![[Updated] 5 Tips to Get More Views with YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist]](https://thmb.techidaily.com/13887af25c31ebc0af7fa01bee84ac625b343ea776763c2dea469f5e646eb4f7.png)
[Updated] 5 Tips to Get More Views with YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist]
5 Tips to Get More Views with YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist]
5 Tips to Get More Views with YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist]
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
We all want our videos to get a lot of views, and in turn, lead to more subscribers. In order to do so, we have to prepare it for success. If you are hoping to optimize a video after it has already been published to YouTube, then you aren’t going to get the best result, because much of optimization is done before the video is even shot.a
In this article, we will give you a checklist , which you should have with you at the very beginning of creating a YouTube video: the ideation stage. As you go through your process, check off each task. By doing so, you can ensure that you have given the video the best chance to rank high and be discovered.
How to Optimize Your Video to Rank Higher on YouTube?
- Keep Your Audience’s Attention
- Do Keyword Research
- Engage Your Audience
- Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length
1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention:
Even though your view count is going up, it doesn’t mean your audience is watching your video. And if they are not, then YouTube is going to consider your video less valuable and therefore, lowering its rank.
Audience Retention is an important metric to keep an eye on after every video you’ve published.
Before you start your next project, take a look back at the Audience Retention of your previous videos.
- Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
- Access to Analytics
- Select the video you want to review
- Click into engagement
- See where a dip in watch time
What is Good Audience Retention?
If you want to see how your Audience Retention is performing, the Average Percentage Viewed will give you a broad perspective. The higher the percentage, the more people are watching your entire video.
If you get above 60% Average Percentage Viewed, you should feel very proud. In our modern world with our short attention span, that is considered good retention.
In the example above, we see that on average, a viewer will only see 44% of the video. For the video below, we see that it only has 30% of the video viewed. Overall, the first video is performing better.
There is also a dip that happens at the beginning in the second example, which indicates that viewers are skipping forward and about 20% then deciding it’s not worth continuing. It’s good data to help you improve your introduction and the hook.
If there is important information that you are presenting at a given point and in the Audience Retention you see that only a small percentage of your viewers actually see it, then for the next video, you might want to position the details in a different point in the video.
How to Improve Audience Retention
Here are a few ways you can retain your audience’s attention if you noticed a drop in viewership:
- Film a hook (introduce your video to let the audience know what to expect)
- Add b-roll (having supplemental footage to cut to makes your video more interesting to watch)
- Have a co-host (Having someone on screen gives the video more dynamic interactions)
- Edit out the unimportant stuff
- Write a conclusion (having a conclusion prepared will allow you to transition from the content of the video to the call to action without the audience even knowing) See this example by PolyMatter below and notice how seamless their ending is.
If you have a video that is doing a good job retaining the audience, then replicate it. If there isn’t, keep experimenting with new structures. Improving audience retention is not simply important for your ranking, but it will affirm that you are building quality videos.
Knowing how to structure your video will allow you to be strategic as you build out your content.
2. Do Keyword Research:
Many viewers find YouTube videos via search, and if you aren’t using the appropriate keywords, then YouTube won’t be able to identify your content and display it for your viewers.
Where Do Keywords Appear on YouTube?
- Title: Have keywords at the beginning of the title and limit them up to approximately 60 characters so it appears in full in search.
- Tags: Include 10-15 tags from general keywords to more specific.
- Descriptions: Put important information and keywords at the beginning of the description so both searcher and the search engine understands what the video is about.
Why Keywords Matter
keyword arrangement is an integral part of YouTube optimization because the robots behind YouTube don’t associate the value of the actual video content with what the viewer is actually seeking. You should pay attention to the relevance of keywords.
Even when you add closed captions, it doesn’t mean the best keywords are present to the Youtube search engine when we speak.
That is why it is important to know your audience and what words and phrases they are going to use to search for your video.
Here is how you can see what keywords were used to find your video:
- Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
- Access Analytics
- Select Reach
- Click into Traffic Source
- Click Traffic Source: YouTube Search
If you want to find some new keywords for your upcoming video, you will need to do some research.
1. Enter Keywords You Want to Rank for In YouTube Search: This allows you to see what the most popular phrases are in the YouTube search engine.
2. Study the Competitors: See which videos are ranking high for your search term. Use a tool called VidIQ to see the keywords that the top videos are performing.
3. Search for Related Keywords and Evaluate Relevancy: A tool called Ubersuggest can help you find related keywords and allow you to identify the search volume, cost per click (aka CPC is used for determining the budget for paid search), and the competitiveness of the word or phrase.
Search volume: The number of searches with that particular keyword. The higher the number the more popular it is. You should aim to use keywords with a high search volume.
Keyword competition score: This score is usually indicated by a number and it represents how difficult it is for a keyword to rank due to other pages already ranking for that word or phrase. You want to find a keyword with a low competition score.
Pro tip: The best combination is high search volume and low competition score. But if you can’t get that perfect mix, go for the low competitive score, as it will give you a better chance to rank, even if it isn’t searched as often.
4. Come Up With Content Related to Those Keywords: To come up with topic ideas around a keyword, you can use a tool called Answer the Public , which gives you all the most popular questions searched online.
3. Engage Your Audience:
It’s been highly discussed on forums all over the Internet, and there appears to be a strong correlation between YouTube video ranking and the number of likes, dislikes, and comments the video received.
While YouTube itself might not be using the number of likes and comments to determine where your video rank, having high engagement allows your video to be discovered through other means.
Here is an example of how it would work:
- A YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers views your video and likes it
- Then your video might be visible to a fraction of those 100,000 subscribers.
- Boom! Domino effect!
- More people will see your video and like it, increasing your network of viewers and your watch time, which is one of the main factors that YouTube takes into consideration.
Get engagements with a call to action:
- Don’t be afraid to ask for an engagement at the beginning of the video to avoid fall off on retention.
- Encourage them to leave a comment or start a discussion by asking a question at the end of your video.
- Monitor comments and responds to them so you can build a relationship with your audience over time.
It’s all about creating a community and that is what YouTube encourages.
4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length:
YouTube puts a lot of weight on watch time, and in addition to that, it puts more weight on session watch time.
Session watch time is counted when people watch your video and then continue to watch others, it doesn’t have to be your own. The more time people spend watching YouTube videos, as a result of your content, the more likely YouTube will increase your ranking.
Since YouTube puts importance on time spent watching videos, the length of your video will play a key role.
If you have 5 videos and all of them are a minute long, a 100% watch through will only get you 5 minutes total.
However, if you have 1 video that is 20 minutes, and an average viewer only watches half of it, then you have an average watch time of over 10 minutes. That’s more than double what your five short videos can do. This longer video is worth more. However, if that 20-minute video is really boring and people drop off in the first minute, then it’s not any better than 1 of the 5 short videos.
If your format allows, go for a longer video instead of a shorter one. But the most important thing is that you can keep people watching your videos: so use end screen and playlist links to keep them engaged.
End screen: Pick related videos for your audience, so they know exactly what they should watch next. You can even create a background template for your end screens .
Playlist: If you have multiple videos that fit a specific topic, add them to a playlist so the viewer can enjoy them all in one viewing.
Key Takeaways:
- Use Audience Retention to better understand how to structure your video for the best results.
- Perform Keyword Research to find the keywords that your competitors are using and your audience is searching for.
- Increasing Subscribers gets your video in front of more people the moment it is published.
- Encourage Comments and respond to establish a relationship with your viewers.
- Ensure that Viewers Continue Watching videos on YouTube after they finish watching yours.
Other Things That Affects Your YouTube Ranking
Except for the above-mentioned factors, there are also other issues that affect the ranking of your YouTube video. YouTube has stated that the number of subscribers doesn’t play a key role in your video ranking.
For example, if a YouTuber has a million subscribers and then overnight they lose 100 thousand, a video they had ranking number 1 will still be ranked number 1.
However, the number of subscribers has a lot of indirect effects on your channel.
- Subscribers know the moment your video is published
- Subscribers will watch your video in the first week (YouTube will rank your video higher if they see a lift in the first week of publishing)
- YouTube put a higher value on subscribers than views and social shares, because it’s harder to fake subscribers
Growing subscribers take time and effort, and even though it shouldn’t be your main focus, there are tactics you can do to gain more subscribers .
Don’t miss a chance to optimize your YouTube video, download, and print out this checklist for your next video project. For more information on SEO(Search Engine Optimization) on YouTube, you can also read the following article.
How to Fast Rank Video Higher with Video SEO >>
10 Best YouTube Keyword Tools to Use with Bonus Tips>>
If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
We all want our videos to get a lot of views, and in turn, lead to more subscribers. In order to do so, we have to prepare it for success. If you are hoping to optimize a video after it has already been published to YouTube, then you aren’t going to get the best result, because much of optimization is done before the video is even shot.a
In this article, we will give you a checklist , which you should have with you at the very beginning of creating a YouTube video: the ideation stage. As you go through your process, check off each task. By doing so, you can ensure that you have given the video the best chance to rank high and be discovered.
How to Optimize Your Video to Rank Higher on YouTube?
- Keep Your Audience’s Attention
- Do Keyword Research
- Engage Your Audience
- Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length
1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention:
Even though your view count is going up, it doesn’t mean your audience is watching your video. And if they are not, then YouTube is going to consider your video less valuable and therefore, lowering its rank.
Audience Retention is an important metric to keep an eye on after every video you’ve published.
Before you start your next project, take a look back at the Audience Retention of your previous videos.
- Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
- Access to Analytics
- Select the video you want to review
- Click into engagement
- See where a dip in watch time
What is Good Audience Retention?
If you want to see how your Audience Retention is performing, the Average Percentage Viewed will give you a broad perspective. The higher the percentage, the more people are watching your entire video.
If you get above 60% Average Percentage Viewed, you should feel very proud. In our modern world with our short attention span, that is considered good retention.
In the example above, we see that on average, a viewer will only see 44% of the video. For the video below, we see that it only has 30% of the video viewed. Overall, the first video is performing better.
There is also a dip that happens at the beginning in the second example, which indicates that viewers are skipping forward and about 20% then deciding it’s not worth continuing. It’s good data to help you improve your introduction and the hook.
