Step-by-Step Guide to Dynamic Sports Filmmaking

How to Create a Sports Highlight Video

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

“I want to make a sports highlight video, but I don’t know how to edit it or what kind of tools I need to use. Can someone tell me how to work on a sports video?”

As I read this query posted on a popular online forum, I realized that so many people out there find it hard to create a sports video. Well, unlike a standard video, working on a sports highlight video can be tough. This is because it needs a lot of editing and we need to handpick the right moments from hours of footage. Though, if you use the right tools, then you can easily work on highlight videos like a pro. In this guide, I will let you know how to create sports videos in a step by step manner.

• Part 1: Why is a sports highlight video and why important?
• Part 2: Highlight Video vs. Skills Video
• Part 3: Use Excellent Video Editor to Make a Sports Highlight Video
• Part 4: How to Create a Sports Highlight Video?
• Part 5: Expert Tips for Creating Highlight Videos

Why is a sports highlight video and why important?

As the name suggests, a highlight video basically includes all the vital events of a game in a short duration of time. You can include the details of some players at the start or focus on a particular player as well. Besides that, a sports highlight video would have fast-forward, slow motion, and frozen clips to skip or focus on certain details.

A lot of times, people don’t have the time to watch the entire game, which can span for a couple of hours. Therefore, they can watch a sports highlight video that would include all the major events of the game and will let them enjoy their thrill in a few moments.

Besides that, if you are applying for a college/academy or just want to showcase your skills, then you can consider making a sports video of an impressive game of yours. You can simply showcase a player and try to highlight their skills in the video.

Highlight Videos vs. Skills Videos: the Major Differences

While making a sports video, you might encounter two different types of content – a highlight video and a skills video. As I have mentioned above, a sports highlight video would include the shots of an actual game. You can either focus on the event of a single game or include clips from multiple games that were played in a genuine setup. If you want, you can highlight a particular player while making the video as well.

On the other hand, a skills video is mostly made to demonstrate the skills of a player and is not focused on the game. In fact, most of the skills videos are made outside of a real game setting. For instance, if you have mastered a skill or would like to demonstrate your game-related actions, then you can make a skills video. Some of these videos are also tutorial game-plays to teach others about a particular skill that they can master.

Use Excellent Video Editor to Make a Sports Highlight Video

If you want to come up with engaging and visually appealing highlight videos, then consider using a versatile video editor like Filmora. Equipped with several video editing tools, it will let you create a sports highlight video in no time. Since the tool has so many features, you can save your time in editing and come up with a new sports video in minutes.

• Filmora is extremely easy to use and runs on all the leading Windows and macOS versions without any issue.
• Using its inbuilt tools, you can clip out the most important events from a sports video or include them in your highlights.
• There are also features to change the motion and pace of the video (like fast forward or slow motion).
• You can also focus on any athlete and freeze a frame on a particular skill or action.
• Besides that, you can also add voiceovers in your sports highlight video, add media layers, use its inbuilt transitions, and fine-tune the overall aesthetics of your videos.
• There are also tons of filters and presets in Filmora that you can use to save your time in editing. You can work on videos of almost every format with seamless 4K support.

Why we picked it

• Options to import/export files in different formats
• Tons of features in one place (extremely easy to use)
• Split-screen support to include multiple events in a highlight video

How to Create a Sports Highlight Video with Filmora?

With the help of Filmora , anyone can create a sports video without even prior editing/designing experience. Firstly, you can install Filmora on your Windows or Mac by visiting its website and have the footage you wish to edit. Now, you can just follow these steps to work on your next sports highlight video.

Filmstock Stock Media Library ](https://filmstock.wondershare.com/creative-theme-sports?spm=rs.filmora%5Fweb&source%5Fchannel=seo%5Farticle )

Step 1: Add a video to Filmora

To start with, just launch Filmora on your computer and add the video that you wish to work on. You can just drag and drop the video to its interface or go to its Menu > File > Import Media to browse and load the file.

Step 2: Edit the Sports Video

In order to create a sports highlight video, the first thing that people do is trim any unwanted part. Once the video is loaded, you can view it on the timeline of the interface. Now, go to the timeline and get the trim tool to manually select the part of the video you wish to trim. After selecting the desired fragment, you can trim the clip or just delete it by clicking on their respective icons.

In the same way, you can also split your video and make other changes in it. You can also include multiple videos together and include them in your timeline as well.

If you are including multiple videos, then make sure they have the same dimensions and aspect ratio. For this, you can select the video, right-click on the timeline, and click on the crop icon. Now, select the same aspect ratio for the entire video to keep it uniform.

Most of the game highlights that we see have different speeds for various sections. That is, some actions would be fast-forwarded while some would be in slow motion. To apply this, simply select the section in the timeline, right-click, and go to the Speed and Duration settings. This will open a dedicated interface from where you can change the speed of the sports video.

Apart from manually setting the speed, you can also take the assistance of the custom speed options that are available in the timeline tools.

Step 3: Make Advanced Edits in your Sports Video

With the user-friendly interface of Filmora, you can do some basic edits and make a sports highlight video in minutes. Though, if you want to focus on some parts and make more changes, then you can use its advanced options as well.

For instance, in a highlight video, we often wish to freeze certain frames. To do this, just select a frame and use the “Freeze Frame” option from the timeline tools. You can even set the duration to freeze the selected frame.

If you have included clips from different videos, then you can apply all kinds of transitions from Filmora. In the end, you can go to its edit options and choose to close gaps as well.

To give your video a uniform and aesthetically pleasing appeal, you can also add different overlays and effects on it from Filmora’s library.

Lastly, make sure that you added sound or voiceover to your video. You can add a sound from its library or import any other music file to it. Since highlight videos mostly have voiceovers, you add the same by visiting the Record > Record Voiceover option.

Step 4: Export your video in the desired format

That’s it! Once your sports highlight video is ready, you can export it in different formats. Just go to the Export option and select the location to save the video and a preferred resolution. You can save your video in formats like MP4, WMV, AVI, FLV, MKV, and so on.

Expert Tips for Creating Highlight Videos

As you can see, making a sports highlight video with a tool like Filmora is extremely easy. Although to be a pro and make better videos, you can consider the following tips:

Keep it short

Make sure that you only include the highlights of the game in your video to keep it interesting. Your aim is to have a short and crisp video without any unwanted footage.

Use freeze frames and slow motion

Some games can be pretty fast-paced and the viewers might miss out on a few key details. To showcase them, you can freeze certain frames or apply slow motion.

Include other details

A sports highlight video can also be informative. You can include details about the players or the team at the start. Also, it is recommended to have sound or a voiceover in the background to narrate the events.

Pick the best clips

When you watch a game, make a note of the best moments that you know your viewers would enjoy. You can also focus on different skills that you found impressive and include them in your sports video.

I’m sure that after reading this guide, you would be able to come up with an impressive sports highlight video as well. Since you might need to make a lot of edits on a sports video, I would recommend using a diverse tool like Filmora. With the tons of editing options that it provides, you can easily create all sorts of highlight videos while saving your time and resources.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

“I want to make a sports highlight video, but I don’t know how to edit it or what kind of tools I need to use. Can someone tell me how to work on a sports video?”

As I read this query posted on a popular online forum, I realized that so many people out there find it hard to create a sports video. Well, unlike a standard video, working on a sports highlight video can be tough. This is because it needs a lot of editing and we need to handpick the right moments from hours of footage. Though, if you use the right tools, then you can easily work on highlight videos like a pro. In this guide, I will let you know how to create sports videos in a step by step manner.

