9 Smart Ways Vloggers Make Money! (2019 Updated)

Today I´m going to talk about how vloggers make money and how you can too!

Although there are many ways you can make money with your vlogs there are only a handful that work well enough to make a full-time income with on 2019.

So, without much further adeu, let´s start!

How Much Money Can You Actually Make With Vlogging?

Let me be perfectly clear, NO ONE can actually tell you how much money you´ll make vlogging.

Why?

Because it certainly depends on how much time, dedication, and action you put in to get the results you want.

Now, what I CAN tell you is what are the three factors that you should be paying close attention to in order to determine how much money YOU can make with your vlogs.

View Count

First of all, the most obvious step to take towards making more money on YouTube is getting more views. Period.

You don´t necessarily need more subscribers (which is helpful most of the time) but you can rest assure that you need more views to increase your income.

Whether you make more videos, go after popular keywords, and/or promote your content on social media as much as possible THIS is your first stepping stone.

Audience Engagement

Once you get some traction and those views are starting to increase week after week you want to focus on the second most important factor that can make or break your income strategy: audience engagement.

If they click on your affiliate links, they go to your website or not, or even if they decide to help you out by donating on Patreon it all depends on how engaged they are with you and your content.

Here´s how to engage with your viewers: be REAL, 100% you, authentic, and try to give as much as possible, that´s it!

Niche or Industry

Last but not least, the industry you are in also affects how much you can make.

Whether you consciously choose it or not, the keywords you are making content around are what establish your earning potential.

There are higher and lower CPC rates depending on the keyword you choose to go after. For example, keywords like Insurance or Mortgage have between $45 and $60 CPC, which is considerably more than other common keywords like cook recipes.

In short:

It depends on three things, how many views you get, how engaged your audience is, and what niche/industry you are in.

Those three factors are what largely define how much money you can actually make with vlogging both in the short and long term.

That being said, there are many ways you can monetize an audience, but there only 9 that have been proven to be the most effective.

Here they are…

1. The Adsense Program

Now that you know what are the key factors that can make or break your income strategy as a vlogger let´s analyze each one of them… starting with Ads!

You can make good money with ads, but the truth is that it depends entirely in the number of views you get, which is not ecouraging at all when you are just starting out.

So, what can you do to maximize your profits?

There are in fact two specific actions you can take!

First, start by creating longer vlogs and videos, that way you´ll be allowed to double or even triple your ad revenue by placing more ads throughout your video.

There are many YouTubers that talk about this, but the platform itself suggests to make longer videos in order to improve Adsense income as well as increase exposure on the platform by adding more watch time to your YouTube analytics.

So it is pretty much a win-win strategy!

Second, you can aim for high-paying keywords like insurance, mortgage, loans, and others.

Now, you don´t need to go for that exact words, it was just an example of high CPC keywords, you just have to try and find keywords that are more profitable within your niche.

2. Affiliate Marketing Tactics

You´ve probably heard of affiliate marketing before but in case you didn´t let me give you a brief introduction.

Affiliate marketing is basically making money by offering producs from other people and earning a commission for every sale made through an affiliate link. (you´ll usually put in your description on YouTube or in specific places on your site)

Now, one thing you should be aware of is that most people tend to go for the sure thing, which is Amazon, but I would encourage you to do a quick research and try to find other opportunities.

You´ll be surprised at how many great products most people don´t know about are out there.

Here´s what to do:

Go to Google and try strings like “keyword + affiliate program“, replacing the keyword part with ANY possible word or phrase you´d be interested in promoting a product on.

For example, the sailing niche, which is a very profitable industry, has several great option to choose from besides Amazon.

You can do this with every niche you can possibly think of! Try it.

3. Informational Products

If you´ve ever considered starting a YouTube channel and/or an online business that you can make a full-time income from then THIS is the way to do it.

It is actually my number one, favorite way, to make money online as it is a great way to provide lots of value, get creative, and have total freedom to choose how to do it all at the same time.

You can create an ebook, an online video course, maybe record a podcast, add some PDFs with instructions, and hundred of different things.

However, there are only three ways you can share your information, teachings, and experience: audio, video, or written.

So, pick one, master it, and make it good so that people recommend it!

Now, here are a few ideas you can begin with in order to package your knowledge effectively that are some of the most profitable ones:

Podcast.
Workshop/Seminar.
Online video course.
Webinar sessions.
Membership site.

4. Lead Generation

Believe or not you can make tons of money by selling other people´s information or simply redirecting viewers to other businesses.

Here´s how:

You slowly build your channel by consistently vlogging over topics that address issues within your niche/industry, help people out, and then recommend services that you use or trust from other parties.

In fact.

