How much can you earn on YouTube – monetise even a small audience
Data shows that making money on YouTube can be highly profitable. A YouTuber has several ways to monetise their video content. The more monetisation models they implement on their channel, the higher the potential earnings. The main ways to make money on YouTube are:
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Sponsored collaborations with brands on a flat-fee basis
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Affiliate links from partner programmes in the cost-per-sale model
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Barter-based collaborations with brands
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The YouTube Partner Programme (AdSense)
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Channel memberships (YouTube Membership)
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Live streaming and donations (Super Chat, Super Stickers)
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Crowdfunding and patronage (Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee)
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Selling your own products and services
The first three of the methods above can be implemented on the webePartners platform. We will analyse them in detail and see how much you can earn on YouTube with each model.
Sponsored collaborations with brands – how much can you earn on YouTube?
As part of a sponsored collaboration, a YouTuber records a video promoting a brand in exchange for an agreed fee. A few years ago, this type of video had to focus strictly on the product or service and describe it in detail. Today, such ads are much more subtle. For example, the company Hochland, wanting to promote its cream cheese, invited YouTuber Joanna Cymbalista to collaborate. Known on YouTube as Panna Joanna, she prepared a foodbook video in which she used this specific product in one of the dishes.
How much can you earn with webePartners?
Although sponsored collaborations with brands are one of the most popular ways to make money on YouTube, finding a brand to work with is often not easy. That’s why brands and YouTubers are eager to use platforms such as webePartners, which bring together offers from both sides to better match mutual expectations.
Earning on YouTube with brands in the Flat Fee and Barter models
At webePartners, we have created a dedicated module for setting up collaborations with brands at pre–agreed rates. The amount of remuneration for advertising activities is determined by the publisher, i.e. the YouTuber (or the owners of other social media profiles).
After registering, go to the OFFERS/BARTERS tab and create an offer to collaborate with brands. Just two simple steps and your offer will appear in the Offer Catalogue and be visible to all brands registered on our platform:
ADD AN OFFER by filling out the form in the >>>My Offer tab. With an offer based on Barter or a Flat Fee model, you receive a guaranteed product value or a fixed payment for the publication, without having to generate any sales.
YOU CAN ADD MULTIPLE OFFERS if you have several advertising spaces. You can propose activities on all of them at once or only on selected ones. You’re free to offer various types of activities at different rates.
How much does a YouTuber earn on a sponsored video with affiliate links – additional commission
More and more often, sponsored collaboration is combined with barter and affiliate links. This means that the YouTuber receives a fixed fee for publishing the promotional content and, additionally, thanks to affiliate links, earns commissions on sales generated by this promotion.
The principle of earning with affiliate links is very simple. The YouTuber, acting as an affiliate publisher, recommends selected products from partner programs in their videos and then places affiliate links to these recommended products in the description of a specific video. If a viewer buys something via the affiliate link, the YouTuber receives a predetermined sales commission.
Barter means that the brand sends its products to the creator in exchange for being mentioned in the video. Adding affiliate links to the content allows the YouTuber to earn an additional commission from the generated sales. At the same time, affiliate links provide the advertiser with statistical data on conversions, i.e. the number of transactions achieved thanks to the collaboration.
Contrary to appearances, barter collaboration is still a very popular model of settlement or additional compensation for YouTubers. This is due to the fact that a YouTuber should know the products they recommend very well. That’s why brands make sure creators have the opportunity to freely test the products as part of the partnership.
How much can you earn on YouTube with affiliate links
With affiliate links, you can start earning on YouTube at any time, regardless of your channel size and reach. You don’t need any additional skills or contracts. All it takes is registering in an affiliate network as a publisher.
Once you log in to your publisher account, you generate affiliate links to selected products from partner programs. You can use affiliate links as an add-on to sponsored collaborations or independently. If you don’t have any other agreements with a brand beyond the partner program, you don’t need to create your video content in coordination with the advertiser. You operate as usual — with the only difference that you add affiliate links to your publications in the video description.
You can learn everything about earning with affiliate links from the article “Affiliate link – what it is and how to make money from it – check it out and take action.”
Affiliate links are a very simple and intuitive method that you can implement immediately after registering as a publisher in an affiliate network. All you need to do is add a link to your YouTube channel in your profile, join any partner programs of selected brands, and you can start adding affiliate links to your content.
What mainly encourages YouTubers to take part in affiliate programs is the fact that this method gives creators complete freedom — both in terms of what they recommend and how they recommend it. They can openly encourage viewers to buy selected products, highlighting that each purchase will earn them a commission. They can also recommend products in a very subtle way, simply pointing out their advantages without directly urging people to buy.
