The Latest Ways to Monetize on YouTube!

So you have a YouTube channel with a thousand subscribers, but don't know how to turn it into something that makes money? Well, you're in the right place because YouTube has just announced some new features and I'm going to run through the latest ways you can thrive on this platform as a small business. And you want to stick around for a cheat code on how to successfully monetize your channel? Let's break it down. When it comes to YouTube monetization, two things are true. YouTube monetization is harder than ever. Monetization is harder than ever. There are more users trying to do so every day and that means more competition. Competition and less money. What? Monetization is easier than ever? Did you not just hear about the new features that will add more opportunities to make more money on the platform? Hey, hey, hey. You're both right. I'll explain in a second. But there's one more truth I'd like to point out. For YouTube monetization, your audience is key. Regardless of the strategy, a larger engaged viewership directly translates to better monetization results. In this video, we'll simplify YouTube monetization into two main categories. This breakdown will help you choose the best strategies for your business audience and content style. Take it away. The first is native monetization, how you make money within the platform. The primary method is through ads via the YouTube Partner Program in Google AdSense. To qualify for monetization, your channel needs at least 1,000 subscribers and more than 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months. The other main form of native monetization is paid memberships. You can create tiers of membership for your audience to support you directly, granting them access to exclusive behind the scenes content, creating early access polls and more. Which brings us to one of those big announcements I mentioned earlier. One of the most exciting new features announced at the recent made on YouTube was Communities. Slated for an early 2025 release, this new feature will allow creators to engage with their audience in a channel specific social space. Creators can post updates to all subscribers or exclusively to members, enhancing channel value and fostering viewer connections. So not only will you be able to create a personalized experience with your subscriber base, but. But you'll also earn a cool 70% of membership revenue. But I already have so many comments just on my videos. How am I supposed to respond to comments on there and this new space? Well, there's another new feature for solving this exact problem. The newly upgraded community hub in YouTube Studio will centralize audience engagement. It prioritizes key comments and Offers AI generated reply suggestions tailored to your style Streamlining creator audience interactions oh nice. So I don't have to think. Easy peasy. No, not exactly. You should still take the time to reward your most engaged subscribers with personalized responses. But with this new feature, it'll help you save time when it comes to valuable engagement. And we all know time is money. Drawing from our journey of growing this channel to over 450,000 subscribers, we've crafted a game changing resource for small businesses aiming to thrive on YouTube. This comprehensive ebook is paid packed with practical strategies from content optimization and performance tracking to actionable steps that drive real growth. My personal favorite is chapter six Measurement and Monetization Strategies, which details the best way to analyze and monetize your channel. Built from experience, it's like having a YouTube growth cheat code in your pocket. I've linked this free resource in the description below for you to download. Now I know what you might be thinking. I already have a strong core audience. My problem is growth. I need my videos to get in front of new eyes. Well, this next new feature will definitely get you excited. Hype is a brand new way that you can put the power in your community's hands to boost your videos to new viewers. Users will be given three hypes that they can give to videos they love each week. This is a step beyond simply liking a video, one that can push videos onto a new leaderboard specifically intended to help boost small to medium channels. But wait, if I only have about 1000 subscribers, how am I supposed to compete with the hype of larger channels? So there are a few important things about Hype you should know. It is limited to channels between 500 and 500,000 subscribers, so you will never be competing with the biggest channels. The impact of hype is scaled relative to channel size. So one hype to a 500 subscriber channel has far more weight than that same hype to a 500,000 subscriber channel. The aim here is to level the playing field and help your small but mighty audience have a bigger impact. Right? But hype placement will not affect recommendations or search results in YouTube's algorithm. Meaning you may end up on a hype leaderboard, but that just means new audiences. How will this bring in money from my channel? I was getting to that. Rude. Do I have to separate you two? But I am curious as well. How will smaller creators make money from hype? Well, that's the thing. After rolling out this update in the coming months, YouTube plans on allowing your fans to purchase additional hypes which will result in another revenue stream for creators as they grow. That's a pretty sweet deal. While we're on a growth subject, YouTube will also introduce auto dubbing in the coming months. So when you publish a video, you'll be able to check an option that will generate fully dubbed audio in another language. It'll start with just Spanish and Portuguese, but additional languages will be added in the future. This means that you'll be able to reach a bigger international market, which will boost