When Do You Start Getting Money From YouTube?

Are you curious about When Do You Start Getting Money From Youtube? At money-central.com, we’ll guide you through the process of monetizing your content, explain eligibility requirements, and offer tips to maximize your earnings, turning your passion into profit. Discover the steps to unlock your earning potential and build a sustainable income stream.

1. When Do You Start Getting Paid On YouTube?

You begin earning money on YouTube once you meet specific eligibility requirements. Specifically, you need at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 valid public watch hours within the past 12 months. After meeting these criteria, you can apply for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) and start monetizing your channel with ads and other features.

Reaching these milestones might seem daunting, but it’s important to understand how watch hours accumulate. Think of it this way: 4,000 viewers watching an hour of your content, 8,000 viewers watching 30 minutes, or even 240,000 viewers watching just one minute each all contribute to that 4,000-hour goal. Creating longer, engaging videos can help you achieve the required watch time more quickly. According to a recent study by New York University’s Stern School of Business, channels that consistently upload high-quality, longer-form content tend to reach monetization thresholds faster.

The more subscribers, views, and watch hours you accumulate, the greater your earning potential becomes. YouTube compensates content creators based on ad views and engagement. As your audience grows, advertisers are willing to pay more to reach your viewers, thereby increasing your revenue.

YouTube earnings calculator

2. How Do You Get Paid On YouTube?

To start earning money on YouTube, there are a few essential steps to follow:

Join the YouTube Partner Program (YPP): This program allows you to monetize your content through ads and other features.
Create a Google AdSense Account: You’ll need to either create a new AdSense account or link an existing one to your YouTube channel. AdSense is the platform through which you’ll receive your YouTube earnings.
Meet the Payment Threshold: You must earn at least $100 before you can withdraw funds from your AdSense account.

According to YouTube’s official guidelines, the average YouTuber earns between $2 to $12 per 1,000 views. This means building a substantial audience or creating viral content is crucial to start generating significant income.

3. How To Enable Monetization On Your YouTube Channel

Once you meet the eligibility requirements of having at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months, you can enable monetization on your YouTube channel by following these steps:

3.1. Create an AdSense Account

If you don’t already have a Google AdSense account, you will need to create one. This account is essential for receiving payments from YouTube.

Visit Google AdSense and click on “Get Started”.
Fill in the required information. In the “Your Site” field, enter the link to your YouTube channel.
Check the box to receive customized help and performance suggestions, and select your country.

AdSense Account Setup

Click “Start using AdSense.”

3.2. Apply for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP)

The YouTube Partner Program provides creators with access to YouTube’s monetization features and Creator Support teams, enabling revenue sharing from ads on your content.

To apply:

YouTube Partner Program Application

Go to YouTube Studio and find the “Earn” tab.
You’ll see the option to apply for the YouTube Partner Program. Follow the prompts to start the application process.
During the process, you’ll be asked to connect an AdSense account, so link the one you created in the first step.
Once you submit your application, YouTube will review your channel. This review process typically takes about a month, but it can vary depending on the volume of applications and the complexity of your channel’s content.

3.3. Set Up Ad Preferences

After your application is approved, you need to set up your ad preferences to control the types of ads that appear on your videos.

Go back to the “Earn” tab in YouTube Studio and navigate to “Ads.”
Here, you can choose the types of ads you want to allow on your videos, such as display ads, overlay ads, skippable video ads, non-skippable video ads, and bumper ads.
Select your preferences for where ads should appear on your videos (pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll).

3.4. Enable Monetization for Existing Videos

To start earning revenue from your existing content, you need to enable monetization for each video.

Go to the “Content” tab in YouTube Studio and select the video or videos you want to monetize.
Click on the “Monetization” tab on the left side of the video editor and set the monetization settings for each video individually, choosing which types of ads should appear.

3.5. Understand the Payment Timeline

After setting up ads on each video and as people watch, your earnings will start accumulating. Here’s what the payment timeline looks like:

Earning Period: YouTube tracks your earnings over a full calendar month. For example, any earnings you accumulate in July will be tallied at the end of July.
Initial Threshold: Before you receive your first payment, you must meet an earnings threshold of $100. If your account has less than $100, your earnings will roll over to the next month and will continue to accumulate until the threshold is met.
Payment Processing: Payments are typically issued through your AdSense account. The earnings for a particular month are finalized and posted in your AdSense account between the 10th and the 14th of the following month.
Payment Release: Once your earnings are finalized and if the $100 threshold is met, your payments will be released by AdSense between the 21st and 26th of the month. For example, earnings accrued in July would typically be paid out by late August.