We wrote more about this in the article: “Earning on YouTube – how to monetize even the smallest traffic.”
How much can you earn on YouTube
A YouTuber’s income depends on many factors: the number of subscribers, the number of video views, the channel’s niche, the monetization methods used, the viewers’ location, and the types of brand collaborations. Although earnings vary widely, in practice even a medium-sized channel can earn steadily and reach high income levels by diversifying its revenue streams (ads, brand deals, affiliate marketing, own products). The highest earnings are achieved by creators who successfully combine several monetization methods and who publish regularly and run niche channels with a high conversion rate.
How much can you earn from working with brands
Typical rates for a single sponsored video:
| Channel size (subscribers) | Fee for a one-off collaboration |
|---|---|
| 10–50 tys. | 100–500 USD (400 – 2000 PLN) |
| 50–250 tys. | 500–2500 USD (2000 – 10 000 PLN) |
| 250 tys.–1 mln | 2500–15 000 USD (10 000 – 60 000 PLN) |
| powyżej 1 mln | od 15 000 USD wzwyż (powyżej 60 000 PLN) |
How much can you earn from affiliate links in partner programs
- Earnings depend on the commission rate (usually between 5% and 15%) and how effective your promotional activities are.
| Channel size (subscribers) | monthly commission from sales: |
|---|---|
| 10–50 tys. | 100–600 USD (400 – 3000 PLN) |
| 50–250 tys. | 600–1500 USD (3000 – 6 000 PLN) |
| 250 tys.–1 mln | 1500–10 000 USD (6 000 – 40 000 PLN) |
| powyżej 1 mln | od 5 000 USD wzwyż (powyżej 40 000 PLN) |
How much can you earn on YouTube
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On average, a YouTuber earns between 0.5 and 5 USD per 1,000 views (RPM).
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Channels about finance, technology and business generate the highest revenue (often 5–15 USD per 1,000 views).
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Entertainment channels, vlogs and gaming channels usually earn between 0.5 and 2 USD per 1,000 views.
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A channel with 100,000 views per month (general topics) earns around 100–400 USD per month.
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A channel with 1 million views per month (finance/business/tech) can earn 5,000–15,000 USD per month.
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The number of YouTube users has exceeded 2.7 billion. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world.
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YouTube Premium, the ad-free subscription, already has 80 million subscribers.
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More than 2.5 billion active users log in to YouTube at least once a month.
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YouTube users spend 1 billion hours per day watching videos.
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Most people love YouTube Shorts. Shorts generate over 50 billion views every day.
How much can you earn on YouTube AdSense?
How much does YouTube pay per view?
Earning money from your published videos is also possible through YouTube’s partner program called AdSense. AdSense is Google’s advertising service that displays contextual text ads, banners or video ads across various websites — including YouTube. If users (in YouTube’s case, viewers) click the displayed ad, the creator receives a set amount for each click. This is a portion of the amount that Google charges the advertiser.
What do AdSense earnings depend on?
How much you can earn from AdSense ads depends on several factors. The offered rates are influenced by the type of ads, the advertisers’ budgets, and interest in the ad’s topic. AdSense rates for individual clicks depend primarily on the competitiveness of the keyword and the quality of the site on which the ad is published.
YouTube ranks very high in AdSense due to its high content quality. A single click can be worth anywhere from a few cents to several Polish złoty, so it is difficult to estimate a precise earnings amount. However, the income from clicks is generally not very high. It is also important to remember that the amount paid to the YouTuber is only a portion of the advertising revenue — Google keeps the rest.
Revenue split for AdSense ads displayed on YouTube:
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68% of the revenue collected by Google for AdSense for content goes to the creator,
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32% goes to Google.
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For AdSense for search, the creator receives 51% of the revenue.
How much does YouTube pay per thousand views?
A great example is Karol “Friz” Wiśniewski and his YouTube channel. We chose him to illustrate the process because he is currently one of the most popular creators in Poland. He created the “Ekipa” project, known to younger audiences mainly from YouTube, while older audiences heard about him when children went crazy over the famous Ekipa x Koral ice creams.
Friz’s videos are currently among the most popular on YouTube. The rates for every thousand ad views vary — from several dozen groszy to a few złoty. On average, you can expect about 1 PLN per 1000 views.
His video “To były najlepsze chwile naszego życia” (“These Were the Best Moments of Our Lives”) generated 2.5 million views, earning him 2,500 PLN. That may not seem very high, but remember — that’s the income from just one video!
