How to Make Money From YouTube

YouTube recently announced that its users upload 72 hours of video per minute. Although mind-blowing, such an astronomical number could potentially discourage YouTube fame-seekers.

When you pair that number with the 4 billion hours of video we watch per month, it's clear that entertaining and valuable content is in high demand. And now that the YouTube Partner Program is open to everyone, monetization is actually more feasible than ever.

Even if you never reach Justin Bieber or oppan gangnam style (1billion views) status on YouTube, you can join the plenty of people who successfully make a living off the platform. Just know that it requires the right preparation, execution and equipment -- but most importantly, patience.

First, you must set up an account. If you already have a Gmail account, you can log in using the same name and password. However, it's helpful to keep your email separate, so consider creating a new account strictly dedicated to your channel. (You can always sync your email so YouTube-related messages forward to one address, if you prefer.)

When creating an account, think carefully about your username -- the handle will essentially become your brand name, so make sure it's something you're really comfortable with.

Content Is King
Each of the YouTube stars in the above video mention that producing quality content is most important -- now, more than ever. YouTube recently updated its video discovery features to focus on watch time versus number views, effectively filtering out videos that get clicked and abandoned.

Before you register an account, outline a plan. Think about the type of content you wish to create. Is it going to be a video blog? Tutorial? Talk show? Sketch comedy?

Or it could be a combination of things. Chris Thompson marries music and comedy, producing a variety of a cappella songs, covers, original sketches and parodies.

Secondly, YouTube requires that you select a category (among many) that describes your topic of interest. Some of the categories include beauty, education, entertainment, cooking, comedy and music.

YouTube states that to be eligible for monetization, "you must own all the necessary rights to commercially use all visuals and audio, whether they belong to you or a third party."

Copyrighted videos and playlists of another YouTube user's videos does not qualify for monetization.

Before opting your content into monetization (by clicking the labeled tab when uploading a video), make sure you.....read more