Most people join YouTube for one of two reasons:
- To make money
- To share something
As a gamer, I assume that your goal is to make money so you can be a full-time gamer
You get paid as a YouTube gamer a few different ways including view count, ad clicks, affiliate marketing, memberships, sponsorships, super chat, swag shops, mentions, and donations. When you start a YouTube Channel, you are a business owner. So you get to choose what you want to monetize with
This is assuming that you want to mainly be a YouTube gamer and not use YouTube to drive traffic to Twitch
You can still get paid for YouTube gaming if you are sending people to Twitch, but your setup may look different than if you are strictly a YouTube gamer
How do youtube gamers get paid?
You can get paid for posting gaming content on YouTube in a number of different ways, including:
- Paid for views
- Paid for ad clicks
- Affiliate marketing
- Memberships
- Sponsorships
- Super chat
- Sell your own merchandise
- Get paid to mention other streamers
- Collecting donations
You do not need to use them all and I don’t recommend that you do
Especially as a newer channel
You don’t want your viewers to look in every direction and see things they have to pay for
But you add quite a few to your channel so you can get paid in many different ways
Paid for views
Getting paid for views is the most common way to get paid by YouTube
How much you get paid varies a lot, but the average is $4 for every 1000 views
Well, once you are qualified
You are only eligible to make money for views once you have 1000 followers and 4000 watch hours in a 12-month period
Then you apply for AdSense and you need to get approved
How much you get paid depends on how much the advertisers think your audience is worth
If they think they will make a lot of money from your audience, then they will pay you more per 1000 views
Paid for ad clicks
Getting paid for ad clicks goes right alongside getting paid for ad views
You often get a little more money when someone clicks on the ads on your videos
You don’t have to do any work to add this but it is another way to make money with your channel
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you recommend a product that you love to your audience
If someone buys using your link, you get a commission
How much you get depends on the sale price and the commission that you get
Amazon has the best click-to-buy ratio because people trust them, but their commissions are super low
Other products that have affiliate programs may not get as many sales, but the sales you do get have great commissions
Make sure that the products that you recommend are actually products that you recommend
People catch on past if you are pretending to like something to make money even though you have never tried that product
Your reputation is on the line so just be honest
Memberships
Memberships are directly through YouTube as well
Have you ever seen YouTube creators that have a “join” option on their channels?
That is the memberships
People can pay to join your channel
It is great because you get paid monthly as long as they are members
Memberships give members badges, emojis, and access to any perks that you create for joining your channel
YouTube offers the first month free and then it is $11.99 a month for people to be members of your channel
Sponsorships
Sponsorships are another common way to make money on YouTube
Companies pay good money to get more eyes on their products
That is where you come in
If you have eyes on your videos (views), companies may be willing to pay you to mention their business and product
How much you get completely depends on your views, the quality of your audience, and how much they are willing to pay
They could work as affiliate marketing as well by giving you a discount code to offer your audience if they purchase through your link
Super chat
Super chat is a way to connect with viewers on live stream
Viewers can purchase messages to be highlighted or stickers to appear in the chat
You decide how much everything is with super chat so there is no set amount
It can be as much or as little as you want
It is recommended to have little things cost a little money while the big and distracting things cost more
But you can play around with this until you figure out what works best for you
It is a fun way to add more interaction with your audience while increasing the money that you are making
Sell your own merchandise
You have probably watched YouTubers that talk about their “swag shop”
This shop is a place where viewers can buy things that the YouTuber made
Fans enjoy it if they are big fans just like they do with anything else they are a fan of
Look at every business and you’ll see people buying things that show they are a fan
It helps you because you make money off those sales
You can have fun creating swag that makes sense for your channel
You can use your name, logo, catchphrase, props, or anything else that is part of your brand
Your viewers just need to be able to connect what you made to your channel and understand that connection
Get paid to mention other streamers
This is an option when your channel starts getting bigger
You can get paid by other streamers to mention their stream
Or they can pay you to join your game so you can mention them
It is just like companies paying you to mention their products
Other streamers see the value of you recommending their channel
Well once you are bigger
How much you charge is completely up to you and the other streamer
And it depends a lot on your audience size and engagement
Collecting donations
The last way that you can get paid on YouTube is by asking for donations
This is common on Twitch as well
You don’t have to be pushy but you should mention donations often if you go this route
Viewers need you to ask for what you want
If you want more subscribers, ask for new viewers to subscribe
If you want donations, ask for donations and use a secure method to get those payments
The last thing you want is for viewers to get hacked after donating to you
What do you need to do to get qualified to be paid?
The main thing you need to be paid for YouTube is viewers
If you can get visitors, you can make money
But the specifics depend on the type of payment that you want
If you want to get paid for ads and views, then you need 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours in a 12-month period
If you want to do affiliate marketing, you need to find the products that you want to recommend and sign up for their affiliate program
Some affiliate programs are easy to get into and others aren’t
You need to be a monetized channel for memberships as well
You need a loyal audience to sell swag
But you can start asking for donations early on
Decide what you want to use as monetization and make the prerequisites for those things your goal
It may be fast or it may take time
But it is easier to accomplish something when the goal is clear and so is the motive