we all want to make money on YouTube right including you no matter how big or indeed how small your channel is but how long does it actually take to make a significant amount of cash let's say $11,000 in this video we're going to cover how long it takes the average Creator to go from zero subscribers to hitting their first $1,000 plus we'll take a look at four real case studies and break down the key strategies they use so that you can apply them to your channel but since we're here to have some fun as well
let's let's make a little bit of spot out of this before we reveal some answers how long do you think it takes to make a grand on YouTube or if you've already achieved this how long did it take you either way let us know in the comments below now then if you want any chance of these strategies working that it's important that you understand that there's actually two paths to making money on YouTube the first and most common method is through AdSense Revenue this is when YouTube puts ads on your videos and pays you for
each view this is one of the most attractive ways to make money on YouTube because it's incredibly easy to set up once you're in the YouTube Partner program you literally flick a switch and YouTube takes care of a rest because you don't have to do anything once a video is published on YouTube it's what's often referred to as passive income you can post a video today and still get paid years into the future a good example of this is my old Tech Channel I have made one video on the channel in the last 6 years
but everything I made before that is still contributing to to this day since I effectively moop balled the Channel 6 years ago it has generated over $30,000 in passive income and still chips in with a couple of dollars per day to this very day and what have I done with all of this passive income yeah I've spent it on Marvel Shields and filament for my 3D printer money well spent I think but here's a downside as we briefly mentioned earlier to be eligible for AdSense Revenue your channel must be accepted into the YouTube Partner program
which requires you to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time this is often a barrier to income earning entry that many creators simply never overcome they get so focused on that goal and those requirements that they almost ignore the skills strategy and mindset required to get there but there is a second monetization strategy that creators need to consider because in the long run it will earn them far more than they could ever Hope from AdSense revenue and this is for the Creator to sell their own products and services or promote other companies products
and services this could be things like creating a digital course coaching or consulting or selling products through affiliate marketing and the best part about this method is that there are no YouTube barriers to entry you don't need to hit any subscriber view or watch time Milestones to start getting paid in fact a little later on in this video I'll show you how one creative use this method to make their first $11,000 on YouTube in just a few weeks but first which monetization method should you choose and how long how long can you expect it to
take to make your first $1,000 well to answer both of these questions let's dive a little deeper and take a look at two case study examples for each method we'll start with Jillian Perkins Jillian has a successful Channel with over 700,000 subscribers but back in 2012 she had zero subscribers and was making no money from YouTube so I started in September of 2012 and so I'm going to take you over to look at my analytics you can see how long it took me to start actually earning money for these videos and you can see that
in this first 2 years of running this channel I ended up earning a total of just over $500 so even after 2 years of YouTube toil and effort Jillian still hadn't hit her first $1,000 from AdSense Revenue but then she did something interesting in 2017 she decided to launch a brand new channel so I started uploading videos to the new YouTube channel in May of 2017 so just about 3 months into running this new channel I got my first check for for $113 and after that the money started coming faster and faster by December of
2017 so just 4 months after I got that first check I got a check for $2,249 now it is easy to think that Jillian's second Channel made $1,000 so fast purely because she had more experience but that is not the whole truth when Jillian started her first channel in 2012 which I can't believe I'm saying this is now 12 years ago video content creation on the internet was still in its infancy and the infrastructure and support to help creators grow their channels was lacking but today there are entire YouTube channels and companies like ours educating
small creators on how to grow their channels faster and that's why I joined vid IQ YouTube changed my life in incredible and positive ways and this gives me the opportunity to give back to the community and enable new upand cominging creators just like you to realize that same dream I had a decade ago and we don't just educate through this channel we have free tools such as this video scorecard that can show you all the thumbnail and title changes a creator has made to their video plus a breakdown of a performance of a video over
its lifetime yeah it can do that for every single video on YouTube and it's completely free so install vid IQ right now using the link below so is it easier and faster to earn your first $1,000 on YouTube today than it was1 years ago well let's take the example of William Lee he started a YouTube channel in 2022 I'm a complete amateur in everything related to YouTube I've never shot videos before I've never used video editing software before I have no media experience I'm not a writer I've never had another YouTube channel and I barely
use any other social media I don't come from a sales or marketing background I've also never been in front of a camera before and I don't do public speaking my point is that I came into this about as inexperienced as anyone could be all of this sounds pretty familiar to you right because you've been through that same journey I guess what I can say is that since Williams started his channel and published this video about his experiences he's learned a lot about YouTube and his skills to become a proficient Creator very quickly in the beginning
the growth of his channel was slow and after 3 months of posting he grown by only 57 subscribers but at the end of month three something amazing happened he posted this video here and it went completely viral this video helped his channel get monetized and he ended up making his first $1,000 in about 5 months which proves that even if you have no previous experience it doesn't have to take years and you're always just one video away from everything changing so what did both Jillian and William that is really fun to say by the way
learn that help them get $1,000 from ad Revenue so quickly on YouTube well it's because they discovered three Secrets we'll start with targeting niches with high cpms one key thing you'll notice about both Jillian and William is that they're in the finance niche which is known for its high cpms you see not all niches on YouTube are created equal not by a long shot the amount you can earn per 1,000 views can change massively depending on your content category this piece of data always spikes the watch time on our videos as viewers pause to watch
