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Case Study: 6 Ways to Monetize 
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THE SUMMARY 
 
The difference between being a hobbyist and a professional influencer is monetization. There 
are 6 specific ways to monetize that can all be highly successful for you: 
 
1. Information products is the monetization method that we recommend the most. It cuts out 
a middleman from your transaction with your audience, it has a high rate of success because 
you’re selling your already-proven content, and it has high margins because there are almost 
no costs. 
 
2. Merchandise is probably the most common way to monetize: slap your logo and designs 
onto t-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, and any other physical good, and sell it to your audience. 
This is one of the easiest ways to create a revenue stream, with the benefit that you get 
extra publicity as well from your customers wearing your creations. 
 
3. Brand deals are common ways to monetize, and we cover them in depth in a long course 
later in this module. 
 
4. Multi-Channel Networks (MCNs) are collections of YouTube channels that derive power 
from aggregating channels. They rarely provide much value, but sometimes will give you a 
signing bonus for being with them.  
 
5. Ad revenue is the easiest way to monetize, and you can set it up directly with Google 
Adsense. It doesn’t bring in much cash compared to these other strategies, but it completely 
makes sense to do it.  
 
6. Crowdfunding is a bonus method: it’s become more and more popular over the years as 
sites like Patreon have popped up, and it allows your fans support you by contributing to 
your channel’s financial goals. 
 
Of the 6 monetization methods above, there are 2 that we do not cover in a separate video later in 
this module: MCNs and ad revenue. This is because these two are the ones that you have the least 
control over, and that require the least work on your part. In this worksheet, we’re going to break 
down the basics of both, and help you navigate through them. 

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ASSIGNMENT #1: ALL ABOUT MCNs 
15 minutes 
 
Here’s a handy sheet with everything you need to know about joining an MCN.  
 
How do I get a signing bonus from an MCN? 
 
It’s going to be really hard. MCNs will not give them out unless you’re getting a ton of views on your 
videos. In the past, if you were in the top 5% of YouTubers based on subscriber count, you could 
usually get a signing bonus from them -- but now, nobody really does them anymore. In fact, only 
the top 1% of YouTubers get signing bonuses from MCNs. Don’t rely on this as a monetization 
technique.  
 
What should I think about before I join an MCN?  
 
As your channel grows, you’ll start hearing more about MCNs -- from cold emails, or talking to other 
creators signed by them. Should you join one?  
 
It depends. 
 
Here are the two things that MCNs do on a consistent basis that will help you:  
 
1. First, they have a direct connection to YouTube, which means that if you get a copyright 
strike or community guidelines strike, your MCN will help you clear it up very quickly. Most of 
the time, for strike issues, you can’t do it yourself -- you have to go through an MCN.  
 
2. Second, they will help with age gates. If one of your videos gets age gated, you won’t be 
able to monetize it. An MCN can reverse the age gate for you -- provided that your content 
is actually not rated R.  
 
Now, why does an MCN want to sign you? There are two clear benefits that usually happen for 
them. First, they’ll take some of your ad revenue. All the Adsense revenue that you make -- the MCN 
will take a portion of that for themselves. If they ask for 30%, that’s a complete ripoff, and too 
much. You shouldn’t give more than 20% to them, even if you’re a small channel. (The only 
exception is if they give you a large guarantee for brand deals -- more on that next paragraph.)  
 
The second benefit is that an MCN will usually guarantee you a dollar amount of brand deals. For 
example, they’ll write that they’ll give you $20,000 worth of brand deals over the next 12 months. 

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Now, you can choose to refuse to do a brand deal that they present to you, but they will give them 
to you. There’s also a split revenue here. They will take anywhere between 10% to 30% of your 
brand deal revenue for helping you source it. Whether they take 10% or 30% depends on how big of 
a guarantee they are giving you. If they tell you they’ll get you $100,000 of brand deals in the next 12 
months, they’ll probably take a bigger chunk of the pie.  
 
