Video content is already perhaps the most popular form of content digested by consumers on a daily basis, and there’s no sign that the trend’s about to change. Whether it’s long-form documentaries or sub-minute shorts, just about everyone loves a good video!
Unsurprisingly, video content has also become one of the best ways to make money online since all you really 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. Better and more varied content requires more gear, but getting a YouTube channel off the ground is very easy.
Where you might find yourself challenged, however, is in the realm of monetization. How can you turn your YouTube channel into a money-making business? 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!
YouTube Monetization Basics
Making money producing video content is often easier said than done, but there are thousands of creators around the world who have turned YouTube into not just a full-time job, but an incredibly profitable source of revenue. Not everyone can hit the highs achieved by YouTubers like Mr. Beast, but all it takes is a little perseverance to start building a successful channel.
Just as with any other form of content, knowing your niche and target audience is key. A certain amount of skill and passion definitely helps, but plenty of creators have had false starts and pivoted their channels in entirely new directions successfully.
Making money with a YouTube channel boils down to one thing: views. If nobody watches your videos, you’re not going to earn any money for producing them. This is very much a reality for new creators because your first video isn’t likely to get any traction at all unless you aggressively promote it.
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.
YouTube is predominantly a free platform for consumers, and there’s a great saying that covers free services—if the platform’s free, then the consumer is actually the product. This is absolutely true, since advertisers pay YouTube, which then distributes a portion of that revenue across the creators whose videos draw views.
So, as a creator, the more views your videos have, the more ads your viewers are also watching (or skipping/blocking, but that’s beside the point). There are a couple of other ways that YouTube generates revenue from your videos, but monetization is mainly a function of how many subscribers you have and video views you get.
YouTube Rules and Requirements
First and most importantly, to qualify for something called the 'YouTube Partner Programme', you need to accumulate a total of 4000 watch hours on your videos in the past twelve months. Plus, you must have a minimum of 1000 subscribers. This allows you to join the program, and you can start earning money from YouTube directly.
However, there are several things to look out for - even once you’re comfortable in terms of view count and subscriber numbers. Given that you’re going to be dependent on YouTube itself for not just your revenue but the hosting of your content, you have 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.
How Whop Boosts Your YouTube Channel’s Revenue
Now that you know what it takes to get your channel monetized and start earning revenue from YouTube itself, you may be wondering how and where Whop comes in. Well, if you watch a few videos from a handful of different Youtubers who have decent-sized channels, you’ll hear a particular refrain—all of them will ask you to like, comment, subscribe, and either become channel members or join their membership or patronage program.
You should probably be ensuring that you maximize engagement from your viewers too in terms of things like likes, comments, and channel subscriptions, but membership is where Whop can take you to the next level.
YouTube has its own options, and plenty of top YouTubers are happy to go with the standard channel memberships that YouTube itself integrates. However, this is neither as powerful, nor as profitable to you as using a platform like Whop for patronage.
For one thing, YouTube can’t set any limits or charge percentages when it comes to external platforms as it does with the native channel membership feature. Even if you don’t qualify for monetization with YouTube, you can start monetizing whatever subscriber base you do have with Whop!
That said, it’s important to underline the benefits for your subscribers if they are to pay you some of their hard-earned cash every month. Whether it’s direct access to you or extra content, you need to have even more value on offer if you want your subscribers to click over to your Whop page and approve a card transaction.
How to Get Started
How it works is simple. Just head over to Whop.com and get set up to start selling. You can do this right now, because as the landing page says, it’ll only take you ten minutes—perhaps even less!
Now 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.
Now, name your business. It’s probably a good idea to use the name you use on YouTube for this to align your branding.
As you’ll now see, you can sell a lot of stuff with Whop! Since you’re here to manage subscriptions, though, just hit “something else” when Whop asks you about products.
And that’s it! You’ve successfully signed up to Whop! Take a little bit to get familiar with your Whop business dashboard, now, or just go right ahead to set up some subscriptions. On the left of your dashboard, go to Products, and get started!
You could package your subscription with access to your membership social media channels via Discord or Telegram, or even an external link to your private subscriber web URL.
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
If your channel gets big enough, YouTube itself can become a good source of revenue. Whether you’re already there or still growing, a channel with a growing subscriber base can offer 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, livestreams 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
If your content is related to products of any kind, you can consider affiliate marketing as a way to boost your YouTube channel’s income. If your channel is all about computers, for example, you can check if any reputable hardware retailers offer affiliate marketing programs and then sign up.
All you need to do is to mention that you do have an affiliate link in your videos and provide that link in the video’s description. Then, if your viewers decide that they like the product you’re talking about, they can use your affiliate link to visit the retailer and you’ll get a commission from the sale.
If you’d like to learn more about affiliate marketing or think that your channel could use an affiliate program of its own, check out our guide here!
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 February 2023 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.
Get on Whop to Supercharge Your YouTube Channel!
You can monetize your YouTube channel in several ways, and while most creators wait until they hit that magic 1000 subscribers/4000 hours viewed mark, it’s very possible to get ahead of the curve and not rely solely on YouTube payments.
👉 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 such as your Discord or Telegram, and keep an eye on key metrics like churn and retention. You can sell any digital product on Whop, so get in touch with the team or just visit Whop.com to get started!
For a visual run-through on getting started with Whop, watch this video:
