Elevate Your Content with Effective Video SEO

The 12-step YouTube SEO Guide for Beginners Who Want More Views

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

The joy of creating on YouTube is often dampened by the disappointment of underperforming videos. You have published your content and it’s not getting the views you had hoped.

Well, let’s change that!

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through YouTube SEO from the very start to the very end.

Nothing complicated. No paid programs or expensive apps needed. We are going back to basics and get your videos discovered.

Ready?

Let’s Go!

Part 1: Research Your Topic and Competitors

Come up with a video idea . Can’t come up with one? Let me help. I heard you can make a mean scrambled egg, why don’t you show the world how you do it?

Excellent! Let’s go with that idea.

Wait, don’t go making the video yet. First, we have to do some research. We need to know what videos already exist out there.

Step 1: Find Related Videos

Do a quick search on YouTube to see what videos already exist on your topic.

Uh oh… your video will be competing against celebrities like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

Okay, don’t panic! There is a fantastic quote, credited to bestselling author, Jon Acuff , that goes:

While researching your competition, you will feel overwhelmed, but remember, you are at the beginning, and Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver are not even at their middle, they are way passed the finish line. You still have a long journey to go, so don’t get discouraged, get inspired!

Watch those videos and understand what they are all about.

Understand that people watch YouTube for 3 key reasons:

- To be entertained

- To learn something new

- To be inspired

A video that can hit all 3 marks is going to be positioned for success. Don’t fret too much about the competition, as long as your content is good, you will see improvement.

So if you think this scrambled egg idea can hit those 3 marks, then I encourage you to go to the next step. If you don’t, let’s regroup and brainstorm some more YouTube video ideas .

Step 2: Find Keywords

Now that we’ve decided that we are sticking with the video idea, we are ready to do some keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases people type in the YouTube search bar to discover videos.

Come up with as many relevant keywords as you can. Start by entering a keyword into the YouTube search bar. This will tell you what are the most popular searches associated with that keyword:

Once you have an idea of what people are searching for related to your topic, you’ll want to find more relevant keywords. I like to use the free app, Ubersuggest to do that.

This app gives you a whole list of long-tail keywords, which are 3-4-word phrases which is specific to what your video is about.

Some you will use to dig deeper in and other you will deem irrelevant to your videos. A good way of determining the value of a keyword is by the stats the application shows.

How to Read Keyword Suggestions

Once you have a list of keywords, you will see some numbers on the right-hand side. Here is what each one is about:

- Search volume is the number used to identify the popularity of the keyword. The higher the number the more people are searching for it.

- CPC is the value accredited by YouTube, determining how much advertisers are paying to target audiences who search for that keyword and click on the link.

- Competition is the number used to qualify how many other content are using that keyword.

The two categories that matter most to us right now is Search Volume and Competition. We want keywords with high search volume and low competition rate.

In the example above, you can see that the keyword “avocado scrambled eggs” has a Search Volume of 1,000 and a competition rate of 0.0. This is a good keyword to target, if you can incorporate an avocado to your dish… which of course you can!

Step 3: Write Title

I know you might want to deal with the Title, Description, and Tags after you’ve filmed and edited your video. But if you want to apply a YouTube SEO-focused strategy, then these should be addressed before you even pick up a camera as it can greatly dictate the content you end up creating.

A good YouTube title sparks curiosity, evokes emotional reaction, and promises value to your viewers.

Of course you can title your video simply: Making Scrambled Eggs

But does it spark curiosity? Not really… most people can make scrambled eggs.

Does it evoke any emotion? Maybe hunger… but even then, not really…

Finally, does it promise value? Well, assuming that most people can at least crack an egg into a pan, then hardly.

Your scrambled egg is special! Your video is special! We need to evoke that in the title — and as long as you are not writing any clickbait and deliver on what the title suggest, you can do this.

So, how about this: Are My Amazing Scrambled Eggs Better Than Gordon Ramsay’s?

Hmmm… Well, is it? We know that the Gordon Ramsay’s video has almost 30M views. Many people have already tried cooking it, I’m sure. There is only one way to find out, by encouraging others to try it over Gordon’s.

You don’t need to go for a somewhat contentious title like this, but that’s the idea, you want something that gets people curious, make them feel a certain way, and in the end, make them better for having watched your video.

See how a good title can guide the rest of your video?

Step 4: Write Description

You aren’t going to be writing the description for the viewers necessarily, you are going to be writing it for YouTube’s algorithms. The better YouTube understands what your video is about, the better they can show it to people searching for it.

This means you need to include the keywords you were researching at the beginning of your description, as YouTube will be using them to identify the content of your video. 1 or 2 keywords that best represent your video is enough. Don’t stuff the title with too many keywords or you’ll risk sounding like a robot.

But also use the description for practical uses too, if you have additional information such as supportive links, outline of the video’s content, a list of materials, step-by-step guide, or a recipe that you think your human viewers will find useful, you should input that in the description as well.

Step 5: Write Tags

Thank goodness we did the keyword research in Step 2, because coming up with tags is not as easy as it looks.

Pull 15 keywords from the list and keep it somewhere safe.

Note: The keywords you used in the title should be found in your tags, and since they are the most important ones, you should place them first.

Organize your keywords in the tag as such:

Have the specific keywords at the top, followed by more general keywords, and then branded ones:

Specific: How to make scrambled eggs

General: Scrambled eggs

Branded: Gordon Ramsay scrambled eggs

Part 2: Make The Best Darn Video Possible

It doesn’t matter how relevant your keywords are or how epic your title is, if you video sucks (i.e. your viewers click in and leave right away), YouTube will not show it in search.

Even if you haven’t created any videos yet, you can follow these next steps to ensure you are following the best practices to structure your video.

Step 6: Plan and Film the Hook

The first few seconds is where the largest percentage of your earned viewership will drop off. Odds are 20% of your viewers won’t even get past the first 10 seconds .

What you need is a hook, an intro that ensures this video is what they want to watch and let’s them know what they can expect.

Step 7: Film B-Roll

One static camera shot of you talking or cooking or giving a tutorial can cause your viewers to lose attention.

In order to keep your viewers interest, you will need b-roll, or supplemental footage you can cut to give you video more life.

While jump cuts (cuts made on a sequential clip of the same subject or in the same camera position) are fine, having additional footage to cut to will make your video feel more fluid.

So when you are filming your scrambled egg video, make sure you get some footage of you cracking the egg, scrambling it, and serving it on the plate.

Step 8: Encourage Viewers to Engage in Video

Liking, disliking, subscribing, and commenting on your video will all help your performance indirectly.

While YouTube wouldn’t rank your video higher simply because you have more likes subscribers, or comments, engagement from viewers help your video get discovered. If you get a like or comment from a YouTuber with a lot of subscribers, your video may be visible to those who are following that YouTuber for a while.

The best way to get engagement from your audience is to encourage them to like and subscribe or ask them a question or start a dialogue.

For example, in this scrambled egg video you are making, at the end you can ask, “So what do you think, is this better than Gordon Ramsay?”

Who knows, who will respond.

Step 9: Design a Thumbnail

You could have made a brilliant video, but if you have a poor quality thumbnail that is unattractive, then the overall performance of your video will suffer — and good SEO can only do so much after that.

Your viewers will absolutely judge your video by its cover so it’s important to put some thought into it and not solely rely on the three random thumbnail choices that YouTube picks for you.

Take a look at your competition. If they all look the same, do something different. Add text or a human face (preferably yours) to evoke emotion, as viewers are more likely to click into a video if they see an expressive image.

Don’t want to pay money for a photo editing software such as Photoshop?

You can use an online service called Canva or download GIMP , an open-source photo editor much like Photoshop, but far less powerful. These will help you get the job done as you are starting out.

Want to know more thumbnail maker? Check our picks of the best free YouTube thumbnail makers .

Part 3: Publishing With Attention to Optimization

Well done finishing the video! You are almost there… but not there yet.

Come on, keep going!

Step 10: Fill Out Your Videos Assets

The video is done, the thumbnail is designed, and you have all your title, description, and tags ready to go. This step is easy, upload the video, and fill out the assets, and give yourself a pat on the back.

Step 11: Add Transcripts

In addition to making your content accessible for people who don’t want to or can’t listen to the audio in your video, adding subtitles and closed captions will help YouTube understand the spoken content in your video.

While YouTube does have an automatic subtitle generator, it’s not reliable enough to be used for identifying the keywords you use in your video.

You can choose to write out the whole transcript of your video yourself, but if you are press on time, which of course you are, you can simply go and edit the automatic transcript already available in your video. By the way, you can also use some automatic transcription software.

Step 12: Add Video to Playlist

Finally the last thing you need to do for your video is to add it to a playlist. Even though it might be the first video in the playlist, it helps YouTube identify your video if you organize it in a playlist. As you accumulate more content, having videos in playlists makes content easier to find and keeps relevant videos together.

When viewers searches, having your videos in playlists increases the chance of it being discovered.

So if your first video is about scrambled eggs, maybe you next video can be about the awesome butter toasts.

I guess, you are on your way to making a pretty badass breakfast playlist. I personally can’t wait to see it!

If you treat SEO as an afterthought, only after your video is created, you are not using it to its full potential. If you follow these 12 steps during the course of your production, you will find that SEO doesn’t simply help your video perform at the end, but contributes in all the other phases of creating your video as well.

Besides considering YouTube SEO, you should make a good YouTube video as well. Filmora is a powerful video editing software that features lots of templates and effects. Get the free trial version below and have a try today.

Do you have any questions about SEO? Please leave us a comment below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

The joy of creating on YouTube is often dampened by the disappointment of underperforming videos. You have published your content and it’s not getting the views you had hoped.

Well, let’s change that!

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through YouTube SEO from the very start to the very end.

Nothing complicated. No paid programs or expensive apps needed. We are going back to basics and get your videos discovered.

Ready?

Let’s Go!

Part 1: Research Your Topic and Competitors

Come up with a video idea . Can’t come up with one? Let me help. I heard you can make a mean scrambled egg, why don’t you show the world how you do it?

Excellent! Let’s go with that idea.

Wait, don’t go making the video yet. First, we have to do some research. We need to know what videos already exist out there.

Step 1: Find Related Videos

Do a quick search on YouTube to see what videos already exist on your topic.

Uh oh… your video will be competing against celebrities like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

Okay, don’t panic! There is a fantastic quote, credited to bestselling author, Jon Acuff , that goes:

While researching your competition, you will feel overwhelmed, but remember, you are at the beginning, and Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver are not even at their middle, they are way passed the finish line. You still have a long journey to go, so don’t get discouraged, get inspired!

Watch those videos and understand what they are all about.

Understand that people watch YouTube for 3 key reasons:

- To be entertained

- To learn something new

- To be inspired

A video that can hit all 3 marks is going to be positioned for success. Don’t fret too much about the competition, as long as your content is good, you will see improvement.

