If you are looking for a guide that shows you how do vloggers make money, well, you are in the right place. Here I will discuss this topic step by step with some effective monetization strategies thoroughly. No doubt vlogging is an expensive and time-consuming niche. Apart from the budget camera, If you want to produce a high-quality video you need some equipment, which is expensive. So you need money to fulfill your need and also earn enough to live your life.
Also, before diving into this topic, a point to be noted is that a vlogger’s salary/earnings depend upon various factors such as keywords metrics, niches, etc.
How do vloggers make money –
So, let’s start with –
Setting up a vlog–
Following are some steps for setting up a vlog, such –
Find your vlogging niches –
The difficulty of choosing the right niche is varied among individuals. For someone it is easy but for others, it is not. One should look for the below-mentioned criteria before choosing the right niche for your vlog –
Your Interest: This is the most important factor in choosing a vlogging niche. The growth of your vlog is very much dependent upon how much you have an interest in this topic. If you are interested in this topic, you will get motivated every time to create more videos.
Your Mastery: A vlog success is also dependent upon your mastery over the subject. Lack of command over the topic may lead to failure.
Also, I have already published a post i.e. on high traffic vlogging niches for YouTube, you may check this out.
Research your niche –
Niche research is one of the basic needs before starting your vlog. I have stated below some measures that one should look inside-
Competition: One needs to evaluate how much competition has in a topic. It is recommended that low competition moderate to high volume niche is preferable for easy and more views.
Though if you wish to go for a high competition niche, you can choose, but if you have to focus on some criteria such – High-quality content, On-Page SEO, Off-Page SEO, etc.
Market: If you wish to create a vlog as a hobby, you don’t need to dive deep into the market. But if you want to see vlog as a career or as your business and income lots of money, then you have to research the market.
In this context, keyword research plays a vital role. By researching your keywords you will get to know the search volume, High-Low bids, competition, etc.
Narrowing your niche: For some main niches, it is recommended that you should narrow your niche to a small niche. I’m talking about niches such as Food vlog, Life Hacks, Life-Style vlog, Technology Vlog, etc. As Food vlogs, Life hacks, etc are general terms, breaking it down and selecting sub-niches will give you a cutting edge in the competition.
For example, you can break food vlog into sub-niche like – Recipe vlog, Food review vlog, ASMR food vlog. For the lifehacks niche, you can narrow down it to Kitchen hacks, DIY life hacks for your phone, etc. For a technology vlog, you can break it into a Mobile review, Laptop review, Unboxing, etc.
Capture and Upload: After the selection of a niche it’s time to capture your video. To capture a video you need a plan, direction, and also equipment like a camera or phone with some other accessories which I have mentioned below.
After editing the video it’s time to upload it to a video hosting platform. There are many free video hosting platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, IGTV available on the internet. You can choose which platform is best for you.
Consistency & Quality: Consistency of uploading videos and maintaining the quality or making better quality videos one after one is one of the key factors in getting popularity among your audience. If you promised your audience to upload 2 -3 videos per week then keep that up as many loyal viewers may expect you to upload 2-3 videos per week. And if that is not fulfilled then they might get disappointed with you and stops watching your video.
Your audience expects high-quality, informative, entertainment videos from your side. So try not to disappoint them with low-quality video.
What do I need to start a vlog –
Equipment–
You need some equipment to capture a video. It’s ok if you don’t have a big budget, you can still upload a video with a small budget. The main basic tools are a camera or your phone and an internet connection. You can capture the video and directly upload it to the internet.
Here I mentioned some equipment which you need for quality content.
Camera/Phone: This is a must need tool for every vlogger. To capture a moment you need a camera or a smartphone. You can find varieties of budget-friendly cameras on the market.
Tripod or Gimble: To stabilize a video you need either a tripod or a gimbal. Vloggers use tripods and gimble for different needs. But the main effort is to stabilize the video. Sometimes in handheld, the video might get shaky.
Mostly tripod is used for a static video whereas Gimble is used when there is a movement in the shot.
Lighting: Lighting is also essential equipment for vlogging. Sometimes you need to shoot a video in the nighttime. So you need a light for this. And if you want to make a youtube studio which is most probably an indoor setup, you will need light as there is less light inside a room if not exposed to a proper lighting source.
Microphone: For audio recording, you need a microphone. Though the maximum cameras nowadays have an inbuilt audio recorder, for quality audio you need an external microphone.
Laptop: You can’t store all the video files on your camera SD card. Because memory storage is limited. You need a laptop to store all the files.
The laptop is also used for the editing part. Though some mobile apps are available for editing a video. But for a smooth editing experience, you need a laptop. A again laptop has a larger screen as compared to mobile devices so it becomes easy when edited.
