Can you make a living on YouTube?

by Carmen Jhonson

For most people, YouTube is nothing more than a way to pass the time. You give little or no thought to what goes into making those videos you love watching so much. You lay in your bed, holding that screen in your hand, watching hours of video content, until it hits you; your favorite YouTubers have to earn money somehow! They can’t just be sitting around making videos all day. Or can they? Well, YouTube watch hours plays a big role. I’ll explain in a bit.

Well, many of them started out working a regular job, even supporting their YouTube channel with their paycheck. But now a lot of them, especially the very popular ones, make far more than you could ever hope to make working a typical 9 to 5 job. We’re going to look at how much you can make from YouTube views, and we’ll discuss a little about how you can work towards earning some good money from your very own YouTube channel.

How you make money on YouTube

First and foremost, we’re going to take a look at how your viewers watching a free video online can put money in your pocket. When your channel is monetized, you enter into a partnership with YouTube allowing the platform to place paid-for ads on your videos. That way, you are paid a small fee every time an ad placed on your video is viewed(Video views do not directly correspond to ad views because some ads can be skipped).

How much money can you make on YouTube?

The average YouTube pay rate falls between $0.01 and $0.03 per ad view. This means that for every 1000 ad views, a YouTuber can hope to make between $18 and $30. Studies have shown that this comes to a final price of about $3 to $5 per 1000 video views. Going by these statistics, a video that gets up to 1,000,000 views may make anywhere from $3000 to $5000. So you can make a living from YouTube. The next logical question then is…

How do you get from starting a YouTube channel to earning six figures from making videos?

Well, first of all, you need to get monetized. This isn’t as easy as it used to be because, in 2018, YouTube implemented a. policy that allowed only channels that have a total YouTube watch time of over 4000 hours to apply for monetization. For many new content creators, this has proved to be a challenge. However, you can choose the more cost-effective method of purchasing YouTube watch hours. This will allow you more time, money, and energy to focus on creating engaging content on your channel.

Conclusion

After you have been monetized, you need to ensure that your videos comply with YouTube guidelines. Uploading an offensive or inappropriate video is one of the quickest ways to lose your partnership with YouTube. Having this at the back of your mind, you are free to express yourself in as many ways as possible. Listen to feedback from your audience, so you’ll know what keeps them watching. Continue to learn, and maybe one day, YouTube might just become your full-time gig.

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