Hello Side Hustlers!
We return with another newsletter filled with info and insights to help you create the side hustle of your dreams.
This week, it’s all about YouTube influencers and how they monetize their businesses.
Over the past few years, video marketing has grown rapidly in popularity and has become an accessible platform for businesses to leverage.
Popular sites like TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and websites are great places for you to invest, but depending on your side hustle, creating a YouTube channel may be the best place to promote your brand.
Why choose YouTube?
YouTube is referred to as the world’s second-largest search engine, and people spend hours watching videos each day.
YouTube can help people find your content quickly and drive a high level of engagement.
Ever seen your favourite YouTuber scoring a brand deal or giving away special discount codes?
Want to know how they got them?
How they became successful YouTubepreneurs?
We’ve got the info and the insights to show you how to become a successful YouTube influencer.
But, is it a valid side hustle?
When creating a YouTube channel, you need to be clear on your why and the services you’re offering your subscribers.
Money is less of a motivator but rather the process of creating and engaging with like-minded people that drives many to create a YouTube channel.
Ironically, however, this can put you in a very powerful position to make content and continue making content for an already content-obsessed world! (Yes, we used content three times in that sentence! Content is key!)
While many brands may find it hard to attract and keep growing an audience, YouTubers already have it figured out as that is what the platform is designed to do.
Encourage people to watch and engage with videos.
Be warned, however!
If you want to invest your time in YouTube, you must have the entrepreneurial drive to explore ideas, research, and connect to monetize your audience and your passion.
If you’re ready to take the next step into the world of YouTube…
If you’re ready to become a YouTubepreneur…
Then read on to find out how you can efficiently and effectively turn your passion into a profitable side hustle!
What you can expect this week:
- Trends. This week, we examine the world’s most successful YouTubers and where their money comes from!
- Strategies. Are you curious about how popular YouTubers monetize their channels? We’ve covered all the strategies and techniques.
- Tool of the Week. Our tool of the week is VidIQ. A tool designed to boost your YouTube views!
Trends
Every industry has its standout stars, and YouTube is no different. This week, we sourced the hard data on just how much YouTubepreneurs are capable of making from their channels – and let’s just say, the results are eye-watering. Check them out below!
Highest Paid YouTube Creators in 2023
No – your eyes aren’t deceiving you – these creators are raking in millions of dollars from YouTube each year. The top earner in 2021 was a guy called ‘MrBeast’ aka Jimmy Donaldson, who took home 82 million dollars last year. That’s more than any other YouTube creator in history.
He’s best known for big-money giveaways, stunts, and charitable initiatives and currently has 88 million subscribers. What an empire! And it all started from a simple side hustle.
YouTube Influencers by Category (2023)
People and blogs was the most popular category for YouTube influencers in 2023, with 28.5 percent of them posting videos related to this topic.
Entertainment and video games followed with a respective influencer share of 14.54 and 12.95 percent.
Strategies
Now that we know what’s possible with YouTube, you’re probably wondering how in the heck YouTubers land all these paid partnerships and get millions of people watching their content.
In this section, we’ll break down some strategies for monetizing your YouTube videos, along with some tried and tested tips to get your first 1000 subscribers.
Let’s get to it!
Monetize your channel through affiliate marketing
What is YouTube affiliate marketing?
In the world of YouTube, affiliate marketing is videos that are created to encourage customers to purchase products from third-party sites.
When a subscriber or viewer of your videos purchases a product by using your unique link or code, you can receive a commission. Depending on the third party business, this can range substantially from a flat rate fee to a percentage of the sale.
Examples of YouTube affiliate marketing videos can include reviews, how-to guides, unboxing videos and more. This is where your creativity comes into play! Your videos will be designed to show off what products can do and explain why customers should make a purchase using your unique code or link.
And the good news? It’s super easy to become a part of an affiliate marketing program.
Brands like Amazon, doTerra and Audible are avid users of affiliate marketers and can be found featured in many a YouTuber’s video with its links in description boxes alongside product reviews.
So how do you find a business you want to promote?
Research, research, research. With affiliate marketing, you want to make sure you are promoting a brand that resonates with you.
