9 Smart Ways You Can Make Money On YouTube As a Gamer! (2019)

Today I´m going to talk about how you can make money as a gamer on YouTube.

Although it is possibly one of the most competitive niches in the platform right now it´s also one of the most lucratives.

So, if you want to learn how to make the most out of your gaming channel then keep reading.

1. Improve Adsense Revenue

Of course, your first step on the ladder towards making millions as a YouTuber.

Once you´ve fully grasped the ins and outs of making money from Ads and how to maximize your returns then the rest of the income sources I´m going to talk you about are going to be so much easier.

You´ve already heard that Ad revenue is not necessarily a big stream of income when it comes to YouTube but here´s where I´ll tell you that´s unaccurate.

Although you don´t need a massive following to earn a decent amount of money with Adsense you do have to have more than a few subscribers.

If you take into consideration that the average YouTube gamer makes around $2 per thousand views then you can get approximate of how much you can make, right?

WRONG!

There are other factors that come into play when it comes to adsense revenue, the number of views you get is not enough to accurately describe it, you can get views but people may not click on your video, they might have Ad blockers, etc.

So, what can you do to get the most out of the Adsense program?

There are two things very basic, but effective, ways you can maximize Ad profit:

Make longer videos – By increasing the length of your content you´ll be able to easily double, or even triple your Ad revenue by showing more ads in your videos. As simple as that.
Get more views! – Easier said than done, right? Well, no problem, in the next point I´ll cover how to do just that with a few SEO tips.

Get Into S-E-O

The number one way (combined with actual content quality) to increase your subscription as well as your views is through Search Engine Optimization, aka SEO.

Why?

Simply because applying SEO to every piece of content you make gives your videos the best chance to rank on every possible search engine out there, whether that is Google, YouTube, Bing, or whatever it may be.

That way people will be able to easily find you and discover your content without even promoting it.

You get what is known as organic traffic. Which is, possibly, the number one way to scale ANY business and grow as YouTuber/content creator.

Plus! It works for gaming too!

Here´s how: make it searchable.

If you make your content searchable you´ll be able to rank on YouTube´s search results therefore you´ll be found by people that are typing those (and related) keywords.

In addition to that let´s review a few other tips to fully optimize your videos so that they are found:

SEO-rich titles, tag, and description – Make your keyword part your title, tag, and description, through it into all those three sections. The sooner the better, meaning that you put it first, as long as it makes sense.
Be aware of video length – The second thing to look at is your content length. If your video is 5 minutes long and the one from your competitors is twice as long then it isn´t hard for YouTube who should rank better as it keeps the viewer watching for a longer period of time, therefore, increasing the times the viewer may watch (and possibly click on) an Ad. Plus, it increases your watch time, which is another huge ranking factor.
Monitor audience retention – Another one is the percentage of retention your videos have on average. This means how much of your videos your viewers actually watch, for example, on average people tend to watch 50% or less of every video on YouTube, crazy right?
Encourage engagement – Finally, you want to encourage your viewers to like, comment, and share your content online as this is another ranking factor YouTube takes into consideration.

2. Get In Touch With Sponsors

Another great way to hit the 6-figure a year income is to work with big brands in order to get paid for product promotion.

How much you can get paid?

Well, the short answer is that it depends, but a key element that determines how much you can ask for a video shoutout is your subscription count and the number of views you get on average per video.

So, if you are interested to work with brands on YouTube as a gamer then you NEED to pay close attention to those numbers and how you can increase them in order to get your first deal.

Learn what brands usually ask and leverage your strategy by using platforms such as Famebit:

You can get paid for creating awesome content depending on the reach and engagement of your videos, which translates on the number of views you get, your social engagement signals (likes, comments, and shares), your average watch time, and lastly, your audience retention.

Those are some of the numbers you have to be aware of if you want to work with brands.

Now, you don´t need to have a huge audience to get a brand deal but you surely won´t get paid as much as you´d like.

3. Master Affiliate Marketing

If you want to learn one of the most used ways to monetize a YouTube channel these days then you NEED to learn more about affiliate marketing.

Although you might have heard of becoming an affiliate marketer the simplest way to put it is by saying that you can promote other people´s product and/or services to make money out of every sell you make for them.

You can easily add an affiliate link to your video description and encourage people to click on it in order for you to make a commission for every purchase they make.

Now, one thing you should realize is that you MUST state that you´ll earn a commission for every buy because if not YouTube won´t let you monetize with Ads your video, a key factor many YouTubers don´t pay attention to.

