Do you have a podcast? Are you posting visual episodes on YouTube (but need more revenue to do so)?

We’re going to share powerful tips to attract paying YouTube subscribers. These are viewers who pay a monthly subscription fee to get exclusive podcast content. They don’t have to spend much; five to $15 will suffice. But when they 

pay, they get to unlock your entire content universe.

Make More Money on YouTube with Channel Memberships

, we spoke with Saagar Enjeti and Jason Sew Hoy about building a premium membership as a podcaster. Saagar co-hosts the 

 podcast, a political news show with more than 500,000 YouTube subscribers. Jason is the co-founder and CEO of 

, which helps podcasters sell premium subscriptions to their listeners.

Want to get paid subscribers for your YouTube podcast? Here are seven tips from Jason and Saagar to get you started.

1. Know the Value of Your YouTube Podcast

Before you build a paid membership for your podcast, know the value of your content. It should make a difference in people’s lives, whether you’re providing entertainment, information, or guidance. Maybe they love hearing co-hosts discuss politics calmly. Or perhaps they value comedy and storytelling. Try to figure out what keeps people watching your podcast channel.

Saagar suggests asking yourself three questions:

What about your show makes listeners feel special?

The fastest way to get these answers is by asking your subscribers. Then you’ll begin to understand the value of what you’re offering.

2. Grow Your YouTube Podcast to 10,000 Subscribers

This is the sweet spot for starting any kind of YouTube business. With 10,000 subscribers, you have more than just a strong following. A small percentage of your audience could be super fans. With just 1,000 super fans paying you $5 a month, you can easily earn $5,000. All it takes is 1% of a 10,000-subscriber audience.

Making Money on YouTube - 7 Tips to Start a Successful Business

That’s why you need to reach this milestone. It’s easier to build a membership program when you have the numbers to support one.

3. Know the Perks People Are Willing to Pay For

Typically, it costs nothing to listen to a podcast episode. Listeners aren’t paying when they watch the show visually on YouTube. And most aren’t paying to listen on Spotify, Apple, or Google.

How do you get paid subscribers for a podcast on YouTube?

First, know which perks people are willing to pay for. According to Saagar and Jason, that’s usually:

Access to a private community group: Slack, Discord, Facebook, etc.

4. Put Full Podcast Episodes (the Video Version) Behind a Paywall

This tip reinforces the need for 10,000 or more subscribers.

When you’re just starting on YouTube, you can’t afford to put anything behind a paywall. You need to show everything related to your podcast; that includes short clips and full visual episodes.

But as your audience grows, you can monetize those visual, hour-long episodes.

“This has two benefits,” Saagar says. “At the end of the day, our real customers are our premium subscribers. So they get the full experience by watching a premium, uncut show, which is just more natural and pleasurable to watch. Second, in terms of editing, all I have going is a guy in the back, in the control room. The moment I say, ‘OK, now let's talk about [this],’ he just cuts it right there in Adobe Premiere. And so he’s actually dividing up the clips [for non-paying subscribers] while we’re going.”

upload clips of your podcast for free viewing

 on YouTube. Then you can slowly market a premium membership, where subscribers can watch full visual episodes.

5. Advertise Your Premium Membership In Every YouTube Video

When you’re posting podcast clips to YouTube, don’t forget to advertise your premium membership. Viewers have short attention spans; they aren’t going to look for something they can’t find easily, let alone pay for it.

“Like anything on the internet, the more seamless you can make a conversion path, the [easier it is] to discover something,” Jason says. “[They’ll say], ‘There’s such a thing as this premium [subscription]?'”

Talk about your premium subscription as you tape the podcast.

Explain the benefits of becoming a member.

Put the membership sign-up link in clickable 

Put the sign-up link in your video description.

Create clickable end screens that go to the sign-up page.

6. Create Experimental Content to See What Viewers Will Pay For

Sometimes you have to experiment to see what people like. If you’re unsure of which perks to monetize for your podcast, just try something – anything. See if there’s a genuine interest among viewers.

“One of our organic experiments that showed us how valuable we are, is we wrote a book,” Saagar says. “That book hit the bestseller list, and we were like, ‘Holy crap.’ We only had 200,000 subs at the time. I thought it would sell a couple thousand copies or something like that.”

Lastly, be honest about the workload you can handle, and design your business accordingly. After all, there’s only so much time in a day. It’s better to expand slowly (and one service at a time) than introducing everything at once.

Are you looking for extra ways to make money on YouTube? Here are three bullet-proof ways to grow a YouTube business.