So if you think this scrambled egg idea can hit those 3 marks, then I encourage you to go to the next step. If you don’t, let’s regroup and brainstorm some more YouTube video ideas .

Step 2: Find Keywords

Now that we’ve decided that we are sticking with the video idea, we are ready to do some keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases people type in the YouTube search bar to discover videos.

Come up with as many relevant keywords as you can. Start by entering a keyword into the YouTube search bar. This will tell you what are the most popular searches associated with that keyword:

Once you have an idea of what people are searching for related to your topic, you’ll want to find more relevant keywords. I like to use the free app, Ubersuggest to do that.

This app gives you a whole list of long-tail keywords, which are 3-4-word phrases which is specific to what your video is about.

Some you will use to dig deeper in and other you will deem irrelevant to your videos. A good way of determining the value of a keyword is by the stats the application shows.

How to Read Keyword Suggestions

Once you have a list of keywords, you will see some numbers on the right-hand side. Here is what each one is about:

- Search volume is the number used to identify the popularity of the keyword. The higher the number the more people are searching for it.

- CPC is the value accredited by YouTube, determining how much advertisers are paying to target audiences who search for that keyword and click on the link.

- Competition is the number used to qualify how many other content are using that keyword.

The two categories that matter most to us right now is Search Volume and Competition. We want keywords with high search volume and low competition rate.

In the example above, you can see that the keyword “avocado scrambled eggs” has a Search Volume of 1,000 and a competition rate of 0.0. This is a good keyword to target, if you can incorporate an avocado to your dish… which of course you can!

Step 3: Write Title

I know you might want to deal with the Title, Description, and Tags after you’ve filmed and edited your video. But if you want to apply a YouTube SEO-focused strategy, then these should be addressed before you even pick up a camera as it can greatly dictate the content you end up creating.

A good YouTube title sparks curiosity, evokes emotional reaction, and promises value to your viewers.

Of course you can title your video simply: Making Scrambled Eggs

But does it spark curiosity? Not really… most people can make scrambled eggs.

Does it evoke any emotion? Maybe hunger… but even then, not really…

Finally, does it promise value? Well, assuming that most people can at least crack an egg into a pan, then hardly.

Your scrambled egg is special! Your video is special! We need to evoke that in the title — and as long as you are not writing any clickbait and deliver on what the title suggest, you can do this.

So, how about this: Are My Amazing Scrambled Eggs Better Than Gordon Ramsay’s?

Hmmm… Well, is it? We know that the Gordon Ramsay’s video has almost 30M views. Many people have already tried cooking it, I’m sure. There is only one way to find out, by encouraging others to try it over Gordon’s.

You don’t need to go for a somewhat contentious title like this, but that’s the idea, you want something that gets people curious, make them feel a certain way, and in the end, make them better for having watched your video.

See how a good title can guide the rest of your video?

Step 4: Write Description

You aren’t going to be writing the description for the viewers necessarily, you are going to be writing it for YouTube’s algorithms. The better YouTube understands what your video is about, the better they can show it to people searching for it.

This means you need to include the keywords you were researching at the beginning of your description, as YouTube will be using them to identify the content of your video. 1 or 2 keywords that best represent your video is enough. Don’t stuff the title with too many keywords or you’ll risk sounding like a robot.

But also use the description for practical uses too, if you have additional information such as supportive links, outline of the video’s content, a list of materials, step-by-step guide, or a recipe that you think your human viewers will find useful, you should input that in the description as well.

Step 5: Write Tags

Thank goodness we did the keyword research in Step 2, because coming up with tags is not as easy as it looks.

Pull 15 keywords from the list and keep it somewhere safe.

Note: The keywords you used in the title should be found in your tags, and since they are the most important ones, you should place them first.

Organize your keywords in the tag as such:

Have the specific keywords at the top, followed by more general keywords, and then branded ones:

Specific: How to make scrambled eggs

General: Scrambled eggs

Branded: Gordon Ramsay scrambled eggs

Part 2: Make The Best Darn Video Possible

It doesn’t matter how relevant your keywords are or how epic your title is, if you video sucks (i.e. your viewers click in and leave right away), YouTube will not show it in search.

Even if you haven’t created any videos yet, you can follow these next steps to ensure you are following the best practices to structure your video.

Step 6: Plan and Film the Hook

The first few seconds is where the largest percentage of your earned viewership will drop off. Odds are 20% of your viewers won’t even get past the first 10 seconds .

What you need is a hook, an intro that ensures this video is what they want to watch and let’s them know what they can expect.

Step 7: Film B-Roll

One static camera shot of you talking or cooking or giving a tutorial can cause your viewers to lose attention.

In order to keep your viewers interest, you will need b-roll, or supplemental footage you can cut to give you video more life.

While jump cuts (cuts made on a sequential clip of the same subject or in the same camera position) are fine, having additional footage to cut to will make your video feel more fluid.

So when you are filming your scrambled egg video, make sure you get some footage of you cracking the egg, scrambling it, and serving it on the plate.

Step 8: Encourage Viewers to Engage in Video

Liking, disliking, subscribing, and commenting on your video will all help your performance indirectly.

While YouTube wouldn’t rank your video higher simply because you have more likes subscribers, or comments, engagement from viewers help your video get discovered. If you get a like or comment from a YouTuber with a lot of subscribers, your video may be visible to those who are following that YouTuber for a while.

The best way to get engagement from your audience is to encourage them to like and subscribe or ask them a question or start a dialogue.

For example, in this scrambled egg video you are making, at the end you can ask, “So what do you think, is this better than Gordon Ramsay?”

Who knows, who will respond.

Step 9: Design a Thumbnail

You could have made a brilliant video, but if you have a poor quality thumbnail that is unattractive, then the overall performance of your video will suffer — and good SEO can only do so much after that.

Your viewers will absolutely judge your video by its cover so it’s important to put some thought into it and not solely rely on the three random thumbnail choices that YouTube picks for you.

Take a look at your competition. If they all look the same, do something different. Add text or a human face (preferably yours) to evoke emotion, as viewers are more likely to click into a video if they see an expressive image.

Don’t want to pay money for a photo editing software such as Photoshop?

You can use an online service called Canva or download GIMP , an open-source photo editor much like Photoshop, but far less powerful. These will help you get the job done as you are starting out.

Want to know more thumbnail maker? Check our picks of the best free YouTube thumbnail makers .

Part 3: Publishing With Attention to Optimization

Well done finishing the video! You are almost there… but not there yet.

Come on, keep going!

Step 10: Fill Out Your Videos Assets

The video is done, the thumbnail is designed, and you have all your title, description, and tags ready to go. This step is easy, upload the video, and fill out the assets, and give yourself a pat on the back.

Step 11: Add Transcripts

In addition to making your content accessible for people who don’t want to or can’t listen to the audio in your video, adding subtitles and closed captions will help YouTube understand the spoken content in your video.

While YouTube does have an automatic subtitle generator, it’s not reliable enough to be used for identifying the keywords you use in your video.

You can choose to write out the whole transcript of your video yourself, but if you are press on time, which of course you are, you can simply go and edit the automatic transcript already available in your video. By the way, you can also use some automatic transcription software.

Step 12: Add Video to Playlist

Finally the last thing you need to do for your video is to add it to a playlist. Even though it might be the first video in the playlist, it helps YouTube identify your video if you organize it in a playlist. As you accumulate more content, having videos in playlists makes content easier to find and keeps relevant videos together.

When viewers searches, having your videos in playlists increases the chance of it being discovered.

So if your first video is about scrambled eggs, maybe you next video can be about the awesome butter toasts.

I guess, you are on your way to making a pretty badass breakfast playlist. I personally can’t wait to see it!

If you treat SEO as an afterthought, only after your video is created, you are not using it to its full potential. If you follow these 12 steps during the course of your production, you will find that SEO doesn’t simply help your video perform at the end, but contributes in all the other phases of creating your video as well.

Besides considering YouTube SEO, you should make a good YouTube video as well. Filmora is a powerful video editing software that features lots of templates and effects. Get the free trial version below and have a try today.

Do you have any questions about SEO? Please leave us a comment below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

The joy of creating on YouTube is often dampened by the disappointment of underperforming videos. You have published your content and it’s not getting the views you had hoped.

Well, let’s change that!

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through YouTube SEO from the very start to the very end.

Nothing complicated. No paid programs or expensive apps needed. We are going back to basics and get your videos discovered.

Ready?

Let’s Go!

Part 1: Research Your Topic and Competitors

Come up with a video idea . Can’t come up with one? Let me help. I heard you can make a mean scrambled egg, why don’t you show the world how you do it?

Excellent! Let’s go with that idea.

Wait, don’t go making the video yet. First, we have to do some research. We need to know what videos already exist out there.

Step 1: Find Related Videos

Do a quick search on YouTube to see what videos already exist on your topic.

Uh oh… your video will be competing against celebrities like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

Okay, don’t panic! There is a fantastic quote, credited to bestselling author, Jon Acuff , that goes:

While researching your competition, you will feel overwhelmed, but remember, you are at the beginning, and Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver are not even at their middle, they are way passed the finish line. You still have a long journey to go, so don’t get discouraged, get inspired!

Watch those videos and understand what they are all about.

Understand that people watch YouTube for 3 key reasons:

- To be entertained

- To learn something new

- To be inspired

A video that can hit all 3 marks is going to be positioned for success. Don’t fret too much about the competition, as long as your content is good, you will see improvement.

So if you think this scrambled egg idea can hit those 3 marks, then I encourage you to go to the next step. If you don’t, let’s regroup and brainstorm some more YouTube video ideas .

Step 2: Find Keywords

Now that we’ve decided that we are sticking with the video idea, we are ready to do some keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases people type in the YouTube search bar to discover videos.

Come up with as many relevant keywords as you can. Start by entering a keyword into the YouTube search bar. This will tell you what are the most popular searches associated with that keyword:

Once you have an idea of what people are searching for related to your topic, you’ll want to find more relevant keywords. I like to use the free app, Ubersuggest to do that.

This app gives you a whole list of long-tail keywords, which are 3-4-word phrases which is specific to what your video is about.

Some you will use to dig deeper in and other you will deem irrelevant to your videos. A good way of determining the value of a keyword is by the stats the application shows.

How to Read Keyword Suggestions

Once you have a list of keywords, you will see some numbers on the right-hand side. Here is what each one is about:

- Search volume is the number used to identify the popularity of the keyword. The higher the number the more people are searching for it.

- CPC is the value accredited by YouTube, determining how much advertisers are paying to target audiences who search for that keyword and click on the link.

- Competition is the number used to qualify how many other content are using that keyword.

