Additional Revenue Streams: Beyond Ads

You will be glad to know that besides ads, there are other additional revenue streams that set the base for foundational income for many similar YouTubers like you. Relying on ads can limit your earning possibilities; hence, the platform provides you with chances to move ahead with diversifying to grow your monetized channel faster. What are these ways? Let’s discuss:

Sponsorships and Brand Deals

Even as a viewer, you might have seen your favorite YouTubers discussing brand deals and how their videos are sponsored. This is because they earn money from them. Once you build a dedicated and loyal following, brands learn about your channel, engagement level, and the number of followers you have. As a result, they reach out to you for collaborations about their latest products or services, but these vary based on the channel’s size, category, viewer loyalty, and the quality of your videos.

Micro-influencers with 10,000 to 50,000 subscribers might earn between $100 and $500 per sponsored video. Mid-tier ones with 50,000 to 250,000 subscribers can demand $1,000 to $5000 or more. Prominent YouTubers with over 250,000 followers can secure deals exceeding $10,000. The owners behind the brand either negotiate directly or ask marketing agencies for assistance.

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Affiliate Marketing

In the digital era, you’ve probably heard of affiliate marketing, but you might not know what it is exactly. Well, in this model, you can earn a commission whenever a viewer purchases a service or a product after clicking on the unique affiliate link that you provide in the description box.

Is this strategy effective? Absolutely yes! Especially for channels already reviewing products, creating tutorials, or offering recommendations. Some widely known examples are promoting products on Amazon, online courses, and tutorials on using tools like Canva or Bluehost.

Then, channels under technology, software, or beauty generate thousands of dollars monthly through strategic affiliate marketing, as their subscribers are usually fond of buying products or services the creator displays in their video.

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Merchandise and Product Sales

Once your channel has a strong and loyal community, it automatically opens the door to selling branded merchandise and other products. For instance, platforms such as Spring, Shopify, or Spreadshop equip you with tools to design, produce, and sell your merchandise. This can include physical products like T-shirts, mugs, hoodies, and even digital downloads like presets, e-books, or templates. When your subscribers come to know about your merchandise, they will instantly purchase it, showing their support for your content. This goes a long way in telling everyone that your channel is successful, as the mugs, shirts, or templates are quickly selling.

YouTube Memberships and Super Chat

Once you've built a strong and healthy relationship with your audience, YouTube offers some fan-funding features that give you direct ways to boost support. How does it work? Well, if your channel meets the main requirement- having 1000 subscribers- you can activate Channel Memberships. This allows fans to make recurring monthly payments in exchange for exclusive perks like custom badges, emojis, members-only content, or early access to videos.

On top of that, you can enable Super Chat during livestreams and Premieres. This lets viewers pay to make their messages prominent in the live chat so that you can see it first in the crowd of messages sent by other viewers. These not only offer extra revenue but also deepen the connection between you and your true supporters.

Geography and Demographics: Who's Watching Matters?

The money you earn from advertisements is not just based on the number of views your content has received, but geography and demographics also play a distinct role in determining who your audience is. Advertisers are willing to pay you different prices on the basis of where their consumers live, their age, and their interests:

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Country of Viewers: The Geographic Pay Gap

Remember that the country from which your viewers are watching your videos has a direct and significant effect on your average Cost Per Mile. The budgets of the advertisers and the value they place on reaching the masses vary by region.

If your channel usually gets viewership from high-income and developed countries, it tends to generate higher CPMs. For the average CPMs from the United States are $8–$15, the United Kingdom $6–$12, Canada $5–$10, and Australia $6–$11 are considerably higher. The reasons are that the viewers from these areas earn higher incomes and have no issues spending it on online shopping. This sets them apart from other slots and makes them more valuable for advertisers and your monetized channel.

In contrast, if your views belong to developing economies, then your revenue will naturally be lower. Consumers from India will range from $0.50 to $2. This difference means that a channel gathering millions of views from lower CPM regions might earn less than one with fewer views but having consumers in developed nations.

You can examine your audience’s geography in YouTube Analytics to understand your potential and even take that as a lesson to adjust your future content to attract subscribers from other high-income countries.

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Audience Age and Interests: Targeting Spending Power

Last but not least, the factor that determines the ad rates is the age of your audience and their interests. Advertisers are interested in targeting audiences with spending power and particular purchasing intentions.

If your monetized YouTube channel attracts an audience aged 24-45, that will see much better ad rates than one whose viewership largely features teens or kids. Why? This is because the above age bracket is more established, breadwinners, and they stay updated on which product or service is going viral in the market, be it financial investments or goods for daily usage. But, you can’t expect the same from teens and kids, because they are too small and rely on their parents for income, who also buy things on their behalf.

Apart from the age factor, interests also matter. A segment interested in trying out high-value niches in the form of gadgets, real estate, or financial investments will always provide higher CPMs. Therefore, this motivates the advertisers in these fields to pay a premium to sell their products or services, matching their purchasing mindset. However, if your YouTube channel is all about entertainment or targets a broad audience interested in this kind of content, like memes and jokes, it will undoubtedly attract lower CPMs. This expresses the strategic advantage of creating content for a niche audience with strong purchasing power and particular interests that match your advertiser’s goals.

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Estimating Your Potential Earnings: A Practical Formula

Struggling to understand your earning potential on YouTube? Well, you can always use this formula based on your Revenue Per Mile. While this can fluctuate based on multiple factors such as niche, ad types, and audience demographics, you can assume a relatively high average RPM $8 per 1,000 views. This figure represents what you, the creator, actually earn after YouTube takes its part and accounts for unmonetized views.

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Calculating Views Needed for Desired Ad Revenue

To determine how many views you would need to achieve a specific monthly income completely from ad revenue, you can use the following formula:

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Views Needed = (Desired Earnings ÷ $8) × 1,000

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We have shared a few examples for your easier understanding:

To earn $1,000/month: Views Needed = ($1,000 ÷ $8) × 1,000 = 125,000 views/month

To earn $5,000/month: Views Needed = ($5,000 ÷ $8) × 1,000 = 625,000 views/month

To earn $10,000/month: Views Needed = ($10,000 ÷ $8) × 1,000 = 1.25 million views/month

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Conclusion

Once your YouTube channel has entered the list of monetization, it provides you with plenty of streams to earn from. For instance, various kinds of ad formats, affiliate marketing, branded deals, and audiences from countries with a stable and strong economy.

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