Today I´m going to talk about how to earn money from YouTube without Adsense.

Yep, there are probably way more than 21 ways to make money off of YouTube but these are the most effective ones that I found can make you lots of money without even growing a very large audience, in most cases.

So, if you want to learn how to monetize without Adsense, or without depending entirely on it then keep reading!

1. Profit With Lead Generation

Maybe you´ve never even heard of it before but lead generation is an incredibly profitable way to make money online.

In fact.

It is actually the way Google itself makes money, they ARE in the lead generation market.

Basically, lead generation means getting people´s contact information through an opt-in form or any other way because they are interested in something that you offer.

Then, you sell that information to the highest bidder and make a profit out of every lead, or every sale made through a lead, depending on the arrangement that you negotiate.

There are lots of sites, YouTube channels, and different businesses that make most of their money through lead generation.

The best part?

You can make tons of money with a relatively small channel!

There´s a great example that Tim Schmoyer gives on his channel about a small channel that is making a lot of money in the insurance business/market that you might want to check out:

In this case, he´s talking about a lead generation channel in a high-paying niche that makes money by getting a commission for every sale made.

Of course, there are many other examples that you can easily find yourself in order to get some more inspiration.

So, get out there and find them!

2. Use Patreon, The Right Way

There are already great examples of YouTubers making really good money from Patreon exclusively, not even monetizing with Ads… at all!

I would say that probably one of the best examples of this is Matt D´avella, who´s already in the millions when it comes to subscriber count, so he´s surely making a decent living with his Patreons.

Let´s do simple maths:

If you consider that the average conversion rate of a landing page is around 2.35% according to Wordstream and that YouTube has even a higher conversion rate than that just because video marketing is way more effective than written stuff you can surely assume that at least 1% of Matt´s viewers become Patreons.

So, let´s say that from 1 Million people just 1% contributes to his content by becoming a Patreon, that is 1.000 people, with $8 each person (which his middle price) you have $8.000 dollars US.

How about that?

Now, in order for this to work, you should probably do what Matt does and offer your audience some sort of exclusive content that can actually provide value to them.

For example, he has a secret vlog and podcast as well as videos where he shows his own methods for creating content for YouTube, among other things.

So, this is surely another great way to make money without depending on the Adsense Program.

3. Go With High-Ticket Items

Maybe a smarter way to make money through YouTube could be selling high-ticket products, courses, and digital tools.

Well, if that´s what you were thinking then you are RIGHT.

Now, it isn´t necessarily for everyone but the truth is that high-ticket items are a great way to make a substantial difference in your income if you learn how to properly sell them and address your viewers accordingly.

Actually.

There are great examples on YouTube where you can get some inspiration from and good advice in order to get started.

One of such examples if Dan Lok´s channel.

He is all about high-ticket sell, developing your selling skills, how to talk to people, and what to tell them so that they are eager to buy from you.

You too can master these skills and go for that higher commissions that will surely make your YouTube profits skyrocket.

On the other hand, if your problem is that you don´t know WHAT to actually sell in order to make seizable commission then let me help you.

There are plenty of affiliate products and programs that aim for that particular audience and that´s mainly focused on making thousands of dollars from each and every sale.

You can easily find (literally) hundreds of different programs that will build you a fortune if you have developed a trusting relationship between you and your audience.

Here are some examples that you might want to check out:

• James Allen. This company is a perfect fit for any affiliate YouTuber that likes to talk about weddings. Although they offer just a 5% cut from every referred sale keep in mind that their average sale is around $6,500! Think how much money you could make through a few referrals a month.
• VIP Cars. If you can refer people to a car rental service through your channel then this is the best choice you can make. High commissions that average between 50% and 70% from every sale.
• SEMRush. If you are into the marketing (or similar) niche then THIS is the program for you. They offer 40% commissions and the possibility of making recurring income as well as an unprecedented 10-year cookie!
• WP Engine. This site offers managed WordPress hosting, and affiliates earn a whopping $200 per new customer that they refer or 100% of the customer’s first monthly payment, so check it out.
• Villiers. This is one of the highest-paying programs within its niche: Luxury travel.

And these are just a few mere examples I´ve found by doing a quick search.

There are many other great affiliate programs like Bluehost, Booking.com, Hilton, credit card and bank offers and so and so forth.

You should conduct your own research and take the time to see if there´s a similar option to these for your niche or market. Chances are there is.

