How to Make Money on YouTube: The Complete Guide for Beginners

Many of us have wondered if we could realistically make money on YouTube. With popular creators earning six or even seven figures a year, YouTube seems like an appealing way to earn an income online.

The good news is – with the right strategy and commitment, YouTube success is absolutely attainable for regular people like us. In this complete guide, we’ll break down everything we’ve learned about how to start a profitable YouTube channel from scratch.

Step 1: Setting Up Our YouTube Channel

Our first step is simple – we’ll need to set up our YouTube account and channel.

Here’s what we need to do:

• Sign up for a free Google/Gmail account if we don’t already have one
• Next, we’ll visit YouTube and click “Create a Channel” in the top right corner
• We’ll add a channel name, description, profile pictures and configure our settings
• We can also customize our YouTube channel’s layout with colors, banners and sections

Once our channel is ready, it’s time to configure our video settings:

• In “Upload Defaults”, enable monetization if eligible
• Enable “Allow Advertisements On My Videos” to earn ad revenue
• Check “Automatically Publish To Subscribers” to notify fans of new videos

With step 1 complete, we now have a professional looking YouTube channel optimized for money making.

Step 2: Producing Engaging YouTube Videos

The most important part of YouTube success is making videos that get views and keep viewers watching.

Here are 7 keys we’ve found for creating engaging content:

1. Target Specific Niches

Rather than covering broad topics, we should focus our channel around specific niches we’re passionate about – categories like gaming, beauty, vlogging etc. This helps our videos rank higher in search and attract engaged communities.

2. Offer Valuable Information

Our goal is to solve viewers’ problems or answer their burning questions. Useful “how to” tutorials and “guide” style videos perform exceptionally well. We can use Google searches to find underserved topics related to our niche.

3. Tell Stories and Share Experiences

Telling interesting stories through commentary videos and vlogs has become hugely popular on YouTube. Viewers love feeling like they’re going along in our adventure or relate closely to our experiences.

4. Promote Discussion

We should frequently ask our viewers questions to spark discussion, such as “What games do you want to see next?”. This engages our audience in the comments section – and responding helps us build loyalty.

5. Collaborate with Other Creators

Collaborating helps us tap into the audiences from other channels. Cross-promoting rising creators can also give our videos and channel a boost.

6. Upload Consistently

Uploading videos often not only gives viewers fresh content, it also helps YouTube’s algorithm recommend our videos more often. Aim for at least one video a week.

7. Understand SEO Optimization

Optimizing our videos for search makes them much easier to discover in YouTube and Google. We can research valuable keywords using Google Trends and target them naturally in our video title, description and tags.

The most successful YouTube channels do an amazing job keeping viewers glued to the screen with engrossing videos. By honing our niche focus and production skills, we can capture audiences’ attention for longer – driving more views, subscribers and revenue.

Step 3: Getting Our First 1,000 YouTube Subscribers

Gaining our first 1,000 subscribers is a huge YouTube milestone – it means we can enable the “Community” tab and start earning ad revenue.

Here are 5 proven subscriber growth strategies:

1. Promote On Other Social Media

Our blogs, websites or social media accounts like Instagram and Facebook are useful for funneling our existing followers over to our YouTube channel. Links in our profile, posts or stories spread brand awareness to potential new subscribers.

2. Optimize Our Channel Homepage

Most visitors will get their first impression of our channel from our “homepage”. Ensuring we have an eye-catching banner image, organized featured sections and an updated bio helps convert more passing visitors into subscribers.

3. Make Playlists to Increase Our Watch Time

Curated video playlists not only make our channel more organized for new viewers, they have significantly higher average watch times. The increased exposure from more minutes watched translates directly into extra subscribers.

4. Include Engaging Calls to Action in Videos

Strategically asking viewers questions like “Have you subscribed?” or “Would you like to see more?” in our videos gives them a small nudge to click that red button. We can get creative with both written or verbal CTAs.

5. Run a Contest or Giveaway

A well structured contest or giveaway (like getting viewers to share our videos) spikes interest very quickly. We gain wide exposure to new viewers – many who will happily subscribe for a chance to win. Just be sure we’re familiar with YouTube’s promotion guidelines.

If we can consistently produce quality videos showcasing our unique passions or expertise – gaining those first 1,000 subscribers happens faster than we might think!

Step 4: Enrolling in the YouTube Partner Program

The YouTube Partner Program gives us the amazing ability to monetize our videos by running ads. The requirements to join are straightforward:

• 1,000 Subscribers
• 4,000 Valid Public Watch Hours in the last 12 months
• AdSense account

Checking each of those 3 boxes will make our channel eligible to apply. We’ll need to agree to some terms, connect an AdSense account and prove our identity. But once approved, we can start earning money from advertisement revenue almost immediately.

