How to make money with a YouTube account?

In recent years, a new profession, Youtuber , which is also a blogger in the usual sense, has begun to emerge. Many of them have hundreds of thousands or even tens of millions of fans. Their daily work is to post videos on their personal homepages to get views and clicks, and then get generous rewards. So, how can you make money on YouTube?

The self-media authors I know have gradually transformed to YouTube after experiencing the trough of the red ocean. There are two main reasons:

1. Eyeing YouTube’s high returns
2. YouTube has fewer restrictions than self-media platforms such as Toutiao. You can freely recommend your own WeChat account/public account, which has a good effect on increasing followers.

So here comes the question.

1. What are the requirements for being a self-media person on YouTube?

2. What kind of content is suitable for posting on YouTube?

3. How to make money on YouTube?

1

The most basic condition, as I believe everyone knows, is to be able to connect with the world.

In order to solve this problem, many friends have entrusted their relatives living in Hong Kong to upload YouTube videos on their behalf, and this is likely to become a part of the industry chain.

Among the self-media people I know, taking the four kings of sea-hunting on Bilibili as an example, they basically upload videos through the same agent.

However, due to issues such as fake followers, YouTube deleted its related channels, which was not worth the loss.

This also sends a signal:

Working on YouTube is different from working on domestic new media. It is very easy to get your account blocked if you inflate the number of views.

So, does YouTube have any advantages over domestic new media platforms?

To be precise, there are three main purposes for Chinese people to use YouTube: to make money, to attract fans, to market, and to sell good domestic products overseas.

Let’s start with the first point, about YouTube’s revenue rules:

1. Income threshold

2017 was the first year of YouTube's explosion in Greater China, and many creators flocked to YouTube, hoping to make their first pot of gold through YouTube.

In order to cope with the sudden surge in the number of authors, YouTube adjusted the revenue threshold accordingly:

Ads can only be added if 1,000 subscriptions + 4,000 hours of playback are met at the same time.

• 1,000 subscriptions means 1,000 fans, which is not a high threshold. After all, YouTube’s daily active users have reached 1.53 billion, while Toutiao has only 75 million.
• 4,000 hours of playback means that the total viewing time of your video reaches 4,000 hours.

For example.

If a single video of yours is 5 minutes long, 4,000 hours of playback would translate to 48,000 views. And you have to watch it to the end, which is not difficult for a good video author.

Like the excellent "Shan Yao Video" on Toutiao, it also performed very well on YouTube. In 2018, it had 500,000 subscribers and over 200 million views. The minimum number of views for a single video was more than 30,000, and it only took one or two days to open the advertisement.

2. Revenue calculation method

Similar to China, YouTube’s revenue is calculated based on CPM. In other words, even if your video is played 10,000 times, if no one watches the ad, there will still be no revenue.

Therefore, it is not feasible to create clickbait titles on YouTube. Users will leave without even watching the entire ad, so even if the ad is played 1 million times, the revenue will still be 0.

Moreover, the CPM values ​​of YouTubers are different, mainly affected by three factors:

1. The platform converts based on comprehensive values ​​such as the completion rate, click-through rate, and bounce rate of the ad playback
2. The economic development level of the countries where the users who watch your video are from.

In Taiwan, for example, the revenue per thousand views is generally between 0.6 and 1.4 US dollars, and the best ones can reach 2 to 4 US dollars. In the United States, this figure is likely to reach 5 US dollars or even 10 US dollars.

3. The length of your video. For videos longer than 10 minutes, you can insert two ads at the same time, and the CPM will naturally be higher than that of videos less than 10 minutes.

Domestic new media matrix (source: wemedia)

Therefore, when doing YouTube, you must not only learn how to target the audience, but also do a good job of translation.

Videos like Shanyao Video, which have carefully made English subtitles, have a majority of viewers from Europe, the United States and other countries, and the CPM can reach US$3.3 per thousand views.

The revenue from 200 million views is approximately US$200,000 to US$660,000, equivalent to RMB 1.34 million to RMB 4.43 million, which is 3.3 to 11 times that of Toutiao.

Most importantly, YouTube has a corresponding creator reward mechanism. Excellent YouTubers will get official recommended brand cooperation opportunities, and their income will double.

You should know that the income of Toutiao video authors is generally 2 yuan per 10,000 views. Even for original video authors, the highest income is only 20 yuan per 10,000 views, and the maximum income for 200 million views is 400,000 yuan.

In other words, YouTube’s revenue is 10 times higher than Toutiao’s revenue. In this regard, the gap between domestic new media platforms and YouTube is obvious.

2

When it comes to attracting fans, YouTube is a very large traffic pool.

Regardless of whether foreigners use WeChat and Weibo, the vast majority of Chinese and compatriots in Greater China use WeChat for daily communications.

In 2018, the number of registered users of Instagram in Greater China was 31 million, while the number of YouTube users was about 1.5 times that of Instagram. If non-registered users are included, the number can probably reach 60 million, which is a huge traffic pool.

Since many YouTubers in China are registered in other countries, it is difficult to obtain accurate rankings.

However, YouTube is different from Instagram. The quality of its users varies greatly. There are international students, foreign trade practitioners, etc., as well as trolls and online expeditionaries. They are not as sophisticated as Instagram users.