If there is important information that you are presenting at a given point and in the Audience Retention you see that only a small percentage of your viewers actually see it, then for the next video, you might want to position the details in a different point in the video.
How to Improve Audience Retention
Here are a few ways you can retain your audience’s attention if you noticed a drop in viewership:
- Film a hook (introduce your video to let the audience know what to expect)
- Add b-roll (having supplemental footage to cut to makes your video more interesting to watch)
- Have a co-host (Having someone on screen gives the video more dynamic interactions)
- Edit out the unimportant stuff
- Write a conclusion (having a conclusion prepared will allow you to transition from the content of the video to the call to action without the audience even knowing) See this example by PolyMatter below and notice how seamless their ending is.
If you have a video that is doing a good job retaining the audience, then replicate it. If there isn’t, keep experimenting with new structures. Improving audience retention is not simply important for your ranking, but it will affirm that you are building quality videos.
Knowing how to structure your video will allow you to be strategic as you build out your content.
2. Do Keyword Research:
Many viewers find YouTube videos via search, and if you aren’t using the appropriate keywords, then YouTube won’t be able to identify your content and display it for your viewers.
Where Do Keywords Appear on YouTube?
- Title: Have keywords at the beginning of the title and limit them up to approximately 60 characters so it appears in full in search.
- Tags: Include 10-15 tags from general keywords to more specific.
- Descriptions: Put important information and keywords at the beginning of the description so both searcher and the search engine understands what the video is about.
Why Keywords Matter
keyword arrangement is an integral part of YouTube optimization because the robots behind YouTube don’t associate the value of the actual video content with what the viewer is actually seeking. You should pay attention to the relevance of keywords.
Even when you add closed captions, it doesn’t mean the best keywords are present to the Youtube search engine when we speak.
That is why it is important to know your audience and what words and phrases they are going to use to search for your video.
Here is how you can see what keywords were used to find your video:
- Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
- Access Analytics
- Select Reach
- Click into Traffic Source
- Click Traffic Source: YouTube Search
If you want to find some new keywords for your upcoming video, you will need to do some research.
1. Enter Keywords You Want to Rank for In YouTube Search: This allows you to see what the most popular phrases are in the YouTube search engine.
2. Study the Competitors: See which videos are ranking high for your search term. Use a tool called VidIQ to see the keywords that the top videos are performing.
3. Search for Related Keywords and Evaluate Relevancy: A tool called Ubersuggest can help you find related keywords and allow you to identify the search volume, cost per click (aka CPC is used for determining the budget for paid search), and the competitiveness of the word or phrase.
Search volume: The number of searches with that particular keyword. The higher the number the more popular it is. You should aim to use keywords with a high search volume.
Keyword competition score: This score is usually indicated by a number and it represents how difficult it is for a keyword to rank due to other pages already ranking for that word or phrase. You want to find a keyword with a low competition score.
Pro tip: The best combination is high search volume and low competition score. But if you can’t get that perfect mix, go for the low competitive score, as it will give you a better chance to rank, even if it isn’t searched as often.
4. Come Up With Content Related to Those Keywords: To come up with topic ideas around a keyword, you can use a tool called Answer the Public , which gives you all the most popular questions searched online.
3. Engage Your Audience:
It’s been highly discussed on forums all over the Internet, and there appears to be a strong correlation between YouTube video ranking and the number of likes, dislikes, and comments the video received.
While YouTube itself might not be using the number of likes and comments to determine where your video rank, having high engagement allows your video to be discovered through other means.
Here is an example of how it would work:
- A YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers views your video and likes it
- Then your video might be visible to a fraction of those 100,000 subscribers.
- Boom! Domino effect!
- More people will see your video and like it, increasing your network of viewers and your watch time, which is one of the main factors that YouTube takes into consideration.
Get engagements with a call to action:
- Don’t be afraid to ask for an engagement at the beginning of the video to avoid fall off on retention.
- Encourage them to leave a comment or start a discussion by asking a question at the end of your video.
- Monitor comments and responds to them so you can build a relationship with your audience over time.
It’s all about creating a community and that is what YouTube encourages.
4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length:
YouTube puts a lot of weight on watch time, and in addition to that, it puts more weight on session watch time.
Session watch time is counted when people watch your video and then continue to watch others, it doesn’t have to be your own. The more time people spend watching YouTube videos, as a result of your content, the more likely YouTube will increase your ranking.
Since YouTube puts importance on time spent watching videos, the length of your video will play a key role.
If you have 5 videos and all of them are a minute long, a 100% watch through will only get you 5 minutes total.
However, if you have 1 video that is 20 minutes, and an average viewer only watches half of it, then you have an average watch time of over 10 minutes. That’s more than double what your five short videos can do. This longer video is worth more. However, if that 20-minute video is really boring and people drop off in the first minute, then it’s not any better than 1 of the 5 short videos.
If your format allows, go for a longer video instead of a shorter one. But the most important thing is that you can keep people watching your videos: so use end screen and playlist links to keep them engaged.
End screen: Pick related videos for your audience, so they know exactly what they should watch next. You can even create a background template for your end screens .
Playlist: If you have multiple videos that fit a specific topic, add them to a playlist so the viewer can enjoy them all in one viewing.
Key Takeaways:
- Use Audience Retention to better understand how to structure your video for the best results.
- Perform Keyword Research to find the keywords that your competitors are using and your audience is searching for.
- Increasing Subscribers gets your video in front of more people the moment it is published.
- Encourage Comments and respond to establish a relationship with your viewers.
- Ensure that Viewers Continue Watching videos on YouTube after they finish watching yours.
Other Things That Affects Your YouTube Ranking
Except for the above-mentioned factors, there are also other issues that affect the ranking of your YouTube video. YouTube has stated that the number of subscribers doesn’t play a key role in your video ranking.
For example, if a YouTuber has a million subscribers and then overnight they lose 100 thousand, a video they had ranking number 1 will still be ranked number 1.
However, the number of subscribers has a lot of indirect effects on your channel.
- Subscribers know the moment your video is published
- Subscribers will watch your video in the first week (YouTube will rank your video higher if they see a lift in the first week of publishing)
- YouTube put a higher value on subscribers than views and social shares, because it’s harder to fake subscribers
Growing subscribers take time and effort, and even though it shouldn’t be your main focus, there are tactics you can do to gain more subscribers .
Don’t miss a chance to optimize your YouTube video, download, and print out this checklist for your next video project. For more information on SEO(Search Engine Optimization) on YouTube, you can also read the following article.
How to Fast Rank Video Higher with Video SEO >>
10 Best YouTube Keyword Tools to Use with Bonus Tips>>
If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
We all want our videos to get a lot of views, and in turn, lead to more subscribers. In order to do so, we have to prepare it for success. If you are hoping to optimize a video after it has already been published to YouTube, then you aren’t going to get the best result, because much of optimization is done before the video is even shot.a
In this article, we will give you a checklist , which you should have with you at the very beginning of creating a YouTube video: the ideation stage. As you go through your process, check off each task. By doing so, you can ensure that you have given the video the best chance to rank high and be discovered.
How to Optimize Your Video to Rank Higher on YouTube?
- Keep Your Audience’s Attention
- Do Keyword Research
- Engage Your Audience
- Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length
1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention:
Even though your view count is going up, it doesn’t mean your audience is watching your video. And if they are not, then YouTube is going to consider your video less valuable and therefore, lowering its rank.
Audience Retention is an important metric to keep an eye on after every video you’ve published.
Before you start your next project, take a look back at the Audience Retention of your previous videos.
- Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
- Access to Analytics
- Select the video you want to review
- Click into engagement
- See where a dip in watch time
What is Good Audience Retention?
If you want to see how your Audience Retention is performing, the Average Percentage Viewed will give you a broad perspective. The higher the percentage, the more people are watching your entire video.
If you get above 60% Average Percentage Viewed, you should feel very proud. In our modern world with our short attention span, that is considered good retention.
In the example above, we see that on average, a viewer will only see 44% of the video. For the video below, we see that it only has 30% of the video viewed. Overall, the first video is performing better.
There is also a dip that happens at the beginning in the second example, which indicates that viewers are skipping forward and about 20% then deciding it’s not worth continuing. It’s good data to help you improve your introduction and the hook.
If there is important information that you are presenting at a given point and in the Audience Retention you see that only a small percentage of your viewers actually see it, then for the next video, you might want to position the details in a different point in the video.
How to Improve Audience Retention
Here are a few ways you can retain your audience’s attention if you noticed a drop in viewership:
- Film a hook (introduce your video to let the audience know what to expect)
- Add b-roll (having supplemental footage to cut to makes your video more interesting to watch)
- Have a co-host (Having someone on screen gives the video more dynamic interactions)
- Edit out the unimportant stuff
- Write a conclusion (having a conclusion prepared will allow you to transition from the content of the video to the call to action without the audience even knowing) See this example by PolyMatter below and notice how seamless their ending is.
If you have a video that is doing a good job retaining the audience, then replicate it. If there isn’t, keep experimenting with new structures. Improving audience retention is not simply important for your ranking, but it will affirm that you are building quality videos.
Knowing how to structure your video will allow you to be strategic as you build out your content.
2. Do Keyword Research:
Many viewers find YouTube videos via search, and if you aren’t using the appropriate keywords, then YouTube won’t be able to identify your content and display it for your viewers.
Where Do Keywords Appear on YouTube?
- Title: Have keywords at the beginning of the title and limit them up to approximately 60 characters so it appears in full in search.
- Tags: Include 10-15 tags from general keywords to more specific.
- Descriptions: Put important information and keywords at the beginning of the description so both searcher and the search engine understands what the video is about.
Why Keywords Matter
keyword arrangement is an integral part of YouTube optimization because the robots behind YouTube don’t associate the value of the actual video content with what the viewer is actually seeking. You should pay attention to the relevance of keywords.
Even when you add closed captions, it doesn’t mean the best keywords are present to the Youtube search engine when we speak.
That is why it is important to know your audience and what words and phrases they are going to use to search for your video.
Here is how you can see what keywords were used to find your video:
- Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
- Access Analytics
- Select Reach
- Click into Traffic Source
- Click Traffic Source: YouTube Search
If you want to find some new keywords for your upcoming video, you will need to do some research.
