Using YouTube For Fun And Earning money

YouTube is easily one of the most popular sites on the Internet for video sharing. Considering how much traffic it gets in general, it's also one of the best ways to get a following of any kind on the Web. And any time you have a following that's large enough, you can use it to make money. It's just a matter of what will work best for your particular situation. Here are a few tips for maximizing your followers and earnings on YouTube. Even you can earn enough money by sharing links over the web through social media sharing, emails, or any other medium.

Encourage People to Comment

This is one of the best ways to get growth on your YouTube account. You want to encourage people to interact. If you're talking about a political issue, ask the viewers what they think about the issue. Even better then that, ask them a direct question about the content of the video. If your video is about PETA, for example, ask the viewers whether they agree with PETA on animal rights, and why or why not. If you get debate brewing in YouTube it's sure to get more views as more people jump in to join the fray. You could ask for their opinion on your music also, for example.

Ask for Video Responses

Even more than just typing out their responses, people want to be able to have an arena to talk about your video directly. You can encourage video responses by talking about anyone who did post one in your video. Additionally, if you talk about someone who had previously commented in your video by mentioning it in a later video, you'll also encourage interactions and you'll make the scope of your net of influence on YouTube a little wider. Another approach to this is to encourage covers of a song that you've created. If that song is a cover, then asking what other people might make of that musical cover would be interesting as well.

Monetize It Directly

It's certainly possible to make money on YouTube directly simply by enabling ads. You can only do this for certain videos, and you may get videos taken down if you monetize some that you aren't supposed to, such as videos with copyrighted material in it. But if you have enough people watching a video you made yourself, you can make some money off of the advertising revenue that YouTube splits with you (heavily in YouTube's favor of course, which means you need quite a lot of followers to make any amount this way.)

Sell Merchandise

Even if you don't want to add advertisements to YouTube directly, that doesn't mean you can't use it to earn some money. If you have a following that might be interested in what you're

doing, then you can sell stuff to them. Here are a few ideas, regardless of what type of YouTuber you are.

• Artists- If you're an artist that does live painting on YouTube, or lessons, or anything else with personal art, you can sell designs in various ways. You can sell Tshirts from CafePress, for example. You can also sell prints at a site like DeviantArt.If you're a musical artist,  you can sell music on iTunes or other musical sites online. Though, selling shirts with your band name and logo on it could work as well.

• Craft Builders- Do You have a craft channel where you make plushie toys or gingerbread houses? Why not sell them on Etsy? You can usually add links to your Etsy pages This way. If people like your videos enough, they may like them enough to buy one of the projects.

Use Professional Promotion

Another great way to get new fans for your band is through music promotion sites. These sites can reach a truly wide audience, and also allow you to get your channel recognized by major labels. An example of someone this happened to was the musician Gotye who had been singing electropop since 2007. He joined a promotion site and quickly gained national recognition with music awards and the hit song 'Somebody That I Used to Know.” In order to make all of this possible though, you will need a YouTube account first.

Ashley is a freelance writer and an occasional blogger interested in tech and business related topics. When she is not working she likes to read and write about interesting topics and facts.