The two categories that matter most to us right now is Search Volume and Competition. We want keywords with high search volume and low competition rate.

In the example above, you can see that the keyword “avocado scrambled eggs” has a Search Volume of 1,000 and a competition rate of 0.0. This is a good keyword to target, if you can incorporate an avocado to your dish… which of course you can!

Step 3: Write Title

I know you might want to deal with the Title, Description, and Tags after you’ve filmed and edited your video. But if you want to apply a YouTube SEO-focused strategy, then these should be addressed before you even pick up a camera as it can greatly dictate the content you end up creating.

A good YouTube title sparks curiosity, evokes emotional reaction, and promises value to your viewers.

Of course you can title your video simply: Making Scrambled Eggs

But does it spark curiosity? Not really… most people can make scrambled eggs.

Does it evoke any emotion? Maybe hunger… but even then, not really…

Finally, does it promise value? Well, assuming that most people can at least crack an egg into a pan, then hardly.

Your scrambled egg is special! Your video is special! We need to evoke that in the title — and as long as you are not writing any clickbait and deliver on what the title suggest, you can do this.

So, how about this: Are My Amazing Scrambled Eggs Better Than Gordon Ramsay’s?

Hmmm… Well, is it? We know that the Gordon Ramsay’s video has almost 30M views. Many people have already tried cooking it, I’m sure. There is only one way to find out, by encouraging others to try it over Gordon’s.

You don’t need to go for a somewhat contentious title like this, but that’s the idea, you want something that gets people curious, make them feel a certain way, and in the end, make them better for having watched your video.

See how a good title can guide the rest of your video?

Step 4: Write Description

You aren’t going to be writing the description for the viewers necessarily, you are going to be writing it for YouTube’s algorithms. The better YouTube understands what your video is about, the better they can show it to people searching for it.

This means you need to include the keywords you were researching at the beginning of your description, as YouTube will be using them to identify the content of your video. 1 or 2 keywords that best represent your video is enough. Don’t stuff the title with too many keywords or you’ll risk sounding like a robot.

But also use the description for practical uses too, if you have additional information such as supportive links, outline of the video’s content, a list of materials, step-by-step guide, or a recipe that you think your human viewers will find useful, you should input that in the description as well.

Step 5: Write Tags

Thank goodness we did the keyword research in Step 2, because coming up with tags is not as easy as it looks.

Pull 15 keywords from the list and keep it somewhere safe.

Note: The keywords you used in the title should be found in your tags, and since they are the most important ones, you should place them first.

Organize your keywords in the tag as such:

Have the specific keywords at the top, followed by more general keywords, and then branded ones:

Specific: How to make scrambled eggs

General: Scrambled eggs

Branded: Gordon Ramsay scrambled eggs

Part 2: Make The Best Darn Video Possible

It doesn’t matter how relevant your keywords are or how epic your title is, if you video sucks (i.e. your viewers click in and leave right away), YouTube will not show it in search.

Even if you haven’t created any videos yet, you can follow these next steps to ensure you are following the best practices to structure your video.

Step 6: Plan and Film the Hook

The first few seconds is where the largest percentage of your earned viewership will drop off. Odds are 20% of your viewers won’t even get past the first 10 seconds .

What you need is a hook, an intro that ensures this video is what they want to watch and let’s them know what they can expect.

Step 7: Film B-Roll

One static camera shot of you talking or cooking or giving a tutorial can cause your viewers to lose attention.

In order to keep your viewers interest, you will need b-roll, or supplemental footage you can cut to give you video more life.

While jump cuts (cuts made on a sequential clip of the same subject or in the same camera position) are fine, having additional footage to cut to will make your video feel more fluid.

So when you are filming your scrambled egg video, make sure you get some footage of you cracking the egg, scrambling it, and serving it on the plate.

Step 8: Encourage Viewers to Engage in Video

Liking, disliking, subscribing, and commenting on your video will all help your performance indirectly.

While YouTube wouldn’t rank your video higher simply because you have more likes subscribers, or comments, engagement from viewers help your video get discovered. If you get a like or comment from a YouTuber with a lot of subscribers, your video may be visible to those who are following that YouTuber for a while.

The best way to get engagement from your audience is to encourage them to like and subscribe or ask them a question or start a dialogue.

For example, in this scrambled egg video you are making, at the end you can ask, “So what do you think, is this better than Gordon Ramsay?”

Who knows, who will respond.

Step 9: Design a Thumbnail

You could have made a brilliant video, but if you have a poor quality thumbnail that is unattractive, then the overall performance of your video will suffer — and good SEO can only do so much after that.

Your viewers will absolutely judge your video by its cover so it’s important to put some thought into it and not solely rely on the three random thumbnail choices that YouTube picks for you.

Take a look at your competition. If they all look the same, do something different. Add text or a human face (preferably yours) to evoke emotion, as viewers are more likely to click into a video if they see an expressive image.

Don’t want to pay money for a photo editing software such as Photoshop?

You can use an online service called Canva or download GIMP , an open-source photo editor much like Photoshop, but far less powerful. These will help you get the job done as you are starting out.

Want to know more thumbnail maker? Check our picks of the best free YouTube thumbnail makers .

Part 3: Publishing With Attention to Optimization

Well done finishing the video! You are almost there… but not there yet.

Come on, keep going!

Step 10: Fill Out Your Videos Assets

The video is done, the thumbnail is designed, and you have all your title, description, and tags ready to go. This step is easy, upload the video, and fill out the assets, and give yourself a pat on the back.

Step 11: Add Transcripts

In addition to making your content accessible for people who don’t want to or can’t listen to the audio in your video, adding subtitles and closed captions will help YouTube understand the spoken content in your video.

While YouTube does have an automatic subtitle generator, it’s not reliable enough to be used for identifying the keywords you use in your video.

You can choose to write out the whole transcript of your video yourself, but if you are press on time, which of course you are, you can simply go and edit the automatic transcript already available in your video. By the way, you can also use some automatic transcription software.

Step 12: Add Video to Playlist

Finally the last thing you need to do for your video is to add it to a playlist. Even though it might be the first video in the playlist, it helps YouTube identify your video if you organize it in a playlist. As you accumulate more content, having videos in playlists makes content easier to find and keeps relevant videos together.

When viewers searches, having your videos in playlists increases the chance of it being discovered.

So if your first video is about scrambled eggs, maybe you next video can be about the awesome butter toasts.

I guess, you are on your way to making a pretty badass breakfast playlist. I personally can’t wait to see it!

If you treat SEO as an afterthought, only after your video is created, you are not using it to its full potential. If you follow these 12 steps during the course of your production, you will find that SEO doesn’t simply help your video perform at the end, but contributes in all the other phases of creating your video as well.

Besides considering YouTube SEO, you should make a good YouTube video as well. Filmora is a powerful video editing software that features lots of templates and effects. Get the free trial version below and have a try today.

Do you have any questions about SEO? Please leave us a comment below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

The joy of creating on YouTube is often dampened by the disappointment of underperforming videos. You have published your content and it’s not getting the views you had hoped.

Well, let’s change that!

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through YouTube SEO from the very start to the very end.

Nothing complicated. No paid programs or expensive apps needed. We are going back to basics and get your videos discovered.

Ready?

Let’s Go!

Part 1: Research Your Topic and Competitors

Come up with a video idea . Can’t come up with one? Let me help. I heard you can make a mean scrambled egg, why don’t you show the world how you do it?

Excellent! Let’s go with that idea.

Wait, don’t go making the video yet. First, we have to do some research. We need to know what videos already exist out there.

Step 1: Find Related Videos

Do a quick search on YouTube to see what videos already exist on your topic.

Uh oh… your video will be competing against celebrities like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

Okay, don’t panic! There is a fantastic quote, credited to bestselling author, Jon Acuff , that goes:

While researching your competition, you will feel overwhelmed, but remember, you are at the beginning, and Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver are not even at their middle, they are way passed the finish line. You still have a long journey to go, so don’t get discouraged, get inspired!

Watch those videos and understand what they are all about.

Understand that people watch YouTube for 3 key reasons:

- To be entertained

- To learn something new

- To be inspired

A video that can hit all 3 marks is going to be positioned for success. Don’t fret too much about the competition, as long as your content is good, you will see improvement.

So if you think this scrambled egg idea can hit those 3 marks, then I encourage you to go to the next step. If you don’t, let’s regroup and brainstorm some more YouTube video ideas .

Step 2: Find Keywords

Now that we’ve decided that we are sticking with the video idea, we are ready to do some keyword research. Keywords are the words and phrases people type in the YouTube search bar to discover videos.

Come up with as many relevant keywords as you can. Start by entering a keyword into the YouTube search bar. This will tell you what are the most popular searches associated with that keyword:

Once you have an idea of what people are searching for related to your topic, you’ll want to find more relevant keywords. I like to use the free app, Ubersuggest to do that.

This app gives you a whole list of long-tail keywords, which are 3-4-word phrases which is specific to what your video is about.

Some you will use to dig deeper in and other you will deem irrelevant to your videos. A good way of determining the value of a keyword is by the stats the application shows.

How to Read Keyword Suggestions

Once you have a list of keywords, you will see some numbers on the right-hand side. Here is what each one is about:

- Search volume is the number used to identify the popularity of the keyword. The higher the number the more people are searching for it.

- CPC is the value accredited by YouTube, determining how much advertisers are paying to target audiences who search for that keyword and click on the link.

- Competition is the number used to qualify how many other content are using that keyword.

The two categories that matter most to us right now is Search Volume and Competition. We want keywords with high search volume and low competition rate.

In the example above, you can see that the keyword “avocado scrambled eggs” has a Search Volume of 1,000 and a competition rate of 0.0. This is a good keyword to target, if you can incorporate an avocado to your dish… which of course you can!

Step 3: Write Title

I know you might want to deal with the Title, Description, and Tags after you’ve filmed and edited your video. But if you want to apply a YouTube SEO-focused strategy, then these should be addressed before you even pick up a camera as it can greatly dictate the content you end up creating.

A good YouTube title sparks curiosity, evokes emotional reaction, and promises value to your viewers.

Of course you can title your video simply: Making Scrambled Eggs

But does it spark curiosity? Not really… most people can make scrambled eggs.

Does it evoke any emotion? Maybe hunger… but even then, not really…

Finally, does it promise value? Well, assuming that most people can at least crack an egg into a pan, then hardly.

Your scrambled egg is special! Your video is special! We need to evoke that in the title — and as long as you are not writing any clickbait and deliver on what the title suggest, you can do this.

So, how about this: Are My Amazing Scrambled Eggs Better Than Gordon Ramsay’s?

Hmmm… Well, is it? We know that the Gordon Ramsay’s video has almost 30M views. Many people have already tried cooking it, I’m sure. There is only one way to find out, by encouraging others to try it over Gordon’s.

