The world and their wife tell you ‘you can’t rely on making any kind of decent money with YouTube‘ – and I’m here to tell you they’re completely and utterly wrong.
YouTube is actually a powerhouse for generating income, with the top 10% of creators earning over $83,000 a MONTH!
With a billion active users worldwide, the potential to make money (fairly passively) on YouTube is limitless.
To make sure you make the most out of your channel, here’s the top 7 ways you can monetize your YouTube channel and turn your passion into serious profit.
How to Make Serious Money on YouTube
1) Choose a Profitable Niche or a High Volume Niche
Before diving into the world of YouTube monetization, it’s super important to know that not all niches or topics are monetized equally on YouTube.
According to TubeBuddy, the most profitable niches by how much you can make per thousand views are:
1) Crypto & Trading – average $25 RPM
2) Real Estate – average $22 RPM
3) Digital Marketing – average $18 RPM
4) Making Money Online – average $17 RPM
5) Personal Finance – average $15 RPM
6) Educational – average $12 RPM
7) Tech & Gadgets – average $11 RPM
8) ASMR – average $10 RPM
9) Lifestyle – average $9 RPM
10) Fashion, Try on Hauls & Beauty – average $7 RPM
11) Motivational – average $5 RPM
12) Cooking – average $4 RPM
13) Travel – average $4 RPM
14) Fitness & Bodybuilding – average $4 RPM
The more views you rack up in a more profitable niche, the more money you make.
That said, some of the top earning YouTubers are making a ton of money every month.
And in niches that aren’t considered all that profitable purely because they pull in millions of views on their videos.
Take Peachybbies for example, she makes funny slime videos, doing everything from making new batches, experimenting with old ones and even fixing her viewers slime that they send in.
She makes an estimated 546 THOUSAND dollars a month purely because her videos pull in good views.
Related: How to Make Slime for YouTube Videos or to Sell Online!
So when choosing your niche, don’t always go into a niche purely because you feel you have to, but instead think about where your interests lie;
- How can you show your personality?
- Where does your expertise or skills lie?
This will not only keep you motivated when you hit an inevitable slower period on your channel, but also attract like-minded viewers!
2) Join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)
Once you’ve built a solid foundation of content and gained a significant following, you can apply to join the YouTube Partner Program.
Eligibility criteria include;
- Having at least 1,000 subscribers AND 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months,
- OR 10 million valid views from shorts over the past 90 days.
- You also need an active and linked adsense account.
Once you’re accepted into the program, you can monetize your videos through ads, channel memberships, and Super Chat during live streams.
Related: Epic Ways to Make Money On Pinterest (That You Likely Haven’t Heard Of)
Real Success Stories:
- PeachyBbbies (Slime Niche) – $200,000-$530,000 a month.
- Ms Rachel Toddler Learning Videos (Children’s Niche) – $220,000-$550,000 a month.
- CelineDPT (Sports/Entertainment Niche) – $180,000-$2.5 Million a month.
3) Channel Memberships
Channel memberships were introduced as a way for creators to specifically make money from their subscribers.
Think of memberships like a Patreon or Twitch subscription. Subscribers pay a monthly fee in exchange for channel-specific perks.
This might include exclusive content, chat badges and more. Benefits typically vary based on your membership tier.
Most common subscription packages cost anything between $2-$20 a month.
Real Success Stories:
- ASMR August (ASMR Niche) – Makes $7000-$12000 a month.
- MiniMoo Illustration (Art Niche) – Makes $2000-$6500 a month.
- Goodnight Moon (ASMR Niche) – Makes $3000-$5500 a month.
4) Merchandise Shelf
Ever seen items of clothing or merch shown directly underneath a creator’s video?
That’s the merchandise shelf, and surprisingly many don’t know they can activate it as a feature.
With 100k subscribers and an average 3% engagement rate, the average merch shelf makes an additional $300-$500 a month! Not bad.
You’re not limited to just underneath your videos either, you can showcase your amazing products in:
- Your channel’s store.
- In your video description.
- Product shelf next to your videos and live streams.
- Shopping button in your videos, Shorts, and live streams.
Related: How to Make Money Selling Clothes Online (Turn Clothes Into Serious Cash)
Real Success Stories:
- VisualSounds1 (ASMR Niche) – Makes $800-$900 a month.
- ImaWonder (Digital Art Niche) – Makes $500-$850 a month.
