- There's something that's really starting to bug me
a little bit when it comes to people who want to vlog.
Oftentimes, that thing that's holding them back
from doing a great job or staying consistent
is just lack of time,
but I have found that lack of time
always has something to do with prioritization,
and prioritization usually has something to do
with a lot of things, but mostly money.
Simply put, if something isn't bringing in
the thing that you need in order to survive,
such as, like, money or air,
it's not a priority for a lot of people.
It's very easy to want to do something
because you see the shiny thing on the internet,
and you're like, I should be doing that too.
That's so cool.
I'll do one video and then quit and then never come back.
But come on.
That being said, I do think that money
is a very important thing for a lot of people
to start to mobilize their ability to do something,
especially having that cash flow that maybe drives you
and shows you that you can get results from something,
and especially if you stay very consistent
and work very hard at it,
then maybe this could be more fruitful.
All the while being completely realistic
about the fact that if you're just getting started,
it might be more difficult than others,
obviously, because people put in the work,
and then they get to a point where they can make
lots of money from whatever they're doing,
'cause they got so good at it.
But that doesn't mean you can't start making money early on.
You just have to be really creative about it
and determined, so this is not for the light-hearted.
You're literally talking about a business here.
It may feel like you're just getting
a little bit of side money here
from a fun thing you do outside of your normal job,
or maybe you're hoping this is going to build
some other kind of business,
but really this needs to be taken as seriously
as any business,
no matter how you see this fitting into your life.
So today I wanted to talk about making money
while vlogging or making money on YouTube
if that's your venue of choice,
and I'm gonna talk about five ways that you can do that
and some getting started advice as well
for each of those things.
The first way to start making money vlogging
is Google AdSense.
Most people think of this one first
because they're pretty sure it's the only egg
in everyone's freaking basket.
But only the people who think that
are the ones that are just so disconnected
from the ability to make money
that it's not as likely that they're gonna get there.
I hate to say it that way,
but usually if you come to me and you say,
Amy, what's your CPM?
I'm trying to figure out how to make Google AdSense
pay me more money.
You're out of your mind.
You might as well just go rely
on an employer if you're relying on Google AdSense
to be your only paycheck from vlogging,
but that's just my opinion.
That being said,
lots of people make a lot of money from Google AdSense.
The thing about it is that you do have to reach
a certain level of views on your channel
for it to start to pay your bills.
If you're not 100% sure what this process is,
Google AdSense is the ability to monetize your videos,
and therefore YouTube and Google make money
on your content as well as you receiving a cut.
So you essentially have a Google AdSense account,
and that's tied into your YouTube channel.
My advice for getting started with Google AdSense is this.
Do not waste any time turning it on.
First of all, you really don't want to be
on any bad side of YouTube, in my opinion,
and if they can't make money on your channel,
then they might not prioritize you that much.
So that's just my opinion.
I don't know that for a fact.
I've never seen any data to that effect.
But if I were them,
I'd be like, hm,
who do I want to send traffic to?
How about the people that are monetizing their channel?
Also, this helps you in the sense
of setting the stage for your community.
A lot of people I talk to are like,
I don't want to turn on AdSense
because I don't want there to be another barrier
in the way of somebody watching my content.
That's completely fair,
but that mindset ends up taking you to a place later on
of oh crap, I actually have views and a community,
and now there's an even bigger sort of deal
if I turn on monetization.
It's gonna be this ripple effect in the community.
Rather than having that moment
where everyone's like, you're a sell-out,
which is what they say any time you're making money ever,
you might as well just set the tone early.
Also, this is why YouTube Red was created.
People can pay a fee every month to not see those ads,
and I promise you if they're passionate against that
and they watch a lot of YouTube,
they are likely paying that $10 per month.
Likely is not the right word.
It's certainly not a majority,
but the people that are really gonna be ticked off about it
are probably going to think,
okay, I could just pay for that
and I wouldn't even have that problem.