• Part 1: Why is a sports highlight video and why important?
• Part 2: Highlight Video vs. Skills Video
• Part 3: Use Excellent Video Editor to Make a Sports Highlight Video
• Part 4: How to Create a Sports Highlight Video?
• Part 5: Expert Tips for Creating Highlight Videos

Why is a sports highlight video and why important?

As the name suggests, a highlight video basically includes all the vital events of a game in a short duration of time. You can include the details of some players at the start or focus on a particular player as well. Besides that, a sports highlight video would have fast-forward, slow motion, and frozen clips to skip or focus on certain details.

A lot of times, people don’t have the time to watch the entire game, which can span for a couple of hours. Therefore, they can watch a sports highlight video that would include all the major events of the game and will let them enjoy their thrill in a few moments.

Besides that, if you are applying for a college/academy or just want to showcase your skills, then you can consider making a sports video of an impressive game of yours. You can simply showcase a player and try to highlight their skills in the video.

Highlight Videos vs. Skills Videos: the Major Differences

While making a sports video, you might encounter two different types of content – a highlight video and a skills video. As I have mentioned above, a sports highlight video would include the shots of an actual game. You can either focus on the event of a single game or include clips from multiple games that were played in a genuine setup. If you want, you can highlight a particular player while making the video as well.

On the other hand, a skills video is mostly made to demonstrate the skills of a player and is not focused on the game. In fact, most of the skills videos are made outside of a real game setting. For instance, if you have mastered a skill or would like to demonstrate your game-related actions, then you can make a skills video. Some of these videos are also tutorial game-plays to teach others about a particular skill that they can master.

Use Excellent Video Editor to Make a Sports Highlight Video

If you want to come up with engaging and visually appealing highlight videos, then consider using a versatile video editor like Filmora. Equipped with several video editing tools, it will let you create a sports highlight video in no time. Since the tool has so many features, you can save your time in editing and come up with a new sports video in minutes.

• Filmora is extremely easy to use and runs on all the leading Windows and macOS versions without any issue.
• Using its inbuilt tools, you can clip out the most important events from a sports video or include them in your highlights.
• There are also features to change the motion and pace of the video (like fast forward or slow motion).
• You can also focus on any athlete and freeze a frame on a particular skill or action.
• Besides that, you can also add voiceovers in your sports highlight video, add media layers, use its inbuilt transitions, and fine-tune the overall aesthetics of your videos.
• There are also tons of filters and presets in Filmora that you can use to save your time in editing. You can work on videos of almost every format with seamless 4K support.

Why we picked it

• Options to import/export files in different formats
• Tons of features in one place (extremely easy to use)
• Split-screen support to include multiple events in a highlight video

How to Create a Sports Highlight Video with Filmora?

With the help of Filmora , anyone can create a sports video without even prior editing/designing experience. Firstly, you can install Filmora on your Windows or Mac by visiting its website and have the footage you wish to edit. Now, you can just follow these steps to work on your next sports highlight video.

Filmstock Stock Media Library ](https://filmstock.wondershare.com/creative-theme-sports?spm=rs.filmora%5Fweb&source%5Fchannel=seo%5Farticle )

Step 1: Add a video to Filmora

To start with, just launch Filmora on your computer and add the video that you wish to work on. You can just drag and drop the video to its interface or go to its Menu > File > Import Media to browse and load the file.

Step 2: Edit the Sports Video

In order to create a sports highlight video, the first thing that people do is trim any unwanted part. Once the video is loaded, you can view it on the timeline of the interface. Now, go to the timeline and get the trim tool to manually select the part of the video you wish to trim. After selecting the desired fragment, you can trim the clip or just delete it by clicking on their respective icons.

In the same way, you can also split your video and make other changes in it. You can also include multiple videos together and include them in your timeline as well.

If you are including multiple videos, then make sure they have the same dimensions and aspect ratio. For this, you can select the video, right-click on the timeline, and click on the crop icon. Now, select the same aspect ratio for the entire video to keep it uniform.

Most of the game highlights that we see have different speeds for various sections. That is, some actions would be fast-forwarded while some would be in slow motion. To apply this, simply select the section in the timeline, right-click, and go to the Speed and Duration settings. This will open a dedicated interface from where you can change the speed of the sports video.

Apart from manually setting the speed, you can also take the assistance of the custom speed options that are available in the timeline tools.

Step 3: Make Advanced Edits in your Sports Video

With the user-friendly interface of Filmora, you can do some basic edits and make a sports highlight video in minutes. Though, if you want to focus on some parts and make more changes, then you can use its advanced options as well.

For instance, in a highlight video, we often wish to freeze certain frames. To do this, just select a frame and use the “Freeze Frame” option from the timeline tools. You can even set the duration to freeze the selected frame.

If you have included clips from different videos, then you can apply all kinds of transitions from Filmora. In the end, you can go to its edit options and choose to close gaps as well.

To give your video a uniform and aesthetically pleasing appeal, you can also add different overlays and effects on it from Filmora’s library.

Lastly, make sure that you added sound or voiceover to your video. You can add a sound from its library or import any other music file to it. Since highlight videos mostly have voiceovers, you add the same by visiting the Record > Record Voiceover option.

Step 4: Export your video in the desired format

That’s it! Once your sports highlight video is ready, you can export it in different formats. Just go to the Export option and select the location to save the video and a preferred resolution. You can save your video in formats like MP4, WMV, AVI, FLV, MKV, and so on.

Expert Tips for Creating Highlight Videos

As you can see, making a sports highlight video with a tool like Filmora is extremely easy. Although to be a pro and make better videos, you can consider the following tips:

Keep it short

Make sure that you only include the highlights of the game in your video to keep it interesting. Your aim is to have a short and crisp video without any unwanted footage.

Use freeze frames and slow motion

Some games can be pretty fast-paced and the viewers might miss out on a few key details. To showcase them, you can freeze certain frames or apply slow motion.

Include other details

A sports highlight video can also be informative. You can include details about the players or the team at the start. Also, it is recommended to have sound or a voiceover in the background to narrate the events.

Pick the best clips

When you watch a game, make a note of the best moments that you know your viewers would enjoy. You can also focus on different skills that you found impressive and include them in your sports video.

I’m sure that after reading this guide, you would be able to come up with an impressive sports highlight video as well. Since you might need to make a lot of edits on a sports video, I would recommend using a diverse tool like Filmora. With the tons of editing options that it provides, you can easily create all sorts of highlight videos while saving your time and resources.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

“I want to make a sports highlight video, but I don’t know how to edit it or what kind of tools I need to use. Can someone tell me how to work on a sports video?”

As I read this query posted on a popular online forum, I realized that so many people out there find it hard to create a sports video. Well, unlike a standard video, working on a sports highlight video can be tough. This is because it needs a lot of editing and we need to handpick the right moments from hours of footage. Though, if you use the right tools, then you can easily work on highlight videos like a pro. In this guide, I will let you know how to create sports videos in a step by step manner.

• Part 1: Why is a sports highlight video and why important?
• Part 2: Highlight Video vs. Skills Video
• Part 3: Use Excellent Video Editor to Make a Sports Highlight Video
• Part 4: How to Create a Sports Highlight Video?
• Part 5: Expert Tips for Creating Highlight Videos

Why is a sports highlight video and why important?

As the name suggests, a highlight video basically includes all the vital events of a game in a short duration of time. You can include the details of some players at the start or focus on a particular player as well. Besides that, a sports highlight video would have fast-forward, slow motion, and frozen clips to skip or focus on certain details.

A lot of times, people don’t have the time to watch the entire game, which can span for a couple of hours. Therefore, they can watch a sports highlight video that would include all the major events of the game and will let them enjoy their thrill in a few moments.

