📈 How to Make Money on YouTube with No Subscribers: A 5-Step Framework
Are you struggling to make money on YouTube with a small channel and no subscribers? Don't worry, you're not alone. Many creators face this challenge, but there is a solution. In this article, I'll share with you a five-step framework that you can use to make money on YouTube even if you have no subscribers and haven't reached monetization yet. I used this method on my small channel and started making $2,000 every single month, even when I wasn't posting any videos. So, if you're ready to start making money on YouTube, let's dive in!
🕵️♂️ Step 1: Research
The key to making money with a small channel is ranking your videos in search on YouTube. YouTube is the second most used search engine in the world, and Google is number one, which often recommends YouTube videos in their search as well. Even if you have zero subscribers, you can still make a video that ranks in search, and that's what I'm going to show you how to do today.
To start, you need to do some research. Use tools like VidIQ to do all of your keyword research. There is a free account that you can download into Chrome and use this program to basically do most of what I'm going to share with you today. But if you want to access more features, then make sure you check the link down in the description, and just for $1, you can get started for 30 days with their boost plan, which is what I'm using, and that's going to unlock a ton of amazing features.
When it comes to researching the actual keyword that we're going to go after to try and rank for in search, there are a few different ways to do this. I love to use VidIQ, but I also love to just use YouTube. If you go to youtube.com and utilize the search bar, this is one of my favorite ways to just get started and see what people are actually searching for. As I type something into the search bar, you're going to see that it is going to autopopulate some words after what I type in.
📦 Step 2: Packaging
Before you even create your YouTube video and write it out, shoot it, edit it, you want to take a step back and think about the title and the thumbnail because this is going to matter a ton for ranking and search. Ultimately, you want people to click on your video and watch most of it, and if you can get those metrics up, this is going to help YouTube push your video up and up inside of search, which is going to get you more views.
A few ways to stand out from competitors is to make it a bit more relevant, and simply by adding in the year can help us stand out. So instead of having "How to Edit YouTube Shorts Cap Cut," if we go "How to Edit YouTube Shorts with Cap Cut in 2024," this can make the video feel a bit more relevant. Another big one here could be "How to Edit YouTube Shorts with Cap Cuts for Beginners." The more you can speak to that person you're trying to talk to, the better off you're going to be for that positioning.
🎬 Step 3: Scripting
Now that you have some sort of thumbnail concept in your mind and you also have your title locked in, this is super important. You can now start to script your YouTube video. One of the best things you can do is actually go take your title and just make that your opening line for your script. Of course, it doesn't have to be word for word, but for this video, I'll probably start it with "Here's how to Ed YouTube Shorts with Cap Cut for Beginners." The reason you want to do this is that YouTube is automatically going to detect the words that you're saying in your video, and this is going to help you rank in search.
📤 Step 4: Optimization
When it comes to optimizing your video, we're going to be looking at the description, the tags, and different things that you can do to give it the best chance at ranking in search. A lot of people don't realize that your description can be helpful for ranking these videos in search and on Google, on YouTube, on all of that stuff. So we really want to make sure that we optimize this.
You want to make sure that you have your affiliate links at the top of your description. If you just bury them in the bottom or middle of your description, they're going to be hard to find, and a lot of people are going to miss them. You really want to make sure that that top line of the description is optimized for search and really kind of reutilizing your title. Another thing you can do in your description is to write maybe a few sentences about the video, what you're teaching, what people are going to learn in this video. The more information you can give YouTube in that description and in your tags about what your video is all about, the better off you're going to be with YouTube actually putting it in the right places.
⏰ Step 5: Give It Time
A lot of YouTube gurus are going to tell you that the most important thing is the tags and stuffing keywords inside of your description. Although that can help you a lot, especially when you don't have many subscribers, the truth is what matters most is making the best video possible that has the most people clicking on it and watching a lot of your video.
🎉 Highlights
- Use VidIQ to do all of your keyword research.
- Make your title and thumbnail stand out from competitors.
- Script your YouTube video using your title as the opening line.
- Optimize your video description with affiliate links and relevant information.
- Give it time and focus on making the best video possible.
❓ FAQ
Q: Can I make money on YouTube with no subscribers?
A: Yes, you can make money on YouTube with no subscribers by ranking your videos in search and utilizing affiliate marketing.
Q: What is affiliate marketing?
A: Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts.
Q: How do I rank my videos in search on YouTube?
A: To rank your videos in search on YouTube, you need to do keyword research, optimize your title and thumbnail, script your video using your title as the opening line, optimize your video description with affiliate links and relevant information, and give it time.
Q: What is the most important thing for making money on YouTube?
A: The most important thing for making money on YouTube is making the best video possible that has the most people clicking on it and watching a lot of your video.