4. Run a Membership Site

If you start promoting your own website on your YouTube channel then one of the things that you can do to monetize your viewers is by offering membership access to get more EXCLUSIVE content that you don´t publish on YouTube.

The word itself sells the damn thing, EXCLUSIVE is one of those words many marketers abusive simply because it works so well.

One of the many advantages that a membership site has to offer is that is recurring revenue that you can grow as long as you keep growing your following.

Nowadays is fairly easy to create your own website, you don´t need almost any previous knowledge to get started and you can do it in a matter of minutes, which is awesome.

And transforming a normal website into a membership site it´s just as easy!

Now, you don´t need a large following to start doing this, there are examples of people that have found success by getting one paying customer at a time.

Such is the case of Gillian Perkins, who started out as a very small YouTubers and now she has grown a very large following in a short period of time:

If you go to her website you´ll see just how she pushes people to sign up for her membership site, Startup Society, which is really affordable and makes her 6-figures a year, way more than ANY of her other sources of revenue.

As you can see you don´t need to think about Adsense, course sales, or even selling physical products, you can simply give access to paying clients to similar, although more exclusive and valuable, content that you may already be creating.

Plus, having a membership site unlike selling courses allows you to build a recurring revenue which will organically increase as you continue to grow your audience.

So, even if you start out at a couple of hundreds of dollars a month, as long as you keep nurturing your YouTube channel with great content you´ll eventually build a large enough fanbase that will support your lifestyle for the long run.

5. Sell Online Courses

You saw this one coming!

Yep, selling courses online does pay off and it´s (probably) one of the most profitable ways to make lots of money without a very large following.

Plus, due to the fact that you control the price and pretty much any other metric or factor that is related to your course conversion rate, you´ll be able to maximize each and every sale by doing many things…

….such as offering up sales and down sales, promote with facebook ads to increase exposure, even offering affiliate commissions so that other people can also promote your course, among other common strategies.

You can find great examples of this online, especially on YouTube:

Actually, it is such a good way to make money online that there are way too many people that skip the part of actually learning how to properly do something in order to be able to teach it afterward in an online course.

So, if you have (pretty much) any sort of skill that you may think it could interest others then you MUST take into consideration this profitable option.

The e-Learning industry is going to climb to $325 billion dollars by 2025 according to Forbes!

Check out this crazy stats from Forbes site:

Just make sure to get into it while there´s time.

Plus, its global growth rate is so massive that there is a lot of untapped opportunities out there that you can take advantage of.

The learning and teaching business is an evergreen market so if you play your cards well you are going to make a huge profit for a really long time.

In addition to that, there are many platforms that make the entire process of creating your own course super smooth, and are FREE to use!

For example, Teachable is one of such platforms, in fact, it is the one that Parker Walbeck, the filmmaker I mentioned earlier uses to create his courses, which are really professional and earn them 7-figures every year.

He even has two different courses that make him a ton of money just by leveraging the power of video marketing, and both organic and paid traffic.

6. Write An E-book

One of the easiest, yet more lucrative, ways you can earn decent money is by sharing some of your best tips on a topic by writing your own e-book.

And it´s not as hard as most people think.

Nowadays you can even record yourself talking about something and then pay for a service that simply transcribes and edits your entire audio recording.

Think about it, you could create an entire chapter a day by doing this once a day for a couple of weeks and by the end of the month have your e-book ready.

It is also one of the most popular ways to create passive income in the long term and earn money day in and day out without maybe even promoting it in any way.

Plus, it gives you a bit more authority in your niche to be able to say that you are an author.

That´s what Sean Cannell and Benji from Video Influencers did and they are now a bestseller on Amazon, mainly thanks to their YouTube fans:

You can pack all of your knowledge, experience, and expertise into an E-book, this very consumable format that makes it easy to sell and it´s well known as a reliable source of income.

Now, I know what you might be thinking, it´s hard to write a book, right?

Well, it actually doesn´t need to be.

Yes, it can take you a lot of time to craft the first draft or even get the ideas and words flowing and compiling everything into an attractive package, but nowadays there are tools and all sorts of free mentors out there that can help you out.

Here´s what you can do:

• Record ideas on the spot. You can easily record audio files whenever you come up with ideas for your book or you want to develop a chapter. It is much faster than typing and it is a great way to liberate you from writer’s block. You can walk around the house while you craft your book, and then use services like Rev to transcribe the audio to text, it only costs $1 per minute.

