A (3:41)

Yeah, this is a big opportunity because YouTube shopping is basically the integrated affiliate program with the YouTube platform. So that means on a YouTube short or a long form video you could find products that are on Walmart or Target or Best Buy or Ulta or Sephora or Wayfair or tens of thousands of other retailers. And those could be clickable links on top of your videos or on top of your YouTube shorts. And when someone clicks those links and makes a purchase, you get paid. But what a lot of people don't know about is if you have like a Walmart link on top of one of your videos and someone clicks your link and makes a purchase within the buying window, even if it's a product you didn't talk about, you can get credit for all kinds of stuff. So on our Think Media channel we might link to a camera and it's not that someone bought the camera. We start seeing that people are buying dog food and they're buying like feminine hygiene products and they're buying all kinds of Stuff toys for their kids, coloring pencils. And so the more views and videos you're getting out there, the more clicks on your YouTube shopping links, the more money you can make.

B (4:43)

Yeah, it's pretty crazy. And the third one is YouTube premium revenue. Sean, this is like a slept on one that I honestly forget about too. But at the 1000 subscriber mark, 4000 hours of public watch time, you can get a part of the YouTube Premium subscription fee that people are paying for when they watch your content. The fourth one is channel membership. So there's a lot we could talk about here. Maybe we can hang here for just a second, but this is really cool. And this actually unlocks at the 500 subscriber threshold. So already you can begin building a community. And your members can make recurring monthly payments that you can set up different tiers as well in exchange for access to special perks on your channel. And so, Sean, I'd be curious to hear what you've seen a lot of people do here, but a lot of people will do videos that are only created for their members, access to special live streams. And YouTube has also started making this community feature even more of a community feature, where there's actually like a separate posts section where people can post individually inside this area that only the members can see as well.

A (5:45)

One of our Secret weapons for YouTube success here at Think Media is Vid IQ. They make it super easy to come up with video ideas that get views, optimize your videos. And the new suite of AI tools has been a total game changer. And if you haven't tried Vid IQ's AI coach or video idea generator yet, you've got got to check it out. The truth is, creators that have better tools have an unfair advantage. So if you want to accelerate your channel's growth for just $1, hit the link in the description down below and start using Vidiq today. Now let's jump back into the video. Yeah, I think what's interesting is learning about these features is powerful because there's been different times in the past where YouTube does incentives to encourage creators to use these features. So for example, in the past they did holiday bonuses where they'd give you two to five dollars per new channel member that signed up or tiered bonuses. You get an extra a hundred dollars if 20 people signed up or $300 if 50 people signed up. And they've incentivized YouTube shopping in the past with different signup bonuses or increased percentage amounts, and they've incentivized channel memberships as well. And so you're keeping that in mind. It means you have 500 subscribers. But the question is, is there premium value you could give to people to get five or ten channel members? Now you have some reoccurring income. You're still on your way to the full on YouTube partner program where you're being paid for views. But I think this is slept on by a lot of creators. And this is why you want to be logging into your account, looking at the back end of your channel and looking for those notifications from YouTube when they're running these special promotions.

B (7:25)

A hundred percent. I've even noticed too that YouTube, you know, of course, because it's on platform, but YouTube will push your members only content for you. I've seen this on channels that I'll watch a lot. Like a video will get suggested to me, but it says members only. And so it's like, it's kind of wild, like to be, you know, transparent. I think YouTube takes like 30%. Right. Of whatever you make on your membership there. But it's also kind of like, well, YouTube's hosting it all for you and kind of promoting it for you too. And so I won't lie, there's been a couple times where I've seen content pushed from a channel that I watch and it says members only. And I'm like, do I just do it? Do I get in there? Because I kind of want to see the video. Number five. Kind of a fun one, but also one that I don't think a lot of us quite fully understand is super chat and super stickers. So really these are ways for fans to pay you essentially tip you during live content. So live streams and premiere content, any content that's premiering. And this is where fans get to pay to have their messages or animated images they can put together highlighted in these feeds, be it live stream or be it a premiere. And this is pretty cool. And it happens actually a lot more often than you might think, especially if you have this kind of content style in your rhythm. Sean, I'd love to hear from your perspective. You've done so many live streams and I'm sure that you've seen several of these. Many of these come through and I can't, I can't help but imagine you notice them because YouTube makes them stick out. But how have you encountered these before as a content creator?

A (8:48)

Yeah, I think the big question and opportunity here is what type of content are you making? Because anybody that enjoys your content and is watching you, even if you have A small audience might take advantage of this, but I think it ties in, especially if you're doing educational content or I see a lot of news or political type of channels that they're maybe doing commentary and their rhythm is, is consistently going live, they're consistently adding value, they're maybe doing financial or market updates in one case, or they're covering different stories. And then I think the other big piece here is educating your audience that this is a way they can support you. And so again, you know, this can scale up to really big money and really big numbers. But for somebody listening to this, that's tapping into these new ways and that has a small channel. You cross the 500 subscriber threshold as you start to build that core audience and, and you think about the value you're giving them and then just educating them, hey, if you want to support, then absolutely. People are dropping 5 bucks, 10 bucks, $20. And this is so cool because again, never underestimate small beginnings. You know, don't despise small beginnings. And once you start getting used to earning money online like this, building your core audience, adding massive value, a little bit of money here and there can scale into a lot over time.