Tube Talk logo with two smiling men in business attire on dark background

A premium membership can help you make money as a YouTube podcaster. Here are 7 helpful tips to build that revenue stream.

Podcasting on YouTube: 7 Tips to Get Subscribers on a Paid Membership

Why do YouTube videos get demonetized? It’s a valid question, especially when someone takes the time to film, edit, and upload a video. Most creators try their best to make positive, original content for viewers around the world. What are they doing wrong in terms of making money and staying monetized on YouTube?

Google AdSense 101 - How to Benefit from Ad Revenue on YouTube

Most of the time, it's a lack of information. Creators know the basics of YouTube's rules, but they don't always know the fine details. And overall, people are just ready to record!

: A set of rules to ensure everyone’s safety on YouTube

 An explanation of which videos are suitable for advertisers

: A set of terms and conditions for placing ads on YouTube videos

: A set of terms and conditions for how viewers and creators operate on YouTube

Violating any of the four could lead to demonetization. Here's how to avoid that outcome.

What Does ‘Demonetized’ Mean on YouTube?

If YouTube demonetized a video, that means it restricted 

 ads from appearing. That includes every type of ad available to creators: display ads, overlay ads, sponsored cards, and skippable and non-skippable video ads. You won’t earn Google AdSense revenue for demonetized content.

Turning off ads is just one form of demonetization.

. This option bars you from all the money-making features: Google AdSense, Super Chats and Stickers, Super Thanks, merchandise shelves, Channel Memberships, and YouTube Premium revenue. It’s like being kicked out of the 

How to Tell If a YouTube Video Is Demonetized

After uploading a video, you can see its monetization status in less than an hour. It takes a while because YouTube is making sure the video is suitable for ads.

In the YouTube Studio, there are seven monetization icons

. Each one tells you the status of a video’s earning power.

 YouTube is checking your video for ad suitability.

 Monetization is on, and your video is eligible for most ads.

 Monetization is on for a song cover, but a music publisher claimed the revenue.

 Monetization is on, but YouTube is still determining who will get paid.

 Monetization is on, but ads are limited.

 You turned on monetization for the video, but YouTube won’t show ads.

 You turned off monetization for the video.

 means your video is demonetized, as shown below.

How to Check a Video’s Monetization Status:

Log into YouTube and click your profile icon in the top right corner. Select 

Find the video in question using the search bar at the top of the page.

. You’ll see one of the seven icons (shown above) indicating your video’s status.

Videos that aren't advertiser-friendly won’t earn much revenue. Here are 14 ways to avoid demonetization on YouTube.

? One of the requirements for monetizing your content is to avoid being repetitious. That means you shouldn't post videos with no recognizable differences on your channel. Your content needs a healthy dose of variety, from the audio tracks you use to the topics you cover.

That doesn’t mean you can’t explore one topic in depth. You can create similar videos as long as the bulk of each one is different. Take a look at the 

, for example. We share tips for gaining 1,000 subscribers all the time. But the advice changes as we discover new methods, which means we’re always talking about something new within the context of gaining subscribers.

2. Add Something Valuable to Repurposed Content

Using another creator’s intellectual property, such as songs, video clips, and images, could lead to one or more 

 on your channel. You’ll get these alerts when your video contains media that doesn’t belong to you. Copyright claims aren’t the end of the world, but YouTube might demonetize the video(s) in question or only give you partial revenue.

Can I Still Monetize My YouTube Channel If I have a Copyright Claim?

 happens when you reuse someone’s content without adding something new or transformative. If you’re posting a reaction video, for example, add some commentary that brings a fresh perspective to the original event, opinion, or narrative.

YouTube says it's OK to monetize reused content when:

You’re using brief clips for a critical review.

You’re adding original commentary to an event (movies, sporting events, etc.).

You’re adding an original storyline to edited footage from other creators.

Your best bet, of course, is to use your own content. But at the same time, YouTube understands that there are thousands of reaction channels out there. And guess what? Lots of creators are making money with that format.

3. Don’t Be Spammy, Deceptive, or Participate In Scams

YouTube wants every viewer to have a positive experience. And no user can do that while being tricked or misled by deceptive videos and comments. If you’re on the platform for the wrong reasons – like running scams and leading people to shady websites – YouTube might demonetize your content.

To stay on YouTube’s good side, don’t:

Repeatedly post content about making fast cash.

Lead viewers to websites with harmful software (viruses, information theft, etc.)

Use misleading thumbnails, video descriptions, and titles to “trick” viewer into clicking.

Promote “get rich quick” content or pyramid schemes.

Sell engagement metrics, like views, comments, and subscribers. That includes Sub4Sub, a type of spam where creators ask people to subscribe to their channels.