If you have a legitimate love for a brand, that will be reflected in the content you create. If you want people to spend their hard-earned cash on the products you like, you need to ensure you come across as sincere with your motives.
Viewers will be able to pick up on whether you are being genuine or not, so make sure what you are selling appeals to you. Make a list of products and programs you use in your day to day life and see if they have affiliate programs you can get involved in.
In most cases, all you will need to do when applying is sign up to join. If you find that a brand you are passionate about doesn’t have an affiliate program, get in touch!
Contact them and explain your love for their products or services and that you would love to promote them using your channels. Chances are they would be more than happy to bring you onboard, as it works in their favor!
How to create videos that convert
Once you have your affiliate link or codes, it’s time to get creating! Viewers love honest, genuine feedback on products so don’t be afraid to mention if you feel the product or services could be improved. Make sure these comments are constructive criticism and not just slandering the products or services.
In your video, make sure to include a call to action. There are a variety of calls to action you can use, from asking people to subscribe to your channel, directing people to your affiliate link and suggesting other videos to watch.
The key thing to remember when creating your videos is to include a disclosure that informs viewers that you are a part of an affiliate program. This is a legal obligation.
Want to learn more?
Check out this video from John Crestani. Crestani is an expert in the world of affiliate marketing. From a side hustle, he’s been able to make it into his full time gig in a matter of years. Now, he teaches people how to use affiliate marketing to their advantage.
Another valuable video we would recommend watching is from Modern Millie.
Millie breaks down the kind of affiliate marketing that exists, what platforms she recommends and how she goes about organizing her affiliate business. It’s a video packed with info and she has a real knack for getting the info across in a fun and easy to follow way.
Join the YouTube Partner Program
If you’re wanting to make money from your videos, signing up for the YouTube Partner Program is a must!
Being accepted into the YouTube Partner Program gives you access to their Creator Support team as well as allowing you to make money from ads in your content.
To qualify to apply for the YouTube Partner Program there is a list of minimum requirements you must meet.
- You must have at least 1,000 subscribers on your channel
- You must have 4,000 valid public watch hours over the past 12 months
- Live in a country where the YouTube Partner Program is available
- Have no strikes within the Community Guidelines
- You follow YouTube’s monetization policies
- Have 2-Step Verification on the Google Account associated with your YouTube channel
Being a part of the YouTube Partner Program is the most “traditional” way in which people make money by using the platform. And once you have been accepted you can start monetizing off advertisements across your channel with them appearing before and during your videos.
For the advertisements to run, your videos must meet YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines.
A YouTube Partner Program application can take up to a month to be processed and not all applications are guaranteed to be accepted.
So, what happens if your application is rejected?
Firstly, don’t stress!
It just means that your channel has failed to follow some of the above policies and rules. You can always re-apply after 30-days and go through the process again.
Use the time as an opportunity to improve your channel and see what needs to be fixed for it to comply. You may find that it is a simple fix and could be as easy as altering video descriptions, changing thumbnails or amending video titles. If there are videos causing issues with compliance you may have to delete them or spend time re-editing.
For a more in-depth read on the application process, click this link to follow a step by step guide on the YouTube Partner Program application.
How to reach your first 1,000 subscribers
You may be asking yourself, “Well, getting into the YouTube Partner Program would be great, but how do I get my first 1,000 subscribers so I can apply?”
Never fear! We’ve got you covered.
If you don’t have an established channel yet, trying to hit that 1,000 subscriber target may seem like a big task. Here are some key things to consider when growing your channel.
Keywords!
The best way to get people viewing your videos and interacting with them is by building your videos around single keywords and topics. It is one of the best ways to drive traffic, growing your audience and is deemed crucial if you wish to reach a large number of viewers.
Tools we recommend using that can help you with your keyword research is Keyword Tool or Google Trends. This allows you to compare potential keywords to see which ones rank higher and appear in more searches.
Something to keep in mind though…
If a word has a higher search volume it usually means that there is more competition to rank that word or phrase.
By keeping tabs on keywords you can also look at what your competitors are using. Find channels that fit the same niche as you that have a few thousands subscribers and look through their “Most Popular” content.