• Take advantage of Google Docs. The free option would be to use google docs which also has a decent voice recording feature that automatically writes what you are saying. In my experience, you might want to slow your pace at times but it works just fine if you are getting started and you don´t want to pay for a transcribing service.

7. ¡Go Premium!

This means to make your website your ultimate money-making machine by upgrading your Ad revenue joining a premium ad network that earns you a much higher RPM (Rate Per Mile), the amount of money you get per thousand visitors.

Now, maybe you are wondering, how do you do this?

Well, let me tell you.

First, you need to build a site, which is not hard at all nowadays, and then you need to get enough visitors to your site so that the premium networks will accept you.

For example, Ezoic is a great network that can easily pay between $4 and $10 RPMs if you know what you are doing, and they just ask that you have (at least) 10k visitors per month, which is easily done.

You can do this by pushing people to go to your website, therefore, increasing the number of page views you get per month on your site.

The best part?

You don´t even need to create the content to publish on your site, you can simply repurpose your videos and turn them into posts.

Actually, that is what most avid content creators, like Gary Vee, do, and so should you.

THIS is one of the main reasons why I was able to increase my income so rapidly in the last couple of months.

Just be repurposing between 30 and 40 videos at once I was able to “create” new posts in just a matter of days, which resulted in a significant increase in revenue.

If you´ve already been uploading videos to YouTube or you are about to then consider making them posts also and publish them on your site as well.

The sooner you start the better, Google takes its time to rank your posts, even if they are great posts, so make sure to turn your videos into articles as soon as you publish them.

Little caveat! I don´t turn every video I make into a post, just the ones that I know have good chances of getting to the first page. This varies depending on the keyword.

8. 101 Consulting

Another great way to earn money with YouTube is by client acquisition.

You can offer your services and get consulting gigs so that you can easily work from home and create an active income by trading your time for money, you know, like a 9 to 5 with the slight difference that you´ll be able to do what you love.

Although it can be an “ordinary” way of making money it can also be a very lucrative way of adding a few zeros to your yearly income.

As you might hear of video is hot right now and the ability to convert a viewer into a paying customer with it is incredibly high, so by showing off your skills and knowledge you´ll not only get paid by Adsense, get a couple of affiliate commission, and/or sell your digital goods, you can also sell yourself!

In fact.

For many people, it is their most profitable way of doing business.

The only true downside is that it´s not very scalable, you have to increase your price in order to earn more from every client you work with, and that has its own limitations.

But, for the most part, it is another great way to add an income source to your YouTube money-making strategy.

Now, the truth is that there are many content creators that began by offering their consulting services and now that they´ve grown they don´t need to.

At first, when you don´t have that many subscribers, a consulting business can be a really good way to make extra cash as you won´t need a huge following to make a decent living out of it.

9. Be Sponsored By Brands

Many big YouTubers and businessman say that if you have a plan for your channel in advance you´ll increase your chances of success later on, and I found that to be 100% true.

You can´t walk into a market without knowing anything about it and expect things will just work out, you MUST take some time to do your research and create a plan for your channel.

Nowadays brands are a bit more selective with whom they work with.

It is not just about the numbers, believe it or not, whether you have 1k, 100k, or (even) way more than a million subscribers it doesn´t carry that much weight anymore.

Why?

Well, simply because there are more and more channels that now have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and it´s only going to get more and more crowded.

Therefore brands are only going to get pickier.

One way to counteract this trend is by making your channel a more specific one or two topic-related kind of a channel.

By doing this, and building a large enough following, you´ll make the decision of choosing YOU over others much easier, simply because most YouTubers (especially newbies) tend to create videos that cover all sorts of topics without ever going in-depth with one single niche or market.

Another simple yet effective strategy is to search for partners/brands that can be a perfect fit for your YouTube channel and directly approach them to offer a partnership.

In fact, that is how Alpha M. makes most of his money:

I would suggest you check out that video as Aaron goes about explaining how he got to the level that he is now and how to properly promote products from sponsors.

By taking care of his followers first and then really thinking about what type or brand he wants to promote in order to actually provide value to his audience and not just make money.

That way, he´s able to make tons of money from sponsored videos without losing (almost) any views in the process.

Something that is an example to be followed both because he makes tons of sponsored videos but still gets hundreds of thousands if not millions of views on his videos but also because he doesn´t promote Nike or Apple, Aaron helps the medium or even small size businesses of the world.

