the content you’d like to post.
If not, make this choice based on your existing strengths and passions. Consider what content you can successfully record and edit on your own that viewers may be interested in seeing. Make sure all content that you post is one-hundred percent original and does not go against any copy infringement laws, otherwise YouTube will remove your post and potentially suspend your channel.
Choose Which Content You Will Post on Your Channel
Whether you are a home-cook hoping to share recipes and how-to videos or a car shop planning on sharing informational videos with potential customers, streamlining your content will allow for best results. The best videos to post on your YouTube channel are ones that:
- Adhere to YouTube’s community guidelines and don’t contain offensive or sexually explicit content.
- Appear clearly filmed and professionally edited.
- Are around three minutes long for optimum user viewership.
- Are upbeat, friendly, and eye-catching.
- Are straightforward about their intent and content.
- Contain original graphics and sound.
- Quickly catch the viewer’s attention.
Consider Your Main Audience Demographic
When creating content to share on your YouTube channel in order to make money from your posted YouTube videos, it is important to consider your main audience demographic. In other words, catering to your specific audience is one of the most effective ways to get a YouTube following.
To be truly successful at making money from your YouTube channel, you need to know your target audience. This information about your ideal viewers includes, but is not limited to their age, their location, and their gender. If you are selling children’s toys, rather than targeting a young child, you would choose to target the parents who purchase toys for their children, and therefore make videos that the moms and dads would be drawn to. If trying to share how-to barbecuing lessons online via YouTube, you would most likely target adult men rather than young teenage girls. Be clear about your ideal audience demographic because once you know who your videos will be targeting, it will be much easier to create content designed specifically for them.
How to Publish Your YouTube Channel
After your content is all set to go and you have decided upon your intended audience demographic, you must publish your YouTube channel. Publishing your YouTube channel simply means that it will now be a public channel viewable by all who visit it through YouTube or its direct URL link. Before you publish your channel, however, you must first publish each video individually. You can publish a single YouTube video by following these steps:
Step 1: Make your way to your YouTube ‘video library’.
Step 2: Upload a new video or choose the title of the video you would like to publish.
Step 3: Scroll down and click on ‘publish’, then choose the YouTube icon.
Step 4: Change your video’s rating and privacy settings if you wish. It is best to make your video publicly viewable by all with comments available and open to resharing.
Step 5: Add tags to your video so that it will appear in any YouTube searches containing those words.
Step 6: Keep track of view counts and respond to comments when possible. This will keep your engagement up and eventually lead more viewers to your video. Share the URL link with others when you can to send traffic directly to your video.
Step 7: Repeat this sequence for all YouTube videos that you would like to appear on your channel.
Step 8: Organize your videos into YouTube playlists where users can conveniently access your videos based on their category or topic.
When your YouTube videos are all public, you can then publish your entire YouTube channel by making it public and viewable by all on YouTube.
All About Channel Key Settings
Channel key settings are an important part of publishing your YouTube channel because these settings allow you to control every aspect of your profile, including how your channel appears when it is visible to others and the location that your channel displays on its profile. You can change and edit your YouTube channel settings by doing the following:
Step 1: Sign into your YouTube channel account.
Step 2: Choose ‘settings’ on the left drop down menu.
Step 3: Pick ‘channel’ on that same menu towards the left side of the screen.
Step 4: Alter your channel settings location, time zone, privacy, and more to suit your YouTube channels needs.
Step 5: Make sure to click ‘save’ so that all of your preferences are locked and saved within your YouTube channel’s settings options.
YouTube Channel Verification
YouTube channel verification is a great channel key setting tool for those who want to make money with their YouTube channel. This verification offers your channel an official seal of approval from YouTube that allows your users to see you are a trusted source of information and content.
Being verified also allows you to upload videos that are longer than fifteen minutes in length, upload special images to use as thumbnails for your videos, have private or unlisted videos instead of deleting videos you don’t want others to see, and ad links to your company website on existing videos. You can get a channel verification by:
Step 1: Logging in to your YouTube channel account.