Check out the videos that have the most views and comments and make note of the keywords used and how they were incorporated into the title, tags and video description. This is a great way of seeing which keywords might already be saturated in your chosen market and can reveal gaps where opportunity may lie.
When you have identified a list of high-value keywords, it’s time to put them to work! Here is where we recommend incorporating them, to give you the most opportunity for success with your videos:
Video file username
This is key! SEO optimization begins before you’ve even uploaded the video to your channel. Make sure to include your keywords prominently in the video file name.
Video title
Create a punchy and concise title. Think what sort of video gets you to click to view. Avoid using titles longer than 70 characters as they will get cut off on the search results page and try to include the keywords toward the beginning of the title.
Check out this video by Think Media on how to create the perfect YouTube Title for your content that will get clicks and engagement!
Video description
Something many YouTubers seem to miss is only writing a couple of sentences in their video description. Don’t be afraid to write when it comes to this area. The more words your description has, the better!
YouTube allows you to have 5,000 characters for a video description so be sure to utilize it. Strategically incorporate your keywords in the information about the video. Give the video an enticing hook and a specific call to action. You can direct people to the call to action in your video material also.
Think Media’s videos also provide a great example of what a detailed video description looks like. Learn more about adding clickable links into your video description here.
Video transcript
Use the video transcript as another opportunity to include your keywords as it provides additional text used by the platform’s ranking algorithm.
Tags
When creating the tags for your video, make sure to include the top relevant keywords first, your brand or channel name and some specific phrases as long as they are relevant and concise.
No one likes a clickbait video and too broad a range of topics in your tags list will signal to YouTube that your video is not strongly relevant to anything in particular. It is advised to keep tags under 127 characters.
Audio Keywords
A unique way to include even more keywords in your videos is to say them! Including your keywords naturally throughout your video means that YouTube can pick up on your keywords via closed captions.
By doing this you are generating more search traffic with SEO, in turn increasing engagement! Try including your top keywords in the first two sentences of speech in your video to keep the viewer retention rate up.
When you add in your keywords, having sound knowledge of creating a script is beneficial.
Watch the video below on getting some great tips and tricks on creating quality YouTube script focusing on the hook, content and the call to action.
The key thing, when using keywords, is to prioritize relevance over volume. Something to keep in mind when it comes to search engines like Google or YouTube, is that there is no concept of what “best” is.
The platforms cannot judge a video on its merits and does not rank individual videos as being more or less worthy of views, the only thing that can make that judgment are viewers.
Search engines can only determine relevance and that is from the keywords you decide to include. Search engines only know if it has provided the right video for the right search by the actions taken from the user.
If you spend the time to research and include accurate keywords in your description, tags, titles, transcripts and audio your video will appear in more searches. If the viewers leave comments or subscribe, YouTube’s algorithm will conclude that your videos are highly relevant and place you in more searches.
Once broken down, the process is relatively easy and doesn’t require any wizardry, just time and effort placed into research and creating engaging content.
Our friends at VidIQ have some more insightful videos on how to increase your subscribers and how to hit that 4,000 hours of viewing to get accepted into the YouTube Partner Program.
More resources
Here are some helpful links on other ways you can boost traction on your YouTube videos:
- A handy article on increasing organic reach in videos using a wide range of assets available.
- An easy to read article with handy tips on increasing engagement and working on focusing on a niche for your channel.
Tool Of The Week – VidIQ
Our tool of the week is VidIQ. A tool designed to boost your YouTube views!
Trusted by leading creators it allows you to get insights and guidance to keep your channel gaining traction, for free. We do love a good freebie!
VidIQ uses artificial intelligence to help you discover what your next hit video idea could be.
It has a wide range of features that can help you make the most from your YouTube channel such as keyword usage, competitor information, viewing trend alerts, comparing video views and tools to help you create thumbnails and graphics.
VidIQ is on a mission to empower video creators regardless of where they are on their journey and give them the knowledge and tools to help them grow.
With a mixture of technological and human expertise, they will be able to help you boost your productivity, allowing you to get more views and engagement.