There are tons of people making money from simple videos on YouTube. It helps if you are an expert, but you do not have to be. In fact, it seems that viewers tend to fall in love with a particular YouTuber and it doesn’t matter what they do once that connection is established.
You can find your following, as well, with your prepping or survival channel.
There are some things you are going to do if you want to stand out but its well within the realm of possibilities. The best part about YouTube is that you can make money from your channel in a few different ways.
These funds can be funneled towards other preparedness projects. That is the beauty of your money making YouTube channel.
The Competition is Thick
Before we go off into the possibilities you must understand that building an audience on YouTube can be tough. There are lots of people out there trying to do just the same thing. You will experience stiff competition.
Its not to say its impossible but just understand you are in for a struggle. We will talk about how to overcome that struggle in this article.
Consider Your Topic
You might be confused at this point. Yes, we are talking about making a prepping YouTube channel, but you need to get more specific. What you talk about is going to define much about your channel. Here are some channel topics that are basically about prepping but are topic driven.
- Wilderness Survival
- Urban Survival
- Prepping on a Budget
- Prepping Gear
- Prepping for Seniors
- Survival DIY
As you can see there are several topics that a channel can focus on. This focus will help people find you and it will keep them coming back.
Your viewers will want to know what they are going to hear about when they come to your channel. You can also add value by bringing others who focus on your topic to appear on your channel. Or you can read from other resources that relate to your topic.
Quality Over All
If you are going to compete in the YouTube landscape, you are going to need to consider quality over all. That means you are going to need to have videos that are organized and add value to the viewer. Remember, there must be a reason for a person to watch a video.
When it comes to the prepping and survival niche this often comes down to a few things in particular:
- Skills
- Gear
- Scenarios
- Loadouts
- Plans
Quality also means you should film with an up to date smart phone at the least. You can invest in some cheap lighting and audio that will really make your videos stand above everyone who is just recording videos on their phone.
The other thing to consider is consistency.
Consistency is another winning trait amongst YouTubers. Those channels that post daily are some of the most successful. Just be sure you have a reason to post. Again, its quality first.
Making Money with YouTube
So, this is where the rubber hits the road. Once you have created a YouTube channel. Through your channel you are going to be able to make money in a few different ways. Most people think that you can only make money by having tremendous amounts of viewers and getting ad money from YouTube. That is one way, but you need lots of viewers.
Let’s talk about how you can make money right off the bat. There are a couple ways that you can make money off your first video.
Sell Your Own Products or Services
Without having a bunch of subscribers or even viewers you can make money by promoting your own products or services. Maybe you do preparedness consulting. Well, after a high quality video about a certain prepping topic you could plug your service.
Maybe you have a book on survival. You can use the same method to basically advertise to the YouTube community for free! Not a bad deal.
Link to Affiliate Products
Another way you can start making money, immediately, from YouTube is to link to affiliate products in your video descriptions. To understand this, you must understand affiliate commissions.
Affiliate Commission — This is a percentage of a sale that you make on another seller’s product. If you are part of an affiliate program you will get special links that can be clicked by your viewers. These links will lead them to products that you choose.
If the person who clicked that link buys one of the products you will receive an affiliate commission. Its usually under 10% but it adds up if you start putting out a few videos with links each week.
To best leverage these affiliate links, you are going to want to make videos about certain products that are linked below. Gear reviews are a great example. You review a top tier survival knife and then you link to it in the description below so your viewer can buy it and you can get the commission.
Most companies offer these types of commissions these days and you can also join Amazon’s affiliate program that gives you access to millions of products.
Bonus Tip — The VR or Virtual Response
A quick way to power up your channel is to create what are called VRs or virtual responses. These can be critical or congratulatory of other videos on YouTube.
If you watch a video from another larger channel and they butcher a topic, that you are very informed on, you can create a VR response and tell the YouTube audience about it. This is a great way to get the attention of others who are fans of a larger channel.
The virtual response is basically a piggy back on a resource that is much greater than your own in hopes to shave some listeners from there channel to yours. Maybe you just get people to watch your videos and the other channels videos, too. You need a means to break through so others can find out about you.
Either way, its an effective tip for building your channel.