3.6. Monitor Your Performance

After enabling monetization, it’s crucial to keep an eye on your performance and earnings. Use the “Analytics” tab in YouTube Studio to track how much money you’re making and how viewers are interacting with the ads. Use the data you collect to ascertain areas where you need to adjust your content and ad settings to maximize your revenue.

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4. Factors Affecting Earnings With YouTube Ads

After activating ad monetization on your YouTube channel, several factors can influence how much you earn through this method. Here are a few of them:

4.1. Viewer Engagement and Video Watch Time

Videos that are engaging, helpful, and relevant tend to keep viewers watching for longer periods. According to a report by Forbes, videos with high engagement rates perform better in YouTube’s algorithms, leading to increased visibility and ad impressions.

More watch time can also lead to more views and clicks, which in turn increase earnings. Additionally, longer videos offer the opportunity to include more ads, especially mid-roll ads.

More ads + longer watch time = higher earnings.

4.2. Ad Types and Placement

Different ad formats (e.g., display ads, overlay ads, sponsored cards, skippable and non-skippable video ads) have varying levels of profitability. Non-skippable ads often generate more revenue because viewers are required to watch them in their entirety.

The placement of ads within your videos (pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll) can also impact earnings. Mid-roll ads, which are placed in videos longer than eight minutes, can be particularly lucrative if the content is engaging.

4.3. Content Type

Advertisers prefer to place ads on content that is non-controversial and aligns with their brand values. Content that is not considered advertiser-friendly may be demonetized or receive limited ads.

4.4. Audience Demographics

The geographic location and demographics of your audience (age, gender, income level, education level, etc.) can significantly impact your earnings. Advertisers may pay more for ads targeted at certain demographics or regions.

Views from countries with higher ad spending, such as the USA or Canada, can generate more revenue than views from countries with lower ad spending.

4.5. Channel Size and Subscriber Base

A larger subscriber base typically results in more consistent views, leading to more stable earnings. Loyal audiences are also more likely to engage with ads compared to new viewers.

4.6. Market Trends and Seasonality

Advertising spend often increases during certain times of the year, such as holidays (e.g., Christmas, Easter, Halloween), which can temporarily boost your earnings.

For example, in the weeks leading up to Halloween, viewers often seek out brands that sell costume-related items. If your channel revolves around fashion, you might attract these ads and see an uptick in earnings.

5. Five Ways To Maximize Your YouTube Earnings

While the built-in ad framework is a common way to monetize your YouTube channel, there are other strategies to quickly maximize your earning potential.

5.1. Adapt Your Content To Fit YouTube’s Guidelines

It’s essential to be aware of YouTube’s advertiser-friendly content guidelines. Staying compliant with these guidelines ensures that your content remains eligible for monetization.

YouTube’s algorithm evaluates videos based on specific criteria to determine how much you can earn. Creating content that goes against these guidelines can severely limit your potential revenue.

Here are examples of topics to avoid to stay within YouTube’s guidelines:

Inappropriate language
Violence
Shocking content
Harmful or dangerous acts
Hateful, derogatory, or demeaning content
Recreational drugs, drug-related, and tobacco-related content
Firearms-related content
Controversial issues and sensitive events
Dishonest behavior like hacking or trespassing
Adult content or inappropriate content for kids and families

5.2. Create Longer Videos

There are no specific rules regarding the length of YouTube videos for monetization. Both short and long videos can feature pre-roll or mid-roll ads, which help generate revenue. Creating longer-form content can increase your earning potential.

Videos over eight minutes long have the opportunity to include extra mid-roll ads, boosting your potential revenue.

However, it’s crucial to remember that your videos need to be engaging. If you create a lengthy video with excessive filler, viewers may not stick around long enough to see the mid-roll ads. Finding the right balance between content length and value is essential.

