Can you make money on YouTube? Quick answer, YES!
YouTube is one of the most popular websites on the Internet and a large number of people watch YouTube videos for entertainment and information. You can find thousands of how-to videos on a variety of subjects such as acne, dating, losing weight and creating websites. A lot of people watch funny and entertaining videos on YouTube.
Internet marketers use YouTube to generate leads for their online businesses. Online affiliate marketers use the video-sharing website to send buyers to products they promote. These Internet marketers make money online through YouTube and other video-sharing websites.
How can you make money on YouTube?
Sharing entertaining videos: YouTube can be used as a publishing platform for original videos providing entertainment and information. In this case, the video creator can make money through advertisements. Google YouTube has its own advertising programme, which you can use to monetize your videos. The revenue will depend on the number of times the video is viewed and clicks on ads.
Sharing product advertorials: Internet marketers use video reviews, customer testimonials and how-to guides for products they promote. When creating a video testimonials for YouTube, make sure that it looks real. Keep the camera and lighting like an amateur. If you do not have the equipment, time or expertise to create video reviews or testimonials, you can hire someone to create a video for you. Fiverr has a lot of talented individuals offering to create video reviews and testimonials for $5. You will have to just upload the video on YouTube.
For example, if I am promoting an acne cure, I will share a video about acne and how the product helps in getting rid of acne. In the video, I will drop my affiliate link (shortened using service like Bit.ly or Goo.gl to make it look pretty) so that people can check it out using my referral. When they buy the product using the affiliate link or discount coupon code, I earn a commission.
Video marketing (using YouTube for selling or promoting products) is an effective strategy for persuading people into buying or trying your products. It is also easier to rank on YouTube than in Google. YouTube being an authority website owned by Google, it gets indexed in Google search engine almost instantly. All of this makes YouTube a hot spot for Internet marketers.
Driving traffic to websites: YouTube and other video-sharing websites can also used to get visitors to your websites and blogs. When you intend to drive traffic to your websites, share interesting stuff, funny videos and how-to articles related to the niche of the website. When you want the viewers to visit your website, leave some loose ends in the video and invite viewers to find the remaining information on your website. It acts like a teaser. So you share most of the information on a certain topic, but not all. It is necessary that the viewer should have the desire to visit your website or blog for the rest of the information.
Creating a video for YouTube
If you have a video camera, you know what to do with it. Shoot a video and then convert it into MP4 or AVI format. Upload it on YouTube.
Internet marketers can do without video cameras. Create screencasts by recording your computer screen. You can use desktop recording application such as Cam Studio or Record My Desktop (Linux). You can also use a presentation (PowerPoint or Open Office) to create a screencast video.
Make your videos as useful and interesting as possible. Don’t forget to share your affiliate product link or code in the video, preferably at the beginning. So even if the visitor leaves mid way, the affiliate code or link gets shared.
Tips for making money on YouTube
When trying to sell or promote products through YouTube and other video-sharing websites, you need to follow some basic rules for success.
- Videos should be not less than a minute, or at least 30 seconds for product reviews.
- Use a screen recorder tool to create a screencast for how-to videos and tutorials.
- Add your product or affiliate link in the beginning and the end of the video.
- Add your target keywords in the title of the video.
- Description for the video should include a short write-up around your target keywords.
- Add the affiliate link or coupon code in the first and the last line of the description.
- Add “annotations” in the entire length of your videos. Share your affiliate link or coupon code in the annotations. These help grab attention of viewers.
- Leave comments on related videos on YouTube.
- Add your video as a “video response” to popular YouTube videos.
- Build backlinks to your videos on YouTube and other video-sharing websites.
Using these tips, you can easily make money on YouTube. However, it is not going to happen overnight. It will take some time before you can see a constant stream of income or traffic (which, in turn, gets money) through YouTube videos. You will have to wait till your videos rank high in YouTube search results. Once it happens, you will have a good source of passive income. Just keep adding videos on YouTube and promote them till they start getting traffic.