How to make money on YouTube in Uganda.
YouTube stars are today’s celebrities—people who have earned an audience by creating video content geared toward teaching, entertaining, reviewing, and being awesome on the web.
Making money on YouTube might not be your reason for starting a channel, but the opportunities to earn are a pleasant surprise once you realize how many of them there are.
Luckily, there are some creative avenues if you want to learn how to make money on YouTube.
Your audience might unlock your YouTube channel’s earning potential, as is often the case with Instagram influencers or bloggers. Still, it’s the creation of multiple revenue streams, through side hustles or businesses, that helps you make money.
To start earning money directly through YouTube, you must have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past year.
Once you reach either of those, you can apply to YouTube’s Partner Program and monetize your channel.
One area where you can make money as a beginner with a small number of subscribers is affiliate marketing.
Niches like food reviews, product openings, and top [X] lists are popular topics for YouTubers. You can earn money when they purchase affiliate products from your video, versus an ad click or video view.
Related: How to make money on TikTok in Uganda
So how can one start a YouTube channel and make money off it;
Step 1. Become a YouTube Partner.
The first revenue stream you’ll likely explore is ads.
Whether you want to earn money on YouTube without creating videos or as a content creator, joining the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) and setting up monetization is a vital step.
You’ll have to agree to follow all of YouTube’s monetization policies and live in a country or region where the YPP is available.
You can then apply for monetization once you hit 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the past year, or 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views within the past 90 days.
Here’s how to enable monetization on YouTube:
- Sign in to the YouTube account you want to monetize.
- Click the icon for your account in the top right corner.
- Click YouTube Studio.
- In the left menu, select Other Features > Monetization.
- Read and agree to the YouTuber Partner Program terms and eligibility requirements.
- Create a new Google AdSense account or connect an existing one to your channel. (You need an AdSense account to get paid.)
- Set your monetization preferences.
Once that’s done, head back to the dashboard and click the Analytics tab on the left side.
From there, you’ll need to choose Revenue from the tabs at the top, then scroll down to the chart Monthly Estimated Revenue to get an idea of your predicted YouTube revenue.
Please Note that your content may get excluded from ad revenue if YouTube deems it not fit.
Content not fit for YouTube includes the following;
- Violent, including displays of serious injury and events related to violent extremism.
- Inappropriate language, including harassment, profanity, and vulgar language.
- Sexually suggestive, including partial nudity and sexual humour.
- Promotional of drugs and regulated substances, including selling, use, and abuse of such items.
- Even if graphic imagery is not shown, avoid controversial or sensitive events and subjects such as war, political conflicts, natural disasters, and tragedies.
YouTube has been demonetizing content it doesn’t deem advertiser-friendly since 2012 via an automated process. It was originally done without warning and the content creator’s knowledge.
Now, creators are notified when their content is flagged and can contest any time they feel a video was mistakenly excluded from YouTube’s advertising network.
Step 2. Sell your own products.
Step two on how to make money on YouTube in Uganda is through selling your own products.
You can sell many different products to make money through your YouTube channel. Once you have built yourself a brand name on YouTube, you can start selling your own products.
Merchandise increases your exposure by putting your online brand and personality out into the offline world, and deepens the relationship between you and your fans as they literally “buy” into what you’re doing.
Selling branded swag is easier than it might seem at first. You can order affordable designs tailored to specific products, like t-shirts, using freelance sites like Fiverr.
You can even go a step further by manufacturing and selling your own unique products and powering your business through your YouTube channel like Luxy Hair did to sell its hair extensions with hair-related how-to video tutorials.
Step 3. Let your audience support you.
As a creator, you’re contributing your voice to the internet without forcing your audience to pay for admission. So, if you’re offering good content, your audience might be inclined to support you on an ongoing basis.
You can also set up “fan funding” streams to source donations from your audience.
Many fan-funding platforms offer creators a place for people to discover their content and a way to engage their most loyal audience and reward them for their support.
If you choose the crowdfunding route, be sure to follow a couple of best practices. First, create transparency around how the money will be spent.
This will get your fanbase invested in your story or mission, and they will literally buy into the value of your content.
Second, offer enticing rewards for better pledges. The more you can make donors feel like they’re getting something exclusive for being a loyal fan, the more likely you will get donations and higher pledges.
Step 4. License your content to the media.
Though this may not apply in Uganda now, there is hope it will soon come once the copyright law has been amended.
If you happen to create a viral video with mass appeal—say, a funny clip featuring your dog—you can license your content in exchange for money.
TV news outlets, morning shows, online news sites, and other creators might reach out about the rights to use your videos if they happen to go viral.
You can also list your videos in a marketplace, such as Jukin Licensing, where your content will be easier for the right people to find and purchase.
Step 5. Become an influencer.
Brands are investing more and more in influencer marketing and sponsorships, spending their typically large advertising budgets on influencers who’ve already won the loyalty of their audiences.
After spending time on YouTube and building yourself a brand, companies can hire you as an influencer to run their ads and promote their products via your YouTube channel.
This creates a massive opportunity for you as a creator if you can negotiate the right deals.
According to data from WebFX, the potential prices for influencer marketing on YouTube are:
- $20 per video for a YouTuber with 1,000 subscribers
- $200 per video for a YouTuber with 10,000 subscribers
- $2,000 per video for a YouTuber with 100,000 subscribers
- $20,000 per video for a YouTuber with 1,000,000 subscribers
Depending on your leverage—your audience demographics, content quality, and how unique and profitable your niche is—you might be able to negotiate a better deal if the brand is a good fit.