5.3. Remind Viewers To Subscribe

If you’ve watched videos from popular YouTube channels, you’ve likely heard the host ask you to “smash that subscribe button.” While it might seem cliché, there’s a good reason for this request.

First, this will allow you to monetize more quickly. Remember that to start getting paid by YouTube, you need at least 1,000 subscribers. A friendly reminder will help you hit that milestone so you can begin the work of monetizing through ads.

Prompting subscriptions also increases your chances of increasing viewership on future videos. When subscribers log onto YouTube, they’re notified of the latest videos from the channels they’ve followed, significantly increasing the likelihood of them watching each video that you publish. More subscribers means more views, and more views means more money in your pocket.

5.4. Build A Community

In addition to encouraging viewers to subscribe, work on building a community around your YouTube channel to strengthen your connection with your audience.

To build a community around your YouTube content, consider these three things when creating videos:

Be Genuine: The most successful YouTubers make their viewers feel like they truly know them. Showing off your personality and being authentic and vulnerable in videos creates a bond with viewers. That feeling is a powerful one, and something that people will come back for.
Engage: Respond to comments, ask for feedback, and involve your audience in the content creation process.
Shoutout Your Social Media: Encourage viewers to follow you on social media to give you more opportunities to engage with them. A community doesn’t have to be based within a single platform. The more touchpoints you have with people, the more likely they are to stick around, and the more opportunities you have for monetization.

Building a community goes beyond simply publishing videos. Once you create that relationship with viewers, you’ll find it much easier to grow your YouTube channel in the long term, and the revenue will follow.

5.5. Alternative YouTube Monetization Strategies

Ads are not the only way to make money from YouTube.

If you want to start earning money using YouTube, it’s a good idea to explore other monetization strategies.

There’s a whole host of ways to monetize your YouTube channel, including:

Sponsorships and Brand Deals: Companies often pay YouTube creators to promote their products or services within their videos to build brand awareness, generate leads, and drive sales. This can be a lucrative source of income, especially for channels with a dedicated and engaged audience.

According to Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2023 Benchmark Report, 92% of creators earn most of their revenue through brand deals. That’s because this monetization strategy typically offers higher revenue per deal compared to standard ad revenue.

For example, YouTube pays approximately $12/1,000 views. With brand sponsorships, YouTubers get paid anywhere from $10 to $50 per 1,000 views (which only increases as their channel grows).

Pro tip: When a company approaches you with a sponsorship offer, do your research and confirm that the brand aligns well with your audience before you accept. Accepting deals from a brand that is misaligned with yours can cause you to lose the trust and engagement of your audience.
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing involves partnering with brands and promoting their products or services through unique affiliate links. The creator then mentions the brand (and its products/services) in their video and directs viewers to place orders or subscribe using the special link. When someone buys a product or subscribes to a service using the affiliate link, the creator gets a cut (usually 10 – 20%) of the money.

This monetization strategy is easy to integrate into existing content and it can be a significant source of income if aligned well with the channel’s content and audience. If the brand doesn’t align with the channel and/or audience interests, however, this can damage the creator’s reputation and income potential.

Pro tip: You should always disclose affiliate relationships to your audience. Not only does it help with brand transparency, but it also keeps you compliant with the Federal Trade Commission’s laws.
Merchandise Shelf: Many creators set up independent websites through which they sell their merch (and mention the website in their videos or video descriptions). Recently, however, YouTube rolled out the merchandise shelf feature, which allows creators to showcase and sell branded merchandise directly beneath their videos.

This provides a direct way to earn revenue from loyal fans who want to support the channel while getting something tangible in return.

Pro tip: Since designing and producing merchandise, and setting up an online store requires some investment, it’s best to only go this route if you have a strong brand identity and fan base.
Channel Memberships: With channel memberships, viewers pay a monthly recurring fee to gain access to exclusive perks such as badges, emojis, exclusive videos, live chats, and more. Not only does this create a steady, predictable income stream, but it also strengthens a creator’s community by providing exclusive benefits to loyal viewers.

The Channel Memberships feature is only available to YouTube channels with more than 30,000 subscribers (or 1,000 for gaming channels).

