How Do YouTubers
Make Money?
YouTubers make money five ways: AdSense, affiliate links, brand deals, merch, and memberships. In my second year monetized, those five paid me $7,655 — roughly four times my first year's $1,767. But almost all of it came from just two of them. Here's what each stream paid, how it works, and how I'd push it.
I walk through every number in the video, if you'd rather watch.
The year-two breakdown: $7,655
- AdSense: $6,423 (year one: $1,440)
- Amazon affiliate links: $1,232 (year one: $145)
- Brand deals: $0 — two brands sent free product instead
- Merch: $0
- Memberships: $0 — one member so far
For context: I've posted since 2019, got serious in 2022 right after college, and was officially monetized on Valentine's Day 2024.
1. AdSense: $6,423
AdSense is YouTube's ad-revenue share: advertisers pay YouTube to run ads on your videos, and YouTube splits it with you. It's the stream everyone knows, and it was mine by a mile.
Growing it is simple, not easy: make videos people keep watching. Three numbers tell you if you're doing it:
- Click-through rate — no good thumbnail and title, no click, no ad.
- Average view duration — how long people actually watch. One person watches 3 minutes, another watches 1: your average is 2.
- Average percentage viewed — how much of the video they watched. Twelve minutes of a 13-minute video is great. Twelve minutes of a 30-minute video is not, even though the duration is the same.
Keeping people watching doesn't mean editing like MrBeast. Know your audience. A long, talk-heavy channel loses its viewers if it suddenly adds explosions every second. If you catch yourself saying "the algorithm hates me," swap in the word audience — that's who's actually deciding.
2. Affiliate links: $1,232
You link a product — Amazon, Target, Walmart — and if someone buys through your link, the store gives you a commission. Mine went from $145 to $1,232 in a year, almost all Amazon, because Amazon sells basically everything for every niche.
Affiliate links pay best on expensive products. Someone buying an $800 camera through a review link can earn the creator $80–$100. Someone buying a $50 gadget I recommend earns me about a dollar. That's why tech reviewers lean on affiliates.
The way to make more is counterintuitive: don't sell the product, sell the feeling. Red Bull barely shows the can — it shows people doing exciting things. Describe what the product actually changed for you and let people decide they want it. The stuff I actually use is on my desk setup and camera gear pages.
3. Brand deals: $0
A brand deal is a company paying you a flat fee, or sending free product, to talk about it in a video. This year I got no cash — just product from two companies: Muse (a sleep-and-meditation headband) and Arrowzoom (the soundproofing panels in my office). I reviewed both because both fit what I make.
That's the rule I hold myself to: don't promote something that doesn't fit your content. I get pitched constantly — including, for real, a teriyaki sauce. I love teriyaki sauce. It has nothing to do with this channel, so I turned it down. If it doesn't fit, you end up having to hard-sell it, and your audience can tell.
4. Merch: $0
Merch is products you design and sell to your audience. I haven't sold any yet, but it's next — I've spent a few hundred dollars ordering test shirts and hoodies before selling anything. If someone pays $30–$40 for a shirt, it has to be worth $30–$40. Selling low-quality merch at a high price is the fastest way to lose the people supporting you.
5. Memberships: $0
Memberships let fans pay monthly — through YouTube's built-in feature or Patreon — in exchange for something extra. I have exactly one member so far. Best advice: don't beg. Say plainly that it's a way to support the channel if they like it, and give members real extra value so it's a fair trade.
Pick the right stream to prioritize
Use all five — $5 a month beats nothing — but push the one that fits your channel. A creator whose videos get demonetized for music or content should push merch. A tech reviewer should push affiliate links, because viewers want the thing being reviewed, not a hoodie. For me, right now, that's AdSense first, affiliates second.
I share these numbers because I'd have wanted them when I started. If you're earlier in the process, here's what year one looked like.
Keep reading
- How Much Does a Small YouTuber Make? — year one, itemized to the cent
- YouTube Subscriber Count Clock — how I track the exact number on my desk
I'm a YouTuber in Charleston, South Carolina. I've been monetized since February 2024, and I post the real numbers behind the channel and my Turo fleet. More about me.
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