Monetizing through YouTube’s Partner Program is how big YouTubers earn a full-time living from their videos. Now we just need viewers!

Step 5: Getting More YouTube Views

Views are the metric that matter on YouTube – not just for ad revenue, but also for credibility, search rankings and subscribers. Reaching millions of views requires understanding YouTube’s discovery engine.

We’ve identified 5 powerful view-building strategies:

1. Master YouTube SEO

Since YouTube is the world’s #2 search engine, videos that rank high get seen by a massive number of people every single day. We need to identify exactly what viewers are searching for in our niche with keyword tools – and target those search terms throughout our videos.

2. Create Interesting Thumbnails

Most viewers decide whether or not to play our video based on the thumbnail. Creating bright, descriptive thumbnails incorporating our brand logo makes it more likely viewers will trust and click our content. Canva makes excellent customizable video thumbnails.

3. Engage With Other YouTuber Comments

Leaving thoughtful comments on other channels helps build connections throughout the creator community – and our name links back to our channel. Commenting also signals to YouTube’s algorithm that we’re positively engaging on the platform.

4. Promote On Reddit and Quora

Reddit and Quora have millions of members actively asking questions or searching for video recommendations. If we contribute helpful answers linking to our YouTube videos, it can refer significant first-time viewers.

5. Optimize Past Videos

We can breathe new life into older evergreen videos with refreshed metadata including the title and description. Improving past videos helps revive their rankings – gaining us more views over time.

Implementing advanced YouTube SEO and promotion strategies accelerates how fast our views accumulate. From there it’s a powerful cycle – more views bring in more subscribers, comments and likes too.

Step 6: How to Increase Our YouTube Revenue

So we’ve taken the leap – our channel is growing and videos earning cash from ads. Now it’s time to scale up our earnings.

Here are 5 methods for maximizing our YouTube income:

1. Produce Longer Videos (8-12 Minutes)

YouTube data shows that videos over 10 minutes long have much higher mid-roll ad rates and viewer retention. Stretching our content length not only means more ad placements, but also more watch time from engaged viewers.

2. Add YouTube Memberships

“Channel Memberships” are like a paid subscription with exclusive perks members gain access to. Loyal fans gladly pay a monthly $4.99 fee in exchange for things like custom badges, behind-the-scenes content and members-only posts.

3. Sell Branded Merchandise

Passionate subscribers are often excited to buy shirts, hoodies or popsockets sporting our channel’s logo or catchphrases. YouTube helps handle production & shipping through trusted partners like Crowdmade, with us earning a commission on sales.

4. Use Affiliate Marketing Links

Affiliate programs let us earn a sales commission promoting relevant products in our video descriptions. For example, reviewing creative gear or software helps viewers make buying decisions – while earning us 3-15% per referral.

5. Create Online Video Courses

Our most devoted fans may be keen to pay to access exclusive educational video content through a hosted platform like Podia or Teachable. As we build authority around valued skills related to our niche, premium video courses become a logical way to earn bigger dollars from our top-tier audience.

The beauty of monetizing through YouTube is the varied options available to profit from multiples revenue streams. Maintaining a loyal viewership over time means our earnings grow sustainably.

Final Tips for Long Term YouTube Success

Congratulations – we’re now equipped with a complete game plan for building a real, money-earning YouTube business from the ground up.

Here are some key mindsets for lasting success:

• Stay Disciplined and Persistent – Creating popular videos is an investment that compounds over time
• Provide 10x the Value – Overdeliver consistently incredible content that profoundly impacts people
• Fail Forward – We’ll make some mistakes along the way, and that’s ok. Analyze the data, course correct & keep improving
• Build Relationships – Getting to know our community on a personal level helps strengthen their passion for our brand

YouTube fame won’t happen overnight, but by now we understand exactly what it takes to gradually build our influence through online video.

Sticking to the proven blueprint, thinking long term and staying adaptable are the fundamentals that let us scale up to a massively valuable channel and loyal audience.

The opportunity is right there in front of us. With focus and resilience, we can achieve YouTube success and ultimately build the freedom-based lifestyle we dream about.

Now it’s time to start executing – because step one is creating our first video! We hope this guide gave you clarity and inspiration. We’d love any feedback for improving it in the comments below.

Disclaimer: The information provided on MoneyBert.com is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or suitability of the information. Investments carry risks, including potential loss of principal. For detailed information, please read our full disclaimer here.