Do Video Bloggers Make Money In 2022 – How Much & How Do They Do It
Youtube is the place to be for the young, the trendy and even the elderly in 2020 and that doesn’t look like changing anytime soon.
When I was a kid, I wanted to be a pro wrestler like The Undertaker or Brett ‘The Hitman’ Heart.
If you ask the kids today what they want to be, you’re very likely to hear ‘Youtuber’ as a common response.
Youtube is a platform that is extremely popular with the young, old and middle aged alike but can you actually make money as a video blogger in 2020?
Video Bloggers make money in a number of ways, through Google Adsense Ads that play throughout their videos, promoting their own products like e-books, info products and courses as well as promoting the products of others and earning Affiliate commissions.
Youtubers and Vloggers can make an extremely handsome income by following any of these strategies.
Let’s take a look at the ways Youtubers make money before diving into the different types of videos and how vlogging compares to its first cousin, Blogging.
The Three Main Ways That Youtubers Make Money
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Google Adsense Video Ads
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Affiliate Marketing
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Selling Info Products, E-Books & Courses
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Google Adsense Video Ads On Youtube
Most people know Google Adsense as those crappy ads you can put on a blog or website to earn a couple of cents a day but it is also the engine that powers the Ads you see on Youtube.
When you get ‘Double Aded’ before your Logan Paul video starts, it can be frustrating, but that means more revenue for the person who made the video too so it is a fair trade.
With all the Ads at the start and throughout the video, a Youtuber can expect to make around $7 or less per 1,000 views of their videos which is not bad and can really build up over time if you keep going long enough to get a decent amount of daily views.
Minimum Requirements for Ads On Youtube
Getting your Ads on Youtube can be a tough enough process.
You need to develop trust with the platform so they know your videos are Ad Worthy and that means Views and Subscribers.
You Need:
1,000 Subscribers
&
4,000 Hours Watched In The Past Year
Key Benefits Of This Method:
PASSSIVE INCOME:
The key benefit of this method of monetizing your videos is that it is completely passive.
Once you make the video, it will keep generating this income consistently without any work at all on your part.
COMPOUNDS OVER TIME:
It may not seem like much at the start but if you are putting out videos consistently, the amount of views you get per day will rise steadily, if you are doing it well!
The amount of revenue you are receiving will also rise steadily and before you know it, it has gone from $7 per day to $15 to $30 and beyond.
As people start subscribing to your content, they will go back and watch your old videos and you will get a further boost.
Eventually, if you keep shooting videos, you might even have a viral video that brings in a decent income all by itself.
Stefan James of Project Life Mastery, makes $20,000 a month just from Adsense on his videos, a number I am working towards diligently as we speak and you should too!
Drawbacks:
The RPM’s
The RPM’s of $7 per thousand views is not that bad but it is not like Mediavine where you can make over $30 RPM from a simple blog post with Ads.
It must be noted that becoming a Youtuber is tough work. It is not going to happen overnight and it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, persistence and consistency to make it and there is no guarantee of success.
If you make it past the start up stage, the rewards can be truly amazing and the only risk to setting up a Youtube channel is wasted time.
Side Note:
Think about starting a business before the internet, you would need to lease a building, order a ton of inventory and take massive risks of going into debt, so be thankful of the opportunity you have with Youtube!
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Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing is one of the hottest ways to make money online right now.
You basically recommend other people’s products and when a user clicks your link and buys, you get a percentage of that sale as a commission.
Because you can develop trust so quickly with an audience on Youtube, it is an excellent vehicle for generating Affiliate Commissions.
CASE STUDY:
I bought the new Garmin S62 Smart Watch for Golf and Johnny is itching to buy it too but he just wants to make sure he is buying a great product first.
He stumbles across my video showing the watch in the field, doing exactly what he wants it to do and he sees how happy I am with the watch.
I direct him to my Affiliate link under the video and he makes the purchase, delighted I confirmed his buying decision for him.
Garmin give me 10% of the sale or $40 and everybody is happy.
Now think about the fact that this video gets 200 hits a day and you can see how powerful affiliate marketing is to generate passive income with Youtube.
Another popular one is Vloggers showing their video set up of how they record videos. They leave affiliate links underneath and budding Vloggers buy up the equipment like Gold Dust.
Another thing this is great for is recommending software, these often have no additional cost to the person who made the software and they offer huge commissions.
I review the software, send people to the purchase page and can make 100’s of dollars on each sale.
