How to make money on Youtube

How do I make serious money on Youtube, the basics.

This is a simple step-by-step guide to help you get up and running making money from your videos on Youtube.

It's a commonly asked question, so here are they key things you need to know before you start.

Making money on Youtube is initially about monetising your content.  There are other ways once you establish a fan base, but monetisation is what we're going to talk about.

Making money from your videos starts with partnering with Youtube and sharing the revenue generated by advertising placed over or before your videos.  You will either get paid every time somebody clicks on an ad or every time somebody watches a video ad played through before your own video begins.

The amount you earn depends entirely on how much advertisers bid for your ad space, which depends entirely what the competition is for your ad space.  I have been paid as little as 2 pence (about 3 cents) to as much as 8 pence per click/view.  The 8 pence was a one-off, it's usually 3-4 pence.

The first thing you will need to do is become a youtube partner.  You don't need anything special to get started, although there is no guarantee you will be accepted on the partner program.  Many more people are being accepted nowadays, and you shouldn't have a problem.

Star here to verify your channel and scroll to the bottom to learn about monetising: http://www.youtube.com/yt/creators/creator-benefits.html

You will need a Google Asense account.  Google own Youtube, and this is how you will be paid.  Get one here: https://www.google.com/adsense/signup?gsessionid=mQohBcOnQ0fTNPTGdcPeEg

Be careful to make the application properly.  Never try to trick Google or Youtube, they are cleverer than you and it will bite you in the bum later.  Do it properly.  Adsense accounts are often refused.

A crucial step is to connect your Youtube and adsense accounts.  Many people wait months for the money to start appearing, as their content seems to be monetised...the two accounts MUST be connected or you will never see your money! Do it correctly just here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72866?hl=en

Once you have this all setup, your videos will begin generating revenue.  Once your revenue hits the threshold, which is £60 in the UK, it will be deposited in your bank the following month.  There is no way of lowering the threshold.  It's tricky to hit that every month, without a committed, long-term and considered effort.

Here are several keys to help you run a successful youtube channel:

1: Your niche.  Don't begin a journey into creating content for youtube unless you are passionate about what you are doing.  The novelty will soon where off and the impetus to make a few pennies won't last long!  Do what you love.

2: Planning.  Work out which keywords you are going to try and strategise towards.  You can use this tool here to see what the search volume is like for keywords or phrases you are planning to capture an audience with: https://www.youtube.com/keyword_tool

3: Honesty.  Don't bother trying to trick the search algorithms to capture an audience.  There are a couple of reasons why this is a waste of time.  Firstly, if you don't have enough confidence in the quality of your videos to describe them properly, are they really worth watching?  Secondly, capturing the wrong audience who think they have found what they are looking for will harm your watch time.

4: Accuracy.  Taking the honesty thing further, if you describe your videos accurately then the viewer clicking on the link is more likely to have found what they wanted.  This means they are more likely to watch your film to the end.  Youtube uses 'audience retention' statistics to determine how high up to place your video in the search results.  The more people watch it to the end, the more visible it becomes.

5: Quality.  This is the be all and end all.  Youtube is full of billions of videos with very few views.  Capture your audiences interest immediately with clarity and skill.  Make sure that in those crucial first few senconds they have no doubt that they have found the video they want to watch.

6: Content.  Be original, be unique.  If you are seriously (seriously?) considering starting another minecraft channel, it's going to have to be phenomenal.  It's going to have to offer something about minecraft that nobody knew, presented in a way that is utterly irresistible, entertaining, fun and completely original.  Forget minecraft, the same can be said for ALL new channels.

7: Subscriptions.  Use annotations and end cards to encourage viewers to like and subscribe.  This is essential.  If you have a fan base who already like your stuff, they will be the first to watch it, they'll boost the audience retention stats and pump it up the search listings!

8: Do the Youtube Creator Academy course, and follow every step, even if you think it's dull or not really necessary for you.  It is.  Do it. Do it here: http://creatoracademy.withgoogle.com/

9: Regularity and frequency.  Make sure your subscribers can trust you with regular, frequent high quality content.  Staying active regularly makes your site stand out to the search engines too, including google/youtube itself.

10:  Now there are no get rich quick tips, but this one might just come under 'nifty little secrets' that not many people know about, so here's a Youtube gold nugget for you: Tweak your video titles daily.  It's a drag, but my channel went from 800 views a day to 4,500 a day in two months by doing this, and I had less than fifty very 'niche' videos.

11:  Look at successful channels, see what they're doing and take tips.  Don't be put off by the big boys, aim high.

12. Don't bother hoping for a viral video, if it happens it happens, great, but focus on production of new stuff regularly.

THINK QUALITY, THINK QUANTITY, THINK LONG-TERM STRATEGY.  THINK CONSTANT STRIVING TO IMPROVE AND GET BETTER.  THINK NO COMPROMISE, THINK IF THEY CAN DO IT I CAN DO IT.