How to monetize your YouTube Channel

How does YouTube monetization work?

With over a billion users, YouTube is the largest video hosting website in the world. In 

fact…

• People watch hundreds of millions of hours every single day on YouTube.

• Around 300 hours of video are uploaded every single minute.

• There are over a million companies advertising on YouTube.

• Partner revenue is up 50% year-over-year.

So there’s lots of opportunity to make money on YouTube.

How Does YouTube Monetization Work?

YouTube monetization is fairly straightforward. Companies create advertisements that get 

placed at the beginning of your videos. These are called pre-roll ads. Each time a viewer 

watches an ad all the way through, you get paid.

To monetize your videos, you need to follow a few basic steps:

1. Verify your YouTube account.

Until you do so, you won’t be able to take advantage of YouTube live, hangouts on air, or 

upload videos longer than 15 minutes. It’s very easy to do, and doesn’t take very long.

2. Join the YouTube Partner Program

Once you’re in the YouTube Partner Program you’ll be eligible for pre-roll ads. There are a 

few more criteria for this program, but nothing too difficult.

Mainly, YouTube wants to ensure that you are uploading only original content, content that 

is advertiser-friendly, and so on. Beyond advertising, benefits include advanced product 

features, strategic and technical support, as well as access to advanced programs, such as 

YouTube Space and development programs.

For more information on what it takes to become a YouTube Partner, visit YouTube’s 

Working Together page.

A Few More Ways to Monetize Your Videos

Becoming a YouTube Partner is the most basic way to earn money as a YouTuber. But pre-

roll ads aren’t the only way to make money from YouTube. Here are a few other ways to 

monetize your YouTube channel:

• Sign up your own sponsors.

If you’re really passionate about what you do, you’ll be able to build a YouTube following. 

And the more people you get on board your channel, the easier it will be to get your own 

sponsors.

There are plenty of successful YouTubers who take time in their videos to promote other 

products and services – and each time they do, they earn money.

• Promote your own products and services.

This is where the real money is at, because you don’t have to split revenue with anyone 

else. When you create and sell your own products, you keep the vast majority of the 

revenue.vWhen you use videos this way, your videos are simply a form of free advertising.

• Build an affiliate relationship.

Affiliate marketers are like advertisers. But instead of earning a flat fee for advertising, 

affiliates earn a commission for each sale. This can be much more profitable, especially 

since there are so many high-paying products out there.

To create affiliate relationships, you can either sign up with a major affiliate network, such 

as Clickbank or Rakuten Linkshare, or you can work out an individual relationship with a 

business.

• Create a separate paid video stream.

Locking some premium videos behind a paywall can be another way to earn more money 

than you’d get from advertising alone. YouTube has experimented with this feature in the

past, with mixed results.

Vimeo offers this type of program. And other vendors, such as Amazon and PayLoadz, allow 

you to upload and sell downloadable video content.

• Create a Patreon account.

Patreon is a service that allows your fans to become your patrons. Each time you release a 

new piece of content, your followers donate money to your cause.

As you can see, advertising is only one way to make money online. You can sell your own 

products, become an affiliate, or turn your fans into patrons. However you choose to make 

money, make sure you put lots of effort into marketing – the more you self-promote, the 

more money you’ll be making.

How to Monetize YouTube Videos With AdSense?

One of the easiest ways to monetize YouTube videos is to enable the monetization option 

for your YouTube account and link your channel with your Google AdSense Account.

Google AdSense is a Google program that helps publishers make money from their content. 

As a YouTube creator, you can join the publisher program to start making money from your 

videos.

YouTube Monetization with AdSense

Monetizing your YouTube videos with Google AdSense is one of the most common and easy 

ways to make money from your YouTube videos.

Once you have associated your YouTube channel with an AdSense account, you will have 

the option to submit your videos for monetization.

Your video will be approved for monetization if it passes YouTube monetization 

requirements. General criteria of meeting such requirements include provisions that your 

videos to be advertiser-friendly and that you own the rights to the content to use it 

commercially.

In this chapter, we will walk you through steps that you need to complete to monetize 

YouTube videos and start making money from your videos.

YouTube Monetization Update: YouTube has introduced some changes to its Partner

program limiting only channel over 10k views to enable ads on their videos. For new 

YouTube channels, you will need to fulfill the minimum threshold of 10,000 lifetime views 

to apply for the YouTube partner program and enable monetization.

Summary of Steps – YouTube with AdSense

Here’s the summary of steps to associate YouTube account with AdSense for monetization 

if you know your way around both YouTube and AdSense.

1. Go to your YouTube dashboard by clicking on your YouTube account icon and 

Creator Studio.

2. From your Creator Studio dashboard, go to the Monetisation page under Channel 

Menu on your left sidebar (Channel > Monetisation)

3. Under the “Guidelines and Information” section, you will see information about FAQ –

“How will I be paid?”.

4. Click on the AdSense Association page and follow the next step that directs you to 

AdSense and YouTube association page.

5. Sign in with the Google Account that has AdSense enabled and the one that you want 

to associate with your channel.