Check out the video right here if you are interested:

10. Benefit From Live Streaming

Talking about great ways to make some quick “extra” cash.

Doing live streams (at least) once a month can potentially earn you a ton of money if done well, not only because it has some built-in features like the super chat but also because it can make your channel grow way faster.

In fact.

According to Youtube live streams creates much higher engagement with fans and has the capability to get your channel to more people.

Now, here are three ways you can earn with live streams according to YouTuber and avid (weekly) live streamer Barbara Macdonald:

• Fan Funding. By building relationships through live streams people feel much more compelled to contribute to your growth and channel as they get to know you, and one way to do just that is through super chats. Super chatting is one of those options that YouTube gives to content creators in order to be able to make some more money out of interactions that have with their fans.
• Sponsors. Not talking about brands but real people that choose to support you because they like your work and what you have to offer. It´s also another great feature YouTube includes for those who get to the minimum requirements. In exchange for sponsorship, you can offer them all sorts of exclusive content and perks.

• YouTube Premium. Last but not least, she pushes a bit more the YouTube premium membership so that people sign up and get some extra cash that way.

One of the best advice I´ve heard she gives other content creators is to make your audience part of your content, make them participate, get creative with it and develop unique ideas to do it.

For example, Barbara has connected all of her lighting equipment to the super chat feature, that way whenever someone gives her a tip or contributes to her channel lights change color and start beeping.

You are already doing live streams? You aren´t? Then you should!

Tip! You should check out both YouTube Help as well as the Creator Academy´s catalog for more information and advice on how to properly do a live stream show.

11. Offer Digital Tools

This is one that most of us tend to underestimate as we´ve heard so much about info products that you won´t even consider other possibilities.

For example, digital tools like a helpful pre-made Excel sheet that guides you on exactly how to manage your monthly budget or a PDF that shows (with real pictures) how you can set up a trust fund in any given state would be great resources that people would actually pay for.

By compressing actionable information on smaller, but yet effective, tools that people can act on you can make a ton of money.

That being said, one GOOD rule of thumb you can rely on is the more specific the better.

Why?

Well, simply because that way your viewers/potential customers are going to “extra” willing to buy it if they think it was made specifically for them, that IS the purpose of a digital tool, serve a specific purpose for a specific customer.

The best part is that it is something that not many people do and that could potentially earn you so much money if done right.

12. Get Viral, Get Paid

Another great way to get paid is by creating viral content.

Yes, you can make money from your viral videos, not only because they´ll have much more exposure as they are being promoted by the platform itself but because there can be other parties interested in using your video as well.

Now, in order to get paid from every person, YouTuber, media publication, or television show that wants to use your viral video you have to license your video.

This means that if you create content and then get a license for it, others won’t be able to use it without your consent which will make them PAY for it.

It´s fairly easy to do, and you´ll get paid every time someone else uses your video for their own purposes.

Although you won´t make tons of money by doing this it is a great way to make money that doesn´t come directly from Adsense.

That being said, you have to know what types of videos work in order to get virality nowadays.

Besides music and funny animal videos, there are lots of other types of great videos out there that go viral each and every single day.

But the question remains, how?

Although there are probably many variables that come into play you can get some clues that will definitively help you achieve virality if possible.

Here´s what I´ve learned from Viral Videos:

• It Starts With The Title. Take some time to write a proper title that grabs people´s attention.

• Design The Thumbnail. You MUST work on your thumbnail. You can use the BOGY formula, which means using the Blue, Orange, Green, and Yellow colors in order to attract more clicks, as those are colors not commonly used on the platform and have the ability to grab the attention of the human eye.
• Make It Shareable. First, you have to have some form of a call to action so that people actually share it, and second, you want to make it emotional, make people feel something by watching your video so that they´ll be prompt to share it with others.
• Use Social Proof. Asking specifically for likes and comments will not only prompt new viewers to like and comment too but will also proper YouTube´s algorithm to promote your video more as it´ll show signs of social interaction and high engagement.
• Promote It Everywhere! Last but not least, in order to get that snowball effect all viral videos have you have to do your part. That means promoting your video everywhere you can, online and offline as well.

Those are some of the most effective denominators many YouTube viral videos have in common.

Now.

If that wasn´t enough for you to get an idea of how to create a viral video then let me give you another thing that I´ve done.

