How Much Do YouTubers Make Money (Without a Million Subs)

This is a complete guide to How Much Do YouTubers Make Money.

Want to know how YouTubers make money and how you want to make it? You’ll enjoy the actionable tips in this guide.

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Disclosure: There may be affiliate links in this post, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and make the purchase. It doesn’t cost you anything extra. For more info, check Affiliate disclosure here.

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Firstly, many people never knew the possibility of earning money from YouTube.

Let me clarify initially. There is an opportunity to earn and live a boss-free life on YouTube.

Take a look at this Pivot Call community tab. He has mentioned that, from YouTube earnings for the last month alone, he earned $9500.

His brief explanation (below screenshot).

At first, he thought like making money on YouTube was a myth. But now, he is making almost $10,000 from YouTube. It resembles this is what YouTube will give us boss-free life.

Well, in this post, I will explain and guide you,

• The top YouTube creators, with their income reports.
• The process of putting you on YouTube to make money.
• What are the different ways to earn money from YouTube?
• Tips to start a successful channel and earn from it.

Without further delay and ado, let’s get into the topic.

How Much Do YouTubers Make Money: Income Report

I want to share with you the income report of some YouTubers on how much money they make.

According to the Forbes list, the below-mentioned income list. I will update this post when I receive the current year’s income report, so I recommend you bookmark this post for future updates.

• Ryan Kaji – $29.5 million

You might be surprised that number one on the list is 9-year-old little boy Ryan. Yes, his channel (Ryan’s World) owned 30.6 Million subscribers and a revenue of $29.5 million when I wrote this post.

The channel niche is related to Toys review, storytelling, and experiments. Do you know where his success path begins? It’s from selecting a topic for the channel.

• Mr.Beast – $24 million

The second from this list is Mr.Beast. As of now, he has 70.2M subscribers. The channel owner’s real name is Jimmy Donaldson, and he is one of the most popular YouTubers among all the creators.

His mainstream income is from Adsense, merchandise, and so on. Most of his videos are related to stunts and gaming.

• Dude Perfect – $23 million

A group of 5 boys likes to do sports with comedy, with 56.7M subscribers. Their estimated revenue is 23 million U.S. dollars.

Their channel videos are viral among audiences to watch again and again. For example, they make crazy videos like benching 400 lbs underwater, helicopter battles, worst punishments, etc.

• Markiplier – $19.5 million

Markiplier, a famous gaming video explainer, creates comedy sketches to entertain their 30M subscribers.

He is making an income of $19.5 million from YouTube. A report from TubeBuddy says that he had 140M views over the last 30 days. It sounds like more earnings from AdSense alone.

• David Dobrik – $15.5 million

Comedy channels are a little low, but David Dobrik used that opportunity to do their best. He has owned 18.3 million subscribers on making most of the comedy videos.

He earned around $15.5M by making surprising videos, funny experimental videos like COCA-COLA .vs MENTOS inside the mouth, kissing his best friend’s ex-girlfriend, gifting Lamborghini to his best friend, and so on.

• Jeffree Star – $15 million

Jeffree Star – is a makeup artist, cosmetic creator, singer, and songwriter. She earned $ 15 million with the support of 16.3M subscribers.

She has her brand called www.jeffreestarcosmetics.com. A kind of uniqueness makes her channel more popular and drives more revenue.

The above-listed creators are doing something big and majestic to fill their bank accounts. However, it doesn’t mean you need millions of subscribers to profit from YouTube.

To clarify, here I listed a few more creators with fewer subscribers and making decent money.

• Roberto Blake – $12,179.36

Roberto Blake helps creators and influencers to build their businesses online. He has around 536K subscribers.

With that, he is making around $12,000 per month with the help of different income streams.

• affiliatemarketingmc – $11,264.81

This channel describes affiliate marketing to earn more money online. He has around 115K subscribers, and his income report for August 2021 is $11,264.81.

The channel creator’s name is Marcus. Marcus told once he started uploading consistent videos; he saw an improvement in his revenue. So, the hard truth is consistency on YouTube is the never-told success trick.

• Gillian Perkins – $76,708.30

Gillian Perkins is a solo entrepreneur helping individuals to scale up their online businesses.

She is making around $76,708.30 throughout “2020” with 450K subscribers.

She revealed her income ($76,708) from AdSense revenue alone. I hope she had multiple revenue systems like online courses, e-book selling, etc., to make the number even big.

• Cathrin Manning – $88,717.64

In 2020, Cathrin Manning earned $88,717 with her 300K subscribers (from Adsense alone).

She got over 9.7M views throughout the year to achieve this number. The dignified piece of advice she gave is, don’t expect the revenue very soon.

I agree with that.

