When it comes to making money online, the possibilities are practically endless! The good news? They can also be lucrative. Studies have shown the average person spends 100 minutes a day watching videos online, with more than 44% of internet users watching vlogs each month. That’s a lot of video consumption! With so much media consumption, savvy folks are finding ways to monetize vlog content.
We don’t want to hog all the info, so we’re sharing it with you in our list of five ways to make money vlogging. Read on, and learn how you could boost your digital presence and leverage your expertise to make money online.
How Can You Make Money Online Vlogging?
It may sound complicated, but the fact is there are lots of folks already monetizing video content like vlogs across different platforms. Whether it’s via your own site (more on that later!) or monetizing a vlog using YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or other social media platforms, you can make money online, too!
Vlogging and other Internet-based ventures may earn anyone a few hundred bucks to more than $1 million a year. For example, super creators like Jimmy Donaldson (aka MrBeast), boast over 160 million subscribers with a net worth of $25 million. That doesn’t mean you have to be top of the content creator list to make money, though. Accounts with smaller followings like The Comedy Button pull in upwards of $13K per month from just over 5k Patreon patrons with 22K YouTube subscribers.
Wherever you are in your vlogging journey, we have top strategies to help you start turning your video content into online profits.
How to Make Money Vlogging
Ready to boost your online presence and make money online? We thought so! Learning how to make money vlogging means getting creative and thinking outside the trough. Getting started can be as easy as:
- Participating in affiliate marketing programs
- Finding vlog sponsorship opportunities
- Monetizing content using your expertise
- Asking for donations from followers
- Branding content with a website
Participating in Affiliate Marketing Programs
Participating in affiliate marketing programs is one of the most common ways to make money online and monetize your video content. After you’ve built up enough of a following with high-quality content, you may be able to partner with affiliate brands (like Amazon or other businesses) to link to their products in exchange for a commission on sales conversions.
To maximize your potential of bringing in the bacon, select affiliate items that you believe in and align with your brand. If you’re creating vlog content about weddings, for example, it makes sense to partner with an affiliate program and include links to products like wedding jewelry, shoes, and planning materials. Your audience is unlikely to click and buy office supplies on the same site, though. Moral of the story? Stay on brand and be selective to boost your success!
A great example of affiliate marketing done right is RVCamping.tv. They are a team of passionate campers who discovered the RV lifestyle in 2016 and turned to vlogging to help others who were interested in exploring RV-life. This site publishes vlog content promoting different RV camping equipment and participates in affiliate marketing with Amazon. These products appear on the site’s gear promotion pages, where they test out different RV- or camping-related products, then include links and promote the products.
Finding Vlog Sponsorship Opportunities
Finding vlog sponsorship opportunities is another way to make money online. Partnering with other companies to sponsor your content creation helps with production costs and lets you start to make money online no matter how many clicks you gather from the content. A report conducted by Influencer and Marketing Hub has shown that companies’ expenditures on sponsored content can reach as high as $6.5 billion in 2019, increasing by 41% compared to that in 2018. Sponsorships can be an effective way to make money online consistently, but you have to create high-quality video content that converts if you want to keep your sponsors.
To attract sponsors, you want to define your online content format and distribution channels. Make a list of all possible vlog formats including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram Reels, newsletters, and more. Like with affiliate marketing, you must clearly disclose to your audience that the content has been sponsored and by which company, according to the Federal Trade Commission regulations.
Lightbeam.tv — a video production, distribution, and streaming company — creates micro-documentaries to connect brands through authentic storytelling. To fund their docuseries, Lightbeam works with sponsors like Hear Me Raw and Yola. Lightbeam also advertises the opportunity for brand partnerships on their website, calling out their science-based, authentic, and trustworthy approach to video production with the goal of leaving a lasting impact on local communities.
Monetizing Content Using Your Expertise
If you already own a mature business with a successful brand, then you have established credibility. With that, you can pitch services to potential clients, develop online learning courses, or provide consulting services with your knowledge. Monetize video content using your expertise in different formats like online workshops, webinars, pre-recorded materials, or other content-based products like downloadable worksheets. Establishing an online course program can help build up your brand as a trustworthy authority within your industry while also bringing in an income without having to recreate your product over and over.
For those new to creating video content or hosting live courses, simply being upfront goes a long way for building credibility and a loyal audience. For example, if you’re hosting your first webinar on a new platform, like Zoom or Hopin, you can give your students a heads up, “I have been a startup bookkeeper for more than 10 years but I’ve never brought my expertise to a webinar like this, so I appreciate your patience as I test this new format. It’ll be worth it!”
The average price of the standard online course is $137. Another survey found that short courses can be as affordable as $50 or less, while more in-depth curriculums can fetch as much as $1,500. Remember to set up a “Hire Me” page on your website to let your audience know you offer services.
The site for LearnForex.tv is an example of monetizing video content leveraging experience. LearnForex brands themselves as experts in the Forex Trading space. Their head analyst, Bharat Pandya, has over 10 years of experience in Forex trading and has headed multiple FX departments. The company has had over 1,000 live sessions with over 3,000 clients! They offer individual mentorship, live sessions, real-time market alerts, and a traders’ forum for individuals looking to get their start in Forex trading. LearnForex also provides a variety of downloadable courses starting at $15/class.
Unsure which of your talents and areas of expertise could help you monetize video content and make money online? Some popular areas of interest include: website design, graphic design, writing and editing, career consultation, social media marketing, branding, SEO and marketing, etc. You can also get really creative with topics such as: gardening, watercolor, interior design, building a small business, or cooking classes. The possibilities are endless!
Asking for Donations to Support Your Vlog
If you’re an independent vlogger, it’s not uncommon to ask viewers for donations to help support your endeavor. When you grow your business as well as your viewership, you may try monthly donation drives with several affordable options depending on different levels of services you offer. Another option is to establish a membership model where you offer members additional services and resources outside of what regular viewers can access.
ICanMakeThat.tv is a site run by Darin Beard, a home improvement DIY-er who specializes in woodworking, cabinets, shop furniture, and at-home upgrades. When he launched his channel in 2016, Darin reached out to his followers for support. He leveraged his website to ask for one-time and monthly donations to continue buying materials so that he could create new content.
Branding Content with a Website
Platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram make it easy to upload content and build followers, but you’re also held to their video specifications, algorithms and audience demographics. Wouldn’t it be great to own a personal platform to house all your videos regardless of platform? Imagine your YouTube product reviews, sortable alongside your Instagram Reel DIY clips – a single place to showcase all your work and expertise as you build your brand online.
Pairing your social media presence with a strong branded website legitimizes your brand much more. The ability to showcase your content and engage with your community of followers in your branded space is vital for turning a vlog into a business and making money online. Be sure to follow brand website user experience tips to give them the ultimate interaction with your brand, however, or you may find interest waning.
Pro Tip: The Porkbun link in bio service is the perfect way to set up a seamless flow from your social media to your brand site. To grow and increase brand revenue, consider integrating a merch shop into your site or offering a newsletter with sponsored ad slots, too.
Whether you’re a vlogger, a YouTuber, a streamer, an Instagram influencer, or a TikTok star – there are endless ways to make money online by monetizing video content. We live in a multi-screen world where content is being created and consumed every second of every day. New domain extensions like .TV are made for content creators to share their creativity with the world.
Take ownership of your brand with a .TV domain name and share your video content with the world!