(Note: if you negotiate your own brand deal, they will usually let you keep 100% of it. But you 
usually have to disclose the brand deal so that they know about it.) 
 
There’s really nothing else an MCN gives you?  
 
Not really.  
 
The main thing to keep in mind is that an MCN will do absolutely nothing special for you unless it is 
written in the contract you sign with them. When they recruit you, they will make a ton of promises 
-- to get you collaborations, to use their studio space, to get you in touch with people -- that is all a 
lie. Simple Pickup was screwed over twice by an MCN who promised a whole lot but ended up 
doing nothing.  
 
That’s why, when you sign with one of them, read what’s in the contract. Figure out what they are 
guaranteeing. That’s what you’ll actually get.  
 
So…should I join an MCN?  
 
In general, I advise you not to join an MCN, but there are two exceptions to the rule: 
 
1. You have a risky channel that might get strikes. Music channels and prank channels are 
very risky in that they can be taken down by people reporting you on YouTube, so having an 
MCN to back you up is pretty good.  
 
2. You’re a big channel that has a lot of traction as well as negotiating power. When you’re 
growing really fast, or in the top 1% of YouTube channels, MCNs will descend on you and 
want to sign you to their brand. This is when you can leverage your power the most. For 
example, when Simple Pickup was getting 15 million views a month, we got a 50K signing 
bonus, and they gave us 100% of our ad revenue.  
 
Who you should sign with? 
 
All of them are the same -- they all suck. (Again, unless you’re in the top 1% of channels.) 
 
We don’t have a recommendation on who to sign with -- but if MCNs start to spam your inbox, see 

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how much you can get from them, even the smaller and unheard of ones.  
 
Here’s a template email you might send them: 
 
 
 
Hi Gary,  
 
Thanks for reaching out. I’m holding off on signing with an MCN for now, as I want to grow my 
channel a bit more before I do. However, I’ve heard good things about [insert MCN]. if you can 
guarantee me $XXXX of brand deals over the next 12 months, I’m open to having a discussion 
then.  
 
Thank you!  
 
[your name] 
 
 
 
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ASSIGNMENT #2: BASICS OF AD REVENUE 
2 hours 
 
How does YouTube ad revenue work? 
 
1. A creator, like you, makes and posts videos on YouTube 
2. Viewers come to your channel to watch your videos 
3. Advertisers who want those eyeballs create ads and pay YouTube (using Google Adwords) 
to place those ads in your videos 
 
When advertisers setup campaigns, they look for channels that have not only a lot of views, but 
also a highly targeted audience demographic, high engagement, and far reach. 
 
Advertisers only pay when a viewer “engages” with their ad (i.e. watches the entire 30-second 
pre-roll video ad, clicks on a link in an overlay ad, etc) -- which also means you don’t get paid unless 
a viewer interacts with an ad that appears in your video. [ source ] 
 
How much you can expect to earn from 1000 views? 
 

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Well, the answer isn’t as concrete as most would like it to be.  
 
In 2013, for example, the average CPM (cost per thousand) for YouTube was $7.60 -- meaning that 
for every 1,000 ad views, creators received an average of about $7.60 in profits. [ source ] 
 
Note that number reflects the ad views, NOT the total number of views the video gets!  
 
 
Did you know? 
 
+ On average, there are only about 200 ad views per every 1,000 video views. 
 
+ The “M” in CPM (cost per thousand) is actually derived from the latin word “mille,” which 
means thousand. 
 
 
 
That said, sources have placed average income estimates much lower in more recent years, with the 
vast majority of creators earning anywhere between $0.30 to $2.50 CPM. Only the most popular 
channels are making figures around the $10 CPM mark. 
 
