Creators of some of the most successful videos in history never thought they would go viral. At the same time, there’s always an army of those who are desperately attempting to create a sensation. The highest-paid YouTubers are both creatives and business people.
One of the ways to measure the success of a video – or any other piece of online content – is the number of likes. The creators whose video clips consistently have a large number of likes generally earn more than those that don’t. Does that mean that the more likes you have the more you earn? Do YouTubers get paid for likes?
The answer is: yes and no. Yes, the overall number of (genuine!) likes does result in more money for the YouTuber. And no, they don’t automatically get paid for likes.
How Do YouTubers Get Paid for Likes?
The number of likes, shares, and comments has a massive effect on search rankings, which, in turn, leads to more traffic – and more likes. Likes are a kind of engagement that fuels this dynamic. The more you have, the better for you.
But even if your videos have millions of likes, you won’t get a cent if you don’t do something with it. Luckily, there’s an ever-increasing number of ways to monetize your YouTube channel, and we’ve covered them all.
How YouTube Measures Success
Some ten years ago, the number of views was the key metric for a YouTube video ranking. However, the view count was not an optimal way to measure the success and quality of a video. For example, it was possible to use a misleading title to make people watch a video, or just to start watching it. Once viewers realize they’re being tricked, they just leave and watch something else. As a result, an ad attached to a video like that would rarely get viewed, so it was clear that YouTube had to use other types of metrics.
There was another reason for this shift in metrics. Some extremely popular videos used to (and still do) include hate speech, racism, and controversial topics. A large number of marketers objected to this, and YouTube eventually had to stop recommending those videos in search.
Instead of simple view counts, YouTube introduced another metric: the length of time people spend watching a video. Clips and series that kept viewer’s attention for a prolonged time were evidence of success.
The new metric had a downside, too. Creators began trying to make their videos as long as possible, and the easiest way to do that was to delay the key message of the video as much as you can without letting the viewer get bored.
On top of that, most YouTubers were not able to create and publish the same number of videos and keep the upload frequency that they used to have when they created shorter videos. Luckily, YouTube metrics kept evolving.
Today, the position in search results is directly linked with two key factors: user queries and behavior. This includes user engagement – shares, comments, and likes.
How YouTube Decides Which Videos to Recommend to Whom
Viewer behavior has a great impact on your video’s success. No matter how interesting or popular a video is, it will never be shown to someone who has never watched anything similar.
YouTube knows what we watch and gives us recommendations based on it. This is why your neighbor’s homepage is not the same as yours, and neither is the YouTube homepage of your teenage cousin.
No two YouTube homepages are the same. They’re shaped by our watching habits. In the same way, viewer watching habits determine whether any of your videos will be shown to them.
In addition to people’s watching habits and explicit feedback (such as “not interested”), factors that define the way YouTube ranks and recommends videos include:
- How often do you upload videos (consistency is key)
- Date of upload
- The speed of becoming popular
User queries are super important. The more often people search for a video with certain keywords and phrases, the more it will be shown to others, as well. That’s why it’s critical to write captivating video descriptions.
YouTube’s algorithm constantly strives to understand what everyday people love to watch, who are their favorite YouTubers, and then to give that content an advantage by recommending it to other people who share a similar taste. But ultimately, it turns out that keywords are just as important as the quality of the video.
What’s Like Got to Do with It
To return to our initial question: do YouTubers get paid for likes? And what’s the purpose of likes, anyway? While no one is paid directly for the number of likes, the purpose of likes is to measure the popularity of a video. A high number of likes will enhance the number of visits to your channel.
YouTube’s algorithm is based on AI. It learns from our responses. When we like or dislike a video, we’re providing information on the quality and potential of that video. If many people like a video, YouTube interprets it as an encouragement to recommend this video to more people.
It’s no wonder why YouTubers urge their audience to like and share their video and subscribe to their channel. Likes are important.
How to Increase the Number of Likes
It’s clear that you need to try to get as many likes as possible. Luckily, there are many ways to increase this important number.
- Ask your viewers to like your video. But do it carefully, so that you don’t come across as a pushy person. If someone has watched your video till the end, it’s safe to assume that they actually like it. So the best moment to ask them for likes is near the end of the video. You can also let them know how much likes mean to you. Your fans can support you without spending a single cent.
- Make it simple for your viewers to give you likes. Include subtle prompts in your video, but be careful not to annoy the viewers.
- Promote your videos on social media platforms – whenever you have a lot of followers, there’s a chance to turn some of them into YouTube subscribers.
- Advertise your video. You’ll spend some money, yes, but it will increase your chances of earning much more on the videos that you promote.
How to Make Money on YouTube in 2021
As we’ve already seen, likes are just a metric that allows you to earn more – if you know how to monetize them. Let’s see how you can hustle to make your dream a reality and make a living filming.
Even if your original intent when you decided to make a YouTube channel was never to make money out of it, the opportunity to earn some cash by doing what you love can’t be ignored. We all have to make money one way or another. Getting paid for what we love allows us to spend more time doing exactly that.
Videos are not monetized by default. If you already have lots of likes and subscribers, you may wish to use ads or sign up for YouTube Premium.
There are many ways to make money on YouTube, and you don’t have to have millions of subscribers. Actually, fewer subscribers and genuine engagement are more valuable than lots of inactive subscribers (who can be bought but bring no value whatsoever). The approximate number of subscribers that you should have depends on the niche and the sources of income.
