Whether you’re a professional content creator such as a blogger or a business owner who merely occasionally uses YouTube to showcase your products or provide information to your customers, your videos offer a chance to generate advertising revenue through Google’s AdSense program. Although there’s no magic formula to boost ad revenue, employing several basic strategies can help any videographer earn more money through YouTube.
Use Text Wisely
When you upload your video, the title, tags and the description you provide it are essential tools in boosting revenue. These descriptions help YouTube users find your video, increasing your traffic. They also help the site match advertisements to your video, so the more information you provide, the more ads might appear with your video. Use the maximum number of characters allowed in the description and tags, and don’t merely describe your video. Describe the process, including and tools or supplies used when making the video, which can generate advertising dollars by matching your video to suppliers’ ads.
Choose Thumbnails Carefully
If you’re a YouTube partner, you’ll be able to create your own thumbnails to represent your video in search results. If you haven’t achieved that level, you can choose from three auto-generated thumbnails. Keep your thumbnails simple enough to grab searcher’s attention: A visitor uses thumbnails to gauge if your video meets his search needs, which are often trying to find out how to solve a problem or perform a task, so select a thumbnail that demonstrates your video does just that. Instead of a fancy logo or graphic, opt for a picture of the completed project or a photograph of a work in progress.
You’re not the only videographer who chases advertisers’ dollars on the website, so you’ll need to be crafty to maximize your efforts to rope in those dollars. Start by analyzing YouTube trends. Avoid topics that are already covered by many other videos, and develop a niche. Gauge the topic’s potential by using tools such as Word Tracker and AdWords data to determine the potential for viewers. Get a feel for seeing when a topic that’s too niche -- you won’t earn much targeting a topic that has only 1,000 searches each month. Similarly, understand that chasing after topics that have 20,000 other YouTube videos devoted to them might place you in an overcrowded market. Try to find the sweet spot between the extremes.
Basic logic dictates that the more people who see your video, the more revenue you’ll generate from it, so don’t be shy about promoting yourself. Use applicable videos as responses to other clips on the same topic to funnel those viewers onto your video. Use YouTube’s in-video annotations to entice viewers to subscribe as well as to promote other videos on a similar topic: Once a viewer comes to one of your videos, your goal should be to get her to watch another one before she surfs away. As always, promote your videos off YouTube, sharing them with others who might have an interest in them, such as on message boards and blogs.
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