Post comments to gather information from viewers or drive them off of YouTube.

Live stream content that doesn’t belong to you.

Check out the image below to see an example of comment spam. Notice how the circled comment is impersonating the owner of the video, finance creator Graham Stephan. If you look closely, you can tell that “Replied_by Graham Stephan” is a bogus account.

This user is trying to drive people away from YouTube. Practices like this will get you demonetized.

Read more about spam, deception, and scams on YouTube’s support page

YouTube doesn’t tolerate hate speech of any kind. If you want to successfully monetize your videos, don't say (or type) harmful, offensive things. YouTube will demonetize your content if you're inciting violence or hate against specific groups.

Avoiding hate speech is easy. Think of all the ways people discriminate against others, and simply avoid saying those things in your videos. 

The most egregious hate speech revolves around age, sexual orientation, gender, race, disabilities, religion, immigration status, and veteran status.

Are there certain “demonetized words” on YouTube? Is it possible to say the wrong thing and lose all your ad revenue?

YouTube won’t demonetize a video for containing words like “hell” or “damn.” That’s considered light profanity, and most people aren’t offended by those terms. It’s the vulgar words that will get you into trouble, like repeatedly dropping F-bombs or constantly saying “b*tch.”

Can You Swear on YouTube and Still Make Money?

Here is a list of words that lead to demonetization:

Even when misspelled, adding these words to any element of a video (titles, thumbnails, etc.) is against the rules.

Our advice? Minimize the profanity in your videos. It's an easy way to get full monetization.

6. Don’t Show Dangerous or Illegal Activities

Want to make sure YouTube doesn’t demonetize your video? Avoid showing clips or images of bodily harm, gruesome injuries, and death. These themes are disturbing to viewers and scare advertisers away.

Logan Paul’s 2017 “suicide forest” video

. This was a huge scandal. Paul uploaded a YouTube video showing a dead body, and people around the world were deeply disturbed. He later shared a video of himself tasering dead rats. Eventually, 

YouTube temporarily demonetized his channel

Posting illegal activities is a bad idea too. You’ll have a better chance of monetizing your videos if you don't show:

glorifying dangerous acts results in demonetization or worse.

 If you can expect certain injury or death from an activity, it’s not suitable for YouTube.

7. Avoid Posting Sexually Explicit Content

YouTube will demonetize any video that gratifies sex. This type of content focuses on nudity, sex scenes, and pornography. If that’s the creator’s intent – indulging in sexual scenes – the next step is a no-brainer for YouTube. There will be no ads on the video, zero AdSense revenue, and (possibly) a channel termination.

Clothed or unclothed, YouTube states that showing genitals, breasts, or buttocks in an indulgent way violates its monetization policies. Also, sexual fetishes of any kind and in various formats (video, text, images, audio) are not allowed.

Read more about nudity and sexual content on YouTube’s support page.

8. Use Royalty-Free Music From the YouTube Library

Music copyright is a deep subject on YouTube. But for the purpose of monetizing videos, you only need to know two things:

Never use someone’s music without their written permission.

Smartphone displaying YouTube logo overlaid on US hundred dollar bills representing earning.

Did YouTube demonetize your video? Here are 14 ways to make positive content that stays monetized no matter what.

14 Ways to Avoid YouTube Demonetization

Are you looking to start and grow a YouTube business? If so, you need more than click-worthy videos to make your entrepreneurial dreams a reality. If you want to eventually sell products of your own, such as ebooks, PDF guides, or merchandise, uploading videos is just the beginning.

5 Tips to Start a YouTube Channel for Your Business

, we chat with creator and business owner Steve Dotto about why YouTube is just 

 part of a business. Dotto got his start on television during the 1990’s. Since then, he started the 

 YouTube channel, where he teaches people how to use innovative technology, like Zoom, Rev, and Slack. In the grand scheme of his business, Dotto shows people how to promote their products and services online.

Need some ideas to grow your YouTube business? Here are three recommendations from Dotto himself.

1. Jumpstart Your YouTube Business with an Email List

Like YouTube, email lists are for offering value. You get to go beyond the shiny appeal of video-making and show people 

 they need your services. For example, if you have a graphic design channel, your email newsletter might include design tips you haven’t shared on YouTube. If you’ve developed a product (which we recommend!), you can advertise that too. You might sell design templates or ebooks to help people learn graphic design.

You don’t need thousands of YouTube subscribers to start a successful newsletter.

, social media marketer and YouTube creator, said anyone can start from zero.