You can do what I´ve done and follow the principles that the book “Made To Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath talks about:

1. Simple. The first step is to prioritize information, and that means excluding all of the not so important portions of any work you create.
2. Unexpected. In order to get people´s attention you have to be unexpected, break people´s patterns, generate interest and curiosity.
3. Concrete. Show your idea or video in such a way that it is clear so that people can easily understand it.
4. Credible. Sticky ideas, or in this case videos, help people test them out for themselves, and that´s one of the many reasons why the so-called “Challenge Videos” are so successful.
5. Emotional. Make people feel something and they´ll care enough to share it with others.
6. Stories. Finally, tell a story and people will remember it, and act upon it.

If you want to remember it the great thing about it is that you can think of the acronym SUCCESs.

13. The Money-Making Shop

Although affiliate marketing is a great way to make a lot of money online there´s nothing more fulfilling than selling something that you´ve created.

Take advantage of selling physical products with your own e-commerce store.

There is so much opportunity if you learn how to properly convert viewers into paying customers.

Selling merchandise is the main way some YouTubers make money as Adsense revenue tends to fluctuate way too much for them.

Specifically, if you look into the entertainment-related content creators there are a lot of them that have online stores where they promote their products.

One good example of this is Logan Paul who has created his own brand of t-shirts, hoodies and more:

Of course, there are many other examples like this but this is just for you to give you an idea of what is possible on this great platform.

For example, there are other examples of people that have grown their own following and then found success in building their own brand and products, and I´m not talking about t-shirts.

Peter Mckinnon and Pat Flynn are two other great examples of this.

On one hand, Peter created his own brand of brew coffee and his sales went through the roof thanks to his YouTube channel audience.

And on the other hand, Pat Flynn went even further and created a brand new type of tripod that is mainly thought for YouTubers and videographers.

An idea that he thought after years and years of making videos and building his fanbase.

And that is how the SwitchPod was created:

So, as you see, the possibilities are pretty much endless.

It is up to you to define whether you want to sell shirts, bags, shoes, glasses, tripods, apps, or coffee.

As long as you stay true to yourself and know that, whatever you sell, is in some way an extension of your channel and what you are all about.

14. Get Leverage With SEO

If there´s one way to get leverage from YouTube (or any other search engine) it is through SEO best practices.

In case you didn´t know SEO means Search Engine Optimization, which is a fancy way of saying that you´ll create content that is highly optimized to rank on search engines.

Now, as you probably know, YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, so being able to rank for any given keyword is a goal worth getting.

If you take the time to learn some SEO to improve your videos then you´ll get more views, more subscribers, and, as a result, more opportunities to increase your channel´s income streams.

So, here are a few tips from the pros in the industry to get your videos ranking on the first position:

• Long-tail keywords – One of the first things you can do if you want to get more subscribers, and therefore more exposure, is to aim for longer keywords, more specific searches that are not being answered. If you do that you´ll find there´s not too much competition to get ahead and you´ll easily steal the first place. Now, you may not get one million views with this technique but you´ll be able to secure your progress.
• Optimize your titles – Another key aspect is to fully take advantage of how you write your title, for example, you want your main keyword as early as possible within your title. Plus! using upper case words as well as (when it makes sense) emoji to attract attention from the viewers can be an effective trick to try out in order to get more clicks.
• Steal some tags – If you´ve been trying to grow your audience it´s possible you´ve heard of tags and how you can use them BUT what is more important than that is to use them RIGHT. Here´s how: use some of the tags from your competitors. By using apps like VidIQ you can easily steal the most used tags from your videos competitors, just keep in mind that you want to use tags that are related to your video´s topic.
• Make it long & engaging – There are at least four different ranking factors within YouTube, two of them can make or break your ranking strategy, and therefore your chances of increasing your revenue. So, one of the best, and possibly most effective, ways to make your videos stand out from the crowd is to make them long and engaging. What do I mean by that? Make them at least 10+ minutes long in order to increase your watch time (which is the first ranking factor) and make them engaging by using jump cuts, on-screen graphics, or any sort of cool looking editing in order to keep people watching, and as a result, you´ll improve audience retention. (the second-ranking factor you need to pay attention to)

15. Follow YouTube´s Advice

You can also try to follow YouTube´s own advice when it comes to increasing your profits on the platform.

Yap! That´s right, they offer great advice and a specific course on the Creator Academy platform where you can get lots of awesome tips to take your channel to the next level.