it and Rewind I guess that makes it very valuable information essentially you can earn a lot more for the same amount of views in the social media finance and education niches then you can making videos in the fitness music or gaming niche now I hope this should be obvious but let's make sure this doesn't mean that you have to create content in the finance Niche or any other Niche that pays high cpms for most creators it's a case of putting passion before profit to prevent burnout if the finance Niche BS you don't make videos about
it however it is important to understand that the higher the CPM in your chosen Niche the faster you're likely to reach that first $1,000 Milestone the next thing both of these creators focused on was making viral based content to maximize views because with AdSense Revenue more views obviously equals more money let's take a look at this video as an example one of the reasons it went viral was because it targeted a wide audience there are literally millions of people around the world interested in starting a side hustle which meant before the video was even created
the idea had the potential to go viral with a large audience and then let's compare it to this video that's in the same Niche but didn't perform nearly as well and that's because the topic is too specific and doesn't appear to a wide audience the third and final skill is a very universal one that all creators need to get two grips with and that is uploading consistently one common pattern you'll find with channels that make money fast on YouTube is that in the beginning they stick to a pretty consistent upload schedule for example in a
recent video on our Channel we shared the story of a 58-year-old woman silver and solo who monetized her channel in just 10 weeks with no prior YouTube experience and one of her fundamental commitments to consistency was that she was going to upload two videos no matter what every single week until she was monetized so if you do want to make $1,000 quickly on YouTube then we recommend that you upload at least once a week in the beginning there are other reasons why you should do this too but we've already spoken about them in previous videos
on the channel but making money through AdSense revenue is only one way to hit $11,000 and in fact is often the much slower way so to really understand how long it takes we also need to look at a few more Channel examples that use the second monetization method we mentioned earlier starting with Erica kulberg Erica is a qualified lawyer who started making videos on Personal Finance way back in October of 2019 and after 5 months of posting on YouTube her Channel had made exactly 0 from AdSense Revenue but that didn't matter because Erica used a
completely different method to make her first $1,000 before she was even monetized it's called affiliate marketing and if you haven't heard of it it's basically where you promote other companies products or services and you earn a commission for each sale made through your unique refer referal link and I would be an absolute fool at this point if I didn't mention that vid IQ has its own affiliate program so if you find our tools useful and think your audience would too you can earn commission from us for promoting vid IQ there's a link in the description
and there's also one up here if you're interested the awesome part is you can start adding affiliate links to your videos and get paid on your very first video all you need to do is unlock Advanced features in YouTube studio for your channel but again affiliate marketing is just one way to make money through selling products or services on YouTube there's actually an even faster way that more and more creators are using to get paid thousands of dollars within their first few videos take Lyndon for example he's a YouTube strategist we've had on a vid
IQ channel before and the way he makes money through his channel is by offering consultancy Services now admittedly this method does generally require you to have some sort of service-based business that's either being built before or around your YouTube channel but it's helping creators make a crazy amount of money for example lyndon's second ever video on YouTube generated him over $10,000 without being monetized through AdSense and now barely a dozen videos later he has built an entire business off of YouTube that makes him well over $220,000 a month with less than 25,000 subscribers so if
you're interested in making money through affiliate marketing or selling your own product or Services here are a few key tips to get started if you want to make money through affiliate products or selling your own products then one of the best ways is to create problem solving content for example let's take a look at one of Erica's most popular videos it targets a very specific Financial issue which her audience is obviously struggling with and by targeting pain points like this it naturally creates context where she can recommend either her own product or the products of
other companies she likely uses at the heart of this is a budgeting philosophy designed to help you slow down and analyze your monthly spending it's a simple technique that anyone can apply without needing any technical prowess so when you do brainstorm video ideas always start with this simple question what what problem can I solve for my audience next you should build a channel around your own expertise this is because leveraging your own expertise is going to make you sound credible and trustworthy which is important when you're selling products or services to your audience and when
you put authenticity and credibility together for example let's take a look at the first few seconds of this video from Lyndon I grew a brand new YouTube channel from zero all the way to 1,000 subscribers in under 30 days but the craziest part is that only 30 days later at 7,000 subscribers and Counting Lyndon starts the video by sharing his expertise he gives you proof that he's credible and he's personally achieved what he's promising to deliver in the video this makes the audience trust him and are more likely to purchase services from him as the
video progresses and next do you want to model what's working for other creators while it is important to be unique there is no need to reinvent the wheel if you want to make money through selling products a great way to start to look at what's working for other creators in your Niche find out what they selling and how they're selling it and use it as inspiration for your own channel you can do this by identifying three to five successful creators in your Niche sorting through their best performing videos and look at what video topics they
are creating how are they structuring their content and what products are they selling this should give you a ton of ideas on what type of content to make and also what sort of products your audience are interested in buying now it may be that you can't convince a viewer to buy from you after the first video they watch so it's important to build a relationship with your viewer video after video after video what you're looking to establish here is genuine trust that the viewer believes they are in safe hands with a recommendations they get from
you the Creator and what I recommend you watch next is how this Creator monetized their YouTube channel in 10 weeks despite never having made a YouTube video before in her life and you can trust me right because all I've given you in this video is free advice and free YouTube tools he can trust me right I'm not even sure if I can trust me self now