Also, anyone that's mad at you for making money
at what you love can please leave the channel right away.
Like, can you just get that mindset from the start,
because that's gonna help us with the rest of these.
The second way to get started making money with vlogging
is to actually share affiliate links.
So in a lot of your content,
depending on what type of information you share
or the type of videos that you do,
there might be products throughout.
So let's take a makeup vlogger
or beauty vlogger, for example.
There's a lot of product that ends up
coming into the video.
Here's what my foundation is.
Here's what my lipstick is, et cetera, et cetera.
And so because of that,
you're sharing those products,
you're helping that product essentially get more sales.
Using an affiliate link,
you're basically making an agreement with the company
without actually having to talk to them a lot of time,
'cause there's so many affiliate links available out there
by saying I'm gonna promote this product.
Give me a cut if people buy it.
Pretty much almost everything on the planet these days
seems to have affiliate links,
especially information products.
You can go and work with a beauty company directly
and get an affiliate link.
I have an affiliate link for a lot of the things
that I recommend so that I don't have to
necessarily negotiate with them right away.
They're just happy to get any sales out of me
and I'm happy to make a commission
because I've actually helped a company grow
rather than just saying you should just pay me.
And so affiliate is really, really nice
because it's a great option for getting started.
You can say today I'm going to do affiliate marketing
on my YouTube channel to help me bring in some cash flow,
and pretty much that means anything
I talk about and recommend,
I'm gonna go get an Amazon affiliate link and use it.
This is literally the easiest way
to start generating revenue,
because all you have to do is sign up for that program,
and as long as within where you live
there is an affiliate program
and whatever the negotiated amount is,
it's just defined on their site.
You're simply signing up for a program,
similar to the way that you sign up for Google AdSense.
It's so easy to just say okay,
I'm recommending this Apple Watch.
I'm gonna go get the Amazon affiliate link
for this Apple Watch so that if someone decides to buy it
I will be able to kind of move my video business
forward a little bit.
And so that's what you would do
instead of going to the Apple website,
because obviously Apple doesn't do affiliate.
Okay, so when I said everybody does affiliate,
not Apple.
My getting started tip for this is just go
and try to find affiliate links on Amazon
for the products you've already been talking about forever
and simply integrate that as a part of your process.
You can even go back to previous content
and swap out old links with the new affiliate link
so that if there's anybody discovering
that content in the future,
they're gonna click on that new link
and that's your affiliate link.
So if you did, you know,
I did an Apple Watch review.
Oh, I linked to the Apple site
and now I'm gonna link to my affiliate.
You're probably not gonna get as much traction
unless that video's taking off in search
or referral for some reason,
but at least then you have that in there.
The other very, very, very, very, very important thing
we have to talk about going forward,
and especially here with affiliate links
is you must disclose that you are using them.
So that can take place in the content,
and so maybe if you're going back to old content,
you need to throw up an annotation or something
that says hey, the links are affiliate,
or you can put that disclosure in the description.
This is very, very important,
because legally as someone
that is making money on someone else's transaction,
you have to talk about that.
You have to let everyone know
for you to be in the right as a content creator.
Okay, so now I'm gonna have to take a break,
because Elton just kicked back in.
My third tip for getting started with making money vlogging
is to arrange a sponsorship.
Kind of similar to the affiliate thing,
but you're actually gonna need to communicate
with the company in order for them to be a sponsor,
and usually they are going to pay you
to do the video about whatever it is that they sell
or something that's going on with them.
Most of you are probably familiar with sponsors.
We see a lot of content on YouTube,
and usually they're doing the same kind of disclosure
that I talked about with affiliate,
that a video is sponsored and that you need
to know that going into it,
'cause legally you need to know that video
was created and a little bit with the motive
behind a sponsor being a part of it.
So as a consumer,
you need to know that,
and so as a content creator,
it's your responsibility to disclose thtat.
Sponsors are tricky for a lot of people
because they're trying to figure out
do I have enough followers?