Of course, this does not affect YouTube from becoming an excellent channel for attracting fans.

Among the new media people I know, there are two main ways to attract fans on YouTube:

1. Resources to attract fans
2. Content attracts fans

From the perspective of attracting fans, the resources on YouTube are the best. However, the disadvantages of attracting fans with resources are:

1. Easy to attract wool party
2. The powder shedding rate is relatively high

In my personal experience, the average next-day retention rate of public accounts is between 50% and 70%. On the best day, the next-day retention rate is only 91%, and on the worst day, it drops to 48%.

Probably influenced by the type of resources, the fans of the official account are mainly male, accounting for more than 70% of the total number of users.

However, if you are a diligent resource up-loader, the stickiness and activity of your fans will be greatly improved.

Like several up-hosts I know, their fans leave messages and advertisements for them every day. 50,000 fans create an average daily reading volume of 7,800, and the public account session opening rate is above 10%.

One of the disadvantages is that the forwarding rate is extremely low, and it is mainly based on public account conversation reading, making it difficult to form fission.

Attracting fans through content is the most difficult and is not suitable for newbies, because there are too many up-loaders on YouTube, and many people can get a lot of content about life, technology and other aspects just by following the channels.

If you want to attract fans through content, then you must meet the following conditions:

1. The content is original and high-quality, and fans want to see more
2. Your playback volume should be high and the target user group should be accurate

You should know that the maximum conversion rate of resources to attract fans can reach 30%. For every thousand views on YouTube, 300 new fans are gained, far exceeding the conversion rate of the official account.

It is normal for excellent content to have over 100 million views on YouTube. Jay Chou’s MV “Confession Balloon” has been viewed 180 million times, and even Zhou Yike’s cover video has 14.75 million views (as of March 2019).

Due to the different tastes of fans, a self-media IP that has a great influence in China may not be able to adapt to the local environment abroad.

For example, IPs such as "Never Expected" and "Papi Jiang" which are extremely popular in China do not perform well on YouTube.

However, the number of YouTube subscribers of "Office Ono" has reached 5.489 million, with a total of 1.18 billion views throughout the year, which translates into revenue of approximately US$1.18 million to US$3.894 million, and approximately US$1 per thousand views in China (as of March 2019).

This income is already quite high, taking the median value of 2.5 million US dollars for comparison. Mi Meng’s advertising rate of 800,000 is already at the top level among self-media. Even for Mi Meng, she would have to publish 20 headline advertisements to earn 2.5 million US dollars.

At present, the largest number of up-hosts are those who share movie resources on YouTube.

Using video resources to attract fans is also a common method. Perhaps because they have figured out the characteristics of Chinese people, many up-loaders who make video resources take a different approach - commentary on third-level films.

YouTube has a corresponding rating system and an adult channel, but the commentary of Category III films does not involve pornography because key shots are censored, and YouTube almost always allows such videos.

YouTube's channel profile allows you to freely add contact information such as WeChat public accounts, and you can also add 5 links. You can freely recommend official channels such as public accounts, Twitter, and Instagram.

After reading the commentary, if you want to watch the movie further, you need to follow the up master’s WeChat public account and reply to the corresponding keywords to obtain the playback address.

It is reported that the number of views of a commentary on a Category III film can easily exceed 1 million in just a few days, and a single video can attract about 20,000 fans to a public account.

However, I personally do not encourage this method of attracting fans. The risk index is too high. YouTube will not ban you, but WeChat will not be so kind.

A self-media focusing on commenting on third-level films would easily be banned in China for the same content, which shows that YouTube's video review is relatively relaxed.

In fact, the commentary of Category III films is relatively simple among many videos, and users don’t care whether your commentary is good or not.

The most important thing is whether your words are explicit enough.

I compared the third-level film commentary channels of domestic up-masters, among which the playback volume and comment volume of female voice commentary were 18% higher than that of male voice commentary.

Therefore, lust is a common problem among men.

As for whether selling products on YouTube is effective, I can only say that it depends on personal opinion. YouTube is very similar to Bilibili, and the playback volume of soft pornography and agriculture, rural areas and farmers videos is very high.

Among the self-media people I know, many sell agricultural products and dry goods on YouTube, and their sales are very impressive. I suggest that friends who are engaged in agricultural products can give it a try.

3

Is it difficult to be a YouTuber?

It can be said to be difficult, or it can be said to be not difficult.

But it is almost impossible to make a fortune without putting in some effort.

There is an up-host in Taiwan who worked for a whole year in 2017. The total number of views (of videos with advertisements) was only 130,000, and her income was 382 US dollars, which is not even as much as her part-time job.

However, the total income of the top 10 highest-earning YouTube up-masters in the world in 2018 was 892 million yuan, with an average annual income of 89.2 million yuan per person. This includes other income, such as advertising cooperation.

In China, this is an astronomical figure.

You know, even if you put your videos on all new media platforms, it is very difficult for your cumulative annual income to exceed 1 million RMB, let alone 1 million USD.

To sum up, YouTube will be a new frontier for domestic self-media. However, my personal advice is to focus on attracting fans and make money as a secondary goal.

After all, working in new media is not an easy job, and not everyone can produce high-quality content. The best way is to take the path that suits you best.

Author: Operation Publicity Xiao Leilei

Source: Operation Publicity Xiao Leilei