Category: DEEP DIVE ARTICLE

Do YouTubers get paid if you skip ads?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 20 June 2020

As users of the Internet, we have something of a love/hate relationship with advertisements.

Most of us understand that the blogs we read, the videos we watch, the content we consume—is made possible by the revenue generated from ads. At the same time, we see those very same ads as an inconvenience and an annoyance.

Indeed, many people use adblockers to remove them from our screens altogether – and this might harm a YouTuber long term, as discussed in my deep dive article.

For creators of that content, it is a difficult concept to come to terms with. On the one hand, you want your viewers to watch ads on your videos. Still, it’s hard not to empathize with their desire not to be bothered by commercials for Fiverr, Monday.com, or whoever is turning the advertising firehose on your viewers lately.

In the case of YouTube, it’s not as clear cut as getting an ad view or not—YouTube often gives viewers the option to skip ads after the first few seconds. As welcome as this tool may be to viewers, it can leave YouTubers wondering if they get paid for those first few unskippable seconds.

We’re going to get into this subject in-depth, but do YouTubers get paid if you skip ads? Short answer is, no. However, the answer isn’t as clear cut as we might have liked. Generally speaking, no, YouTubers don’t get paid for skipped ads. However, there are situations in which a skipped ad will still result in some earnings for the YouTuber.

Let’s get into the details so you can understand when you are—and when you aren’t—getting paid.

YouTube’s Ad Options

Here, we are talking specifically about YouTube’s in-stream ads. These are ads that show up in your actual video, before (pre-roll), during, or at the end. There are other advertising options for YouTubers to monetise their videos, and we’ll touch on those later, but you can’t “skip” a display ad, so for now, we’re going to stick to the video ads.

YouTube has two options when it comes to in-stream advertising campaigns. The type of ad that gets shown on your video determines whether you get paid anything on skipped ads.

YouTubers may be able to choose what TYPE of adverts to show but there is a debate whether YouTubers can choose the ADVERT itself that is shown – you’ll be surprised with the facts outlined in my blog on choosing adverts.

TrueView for Reach Ads

For YouTubers who have been around for a while, this could be considered the “traditional” YouTube advertising model. In TrueView ads, the advertiser pays per engagement.

The definition of engagement (or “completion”) is watching at least thirty seconds or interacting with the ad. If the ad is shorter than thirty seconds, then the viewer will have to watch the whole thing for it to count as an engagement.

If your viewer doesn’t meet one of these requirements, the advertiser is not charged and you, the YouTuber, don’t receive anything for the ad.

These are the ads that typically allow the viewer to skip after the first few seconds, which tends to be what happens a lot of the time. There is no CPM (cost per thousand impressions) model for these ads. As such, the number of people seeing those first few seconds of an advertisement is of no benefit to the YouTuber whose videos they are being shown on.

Should a viewer click on one of these ads, however, it is typically worth more to the YouTuber than the non-skippable bumper ads that we’re going to cover now.

Non-Skippable Bumper Ads

Like TrueView ads, these can show up before, during, or at the end of your videos. Unlike TrueView ads, these are only ever six seconds long, and cannot be skipped by the viewer.

These ads are charged (and, subsequently, paid) on a CPM basis. That means that, rather than earning you money every time a viewer clicks on the ad, they earn money for every 1,000 views they receive. Bumper ads are designed to gain exposure, rather than encourage the viewer to perform a specific action. That makes the number of people who have seen the advertisement is the more critical metric.

It is still possible for a non-skippable ad to not count, such as if a viewer hits the back button when the ad starts. But YouTube is using the industry standard of two seconds for an impression to count. That means the viewer would have to immediately leave your video for their view to not count.

I you want more in-depth tips on how to increase your earnings and boost YouTube Channel and even blog CPM, I wrote a deep dive into what can positively and negatively effect ad rates and earnings in my blog.

Do YouTubers Get Paid if You Skip Ads?

Hopefully, the answer is a little clearer now.

Technically YouTuber’s get paid almost any time a bumper ad is played, however, these ads are unskippable. Also, as they pay per 1,000 views, the effective amount you earn for one view is tiny compared to engagement on a regular ad.

With the more traditional TrueView ads, a YouTuber will earn money if the ad is watched for at least thirty seconds, assuming the ad is longer than thirty seconds. So, a viewer can skip an ad and still count as an engagement.

For viewers that skip before those thirty seconds are up, however, no money is paid by the advertiser, and so no money is earned by the YouTuber.

Other Types of YouTube Ads

In-stream ads are not the only option for advertisers on YouTube, and, as such, not the only way YouTuber’s can earn money.

There are presently two other ways for advertisers to get their message across, so let’s take a look at them.

Non-Video Ads

Non-video ads are the ads that show up in the form of a small banner overlay in the video or a display ad in the sidebar. These ads are minimally intrusive, which is a double-edged sword in terms of viewer engagement.

On the one hand, they are less irritating to your viewers, meaning they are less likely to click away because of an ad. On the other hand, they are considerably easier to ignore, meaning there is less chance of engagement and, subsequently, less chance of revenue.

As a YouTuber, you can choose which kinds of ads you allow on your monetized videos, though not the content of those ads. So, it may be worth doing research and testing to find which ads work best for you and your audience.

Discovery Ads

Discovery ads, while they are clearly marked as an ad, show up in organic search results and watch feeds in the same style as the regular search results and recommendation videos around them.

This type of advertisement is ideally suited to YouTuber’s themselves, as it is designed to drive traffic to a particular video. The ad will show among related videos as though it were an organic result, meaning the people seeing the ad were already looking for that kind of content to being with. It is worth remembering that, as mentioned, the ads are marked as promoted content.

These ads are unobtrusive and, by their very nature, tailored towards the viewer’s interests because the viewer is already looking for the type of content being promoted in the first place.

Other Options for YouTuber’s to Earn Money

YouTube’s advertising platform has its strengths and weaknesses as a revenue source. Still, it’s not the only option for YouTuber’s to turn their channel into an income generator.

Brand Deals

For channels with enough interest, it is possible to cut out the middle man and go directly to the advertiser. Several brands have been open to making deals directly with content creators. That number continues to grow as the power of platforms like YouTube becomes increasingly evident.

With a brand deal, you will have to work out the details with the advertiser yourself, including price negotiations, but this added work comes with rewards. Namely: revenue.

The earning potential from brand deals is considerably higher than that of YouTube’s monetisation program. Of course, the barrier to entry is higher as well. You only need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours watch time to qualify for YouTube’s Partner Programme, but brands will require a considerably larger audience before they think about offering a channel a deal.

It should be noted that, if you do get a brand deal, you are required to inform YouTube via the “contains paid promotion” checkbox of your video details.

Getting started on YouTube can be hard so I wrote a deep dive step by step guide on how to start a YouTube channel on my blog – I even added pictures!

Crowd Funding

For YouTuber’s with an invested audience, crowdfunding is a great way to earn revenue from a relatively small audience. Traditional advertising does not pay very well with low viewing figures. Often earning pennies per 1,000 impressions, or more per click when only a small percentage of viewers ever click, you need a lot of views to make decent money.

With an engaged audience who like your content and are happy to send you a little cash to support you, you can earn considerably more revenue.

Crowdfunding suits smaller channels particularly well, as viewers are more likely to support a creator they feel connected with. It is easier to maintain that kind of relationship when you don’t have millions of subscribers.

Responding to every comment is feasible when you have a few thousand subscribers, but that’s not the case when you have a few million.

This dynamic extends to YouTube advertising as well. With a small, dedicated audience, you are more likely to receive ad revenue because your viewers are more likely to be interested in the ads. For larger channels with more casual viewers, this is not usually the case. It is this relationship that is why some YouTuber’s can go full time with an audience of around twenty thousand subscribers, while other YouTuber’s with ten times that amount of subscribers still have to work a regular job alongside their channel.

Affiliates

Affiliate marketing is usually thought of as a supplemental revenue source—rather than a primary earner—when talking about YouTube channels. Affiliate programmes will pay you a commission for actions carried out through your referral—a typical example of this being you sharing an Amazon affiliate link in your description. Amazon then pays you a percentage of the sale when one of your viewers buys something through that link.

Affiliate programmes are particularly useful for channels that feature products, such as unboxing videos and product or service reviews. If a viewer watches your video and decides they want to purchase the product or service being featured, they can click through your link, and you will earn a small commission.

Using affiliate marketing when it doesn’t organically tie into your content is unlikely to generate revenue, however. Worse still, it can sometimes be seen by your viewers as a cynical money grab and may turn some people off. And, on that note, always be upfront with your viewers about affiliates, brand deals, and product placements.

Most viewers won’t care if you are getting paid to talk about a product, but they will care if you aren’t honest with them about it.

Affiliate marketing has made me $1000’s over the last few years. It can be as simple as making content and picking the right links. But to help you get started I have written a Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing in this blog – It’s surprisingly simple once you get started!

Eyes on the Prize

At this point, it is worth enforcing the point that content is what matters. If you focus on making the best possible content for your audience, meeting a need they have, the opportunities to generate revenue will come.

If you are concerned over whether you earn money from skipped ads, you may not have your head in the right place for success. Many YouTubers consider the YouTube Partner Programme a poor option for revenue generation, and certainly not a good bet for your primary source of income. Obsessing on details such as whether you get paid for a few seconds of watch time on a skipped advertisement is not the best use of your mental energy.

Put that energy into your content. Find ways to expand your audience, or drill down further into your niche and become an authority. Consider other methods of monetisation when the time is right. There is no point in starting a Patreon with fifty subscribers, for example. Well, unless they are very dedicated subscribers.

YouTube monetisation has long been an unreliable source of income for its creators, with continually changing terms and multiple “adpocalypses”. The best way to approach this is not to think about it. Simply turn monetisation on when suitable, and forget about it. Focus on your content and other revenue sources. That way, any income you do make through YouTube’s Partner Programme will feel like a nice bonus.

And you won’t be caught short the next time YouTube changes their rules, and your revenue takes a hit.

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

Very quickly before you go here are 5 amazing tools I have used every day to grow my YouTube channel from 0 to 30K subscribers in the last 12 months that I could not live without.

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

I almost exclusively switched to VidIQ from a rival in 2020.

Within 12 months I tripled the size of my channel and very quickly learnt the power of thumbnails, click through rate and proper search optimization. Best of all, they are FREE!

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

I have been making youtube videos on and off since 2013.

When I first started I threw things together in Window Movie Maker, cringed at how it looked but thought “that’s the best I can do so it’ll have to do”.

Big mistake!

I soon realized the move time you put into your editing and the more engaging your thumbnails are the more views you will get and the more people will trust you enough to subscribe.

That is why I took the plunge and invested in my editing and design process with Adobe Creative Suite. They offer a WIDE range of tools to help make amazing videos, simple to use tools for overlays, graphics, one click tools to fix your audio and the very powerful Photoshop graphics program to make eye-catching thumbnails.

Best of all you can get a free trial for 30 days on their website, a discount if you are a student and if you are a regular human being it starts from as little as £9 per month if you want to commit to a plan.

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

You can’t always listen to a video.

Maybe you’re on a bus, a train or sat in a living room with a 5 year old singing baby shark on loop… for HOURS. Or, you are trying to make as little noise as possible while your new born is FINALLY sleeping.

This is where Rev can help you or your audience consume your content on the go, in silence or in a language not native to the video.

Rev.com can help you translate your videos, transcribe your videos, add subtitles and even convert those subtitles into other languages – all from just $1.50 per minute.

A GREAT way to find an audience and keep them hooked no matter where they are watching your content.

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

I SUCK at making anything flashy or arty.

I have every intention in the world to make something that looks cool but im about as artistic as a dropped ice-cream cone on the web windy day.

That is why I could not live on YouTube without someone like PlaceIT. They offer custom YouTube Banners, Avatars, YouTube Video Intros and YouTube End Screen Templates that are easy to edit with simple click, upload wizard to help you make amazing professional graphics in minutes.

Best of all, some of their templates are FREE! or you can pay a small fee if you want to go for their slightly more premium designs (pst – I always used the free ones).

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

I mainly make tutorials and talking head videos.

And in this modern world this can be a little boring if you don’t see something funky every once in a while.

I try with overlays, jump cuts and being funny but my secret weapon is b-roll overlay content.

I can talk about skydiving, food, money, kids, cats – ANYTHING I WANT – with a quick search on the StoryBlocks website I can find a great looking clip to overlay on my videos, keeping them entertained and watching for longer.

They have a wide library of videos, graphics, images and even a video maker tool and it wont break the bank with plans starting from as little as £8.25 ($9) per month.

Tags ads, adverts, how to make money, make money online, money, youtube, youtube ads, youtube faqs, youtube help, youtube money

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE YOUTUBE

Do YouTubers Get Paid for Likes?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 19 June 2020

In 2019, the YouTube video with the most likes was Despacito by Luis Fonsi. Although the video was uploaded in 2017, it has ridden the wave of competition and is still at the top of the list, unbeaten, in 2019. Currently, it has 6 billion views and 38 million likes. This is every YouTuber’s dream – to go viral.

When Fonsi wrote Despacito, he never dreamed it would be such a massive hit. He released the song anyway because he believed in it. You, as a creator, never know which of your videos will become a sensation. You just have to keep making videos and putting your best out there.

So, What is the significance of YouTube likes? Do YouTubers Get Paid for Likes? – YouTubers do not get paid for likes. However, a like is a form of engagement that can help the video do better in the long term. The more likes, comments, and shares a video gets the higher it can rank. A good rank in search can mean more traffic to the video, more advert views and clicks.

How YouTube Likes Work

Up till 2012, videos on YouTube were ranked according to how many views they got – the view count.

This was a good metric, but if a video had a misleading title, people would only watch a few seconds of it then leave. A marketer who had attached their advertisement to such a video would feel short-changed, as their advert would not get watched. Marketers also objected to some of the content being uploaded.

A lot of the popular videos aired controversial topics like racism and terrorism. Marketers who didn’t want to be associated with such videos pulled out, leading to loss of revenue for YouTube.

This was bad for business. To stop this exodus, YouTube had to police the platform and suppress objectionable channels by not recommending them regardless of how popular they were.

YouTube then changed its metric to how much time viewers spent watching a video. Videos that captured viewer attention for longer time periods now got ranked higher. This was good for marketers as it would ensure that their product was seen by the viewer. This, however, meant that creators now had to spend more resources trying to make their videos longer while still retaining the viewers’ interest. Creators started delaying the core message of their videos for as long as they could without annoying the viewer.