Besides that, if you are applying for a college/academy or just want to showcase your skills, then you can consider making a sports video of an impressive game of yours. You can simply showcase a player and try to highlight their skills in the video.

Highlight Videos vs. Skills Videos: the Major Differences

While making a sports video, you might encounter two different types of content – a highlight video and a skills video. As I have mentioned above, a sports highlight video would include the shots of an actual game. You can either focus on the event of a single game or include clips from multiple games that were played in a genuine setup. If you want, you can highlight a particular player while making the video as well.

On the other hand, a skills video is mostly made to demonstrate the skills of a player and is not focused on the game. In fact, most of the skills videos are made outside of a real game setting. For instance, if you have mastered a skill or would like to demonstrate your game-related actions, then you can make a skills video. Some of these videos are also tutorial game-plays to teach others about a particular skill that they can master.

Use Excellent Video Editor to Make a Sports Highlight Video

If you want to come up with engaging and visually appealing highlight videos, then consider using a versatile video editor like Filmora. Equipped with several video editing tools, it will let you create a sports highlight video in no time. Since the tool has so many features, you can save your time in editing and come up with a new sports video in minutes.

• Filmora is extremely easy to use and runs on all the leading Windows and macOS versions without any issue.
• Using its inbuilt tools, you can clip out the most important events from a sports video or include them in your highlights.
• There are also features to change the motion and pace of the video (like fast forward or slow motion).
• You can also focus on any athlete and freeze a frame on a particular skill or action.
• Besides that, you can also add voiceovers in your sports highlight video, add media layers, use its inbuilt transitions, and fine-tune the overall aesthetics of your videos.
• There are also tons of filters and presets in Filmora that you can use to save your time in editing. You can work on videos of almost every format with seamless 4K support.

Why we picked it

• Options to import/export files in different formats
• Tons of features in one place (extremely easy to use)
• Split-screen support to include multiple events in a highlight video

How to Create a Sports Highlight Video with Filmora?

With the help of Filmora , anyone can create a sports video without even prior editing/designing experience. Firstly, you can install Filmora on your Windows or Mac by visiting its website and have the footage you wish to edit. Now, you can just follow these steps to work on your next sports highlight video.

Filmstock Stock Media Library ](https://filmstock.wondershare.com/creative-theme-sports?spm=rs.filmora%5Fweb&source%5Fchannel=seo%5Farticle )

Step 1: Add a video to Filmora

To start with, just launch Filmora on your computer and add the video that you wish to work on. You can just drag and drop the video to its interface or go to its Menu > File > Import Media to browse and load the file.

Step 2: Edit the Sports Video

In order to create a sports highlight video, the first thing that people do is trim any unwanted part. Once the video is loaded, you can view it on the timeline of the interface. Now, go to the timeline and get the trim tool to manually select the part of the video you wish to trim. After selecting the desired fragment, you can trim the clip or just delete it by clicking on their respective icons.

In the same way, you can also split your video and make other changes in it. You can also include multiple videos together and include them in your timeline as well.

If you are including multiple videos, then make sure they have the same dimensions and aspect ratio. For this, you can select the video, right-click on the timeline, and click on the crop icon. Now, select the same aspect ratio for the entire video to keep it uniform.

Most of the game highlights that we see have different speeds for various sections. That is, some actions would be fast-forwarded while some would be in slow motion. To apply this, simply select the section in the timeline, right-click, and go to the Speed and Duration settings. This will open a dedicated interface from where you can change the speed of the sports video.

Apart from manually setting the speed, you can also take the assistance of the custom speed options that are available in the timeline tools.

Step 3: Make Advanced Edits in your Sports Video

With the user-friendly interface of Filmora, you can do some basic edits and make a sports highlight video in minutes. Though, if you want to focus on some parts and make more changes, then you can use its advanced options as well.

For instance, in a highlight video, we often wish to freeze certain frames. To do this, just select a frame and use the “Freeze Frame” option from the timeline tools. You can even set the duration to freeze the selected frame.

If you have included clips from different videos, then you can apply all kinds of transitions from Filmora. In the end, you can go to its edit options and choose to close gaps as well.

To give your video a uniform and aesthetically pleasing appeal, you can also add different overlays and effects on it from Filmora’s library.

Lastly, make sure that you added sound or voiceover to your video. You can add a sound from its library or import any other music file to it. Since highlight videos mostly have voiceovers, you add the same by visiting the Record > Record Voiceover option.

Step 4: Export your video in the desired format

That’s it! Once your sports highlight video is ready, you can export it in different formats. Just go to the Export option and select the location to save the video and a preferred resolution. You can save your video in formats like MP4, WMV, AVI, FLV, MKV, and so on.

Expert Tips for Creating Highlight Videos

As you can see, making a sports highlight video with a tool like Filmora is extremely easy. Although to be a pro and make better videos, you can consider the following tips:

Keep it short

Make sure that you only include the highlights of the game in your video to keep it interesting. Your aim is to have a short and crisp video without any unwanted footage.

Use freeze frames and slow motion

Some games can be pretty fast-paced and the viewers might miss out on a few key details. To showcase them, you can freeze certain frames or apply slow motion.

Include other details

A sports highlight video can also be informative. You can include details about the players or the team at the start. Also, it is recommended to have sound or a voiceover in the background to narrate the events.

Pick the best clips

When you watch a game, make a note of the best moments that you know your viewers would enjoy. You can also focus on different skills that you found impressive and include them in your sports video.

I’m sure that after reading this guide, you would be able to come up with an impressive sports highlight video as well. Since you might need to make a lot of edits on a sports video, I would recommend using a diverse tool like Filmora. With the tons of editing options that it provides, you can easily create all sorts of highlight videos while saving your time and resources.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

“I want to make a sports highlight video, but I don’t know how to edit it or what kind of tools I need to use. Can someone tell me how to work on a sports video?”

As I read this query posted on a popular online forum, I realized that so many people out there find it hard to create a sports video. Well, unlike a standard video, working on a sports highlight video can be tough. This is because it needs a lot of editing and we need to handpick the right moments from hours of footage. Though, if you use the right tools, then you can easily work on highlight videos like a pro. In this guide, I will let you know how to create sports videos in a step by step manner.

• Part 1: Why is a sports highlight video and why important?
• Part 2: Highlight Video vs. Skills Video
• Part 3: Use Excellent Video Editor to Make a Sports Highlight Video
• Part 4: How to Create a Sports Highlight Video?
• Part 5: Expert Tips for Creating Highlight Videos

Why is a sports highlight video and why important?

As the name suggests, a highlight video basically includes all the vital events of a game in a short duration of time. You can include the details of some players at the start or focus on a particular player as well. Besides that, a sports highlight video would have fast-forward, slow motion, and frozen clips to skip or focus on certain details.

A lot of times, people don’t have the time to watch the entire game, which can span for a couple of hours. Therefore, they can watch a sports highlight video that would include all the major events of the game and will let them enjoy their thrill in a few moments.

Besides that, if you are applying for a college/academy or just want to showcase your skills, then you can consider making a sports video of an impressive game of yours. You can simply showcase a player and try to highlight their skills in the video.

Highlight Videos vs. Skills Videos: the Major Differences

While making a sports video, you might encounter two different types of content – a highlight video and a skills video. As I have mentioned above, a sports highlight video would include the shots of an actual game. You can either focus on the event of a single game or include clips from multiple games that were played in a genuine setup. If you want, you can highlight a particular player while making the video as well.

On the other hand, a skills video is mostly made to demonstrate the skills of a player and is not focused on the game. In fact, most of the skills videos are made outside of a real game setting. For instance, if you have mastered a skill or would like to demonstrate your game-related actions, then you can make a skills video. Some of these videos are also tutorial game-plays to teach others about a particular skill that they can master.