“The first video you make, have an opt-in to get people’s email address…. When your video shows up as the answer to someone’s question, they won’t care how many videos you’ve done before that to qualify what you’re doing,” Martinez says.

Ready to build your email list? Use any of these services to create a value-driven newsletter:

2. Create Webinars to Share Valuable Content and Capture Emails

We know what you’re thinking about this next tip. Hosting webinars is an old internet practice that few YouTube creators embrace. 

The answer has to do with our first tip. Creating a value-driven newsletter is great for your YouTube business. But convincing people to subscribe to a newsletter without some kind of incentive is tough.

Fortunately, a webinar solves that problem.

“A big part of my business is a series of webinars that we do,” Dotto says. “As big of a fan as I am of YouTube and [how] it allowed me to recreate what I did on television, I’m also a huge fan of the live formats. Not necessarily live streaming on YouTube, [but] webinars…. When I saw with a webinar that you could reach an unlimited sized audience with real engagement, and where you can capture their email address, [I knew] you could bring them in if you deliver value.”

The process is straightforward: Create a free, one-hour “training” about anything your audience wants to learn in exchange for viewers’ emails.

Establish a value promise – a short explanation of what you will teach or cover.

Make sure the webinar fulfills that promise.

Dotto prefers webinars to YouTube live streams because there’s no way to collect emails using the latter. But he still acknowledges the power of a well-planned live stream. Both have their place within a YouTube business.

“Live streaming’s big benefit is viral sharing – the opportunity to bring new people in,” Dotto says. Webinars’ big strength is accountability. I get your email address, and I get permission to talk to you.”

Hosting a webinar doesn’t have to be complicated. Software like 

 provides an easy setup that skips the super technical stuff. It lets you stream directly to YouTube, create custom registration pages, offer a live chat to viewers, and more.

3. Create Online Courses for Your YouTube Business

Building a business on YouTube is easier when you have courses to sell. Imagine creating a digital course on bitcoin mining that costs $100. If just 10 of your YouTube subscribers sign-up, that’s an easy $1,000. And because the course is static and replayable, you’re collecting passive income without doing extra work.

Starting a YouTube Career - 7 Steps to Monetize Your Passion

Digital courses are powerful. But before you start pumping out video tutorials, consider your audience. A helpful course to you might be an unnecessary course for your subscribers. On the flip side, what you see as unnecessary might be beneficial for subscribers.

Dotto can attest to this. He says his business model comes from listening to his audience and creating solutions for their problems. That’s how he built a successful course around Evernote, a popular note-taking app.

“I loved Evernote,” Dotto says. “I was just sharing on it, so I thought, ‘They probably want a course on this.’ So I asked them, ‘If I did a course, would you buy it?’ They said, ‘Yeah.’”

The course was wildly successful. Dotto created something he knew people would buy because he had the foresight to ask what they wanted.

As you can see, growing a business on YouTube requires diversification. Here are 

seven steps to build new streams of income on YouTube

Middle-aged man with beard and glasses beside colorful Tube Talk logo on black background

It takes more than exciting, click-worthy videos to grow a YouTube business. Here are 3 ways to make more money outside of your YouTube channel.

3 Ways to Grow Your YouTube Business

Can a YouTube creator’s CPM change for no apparent reason? By studying different channels, we know that CPMs fluctuate all the time. But increases or decreases don't happen randomly; whether your CPM soars to the moon like dogecoin or drops to the ground like a meteor, there’s a specific reason every time.

CPM (cost per millie) is the amount of money advertisers pay per 1,000 views. So for example, if one of your videos gets 100,000 views and the CPM is $8.50, the video’s total revenue is $850. That's a nice profit, but only a portion of it goes to your bank account. YouTube takes a 45% cut, which leaves you with $467.50. After that, subtract a healthy amount for taxes.

This is a best-case scenario because not every “view” on YouTube is monetized. In the YouTube Studio, there is a metric called 

 It shows how many views were actually monetized on your channel.

Take a look at the table below. In this example, the creator has 68,216 views on their channel (for a specific time period). But as you can see, YouTube didn’t monetize all of those views. Only 43,812 views brought in revenue.

You can find all this data in the YouTube Studio. Go to the 

 to see your CPM and estimated monetized playbacks.

With that in mind, here are six factors that increase or decrease your YouTube CPM.

1. The Geographic Location Listed on Your Channel

Did you know that where you live determines how much money you make on YouTube? Some countries have a larger economy than others, and that abundance translates to YouTube. If you live in the U.S., this is something you already know. The American cost of living is higher than most countries. Take India, for example. According to 

, the average disposable income is $3,258.85 per month for Americans and $452.11 per month for Indians. That means the average American has seven times more money to spend.

