Monetizing YouTube Without Being A Partner

You might have heard that you can actually make some money off of YouTube whereas you become a “partner” user. The problem with trying to make cash this way is that the revenue you generate is more or less 100% based on video views. And as anyone who has used YouTube is aware, getting high view counts is not easy.

Instead, consider YouTube to be your means of advertising on television, except it’s the internet.

I’ll explain:

YouTube users are assigned “channels”. Your channel address is youtube.com/your-user-name.

Channels are usually found by search or related search. Search is easy enough to understand. People search the YouTube system and if you have the proper keywords, your channel and video will show up. Related search is when someone is watching a video and in the “related videos” sidebar to the right, your video shows up.

Situation: You have a product that you want to sell. It could be anything. But let’s say for the moment you’re trying to sell an instructional book on how to build a shed.

You can use your YouTube channel to create a “show” to advertise this book.

The way to create your show is as follows:

Use your camcorder and shoot video of yourself building a shed. Make it as long as you like.

Divide this video into 5-minute segments.

Post each video to your YouTube channel as a series in succession.

In each video:

• Use keywords that are applicable (such as shed, build, wood, lumber, tools, how-to, instruction and so on).
• Have the sidebar contain a LINK to where to buy your book.
• Have comments “by approval only” to avoid “hater” comments.
• Disable comment “voting”.
• Disable video “ratings” entirely.

Why have comments “by approval only”?

This is so you can let only the positive comments thru. If you don’t do this, you are guaranteed to get a “you suck” or like comment every so often that has absolutely nothing to do with your video content. This will distract your potential customers easily. Never forget to set “by approval only”.

To note, this is not censorship. You’re just trying to make a simple video series explaining your product and the last thing you need are dopey kids posting “this video SUX!!1!1″ comments.

Why disable comment “voting”?

When the dopey kid can’t get his comment posted, he will “downvote” any comments present to get revenge.

Why disable ratings?

When a dopey kid can’t get his stupid comment posted or downvote, he will “1-star” the video (i.e. the lowest possible rating) as revenge. Disabling ratings will take care of that at the source. Never forget to do this either.

What about “viral” videos?

Total waste of time and not necessary. You will have far better and more immediate success if you treat YouTube as your means of free advertising.

Does this go against YouTube’s terms of service?

Not in the slightest. Business owners use YouTube for this exact reason on a very frequent basis.

Final tips:

Make use of the “annotations” feature to point people to where you can buy your product and/or say “look in sidebar for more information”.

Remember to keep your videos on the shorter side. Anything over 5 minutes and potential customers will lose interest. If this means your series is broken up into many videos, that’s fine. If people are interested in it, they will watch it.

Be sure to note in the video what part of the series a viewer is watching, such as “How to build a shed – part 5 of 10″. This will encourage them to go to video #1 to start with (which they should).

Don’t worry about your “friends” list on YouTube or answering any personal messages from within the system. This is part of the “community” system of YouTube and a complete waste of time being your videos are essentially long advertisements.