Here’s an idea of what that would equate to: 
 
 

TOTAL VIDEO  ESTIMATED AD  EARNINGS   EARNINGS   EARNINGS  

VIEWS  VIEWS  (at $0.30 CPM)  (at $2.50 CPM)  (at $10 CPM) 

1,000  200  $0.06  $0.50  $2.00 

10,000  2,000  $0.60  $5.00  $20.00 

100,000  20,000  $6.00  $50.00  $200.00 

1,000,000  200,000  $60.00  $500.00  $2,000.00 

10,000,000  2,000,000  $600.00  $5,000.00  $20,000.00 

 
 
To get a more customized idea as to what you could make from ads, you can use Social Blade’s 
Estimated YouTube Money Calculator (note that this is still just a rough baseline number).  
 
How do you turn on ad revenue for your channel? 

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In order to make money from YouTube ads, you MUST have an approved AdSense account. Click 
here for detailed information about AdSense. 
 
Below is a step-by-step outline of what you need to do in order to turn monetization “on” for your 
channel, and set up an AdSense account for payments. 
 
 
1. Make sure your YouTube account is enabled for monetization by joining the YouTube 
Partner Program: 

 
+ Sign into YouTube account, and go to the “Creator Studio” (just click on your account icon 
in upper righthand corner) 
+ In left menu, select “Channel” --> “Status and features” 
+ Click “Enable” under Monetization 
+ Follow steps when prompted by Youtube and accept the Partner Program terms & 
conditions 
 
 
2. Link an Adsense account with your Youtube account [ how to ]. if you don’t already have 
an approved Adsense account, set one up and apply for approval by doing the following: 

 
+ Go to the “Creator Studio” in your YouTube account 
+ In left menu, select “Channel” --> “Monetization” 
+ Go to the “How will I be paid?” section 
+ Read through the guidelines and follow the instructions on each page, clicking the “next” 
button at the bottom once finished 
+ Select the Google account you want to link, and then make sure to “accept" Adsense 
association 
+ Fill out contact information and submit AdSense application 
+ Further instructions or approval notifications may come as soon as 24-48 hours after 
you’ve submitted your application (in some extreme cases, the process can take up to a 
few weeks) 
+ ONCE YOUR ADSENSE APPLICATION HAS BEEN APPROVED, you’ll have to enter your 
payment preferences, bank information, etc. before you can get paid 
+ Click here for details on what info AdSense will need from you for payments 
 
 

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3. Turn ads on for your videos: 

 
+ After you’ve joined the YouTube partner program and set up your Adsense account, you 
can turn ads on for individual videos that meet advertising criteria 
+ Or, you can set monetization to “default” by selecting “Channel” → “Upload defaults” from 
the left menu in the Creator Studio, and checking the “monetization” box to set as default  
 
 
Some important notes: 
 
+ Make sure to review YouTube’s video monetization criteria [ link here ]! You MUST meet 
the requirements set forth in order to make any money from your videos. 
 
You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you upload a video that receives two 
million views, only to find out that you can’t make a single penny off it because you used a 
clip of a song purchased from iTunes. Get familiar with the monetization criteria to avoid any 
surprises.  
 
+ You have control over what type of ads appear in your videos. There are a few different 
ad formats that are used in YouTube in videos. For instance, there’s non-skippable video ads 
that appear before a video can be viewed, overlay ads that are semi-transparent appearing 
in the lower portion of your video, and so forth. You can view ad types here. 
 
Most channels will allow all ad formats by default in order to maximize earnings. However, 
you do have the ability to control the type of ads that appear in your videos if desired.  
 
Just click on the “Creator Studio” menu option from your account icon in the upper right 
hand side of your YouTube window. Go to “Channel” → “Upload defaults” in the left menu; 
then make your selections from the “Ad formats” section by checking/unchecking the 
corresponding boxes. Make sure to hit “Save” when finished. 
 
+ You can view a detailed revenue report in the Creator Studio. After logging into your 
account, just click on “Creator Studio” by clicking on your account icon in the top right side 
of the window. Click “Analytics” → “Revenue report” from the left menu. Click here for more 
information on understanding your revenue report. 
 

Do you have any tips or tricks on making the assignments better? Leave them in the comments below! 

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