Book summary “How to make money with YouTube”: summary

Introduction

You struggle to gain visibility in crowded markets while traditional advertising costs drain your resources. You want to reach global audiences and generate revenue through video, but you lack a clear blueprint for success.

Brad Schepp provides this guide in How to Make Money with YouTube. The central idea is that ordinary people and businesses can generate massive profits and brand awareness by producing strategic video content and distributing it across YouTube and alternative platforms.

The book covers personal marketing, video résumés, corporate branding, production techniques, promotion strategies, and monetization methods. You will learn the answers to several core questions as you read:

• How do you build a profitable personal brand on video?
• What makes corporate videos engaging rather than annoying?
• Which equipment and editing techniques do you need?
• How do you turn views into direct financial returns?

1. Marketing Yourself Through YouTube

Everyday creators, performers, and business owners can build profitable ventures and drive client leads by combining niche content with disciplined scheduling and personal sincerity.

Cewebrities and Niche Creators

Ordinary people can achieve massive online fame and turn it into profitable business ventures through YouTube. The author explains that 99 percent of successful YouTube personalities are everyday people rather than elite celebrities. Creators can attract specific audiences, secure business managers, and partner with companies for profitable product placements.

Lucas Cruikshank, a 14-year-old from a Nebraska farm, created the hyperactive character Fred. He partnered with the Woo Agency and became a spokesperson for Zipit Wireless, helping the company achieve a 1,000 percent increase in sales. His channel became the 3rd most popular channel of all time for Fred on YouTube, following viral videos with combined views reaching 10 million for Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel.

Niche content creators can build a thriving business by systematically targeting specific audiences and driving traffic to an external website. Two homemakers with expertise in Indian cuisine launched a cooking show on YouTube to reach a global audience because ranking high on search engines is nearly impossible for new websites. They targeted both beginner cooks with foolproof methods and seasoned cooks with healthy alternatives.

Hetal Jannu and Anuja Balasubramanian started ShowMeTheCurry! from their kitchens. Within a year, they produced over 120 videos, gathered over 1,700 subscribers, and earned money through ad sales and sponsorships from Google, Advertising.com, and BlogHerAds.

Professionals and Artists

Performers and entertainers must treat their YouTube presence like a disciplined business by maintaining regular posting schedules and personal engagement. Paul Fitzgerald discovered that switching his focus to sports and specific regional teams rapidly increased his viewership. He emphasizes that creators must function as their own marketing and production departments while maintaining absolute sincerity.

Paul Fitzgerald, known as Fitzy on YouTube, tapped into a Boston sports fan base, gained facial recognition, hosted a sports show for CBSsports.com, and earned enough to buy an apartment in New York after achieving 25,000 views.

You should follow these rules if you want to succeed as a performer:

• Tell the truth and put absolute sincerity and transparency into your performance.
• Be as regular as you can with your postings by sticking to a consistent schedule.
• Be available by responding to comments and connecting on social media pages.
• If you are going to do comedy, be more funny.

Professionals and business owners should use YouTube videos not to sell specific services directly, but to sell their expertise and drive client leads. When professionals use video, they should focus on building personal trust and encouraging prospective clients to schedule a consultation or visit a website. Consistent uploading helps build powerful keywords that push content to the top of search engine results.

Dr. Steven Yarinsky, a plastic surgeon from Saratoga Springs, New York, posts videos on the ShopDocVideo channel to encourage prospective patients to e-mail or call for appointments, resulting in over 600 views in the first two and a half months, alongside fitness trainer Arnel Ricafranca who reached 20,000 subscribers and a quarter million views.

You should apply these strategies when marketing professional services:

• Use the video as a marketing tool to get patient or client leads into the office.
• Do not try to sell specific procedures or services; sell the professional and the concept of a consultation.

Visual artists and craftspeople can leverage YouTube to build international networks and generate custom commissions across the globe. Artists can bypass traditional local limitations by uploading videos showcasing their custom creations. Interacting actively with other channels and sharing content creates a web of communication that magnifies visibility worldwide.

Davide Ricchetti, an Italian set designer and painter, posted a video showcasing his custom-painted musical instruments. This led to guitar commissions from clients in the United States, with negotiations starting in the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain for projects requiring 1 to 3 weeks to complete.