Here are the most common option for gamers:

Amazon Associates: Your first stop should always be Amazon when it comes to selling affiliate products that can offer exactly what your viewers are looking for. Why? Well, simply because they have the largest variety of goods that can be found online, although they don´t specialize in gaming products you can find some great bundles and offers suit for every customer.
Game Stop: Another big place you can affiliate with in order to give your subs the best options that are currently in the gaming market. They offer powerful online tools mainly used for online commerce, they have one of the world’s largest collection of gaming products, and great promotions to offer your viewers.
Nintendo Creators: If you register with the Nintendo program as a YouTuber receive a portion of the advertising proceeds for all their Nintendo related youtube videos. The only thing I would suggest you is to carefully read their agreement program as they are very restrictive with their policies. Go and register, it´s free, you just need a Google and a PayPal account.

Razer Referral Program: They offer a reward for YouTubers that introduce new players to the Razer software as well as rewards and commissions for every referral and purchase made by users sent through your links. They have several levels for membership which depends on your YouTube channel and Twitch subscriptions.
Noscope gaming glasses: This brand is one of the most popular sponsors for gamer YouTubers and Twitcher creators that enables channel owners to make money any time a customer purchases NoScope Glasses from their referred link. You might as well receive free merchandise, get rewards, and other bonuses.

You can surely find other great affiliate programs out there if none of these seem to appeal your audience or you´re looking for a very specific type of product/service/game to offer your viewers.

Here´s how:

Simply use the string “keyword + affiliate program” on Google and you´ll possibly find if there are ANY affiliate programs out there related to your keyword.

4. Fan Funding

It is possibly one of the most rewarding ways to get paid as a content creator, people that actually find your videos helpful and/or entertaining pay you to contribute in one way or another to your growth.

There are many platforms that offer a great service to get paid through fan funding as a gamer on Youtube but one of the most popular and effective is Patreon.

Patreon is an awesome site you can use to monetize your viewers through fan funding by offering more exlusive content, whether is your daily vlog, teach people how to grow their own youtube gaming channels, or whatever it may be in exchange for a monthly membership fee.

Give access to monthly hangouts.
Access to community chats.
Online concerts or MP3 downloads.

“The biggest thing I´d hear from fans is that they wanted more work from me, but I just couldn´t justify turning down better paying freelance work to create it. Now I can.” – Kameron Hurley, Writer. (Patreon Testimonial)

5. Live Stream & ¡Monetize!

Another great way you can monetize your gaming content is through live stream.

For this you have two option: YouTube or Twitch.

You can also go multi-platform and get the best out of both worlds, which is what I would suggest you to do.

YouTube vs Twitch

On one hand you have Twitch, nowadays owned by Amazon this platform has been live streaming since its inception in 2011, and today is the number one site for streamed gaming content.

Twitch Average Creator Earnings:

Ad revenue: You can make from Ads on an average of $2 per thousand views, which is a pretty similar number to what YouTube offers, according to RumHam.
Subscriptions: The second way to monetize your Twitch account, and probably the best one, is through paid subscription where you can offer (in exchange for a monthly charge fee) private streams, ad-free streaming, chat features, among other features.
Game sales: In a very similar way affiliate marketing works Twitcher offers the possibility to link to the gaming store where your viewers can buy the game you´re playing and that way you can get paid for every sale you´ve linked to.
Bits: Finally, fans can donate bits that they´ve accumulated by watching ads and filling out surveys.

YouTube Average Creator Earnings:

Ad revenue: As well as Twitch on YouTube you can enable Ad monetization by complying with the rules they´ve established (1.000 subs and 4.000 hours of watch time). The average revenue most creators in the platform make are around $2 to $4. In fact, displaying ads on YouTube Live has its own system, depending on whether your channel has been selected for pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads, or display and overlay ads.

YT premium: Nowadays you can also enable the possibility to offer paid memberships in order to offer an EXCLUSIVE type of content and/or specific features. It is a great way to monetize your YouTube gaming channel as gamers have their own place and format in order to offer such membership. Just take a look:

Super chat: Last but not least, you can also get paid while live streaming as a YouTube gamer if fans pay you on super chat. There are not millions of dollars to be made with this feature (unless you´re PewDiePie of course) but you can easily make some extra cash while live streaming without much effort.

6. Test Video Games

Another easy way to get some extra cash as a pro gamer.

Believe or not there are plenty of YouTubers (and non YouTubers) that make a good salary by playing video games that need to be tested before they´re released to the consumer.