They also had to change the frequency and content of uploads so as to make longer videos. This was not easy. An example of how this changed things for creators can be seen in this video. Longer-duration videos also meant more resources spent on making and editing new videos.

Ultimately, two main factors now determine how often a video will appear in search results and recommendations:

· Behavior

· User Queries

Behavior

The YouTube algorithm tracks viewer behavior for the purpose of making recommendations based on what they watch.

This is why your YouTube homepage will never be similar to someone else’s homepage. Your activity determines what other videos YouTube recommends to you.

Factors determining how YouTube recommends and ranks videos that you need to know include:

· What people watch

· Consistency in uploading videos

· Time spent on watching a video (retention time)

· How fast a video gains popularity

· What videos don’t get watched

· How new a video is.

· How people engage with a video- likes, dislikes, shares, and comments

· Explicit feedback i.e. not interested.

User Queries

YouTube will rank videos according to how often users search for them. A commonly searched for video is obviously popular, so YouTube will rank it at the top of search results and recommend it as well.

This is because the goal of YouTube is to keep you on that platform for as long as possible because it increases your chances of seeing advertisements.

The goal of YouTube is to ultimately recommend videos that viewers want to watch. Its algorithm will, therefore, use the metrics above to determine whether or not to recommend a video and how often the video will appear in search results.

This means that your video not only has to be good, but it has to match keywords used in searches.

Can YouTubers Make Money from Likes? – Not directly. Likes show how good your video is, measuring its popularity. Depending on their number, the only effect is to increase the frequency of visits to your channel. When a viewer likes your video, they are ‘teaching’ YouTube that your video is good and should be recommended more often.

This is why YouTubers encourage their viewers to like, share, and subscribe to their content. The more the engagement, the higher the rank of the video, the more it will appear in results and the higher the number of viewers will increase.

So don’t underestimate the importance of YouTube likes. If anything, try to get as many as possible. Below you can see a number of things you can do to increase them.

How to Get More Likes

Now that you know likes can be fueling your channel growth, its time to start getting more of them!

Ask for them

At the end of your video, request your viewers to like your video. Don’t assume that they’ll like it anyway. Encourage them by also explaining how the likes will help your channel grow.

Make it easy

In addition to verbally asking for likes, include prompts at various points in your video to remind your viewers. Just be careful not to overdo it as your video will end up looking tacky.

Invite subscribers

Having subscribers means that your content is so good people want to receive more of it. In a way, you are assured that you will have a number of likes because your videos will have a dedicated pool of viewers.

It also teaches YouTube that your channel is popular and should be recommended frequently.

Social media

Promote yourself on other platforms- share your videos on other social media networks. People who may like your work may not be frequent users of YouTube, so go out there and look for them. Don’t wait for them to find you.

If you need help to promote your videos on social media I wrote a huge article on the best places to share your youtube videos for more views on my blog.

Advertise

If you can afford it, advertise. Some creators advertise their new uploads for a short period of time to increase their fan base. Cast your net wide.

Now that we have seen how important likes are and how they increase our chances of getting noticed on youtube, let’s see how we can turn that into money.

How YouTubers Make Money

The more money you make on YouTube the more you can invest back into content, growth and success. Making money on YouTube can be a burning desire but you don’t always have to use the YouTube Ads program.

I make a good chunk on my income from affiliate marketing and I wrote a huge deep dive into Affiliate Marketing for Beginners on my blog – it explains all the jargon and steps you through everything you need to do to get started.

Advertising Revenue

Channel owners can link their channels to advertisers and earn revenue based on how many people view the adverts. An example is Google AdSense.

This is a feature of the YouTube partner program, which enables you to monetize your channel. To make money from AdSense, you have to have at least 1000 subscribers and more than 4000 watch hours in the last 12 months.

This is why consistency in video uploads is important. Few uploads equal few watch hours. Lastly, you have to live in a country where Google AdSense is available. You can choose what ads will come with your video, and where they will appear.

When someone clicks on an ad or watches your video for at least 30 seconds, you earn revenue depending on the advertisers’ bid, the length of the video, and the type of content.

Affiliates

A company could approach you and ask you to endorse their product on your channel. You then talk about it, describe its features, and encourage your viewers to buy the product. You include a link in your video description where people can buy the product. To encourage a purchase and also reward their viewers, a number of YouTubers, in collaboration with the company, offer discounts for viewers who purchase a product through their channel.

Every time a purchase is made a percentage of that revenue goes to you as the owner of the channel.

Still, you don’t have to wait for a company to approach you. You could approach companies whose products are related to your content and make a deal with them. For example, if you have a food channel, you can advertise products for a company that produces spices.

Selling Merchandise

YouTubers with a substantial following and a well-developed brand also make revenue through selling merchandise. Once you have a dedicated base of subscribers, you can begin to make merchandise related to the subject content of your videos.

You can make branded t-shirts and caps or sell products like makeup kits. If you upload how-to videos, you can offer more information through a premium subscription service or sell a how-to manual in text form.

Ensure your products are unique and high quality, as disappointed customers will spread the word about you and this could affect your popularity on YouTube. You want to go viral, but not for controversial reasons.

YouTube Premium

Many people find it annoying to have a video they are watching interrupted by advertisements. Well, this is the price we pay to enjoy YouTube for free.

HOWEVER, if you really cannot stand constant interruptions, why not try YouTube Premium? This is a paid ad-free service offered by YouTube as a response to our grumblings against advertisements. Viewers can watch videos and listen to endless playlists without interruptions.

If you have a channel on YouTube premium, you earn revenue every time your video is watched. Viewers can also download your videos to watch offline, and this will still contribute to your watch times.

Donations

Donations are not necessarily a revenue stream, but they can support up and coming creators until they have enough views to generate their own revenue. When you make really good content, you gain many committed fans who wouldn’t mind supporting you financially so you can continue making more content.

To this end, MANY creators have a Patreon account through which fans make donations. Although Patreon takes 10% of this money, it can still be enough to keep your channel going.

Creators in turn offer their donors (patrons) extra content like behind-the-scenes footage as a reward or thank you for their support. Patreon is also a great platform for creators who need financial support for their work but want to maintain their independence.

So instead of signing contracts with commercial companies that will exploit their talent, they upload content on YouTube and earn revenue through their channel and the support of their Patrons.

Make Long Videos

Make your content as interesting as possible for as long as possible, at least for up to 10 minutes. The longer time people spend on your video, the higher the chances of earning more revenue, and the higher it will rank among search results.

Remember, YouTube wants people to spend time on videos so they can see adverts.

Collaborations

You can reach out to creators who post similar content to yours and suggest a collaboration. Not everything needs to be a competition, and we can also grow together. Collaboration will open up new horizons for your viewership and get your subscribers from a different niche category than the one you cater for.

A good example of collaboration was that of Lindsey Stirling, a violinist who dances while playing the violin and the Piano Guys, a group of men who make original instrumental music and do classical-style covers of popular songs. Their collaboration was actually demanded by fans and was a huge success, opening up new markets for both groups.

Targeted Content

Make your videos with a certain target market in mind. This will establish your niche, and also enable you to propose a brand endorsement to a company that targets that particular group of people. For example, if you have a food channel, you can focus on organic recipes and built viewership based on this.

You can then approach an organic food company and offer to advertise their products.

Use Targeted Keywords

Use top keywords in your video titles, descriptions, and video tags. Specific keywords attract different viewers with different interests. The type of viewer you attract will also determine the type of advertisers you attract.

Keywords that attract advertisers who pay more for adverts will also earn you more money.

Conclusion

In summary, likes will not directly earn you revenue on YouTube, but they will increase your channel’s visibility to raise your chances of earning marketing revenue.

If you need help in making better videos to get you more likes then maybe check out my resources page where I show you all my equipment, secret tools for amazing graphics and youtube seo tools!

You can follow these tips discussed in this article to get more subscribers and more likes. So keep creating!

Tags how to youtubers make money, likes, making money, money, rank, rankings, youtube likes, youtube money, youtube rankings

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE YOUTUBE

How Much Does it Cost to Start a YouTube Channel?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 18 June 2020
1 Comment on How Much Does it Cost to Start a YouTube Channel?

PewDiePie, Dude Perfect, Whinderssonnunes, and Badabun: what do they have in common? They are the world’s top four YouTubers.

Between them, they have over 50 million subscribers. Their success on YouTube has inspired countless people to want to start their own YouTube channels. Many people, however, stop at the ‘wanting’ stage, and never really get to do it. They’ll give excuses such as “I don’t have time” or “I don’t have money” or “I don’t have the equipment.”

Stories about successful YouTubers only tend to focus on where they are at present and don’t mention how they started out. Nobody starts out successfully in their career. Success comes after years of hard, anonymous and thankless work, until one day that one video that you make goes viral and you become a sensation.

Even so, this doesn’t happen for everybody. Most people will plod along that road to success slowly, but constantly, until one day they look up in surprise and find themselves at the finish line. The key is to start.

In this article, we will look at some basic aspects of YouTube, what you need to start a channel, and how much it costs.

So, How Much Does it Cost to Start a YouTube Channel? – It can be surprisingly cheap. All you really need is a cheap device to capture video, this can be a smartphone, a webcam or a compact camera. This could start from as little as £30/$40 these days second hand. Video editing apps can be free, and uploading costs nothing!

YouTube – A Brief History

YouTube was started by three former PayPal employees after they were frustrated by their inability to find videos that they were looking for online.

It is a video-hosting platform that enables users to upload, view and share videos. True to YouTube’s mission to give anyone and everyone a voice, anyone could upload a video on YouTube.

YouTube’s popularity was such that Google noticed it and, with laudable foresight, purchased it for $ 1.65 billion. With the rise of terrorism and other hate crimes, this has changed, but only because hate crimes are illegal and no one should have the right to share videos about them anyway.

Why YouTube?

There are many reasons why you should have a YouTube channel. Some of these are:

Large audience- YouTube has a large and diverse audience, and is used by over one billion people all over the world.
Due to the wide-ranging nature of its content, YouTube also reaches a wide demographic of users, from teenagers looking for the latest musical sensation to middle-aged women looking for cooking recipes.
The ease of access of this platform also makes it desirable both as a search engine and a form of entertainment.
Uploading videos to YouTube is a simple process. All you have to worry about is producing the video.
Monetizing- Videos with enough views get monetized. YouTube has thus become a source of livelihood for many creators.
Marketing- Investors have also tapped into the business potential of YouTube. Organizations have started their own channels to market their products and penetrate new markets.

Who Can Start a YouTube Channel?

Anyone, and it’s free. If you have a Google account, you can sign into YouTube using your account details.

With these, you can watch videos, subscribe to them, and save videos to watch later.

However, to upload a video, you need a YouTube channel. You can easily create one while signed in to YouTube. Just attempt an action that requires a channel, like commenting on a video. You will get a prompt to create a channel.

If you need help in starting a YouTube channel and opening an account I wrote a full deep dive tutorial in my blog.

For your viewers to know more about you, complete your profile and description. Market your brand in a simple, attractive manner. You can also include additional links about yourself or your content here. Make sure your profile picture is clear and appealing.

In addition to a cover photo, you can also add cover art as a background for your profile picture. Again, it has to capture attention. Your channel is now ready to use.

So far, all you’ve spent creating your channel is the cost of your internet connection (if any) and time. We will now look at the basic items you need to run your channel.

What You Need To Run A YouTube Channel?

A Camera

Since YouTube is about making videos, you need some form of video recording equipment. If you are starting out, you probably don’t have a lot of money. Due to the growing population of video bloggers, or vloggers, a number of companies now produce cameras specialized for vlogging. This website gives a list of cameras you can get for not more than $100. Not to worry.

Start with what you have. Many YouTubers began their channels with nothing but a smartphone camera. Don’t wait until you can buy a good camera to start creating, because your channel will remain dormant. For your channel to grow, you need views.

If you need help in picking a some good starter equipment check out my resources page where I list my equipment and give you a few tips on tools you may find helpful too.

Tripod Stand

In addition to a camera, you need something to hold it steady while making your videos.

Shaky videos can be quite disconcerting to watch. A tripod stand is a three-legged piece of equipment with a head for mounting a camera. It helps to keep the camera steady during filming and maintains the right angle and height for optimal results. A suitable tripod stand can cost about $170 including shipping.

However, if you don’t have one yet, never fear! You can improvise with a stack of books placed on a desk or a table.

A Microphone

People lose focus when they can’t hear a speaker properly. No matter how good your camera is, without good sound, it will not hold your viewers’ attention.

Aim to own a good external microphone as mobile phones and laptops don’t have very good ones. A good microphone can cost upwards of $150. However, in the meantime, use your phone or laptop microphone. Remember, consistency is key!

I use the Boya BY-MM1 for filming on my camera. Its easy and cheap, great quality sound. I did a deep dive blog into the Boya BY-MM1, its features and how it works, youll be amazed how different microphones work.

Lighting

Lighting can make a great difference to your video. With good lighting, even videos and photos shot from a smartphone can look highly professional. Simple lighting equipment can go for about $110, with the cost rising as the equipment becomes more complex.

If you’re starting out, you probably won’t be able to afford quality lighting. Work on making your videos outside, during the day, as the quality of natural lighting is far better than the lighting in your room.

Video Editing Software

Established YouTubers have professional teams of video editors. Video editing can turn a simple mundane video into a piece of art. You won’t start out with a team of experts, but you can do your video editing yourself using video editing software available online. A good place to start with this is Movavi, an easy to use video editing software that comes with features like color filters, animated transitions, and captions.

I use however use, Adobe Premiere Pro. Its reliable, top of the industry tool with some great, easy to use features. I am not a video editing pro but I can make some great looking videos. The software starts from as little as $10pm and they even offer discounts. Why not check out their website for more details, discounts and deals.

A Screen- Capture Tool

This is software that enables you to take a screenshot of your entire screen or a part of it. If you plan to make how-to videos, this would be a useful investment to make.

A good screen capture tool is Camtasia, which enables you to record an audio as you capture the screen. You can get it at a one-time cost of $249. It also comes as a 30-day free trial. Alternatively, you can use the inbuilt screen-capture feature inn your PC, although the effect won’t quite be the same.

What if I can’t afford to make videos? Or what if I want to have a YouTube channel but I don’t want to use videos of myself? Well, enter Doodly.

Doodly

Depending on the content of your videos, you may not even need a camera, to begin with. For example, if you plan to upload explanatory videos, instead of making a video of yourself talking, you can use video tools.

A good tool you can start with is Doodly. This is a desktop software that allows you to create explainer videos using existing templates that you can suit your needs. It comes with a number of features that can turn you from a YouTube amateur to an expert.

