A YouTube channel can get demonetized for numerous reasons and in this post I’d like to talk about 7 ways to make up the money lost for such an event, so you continue to make an income (And actually grow it).
The truth is, when you understand the potential of using other alternatives (in combination with what you’re already doing on YouTube), 2 things will happen:
1) The amount of money you can make from even one of those alternatives will dwarf what you could have made even if you still had the ability to monetize your YouTube video.
2) The truth is, the money you can make with YouTube monetization is a joke unless you are a viral content creator who gets 10,000+ views for each video they make.
Thus far, the money I’ve made on YouTube exceeds $40,000, and not a single penny of that has come from using YouTube’s monetization and I’ll be telling you how I did that shortly.
And here’s the beauty:
You don’t need to stop producing YouTube content. If anything else, with these 7 methods, and the money you can make, it’ll only make you want to make MORE videos.
The 7 alternatives to making money (if your YouTube channel has been demonetized):
- Start doing affiliate marketing on your YouTube videos.
- Set up a Patreon (or use a similar platform).
- Set up a blog site in combination with your YouTube channel.
- Create videos on other sites similar to YouTube and monetize there.
- Collect an email list from your YouTube viewers.
- Start doing sponsorships in your videos.
- Create your own product or service and market it to your YouTube viewers.
I’ve found that properly using any one of these methods can make you far more money than relying on YouTube monetization alone, and it doesn’t matter if you have a small channel or even far less views than necessary to make good money through YouTube.
Below, I will be:
- Detailing each step.
- Explaining how the potential income they can bring in dwarfs the money you’d make from YouTube monetization.
- And exactly how to integrate it into your channel so you can start seeing results now and moving forward from them.
But before I get into all of this, here’s:
An important message about diversifying your income (why you need to do it):
The ability to diversify your income in life and in this case with YouTube is necessary if you want to maintain your business.
A lot of people rely far too much on one method of making money (like YouTube monetization) and in my experience, relying on any one means of making money is risky, because if it gets pulled, so does your income.
I haven’t experienced YouTube demonetization (yet), but I have experienced PLENTY of set backs in what I do which is called affiliate marketing. I’ve had account bans (Google Ads), affiliate offers disappear, site setbacks and so forth, and in numerous cases had my income go to $0 after I was making a lot.
With YouTube, it is no different. It is a great way to make money, yes, but ANY network in my experience eventually can turn against you, for any reason, even if it isn’t your fault, so prepping for that scenario is the best thing you can do.
Why does YouTube demonetize videos?
There’s a wide range of reasons and frankly speaking, a lot of them don’t make sense in my opinion. YouTube has an official monetization TOS page here, but in my experience, they demonetize channels and videos for the following reasons:
- If you promote or advertise questionable products and services to the wrong crowds.
- If you produce content that is deemed to be “fake” by “authority sources”.
- Some people even say they are demonetized for having videos with the “wrong” political view.
- Sometimes demonetization happens without ANY reason to people who seemingly didn’t do anything wrong.
I’ve seen all of these categories play out over the years and having experienced things like account suspensions from Google Ads for instance, I know about the unfairness of it all too well. Sometimes it’s legitimate, other times it isn’t.
So while YouTube demonetization has a wide range of reasons for happening, there’s good news in all of this and that is that you shouldn’t really rely on it in the first place. Let me explain why:
Why YouTube monetization is overrated (the numbers and how little you really make):
This picture really says it all:
YouTube pays it’s creators money through it’s Adsense platform and I have found the income you can generate from this place to be extremely in most case, at least compared to what you could be making if you use the 7 methods above.
Typically, the money you can make from your videos on YouTube varies, but I’ve found it hovers around $1 for every 1,000 views your videos get (more or less).
- That means, if your videos get 50,000 views, you can make $50 for that video.
- If your video gets 500,000 views, it can make $500.
- If your video gets 1,000,000 views, it can make $1,000.
However, 99% of content creators can’t even get close to the 50,000 views a video point.
My YouTube channel for example doesn’t really get that much traffic, but because I use one or more of the methods above, I can make far more from say 100 views to a YouTube video of mine, than someone who gets 50,000 views and relies on YouTube monetization.
And what you ultimately need to understand is that YouTube monetization is pennies in compensation for your work compared to what those same videos could be making, and with that said, let’s jump into these methods so I can actually show you that:
1) Start doing affiliate marketing with your YouTube videos (this made me $40,000):
Every single bit of money I have made through YouTube has come directly from utilizing the affiliate marketing formula and here it is:
- I make YouTube videos which review products and talk about making money.