Each episode Friz publishes collects between 1 and 3 million views. How does this translate into YouTubers’ earnings?
If he uploads 10 videos per month, his earnings from views alone would amount to around 25,000 PLN.
Of course, videos with millions of views are relatively rare. Large channels with over 100,000 subscribers usually generate 20,000 to 100,000 views per video. In that case, the income per video (using the rate of 1 PLN per 1000 views) is between 20 and 100 PLN.
How much do Polish YouTube stars earn?
A list of the top Polish creators along with their number of subscribers and estimated earnings:
| YouTuber | Number of subscribers | Estimated monthly earnings |
|---|---|---|
| Blowek | 5,19 mln | 50 000 – 100 000 USD |
| Friz | 5,16 mln | 40 000 – 80 000 USD |
| reZigiusz | 4,87 mln | 30 000 – 60 000 USD |
| Stuu | 4,2 mln | 25 000 – 50 000 USD |
| SA Wardega | 3,55 mln | 20 000 – 40 000 USD |
| Naruciak | 3,55 mln | 15 000 – 30 000 USD |
| AbstrachujeTV | 3,38 mln | 15 000 – 30 000 USD |
| IsAmU | 2,78 mln | 10 000 – 20 000 USD |
| Planeta Faktów | 2,75 mln | 10 000 – 20 000 USD |
| Kaluch | 2,57 mln | 8 000 – 16 000 USD |
Source: Desire Marketing desiremarketing.io + geekweek.interia.pldesiremarketing.io+1geekweek.interia.pl+1
It’s worth noting that the amounts given are estimates and can vary depending on many factors, such as:
Factors that influence your ability to make money on YouTube
As you can see, how much a YouTuber earns and in what way depends on the actions they take. It’s worth keeping in mind a few points that allow you not only to earn from ads or views, but also to take on lucrative promotional collaborations with interesting brands. What factors matter when it comes to the ability to earn on YouTube?
Number of channel subscribers
This factor undeniably matters. Ultimately, it’s your audience that allows you to earn from views and ads. It’s also taken into account when brands choose creators to work with. Currently, the TOP 3 YouTubers in Poland in terms of number of subscribers (according to DDOB) are:
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Blowek (5.06 million)
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Karol “Friz” Wiśniewski (4.94 million)
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Dharni (4.91 million)
However, you don’t need to reach such numbers to start earning. Some YouTubers with 10 or 20 thousand subscribers are already able to make several or even tens of thousands of zlotys per month.
A large number of views under your videos
This is another factor that matters a lot. Sometimes it happens that YouTubers who don’t have many subscribers achieve very high reach on their videos. And that’s exactly what some brands care about. That’s why, quite often, it’s the number of views, not the number of subscribers, that determines how much a YouTuber earns.
An engaged community
This is the foundation of a well-run YouTube channel. You can have millions of subscribers who don’t comment on your videos, don’t act on your recommendations, and don’t like your content — or you can have several dozen thousand highly active followers who form a real community. A brand that cares about long-term cooperation and loyal customers will definitely choose a YouTuber with fewer subscribers but an engaged audience.
Consistency and commitment
Jeżeli chcesz, aby Twój kanał rósł w siłę, był miejscem zrzeszającym lojalną społeczność, a co za tym idzie, dawał Ci możliwość zarabiać coraz więcej, musisz regularnie publikować nowe wideo, stale komunikować się z odbiorcami i działać systematycznie, nawet wtedy, kiedy nie widzisz jeszcze efektów. Ciężka praca i duże zaangażowanie to klucz do sukcesu na YouTubie.
How much does a YouTuber earn – it depends…
By now you know that there is no single clear answer to the question “how much does a YouTuber earn?”. It can be anything from several dozen to several thousand zlotys per month. However, if this is the path you choose and you commit to it 100%, you can be sure that you’ll eventually turn YouTube into a full-time job.
Register with webePartners and get access to tools for YouTube
How much does a YouTuber earn from additional activities?
How much does a YouTuber earn by creating products with other brands?
Collaborations with brands: Another way to make money on YouTube is to collaborate with various brands. These partnerships can involve co-creating products, taking part in events organized by the brand, or visiting the company’s headquarters to see with your own eyes how the products are made. Most of these activities generate video content that has huge promotional value.
Example of a collaboration: A great example is the brand Daag, which produces leather accessories. Their collection currently includes handbags created in collaboration with YouTubers running channels such as Loveandgreatshoes, Ewa Pachulska and MsDoncellita. Ewa Pachulska, already mentioned above, also works with the brand Nacomi, which recently invited her to visit their headquarters and see what the production process looks like.
