If you’re interested in making money online, YouTube may be a good place to start.

Can you make money on YouTube? The answer is yes!

Almost a third of the people who use the internet throughout the world use YouTube. That’s over 1 billion people. It can be a great place to promote yourself and the content you create. If you produce exciting content that’s followed by a large audience, you can make money on YouTube.

Setting Up Your YouTube Channel

If you’re interested in how to make a YouTube account, the process is simple. Google owns YouTube, so if you have a Google account already that you use to access any of Google’s other services, you already have a YouTube account.

Visit the YouTube site and click “sign in” at the upper right-hand corner. Here, you’ll either sign in with your Google account or create a new one. Once you’re signed in, click “my channel” from the menu along the left-hand side of the page.

Follow the prompts, and you’ll have your new channel created in just a few seconds. Now that you know how to make a YouTube channel, we can focus on the next steps, like creating content.

Create Content

How do people make money on YouTube? They do so by creating quality content. To succeed on YouTube, you’ll need to create compelling content that people want to watch. If you’re interested in learning how to make money on YouTube videos, you need to start with content.

Engaging content will be the key towards growing your viewership on YouTube and getting your channel to a place where you’re able to monetize it. Before you can make money with YouTube, you’ll need to make a YouTube video. The ideas below should give you a good start on how to make YouTube videos.

Film Sketches

For the aspiring writers and directors among us,  sketches can be an excellent way how to make money off of YouTube. First, you’ll need to come up with a great idea for a sketch. Next, you’ll write a script, recruit actors and shoot your sketch. Finally, edit your sketch and get it up on YouTube.

Create Tutorials

Tutorials are an incredibly popular genre on YouTube. If you’re wondering how to make a YouTube video that will attract serious viewers, tutorial videos may be a good starting point. Use your skills and experience to create short videos designed to teach your viewers something that you know how to do well.

Each day, hundreds of thousands of people turn to YouTube tutorial videos to learn how to do everything from ride a bike to master complex computer programs. Think about the areas you’re highly skilled in, and create tutorials to help people learn some of those skills.

Become a YouTube Personality

Are you the next big thing that Hollywood has yet to discover? If so, you might want to look into becoming a YouTube personality. Many YouTube stars can make serious money by creating videos on YouTube for their following to enjoy.

Make Your Pet or Your Baby Into A Star

If you have an adorable baby or pet, you may want to enlist their help for your YouTube videos. Creating cute videos with your baby or pet is a surefire way to get eyes on your YouTube channel. If you’re popular enough, you can start making some real money from your YouTube channel.

Think Outside the Box

These are some of the more popular ways to achieve stardom for your YouTube channel. But, there are other ways to make money from YouTube as well. Be creative! Your big idea may be the next big thing to hit YouTube.

Upload and Configure SEO

Once you’ve created your video, you’ll want to upload it to YouTube and optimize it for search. Every minute, over 100 hours of new video is uploaded to YouTube. So, strong SEO is a critical component of how to make money on YouTube. Configuring SEO for your video is going to be vital if you expect to stand out and rank highly on the site. Take a look at these tips, which will help you create videos and descriptions which rank highly in search results.

Promoting Your Videos

Take the first step to promoting your videos by making sure that you’re providing a highly detailed and accurate title and description for your videos. Use plenty of keyword tags on your video. Add a call to action to your videos and encourage your viewers to like, comment or subscribe to your channel.

Off of YouTube, you’ll want to take advantage of your other marketing channels to promote your YouTube channel. Promote your videos on social media. If you have a blog or website of your own, promote your videos there as well. You should also embed your videos into your site or blog to encourage even more views.

Monetizing Your Videos

How much money can you make on YouTube? That’s going to depend in large part on how well you can monetize your videos. When it comes to how to make money on YouTube, monetizing your videos is a key component to getting that YouTube money.

YouTube’s partner program makes it easy to earn money from the ads that play before or during your YouTube videos. You’ll also want to explore sponsorships, affiliate marketing and even marketing products on your channel as different revenue streams.

Set Up Google AdSense

Google AdSense is a product offered by Google that allows you to run advertising on your website or YouTube channel. Once your account is set up, Google will display relevant ads on your site from throughout their advertiser network. Each time Google places ads on your website, you can earn money. Making money on YouTube is easier than ever before, thanks in part to Google AdSense.

