today I want to talk about one of the
questions that I get asked the most and
that's how do you make money off of
youtube now I'm going to try to give you
guys the best answer I can but before I
get into this I just want to point out
the obvious which is that this is a
personal subject you know and for some
reason like YouTube people seem to ask
this question a lot like you don't just
go into a Starbucks and say oh you know
I really like your coffee hey by the way
how much money do you make a month but
when it comes to YouTube and people find
out your youtuber it seems to be the
question on everyone's mind I do sort of
understand it though because this is a
relatively new job and it's something
that maybe a lot of people would like to
do for themselves but they don't know
how it works so with that in mind I'm
gonna try to give the best answer I can
in hopes that this can help anyone who's
ever considered doing whatever it is
that I do and the first one is the
obvious one that most people think about
and that's the money that YouTube pays
to the creator what can I do for you
show me the money so if you see an ad
before your YouTube video basically
those ads will pay the creator like a
couple of cents you know like some very
small amount then over time adds up and
do something substantial and it is a
paycheck really it's kind of cool I get
a deposit in my bank account once a
month from Google Adsense because Google
Google owns YouTube and Adsense is what
they call this program to give you an
example I'm not gonna give you a
specific amount but I have never made
over a thousand US dollars in a month
from Google Adsense I've been close
that's my next like like that will be
great when I hit that I've been close
I've had like nine hundred or something
like that and depending on who you are
you might think wow nine hundred bucks
just to make videos about your life like
that's that's awesome
or you might be thinking well actually
that's not that much at all it all
depends on your priorities and your
lifestyle right
I'm currently living in Mexico which has
a cheaper cost of living than my home
back in Canada I don't have any kids to
feed I don't mind sleeping in like cheap
hostel beds and like living a simple
minimalist lifestyle you know but if
you're trying to raise a family
nine hundred bucks a month doesn't
really do much at all
and I should also point out that I've
been making videos for nearly three
years now and at the beginning I wasn't
making anything near this amount just to
get my first hundred bucks took months
and months so one big misconception I
want to clear up is that just because
you have 50,000 subscribers or whatever
I have now it's not like you're you're
rich and it's not like YouTube is giving
you a huge amount of income you're not
even necessarily making the minimum wage
of your home country if you break it
into like every hour that you've spent
shooting the videos editing the videos
sharing the videos responding to
comments so yeah YouTube helps me pay my
bills YouTube gives me I guess a
paycheck but it's not the only way I
make money off this channel the second
way I do it is with something called
affiliate advertising now if you guys
look down at the description of this
video or any video that I've made for a
long time you're going to see a link to
the camera that I use the tripod I use
the microphone I use if you click on
that link it will take you to Amazon and
then if you buy something through Amazon
it will then give me a percentage of
that sale for sending you there it's a
small percentage it's like three or four
percent something like that but if
someone does buy like an $800 camera
well that what is that like 30 bucks
whatever it is is better than nothing
right and remember that's not an
additional charge for the buyer that is
Amazon the seller saying okay we're
going to give you a bit of our profit
before making that sale happen
the third way is to do something called
epidemic sound you guys hear songs in my
videos 90% of the time that music comes
from epidemic sound music is God music
makes such a difference for YouTube
videos and I think it's one of the
problems that a lot of youtubers have is
like where do I get good music cuz I
can't just put the new Drake song in my
video it'll get taken down for copyright
you need copyright free music and what
epidemics sound does is they give me an
opportunity to pick songs from their
library for a monthly fee I pay them
every month and I get access to like
thousands and thousands and thousands of
songs and what I have in my description
is a link to epidemics sound so if you
guys sign up for a minute epidemic sound
you get 30 days free and I will get
money for sending you there so that's
another way sort of like Amazon I'm
taking something that has worked for me
a product or a service and then I'm
recommending it to someone else and
based on how many people click on it and
how many people sign up I will get paid
I don't even know if I've made any money
up epidemic yet I just signed up
recently for that but that's another way
that I'm hoping will yeah eventually
make some cash what's next on my list oh
yeah air B&B I'm actually staying in an
air B&B right now in the beautiful town
of Guanajuato Mexico yeah basically
every envita is something similar to
epidemic sound they have a link and this
isn't special to me anyone who's used
Airbnb can get this link and if you send
it to your friends or people you know
and then they sign up with Airbnb Airbnb
gives credit to them and I get some
money for sending you there and yeah
it's an easy thing that I can put in the
description of my videos and if someone
wants to sign up for Airbnb well
actually it whatever you be does they
don't give me money they give me credit
to use on Airbnb so in the future when a
booking a place like this
I can essentially stay for free if
enough people sign up for my a B&B like
which one you're travelling full-time I
mean getting free accommodation is huge
that's often your biggest expense that's
another example of how I can make money
or save money through my youtube channel
okay let me just check my list I got a
few more okay selling footage so this is
something that I wish I could do more
and I think it's a great way for any
youtuber to make money and that is by
selling video footage that you've taken
to companies to brands to to anyone who
needs them right if someone like Mexico
tourism or some I don't know some new
hotel and Guanajuato saw some shots that
I took of the city and said hey we want
to use those in our video
can we buy them from you well I would
say yeah of course because I've already
taken the video you know I've already
I've already used it for my youtube but
there's nothing to stop me from reusing
it for their project too and recently
there was a company called matador
Network they reached out to me and they
bought some video I took it in Mexico
City of me eating insects at this