- Paloma the Peach (Art Niche) – Makes $400-$600 a month.
5) Super Chat and Super Stickers
A super cool thing about YouTube is that you can directly engage with your audience and get paid for it—thanks to Super Chat & Stickers.
Here’s how it works;
- During a live stream, viewers can pay to have their messages highlighted in the chat.
- They can also send Super Stickers—paid animated images that float up in a live chat.
- Each of these stickers or super messages directly earn you money, anything from $0.10-$50+!
- The average YouTuber makes between $200-$500 a month with super chats.
- If you love live chatting with your audience, want to boost your channel’s engagement AND get paid to do so, this is a fantastic option to make more money on YouTube.
Real Success Stories:
- Travel Beans (Travel Niche) – Makes $1700-$3000 a month.
- LinguaMarina (Learn English Niche) – Makes $500-$1800 a month.
Related: 55+ Tried and Tested Ways to Make Extra Money in 2024
6) Sell Your Own Services & Courses
For 30% of full-time creators, this is how they make their money.
Rather than relying on sporadic ad revenue or live chats, they market and sell their own expertise and skills.
Take Ellie-Jean Royden for example, she helps women find their unique clothing style based on science and simple observation.
Her packages are not only priced well for the market (e.g. a minimum of $350 each), but more importantly, they’re popular and best-selling.
Based on just 10 of her best-selling packages selling a month, Ellie-Jean makes a whopping $5600.
That’s before her ad-revenue, brand deals or user generated subscriptions come into play.
Easiest Services to Get Started With:
- 1:1 Personalized Programs
- Coaching
- Digital Products
- Online Courses
Related: 17 Digital Products that Sell Like Crazy On Etsy! (That Anyone Can Make)
Real Success Stories:
- The Gardening Tutor (Horticulture Niche) – Makes $1000-$3000 a month.
- Lone Fox (Home Decor Niche) – Makes $3000-$5200 a month selling prints.
- Wisdom Speaks (Affiliate Marketing) – Makes $3600-$6000.
7) Sponsored Content
Many creators think they need to have huge audiences to begin profiting from brand deals, but that couldn’t be further from the truth!
You can start monetizing your audience with as little as 1k subscribers.
This is especially true if you are in a profitable, or product-based niche e.g. pets, tech, cooking, home DIY etc.
Here’s a general gist of what you begin to charge brands based on your audience size:
| Nano 500-10K Followers | $10-$100 |
| Micro & Mid Tier 10K-100K Followers | $100-$5,000 |
| Macro 100K-500K Followers | $5,000-$10,000 |
| Mega & Celebrity 500K+ Followers | $10,000+ |
But you should know that how much money you can make via brand deals also depends on the following factors:
1) Engagement Rate: High engagement rates (likes, comments, shares) often translate to more value for sponsors.
2) Niche: Some niches are more lucrative for sponsors, such as beauty, fashion, technology, and gaming.
3) Content Quality: High-quality content creators often command higher rates.
4) Type of Sponsorship: Rates can vary based on the type of sponsorship, whether it’s a dedicated video, product placement, sponsored mention, or affiliate marketing.
5) Length and Complexity of the Campaign: Longer and more complex campaigns may command higher rates e.g. An instagram story will obviously command less money than an entire Youtube video.
6) Creator’s Reputation: Established creators with a track record of successful sponsorships may be able to charge higher rates.
Real Success Stories:
- Tucker Budzyn (Pets Niche) – Makes $10,000-$30,000 a month.
- Orange Juice Gaming (Gaming/Lifestyle Niche) – Makes $1000-15000 a month.
- Lexie Limitless (Travel Niche) – Makes $2500-$4000 a month.
8) Leverage Affiliate Marketing
This is quite possibly one of the easiest methods to implement on your channel, and can make serious money if you do it well.
The average YouTuber with 50k subscribers earns around $400-$1500 a month through affiliate marketing alone.
Achieved simply by recommending products that they love, use and align with the interest of their niche and their audience.
Many even do this just by adding the affiliate links to their video description – this works incredibly well in a product heavy niche e.g. photography, cooking, DIY, tech, pets, children’s toys etc.
Real Success Stories:
- Taylor Bell (Lifestyle Niche) – Makes $2500-$3750 a month.
- Simon D’entremont (Wildlife Photography Niche) – Makes $4600 a month.
- Guga Foods (Cooking/Food Niche) – Makes $2430-$5670 a month.
