9 Lucrative Ways to Make Money On Youtube in Canada 2024

Want to learn how to make money on Youtube in Canada, but you’re not sure where to start?

I’ve been active on Youtube for a few years now and have over 50 videos posted on the platform for Wealth Awesome.

I started making money on the platform after about four months, mainly through ads, and I’ll go over in detail how to qualify for this below. In my first month, I made around $300 in ad revenue.

In this article, I’ll show you all of those different ways and tell you all the steps on how to make money on Youtube in Canada.

How much can I make on YouTube in Canada anyways?

Any YouTuber can tell you that metrics are important. One of the most important figures to measure is how many views your YouTube videos get.

The number of views you get, where the viewers are located, and anything additional that you sell all factor into your total YouTube income. You can sell virtual items like memberships and courses, and physical items from plushies to T-shirts.

Apart from possibly brand sponsorships, most YouTube income is dynamic and dependent on viewer habits and how many viewers you have.

If you’re in it for the big bucks, this chart suggests that going into YouTube full-time is a way to increase the odds of making a livable wage off of your videos. 88% of Canadian Youtubers who make over $100,000 consider it their full-time job.

To be fair, the YouTubers who are millionaires are in the minority. Still, it is not impossible to make six figures per year on YouTube, and it is entirely possible to make thousands from YouTube.

YouTubers like Canadian Corey Vidal claim that you have to understand YouTube to make money from it, so it always helps to get educated before starting your channel.

Different methods and means YouTubers use to earn income

Let’s break down the specific ways YouTubers make money from their videos.

1. Youtube Shorts Ad Revenue

Short-form content has taken the world by storm in recent years, and Youtube Shorts is Google’s answer to Tiktok. It’s not unheard of for brand-new creators to reach millions of viewers with a simple 60-second short-form video.

Well, now there’s an easy way to monetize it using Youtube Shorts revenue-sharing program. It’s a bit of a complex calculation, as the total amount is gathered into something called the Creator Pool, but just know that creators get to keep 45% of Shorts revenue.

With short-form content taking over, it’s an excellent way to monetize your Youtube Channel.

2. Google AdSense (Long-Form Videos)

How much can you earn: $50/month to thousands per month
How to start: Must have over 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time

You’ve probably noticed that there is a tonne of ads on Youtube lately. Google runs a program called AdSense. It is essentially an advertisement delivery platform that shows ads to viewers on YouTube. Advertisers pay Google for the access and convenience of advertising on YouTube.

In turn, eligible YouTube channels can receive AdSense money on eligible videos. Eligibility can vary depending on what content the YouTuber produces and what the subject of their videos is.

To start making money from YouTube ads, a channel must join the YouTube Partner Program after their AdSense account is created. You must have over 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watch time to start displaying ads. Joining the Program offers additional viewer statistics and tools as well.

According to other sources, depending on the video category and what country your viewers are from, one can earn $2 to $15 per 1,000 views. AdSense payouts can vary greatly from channel to channel.

According to Ottawa YouTuber Joey Kidney, there is potential for even more money if a channel manages to join the Google Preferred program.

It depends entirely on your target audience and how valuable they are to advertisers. If your audience is wealthy and is willing to spend a lot of money, advertisers will pay you more per view.

If you are trying to make $1,000 from YouTube, using an average of $4 per thousand views, you would want to aim for 250,000 video views.

The country your audience is living in will matter a lot as well. A channel that has mostly US and Canadian viewers will make way more per view than a company that has mostly India or Mexico viewers.

AdSense can be classified as a core way to make money from YouTube. Google supports it directly and it passively happens on all your eligible videos.

However, having eligible content can be tricky sometimes, so checking out what is advertiser-friendly is important. Or, you can consider supplementing AdSense with other methods in this list.

You must be careful though, as running ads on your Youtube channel makes you accountable to your advertisers. If your content runs afoul of the terms of services of Youtube, you could run the risk of losing your privilege to advertise on the platform.

3. Brand Deals

How much can you earn: $20 per placement to thousands or more
How to start: Brands will approach you, or you can actively seek them.