You can connect with global clients using these methods:

• Talk about your work with everyone and create an account with rich descriptions and photos.
• Build daily relationships by leaving messages on other channels, sharing videos, and rating the work of others.

Educational and how-to video creators can maximize engagement by focusing on tight production values, strong first impressions, and external blog promotion. Do-it-yourself content succeeds when the creator understands the target audience, respects the viewer's limited time, and actively distributes content across niche blogs and online communities.

Kip Kedersha, known as Kipkay, built a successful YouTube presence with instructional videos on doubling gas mileage and escaping handcuffs by applying strict content rules.

You should follow these steps for educational video success:

• Know your market by looking at the most popular videos in your target category.
• Create a good story, audio, lighting, and editing while keeping it concise.
• Make a good first impression using clear headlines, descriptions, and accurate thumbnail images.
• Be accessible by providing contact information, building email lists, and participating in comments.
• Put the power of the Internet to work by sending video tips to niche websites and blogs.

2. Video Résumés and College Admissions

Video résumés generally fail in standard corporate hiring because they introduce legal discrimination risks and cannot be keyword-searched, but they can work well in personality-driven or creative fields.

Human resources professionals heavily dislike video résumés. Recruiters typically take 10 seconds to screen a standard text application. Videos consume 60 to 180 seconds, meaning you could screen 6 to 18 traditional résumés in the same timeframe. Videos also invite unconscious biases regarding appearance, clothing, or gender that could violate employment laws.

A poorly produced video résumé on Wall Street was distributed everywhere as a joke, effectively ruining the applicant's job prospects.

You should follow these rules if you submit a video:

• Keep the video short, light, and free from details that belong on a printed résumé.
• Do not overproduce the video unless applying for a video production job.
• Use Flash video format for universal plugin compatibility and quality.
• Make viewing the video optional by providing a link on a flawless traditional paper résumé.

Online college applications allow students to include video links, which serve as a valuable competitive edge for visual arts and performance applicants. Universities receive a massive volume of applications through portals like the Common Application and the Universal College Application. Admissions offices initially filter candidates using numerical statistics like grade point averages and test scores. For qualified applicants, subjective materials and optional videos help admissions officers evaluate personal fit and talent.

Czech Republic native Jakub Fejfar submitted a YouTube video demonstrating his tennis skills, which was received very positively and helped him secure the right school.

3. Marketing Your Company on YouTube

Corporate videos on YouTube must prioritize entertainment over direct advertising to prevent viewers from immediately clicking away.

You treat YouTube as video on demand and will instantly reject explicit commercials. Companies need to craft engaging, self-revealing content where the commercial aspect is secondary to the entertainment value.

OfficeMax executive Bob Thacker explained that their back-to-school campaign relied on real, humorous prank videos rather than standard commercials. They operated with one-seventh the budgets of their largest competitors for OfficeMax back-to-school advertising.

Faking grassroots campaigns or hiding corporate sponsorship, known as astroturfing, inevitably destroys a company's credibility on YouTube. YouTube audiences are exceptionally skilled at detecting fakes and hoaxes. When a deceptive campaign is exposed, the resulting negative publicity severely harms brand loyalty and public trust.

Creating extreme and quirky unscripted content can generate massive product awareness and sales growth at a minimal production cost.

Unilever sponsored a viral video about a bride having a massive meltdown over her hair, which was later exposed as a marketing hoax for Sunsilk hair products. About 3 million people fell for the Bride Has a Massive Hair Wig Out video hoax. Another marketing stunt featured a $9.99 sale price on eBay for a red Saab convertible in the Domino's-sponsored MacKenzie Heartsu campaign.

Blendtec transformed a quirky internal lab procedure of testing industrial blenders on unusual objects into a wildly popular viral video series, driving massive web traffic and high retail conversion through a dedicated microsite.

Blendtec launched the Will It Blend? series with a $50 initial budget for a lab coat and a web address, hosted by founder Tom Dickson. The channel eventually featured 75 videos on YouTube and gathered more than 100,000 subscribers. This simple strategy generated 500 percent increases in blender sales.

4. Creating YouTube Videos

Successful video production requires rigorous preplanning, storyboarding, fast pacing, tight editing, and consistent brand styling.

You must split the video creation process into preplanning, actual filming, and postproduction editing. Storyboarding helps you map out settings, props, and camera angles panel by panel.