Use Excellent Video Editor to Make a Sports Highlight Video

If you want to come up with engaging and visually appealing highlight videos, then consider using a versatile video editor like Filmora. Equipped with several video editing tools, it will let you create a sports highlight video in no time. Since the tool has so many features, you can save your time in editing and come up with a new sports video in minutes.

• Filmora is extremely easy to use and runs on all the leading Windows and macOS versions without any issue.
• Using its inbuilt tools, you can clip out the most important events from a sports video or include them in your highlights.
• There are also features to change the motion and pace of the video (like fast forward or slow motion).
• You can also focus on any athlete and freeze a frame on a particular skill or action.
• Besides that, you can also add voiceovers in your sports highlight video, add media layers, use its inbuilt transitions, and fine-tune the overall aesthetics of your videos.
• There are also tons of filters and presets in Filmora that you can use to save your time in editing. You can work on videos of almost every format with seamless 4K support.

Why we picked it

• Options to import/export files in different formats
• Tons of features in one place (extremely easy to use)
• Split-screen support to include multiple events in a highlight video

How to Create a Sports Highlight Video with Filmora?

With the help of Filmora , anyone can create a sports video without even prior editing/designing experience. Firstly, you can install Filmora on your Windows or Mac by visiting its website and have the footage you wish to edit. Now, you can just follow these steps to work on your next sports highlight video.

Filmstock Stock Media Library ](https://filmstock.wondershare.com/creative-theme-sports?spm=rs.filmora%5Fweb&source%5Fchannel=seo%5Farticle )

Step 1: Add a video to Filmora

To start with, just launch Filmora on your computer and add the video that you wish to work on. You can just drag and drop the video to its interface or go to its Menu > File > Import Media to browse and load the file.

Step 2: Edit the Sports Video

In order to create a sports highlight video, the first thing that people do is trim any unwanted part. Once the video is loaded, you can view it on the timeline of the interface. Now, go to the timeline and get the trim tool to manually select the part of the video you wish to trim. After selecting the desired fragment, you can trim the clip or just delete it by clicking on their respective icons.

In the same way, you can also split your video and make other changes in it. You can also include multiple videos together and include them in your timeline as well.

If you are including multiple videos, then make sure they have the same dimensions and aspect ratio. For this, you can select the video, right-click on the timeline, and click on the crop icon. Now, select the same aspect ratio for the entire video to keep it uniform.

Most of the game highlights that we see have different speeds for various sections. That is, some actions would be fast-forwarded while some would be in slow motion. To apply this, simply select the section in the timeline, right-click, and go to the Speed and Duration settings. This will open a dedicated interface from where you can change the speed of the sports video.

Apart from manually setting the speed, you can also take the assistance of the custom speed options that are available in the timeline tools.

Step 3: Make Advanced Edits in your Sports Video

With the user-friendly interface of Filmora, you can do some basic edits and make a sports highlight video in minutes. Though, if you want to focus on some parts and make more changes, then you can use its advanced options as well.

For instance, in a highlight video, we often wish to freeze certain frames. To do this, just select a frame and use the “Freeze Frame” option from the timeline tools. You can even set the duration to freeze the selected frame.

If you have included clips from different videos, then you can apply all kinds of transitions from Filmora. In the end, you can go to its edit options and choose to close gaps as well.

To give your video a uniform and aesthetically pleasing appeal, you can also add different overlays and effects on it from Filmora’s library.

Lastly, make sure that you added sound or voiceover to your video. You can add a sound from its library or import any other music file to it. Since highlight videos mostly have voiceovers, you add the same by visiting the Record > Record Voiceover option.

Step 4: Export your video in the desired format

That’s it! Once your sports highlight video is ready, you can export it in different formats. Just go to the Export option and select the location to save the video and a preferred resolution. You can save your video in formats like MP4, WMV, AVI, FLV, MKV, and so on.

Expert Tips for Creating Highlight Videos

As you can see, making a sports highlight video with a tool like Filmora is extremely easy. Although to be a pro and make better videos, you can consider the following tips:

Keep it short

Make sure that you only include the highlights of the game in your video to keep it interesting. Your aim is to have a short and crisp video without any unwanted footage.

Use freeze frames and slow motion

Some games can be pretty fast-paced and the viewers might miss out on a few key details. To showcase them, you can freeze certain frames or apply slow motion.

Include other details

A sports highlight video can also be informative. You can include details about the players or the team at the start. Also, it is recommended to have sound or a voiceover in the background to narrate the events.

Pick the best clips

When you watch a game, make a note of the best moments that you know your viewers would enjoy. You can also focus on different skills that you found impressive and include them in your sports video.

I’m sure that after reading this guide, you would be able to come up with an impressive sports highlight video as well. Since you might need to make a lot of edits on a sports video, I would recommend using a diverse tool like Filmora. With the tons of editing options that it provides, you can easily create all sorts of highlight videos while saving your time and resources.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

The Path to YouTube Wealth: Top Revenue Tactics

How To Make Money on YouTube

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Not many YouTubers begin making videos with the aim to get rich. For most, it’s a way to scratch a creative itch, to enjoy being in front of an audience and as an outlet for their talents and opinions. However, the potential to make money on YouTube is huge, and eventually any busy channel is going to start asking itself, how do YouTubers make money?

This subject is less about ‘if’ you can make money and more about how to make money on YouTube. It’s been proven time and again that the potential is there, with popular stars like Lily Singh and Roman Atwood generating around $8 million a year. And, of course, everyone’s heard of PewDiePie and his whopping $15 million income.

You don’t need to have a following of millions to earn money on YouTube though; even small channels have a variety of methods available to them to start making their hard work pay. If you’d like to learn how to make money on YouTube, we’re going to look at eight ways of generating an income via your videos. Let’s get started.

How to make money on YouTube

• Make money on YouTube with ads
• Make money on YouTube without ads

We’ve discovered that making money on YouTube can be split into two main categories; making money through advertising or making money without ads involved. We’ve split our article into these two categories to make it easier for you to see what your options are.

Make money on YouTube with ads

By far the easiest way to start earning money on YouTube is to monetize your channel using ads. Until relatively recently, anyone could enable monetization on their YouTube channel and start earning for every watch of their video. But that all changed in January this year, when Google announced they would be raising the standards required to have ads shown on your channel.

Now, you need to be part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), which means you need to have met certain minimum criteria before you can start benefitting from ads. These include:

• Having 4,000 or more watch hours
• Securing 1,000 or more subscribers in the last 12 months

This means that, before you can even consider being a part of the YPP, you’ll need to knuckle down and grow your subscribers. There’s lots of helpful tips out there on increasing subscriber numbers, but it all boils down to creating excellent content. As they say, ‘if you build it, they will come’, so work on creating new and exciting content for your channel to get where you need to be.

Should you join YouTube partner or not?

Meeting the minimum requirements of the YPP is crucial to starting to host ads, but even when you’ve hit the 1k subscribers and 4k hours viewed, should you be monetizing your channel right away? Put it this way; in order to make any money from ads, you’re going to need a lot of views and loyal subscribers, which means your focus needs to be firmly on creating content rather than complying with advertising rules.

Sometimes it’s actually better to hold off for a while when you’re early on in your YouTube journey. This will mean that, rather than being distracted by the question of how to earn money from YouTube, your energy is targeted at what matters most, which is building up a library of awesome videos instead.

How to Join the YouTube Partner Platform?