Step 2: In the top right corner of the page, select ‘channel’.
Step 3: Choose the ‘gear’ icon.
Step 4: Select the button that says ‘verify’.
Step 5: Pick the location that you are in.
Sep 6: Pick your method of verification and click ‘next’. Verification can come by email, text message, or other methods of communication.
Step 7: Enter the verification code that you received from YouTube.
Step 8: Select the ‘continue’ option.
Step 9: You can now enjoy the benefits of having a verified YouTube channel!
Your Custom YouTube URL
Another important YouTube channel setting is the ability to customize your own YouTube URL link. A URL, or uniform resource locator link, is what allows people to go directly to your channel when either clicking on it or typing it into the address bar of a webpage. Customizing your YouTube URL link means that that you will be able to choose any text you want such as your own name or your company’s name rather than a series of random numbers and letters, making your channel more personalized to you.
How to Make Money-Making YouTube Videos
Now that you have set up your YouTube channel, decided upon your ideal audience demographic, changed the settings, and customize your YouTube URL, you are ready to begin monetizing your YouTube channel’s content.
Join the YouTube Ads Program
One of the best ways to make money from your channel is to join You tube’s ad rewards and paid partner program. This program allows you to earn money from your videos by placing ads within your content as well as on your YouTube channel main page. You can sign up to be a part of this paid ad program by following these simple steps:
Step 1: Sign in to the YouTube channel account that you want to use.
Step 2: Choose the ‘account settings’ option.
Step 3: Choose ‘YouTube Studio’.
Step 4: Select ‘other features’ on the left side of the screen and continue to ‘monetization’.
Step 5: Read You tube’s terms and agree to them.
Step 6: Make an AdSense account and add it to your YouTube channel account.
Step 7: Edit your preferences to match your needs.
You can now make money from each ad that runs on your YouTube channel account. It is important to remember, however, that you will only get about five dollars for each 1,000 views that your video receives. This means that you will need to cross-promote your videos in other ways to start making money from the ads.
Sell Merchandise on Your YouTube Channel
Another good way to make money from your YouTube channel is to use it as a marketing tool for physical goods and services. If you are starting an ecommerce business that will be selling to the public, cross promote these materials with your YouTube videos. The more that viewers see your products mentioned, listed, or linked to your channel’s videos, the more likely they are to purchase them.
License Your Videos to Outside Sources
Outsourcing or licensing your videos to others is another way to make money from your YouTube channel. Other creators, such as businesses, individuals, or artists, may want to use your videos for their own blogs, television shows, podcasts, and more. For example, if you offer cooking videos through your YouTube channel, try licensing these videos to a cooking website or cooking supply affiliate company. This way, your video will get more views and generate money income from ads and you can make a passive income, as well as a stipend from the company to which you licensed the video.
The best case scenario for licensing videos is when a video goes viral. A viral video will be desired by news outlets, radio shows, and other media, and they are likely to pay a higher rate. This will also guarantee more views to your video, again giving you higher income from existing ads.
Continue Monetizing Your YouTube Content
While making money from YouTube might seem like a simple task, it takes a lot of maintenance and upkeep to make sure your videos are performing well in terms of views. While a video could get a lot of views when it is first posted, you must continue to check the insights.
These insights will let you see who is viewing your videos, where they are located, their gender, their age, and for how long they are remaining on your channel. This important information will allow you to adjust your content strategy as needed to keep those views coming, in turn helping you make money from ads and potentially license out highly desired individual videos. When you follow the correct steps and keep updated with your channel’s performance statistics, you will be well on your way to making money from the videos you post on YouTube.
To really take your YouTube channel to the next level be sure to check out this YouTube course that can help jump start your channel and allow you to create massive amounts of income-earning content quickly.
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