How to Make Money From YouTube Without Being Monetized

Reaching the YouTube monetization requirements can be a long journey, but you can start making money right away with these simple tips!

Kelsey Hickey
5 min readNov 8, 2020
Photo by jvkedavies on Unsplash

We’ve all heard that YouTubers make the big bucks.

The channel Ryan’s World features a nine-year-old boy with twenty-seven million subscribers. He has earned twenty-six million dollars from being on the platform.

If a nine-year-old can do it, then anyone can. Right? Don’t quit your day job just yet.

You won’t see a dime from the platform until you’ve reached their specific requirements. YouTube wants you to have 1,000 subscribers and needs your channels to reach 4,000 watch hours within twelve months. Once you’ve hit these milestones, then you can apply for monetization.

For someone starting on YouTube, without any internet following, the requirements are a bit much. So, what can you do to start making money on YouTube as a new creator?

There are a few ways for small YouTubers to start making money on their channels even with a small number of subscribers.

Affiliate Links

If you’re a person trying to make money on the internet and haven’t heard about affiliate links, then you might need to do better research.

But I will still explain them to you.

Affiliate links are personalized links to products that you can put in the description of your YouTube videos (or anywhere else on the internet that you choose). When a viewer clicks on the link and purchases that product, then you will make a small commission of that sale.

Sounds easy, right?

It truly is!

As long as you talk about the right products that your viewers are interested in, then you can start making passive income from your videos no matter what your subscriber count is.

One of the best places to start as a small YouTuber is through the Amazon Associate’s Program.

Anyone can sign up and start getting their personalized links right now, as long as you have social media accounts. They don’t care how many subscribers or followers that you have when you sign up.

The catch? You need to make three sales within 180 days of starting your account.

That gives you at least six months to make three sales from your YouTube channel. If you don’t, then you’re going to have to restart the program all over again.

No biggie! As long as you’re promoting products within your niche, then your subscribers will be sure to click and buy. You’ll be making money from your YouTube account in no time.

Sponsorships

Another way to start making money on YouTube before hitting the monetization requirements is by partnering with brands that want to sponsor you.

As a small YouTuber, you might think that there isn’t a company in the world who is going to sponsor a YouTube channel with less than 1,000 subscribers. At least not with that attitude!

There are tons of companies that are willing to work with micro-influencers. Some companies even feel that micro-influencers have a better impact on their audience because they’re better connected.

The best way to get a sponsorship as a small YouTuber is to wait for a brand to reach out to you.

Make sure that you have a business email address that you regularly check in each description of your videos. Doing this will make it so that if a brand is interested in your content, then it will be easy for them to get in contact with you.

You can also, as the young kids say, “shoot your shot.”

Reaching out to small brands to see if they are interested in partnering with you is a great way to get sponsored.

You’ll find that once you do your first sponsorship, then more brands will be willing to work with you.

Sell Your Products

Making money might not come directly from YouTube or your YouTube channel, but rather it could be a means for advertising your other creative outlets.

If you have an Etsy, T-shirt business, e-book, online course, or any other product that you sell online, then advertising it through your YouTube channel is a magnificent way to push sales and get more clients.

You’ll find that since people are connecting with you on a deeper level through YouTube, then they will be more willing to support you through your other platforms.

If you don’t already have other products available on the internet, then you might want to look into creating them. Doing this might be an exceptional way for you to start making money online, especially if you haven’t hit the monetization requirements yet.

Fan-Funding

Lastly, another way for you to make money before getting monetized on YouTube is by fan-funding.

There are different ways that your subscribers or fans can pay you for more exclusive content.

One of the easiest ways is by live streaming and essentially getting ‘tipped’ for being live. There are a few platforms like Twitch, where you can start getting paid from your viewers right away.

The thing is that you will want your YouTube audience to follow you to a new platform, which can be a bit challenging since it is a live stream.

On the other hand, another great way to go about fan-funding is to start a Patreon.

A Patreon is a monthly subscription service that your subscribers will pay for to get more exclusive content from you. Many YouTubers make tons of money by creating extra content for their loyal fans who subscribe to their Patreon each month.

Make Money Without Being Monetized on YouTube

A survey showed that one-third of children between the ages of eight and twelve didn’t aspire to be firefighters, doctors, or lawyers, but rather they wanted to be vloggers or YouTubers. As you can see, the YouTube world has a huge influence on us.

If you’re looking to start a channel but are worried about not receiving some sort of compensation, then don’t fret! There are ways that small YouTube channels can make money without hitting the monetization requirements.

--

--