The key when partnering on brand-sponsored content is to be transparent about it, not endorsing anything you don’t actually like or believe in, and being upfront with your audience about why you’re doing it.
Step 6. Become an affiliate marketer
Last but not least how to make money on YouTube in Uganda is through Affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing refers to earning a commission by promoting a product or service made by another brand.
You can become an affiliate marketer for brands and include product placements, endorsements, or other types of content.
However, you must disclose the partnerships to viewers in your videos.
This works especially well if you review products as part of your YouTube channel.
Since there’s no risk involved on the brand’s end (they only pay when they make sales), there’s usually a low bar to getting started.
ClickBank is a popular affiliate program offering 1% to 90% commission, depending on what the vendor sets.
You can also reach out to brands in your niche that are running their own affiliate programs, which isn’t uncommon in the e-commerce space.
How many views do you need on YouTube to make money in Uganda?
The average YouTube channel receives around 18¢ per view, which equals $180 per 1,000 views, according to data from Influencer Marketing Hub.
The number of views you get doesn’t correlate to revenue earned. If your video gets thousands of views but no one watches or clicks on the ad, you won’t make any money.
This is because of YouTube’s criteria for billing advertisers: a viewer must click an ad or watch the video ad in full (10, 15, or 30 seconds) for you to get paid.
y when they purchase affiliate products from your video, versus an ad click or video view.
How much money do YouTubers in the world make per year?
The top YouTubers have tens of millions of followers each. Accounts include MrBeast, Like Nastya, Dude Perfect, and JuegaGerman.
These YouTubers earn upward of $28.5 million per year through their channels. While what they earn is enormous, smaller accounts can still earn a living on YouTube.
How do YouTubers get paid?
Data from Forbes shows that the top YouTube earners make 50% of their annual income from ads.
You can set up an AdSense account and enable monetization once you create a YouTube channel. You only get paid once you reach $100 in your AdSense account.
YouTube channels can be monetized even if they don’t have millions of subscribers. Your earning potential isn’t determined solely by the number of subscribers and views you have, but also by the level of engagement you generate, the niche you cater to, and the revenue channels you explore.
Tips for selling on YouTube
Many of the above strategies for monetizing involve promoting products or campaigns (e.g., crowdfunding a video series).
But you’ll want to make sure your promotions don’t sabotage the integrity of your high-quality content.
“Selling out” is a genuine concern for a lot of creators. But if you never ask, you’ll never get it. There are a number of “placements” you can choose from for promoting products or campaigns.
Understand your audience on YouTube
Building your own audience puts you in a great position to monetize content in a variety of ways.
But you’ll only be able to take full advantage of the opportunities you have if you understand the makeup of your audience.
For many YouTubers looking to monetize, the more niche your channel, the better position you’ll be in to work with brands looking to target specific audiences (more on that later).
You’ll want to pay close attention to:
- The gender of your audience, to see if it skews toward one particular group
- The age range most of your audience falls into
- The geographic location—countries or cities—where your videos are being watched
- Your audience’s overall engagement, or “watch time”
With this demographic information at hand, you’ll have a better understanding of your own audience and be able to work better with brands.
All demographic insight can be pulled from your YouTube analytics, but to compare your own channel against others, try a tool like Social Blade.
Record a call to action in your videos
“If you liked this video, then hit the Like button and subscribe.”
Many YouTubers include a call to action along those lines at the end of their videos to grow their viewership.
By suggesting the intended action you want them to take, your audience is more likely to take it.
You can adapt this approach to direct your audience’s attention to a revenue-generating opportunity.
Add well-timed YouTube cards to your videos
Whether it’s part of your deal with a brand or you’re promoting your own products, info cards (formerly YouTube Cards) offer an eye-catching way to get the attention of engaged viewers.
Use free video editing software to add a pop-up at just the right moment, when they’re most relevant and least distracting, to increase their impact.
Add links in your video descriptions
You can funnel viewers to your store, Patreon page, Kickstarter campaign, or other revenue-focused part of your online presence by adding links to your video descriptions.
If you’re a video creator who wants to focus on generating revenue as an affiliate marketer, look at Unbox Therapy. Unbox Therapy specializes in product reviews, and it uses affiliate links in its video descriptions to make money via YouTube audiences.
If you’re creating videos about your own products and you own or manage a Shopify store, you can incentivize new customers to buy your products with “buy X get Y” promotions or discounts.
Promote your offer on other platforms
Just because your content is hosted on YouTube doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be taking advantage of all the other distribution channels out there.
Spread the word about new campaigns or discounts on Twitter, Facebook, and any other profiles you own.
The more places your message lives, the greater the chance it’ll be seen. So it’s always a good idea to grow your following beyond YouTube with social media marketing.
Your Turn…
How to make money on YouTube in Uganda. What compels most creators to create is rarely money. It’s the thought of making something for the world to enjoy.
Many famous YouTubers started out with humble beginnings, like MrBeast, who started at the age of 13 under the handle MrBeast6000; his early content ranged from Let’s Plays to “videos estimating the wealth of other YouTubers.”
But ironically, that puts creators in a great position to actually make money in a content-obsessed world.
While the hard part for many businesses is getting and keeping their audience’s attention, YouTubers have already figured that bit out.
All that’s left is to get creative and channel the entrepreneurial drive to explore ideas with how you choose to monetize your audience and your passion.
That’s all about how to make money on YouTube in Uganda.
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