B (10:01)

So true. And what's kind of cool too is this still unlocks at that 500 subscriber mark as well. And so kind of off of that, the sixth way is going to be Super Thanks. So you're like, okay, what super chat, super stickers, super thanks. A lot of super cool things going on on YouTube apparently. But super thanks is specific to long form content and short form content that you have already posted. So there's no live element to it. You're not live streaming or it's not premiering. It's already there on the platform. And this is cool because this can happen around the clock. And I've experienced this, Sean, in my own journey as a creator, especially following system like Video Ranking Academy. We're going through the different steps, we're trying to rank videos. We're not just trying to go viral all the time. We're just trying to put out content that could be watched through the years. It's crazy. I'll have posted a video a couple years ago and we'll get some super thanks on there. So super thanks is the same thing. It's just a tip. It's like it's a way that your fans or viewers, even passive viewers, could just drop a thank you in the comments section on that video. And Sean, I've gotten like $20 thank yous from this for like a tutorial that I put together. And it's like, it blows my mind because I'm like, oh, I did that like a couple years ago. But just because the strategy behind putting out videos can still be getting views, you could still be getting super thanks. And what's encouraging about this is like, this is almost more fun than the YouTube checks. YouTube checks are cool, but it's also like, this is just cool because it was from an individual person. Like the YouTube check is like a company paying you, which, you know, coming from other people and stuff. But this super thanks is directly from one person who was just like, hey, thanks, you know, this was really helpful. And they could have not even subscribed. The video itself was just helpful enough. Here's $20. And I'm like, that is so cool.

A (11:44)

Yeah. And I think the big idea to start seeing this happen on your channel is just working hard to add massive value to the end user. We underestimate the law of reciprocity that what we're doing on YouTube is we're giving out free value. We create really valuable content. We're posting it for people. And of course it's not gonna be everybody, but it reminds me of even like a busker that's playing really good music or they're singing on the street. When you're at a Saturday market, you know, you're out there, you're like, man, this entertainment value, I want to support this person. And of course not everybody that stands and listens to that musician or that entertainer tips them, but some do. And so what can you do to control this? Dig deep in your research, in your quality, and the type of video you're making. Add massive value. And then over time, those super thanks tips that come from viewers can really stack up. But we still got to cover 18. And we're just going to go through the full list. As well as a bunch of new and experimental ways of making Money directly on YouTube that YouTube has recently announced and that have been verified. But Nathan, this is crazy because YouTube just announced at their 20th birthday party, their 20 year anniversary, that they have paid creators over $100 billion over the last four years. And so when people say what does that even mean? Where's that money coming from? It's coming from all of the above. It's not just YouTube ads, but all the different on platform revenue that YouTube is writing checks and sending to people all around the world. A hundred billion dollars in the last four years. And there is new data that has come out that the Creator economy is going to 4x in the next seven years. And so that number is just going to keep going up. And so getting educated about these different ways of earning money is really powerful, Sean.

B (13:29)

I'm stoked to get into those. And kind of along those lines, we're actually hosting a completely free online event called YouTube Growth Sprint. And it's just us and the think media team that we're breaking down. Kind of like what we're doing now, but in much more detail what's working on YouTube right now, especially with all the latest changes and trends. And like just before this episode, we had to make sure we're up to date on everything. Right. And so we're also gonna be giving away some creator gear. We got some software, some tech that we'll be giving away. So if you've been wanting to start or grow your YouTube channel, this is for you. You can register totally for free@ytsprint.com Again, that's ytsprint.com is completely free event for a YouTube growth sprint. Well, Sean, we've kind of covered those six major ways to make money with YouTube and on YouTube, but there's also a whole new set of opportunities for creators. So let's go ahead and make sure we list all 18 here. The definitive list of new ways to make money on YouTube.

A (14:26)