viewership and not only lead to subscriber growth, but also higher AdSense revenue. Okay, so that sounds awesome. You think that's awesome? Well, buckle up because we're making a turn to the latest announcement on YouTube Shorts Now. Creators can upload shorts that are up to three minutes long, recreate the best shorts with templates, and have access to a trends page that allows you to jump on the latest trends. But how does that update help with my monetization strategy? Well, YouTube shorts boost monetization in two ways. As a newer algorithm, shorts offers additional growth opportunities with a higher chance of virality, which can help drive traffic to your long form content, to your channel's membership, and to your storefront. Shorts have their own native monetization through ad revenue that you can track and plan around as you would with long form content. Oh, I hadn't thought of that. I'm going to start creating more shorts now. But you mentioned storefront earlier. What if I want to send viewers to my website shop? Great question. Now we're talking external monetization and some of the latest features announced will have an impact there as well. As a small business, you likely started your YouTube channel to drive traffic to your main business offering, like your website shop. This is a strong form of external monetization. Another great external monetization strategy is combining external sponsorships with affiliate marketing and your videos. This is when you naturally transition your content during the video to promote a product or service, while adding links and codes in the description that lead to your sponsor's website each time a subscriber makes a purchase using your code or link, you get a percentage of the sale, usually around 30%. But you got to be careful with promotional content, right? Avoid overly promoting and always disclose to your audience when something is sponsored. Oh, that's actually good advice. See, when you say actually that way it takes away the compliment. When aiming for external monetization, trust is everything. Your audience needs to trust that leaving the platform to your product or an affiliate product will be worth their time. I literally just said that yeah, but I'm the audience guy. What does that make me? The pessimist? You guys suck. Aww. Thank you. Anyway, now there are some ways that YouTube is bringing what we normally consider external monetization into native functionality. Let's talk YouTube shopping. YouTube shopping allows for you and potential partners to sell products in a few exciting ways. You can choose to enable your channel's store, adding a store tab to your page that viewers can navigate to directly. You might tag products in a video description, display a product shelf below your content, or place a shopping button directly and a video. Now, rather than having to head off the platform, your audience can support your business right? On YouTube, eliminating friction in a conversion process is key to making the sale. And now it's easier than ever to use your content as a vehicle for sales. That's also a clever move to keep you on their platform for as long as possible. We should also point out that YouTube shopping is expanding into more countries soon. So expect this to become more universal in the coming months and get in on the action early. Guys, I don't think I like my role in this video. Why not? Yeah, come on, it's important. I'm thinking I can be both the new feature updates guy and the audience guy. You know what? This is my video now. What? Wait, can he do that? I don't know. I'm scared. That worked. Okay, let's talk about my favorite new way creators will be able to make money on the platform. YouTube is taking a lesson from the success of TikTok, the king of creator live streaming, with new featured gifts powered by Jules, which will be tested first on vertical live streams in the U.S. these gifts are digital items that audience members can buy and send to creators during live streams, which have a direct monetization payout value and are just one more way that YouTube is putting the financial power in the hands of your fans. Build a dedicated fan base by using new features like Communities and Community Hub, and they are much more likely to contribute in direct ways, like with GIFs. So yes, there are three truths when it comes to YouTube monetization. You cannot simply upload a video and hope for the virality of the 2010s to carry you to financial success. Successful monetization means a thoughtful plan that incorporates multiple forms, both native and external. But thankfully, there are more opportunities than ever to make money on YouTube. With the integration of shopping into your content, you can ease the past conversions from viewers to customers. With community, you can create more incentive for viewers to become paid members. With hype, your community can directly have a hand in boosting your success, earning you more views and therefore money from advertising. And finally, your audience is everything. YouTube's latest features are making the platform a one stop shop for community building, making audience consideration crucial at every step. An audience is valuable, but an audience that trusts you is something special. If you can integrate all three of these truths into a comprehensive plan for your YouTube channel, you'll do just fine. And remember to grab our free YouTube guide that has been designed specifically to help you grow your business and monetize on YouTube. I have linked it in the description below. Let me know your thoughts on these new features and which one you're looking forward to using to turn your channel into a money making machine. And don't forget to like this video and subscribe to the channel so I can continue sharing the latest marketing tips and tools to help you grow. See you on the next one.