6. Once you have logged in, click to accept the association on the page.

7. You will now be redirected to your YouTube account and soon receive message and 

notifications to enable monetizations for your videos.

Follow the detailed guide below with all the steps that are involved in the YouTube 

monetization process with AdSense.

Link YouTube Account to Google AdSense

Follow the steps below to enable monetization on your YouTube account and link your 

YouTube account with Google Adsense.

Step 1: First, you will need to go to your YouTube Creator Studio dashboard. When you are

on YouTube, click on your icon on the top left, and click on the Creator Studio button that 

takes you to your creator studio dashboard.

Step 2: When in Creator Studio, navigate to Channel > Monetization and here you should

see an option to enable Monetization. Click on the Enable button and you will be guided to 

complete a monetization agreement.

Additional note: Your channel needs to be verified to complete this step. Getting verified 

status for your channel involves associating your phone number with your account.

You should be able to see your channel status as Partner Verified before you proceed with 

other steps.

Step 3: Once you enable the monetization for your account and complete the YouTube

monetization agreement, there’s one more step left to do.

You now have the option to monetize your videos, but you will need to link your YouTube 

account to an Adsense account.

Step 4: At this point, check to see that your account is enabled for Monetization under the

Account Status.

Although there’s no link or button to configure the AdSense account on this screen, there 

are few ways you can go ahead from here.

You should immediately receive an email outlining the steps that you need to take forward 

to be paid by YouTube.

 Step 5: The email as you can see in the screenshot urges you to link to an AdSense account

and provides you with a link that you can click and start the process.

Alternatively, you should get a notification bar on top of your dashboard urging you to link 

your channel to an AdSense account.

“Almost there! Don’t forget to link your channel to an AdSense account to earn money and 

get paid for your monetized videos.”

Step 6: Proceed by clicking on the link by using any of the methods above and you should

see this “Welcome to AdSense” screen.

If you already have an AdSense account, you can simply sign in with the Google account 

that you have used to sign up for Adsense. If you are signed into AdSense already, you 

should see a screen that asks you if you want to sign in using the same address.

One important thing to note here is that you don’t need an AdSense account associated 

with the email account of your current YouTube account. You can link to your any other 

independent AdSense account.

Creating an AdSense account is another big topic but if you need to signup for an account –

Sign in with your Google account first, and you will be guided to apply for an Adsense 

account.

You should obviously have used a Google account to setup a YouTube account but if you 

want your AdSense account to be on a different account you can click on “Create Account” 

and it’s easy to follow along.

Step 7: Assuming you have an AdSense account already, click on sign in and it will now

take you to Step 2 in the process where it will simply list your YouTube channel under my 

website.

(The YouTube URL shown here is ID-based URL of your YouTube Channel. Learn how to 

claim custom YouTube URL here. )

Accept the Association with your Adsense account and it will redirect you back to YouTube 

Confirming all the details.

That’s all you need to do to link your YouTube account to AdSense account! You should 

now see options for AdSense settings and to review and change your AdSense association.

There’re few more steps that you need to do to start making money from your videos.

Enabling Monetization for YouTube Videos

Step 8: Like mentioned in the email that you receive after enabling monetization, you will

need to go to your Video Manager and enable monetization on all of your videos published 

already on your channel.

You should also receive an email saying that your AdSense account association with 

YouTube has been approved and that you’re ready to start making money from your 

videos.

Click on monetize my videos to enable monetization on videos that you have already 

published on your YouTube Channel.

If you have many videos uploaded on your YouTube channel, you can monetize all your 

videos at once by navigating to Channel > Monetization. You will see your videos left to 

monetize on this page. Click on “Monetize Videos” (see screenshot).

Step 9: For videos that you upload after associating with an AdSense account, you will see

an option to enable monetization for each of them directly in your upload manager.

When you upload your videos, go to your Monetization tab and flip the switch button for 

Monetize with Ads. You will also be asked to agree with the terms that you own the rights 

for the video and its content.

Ad Formats to Monetize YouTube Videos

As you can see above, you can choose from all the available Ad formats that will decide the 

type of Ads that will appear in your YouTube videos.

Here’s the list of all available Ad formats for YouTube videos that can help you decide to 

choose from. Select all Ad formats so that YouTube can choose and decide itself to display 

the most relevant Ads to your viewers.

▪ Display Ads – Ad sizes of 300×250 or 300×60 appearing on the right side of the

videos on desktop devices.

▪ Overlay Ads – Ad sizes of 468×60 or 728×90 appearing on the lower end of the

videos on desktop devices.

▪ Skippable Video Ads – Full sized video ads that play before your video in the player

and can be skipped after 5 seconds. The Ad play on several devices and can be 

inserted before, during, or after the main video.

▪ Sponsored Cards – Displays cards with related products featured in your video, on

desktop and mobile devices.

You don’t see in the screenshot above under Ad formats options but depending on your 

account, you might also see options for Bumper Ads (6 seconds long, Non-skippable video 

ads) and Non-skippable video ads up to 30 seconds long, available to monetize Youtube 

videos that you upload.