How Internet Entrepreneurs Should Incorporate YouTube into their Business Plans

The traditional way of making money on YouTube’s video sharing website is by using such tools as Google AdSense to monetize your content, which might net you a few dollars for every thousand clicks that your channel receives. 

That’s nothing to scoff at if you’re able to build up a sizable following, and while this article is directed toward internet entrepreneurs who want to incorporate YouTube into their business plans, the wonderful randomness that the YouTube Gods use to bestow fame and wealth helps to explain why it’s such a popular medium. 

Having a cute cat or dog could be worth hundreds of thousands in revenue and set up the pet owners for early retirement and annual vacations to the Bahamas.  A family video that wasn’t even intended for the internet goes viral and some lucky schmuck has a suite case of cash dumped on his head because he had a smart phone on hand.  As an internet entrepreneur, it’s both highly enjoyable as well as incredibly exasperating to look at some of the folks who make out like bandits on YouTube.

Even though we can always dream, that probably won’t be us.  If we want to make money on YouTube, we’re going to have to do it the hard way, or better still, by doing it the smart way.  Here are five easy steps to help incorporate YouTubing into your online business.

I) Keep it short, simple, and to the point – the minute you open your mouth viewers begin dropping like flies.  The video production company MiniMatters did a great breakdown of your average YouTuber’s attention span.  The most successful videos are rarely longer than ten minutes, with the most successful averaging around four-and-a-half minutes.

Just as important, the minute your video starts, viewers start bailing in droves.  For videos that last between one to two minutes, you’ll lose at least 25% of your audience.  For those that last four to five minutes, you’ll probably lose half of your audience.  If you have videos that simply can’t be reduced in length, then a good idea would be to break them up into more digestible bites in order to maintain your audience’s fleeting attention span.

II)  When it comes to monetizing your YouTube channel, AdSense is merely the icing; the cake is in posting affiliate links, selling your own products, as well as funneling viewers back to your website.  Building up a large YouTube audience can be an exhausting, time-consuming process, and of course when it comes to financial returns, you’re being paid peanuts for it. 

Shorten that process and start creating real revenue by doing product reviews with affiliate links, as well as funneling people back to your website where you can boost your web traffic, page rankings, as well as sales conversion.  Synergy truly is the key.  By itself, YouTube can be a time and money pit that usually isn’t worth it for most internet entrepreneurs, but it can be a potent money moneymaker when used as an advertising and funneling platform.

III) When it comes to building up your viewer and subscription base, practice the doctrine of “upward humility.”  So you just started a YouTube channel?  Well then, the first order of business is to start researching other YouTube channels that are similar (but not identical) to yours and trying to form networks.

In doing so, you should be realistic about your chances of success.  Is a YouTuber with 3,000,000 subscribers really going to give a guy with 500 subscribers the time of day?   Probably not, that guy’s got bigger fish to fry. 

But someone with a 1,000 subscribers might talk to you, especially if you give them free advertising on your channel.  This is a good “platform hack” when it comes to boosting your channel traffic.  Always aim upward, but be realistic in your expectations.   

IV) Don’t go off half-cocked when it comes to tapping into your social networks.  When building your initial subscriber list, you should already have ten to twenty videos of good content along with a fully fleshed-out and monetized channel before even thinking about yoking your social networks. 

Tapping into your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter networks while your site is still under construction and only has a couple of videos up is comparable to shooting yourself in the foot.  You need enough content present to fully engage your viewers and to get them to commit as subscribers.

Speaking of your social networking sites, an excellent way to enter YouTube community with “a splash” is by recognizing…     

V) One home run on YouTube can be a life changing event, especially if grounded upon programs such as a Kickstarter Campaign.  Let’s kill several birds with one stone, shall we?

A) You want to a launch a YouTube channel and get as many subscribers from your social networks as is humanly possible,

B) Your hoping that not only will your friends subscribe, but that the quality of your channel will inspire them to tell their own friends and family about it through word-of-mouth advertising,

C) When it comes to networking with much more established YouTube channels, wouldn’t it be great if you had some exciting topic that you can use to break the ice and get your foot in the door?  Heck, maybe even the guy with 3,000,000 subscribers might take some time out from his busy schedule to listen to you?

D) Wouldn’t it be great if in a couple of months you could raise thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of dollars in startup capital for a business idea you’ve been nurturing without having to become a debt slave to a bank?

As stated, what’s the true key to yoking YouTube as a business platform?  

Synergy, and a well-planned Kickstarter campaign can help you accomplish all four of these objectives.

Conclusion – By itself (especially with its traditional monetizing strategy), YouTube really isn’t worth the time and effort for most internet entrepreneurs.  But approaching its platform with a comprehensive game plane that aims to boost site traffic, increase Google page rankings, increase sales conversions, as well as raising startup capital for your business, now you’re getting somewhere.  Business strategies that stress synergy are the key to yoking YouTube’s strength and potential.    

References

Flare, Rick. “How to make money online with YouTube.” PayPerVids, 24 June 2019,https://www.howtomakemoneyonline.co/how-to-make-money-online-with-youtube/.

“How to Make Money With YouTube.” Paypervids, 12 June 2019, https://www.paypervids.com/3-ways-to-make-money-with-youtube-video-tutorial/.