Making Money on YouTube Doesn’t Always Mean Getting Paid by YouTube
High-earning YouTubers typically sell their own products. Before they started selling, they had spent lots of time and put in effort to build their audience. Once you’ve defined your target audience and got to know their taste and needs, you’ll be able to build a valuable subscriber list. Monetization is the next step.
What’s the YouTube Partner Program and How to Join It
The YouTube Partner Program offers a chance to earn money through ads. You can join it once your viewers have watched your videos for at least 4,000 hours in the previous year and you’ve reached a thousand subscribers. You also need to be located in a region that’s covered by the YouTube Partner Program.
If you’ve met those conditions, you can enable monetization by clicking on YouTube Studio (under My Account), going to Other Features, and choosing Monetization. In order to get paid, you’d also need a Google AdSense account.
You can find your Monthly Estimated Revenue under the Analytics tab. However, the number of views is not a guarantee that you’ll earn anything at all. You’ll only earn cash through the Partnership program if people click on ads and watch them in full. When a viewer decides to skip an ad, that means that its creator won’t receive anything for them watching the video.
Ads have lots of advantages, but that’s a major disadvantage. Luckily, this is not the only way to make money on YouTube.
YouTube Premium and How to Make Money on YouTube Without Ads
If you’re not thrilled with the idea that advertiser creativity is more important than your own, you should check out YouTube Premium.
With YouTube Premium, people can enjoy videos that aren’t interrupted by ads. Premium users pay for a monthly membership. The more they watch your content, the greater portion of their membership money goes your way.
Of course, you can participate in the Partnership Program and still be paid when Premium users watch your videos. However, focusing on ads is probably not the best idea. YouTube excludes some video creators from the program in a variety of cases. In general, anything that looks inappropriate to anyone can get flagged.
Other Ways to Earn Money on YouTube
If AdSense doesn’t sound promising to you, you can still pick from many different revenue streams.
- Selling products, such as branded swag coffee mugs or t-shirts, not only allows to you earn cash, but it also helps spread the word about your brand. Basically, your online brand gets a chance to go offline.
Designing, producing, and creating branded t-shirts may seem like a large and expensive task, but it isn’t. Check out some freelance sites to get affordable designs, and let a print-on-demand service take care of handling orders and pretty much anything else.
- Crowdfunding is a useful tool for those who have an appealing idea but lack sufficient funds to make it happen. Your own audience and the crowdfunding community may be willing to support you and cover the cost of new equipment and production. You just need a really compelling idea, and it can become reality fairly quickly.
Since you’re a video creator, the best way to present your idea to the audience is to film an exciting trailer, so that the people get a feel of what you’re up to.
Many YouTubers managed to get sufficient funds on crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
- Fan funding is similar to crowdfunding but instead of being a solution that requires a new campaign whenever you need more money, fan funding can become a sustainable source of income that comes regularly from people who believe in what you do and want to support you.
In addition to your existing audience, more people can discover your content through fan funding sites, such as Patreon and Buy Me a Coffee.
To get the most from crowdfunding or fan funding, make sure to be transparent about spending the money you get from your community. That way, your audience becomes deeply involved and willing to help. Also, make your donors feel special by giving them something exclusive.
- Members of YouTube Partner Program can use Super Chat and Channel Membership. Super Chat allows the viewers to donate money – however much they would like to give – while you’re doing live streams. Chanel Membership allows your audience to send you monthly payments, while you’re giving them something that’s not accessible to others.
- If you’ve created a viral video, you might get a chance to license it to the media. Any funny video with mass appeal is potentially interesting for both online and traditional media.
- Influencer marketing refers to marketing campaigns where large brands hire YouTube influencers to endorse their products. To get high amounts from famous brands, you need to already be an influencer with lots of subscribers and high engagements. Ideally, your audience will match with the brand’s audience.
Companies are more than willing to pay large amounts to online influencers, as that’s where their customers go for honest opinions. At the same time, that brings a great responsibility for the influencer. If you just praise everything about the company that hired you, you’d lose your audience’s trust. You have to remain trustworthy, and in turn you might earn thousands of dollars for each video you create, depending on the number of genuine subscribers.
- Affiliate marketing is a way of earning a commission by endorsing certain products and services through product reviews. Affiliate marketers earn considerably less than influencers, but you actually don’t get much choice. Until you become an influencer, you won’t get a chance to work with brands that way – but you can start with affiliate links fairly quickly.
If you’re an affiliate marketer, you’re required to be open about it and disclose your relationships with Amazon or any other website that offers an affiliate program.
Dislikes and Their Consequences
We’ve seen that likes contribute to higher earnings. So, do dislikes mean you earn less? Well, not exactly. It depends on the further behavior of the person who disliked your video. If they hated it and closed the tab, that’s bad news. But if they clicked dislike and then continued watching your videos, that’s just another kind of engagement.
Dislikes have a big influence on personal recommendations. If you like some video, you’ll soon be seeing more videos from the same author. Dislike it, and YouTube will stop showing you their other videos. Likes and dislikes feed the algorithm.
Final Word
Do YouTubers get paid for likes? We’ve seen that while no one is paid directly because of likes, they still play an important role in the overall metric of YouTube algorithm.
With so many ways to make a living filming and uploading content to YouTube, it’s hard to find the best way to monetize your channel. Luckily, those ways often don’t exclude others, so you get a chance to experiment. However, if you want to make serious money, focus on building your reputation rather than earning. Once you’ve built substantial followership, you’ll be able to get access to various premium programs that are definitely worth the effort.
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