You can make some GOOD money by using your channel as a way to show off your knowledge, expertise, and experience on testing video games.

It´s another way of using your YouTube experience to get work that pays you for doing what you love.

In fact.

There are lots of people that got started that way and even got affiliate and brand deals once they´ve reached a certain number of subscribers.

You can even get paid up to $100/hour if you get hired by developers like Nintendo and Big Fish Games, which is crazy!

Here are some other sites that pay for beta testing:

Banantic – You´ll get paid in bananas (which is their current form of trading) to play, test, and give your opinion of a number of different video games that are available on the platform. You´ll receive bananas and be also able to trade your bananas for rewards. Probably one of the easiest ways to get started as a gaming beta tester.
Game Testers – You get paid to play from anywhere in the world and (according to their stats) you can earn from $50 to $150 per hour which makes it an AWESOME part-time job. You can easily get in touch with game developers who have vacant positions for game testers, you can become a tester for a particular console whether that is the XBOX ONE, the XBOX 360, PS4 or 3 and Wii games. Keep in mind that the highest demand for beta testers come from USA, UK, France, Netherlands, and Germany players.

Gaming Jobs Online – The last place you should look into if you want to take things to the next level is Gaming Jobs Online. You´ll receive new and unreleased games ready to be played, you can get invited to game conferences, exhibits, and conventions such as E3, Japan Game Expo, and many others. They are one of the oldest (since 2008), most successful platforms on the market, and the variety of games you´ll get to test is insane.

7. Become a Blogger

Yep! another way that makes sense if you want to build a brand, get people from all over the web, monetize your audience in a number of different ways then you NEED to be a Blogger, and not just a Vlogger. 🤔

This goes not only about making people go to your site where you can deploy a number of different strategies to monetize the traffic much better than if you´d only have a YouTube channel.

It is also about repurposing content online for better distribution.

You can easily get the transcription from your videos (if you happen to deliver tips and tricks on some of them), edit it to make it interesting to read, and publish it as an article on your site!

If you depend entirely on the fact that the viewers that consume your content click on one the Ads that are being displayed on your videos or in the link that´s at the bottom of your description then you are doomed.

Owning a website is one of the most effective ways you can build a brand and aim for long-term wealth if you are willing to do the work.

You can share your best tips, insightful advice for newbie gamers, upcoming game releases, or even how to start your own YouTube channel by writing AWESOME blog posts that can rank on Google and increase your traffic as well as your revenue.

8. Doing Shoutouts

This is another great way to get paid as gamer on YouTube, or any other social platform out there really.

In case you don´t know shoutouts are mostly seen at the end of a video when the creators links to another YouTube channel with relative similar content so that viewers go ahead and check it out.

In fact.

Shoutouts are, combined with collaborations, the two most powerful ways to grow on popularity on YouTube since its early beginnings.

If you offer to do shoutouts to other channels you can get paid really well for little to no work from your part.

It won´t affect your videos as much, depending on the format you give the shoutout, for example, if you do it at the very end of your video, and you can tons of extra cash for zero extra effort.

Now, you don´t need to have 1 million subs to offer shoutouts, you just need to have more subscribers than your clients/customers.

The amount paid depends entirely on two factors, how many subscribers do you actually have and whether you have built a relationship with them or not, aka engagement.

So, how much you charge will be determined by those variables, keep that in mind if you want to offer shoutouts to other creators.

9. Proper Email Marketing

One last thing you can do to monetize your viewership and maximize your returns is by giving free stuff (e-books, guides, exclusive content) in exchange for people subscribing to your email list.

Why?

Simple! By subscribing to your email list you´ll have direct access to that audience and total freedom to communicate with them and get creative with your marketing strategies.

The second thing I´ve mentioned and that you can get people to join your email list is by using the word exclusive. (also, combine it with the word “free” and you got yourself a proven template that´ll surely work)

Here´s how:

You can tell people to join your list if they want to get more exclusive information, a crash course on any given topic, a PDF guide, or whatever it may be will always sound more appealing if you through in there the word EXCLUSIVE.

Another common tip most marketeres do in order to build a community and make their fans part of the movement is to talk about tribes.

“Join the tribe for more exclusive content on…”

You can find many websites, videos, and audio content that uses phrases like this to attract more viewers and give a sense of community.

It´s been proved that people want to be a part of something, so use that to your advantage!

The Digital Hustler

How To Make Money With YouTube Gaming Videos