Making YouTube videos can be more than a hobby now that we’re in an era where almost everyone has access to the internet. These videos can be a money-maker for individuals and businesses alike!
Several vloggers and streamers have turned to YouTube — uploading their video content to generate revenue from it. Once you obtain a certain number of subscribers and views, it becomes easier to use the platform yourself.
If you are a newbie to YouTube, one of the questions you wonder is probably “How Much Money Does YouTube Pay per Subscriber?”
It is a fair question since YouTube is currently the biggest platform that can help users and creators generate extra income.
How Much Does YouTube Pay Creators Per Subscriber?
The shortest and most straightforward answer is NONE. YouTube pays nothing per subscriber.
The platform does not pay creators based on the number of subscribers a channel has. Why do YouTube creators always ask viewers to hit the subscribers button if that were the case?
Subscribers are people who willingly follow your channel and account so they can have easy access to your latest upload and videos. When you post and upload a video, it will automatically show up on your subscribers’ homepages.
Subscribers are extremely valuable to YouTubers as they are the ones who will like, comment, and share their videos with other people. They have the power to widen your reach and audience.
That means you can attain more views and possibly more YouTube money if you place the right ads or will have a talk with a potential partnership deal. So, while the platform does not pay based on the subscribers’ count, they still play an integral role in increasing your number of views.
If it’s not based on how many subscribers the channel has, then how is YouTube paying its creators?
One of the methods YouTube uses is the CPM or (Cost Per Mille). It is a marketing term that translates the cost per 1,000 views or, in some instances, impressions.
What Is YouTube CPM?
The CPM pertains to an advertiser’s price for every 1,000 views or impressions an advertisement gains on a creator’s video. The cost will depend on the price that the advertiser puts forward to have their ad be part of a YouTube video. The range will depend on the industry, creator, topic, and more.
Each content and video creator will get a CPM value for each video they upload. Though, do know that the numbers are not exactly the price of one advertisement, nor is it the amount of money the creator is getting.
In fact, it is the collective amount that a creator makes per 1,000 views with that specific advertisement running on the video at that exact time.
Typically, the CPM of a creator can range from 20 cents to $10 per 1,000 views. A standard or average-sized channel can get about $1.50-$3.00 per 1,000 views. Note that the CPM rates may vary depending on channels, country, age, and other factors.
So, you can expect CPM prices to fluctuate a lot.
How Do You Calculate Your YouTube Earnings?
To figure out the CPM of a video, the platform takes the advertisement price into deep consideration. It multiplies the CPM by the number of views and divides the result by 1,000.
For instance:
If you have a CPM that is $2 and acquired 200,000 views on a video, that gives you a total of $400 revenue — not too shabby! For proper visualization, the computation goes like this: $2 x 200,000 / 1,000 = $400
However, that is the earnings before revenue share.
Unfortunately, creators do not get to keep the entire revenue. How would the platform get paid, though? YouTube has a share of your earnings, as well.
They own a whopping 45% of your revenue. That leaves you with an income of $220, going by the example. Some of your videos might attract more traction and even reach about 1 million views — blowing the number up to $2,000 and more.
It is the best-case scenario for a YouTuber since not all “views” are monetized. Simply clicking on a video does entirely count as a view.
YouTube has a system that measures the minute viewers consume in total rather than the number of clicks. It is another incentive for vloggers to create excellent quality content to keep viewers engaged.
CPM, as mentioned earlier, fluctuates a lot. It can either rise or drop depending on the engagement of the viewers. The total number of minutes the viewers have watched can affect the CPM. The longer your viewers stay on a video, the higher the CPM.
When Can You Monetize Your YouTube Channel?
YouTube monetization is the ability to earn money from your videos. To officially monetize your YouTube Channel, you must meet specific requirements. Most of all, you will need to join the YouTube Partner Program.
The YouTube Partner Program is the most typical way creators can make money through their channels and accounts. Mainly because it is the simplest way. The requirements you need to meet are:
- Follow all the policies under the YouTube Partner Program
- Have more than 4,000 public watch hours over the last 12 months
- Have over 1,000 subscribers
- Live in a region or country where YouTube Partner Program is available
- Have a linked AdSense Account
Once you are a member of the YouTube Partner Program, you can start bringing in money and revenue through advertisements. There are two ways to do so: CPM (cost per thousand) and CPC (Cost per click).
What Other Ways Can YouTubers Make Money?
Fortunately, ad placements are not the only way a YouTuber can earn money or additional income.
A YouTuber can make it from a variety of sources.
Below are some options to supplement a creator’s income:
1. Sponsorships
With over 15 billion daily views and 2 billion monthly users, YouTube is easily the current widely used video-viewing platform. Companies and brands will undoubtedly want to partner with you if you are an influential YouTuber with a large audience and wide reach.