Features that make Doodly an ideal companion for beginners on YouTube include:

Drag and drop- You can add images simply by dragging them onto the application.
Variety- Doodly uses a variety of boards as a background for the function of explaining. You can choose between whiteboard, blackboards, green board, and glass board.
Quality- Doodly offers low to high-quality videos so you don’t have to worry about how your videos look.
User-friendly- Doodly is designed to be used by people with little or no technical knowledge about making videos, so you don’t have to worry about lack of IT or video editing experience.
Voice recording- You can record your own voice while making the video, or upload a pre-recorded voice.
Extensive music and Image Library- Music and images can turn a dull video into a masterpiece. Doodly has a large library of free music and images that you can use to make your video more attractive. You can also add your own images to your video, which Doodly incorporates seamlessly into the presentation.
Different hand styles- Doodly has both right and left-hand styles to cater for everyone.

You can purchase a standard Doodly version for $39 per month with basic features. A yearly plan is cheaper and goes for $20 per month. A more advanced version, Enterprise, goes for $ 69 per month, or $40 per month for a yearly plan.

Reaching Your Audience

You now have basic knowledge of how you can start a YouTube channel. You can make high quality, entertaining and educative videos. How will your audience know about you?

First, you have to link your YouTube channel to all your other social media accounts, so that every time you upload a video it is seen on multiple platforms. As you consistently upload videos, more and more users will see your channel, and YouTube will begin to recommend it frequently.

You can also amplify your visibility on YouTube using Search Engine Optimization Tools. These are tools that increase your chances of getting more views by optimizing your presence online.

Successful YouTubers have made use of these tools to grow their audience and penetrate niches they would never have been able to reach. A good SEO tool you can use for this is TubeBuddy.

TubeBuddy

This is an extension you can add to your browser to help you manage your channel, is used by more than 3 million creators. It enables you to know the trending keywords relevant to your channel and how to maximize their use to amplify your channel visibility. With TubeBuddy you can ‘spy’ on your competitors and learn which keywords they use, search for relevant keywords, and constantly update your channel with the best selection.

Using numerous inbuilt templates and tools, you can also save time spent in publishing your videos. TubeBuddy comes with tools that amplify your channel presence across the web, making you rank higher in search results.

Thumbnails are crucial in getting your video quickly noticed. TubeBuddy has a feature that improves them to make them more appealing. The best thing about TubeBuddy is that it is free.

Conclusion

We have looked at the basic items you need to make a video for YouTube. We’ve seen that you don’t really need much money to start your own channel.

You don’t even need a formal location, like a production studio. You can do this from your basement or any other spare room in the house. We’ve seen why you should have your own channel and even how you can optimize it to increase your views and rank high on search results.

There is no shortage of easy to use tools to help you make professional, appealing videos. If you have your ideas ready and you know who you want to target, there is no reason why you shouldn’t have your own channel.

Investing in the items listed here will only bring you positive results quickly but it’s also possible to start your own channel even if you don’t have these things yet.

Start creating.

Tags how much, how much does youtube cost, income, money, youtube income, youtube money, youtuber

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE SEO TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Are YouTube Tags Important?

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 7 June 2020

YouTube is the second largest search engine on the internet, after Google. Over 3 billion searches are processed by YouTube in a month, with up to 500 hours of videos being uploaded every minute.

This means that if you have a YouTube channel and you want to get viewers, you have to work really hard to make sure your video appears at the top, or near the top, of search results.

You may have better content than your competitors but success is not just about working hard. It’s about working smart. In addition to producing quality content, you also have to make sure your channel is visible. With so many people uploading content all the time, this can prove daunting. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in.

So do YouTube Tags Matter? – YouTube Tags are a throw back to the old days of Website SEO. Tags used to be used to summarize a web page’s content. YouTube tags are not as important as they used to be BUT can be valuable meta data for smaller channels to help categorize content when they first upload videos.

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your content such that the search engine, in this case, YouTube, ranks it as one of the top results in search results.

This makes your video visible and increases the quantity of traffic to your site.

Why is it Important?

According to a State of Inbound report in 2018, 45% of marketers invested more in YouTube that year than in any other channel. This means that for you to attract marketers, you have to attract many users who will actually spend time looking at your content because they are interested in it, and are not just passing through.

This is why SEO for YouTube is important. Different search engines have different optimization techniques and YouTube is no different.

We are interested in YouTube tags here but some other techniques are also worth mentioning because they are related to tags.

Finding Relevant Video Keywords

For you to create content that will attract viewers to your site, you need to know what your audience is interested in and how they talk about it. You can do this by simply typing a keyword in the YouTube search box. As you do so, the autocomplete feature will suggest popular searches related to what you’ve just typed in.

You can also use different tools for this like TubeBuddy and Ubersuggest – Tubebuddy can help you deep dive into keywords and maximize your titles for better breakthroughs – you can download the plugin on their website.

You can also compare how frequently different keywords are used so you can know which keyword is most likely to appear at the top of search results.

A free, accessible tool you can use for this is Google Trends, which has a YouTube search option for specific keywords for YouTube. Once you know what your target audience is interested in, you can then create your content to suit their needs.

Choosing the Title

While your title should communicate what your video is about, it should also grab attention. Use concise, catchy phrases that resonate immediately with your audience.

Remember to incorporate keywords as naturally as possible into your title without deceiving your viewers.

YouTube Video Description

The description helps you expand on what your video is about and enables you to add additional links and information about you.

Like the title, it should be concise and attractive. Keep in mind that while Google allows up to 1000 words in the description, only the first about 100 words will appear above the “show more” link, so you have to make the first part of your description compelling and convince the viewer to look at the rest of your description.

Include relevant keywords here as well.

Using Thumbnails

This is the image that appears with your video. A great video could lose potential views if it has an unappealing thumbnail. A thumbnail is just as important as a title in grabbing and holding attention.

YouTube has auto-generated thumbnail options that you can use, but for better results, a custom thumbnail would be more effective. 90% of the best performing YouTube videos have custom thumbnails.

Note that for you to use a custom thumbnail your channel has to be verified by YouTube.

Putting Your Video in a Category

You can link your video to others with similar content by adding a category to your video in the Advanced Settings.

This increases its chances of winding up in different YouTube playlists and will in turn increase your channel’s visibility. Do some research to see who else is in the category you’ve picked. In addition, check whether your target audience also follows those creators.

Finally, check how the creators in that category make their videos to know whether your content is a good, or better than theirs. The Creators Academy at YouTube takes users through a comprehensive process to help them determine what best category to put their video in.

Renaming Your Video File Using A Target Keyword

Before you upload your video, you can incorporate your top keyword in the video file. Because YouTube won’t actually watch your video to know its content, it will use your keywords, so you want to put them in places they can be detected by YouTube.

This way, the YouTube algorithm will read your keyword in your video’s file name along with the code.

Encouraging Subscription

Make it as easy as possible for your viewers to subscribe to your channel, or to watch similar videos by you by having the option very clearly displayed in the video.

Using Video Tags

Finally, we come to YouTube, or video tags. These are words or phrases which you can use to give more context about your video and let YouTube and your viewers know what your video is about.

Using video tags helps to rank your videos higher in search results. They are thus an important search SEO tool.

Although some studies have shown that tags play a small role in ranking a video, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t spend some time on them. For famous celebrities who have constant streams of visitors to their pages, tags may not be necessary.

However, for creators with a niche audience, or who are just starting out on YouTube, tags can effectively boost the ranking of the video, leading to more visitors, which in turn raises the ranking of the video further.

Tags are also important if your name as a creator, or your subject content, constantly gets miss-spelled.

Finally, tags teach YouTube that you belong to a certain category.

This will remove you from the large number of anonymous creators constantly uploading content and place you in a smaller niche which will increase your chances of visibility as there will be less competition in your category.

How to Add Tags to YouTube Videos

Beginning in the channel dashboard, where things like your subscribers and revenue appear. On the left-hand side of the screen, click on settings.

Click on channel below settings. This where your tags are. To add a new tag, click on the white empty space, type something and click enter to make it a new tag.

Now we’ll look at some tips on how you can tag your videos for better visibility on YouTube.

Make Your Primary Keyword Your First Tag

The tags you use have to actually relate to your video, otherwise you’ll be deceiving your viewers.

Therefore, since YouTube pays a lot of attention to your first tag, try as much as possible to have it as your primary keyword.

Use Common Keywords from High Ranking Videos

If you want to know how your keyword ranks online, you can search for your keyword on YouTube. Open the top 3-5 videos that are most closely related to your content.

The videos you pick don’t have to rank at the very top, but they have to be relevant. Check the tags on these videos and pick the ones that most relate to your content.

Having tags similar to top ranking videos will increase your chances of visibility.

If you find it difficult to think of keywords, you can use different online tools to generate keywords. Here are some examples.

Keyword Keg

This tool gives different statistics like search volume, competition, SEO difficulty, trends, keyword power, suggested keywords, off-page, and on-page difficulty.

Once you enter the target keyword these different parameters come up. It also has the option of filtering results according to country and language.

VidIQ

This tool shows keywords related to your target keyword, the related score, the search score, search volume, and overall score, which is a combination of all these.

A powerful plugin that combines productivity tools with deep dive stats to super charge your rankings and views.

VidIQ is creator focused and continues to add and improve its tools including recent add-ons like fast title and description translations to help you rank in foreign languages. You can get their free plugin by going to their website.

Keyword.io

This tool gives you other related keywords once you’ve typed in your target keyword.

In addition to these, it also provides their search volume, trends over the past 12 months, and suggested hashtags and prepositions you can use with your keyword.

Use Keywords with a High Search Volume

Some keywords are more commonly used in search for particular content. Using commonly used keywords for your tags can serve to amplify your visibility to YouTube. Of course, they have to be relevant to what you’re creating.

You can use Ahref’s Keywords Explorer for this. Simply set the search Engine to YouTube and type in some keywords.

The estimated search volume for the month for each keyword will be displayed in percentages in descending order. From the list, you can pick out relevant keywords with substantial search volume.

Use Specific Categories of Tags.

I tackled this is a video before – You can can categorize your tags to get the most out of them.

Video Specific Tags – Your first tag should be very specific and should have the aim of describing exactly what the video is about.

This will directly place you in the niche your target audience are interested in.

Video Category Tags – Your next tag can be slightly broader and describe the category your video falls under. This will relate it to videos that talk about the same thing and will widen the base of your audience.

Your video can then be recommended along with other videos in a similar category, hence increasing your chances of being seen by more people.

Channel Level Tags – Lastly, you should have a tag that directly mentions your name or the name of your channel. This will link your video to other videos you’ve done that may not be related to your current video but will still be of interest to your viewers.

It will introduce your viewers to other work you’ve done.

Use Phrases Instead of Words

Keywords by themselves are important but sometimes they may be so general that they still hide your video in a long list of other related videos. Using a phrase that is more specific to your content together with the keyword increases your chances of standing out.

This is because your video will now be in a less competitive category. For example, instead of just using the word “make-up” for your video, you can use “how to do make-up” instead.

Don’t be too wordy

Although the maximum characters you can use for tags is 500, you don’t have to use all of them.

You don’t want to look spammy. The optimum number of characters, according to Briggsby, is about 200-300.

Be Relevant

The fact that a keyword has a high search volume doesn’t mean it should be used indiscriminately. Use tags that are relevant to your content.

Don’t Be Deceptive

Avoid using unrelated keywords to trick users to view your content. This could actually get your content removed by YouTube. For example, don’t use the names of famous celebrities or brands just to get people to watch your video.

Don’t Place Your Tags in the Video Description

This is another violation of YouTube policy that could get you in trouble as it can be considered as an intention to mislead users.

Tracking Your Progress

Finally, did you know that you can track your ranking in search results?

You can use different tools for this, and you can track your progress and see how the different SEO techniques are working for your channel. This is an important step to see which of your efforts are actually bringing positive results.

In conclusion, tags alone may play a small role in substantially increasing your views, but, when used together with other SEO techniques, can boost your channel’s visibility.

Upload content consistently and see your rankings rise. After all, even famous celebrities started small before they blew up.

Tags do tags matter, do youtube tags matter, seo, tags, video seo, video tags, youtube seo, youtube tags

BUSINESS TIPS DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Guide to Make Money Online

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 29 May 2020
16 Comments on Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Guide to Make Money Online

Revenue from affiliate marketing programs appears to be growing at the rate of 10% with no signs of slowing down. The industry’s worth $12 billion and has opportunities for one and all with over 81% of brands relying on some kind of affiliate marketing program. That is why I am pulled together this affiliate marketing for beginners guide.

If you haven’t already jumped the bandwagon then consider knowing what is affiliate marketing and how to get started with affiliate marketing.

We’ll answer all your questions in this affiliate marketing for beginners guide and help you earn money online.

Let’s get started:

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Let’s refer to the affiliate marketing definition.

It can be defined as the process of getting paid a commission helping other companies sell their products or services. In simple words, you will make money (commission) whenever you succeed in selling an item including digital goods.

Unlike traditional selling or marketing, affiliate marketing is totally digital. You advertise online and all your buyers are on the internet.

How Much Do Affiliate Marketers Earn?

Affiliate marketing is a rewarding field and almost everyone makes money here. You must, however, be patient if you want to make a decent amount of money working as an affiliate marketer.

If you search the web, you will find affiliate marketers who make about $100,000 per month by selling affiliate products online. However, not everyone’s lucky and some people only make about $100 per month.

The truth is that it is a competitive industry. You must invest time if you want to enjoy the benefits. It can make you a millionaire but this will not happen overnight.

In fact, many affiliate marketers lose money when they start. You will make errors in the beginning and you may have to spend money to get started. It can take a while to breakeven. We’ll talk more about it later in this article.

It takes most affiliate marketers 9 to 12 months to breakeven and make a profit.

Working with a professional and having access to the right kind of help can make this process easier. You’ll know what not to do to make money.

The average affiliate marketer makes about $1,000 per month. It can, however, be very difficult to correctly predict how much you will make as an affiliate as it depends on several factors including your experience, niche, and marketing budget.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing involves buying and selling but you will not have to purchase a product to take part in affiliate marketing.

The structure is built on real relationships and transparency and not one-off transactions. Here are a few elements to know about if you want to know how affiliate marketing works:

The Product: This term is self explanatory, the product is what you’re going to sell. It can be a physical item or a digital good.

Each product comes at a price that may be fixed or variable.

The Merchant: The term refers to the vendor, brand, seller or creator. In simple words, the merchant is the party that creates or manufactures the product that you sell. The merchant can be a big brand like Adobe or a small firm that produces local soaps.

