Why do Other Social Media Platforms, pay Less Compared to YouTube?

Why do Other Social Media Platforms, pay Less Compared to YouTube?

This is a relevant question if you want to make money as a social media influencer. But, you would only ask this question if you are only looking at the platform's partnership programs as a means to make money. And to be specific, YouTube's Partnership Program or YPP. YouTube shares a part of their revenue with creators when an Ad is played over their videos. And this monetization arrangement is available for any creator that is a member of YouTube's partnership program.

As a company, you can say that you can make more money on YouTube since, as of writing, it’s the biggest video-sharing platform. A lot of companies and private individuals are paying YouTube for Ads. Since YouTube has a large audience, your potential earnings from YouTube’s partnership program is also big.

But, you must understand that the partnership program is not the only metric you must be concerned about if you want to make money as a social media influencer. 

The real metric you should focus on is attention. If you have the attention of people you can make a lot of money on any social media platform even if you are not enrolled in any partnership program. Attention is the number of subscribers, the likes and shares of your videos, the comments, and how long people watch your videos. When you are holding a large volume of these numbers, you are capable of making money of whatever content you have. This is true because a lot of people would want to pay you for the attention you can give them.

Three of the most effective ways you can make money on social media with attention are, Brand Promotion, Affiliate Marketing, and selling your own Merch.

Brands will work with you if you have a good following on any social media platform. You have seen this with influencers that you follow right now. They are making money every time they promote a product on their accounts. And this can be pretty big, especially if you will be working with known products or services. The more popular the brand is, the more you can charge them. 

The second will be affiliate marketing. If you’ve noticed, there are influencers talking about websites, courses, services or products on their videos. And, somewhere along their video, they would ask you to register or buy something using their link. That is affiliate marketing. You will receive a commission if someone buys or register using your link. Think about this, if you’re videos will have 1,000,000 views, and only 5% of them will buy your promotion. That is 50,000 people. And for each sale, you will receive $2 commission. Thus, that is $100,000 of affiliate commission per 1,000,000 views. That is more than what you can earn from YouTube’s partnership program. On average, you can make $1,000 per 1,000,000 views on YouTube. But in affiliate marketing, you can earn more, especially if you are very credible in promoting a product or service.

And finally, selling your own merchandise. This is also insane, and this should be on your mind when you want to make money on social media. Let’s use the example above of 1,000,000 views and you are able to convince 50,000 people to buy your merch. Let us say you are selling t-shirts at $30 and you would profit $10 from that. That will amount to $500,000 for the 50,000 people you can convince online. 

Any of the three methods shared would be very successful if you have a strong following on any social media platform. Whether it would be on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram. That YouTube partnership program should not be your goal. 

Your focus must be on growing your social media accounts, gaining more followers, and increasing your engagement with your audience. 

Develop your trust with your audience, and become an authority in the niche you are working on. And money will surely follow. If you've been following famous social media influencers, you should have noticed that they are making money with all four methods. YouTube’s Partnership Program, Brand Promotion, Affiliate Marketing, and Selling their own Merchandize. 

Many social media influencers have mastered the ways to make money on the platforms they work on. And, they are maximizing their means to make money, and that is why they are insanely rich. And it all started because you gave them your attention.