You don’t need to go for a somewhat contentious title like this, but that’s the idea, you want something that gets people curious, make them feel a certain way, and in the end, make them better for having watched your video.

See how a good title can guide the rest of your video?

Step 4: Write Description

You aren’t going to be writing the description for the viewers necessarily, you are going to be writing it for YouTube’s algorithms. The better YouTube understands what your video is about, the better they can show it to people searching for it.

This means you need to include the keywords you were researching at the beginning of your description, as YouTube will be using them to identify the content of your video. 1 or 2 keywords that best represent your video is enough. Don’t stuff the title with too many keywords or you’ll risk sounding like a robot.

But also use the description for practical uses too, if you have additional information such as supportive links, outline of the video’s content, a list of materials, step-by-step guide, or a recipe that you think your human viewers will find useful, you should input that in the description as well.

Step 5: Write Tags

Thank goodness we did the keyword research in Step 2, because coming up with tags is not as easy as it looks.

Pull 15 keywords from the list and keep it somewhere safe.

Note: The keywords you used in the title should be found in your tags, and since they are the most important ones, you should place them first.

Organize your keywords in the tag as such:

Have the specific keywords at the top, followed by more general keywords, and then branded ones:

Specific: How to make scrambled eggs

General: Scrambled eggs

Branded: Gordon Ramsay scrambled eggs

Part 2: Make The Best Darn Video Possible

It doesn’t matter how relevant your keywords are or how epic your title is, if you video sucks (i.e. your viewers click in and leave right away), YouTube will not show it in search.

Even if you haven’t created any videos yet, you can follow these next steps to ensure you are following the best practices to structure your video.

Step 6: Plan and Film the Hook

The first few seconds is where the largest percentage of your earned viewership will drop off. Odds are 20% of your viewers won’t even get past the first 10 seconds .

What you need is a hook, an intro that ensures this video is what they want to watch and let’s them know what they can expect.

Step 7: Film B-Roll

One static camera shot of you talking or cooking or giving a tutorial can cause your viewers to lose attention.

In order to keep your viewers interest, you will need b-roll, or supplemental footage you can cut to give you video more life.

While jump cuts (cuts made on a sequential clip of the same subject or in the same camera position) are fine, having additional footage to cut to will make your video feel more fluid.

So when you are filming your scrambled egg video, make sure you get some footage of you cracking the egg, scrambling it, and serving it on the plate.

Step 8: Encourage Viewers to Engage in Video

Liking, disliking, subscribing, and commenting on your video will all help your performance indirectly.

While YouTube wouldn’t rank your video higher simply because you have more likes subscribers, or comments, engagement from viewers help your video get discovered. If you get a like or comment from a YouTuber with a lot of subscribers, your video may be visible to those who are following that YouTuber for a while.

The best way to get engagement from your audience is to encourage them to like and subscribe or ask them a question or start a dialogue.

For example, in this scrambled egg video you are making, at the end you can ask, “So what do you think, is this better than Gordon Ramsay?”

Who knows, who will respond.

Step 9: Design a Thumbnail

You could have made a brilliant video, but if you have a poor quality thumbnail that is unattractive, then the overall performance of your video will suffer — and good SEO can only do so much after that.

Your viewers will absolutely judge your video by its cover so it’s important to put some thought into it and not solely rely on the three random thumbnail choices that YouTube picks for you.

Take a look at your competition. If they all look the same, do something different. Add text or a human face (preferably yours) to evoke emotion, as viewers are more likely to click into a video if they see an expressive image.

Don’t want to pay money for a photo editing software such as Photoshop?

You can use an online service called Canva or download GIMP , an open-source photo editor much like Photoshop, but far less powerful. These will help you get the job done as you are starting out.

Want to know more thumbnail maker? Check our picks of the best free YouTube thumbnail makers .

Part 3: Publishing With Attention to Optimization

Well done finishing the video! You are almost there… but not there yet.

Come on, keep going!

Step 10: Fill Out Your Videos Assets

The video is done, the thumbnail is designed, and you have all your title, description, and tags ready to go. This step is easy, upload the video, and fill out the assets, and give yourself a pat on the back.

Step 11: Add Transcripts

In addition to making your content accessible for people who don’t want to or can’t listen to the audio in your video, adding subtitles and closed captions will help YouTube understand the spoken content in your video.

While YouTube does have an automatic subtitle generator, it’s not reliable enough to be used for identifying the keywords you use in your video.

You can choose to write out the whole transcript of your video yourself, but if you are press on time, which of course you are, you can simply go and edit the automatic transcript already available in your video. By the way, you can also use some automatic transcription software.

Step 12: Add Video to Playlist

Finally the last thing you need to do for your video is to add it to a playlist. Even though it might be the first video in the playlist, it helps YouTube identify your video if you organize it in a playlist. As you accumulate more content, having videos in playlists makes content easier to find and keeps relevant videos together.

When viewers searches, having your videos in playlists increases the chance of it being discovered.

So if your first video is about scrambled eggs, maybe you next video can be about the awesome butter toasts.

I guess, you are on your way to making a pretty badass breakfast playlist. I personally can’t wait to see it!

If you treat SEO as an afterthought, only after your video is created, you are not using it to its full potential. If you follow these 12 steps during the course of your production, you will find that SEO doesn’t simply help your video perform at the end, but contributes in all the other phases of creating your video as well.

Besides considering YouTube SEO, you should make a good YouTube video as well. Filmora is a powerful video editing software that features lots of templates and effects. Get the free trial version below and have a try today.

Do you have any questions about SEO? Please leave us a comment below.

Shanoon Cox

Shanoon Cox is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Shanoon Cox

Monetizing Mastery in Your Mind: The No-Ad YouTube Money Manual

How to Make Money on YouTube Without Ads

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

In this article, we are going to look at 4 different types of ways to make money on YouTube that doesn’t involve ads.

But why should there be any other way? What’s wrong with simply focusing on ads?

More and more people are making a living by creating videos on YouTube. According to the YouTube Partner Program , YouTube has seen a 40% year-over-year of channels making 6 figures from viewer ads engagements.

Best YouTube Video Editor–Wondershare Filmora

Over thousands of hours of content are uploaded on YouTube every day and people are going crazy to earn money with video monetization. There should be a minimum time gap between your video shoot, editing, and uploading it to your channel. Wondershare Filmora Video Editor can help you get your videos edited faster. Not only the interface is simple and intuitive, it has both the basic and professional editing tools such as cutting, trimming, crop&zoom, a large collection of video effects and royalty-free music, and you can also upload the video directly on YouTube after editing. All of these make Filmora stand out in the queue and become a favorite tool to edit YouTube videos.

What is the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)?

YPP enables YouTubers to make money from an advertisement that appears before or during their videos.

How Much Money Can YouTubers Make from Ads?

The answer to this question varies depending on the channel and the audience, as YouTubers don’t make money for views but rather from how often people engage with the ads. If a viewer watches more than 30 seconds of the ad or clicks it, then the YouTuber will make money.

This is a general estimate of how much a YouTuber can make from ads once they qualify:

- 68% of advertisers ad spend goes to the video creator. If advertisers spend $100, creators get $68.

- $0.18 is the average rate per ad view.

- 1000 ad views will equal approximately $18

- 1000 video views will equal between $2-$5

Why It’s So Hard for YouTubers to Make Money From Ads

For new YouTubers, it is getting harder and harder to get to that point where their sole income can be from YouTube ads. Before they can make a penny, they must first qualify.

Monetization Rules (as of January 2018):

- Creators need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in 12 months before they can turn on monetization

- YouTube pays in $100 increments

Once they have monetization turned on, it’s only the beginning. YouTubers need to create good content consistently. In order to earn $100 for the initial payout, they need an average of 50,000 views. That’s just $100! A lot of views and not a big payout. Hardly enough to quit your day job.

That is why it is essential to have alternative ways to make money on YouTube, and not rely on the ads shown on your videos. So, without further ado, here are 4 other ways to make money on YouTube:

1. Sell Your Product or Service:

YouTube is one of the most effective means of marketing and selling your products and services if you are able to use it effectively and drive people to click and buy.

Here are some examples of products and services you can offer:

Products:

- eBooks

- Artwork

- Licensed content

- Online course

- Channel/brand merchandise

YouTuber, Jake Paul uses eCommerce platform Fanjoyto sell his merch.

Services:

- Consulting work (strategy planner, financial advisor, etc.)

- Contracting work (designer, developer, etc.)

- Education (tutor, trainer, etc.)

- Performance/Speaking Opportunities (motivational speaker, musician, etc.)

YouTuber and entrepreneur, Sunny Lenarduzzi uses YouTube as a platform to get clients for her consulting business.

How to Sell a Product or Service on YouTube

YouTube is a vast platform and if you don’t have a clear direction for what you are selling, you might be making videos for an audience that isn’t interested in buying what you are selling.

Here is how you should go about selling your product or service on YouTube:

1. Your content must be discovered by the right people: If the wrong people find your content, then you aren’t going to make any sales. To get the right eyes on your videos, you’ll need to do some research on your target audience and what keywords they use when searching for your product or services.

If you are selling a meditation eBook and guided meditation services, type in some possible keywords in the YouTube search bar. What appears will be some popular searches:

From there, take your possible keywords and put them into a tool such as Ubersuggest to find other related keywords. This will help you create discoverable content that will catch the interest of those who will buy what you are selling.

2. Your content must have value: You cannot start with the Call to Action or try selling to your audience right away. You must first build trust and prove that what you are selling has value.

Take this example from Modern Health Monk , a weight loss coach.

In the video, he offers tips on how journaling can help the viewer reach their goal. The way he intends to make money is through people signing up for his course. The course is the product he is selling, but he doesn’t say that. He knows the viewers are not there to enroll in a course. They are there to learn about what he is offering.

The video is over 9 minutes long and not once does he tell his audience to buy anything. However, he does encourage the viewer at the end to download a free eBook. Selling is about focusing on the long game.

3. Your content must lead the audience to a place where they can buy: You don’t want to force people through a door, but you do want the signs to be visible. You will need to direct the viewer to a place where they can make the purchase. YouTube has a few ways to point your viewers in that direction.

Link in the description box:

The YouTube Card:

You can add one or multiple cards to direct viewers to your website or to another related video.

Call to action button:

Once the viewer is on your website, make sure the path is apparent as well. Have a clear call to action somewhere on your website. This is where your viewers become customers.

But What if You Don’t Have a Product Or Service to Sell Yet?

While some YouTubers certainly start with their product and service in mind and find their customers to sell through YouTube, many others go the opposite way and discover their audience first.

Lilly Singh did not start a YouTube channel to sell her book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life. Her YouTube channel gave her an audience and proved to publishers that there was enough demand for her to write a book that people will read.