Lead generation is a super profitable way of doing business most people don´t know about. Just check out this graph from Hubspot:

That is what lead generation is, in a very simplistic way of course, but THAT is the core of it all, you obtain lead and/or prospects (aka potential customers) for other companies.

You can think of it as another way of sponsorship, but instead of earning a commission for every sale or charging for mentioning the product/service on your video you charge for the number of leads that you generate for the business that you sponsor.

5. Ecom Mastery

Another great way to make money as a vlogger is by offering physical products that are inline with your content and/or provide extra value to your viewers.

Now, although t-shirts have been proved to be a successful way to go (if you check out big channel like Logan Paul) it´s been done way too much by big channels for you to get into that when there´s a lot of other great opportunities to take advantage of.

For example, you can make a custommized gadget that serve your audience and relates to what you´re preaching.

It works best if you take the time of thinking about something that can solve people´s problems effectively, as long as it´s related to your niche/industry.

There´s a lot of money to be made by selling physical products, you can even sell a paperback book version of your ebook (as I´ve talked about earlier).

As long as you personalize your products in some sort of way and take the time to develop something that people would actually want to buy you´ll be able to sell it.

PRO TIP! You might want to check out sites like Kickstarter or Indiegogo, which are platforms that promote international crowdfunding for startups and small entrepreneurs.

Plus! Those sites are where other successful YouTubers have collected funds for their products, like Pat Flynn and his awesome Tripod for pro vloggers, the SwitchPod. (Check it out on Kickstarter, this is NOT an affiliate link, just a great example of what can be done!)

6. Service Business

You can build your own service business by building credibility and trust through helpful content that you make for free and provides lots of value upfront without cost for the user.

One tip I would give you is that you should try to choose one or two main topics that you can talk about most and feel comfortable with. It´ll help your viewers identify what you are good at.

Then, after you´ve done that for a while, you can offer your services as a freelancer, and there will be many potential customers eager to hire you as they´ll see as an expert on that particular field.

There are many YouTubers that have done just that by offering their services by promoting their Fiverr gigs or by leading people to their websites where they convert them into customers.

For example, Dan Lok´s channel (who has over 1 million subs) on YouTube often leads people to his website where he has wide offering programs and services to choose from.

So, what´s the bottom line?

You should find a niche that you´d want to be a part of, become good at it by doing it a lot and taking courses, teach others through your videos, build credibility over time, and offer your skills and services for those who don´t have the time or aren´t willing to do it themselves.

That´s it!

7. Digital Tools

This is one of the most underestimated money making strategies I´ve ever seen.

You can create super useful digital tools people won´t find anywhere else and add another revenue stream to your overall income.

What do I mena when I say digital tools?

It can be something as simple as an Excel spreadsheet which helps you manage your budget and finances (if you are in that kind of niche) or a PDF that give specific instructions on how to use your camera model and brand to get the most out of your shots.

The goal is to create something helpful but keep it specific and affordable so that you aim for the volume of sales and not a high-ticket product.

Plus! You´ll offer something unique and that they will only find in your website/channel, which helps to build trust, and to build your brand.

8. Sponsorships

Another great way most vloggers make their money with video is by promoting product and services they actually like.

You can make a sizeable income just from brand sponsorhips if you build a large and loyal following, as many YouTubers have done.

You can check out good examples of this, like Aaron Marino from the Alpha M channel, who millions of fans around the world that LOVE his content and now he´s able to promote (more often than not) cool products and services he likes.

Actually.

That´s the hard part, building a loyal following by being patient and giving lots of value upfront, because when it comes to contact brands and getting great deals to promote products that isn´t a problem nowadays.

Here´s why: there are sites like FameBit or Inzpire.Me that make the connection between brands and content creators much simpler.

As a result, you´ll be able to focus just in your content creation strategy and not so much on how much money you can make working with brands as these marketplaces offer a wide variety of options you can pick from.

9. Smart Branding

Although it´s not a direct way to make money as a vlogger it is THE best strategy you could have for the long term.

Now, let´s not get confused here, as the great Gary Vaynerchuk says, your personal brand is your reputation.

So, going after the short sales and puhsing people into buying before giving them real value is not the way you get long term sucess, it simply won´t last.

You HAVE TO be patient and give lots of value upfront way before you even ask for something in return.

According to science (Psychology Today), not only successful marketers, people buy guided by emotion and brands can transfer certain emotion and elicit a positive or negative reaction depending if they´ve done a good job or not.

In fact.

It´s been said that most of the decisions we make are largely emotional, not logical, according to neuroscientist Antonio Damasio.

So, how do you influence people so that they buy from you? how do you make them trust you and like you?

Simple! You GIVE without asking.

You should give away a big part of your secret sauce for free, trying to be as helpful as you possibly can, building relationships and bonding with your viewers.

THAT alone will ensure you long term success and wealth.

The Digital Hustler

How Vloggers Make Money