Kayla Dube · January 8, 2024 · 5 min read A goal of many YouTubers is to eventually monetize their videos. Monetization means you earn money from videos you upload. The amount of money someone makes on a video depends on views, ads, sponsorships, or other conditions. There are quite a few ways to monetize a YouTube channel, even if you aren’t part of the YouTube partner program.
In this article, we’ll walk through how monetization works on YouTube, ways to become monetized, when monetization might be taken away, as well as how to make money on YouTube in other ways. Also, keep in mind that making large amounts of money on YouTube is quite rare and really comes down to chance and persistence in making videos.
How YouTube Monetization Works
Content monetization on YouTube begins when you are able to join the YouTube Partner Program. Besides monetization, partners also receive chat or email support as well as copyright management tools. In order to join this program, a creator must meet the eligibility requirements as well as follow the monetization policies. Below are the requirements for the program.
- Be following the monetization policies
- Live in a region where the Partner Program is available
- Have no active community guideline strikes on your channel
- Turn on 2-step verification
- Have access to advanced features
- Have an active Google Adsense account
Once you meet all of these requirements, you’ll then need to meet a certain amount of subscribers and views to become a YouTube Partner. You can either have 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 valid public watch hours throughout the last 12 months, or get 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the past 90 days. Once you meet these requirements, you can apply for a partnership through YouTube Studio by clicking on Earn.
What Happens When You’re a Partner
There are quite a few ways to monetize your channel through the Partner Program once you’ve been accepted besides just advertising. You can add products to your channel for your subscribers to buy, extra revenue from YouTube Premium members, channel memberships, as well as live stream chat donations.
These monetization options also have their own requirements for eligibility, which you can find in YouTube’s Help Center. You will also have to make sure your YouTube channel is always keeping in line with the monetization policies.
What Are the Monetization Policies?
The monetization policies are a set of guidelines that must be followed in order to retain monetization on videos as well as your channel as a whole. The monetization policies include the YouTube Community Guidelines, AdSense program policies, creator responsibility, creator integrity, and more. You can find these policies in the Help Center.
There are a few different things that can happen if you’re not following the monetization policies, which can affect how much money you earn. This may include withholding or adjusting earnings, limiting ad revenue, suspending your YouTube Partner affiliation, or even suspending or removing your YouTube channel. This all depends on the severity of the policy violation and your cooperation with YouTube.
When your YouTube channel gets reviewed to determine whether or not you are following monetization policies, YouTube will look at a variety of things. This will include the theme of your channel, video titles, thumbnails, etc., as well as your most watched videos and newest videos. If any of these disregard the monetization policies, you will either be denied monetization (if you are applying for it) or will have your monetization limited.
Other Ways to Monetize a YouTube Channel
Besides participating in the YouTube Partner Program, there are other ways to make money on YouTube, which can be a good option if you haven’t quite reached the requirements needed for a partnership. This can include merchandise, sponsorships, and donations.
The option to provide merchandise for your subscribers to buy can be a great way to start making an income from YouTube, as well as give yourself some free advertising outside of YouTube. However, making this worthwhile can be difficult if you don’t have a large following yet.
Another great option is to get sponsorships. This is when you partner with a certain brand and promote them on your YouTube channel. You might also receive a special code for your subscribers to use on whatever product is being offered. Going this route, you will receive a payment from the brand to feature them on your channel.
You could also opt to direct viewers to another site, such as Patreon or Ko-Fi, where they can purchase a membership or donate to you. A perk of this option is that you can provide members/donors with special content they wouldn’t be able to get otherwise, allowing for a great incentive for them to donate to you.
There are many other ways to monetize a YouTube channel and start generating income from it, even if you aren’t a YouTube Partner yet. Be creative!
Make Money on Your YouTube Videos With Monetization
Many people have a dream to make money through YouTube. It can be a lot easier to reach that point once you have some concrete goals in mind. YouTube has pretty straightforward guidelines and requirements, so you can work on completing them as you go forward in your YouTube journey. Also, in the meantime, there are other ways to monetize a YouTube channel to get the ball rolling.
What roadblocks do you feel you’re facing to receiving YouTube monetization? Let us know in the comments!