1. Go to your Account Settings and, under Channel, select Status and features.

2. Click on Enable next to Monetization.

3. In the next screen, click the blue Enable my Account button.

4. The YouTube Partner Program Terms will pop up. Compared to a lot of the “Terms” you are asked to read and agree to when signing up for things online the Partner Terms are fairly short and readable.

5. After reading the terms there are three boxes you will need to check to proceed. The first is to confirm that you read the Terms. The second box is a promise not to click on the ads in your own videos to try to create profits artificially.

The third box requires you to promise not monetize content that you do not own. The most extreme version of this would be stealing somebody else’s video and trying to monetize it on your channel. However, using a song or sound effect in your video you do not have the rights to also counts. There are a lot of places you can get free music to use in your monetized videos, and YouTube’s own Audio Library is one of them.

6. After you have checked all the boxes and moved on you will see a pop up explaining how to monetize your individual videos.

Your channel is now monetized, but you will not be able to earn money until you have linked your channel to your AdSense account.

7. There will be a reminder to link your channel and your AdSense account in the next screen. Click on the Link my account button. Or, go to Google.com/adsense and click Sign Up Now. Either method will take you to the Welcome to AdSense page.

8. Click Sign In to sign in to your Google account, which is the same as your YouTube account.

9. After you have signed in it will show you your channel url next to My website and give you a chance to change your language. Click Continue.

10. The last step is to fill out all your contact information before you submit your application. Your approval should come within two days.

11. Go to your Video Manager and check the boxes next to all the videos you want to enable ads for.

12. Click on Actions and then select Monetize.

13. In the window that pops up you will be given a chance to choose what kinds of ads you want to allow in your videos. You must also specify here if you have included paid product placement in your video.

14. Wait for the review process to finish and ads to start appearing in your videos. If you are using any licensed, royalty free, content (like a music track) then YouTube may ask you to prove you have the rights to it.

How much you can get from Ads

The ad revenue generated on YouTube is split between Google and you. You’ll get 55 per cent and Google / YouTube will take the remaining 45 per cent. This means that, if an advertiser spends $200 on your channel, you could be earning $110 directly. You’ll earn both for ‘impressions’, which is the number of views the ad received, and ‘click throughs’, which is when someone clicks on the ad for more information.

Be aware that, in order to get paid, your audience will need to have viewed at least 30 seconds of the ad, or to have clicked through to the advertiser. As a rule, around 15 per cent of viewers will convert into ad revenue, so you can start to calculate just how much your video could be worth.

To give you an example, if you enjoy daily video views in the region of 3,000 views per day and achieve click through / view rates of the average 15 per cent, you’d be earning $0.85 - $1.40 per day or $25 - $43 a month for that one video. If you could increase your views to 5,000 per day, your monthly earnings would rise to $41 - $70 per month.

When working out how to make money on YouTube, keep in mind that every single video has the potential to earn you money. Although one video might only make a dollar a day, imagine when you’ve got 10 videos performing to the same standard, or 100. As you build up your library of content, you have the potential to earn exponentially more as time goes on.

Want to know how much you can get from Ads? Check this YouTube Money Calculator

How to optimize your video to attract advertisers

There is, understandably, a good deal of competition for hosting advertisements on YouTube. In order to get more and better brands advertising in your space, you’ll need to make sure you’ve done all that you can to make your channel attractive to them.

1. Target a specific demographic

Your advertisers want to place their products in front of a very specific audience, so the more embedded in your niche your videos are, the more likely you are to attract investment. If you try to be all things to all people, advertisers are going to see that you’re a risky prospect and will move on to a channel that’s more targeted.

To check demographics, YouTube has everything already there for you. In the YouTube Studio, you’ll find the exact demographics of your audience profile, including age, country of origin and gender. You can see how appealing your videos are to the people you are targeting by checking the spread of representation here.

1. Pay attention to your video metadata

YouTube metadata is an often-overlooked element of content that is actually incredibly important, both for advertising revenue and for views in general. What we mean when we talk about metadata is your tags, title and description of your video, all of which should make use of high traffic keywords that you’ve researched as being relevant.

YouTube’s own keyword suggestion tool can be a great place to start finding those golden keywords that will get you noticed. Advertisers often use your metadata to locate videos that their customers are watching, so SEO is crucial here. Not only that, but when viewers are looking for new videos to watch, the SEO of your metadata will define where in the search results you fall, so putting some time and energy into this can get you more views too.

1. Avoid dodgy video content

There are some types of content which are just not a good idea for YouTube. In fact, the platform could exclude you from advertising altogether if your content is found to contain any of the following:

• Sexually suggestive content: This includes making jokes based around sexual topics, as well as partial nudity of anyone in the video.
• Violence: This ranges from topics of extremism to videos of people sustaining serious injuries, as well as threats and suggestions of violence.
• Inappropriate language: Even the most popular YouTubers have started bleeping out their profanities, so avoid vulgar language or anything that could be construed as being threatening.
• Drugs: Promotion of the use, sale or abuse of drugs and other controlled substances is forbidden.
• Sensitive subjects: This includes references to wars, race crimes, natural disasters, political conflicts, even if you don’t show images of the situation itself.

When you’re considering how do YouTubers make money, you should recognize that those who make the most money avoid creating content that breaches any of these rules. YouTube does notify you if it feels your video is in breach of ‘advertiser friendly’ policies, and you’ll have the chance to contest the ban, but if you steer clear of dodgy content in the first place you shouldn’t run into any issues.

Make money on YouTube without ads

Of course, life is not all about ads, and with YouTube continuing to tighten its criteria around advertising it can be a good idea not to have all your eggs in one basket. Add to this the huge viewership you’re going to need in order to make serious money, it’s worth investigating other methods of making money on YouTube. Here are some of the best ideas.

1. Work with brands

Influencer marketing is big business right now, and brands all over the world are investing in individuals who have secured the loyalty and trust of their target demographic. Sponsored videos might feature product placement, promoting a product from your sponsor, or you may be asked to produce a particular piece of content to support their campaign. Check out influencer marketplaces like Famebit, Grapevine Logic and Crowdtap to see what’s available to you. If you want to make work with brands, you can check out InflueNex , a powerful influencer marketing platform, which will help you to build good relationship with brands.

1. Selling products or merchandise

Selling ‘merch’ is a great way to discover how to earn money from YouTube. T-shirts, tote bags, mugs, hats…whatever fits with you and your brand can become an amazing source of revenue for your business. Not only does this increase your exposure as a brand by putting it out there into the non-YouTube world, it also gives your fans a way to literally buy into what you’re doing.

1. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing doesn’t have to be hard work or complicated. Registering with big sales platforms such as Amazon is often as simple as filling out a couple of forms. Once registered, you can use your own special links to hook your viewers up with a product that you would recommend, and you’ll get a proportion of the final sale value. It’s not only Amazon who offer affiliate programs; most major brands will offer some kind of sales commission, so if you’re in a niche that calls for specialist products to promote, do contact brands directly to find out what they can offer.

1. Crowdfund

If you’ve got an amazingly creative idea but lack of funds is stopping you from putting it into action, crowdfunding could be the way to go. Crowdfunded projects can use the money they make to buy better production equipment, hire people to work on the project, pay for props, anything really. A good way to get started with crowdfunding a particular idea is to create a ‘trailer’ or sneak peek that gives people a better idea of what you want to do. Make sure it gets them so excited that they can’t help but donate to your cause!

1. Renting out your video

You have the ability to rent out individual videos for cold, hard cash, just like a pay per view service. The options for this are in the Creator Studio, where you can set the amount you want to rent it out for as well as creating an enticing trailer to encourage people to buy. Choose to either sell your video permanently, letting the person view it whenever they like, or rent for a limited time, usually 24 to 72 hours.

