How to Unlock YouTube Features and Monetize Your Channel

Whatever your interest or passion is, you will find an audience on YouTube. And posting video content on YouTube can be a big-time moneymaker. If you want to learn how to unlock YouTube features and make money on your channel, you are in the right place.

The opportunities to earn a sizable monthly revenue from YouTube are endless. First, you need to understand how video creators get paid. From ads to paid sponsorships, YouTubers with influence can carve out a full-time income.

In fact, YouTube influencers can make anywhere between $315 to nearly $4,000 per video post, more than any other social media platform.

However, becoming a YouTube star with serious influence can prove challenging. There are plenty of things to learn when it comes to how to make money on YouTube. And you need to be motivated, consistent, and create creative content your target audience wants to watch and share.

The really good news is that YouTube is only growing, serving up plenty of viewers to attract to your YouTube channel. For instance, 34 percent of viewers between 18 and 34 years of age binge watch YouTube daily.

To help you get your YouTube revenue stream flowing, we pulled together our influencer marketing pros to find the top ways to make money on YouTube. Let’s dive in!

Become A YouTube Partner And Start Making Ad Money

If you want to know how to get paid for YouTube videos, this is a great first step. Ad money can build up fast, especially if you have tens of thousands of subscribers or net tens of thousands of views from your videos.

Learning how to make money on YouTube when it comes to ads is very much a numbers game. Can you make money on YouTube with under 2,000 subscribers? Absolutely. Will a ton of money come from ads? Probably not. Unless you have got a ton of views per video post.

For ads to be profitable, you need a lot of viewers clicking on the ads and spending time watching the ad content. The average money made via ads is around $18 per 1,000 ad views.

Nonetheless, joining the YouTube Partner Program and setting up your Google AdSense account is a must-do for influencers. There are a few requirements to note in order to get YouTube Partner Program approval:

• Have at least 1,000 subscribers on your channel
• Have over 4,000 hours in organic watch time in 12 months
• Be located in a YouTube Partner Program location
• Meet YouTube’s policies and guidelines for ad-friendly content
• Have a Google AdSense account

Being an approved YouTube partner also opens up doors to other benefits that could become strong revenue streams when it comes to how to make money on YouTube.

Read more in our article about Youtube Monetization.

Know How to Get Community Tab on YouTube

The YouTube Community Tab is a great way to stay engaged with your audience beyond just regular comments. With this Tab, you can include things like gifs, polls, and images to keep in touch with fans in-between video uploads. However, not just anyone can have this magical tool.

Want to know how to unlock Community Tab on YouTube? You’ll need to have at least 1000 subscribers. Once you reach that goal, the tab should appear after a few days. Note: if you do not see it after reaching 1000 subscribers, you’ll need to display the tab by enabling custom channel layouts. If you’re hunting for the Tab of your favorite YouTube creator, it will be on their home page in the middle of the screen.

Understanding how to get this Tab on YouTube opens up a whole new world of possibilities. You can show fans behind the scenes footage of your YouTube account, promote other social media platforms, poll your audience for video recommendations, learn how to post a status on YouTube and so much more!

Make Money On YouTube Via Affiliate Links

Affiliate links are a great way to make money as an influencer on YouTube. Want to know how YouTubers get paid? Affiliate links and affiliate marketing are it. And it is pretty easy to start making money this way.

All you do is insert the affiliate link into your video description and wait for viewers to buy the products and/or services via the links. Online. There are also a ton of top brands you can pull affiliate links from.

But first, you do need to get signed up to one or more affiliate marketing platforms, like CJ.com, Rakuten, FlexOffers, Awin, Amazon Associates, and Walmart affiliates. The sign up process is pretty simple, just follow the form and wait for the approval.

Signing up to more than one affiliate marketing platform is best because there are different top brands on different networks. Amazon Associates is a good choice to since it covers a ton of brands, products, and services within the Amazon online network.

Let’s take a closer look at how to make affiliate links work for you as a YouTube influencer. This is how YouTuber 9to5Mac makes money using affiliate links from Amazon Associates:

Since this video reviews an iPhone 7, it would be good to have an affiliate link for the product being reviewed. When a viewer clicks on the link, they are then redirected to the actual Amazon product page:

In the URL of the Amazon product page, you can see the influencer designation. This is how Amazon knows who to pay for the product promotion. This is how YouTubers make money via affiliate links. Generally, commissions are between 3 percent and 10 percent.

Go Live On YouTube And Make Money With Super Chat

Understanding how to get paid for YouTube videos may not have anything to do with creating and posting videos in the traditional way of YouTube influencers. Instead, you can go live via YouTube video live stream and make serious cash for your creativity and content.

How do you make money for live streaming exactly? YouTube’s Super Chat! Super Chat is a feature that allows viewers of your live stream to send you money directly, and get pinned to the top of the chat board.

Your viewers, if they are loving your content, can send you serious money, from a dollar to $500. The more money the viewer sends via Super Chat, the longer the viewer’s message will stay pinned at the top of the chat board.

Let’s say that you are live streaming a new fitness program and a viewer sends you $20 through the Super Chat feature. The chat message will stay pinned to the top of the chat board, until someone sends a larger amount, like $50. And the money keeps rolling in.

The only catch is that you need to live stream. This can prove difficult for many influencers since they prefer to pre-record videos. But if you want Super Chat cash, you will need to get more comfortable in front of the camera. You can access the Super Chat feature through YouTube Studio.

Set Up Subscription Based Memberships For More YouTube Revenue

This is the next top how-to make money on YouTube tip to unlock your earning potential as a social media influencer. Channel memberships are a good way to start bringing in serious revenue every month. Especially if viewers love your content.

YouTube memberships are purchased by subscribers and give those membership subscribers access to private videos, live streams, custom badges, emojis, live chat sessions, and so much more content and perks.

The monthly memberships can be organized in a few different ways, depending on your preference as a social media influencer. For instance, you can do a tier level membership, with lower tiers being less expensive per month (gold $10, silver $20, Platinum $100).

It is important to note that YouTube will take a 30 percent cut of all membership earnings. This is just the nature of doing business with the second largest search engine on the planet.

Learn How To Make Money On YouTube With Scalefluence

If you’re ready to start making money on YouTube as a social media influencer, it is time to enlist the experts to help. Scalefluence is a premiere influencer marketing platform that puts influencers first.

Our influencers get access to our list of brand and agency networks, allowing you to land more paid brand sponsorships as an influencer and get paid serious cash money. Are you ready to take your influence to the next level? Sign up to Scalefluence today and supercharge your influencer earning potential.