Pro tip: You’ll need to keep creating valuable content and nurturing viewer engagement to keep members subscribed.
Online Courses: YouTube creators who are experts in certain verticals or skills often create videos teaching their audience the ins and outs of that vertical/skill. If this is you, you can monetize your expertise by creating paid online courses using Thinkific.

For example, Ellie Diop, a business coach and finance expert, amassed 102,000 YouTube subscribers (at the time of writing) by posting videos teaching people everything she knows about making money through real estate and growing an idea into a million-dollar business.

Ellie Diop's YouTube Channel

However, to diversify her income streams, Ellie used Thinkific to create the Ellievated Academy for her target audience, which comprises about 10 online courses.

Ellievated Academy Online Courses

Thinkific provides you with a robust, but easy-to-use, online course builder that allows you to create and sell engaging and relevant online courses, complete with features like quizzes, assessments, surveys, and gamification elements.

This platform also gives you all the tools you need to market your course to people, nurture your prospects, customize learner touchpoints, and measure the impact of your online courses on your students (and your bottom line).
Crowdfunding and Patronage: Platforms like Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee allow creators to receive funding directly from their audience in exchange for exclusive content and perks. This not only gives you a way to earn a recurring income by accepting monthly or yearly subscriptions, but it also gives your audience a way to support your work on an ongoing basis.
YouTube Premium Subscriptions: YouTube Premium subscribers pay a monthly fee for an improved viewing experience that includes ad-free viewing, background playback, and access to YouTube Originals.

YouTube creators earn a share of the revenue from Premium subscribers based on how much of their content these subscribers watch.

These alternative monetization methods can be combined in various ways depending on the channel’s audience, content type, and creator goals, providing multiple income streams and reducing reliance on any single source of revenue.

6. Ready To Earn Money Through YouTube?

Whether you started your YouTube channel on a whim or are using it to support your business, every creator reaches a point where they want to start getting paid on YouTube.

While it will take some time to earn money from your videos, by focusing on growth, knowing the ins and outs of the YouTube platform, and trying multiple monetization strategies, you’ll set yourself and your business up for success.

For comprehensive support and resources on managing your finances and maximizing your YouTube income, visit money-central.com. We offer a range of articles, tools, and expert advice to help you navigate the world of online monetization, including budgeting templates, investment guides, and personalized financial planning services.

Take control of your financial future today. Explore the wealth of information available at money-central.com and start building a solid foundation for your financial success. Address: 44 West Fourth Street, New York, NY 10012, United States. Phone: +1 (212) 998-0000.

7. FAQ

7.1. How Many Subscribers Do You Need To Get Paid On YouTube?

To start earning money directly from YouTube through the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), you need to have at least 1,000 subscribers on your channel.

7.2. What Is The Watch Time Requirement For Monetization On YouTube?

You need to accumulate at least 4,000 valid public watch hours on your channel within the last 12 months to qualify for monetization.

7.3. How Long Does It Take To Get Monetized On YouTube After Reaching The Requirements?

The time it takes to get monetized on YouTube can vary, after reaching the requirements of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. The process includes applying for the YouTube Partner Program and undergoing a review. The review typically takes 3-4 weeks, but it can vary depending on the volume of applications YouTube is handling at the time.

7.4. How Much Money Do YouTubers Make?

The amount of money people make through YouTube varies greatly depending on factors like niche, subscriber size, the number of views they get, the types of ads displayed, the engagement of the viewers, and other revenue streams, such as sponsorships and merchandise. YouTubers who post videos as a side hustle may make just enough to pay rent, while popular full-time creators like Pewdiepie and MrBeast rake in millions of dollars yearly.

7.5. Can You Make Money On YouTube Without Ads?

Yes, there are alternative revenue streams on YouTube, including brand sponsorships, merchandise sales, memberships and crowdfunding, and affiliate marketing. Many YouTube creators also earn revenue from YouTube Premium subscriptions.

7.6. What Happens If You Don’t Meet The Monetization Requirements?

Suppose you don’t meet the eligibility criteria for YouTube monetization and apply for the YPP. In that case, your application will be denied and you won’t be able to monetize your channel through ads, Super Chat, or channel memberships. YouTube, however, allows creators to reapply after 30 days, giving you time to build your channel’s audience and increase your watch time.