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If you are looking to make quick money online then perhaps this is not the article for you. If however you are looking to make money with youtube alongside building an online brand and after some hard work making consistent passive income then you can’t go very wrong with starting a youtube channel.
When it comes to side hustles I have pretty much tried them all over the last 20 years or so. Some work great and I still use them today to boost my income. Some were either too tough or just did not work the way I wanted them too.
This side hustle I tried around 6 years ago, it did work just not quite the way I wanted. In the end, it was taking up too much of my time at a point in my life when I didn’t have any time spare. What it has done is shown me how it is possible to make money with youtube and the various means of doing so.
Youtube Brief History:
Youtube was founded in 2005 by three employees of Paypal. They had realized there was not one sole place for people to upload videos. After seeing some videos on tv that should have been widely available for people to view they started the company.
With what was an astronomical growth the company was brought by google one year later for over 1 billion dollars. It then became the global phenomenon it is today.
5 Billion videos are watched every day. Over 1 billion people view youtube every day and over 300 minutes of video is uploaded to the channel every single minute of the day. Youtube is continuing to grow so watch this space.

How To Start?
So the first thing you need if you want to make money on youtube is to have a youtube channel. That’s the easy part, The harder part is working out what kind of videos you are going to produce.
You are going to need to find a niche that your videos are going to fit into. Are you very good with make-up and want to do make-up tutorials? Are you a gamer and want to stream your gaming live. Perhaps record some epic gaming footage and or tutorials?
Do not pick a niche based on what happens to be popular on Youtube. If you pick a niche that you love then it becomes that much easier to make the videos. Not only that but you will be more natural in front of the camera.
It all about finding that niche. It doesn’t matter if there are other people already doing what you want to on Youtube. In fact, I would say it is nigh on impossible to find a niche someone isn’t doing.
The main thing is to watch a lot of the creators in your niche and learn from the good ones. Also, see if there is anything they are not doing in their videos that perhaps you could in order to narrow down your niche and become more unique.
Once you have found your niche then you can work out what you want your channel to be called. You can also work out what equipment you might need to get started as it does depend on the content you are creating.

Equipment Needed:
Now considering that a youtube channel will take time and effort to even begin to make any money, You are going to need to put a little bit of money into the equipment you need to start your channel in the right manner.
You cannot just start using your smartphone to record your make up tutorials and apologize for the bad recording as people will leave before watching the video.
So with that being said, you will need to invest a little cash I’m afraid.
Dependant on how much money you would like to spend the first thing you need to do is to have some kind of recording equipment such as a good Hd camera or webcam.
High definition is the minimum you should be going for these days. You will find that they dont have to cost the earth either.
Dependant on what your channel is about you can go for a webcam to keep costs down. This will, however, limit you to recording at your desk or wherever your laptop is. A good webcam to start out with is the Logitech HD Pro C920.
Webcam:
This is a reasonably priced webcam with good HD video and mic. It is an ideal place to start when growing your Youtube channel.
If you feel you need a better microphone than the one with the webcam then there is the Blue Microphone which is a good starting point. Sure you can get better but this mic is pretty good at good value and ideal for starter youtube channels.
Microphone:
If you are a travel Vlogger or need great video quality then I recommend the Canon EOS 70 D. It is pretty expensive so only buy this if you are looking to get great pictures and videos outside of your Youtube channel. It is a great camera though and I’m still getting used to all of the settings.
Camera:
So that’s it for equipment. There are loads more options for things you can buy to help. I would try and keep it simple, to begin with, and expand and improve on your equipment as your channel grows.
How To Earn Money From My Channel?
Before I get started on how to monetize your channel I would like you to listen to this important piece of advice.
Creating a following is more important than monetizing your channel. Without your following, it doesn’t matter if your channel is monetized or not as there won’t be anyone there to click on ads, etc.
In fact, while building your channel and gaining that all-important following I wouldn’t even consider monetizing my channel. Be patient build up your channel then monetize.
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So how do you make money from your channel?
There are several ways of doing this but the main one to start out with is the Youtube partner program.
This program is free to sign up to and they create ads that fit the content of your videos. Any revenue made by the program from advertisers is split, 55% to you and 45% to Google.
If you want to apply here are the requirements. You will now need over 1000 subscribers and over 4000 hours of video views. That is quite steep and will take you a lot of effort to get there. If you do though the rewards are worth it.
There are several other ways to make money with youtube other than Youtubes advertisement program.
Ways To Monetize
Affiliate Advertising: Simply sign up with a few affiliates that are in the same niche as your Youtube channel. Then make a series of videos based around those products. Not only are you helping out your followers by recommending and testing products that they would be interested in but you are also helping out your affiliates by driving sales their way. It is a win-win for everyone. Simply place your affiliate link in the description of the video.
Sponsored Videos: Once you reach a certain number of views on your channel then you may find sponsors reaching out to you. If not it isn’t very hard to find them. All you have to do is come to an agreement on your fee and simply mention their product in your video. You could also make a video targeting that product and place a link in the description. It works similar to Affiliate advertising because that’s effectively what it is.
Creating your own Products/Courses: This is always going to be the best way to make money from your Youtube channel. If you have your own product or even easier your own course on whatever happens to be your niche then it is easy to make more per viewer than the above methods. Video courses are usually high ticket items so you dont even need to convert that many sales.
These are the 3 main ways to make money from youtube. Of course, once your channel starts to grow and you build your audience then the money comes a little easier.
Popular Youtubers:
When I started following youtube several years ago the main people I followed were gamers. The likes of KSI who is now breaking records in the boxing ring and Syndicate were the main guys I watched.
Following on from that there are several YouTubers who make millions per year.
PewDiePie is one of the biggest youtube stars around and is believed to make on average 8-12 million dollars per year.
DanTDM has allegedly a net worth of around 30 Million dollars
VanossGaming is believed to have a net worth of around 20 Million dollars
The wonderful thing with every Youtuber who is making a full time living at it is that when they started not one of them believed this would end up being their job and they would be rewarded so well.
Final Word:
Now it is important to have this final word and for it to be just after I have told you about the untold riches of some of the more wealthy YouTubers.
I would go into this venture with the thought that you want to share some of your knowledge in your particular niche with the masses.
If you go into this with the thought that you are going to quit your day job in 6 months then you will be very disappointed.
Sure it has happened but not only do you have to work very hard and learn new stuff every day you also have to have a tiny bit of luck along the way.
Oh, and in case you were wondering my youtube channel garnered about 500 subscribers at its peak. My most watched video which is a joke video has 32,000 views. Unfortunately, my friend and I just didn’t have the time to plow into making it a great channel which is a shame.
Have a look at the link and see how our videos improved from the beginning to the last ones. Gamevolution657
Interesting read – great tips on the tech! I am starting to think about using YouTube as a platform for my blog.
Thanks Lorien. Yes a lot of bloggers do use youtube as a platform to gain more traffic. I wish i had more time to devote to it.