1. License your content to the media

If you’re lucky enough to make a video that goes viral, you can make serious bucks by licensing it to the wider media. From online news sites to TV shows, there are loads of other content creators out there willing to pay good money to use your amazing clip, and may will reach out to you directly with offers. You can also proactively offer your content for sale via sites like Juken Media, where others can find it and purchase it directly.

Now you know how to earn money from YouTube, what are you going to try? Let us know how you get on and which ways make money for you!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Not many YouTubers begin making videos with the aim to get rich. For most, it’s a way to scratch a creative itch, to enjoy being in front of an audience and as an outlet for their talents and opinions. However, the potential to make money on YouTube is huge, and eventually any busy channel is going to start asking itself, how do YouTubers make money?

This subject is less about ‘if’ you can make money and more about how to make money on YouTube. It’s been proven time and again that the potential is there, with popular stars like Lily Singh and Roman Atwood generating around $8 million a year. And, of course, everyone’s heard of PewDiePie and his whopping $15 million income.

You don’t need to have a following of millions to earn money on YouTube though; even small channels have a variety of methods available to them to start making their hard work pay. If you’d like to learn how to make money on YouTube, we’re going to look at eight ways of generating an income via your videos. Let’s get started.

How to make money on YouTube

• Make money on YouTube with ads
• Make money on YouTube without ads

We’ve discovered that making money on YouTube can be split into two main categories; making money through advertising or making money without ads involved. We’ve split our article into these two categories to make it easier for you to see what your options are.

Make money on YouTube with ads

By far the easiest way to start earning money on YouTube is to monetize your channel using ads. Until relatively recently, anyone could enable monetization on their YouTube channel and start earning for every watch of their video. But that all changed in January this year, when Google announced they would be raising the standards required to have ads shown on your channel.

Now, you need to be part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), which means you need to have met certain minimum criteria before you can start benefitting from ads. These include:

• Having 4,000 or more watch hours
• Securing 1,000 or more subscribers in the last 12 months

This means that, before you can even consider being a part of the YPP, you’ll need to knuckle down and grow your subscribers. There’s lots of helpful tips out there on increasing subscriber numbers, but it all boils down to creating excellent content. As they say, ‘if you build it, they will come’, so work on creating new and exciting content for your channel to get where you need to be.

Should you join YouTube partner or not?

Meeting the minimum requirements of the YPP is crucial to starting to host ads, but even when you’ve hit the 1k subscribers and 4k hours viewed, should you be monetizing your channel right away? Put it this way; in order to make any money from ads, you’re going to need a lot of views and loyal subscribers, which means your focus needs to be firmly on creating content rather than complying with advertising rules.

Sometimes it’s actually better to hold off for a while when you’re early on in your YouTube journey. This will mean that, rather than being distracted by the question of how to earn money from YouTube, your energy is targeted at what matters most, which is building up a library of awesome videos instead.

How to Join the YouTube Partner Platform?

1. Go to your Account Settings and, under Channel, select Status and features.

2. Click on Enable next to Monetization.

3. In the next screen, click the blue Enable my Account button.

4. The YouTube Partner Program Terms will pop up. Compared to a lot of the “Terms” you are asked to read and agree to when signing up for things online the Partner Terms are fairly short and readable.

5. After reading the terms there are three boxes you will need to check to proceed. The first is to confirm that you read the Terms. The second box is a promise not to click on the ads in your own videos to try to create profits artificially.

The third box requires you to promise not monetize content that you do not own. The most extreme version of this would be stealing somebody else’s video and trying to monetize it on your channel. However, using a song or sound effect in your video you do not have the rights to also counts. There are a lot of places you can get free music to use in your monetized videos, and YouTube’s own Audio Library is one of them.

6. After you have checked all the boxes and moved on you will see a pop up explaining how to monetize your individual videos.

Your channel is now monetized, but you will not be able to earn money until you have linked your channel to your AdSense account.

7. There will be a reminder to link your channel and your AdSense account in the next screen. Click on the Link my account button. Or, go to Google.com/adsense and click Sign Up Now. Either method will take you to the Welcome to AdSense page.

8. Click Sign In to sign in to your Google account, which is the same as your YouTube account.

9. After you have signed in it will show you your channel url next to My website and give you a chance to change your language. Click Continue.

10. The last step is to fill out all your contact information before you submit your application. Your approval should come within two days.

11. Go to your Video Manager and check the boxes next to all the videos you want to enable ads for.

12. Click on Actions and then select Monetize.

13. In the window that pops up you will be given a chance to choose what kinds of ads you want to allow in your videos. You must also specify here if you have included paid product placement in your video.

14. Wait for the review process to finish and ads to start appearing in your videos. If you are using any licensed, royalty free, content (like a music track) then YouTube may ask you to prove you have the rights to it.

How much you can get from Ads

The ad revenue generated on YouTube is split between Google and you. You’ll get 55 per cent and Google / YouTube will take the remaining 45 per cent. This means that, if an advertiser spends $200 on your channel, you could be earning $110 directly. You’ll earn both for ‘impressions’, which is the number of views the ad received, and ‘click throughs’, which is when someone clicks on the ad for more information.

Be aware that, in order to get paid, your audience will need to have viewed at least 30 seconds of the ad, or to have clicked through to the advertiser. As a rule, around 15 per cent of viewers will convert into ad revenue, so you can start to calculate just how much your video could be worth.

To give you an example, if you enjoy daily video views in the region of 3,000 views per day and achieve click through / view rates of the average 15 per cent, you’d be earning $0.85 - $1.40 per day or $25 - $43 a month for that one video. If you could increase your views to 5,000 per day, your monthly earnings would rise to $41 - $70 per month.

When working out how to make money on YouTube, keep in mind that every single video has the potential to earn you money. Although one video might only make a dollar a day, imagine when you’ve got 10 videos performing to the same standard, or 100. As you build up your library of content, you have the potential to earn exponentially more as time goes on.

Want to know how much you can get from Ads? Check this YouTube Money Calculator

How to optimize your video to attract advertisers

There is, understandably, a good deal of competition for hosting advertisements on YouTube. In order to get more and better brands advertising in your space, you’ll need to make sure you’ve done all that you can to make your channel attractive to them.

1. Target a specific demographic

Your advertisers want to place their products in front of a very specific audience, so the more embedded in your niche your videos are, the more likely you are to attract investment. If you try to be all things to all people, advertisers are going to see that you’re a risky prospect and will move on to a channel that’s more targeted.

To check demographics, YouTube has everything already there for you. In the YouTube Studio, you’ll find the exact demographics of your audience profile, including age, country of origin and gender. You can see how appealing your videos are to the people you are targeting by checking the spread of representation here.

1. Pay attention to your video metadata

YouTube metadata is an often-overlooked element of content that is actually incredibly important, both for advertising revenue and for views in general. What we mean when we talk about metadata is your tags, title and description of your video, all of which should make use of high traffic keywords that you’ve researched as being relevant.

YouTube’s own keyword suggestion tool can be a great place to start finding those golden keywords that will get you noticed. Advertisers often use your metadata to locate videos that their customers are watching, so SEO is crucial here. Not only that, but when viewers are looking for new videos to watch, the SEO of your metadata will define where in the search results you fall, so putting some time and energy into this can get you more views too.

1. Avoid dodgy video content

There are some types of content which are just not a good idea for YouTube. In fact, the platform could exclude you from advertising altogether if your content is found to contain any of the following:

• Sexually suggestive content: This includes making jokes based around sexual topics, as well as partial nudity of anyone in the video.
• Violence: This ranges from topics of extremism to videos of people sustaining serious injuries, as well as threats and suggestions of violence.
• Inappropriate language: Even the most popular YouTubers have started bleeping out their profanities, so avoid vulgar language or anything that could be construed as being threatening.
• Drugs: Promotion of the use, sale or abuse of drugs and other controlled substances is forbidden.
• Sensitive subjects: This includes references to wars, race crimes, natural disasters, political conflicts, even if you don’t show images of the situation itself.