You must follow specific steps to organize your production workflow:

• Preplanning: put on your thinking cap, envision the final video, and break the project into manageable steps to gather equipment, sets, people, and props.
• Creating the video: start filming and learning firsthand how to tell your story through video, followed by careful editing.

Keep in mind the 10-minute limit on the length of videos you can upload to YouTube. Online video creators should follow strict guidelines regarding short runtimes, rapid pacing, tight editing, and consistent branding. Popular videos are typically concise, fast-paced, and feature a strong conclusion. You should use external microphones, soft lighting, and edit shots down to under five seconds each.

Kevin Nalty, known as Nalts on YouTube, produced over 700 videos and built a channel with more than two million views using these exact principles.

You can improve your output by applying these rules:

• Stick to your brand and find a unique style.
• Keep videos short, fast, and feature a big finish.
• Have someone watch your video with you and note when they look bored.
• Leverage topicality as news events drive views.
• Light your subject softly with lights on two sides, not ceiling lights.
• Use an external microphone whenever possible.
• Edit tight so most shots last fewer than five seconds.

The ideal runtime ranges between 30 to 90 seconds.

5. Promoting and Distributing Your Videos

Systematic distribution across social networks, external websites, and analytical tools is essential for building early momentum and viewer retention.

You cannot simply upload a video and wait for an audience. You must actively seed the content across social platforms, messaging channels, and dedicated landing pages.

David Mullings used multi-platform distribution campaigns for high-profile music clients and his own Realvibez channel, driving over 1,000 visits per day to Realvibez.tv. The 27-year-old creator used organic seeding, inorganic seeding, and paid seeding to build traffic.

You can improve your reach by applying these steps:

• Share the link on YouTube.
• Change your status on Facebook.
• Twitter about it.
• E-mail the link to all the appropriate people.
• Message a select group of friends on Facebook and ask them to share it on their profiles.
• Post the link to the video in appropriate groups.
• Post the link or embed the video on appropriate message boards.
• Embed the video on the front page of your Web site.

Promoting videos across external social networks and bookmarking sites drives targeted traffic and increases visibility. You can use platforms like Twitter for frequent updates and StumbleUpon for targeted ads. Success requires sharing only the best material since self-promotion is quickly rejected by community members.

David Mullings spent 25 dollars on StumbleUpon to get 500 visitors to the Realvibez channel launch. You can approach 100 million existing blogs to secure inbound links and expand your video SEO.

You should follow these rules when using social sites:

• Join sites like Digg and Reddit if you are not already a member.
• Submit links to your absolute best videos with compelling titles and descriptions.
• Avoid sending every single video you produce.

Building a loyal subscriber base requires frequent video uploads, active community engagement, and careful management of comments and annotations. You must maintain audience attention by posting new content several times a week. Interacting with commenters and utilizing YouTube's annotation and sharing features further solidifies viewer retention.

Top creators like Michael Buckley and Asa Thibodaux attribute their massive subscriber counts to publishing three to four consistent videos every week. Michael Buckley reached 250,000 subscribers, while Asa Thibodaux achieved 20,000 subscribers while 200 million unique users visit YouTube each month.

Capturing email addresses through dedicated Web sites and running targeted email blasts can drive repeat traffic and increase video view ratings. You can direct YouTube viewers to external sites to capture contact information and build an opted-in mailing list. Sending regular email updates with video links capitalizes on an engaged audience that is already familiar with your work.

Arnel Ricafranca provided 140 videos on his channel and built a list of 250,000 names on Arnel's mailing list within one year using his IWantSixPackAbs.com channel. Drum Marketing reached 20,000 addresses in the Moishe's Mover e-mail blast to double their typical click-through rate.

You can manage your list effectively with these steps:

• Direct interested viewers from your YouTube channel page to external Web sites.
• Capture visitor email addresses to build a mailing list.
• Include an opt-out link in every correspondence for easy removal.

YouTube Insight and its Hot Spots feature provide analytical tools to track viewer demographics, geographic data, and engagement patterns. You can evaluate your video success by monitoring views, popularity, demographics, and viewer retention through graphs that highlight hot and cold spots based on abandonment rates, rewinds, and fast-forwards.