Yeah, so I'll cover all 18 rapid fire. We'll repeat some of them so that listeners have the complete list. So number one is the YouTube partner program ads on long form videos. Number two is YouTube shorts revenue sharing. That's gonna be ads on YouTube shorts. And those first couple, as we discussed, you're gonna need a thousand subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time or 10 million shorts views. Now number three is channel memberships. Number four is super chats. Number five is super stickers. Number six is super than number seven is merch shelf or merch store. And Nathan, the way you were breaking them down was when we said YouTube shopping, it kind of overlaps because it's clickable product links either from your own merch shelf and merch store, through something like Teespring or print on demand or through number eight, YouTube shopping. So that's affiliate shopping tools. So it could be Walmart, Best Buy, those products are right on top of your videos or YouTube shopping brand tagging. So this one's new. So number nine, brand tagging. These are direct brand offers. And YouTube recently announced that you can work with brands, especially on YouTube shorts to sort of pair your video directly with the brand's product. So they even have better data and analytics about how the conversions are happening with their products. Now, as we go into number 10 and beyond these, some of these are going to take a higher level. Like these aren't necessarily all unlocked at even a thousand subscribers. Sometimes they come with much bigger channel. Or some of these are experimental and are being rolled out to a limited number of creators. But I think it's important that we see what's coming because eventually they start to trickle it out to Everybody. So number 10 is YouTube Brand Connect. So this is YouTube's official influencer brand deal marketplace. And once you go into the backend settings of your channel, you might want to just do that. If you're looking, listening to this and your channel's already monetized, some of these features might just be a few mouse clicks away from just saying, I'm interested, I'm eligible. And then they just boom, they set it up and then what happens is YouTube is sending you brand deals through the platforms. Number 11, fan funding via thanks. On Shorts, you mentioned super thanks. But one of the new things was it wasn't just on long form videos. That's existed in the past. They've added it to shorts as well. Number 12 is live stream shopping. Now this is selling products in real time on live streams. This is a topic for a whole nother podcast in the future. So definitely subscribe to the Think Media podcast if you're new here. Live shopping is blowing up everywhere. It's existed for a while, internationally, in certain cultures and communities and countries. It is massive and it just continues to grow on platforms like TikTok shop, Amazon, live shopping. But YouTube is trying to be a part of that massive wave that's happening. Number 13 is creator music kind of niche. But this is revenue sharing on licensed songs. And so this is a way to tap into another income stream. 14 is podcast monetization. This is YPP for podcasting. And so this sometimes confuses individuals because what is a video podcast on YouTube? Technically this is a video podcast. Now if you're over on Spotify, you know, we might be having ads running over there on Apple we run Dynamics dynamic ads. But the point is, it isn't just the video podcast, it's also the audio podcast on YouTube Music. And so they've added that as well. Number 15 is Dynamic Brand insertions. Now this one is crazy. It's still early, but this is rolling out in 2026 and YouTube made this announcement. And the big idea here is the fact that on a past video that you've Posted, you would be able to go back and insert a video clip that gives a call to action to a brand deal. Now, Nathan, this actually has me asking all kinds of questions, like, once they do this, can you go back to your old videos and add in a 30 second spot to your own thing? Does it have to just be a brand deal? How is it going to work? But this is radical and it's something that's existed on audio podcasts for a long time and YouTube is adding it. So I'd say pay attention to dynamic brand insertions. It's still early, but it is official now. Number 16 is Dream Screen ads. This is an experimental thing. They're doing AI generated backgrounds with sponsored prompts, so it's still rolling out. And this will give advertisers the ability to do some heavy lifting for them, like meta. Facebook is already doing this where they're like, hey, you pay us to place an ad and we actually will do the ad creative for you, we'll do the placement for you, we'll do the visual will help you write it. And so they're trying to make like your local small business or any kind of brand have the ability to do ad creative, which means those dollars will end up in the pockets of creators. But we're not sure exactly how that's going to look. Number 17 is YouTube learning and the Education Monetization. This is a pilot program. And this is, this is fascinating because if you do any kind of education content, you can actually apply and mark that content as part of the YouTube learning platform. And this would allow individuals that are like universities and colleges to pay a separate membership, kind of like YouTube Premium. And when they pay for that membership, whatever content they watch inside of that membership, you're earning money in a separate way. It doesn't hurt your ad revenue, but it creates an additional income stream. We're not exactly sure how much this will be. Maybe some creators are going to make tons of money doing this. How much money will be earned this way? But again, in this list of 18 things, it's just a whole nother income stream. And then number 18 is primetime channels revenue share. So creators can earn commissions by referring subscribers to streaming services. And this is another one of those limited rollouts. And so there's even a few other fringe things. I mean, I remember YouTube during their made on YouTube thing. They're talking about so many different ways of earning revenue. Nathan, I think the big idea is this, how do we make this practical for the end creator, the end user first start posting content and keep learning. It's like, get to your 5000 subs, get to your thousand subs, get your watch time. I think keep it simple. Don't get too distracted by all these other opportunities, but also keep learning. Because what we're seeing is this roadmap of opportunity. And what YouTube wants to do is they want to give creators the opportunity to make the most money possible. Not necessarily because they're saints and they just want to give away free money. This is their business model. If they can make creators happy and if they can create what truly has become its own economy, not just the creator economy, but the YouTube economy, if they can make creators happy, give creators more tools, continue to help creators with distribution and getting views as well as monetization, then the future looks bright and people aren't going to leave being disappointed and discouraged from the platform. YouTube's one of the most genius media companies of all time because they are having regular, everyday people making free media for them. Essentially, that's what we're all doing. And those that are listening to this, we're doing it though, because of the opportunity, because eventually we're going to get 50, 50 AD split, basically when ads play on our videos. And so I would say that the action item is, you know, start before you're ready, stay focused, but keep lear and stay connected to the Think Media podcast because this is a very exciting time in YouTube and all kinds of new features continue to roll out.

B (22:14)

Which of these 18 ways to make money on YouTube. The updated definitive list as of right now stuck out to you. Probably multiple, right? I'm gonna have to refresh myself. Let us know, like rate, share, review wherever you're watching or listening. This is the Think Media Podcast. I'm Nathan Eswine, and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.