How I Made $389,822 a Year on YouTube

One of the best things about YouTube is your incredible earning potential. With multiple ways to monetize your channel, an unlimited income limit and direct access to a network of targeted audiences, YouTube channels have the potential to become more than just a hobby or even a stream of extra income – but their own profitable business with multiple streams of income and unlimited earning potential. .

When I started my channel in 2020, I was completely unaware of the potential that was about to be unlocked. My channel has quickly become an essential component of my online income, and I want readers to understand how powerful a well-run YouTube channel can be in generating income, generating passive income, and converting viewers into sales. I’ll break down for you exactly how much my channel makes through three different income streams, including one you can start implementing right away even if your channel isn’t monetized yet.

Related: 3 Ways To Make Money On YouTube With Less Than 1,000 Subscribers

Identify a content gap

I started my YouTube channel in 2020, and since then, I have over 13 million views and over 82,000 subscribers. When I started posting content regularly, my channel was a previously defunct side project with only 37 members. After identifying a content gap — people needing help solving a problem, I worked hard to create helpful content that solved their problem and provided high-quality information for free. My channel grew to 1000 subscribers within a week, and I was monetized in less than a month.

RELATED: How to identify pain points that can make customers decide what they’re going to buy

Monetization

Once monetized, the most obvious way to monetize YouTube is through ad revenue. YouTube monetizes your channel when you get at least 4000 watch hours and 1000 subscribers or 10 million views on your YouTube shorts within 12 months. Once monetized, you can allow Google Ads to advertise your content. Every time an ad is viewed you get a cut of the ad revenue.

In my second year on YouTube, my channel had 10,357,608 views. I posted 337 videos, streamed 58 live and released three shorts that year In that one year, I earned $168,233.85 from YouTube advertising. My highest earning day during this period was $1,184 in one day. For every 1000 views of an ad shown on my video, advertisers paid an average of $24.42 to show their ad on my video. That amount is shared half by me and half by YouTube. Although my ad revenue was amazing — especially for someone relatively new and small channel — YouTube Wasn’t the most profitable Income streams from my videos.

Sponsorship

Next, check out my second stream of income from my channel — Sponsorships. This is when a brand offers to partner with you, or if you actively communicate with that brand and create a partnership, they can pay your channel to share their products and services. In one year, I earned $13,925 in sponsorships.

Related: 5 Tips for Using Corporate Sponsorships to Increase Brand Visibility

Affiliate Income

Finally, I want to show you how much I earned in the most interesting income stream because it’s the one you can start with your channel from day one, and it was also the highest income stream from my channel: affiliate income.

Affiliate income occurs when you share a direct link linked to your affiliate account for a brand, their product or service. You get a commission once someone clicks on that affiliate link and makes a purchase. I have earned $207,664 by joining large affiliate networks and platforms or directly partnering with brands.

All in all my YouTube channel Earned $389,822 in just one year.

But here’s an important thing to remember: There are many more ways to monetize your channel than these three

What really blows your mind as a new YouTuber starting to earn income is when you realize that there is no limit to what you can earn with your monetized channel. When you move away from income streams that trade your time for direct payments and toward more passive sales and sales funnels, you realize there is no limit to your income.

I want to be clear here: YouTube doesn’t mean fast and easy. Growing your YouTube channel takes a lot of work. Still, once you’ve created evergreen content that continues to get views even if you don’t publish it, as well as affiliate links and sales funnels that feed sales and commissions from those views, you can move on to more passive income streams.

I want to encourage you to consider what starting a YouTube channel can do for your business and your income Do you have a product or service that needs a stream of targeted buyers? Do you offer an online course, coaching or digital product? Do you have ideas for informative, helpful or entertaining content? Have you solved a problem that others may need help solving?

Whatever your channel’s focus is, I want to encourage you Get started today. You could be missing out on a very lucrative new stream of income.