A great example of this would be click funnels, who pay a recurring commission as it is a monthly subscription service, so you can get a monthly ‘wage’, completely passively for years to come.
Examples: Click Funnels has had one of the best affiliate programs for Youtubers for many years
Amazon also has a fantastic Affiliate Program that is easy to use and Amazon has high conversion rates.
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Info Products, E-Books, Audiobooks, Online Courses
If you become an authority in your niche through Youtube, it can be a logical next step to start preparing premium content for your audience.
That means info products, E-Books, Audiobooks, Online Courses and Membership sites.
You can give users a taste of what they can expect from your premium content in your ‘Free’ videos and promote your paid offerings in your videos with links in the description.
You can become an authority in many areas, have many different courses or just have one membership area where, when you sign up you get access to all of the content and you pay every year.
If you have written your own book, this is also the perfect opportunity to promote it.
How Much Do Vloggers Make?
Adsense
We know that users are going to make $7 roughly per thousand views but the sky is the limit when it comes to how many views you are going to get.
Affiliate Products
All different affiliate programs have different percentages and there is really no cap on your earning potential with affiliate.
Info Products And Courses
The same can be said for this type of monetization, it really comes down to how big your target market is and how successfully your channel becomes.
10 Tips For Youtube Success
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Establish Your Niche:
That area you are interested in, passionate about and talk about in your spare time.
This is likely to become the area you want your niche to be in.
It could also be centered around your career or how you make money.
The best thing to do is identify who you want to listen to your videos and make videos for them.
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Don’t Worry About Having All The Gear At The Start
Using your Iphone is fine to start off. The cameras on Iphones are actually quite good anyway so don’t let the lack of a professional camera stop you for 1 second.
Once you start to develop a bit of success, you can invest in a DSLR camera, microphones, lights and even a studio.
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Make Videos People Are Actually Searching For
Making abstract, interest based videos have their place on Youtube but to start out, make videos where people are actually searching for that type of info, it is a much quicker way to get those first few views in.
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Be Natural And Confident On Video
Try to be as natural and confident as you can on the video. Imagine you are talking through a proposal with your business partner.
Be professional but talk confidently and authoritatively.
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Don’t Be Fake
Youtube is all about authenticity, the users can detect a fake miles away so be yourself and try to connect with that target audience as much as possible.
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Get Good At Video Editing
If you can get good at video editing, you can add music, animations, text and all sorts of cool elements to your videos.
You can outsource these tasks or spend the time to get good at them yourself.
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Post Consistently
Whether it is 1 video a week, 2 or 3, create a schedule for posting content and stick to it the best you can.
Youtube is all about being consistent and creating content your audience can binge on.
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Interact With Your Community
Take your time to respond to your audience when they comment and cement that relationship with them.
Show them that you are a real person and care about their success and welfare and they Repay you handsomely.
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Monetize
Find the best way to monetize with Adsense, Affiliate and Info Products.
Don’t be afraid to create premium offerings and pitch them in your videos without being pushy or salesy.
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Enjoy Yourself
The more you enjoy the process, the better your videos are going to be.
Think about it, people work night shifts in factories for 40 or 50 years.
You can make a living talking into a camera, so enjoy the blessings you have received and enjoy creating the best content you possibly can!
Not All Vloggers Were Created Equal
Unfortunately, it is not just as simple as creating quality content and earnings millions of dollars, all vloggers earn different amounts and there are some broad categories of Vloggers we can look at in more detail:
The Travel Vlogger:
Usually couples who travel around the world and document their activities.
They put together valuable info like the cost of living, the atmosphere of the place, the food and the accommodation.
Traveling takes a lot of time and is expensive, even if it is thoroughly enjoyable and the earning potential of Travel Vloggers is probably not as good as other categories:
Adsense:
High Potential Of Getting A High Number Of Views And Ad Revenue
Affiliate:
Limited to Airbnb, travel companies and other local offers in each place.
The likelihood of me deciding to visit a place because of a Youtube video, is not that high however.
Info Products:
Some potential but again it is limited, You don’t really need too much specialised knowledge to travel.
The Authority Channel, Influencer & Coach
This is the category you want to be in to make the most money. People are willing to invest their time and money into learning new skills and being successful.
Adsense:
Depending on the niche and the size of the audience, there is a high potential for affiliate earnings in this area
Affiliate:
The sky is the limit for affiliate, people want to know about the products and tools you use to be successful and are willing to invest in them.