Brand deals are a sort of fancy way to say product placement. Joey Kidney for instance may feature some Coca-Cola products in a video. While this isn’t a direct, traditional advertisement, it is still considered product placement.

YouTubers like Joey often partner with a brand to feature their product or products on their channel. This can be a very lucrative way to make money. It can easily pay more than AdSense if done correctly!

A brand deal can also be known as sponsorship. Sponsorships can be as small as a one-video deal, all the way up to having a brand sponsor the entire channel! Sponsorships tend to require mentioning the product in every video that is part of the sponsorship.

For top Youtubers, brands can easily pay tens of thousands or six figures for a deal or sponsorship!

4. Affiliate Marketing

How much can you earn: $2 per sale to thousands
How to start: Companies will approach you, or you can actively seek them.

Affiliate marketing is when an online retailer agrees to provide a commission to a YouTuber or other entity for traffic or sales generated by referrals made to the retailer’s website. A super common example of this on YouTube is offering links to Amazon products.

There is a lot of potential with affiliate marketing. All you really need to do is establish the affiliate relationship with your retailer of choice and then drop the link in your uploaded YouTube video, typically in the description or comments section.

You can easily tie the referral link to the video by having the link related to a product you are unboxing, a product you are recommending to your viewers, or a product you are reviewing on your channel.

If products aren’t your thing, another option is offering referrals to services. For example, if you are an anime buff, your channel can offer referrals to Crunchyroll. If you are a tech geek, you can offer referrals to cloud storage services.

There are a bunch of affiliate network companies such as ShareaSale, Rakuten, and Clickbank that can help you manage these affiliate offers.

5. Patreon (Fan-Funding)

How much can you earn: $5/month to thousands
How to start: Come up with a good offer and post it to Patreon

Crowdfunding websites like Patreon, GoFundMe, and Ko-Fi are relatively new ideas in the creator space. Traditionally, one would need to seek money from YouTube directly, whether offering products in their YouTube videos or getting ad money from YouTube.

Now though, creators can appeal directly to the viewer to ask for money to allow the content to be produced.

Viewers will typically see a variety of monthly subscription options on a YouTuber or really anyone’s Patreon page. Viewers can feel good directly supporting their favorite creators.

They also often get special perks for supporting creators on Patreon, such as mentions in YouTube videos, special Q&A sessions, having input in future videos, merchandise, early access to content, exclusive content access, and more!

For smaller and medium-sized YouTubers or even YouTubers who don’t want to rely on ad money, websites like Patreon can singlehandedly keep channels afloat by having viewers directly contribute to the creator.

That attribute makes crowdfunding exceptional among the other YouTube-dependent sources of income.

If you have an idea for one project, websites like Kickstarter can be used to set up a fundraiser to obtain a set amount of money to hopefully make the project happen!

Alternatively, YouTube now offers memberships for sale in YouTube directly.

6. Super Chat & Super Stickers for Live Chat

If your channel runs a lot of live videos, you must consider this interesting revenue stream. It’s very simple – your viewers can purchase Super Chat and Super Stickers and you get to keep 70% of the total revenue.

A Super Chat highlights your message within the live chat. A Super Sticker enables the purchaser to have a digital or animated image pop up in the live chat feed.

Check this to see the eligibility requirements to see if you can qualify for these features.

7. Sell Merchandise

How much can you earn: $10/item to thousands
How to start: Design some products and sell them on Shopify

Selling physical products or other branded merchandise is another way to make money on YouTube. Common examples include custom stickers, T-shirts, other branded clothing and more. Fans of your channel will typically be eager to promote your channel and brand through branded merch.

You could slap your channel logo on a Teespring shirt. You could make a coffee mug with your go-to phrase. Offering merch for sale can be a way to entice viewers to buy in exchange for a tangible form of YouTuber support.

Using a company like Shopify, you can set up an online store within a few hours and be able to sell directly to your viewers.