- I promote an affiliate offer or offers in the description.
- I can make far more in a single sale from this method than relying on monetization.
The numbers of doing affiliate marketing explained:
- Let’s say I make a YouTube video and it gets a measly 1,000 views.
- But I do affiliate marketing with it and get paid $10 per sale.
- My video gets me 5 sales, and I end up making $50 for it.
Now if I relied on YouTube monetization alone, then this would happen:
- A 1,000 views to my video would only make me $1. The end.
So with affiliate marketing, even if I had made just 1 sale ($10), that would still be 10x more than with the monetization option.
How to integrate affiliate marketing to your YouTube channel:
1) If you already have a YouTube channel and some subscribers, you may be able to sign up with affiliate programs without having a website. While some affiliate networks will require it, your YouTube channel should be enough to get the green light.
2) You can easily start integrating affiliate promotions in your existing videos.
3) Your future videos can also include affiliate promotions in the descriptions.
4) Click here to see a thorough guide to affiliate marketing on YouTube.
5) Later on you can expand the same method and start using YouTube ads to further improve your income.
2) Use Patreon (or similar) to compensate your YouTube income:
Patreon is a good way to basically have people donate or sponsor your YouTube channel and a lot of content creators I follow on YouTube utilize this website.
Some have moved to similar places like it, but it doesn’t change the fact that if you produce good content on YouTube, that with a Patreon set up alongside it, you can make just as much if not more than you could with YouTube monetization alone.
I personally do not use this option, but many successful content creators do, so you may want to consider this.
The numbers of using Patreon on a YouTube channel:
1) Let’s say you get 50 sponsors who pay you $1 a month for the videos you crank out.
2) You then have a passive income of $50 from using this method alone.
3) Compared to YouTube monetization, you’d need to get 50,000 views on your channel monthly to make that income and if you aren’t even close to getting those views, Patreon might be a great option to consider.
How to integrate Patreon to your YouTube channel:
1) Sign up with Patreon and get approved first.
2) If you do get approved, use the link and put it in your YouTube videos that are already up.
3) For future videos, mention the Patreon and that it’s in the description to increase the number of donations/sponsors.
3) Set up a blog to compliment your YouTube channel:
While my overall YouTube views hover around 100,000 views in total so far (it’s really nothing), the blogs I’ve made for years have exceeded millions of clicks and views, so I know about this particular method very well.
One thing I’ve begun doing is making YouTube videos and blog posts on the same exact subjects. What this does is has my blog rank on search engines to bring me in extra traffic and I can monetize several ways from that on it’s own:
1) I can do affiliate marketing on the blog. In fact, $800,000 if not more of my affiliate income earnings come from this.
2) I can even run Adsense ads on the blog (basically blog monetization which is almost like YouTube).
3) I can embed my YouTube videos on the blog, so first time visitors who come to my site and don’t know about my YouTube channel or videos, see them, click them, get them extra views and make me more sales on the back end.
The numbers of using a blog to compliment your YouTube channel/business:
- If my blog can get 1,000 clicks organically, and I can make 10 sales from say an affiliate promotion that pays $20, that’s $200.
- Comparatively, you already know what 1,000 views on a YouTube video will bring from monetization ($1).
How to integrate blogging to your YouTube business:
Start a blog and basically create written content similar to what you already do with visual content on YouTube. You can check out my blog posts here and what you’ll find is I also often make YouTube videos on the same subjects I talk about in my blog.
You’re basically making the same kind of content, but are expanding it into other online realms, which in this case are search engines beyond YouTube, so you can get more traffic and subsequently make more from that overtime.
4) Create videos on platforms outside of YouTube:
A huge chunk of people who have either been demonetized on YouTube and/or even banned, have moved to other platforms to compensate for this loss, and some of those places include sites like:
- Odysee.com
- Vimeo.com
- Rumble.com
- Dailymotion.com
- Even Pinterest (yes you can make videos there too).
You likely won’t get as much traffic from these other sites (yet) like you would from YouTube, BUT if you integrate things like affiliate marketing on the other platforms, you can basically do the same thing as you would on YouTube, and just make more from utilizing these other platforms.
The numbers:
It’s hard to give you numbers here, but by doing something like affiliate marketing on platforms outside of YouTube, you can basically make a ton more overall than relying on YouTube monetization alone.
