Many people are thinking about creating a career out of YouTube. Isn’t that correct? Well-known YouTubers such as Ninja and Ryan Kaaji make millions from their channels. But most of the people who have some thoughts of starting a channel are curious about how many views and subscribers it really takes to start earning money on YouTube.
Unfortunately, there’s no single answer. There are a lot of factors that play their role – it can be your location, your video niche, advertising rates, and more. YouTubers also don’t like revealing their income. So we’ll have to look at the big picture to understand how to earn money on YouTube.
We’ll provide some goals for views and subscriptions in this article. However, we’ll also go over other crucial points you should remember if you want to use YouTube as a means of earning money.
Getting Accepted into the YouTube Partner Program
Getting accepted into the YPP is the first step in making money from YouTube. This YPP is the service where you earn some part of the revenue through ads that play in your videos. Another best thing is, if you get accepted by YPP you will get some perks like channel memberships and super chats where you can earn some extra revenue.
To get into the YPP, you need:
– 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months
– 1,000 subscribers
– A linked AdSense account
YouTube keeps 45% of what advertisers pay and pays the remaining 55% to publishers. If viewers skip an ad before 30 seconds, you earn nothing. On average only 15% actually watch 30+ seconds of ads.
The YPP lets you make money in a few ways:
– Video ads
– Display and overlay ads
– Super Chats and highlighted fan comments
– Channel memberships
– A share of YouTube Premium subscriptions
All of these have their own eligibility rules you must meet too.
What About the YouTube Shorts Fund?
If you don’t qualify for the YPP yet, you can create 60-second YouTube Shorts and potentially get paid via the $100 million Shorts Fund. Every month Shorts selects thousands of creators to reward with bonuses.
But focusing on longer videos and getting into the YPP is better for earning potential. Long videos allow you to insert multiple ads.
One Viral Video vs Multiple Videos
It’s tempting to try creating one viral video. But it’s usually better to publish multiple videos consistently.
With more content, YouTube can better understand your channel’s focus. This helps them recommend your other videos to interested viewers – leading to more views, subscribers and money.
Try publishing 30 videos in your first 60 days, then 2 videos per week after that.
Views vs Subscribers
While the YPP looks at subscribers, your earnings come from views. But channels can earn vastly different Revenue Per Thousand Views (RPM). Factors like your niche and where your viewers come from impact RPMs.
For example:
– Your channel gets 100,000 views per month
– RPM is $5
– Monthly earnings: 100,000 x $5 = $500
So focus on getting more views AND subscribers. More subs generally leads to more loyal viewers and long-term growth.
Real-Life Examples of YouTube Earnings
1 Million+ Views
According to VloggerPro, channels earning 1 million+ views can make around $5,700 on average. But RPMs vary wildly.
Some examples:
– Nay Nicole: $34,903 (RPM $34.90)
– Athina: $4,236 (RPM $4.24)
– Average RPM: Around $6
100,000+ Subscribers
For channels with 100k subs that post 2 videos per week, monthly earnings estimates:
– $2,400 to $4,000
Some examples:
– Shop Nation: $1,802/month (316k views)
– Jessia Stansberry: $3,174 (210k views)
Again, sub count alone doesn’t equal money. But loyal subscribers usually watch your new videos – resulting in more views.
1 Million+ Subscribers
At 1 million subs, your influence and earning potential starts to skyrocket.
If every subscriber watched two 3-minute videos per week at $0.18 per view, you could make $36,000 per week from ads. Of course, not everyone will watch every video – but the potential is huge.
More realistic monthly earnings:
– Mango Street: $1,547 (880k views)
– Matti Haapoja: $10,157 (2 million views)
Plus you can leverage your audience to sell merchandise, sponsorships, affiliate offers and more.
Top YouTube Earner Examples
According to estimated earnings of top YouTubers:
– Justin Bieber: $226 million
– Jeffree Star: $200 million
– Logan Paul: $35 million
– Mark Fischbach: $35 million
Conclusion
So while we’d love to give you the magic number of views and subscribers needed to start earning, it depends on too many factors.
But the potential is definitely there, especially once you build a loyal audience. Focus on creating quality content consistently, provide value to viewers, and continue growing over time.
Before long you’ll gain the necessary hours, subs and views needed to get accepted into the YouTube Partner Program. That’s when the money can really start rolling in!