As you grow your audience you will find that there will be a demand for certain products or services that don’t already exist. This is where you put on your entrepreneur hat and think of something that your audience will pay money for and make it happen. Odds are, when it happens, it wouldn’t even be a mystery, your audience will tell you to make or supply it.

For example, Remi Cruz , a YouTuber with over 2.2 million subscribers. Remi created a beauty brand and DIY face mask, Honey Pop , which could only have happened after taking the time to understand her supportive audience.

2. Affiliate Marketing:

Businesses know that there are more eyes watching YouTube than ever — behind Google, YouTube is the second most popular place for people researching what to buy — and influencers and reviews are an effective method of getting sales. You can leverage that by participating in affiliate marketing as a YouTuber.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work On YouTube?

As a YouTuber, you can share your thoughts on products or services, and if there are products that you recommend, by simply adding a personalized link to the product page, you can get a commission for every sale of that product that came through your link.

The average affiliate commission rate is between 5% to 30%, with a lot of variables. Some low price range items will have a higher commission, while higher-priced items will have lower commissions.

Travel YouTuber, Sorelle Amore’s affiliate links to her vlogging gears.

Keep in mind that people are most likely going to take recommendations from people they trust. You wouldn’t buy a computer from a nutritionist and you wouldn’t buy vitamins from a gamer, so consider what you are an expert in and what products you have the most authority to speak about.

What Videos Are Best for Affiliate Marketing?

There are no restrictions on what will make a good affiliate marketing video, but there are best practices.

What’s important is understanding the purpose of the video. If the video is about vlogging microphones, then it makes complete sense to have an affiliate link to your favorite microphone. Odds are the people who are watching the video may be considering buying a new microphone, so the link is helpful for them.

Here are a few types of videos that make for good affiliate marketing opportunities:

- Product reviews

- Top 10

- How-tos

- Cheap vs expensive

- What to pack for…

How to Get an Affiliate Marketing Link for YouTube?

Which affiliate marketing program you choose to sign up with will depend on the products you want to link to through your content. Do some research on what each network has to offer in regards to your niche.

Here is the list of 4 popular affiliate marketing networks:

- Amazon Associates

- Rakuten

- ShareASale

- PeerFly

You can also partner with brands directly as many of them, such as Sephora and Canon , will have their own affiliate program.

3. Brand Deal or Sponsorships:

Selling out, that is often the thought when we hear creators getting brand deals and sponsorships, but that stigma is unfounded if the brand and the content are properly aligned. As your channel grows, you will begin to recognize brands that match your values — and the values of your viewers — and those that don’t.

Today, more and more brands are collaborating with YouTube creators, because creators are 4x more effective in earning brand familiarity than collaborations with traditional celebrities.

In an ad for Beats by Dre’s #BuiltForBosses campaign, YouTuber Liza Koshy outperformed the likes of Tom Brady and DJ Khaled.

While it does take significant effort on YouTube to acquire a following, it is possible for a YouTube channel with 1,000 subscribers to get a brand deal. Getting the buy-in from brands is a numbers game, and according to Video Creators , the minimal number of views per video shouldn’t be lower than 2,000 if this is the path you want to head in.

How to Get Discovered By Brands

The decision-makers behind brands might not be aware of influencers with a smaller following — those who have just cracked the 5,000 subscriber mark. The odds of a brand reaching out to you, as a small creator, is unlikely to happen.

If you want to get a brand deal and become an influencer on YouTube, then you will have to put yourself out there to be discovered and that is on an Influencer Marketing Network, such as Famebit .

How Influencer Marketing Platforms Like Famebit Works

When you sign up for Famebit or other influencer marketing platforms you have an opportunity to get in front of brands who are seeking influencers to share their product or service.

Steps to getting a brand deal:

1. Find brands and campaigns that match your audience.
2. Pitch your creative ideas and present the proposal to the brand within their parameters (product review, 30-60 shoutout, etc.)
3. If accepted, you are hired and will begin collaboration with the brand to produce the project.
4. Build our content.
5. Receive approval from the brand.
6. Get Paid!

Unlike celebrity marketing, YouTube creators have shown brands over the years that they are inventive and clever with how they can present the brand to the audience to drive the best results. This type of independence is what makes YouTube influencer marketing special.

4. Crowdfunding:

If you are creating valuable content and have a loyal following, you can start thinking about crowdfunding. It doesn’t take stardom to start asking for donations, pledge, or support from your fans. There is a demand for quality content and if you are creating something of value, even on a free service like YouTube, people will happily pay to support it.

But how can you approach crowdfunding so it doesn’t look like you are begging?

3 Popular Types of Crowdfunding:

- Tiered Rewards: You can give incentives for your patrons in different tiers. Example: a donation of $2-$10 gives them a shoutout in your next video, a donation of $20-$100 gets them an exclusive spot in a live stream, and more extravagant offerings as the donations increase.

- Membership: This method of crowdfunding allows your fans to donate on a recurring basis. Treat your channel like it’s HBO and deliver higher-value content. Your members will be the first to see the increase of quality in and frequency of your work.

- Project-based: Is there a special project you have in mind, get support for it. A longer-form video or one that your fans have been wanting for a while, by highlighting this anticipated project, you can get more backing behind it financially.

From Sept-Oct 2011, the YouTube channel Freddiew (aka RocketJump) went on Kickstarter to crowdfund so they can produce a web series called Video Game High School. In 30 days, they were able to surpass their goal of $75,000 with $273,725 and 5,661 backers. The result is a multiple season web series, the first one published onto YouTube in May 2012.

Without crowdfunding, the project would unlikely have been produced and published for viewers in such a short amount of time.

Set Crowdfunding Goals to Encourage Donations

Have you ever gone up to a friend and ask for $5? What did they say?

“What do you need it for?”

We are more willing to give money if we know where it is going. Let your audience know exactly what you are planning to spend the funds on and how it will benefit them. One way to really encourage them is to have a goal, for example, a trip to a conference, and a special video will be produced to highlight the event.

Set a $ Target

If you have a pie in the sky goal, you aren’t going to fully leverage the message to your audience. Understand how much money you need to produce a video or to pursue a more ambitious project. What do you need in order to grow and make the best channel you can.

How Does Patreon Work for YouTubers?

When it comes to crowdfunding for YouTubers, Patreon is the platform of choice. While other platforms such as Kickstarter or GoFundMe are focused on entrepreneurial pursuits, large projects, or charitable causes, Patreon is designed to support creatives and reward and incentivize donors.

Key Takeaways:

There are many ways to make money off of YouTube, I encourage you to try a few of these different strategies and see how they perform and which one suits your channel and your audience the best.

1. Directing your viewers to your website where they can pay for a product or service that you offer.
2. Sign up with an affiliate program such as Amazon Associates and create content about interesting products.
3. Find brands that match your channel’s values and propose ideas via influencer marketing platforms such as Famebit.
4. Set up a Patreon page and encourage viewers to donate to get incentives or to support a bigger better project.

Got questions about making money on YouTube? Leave a comment below. We love to help you get paid for the videos you create.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

In this article, we are going to look at 4 different types of ways to make money on YouTube that doesn’t involve ads.

But why should there be any other way? What’s wrong with simply focusing on ads?

More and more people are making a living by creating videos on YouTube. According to the YouTube Partner Program , YouTube has seen a 40% year-over-year of channels making 6 figures from viewer ads engagements.

Best YouTube Video Editor–Wondershare Filmora

Over thousands of hours of content are uploaded on YouTube every day and people are going crazy to earn money with video monetization. There should be a minimum time gap between your video shoot, editing, and uploading it to your channel. Wondershare Filmora Video Editor can help you get your videos edited faster. Not only the interface is simple and intuitive, it has both the basic and professional editing tools such as cutting, trimming, crop&zoom, a large collection of video effects and royalty-free music, and you can also upload the video directly on YouTube after editing. All of these make Filmora stand out in the queue and become a favorite tool to edit YouTube videos.

What is the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)?

YPP enables YouTubers to make money from an advertisement that appears before or during their videos.

How Much Money Can YouTubers Make from Ads?

The answer to this question varies depending on the channel and the audience, as YouTubers don’t make money for views but rather from how often people engage with the ads. If a viewer watches more than 30 seconds of the ad or clicks it, then the YouTuber will make money.

This is a general estimate of how much a YouTuber can make from ads once they qualify:

- 68% of advertisers ad spend goes to the video creator. If advertisers spend $100, creators get $68.

- $0.18 is the average rate per ad view.

- 1000 ad views will equal approximately $18

- 1000 video views will equal between $2-$5

Why It’s So Hard for YouTubers to Make Money From Ads

For new YouTubers, it is getting harder and harder to get to that point where their sole income can be from YouTube ads. Before they can make a penny, they must first qualify.

Monetization Rules (as of January 2018):

- Creators need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in 12 months before they can turn on monetization

- YouTube pays in $100 increments

Once they have monetization turned on, it’s only the beginning. YouTubers need to create good content consistently. In order to earn $100 for the initial payout, they need an average of 50,000 views. That’s just $100! A lot of views and not a big payout. Hardly enough to quit your day job.

That is why it is essential to have alternative ways to make money on YouTube, and not rely on the ads shown on your videos. So, without further ado, here are 4 other ways to make money on YouTube:

1. Sell Your Product or Service:

YouTube is one of the most effective means of marketing and selling your products and services if you are able to use it effectively and drive people to click and buy.

Here are some examples of products and services you can offer:

Products:

- eBooks

- Artwork

- Licensed content

- Online course

- Channel/brand merchandise

YouTuber, Jake Paul uses eCommerce platform Fanjoyto sell his merch.

Services:

- Consulting work (strategy planner, financial advisor, etc.)

- Contracting work (designer, developer, etc.)

- Education (tutor, trainer, etc.)

- Performance/Speaking Opportunities (motivational speaker, musician, etc.)

YouTuber and entrepreneur, Sunny Lenarduzzi uses YouTube as a platform to get clients for her consulting business.

How to Sell a Product or Service on YouTube

YouTube is a vast platform and if you don’t have a clear direction for what you are selling, you might be making videos for an audience that isn’t interested in buying what you are selling.

Here is how you should go about selling your product or service on YouTube:

1. Your content must be discovered by the right people: If the wrong people find your content, then you aren’t going to make any sales. To get the right eyes on your videos, you’ll need to do some research on your target audience and what keywords they use when searching for your product or services.

If you are selling a meditation eBook and guided meditation services, type in some possible keywords in the YouTube search bar. What appears will be some popular searches:

From there, take your possible keywords and put them into a tool such as Ubersuggest to find other related keywords. This will help you create discoverable content that will catch the interest of those who will buy what you are selling.

2. Your content must have value: You cannot start with the Call to Action or try selling to your audience right away. You must first build trust and prove that what you are selling has value.

Take this example from Modern Health Monk , a weight loss coach.

