Earn Money Online Through Sponsoring YouTube Videos

This method is about sponsoring successful YouTube videos or channels. You will pay them to put a link to your affiliate landing page under their videos, so you can monetize their traffic.

Investment needed:	$10-$500/month
Working hours:	30 minutes
Earning possibilities:	$25-$1500/month
Skills needed:	landing page creation, affiliate marketing knowledge

Please note that there are two ways to approach this method: you could either first pick a video or channel and then a related affiliate product, or, like in the approach I’m explaining you below, first find an affiliate product and then the videos or channels that can be sponsored.

1. Find an affiliate product

Find an affiliate product you’d like to promote. The kind of product or niche does not really matter.

Just make sure that other affiliates have been able to promote the product and that the commission is high enough. I usually aim for middle-high priced goods, services or software paying me at least $25 commission.

Browse around affiliate marketing networks such as Clickbank, CJ or ShareASale to find products.

It’s always good to choose a niche you have knowledge of yourself, so you can better understand the target audience of the product.

2. Create a landing page for the product

You should never link to affiliate offers directly from YouTube. It’s better to build a squeeze or landing page because YouTube sometimes gets on a banning spree and removes those affiliate videos.

During this year, I found them to have loosened up a lot on this. I guess this is mainly related to the big YouTubers having discovered affiliate marketing for additionally monetizing their videos.

I prefer being on the safe side by having a simple landing page. Also, it helps to presell the product, there will be no problems from the affiliate network because of YouTube traffic, there is the possibility to collect emails and the landing page will continue to exist and can still be used even if the video gets taken down for whatever reason.

The only thing you’ll need is web hosting, a domain and my guide on how to create landing pages in WordPress. You can also split test different layouts with my guide on A/B split testing.

3. Find a suitable YouTube video/channel

You need to find a YouTube video or channel that fits closely to the affiliate product and has the same target audience. For example, if you want to promote a gaming product, the channel or video should have gaming as topic.

3.1 Find channels

Think of a few keywords that can describe the affiliate product and type them into Google AdWords Keyword Planner to get suggestions for more keywords.

You’ll end up with a bunch of keywords you can use as search terms on YouTube to find related channels.

3.2 Analyze the channels

You should analyze the channels and their videos by looking at the following factors:

• Number of subscribers
• Average number of video views
• Frequence of video posting
• Amount and quality of comments
• Number of social shares
• Affiliate products in description? -> don’t waste your time
• Ads turned on? -> better when the video is not monetized yet

There is no exact science behind these factors and numbers may vary hugely. Just use these factors as help for comparing the channels you found. A video with 30 subscribers and 100 views is not worth sponsoring. The videos need massive traffic of thousands of views every day.

3.3 Channel or video(s) sponsorship

I’d say that the decision whether to sponsor one video, several videos or the whole channel is quite straightforward.

Is there only one video fitting to your affiliate product with a lot of views? -> sponsor only this video.

Are there several videos fitting with a lot views but newer videos have another focus or do not generate enough views? -> sponsor several videos.

Are there several videos fitting with a lot views and new videos with similar topics are coming? -> sponsor the channel.

The less you sponsor the less you’ll also have to pay. However, don’t underestimate the power of a channel owner you sponsor. He or she might make some extra advertising, maybe even producing videos about the product!

4. Offer sponsorship to the owner

By now, you should have decided if you want to sponsor a video, several videos or the whole channel. It’s time to contact the owner of the channel and ask if they are interested.

Here is a template you can use:

Subject: [channelname] sponsorship

Hi [channel owner’s name],

I’ve been watching all your videos and I really appreciate the effort you put into them.

I know you are very busy, so let’s get straight to the point:

I want to sponsor [channel or specific video(s)]. I’m an affiliate for [product]. [Explain what the product is about]. This makes it very relevant to the main topic of your channel. The target audience of your videos is also the target audience of [product]. The sponsorship would only require you to put a link to my website under your videos. That’s all that has to be done on your end.

I first want to run a test limited to one month to check the quality of your traffic. This test is paid $xy. After a successful test, I’m willing to pay a higher sum every month via PayPal. Both parties, you and me, have the right to quit the sponsorship at any time.

Let me know if you want to take this opportunity.

Best regards,
[your name]

If the person agrees, you could also define what exactly the sponsorship includes, e.g. that the person is only allowed to link to your affiliate landing page and not at the same time to the one of another sponsor.

Don’t give up if the first person rejects your offer. Many YouTubers see what they are doing as a hobby and are incredible happy when they get the opportunity to make money through it!

How to define the price to charge

It’s not possible to know exactly which price is the smartest to choose, as this depends on factors, such as conversion rate, we cannot know in advance. This is the reason we should first ask for a test run with lower payment to better calculate our return on investment.

The test run should be at least one month long. No one will do this for free, so you’ll need to be prepared to pay a bit. Suggest a reasonable sum depending on the status of the channel or video defined below.

Offering $10/month for a video that gets 100.000 views everyday will lead to the channel owner’s death from laughter.

Here is how I calculated the payment following the data of a test run:

The video had around 10.000 new viewers during the test month. I analyzed that around 5% of these viewers clicked on the link to the affiliate landing page. Out of these, 3% converted into actual customers and therefore, brought me a $25 commission each time. In actual numbers, this means that 10.000 viewers, of which 15 converted into buyers, brought $375 commission.

Now, I can pay the person $185/month and have $190/month commission for myself. However, this is just one way to do it. I just recommend to not pay too much, as the traffic could fall at any point and lead to you making losses.

Further things to consider

Some will want you to first show them the product. You’ll have to decide if it’s worth to buy a copy for them or if there is the possibility to show them a preview. I’m always testing and buying the products myself before I recommend them to others. This makes it easier to explain the strengths and weaknesses of the product and allow them a sneak peek.

Optional: Use channelpages.com

On channelpages.com you can skim through YouTubers of different categories who are looking for collaborations with other YouTubers, but also for sponsors like you. You can even purchase the creation of a video about the product.

Please note that I have not tested this service myself and cannot comment on its quality or reliability. As of right now, the service is free of charge, so it might be worth a try.

Summary

• Find an affiliate product you’d like to promote
• Create a landing page for it
• Find a related YouTube channel or video
• Offer to sponsor a video, videos or the whole channel
• They’ll put a link to the affiliate landing page in the video description(s)
• Another option is to use channelpages.com