Image credit: Jenny Ueberberg

YouTube is a great place to monetize your content, however there are some prerequisites you will need to reach first.

Creating content on YouTube is a great way to generate income and is used by creators and musicians alike. However, you can’t just hop on to YouTube, create any content and wait for the money to flow. There are certain criteria you need to be able to achieve before YouTube will start paying you for your content.

To get paid by YouTube, you will need to generate $100 or more from views, and to achieve this you will need to hit 20,000 views to receive roughly $5 per 1,000 views. To make this happen, YouTube created the YouTube Partner Program, which allows you to get paid through advertisements on your videos. To join this you will need the following:

  • Have at least 1000 subscribers
  • Reach 4000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months
  • Sign and agree to the terms and conditions
  • Have an AdSense account
  • Get reviewed and approved

Once you’re in the partner’s program you can start generating income through advertisements. This is done in two ways, either cost per thousand views (CPM) or cost per click (CPC). With CPM, you can earn money based on every 1,000 views you accumulate, while with CPC, you can earn money based on the number of people that click on the ad placed on your page or video.

However, it’s worth noting that Google will give you 68% of the revenue when displaying ads with AdSense. So, for example, if a video generates $1,000 from AdSense revenue, you will receive $680.