In the video, he offers tips on how journaling can help the viewer reach their goal. The way he intends to make money is through people signing up for his course. The course is the product he is selling, but he doesn’t say that. He knows the viewers are not there to enroll in a course. They are there to learn about what he is offering.

The video is over 9 minutes long and not once does he tell his audience to buy anything. However, he does encourage the viewer at the end to download a free eBook. Selling is about focusing on the long game.

3. Your content must lead the audience to a place where they can buy: You don’t want to force people through a door, but you do want the signs to be visible. You will need to direct the viewer to a place where they can make the purchase. YouTube has a few ways to point your viewers in that direction.

Link in the description box:

The YouTube Card:

You can add one or multiple cards to direct viewers to your website or to another related video.

Call to action button:

Once the viewer is on your website, make sure the path is apparent as well. Have a clear call to action somewhere on your website. This is where your viewers become customers.

But What if You Don’t Have a Product Or Service to Sell Yet?

While some YouTubers certainly start with their product and service in mind and find their customers to sell through YouTube, many others go the opposite way and discover their audience first.

Lilly Singh did not start a YouTube channel to sell her book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life. Her YouTube channel gave her an audience and proved to publishers that there was enough demand for her to write a book that people will read.

As you grow your audience you will find that there will be a demand for certain products or services that don’t already exist. This is where you put on your entrepreneur hat and think of something that your audience will pay money for and make it happen. Odds are, when it happens, it wouldn’t even be a mystery, your audience will tell you to make or supply it.

For example, Remi Cruz , a YouTuber with over 2.2 million subscribers. Remi created a beauty brand and DIY face mask, Honey Pop , which could only have happened after taking the time to understand her supportive audience.

2. Affiliate Marketing:

Businesses know that there are more eyes watching YouTube than ever — behind Google, YouTube is the second most popular place for people researching what to buy — and influencers and reviews are an effective method of getting sales. You can leverage that by participating in affiliate marketing as a YouTuber.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work On YouTube?

As a YouTuber, you can share your thoughts on products or services, and if there are products that you recommend, by simply adding a personalized link to the product page, you can get a commission for every sale of that product that came through your link.

The average affiliate commission rate is between 5% to 30%, with a lot of variables. Some low price range items will have a higher commission, while higher-priced items will have lower commissions.

Travel YouTuber, Sorelle Amore’s affiliate links to her vlogging gears.

Keep in mind that people are most likely going to take recommendations from people they trust. You wouldn’t buy a computer from a nutritionist and you wouldn’t buy vitamins from a gamer, so consider what you are an expert in and what products you have the most authority to speak about.

What Videos Are Best for Affiliate Marketing?

There are no restrictions on what will make a good affiliate marketing video, but there are best practices.

What’s important is understanding the purpose of the video. If the video is about vlogging microphones, then it makes complete sense to have an affiliate link to your favorite microphone. Odds are the people who are watching the video may be considering buying a new microphone, so the link is helpful for them.

Here are a few types of videos that make for good affiliate marketing opportunities:

- Product reviews

- Top 10

- How-tos

- Cheap vs expensive

- What to pack for…

How to Get an Affiliate Marketing Link for YouTube?

Which affiliate marketing program you choose to sign up with will depend on the products you want to link to through your content. Do some research on what each network has to offer in regards to your niche.

Here is the list of 4 popular affiliate marketing networks:

- Amazon Associates

- Rakuten

- ShareASale

- PeerFly

You can also partner with brands directly as many of them, such as Sephora and Canon , will have their own affiliate program.

3. Brand Deal or Sponsorships:

Selling out, that is often the thought when we hear creators getting brand deals and sponsorships, but that stigma is unfounded if the brand and the content are properly aligned. As your channel grows, you will begin to recognize brands that match your values — and the values of your viewers — and those that don’t.

Today, more and more brands are collaborating with YouTube creators, because creators are 4x more effective in earning brand familiarity than collaborations with traditional celebrities.

In an ad for Beats by Dre’s #BuiltForBosses campaign, YouTuber Liza Koshy outperformed the likes of Tom Brady and DJ Khaled.

While it does take significant effort on YouTube to acquire a following, it is possible for a YouTube channel with 1,000 subscribers to get a brand deal. Getting the buy-in from brands is a numbers game, and according to Video Creators , the minimal number of views per video shouldn’t be lower than 2,000 if this is the path you want to head in.

How to Get Discovered By Brands

The decision-makers behind brands might not be aware of influencers with a smaller following — those who have just cracked the 5,000 subscriber mark. The odds of a brand reaching out to you, as a small creator, is unlikely to happen.

If you want to get a brand deal and become an influencer on YouTube, then you will have to put yourself out there to be discovered and that is on an Influencer Marketing Network, such as Famebit .

How Influencer Marketing Platforms Like Famebit Works

When you sign up for Famebit or other influencer marketing platforms you have an opportunity to get in front of brands who are seeking influencers to share their product or service.

Steps to getting a brand deal:

1. Find brands and campaigns that match your audience.
2. Pitch your creative ideas and present the proposal to the brand within their parameters (product review, 30-60 shoutout, etc.)
3. If accepted, you are hired and will begin collaboration with the brand to produce the project.
4. Build our content.
5. Receive approval from the brand.
6. Get Paid!

Unlike celebrity marketing, YouTube creators have shown brands over the years that they are inventive and clever with how they can present the brand to the audience to drive the best results. This type of independence is what makes YouTube influencer marketing special.

4. Crowdfunding:

If you are creating valuable content and have a loyal following, you can start thinking about crowdfunding. It doesn’t take stardom to start asking for donations, pledge, or support from your fans. There is a demand for quality content and if you are creating something of value, even on a free service like YouTube, people will happily pay to support it.

But how can you approach crowdfunding so it doesn’t look like you are begging?

3 Popular Types of Crowdfunding:

- Tiered Rewards: You can give incentives for your patrons in different tiers. Example: a donation of $2-$10 gives them a shoutout in your next video, a donation of $20-$100 gets them an exclusive spot in a live stream, and more extravagant offerings as the donations increase.

- Membership: This method of crowdfunding allows your fans to donate on a recurring basis. Treat your channel like it’s HBO and deliver higher-value content. Your members will be the first to see the increase of quality in and frequency of your work.

- Project-based: Is there a special project you have in mind, get support for it. A longer-form video or one that your fans have been wanting for a while, by highlighting this anticipated project, you can get more backing behind it financially.

From Sept-Oct 2011, the YouTube channel Freddiew (aka RocketJump) went on Kickstarter to crowdfund so they can produce a web series called Video Game High School. In 30 days, they were able to surpass their goal of $75,000 with $273,725 and 5,661 backers. The result is a multiple season web series, the first one published onto YouTube in May 2012.

Without crowdfunding, the project would unlikely have been produced and published for viewers in such a short amount of time.

Set Crowdfunding Goals to Encourage Donations

Have you ever gone up to a friend and ask for $5? What did they say?

“What do you need it for?”

We are more willing to give money if we know where it is going. Let your audience know exactly what you are planning to spend the funds on and how it will benefit them. One way to really encourage them is to have a goal, for example, a trip to a conference, and a special video will be produced to highlight the event.

Set a $ Target

If you have a pie in the sky goal, you aren’t going to fully leverage the message to your audience. Understand how much money you need to produce a video or to pursue a more ambitious project. What do you need in order to grow and make the best channel you can.

How Does Patreon Work for YouTubers?

When it comes to crowdfunding for YouTubers, Patreon is the platform of choice. While other platforms such as Kickstarter or GoFundMe are focused on entrepreneurial pursuits, large projects, or charitable causes, Patreon is designed to support creatives and reward and incentivize donors.

Key Takeaways:

There are many ways to make money off of YouTube, I encourage you to try a few of these different strategies and see how they perform and which one suits your channel and your audience the best.

1. Directing your viewers to your website where they can pay for a product or service that you offer.
2. Sign up with an affiliate program such as Amazon Associates and create content about interesting products.
3. Find brands that match your channel’s values and propose ideas via influencer marketing platforms such as Famebit.
4. Set up a Patreon page and encourage viewers to donate to get incentives or to support a bigger better project.

Got questions about making money on YouTube? Leave a comment below. We love to help you get paid for the videos you create.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

In this article, we are going to look at 4 different types of ways to make money on YouTube that doesn’t involve ads.

But why should there be any other way? What’s wrong with simply focusing on ads?

More and more people are making a living by creating videos on YouTube. According to the YouTube Partner Program , YouTube has seen a 40% year-over-year of channels making 6 figures from viewer ads engagements.

Best YouTube Video Editor–Wondershare Filmora

Over thousands of hours of content are uploaded on YouTube every day and people are going crazy to earn money with video monetization. There should be a minimum time gap between your video shoot, editing, and uploading it to your channel. Wondershare Filmora Video Editor can help you get your videos edited faster. Not only the interface is simple and intuitive, it has both the basic and professional editing tools such as cutting, trimming, crop&zoom, a large collection of video effects and royalty-free music, and you can also upload the video directly on YouTube after editing. All of these make Filmora stand out in the queue and become a favorite tool to edit YouTube videos.

What is the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)?

YPP enables YouTubers to make money from an advertisement that appears before or during their videos.

How Much Money Can YouTubers Make from Ads?

The answer to this question varies depending on the channel and the audience, as YouTubers don’t make money for views but rather from how often people engage with the ads. If a viewer watches more than 30 seconds of the ad or clicks it, then the YouTuber will make money.

This is a general estimate of how much a YouTuber can make from ads once they qualify:

- 68% of advertisers ad spend goes to the video creator. If advertisers spend $100, creators get $68.

- $0.18 is the average rate per ad view.

- 1000 ad views will equal approximately $18

- 1000 video views will equal between $2-$5

Why It’s So Hard for YouTubers to Make Money From Ads

For new YouTubers, it is getting harder and harder to get to that point where their sole income can be from YouTube ads. Before they can make a penny, they must first qualify.

Monetization Rules (as of January 2018):

- Creators need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in 12 months before they can turn on monetization

- YouTube pays in $100 increments

Once they have monetization turned on, it’s only the beginning. YouTubers need to create good content consistently. In order to earn $100 for the initial payout, they need an average of 50,000 views. That’s just $100! A lot of views and not a big payout. Hardly enough to quit your day job.

That is why it is essential to have alternative ways to make money on YouTube, and not rely on the ads shown on your videos. So, without further ado, here are 4 other ways to make money on YouTube:

1. Sell Your Product or Service:

YouTube is one of the most effective means of marketing and selling your products and services if you are able to use it effectively and drive people to click and buy.

Here are some examples of products and services you can offer:

Products:

- eBooks

- Artwork

- Licensed content

- Online course

- Channel/brand merchandise

YouTuber, Jake Paul uses eCommerce platform Fanjoyto sell his merch.