The merchant can also be a single seller like Trajan King who offers online courses.

The Publisher: Also called the affiliate, the publisher can be an individual or person (you) who sells a product. Publishers use a variety of techniques to make a sale.

We’ll talk more about the techniques publishers can use to sell a product later in this article.

Affiliate Network: Since manufacturers do not always directly sell a product, you may need to turn to an affiliate network like ClickBank. They work as an intermediary between merchants and publishers.

These networks work with several brands giving you access to a number of products and services under one roof. It is very important to choose the right affiliate network.

The Consumer: The consumer is your target audience, the person who will purchase the product. Remember that you will only make a profit when there’s a successful sale. The job of every publisher is to find as many buyers as they can. The more sales you have, the more money you’ll make.

The Commission: This is the amount of money you will make whenever there’s a successful sale. The commission depends on products and networks or merchants. It can be as low as 1.5% or as high as 40%.

If a product sells for $40 and the commission is 10%, your profile will be $4. However, the network may charge a small fee for its services.

So how does affiliate marketing work? You will have to find an affiliate network or brand that is looking for affiliates. Once approved, you will get a custom link that you will have to market.

Each time a consumer opens a website using your link and makes a purchase, you will earn a specific commission. This commission, however, can take a while to reflect in your account as orders can take weeks to get confirmed. Plus, brands also have to take care of the ‘return’ window.

How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing?

Now that you already know how affiliate marketing works, it is the time to become an affiliate.

Here’s a step by step guide on how to get started with affiliate marketing:

Choose a Niche

The first step is to choose a niche. If you already have a website or virtual presence then it is best to stick to a niche that is relevant to your audience. For example, if you have a social media page about health and fitness with 500,000 followers then it is best to choose health and fitness related products to market.

If you want to create a new website then you will have to choose a niche that’s profitable and easy to manage. However, remember that it is not only about choosing a niche, you will also have to select suitable products in your niche.

Consider the ‘beauty and fashion’ niche, it is a popular option with several products including beauty products for men, makeup products for women, etc.

We have covered the five best niches for affiliate marketing later in this article with some great tips on how to choose an appropriate product. Keep reading for more.

Find an Appropriate Affiliate Program

Once you have selected a niche, it is time to decide how you wish to approach it. You can directly work with the manufacturer or choose an affiliate program. Each option has its own perks and cons.

Working directly with the seller may offer you more money since you will not have to pay network fees and other charges.

Moreover, networks may also have stringent requirements such as a specific number of followers before you can sign up. But, there are various advantages of working with a network.

First of all, you will have access to a large number of products under one roof. Top affiliate networks have thousands of products for partners to select. This makes management easier as you will not have to have multiple accounts in order to market multiple products.

Plus, affiliate networks are also known for ease. They offer insights and analytical tools that make marketing easier.

Lastly, affiliate networks offer more security. If you search the web, you will find a number of brands offering affiliate programs. While some of them are reliable, some are only out there to rob you.

Working with a reputable network reduces the risk of scams as networks typically only include brands or companies that are safe and reliable.

Create a Site or Utilize Your Online Presence

Since affiliate marketing involves selling online, you will need a solid virtual presence to make money on the internet.

The first step should be to create a website, or in my case a YouTube channel, that can help people find what you’re selling. It should be in the same niche as the product you’re trying to sell. You can opt to have an e-commerce store but that may not be the most effective option as it can be hard to rank online stores.

We suggest that you start a website dedicated to the product and post content such as blogs and reviews. Since about 97% of people read reviews before buying a product, posting such content can be very effective in finding buyers.

In addition to a website, consider creating social media pages as well. You have a variety of options including Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Since it can be difficult to be active on all social media platforms, we suggest that you stick to one that houses your audience.

LinkedIn, for example, can be a great pick if you offer producers for executives such as hiring services. Similarly, Instagram can be a great option if you sell fashion and beauty products since it’s popular among makeup artists.

Market What You’re Trying to Sell

Merely having a social media account or website is not enough, you will have to market what you’re trying to sell. You can have the best product in the world but no one’s going to buy it if they’re not aware of it.

Affiliate marketers use a variety of techniques to market products. Some use paid options while some stick to free ways to market affiliate products.

The company you’ve joined hands with may have a manual on how to market its products. Affiliate networks are also known to offer marketing materials including banners that can be placed on your website.

In most cases, you will be given a code or special link to include in your marketing content so that the website can track your users. Using generic links or product names will not give you any results as the system will not be able to link a sale to your account.

Some affiliate networks and companies are very stringent about the marketing techniques used. Make sure to go through the terms and conditions so that you do not get into any trouble.

It is important that you know about the product you are trying to market or sell. Buyers may have a lot of questions regarding your product including its benefits and use.

Not being able to answer their questions can cause them to look elsewhere, hence get educated and make sure to get your hands on what you’re trying to sell so that you’re fully aware of what it’s capable of.

Build Your Audience

Now that your site is up and running, it is time to build your audience. Remember that marketing is a continuous process. If you stop putting efforts into selling and gaining more views, someone else will dethrone you.

Competition is tough. Never take things lightly and continue to put your best foot forward so that you can sell more.

Your website must be user-friendly. Remember to make it easy for people to give you money. Connect with your audiences and work on building relationships. Relationship marketing can be helpful in finding success as an affiliate marketer.

Earn and Withdraw Money

Now that you’ve started to sell, you will begin to earn money. It can take new affiliate marketers months before they have enough money to withdraw. Also, some networks will keep your money for security purposes before releasing it to you.

Since affiliate marketing involves real money, you might be required to submit identity documents such as your driver’s license before you can withdraw money. Hence, make sure to use true and real information for signing up for an account. Using fake information can get your account blocked.

How Can I Become a Successful Affiliate Marketer?

Everyone wants to be an affiliate marketer and make money but not everyone finds success in this field. Here are a few things you must keep in mind to become a successful affiliate marketer:

Choose the Right Product

This is the most important step because you will never be able to find success if you do not choose the right product.

The term ‘right’ is ambiguous as what works for someone else may not be right for you. Here are a few things to consider when selecting a product:

The Demand

Technically speaking, there’s a demand for almost every product out there but some have more buyers than others. It is best to stick to a product that’s heavily in demand so that you do not have to work very hard to find buyers.

You can look at tools such as Google Trends to know more about what’s in demand and what isn’t. Also, remember that some products are not in demand throughout the air.

Air conditioners, for example, usually sell well during the hotter months. If you choose a product that only sells a few months of a year, you might not be able to make a decent amount of money throughout the year.

The Price

Since you will only get a small percentage of the selling price, it is very important to pay attention to this factor.

Expensive products typically offer more money but they may not be the best option since it can be hard to sell expensive products.

Think about shoes, a pair that costs $1,000 and pays 2% commission will earn you $20 per sale. Since the price tag is very high, you might not be able to sell more than 12 units per month, which means you will earn a commission of only $240 per month.

On the other hand, if you choose to sell a pair that costs $100 and pays a 2% commission, you might be able to sell 150 pairs in a month due to high demand.

At the end of the day, your commission will be $300. As evident from this example, commission for each unit is higher for expensive products but the overall profit is usually more for more affordable products.

Always choose a product according to your buyers. If you think they can afford expensive shoes then you can stick to $1,000 shoes. Otherwise, work with brands that are more reasonable.

The Competition

Affiliate marketing networks carried out over 170 million transactions in 2017. This does not only show how big affiliate marketing is but it also highlights how stiff competition can be. Everyone’s fighting for a share of the pie.

Cutthroat competition can make it difficult for new marketers to make a mark in the field. If you’re still finding a foothold then try to find a niche or product that is not very competitive.

The Commission

As mentioned earlier, the commission is variable and can be between 2% to 40%. Big names like Amazon offer low commissions but a huge number of products. It’s also easier to sell Amazon products since the company offers international delivery and buyers also trust the brand.

Do not run after high commissions. A lot of companies that offer very high commissions are either scams or unreliable. It can be hard to convince buyers to purchase a product that has been manufactured by a company that nobody knows of. Hence, be responsible.

Select the Right Platform

Do not blindly select a platform. The first decision is between the official site or affiliate networks. If you are going for the latter then select options that are reliable.

Not all affiliate networks accept users from all around the world. Also, some may charge a joining fee or commission on every sale. A very important factor to remember when selecting a platform is the cookie period.

Most buyers will not make a purchase right away. They’ll go to multiple sites and compare products for a few days before they finalize a purchase. Affiliate networks take this period into consideration and offer a ‘cookie period’ that is usually between 20 to 60 days.

If a user reaches a product via an affiliate link through your site and makes a purchase within the specified period, it will be considered a sale and get credited to your account. The higher this period the better it is.

Make Sure to Market Properly

Do not make the mistake of neglecting this factor. You can use a variety of techniques to market products. Here are some of the most popular choices:

SEO, since about 51% of traffic is organic. But, get ready to spend a lot of time on SEO as it can take websites a long time to rank well.
Email marketing, after all, it still offers an ROI of up to 4,300%. You will, however, need a solid email list to make use of this method.
Social media because it influences about 74% of shoppers. Plus, buyers tend to trust reviews found on third-party sites.
YouTube as it is now the second largest search engine and a lot of people love to watch videos about how to use a product before they purchase it.
Website because it can help users find you. Post a variety of content on your site including blogs, infographics, podcasts, etc. Make sure to include a search function on your site and have a mobile friendly website since about 5.16 billion users now have mobile phones and most of them use mobile devices to access the web.

You can use all these marketing methods and compare what works for you. Once you find the option that offers the highest return, stick to it.

Do I Need Money to Become an Affiliate Marketer?

Technically speaking, you do not need money to become an affiliate marketer. However, it can be very difficult to be a successful affiliate marketer without spending a penny.

Here are a few expenses you may have to incur:

Get a Website – starts as low as $150 per year

A website is not a must to become an affiliate marketing but it can increase your chances of finding success. Plus, some affiliate networks have it as a prerequisite.

You can get a free website but a .com or paid domain looks better. It will cost you about $10 per month. Avoid cheap or free hosting servers. They have limitations and they’re also insecure. Spend about $100 on hosting per month.

The next step is building a website. You can use WordPress and other such platforms to create a free site. If you want a kickass website then you’ll have to hire developers. This can cost you between $100 to $1,000.

Come up with a unique name and get a logo. You can create free logos online or hire a designer to get the job done for you. It can cost between $5 and $100.

Create Content for Your Site – starts as low as $200 per month

You must post regular content on your site. It can be in the form of blogs, videos, or podcasts or a mix of all these.

You will not have much to worry about if you can create your own content. The articles must be informative, long, and SEO friendly. Consider including graphics as well since posts that contain images tend to get more likes, shares, and engagement.

Post at least twice a month to ensure your visitors have something to come back to. Plus, you can make money blogging if you play it right.

In addition to your website, you will also have to take care of your social media pages. You must post at least once a day so that engagement can be maintained.

You can use your mobile phone to click photos or make videos. Some marketers also opt to invest in professional cameras to get high quality content for their pages.

You can handle this all on your own but it can take about 10 to 20 hours per week since managing a website and social media is a full-time job. If you’re too busy you can consider hiring a manager or content creator to take care of the job. They’ll charge anywhere between $8 to $20 per hour.

Hire an SEO firm – starts as low as $500 per month

You will have to hire an SEO agency to rank well on search engines. This is important because about 71% of users do not go beyond the first page when they look for a product or service online.

SEO is technical and includes a lot of elements such as backlinks, inner links, keywords, etc. Companies charge between $500 and $5,000 per month for SEO services.

Look for a provider with experience in the business so you can increase your rate of conversion and sell more.

Advertise Your Content – starts as low as $5 per month

Affiliate marketers have the option to advertise on Google, Facebook, and other such platforms. It’s a quick way to reach buyers but such campaigns need to be designed with care because you will not get good returns if you do not target the right audience.

You can hire professionals to manage your accounts. They usually charge a percentage of the total advertising budget. Find an option that offers the best returns.

Which Is The Best Affiliate Marketing Niche?

Since there are a lot of niches out there, it can be very difficult to pick the right one. To help you become an affiliate marketer, we have highlighted five of the best niches:

Health and Fitness

You can sell supplements, gym equipment, gym memberships, and fitness eBooks. Commissions are in the range of 20 to 40 percent.

Wealth and Money

This is a very popular niche. You can work with trading companies, finance gurus, and investment firms. The commission can be up to 50% but competition is very stiff in this niche.

Fashion and Beauty

The industry is worth $2 trillion and has a lot of potential but commission is low – between 3 and 10 percent.

Gaming and Software

With a CAGR of 12%, this is one of the fastest growing fields. It offers very high commissions – up to 30% – and gives a chance to sell a variety of software in multiple niches.

Hobbies and Survival

This one includes all kinds of hobbies such as fishing, golfing, flying, and painting. Commissions vary based on products but the option is very lucrative due to the huge number of options out there.

These are some of the best affiliate marketing niches. Make sure to pick one that fits you the best.

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: FAQ

Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about affiliate marketing:

#1 Can an affiliate work with several companies?

Yes, you can, there are no limits on the number of affiliate networks a person works with.

#2 How many followers do I need to become an affiliate?

This depends on the network or website you’re signing up for. Most require at least 5,000 followers but some can be more demanding.

#3 Shall I tell people if I am an affiliate?

Yes, the Federal Trade Commission requires affiliates to disclose if they get compensated for promoting a product or service. Not doing so can get you into trouble.

#4 How much money will I make as an affiliate marketer?

You can make between $100 to $10,000 per month depending on your audience, product, and other such factors.

#5 Which is the best affiliate network?

Some of the best affiliate networks include ClickBank, ShareASale, CJ Affiliate, Amazon Associates, and Rakuten Marketing. Compare all these options and pick what fits you the best.

#6 Can I sell outside of the internet?

You can market the product outside of the internet but all purchases must be made online.

#7 When will I get paid?

You will get paid when you reach the minimum threshold that can be as low as $50 or as high as $500 depending on the platform you’re working with.

#9 Can affiliate marketing be a substitute for a full time job?

While there are people making a lot of money as an affiliate marketer, the truth is that it may not be a safe substitute for a full-time job because the amount of money you’ll make per month is never guaranteed.

Ready to work as an affiliate marketer? Check our blog section for tips and get in touch with us to find out more about how we can help you.