In fact.

They even talk about how to make money beyond ads! Look:

Here´s some of the type of advice you´ll get from the course:

• You can engage with your fans through Super Chat, which is a feature offered for Live Streaming.
• Consider selling your own merch on your channel, if it makes sense.
• They also talk about crowdfunding and channel memberships.

They cover each of these options in detail so if you are interested in learning how all of these work and how you can take advantage of them to increase your revenue then head over to the Creators Academy.

There are many creators that have already explored these same options, so if you want to learn more on exactly how you can use them try to pay close attention to what they are doing to promote those income streams.

How Many Subscribers Do You Need?

According to YouTube itself, you don´t need a million subscribers to be supported by your fans, you just need a dedicated audience, a loyal following.

In case you are still doubting and you don´t whether it will work for you and you channel you can easily make a poll or directly ask them.

You can think of what other things you may offer those who join the membership option and easily double your income by creating more exclusive content for them.

16. Do Shoutouts!

Another relatively untapped source of revenue not many people takes enough advantage of.

You can charge others to do a shoutout if you have built a large enough following that is similar to theirs.

It´s not only a very easy and fast way to make a quick buck but it is also highly profitable.

As you grow more you can charge more so it´s fairly scalable.

The only downside is that you can´t make too many shoutouts at once because you´ll bore and even piss off your viewers, so it will be scalable as long as you keep growing in order to charge a higher rate per shoutout.

Keep in mind that doing shoutouts won´t take you very much time or effort so it can be a great way to add an extra source of revenue in order to grow your income.

In case you don´t know how they actually work a Shoutout is pretty similar to video sponsors in a way, with the BIG difference that the content creator doesn’t necessarily tell the audience they are doing a shoutout.

This basically means that the content creators let the audience know that they like someone else´s video or they suggest another video creator channel without explicitly saying it is a shoutout, although sometimes they do.

On the other hand, End screens are another great way to make money this way as you´ll be able to offer to promote someone else´s video without even mentioning it on your own.

Just drop the video link onto your end screen and cash in for every YouTuber willing to pay for the spotlight.

17. Build Your Site Up

Once you´ve reached a certain level, even if you´re still a small channel, you can get some leverage by asking people to head over to your site if they want to learn more about you or your content.

That way you´ll be able to apply all the strategies described above at once on one single place, which you´ll own.

One of the main advantages you´ll find you can have by doing this is that you have FULL control of it and that you can direct people towards your product, your consulting services, courses, or whatever it may be.

Plus, you´ll open up a full range of possibilities regarding design and email opt-ins, and different ways to retarget your audience once they get to your website in order to convert every visitor into a paying customer.

¡PWA Power!

You might have never heard of PWAs but it´s actually the next BIG shift in web development after Apps appeared several years ago.

PWA stands for Progressive Web Applications, which means websites that work as Apps, and that share a few of their functionalities but use a web browser to work.

Why is this important?

Simple! As people want things faster and most traffic starts to be on the mobile side of things having your site to be able to show in your phone next to Instagram can have several advantages.

I know it might sound something for a tech-savvy, but I promise you, it is not, it´s going to be out there in no time!

If you want to stay ahead of the curve then start googling more about PWA and how you can take advantage of it to increase your traffic as well as your revenue.

18. Become a Freelancer

On YouTube, the conversion rate per view is much higher than (almost) any other platform out there, and it´s 100% free to use!

This means that every a couple of views that you get in every video that you upload you get someone to head over to your site and maybe buy something from you or ask for a quote.

You can offer your own services and grow a freelancing business, whether that means that you offer your own consulting services and charge for every coaching call or that you teach others how to grow their own businesses.

For example, I met a few weeks ago a guy that promoted his Fiverr gig on his YouTube channel that once his videos started getting more views he saw how the number of orders he got month after month kept growing in correlation, without ANY other type of promoting or even pushing too much his current offering.

As you can see, there are tons of opportunities in the platform that you can take advantage of.

If you have almost any sort of skill or ability that you could put to good use and make something out of it then make sure to check out if there are gigs or demand for it on places like Fiverr or Upwork, which is another great place to start.

Both from personal experience as well as thorough research I´ve found these are the most solicited tasks and skills online:

• Ebook writing.
• Video editing.
• Logo making.
• Online research.
• Voiceovers.

Some of these particular skills can be easily learned if you are willing to put in the time and others can be done just by using software or specific programs.