Services:

- Consulting work (strategy planner, financial advisor, etc.)

- Contracting work (designer, developer, etc.)

- Education (tutor, trainer, etc.)

- Performance/Speaking Opportunities (motivational speaker, musician, etc.)

YouTuber and entrepreneur, Sunny Lenarduzzi uses YouTube as a platform to get clients for her consulting business.

How to Sell a Product or Service on YouTube

YouTube is a vast platform and if you don’t have a clear direction for what you are selling, you might be making videos for an audience that isn’t interested in buying what you are selling.

Here is how you should go about selling your product or service on YouTube:

1. Your content must be discovered by the right people: If the wrong people find your content, then you aren’t going to make any sales. To get the right eyes on your videos, you’ll need to do some research on your target audience and what keywords they use when searching for your product or services.

If you are selling a meditation eBook and guided meditation services, type in some possible keywords in the YouTube search bar. What appears will be some popular searches:

From there, take your possible keywords and put them into a tool such as Ubersuggest to find other related keywords. This will help you create discoverable content that will catch the interest of those who will buy what you are selling.

2. Your content must have value: You cannot start with the Call to Action or try selling to your audience right away. You must first build trust and prove that what you are selling has value.

Take this example from Modern Health Monk , a weight loss coach.

In the video, he offers tips on how journaling can help the viewer reach their goal. The way he intends to make money is through people signing up for his course. The course is the product he is selling, but he doesn’t say that. He knows the viewers are not there to enroll in a course. They are there to learn about what he is offering.

The video is over 9 minutes long and not once does he tell his audience to buy anything. However, he does encourage the viewer at the end to download a free eBook. Selling is about focusing on the long game.

3. Your content must lead the audience to a place where they can buy: You don’t want to force people through a door, but you do want the signs to be visible. You will need to direct the viewer to a place where they can make the purchase. YouTube has a few ways to point your viewers in that direction.

Link in the description box:

The YouTube Card:

You can add one or multiple cards to direct viewers to your website or to another related video.

Call to action button:

Once the viewer is on your website, make sure the path is apparent as well. Have a clear call to action somewhere on your website. This is where your viewers become customers.

But What if You Don’t Have a Product Or Service to Sell Yet?

While some YouTubers certainly start with their product and service in mind and find their customers to sell through YouTube, many others go the opposite way and discover their audience first.

Lilly Singh did not start a YouTube channel to sell her book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life. Her YouTube channel gave her an audience and proved to publishers that there was enough demand for her to write a book that people will read.

As you grow your audience you will find that there will be a demand for certain products or services that don’t already exist. This is where you put on your entrepreneur hat and think of something that your audience will pay money for and make it happen. Odds are, when it happens, it wouldn’t even be a mystery, your audience will tell you to make or supply it.

For example, Remi Cruz , a YouTuber with over 2.2 million subscribers. Remi created a beauty brand and DIY face mask, Honey Pop , which could only have happened after taking the time to understand her supportive audience.

2. Affiliate Marketing:

Businesses know that there are more eyes watching YouTube than ever — behind Google, YouTube is the second most popular place for people researching what to buy — and influencers and reviews are an effective method of getting sales. You can leverage that by participating in affiliate marketing as a YouTuber.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work On YouTube?

As a YouTuber, you can share your thoughts on products or services, and if there are products that you recommend, by simply adding a personalized link to the product page, you can get a commission for every sale of that product that came through your link.

The average affiliate commission rate is between 5% to 30%, with a lot of variables. Some low price range items will have a higher commission, while higher-priced items will have lower commissions.

Travel YouTuber, Sorelle Amore’s affiliate links to her vlogging gears.

Keep in mind that people are most likely going to take recommendations from people they trust. You wouldn’t buy a computer from a nutritionist and you wouldn’t buy vitamins from a gamer, so consider what you are an expert in and what products you have the most authority to speak about.

What Videos Are Best for Affiliate Marketing?

There are no restrictions on what will make a good affiliate marketing video, but there are best practices.

What’s important is understanding the purpose of the video. If the video is about vlogging microphones, then it makes complete sense to have an affiliate link to your favorite microphone. Odds are the people who are watching the video may be considering buying a new microphone, so the link is helpful for them.

Here are a few types of videos that make for good affiliate marketing opportunities:

- Product reviews

- Top 10

- How-tos

- Cheap vs expensive

- What to pack for…

How to Get an Affiliate Marketing Link for YouTube?

Which affiliate marketing program you choose to sign up with will depend on the products you want to link to through your content. Do some research on what each network has to offer in regards to your niche.

Here is the list of 4 popular affiliate marketing networks:

- Amazon Associates

- Rakuten

- ShareASale

- PeerFly

You can also partner with brands directly as many of them, such as Sephora and Canon , will have their own affiliate program.

3. Brand Deal or Sponsorships:

Selling out, that is often the thought when we hear creators getting brand deals and sponsorships, but that stigma is unfounded if the brand and the content are properly aligned. As your channel grows, you will begin to recognize brands that match your values — and the values of your viewers — and those that don’t.

Today, more and more brands are collaborating with YouTube creators, because creators are 4x more effective in earning brand familiarity than collaborations with traditional celebrities.

In an ad for Beats by Dre’s #BuiltForBosses campaign, YouTuber Liza Koshy outperformed the likes of Tom Brady and DJ Khaled.

While it does take significant effort on YouTube to acquire a following, it is possible for a YouTube channel with 1,000 subscribers to get a brand deal. Getting the buy-in from brands is a numbers game, and according to Video Creators , the minimal number of views per video shouldn’t be lower than 2,000 if this is the path you want to head in.

How to Get Discovered By Brands

The decision-makers behind brands might not be aware of influencers with a smaller following — those who have just cracked the 5,000 subscriber mark. The odds of a brand reaching out to you, as a small creator, is unlikely to happen.

If you want to get a brand deal and become an influencer on YouTube, then you will have to put yourself out there to be discovered and that is on an Influencer Marketing Network, such as Famebit .

How Influencer Marketing Platforms Like Famebit Works

When you sign up for Famebit or other influencer marketing platforms you have an opportunity to get in front of brands who are seeking influencers to share their product or service.

Steps to getting a brand deal:

1. Find brands and campaigns that match your audience.
2. Pitch your creative ideas and present the proposal to the brand within their parameters (product review, 30-60 shoutout, etc.)
3. If accepted, you are hired and will begin collaboration with the brand to produce the project.
4. Build our content.
5. Receive approval from the brand.
6. Get Paid!

Unlike celebrity marketing, YouTube creators have shown brands over the years that they are inventive and clever with how they can present the brand to the audience to drive the best results. This type of independence is what makes YouTube influencer marketing special.

4. Crowdfunding:

If you are creating valuable content and have a loyal following, you can start thinking about crowdfunding. It doesn’t take stardom to start asking for donations, pledge, or support from your fans. There is a demand for quality content and if you are creating something of value, even on a free service like YouTube, people will happily pay to support it.

But how can you approach crowdfunding so it doesn’t look like you are begging?

3 Popular Types of Crowdfunding:

- Tiered Rewards: You can give incentives for your patrons in different tiers. Example: a donation of $2-$10 gives them a shoutout in your next video, a donation of $20-$100 gets them an exclusive spot in a live stream, and more extravagant offerings as the donations increase.

- Membership: This method of crowdfunding allows your fans to donate on a recurring basis. Treat your channel like it’s HBO and deliver higher-value content. Your members will be the first to see the increase of quality in and frequency of your work.

- Project-based: Is there a special project you have in mind, get support for it. A longer-form video or one that your fans have been wanting for a while, by highlighting this anticipated project, you can get more backing behind it financially.

From Sept-Oct 2011, the YouTube channel Freddiew (aka RocketJump) went on Kickstarter to crowdfund so they can produce a web series called Video Game High School. In 30 days, they were able to surpass their goal of $75,000 with $273,725 and 5,661 backers. The result is a multiple season web series, the first one published onto YouTube in May 2012.

Without crowdfunding, the project would unlikely have been produced and published for viewers in such a short amount of time.

Set Crowdfunding Goals to Encourage Donations

Have you ever gone up to a friend and ask for $5? What did they say?

“What do you need it for?”

We are more willing to give money if we know where it is going. Let your audience know exactly what you are planning to spend the funds on and how it will benefit them. One way to really encourage them is to have a goal, for example, a trip to a conference, and a special video will be produced to highlight the event.

Set a $ Target

If you have a pie in the sky goal, you aren’t going to fully leverage the message to your audience. Understand how much money you need to produce a video or to pursue a more ambitious project. What do you need in order to grow and make the best channel you can.

How Does Patreon Work for YouTubers?

When it comes to crowdfunding for YouTubers, Patreon is the platform of choice. While other platforms such as Kickstarter or GoFundMe are focused on entrepreneurial pursuits, large projects, or charitable causes, Patreon is designed to support creatives and reward and incentivize donors.

Key Takeaways:

There are many ways to make money off of YouTube, I encourage you to try a few of these different strategies and see how they perform and which one suits your channel and your audience the best.

1. Directing your viewers to your website where they can pay for a product or service that you offer.
2. Sign up with an affiliate program such as Amazon Associates and create content about interesting products.
3. Find brands that match your channel’s values and propose ideas via influencer marketing platforms such as Famebit.
4. Set up a Patreon page and encourage viewers to donate to get incentives or to support a bigger better project.

Got questions about making money on YouTube? Leave a comment below. We love to help you get paid for the videos you create.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

In this article, we are going to look at 4 different types of ways to make money on YouTube that doesn’t involve ads.

But why should there be any other way? What’s wrong with simply focusing on ads?

More and more people are making a living by creating videos on YouTube. According to the YouTube Partner Program , YouTube has seen a 40% year-over-year of channels making 6 figures from viewer ads engagements.

Best YouTube Video Editor–Wondershare Filmora

Over thousands of hours of content are uploaded on YouTube every day and people are going crazy to earn money with video monetization. There should be a minimum time gap between your video shoot, editing, and uploading it to your channel. Wondershare Filmora Video Editor can help you get your videos edited faster. Not only the interface is simple and intuitive, it has both the basic and professional editing tools such as cutting, trimming, crop&zoom, a large collection of video effects and royalty-free music, and you can also upload the video directly on YouTube after editing. All of these make Filmora stand out in the queue and become a favorite tool to edit YouTube videos.

What is the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)?

YPP enables YouTubers to make money from an advertisement that appears before or during their videos.

How Much Money Can YouTubers Make from Ads?

The answer to this question varies depending on the channel and the audience, as YouTubers don’t make money for views but rather from how often people engage with the ads. If a viewer watches more than 30 seconds of the ad or clicks it, then the YouTuber will make money.