restaurant and they use that for their
own video about Mexico and I know some
people have got thousands of dollars off
selling footage I've never had a big big
payday but yeah fingers crossed one day
something I shoot will be worth
something to someone the next way to
make money is through freelance work
this is a bit separate from YouTube I
mean you got YouTube and you got
freelance but they work together right
because in a sense every video I make is
my portfolio of work that I've done so
if a Tourism Board or any company or
brand sees my videos and says you know
what I like your editing style I like
what you're doing will you do this
project for us you know maybe I'll do it
the thing about freelance work is that
it can take a lot of time and effort and
yeah in the end if you do too much of
that it will take away from your YouTube
channel so even though freelance clients
might be paying you a lot more than
YouTube if your passion is to grow
YouTube I think you kind of got to stay
focused on that so I mean in the past I
was I I was editing some videos for this
t-shirt printing company and that's not
something I posted on my youtube channel
that was something they owned they were
just taking my skills that I had
developed through YouTube and using them
for something else the next one is brand
deals whenever I meet people they're
like oh you tubers you guys I hear you I
hear you guys can make so much money off
brand deals and I guess you can but I
very cautious about brand deals that's
where I see things just a little
differently contractor no I will not bow
to any sponsor I'm cautious about brand
deals because what you're actually doing
when you introduce a product like a
brand or something that I'm advertising
in my videos is I'm selling your
attention to a company right so this
flip flop I'm wearing if these guys
wanted me to advertise hashtag sponsored
these flip flops in this video I'm gonna
put this away because this isn't an ad
for flip flops but if it was I would
essentially be selling your attention to
this flip flop company and maybe they're
good flip flops maybe they're not I
don't know but if they're willing to pay
enough money I might be thinking well
who cares you know they're there give me
a thousand bucks to talk about flip
flops they could be pieces of crap I
don't care it's like people only do
things because they get paid at least
that seems to be the way that some
youtubers think about brand deals I try
to think about it more as like is this a
product that I genuinely like is this
something that I think is genuinely
interesting and useful to my audience
like the Amazon links that I have or the
Airbnb which I use you know these are
things that I've are
used and so I feel comfortable sharing
with you guys and there have been
examples of brand deals I've done like a
suitcase that I was sent that I could
put the new travel with big stickers on
I thought that was a cool thing to
travel around with so I was happy to let
them send me that in exchange for
talking about it in a video and that's
sort of how brand deals work you're
either getting something for free or if
your channel is big enough they will pay
you to promote that item and I can't
promise I won't do more brand deals in
the future because it's a quick way to
make money but I hope that I can always
respect what I've talked about here
today which is that too many brand deals
can sort of take away from your channels
message and the wrong kind of brand deal
can just disrespect your audience and
that's not something I ever want to do
so
last but not least the eight way that I
am monetizing my youtube channel is
through patreon basically patreon is a
community of people who have viewed my
YouTube videos and have decided to
support me by making monthly donations
and for me patreon was a tricky thing to
start I was thinking like should I
really be asking for money from the
audience but at the end of the day I'm
not I'm not hiding any videos behind
there it's not something that I I forced
people to do it's just a way that if
someone is a big fan if someone really
likes what I'm doing they can help fund
it they can help continue this new
travel project all together these eight
ways you know make up a pie and some
slices some months are bigger than
others you know usually YouTube ad
revenue is the biggest maybe you do a
big brand deal and then that one's
bigger or maybe you sell a bunch of
affiliate cameras and then you're making
more money off that but the reality is
it's very inconsistent and you never
really know how much money you're gonna
be making next month so the fact that I
have about thirty or thirty-five patreon
who are saying hey we're gonna give you
a couple dollars we're gonna give you
five bucks or whatever just because we
love what you're doing and we want you
to continue that I mean that's job
security and and that is that is
humbling to me as well that's something
that I truly appreciate and maybe that's
one of the reasons I wanted to make this
video just to show people that patreon
is isn't just a way for me to try and
like get more money off something that's
already making a lot of money it's it's
a way for me to try to sustain this
project and keep making videos for as
long as I can so yeah I hope that if
nothing else this video has opened your
eyes to a few of the ways that you can
make money off of youtube sorry I can't
get more specific about the dollar
amounts but it is something personal and
it is something that is changing every
month for me but the big takeaway is
that there's not a ton of money to be
made in YouTube but you can make a life
out of it if you're thinking if you're
always thinking about new ways that you
can
monetize your channel and that doesn't
mean that your internal motivation for
making videos is to make money it's not
my motivation for making these videos is
to to share my experience traveling the
world and hopefully open people's eyes
to the beauty that is out there and to
well if you know I've talked about that
in other videos but the the point is
that if you want to make something like
this into a lifestyle you got to think
about the business side every once in a
while because it is a full-time job in
terms of the commitment and you can
supplement it with other stuff like
freelance work but if you want to grow
your YouTube channel you really got to
treat it like the full-time job that it
is and be fully committed and I'm fully
committed to this channel and part of
that is being honest with you guys about
how I'm making this work anyway guys as
always I'm down for the new travel don't
forget if you want to be a youtuber
you're probably not gonna be driving a
Lamborghini like some people think this
car is absolutely insane but you can
make it work with a bit of hard work as
always i'm dan from the new travel hope
you enjoyed this one and i will see you
next time
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