Tags affiliate, affiliate income, affiliate links, affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing faq, affiliate marketing for beginners, affiliate marketing niches, affiliate marketplace, affiliate sales, faqs, how does affiliate marketing work, how to get started with affiliate marketing, how to make money online, how to make money with affiliate marketing, make money online, marketing, niche marketing, online money, what is affiliate marketing

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE MARKETING YOUTUBE

Crazy YouTube Stats : Views, Money, Users, Traffic & more!

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 27 May 2020

I was searching for something on the Internet and I casually saw a video of it on YouTube. It was then that it hit me. YouTube has been around for 15 years, can you actually believe that?

Each day more than a billion hours of content is being watched by people that generates billions of video views. 5 billion of the world’s population has mobile devices and this constitutes about 70% of the website’s watch time.

It was founded on February 14, 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim all ex-PayPal employees. They funded it with the incentives they received when eBay bought PayPal. It was later acquired by Google for a cool $1.65 billion on October 9, 2006.

Let me provide you with a perspective on what this social multimedia platform has unleashed on us within the last 15 years. Below, I’m going to provide you with some of the best figures, facts, and statistics gathered from around the web about YouTube.

General Stats About YouTube

There are over 2 billion monthly regular users
It is the world’s 2nd biggest Search Engine
37% of mobile global web traffic
Mobile constitutes 70% of watch time
Localized for 100 countries in 80 languages
60% of people favour watching online videos to live TV
51% people visit the website daily.
600 hours of content uploaded every minute.
1 billion hours worth of content is watched each day.
People watch videos for entertainment and relaxation.
79% of internet traffic accounted by online videos.

Summary: By looking at the above information you can see that not only is YouTube a very popular video platform, but it commands 51% of all visitor traffic and 37% of mobile web traffic globally.

In 2019, 600 hours of videos got uploaded every minute. This is a substantial increase in the video content consumption cravings for web users.

Videos tagged as music, entertainment, people and blogs were the ones to collect the greatest view shares in 2018. In recent years user-made content made some of the significant Internet buzzes.

YouTube started as a medium for original videos. It set up a new creative category for content makers drawing huge viewers to their screens and they subsequently became celebrities themselves. The site’s other chief approach is providing corporate media like official music videos that goes viral within hours and reaches 200-300 million views in a few days.

YouTube Demographics Stats

The website’s videos reach to a greater degree 18/19-year-olds than any TV network.
For millennials, it makes-up for about 67% of all video online activity.
2/3rd of the millennials use the website to search and find instructional videos on any topic or niche that you can think of.
YouTube also appeals across various age groups in US.
1. 81% for 15-25 years, 71% for 26-35 years, 67% for 36-45 years, 66% for 46-55 years, 58% for 56 and older
It reaches 90% of US families earning over $100,000 in income annually.
During a normal month, YouTube will reach 95% of web users over the age of 55.
More than 50% of the viewers are female

Summary: Looking at these numbers, it is no surprise YouTube is a jumping-off point for influencers. It is also a mighty income-generating machine for Google and parent Alphabet.

In 2019, it produced ad revenues of about $15.15 million globally. This accounts for roughly 9.4% of Google’s annual gross revenues. Brands and companies are devising ways to profit from YouTube’s huge audience, and have now begun to upload videos to their brand channels. In the US alone, Hulu, Target, and Samsung are some of the top advertisers on YouTube with regards to display ads, launching skippable videos, impressions, and other formats.

YouTube advertising is expensive when comparing social media networks, but it pays off. This is why brands and companies expect to see an increase in YouTube usage for ads in the coming years.

YouTube Marketing Stats

It is the 2nd most watched website to upload videos for businesses.
It is the 3rd most watched network for marketing influencer videos.
2/3 shoppers mention videos as an inspiration of purchase decisions
- 90% of these consumers discover something new by using YouTube.
About 1/2 half of the marketers have invested in YouTube advertising.
A YouTube mobile ad will engage viewers 84% more when compared with TV ads.
Users have viewed more than 50,000 years worth of product reviews since 2016.
Users are 3X more likely to view a video tutorial than read the steps to do it.
80% of customers who viewed video for purchase ideas said they did that at the start of their customer journey.
The amount of SMBs promoting on the site has doubled since 2016.
Comparing digital channels, YouTube is the 2nd-most influential for purchases.

Summary: You have a lot to grasp here. I’ll start from the top. Regarding businesses, it is the 2nd most watched website to upload videos. Facebook, on the other hand, is still the king. For best results, I’d recommend uploading on both networks.

I would advise you to analyse your audience information. Even if it seems everybody on the Internet uses both platforms, you have a great chance of attracting unique visitors for each. If you are able to optimize your videos on both video-sharing networks, you will draw in a consistent flow of qualified leads.

YouTube Traffic Stats

4 billion videos are seen each day everyday
More than 800 million unique visitors every month
More than 3 billion hours of video watched every month
What the major 3 US broadcasters produced in 60 years is uploaded in a month
70% of website traffic comes from outside the US
It is localized in 100+ countries and across 80+ languages

Summary: Looks like a lot of traffic for a video sharing website and still there are no traffic jams. All of this is feasible because of the ease with which videos can be uploaded, tagged, and marketed to people. This is also possible because the uploaded content can be easily searched making it the second biggest search engine after Google.

Data, data, data is the only thing I will say here. Optimize your content based on the latest trends that prevalent online and it will become viral.

YouTube Partner Program Stats

YouTube partner program was created in 2007
Has over 30,000+ partners from 27 countries globally
The company pays millions of dollars every year to its partners
Thousands of partners make six figure incomes each year
Partner revenues have doubled for four straight years
There’s now more than a million YouTube Partner Program members

Summary: YouTube’s Partner Program (YPP) gives creators better access to YouTube’s features and resources. You get access to the Creator Support Teams, Copyright Match Tool, and monetization features.

To be eligible for the YPP, you’ll have live in a region or country where it’s available, have over 4,000 public valid watch hours in the past 12 months, over 1,000 subscribers, and have a linked valid AdSense account. The YPP provides you with the necessary tools and features to monetize and promote your account.

YouTube Money Stats

More than 3 billion video views are monetized globally every week
AdAge’s Top 98 out of 100 advertisers have run ads on Google’s Display Network and YouTube
Thousands of advertisers are using TrueView in-stream ads
60% of TrueView in-stream ads can now be skipped

Summary: The first ads on YouTube appeared in August 2007. Nonetheless, YouTube is secretive about ad revenue. It is crucial to remember that most channels are monetized through AdSense earnings.

The more famous your channel is, you’ll have a wider range of money-making methods available to you. You can command significant sums of money from endorsements, sponsorship, product placements, and other merchandise.

YouTube Product Metrics

There is more HD content available than any other online video website
You can view thousands of full-length motion pictures on YouTube
10% of all YouTube videos are available in HD
YouTube mobile received more than 600 million views each day
70% of the total views comes from mobile devices
Mobile ads are more likely to be watched than TV ads by 84%
In 2019, content creators posted more than 50,000 videos using “Day in the Life” in their titles
Average durations of top viral videos in 2019 compared to 2010 were over 9.5X longer.

Summary: These above stats just prove how powerful the platform really is. Although, you will get all types of videos, more and more videos are being uploaded in HD.

YouTube is ideal to reach a young audience but it also engages viewers across all age groups.

You should add YouTube Live to your content strategy as many people are not looking forward to seeing live videos.

Final Verdict

These are really crazy numbers. If you are just a simple YouTube viewer who wants to know the stats behind these online videos, I hope the above stats have impressed you.

Many of us use YouTube’s app or website daily. From the above data points it is clear that it is an integral part of our lives.

I have covered the basics here, and if you want to add more to these crazy facts just post them in the comments section below. Show us some love and share this article with friends and family so they can also know these crazy YouTube stats.

Tags general youtube stats, stats, youtube, youtube money stats, youtube product stats, youtube stats, youtube trends, youtube usage stats, youtube user stats, youtube video stats, youtuber stats

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE

Best Places To Share YouTube Videos For More Views

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 24 May 2020
6 Comments on Best Places To Share YouTube Videos For More Views

You have a YouTube channel all up and running and you’ve been uploading your new YouTube videos and content to your channel, but the views aren’t coming? Need help with the best places to share YouTube videos for more views?

Sharing your your YouTube videos on social media can be a great way to boost exposure, grow your audience and seed links back to your videos. The more social networks you can post to the more likely you are to figure out what social platform is best suited to your content. Try Instagram, Reddit, Forums, Facebook Groups, Mix and learn what works best for you, then double down.

Time to set the foundations for finding the best places to share YouTube videos for more views.

First things first you need to ensure you’ve set your channel up correctly and that you’ve followed my 10 steps to promote your YouTube channel.

Once that’s completed it’s time to share your videos. You can create the content but if you don’t tell people where to find it you may as well be talking to yourself.

Here are the best places you absolutely must share your new YouTube videos after clicking publish:

Utilise your social media channels

Whether you’re a standalone YouTube vlogger, or you’re using videos and blogging separately, you should have all your other social media channels aligned, I recommend having at least a Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Whenever you publish a new video on YouTube make sure you share it across all your channels. It is important you tailor the content, embed the videos but leave your audience wanting more.

Different types of people utilise different social media channels, but the key is to drive them to your YouTube channel so make your content enticing, show clips from the full video, and make clear click-through. These are call to actions will obvious value explained before they click on the,

As your channel grows, your promotion should grow too.

The most important place to share your YouTube videos is on your other social media channels, on a regularly basis. There are hundreds of social media schedulers available to help you with this such as Hootsuite or SocialOomph.

I recommend using a social media scheduler as you can then plan and set how often you would like a specific video to be repromoted on your social media channel. I personally use MeetEdgar to push out 30-40 social media posts every day.

Share YouTube Video in Facebook Groups

I thought Facebook deserved its own section.

I personally think Facebook is an excellent tool for increasing your YouTube video views, they have a YouTube uploader which means the views go straight to the video without your audience having to leave Facebook.

One thing you can also do on Facebook is join niche groups and pages, this gives you an opportunity to share your videos and leverage your content.

Make sure what you’re sharing is useful and relevant to your viewers, but lets say for example you’re making a YouTube channel about cleaning, there are hundreds of Cleaning Facebook groups with an active audience who would be interested in your video.

Make sure you read individual group rules regarding self-promotion, but most are happy for you to share useful content within their groups.

If you need help in making your videos look great, or promoting your videos on social media, check out my resources page, for some great tools and equipment guides.

Guest Posting to Get More Views

Look around your Vlog niche and start making friends.

Is there anyone who’s open to a guest blog / vlog? Anyone who you could do a promotion exchange with?

By working closely with people in your niche you can access their audience too. There are enough people to go around especially in terms of YouTube views.

If people are watching a video in your niche chances are, they would also be interested in your content. Send people a message and see if you could host a guest video or write a guest blog for them which will in turn promote you and your YouTube Channel.

Mix Your YouTube Videos

Mix used to be known as StumbleUpon, it still has excellent reach and is extremely easy to utilise, just download the add on to your browser and ‘mix’ your content.

This basically adds it to a database of content, if a person has selected interests that coincide with yours whenever they click the mix button, they have a chance of arriving at your content.

If they enjoyed your content, they would then remix this. The more people like your content, the more people the algorithm will push your content too thus increasing your reach and views.

Like Facebook groups, reddit is subdivided into lots of different categories and niches, it makes sense for you to create an account and engage with niche groups like the YouTube content you are creating.

There are general video subreddits you can push your video to, but the smaller more niche groups should provide a better audience.

While the users of each forum maybe smaller the value of that audience is higher than someone without a continued interest in your videos, they’re more likely to subscribe and stick around to see other content

YouTube Ad Network – Use YouTube Ads To Get More Video Views

While I would not recommend throwing money at ads in the beginning, it can be an advantage to get the ball rolling with a new video.

YouTube own integrated ad network works out at 2p per view and these are genuine people and real viewers not bots.

This can also trigger a spiral, if the viewers you have promoted to like your content they could share it further and subscribe so play around with the ad network and see if you feel its worthwhile for your business or not.

Most importantly create good high-quality content that people want to talk about, they want to share with friends, and they want to see more of.

You can publish and share a hundred times over but if the content isn’t watchable, interesting or provide ‘something’ for your audience they’re unlikely to return so make sure you hone in on your content skills and the rest should follow accordingly

Where do you share your YouTube videos? I love to embed them into my blogs – Maybe its time for you to start your own blog! – Here is an article I wrote to explain how to start started with blogging.

Tags best place to share youtube videos, best places to share youtube videos for more views, how to share youtube videos, share youtube videos, sharing youtube videos, view, youtube, youtube promotion, youtube views

DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS YOUTUBE YOUTUBE TUTORIALS

How To Start A YouTube Channel – An Illustrated Guide

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 19 May 2020
2 Comments on How To Start A YouTube Channel – An Illustrated Guide

Everyone’s on YouTube, from Dwayne Johnson to Huda Kattan to your neighbors. What started as a steaming platform has turned into the second largest search engine and a reliable way to market products and services. Everyone wants to know How To Start A YouTube Channel!

YouTube has given us internet celebs like Logan Paul and PewDiePie. It’s also helping people make millions. All that you need is a YouTube channel and a decent number of views and subscribers.

In this article, we’ll tell you how to start a YouTube channel so you can begin your YouTube journey.

Step #1 Get a Gmail Account

You must have a Gmail account in order to create a channel on YouTube since both the platforms are owned by the same company – Google.

You do not have to make a new account if you already have one unless you want to keep your YouTube page separate.

Go here to sign up for a free Gmail account. You will be required to enter personal details including your name, gender, birthday, etc.
The system will ask you to choose a unique Google username. Be careful when selecting one as it will end up being your YouTube channel name. Stick to your business name if you’re opening a business account but make sure you have the right to use it.

You can also come up with a unique username. It does not have to be your legal name and Google will not ask you to verify that you own the name. We suggest that you stick to a name that is easy to remember and spell.

Google will give you the option to add a phone number to your account. We suggest that you do not skip this step and link your phone number to your account so that you do not lose access to it. It can also be used to authenticate accounts. Moreover, you can also add a recovery email.

Once done, move to creating your Google Account Profile. Be careful when selecting an image as it will show on your YouTube channel.

You can edit the image by signing into your Google account. Find the Settings option in the top right. Scroll down and click About me in the ‘My Picture’ section.
Upload a profile photo by clicking on the “Add Profile Photo” button on the page. It can be any image relevant to your account including a selfie. Make sure to only upload images that you have a right to use. The image must be the right size and pixels, otherwise the page will return an error.

Step #2: Create a YouTube Channel

Once your Google account is ready, it is time to create a YouTube channel. Sign in to YouTube and move ahead.