Some peoples start looking at their analytics and get upset too soon. Earning money from YouTube is not like an overnight success. Let’s discuss that deeply below.

• Feisworld Media – $11,001

Feisworld media (founder: Fei), in April – Dec 2020, made $11,001 with her 10K subscribers.

Currently, this channel is in the position of 16.6K subscribers.

Moreover, other than AdSense earnings, she has multiple income streams. But the numbers I have mentioned are from AdSense alone.

As of now, I believe you might suspect that earning money from YouTube is possible. And I hope I covered a valuable income report. 

Let’s see how this money-traveling process works between You and YouTube.

Putting You On YouTube

Here, let me decode the working flow of YouTube Adsense. I mean, the process of traveling money from YouTube to You. If you’re unaware of that, this section would be fascinating.

Other than You and YouTube, let me introduce one more person called Advertiser.

Let me explain each of their roles here,

• Advertiser: The Advertiser is the one who will pay money to YouTube to showcase their ad videos on the platform (YouTube). 
• YouTube: Then, YouTube will do some algorithms based on the ad and channel content. It means it will categorize the Ads based on relevant video content.
• You / Creator: Finally, YouTube will present the ad video on top of your channel video once it satisfies community guidelines and monetization requirements.
• Viewer: The ads will start displaying once the channel videos are eligible for monetization. You will receive the commission whenever the viewers watch or click the ads shown on your video.

To be honest, YouTube is the bridge to connect the contact between seller and buyer through ads with the help of the creator’s content.

The above explanation clears your doubts and opens your mind to put yourself on YouTube.

Once you reach the payment threshold, you can receive payment differently. They are,

• Check
• Wire Transfer
• Electronic Funds Transfer
• Rapida

You can choose anyone wisely based on your country’s location and acceptable payment mode.

On top of all, Do you think AdSense is the only way to generate money from YouTube?

The answer is: NO

There are a lot more ways to earn a decent income. Let’s get into that one by one.

Different Ways YouTubers Making Money

Let me point out the different ways to make money on YouTube here,

• YouTube AdSense – $0.01 to $0.04 per ad view (approx.)
• Affiliate Marketing – $20 to $200 for a single sale.
• Merchandise – Revenue based on your product.
• Direct sponsorships – Commission varies based on sponsors.

Quickly discuss that one by one way of how much scope we have to make dollars.

1. YouTube Adsense

Already we have seen much more about the Adsense program. However, here let me point out how much you can earn based on views and other factors.

Points to remember

• If your video had a million views and no Ad displayed for those views means, you end up with $0.
• It all depends on ads views, not video views.

On average, $2 to $5 per 1000 views a video can be made. Frankly, no one can predict it correctly other than the Adsense program and YouTube A.I.

But we can increase this revenue based on a few following factors. Some of them are,

• CPM: It means cost-per-1000 impressions. The Advertiser (advertisement owner) determines how much they are ready to pay. For example, if they decide to give a $10/1000 impression means, then you’ll get $0.01 per view.
• Geographic location: Where your audience watches the video determines the ad cost. For instance, countries like the United States have great CPM values. So, if the Ad is playing from the U.S., you will get better revenue.
• Video length: If the video length is higher, two or more ads can be displayed. In this case, even a single video gets you 3X times the ad revenue.
• CPC: It means Cost-Per-Click. The conversion is slightly higher when the user clicks the ad than CPM. For example, if the Advertiser decides to pay $0.5/per ad click, you’ll get $0.5 per view (when the action happens), which is higher than CPM.

But being part of making money on Adsense, you have to reach the monetization requirements. And they are,

• At least, you need to have 1000 subscribers.
• Channel must have 4000 watch hours in the last 12 months.
• The channel must obey YouTube policies, terms, and conditions.

For more information regarding monetization requirements, read the detailed article here.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Well, one of the lucrative ways to earn more commission on YouTube is Affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is promoting someone else’s product on your channel and earning a specific commission for each sale.

The commission rate varies based on the product.

For example, Grammarly is a writing assistant tool, and this software has an affiliate program. (Commission Rate: $20/signup and $0.20/install)

First of all, you need to signup for their affiliate program. They will review and approve your request.

Once they approve your request, they will send a unique key to your channel for tracking your sale performance.

In case, through that link, someone purchased Grammarly software means, you will receive $20 as a commission.

This is how affiliate marketing works.

Kindly look at the above image of my revenue from the Grammarly affiliate program.

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Note: Affiliate programs are free to sign up for. You don’t have to pay or deposit anything to participate in the program. Before joining any affiliate program, analyze its creditability.

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You can share your affiliate link on your video description from YouTube. What I’m recommending to you is to create videos based on your affiliate products and generate commission.

Let’s take another trustable affiliate program called Bluehost.

