Monetizing your YouTube channel with Whop can give you the chance to make passive income, even before you’ve qualified for the YouTube Partner Program.
Video content is one the most popular forms of content digested by consumers on a daily basis, and there’s no sign that the trend’s about to change. The total YouTube user count increases by 36% every year!!
Whether you make long-form documentaries or sub-minute shorts, it's a great way to get views that can convert to passive revenue.
It’s also one of the best ways to make money online since all you need to get started is a way to record video and audio - and practically everyone already has a smartphone that can accomplish these tasks well.
But changing an idea into money is the hard part. How can you turn your YouTube channel into a money-making business? And do you really have to wait one year?
That’s what we are going to unpack in this guide. So, whether you’re an established creator or just thinking about becoming one, read on to find out how to monetize a YouTube channel and then take your revenue to the next level with Whop.
The basics of YouTube monetization
Is it realistic?
69% of YouTube’s 100 million creators say YouTube provides an important part of their income, so it presents a real opportunity to make some cash.
But it's easier said than done. Not everyone can hit the highs achieved by YouTubers like MrBeast. To start building a successful channel, you’ll need perseverance.
Just as with any other form of content, knowing your niche and target audience is key. It will ensure you attract a passionate audience. A certain amount of skill and passion also helps, but plenty of creators have had false starts and successfully pivoted their channels in entirely new directions.
How YouTube monetization works
Making money on YouTube happens in the following ways:
- Advertisements.
- Channel memberships.
- Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Super Thanks.
- Shopping.
Cashing in on these options requires views. If nobody watches your videos, you’re not going to make any money.
This can cause a reality check for many new creators. Their first video is unlikely to get any traction unless they aggressively promote it.
How soon can you make money on YouTube?
Then comes patience. You realistically won’t make money via YouTube’s ads until after one year (unless you have an insane viral moment via YouTube shorts) - because you’ll need to qualify for YouTube’s Partner Program (which we’ve detailed below).
However, the more you create, the more your channel will grow. As long as you pay attention to how the YouTube algorithm works and make sure that your videos give viewers some value for their time, your views will snowball. People who really like your content will subscribe to your channel, and that’ll prompt yet more growth.
Naturally, nobody wants to wait a year to start making money. Which is where Whop can help.
YouTube monetization rules and requirements
To make money via ads, you’ll need to qualify for the ‘YouTube Partner Program’ (YPP). Without that, you won’t make anything for the ads shown on your videos.
To qualify, you need to:
- Have 1,000 subscribers
- Accumulate 4,000 valid watch hours on your video in the past 12 months, OR;
- Have had 3 million public short views in the past 90 days.
Be warned, you’ll also need to keep YouTube’s various policies in mind—this means staying on top of what the copyright and monetization rules are.
It’s especially easy to breach copyright rules without intending to when it comes to music—someone else may be playing a copyrighted track in the background as your record, and if you aren’t able to catch and scrub it, you may risk violation of those policies.
Rejected by YouTube?
If your application for the YouTube Partner Program gets rejected, don’t worry. YouTube tends to undertake this process at human hands (which is why it can take more than a month to complete) so you’ll generally receive some feedback about which areas your channel failed to pass muster.
YouTube may also take issue with things like video descriptions, titles, and even the images you choose for your thumbnails. So, after you finish aligning your channel with YouTube’s feedback, you can reapply 30 days after your initial rejection.
Monetize YouTube quickly with Whop
So, what do you do if you don’t want to wait 1-year for the YPP? Or, if you want to boost your earnings? All the best and highest-earning YouTubers are using multiple revenue streams, after all.
Say hello to Whop.
Whop can take you to the next level, as an all-in-one hub for fan communities. You can set membership tiers, accept donations, host events, host private chats, upload exclusive video content, sell digital products, merch, contests and so much more. Whew, that’s a lot!
YouTube has its own ‘Superfan’ membership tier, but it doesn’t come close to the versatility and profitability of Whop.
For a start, you’ll be free from YouTube’s limits and charge percentages. And, you can start monetizing with Whop regardless of your subscriber count or YouTube Partner Program qualification status.
Of course, you’ll have to make your whop worthwhile for your fans to part with some of their hard-earned cash. But it works - at the time of writing, creators have made a total of over $845,000,000 on Whop!
So, let’s take a look at how you can get started with Whop.
How to monetize your YouTube channel with Whop
Here’s a look at some of the best ways YouTubers make money with Whop (you can combine all these apps under one whop!)
Paid subscriptions
You can choose how your whop is accessed. It can be free, a one-time payment, or accessed via a monthly recurring subscription.
This can be a great way to secure some ongoing revenue. Many YouTuber viewers will be happy to support their favorite creators this way, in exchange for some exclusive content or perks (many of which we cover below).
Even a subscription cost as low as $5 could result in big money if you get a lot of viewers to convert to Whop subscribers.
To add a subscription, head over to your whop and click ‘Manage’ in the top right, then ‘Manage pricing’. Then hit ‘Add pricing option, ‘Paid’, and ‘Subscription’.
