YouTube’s Business of You Panel at Summer in the City 2016

The YouTube’s Business Of You talk took place on Creator Day at Summer in the City 2016. Anna Bartoskova, who works at YouTube managing Eastern European creators and helping them to monetise their content, led the presentation. Over the course of the hour, she discussed the various ways you can make a living from being a YouTube creator.

To begin, she explained what she described as the fundamental way to get revenue – monetising your videos. As this was Creator Day, she took the packed room of aspiring creators through the back end of the upload page step-by-step. She went over how to turn on the monetisation and set up an AdSense account. From there, she transitioned to various ways you can build a brand, market yourself, and generate a sustainable income as a creator.

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YouTube’s top tips on how to have a financially-successful channel:

1. Think of yourself as a company, not an individual. For example, Oprah’s empire; although her talk show was important to building an audience, real branding came from other excursions such as magazines, books, and products. YouTube is similar – once you have a following, outside projects are key to growing your brand and revenue.

2. Know your demographics and channel focus when working with brands. The more specific you can get about your audience, the better you can work with third parties to create content that you, your viewers, and the company enjoy.

3. Do not undersell yourself. When working with brands and making sponsored videos, your time and effort is valuable and you should be paid properly for it.

4. Make sure your content is “advertiser friendly”. If advertisements are something you want to be involved with, do your best to avoid being racy or controversial.

5. Once there an interest is expressed, merchandise is a must. A merchandise store is a great way to increase your income and there are many different ways you can do it. Depending on the demand, there are both free and paid-for stores that will help you with production and shipping to your audience.

6. Crowdfunding is a fantastic resource. Getting your fans involved directly supporting you is a great way to sustain a smaller channel, or one that produces more niche content. Patreon is perfect for individual crowdfunding, whereas Kickstarter is better for raising money for projects.

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