This is a general estimate of how much a YouTuber can make from ads once they qualify:

- 68% of advertisers ad spend goes to the video creator. If advertisers spend $100, creators get $68.

- $0.18 is the average rate per ad view.

- 1000 ad views will equal approximately $18

- 1000 video views will equal between $2-$5

Why It’s So Hard for YouTubers to Make Money From Ads

For new YouTubers, it is getting harder and harder to get to that point where their sole income can be from YouTube ads. Before they can make a penny, they must first qualify.

Monetization Rules (as of January 2018):

- Creators need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in 12 months before they can turn on monetization

- YouTube pays in $100 increments

Once they have monetization turned on, it’s only the beginning. YouTubers need to create good content consistently. In order to earn $100 for the initial payout, they need an average of 50,000 views. That’s just $100! A lot of views and not a big payout. Hardly enough to quit your day job.

That is why it is essential to have alternative ways to make money on YouTube, and not rely on the ads shown on your videos. So, without further ado, here are 4 other ways to make money on YouTube:

1. Sell Your Product or Service:

YouTube is one of the most effective means of marketing and selling your products and services if you are able to use it effectively and drive people to click and buy.

Here are some examples of products and services you can offer:

Products:

- eBooks

- Artwork

- Licensed content

- Online course

- Channel/brand merchandise

YouTuber, Jake Paul uses eCommerce platform Fanjoyto sell his merch.

Services:

- Consulting work (strategy planner, financial advisor, etc.)

- Contracting work (designer, developer, etc.)

- Education (tutor, trainer, etc.)

- Performance/Speaking Opportunities (motivational speaker, musician, etc.)

YouTuber and entrepreneur, Sunny Lenarduzzi uses YouTube as a platform to get clients for her consulting business.

How to Sell a Product or Service on YouTube

YouTube is a vast platform and if you don’t have a clear direction for what you are selling, you might be making videos for an audience that isn’t interested in buying what you are selling.

Here is how you should go about selling your product or service on YouTube:

1. Your content must be discovered by the right people: If the wrong people find your content, then you aren’t going to make any sales. To get the right eyes on your videos, you’ll need to do some research on your target audience and what keywords they use when searching for your product or services.

If you are selling a meditation eBook and guided meditation services, type in some possible keywords in the YouTube search bar. What appears will be some popular searches:

From there, take your possible keywords and put them into a tool such as Ubersuggest to find other related keywords. This will help you create discoverable content that will catch the interest of those who will buy what you are selling.

2. Your content must have value: You cannot start with the Call to Action or try selling to your audience right away. You must first build trust and prove that what you are selling has value.

Take this example from Modern Health Monk , a weight loss coach.

In the video, he offers tips on how journaling can help the viewer reach their goal. The way he intends to make money is through people signing up for his course. The course is the product he is selling, but he doesn’t say that. He knows the viewers are not there to enroll in a course. They are there to learn about what he is offering.

The video is over 9 minutes long and not once does he tell his audience to buy anything. However, he does encourage the viewer at the end to download a free eBook. Selling is about focusing on the long game.

3. Your content must lead the audience to a place where they can buy: You don’t want to force people through a door, but you do want the signs to be visible. You will need to direct the viewer to a place where they can make the purchase. YouTube has a few ways to point your viewers in that direction.

Link in the description box:

The YouTube Card:

You can add one or multiple cards to direct viewers to your website or to another related video.

Call to action button:

Once the viewer is on your website, make sure the path is apparent as well. Have a clear call to action somewhere on your website. This is where your viewers become customers.

But What if You Don’t Have a Product Or Service to Sell Yet?

While some YouTubers certainly start with their product and service in mind and find their customers to sell through YouTube, many others go the opposite way and discover their audience first.

Lilly Singh did not start a YouTube channel to sell her book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life. Her YouTube channel gave her an audience and proved to publishers that there was enough demand for her to write a book that people will read.

As you grow your audience you will find that there will be a demand for certain products or services that don’t already exist. This is where you put on your entrepreneur hat and think of something that your audience will pay money for and make it happen. Odds are, when it happens, it wouldn’t even be a mystery, your audience will tell you to make or supply it.

For example, Remi Cruz , a YouTuber with over 2.2 million subscribers. Remi created a beauty brand and DIY face mask, Honey Pop , which could only have happened after taking the time to understand her supportive audience.

2. Affiliate Marketing:

Businesses know that there are more eyes watching YouTube than ever — behind Google, YouTube is the second most popular place for people researching what to buy — and influencers and reviews are an effective method of getting sales. You can leverage that by participating in affiliate marketing as a YouTuber.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work On YouTube?

As a YouTuber, you can share your thoughts on products or services, and if there are products that you recommend, by simply adding a personalized link to the product page, you can get a commission for every sale of that product that came through your link.

The average affiliate commission rate is between 5% to 30%, with a lot of variables. Some low price range items will have a higher commission, while higher-priced items will have lower commissions.

Travel YouTuber, Sorelle Amore’s affiliate links to her vlogging gears.

Keep in mind that people are most likely going to take recommendations from people they trust. You wouldn’t buy a computer from a nutritionist and you wouldn’t buy vitamins from a gamer, so consider what you are an expert in and what products you have the most authority to speak about.

What Videos Are Best for Affiliate Marketing?

There are no restrictions on what will make a good affiliate marketing video, but there are best practices.

What’s important is understanding the purpose of the video. If the video is about vlogging microphones, then it makes complete sense to have an affiliate link to your favorite microphone. Odds are the people who are watching the video may be considering buying a new microphone, so the link is helpful for them.

Here are a few types of videos that make for good affiliate marketing opportunities:

- Product reviews

- Top 10

- How-tos

- Cheap vs expensive

- What to pack for…

How to Get an Affiliate Marketing Link for YouTube?

Which affiliate marketing program you choose to sign up with will depend on the products you want to link to through your content. Do some research on what each network has to offer in regards to your niche.

Here is the list of 4 popular affiliate marketing networks:

- Amazon Associates

- Rakuten

- ShareASale

- PeerFly

You can also partner with brands directly as many of them, such as Sephora and Canon , will have their own affiliate program.

3. Brand Deal or Sponsorships:

Selling out, that is often the thought when we hear creators getting brand deals and sponsorships, but that stigma is unfounded if the brand and the content are properly aligned. As your channel grows, you will begin to recognize brands that match your values — and the values of your viewers — and those that don’t.

Today, more and more brands are collaborating with YouTube creators, because creators are 4x more effective in earning brand familiarity than collaborations with traditional celebrities.

In an ad for Beats by Dre’s #BuiltForBosses campaign, YouTuber Liza Koshy outperformed the likes of Tom Brady and DJ Khaled.

While it does take significant effort on YouTube to acquire a following, it is possible for a YouTube channel with 1,000 subscribers to get a brand deal. Getting the buy-in from brands is a numbers game, and according to Video Creators , the minimal number of views per video shouldn’t be lower than 2,000 if this is the path you want to head in.

How to Get Discovered By Brands

The decision-makers behind brands might not be aware of influencers with a smaller following — those who have just cracked the 5,000 subscriber mark. The odds of a brand reaching out to you, as a small creator, is unlikely to happen.

If you want to get a brand deal and become an influencer on YouTube, then you will have to put yourself out there to be discovered and that is on an Influencer Marketing Network, such as Famebit .

How Influencer Marketing Platforms Like Famebit Works

When you sign up for Famebit or other influencer marketing platforms you have an opportunity to get in front of brands who are seeking influencers to share their product or service.

Steps to getting a brand deal:

1. Find brands and campaigns that match your audience.
2. Pitch your creative ideas and present the proposal to the brand within their parameters (product review, 30-60 shoutout, etc.)
3. If accepted, you are hired and will begin collaboration with the brand to produce the project.
4. Build our content.
5. Receive approval from the brand.
6. Get Paid!

Unlike celebrity marketing, YouTube creators have shown brands over the years that they are inventive and clever with how they can present the brand to the audience to drive the best results. This type of independence is what makes YouTube influencer marketing special.

4. Crowdfunding:

If you are creating valuable content and have a loyal following, you can start thinking about crowdfunding. It doesn’t take stardom to start asking for donations, pledge, or support from your fans. There is a demand for quality content and if you are creating something of value, even on a free service like YouTube, people will happily pay to support it.

But how can you approach crowdfunding so it doesn’t look like you are begging?

3 Popular Types of Crowdfunding:

- Tiered Rewards: You can give incentives for your patrons in different tiers. Example: a donation of $2-$10 gives them a shoutout in your next video, a donation of $20-$100 gets them an exclusive spot in a live stream, and more extravagant offerings as the donations increase.

- Membership: This method of crowdfunding allows your fans to donate on a recurring basis. Treat your channel like it’s HBO and deliver higher-value content. Your members will be the first to see the increase of quality in and frequency of your work.

- Project-based: Is there a special project you have in mind, get support for it. A longer-form video or one that your fans have been wanting for a while, by highlighting this anticipated project, you can get more backing behind it financially.

From Sept-Oct 2011, the YouTube channel Freddiew (aka RocketJump) went on Kickstarter to crowdfund so they can produce a web series called Video Game High School. In 30 days, they were able to surpass their goal of $75,000 with $273,725 and 5,661 backers. The result is a multiple season web series, the first one published onto YouTube in May 2012.

Without crowdfunding, the project would unlikely have been produced and published for viewers in such a short amount of time.

Set Crowdfunding Goals to Encourage Donations

Have you ever gone up to a friend and ask for $5? What did they say?

“What do you need it for?”

We are more willing to give money if we know where it is going. Let your audience know exactly what you are planning to spend the funds on and how it will benefit them. One way to really encourage them is to have a goal, for example, a trip to a conference, and a special video will be produced to highlight the event.

Set a $ Target

If you have a pie in the sky goal, you aren’t going to fully leverage the message to your audience. Understand how much money you need to produce a video or to pursue a more ambitious project. What do you need in order to grow and make the best channel you can.

How Does Patreon Work for YouTubers?

When it comes to crowdfunding for YouTubers, Patreon is the platform of choice. While other platforms such as Kickstarter or GoFundMe are focused on entrepreneurial pursuits, large projects, or charitable causes, Patreon is designed to support creatives and reward and incentivize donors.

Key Takeaways:

There are many ways to make money off of YouTube, I encourage you to try a few of these different strategies and see how they perform and which one suits your channel and your audience the best.

1. Directing your viewers to your website where they can pay for a product or service that you offer.
2. Sign up with an affiliate program such as Amazon Associates and create content about interesting products.
3. Find brands that match your channel’s values and propose ideas via influencer marketing platforms such as Famebit.
4. Set up a Patreon page and encourage viewers to donate to get incentives or to support a bigger better project.

Got questions about making money on YouTube? Leave a comment below. We love to help you get paid for the videos you create.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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