You can then tweak your subscription model as you wish, setting a price, period, free trial, waitlist, and even limited stock numbers.
Crowdfunding
Using the ‘Tips’ app in your whop, you can accept monetary donations from your biggest fans. It is super easy to use and you don’t need to worry about signing up and managing external crowdfunding websites.
You fans can find it directly on your whop, and can pay instantly via card, PayPal, Cash App, or Google Pay.
Donations work great in YouTube communities with free access, or when you’ve got a much-wanted upcoming video idea that you need financial support to pull off.
To add a ‘Tips’ app, go to your whop, click ‘manage’ in the top right, then manage apps, and find ‘Tips’.
Courses
Courses give you the chance to sell exclusive lessons, insights, and guidance on your specialist subject. They can sell for very attractive prices and provide passive income. Once you’ve created them, the toughest work is complete.
Courses are great for YouTubers who provide tutorials or expertise. For example, if you create trading YouTube videos, then you can sell courses on how to become a pro trader. The possibilities are endless.
Within your whop, you can upload video content for your courses, separating them into chapters that track user progress. You can even provide a certificate to users who complete the course.
To add courses to your whop, click ‘manage’ in the top right of your whop dashboard, then ‘manage apps’, and select ‘course’.
Digital products
YouTube audiences love real-world merch as much as anyone else. But they’re also digital people. Wallpapers, exclusive videos, sticker packs, and DLCs all go hard.
You can see these types of digital products in your shop. You just need to choose the relevant app and add it to your whop.
If you’re selling access to files, add the Files app. There’s no limit to how many you can add, so go wild!
You can even add custom apps, which Whop might make for you for free if it’s something special!
Private calls and webinars
Some YouTube channels provide insights and advice that fans would love to receive 1-on-1. You can do this on whop by adding 1-on-1 call apps or setting up webinars that are exclusive to paid users only.
The app comes with a built-in calendar, so you and your fans can view availability on Google Meet, Zoom, or another external link.
You can allow them to book for free, or for a one-time booking fee at a custom price.
Affiliate links
The ‘Affiliate links’ app allows you to add custom links, so you can advertise partner products to make commissions. Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to make money on YouTube (75% of channels use it).
If you choose your links carefully, it will provide extra resources to your subscribers, rather than look like an ad.
Private chats
By using whop apps such as ‘chat’, Discord, or Telegram, you can provide an exclusive live community for your subscribers to take part in.
It’s a great way to entice people to pay for your whop membership and it can promote an active community that can increase growth.
You can get involved in the chat too, by either providing exclusive updates or giving insights and feedback in advice-based YouTube channels.
How to get started on Whop as a YouTuber
Getting started is simple.
Just head over to Whop.com and hit that ‘Sign Up’ button in the bottom corner. It’s totally free to get started and takes just a couple of minutes.
Use your email address to set up an account. If you have a YouTube channel then you’ve probably got a Google account, so go ahead and use that if you want all your business-related correspondence in one place.
Once you’re in, hit that ‘Start Selling’ button on the left-hand side and then ‘Create a whop’.
Now, name your business. It’s probably a good idea to use the name you use on YouTube to align your branding.
Your whop is now waiting to be customized so you can start selling! There are a bunch of steps recommended to help you on your way.
Since you’re here to create a YouTuber community, go set that category as ‘Social Media’ and the subcategory as ‘YouTube’. However, you can set it as anything you like. For example, if your channel focuses on trading, you can put it in that category.
And that’s it - you’ve successfully signed up to Whop! Take a little bit to get familiar with your Whop business dashboard.
Your whop uses ‘apps’ to make it unique. So start adding some to personalize your subscriber experience.
For example, you could package your subscription with access to exclusive Discord or Telegram chats, or even an external link to your private subscriber web URL.
Most importantly, you may want to set your whop as a subscription by hitting ‘manage pricing’, ‘add pricing’, ‘paid’, and then ‘subscription’.
Whop allows you to set up various tiers of subscribers via different products, and you can track all of the important data that you need, whether it’s real-time revenue or subscriber churn.
In fact, Whop can be your one-stop-shop for maximizing your YouTube channel’s revenue via all of the other income streams content creators use.
Other ways to earn with YouTube
On average, content creators received just 55% of the revenue generated on their channels in 2025.
So there are plenty of opportunities for added revenue that you ought to consider. Here are the main ones:
Monetized streams
If your content is conducive to it, live streams on YouTube are an incredible way to boost your revenue. Niche YouTubers with just a thousand people watching a stream can pick up four or even five-figure revenues from an hour of streaming, so if you can pull it off, it can be very lucrative.
YouTube’s Super Chats are the main pathway to this, allowing stream viewers to pay up to $500 to get their messages featured in a chat. Super Stickers are a thing too, and people can also use the Super Thanks feature to show you how much they appreciate you with a donation.
Affiliate marketing
Brands of all kinds are keen to get their products featured by YouTubers, so consider affiliate marketing as an extra YouTube revenue stream.
