How to make money with YouTube

Justin Bieber can't make money off the YouTube videos that catapulted him to pop stardom. Why? Because the King of YouTube's first videos were of him singing a bunch of songs that he never received permission to cover. So, don't bother uploading a video of your Journey tribute band.

STEP 1: 

Make an awesome video!

• Get a video camera
• Record puppies, kittens, and anything else that can turn a video into a viral hit
• Edit your raw footage into a short, watchable video

STEP 2: 

Upload your video to YouTube

• While waiting for your video to upload, come up with a catchy yet simple and easily searchable title.
• For example, "Charlie bit my finger," "Sneezing Panda," and "David after Dentist" are legendary viral videos with self-explanatory titles that seem to roll off the tongue.

STEP 3: 

Repeat steps 1 and 2

• What separates a major YouTube Partner like Philip DeFranco from the average YouTube user is that the former knows how to distribute and market their videos to maximize viewership.
• If you ever want to be a YouTube Partner, you have to "regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users."
• So, keep on making videos and distributing them to social networks and media outlets.

STEP 4A: 

Check your inbox

• If one of your videos does well, YouTube will send you an email with this subject line: "Apply for revenue sharing for your video (Video Title)."
• However, if approved, you can only make money from the video specified in the email.

STEP 4B: 

Apply through YouTube's Partner Program page

• If you think you finally have enough video uploads AND views, you can apply directly for partnership on YouTube's Partner Program page.
• Once approved, you'll be able to turn on revenue sharing for all your videos (as long as they meet the criteria), and you can even rent out your videos.

STEP 5: 

Start the application process

• Read through the YouTube Partnership Program tutorial, and double-check that you haven't violated ANY of their rules.

STEP 6: 

Create a Google AdSense Account

• Once you're done reviewing the guidelines, you need to link a Google AdSense account to your YouTube account.
• This is how Google/YouTube will pay you for your awesome video(s).

STEP 7: 

Start making money!

• Once you're approved, you can turn on overlay ads that pop up on the bottom of a video, banner ads that appear next to the video, and/or pre-roll ads that play in front of your video.

STEP 8: 

Go back to Step 1

• If YouTube rejected your application, you obviously didn't follow one of these steps.
• You have another two months before you can apply again; so, get back to working on your videos.

If you followed these steps, you could end up like...

... The YouTube Stars Making $100,000 Per Year