1. Enter Keywords You Want to Rank for In YouTube Search: This allows you to see what the most popular phrases are in the YouTube search engine.
2. Study the Competitors: See which videos are ranking high for your search term. Use a tool called VidIQ to see the keywords that the top videos are performing.
3. Search for Related Keywords and Evaluate Relevancy: A tool called Ubersuggest can help you find related keywords and allow you to identify the search volume, cost per click (aka CPC is used for determining the budget for paid search), and the competitiveness of the word or phrase.
Search volume: The number of searches with that particular keyword. The higher the number the more popular it is. You should aim to use keywords with a high search volume.
Keyword competition score: This score is usually indicated by a number and it represents how difficult it is for a keyword to rank due to other pages already ranking for that word or phrase. You want to find a keyword with a low competition score.
Pro tip: The best combination is high search volume and low competition score. But if you can’t get that perfect mix, go for the low competitive score, as it will give you a better chance to rank, even if it isn’t searched as often.
4. Come Up With Content Related to Those Keywords: To come up with topic ideas around a keyword, you can use a tool called Answer the Public , which gives you all the most popular questions searched online.
3. Engage Your Audience:
It’s been highly discussed on forums all over the Internet, and there appears to be a strong correlation between YouTube video ranking and the number of likes, dislikes, and comments the video received.
While YouTube itself might not be using the number of likes and comments to determine where your video rank, having high engagement allows your video to be discovered through other means.
Here is an example of how it would work:
- A YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers views your video and likes it
- Then your video might be visible to a fraction of those 100,000 subscribers.
- Boom! Domino effect!
- More people will see your video and like it, increasing your network of viewers and your watch time, which is one of the main factors that YouTube takes into consideration.
Get engagements with a call to action:
- Don’t be afraid to ask for an engagement at the beginning of the video to avoid fall off on retention.
- Encourage them to leave a comment or start a discussion by asking a question at the end of your video.
- Monitor comments and responds to them so you can build a relationship with your audience over time.
It’s all about creating a community and that is what YouTube encourages.
4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length:
YouTube puts a lot of weight on watch time, and in addition to that, it puts more weight on session watch time.
Session watch time is counted when people watch your video and then continue to watch others, it doesn’t have to be your own. The more time people spend watching YouTube videos, as a result of your content, the more likely YouTube will increase your ranking.
Since YouTube puts importance on time spent watching videos, the length of your video will play a key role.
If you have 5 videos and all of them are a minute long, a 100% watch through will only get you 5 minutes total.
However, if you have 1 video that is 20 minutes, and an average viewer only watches half of it, then you have an average watch time of over 10 minutes. That’s more than double what your five short videos can do. This longer video is worth more. However, if that 20-minute video is really boring and people drop off in the first minute, then it’s not any better than 1 of the 5 short videos.
If your format allows, go for a longer video instead of a shorter one. But the most important thing is that you can keep people watching your videos: so use end screen and playlist links to keep them engaged.
End screen: Pick related videos for your audience, so they know exactly what they should watch next. You can even create a background template for your end screens .
Playlist: If you have multiple videos that fit a specific topic, add them to a playlist so the viewer can enjoy them all in one viewing.
Key Takeaways:
- Use Audience Retention to better understand how to structure your video for the best results.
- Perform Keyword Research to find the keywords that your competitors are using and your audience is searching for.
- Increasing Subscribers gets your video in front of more people the moment it is published.
- Encourage Comments and respond to establish a relationship with your viewers.
- Ensure that Viewers Continue Watching videos on YouTube after they finish watching yours.
Other Things That Affects Your YouTube Ranking
Except for the above-mentioned factors, there are also other issues that affect the ranking of your YouTube video. YouTube has stated that the number of subscribers doesn’t play a key role in your video ranking.
For example, if a YouTuber has a million subscribers and then overnight they lose 100 thousand, a video they had ranking number 1 will still be ranked number 1.
However, the number of subscribers has a lot of indirect effects on your channel.
- Subscribers know the moment your video is published
- Subscribers will watch your video in the first week (YouTube will rank your video higher if they see a lift in the first week of publishing)
- YouTube put a higher value on subscribers than views and social shares, because it’s harder to fake subscribers
Growing subscribers take time and effort, and even though it shouldn’t be your main focus, there are tactics you can do to gain more subscribers .
Don’t miss a chance to optimize your YouTube video, download, and print out this checklist for your next video project. For more information on SEO(Search Engine Optimization) on YouTube, you can also read the following article.
How to Fast Rank Video Higher with Video SEO >>
10 Best YouTube Keyword Tools to Use with Bonus Tips>>
If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions
We all want our videos to get a lot of views, and in turn, lead to more subscribers. In order to do so, we have to prepare it for success. If you are hoping to optimize a video after it has already been published to YouTube, then you aren’t going to get the best result, because much of optimization is done before the video is even shot.a
In this article, we will give you a checklist , which you should have with you at the very beginning of creating a YouTube video: the ideation stage. As you go through your process, check off each task. By doing so, you can ensure that you have given the video the best chance to rank high and be discovered.
How to Optimize Your Video to Rank Higher on YouTube?
- Keep Your Audience’s Attention
- Do Keyword Research
- Engage Your Audience
- Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length
1. Keep Your Audience’s Attention:
Even though your view count is going up, it doesn’t mean your audience is watching your video. And if they are not, then YouTube is going to consider your video less valuable and therefore, lowering its rank.
Audience Retention is an important metric to keep an eye on after every video you’ve published.
Before you start your next project, take a look back at the Audience Retention of your previous videos.
- Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
- Access to Analytics
- Select the video you want to review
- Click into engagement
- See where a dip in watch time
What is Good Audience Retention?
If you want to see how your Audience Retention is performing, the Average Percentage Viewed will give you a broad perspective. The higher the percentage, the more people are watching your entire video.
If you get above 60% Average Percentage Viewed, you should feel very proud. In our modern world with our short attention span, that is considered good retention.
In the example above, we see that on average, a viewer will only see 44% of the video. For the video below, we see that it only has 30% of the video viewed. Overall, the first video is performing better.
There is also a dip that happens at the beginning in the second example, which indicates that viewers are skipping forward and about 20% then deciding it’s not worth continuing. It’s good data to help you improve your introduction and the hook.
If there is important information that you are presenting at a given point and in the Audience Retention you see that only a small percentage of your viewers actually see it, then for the next video, you might want to position the details in a different point in the video.
How to Improve Audience Retention
Here are a few ways you can retain your audience’s attention if you noticed a drop in viewership:
- Film a hook (introduce your video to let the audience know what to expect)
- Add b-roll (having supplemental footage to cut to makes your video more interesting to watch)
- Have a co-host (Having someone on screen gives the video more dynamic interactions)
- Edit out the unimportant stuff
- Write a conclusion (having a conclusion prepared will allow you to transition from the content of the video to the call to action without the audience even knowing) See this example by PolyMatter below and notice how seamless their ending is.
If you have a video that is doing a good job retaining the audience, then replicate it. If there isn’t, keep experimenting with new structures. Improving audience retention is not simply important for your ranking, but it will affirm that you are building quality videos.
Knowing how to structure your video will allow you to be strategic as you build out your content.
2. Do Keyword Research:
Many viewers find YouTube videos via search, and if you aren’t using the appropriate keywords, then YouTube won’t be able to identify your content and display it for your viewers.
Where Do Keywords Appear on YouTube?
- Title: Have keywords at the beginning of the title and limit them up to approximately 60 characters so it appears in full in search.
- Tags: Include 10-15 tags from general keywords to more specific.
- Descriptions: Put important information and keywords at the beginning of the description so both searcher and the search engine understands what the video is about.
Why Keywords Matter
keyword arrangement is an integral part of YouTube optimization because the robots behind YouTube don’t associate the value of the actual video content with what the viewer is actually seeking. You should pay attention to the relevance of keywords.
Even when you add closed captions, it doesn’t mean the best keywords are present to the Youtube search engine when we speak.
That is why it is important to know your audience and what words and phrases they are going to use to search for your video.
Here is how you can see what keywords were used to find your video:
- Enter YouTube Studio in your channel
- Access Analytics
- Select Reach
- Click into Traffic Source
- Click Traffic Source: YouTube Search
If you want to find some new keywords for your upcoming video, you will need to do some research.
1. Enter Keywords You Want to Rank for In YouTube Search: This allows you to see what the most popular phrases are in the YouTube search engine.
2. Study the Competitors: See which videos are ranking high for your search term. Use a tool called VidIQ to see the keywords that the top videos are performing.
3. Search for Related Keywords and Evaluate Relevancy: A tool called Ubersuggest can help you find related keywords and allow you to identify the search volume, cost per click (aka CPC is used for determining the budget for paid search), and the competitiveness of the word or phrase.
Search volume: The number of searches with that particular keyword. The higher the number the more popular it is. You should aim to use keywords with a high search volume.
Keyword competition score: This score is usually indicated by a number and it represents how difficult it is for a keyword to rank due to other pages already ranking for that word or phrase. You want to find a keyword with a low competition score.
Pro tip: The best combination is high search volume and low competition score. But if you can’t get that perfect mix, go for the low competitive score, as it will give you a better chance to rank, even if it isn’t searched as often.
4. Come Up With Content Related to Those Keywords: To come up with topic ideas around a keyword, you can use a tool called Answer the Public , which gives you all the most popular questions searched online.
3. Engage Your Audience:
It’s been highly discussed on forums all over the Internet, and there appears to be a strong correlation between YouTube video ranking and the number of likes, dislikes, and comments the video received.
While YouTube itself might not be using the number of likes and comments to determine where your video rank, having high engagement allows your video to be discovered through other means.
Here is an example of how it would work:
- A YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers views your video and likes it
- Then your video might be visible to a fraction of those 100,000 subscribers.
- Boom! Domino effect!
- More people will see your video and like it, increasing your network of viewers and your watch time, which is one of the main factors that YouTube takes into consideration.
Get engagements with a call to action:
- Don’t be afraid to ask for an engagement at the beginning of the video to avoid fall off on retention.
- Encourage them to leave a comment or start a discussion by asking a question at the end of your video.
- Monitor comments and responds to them so you can build a relationship with your audience over time.
It’s all about creating a community and that is what YouTube encourages.