You simply share a link with your viewers and when they make a purchase via it, you get a commission. Some commissions can be as high as 90%!
You’ll need to feature the product somehow, so it works best when the product fits your niche - such as gaming gear for a gaming channel.
- Affiliate Marketing 101: How to Start Affiliate Marketing
- Best affiliate marketing programs for beginners: How to make passive income now
YouTube shorts
Short-form video content has been on the rise lately, and as the dominant video platform it’s no surprise that YouTube is investing plenty into what we now refer to as “shorts”. Most creators take advantage of this, even if it’s just cutting small bites out of longer videos, in order to boost revenue.
As of 2025, you do need to jump through a few extra hoops to get your shorts monetized, so it isn’t as easy to make money from them as it once was. That said, once you do get accepted into the YouTube Partner Program, you can check out the Shorts Monetization Module on your channel to get the ball rolling.
Merchandise
YouTube allows channels with over 10k subscribers to sell merchandise from a shelf that is displayed below each of their videos.
This is definitely something to consider when you meet the threshold for it because dropshipping is an extremely profitable source of income if you do it right.
You also don’t need to wait for that 10k mark, since you can use your videos to advertise your own ecommerce store, but it does require your viewers to click off-platform to hit that point of sale.
Digital products
This might be even more exciting for you as a content creator because physical merchandise can be complicated—even dropshipping relies on finding good suppliers.
With digital content you have no such worries, and products like courses or eBooks can be fantastic low-hanging fruit when it comes to revenue adjacencies for a YouTube channel.
Best of all, you can do this through Whop as well. Once you’ve signed up with Whop, just click on the digital product you’re looking for on our products page—we’ve got eBooks, courses, downloadable software, and much more that you can sell to your viewers.
YouTube channel memberships
We’ve already mentioned YouTube channel memberships, but it's worth mentioning that you can use this in conjunction with Whop. You can structure your tiers or exclusive content across the two platforms however you like, especially once you get used to how they work and what the benefits of each are.
Patronage
As a creator, you can use multiple platforms such as Whop to manage your subscribers, but what’s important is that you don’t neglect to do so. Not setting up a way for your most loyal fans to get close to you means losing out on plenty of potential revenue, and as your channel grows the benefits from patronage on a platform like Whop can quickly become your primary source of YouTube channel revenue.
Besides, it’s a great way to monetize your YouTube channel even before you satisfy the platform’s own requirements!
YouTube channel checklist
This guide has likely given you a lot to consider, so here’s a quick summary of what you’ll need to monetize your YouTube channel:
- Regular uploads: YouTube’s algorithm tends to favor creators who upload content at a set frequency, so that’s an immediate benefit. As a new creator, you’ll also just want to get as much content as you can out there to start building a viewership.
- YouTube Partner Program: Getting accepted into the partner program is key to becoming monetized by YouTube itself, and you’ll need to reach 1,000 subscribers and 4000 hours viewed across 12 months in order to apply.
- Avoid infringement: YouTube has a lot of power over its platform users, so be very wary of its rules and policies. Read through them and follow YouTube guidelines, and be very careful of copyright infringement, even if it’s accidental.
- Get on Whop: Making the most of your subscriber base is a great idea, and a platform like Whop can offer you the very best features—not just when it comes to ensuring that your most loyal subscribers get what they want, but also from the perspective of an entrepreneur and business owner.
- Add income streams: Remember to look into other income streams that suit the form and niche of your content. Merchandise is an easy win if you can set up the logistics of it all, and digital content is really easy with Whop.
How much money can you make on YouTube?
Here’s a look at how much YouTube provides on average from YouTube’s Partner Program:
- 100 views per day: $5 - $9 per month
- 5,000 views per day: $294 - $490 per month
- 30,000 views per day: $1,680 - $2,800 per month
- 60,000 views per day: $3,316 - $5,527 per month
- 90,000 views per day: $4,971 - $8,285 per month
- 120,000 views per day: $6,627 - $11,044 per month
- 150,000 views per day: $8,269 - $13,781 per month
As you can see, in the lower viewer realms the earnings are very low. There is a clear need to maximize revenue streams in other ways. For example, if you converted 50 of your 100 viewers to Whop subscribers who pay $5 per month, you’d make $2500 (before fees).
Get on Whop to supercharge your YouTube channel
Learn from the most successful YouTubers' lessons by monetizing your channel via multiple revenue streams.
While most creators wait until they hit that magic 1000 subscribers or 4000 hours viewed mark to cash in on YouTube ad payments, it’s possible to get ahead of the curve.
The best way to do that is with Whop!
Get on Whop today to build your community of paying subscribers, give them access to various features and benefits, and keep an eye on key metrics like churn and retention.
You can sell any digital product and even set up paid subscriptions, so your fans can support you every month.
It’s also worth browsing the Whop Discover page to learn more, as it's stacked with YouTubers, gurus, and winning examples on how to cash in on your viewer base.
Start monetizing your YouTube channel with Whop.