You can create a personal channel or a business channel:

Creating a Personal Channel

The easiest way to create a YouTube personal channel is to try to upload a video. The website will ask you to sign up for a channel.

Verify your name and photo and confirm.

Your new channel is ready. You will now be able to upload videos, post comments, etc.

Creating a Business YouTube Channel

Creating a YouTube business channel can be a little complicated. However, we suggest this option if you want your YouTube channel to display a name and image other than the name and photo on your Google account.

Use the account that you just created to sign in to YouTube.
Go here and choose ‘Create a New Channel’.

YouTube will ask you to create a brand account, i.e: a business account.
Enter the required details and click Create.
Done. Your new channel is ready.

Step #3: Personalize Your YouTube Channel

Your new YouTube channel is ready to post videos but you’re not done yet. Make sure to personalize the channel so that you can attract more subscribers.

Upload a profile picture by following the steps explained above. You can also upload one directly from YouTube by clicking your account option given on the top right corner. Click it and select the ‘Manage your Google Account’ option.

This will open a new window, choose Personal Info. Here you can add a profile picture. This will get linked to your YouTube account.

Once the photo is ready, it is time to further customize your page.

Click the ‘Customize Channel’ option and enter the following details:

Channel Art: You can choose one from the gallery or upload one of your own photos. It is best to choose a relevant and high quality image that helps users connect with your content.

Home: You can edit this part by adding sections. This section will be available once you have videos uploaded to your channel. Click ‘Add a section’ and choose the contents and layout. You can display popular videos, live videos, playlists, etc.

Playlists: This section is where you can create your own playlists for subscribers and visitors to see. Choose an apt name for each playlist and make it easy for users to find what they need.

Channels: Here you can add other channels including your sister channels. Click the ‘Add Channels’ option on the right to add channels.

About: This is a very important section as it will tell others what your channel is all about. Write a description. Make sure to be SEO friendly and use tags that are popular among users. Also, add your contact details and a location.

Review all your changes and you are done.

Step #4: Verify Your Account

Now that your channel is ready, it is time to verify your YouTube account. Do not worry, you will not have to upload any documents and the process is instant.

Go here to verify your account. Select country, choose how you wish to receive a code, enter your phone number, and click Submit.
You will receive a call or text on the given number. Enter it and your account will get verified. Remember that one number can only be used to verify two accounts per year.

While it is possible to use your YouTube account without verifying it, we suggest that you go through the process as unverified accounts come with some limitations.

Unverified accounts cannot upload longer videos (up to 15 minutes). Plus, they cannot go live or choose custom thumbnails. Hence, complete this step before moving to uploading videos.

Step #5: Upload a Video

Now that your channel is ready, it is time to kick start it by uploading a video. There is no limit on the number of videos you can upload. However, the maximum file size is 128GB, which is about 12 hours.

Here’s how to start a YouTube channel and post videos:

Go here to upload a video. You can also find this section by going to YouTube and clicking the ‘camera’ icon on the top.

The system will ask you to select a video that you wish to upload. Remember that you can only upload videos that belong to you. Uploading copyrighted content can get your account temporarily suspended or permanently blocked. Plus, copyrighted content owners may also have a right to take legal actions against you. Hence, be careful.
Drag and drop the file and it will begin to upload. You can also click ‘Select Files’ and choose the video that you wish to upload. You can select multiple videos at a time.

Your video will begin to upload. The system will show you the remaining time. You can cancel the upload during the process.
You will get a message once the uploading and processing finishes.

Once done, you’ll be asked to provide details including a title, description, tags, etc. Provide the required details and complete the process.
To maximize the chances of your videos being found in search and get more views try browser plugins like TubeBuddy or VidIQ

Congratulations! your channel is up and running. Start sharing the URL with others.

How To Start A YouTube Channel: FAQ

#1 How many channels can I create on YouTube?

You can use one Gmail account to create 50 YouTube channels.

#2 Can I change the name of my YouTube channel?

Yes, it is possible to change the name of your YouTube channel if you have a personal account. YouTube does not currently allow users to change brand names.

Go to your Google Account, and change the name on your Google profile. The change will appear on your YouTube account.

#3 Can I delete a YouTube channel?

Yes, you can, but be careful as doing so will permanently delete all your playlists, history, videos, and subscribers.

Go here and select the Delete channel option at the bottom. Enter your login details and confirm the action.

You can also choose to temporarily hide your channel.

#4 Is it free to start a YouTube channel?

Yes, it is absolutely free to start a YouTube channel. However, the company offers some paid marketing tools to YouTube content creators.

#5 Can I make money by starting a YouTube channel?

Making a channel will not earn you any money, however, you can monetize it and use other tactics to make money via YouTube.

#6 What is the age limit to start a YouTube channel?

You must be 18 to create your own YouTube channel. Children between the ages of 13 and 17 can own a YouTube channel with parental permission.

#7 What can a YouTube channel be about?

YouTube does not expressly ban any topic, however, there are Community Guidelines that must be followed. It prohibits nudity, abuse, copyrighted content, and false news.

Tags how to make a youtube channel, how to open a youtube account, how to open a youtube channel, how to start a youtube channel, how to youtube, make a youtube channel, open a youtube channel, start a youtube channel, tutorial, youtube

BUSINESS TIPS DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE

How To Start A Business with No Money (Step by Step Guide)

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 16 May 2020
2 Comments on How To Start A Business with No Money (Step by Step Guide)

Are you looking to start your own business? To start a business with no money is hard and is definitely something that takes time.

I don’t mean 7 hours in the bath soaking like a prune “time” – I mean months of foundation and years of grind, reinvestment and research on the job.

So how do you start a business with no money?

Pick a niche that you are going to live in for years to come. A topic you know and can talk about in fine detail in blogs, videos, phone calls and meetings for hours on end. Over time you will build your reputation, leading to long term success. Lead with value and have patience.

As long as you have the love for the business, the passion for its niche and the ability to delay gratification enough to reinvest the money then you will go far.

Here are nine steps that you should follow to get the best startup possible.

Make sure that you’re picking your niche.

This is the core focus of anything, whether it’s YouTube, a career, a long-term goal, or in this case a business.

It needs to be something that you truly love. Because something that you have been educated to, that you really hate, can only carry you so far.

Love and passion will get you up at six o’clock in the morning.

Love and passion, and the absolute thirst for that specific business, is what will drive you through when that customer cancels on you, or when you’ve had that hard day, or when you’re scrambling around for that extra bit of money in the early days.

The love and the passion of your niche is what will make you want more. More of that niche, more of that business, more in general just going forwards.

I love business, and I love social media, and I love YouTube, that’s why I’m constantly reading new books. I binge Gary Vaynerchuk and many other entrepreneurs – reading and listening to in audio books.

I use Audible to hunt out all of the best stuff. You can do the same too, they even give away free audiobooks to new people, but it’s that thirst for that knowledge, that love of that thing, which will drive you to read more books, that will drive you to educate yourself more, which will drive you to make that content, which will drive you to share it, or sell it to someone.

Because if you’re not passionate about something that you’re selling, if you don’t care about the thing you are selling, whether it’s your face, your personality, your brand your services or product, if you don’t care people can see straight through you.

You Might Need To Start A Business As A Side Hustle

When I first started my own business I was working in security. 12 to 14 hour days, every day. I’d get up in the morning, travel for an an hour and a half to work, an hour half to travel back.

I was tired, I was exhausted, but I knew that security wasn’t going to be my career, I wanted something at that time in the web development world.

I wanted computing, I wanted design. So in the hours when I finally got home, or I was very lucky, on the hours that I worked on a night shift, where all that pay attention to was the CCTV cameras, I took my laptop in and I worked on myself, my side hustle, my passion.

This was back in the day, the dark days when Wi-Fi wasn’t free at every coffee shop and a corner shop.

So unless you could hijack somebody’s Wi-Fi network, or connect to a network that gives you Internet via the cable – you were screwed.

So I had to buy that a little mobile data dongle. A pen drive sized usb stick that would give you half a Gigabyte of traffic for the month and cost £40-50 pounds. and it was it was appalling. It never truly connected, the signal was absolute shit. I mean this is the birth of 3G, it was terrible.

However the point is – if you can use that downtime.

If you do a 9am-5pm, and you’ve got kids. Why not start working the 7pm-1am shift on your side hustle?

Yes you’ll be tired! But you’ll have that passion, you’ll know that that drive, those extra hours, are on you, in you, on your business. This is your time to build your brand.

Maybe you really love real estate, and you want to be in real estate, that’s your own business, and you work in real estate, why not start writing blogs about real estate. Do your research!

Go out there and learn some things. Push your reputation outside of the company that you’re in. This will be your parachute when you leave. This is your reputation, this is your proof that you know what you’re talking about. You could blog on LinkedIn, build connections, grow your influence out there.

Do you have your own website to anchor your content?

Share your blogs in multiple places, it builds you as an individual outside of your specific company, and it preps you for the future, because right now you’re starting of your business, could be your side hustle that expands. Maybe you’re lucky and you have enough money or backing behind you to start full-time.

Live lean, no silly spending. You might have the money to start, it may have been your parents, it may have been some kind of inheritance, you may have been lucky and been invested in. Don’t be stupid, this is money for you and s good source to start your own business. Don’t go out and buy silly watches, don’t go out and buy a stupid car just to impress people, that’s not how this works.

You need to live lean, think sensibly, spend sensibly, put your nose to the floor and grind that brand.

Working your side hustle is a short term fix to build your brand. If you’re full-time, even better, you’ve got those 16, 18-hour days to really pour in that content, really pouring that brand, really reach out to people. And something that I can’t express enough, if you are full-time straightaway don’t get lazy!

Investing In Yourself

This is paramount, I can’t express it enough.

Over the last 10 years many things have changed within technology in social media. YouTube was a mere fledgling 10 years ago, and now it’s the juggernaut that’s threatening to turn off all of your normal mainstream TV.

10 years ago mobile phones were pointless and dumb, now they rule the world, and you can run a business from a smartphone.

10 years ago many of these social media platforms didn’t exist at all, you was shuffling around MySpace, and promoting yourself on Friendster.

Invest in yourself and your future, by learning. Help yourself to start a business with no money by building your knowledge. Constantly listen to the expert, constantly read books, constantly build skills, because it’s that tool kit that will help you in the long run.

When I first started in web design I pretty much a one-trick pony. I could sell, and I’m okay with online social medias through open source software. I was good with forums and networking, keeping my eye what is new. That was the emergence of the social media network.

I could chat I could talk, I had the gift of the gab, and I could show people how to set up forums and blogs, and that was kind of it. I know in the long run if I’d learnt to code, and learn to design and stuff like that, that could build my future, and that can build yours right now.

There’s nothing stopping you going to a library. There’s nothing stopping you googling online, or finding YouTubers that you can listen to, expand your brain, try new things. Or if you are making money, there’s nothing stopping you paying a little bit of money to go on an accredited course.

I don’t mean these charlatans that are like “Here’s my Merc, here’s my Ferrari, this is how I made it, you can have this giant mansion too.” We know who you are Tai Lopez, calm your shit!

But if you invest in yourself it will pay out in the future, because all of the useless general knowledge that’s in my head, all of the random facts, figures, and skill sets are the things that help me think on the hoof, think on the whim, grab that gut feeling out of midair to win me that sale, or to chat to someone.

It’s that piece of knowledge that you throw into a sales pitch, and it could win you that big boy, that retainer, that thing that makes your side hustle into a long-term thing.

Before You Start Your Own Business – Get Your Own Website!

Yes, they’re not as powerful as they used to be, the whole world used to revolve around one man, his business card, and his website.

Now, it’s kind of all buzzing around social media, but you still need places to host your own content, control the narrative, and to push people. This specifically for people with a side hustle.

I have 2 active websites that I try to update regularly. That’s where I can list my services, my expertise, my testimonials, my case studies.

To start a business with no money, I can write two or three blogs a week to boost it to 150, 200 blogs a year, all that are search friendly. Blogs that help people solve theirs problems, me get found in search, and hopefully convince you that I have enough of expertise to teach you something that you didn’t know.

The plan is if I am helpful then maybe you feel indebted to me, and you share me around, link to me as a creditable source. This helps build my brand, and the stronger the brand the more you can charge in future. Building that brand could also open doors do that big pitch, winning you that customer, and in the long term maybe even securing that lifeline to cement your side hustle as a business with a heartbeat.

QUESTIONS – Should I customize my website? Can I just use templates? How much is this going to cost me?

Website customization can look great and hit the nail on the head branding wise but its not always necessary from day onw.

Customization could get you every fine minor detail, they move buttons they put your design, they hone it in your value proposition, but if you don’t have any pennies

You can build amazing websites without any coding knowledge, with templates and amazing designs from Wix.

The key point is as long as the website looks professional and isnt broken from day one, then you have a starting point!

You just need somewhere to push people. Most custom WordPress templates allow you to pick your color scheme. Many WordPress templates can have distinctive niches or styles and from there you simple start writing. If you have a little income you wish to invest in a premium YouTube template then that might get you a step closer to a unique look – but that isn’t always necessary.

Once you have a site you can establish your own writing style and build up some statistics you can share with potential clients. This is your proof you can attract and audience and could help promote their products or services.

Start A Business with No Money by Creating Content

You need to figure out what you’re good at.

Are you fantastic at writing? Are you brilliant at video? Or maybe you’re a talker? You can create a podcast?

That content is what will carry you forward. That content is what people will get to know you for.

In my case, I’m okay in front of a camera, I could talk about my passion, my love, and those videos are very luckily quite long recently, so I can turn them into podcasts, write them into blogs, and then I can share them out.

Pinterest, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, Medium, Forums, Facebook Groups, Twitter – The more you share the content the larger the spider web is to catch more “flies” aka affiliate sales, product leads, video views etc

The content is what will build up your reputation.

Nobody knew who I was three years ago (probably nobody knows who I am now lol) but the difference between now and three years ago is that now I’m able to find clients, pay my bills and based on my reputation and establish stats I can build my income streams month on month.

All this from the proof built from my blogs, YouTube channel, Testimonials and leading lead with value.

However, if I DIDN’T start making content 3 years ago… none of this would exist today.

Best of all this content will always be there to send me traffic, leads and clients. You can reuse it, re-share it and it show your passion and knowledge on your topic and niche.

Yes, some things will change, video quality will change, in some of my older videos I’ve got a completely different backdrop, in some way older videos I have problem with frame-rate.

But, they’re still reusable you can re-share them, and you never know, that one thing that could have turned that person’s brain onto business, three years ago in that video that you made, if you’re re-sharing it, it could still find them today!