4. Upload YouTube Video in Proper Length:
YouTube puts a lot of weight on watch time, and in addition to that, it puts more weight on session watch time.
Session watch time is counted when people watch your video and then continue to watch others, it doesn’t have to be your own. The more time people spend watching YouTube videos, as a result of your content, the more likely YouTube will increase your ranking.
Since YouTube puts importance on time spent watching videos, the length of your video will play a key role.
If you have 5 videos and all of them are a minute long, a 100% watch through will only get you 5 minutes total.
However, if you have 1 video that is 20 minutes, and an average viewer only watches half of it, then you have an average watch time of over 10 minutes. That’s more than double what your five short videos can do. This longer video is worth more. However, if that 20-minute video is really boring and people drop off in the first minute, then it’s not any better than 1 of the 5 short videos.
If your format allows, go for a longer video instead of a shorter one. But the most important thing is that you can keep people watching your videos: so use end screen and playlist links to keep them engaged.
End screen: Pick related videos for your audience, so they know exactly what they should watch next. You can even create a background template for your end screens .
Playlist: If you have multiple videos that fit a specific topic, add them to a playlist so the viewer can enjoy them all in one viewing.
Key Takeaways:
- Use Audience Retention to better understand how to structure your video for the best results.
- Perform Keyword Research to find the keywords that your competitors are using and your audience is searching for.
- Increasing Subscribers gets your video in front of more people the moment it is published.
- Encourage Comments and respond to establish a relationship with your viewers.
- Ensure that Viewers Continue Watching videos on YouTube after they finish watching yours.
Other Things That Affects Your YouTube Ranking
Except for the above-mentioned factors, there are also other issues that affect the ranking of your YouTube video. YouTube has stated that the number of subscribers doesn’t play a key role in your video ranking.
For example, if a YouTuber has a million subscribers and then overnight they lose 100 thousand, a video they had ranking number 1 will still be ranked number 1.
However, the number of subscribers has a lot of indirect effects on your channel.
- Subscribers know the moment your video is published
- Subscribers will watch your video in the first week (YouTube will rank your video higher if they see a lift in the first week of publishing)
- YouTube put a higher value on subscribers than views and social shares, because it’s harder to fake subscribers
Growing subscribers take time and effort, and even though it shouldn’t be your main focus, there are tactics you can do to gain more subscribers .
Don’t miss a chance to optimize your YouTube video, download, and print out this checklist for your next video project. For more information on SEO(Search Engine Optimization) on YouTube, you can also read the following article.
How to Fast Rank Video Higher with Video SEO >>
10 Best YouTube Keyword Tools to Use with Bonus Tips>>
If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Crafting a Non-Ad Revenue Stream on YouTube: The Self-Sustaining Creator’s Tale
How to Make Money on YouTube Without Ads
Richard Bennett
Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions
In this article, we are going to look at 4 different types of ways to make money on YouTube that doesn’t involve ads.
But why should there be any other way? What’s wrong with simply focusing on ads?
More and more people are making a living by creating videos on YouTube. According to the YouTube Partner Program , YouTube has seen a 40% year-over-year of channels making 6 figures from viewer ads engagements.
Best YouTube Video Editor–Wondershare Filmora
Over thousands of hours of content are uploaded on YouTube every day and people are going crazy to earn money with video monetization. There should be a minimum time gap between your video shoot, editing, and uploading it to your channel. Wondershare Filmora Video Editor can help you get your videos edited faster. Not only the interface is simple and intuitive, it has both the basic and professional editing tools such as cutting, trimming, crop&zoom, a large collection of video effects and royalty-free music, and you can also upload the video directly on YouTube after editing. All of these make Filmora stand out in the queue and become a favorite tool to edit YouTube videos.
What is the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)?
YPP enables YouTubers to make money from an advertisement that appears before or during their videos.
How Much Money Can YouTubers Make from Ads?
The answer to this question varies depending on the channel and the audience, as YouTubers don’t make money for views but rather from how often people engage with the ads. If a viewer watches more than 30 seconds of the ad or clicks it, then the YouTuber will make money.
This is a general estimate of how much a YouTuber can make from ads once they qualify:
- 68% of advertisers ad spend goes to the video creator. If advertisers spend $100, creators get $68.
- $0.18 is the average rate per ad view.
- 1000 ad views will equal approximately $18
- 1000 video views will equal between $2-$5
Why It’s So Hard for YouTubers to Make Money From Ads
For new YouTubers, it is getting harder and harder to get to that point where their sole income can be from YouTube ads. Before they can make a penny, they must first qualify.
Monetization Rules ( as of January 2018
- Creators need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in 12 months before they can turn on monetization
- YouTube pays in $100 increments
Once they have monetization turned on, it’s only the beginning. YouTubers need to create good content consistently. In order to earn $100 for the initial payout, they need an average of 50,000 views. That’s just $100! A lot of views and not a big payout. Hardly enough to quit your day job.
That is why it is essential to have alternative ways to make money on YouTube, and not rely on the ads shown on your videos. So, without further ado, here are 4 other ways to make money on YouTube:
1. Sell Your Product or Service:
YouTube is one of the most effective means of marketing and selling your products and services if you are able to use it effectively and drive people to click and buy.
Here are some examples of products and services you can offer:
Products:
- eBooks
- Artwork
- Licensed content
- Online course
- Channel/brand merchandise 
YouTuber, Jake Paul uses eCommerce platform Fanjoy to sell his merch.
Services:
- Consulting work (strategy planner, financial advisor, etc.)
- Contracting work (designer, developer, etc.)
- Education (tutor, trainer, etc.)
- Performance/Speaking Opportunities (motivational speaker, musician, etc.)
YouTuber and entrepreneur, Sunny Lenarduzzi uses YouTube as a platform to get clients for her consulting business.
How to Sell a Product or Service on YouTube
YouTube is a vast platform and if you don’t have a clear direction for what you are selling, you might be making videos for an audience that isn’t interested in buying what you are selling.
Here is how you should go about selling your product or service on YouTube:
1. Your content must be discovered by the right people: If the wrong people find your content, then you aren’t going to make any sales. To get the right eyes on your videos, you’ll need to do some research on your target audience and what keywords they use when searching for your product or services.
If you are selling a meditation eBook and guided meditation services, type in some possible keywords in the YouTube search bar. What appears will be some popular searches:
From there, take your possible keywords and put them into a tool such as Ubersuggest to find other related keywords. This will help you create discoverable content that will catch the interest of those who will buy what you are selling.
2. Your content must have value: You cannot start with the Call to Action or try selling to your audience right away. You must first build trust and prove that what you are selling has value.
Take this example from Modern Health Monk , a weight loss coach.
In the video, he offers tips on how journaling can help the viewer reach their goal. The way he intends to make money is through people signing up for his course. The course is the product he is selling, but he doesn’t say that. He knows the viewers are not there to enroll in a course. They are there to learn about what he is offering.
The video is over 9 minutes long and not once does he tell his audience to buy anything. However, he does encourage the viewer at the end to download a free eBook. Selling is about focusing on the long game.
3. Your content must lead the audience to a place where they can buy: You don’t want to force people through a door, but you do want the signs to be visible. You will need to direct the viewer to a place where they can make the purchase. YouTube has a few ways to point your viewers in that direction.
Link in the description box:
The YouTube Card:
You can add one or multiple cards to direct viewers to your website or to another related video.
Call to action button:
Once the viewer is on your website, make sure the path is apparent as well. Have a clear call to action somewhere on your website. This is where your viewers become customers.
But What if You Don’t Have a Product Or Service to Sell Yet?
While some YouTubers certainly start with their product and service in mind and find their customers to sell through YouTube, many others go the opposite way and discover their audience first.
Lilly Singh did not start a YouTube channel to sell her book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life. Her YouTube channel gave her an audience and proved to publishers that there was enough demand for her to write a book that people will read.
As you grow your audience you will find that there will be a demand for certain products or services that don’t already exist. This is where you put on your entrepreneur hat and think of something that your audience will pay money for and make it happen. Odds are, when it happens, it wouldn’t even be a mystery, your audience will tell you to make or supply it.
For example, Remi Cruz , a YouTuber with over 2.2 million subscribers. Remi created a beauty brand and DIY face mask, Honey Pop , which could only have happened after taking the time to understand her supportive audience.
2. Affiliate Marketing:
Businesses know that there are more eyes watching YouTube than ever — behind Google, YouTube is the second most popular place for people researching what to buy — and influencers and reviews are an effective method of getting sales. You can leverage that by participating in affiliate marketing as a YouTuber.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work On YouTube?
As a YouTuber, you can share your thoughts on products or services, and if there are products that you recommend, by simply adding a personalized link to the product page, you can get a commission for every sale of that product that came through your link.
The average affiliate commission rate is between 5% to 30%, with a lot of variables. Some low price range items will have a higher commission, while higher-priced items will have lower commissions.
Travel YouTuber, Sorelle Amore ’s affiliate links to her vlogging gears.
Keep in mind that people are most likely going to take recommendations from people they trust. You wouldn’t buy a computer from a nutritionist and you wouldn’t buy vitamins from a gamer, so consider what you are an expert in and what products you have the most authority to speak about.
What Videos Are Best for Affiliate Marketing?
There are no restrictions on what will make a good affiliate marketing video, but there are best practices.
What’s important is understanding the purpose of the video. If the video is about vlogging microphones, then it makes complete sense to have an affiliate link to your favorite microphone. Odds are the people who are watching the video may be considering buying a new microphone, so the link is helpful for them.
Here are a few types of videos that make for good affiliate marketing opportunities:
- Product reviews
- Top 10
- How-tos
- Cheap vs expensive
- What to pack for…
How to Get an Affiliate Marketing Link for YouTube?
Which affiliate marketing program you choose to sign up with will depend on the products you want to link to through your content. Do some research on what each network has to offer in regards to your niche.
Here is the list of 4 popular affiliate marketing networks:
- Rakuten
- PeerFly
You can also partner with brands directly as many of them, such as Sephora and Canon , will have their own affiliate program.
3. Brand Deal or Sponsorships:
Selling out, that is often the thought when we hear creators getting brand deals and sponsorships, but that stigma is unfounded if the brand and the content are properly aligned. As your channel grows, you will begin to recognize brands that match your values — and the values of your viewers — and those that don’t.
