In recent years, using social media for photography businesses has become prevalent. As a photographer, you can find considerable success sharing still images on various social platforms.
But, if you want to take it to the next level, you can share your stories and knowledge using video on YouTube.
YouTube is the second most-visited website on the web (after Google). It’s a great platform that offers unending opportunities for photographers to grow their business.
This article will show you how to compliment your photography business with a YouTube channel. Read on to discover everything you need to know to get started.
Why Photographers Need a Youtube Channel
You may not be sure if you really need a channel on YouTube, but there are many reasons why you should not neglect this popular video sharing site in marketing your business:
- Massive Global Audience: YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world and has a huge global audience. On average, over one billion hours of video are viewed every day, making YouTube arguably the most important website for finding business – next to Facebook.
- Visual Platform, Perfect for Photography: YouTube is the ideal platform for the industry. The site makes it easy for photographers to get found by their target audience. By sharing high-quality visual content on the site, you will be able to expand your reach and create authority around your work.
- Reach New Audiences: As previously mentioned, a presence on YouTube allows you to access the global market. Whether you have a Photography blog or an Instagram focused on photography, you can get a huge number of eyes on your work with the right YouTube marketing strategy.
- Build your brand: YouTube is the perfect platform to build your brand awareness and authority as viewers get to connect with you directly. Easily create brand assets for your channel with YouTube intro makers, thumbnails creators, and other online design tools.
- Compliments Other Marketing Channels: Creating a photography YouTube channel opens up a world of opportunities as video marketing compliments a host of other marketing efforts, like SEO.
- Easy Monetization: YouTube makes it easy for content creators to make money from their channels. As a photographer, you can do this in a variety of ways including YouTube’s Partner Program, channel memberships, selling merchandise, and more.
Using YouTube to Build Authority in Photography
As a YouTube content creator, you will continuously create solutions to the problems and challenges that people in your niche are looking to solve. If you have a well-branded YouTube photography channel with valuable content, you can build authority in the industry.
One of the best ways to do this is by creating educational content with tips or best practices so you can not only help to solve the problems of your audience, but also showcase your skills, as well as the quality of your work.
After all, when clients search for a photographer online, the quality of your work is one of the biggest determining factors in whether or not they hire you.
If they come to your channel and see that you are providing inspiration, knowledge, or any other kind of value for other photographers, it helps to cement your authority and expertise in their eyes. This makes it more likely that they will hire you.
Boost Your Website With Video Content
The valuable content you create on YouTube works perfectly to compliment a website. You can add videos to your written blog posts, such as guides and tutorials to cater to the more visual learners in your audience. You can also convert your blog posts into a format fit for YouTube and create a new video.
By embedding videos on your website, it allows visitors on your site to view and share videos without ever leaving the page. They can also leave comments on your videos in an easy and convenient way.
Adding videos to your written posts also allows you to enjoy the following benefits:
- Display Your Portfolio: Videos on your site are a simple and effective way to display a portfolio and showcase your skills to the world.
- Provide Visual Instruction: Oftentimes, it’s easier to provide visual instruction when dealing with complex concepts and ideas. This will make it easier for your audience to consume your content and get value from it.
- Make Blog Posts More Engaging: Not everyone likes to read written content, but some in your audience may prefer to learn through video content. That’s why it’s a good idea to embed YouTube videos in your blog posts.
- Build High-Quality Backlinks: You can also use your YouTube channel as part of a backlink building strategy for your website.
How to Monetize a Photography YouTube Channel
You can also monetize your photography YouTube channel so you can use it as an alternative stream of revenue.
There are many different ways to go about doing this, some of which will look at below:
1. Ad Revenue
This is one of the most commonly used YouTube monetization methods. Google pays publishers 68% of their AdSense revenue, which means that for every $100 that advertisers pay, the publisher (that’s you) gets $68.
Since Google owns YouTube, it’s very easy to sign up for Google AdSense to start showing ads on your videos.
Once you’ve signed up, all you have to do is create quality videos and then promote them to get traffic to your channel. When you reach the payment threshold of $100, Google pays you your ad earnings.
The higher your traffic levels, the more you stand to earn with this type of YouTube channel monetization method. Once you have built an audience on YouTube, this can be a path to make legitimate passive income from your videos.
Here’s what you need to qualify for YouTube ad revenue:
- You must have more than 1,000 subscribers on your YouTube channel
- The YouTube partner program must be available in the country or region that you live in
- You must have over 4,000 public watch hours accumulated in the last 12 months
- You must have a linked Google AdSense account
If you are wondering how much YouTubers make, it can be anywhere from zero dollars to millions.
According to Forbes’ list of the top 10 earning YouTube stars of last year, PewDiePie had YouTube earnings of over $13 million.
But, not everyone can be a YouTube superhero, and as a beginner, you likely won’t make much in the early days of your YouTube photography channel. You will start to see a steady flow of ad income when you build up your audience significantly.
This YouTube money calculator from Influencer Marketing Hub will show you estimated total earnings depending on your daily views and average engagement rate.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is where you earn a commission for marketing someone else’s products or services. When used on YouTube, the process involves placing affiliate links in your video descriptions and annotations.
The links must be for products or services that are related to the topic of the video, otherwise, you risk alienating your viewers. You can promote affiliate marketing on YouTube through tutorial videos, reviews, or sponsorship where you earn a commission for every sale you generate.
Affiliate marketing can be as simple as doing a how-to video and then including an affiliate link in the description with all the products or tools that you used or mentioned in your video. If any of your viewers click on the link and make a purchase, you get paid a small commission. Over time, this adds up to become a steady stream of income from your YouTube videos.
Your affiliate marketing strategy can also be more nuanced, such as directing your visitors to an email sign-up form to get them into a funnel that promotes different affiliate products and services.
Whatever methods you employ, the objective remains the same, and that is to direct your YouTube traffic to a landing page for an affiliate product in the hopes that they make a purchase.
3. Client Acquisition
Having a YouTube channel can help you obtain new clients who see your videos. You can also use it as part of the selling process.
Always add a call to action in your YouTube videos and include the necessary links in the video description and comments section for potential clients to follow.
You can link to an email signup form or contact form to make it easy for your audience to stay in contact with you.
According to Growth Hacker, YouTube is their number one source for customer acquisition, and it can be yours, too.
You can use videos to help you break through the noise and reach your target audience, regardless of the niche you’re in. With the right YouTube strategy, you will be able to easily reach your ideal audience on this platform and send more business proposals to grow your business.
Summary
The monetization techniques mentioned above are just a few of the many different ways you can monetize your YouTube channel. Initially monetizing a youtube channel can be hard as it is difficult to get free youtube subscribers but don’t worry. In addition to advertising revenue, affiliate marketing, and client acquisition, you can also make money from YouTube in the following ways:
- Earn Rewards As a YouTube Partner
- Join a Multi-Channel Network (MCN)
- Sell Merchandise to Your Personal Fan Base
- Ancillary Products in Other Markets (e.g. selling an ebook on Amazon)
- Crowdfunding Support Using Sites Like Patreon
- Build an online course related to photography and sell them
- …and much more.
The graph below shows the popularity of different ways to monetize your YouTube channel:
The bottom line is that once you build an audience on YouTube, there are many monetization methods available to you.
Just remember, consistency is key if you want a successful photography YouTube channel. Most people never get to experience success because they give up before the results start showing.
You need the perseverance to pull your channel out of YouTube’s massive graveyard of mediocre performers, so use the information in this article to help you build a successful and profitable YouTube channel to complement your photography business.
Which of these methods for monetizing a YouTube photography channel do you find most appealing? Let us know in the comments section below!