Do I have enough views?
Do I have enough this or that in order to arrange a sponsor?
And I can understand why that would hold you back
a lot of the time,
because you always feel like oh,
I'm not there yet.
They're not gonna see any value in me,
so I'm not going to start on this yet or expect anything.
I actually think that's the wrong mentality to have,
and I think partially the reason why this is a problem
at this point is because there's things
like SocialBluebook.com and things
that are actually really nice resources
and probably give you a good idea
of where you could price things
and how to communicate with a sponsor.
But I also think that it can be devaluing
of a lot of people who's opinion does matter,
and maybe you only have 10 people watching your videos,
but you have a little bit of influence
over those 10 people who trust and come back every time.
And I don't think that that's something
that you can really just shrug off
and say it's not worth anything,
because when it comes down to it,
that could actually move the needle in a lot of ways.
So my issue with this is for those brands
that are reaching out to creators and saying,
oh, we would like to put a price tag on a video for you
and that's what we think you're worth.
I mean, I've somebody come to me and say
we want to review our product,
do a complete tutorial about it.
Beginning to end, it's about our product
and we're gonna offer you $150.
This was in the last six months that this happened.
And I just thought,
you must think so little about the people
that watch my videos that you would offer me
something like $150.
Trust me, I know what it's like to need $150, okay,
to pay the light bill.
I know what that's like,
and I am not saying that that is just
a small amount of money,
but these days, where a brand
has so much of a marketing budget
that they would actually come to me and say here is $150?
That's not even gonna buy my groceries this month,
but I'm gonna expose you to upwards of 5,000
to maybe 10,000 people about your product,
if not more than that,
'cause it's gonna live on for a lifetime,
and you actually think that I'm gonna do that?
I would rather you come to me and say
we don't have a budget
so that we can talk about what else you can do
to provide me value,
which I could definitely get a whole lot more
than $150 out of in the long term
in some other way that we can partner
if you actually would've opened up
the conversation that way.
You trying to put a price tag on it
and low-balling is way worse
than coming at me as a sponsor and saying
we don't have a budget,
but what else can we do?
So that's why my getting started tip
for arranging a sponsorship
is to actually be okay with the fact
that there are lots of sponsors out there
who may not have a budget quite yet,
especially if maybe you're not
where they have defined the limitations
of who they call an influencer.
Go to them instead and say hey,
I really want to work with you.
I like your product.
It's perfectly aligned with what I talk about
with my community.
So how can I insert you as a sponsor
of an episode or of a series,
and what can you do to offer me value in return?
Maybe that something is, like,
they link your video in their email newsletter
and that brings you some traffic.
Maybe that something is that they let you do
an Instagram Stories takeover,
which also brings you more traffic.
There are other ways to make a sponsorship happen.
It doesn't have to necessarily be with money.
But that's going to set the stage
for how you work with sponsors in the future,
and then when you do want a paycheck,
you're able to say hey,
here's how I usually do things,
and show them samples of your previous sponsors,
which you arranged with other terms,
but they don't need to know that.
If you want sponsors,
start acting like it right now.
I'm sorry if there's somebody yelling the background now.
I'm getting sick of trying to film this video
and there being a dress rehearsal in the background.
The fourth way that I recommend
you start making money vlogging
is to offer consulting.
So depending on the type of content that you create
and the information that you provide,
you ideally are becoming a thought leader in your space
and potentially an expert in your industry,
and so that leaves room for you to be able
to consult with people and offer them advice
as to how you can help.
In my situation, it's very meta.
People watch my videos and then they're like,
you do good job making videos.
Can you help me with that?
And I'm like, sure.
So I have one-to-one vlogging clients,
I have group coaching clients,
and I also have larger companies
that are clients in my newer company called AfterMark,
where they integrate more of a strategy
into their existing plan,
but these are all the different ways
that I can offer consulting,
and they're all three different revenue models.