Info Products & Courses:
If you are successful on Youtube, people will be queueing up to buy your products and courses.
The Slideshow Video Guy
People that don’t show their face on camera can earn well too.
Adsense:
If you make good videos, you can get a ton of views but it is easier for people to copy you and steal market share. You also don’t really build trust with your audience as much as they can’t actually see you.
Affiliate:
You have some good potential for affiliate. If someone wants to learn whether a product has a certain feature before they buy or you can convince them it is a good product, you can definitely earn some commission but may not as much as the authority guy.
Info Products & Course:
Less opportunity for this ind of revenue as you haven’t built trust yet.
Youtube Vs Blogging
Blogging has been around for donkeys years and the space is more competitive now than it ever has been.
Having said that, new blogs continue to come to fore consistently, generating traffic and audience while developing passive income.
As blogging has become so much more competitive, it takes longer time to be successful and it takes a lot better content than we have seen in the past.
While the way we monetize these two forms of content are almost identical, there are significant differences in how the content is created, how engaged our audience is going to be and how much influence we can hold over our audience.
Youtube Is A Lot Faster Than Blogging
While Blogging is almost saturated, Youtube is like the Wild Wild West right now. You can post a video and be ranked number one in a matter of minutes.
You check a competitive search term that has 10 or 20 great quality blog posts and the chances are there wont even be one video on Youtube to address it.
The opportunity to get views more quickly and the opportunity to get views that are worth more on Youtube is the main reason why it is one of the best business opportunities in the world right now.
You Can Exert More Influence Over Your Audience
People used to have their favourite blogs in the past but blogging has become a lot more transactional in recent years and that suits Google down to the ground.
Your traffic is cold in a blog but with Youtube, your audience can get to know, like and trust you a lot more quickly and a lot more effectively, if you get good at making videos where you appear on the screen or at least talk in the background.
Blogging is great but it is just text, Youtube adds the visual and audio elements for a more engaging and authentic experience.
When you are reading a blog, there is no way to tell if the guy telling you about boxing even has any interest in boxing or is just trying to make a quick buck.
As humans, we can tell a lot more effectively if someone is genuine, when we can see them, watch them and listen to them.
With this increase level of interaction and ultimately influence, we can get our audience to buy our courses, e-books, info products and even print of demand products a lot more easily.
We can also direct them towards other products and earn affiliate commissions a lot more easily.
Creating Videos Is Tough
Both Blogging and Youtube can be considered tough disciplines.
It’s hard to write a blog but it is harder to write a blog better than the competition for a targeted keyword that people are actually searching for.
You can shoot videos straight from your IPhone, Samsung, Laptop, Macbook, GoPro or DSLR too but creating quality content that people actually want to watch and doing it consistently it a little bit more difficult.
A lot of people are not going to be comfortable appearing on camera but there are other types of videos you can create if that is the case too, which we will come back to.
The reluctance of so many people to appear on camera is like a barrier to entry for the business model so if you can get over the fear of appearing on camera, you have an amazing opportunity to do something special.
Doing GOOD Blog or Youtube courses will probably help you to excel at building traffic and an audience quicker and we always recommend Income School as one of the best blogging courses around.
Types Of Videos
You Talking On The Camera
These create the biggest bond with your audience but are the toughest types of videos to make.
You need to be as charismatic, energetic and interesting as possible to keep the eyeballs on your video long enough for Youtube to recommend it to other people and if you stick at it long enough, you may even create a viral video at some stage.
Talking Over A Screenshare Video
Using Video capturing software on your desktop like Loom allows you to record your screen as you move around and talk over what is happening on the screen.
This is great for reviewing software and platforms, showing results or even talking over a presentation for your audience.
You can also show yourself in a small circle in the corner to build more authenticity and a deeper connection with the audience.
The level of connection can still be strong with these types of videos but may be not as much as a full recording video.
Powerpoint Presentations
My first Youtube channel was made reviewing golf products with Power point presentations and it worked quite well.
We were able to starting showing Ads after about 6 months and it generates passive income to this day.
The downside about this is that there is no connection with the audience and they don’t even know it is me on the other side of the camera but it is very effective for driving affiliate sales through Amazon.
Conclusion
Youtube, like any business requires a lot of hard work to get it up and running but when you do the pay off can be amazing so stick with and watch those first views and subscribers rolling in.
Before you know it, you will be generating a ton of passive income online!