The mobile network Play, in turn, has created the so-called Team Play Academy – a portal for children and teenagers that teaches them various skills, such as cooking, make-up or photography. YouTube creators from different niches have been involved in building this platform, including Blowek, RedLipstickMonster and Martin Stankiewicz.
Cooperation Daag x LGS
How much can you earn on YouTube through collaborations?
How much do YouTubers earn from this type of collaboration? Once again, the range is huge, and in some cases the amounts can reach even several hundred thousand zlotys. For one-off activities, the fee is higher than in the case of jointly creating a product; however, in the latter model, the most popular creators earn a specified percentage of the sales.
Sponsored content on the StylizacjeTv channel, properly labelled as such.
Own online and brick-and-mortar stores
YouTubers very often decide to launch their own online stores. What do they sell? Pretty much everything! E-books, home decor, clothing, cosmetics, planners… In practice, they are limited only by their own creativity and the type of content they create – and even that’s not a strict rule, because the product range doesn’t always have to match their online niche.
Examples:
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Andziaks, a popular lifestyle vlogger, runs the store Twinkle Candle, which sells scented candles and wax melts.
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The creator of the StylizacjeTv channel has an e-commerce store under the same name, where she sells jewellery, gadgets and planners.
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Rezigiusz, once mainly a gamer and now a creator difficult to pigeonhole, runs a clothing and accessories store called Thunder Wear by Rezistyle.
Quite often YouTubers later decide to open physical locations for their brands. The aforementioned Andziaks has a showroom for her brand in Warsaw.
Digital products in YouTubers’ stores
Importantly, online stores run by YouTubers offer not only physical products but also digital products, such as e-books, courses, trainings and webinars. These are among the best-selling items, because today you can create them on almost any topic. YouTubers release, for example, business e-books and courses, beauty courses, coaching programs or cookbooks. The already mentioned Karol “Friz” Wiśniewski at one point sold a course on how to become a YouTuber!
Books, in-person trainings, camps, etc.
Popular YouTubers also earn money offline. For a while, books written by them were extremely trendy. Such titles have been published, for example, by RedLipstickMonster, Radek Kotarski (Polimaty), Ula Pedantula, Panna Joanna or Blowek. Some creators also organize various types of in-person trainings; for instance, Maxineczka runs her own studio where she holds courses, as well as camps bringing viewers together. Camps of this type are organized by Marcin Dubiel, who invites teenagers to spend time with him in an active way during the holidays.
Altenberg is a publishing house that can boast the largest number of YouTubers choosing to collaborate with it.
How much does a YouTuber earn by doing this kind of work?
How much can you make on YouTube by running these kinds of activities? For example, an everyday makeup course with Maxineczka costs 2300 PLN, and a 9-day camp with Marcin Dubiel costs 2299 PLN plus travel. Of course, you have to take into account all the expenses involved in organizing such an event. In Maxineczka’s case, these are not only cosmetics, a meal or coffee, but also the general costs of maintaining the makeup studio. In Marcin Dubiel’s case, the costs include accommodation, food and attractions, among other things.
How much can you earn on YouTube and is it even possible?
If 10 years ago anyone had said that being a YouTuber would become a real profession in Poland – and one that generates huge income for creators – most of us would probably have burst out laughing. Back then, YouTube was a place for entertainment and for bringing together people with similar interests.
Today, it’s a well-running business built on relationships with the audience, delivering engaging content (entertaining or educational) and staying in constant contact with viewers. Being a YouTuber is now seen as a profession like any other – cashier, writer or doctor. No one is surprised anymore that creators treat making videos on the platform as a full-time job. So how much do YouTubers actually earn?
YouTube is an ideal place for online creators to monetize their passions. If you’re just starting your journey as a YouTuber, we also recommend one of our earlier articles: Earning on YouTube – how to monetize even the smallest traffic.
To finish, here’s a brief history of YouTube
Everyone knows YouTube. However, not everyone realises that the platform was launched in February 2005, thanks to the work of Jawed Karim, Chad Hurley and Steven Chen. The first video on the site appeared on 23 April. It was uploaded by one of the co-founders, Jawed Karim. The video was titled “Me at the zoo” and was 18 seconds long. It has been viewed over 198 million times.
As early as 2006, YouTube was acquired by Google, which saw its huge potential, paying 1.65 billion dollars for the platform. Until 2023, the company was headed by Susan Wojcicki. Today, the role of YouTube’s CEO is held by Neal Mohan.