How to integrate this method into your existing business:
- You can basically make the same videos on the other platforms to attract more traffic to your content.
- You can also link back the video content you make on these other platforms to your blog to have it grow more and make more.
5) Collect an email list from your YouTube subscribers and viewers:
If you currently have a fairly large subscriber base on YouTube, you may want to consider making a small investment in an autoresponder program and telling your YouTube viewers to sign up for something like an email newsletter.
Doing so, may bring a safety net to your subscriber base in case YouTube ever shut down your channel and help you continue to communicate and promote to your audience outside the YouTube realm.
With this method you are basically moving your viewers and subscribers to another platform outside of YouTube and in this case, having an email list with these people would be safer to keep as you can directly communicate with them while not having to worry about all of YouTube’s existing or future TOS changes.
As for making money, again, affiliate marketing is something I’d consider and contacting your subscribers directly via email is an awesome way to do it. Through YouTube, you can only make a video telling them to buy something, but via email, you can directly reach them and have great chances of making many sales, and even 1 would equate to a lot of YouTube viewers.
How to integrate email marketing into your YouTube business:
1) Get a cheap but reliable autoresponder like Aweber.
2) Let your existing and future YouTube viewers know you are setting one up and recommend their sign up so you can keep in touch.
3) Then depending on what type of videos you make, you can email them with updates on your channel, blog or whatever you are promoting to them.
4) For example, let’s say you’re a gamer and you get 100,000 views a month on your channel. If you can get at least 1,000 subscribers to sign up to your email list, and then promote some sort of gaming accessory that pays $10 a sale, you can promote that to them directly and make sales that way. More details on doing email marketing in combination with affiliate marketing.
6) Sponsorships:
This is a method I personally do not like, but a lot of YouTubers I know do use it. Basically they get compensated by a company or third party for simply mentioning the product or service and it’s a good option to use if you’ve already been demonetized.
The numbers:
Depending on the sponsorship you get involved with, you may get paid a set amount for making 1 video or get paid based on how many viewers see that video.
I don’t have specific numbers, but I can tell you that a sponsorship will pay you far more than a monetized YouTube video will in 99% of cases.
How to integrate sponsorships to your YouTube channel:
1) Normally if your channel grows to a certain point, it’ll get offers automatically.
2) You can also contact certain companies whose products you wish to promote and see if they’ll accept you.
Personally, I’d advise focusing on growing your YouTube channel and then waiting for sponsors to reach out to you. This makes the approval process far more likely.
7) Create your own product/service and promote it to your YouTube viewers:
Think of the last method as basically doing a form of affiliate marketing, but it’s your product and not some third party promotion.
The numbers:
Let’s say for instance that I make videos on how to create a successful and profitable blog, and overtime accumulate 10,000 YouTube subscribers and average 500 views per video.
500 views equate to only $0.50 per video if my videos are even monetized, BUT with this option, let’s say I create a PDF for $20 which provides a full course on making a profitable blog, and then promote it.
If I can make 50 sales of this eBook a month from YouTube, I can earn $1,000 every month passively. $1,000 potentially vs $1 or more per video in monetization is a stark difference in earnings, no?
How to integrate this method into your YouTube business:
You’d first need to decide what kind of product you want to make and I’d start with digital products like eBooks, and using the example above, go from there.
If you can’t think of anything you can make, stick to the first method of affiliate marketing since the product is made for you. While the amount you get paid there isn’t as much, it’s still better than relying on YouTube monetization.
This guide to alternate ways to make money if you’ve been demonetized isn’t a substitute:
Despite every method I just showed you having more potential to make you money than with monetization methods alone, it’s not meant to be a substitute. It’s just meant to help you see and grow your YouTube business outside the realms of monetization, which I already explained pays very well.
If you have been demonetized and want to appeal that decision, you can do that through the YouTube monetization appeals page here. And while I do recommend you combine YouTube monetization with these other methods, I advise you NOT rely on YouTube solely.
Whether you can remonetize your channel or not, does not change the fact that the carpet can still be pulled out from under you at any point when you create content on a platform which has the power to pull the plug at any point, and having experienced such events in time doing online work, I have become very careful and diversified with how I make money online.
If you are also seeking to create an awesome online business that makes serious, passive income like I do, then you can actually learn all of the skills necessary for that through programs like Wealthy Affiliate, which taught me all of this stuff. It’s a program that’ll help you learn how to build a great online business!