Win you that client, that click, that money, that income, that thing that makes you full-time on YouTube. The thing that allows you to be a full-time artist, or a full-time creator!

So start creating today.

Business Outreach

Start a business with no money and you will need to reach out to people and let them know you exist.

This is your networking.

If nobody knows you, and you get a chance, go business meetings around you that you can go to in the morning. There will be networking groups that do breakfasts or evenings. Places that you can press flesh and chat.

These can help you be found locally. Or you could try it online with chat rooms, forums, Facebook groups.

That outreach is something that gives you that additional thread that you could put in that spider web, that makes it bigger, that catches those flies.

I’m pretty much an introvert, so for me I was reaching out on things like Facebook, and LinkedIn. I reply in forums, I was posting on blogs.

These build up over time – if you are linked via your website and your name, and you leave a very intriguing comment then people might be intrigued and check you out.

This is not me telling you to spam videos and comment sections.

If you truly engage with the post, the blog, the forum, and you help them, they will remember you when they need more advice and maybe even suggest you to others in times of need.

There’s a website I post on from time to time called Quora.

It’s basically Yahoo questions, they post a lot of questions, I answer a load of YouTubey questions, and then I can end up drop in my video, or they click on my name and it drops them back on my website, or my youtube channel.

You can do the same!

These outreach programs could be the way that you get into the DMs of somebody. It could be you reaching out on Instagram answering their question. It could be you tweeting at someone, or replying when they’re asking a question about your specific thing.

Gary Vaynerchuk for example, the world-renown Gary Vaynerchuk, started on twitter by simply replying to everything that had some kind of wine term in it.

When people were worried about a red, or a white, or whether it’s a Rioja, or whether it’s a Grenache, he would jump in, offer them some advice, give them some links, not try and sell, just let them know that his around, over, and over, and over again, and he slowly built reputation.

That is the way that you build your audience on blogs and YouTube – one subscriber, two subscriber, 10 subscribers.

Builds your YouTube channel, build your blog, your websites, your mailing list, and over time – your business.

Can Working For Free Help You Start A Business with No Money?

Many people see this is some kind of slave labor.

I can’t pay my bills with “exposure”

I totally agree! I’ve been in situations where I was saying to myself

Yeah, well I need to pay my gas and electric bill, and you’re giving me exposure – brilliant, Om nom nom nom nom nom nom nom!

Oh no I’m gonna get kicked out of my house now, ’cause that was my rent, thank you!

But there are times when exposure truly does help.

I use a website called PeoplePerHour, but there are other ones out there for example UpWork, Fiverr.

They are “gig economy” websites in which you can set up your offerings for next to nothing but slowly build a client base and reputation.

I get peanuts from it!

However, what I do get is a contacts, reviews and a chance to hone my skills in the niche I offer.

As you start a business with no money these successful sales and interactions are your practice – prepare your brain muscle, build a portfolio.

Over time those 20-30 mini sales can help you land those bigger fish. 20-30 clients willing to praise you and give you feedback that you can put into testimonials and justify your pricing.

Over the last 3 years I have landed some of my largest retainer clients through just doing something small.

You impress them, build up trust and up-sell when you get the chance. Now those clients are the vast majority of my monthly income!

Don’t get me wrong, some are dickheads, right? And that’s fine! Just remember at the end of the day if you designed logos for 20 clients, each with 3 different styles… you now have 60 examples you can display in your rapidly growing portfolio!

You could even use tools to make it easier for you to deliver those tasks – I have a load of easy to use tools on my resources page.

Reinvest Your Income – How To Grow A Business with No Money

Okay so you’ve reached out, you’ve started getting sales, started building up reputation – maybe there’s a trickle of income.

Now this is where you have to be very smart, and reinvest that back in you, your business and your skills.

It can be so easy to get your first pay slip, and blow it on something fancy. It can be all too easy to think this ever growing gold mine will produce clients and money forever… but you need to future proof your business.

In the first year, you’re really passionate, you’ve really got that drive, so you’re really going out there, you’re doing a lot, you’re tapping that low-hanging fruit.

Those connections you may have already known that you could pluck quite easily, quite early, but if you don’t invest in your future, if you don’t keep learning to grow your future – spider web that catches your clients disappears over time.

Very soon all that easy traffic and low-hanging fruit will just disappear, and you’ll start to starve, and so will the business.

If you wanna grow in the future, you need to invest in the future.

There’s no point in eating this year’s harvest if you’re not buying seeds to plant for next year, and next year, and next year.

Keep funneling it back into yourself.

I’m not saying don’t take an income. If you can afford to take an income and still invest into the business then do so, just be smart.

Do you really need that wage?
Could you live a little more humble?
Could you live a smaller house?
Could you use a different laptop?

You could learn to start a business with no money – You just need be a little bit more sensible and use that extra bit of money to invest in your business, to get that next customer, and the next customer, that guarantees you a future three years down the line – rather than just assuming next week will be fine!

Customer Care is Paramount!

You’ve hooked them in, they may even be one of your free clients, if you keep them happy – they will come back.

They might even up-sell or might refer a friend!

Customer care is paramount because if you upset somebody, you’re really desperate in two months time, and you’ve got a fantastic idea that you know that client would really love – you are 100% sure they will buy – if you’ve upset them, you can’t phone them anymore.

They won’t refer you to anyone anymore, and it might leave a nasty taste in their mouth that they spread faster to your potential clients.

Bad news spreads 10x faster, than good news.

Now, for the sake of your small business that you’re starting right now, reset, go back to number five – Create Content – and work your way to Customer care over and over again.

Content
Out Reach
Free Work
Reinvest
Customer Service
REPEAT

Your biggest mistake would be getting lazy – keep building – you can start a business with no money and reap the rewards for years to come!

Why not check out the five biggest mistakes I’ve made in business – so you can avoid them and grow your business faster!

Tags business, business growth, business investment, business start up, entrepreneurship, gary vee, how to grow a business, how to start a business, how to start a business with no money, how to start your own business, start a business from scratch, start up

BUSINESS TIPS DEEP DIVE ARTICLE HOW TO GET MORE VIEWS ON YOUTUBE SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS

5 Essential Time Saving Apps for YouTubers and Video Creation

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 13 May 2020
No Comments on 5 Essential Time Saving Apps for YouTubers and Video Creation

5 Time Saving Apps for Youtubers, tools for youtubers, tips for youtubers, free tols for youtubers

Content creators upload over 300 hours of video every minute to YouTube. That’s a lot of competition. So, to stand out and grow your channel on YouTube, you need to upload professional videos on a frequent basis with these time saving apps for YouTubers.

But, once you’ve planned the content and shot a video, the work isn’t finished yet. You still need to add graphics, caption it, get the title keywords right, and think about promotion.

There’s lots to do.

This article takes a look at five excellent tools to speed up your content creation process.

Some are free, and some need a subscription. And once you start using them, you’ll find you can reduce the time from recording to upload – leaving you more time to plan and shoot more content.

Let’s begin.

remove.bg – YouTube Image Background Remover

YouTube is a visual platform. Viewers mostly choose what video to watch next based on visual clues from the thumbnail.

Having the right thumbnail then is essential, it can be the difference between success and failure for a video. It’s not enough nowadays to use a boring still from your video.

Take a look at the image below. The thumbnail on the left has the best combination of text and visual, and outperforms the rest of his content combined.

You need to be upfront and centre in your YouTube thumbnail. But making thumbnails takes time, especially if you need to cut-out your portrait from a cluttered background.

Did you know you can turn a 20-minute task into a five-second one with remove.bg?

remove.bg is a free online tool that cleverly removes the background from your image. Leaving you a perfect cut-out of your picture for you to add the finishing touches.

It’s straightforward to use. Drag an image onto the remove.bg’s homepage and they handle the rest.

Here’s an example.

As you can see, the image size for the free version isn’t the largest, but you can process it a little to fit the resolution that YouTube requires.

You can get a higher resolution image if you buy credits from remove.bg. For each credit you buy, you get to download 1 high-resolution image. 10 credits cost £8.00, or you can get credits cheaper by taking out a subscription.

rev.com – YouTube Closed Captions and Subtitles Service

Closed Captions and Subtitles – what’s the difference?

Closed Captions. These are a direct transcript of the audio of your video. A viewer can use them if they don’t want to listen to the sound of your video. They are in the same language as the one spoken, and a viewer can turn them off if they don’t need them.

Subtitles. Subtitles assume that the audio of the video is still on. They clarify the speech if the audio is poor or the speaker has a strong accent. They are also used to provide a translation of speech in another language.

Obviously having closed captions or subtitles on your videos help those hard of hearing or who don’t speak your language. But, there are also other benefits that land this site on the time saving apps for youtubers list.

One of the most important factors of ranking for your video is Audience Retention. That is, how much of your video a viewer watches. Clearly, having closed captions and subtitles promotes access to your content and will help with this metric.

Another ranking benefit is that your uploaded transcription file also helps with your metadata.

The free AI transcription tool on YouTube is not very good. And if you don’t have the time to transcribe your own videos, instead use the service provided by rev.com.

The service works on a per-minute basis and will provide the output in the .srt format YouTube prefers.

Get $10 worth of free transcription here.

kapwing.com – YouTube to Social Media Content Creation

If you’ve been a YouTuber for long enough, you know that for best results you need to promote your video after you have uploaded it.

Gary Vee is a master at teasing his content. On Instagram and Facebook, you’ll find video snippets with closed captions for easy consumption over mobile.

It’s really easy to one of these yourself, head over to kapwing.com.

Hit the ‘start editing’ button and select start with a blank canvas. Then, input your YouTube video URL, and it will import it for you.

Next, using the easy controls, you can clip the section of the video you want to use, add subtitles, and then change it into the best size for where you will upload it.

A great benefit is that all the processing happens at the server-side, so your laptop won’t feel like a baking tray just out of the oven when you use it.

Kapwing is free to use and even lets you produce media without a watermark by registering for a account. You need a subscription to keep all your work private, get faster processing speeds, and long term storage of your media.

A monthly subscription is $20, or you can make a saving if you buy an annual subscription for $200.

placeit.net – YouTube Intro, Outro, and Logo Maker

One way to stand out from mediocre content and show expertise is to add professional looking intro/outro animations to your videos.

An animated intro/outro that is quick and clear tells your viewer who you are, what you do, and helps with your branding strategy.

To quickly make very professional intro/outro animations, I use placeit.net.

There are plenty of templates to choose from; some are image-based and some are text-based, so you should find one to fit your requirements.

Once you have picked a template, you can customise it to fit your needs. It’s easy to change colours and resize logos, so you get an intro/outro that fits your channel’s branding.

For other elements of your channel, like logo’s and banners, placeit.net works well for these too.

You won’t need to hire a graphic designer to create fantastic looking graphics. Here is a sample of the kind of logos you can use as a starting point.

I picked the cupcake above, then changed the text and the central image to end up with the logo below for my new seafood venture. (OK, it’s just an example – I’ve never even eaten lobster!)

As you can see, it’s easy to change the colours and text to create a professional-looking logo you can upload to your channel page.

priceit.net – costs $14.95 per month for unlimited videos, logos, and designs, or if you take out an annual subscription $99.95.

A solid gold entry into the time saving apps for youtubers list with so many tasks that you can use placeit.net for, so it is a worthwhile subscription. But if you’re on a budget, you can get all the graphics you need with a single months payment – just cancel your subscription when you have what you need.

photopea – Free Browser-Based Photo Editing Tool

As a visual content producer, you need a photo editing suite. It can be a great time saving app for Youtubers. But, there’s no need to pay for Adobe Photoshop or PaintShop Pro. photopea.com is a browser-based image manipulation tool that is free to use. It works with all the popular image formats, and even handles .psd files.

There are lots of reasons a YouTuber might need photo manipulation software – here are two of them:

1 – Outlining Your Thumbnails. You have possibly noticed some YouTubers using a white outline surrounding their picture on their thumbnails, it’s a good technique to make a thumbnail pop out on the page.

Here is an example made using the image we removed the background on earlier. Drag the image onto the project workspace, then add a stroke effect in layer styles.

Now it’s ready for your logo, title, and branding.

2 – Making Start and End Screens. If you don’t want to pay for placeit.net to make an animated intro/outro, then you can use photopea instead. Use it to create a professional-looking branding image then edit into your video.

There are lots of templates to choose from. Pick one and edit away.

They even have standard templates for promotional images you can post to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Start using these Time saving apps for youtubers today to speed up your production process and make your YouTube videos look amazing. There is a learning-curve with a few of them. But, in most cases, you will be up and running with them quickly and producing professional-looking video in a shorter amount of time.

If you have any questions, please add them in the comments, and I’ll answer them as soon as I can.

And remember to check out my resources page for more useful tools discounts and links!

Tags apps for youtubers, how to get more views on youtube, kapwing, photopea, placeit, placeit.net, remove.bg, rev.com, save time, time saving, time saving apps, time saving apps for youtubers, time saving tips for youtubers, tools for youtubers, youtube, youtube tips, youtuber, youtuber tips, youtuber tools

BUSINESS TIPS DEEP DIVE ARTICLE TIPS & TRICKS

How Working For FREE Can Help Grow Your Brand

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 22 April 2020
No Comments on How Working For FREE Can Help Grow Your Brand

Working for free. Should I work for free? Should you work for free?

Working for free can be a great way to build up a brand and your personal reputation within your niche. As you work for free you would build up contentions, reviews, a ever increasing portfolio, and most importantly, improving your skills from all the practice as you do so. Working for free might not earn you money in the short term but can be a very valuable investment in your long term future earning power.

It’s become a meme over the years, if you were creative, you’ve seen it. In fact, you’ve probably been approached, and people are like…

“Hi, can you do this, this and this for me?

Great. Sure. Here’s a quote.

“Oh, I wasn’t expected to pay you. I thought you could use the exposure, you know, get out there.”

And people are thinking, yeah, there’s exposure where you promote me and exposure where I die, a cold, lonely hungry death in the middle of a field because your exposure, can’t pay my rent. Your exposure, can’t pay my bills. Your exposure is me dying of exposure. I get that. I do. I do. That’s why you need to be sensible about this. Right?

I couldn’t do the whole free thing to start with either. And it’s become much more of a thing now that I can because I have a steady income.

Make Working For Free Your Side Hustle

Now, working for free can initially be your side hustle. I’m not saying that it has to cost you thousands of pounds to do a project that you hand away for nothing and you have no control over. I mean that you can build upon your future by adding value, leading with value first. Your side hustle has the potential to be the base for your future business success.

