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The Secret to Making Money on YouTube

The Penny Hoarder Staff

by The Penny Hoarder Staff

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I have a confession to make: Somewhere between me typing the title of this post and actually typing the post itself, I became engrossed in a few funny animal videos on YouTube….and effectively lost those 5-10 minutes of my life. But boy, did I laugh–and I’m not the only one.

It’s estimated that we watch around 4 BILLION hours of video each month. Last summer, YouTube announced that its users upload an average of 72 hours of video every minute. That’s a lot of dancing dogs and stalking kitties!

So with all this action happening in the online video world, there has to be a way to cash in on the fun (aside from being able to share a few good laughs).

The Secret to Making Money on YouTube

If you’re looking to score big from the YouTube cash cow, you need one thing (and lots of it): Traffic.

Once you have the traffic, clicks and views, you’ll be on your way to potentially making thousands of dollars each month thanks to the advertisements that are tied to your YouTube videos and/or channel.

With a bit of development for your knack of finding funny, quirky things and capturing them on video, you can become the next YouTube sensation in no time.

How to Make Money-Making YouTube Videos

First and foremost, you have to adhere to YouTube’s user guidelines before you ever post a video. They include:

  • All content must be appropriate for children to view
  • You can’t upload a video if you didn’t create every single part of it (this includes music!)
  • Anyone featured in your video must give their consent to be shown

Once you have these basics down, follow the rest of the steps below to produce content that makes you money on YouTube…

  1. Shoot your video and upload it, but only after creating a short, memorable title for it
  2. Ensure you’re signed up with an operational email address and wait for the elusive YouTube email stating you can apply for revenue sharing
  3. Install Google Adsense to your channel (you need to become a YouTube Partner before this but once you do, you can have ads on all of your videos)
  4. Make sure to consistently upload great content to keep your audience engaged–you never know when your video could become the next viral sensation!

Above all, remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither will your YouTube channel. Stay the course and reap the rewards down the line.

 

Have you made money using YouTube?