Today I´m going to talk about how you can easily make money on YouTube as a comedian.
Although there are several ways you can make a living by doing comedy nowadays YouTube has become a great platform for artists all over the world to showcase their skills.
So, without much further adeu let´s dive in!
1. Improve Adsense Revenue
Clearly, one of the first things you should look into is how to become a part of the Adsense program and earn decent money from it.
Although nowadays YouTube asks newbies to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time to even consider being able to monetize videos with Ads it is only to eliminate channels that are not interested in building a long-term career in the platform and provide actual value to the community.
So, there are two simple steps to win with Adsense right now:
- Become a part of the Adsense program: Make sure to create high-quality videos, make them searchable by choosing topics that people type on the search bar, make videos around the most popular keywords (tools such as keywordtool.io are great for this). If you do that and keep making content for the next 52 weeks you´ll surely become a part of the Adsense program in no time.
- Improve your Ad revenue: Whether is in two, three, six, or more months in, once you´ve officially joined the program you can enable monetization. But, how can you make the most out of every video you upload? That´s easy! Be-aware-of-length. If you create longer videos (10+ minutes long) you´ll be able to easily add more Ads into your video, one every 5 minutes most of the time works just fine, therefore doubling or even tripling your Ad revenue instantly.
PRO TIP! Make sure to know your numbers, dive into YouTube analytics and see if people start to bounce out whenever you put an Ad and make sure to optimize Ad placement so that people don´t just click off. Don´t overthink this, it is pure and simple trial and error.
2. The Live Stream Show
Another great way you can both improve your channel´s ranking and exposure as well as your profitability is through live streams.
YouTube encourages creators to make live streams a part of their weekly/monthly content as it is one of the most engaging experiences you´ll ever get as a YouTuber.
So, if you are looking to grow your audience then this is a great way to do so as YouTube itself promotes live streams in order to get more engagement with people that are already browsing through the platform.
You can chat with your viewers, make it a stand up type of video and perform for your fans, and even get them to engage with you as if you were on the stage, which in my opinion is pretty awesome.
Now, if you are thinking, “yeah great, but how the heck will I make money doing that? “, then let me tell you.
There are three ways YouTube let´s you monetize live streams:
- Enabling Ads – You can easily enable pre-roll or mid-roll ads, meaning ads that run before the live stream, or during the live stream if your viewers are on
desktop . Now, keep in mind that it can vary depending on the channel, but the good thing is that YouTube itself takes charge so you don´t need to do anything, plus there are also display and overlay ads which run beside or over the content, thus increasing your revenue. - Super Chat – If you´ve never heard of super chat it might sound kind of weird, I promise you, it is not. It is simply an easy and simpler way to make extra cash with your live streams as the viewer can purchase chat messages while the live streaming is active. If you want to learn more about the super chat feature then you should read it on YouTube Help.
- Channel Memberships – Last but not least, you can also monetize your live streaming experience by letting subscribers become channel members. Through recurring monthly payments, members on YouTube and the app allow purchasing public badges, emojis and get access to creator perks that you might offer from time to time.
Take full advantage of live streams as a comedian, have fun and get creative with it, as it is a great way to increase your revenue and turn casual viewers into raven fans!
3. Package Your Knowledge
You can do it however you like, sell an e-book, an online video course, 101 consulting, or whatever it may be but the truth is that there are a lot of people that want to know what you know.
If you want to be able to further monetize your channel and videos you can teach people what you know abotu your industry, how to become a better comedian, what is your own creative process, and so and so forth.
By selling your knowledge in an effective way you can provide MORE VALUE to your fans and, at the same time, they´ll get to know you much better and relate to you in a deeper level, which can be highly beneficial for your overall online presence.
Plus! there are other ways you can get paid for what you know and do, for example, fan funding is one of the most popular ways creatives make money online, whether is through YouTube or any other platform.
Patreon is a great example of this, as it is a site that allows content creators to make a living by sharing exclusive content only to their contributors, also called patreons.
4. Get Into Blogging
If you like to write or you want to distribute your video content through different networks then you should think of blogging.
You´ll not only get the opportunity to reach more people (as you´ll get traffic from Google) but you will also be able to further monetize your audience.
Here´s how:
You can deploy multiple marketing strategies at the same time, such as Ads that show on every blog post, affiliate links from products you recommend (for example, the mic you use to capture audio), showcase your own info products on the side bar, etc.
In addition to this, you can easily use the transcription that YouTube automatically makes from your videos to repurpose it as a blog post on your site! 😉
There are only three types of content that are ruling every possible platform right now (video, the written word, and audio), and if possible you want to be in each one of them.
5. Start a Podcast
Podcasts are hot right now!
In case you didn´t know Podcast is the next BIG thing online. If you don´t like to read for entertainment or you can´t watch a video online because you are busy doing something else then you might want to hear your favorite comedian for entertainment.
One of the funniest and more entertaining things about being a comedian on YouTube is that you can leverage your content strategy by using your video´s audio to create a podcast show.
Yep! I´m once again talking about repurposing content, but this time I want to give you a specific example: Matt D´Avella´s channel is a great source of inspiration for all type of content creators.
He has a podcast where he films his shows and repurpose the audio in order to have both types of content from one single footage, which is simply AWESOME.
Plus! He also embeds his videos on his website, so you can pretty much search for his content in a dozen different platforms online.
This will ensure that you monetize your comedy videos in every way you can, by using platforms like iTunes, Audible, Soundcloud, and so many others.
6. Use Cross-Promotion
You can also take the offline route and cross-promote future gigs on your YouTube channel and, at the same time, tell people at your shows that they can get more content if they subscribe to your YouTube channel.
You should try to learn more about social media promotion by encouraging the viewer to share your content with their friends if they think it was entertaining.
I would advice you to choose one or two social media platforms where you can keep in touch with your fans and at the same time find new potential viewers.
Take your time to decide as it´ll be a long-term strategy that will take a good chunk of your time and don´t forget that fact that you already have a YouTube channel and possibly a website to keep updated.
7. Repurpose Shows
Last time I´ll mention repurposing content, I promise!
If you know you are going to do a live show or a stand-up event then you might want to ask a friend to record it or hire someone that can make a cool looking video from it.
That way you´ll be able to edit one, or even several pieces of video content ready to be uploaded to your YouTube channel.
You can repurpose one video into several YouTube videos, and dozens of micro-content videos for your social media accounts, which is GREAT and a huge time-saver.
You can use the GaryVee Model:
It might not be an actual way to make money but it surely can affect your revenue if it is a way for you to maximize your efforts and make the most out of your performance by distributing it online effectively.
You get a far better reach and therefore you´ll increase your chances of a higher income.