What does this have to do with your YouTube CPM? It simply means companies advertise different products and services on an American channel versus an Indian channel. Those products will likely cost more in the U.S., which means advertisers will pay more to have them appear (as ads) in a video. So you could earn a higher YouTube CPM just by living in a specific country.

Using our example of American income, let's look at the age of your YouTube audience. Your viewers likely fall into one of these ranges:

These groups have different income levels. For Americans between 45 and 54, yearly income peaked at $78,879 in 2013. As a result, these older but wealthier Americans spent more money (about $60,524) than other groups. And remember what we said earlier: 

Advertisers want to be where the money flows.

Now, compare that to the income of Americans under 25. In the same year, they only made $27,914.

Let’s say you have a gaming channel, and your audience is American teenagers. Because this demographic has less spending power, there’s a chance advertisers aren’t paying high CPMs to market their products in gaming videos. This means your CPM could be lower than a channel focusing on middle-aged Americans. That’s a broad generalization, obviously. But on a basic level, this methodology is why some creators make more money than others.

What are the most profitable topics on YouTube? According to research by creator 

This data was collected by studying CPMs in different niches across Russia, the U.S., Canada, the UK, Germany, Australia, and India. Take a closer look below.

Are you starting to see a trend? Topics like investing, health, and real estate don’t attract every viewer on YouTube. Most viewers don’t think about these areas of life until they’re approaching 30 or reach a higher salary. That’s why your YouTube niche, among other things, affects your CPM.

 to learn how one creator made $200,000 per month in advertising revenue.

4. Seasonal Changes In Your Niche/Industry

In addition to geographic location, age of the viewer, and YouTube niche, seasonality affects your CPM. Our YouTuber-in-residence, Rob Wilson, had a tech channel before joining the team and knows how AdSense revenue can fluctuate.

“CPMs for tech channels go through the roof as we approach Christmas,” Wilson says. “It’s the gift-buying season, and people are making purchasing decisions when they’re watching tech content. However, the moment we leave the holiday season, CPMs tank on those channels for a couple of months…. then we’re in the New Years’ Resolution season, where food and fitness channels see their CPMs rise.”

Now that we’ve discussed other CPM factors, let's talk about something you can control: the type of ads placed on your videos.

When your channel finally gets monetized, your first thought is probably, “I’m going to put every type of ad on my videos – display ads, overlay ads, sponsored cards, non-skippable ads. 

But did you know that CPMs vary across ad types? You can see these figures by filtering for 

Check out the image below. For a particular piece of content, video ads commanded a higher CPM than display ads. That’s because viewers can’t easily escape a video advertisement. But a small graphic at the bottom of the frame? That’s easy to ignore or make disappear with one tap.

A couple of years ago, YouTube was fined $170 million for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Act. This law states that websites can’t collect personal information from users under 13 years of age.

What does that mean for you? If you’re a “

,” it essentially means you’ll make less ad revenue. YouTube isn’t allowed to collect personal interest data for most children. As a result, those views don't see targeted ads they’re likely to click.

Advertisers know this, and they aren’t willing to pay top dollar for ads placed on content with “limited revenue." So if you have a kids channel, that's another factor driving your YouTube CPM way down.

7. How ‘Safe’ Your Videos Are For Viewing

Do your videos show adult content? How about guns and violence? On YouTube, these are CPM killers. For the most part, advertisers want to market their products on positive, PG-13 videos. So anything that falls outside of that will result in limited monetization and lower CPMs.

YouTube’s list of non-advertiser-friendly topics is lengthy. See the image below for every category.

 to keep your channel in good standing and earn the highest possible CPM.

Your YouTube CPM can be amazingly high or shockingly low. Here are 7 reasons why.

How To Make Money on YouTube

Podcasting on YouTube: 7 Tips to Get Subscribers on a Paid Membership

14 Ways to Avoid YouTube Demonetization

3 Ways to Grow Your YouTube Business

YouTube CPM: 7 Factors Affecting Your Channel's Revenue

The Truth About Getting a Brand Deal on YouTube

6 Signs It's Time to Make YouTube Your Full-Time Job

Making Money on YouTube: 7 Tips to Start a Successful Business

How to Make $200K a Month From YouTube AdSense

Starting a YouTube Career: 7 Steps to Monetize Your Passion

YouTube Is Expanding Monetization for These 3 Video Types

How to Get Full YouTube Monetization For Your Gaming Videos

Google AdSense 101: How to Benefit from Ad Revenue on YouTube