Today, more and more brands are collaborating with YouTube creators, because creators are 4x more effective in earning brand familiarity than collaborations with traditional celebrities.
In an ad for Beats by Dre’s #BuiltForBosses campaign, YouTuber Liza Koshy outperformed the likes of Tom Brady and DJ Khaled.
While it does take significant effort on YouTube to acquire a following, it is possible for a YouTube channel with 1,000 subscribers to get a brand deal. Getting the buy-in from brands is a numbers game, and according to Video Creators , the minimal number of views per video shouldn’t be lower than 2,000 if this is the path you want to head in.
How to Get Discovered By Brands
The decision-makers behind brands might not be aware of influencers with a smaller following — those who have just cracked the 5,000 subscriber mark. The odds of a brand reaching out to you, as a small creator, is unlikely to happen.
If you want to get a brand deal and become an influencer on YouTube, then you will have to put yourself out there to be discovered and that is on an Influencer Marketing Network, such as Famebit .
How Influencer Marketing Platforms Like Famebit Works
When you sign up for Famebit or other influencer marketing platforms you have an opportunity to get in front of brands who are seeking influencers to share their product or service.
Steps to getting a brand deal:
- Find brands and campaigns that match your audience.
- Pitch your creative ideas and present the proposal to the brand within their parameters (product review, 30-60 shoutout, etc.)
- If accepted, you are hired and will begin collaboration with the brand to produce the project.
- Build our content.
- Receive approval from the brand.
- Get Paid!
Unlike celebrity marketing, YouTube creators have shown brands over the years that they are inventive and clever with how they can present the brand to the audience to drive the best results. This type of independence is what makes YouTube influencer marketing special.
4. Crowdfunding:
If you are creating valuable content and have a loyal following, you can start thinking about crowdfunding. It doesn’t take stardom to start asking for donations, pledge, or support from your fans. There is a demand for quality content and if you are creating something of value, even on a free service like YouTube, people will happily pay to support it.
But how can you approach crowdfunding so it doesn’t look like you are begging?
3 Popular Types of Crowdfunding:
- Tiered Rewards: You can give incentives for your patrons in different tiers. Example: a donation of $2-$10 gives them a shoutout in your next video, a donation of $20-$100 gets them an exclusive spot in a live stream, and more extravagant offerings as the donations increase.
- Membership: This method of crowdfunding allows your fans to donate on a recurring basis. Treat your channel like it’s HBO and deliver higher-value content. Your members will be the first to see the increase of quality in and frequency of your work.
- Project-based: Is there a special project you have in mind, get support for it. A longer-form video or one that your fans have been wanting for a while, by highlighting this anticipated project, you can get more backing behind it financially.
From Sept-Oct 2011, the YouTube channel Freddiew (aka RocketJump) went on Kickstarter to crowdfund so they can produce a web series called Video Game High School. In 30 days, they were able to surpass their goal of $75,000 with $273,725 and 5,661 backers. The result is a multiple season web series, the first one published onto YouTube in May 2012.
Without crowdfunding, the project would unlikely have been produced and published for viewers in such a short amount of time.
Set Crowdfunding Goals to Encourage Donations
Have you ever gone up to a friend and ask for $5? What did they say?
“What do you need it for?”
We are more willing to give money if we know where it is going. Let your audience know exactly what you are planning to spend the funds on and how it will benefit them. One way to really encourage them is to have a goal, for example, a trip to a conference, and a special video will be produced to highlight the event.
Set a $ Target
If you have a pie in the sky goal, you aren’t going to fully leverage the message to your audience. Understand how much money you need to produce a video or to pursue a more ambitious project. What do you need in order to grow and make the best channel you can.
How Does Patreon Work for YouTubers?
When it comes to crowdfunding for YouTubers, Patreon is the platform of choice. While other platforms such as Kickstarter or GoFundMe are focused on entrepreneurial pursuits, large projects, or charitable causes, Patreon is designed to support creatives and reward and incentivize donors.
Key Takeaways:
There are many ways to make money off of YouTube, I encourage you to try a few of these different strategies and see how they perform and which one suits your channel and your audience the best.
- Directing your viewers to your website where they can pay for a product or service that you offer.
- Sign up with an affiliate program such as Amazon Associates and create content about interesting products.
- Find brands that match your channel’s values and propose ideas via influencer marketing platforms such as Famebit.
- Set up a Patreon page and encourage viewers to donate to get incentives or to support a bigger better project.
Got questions about making money on YouTube? Leave a comment below. We love to help you get paid for the videos you create.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions
In this article, we are going to look at 4 different types of ways to make money on YouTube that doesn’t involve ads.
But why should there be any other way? What’s wrong with simply focusing on ads?
More and more people are making a living by creating videos on YouTube. According to the YouTube Partner Program , YouTube has seen a 40% year-over-year of channels making 6 figures from viewer ads engagements.
Best YouTube Video Editor–Wondershare Filmora
Over thousands of hours of content are uploaded on YouTube every day and people are going crazy to earn money with video monetization. There should be a minimum time gap between your video shoot, editing, and uploading it to your channel. Wondershare Filmora Video Editor can help you get your videos edited faster. Not only the interface is simple and intuitive, it has both the basic and professional editing tools such as cutting, trimming, crop&zoom, a large collection of video effects and royalty-free music, and you can also upload the video directly on YouTube after editing. All of these make Filmora stand out in the queue and become a favorite tool to edit YouTube videos.
What is the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)?
YPP enables YouTubers to make money from an advertisement that appears before or during their videos.
How Much Money Can YouTubers Make from Ads?
The answer to this question varies depending on the channel and the audience, as YouTubers don’t make money for views but rather from how often people engage with the ads. If a viewer watches more than 30 seconds of the ad or clicks it, then the YouTuber will make money.
This is a general estimate of how much a YouTuber can make from ads once they qualify:
- 68% of advertisers ad spend goes to the video creator. If advertisers spend $100, creators get $68.
- $0.18 is the average rate per ad view.
- 1000 ad views will equal approximately $18
- 1000 video views will equal between $2-$5
Why It’s So Hard for YouTubers to Make Money From Ads
For new YouTubers, it is getting harder and harder to get to that point where their sole income can be from YouTube ads. Before they can make a penny, they must first qualify.
Monetization Rules ( as of January 2018
- Creators need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in 12 months before they can turn on monetization
- YouTube pays in $100 increments
Once they have monetization turned on, it’s only the beginning. YouTubers need to create good content consistently. In order to earn $100 for the initial payout, they need an average of 50,000 views. That’s just $100! A lot of views and not a big payout. Hardly enough to quit your day job.
That is why it is essential to have alternative ways to make money on YouTube, and not rely on the ads shown on your videos. So, without further ado, here are 4 other ways to make money on YouTube:
1. Sell Your Product or Service:
YouTube is one of the most effective means of marketing and selling your products and services if you are able to use it effectively and drive people to click and buy.
Here are some examples of products and services you can offer:
Products:
- eBooks
- Artwork
- Licensed content
- Online course
- Channel/brand merchandise
YouTuber, Jake Paul uses eCommerce platform Fanjoy to sell his merch.
Services:
- Consulting work (strategy planner, financial advisor, etc.)
- Contracting work (designer, developer, etc.)
- Education (tutor, trainer, etc.)
- Performance/Speaking Opportunities (motivational speaker, musician, etc.)
YouTuber and entrepreneur, Sunny Lenarduzzi uses YouTube as a platform to get clients for her consulting business.
How to Sell a Product or Service on YouTube
YouTube is a vast platform and if you don’t have a clear direction for what you are selling, you might be making videos for an audience that isn’t interested in buying what you are selling.
Here is how you should go about selling your product or service on YouTube:
1. Your content must be discovered by the right people: If the wrong people find your content, then you aren’t going to make any sales. To get the right eyes on your videos, you’ll need to do some research on your target audience and what keywords they use when searching for your product or services.
If you are selling a meditation eBook and guided meditation services, type in some possible keywords in the YouTube search bar. What appears will be some popular searches:
From there, take your possible keywords and put them into a tool such as Ubersuggest to find other related keywords. This will help you create discoverable content that will catch the interest of those who will buy what you are selling.
2. Your content must have value: You cannot start with the Call to Action or try selling to your audience right away. You must first build trust and prove that what you are selling has value.
Take this example from Modern Health Monk , a weight loss coach.
In the video, he offers tips on how journaling can help the viewer reach their goal. The way he intends to make money is through people signing up for his course. The course is the product he is selling, but he doesn’t say that. He knows the viewers are not there to enroll in a course. They are there to learn about what he is offering.
The video is over 9 minutes long and not once does he tell his audience to buy anything. However, he does encourage the viewer at the end to download a free eBook. Selling is about focusing on the long game.
3. Your content must lead the audience to a place where they can buy: You don’t want to force people through a door, but you do want the signs to be visible. You will need to direct the viewer to a place where they can make the purchase. YouTube has a few ways to point your viewers in that direction.
Link in the description box:
The YouTube Card:
You can add one or multiple cards to direct viewers to your website or to another related video.
Call to action button:
Once the viewer is on your website, make sure the path is apparent as well. Have a clear call to action somewhere on your website. This is where your viewers become customers.
But What if You Don’t Have a Product Or Service to Sell Yet?
While some YouTubers certainly start with their product and service in mind and find their customers to sell through YouTube, many others go the opposite way and discover their audience first.
Lilly Singh did not start a YouTube channel to sell her book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life. Her YouTube channel gave her an audience and proved to publishers that there was enough demand for her to write a book that people will read.
As you grow your audience you will find that there will be a demand for certain products or services that don’t already exist. This is where you put on your entrepreneur hat and think of something that your audience will pay money for and make it happen. Odds are, when it happens, it wouldn’t even be a mystery, your audience will tell you to make or supply it.
For example, Remi Cruz , a YouTuber with over 2.2 million subscribers. Remi created a beauty brand and DIY face mask, Honey Pop , which could only have happened after taking the time to understand her supportive audience.
2. Affiliate Marketing:
Businesses know that there are more eyes watching YouTube than ever — behind Google, YouTube is the second most popular place for people researching what to buy — and influencers and reviews are an effective method of getting sales. You can leverage that by participating in affiliate marketing as a YouTuber.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work On YouTube?
