The biggest frustration I’ve noticed from YouTubers is their difficulty in getting the required minimum of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time in order to get their channel monetized by AdSense.
Many new YouTuber today put too much focus on these minimum requirements that they forget their main purpose of starting a YouTube channel in the first place.
Now, let me be clear.
Starting a YouTube channel is not a sprint race. It’s more like a marathon race and requires time, effort and some love to make it work.
So, your first focus when starting a YouTube channel is to find what makes you tick with your audience.
In other words, what content does your audience love the most? What content generates the most views? What content do you enjoy producing the most?
That should tell you where to focus your channel for maximum impact and growth.
A Different Route
Now, it is not a must to produce original content and reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time before you can start making money on YouTube.
There are many YouTubers with less than 500 subscribers who are making more money than you can imagine.
And guess what?
Their content is not even original. They find a niche or interest category, and then aggregate the best content for their audience.
Aggregation is just simply putting together a compilation of the best content in one category.
You can do aggregation in music, comedy, sports, etc.
There are many people doing this on YouTube and they are making a killing without using AdSense or any As network.
The most important thing is to have content that can go viral and get watched by a lot of people.
Subscribers alone cannot make your content go viral. Rather, viral content brings subscribers.
I’ve seen YouTube videos with over 1 million views on channels with less than 1k subscribers.
But as the video gets watched the more, the number of subscribers on the channel continues to increase.
A Little Backstory
In case you didn’t know, I’m a die-hard fan of Liverpool FC. I love watching this football club play even in my sleep.
There is a channel I follow on YouTube that posts aggregated videos about Liverpool matches, highlights and reactions.
Now guess what?
None of the videos posted belong to the owner of that channel.
They simply aggregate videos around a theme and post them on the channel, and the videos are very interesting to watch.
My favorite video on that channel is the best of Mohammed Salah 2018/2019. It was full of magical moments and skillful displays from the Liverpool FC enigma.
But again, guess what?
None of the videos in that compilation belongs to that YouTube Channel, yet they are making loads of money selling Liverpool FC merchandise such as branded kits, rare images, paid subscription, etc.
Now, you can see the possibilities on YouTube if you really know what you are doing.
Making Money on YouTube Without Google Adsense
With the knowledge of alternative ways to monetize your YouTube channel, let’s take a look at a few methods.
It doesn’t matter the niche you decide to start a channel in, what matters is your ability to create a unique video concept that people are happy to watch.
And then you start Monetizing your channel immediately with any of these methods.
Sell Your Own Products
The best alternative way to monetize your YouTube channel without Google AdSense is to sell your own products.
It’s not as hard as many people make it to be.
You could start by selling t-shirts and other branded items to subscribers who love your content.
It’s as simple as purchasing plain t-shirts of different colors and printing your Channel brand name on it.
Once you get an order paid, you ship it using FedEx or other courier companies and keep your profit.
If you feel like printing brand items and shipping is a lot of work, then you can just open a Patreon account and ask for donations to support your content.
Get Direct Advertisers
If your videos have a lot of engagement, then many brands would be interested in paying you for direct advertisement.
It doesn’t matter how many subscribers you have on the channel.
As long as your videos get a lot of views and comments, it shows that you are doing something right and your audience are engaging with you.
Now, all you have to do is find a brand or company that offers a product or service in your focus industry, and pitch them to advertise with your channel.
You can draw out a list of advertisers and send them your proposal. If some of them become interested, then you have some good pay in your hands.
Do CPA Marketing
If you cannot find the right advertiser for whatever reason, then you can just incorporate the good old CPA Marketing and make money from your YouTube channel.
CPA stands for Cost Per Action. That means, you’ll get paid for whatever action your audience takes.
It could be visiting a website, filling forms, answering surveys, or data input.
If you have an engaged audience, then you can find a good CPA platform online and refer them to it.
The stronger your relationship with your audience, the more they would be willing to do whatever you ask them to do.
So, you have to build that relationship first before launching your CPA Marketing.
Grow A Network
Most people do not realize that you can grow a network from a YouTube channel.
I’ve seen social communities built right from YouTube in the areas of gaming, autos, fashion, lifestyle, education, business, dating, religion, etc.
If you want to start a new movement or network about a unique ideology and then monetize that network on some other platform, then you can do that via YouTube.
Incorporate Agency Business
Another great way to monetize your YouTube channel is to incorporate Agency business into it.
Agency business is simply referring people to buy something, and then you receive a commission per sale.
It is just like affiliate marketing, but you will have direct contact with the product or service provider.
To do this, you can find a business or company selling a product or service that is linked to your area of focus.
Simply get the partnership agreed and start promoting the company’s products or services
Launch A New Channel
One thing most new YouTubers don’t know is that you can use one channel to grow another one.
You could build a viral channel with other people’s videos and then direct that audience to grow a new channel with original videos.
This is not new and is considered a YouTube growth hack by savvy YouTubers.
You can use this method to quickly grow a new YouTube channel and reach the minimum requirements of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time if you want.