How to get paid by YouTube without making videos

Up until recently, monetizing your YouTube channel as a vlogger was difficult. Unless you had over 5,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last year, it was extremely challenging to get paid by YouTube. However, everything has changed! Now that Google no longer requires 10K subs and 4K watch hours to qualify for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), opportunities have opened up for smaller channels like yours and mine.

Instead of giving up on vlogging because of this difficulty, how about finding other ways to get money from your videos? Below is a list of different ways that you can monetize your channel without having to stick behind a camera for another 100 hours in 2019.

Get paid by YouTube with sponsors

If you’ve been in the vlogging game for a while, you probably know that brand deals are one of the most effective ways to monetize videos. If a company values your content and audience enough to want to advertise to them, you can usually negotiate a price per thousand impressions (e.g. if they’re paying $10 per 1,000 impressions, you’ll get $1 per 1000 views).

If you’re brand-new to vlogging and don’t have many subscribers, big brands are less likely to pay you for a partnership. However, smaller companies might be willing to pay you to promote their product in your vlog. You can find these companies on sites like Sponsored.com or Tapdaq, or you can try cold emailing companies whose product you love and would be excited to feature on your channel.

Marry your vlog to a blog

This one is a little bit of a mix between making money by sponsors and marrying your vlogging to a product. If you want to make money by vlogging, but don’t want to deal with sponsorships, try creating your own products and selling them through your website.

Baking your vlogging into a blog with a specific topic is a great way to attract an audience that’s interested in what you have to say. Not only will this help you grow your channel and gain more subscribers, but it also provides value to your readers.
If your blog is focused on a niche that you truly love, writing for it will be enjoyable, regardless of the monetary gain. Let your enthusiasm for the topic show in your writing, and people will be eager to read your blog and learn from it.

Create a product or service around your channel

If you’re absolutely dedicated to vlogging, but have had trouble getting sponsors or making money from blogging, create a product or service around your channel.
If you love baking, create baking kits or a baking cookbook that ties into your vlogging. If you’re a fitness guru, create workout kits or eBooks that are tailored to your audience.
If you’re creating a product or service, be sure that it’s something that you can sell easily. You don’t want to get so invested in one product idea that you can’t accept the fact that it’s not going to sell. Be prepared to move on if your product is not successful.

Write sponsored content for larger brands

If you want to get paid to vlog, but don’t want to sell out to a brand, try writing sponsored content for larger websites.
Online publications, both editorially and financially driven, are always looking for writers. If you have experience in any given field, try pitching some larger websites with an editorially driven blog, like Vox.
You could also try pitching a financial driven website like Seeking Alpha, who will pay you for a well-researched article.

Earn affiliate commissions with product partnerships

If you have a strong social media presence, you can earn affiliate commissions by partnering with brands that you love.
For example, if you’re a big fan of FitTea and want to monetize your social media following by promoting their product, you can sign up to become an affiliate and earn commissions for each sale you drive.
If you have an Instagram following, you can also sign up as an affiliate with Shopify and promote your favourite products.

Build an email list and run ads

If you’ve build up a strong audience on YouTube and want to monetize your channel without giving up on vlogging, it’s time to try using ads.
However, if you’re just starting out on the platform, the biggest hurdle you’ll face is that you don’t have many (or any) subscribers. If you want to make money from ads, you’ll need an audience and an email list can help you build one.
To monetize through ads, you need to be in the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) and have 10,000 public channel views. If you don’t meet the criteria, but want to try out running ads on your channel, there’s another option:

Vlogging is a challenging adventure, but if you’re committed to achieving success, there are plenty of ways to make money off of your hobby. Whether you choose to marry your vlog to a blog, create a product or service around your channel, write sponsored content for larger brands or build an email list and run ads, there are many ways to make money off of your passion for vlogging.