For example, whiteboard video animations are one of those gigs that still have a great demand for places like Fiverr, and they can be done by using really simple software like Videoscribe.

A good example of exactly this is the case of Eze John, a 20-year-old from Niger that is now making more than 2k per month from just one simple gig.

His earnings:

As you can see it shows a total of $1,644 earned but has since gone on to earn nearly $2,000. And he did all of this using a piece of software he bought for just $67, which is crazy.

Here´s the gig:

He simply invested in software called VideoMaker FX, then learned how to properly use it, and after that he just published a gig on Fiverr and started promoting it among friends, colleagues, to get some reviews.

YouTube makes a great ally for those who want to become a full-time freelancer, the platforms already exist and they work great.

19. Pro Affiliate Marketing

You´ve probably already heard all about affiliate marketing at this point, haven´t you?

Well, the truth is that referring to people certain products or services so that they buy through your links must be one of the most effective and quickest ways to make money online.

Now, there´s a substantial difference between those who just copy and paste their links into their video description and those who actually know how to optimize sell conversion and make more money out of every person that clicks.

Here´s what some pro affiliates do:

1. First, they don´t just tell you what to buy, they show you. What do I mean by this? When they talk about a certain product or service pro affiliate take full advantage of video content by showing you what you can gain from buying that product, and they make a great job at doing so.
2. Second, they are truthful. When they show the product or service they talk about both the pros and cons and maybe even some tips that you might want to apply in order to make the most out of the purchase.
3. Third and final, they optimize conversions. They are able to increase both their conversion rates as well as their revenue by doing a few things just enough right. But it is better if I show you an example.

One guy that does this rather well is Sean Cannell from Think Media.

He shares lots of tips and great advice and insight into things that you must know before purchasing any of the products that he promotes.

If you watch some of his videos you´ll notice how he shows you the products and how they work while he tells you the truth about the ins and outs of each item.

On the other hand, he also optimizes his descriptions for proper conversion by doing two things.

First, Sean promotes each product that he talks about by leaving an Amazon link to each one, and second, he also puts (in all of his videos) his Kit link, that is the link to his kit store, which is the ultimate way to make people curious about what he uses to film his videos and surely enough will increase conversions.

Check it out:

Now, if you don´t want to start your own Kit or paste too many links into your description then you can apply a second strategy.

Here´s what you can do.

Instead of simply copying and pasting every Amazon link in your video description you can easily increase your revenue by creating your own Amazon store.

That´s right.

You can create your own Amazon store within the platform and share all of the gear that you use to shoot your videos and that way leverage the amount of money you make with every click you get.

That is what Graham Stephan did with his channel to go from $60 to $700 dollars a month.

Check out this video, he talks about his affiliate income on 12:12 so that you don´t watch the entire thing if you just want to get to that information.

Of course, there are also other things that you can do to skyrocket your affiliate commission and make affiliate marketing your main source of revenue.

However, I would advise to take it slow and focus on building trust and engagement with your audience by providing tons of value upfront before even asking someone to check out one of your links.

20. Promote Your Workshop

If you don´t feel very comfortable by selling courses online or you don´t want to start your own eCommerce then this might be a good option for you to take into consideration.

Workshops are a great way to make a few sells without spending too much time as you would on a one on one coaching call but still get that “personal” experience from a live learning session with your clients.

You´ve been growing your fanbase and you know that you could potentially make a couple of sells if you manage to create a good product that compiles all the main information and expertise that you have but you don´t feel as certain about making an entire online course about it then consider creating a workshop!

You´ll be able to gather people that are really interested in what you have to say and teach, you´ll make enough money to make a difference but it won´t take as much work and time as it would if you´d create an online course.

On the other hand, Workshops can be a great way to test out an idea that you are not 100% sure yet if it´ll work as a course.

In addition to that, Workshops offer that extra value that provides the fact that you´ll be present and that´s a real-time gig, not just another set of video lessons.

This will contribute to building trust and attracting more customers to your next session, which will continue to grow month after month if you do a good job.

21. Target High-Paying Keywords

Finally, you can be very straightforward with your money-making strategy and go directly for the big bucks!

As you may or may not know there are very profitable niches and markets that pay way more than average because they aim at a specific clientele.

If you recall I´ve talked to you about the insurance business when I mentioned the example given by Tim Schmoyer on his channel at the beginning of this post.