Signing up for AdSense is simple. Visit the AdSense website, create an account and provide them with some information about your site. Then, under the settings section for each of your videos check the box that says “monetize my video.” Then, sit back and wait for the money to roll in! If your YouTube channel is receiving serious traffic, AdSense is a great way to monetize your channel.

Check Your Analytics

Your Google Adsense account will return lots of valuable data about how much money you’ve earned, how your ads are performing and more. You can create a Google Analytics account and link that to your AdSense account to receive even more useful information about the performance of your ads.

When it comes to how to make money from YouTube, analyzing your data will play a key factor in your ability to earn. You’ll want to take all the data you’re receiving and use it to inform your decisions moving forward. Making changes based on the information you receive could result in you making more money from the ads running on your YouTube page.

Attract Sponsorships

Sponsorships are an excellent way for you to be making money on YouTube. Sponsorships are one of the more popular ways how people make money on YouTube. Depending on the type of channel you have, it may be easier to attract sponsors to your channel.

If your channel focuses on reviews, you may be able to receive free products from manufacturers who are interested in having you review their products. Channels with larger followings can even receive paid sponsorships.

With paid sponsorships, the channel will receive money from a sponsor in exchange for a brief mention of their products or services in one of your videos.

Create and Sell Products on YouTube

If your channel on YouTube is generating interest and gaining followers, you may want to look into creating products you can sell and then market them on your YouTube channel.

Physical Products

Depending on the type of channel you run, selling physical products may be a great fit for you. Selling merchandise is arguably the best way to make money from YouTube. The easiest and most obvious way to sell products is to create branded merchandise like hats, t-shirts and accessories for your channel.

But, there’s plenty of opportunity for you to think outside the box and create merchandising opportunities that are unique to your channel. Try and stick with products that would make a natural fit for your brand. If you run a channel that focuses on makeup tutorials, consider selling beauty products.

If you run a channel that focuses on diet and exercise, consider looking into products that align with the active lifestyle. In any event, selling physical products is a viable option for how to earn money on YouTube.

Virtual Products

The products you sell don’t have to stop with physical merchandise. You also may want to look into selling virtual products, such as applications and eBooks. Selling virtual products may be a great way to make money.

YouTube makes it easy for you to take these products to your audience. If you’re a YouTube personality with a large following, getting an app coded may prove to be a great source of income for your channel.

Direct Traffic to Affiliates

Still looking for other ways to make money on YouTube? Try affiliate links. Affiliate links can be a fantastic way for you to generate income from your YouTube channel, especially if your channel focuses on reviews. If you’re asking questions like “how do YouTubers make money” you’ll want to learn a bit more about affiliate links.

Affiliate links are unique links that an online merchant generates for each of their affiliates. Depending on the type of relationship between the affiliate and the merchant, the affiliate may receive a fee for each time a person clicks the link, each time a person purchases a product through the link or both.

There’s affiliate opportunities for every popular channel on YouTube and they’re a popular way to make money from YouTube. Channels that focus on product reviews are best suited to make money through affiliate programs.

Since the people watching your review videos are presumably interested in purchasing the product you’re reviewing, it’s a fair assumption that they’ll use your affiliate link if they plan on purchasing the product you’re reviewing.

How much can you make on YouTube with affiliate links will vary depending on the affiliate’s relationship with the merchant, but even small amounts of money add up over time.

Use YouTube To Send Traffic to Your Website Or Blog

If you have a website or blog, your YouTube channel can be a valuable referral source for you, especially if you have anything for sale on your website or blog.

Whether you have things for sale or not, you’ll want to integrate your Google AdSense into your blog or website as well. That way, all the traffic you’re sending to your blog or site from YouTube will result in ad revenue in your pocket.

Join the YouTube Partner Program

If you’re serious about making money from your YouTube page, you’ll want to join the YouTube Partner Program. The program is a necessity if you plan on monetizing the ads that run on your page. Beyond that, the YouTube Partner Program gives members access to additional marketing tools designed to help grow their number of subscribers.

Plus, members of the program are also given access to exclusive development workshops to help develop their channels. Now that you know how to start a YouTube channel and make money, you’ll want to get involved with this program.