How to Make $1000 by Turning YouTube Views to Money
There are many ways to turn a profit online, and one of the trendier ways is to turn YouTube views to money.
Quitting your day job to make money on YouTube full-time seems like the ultimate dream. Who wouldn’t want to turn their passion into paychecks, especially one that has the potential to give you passive income?
A lot of people have made it, with some even becoming millionaires in a short span of time with a legion of fans, lucrative sponsorships, and cool merchandise.
Professional YouTubers like PewDiePie, Shane, MrBreast, and many others get millions of views on their YouTube videos, but that only represents a small portion of their actual income. In fact, most of their earnings come from diversified sources.
Earning passive income through YouTube views might be a dream to many, but first, it’s best to do a reality check. Based on current industry standards, you can only make about $1,000 per half a million views on YouTube. So, unless your video gets millions of views in a short period every single time, you might need to also look at alternative ways to turn YouTube views to money.
Nevertheless, this is still one of the best options if you would like to create passive income by turning your YouTube views to money. Here are some ideas that have worked for other YouTubers:
How To Earn From YouTube
1) Run ads to turn YouTube views to money
Many creators use AdSense to monetize their content. They create great videos, optimize them, and earn passive income by running ads on their YouTube account.
With 500 hours of video content uploaded every minute on the largest video-sharing platform on the web, it is often difficult to get a lot of views consistently.
But it is not impossible.
Let’s say, for example, you would like to earn $1,000. Based on average industry standards, your video will need around half a million views to earn $1,000 in AdSense money. That works out to be about $2 per 1,000 views (CPM).
Of course, there is no magic CPM number. It differs based on countries, type of ads, and your channel’s performance. But there are ways to increase your CPM. To do this, you will need to create content on profitable niches. The best way to find such niches is to do keyword research to find competitive keywords with high cost-per-click (CPC).
There are certain types of industries where advertisers are willing to pay more to get the attention of consumers, like insurance and real estate. Meanwhile, niches like food recipes have CPMs that are much lower.
Use Keyword Tool to find competitive keywords in your chosen niche that you can use to optimize your YouTube videos.
To achieve your first $1,000, you must draw out a plan and strategize how to get views on your video. It will require a lot of upfront work, and you may not earn much money consistently, but it can potentially give you a steady passive income in the long term.
2) Maximize your views to leverage affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing can be an incredibly lucrative way to turn YouTube views to money. Monetizing your channel through affiliate marketing is often best done for review-based content, whether it is a beauty product, digital services, or similar types of industries.
For example, if you are running a photography channel, you can create a review on a newly launched mirrorless camera, and share affiliate links in your video’s description section. You can also create YouTube cards and redirect viewers to your website or blog that contains the affiliate links.
When you recommend a product through an affiliate link, like Amazon, you will earn a commission from the product purchase. Depending on the affiliate partner’s policies, you can also earn a small portion from other products that the person buys on the website within a specified duration of time.
If you can grow your channel, you will increase the chance of turning your YouTube views to money via affiliate marketing.
But most importantly, you need to have a long-term plan, build an active community, and create a solid reputation for yourself. Only then will you be able to generate enough level of trust to entice viewers to buy the products that you recommend in your YouTube videos.
3) Sell digital products through your YouTube channel
Selling digital products through a digital platform is a great way to diversify your income. Since you don’t need to keep physical stock, you will be able to sell an unlimited number of products without worrying about inventory, fulfillment, and shipping. Compared to affiliate marketing, selling digital-only products is often a more profitable way of turning your YouTube views to money.
To help get you started, here are some ideas on digital-only products that you can sell through your YouTube channel:
- E-books
- Online tutorials (or webinars)
- Mobile apps
- Presets (for the camera, photography, graphics, etc)
- Templates (for banners, websites, blogs, etc)
- Email courses
- Membership sites
- Plugins
- Printables
Although selling digital products may be less of a hassle compared to shipping physical products, they still require a lot of upfront work.
You will need to invest money in hiring experts to create your e-book, app, presets, or landing page. Alternatively, if you have the right skill sets or willingness to learn, you can do it yourself. It will be far cheaper than hiring people to do the work for you, but it will require a lot of time and effort on your part.
The great thing about using digital products to turn YouTube views to money is you can use your knowledge, experience, and passion to generate income through growing your channel on YouTube.
Once you have grown your community and consistently receive a lot of views on your videos, you will be able to position yourself as a subject matter expert. With an excellent reputation on YouTube, it will be easier to promote and sell your digital products to your viewers.
Turning YouTube views to money by diversifying your income streams
It is entirely possible to choose one of the three methods laid out in this article and do it well. But the smarter option is to diversify your income streams. Whenever possible, try to combine all three methods and watch as your earnings grow month by month.
Whether you are looking to monetize on YouTube as a side hustle or a full-time gig, you need to prepare to put in a lot of hours of work.
One of the biggest challenges for creators is posting content regularly. Some post one video a day; some do it once a month. Either way, consistency is key to building a good following on YouTube.
If you create content of value, post consistently, and interact well with your viewers, you will be turning your YouTube views to money in no time!