If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video would be manifold that value. People in all walks of life watch videos for entertainment, information, news, and trends. Research conducted by limelight found that internet users spent 6 hours and 48 minutes/week, on average, watching videos.
By 2022, 82% of internet traffic will be generated from video downloads and streaming. This is a big opportunity for content creators to leverage on this trend. Already there are countless people making a fortune from video creation.
For example, Ryan Kaji, an 8-year kid, made $26m in 2019 from the YouTube Channel Ryan’s World. This venture of opening and trying new toys have earned him other deals with Nickelodeon and Hulu—a video streaming channel. The popularity and the total views acquired in the channel is the foundation of the eventual success.
Below are ways to earn money from making online videos.
1. Join The YouTube Partner Program
Advertisement and sponsoring of ads is the biggest source of revenue for YouTube. This is why YouTube created a program to vet content creators. The partner program has requirements that must be fulfilled before on-boarding any content creator.
This way, the ads are placed in the right audience and use internal resources effectively.
These are the conditions that must be met:
- The Number Of Subscribers: You must have at least 1000 subscribers in your channel in the last 12 months.
- The Number Of Views: You are required to amass, 4000 views hours on your channel. This is boosted by the number of videos or the popularity of individual videos.
After you fulfill these requirements, a green $ button is activated in the video manager—as a symbol of readiness to earn from adverts. The earnings can be generated from AdSense, ads placed before videos, and channel membership.
2. Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is the ability of brands to leverage the awareness and authority of other brands or personalities. Marketers are always on the look-out for popular brands that own a vlog, YouTube channels, or those with a huge following on social media.
These content creators might be comedians, niche creators, performing artists, or other brands with huge following or big influence.
Brands commission videos—with the help of popular content creators—to promote their products and services. The targeted content creator can charge a fee based on the work, their reach, and the length of the engagement.
3. YouTube Views Plan
Your channel does not have to promote ads for you to make money. YouTube allows users to disable the advertisement feature for a monthly fee. This is based on a general rule of sharing 55% of its revenue to content creators. Brands or niche creators can use this feature to offer a seamless or un-interrupted viewing experience.
4. Building your Sales Funnel
Internet marketing is made up of an ecosystem that is interconnected. Blogs, websites, videos, webinars, emails, and content marketing harmoniously build sales or grow an online empire.
Depending on your goal, you can use video to make more revenue in the following ways:
- Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate plans like Amazon, Click Bank, eBay partners, and Shopify rely on websites to sell products and services. Smart website owners tap the power of videos by making product tutorials and embedding them on various channels. This can help you generate leads, create an email list, and run effective re-targeting ads.
- Own Products: Brands can use video marketing to increase sales and brand awareness. This is in response to the fact that 54% of consumers want to see more video content from brands they support. Brands can use product tutorials, product demos, or video ads to convince more customers to consume them.
- Selling E-books And Online Courses: The education industry is a primary economic driver in most economies globally. Trending shift to e-learning has made the demand rise higher. Videos can be used to promote books and other courses available.
5. Making Facebook Videos
Facebook has a program that pays content creators a share of the revenue earned—the program though is relatively new. Therefore, it may not be readily available for select countries worldwide.
Some of the requirements to be enrolled are:
- Your business profile must have 10,000 fans. Facebook is also testing 1000 fans criteria in select countries.
- The page must have gained either 15,000 engagements, 180,000 views across all your videos, or 30,000 1-minute views –in 3-minute+ videos–for the past 60 days.
- You must also conform with the prescribed community, copyright, authenticity standards.
Conclusion
Currently, video is gaining popularity as a preferred content form for both marketers and users. As a content creator, you can make money on YouTube, Facebook, or as an affiliate marketer.
Avenues like influencer marketing, also offer additional opportunities to you as a content creator. Businesses can also harness the power of video to increase sales revenue and brand awareness.