When I first started doing YouTube consultancing, I set up a profile on a few freelance websites like PeoplePerHour, on Fiverr. Yes, that does technically mean that I got paid for it, but it was pittance, deliberately pittance because I wanted to attract people to me. So I could pull a few strings and build a few Lego bricks on top of my board. They are good marketplaces that can offer you a chance to practice your skills or build a portfolio. So that aside, on the PeoplePerHour website, or Fiverr for example, I sell really, really cheap logos or really, really cheap Web designs, or really, really cheap channel reviews or video optimizations for say three, four or five dollars.

The money is negligible. But, what it does do, is it gives me a chance to build up 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 examples of me doing the thing that I want to get paid for, to do. If it’s on PeoplePerHour as well then it’s an hour’s worth of work, two hours worth of work depending on how much you’re willing to sacrifice in your time. But let’s say you do 20 logo designs at a $1 each, that’s 20 bucks, that’s not really much for you. It’s a cup of coffee, or that’s your electricity to cover that laptop that made those on, but you now have 20 designs that you can put in your portfolio, 20 designs that you can then show to a new client that is willing to pay you two 300 pounds for a logo and you’ve got 20 examples of stuff that you’ve done in the past.

Yes, it does mean that you sacrifice a bit of your time. Yes, that does mean that you couldn’t have charged 200 pounds for 20 of them each and made four grand. But if people don’t know you, the grand value price of one sale when they don’t want to buy from you is zero, zip, zilch nothing, nada. I would much rather have 20 sales, 20 logo designs at 20 bucks at one buck each, because then I’ve got those examples that I can then go and hunt the next big fish that’s willing to pay maybe a little bit more, 20 bucks each 50 bucks each 100 bucks each.

Working For Free is Improving Your Skills

Now, this is one of the things that that doesn’t dawn on people. I’ve been on YouTube for about eight, nine years. I’ve been creating these videos on this channel for about three. That means somewhere out there, there’s thousands of videos that I’ve edited, or I’ve been in, or I’ve uploaded, I’ve downloaded, I’ve deleted and that means that I can do this, I can communicate with a camera, I’ve improved my skill, I’ve improved my lighting, I’ve improved my ability to talk to you, to edit. Improving my skill, improving my speed, improving my skill set that I can sell to somebody else.

Improving my expertise that I can pitch to somebody else. Hi Mr. logo man. Yes, here’s 20 examples from point number one and I can do it much better than I used to because logo number 20 is better than logo number one because I learned how to do graphic and vector work a little bit better. And instead of it taking me four to five hours to render that wonderful piece of artwork, I can do it in half hour to an hour, and I can start tweaking and I can make it bigger.

Skill, improvement, more money.

You’re investing in yourself by doing free stuff – Building your reputation.

You’ve sold 20 logos to 20 people or 20 teddy bears, or 20 stockings or 20 handmade cards, it doesn’t matter what it is, you’ve sold 20 things to 20 people that can leave you 20 reviews. Those 20 reviews, you can then put on mailing list. Those 20 reviews you can put on your website. There’s 20 reviews, or people that hopefully you can refer to. Those are 20 advocates that know who you are and what you can do, that will refer hopefully another friend next time they need a logo, a teddy bear, a T shirt, a sock design, whatever you’re doing.

That reputations stacks on top of the skill that you’ve learned and the portfolio that you’ve gained. All of which has helped me in the past, hook that bigger fish. That’s got my foot in that door. Though I’ve got a couple of people that have come from these platforms, they are constant retainers, they are clients that I consult with. They are people that I directly work with, and they wouldn’t have found me if they hadn’t have used the freelance site to buy something small from me, for me to over deliver value, for them to trust me with my portfolio, the reputation, the reviews, and loving my work for me to then upsell.

I didn’t advertise for these people. I didn’t put ads on Facebook, I didn’t go out there on Google ads and hook people in. I’ve not pulled them in with some kind of skeezy sleazy kind of sales click funnel. I offered them value at a fair price and created quality, for them. And I’ve got my foot in the door, in which I can start talking to, and then I upsell, and I upsell and I upsell which then, supports the ability for me to give cheap, entries at the other end of that one dollar logo, those five dollar logos, those mini cheap reviews.

Leverage your new skill base, the things that you have learnt, your reputation, your portfolio, that foot in the door, you’re not actually doing it for free anymore.

Yes, initially, you do have to do the legwork, build the foundation and build upwards. And all it takes is for you to slowly stack over time. You put in some hard work.

And yes, let’s say you you have some really bad luck, and you sell 400 of these logos at one dollar each. You now have a huge portfolio, you’ve now had a skill based on these things. It may look like you are working for free, but you’re actually investing in yourself. And sometimes someone will help subsidize that by upgrading or by selling or buying or promoting you. And I did a lot of this at the start of my consulting career. I worked my ass off for 12 months, giving away freebies, or very cheap reviews and very cheap this and very cheap that. Why? Because it built those connections.

I’ve got 400, 500 videos on my youtube channel. They’re exactly that. I worked for free. Don’t get it twisted, yeah. YouTube can pay me a little bit of money in advertising but trust me it is pittance compared to what you can make by building that reputation. Building a back catalog. Making those links, putting your foot in the door and building a business from the ground up. All by just initially working for free. It’s one of the very important steps that you have to deal with when building a business and this nine of them here which I’m sure you know.

If you want more advice on how to start and grow your business using YouTube watch this video below.

BUSINESS TIPS DEEP DIVE ARTICLE MARKETING SOCIAL MEDIA

How To Increase YouTube Video CPM – Make More Money On YouTube

Post author By Alan Spicer - YouTube Certified Expert
Post date 20 April 2020
5 Comments on How To Increase YouTube Video CPM – Make More Money On YouTube

– Anyone that’s serious on YouTube and making a business wants to know how to increase YouTube Video CPM income, improve their CPM, improve the adverts that get placed against your content. I’ve got a few tips for you…

If you’ve been creating content on YouTube for any length of time, you may now be monetized. The rollercaster that is YouTube CPM Rates can be a wild ride. The CPM rate is based on the things that are on your channel and it can seem frustrating that you have x amount of pounds per thousand views and somebody else gets many, many more. But, there are a few things that you can do to tweak this.

Evaluate The Existing Content On Your YouTube Channel

Have a look at your analytics. There will be some videos that have done much better than other videos. Pick through those. Have a look at your top five, top ten and see what themes may be occurring in those videos. Are those top ten videos mostly how-tos? Are those top ten videos mostly talking about a set product or service or game? Are they a certain length? Do they appeal to a certain demographic? Are they a specific niche? Are they put in a specific playlist?

Once you’ve figured out the clear front runners in your content, make more of that type of video to increase your chances of success.

In my case – I recently started to add business and money to my channel, as it gets a higher Cost Per Mille (CPM) compared to my normal YouTube Tutorials. It would behoove me more to go and make more business stuff, more business themed, more business titled, more business tagged because these are proven winners for my channel that get a proven track record of additional watchtime or a specific types of advert served against it. For example, Tai Lopez, who possibly spends a fortune trying to sell his e-course online (you know those bullshit ads where he’s stood in front of a mansion or in front of a fast car). He might be throwing 20, 30, 40 bucks at an advert that could hit your audience demographic – whilst he’s not gonna spend that kinda money if it’s against toys.

To increase your YouTube Channel CPM rate, make sure that you’re replicating the stuff that you know gets a higher CPM. I don’t mean neglect the ones that have a lower CPM, but understand the difference between the two.

Make Longer YouTube Videos – Double Your Video CPM Rate With Mid Rolls

CPM on YouTube is based on the advert served, how often and the video. Now If you’re lucky, and to increase YouTube Video CPM, adverts can play at the start, at the end and if you have a 10 minute video, they can also be placed in the middle of your YouTube video (YouTube Mid Rolls).

A case in point is Shane Dawson. Last year he dominated with his docu-series format. Each episode was over an hour long – like giant TV show. This gave him the advantage that he could add an advert every 15 minutes and it didn’t seem forced or tacky.

Now, if you imagine for every thousand views of that advert he got $5 – then the video that gets millions of views would do well for him. BUT, if he adds 3-4 mid roll adverts as well instead of $5 per 1000 advertisement displayed he can increase YouTube Video CPM 300-400% simply by adding midrolls into the longer video format. That’s the way to bump that video CPM because not only can you put one at the start, he could put multiple in the middle, he could put one at the end.

You’ll get more watchtime which might be an indicator to advertisers that people watch for longer, are more engaged and that video is very specific ’cause it’s 10 minutes of a very specific topic, so they could put specific adverts in. So, if you’re talking about how to rip apart a laptop and put it back together, advertisers could put adverts in and here, buy this part, here, buy a laptop from here, here’s Dixons, here’s PC World.

Pick Your Niche Carefully to Increase YouTube Video CPM

This is a lesson I learned, in the hardest possible sense, over the years. In the past I have managed channels that have had millions, millions of views. Those videos are in the entertainment sector. The problem with that is the entertainment sector can get thousands of views much more easily if you tweak it properly because you can pander to the topics, you can pander to the trends, the funny news, the weirdness, that kinda thing. But, that also means that you’ll get slightly lower or in some case, rock bottom CPMs.

Why? Because the topic might be inappropriate or the topic might be overexposed. So, therefore, there’s so many people talking about that, that the advertiser can bid less to get more traffic.

On the other side, let’s say you’re creating tutorials on how to create YouTube videos or educating people on business. This is a slightly harder, smaller niche. This kind of direct topic focus can attract a specific audience, an audience that other people may want to tap into, and can increase YouTube Video CPM. I have made video in the past where I talk about how to start a business.

In that video, I talk about how to start your own business. So, if you’re an accountant or if you’re some kind of business guru or some kind of e-book salesmen or anything that’s vaguely business related, insurance, etc etc – you might be tempted to advertise against that video. And, as you can imagine, the difference between someone trying to sell kids toys vs life insurance, real estate, e-learning masterclasses or anything like that – completely different market and potentially much higher CPMs.

Specific niches have better premiums. I’ve noticed with some of my clients that if you talk about money, you have a much higher CPM than over less business focused niches.

Cut Out The Swearing to Increase YouTube Video CPM

A bit of mild swearing, is not a huge problem. But, if you’re effing and jeffing all of the time, you can either be flagged as inappropriate or the algorithm kind of hears it, kind of sees it and certain advertisers will maybe stir away from you which means that they might be the higher paying ones or that means that you get one or two less adverts per hundred views, per thousand views which means you get less per thousand view CPM.

There is a rumor that if you avoid it in the first three minutes or so, or the first 30% of your video, then maybe, you’re kind of exempt from this, but I would advise that if truly your focus is in maximizing your CPM, either bleep it or avoid it entirely. I understand more than anybody how easy it is to just slip a swear out.

I’m born in Kent. I’m a council estate kid. That’s dragged his way up, effing and jeffing is like a second language to me. It’s ingrained and it’s very hard to stop. Try and curb it and it might help your pocket and you’ll feel a little better for it at the end of the month, at least on camera. Just be wary that swearing in youtube videos might hurt your bank balance.

Make Money Blogging YouTube Videos

This blog right here is proof that blogging YouTube videos can help raise awareness, bring in more eyeballs and even increase YouTube Video CPM in the long run.

Along side your very long article teaching people how to increase YouTube Video CPM you could place adverts from AdSense. This builds up a picture of behaviour within the mind of Google about your audience and helps them track or suggest your content to more and more relevant people.

I can also give you affiliate options or niche article oportunities you may not have considered before. If you’re talking about real estate, you could link to other articles, videos or affiliate links. People are still buying banner ads. People are still buying pop-ups. Yes, it may be part of the “old web world”, but it’s still equally as relevant. There’s still an audience that would prefer to read articles with visual aid whether it comes through pictures or video then specifically directly only watch your video.

You can always transcribe your videos. Turn them into blogs and then that way people could read three or fours pages of you talking that you fluffed up with nice content, infographics, and then you get double the income.

For more info on boosting your income using affiliate links, I’ve got a video here.

YouTube’s Ad Options

TrueView for Reach Ads

Non-Skippable Bumper Ads

Do YouTubers Get Paid if You Skip Ads?

Other Types of YouTube Ads

Non-Video Ads

Discovery Ads

Other Options for YouTuber’s to Earn Money

Brand Deals

Crowd Funding

Affiliates

Eyes on the Prize

Top 5 Tools To Get You Started on YouTube

1. VidIQ helps boost my views and get found in search

2. Adobe Creative Suite helps me craft amazing looking thumbnails and eye-catching videos

3. Rev.com helps people read my videos

4. PlaceIT can help you STAND OUT on YouTube

5. StoryBlocks helps me add amazing video b-roll cutaways

How YouTube Likes Work

How to Get More Likes

How YouTubers Make Money

Conclusion

YouTube – A Brief History

Why YouTube?

Who Can Start a YouTube Channel?

What You Need To Run A YouTube Channel?

Reaching Your Audience

Conclusion

What is SEO?

Why is it Important?

Finding Relevant Video Keywords

Choosing the Title

YouTube Video Description

Using Thumbnails

Putting Your Video in a Category

Renaming Your Video File Using A Target Keyword

Encouraging Subscription

Using Video Tags

How to Add Tags to YouTube Videos

Make Your Primary Keyword Your First Tag

Use Common Keywords from High Ranking Videos

Keyword Keg

VidIQ

Keyword.io

Use Keywords with a High Search Volume

Use Specific Categories of Tags.

Use Phrases Instead of Words

Don’t be too wordy

Be Relevant

Don’t Be Deceptive

Don’t Place Your Tags in the Video Description

Tracking Your Progress

What is Affiliate Marketing?

How Much Do Affiliate Marketers Earn?

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing?

Choose a Niche

Find an Appropriate Affiliate Program

Create a Site or Utilize Your Online Presence

Market What You’re Trying to Sell

Build Your Audience

Earn and Withdraw Money

How Can I Become a Successful Affiliate Marketer?

Choose the Right Product

Select the Right Platform

Make Sure to Market Properly

Do I Need Money to Become an Affiliate Marketer?

Get a Website – starts as low as $150 per year

Create Content for Your Site – starts as low as $200 per month

Hire an SEO firm – starts as low as $500 per month

Advertise Your Content – starts as low as $5 per month

Which Is The Best Affiliate Marketing Niche?

Health and Fitness

Wealth and Money

Fashion and Beauty

Gaming and Software

Hobbies and Survival

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: FAQ

#1 Can an affiliate work with several companies?

#2 How many followers do I need to become an affiliate?

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