Now, one of the reasons that guy was making so much money is that the keywords and interests that he talks and makes videos about are paid very well online.

Insurance-related keywords have the potential to make you a huge profit even if you only grow a small audience.

Here are other examples of high-paying keywords you might want to consider:

• Investing.
• Mortgage.
• Real Estate.
• Cryptocurrency.
• Making money online.

And there are many others but this is just to give you a rough idea.

A good example of a high-paid YouTube channel that has nailed the market to make the most profit and take full advantage of YouTube is Graham Stephan.

He is a real estate agent and he has built a massive following on YouTube although his numbers were quite a high right from the start due to the fact that he´s in the real estate market, and as I´ve just said that´s a high-paying niche.

Although he´s making a killing when it comes to Adsense revenue there are other KEY aspects you should consider when choosing a niche, for example, the buying power of your average customer.

People who are looking to buy a home or want to invest in real estate chances they have some “extra” cash saved up and/or a good credit score, both of which are great qualities if compared to an audience of teenagers that haven´t finished high-school yet.

Therefore, the potential for making money, no matter what method or strategy you choose, if your viewers have actual buying power is much greater if you target high-paying keywords.

So, if you are looking to learn something new or you want to start a YouTube channel but you don´t what to make it about think of high-paying keywords, and at least you´ll get paid well to do it!

Now, in order to build a conversion funnel that will triple your profits, you have to take your viewers through the four steps of every successful funnel: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. (AIDA)

First, you have to create awareness for your brand and attract new customers, and you are already doing that by making videos that captivate new viewers as they are able to find you through organic search.

Second, evoke interest by offering something for free, a sort of a “bribe” that will make people sign up for your email list or simply take some form of action.

Third, build desire by highlighting the specific problem you will solve for them, and focus on how your solution is different from the solutions others may be offering.

Finally, make them take action!

They´ve been already taking some actions, and doing what you´ve asked them to do step by step.

But now, you want them to buy from you, and in order to do that, you have to state a clear call to action that will prompt those who are unsure about your offer to take the leap.

If you didn´t experience noticeable results regarding your videos then keep trying, and maybe consider changing your approach.

But, if you happen to make a video or decide on a type of monetization that is actually working then you might want to double down on it.

The way to notice this is by tracking your numbers, and that can be easily done with FREE software.

First, use YouTube Analytics to find videos from your channel with above-average audience retention, and use what worked in future videos.

Watch out for those spikes in audience retention and analyze those portions from your video to apply the same strategy for upcoming content, that alone will increase audience retention, overall channel growth, and as a result sales!

Second, you should analyze your conversion rates, how many of those views are actually clicking on your links, and what percentage of that audience ends up making a purchase.

You don´t want to guess out the way of this mess, the actual numbers are there, you just need a way to track them, analyze them, and improve.

Here´s how:

• Track your numbers. You can use free software like bitly, which gives you the ability to see how many people actually click. Then, you´ll do the same thing when people get to the next step, your landing page.
• Develop a landing page. Landing pages are a must, probably the number one way to convert a person into a customer. Developing your landing page is an on-going task that must be done by trial and error. Create your own and make changes as you learn from your numbers and other landing pages that are proven to be working.
• Analyze & Improve. Once you get the number check out for your actual conversion rate and start changing things depending on what your goals are.

If ANY of the other options I mentioned didn´t interest you then you can consider doing webinars!

There are great platforms out there that can make this really easy for you to get started right away, one of such is GoToWebinar, another one is Webinar Jam, both of which are widely used by many YouTubers and successful entrepreneurs.

Parker Walbeck, who I previously mentioned when talking about selling courses online, uses Webinars as a way to get to people to sign up and buy more of his courses, and it is such a powerful tool that he shares some of his numbers on his channel.

Although there is much more to this than what I mentioned I will leave it at this, just check out the video and make sure to learn more about Webinars in case you are interested.

Final Thoughts

Okay, now you know what are some of the most effective ways you can monetize your YouTube channel besides ads.

Right now it is time for you to take some action and decide which one of these might work best with you and the goals that you may have for your videos and overall content strategy.

The goal is to learn as much as you possibly can from what others are already doing, you don´t need to reinvent the wheel or anything like that, you can simply follow the steps others have already taken.

Hope you´ve enjoyed this post and that it helped you or move you a bit closer toward your financial goal.

Have a great one!

Matt Porta.