As a YouTuber, you can share your thoughts on products or services, and if there are products that you recommend, by simply adding a personalized link to the product page, you can get a commission for every sale of that product that came through your link.
The average affiliate commission rate is between 5% to 30%, with a lot of variables. Some low price range items will have a higher commission, while higher-priced items will have lower commissions.
Travel YouTuber, Sorelle Amore ’s affiliate links to her vlogging gears.
Keep in mind that people are most likely going to take recommendations from people they trust. You wouldn’t buy a computer from a nutritionist and you wouldn’t buy vitamins from a gamer, so consider what you are an expert in and what products you have the most authority to speak about.
What Videos Are Best for Affiliate Marketing?
There are no restrictions on what will make a good affiliate marketing video, but there are best practices.
What’s important is understanding the purpose of the video. If the video is about vlogging microphones, then it makes complete sense to have an affiliate link to your favorite microphone. Odds are the people who are watching the video may be considering buying a new microphone, so the link is helpful for them.
Here are a few types of videos that make for good affiliate marketing opportunities:
- Product reviews
- Top 10
- How-tos
- Cheap vs expensive
- What to pack for…
How to Get an Affiliate Marketing Link for YouTube?
Which affiliate marketing program you choose to sign up with will depend on the products you want to link to through your content. Do some research on what each network has to offer in regards to your niche.
Here is the list of 4 popular affiliate marketing networks:
- Rakuten
- PeerFly
You can also partner with brands directly as many of them, such as Sephora and Canon , will have their own affiliate program.
3. Brand Deal or Sponsorships:
Selling out, that is often the thought when we hear creators getting brand deals and sponsorships, but that stigma is unfounded if the brand and the content are properly aligned. As your channel grows, you will begin to recognize brands that match your values — and the values of your viewers — and those that don’t.
Today, more and more brands are collaborating with YouTube creators, because creators are 4x more effective in earning brand familiarity than collaborations with traditional celebrities.
In an ad for Beats by Dre’s #BuiltForBosses campaign, YouTuber Liza Koshy outperformed the likes of Tom Brady and DJ Khaled.
While it does take significant effort on YouTube to acquire a following, it is possible for a YouTube channel with 1,000 subscribers to get a brand deal. Getting the buy-in from brands is a numbers game, and according to Video Creators , the minimal number of views per video shouldn’t be lower than 2,000 if this is the path you want to head in.
How to Get Discovered By Brands
The decision-makers behind brands might not be aware of influencers with a smaller following — those who have just cracked the 5,000 subscriber mark. The odds of a brand reaching out to you, as a small creator, is unlikely to happen.
If you want to get a brand deal and become an influencer on YouTube, then you will have to put yourself out there to be discovered and that is on an Influencer Marketing Network, such as Famebit .
How Influencer Marketing Platforms Like Famebit Works
When you sign up for Famebit or other influencer marketing platforms you have an opportunity to get in front of brands who are seeking influencers to share their product or service.
Steps to getting a brand deal:
- Find brands and campaigns that match your audience.
- Pitch your creative ideas and present the proposal to the brand within their parameters (product review, 30-60 shoutout, etc.)
- If accepted, you are hired and will begin collaboration with the brand to produce the project.
- Build our content.
- Receive approval from the brand.
- Get Paid!
Unlike celebrity marketing, YouTube creators have shown brands over the years that they are inventive and clever with how they can present the brand to the audience to drive the best results. This type of independence is what makes YouTube influencer marketing special.
4. Crowdfunding:
If you are creating valuable content and have a loyal following, you can start thinking about crowdfunding. It doesn’t take stardom to start asking for donations, pledge, or support from your fans. There is a demand for quality content and if you are creating something of value, even on a free service like YouTube, people will happily pay to support it.
But how can you approach crowdfunding so it doesn’t look like you are begging?
3 Popular Types of Crowdfunding:
- Tiered Rewards: You can give incentives for your patrons in different tiers. Example: a donation of $2-$10 gives them a shoutout in your next video, a donation of $20-$100 gets them an exclusive spot in a live stream, and more extravagant offerings as the donations increase.
- Membership: This method of crowdfunding allows your fans to donate on a recurring basis. Treat your channel like it’s HBO and deliver higher-value content. Your members will be the first to see the increase of quality in and frequency of your work.
- Project-based: Is there a special project you have in mind, get support for it. A longer-form video or one that your fans have been wanting for a while, by highlighting this anticipated project, you can get more backing behind it financially.
From Sept-Oct 2011, the YouTube channel Freddiew (aka RocketJump) went on Kickstarter to crowdfund so they can produce a web series called Video Game High School. In 30 days, they were able to surpass their goal of $75,000 with $273,725 and 5,661 backers. The result is a multiple season web series, the first one published onto YouTube in May 2012.
Without crowdfunding, the project would unlikely have been produced and published for viewers in such a short amount of time.
Set Crowdfunding Goals to Encourage Donations
Have you ever gone up to a friend and ask for $5? What did they say?
“What do you need it for?”
We are more willing to give money if we know where it is going. Let your audience know exactly what you are planning to spend the funds on and how it will benefit them. One way to really encourage them is to have a goal, for example, a trip to a conference, and a special video will be produced to highlight the event.
Set a $ Target
If you have a pie in the sky goal, you aren’t going to fully leverage the message to your audience. Understand how much money you need to produce a video or to pursue a more ambitious project. What do you need in order to grow and make the best channel you can.
How Does Patreon Work for YouTubers?
When it comes to crowdfunding for YouTubers, Patreon is the platform of choice. While other platforms such as Kickstarter or GoFundMe are focused on entrepreneurial pursuits, large projects, or charitable causes, Patreon is designed to support creatives and reward and incentivize donors.
Key Takeaways:
There are many ways to make money off of YouTube, I encourage you to try a few of these different strategies and see how they perform and which one suits your channel and your audience the best.
- Directing your viewers to your website where they can pay for a product or service that you offer.
- Sign up with an affiliate program such as Amazon Associates and create content about interesting products.
- Find brands that match your channel’s values and propose ideas via influencer marketing platforms such as Famebit.
- Set up a Patreon page and encourage viewers to donate to get incentives or to support a bigger better project.
Got questions about making money on YouTube? Leave a comment below. We love to help you get paid for the videos you create.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions
In this article, we are going to look at 4 different types of ways to make money on YouTube that doesn’t involve ads.
But why should there be any other way? What’s wrong with simply focusing on ads?
More and more people are making a living by creating videos on YouTube. According to the YouTube Partner Program , YouTube has seen a 40% year-over-year of channels making 6 figures from viewer ads engagements.
Best YouTube Video Editor–Wondershare Filmora
Over thousands of hours of content are uploaded on YouTube every day and people are going crazy to earn money with video monetization. There should be a minimum time gap between your video shoot, editing, and uploading it to your channel. Wondershare Filmora Video Editor can help you get your videos edited faster. Not only the interface is simple and intuitive, it has both the basic and professional editing tools such as cutting, trimming, crop&zoom, a large collection of video effects and royalty-free music, and you can also upload the video directly on YouTube after editing. All of these make Filmora stand out in the queue and become a favorite tool to edit YouTube videos.
What is the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)?
YPP enables YouTubers to make money from an advertisement that appears before or during their videos.
How Much Money Can YouTubers Make from Ads?
The answer to this question varies depending on the channel and the audience, as YouTubers don’t make money for views but rather from how often people engage with the ads. If a viewer watches more than 30 seconds of the ad or clicks it, then the YouTuber will make money.
This is a general estimate of how much a YouTuber can make from ads once they qualify:
- 68% of advertisers ad spend goes to the video creator. If advertisers spend $100, creators get $68.
- $0.18 is the average rate per ad view.
- 1000 ad views will equal approximately $18
- 1000 video views will equal between $2-$5
Why It’s So Hard for YouTubers to Make Money From Ads
For new YouTubers, it is getting harder and harder to get to that point where their sole income can be from YouTube ads. Before they can make a penny, they must first qualify.
Monetization Rules ( as of January 2018
- Creators need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in 12 months before they can turn on monetization
- YouTube pays in $100 increments
Once they have monetization turned on, it’s only the beginning. YouTubers need to create good content consistently. In order to earn $100 for the initial payout, they need an average of 50,000 views. That’s just $100! A lot of views and not a big payout. Hardly enough to quit your day job.
That is why it is essential to have alternative ways to make money on YouTube, and not rely on the ads shown on your videos. So, without further ado, here are 4 other ways to make money on YouTube:
1. Sell Your Product or Service:
YouTube is one of the most effective means of marketing and selling your products and services if you are able to use it effectively and drive people to click and buy.
Here are some examples of products and services you can offer:
Products:
- eBooks
- Artwork
- Licensed content
- Online course
- Channel/brand merchandise
YouTuber, Jake Paul uses eCommerce platform Fanjoy to sell his merch.
Services:
- Consulting work (strategy planner, financial advisor, etc.)
- Contracting work (designer, developer, etc.)
- Education (tutor, trainer, etc.)
- Performance/Speaking Opportunities (motivational speaker, musician, etc.)
YouTuber and entrepreneur, Sunny Lenarduzzi uses YouTube as a platform to get clients for her consulting business.
How to Sell a Product or Service on YouTube
YouTube is a vast platform and if you don’t have a clear direction for what you are selling, you might be making videos for an audience that isn’t interested in buying what you are selling.
Here is how you should go about selling your product or service on YouTube:
1. Your content must be discovered by the right people: If the wrong people find your content, then you aren’t going to make any sales. To get the right eyes on your videos, you’ll need to do some research on your target audience and what keywords they use when searching for your product or services.
If you are selling a meditation eBook and guided meditation services, type in some possible keywords in the YouTube search bar. What appears will be some popular searches:
From there, take your possible keywords and put them into a tool such as Ubersuggest to find other related keywords. This will help you create discoverable content that will catch the interest of those who will buy what you are selling.
2. Your content must have value: You cannot start with the Call to Action or try selling to your audience right away. You must first build trust and prove that what you are selling has value.
Take this example from Modern Health Monk , a weight loss coach.