8. Online Courses

How much can you earn: $10/course to thousands
How to start: Make a course and sell it on Teachable or Thinkific

Useful especially for infotainment or educational channels, selling online courses can be very lucrative. Some online courses charge upwards of $1,000 for access. Plus, once you create a course, you can sell 100 of them as easily as 10 since the course typically costs nothing to recreate for an extra sale.

Maybe you have a finance channel. You can make some basic, free YouTube videos on credit cards. Then, you can offer a $100 deep dive credit card debt course on services like Teachable.

Once your course is created and live, you can include mentions of it in your videos and links to it in your video descriptions. If your viewer is already there to learn from your YouTube videos, offering even more information in courses is a natural next step for some of them who want to learn even more.

With platforms like Teachable and Thinkific, it’s easy to set up a platform where you can both host the course and accept payment on it.

Graham Stephan isn’t Canadian, but he is nonetheless a very successful YouTuber. He has made a sizable income from his Teachable online course offerings.

9. Super Thanks

Super Thanks, which used to be called Viewer applause, is a cool way for creators to make some extra cash from viewers who really dig their Shorts and long-form videos.

Viewers can purchase this neat animation called Super Thanks on any long video or Short. The animation is a one-off deal and only pops up for the person who bought it over the video.

Plus, whoever buys it gets to post a unique, bright, and customizable comment in the comments section. You can get Super Thanks at various prices, so there’s something for everyone’s budget.

How much does Youtube pay for 1,000 views in Canada?

The amount you can make per thousand views varies widely, depending on how you choose to monetize your channel. If it’s just ads, for example, you’ll probably only make around $4-$7.

If you’re selling a course worth $1,000 and you can sell one per every thousand views, then you’ll be making a lot more. Choose your monetization method wisely!

How many views do you need to make $1,000 on Youtube?

If you’re just doing ads, assuming an average of $4 per thousand views, you’ll need 250,000 views to earn $1,000 on Youtube. However, if you’re monetizing with all the other methods listed above, it can be a lot fewer views than that to reach $1,000.

How to become a Youtuber in Canada

I’ve learned a lot over the past year about becoming a Youtuber. The most important thing is to just get started creating content. You’re probably going to be bad at the beginning, but you’ll get a lot better as time goes on.

I started with just my cell phone and a $20 lavalier microphone, and I was terrible at speaking to the camera. I’m still not the greatest, but I’m constantly learning, and you get better with each video you make!

Here are the steps that I recommend doing:

1. Pick a niche

Most channels have some sort of central theme now. There are very few channels that are successful and talk about many different topics.

2. Research your competitors

Pick a few channels in your selected niche, and note down why they are successful and what you like about them.

3. Plan out your first 3-5 videos

Come up with a plan for your first few videos, and start coming up with ideas on how you will record them.

4. Start creating content

You can start with as little as a cellphone, but if you want to get more serious about it I recommend getting a DSLR or mirrorless camera, plus a decent microphone. I also recommend scripting out what you’ll say, at least the bullet points, and having it ready for you to refer to while you record.

5. Editing your content

You can try your hand at editing, and I know many people who love this part of the process. But it can be a very time-consuming and technical part of making a Youtube video. If you can afford it and don’t have much time to learn, try to hire an editor off platforms like Upwork.

Pros and Cons of Becoming a Youtuber in Canada

It’s been very rewarding for me to create content over the last year, but it hasn’t all been fun and games:

Conclusion

Everyone knows about viral videos. For many YouTubers, one cannot predict when a video will go viral. This is when luck comes into play.

But also, developing and releasing multiple videos is important too. According to Craig Benzine (Wheezy Waiter), he earned money on YouTube through gradual word-of-mouth attention.

If he had stopped putting in hard work halfway, he may not have found success with his channel.

At the end of the day, making money on YouTube is about making videos that people want to watch. From there, one must attract views and attention. Once a fanbase has gathered, there are many ways to integrate at least one of the above ideas into your channel.

Sell a related product made by someone else. Sell a product made by you. Offer more exclusive access to your fans in a Patreon account. There are many ways to make money from YouTube. It comes down to what offering fits your fanbase and your video category.

Check out the Wealth Awesome Youtube channel here.