Sources Of Income For YouTubers & Transparency Issues
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| Image by VIKAS SINGH CHHONKER from Pixabay |
In this article, you can find out which sources of income the successful YouTubers use to generate their income.
In addition, I dedicate myself to the problem of transparency and the question of whether YouTubers can be bought.
Make Money As A YouTuber
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| Sources Of Income For YouTubers & Transparency Issues |
To earn large sums of money on YouTube, it is not enough to rely on just one source of income.
It's the same as with blogs and websites. Only those who have several financial pillars will be able to show decent income overall and exploit the potential.
The possibilities are partly similar to those of bloggers, but there are also differences. Especially when it comes to direct cooperation.
In the following, I present various sources of income for YouTubers and explain the consequences and possible problems that this entails.
Sources Of Income For YouTubers
The following sources of income are the most common ones.
Of course, there may be more in individual cases, but those who want to earn money with their videos on YouTube are usually most likely to come into contact with the following sources of income:
- AdSense For YouTube
First of all, of course, YouTube's monetization option should be mentioned here. You can link your AdSense account to YouTube and then advertisements will be displayed in your videos.
There is a lot of information about the possible income. Usually, the values are between 2 and 2.50 dollars per 1,000 video impressions.
Martin from tagseoblog.de gave a few insights in an article. With him, the income per 1,000 video views is around 2 euros.
With 100,000 video views a month, you can earn 100 to 200 euros a month.
As long as you don't violate anyone else's copyrights in your videos, that's a secure source of income. - Affiliate Marketing
Another lucrative option is affiliate marketing. The video owners incorporate affiliate links in the video itself or the video description. If a viewer arrives at an online shop via this video and buys something there, the YouTuber receives a commission.
This works both for products that are presented and linked, as well as for lead offers. That would be, for example, free registration for a browser game or registration for a newsletter.
The amount of the remuneration is very different and can be between a few cents and several euros.
With 100,000 video views per month, I would estimate the income potential through affiliate marketing to be 100 - 1,000 euros.
This type of income is not entirely unproblematic, as affiliate links have to be marked, as they are also a type of advertising. But many don't do that. - Paid Videos
The more popular a YouTuber becomes, the more interesting it becomes for companies. In many industries, YouTube is now the best way to reach young people in particular with advertising. And so it often happens that successful YouTubers are contacted directly by companies. The cooperation options include, for example, the free provision of products for tests or direct payment for a Let's Play.
The more subscribers and video views you have, the more lucrative this source of income becomes and the easier it is to get such deals.
What income is possible here cannot be said, as these agreements run outside of YouTube and depend very much on the type of product and the popularity of the YouTuber. Per 100,000 video views, however, 500 euros and more are certainly possible.
Here, of course, walking the tightrope to buy ability is particularly critical. In addition, it is usually not possible to tell when a YouTuber is being paid for a video by a company unless the YouTuber indicates this. And from a legal point of view, he should. - Advertising
It is also possible to advertise products, services, companies, etc., and to label them. In addition, there are now a large number of advertising networks that have additionally or exclusively specialized in advertising campaigns for YouTube.
For example, Ranksider * now offers the opportunity to earn money with video campaigns. You make a video about a certain topic and get paid for it.
With classic banner advertising, the CPM income is often quite low. For every 100,000 video views, I would estimate the potential at 100 to 300 euros. The more popular you are, the better CPM compensation you can get.
As long as this advertisement is labeled, there should be little problem with it. - Sponsor
If you have a popular channel that caters to a specific target group, a company may well be interested in sponsoring the entire channel. This can then be done, among other things, by naming each video, as a visual identification in the header or as prefix information in the videos.
It is not possible to estimate what income is possible here. That depends very much on how many subscribers you have and whether they all belong to the target group of the company. A few hundred euros a month up to four-digit amounts are certainly possible.
If you label it properly, this shouldn't be a problem from a purely legal point of view. However, your viewers might well have a problem with it if you commit yourself so strongly to a company. There is also the risk that you will become dependent and not be quite as honest anymore. - Donate
YouTubers with many loyal fans also receive donations regularly. That can be money, but often the fans also send goods. These can be items from an Amazon wish list or other things.
This non-monetary income should not be underestimated with larger YouTubers. How active the subscribers and fans are in this regard, however, varies greatly.
Donations are a great form of recognition and work best with a very good community.
The bigger you are on YouTube, the more possibilities there are in general. There are now special marketing networks that accept successful YouTubers and support them in the acquisition of advertising campaigns and the like. Another advantage of these networks is, for example, legal advice.
And there could be other sources of income in the future. For example, it is speculated that YouTube could introduce the option of offering paid subscriptions in the future. Similar to what Vimeo has been doing for a while.
If you just want to play around a little, you can check out the YouTube Money Calculator.
This is nothing particularly complicated. There you can enter the daily video views and enter a range of CPM income (i.e. the income per 1,000 video views). As a result, you can see how much you will approximately earn.
But this tool shows very well what is important. On the one hand, it is important to increase the number of video views. On the other hand, every additional source of income increases the overall CPM.
Beyond YouTube
All of these revenue streams don't necessarily end on the YouTube platform. Many larger YouTubers have their blogs in which they also link the videos and place advertisements, etc.
On your site, you are of course much more flexible than on YouTube and that has a positive effect on the income opportunities. In addition, there are a few sources of income, such as paid links, which make little sense on YouTube itself.
Crowdfunding platforms such as Patreon are also conceivable and are quite lucrative with many loyal fans.
Having your platform also has the advantage that you make yourself somewhat independent of YouTube.
Transparency Problems And Buyable Let's Player
In the past few days, a study by Gamasutra, a major American GameDev website, has caused quite a stir.
Accordingly, around a quarter of the larger Let's Players (more than 5,000 subscribers) take money from game companies to make videos about their games.
That this is nothing new, for example, show reports about Microsoft who paid YouTubers for videos on the new console at the start of the Xbox One. It is not surprising that there were legal concerns back then.
Many of these collaborations are not exactly communicated “offensively” to the audience. From a purely legal point of view, that would be necessary.
And so there has been a lot of reactions and discussions on this subject. Lots of YouTubers refuse to do this, but for some, it's just a question of money.
Some YouTubers have already announced that they will be more transparent about it in the future. It is difficult to say whether this will prevail across the board.
I would recommend being very picky about such collaborations because the audience will quickly notice if you are doing something just for the money. In addition, you should be open about it, as most understand it and if you also stay honest and are just as critical and honest in paid videos, that shouldn't be a problem.
What do you think about that?
Conclusion
Those who only rely on AdSense for YouTube are wasting a lot of potential in terms of income.
However, YouTube is similar to blogs. Only those who have a certain reach will earn well.
With a few hundred subscribers, on the other hand, it is hardly possible to generate relevant income.
Finally, an interesting video by a German Let's Player talks openly about how he makes his income and how he tries not to sell himself.
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