Bluehost is the trademark web hosting company. In the meantime, they also offer an affiliate program for creators to earn money for promoting this product.

Their commission rate is $65 (huge), and many creators make tens of thousands of dollars from this program alone.

It’s all about choosing the right channel niche and product to promote and generate sales from affiliate marketing.

I’m sure you’ll get more confidence and enthusiasm to work once you earn your first commission. As an affiliate marketer, I know that vibe.

Here, I would like to share some of the high-commission-paying affiliate programs.

1. W.P. Engine: $200/sale.
2. Bluehost: $65/sale.
3. BeRush: 40% recurring commission.
4. Grammarly: $20/sale and $0.20 for free signup.
5. Shopify: $58/sale.

Even a single sale can make you up to $200. You do not have to wait for 1000 views as you did in AdSense.

Self Merchandise

You can try this option to earn if you have enough subscribers and trustworthy audiences. Merchandising is nothing but adding shop and brand accessories on YouTube.

However, YouTube sets eligibility to enable merchandise on your channel. They are,

• Your channel must have more than 10,000 subscribers.
• You must be 18 years old.
• The country you’re staying in is a must-eligible for the YouTube partner program.
• The channel audience is not set for made for kids.
• For more eligibility info, read here.

Channel Memberships

Channel memberships allow viewers to pay and join the channel membership (monthly payment).

So, the channel owner will get direct payment from the viewers. In return, the creator provides specific content, badges, and emojis to the paid members alone.

Also, you need to meet the minimum requirements to enable channel membership on YouTube.

• Channel must have more than 1000 subs.
• They are not made for kids’ content.
• Channel does not have ineligible videos.
• Must be in the partner program.
• And a few more…

Before joining membership plans, read the guidelines and policies. In the meantime, you must provide unique value to the membership viewers compared to regular viewers. Then only it makes monthly recurring income.

Super Chat & Stickers

Super Chat lets the viewers purchase the chat messages for showing or pinning their comments/messages on the top of the feed for a certain period.

From the viewer’s side, Super Chat is an encouraging surface sometimes. Once you provide valuable content to the audiences, they will be ready to reward you differently.

Check out this video below for more detailed information and how to set it up.

YouTube Shorts Fund

Recently YouTube released a fund of $100M to reward the YouTube Shorts video creators.

Shorts videos are getting more popular day by day. So, to encourage and appreciate them, YouTube opens the shorts fund gate to fill money with YouTuber’s pockets.

Direct Advertisement

When the channel reaches a broad audience, the channel owner will get a lot of direct advertisement approaches.

It’s quite a long process and not suitable for startup channels. In the meantime, many product Ad companies are approaching reputed YouTube channels for a massive commission rather than Television ads.

Crowd Funding

The future is here. Crowd Funding only asks audiences to sponsor the video and make it helpful.

For example, if you want to make a standard high-cost video that drops due to financial issues, then the CrowdFunding platform is the best one to support that.

Some of the best crowdfunding platforms are,

• https://www.patreon.com/
• https://www.kickstarter.com/

Check out this below short table explanation,

Ways to Make Money on YouTube	Eligible Requirements
YouTube Ads	Must join the partner program and Meet Advertiser guidelines
Channel Merch	Have more than 10,000 subscribers
Super Chat	Must live in a country where a super chat option is available and at least 18 years old.
Affiliate Marketing	No requirements to join.
Crowd Funding	Build channel credibility.

Tips to Start a YouTube and earn money from it

In this chapter, let me walk through some bullet point tips to start a YouTube channel and make a decent amount from it.

I’m not going to bore and disappoint you.

Tips,

• Plan it before starting a channel. YouTube business is not like an overnight process to earn money. So, at least have a plan for the next 1 year and go with that, even the odds on your side.
• Create videos for viewers, not YouTube. Remember that you always need to provide valuable content to the audience. Never take or upload videos for the sake of your work.
• Optimize it before uploading. Behind the camera, there is much work to do on YouTube. For example, we optimize thumbnails, titles, descriptions, tags, chapter creation, etc. Never forget to work on that.
• Write Video Script. Take a paper and write the entire video script. Writing a script is a little hard for me, but it’s better to handle that before creating chaos in front of the camera.
• Never expect results too soon. Many creators give up too soon for not getting the desired views and subscribers. Results are the by-product of the process. You will get what you work for, even if it has taken time.
• Be consistent. 

FAQs of How Much Do YouTubers Make Money

Conclusion

YouTube is the place to earn and live a free life. When you have quality, unique, and valuable content, please share it with the viewers on YouTube and get rewarded.

I hope this post helps to motivate you and start a successful YouTube channel. If you’re just here to see how much YouTubers make money, I recommend sharing this post with your friends.

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