In the video, he offers tips on how journaling can help the viewer reach their goal. The way he intends to make money is through people signing up for his course. The course is the product he is selling, but he doesn’t say that. He knows the viewers are not there to enroll in a course. They are there to learn about what he is offering.
The video is over 9 minutes long and not once does he tell his audience to buy anything. However, he does encourage the viewer at the end to download a free eBook. Selling is about focusing on the long game.
3. Your content must lead the audience to a place where they can buy: You don’t want to force people through a door, but you do want the signs to be visible. You will need to direct the viewer to a place where they can make the purchase. YouTube has a few ways to point your viewers in that direction.
Link in the description box:
The YouTube Card:
You can add one or multiple cards to direct viewers to your website or to another related video.
Call to action button:
Once the viewer is on your website, make sure the path is apparent as well. Have a clear call to action somewhere on your website. This is where your viewers become customers.
But What if You Don’t Have a Product Or Service to Sell Yet?
While some YouTubers certainly start with their product and service in mind and find their customers to sell through YouTube, many others go the opposite way and discover their audience first.
Lilly Singh did not start a YouTube channel to sell her book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life. Her YouTube channel gave her an audience and proved to publishers that there was enough demand for her to write a book that people will read.
As you grow your audience you will find that there will be a demand for certain products or services that don’t already exist. This is where you put on your entrepreneur hat and think of something that your audience will pay money for and make it happen. Odds are, when it happens, it wouldn’t even be a mystery, your audience will tell you to make or supply it.
For example, Remi Cruz , a YouTuber with over 2.2 million subscribers. Remi created a beauty brand and DIY face mask, Honey Pop , which could only have happened after taking the time to understand her supportive audience.
2. Affiliate Marketing:
Businesses know that there are more eyes watching YouTube than ever — behind Google, YouTube is the second most popular place for people researching what to buy — and influencers and reviews are an effective method of getting sales. You can leverage that by participating in affiliate marketing as a YouTuber.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work On YouTube?
As a YouTuber, you can share your thoughts on products or services, and if there are products that you recommend, by simply adding a personalized link to the product page, you can get a commission for every sale of that product that came through your link.
The average affiliate commission rate is between 5% to 30%, with a lot of variables. Some low price range items will have a higher commission, while higher-priced items will have lower commissions.
Travel YouTuber, Sorelle Amore ’s affiliate links to her vlogging gears.
Keep in mind that people are most likely going to take recommendations from people they trust. You wouldn’t buy a computer from a nutritionist and you wouldn’t buy vitamins from a gamer, so consider what you are an expert in and what products you have the most authority to speak about.
What Videos Are Best for Affiliate Marketing?
There are no restrictions on what will make a good affiliate marketing video, but there are best practices.
What’s important is understanding the purpose of the video. If the video is about vlogging microphones, then it makes complete sense to have an affiliate link to your favorite microphone. Odds are the people who are watching the video may be considering buying a new microphone, so the link is helpful for them.
Here are a few types of videos that make for good affiliate marketing opportunities:
- Product reviews
- Top 10
- How-tos
- Cheap vs expensive
- What to pack for…
How to Get an Affiliate Marketing Link for YouTube?
Which affiliate marketing program you choose to sign up with will depend on the products you want to link to through your content. Do some research on what each network has to offer in regards to your niche.
Here is the list of 4 popular affiliate marketing networks:
- Rakuten
- PeerFly
You can also partner with brands directly as many of them, such as Sephora and Canon , will have their own affiliate program.
3. Brand Deal or Sponsorships:
Selling out, that is often the thought when we hear creators getting brand deals and sponsorships, but that stigma is unfounded if the brand and the content are properly aligned. As your channel grows, you will begin to recognize brands that match your values — and the values of your viewers — and those that don’t.
Today, more and more brands are collaborating with YouTube creators, because creators are 4x more effective in earning brand familiarity than collaborations with traditional celebrities.
In an ad for Beats by Dre’s #BuiltForBosses campaign, YouTuber Liza Koshy outperformed the likes of Tom Brady and DJ Khaled.
While it does take significant effort on YouTube to acquire a following, it is possible for a YouTube channel with 1,000 subscribers to get a brand deal. Getting the buy-in from brands is a numbers game, and according to Video Creators , the minimal number of views per video shouldn’t be lower than 2,000 if this is the path you want to head in.
How to Get Discovered By Brands
The decision-makers behind brands might not be aware of influencers with a smaller following — those who have just cracked the 5,000 subscriber mark. The odds of a brand reaching out to you, as a small creator, is unlikely to happen.
If you want to get a brand deal and become an influencer on YouTube, then you will have to put yourself out there to be discovered and that is on an Influencer Marketing Network, such as Famebit .
How Influencer Marketing Platforms Like Famebit Works
When you sign up for Famebit or other influencer marketing platforms you have an opportunity to get in front of brands who are seeking influencers to share their product or service.
Steps to getting a brand deal:
- Find brands and campaigns that match your audience.
- Pitch your creative ideas and present the proposal to the brand within their parameters (product review, 30-60 shoutout, etc.)
- If accepted, you are hired and will begin collaboration with the brand to produce the project.
- Build our content.
- Receive approval from the brand.
- Get Paid!
Unlike celebrity marketing, YouTube creators have shown brands over the years that they are inventive and clever with how they can present the brand to the audience to drive the best results. This type of independence is what makes YouTube influencer marketing special.
4. Crowdfunding:
If you are creating valuable content and have a loyal following, you can start thinking about crowdfunding. It doesn’t take stardom to start asking for donations, pledge, or support from your fans. There is a demand for quality content and if you are creating something of value, even on a free service like YouTube, people will happily pay to support it.
But how can you approach crowdfunding so it doesn’t look like you are begging?
3 Popular Types of Crowdfunding:
- Tiered Rewards: You can give incentives for your patrons in different tiers. Example: a donation of $2-$10 gives them a shoutout in your next video, a donation of $20-$100 gets them an exclusive spot in a live stream, and more extravagant offerings as the donations increase.
- Membership: This method of crowdfunding allows your fans to donate on a recurring basis. Treat your channel like it’s HBO and deliver higher-value content. Your members will be the first to see the increase of quality in and frequency of your work.
- Project-based: Is there a special project you have in mind, get support for it. A longer-form video or one that your fans have been wanting for a while, by highlighting this anticipated project, you can get more backing behind it financially.
From Sept-Oct 2011, the YouTube channel Freddiew (aka RocketJump) went on Kickstarter to crowdfund so they can produce a web series called Video Game High School. In 30 days, they were able to surpass their goal of $75,000 with $273,725 and 5,661 backers. The result is a multiple season web series, the first one published onto YouTube in May 2012.
Without crowdfunding, the project would unlikely have been produced and published for viewers in such a short amount of time.
Set Crowdfunding Goals to Encourage Donations
Have you ever gone up to a friend and ask for $5? What did they say?
“What do you need it for?”
We are more willing to give money if we know where it is going. Let your audience know exactly what you are planning to spend the funds on and how it will benefit them. One way to really encourage them is to have a goal, for example, a trip to a conference, and a special video will be produced to highlight the event.
Set a $ Target
If you have a pie in the sky goal, you aren’t going to fully leverage the message to your audience. Understand how much money you need to produce a video or to pursue a more ambitious project. What do you need in order to grow and make the best channel you can.
How Does Patreon Work for YouTubers?
When it comes to crowdfunding for YouTubers, Patreon is the platform of choice. While other platforms such as Kickstarter or GoFundMe are focused on entrepreneurial pursuits, large projects, or charitable causes, Patreon is designed to support creatives and reward and incentivize donors.
Key Takeaways:
There are many ways to make money off of YouTube, I encourage you to try a few of these different strategies and see how they perform and which one suits your channel and your audience the best.
- Directing your viewers to your website where they can pay for a product or service that you offer.
- Sign up with an affiliate program such as Amazon Associates and create content about interesting products.
- Find brands that match your channel’s values and propose ideas via influencer marketing platforms such as Famebit.
- Set up a Patreon page and encourage viewers to donate to get incentives or to support a bigger better project.
Got questions about making money on YouTube? Leave a comment below. We love to help you get paid for the videos you create.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions
In this article, we are going to look at 4 different types of ways to make money on YouTube that doesn’t involve ads.
But why should there be any other way? What’s wrong with simply focusing on ads?
More and more people are making a living by creating videos on YouTube. According to the YouTube Partner Program , YouTube has seen a 40% year-over-year of channels making 6 figures from viewer ads engagements.
Best YouTube Video Editor–Wondershare Filmora
Over thousands of hours of content are uploaded on YouTube every day and people are going crazy to earn money with video monetization. There should be a minimum time gap between your video shoot, editing, and uploading it to your channel. Wondershare Filmora Video Editor can help you get your videos edited faster. Not only the interface is simple and intuitive, it has both the basic and professional editing tools such as cutting, trimming, crop&zoom, a large collection of video effects and royalty-free music, and you can also upload the video directly on YouTube after editing. All of these make Filmora stand out in the queue and become a favorite tool to edit YouTube videos.
What is the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)?
YPP enables YouTubers to make money from an advertisement that appears before or during their videos.
How Much Money Can YouTubers Make from Ads?
The answer to this question varies depending on the channel and the audience, as YouTubers don’t make money for views but rather from how often people engage with the ads. If a viewer watches more than 30 seconds of the ad or clicks it, then the YouTuber will make money.
This is a general estimate of how much a YouTuber can make from ads once they qualify:
- 68% of advertisers ad spend goes to the video creator. If advertisers spend $100, creators get $68.
- $0.18 is the average rate per ad view.
- 1000 ad views will equal approximately $18
- 1000 video views will equal between $2-$5
Why It’s So Hard for YouTubers to Make Money From Ads
For new YouTubers, it is getting harder and harder to get to that point where their sole income can be from YouTube ads. Before they can make a penny, they must first qualify.
Monetization Rules ( as of January 2018
- Creators need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of view time in 12 months before they can turn on monetization
- YouTube pays in $100 increments
Once they have monetization turned on, it’s only the beginning. YouTubers need to create good content consistently. In order to earn $100 for the initial payout, they need an average of 50,000 views. That’s just $100! A lot of views and not a big payout. Hardly enough to quit your day job.
