YouTube is undeniably a reliable media house that keeps and supplies video content that is relevant to the consumer’s interests. Our generation consists of people who have abandoned traditional TV or are in the process of doing so. And where are they going? Youtube!
Here are some bytes for you. Every single day, over five billion YouTube videos are devoured around the world.
On the supply side, more than 300 hours of HD quality videos are uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds, contributing to a supermassive collection of more than 1.3 billion videos!
The reach and power of this network cannot be underestimated, with many artists, celebrities, and comedians have launched their careers through simple YouTube videos.
I know someone’s mind is already ringing with questions on how to tap into this huge platform and make some coins.
And Yes! Such a platform where such a large number of people spend so much time presents numerous opportunities to make money! In fact, YouTube has now become a booming business in the last few years.
How to make money on YouTube
Making legit money online is not a get-rich-quick affair. Bringing it home, making money on YouTube requires hard work and patience like every other good business.
Its however important to mention that for people who are willing to put in the time and effort, the payoff can be quite huge!
Most people make money on YouTube through advertisements placed on their channels.
Just the same way you would be paid to place advertisements for products and brands on your TV channel.
But the great advantage is that Youtube provides a platform for you to produce and broadcast any kind of content you want to share with the world. In other words, you are both the producer and the broadcaster.
In return, Youtube retains a share of the income that your ‘programs’ or videos make from advertising. Your duty is to create the video content for your audience, while YouTube gives you the platform to air the content and serve advertisements on your channel.
Many Kenyans have asked me severally the amount of money YouTube pays. Based on statistics from various YouTubers in Kenya, 1000 views pay approximately Ksh.100. The amount can go as high as Ksh.200 per 1,000 views depending on the source of traffic and number of clicks.
I have seen many people misleading others in regards to YouTube earnings in Kenya. Unless you get hundreds of thousands of views, it’s hard to generate decent income – YouTube is not a gold mine for the lazy publishers. Those getting over 1 million views are the ones earning good money. For 1 million views, you will earn more than Ksh.200,000.
Below is the estimated income you will earn from YouTube in Kenya based on views:
1,000 views – Ksh.100
10,000 views – Ksh.1,000
20,000 views – Ksh.2,500
50,000 views – Ksh.7,000
100,000 views – Ksh15,000
200,000 views – Ksh.30,000
500,000 views – Ksh.70,000
1 million views – Ksh.150,000
2 million views – Ksh.300,000
The money earned from YouTube depends on the number of subscribers, number of videos and how frequent you post them —and of course views. Someone can post one video which gets 1 million views and it earns Ksh.400,000. Another one will post 10 videos which will get 100,000 views in total and generates less than Ksh.15,000 from the videos. The quality of videos matters a lot too.
To start earning from YouTube, first, post good videos that will get over 4,000 watch hours and at least 1,000 subscribers. After 12 months, apply to monetize with AdSense.
I suggest that you choose a topic that has many viewers. The most profitable topics include Entertainment, Sports, health, fitness, Real Estate, Travel &Tourism, Recipe/cooking, and music.
Is my Youtube Channel eligible?
For a Youtube channel to be eligible to be served with advertisements, the channel viewers must have watched 4,000 hours (240,000 minutes) of the channel videos in the last 12 months.
What this means is that your channel must have released sufficient content and that the video content must have been watched for a minimum of 4,000 hours.
What this means is that if your channel has 200 videos 4 minutes each, then it’s expected that on average every video is watched at least 300 times to give a total of 4,000 watch hours.
Of course, there are other considerations. For instance, if a user does a search on YouTube and then watches a series of videos with yours being the first – every video watched in that series (whether from your channel or not), will be factored into the session watch-time for that content.
At this point, it is important to mention that the number one ranking factor for YouTube is “Watch Time.”
Creating content that keeps the viewer hooked all the way through is the most important factor in that video’s success on Youtube.
YouTube easily falls in love with videos that increase watch time on the site. We will discuss methods of boosting the watch time for your videos later.
Of course the more the content the better, although quality cannot be ignored if your channel is to attract and retain a loyal audience.
Your channel also must have at least 1,000 subscribers to be eligible to make money from advertising. This is not such a huge mountain to climb.
Promoting your channel and asking your audience to subscribe would give you more than 1,000 subscribers in a couple of weeks.
Building an engaged audience
Of course, the first thing you need to do on YouTube, just like any other platform, is to connect with an audience that loves your content.
This gives you an opportunity to make money while doing what you love. For instance, if you are into comedy, you need to create and share video content that excites, entertains and keeps your fans coming back for more.
If you’re a newbie on YouTube, you may want to first learn how to create good content that viewers watch consistently, and try out strategies to first grow your audience in order to maximize your opportunity to make money.
