7+ Ways to Make Money With YouTube as a Small Channel!

So, maybe you already have a channel or you are thinking about starting one. Naturally, you might also be thinking about how you can make money from your channel. If you mention to a friend you’re starting a channel, they might look at you funny and ask,” why?” Many people don’t realize that YouTube can be a business platform with unlimited lucrative income-building potential. In this article, you will learn over seven ways you can make money as you grow your YouTube channel, plus a few additional ideas!

Preparing Your Channel To Earn Revenue

If you are just starting out on YouTube, one of the first things you need to do is to build trust with your audience. This is true whether you have 5 subscribers or 5,000 subscribers, trust is the key to building your platform. In addition, you must create videos that provide value to your viewers to give them a reason to subscribe and keep coming back. They must learn something or be entertained or both! 

What Type of Channel Should You Start?

Vlogging is really fun, but starting a vlogging channel before people know who you are, will be difficult to grow and provides very little value to the viewer (unless they are your friends or family). However, starting a channel based around an area that you have a lot of knowledge, like fitness, French cooking or building computers, will grow faster and have more revenue-earning potential than a vlog channel, because you are providing and sharing valuable information.

When Can You Start Earning Money?

As soon as you start your channel, potentially you can start earning money from it. However, in reality, it may take some time because you will need to build up your subscriber base, your credibility with your audience, and your authority in your content area. People buy from people they “know, like, and trust.” However, it takes time for those areas to grow with viewers. 

Generally, all these areas will increase as you make more videos, increase your quality each time, and gain more subscribers. You won’t get paid on the number of subscribers you have, but it builds trustworthiness and authority. 

Once you start building your base, strengthening your credibility, and growing your authority, you are set for starting to make money with your YouTube channel!

Here is a list of just a few ways to make money with YouTube and a more in-depth explanation follows below:

1. Sell a service or a product
2. Sell an online course
3. Write an Ebook 
4. Affiliate product reviews
5. Shopping or product haul videos
6. Promote a freelancing service
7. Gift ideas videos
8. Plus a few bonus ideas at the end!

1. Sell a Service or a Product

Make videos related to the service or products you provide. This could be a consulting or coaching service such as health or career coaching or business consulting. Or if you make your own products you can mention them on your channel. Product examples might be jewelry, home decor or clothing. Set up an online store and link it in the description of your videos and link it to your channel page in the banner. As your channel grows it will help your business grow. 

2. Sell an Online Course 

There are many platforms nowadays to sell courses. Some platforms host thousands of courses for you to search and choose from. Other platforms host the course, but you must do the marketing. Udemy and Skillshare are platforms that host thousands of courses, but with Teachable or Kajabi, it is your own website hosting the course and you have to market it to your audience.

Udemy Website

There are benefits to both, but usually the course you host on Kajabi or Teachable (or similar platform) will enable you to charge much more for it and you get to pocket the full amount. Udemy and skillshare take more of the profit and the courses are typically cheaper, so you might earn less. 

Consider making a short course for Udemy or Skillshare first and as your knowledge,  experience, and audience grow, branch out to Teachable or Kajabi or another independent platform to host a bigger more extensive course. 

3. Write an Ebook 

Of all the ways to make money with YouTube, this is one of the easiest. Write an Ebook. The Ebook should be based on your niche and then you can create videos based on small portions of the book’s content and then include information about the ebook in the video and put a link to purchase in the description. Be sure to include the link in every description of every video, even past videos you made. Also, you can put the link in the comments and pin that comment. 

4. Affiliate Product Reviews 

Almost every company has an affiliate program these days. An affiliate program is a program that you can join that allows you to earn a percentage of a product price if someone purchases the product through a special link that the company provides to you. For example, Amazon, Target, Walmart, Audible, Urban Outfitters, etc. Look up a website you frequent and scroll to the bottom, and look for something that mentions affiliate opportunities.

Each program has different requirements that you will have to qualify for. Once you are qualified and accepted to the program, you can do product reviews and tutorials and put the link in the description. However, to maintain the integrity of your channel, make sure you truly like the product and would recommend that others buy it. Also keep in mind, that the more expensive the product, the more money you can make. Additionally, check product ratings and look for products with 4 or 5-star ratings. 

Amazon Affiliates Website

5. Shopping Haul Videos 

This falls under affiliate product reviews. However, If you wonder why there are tons of videos of people trying on clothes is because they make money on those types of videos, promoting those pieces of apparel.  

For example, if the content creator has an affiliate program with Target and does a “try-on haul” showing 5 outfits he or she has purchased, they include those links to those outfits in the description, and whoever clicks and purchases those items, the content creator can earn a percentage. For Target, it is currently at 8%. Every company has a different percentage. 

A similar type of video could be a favorites video, where people talk about their favorite beauty products, hair products, jewelry, or monthly favorites of a mixture of product types. Just be sure that if you want to earn money from these types of videos, that you are an affiliate and the products are currently for sale online when you post the video. Over time the links may expire as products are discontinued. 

6. Promote a Freelancing Service 

One of the many ways to make money with Youtube is to promote a freelancing service. This includes writing, graphic design, videography, photography, virtual assistant, marketing, app design, etc. You can make videos around the type of work you do. You can get clients by putting your contact in the description and letting people know at the end of the video that you are available to work with. 

7. Gift Ideas Video 

As the holidays are approaching, making a video about gift ideas and including a link in the description from a website you are an affiliate is a great way to make money. This could be done for any time of the year such as birthday gift ideas, wedding gift ideas, girlfriend or boyfriend gift ideas, etc. 

8. These ideas are only the beginning. As your channel grows, so does your opportunity to earn money through ads using Adsense. Famebit is a website that is partnered with YouTube and they provide the opportunity to negotiate with brands directly to make certain videos or promote certain products. With Famebit, you will need a minimum of 5,000 subscribers. 

Additionally, some Travel YouTubers work with big brands, like car brands, and show off the car as they have a road trip across Europe, all paid for. If you have an Airbnb property or room, you can promote your Airbnb property by making a YouTube Video of it, thus increasing the exposure of the listing and your number of guests over time. 

Additionally, you can promote your brick-and-mortar business for free by making videos. You can start selling merchandise like t-shirts through teespring.com. As your platform grows, you may even be asked to do paid speaking gigs at conferences or events. 

Always Remember This…

The opportunities are endless as you grow, but one of the most important things is to always be true to you and your brand and do the right thing. Integrity is the key to growing a solid brand and building a YouTube platform. Many YouTubers with millions of subscribers and followers have fallen after doing deals that go against what they want people to think they stand for and hurt others along the way. Even if your channel is small, it can still affect your reputation in a big way. 

By staying true to yourself and your brand, viewers will gain and keep your trust and in return, this will create more opportunities along the way and not only help your channel grow but your income as well!

Check out this next article on how to maximize views after you publish a video!

What are some other ideas to earn money with Youtube? Share with others in the comments! If you are looking for a way to gain more views and subscribers for your YouTube Channel, our Sprizzy YouTube channel promotion service can get you seen by your target audience.