When you’re considering how do YouTubers make money, you should recognize that those who make the most money avoid creating content that breaches any of these rules. YouTube does notify you if it feels your video is in breach of ‘advertiser friendly’ policies, and you’ll have the chance to contest the ban, but if you steer clear of dodgy content in the first place you shouldn’t run into any issues.

Make money on YouTube without ads

Of course, life is not all about ads, and with YouTube continuing to tighten its criteria around advertising it can be a good idea not to have all your eggs in one basket. Add to this the huge viewership you’re going to need in order to make serious money, it’s worth investigating other methods of making money on YouTube. Here are some of the best ideas.

1. Work with brands

Influencer marketing is big business right now, and brands all over the world are investing in individuals who have secured the loyalty and trust of their target demographic. Sponsored videos might feature product placement, promoting a product from your sponsor, or you may be asked to produce a particular piece of content to support their campaign. Check out influencer marketplaces like Famebit, Grapevine Logic and Crowdtap to see what’s available to you. If you want to make work with brands, you can check out InflueNex , a powerful influencer marketing platform, which will help you to build good relationship with brands.

1. Selling products or merchandise

Selling ‘merch’ is a great way to discover how to earn money from YouTube. T-shirts, tote bags, mugs, hats…whatever fits with you and your brand can become an amazing source of revenue for your business. Not only does this increase your exposure as a brand by putting it out there into the non-YouTube world, it also gives your fans a way to literally buy into what you’re doing.

1. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing doesn’t have to be hard work or complicated. Registering with big sales platforms such as Amazon is often as simple as filling out a couple of forms. Once registered, you can use your own special links to hook your viewers up with a product that you would recommend, and you’ll get a proportion of the final sale value. It’s not only Amazon who offer affiliate programs; most major brands will offer some kind of sales commission, so if you’re in a niche that calls for specialist products to promote, do contact brands directly to find out what they can offer.

1. Crowdfund

If you’ve got an amazingly creative idea but lack of funds is stopping you from putting it into action, crowdfunding could be the way to go. Crowdfunded projects can use the money they make to buy better production equipment, hire people to work on the project, pay for props, anything really. A good way to get started with crowdfunding a particular idea is to create a ‘trailer’ or sneak peek that gives people a better idea of what you want to do. Make sure it gets them so excited that they can’t help but donate to your cause!

1. Renting out your video

You have the ability to rent out individual videos for cold, hard cash, just like a pay per view service. The options for this are in the Creator Studio, where you can set the amount you want to rent it out for as well as creating an enticing trailer to encourage people to buy. Choose to either sell your video permanently, letting the person view it whenever they like, or rent for a limited time, usually 24 to 72 hours.

1. License your content to the media

If you’re lucky enough to make a video that goes viral, you can make serious bucks by licensing it to the wider media. From online news sites to TV shows, there are loads of other content creators out there willing to pay good money to use your amazing clip, and may will reach out to you directly with offers. You can also proactively offer your content for sale via sites like Juken Media, where others can find it and purchase it directly.

Now you know how to earn money from YouTube, what are you going to try? Let us know how you get on and which ways make money for you!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Not many YouTubers begin making videos with the aim to get rich. For most, it’s a way to scratch a creative itch, to enjoy being in front of an audience and as an outlet for their talents and opinions. However, the potential to make money on YouTube is huge, and eventually any busy channel is going to start asking itself, how do YouTubers make money?

This subject is less about ‘if’ you can make money and more about how to make money on YouTube. It’s been proven time and again that the potential is there, with popular stars like Lily Singh and Roman Atwood generating around $8 million a year. And, of course, everyone’s heard of PewDiePie and his whopping $15 million income.

You don’t need to have a following of millions to earn money on YouTube though; even small channels have a variety of methods available to them to start making their hard work pay. If you’d like to learn how to make money on YouTube, we’re going to look at eight ways of generating an income via your videos. Let’s get started.

How to make money on YouTube

• Make money on YouTube with ads
• Make money on YouTube without ads

We’ve discovered that making money on YouTube can be split into two main categories; making money through advertising or making money without ads involved. We’ve split our article into these two categories to make it easier for you to see what your options are.

Make money on YouTube with ads

By far the easiest way to start earning money on YouTube is to monetize your channel using ads. Until relatively recently, anyone could enable monetization on their YouTube channel and start earning for every watch of their video. But that all changed in January this year, when Google announced they would be raising the standards required to have ads shown on your channel.

Now, you need to be part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), which means you need to have met certain minimum criteria before you can start benefitting from ads. These include:

• Having 4,000 or more watch hours
• Securing 1,000 or more subscribers in the last 12 months

This means that, before you can even consider being a part of the YPP, you’ll need to knuckle down and grow your subscribers. There’s lots of helpful tips out there on increasing subscriber numbers, but it all boils down to creating excellent content. As they say, ‘if you build it, they will come’, so work on creating new and exciting content for your channel to get where you need to be.

Should you join YouTube partner or not?

Meeting the minimum requirements of the YPP is crucial to starting to host ads, but even when you’ve hit the 1k subscribers and 4k hours viewed, should you be monetizing your channel right away? Put it this way; in order to make any money from ads, you’re going to need a lot of views and loyal subscribers, which means your focus needs to be firmly on creating content rather than complying with advertising rules.

Sometimes it’s actually better to hold off for a while when you’re early on in your YouTube journey. This will mean that, rather than being distracted by the question of how to earn money from YouTube, your energy is targeted at what matters most, which is building up a library of awesome videos instead.

How to Join the YouTube Partner Platform?

1. Go to your Account Settings and, under Channel, select Status and features.

2. Click on Enable next to Monetization.

3. In the next screen, click the blue Enable my Account button.

4. The YouTube Partner Program Terms will pop up. Compared to a lot of the “Terms” you are asked to read and agree to when signing up for things online the Partner Terms are fairly short and readable.

5. After reading the terms there are three boxes you will need to check to proceed. The first is to confirm that you read the Terms. The second box is a promise not to click on the ads in your own videos to try to create profits artificially.

The third box requires you to promise not monetize content that you do not own. The most extreme version of this would be stealing somebody else’s video and trying to monetize it on your channel. However, using a song or sound effect in your video you do not have the rights to also counts. There are a lot of places you can get free music to use in your monetized videos, and YouTube’s own Audio Library is one of them.

6. After you have checked all the boxes and moved on you will see a pop up explaining how to monetize your individual videos.

Your channel is now monetized, but you will not be able to earn money until you have linked your channel to your AdSense account.

7. There will be a reminder to link your channel and your AdSense account in the next screen. Click on the Link my account button. Or, go to Google.com/adsense and click Sign Up Now. Either method will take you to the Welcome to AdSense page.

8. Click Sign In to sign in to your Google account, which is the same as your YouTube account.

9. After you have signed in it will show you your channel url next to My website and give you a chance to change your language. Click Continue.

10. The last step is to fill out all your contact information before you submit your application. Your approval should come within two days.

11. Go to your Video Manager and check the boxes next to all the videos you want to enable ads for.

12. Click on Actions and then select Monetize.

13. In the window that pops up you will be given a chance to choose what kinds of ads you want to allow in your videos. You must also specify here if you have included paid product placement in your video.