My getting started tip for this
is to make sure that you have a place
for people to learn more about potentially hiring you.
So make sure that's always in your description box.
Is it a page on your website
and something with more information
on how they can get in contact with you?
Maybe they fill out a survey first.
Make that happen.
And the fifth way to get started making money vlogging
is to actually just sell your own products.
Sorry, my battery died,
because literally this concert outside
is making this take hours, so.
To be expected.
A lot of you might actually be watching this
because you do have a product
and you're hoping to sell more of it,
and the videos are hopefully
going to help get that word out.
This is a fantastic option for that,
and especially if you're working those videos
into your own content strategy
and not simply hiring influencers,
you're really covering a lot of bases
that are helping you get exposure.
My getting started tip here is to remember
that your vlogs are not commercials.
They are content.
They are an opportunity to provide value
and get in front of people
who otherwise would never have looked at you
or your product or whatever it is that you do.
So remember to keep that mind.
How do you get on someone's radar now
with their current line of thinking,
what they're Googling, what they think about,
the kind of entertainment that they want,
so that they will in turn be curious about you
and your product and potentially that next step.
Allow this place, this venue,
this medium to be an opportunity
to build those relationships
and start to drive those potential leads
down the line for converting product.
That being said, don't shy away
from the product in the description and in other ways,
and just let people know where they can find out
more about you with your website
and all of those things pretty much anywhere,
especially those featured links on your YouTube channel
or in the description.
You can do pretty much anything down there.
Those are five ways you can make money vlogging.
If you're just getting started,
I just wanted you to feel like you have options.
It doesn't matter how big you are.
It doesn't matter what everybody else is telling you.
If you don't start thinking about
the monetization side of things early on,
it's much more difficult later.
I can't tell you how many times
I've had a call with a YouTuber
who grew and grew and grew
and they worked really hard on their art,
but then when it came time to talk to sponsors
or figure out how to integrate a brand,
they really got paralyzed by that
because it felt so unnatural.
It shouldn't be unnatural.
It should be a total fit into what you're doing,
and you should not have to justify the fact
that you can make money in order to mobilize this thing
that you care so much about.
That's the dream.
That's the life.
If you want that life, go after it.
Don't shy away from it.
Don't let everybody tell you
that it's the wrong thing to do.
I think this is a super important video
at this point in time because I feel like
the state of influencer is very interesting.
We're finding that there are people
who started out of a bedroom or in their apartment
with a typical camera that are becoming
some of the most influential people in the world.
We don't have to see Matthew McConaughey
driving a certain car anymore.
Somebody else could be doing it,
and for brands, that's really good news,
and for you, that's really good news.
But as a viewer,
you want to be able to trust the source no matter what,
and as a content creator,
you want to feel like your community accepts you
for the content that you create
and the brands that you end up aligning with in turn.
But until you're transparent about that,
and you should be from the very, very, very start,
it's going to be more and more difficult
for you to integrate.
But you don't have to wait.
You've just, like I said,
got to get creative.
These are five ways that I came up with really quickly.
I was actually thinking this could be
somewhat of a series,
because there are a lot of ways to make money
sort of creating content and creating value for people
through video and vlogging and YouTube and all of that,
so let me know what you think about that
in the comments below.
Is this something you want to learn more about,
or should we go in a different direction
in terms of what you want to learn about vlogging?
Happy to accommodate.
It's what I'm here for.
That's all for today.
Socials, thank you so much for tuning in.
I appreciate it as always.
If you want to help me and any other creator
to thrive at what they do,
especially on YouTube,
make sure you hit that subscribe button
and subscribe for good vibes.
And until next time,
remember to go after the life that you want.
Cheers.
("The Circle of Life")
Of course, as soon as I sit down to film this,
'cause I was like, oh,
they're going to do a concert tonight.
I better film early.
Oh right, there's dress rehearsal.
(singing in foreign language)
You messed that part up.
Don't do that tonight.