Famous and big-time YouTubers can make money through sponsorships. Unsurprisingly, brands do not typically risk a YouTuber unless they have proven themselves reliable and successful.
There are two ways creators make sponsorship videos. The brand could pay a YouTuber to create and upload a video that explicitly features a site opening, product launch, company event, or something along those lines. The other way is that the creator recommends the product in their video.
For instance, a YouTuber with 500k subscribers has a sponsorship deal with the XYZ brand for $10 per 1,000 views. The video gained about a million views, which gives the YouTuber a revenue of about $10,000. That is a huge glow-up compared to relying solely on AdSense, which pays about $2-$3 per 1,000 views. Here is more information on how much YouTubers you could earn from brand deals on YouTube.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing involves an arrangement in which the online retailer or company pays a commission to YouTubers for sales generated or traffic caused by their referrals. It can take on several forms but typically fall into the following categories:
- Product review
- Unboxing a product
- Recommending the service or product
Typically, a link is posted in the video’s description that will lead the viewer directly to the featured product. The advertisers pay the YouTubers based on the conversation rate (how many people bought the product through the link), CTR (Click-through rate, or how many people clicked on the link), and the commission itself.
One good example is Amazon affiliate marketing.
Imagine that 1,500 visitors clicked on the Amazon link from your site and video. If 5% were converted, then you have a total of 75 actual buyers. Now, say that the product has a price of $100, and the commission is 5%—that gives you a total of $375!
3. Crowdfunding
Several YouTubers take advantage of famous crowdfunding websites for more revenue. Sites like Patreon are popular because they allow YouTubers to post exclusive content that will only be available to paying subscribers.
On Patreon, viewers can choose to pay $5 a month to have early access to the creator’s videos. $10 amounts to behind-the-scenes footage, while $15 can give them extra bloopers and videos.
For example, an Animator YouTuber with a decent subscriber count of 50K opened up a Patreon account and asked his followers for help to buy a new camera. In his funding quest, he set multiple milestones ($500, $1000, and $2000).
He reached his target of $2000 thanks to the donations of his 1,150 patrons. As an incentive, he posts exclusive videos on his Patreon account for his patrons to enjoy.
4. Merchandise
One of the most effective means for prominent YouTubers to earn extra income is opening up a store and creating apparel or merchandise for their loyal fans. Famous YouTubers often make a brand out of their channels and sell things such as bags, clothes, accessories, and hats.
For instance, a famous gamer on YouTube with over a million subscribers has opened his own merch shop. He designed the shirt and cap, which he posted on his store’s official website and personal accounts.
To advertise it, he always wore them on all his videos and had them pinned on his Twitter account. He can easily earn between $1000-$10,000 a month, depending on the price of the merch and the number of successful purchases.
What Kind Of YouTube Niche Will Earn You The Most
Popularity is one of the significant factors that the platform’s algorithm uses to determine CPM. Depending on the kind of content or niche, your CPM will differ.
To earn more money, you will need to establish a loyal audience and gain popularity — which is usually only possible if you use the perfect niche.
You can’t precisely push for a gaming niche if you don’t know how to play video games; that would not sell well with viewers. You will need to choose the niche that you are passionate about or at least familiar with.
To give you some ideas for your channel, here are the most profitable and popular niches on YouTube:
- Gaming and Streaming
- Computer and Programming
- Automotive
- Tutorials
- Podcasts
- How to’s
- Giveaway Videos
- Health and Fitness
- Beauty and Fashion
- Traveling
- Cooking
- Side Hustle
- Finance
- Product reviews and unboxing
More about the niche ideas read here.
Let’s Calculate Earnings per Subscriber
However, if we take all the information from an article as a whole and count it hypothetically, then each subscriber has value for your YouTube channel.
Here’s an example:
- Finance/Investment Niche YouTube Channel
- It has 500,000 subscribers
- It has 100 videos on YouTube
- Monetized through Adsense and Brand Sponsorships
- The average video length is 10 minutes
- Releases 1 video per week
- Each video gets about 100,000 views
The math is pretty simple: we conclude that the average CPM in the financial market is around $10-13. Then this channel from one video earns around $1,000-$1,300.
Brands and sponsors usually pay on average 3,000-5,000 per ad integration for channels with 500,000 subscribers or more.
So, the amount you could earn from one video is between $4,000-$6,300.
So, one subscriber for this channel could be worth around $0.04-$0.06 cents per video.
On yearly basis, if the creator publishes around 12 videos, one subscriber would be worth around $0.60-$0.70 cents.
It’s a lot, isn’t it?
FAQs
How Much Does a YouTuber With More Than 1 Million Subscribers Make?
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Glen Beker
I am Glen and I’m a 100% tech-addicted guy, Blogger, Video Editor and Entrepreneur. I spent a lot of my time learning how to properly edit videos, I've tested a lot of vlogging equipment and now with my team, I share all these tips with you.