Editing software: There are multiple free editing software for both mobile and laptop available on the internet. You can download it to your phone or laptop and start editing your video.
Here I have mentioned some of the video hosting platforms-
Free video hosting platforms: After the editing part, the main task is to publish the video. So where should I publish my video? Well, there are multiple free video hosting platforms available on the internet.
- YouTube: There may not be many people left who do not hear about YouTube. Well, currently it is the biggest video hosting platform in the world. Currently billions of people visit this site every month.
- Facebook: Facebook is another free platform where you can upload videos. This is a social networking platform where many people share their stuff.
- Twitch: Though this platform is mainly for gamers where gamers live stream their games, nowadays people from different niches take advantage of this platform by uploading videos.
- Instagram: IGTV is another social networking site where you can upload your video. Reels, stories are other Instagram features where you can upload your video.
- DailyMotion: Like YouTube, Dailymotion is a video hosting site. Here people uploaded High-quality videos for viewers. But there is some limitation to using this such as you can upload only 96 videos per day and the maximum length of the video should be 60 minutes.
- TikTok: Nowadays another popular platform is TikTok, where people uploaded short videos. It is available only for Android and iPhone. Also, some countries ban TikTok such as India and Indonesia.
Monetization strategies –
You may be thinking that how do vloggers make money by uploading videos or how much a vlogger can earn money in a month or a year from vlogging?
Well, to answer your first query I have mentioned below some ways, from these ways you can monetize your video. And to your second query, I have stated two top YouTuber around the world and their income.
- Ryan’s World: Ryan Kaji a 9-year-old YouTuber currently holds the world’s top YouTuber position in terms of income. He has 30.1M subscribers on his channel. By reviewing toys, science experiments, and pretend play; he earned nearly $29.5 million in 2020.
- Mr. Beast: Jimmy Donaldson is an American YouTuber. His channel Mr. Beast has 64 million subscribers. From YouTube, he earned around $24 million in 2020.
So, how do they earn this huge amount of money from YouTube?
Below I have presented some features they use to earn and now you can earn money by applying it-
Advertising: Advertisement is one of the major ways monetization of a video. Platforms like YouTube and Dailymotion offer this system where you can earn money by putting ads on your video.
For instance, let’s take a look at YouTube. Nowadays YouTube is the largest free video hosting platform in the world. It is estimated that around 6 billion hours of video are played on YouTube every month.
Different companies pay YouTube to show their ads. Then YouTube pays you by placing their ads on your video. For each ad that shows on your YouTube channel, you will be paid 55% and YouTube will keep 45% of the actual money.
But there are some conditions or guidelines to monetize your YouTube channel. First of all, you must be at least 18 years old or have a legal guardian older than 18 years, who can handle your payments. Secondly, your channel needs to reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours (total minutes video played).
Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing is one of the best online money-making ways. Affiliate marketing is nothing but the promotion of other people’s products through your channel. When you put a product link in your video and an audience who had visited your channel go through this link and buy this product then you’ll get a commission. The product can be anything such as physical products or digital products.
Amazon Associates, ClickBank, Awin, ShareASale, CJ Affiliate (formerly known as Commission Junction), Rakuten Marketing are some of the top affiliate networks. Anyone can sign up for these networks then promote products and sell them. However, there are some guidelines for using such networks.
Selling your products: Another way is selling your product. YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok are the best platform for selling your brand online to your audience. This can be anything such as – Digital products, physical products, etc. Unlike affiliate marketing, here you will get 100% profit by selling your own product.
For this, the ‘faith’ factor should be the main thing to focus on. Among the vlogger and the audience, mutual bonding play a vital role. You can build your trust among the audience by creating great informative content for the visitors.
Also for huge vlogging income from this technique, your channel needs to have huge subscribers, as only a fraction of your audience will buy your product. YouTubers like Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg known as PewDiePie earn $6.83 million through sales of branded merchandise.
Sponsorship: This is also the best way to monetize your video. If a brand wants to advertise their product they will contact you to put a small video of their product as an ad on your channel. When you put this ad in your video to show it to the audience you will get paid by the brand.
How much will the sponsor pay you? Well, there is no definitive answer. It’s totally based on the value of the company as well as your channel views. For this, you need huge subscribers. Then the high-branded companies will contact you because they want a huge audience to watch their product.
Conclusion:
I think from the above discussion I have managed to show you a clear picture of how do vloggers make money or how to make money from vlogging. Apart from the above ways, there are some other ways such as ‘paid to speak’, ‘donation’, ‘super chat’, ‘Content licensing’ features from which vloggers make money. So, what stopping you from this field? Go and pick up your camera and start capturing beautiful moments and earn money from vlogging.
great tips here! especially for those just starting out