Vlogger is still a relatively new profession, one which came about due to the meteoric rise of certain YouTubers who made walking around and talking into a camera a huge form of entertainment.
But how do you actually earn money from putting out vlogs, and how much do vlogs earn from YouTube?
Vloggers make money by accumulating a large audience made up of viewers, and more importantly, subscribers. Vlogging income largely comes from adverts the viewers watch, sponsorship deals, and affiliate marketing.
It’s a fascinating profession, that’s for sure, and even if you don’t have plans to become a vlogger yourself it’s good to know how exactly vloggers make their money.
From a business perspective, making money through vlogs is all about the adverts. Yet there are other ways vloggers can generate income from the videos they produce, which include sponsorship and affiliate marketing, as well as merchandise, so we’ll take a look at all four sources of income in this guide.
Adverts
One of the main ways to make money from a vlog is to have ads in your videos, since these can bring in a steady trickle of income.
With ads, you earn a small sum for every ad that is watched by a viewer. Unfortunately, this isn’t a 1:1 ratio with the amount of views you earn for a video, since it’s estimated that only 40-80% of viewers actually watch the ads for any one video.
In order to qualify for revenue from adverts on your vlogs, you need to sign up for Adsense which will allow you to monetize the content you put out on your YouTube channel.
While you certainly can make money just off the ads alone, it’s likely to be a pittance, unless your videos rack up tens of thousands of videos consistently.
There are two types of ads in YouTube videos, CPM (cost per thousand views) and CPC (cost per click).
CPM
CPM adverts rely on the viewer watching an advert for a minimum of thirty seconds for you to qualify for payment. As you can imagine, this isn’t a reliable source of income, since the majority of people will likely skip ads or run ad-blocking software when watching videos.
CPC
CPC adverts are all about viewer interaction with the adverts they watch. That means to get any money from these ads you need the viewer to go ahead and actually click on the ad, which will take them to a company’s landing page where they can buy a product or hire a service.
The other thing to note about ads on YouTube is that the company takes a hefty commission from anything you earn through ads.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is perhaps the most reliable way to make money on YouTube as a vlogger, since it is more targeted than the ads.
With affiliate marketing, a vlogger will be paid to promote a particular brand, and provide a link to a product or service of theirs.
What is so effective about this strategy is that unlike with ads, viewers will actually stay tuned for the promotional talk since it’s their favorite vlogger speaking. That means the viewers are more likely to click on the affiliate links provided, since they want to use the same product the vlogger does, and that can in turn lead to more income generated for the vlogger.
It’s necessary as a vlogger to declare when you are doing a plug for a particular brand or business, since otherwise they could present a biased impression and lead people to buy something due to misinformation.
Even though in many cases the vlogger mentions upfront that they are paid for doing the promotional bit, it can still be convincing to hear them heap praise on whatever product or service it is they are pushing.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship might seem a long way off for the vlogger who has just started out, but it is accessible to those with a large number of subscribers, and is another way to make income through vlogs.
Just like companies like Coca-Cola sponsor athletes in sports, there are companies that will sponsor vloggers and YouTubers. If the vlogger talks a lot about fashion, for example, a clothes brand might come along and ask to have their label name on the channel page. Or if the vlogger does a lot of gaming talk, a technology brand might decide that they want the YouTuber to mention their service at the beginning of every video for greater exposure.
Since vloggers are becoming more and more popular in this digital age, it’s understandable that brands want to jump on the bandwagon and capitalize on the growing popularity of this group of YouTubers.
After all, YouTube accounts for around a billion hours of watch time per day and has in excess of 2 billion monthly users, which is a huge audience for brands to cash in on. The most valuable commodity for many brands is the customer’s attention, so if a vlogger speaks to a large audience on a regular basis, what better way to get the word out?
Sponsorship isn’t something vloggers necessarily seek out, because by time they have a big enough subscriber base they will probably already have brands reaching out to them and offering them deals.
Merchandise
Another way vloggers can make money is not through the vlogs themselves, but through selling merchandise separately.
Since there are some vloggers who have reached an immense level of popularity on the video sharing platform, they can start to commodify their sense of humor, mannerisms, and overall personality by making a range of t-shirts, mugs, and more.
Vloggers are seen by some to be on the same level as Hollywood stars and famous celebrities, so it’s no surprise that they try to cash in on their stardom by offering up all kinds of merchandise.
The reason merchandise can be a good source of income for vloggers is because they are able to create a great sense of familiarity with the viewer, which translates to a desire on the viewer’s part to give back somehow.
After all, the videos that you watch on YouTube are completely free, so it makes sense that some people would feel obliged to support their favorite vlogger in some way. Even though, as we’ve already seen, vloggers make money in various ways.
Frequently Asked Questions About Vloggers
How much money can you make from vlogging?
It’s difficult to estimate how much one can make from vlogging without knowing details about the number of views their videos get, how many subscribers they have, and whether or not they have affiliate marketing in place.
However, it is worth saying up front that vlogging isn’t very lucrative for most people.
In fact, unless your vlogs command tens of thousands of views, it’s unlikely that you’ll make much money at all from them.
How do YouTube vloggers make money?
Vloggers make money through various means.
The primary source of income will be through adverts that are strategically placed throughout the videos. Each ad watched will convert to a small sum for you.
Then, there are the sponsorship deals that come when you have a significant subscriber count as well as affiliate marketing which is when you inform the audience about certain products.
How many views do you need on YouTube to make money?
On Youtube, you can make money off a single view, providing you have ads on your videos.
Of course, one view isn’t worth much at all, and should bring a return of around $0.01, but this will add up the more views you get.
Following this pay rate you can expect something like $5 for every 1,000 views, so you can do the math from there. Let’s just say you shouldn’t expect your videos to become a main source of income unless you are pulling in a very high number of views regularly.
A Final Word From Run Gun Shoot
Vloggers mostly make money on their videos through adverts, sponsorship, and affiliate marketing.
Becoming a vlogger isn’t a lucrative option for many, though with enough views it can certainly become a worthwhile side hustle.