That is why it is essential to have alternative ways to make money on YouTube, and not rely on the ads shown on your videos. So, without further ado, here are 4 other ways to make money on YouTube:
1. Sell Your Product or Service:
YouTube is one of the most effective means of marketing and selling your products and services if you are able to use it effectively and drive people to click and buy.
Here are some examples of products and services you can offer:
Products:
- eBooks
- Artwork
- Licensed content
- Online course
- Channel/brand merchandise
YouTuber, Jake Paul uses eCommerce platform Fanjoy to sell his merch.
Services:
- Consulting work (strategy planner, financial advisor, etc.)
- Contracting work (designer, developer, etc.)
- Education (tutor, trainer, etc.)
- Performance/Speaking Opportunities (motivational speaker, musician, etc.)
YouTuber and entrepreneur, Sunny Lenarduzzi uses YouTube as a platform to get clients for her consulting business.
How to Sell a Product or Service on YouTube
YouTube is a vast platform and if you don’t have a clear direction for what you are selling, you might be making videos for an audience that isn’t interested in buying what you are selling.
Here is how you should go about selling your product or service on YouTube:
1. Your content must be discovered by the right people: If the wrong people find your content, then you aren’t going to make any sales. To get the right eyes on your videos, you’ll need to do some research on your target audience and what keywords they use when searching for your product or services.
If you are selling a meditation eBook and guided meditation services, type in some possible keywords in the YouTube search bar. What appears will be some popular searches:
From there, take your possible keywords and put them into a tool such as Ubersuggest to find other related keywords. This will help you create discoverable content that will catch the interest of those who will buy what you are selling.
2. Your content must have value: You cannot start with the Call to Action or try selling to your audience right away. You must first build trust and prove that what you are selling has value.
Take this example from Modern Health Monk , a weight loss coach.
In the video, he offers tips on how journaling can help the viewer reach their goal. The way he intends to make money is through people signing up for his course. The course is the product he is selling, but he doesn’t say that. He knows the viewers are not there to enroll in a course. They are there to learn about what he is offering.
The video is over 9 minutes long and not once does he tell his audience to buy anything. However, he does encourage the viewer at the end to download a free eBook. Selling is about focusing on the long game.
3. Your content must lead the audience to a place where they can buy: You don’t want to force people through a door, but you do want the signs to be visible. You will need to direct the viewer to a place where they can make the purchase. YouTube has a few ways to point your viewers in that direction.
Link in the description box:
The YouTube Card:
You can add one or multiple cards to direct viewers to your website or to another related video.
Call to action button:
Once the viewer is on your website, make sure the path is apparent as well. Have a clear call to action somewhere on your website. This is where your viewers become customers.
But What if You Don’t Have a Product Or Service to Sell Yet?
While some YouTubers certainly start with their product and service in mind and find their customers to sell through YouTube, many others go the opposite way and discover their audience first.
Lilly Singh did not start a YouTube channel to sell her book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life. Her YouTube channel gave her an audience and proved to publishers that there was enough demand for her to write a book that people will read.
As you grow your audience you will find that there will be a demand for certain products or services that don’t already exist. This is where you put on your entrepreneur hat and think of something that your audience will pay money for and make it happen. Odds are, when it happens, it wouldn’t even be a mystery, your audience will tell you to make or supply it.
For example, Remi Cruz , a YouTuber with over 2.2 million subscribers. Remi created a beauty brand and DIY face mask, Honey Pop , which could only have happened after taking the time to understand her supportive audience.
2. Affiliate Marketing:
Businesses know that there are more eyes watching YouTube than ever — behind Google, YouTube is the second most popular place for people researching what to buy — and influencers and reviews are an effective method of getting sales. You can leverage that by participating in affiliate marketing as a YouTuber.
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work On YouTube?
As a YouTuber, you can share your thoughts on products or services, and if there are products that you recommend, by simply adding a personalized link to the product page, you can get a commission for every sale of that product that came through your link.
The average affiliate commission rate is between 5% to 30%, with a lot of variables. Some low price range items will have a higher commission, while higher-priced items will have lower commissions.
Travel YouTuber, Sorelle Amore ’s affiliate links to her vlogging gears.
Keep in mind that people are most likely going to take recommendations from people they trust. You wouldn’t buy a computer from a nutritionist and you wouldn’t buy vitamins from a gamer, so consider what you are an expert in and what products you have the most authority to speak about.
What Videos Are Best for Affiliate Marketing?
There are no restrictions on what will make a good affiliate marketing video, but there are best practices.
What’s important is understanding the purpose of the video. If the video is about vlogging microphones, then it makes complete sense to have an affiliate link to your favorite microphone. Odds are the people who are watching the video may be considering buying a new microphone, so the link is helpful for them.
Here are a few types of videos that make for good affiliate marketing opportunities:
- Product reviews
- Top 10
- How-tos
- Cheap vs expensive
- What to pack for…
How to Get an Affiliate Marketing Link for YouTube?
Which affiliate marketing program you choose to sign up with will depend on the products you want to link to through your content. Do some research on what each network has to offer in regards to your niche.
Here is the list of 4 popular affiliate marketing networks:
- Rakuten
- PeerFly
You can also partner with brands directly as many of them, such as Sephora and Canon , will have their own affiliate program.
3. Brand Deal or Sponsorships:
Selling out, that is often the thought when we hear creators getting brand deals and sponsorships, but that stigma is unfounded if the brand and the content are properly aligned. As your channel grows, you will begin to recognize brands that match your values — and the values of your viewers — and those that don’t.
Today, more and more brands are collaborating with YouTube creators, because creators are 4x more effective in earning brand familiarity than collaborations with traditional celebrities.
In an ad for Beats by Dre’s #BuiltForBosses campaign, YouTuber Liza Koshy outperformed the likes of Tom Brady and DJ Khaled.
While it does take significant effort on YouTube to acquire a following, it is possible for a YouTube channel with 1,000 subscribers to get a brand deal. Getting the buy-in from brands is a numbers game, and according to Video Creators , the minimal number of views per video shouldn’t be lower than 2,000 if this is the path you want to head in.
How to Get Discovered By Brands
The decision-makers behind brands might not be aware of influencers with a smaller following — those who have just cracked the 5,000 subscriber mark. The odds of a brand reaching out to you, as a small creator, is unlikely to happen.
If you want to get a brand deal and become an influencer on YouTube, then you will have to put yourself out there to be discovered and that is on an Influencer Marketing Network, such as Famebit .
How Influencer Marketing Platforms Like Famebit Works
When you sign up for Famebit or other influencer marketing platforms you have an opportunity to get in front of brands who are seeking influencers to share their product or service.
Steps to getting a brand deal:
- Find brands and campaigns that match your audience.
- Pitch your creative ideas and present the proposal to the brand within their parameters (product review, 30-60 shoutout, etc.)
- If accepted, you are hired and will begin collaboration with the brand to produce the project.
- Build our content.
- Receive approval from the brand.
- Get Paid!
Unlike celebrity marketing, YouTube creators have shown brands over the years that they are inventive and clever with how they can present the brand to the audience to drive the best results. This type of independence is what makes YouTube influencer marketing special.
4. Crowdfunding:
If you are creating valuable content and have a loyal following, you can start thinking about crowdfunding. It doesn’t take stardom to start asking for donations, pledge, or support from your fans. There is a demand for quality content and if you are creating something of value, even on a free service like YouTube, people will happily pay to support it.
But how can you approach crowdfunding so it doesn’t look like you are begging?
3 Popular Types of Crowdfunding:
- Tiered Rewards: You can give incentives for your patrons in different tiers. Example: a donation of $2-$10 gives them a shoutout in your next video, a donation of $20-$100 gets them an exclusive spot in a live stream, and more extravagant offerings as the donations increase.
- Membership: This method of crowdfunding allows your fans to donate on a recurring basis. Treat your channel like it’s HBO and deliver higher-value content. Your members will be the first to see the increase of quality in and frequency of your work.
- Project-based: Is there a special project you have in mind, get support for it. A longer-form video or one that your fans have been wanting for a while, by highlighting this anticipated project, you can get more backing behind it financially.
From Sept-Oct 2011, the YouTube channel Freddiew (aka RocketJump) went on Kickstarter to crowdfund so they can produce a web series called Video Game High School. In 30 days, they were able to surpass their goal of $75,000 with $273,725 and 5,661 backers. The result is a multiple season web series, the first one published onto YouTube in May 2012.
Without crowdfunding, the project would unlikely have been produced and published for viewers in such a short amount of time.
Set Crowdfunding Goals to Encourage Donations
Have you ever gone up to a friend and ask for $5? What did they say?
“What do you need it for?”
We are more willing to give money if we know where it is going. Let your audience know exactly what you are planning to spend the funds on and how it will benefit them. One way to really encourage them is to have a goal, for example, a trip to a conference, and a special video will be produced to highlight the event.
Set a $ Target
If you have a pie in the sky goal, you aren’t going to fully leverage the message to your audience. Understand how much money you need to produce a video or to pursue a more ambitious project. What do you need in order to grow and make the best channel you can.
How Does Patreon Work for YouTubers?
When it comes to crowdfunding for YouTubers, Patreon is the platform of choice. While other platforms such as Kickstarter or GoFundMe are focused on entrepreneurial pursuits, large projects, or charitable causes, Patreon is designed to support creatives and reward and incentivize donors.
Key Takeaways:
There are many ways to make money off of YouTube, I encourage you to try a few of these different strategies and see how they perform and which one suits your channel and your audience the best.
- Directing your viewers to your website where they can pay for a product or service that you offer.
- Sign up with an affiliate program such as Amazon Associates and create content about interesting products.
- Find brands that match your channel’s values and propose ideas via influencer marketing platforms such as Famebit.
- Set up a Patreon page and encourage viewers to donate to get incentives or to support a bigger better project.
Got questions about making money on YouTube? Leave a comment below. We love to help you get paid for the videos you create.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
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- Title: [Updated] 5 Tips to Get More Views with YouTube Optimization [Free Checklist]
- Author: Kevin
- Created at : 2024-06-26 14:16:52
- Updated at : 2024-06-27 14:16:52
- Link: https://youtube-videos.techidaily.com/updated-5-tips-to-get-more-views-with-youtube-optimization-free-checklist/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
