The most common question I hear, when people find out that I work for a YouTube-centric website, is “do YouTubers make money?” This is then always immediately followed by “how do YouTubers make money?” It’s a series of questions that can get very tiring to hear – especially for YouTubers themselves.
In fact, during the filming of our video series Perspectives , we’ve been asking YouTubers
face-to-face about the things they’re tired of hearing and money is almost
always involved in the answer.
At the end of the day though, as obsessed as the public and the media can be with YouTubers’ earnings, we
recognise that there is also just a genuine lack of understanding about the way
this new form of media and business functions. So, to put the confusion and
endless questions to rest, here are the most common ways in which YouTube
creators earn their pay.
1. YouTube Advertising
YouTubers and YouTube themselves can make money through the
adverts that appear on YouTube. These can take the form of ads that appear to
the side of videos, on the video themselves as a small bar at the bottom,
pre-roll ads (ads that play before your video) and unskippable pre-roll ads
(pre-roll ads that you have to watch the entirety of before the video starts).
If a video is long enough, it can also have ads that play within the video
itself (mid-roll ads).
Every time someone sees or clicks on one of these adverts, a
little bit of money goes to both YouTube itself and the YouTuber. Clicking on
the ads gives you more money than simply seeing it, but YouTube can tell if the
same people are clicking on an ad repeatedly so no, you can’t just click on
your ads loads of times to make money (which I’m asked about constantly).
2. Sponsored Videos
YouTubers can also make money by doing individual brand
deals with companies, much like TV shows do. The YouTuber will create a piece
(or series) of bespoke content that involves or advertises a product and/or
service. There are rules in place that state that YouTubers should clearly
state when a video is sponsored – as you can see in the title of this Dodie
Clark video:
These brand deals can be quite lucrative for YouTubers, and
as long as they are both upfront with their audience about the video’s nature
and are able to make the video entertaining, viewers tend not to have a problem
with them.
3. Merchandising
This has long been one of the biggest sources of YouTuber
income. Much like musical acts, YouTubers tend to foster very loyal fanbases
who clamour for merchandise which they can use to demonstrate
their love for their fave. These days there is a seemingly endless supply of
merchandise available from all kinds of creators.
Of course not all merchandise is official – and if you truly
want to support your fave you should check that the merchandise you are
purchasing is actually made or endorsed by them and not someone else.
4. Expanding their portfolio
Aside from conventional merchandising, YouTubers can also
earn a living by expanding their brand into other avenues. For example, many
major YouTubers are now dabbling with being authors, creating video games or
can be seen performing live. YouTubers have also made headway starring in movies and TV shows and have even starred in TV shows of
their own, although they don’t always tend to do so well.
5. Brand deals
Brand deals are sort of the top shelf when it comes to the
way YouTubers can make money, in the sense that they require the YouTuber to
have a big enough public profile to carry a brand on their shoulders. An
example would be Zoe Sugg’s collaboration with WH Smith’s to launch her ‘Book Club’. The success of
the club was based solely on the power of ‘Zoella’ as a brand and so this is a
financial avenue that can take a lot of time and effort to ‘unlock’ (so the
speak).
Source: http://www.wetheunicorns.com