“Hello and welcome to my YouTube channel!” is a phrase we’ve all gotten acquainted with over last few years. YouTube is a free online platform that helps you watch videos. You can also create your own video content and upload it to share with others.

A YouTube channel is a space where you upload your videos and create playlists of other videos you’ve watched. How do you create a YouTube channel?

1. Go to YouTube and sign in. Head over to YouTube.com and click ‘sign in’ in the top right corner of the page.
2. Head over to your YouTube settings. In the top right corner of the screen, click on your profile icon and then click “Create a channel.”
3. Create your channel.

YouTube has helped us learn how to do things and spread information. I learnt how make pancakes on YouTube. Many content creators have been creating beauty content how to do your make up, some doing story time content. No matter what you’re interested in, there is something for everyone.

Beyond content creation and sharing; YouTube offers a space to earn from a modest to an exorbitant income. The most a YouTuber has made from YouTube is US$ 22 million. This was achieved by Ryan Kaji for his channel Ryan’s World. Ryan’s World is children’s channel that releases videos daily. According to HootSuite, it has over 28 million subscribers, has garnered over 45 billion views and is in the top 100 for the “most subscribed to channel” in the US.

So, how do you monetize your YouTube channel? You can earn ad revenue by enabling ads to run on your channel, where your viewers watch your videos they see these ads. This is how you set that up:

1. Sign in to YouTube.
2. Go to YouTube Studio.
3. In the left menu, select Content.
4. Select a video.
5. In the left menu, select Monetization.
6. Choose the type of ads that you want to run.
7. Click Save.

Or you can open a Merch Shelf. Your fans can browse and buy official branded merchandise that’s showcased on your watch pages.

You can earn from Channel Membership. Your members make recurring monthly payments in exchange for special perks that you offer.

You can also earn from YouTube Premium revenue, part of a YouTube Premium subscriber’s subscription fee when they watch your content.

All these things are possible when your content is what consumers want. Take Jake Paul for example, the American YouTuber turned boxer. He released plenty of prank content when prank content was at all-time high demand by consumers. His channel has over 20 million subscribers and over 7 billion views.

Before investing on monetizing your YouTube channel, invest in your content and research on what consumers want. If you do the groundwork, monetization will be a simpler process.

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Read about how to release your own music here.

Tell us: If you had a YouTube channel, what kind of content would you create?