Quicken Loans utilized timing and analytics alongside the NBA playoffs to launch a viral video featuring LeBron James sketched into an Etch-A-Sketch. The company closed 19 billion dollars in home loans in 2007 and garnered 2 million views from the Quicken Loans Etch-A-Sketch video.

You can access these metrics directly on the platform:

• Mouse over the Account link at the top of YouTube pages.
• Click the More link.
• Click on the YouTube Insight link under Performance and Data Tools.

6. YouTube Revenue Streams and Future Strategy

Creators can turn high view counts into direct financial returns through YouTube Partner Programs, ad networks, alternative platforms, and careful effectiveness assessments.

Online video advertising spend totaled 505 million dollars in 2008 and is projected to reach 5.8 billion by 2013. This market currently comprises 2 percent of total Internet advertising spend. You can monetize high-traffic videos through the Partner Program, Google AdSense for video, and custom ad placements. Additional monetization routes include landing pages, microsites, affiliate programs, and direct sponsorships.

Nettwerk Management estimated that Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend music video earned 1 million dollars from YouTube alone, garnering 100 million views. Shark Diver generated 90,000 dollars from 108 million views via Google AdSense.

You can follow specific practices to build revenue streams:

• Build high view counts and subscriber bases to qualify for the Partner Program.
• Set up a landing page or microsite to provide a clear call to action.
• Register for affiliate programs like Amazon Associates or Google AdSense.

Measuring the success of video campaigns requires tracking specific metrics aligned with initial goals. Heidi Cohen, professor of interactive marketing at NYU, advises creators to evaluate whether they are targeting a mass audience or a specific niche. Views serve as a first-cut indicator, while pass-alongs measure portability across social bookmarking sites. Long-term brand awareness and customer service cost reductions are equally valid indicators of success.

You should follow these campaign assessment steps:

• Define campaign goals clearly before publishing.
• Track views as a first-cut metric to gauge familiarity.
• Monitor pass-alongs and referral paths across social sites.
• Use surveys or call-to-action responses to measure branding effects.

Distributing content across alternative broad-coverage and niche video-sharing sites exposes you to less competition and specialized audiences. Platforms like Yahoo! Video, AOL Video, MySpaceTV, Metacafe, Revver, and Veoh offer diverse traffic patterns and revenue-sharing models. MySpace attracts 75 million unique visitors per month, while Metacafe reached 38 million unique visitors as of August 2008.

Kipkay earned 118,353 dollars as an all-time top earner on Metacafe's Producer Rewards program, which pays 5 dollars for every 1,000 views.

You can manage multiple platforms effectively with concrete steps:

• Use deployment tools like TubeMogul to upload videos to multiple sites simultaneously.
• Evaluate alternative sites based on their revenue-sharing policies and target demographics.
• Ensure uploaded videos comply with each specific platform's guidelines regarding commercial content.

10 Key Ideas

1. Everyday creators like Lucas Cruikshank can achieve massive online fame and drive business success by combining niche content with disciplined scheduling and personal sincerity.
2. Niche creators Hetal Jannu and Anuja Balasubramanian successfully built a thriving cooking show and earned ad revenue by systematically targeting specific audiences and driving traffic to external sites.
3. Video résumés generally fail in standard corporate hiring because they introduce legal discrimination risks and cannot be keyword-searched, though they work well in personality-driven or creative fields.
4. Corporate videos on YouTube must prioritize entertainment over direct advertising, as demonstrated when OfficeMax relied on humorous prank videos to drive success with minimal budgets.
5. Successful video production requires rigorous preplanning, storyboarding, fast pacing, tight editing, and consistent brand styling to keep viewers engaged.
6. Systematic distribution across social networks, external websites, and bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon is essential for building early momentum and viewer retention.
7. Capturing email addresses through dedicated websites and running targeted email blasts can drive repeat traffic and increase video view ratings, as achieved by Arnel Ricafranca with IWantSixPackAbs.com.
8. YouTube Insight and its Hot Spots feature provide analytical tools that allow creators to track viewer demographics, geographic data, and engagement patterns to evaluate success.
9. Creators can turn high view counts into direct financial returns through the Partner Program, ad networks, and alternative monetization routes, with Shark Diver generating 90,000 dollars from Google AdSense.
10. Distributing content across alternative video-sharing sites exposes creators to less competition and specialized audiences, allowing top earners like Kipkay to generate significant revenue on platforms like Metacafe.