14. Wait for the review process to finish and ads to start appearing in your videos. If you are using any licensed, royalty free, content (like a music track) then YouTube may ask you to prove you have the rights to it.

How much you can get from Ads

The ad revenue generated on YouTube is split between Google and you. You’ll get 55 per cent and Google / YouTube will take the remaining 45 per cent. This means that, if an advertiser spends $200 on your channel, you could be earning $110 directly. You’ll earn both for ‘impressions’, which is the number of views the ad received, and ‘click throughs’, which is when someone clicks on the ad for more information.

Be aware that, in order to get paid, your audience will need to have viewed at least 30 seconds of the ad, or to have clicked through to the advertiser. As a rule, around 15 per cent of viewers will convert into ad revenue, so you can start to calculate just how much your video could be worth.

To give you an example, if you enjoy daily video views in the region of 3,000 views per day and achieve click through / view rates of the average 15 per cent, you’d be earning $0.85 - $1.40 per day or $25 - $43 a month for that one video. If you could increase your views to 5,000 per day, your monthly earnings would rise to $41 - $70 per month.

When working out how to make money on YouTube, keep in mind that every single video has the potential to earn you money. Although one video might only make a dollar a day, imagine when you’ve got 10 videos performing to the same standard, or 100. As you build up your library of content, you have the potential to earn exponentially more as time goes on.

Want to know how much you can get from Ads? Check this YouTube Money Calculator

How to optimize your video to attract advertisers

There is, understandably, a good deal of competition for hosting advertisements on YouTube. In order to get more and better brands advertising in your space, you’ll need to make sure you’ve done all that you can to make your channel attractive to them.

1. Target a specific demographic

Your advertisers want to place their products in front of a very specific audience, so the more embedded in your niche your videos are, the more likely you are to attract investment. If you try to be all things to all people, advertisers are going to see that you’re a risky prospect and will move on to a channel that’s more targeted.

To check demographics, YouTube has everything already there for you. In the YouTube Studio, you’ll find the exact demographics of your audience profile, including age, country of origin and gender. You can see how appealing your videos are to the people you are targeting by checking the spread of representation here.

1. Pay attention to your video metadata

YouTube metadata is an often-overlooked element of content that is actually incredibly important, both for advertising revenue and for views in general. What we mean when we talk about metadata is your tags, title and description of your video, all of which should make use of high traffic keywords that you’ve researched as being relevant.

YouTube’s own keyword suggestion tool can be a great place to start finding those golden keywords that will get you noticed. Advertisers often use your metadata to locate videos that their customers are watching, so SEO is crucial here. Not only that, but when viewers are looking for new videos to watch, the SEO of your metadata will define where in the search results you fall, so putting some time and energy into this can get you more views too.

1. Avoid dodgy video content

There are some types of content which are just not a good idea for YouTube. In fact, the platform could exclude you from advertising altogether if your content is found to contain any of the following:

• Sexually suggestive content: This includes making jokes based around sexual topics, as well as partial nudity of anyone in the video.
• Violence: This ranges from topics of extremism to videos of people sustaining serious injuries, as well as threats and suggestions of violence.
• Inappropriate language: Even the most popular YouTubers have started bleeping out their profanities, so avoid vulgar language or anything that could be construed as being threatening.
• Drugs: Promotion of the use, sale or abuse of drugs and other controlled substances is forbidden.
• Sensitive subjects: This includes references to wars, race crimes, natural disasters, political conflicts, even if you don’t show images of the situation itself.

When you’re considering how do YouTubers make money, you should recognize that those who make the most money avoid creating content that breaches any of these rules. YouTube does notify you if it feels your video is in breach of ‘advertiser friendly’ policies, and you’ll have the chance to contest the ban, but if you steer clear of dodgy content in the first place you shouldn’t run into any issues.

Make money on YouTube without ads

Of course, life is not all about ads, and with YouTube continuing to tighten its criteria around advertising it can be a good idea not to have all your eggs in one basket. Add to this the huge viewership you’re going to need in order to make serious money, it’s worth investigating other methods of making money on YouTube. Here are some of the best ideas.

1. Work with brands

Influencer marketing is big business right now, and brands all over the world are investing in individuals who have secured the loyalty and trust of their target demographic. Sponsored videos might feature product placement, promoting a product from your sponsor, or you may be asked to produce a particular piece of content to support their campaign. Check out influencer marketplaces like Famebit, Grapevine Logic and Crowdtap to see what’s available to you. If you want to make work with brands, you can check out InflueNex , a powerful influencer marketing platform, which will help you to build good relationship with brands.

1. Selling products or merchandise

Selling ‘merch’ is a great way to discover how to earn money from YouTube. T-shirts, tote bags, mugs, hats…whatever fits with you and your brand can become an amazing source of revenue for your business. Not only does this increase your exposure as a brand by putting it out there into the non-YouTube world, it also gives your fans a way to literally buy into what you’re doing.

1. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing doesn’t have to be hard work or complicated. Registering with big sales platforms such as Amazon is often as simple as filling out a couple of forms. Once registered, you can use your own special links to hook your viewers up with a product that you would recommend, and you’ll get a proportion of the final sale value. It’s not only Amazon who offer affiliate programs; most major brands will offer some kind of sales commission, so if you’re in a niche that calls for specialist products to promote, do contact brands directly to find out what they can offer.

1. Crowdfund

If you’ve got an amazingly creative idea but lack of funds is stopping you from putting it into action, crowdfunding could be the way to go. Crowdfunded projects can use the money they make to buy better production equipment, hire people to work on the project, pay for props, anything really. A good way to get started with crowdfunding a particular idea is to create a ‘trailer’ or sneak peek that gives people a better idea of what you want to do. Make sure it gets them so excited that they can’t help but donate to your cause!

1. Renting out your video

You have the ability to rent out individual videos for cold, hard cash, just like a pay per view service. The options for this are in the Creator Studio, where you can set the amount you want to rent it out for as well as creating an enticing trailer to encourage people to buy. Choose to either sell your video permanently, letting the person view it whenever they like, or rent for a limited time, usually 24 to 72 hours.

1. License your content to the media

If you’re lucky enough to make a video that goes viral, you can make serious bucks by licensing it to the wider media. From online news sites to TV shows, there are loads of other content creators out there willing to pay good money to use your amazing clip, and may will reach out to you directly with offers. You can also proactively offer your content for sale via sites like Juken Media, where others can find it and purchase it directly.

Now you know how to earn money from YouTube, what are you going to try? Let us know how you get on and which ways make money for you!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

Not many YouTubers begin making videos with the aim to get rich. For most, it’s a way to scratch a creative itch, to enjoy being in front of an audience and as an outlet for their talents and opinions. However, the potential to make money on YouTube is huge, and eventually any busy channel is going to start asking itself, how do YouTubers make money?

This subject is less about ‘if’ you can make money and more about how to make money on YouTube. It’s been proven time and again that the potential is there, with popular stars like Lily Singh and Roman Atwood generating around $8 million a year. And, of course, everyone’s heard of PewDiePie and his whopping $15 million income.

You don’t need to have a following of millions to earn money on YouTube though; even small channels have a variety of methods available to them to start making their hard work pay. If you’d like to learn how to make money on YouTube, we’re going to look at eight ways of generating an income via your videos. Let’s get started.

How to make money on YouTube

• Make money on YouTube with ads
• Make money on YouTube without ads

We’ve discovered that making money on YouTube can be split into two main categories; making money through advertising or making money without ads involved. We’ve split our article into these two categories to make it easier for you to see what your options are.

Make money on YouTube with ads

By far the easiest way to start earning money on YouTube is to monetize your channel using ads. Until relatively recently, anyone could enable monetization on their YouTube channel and start earning for every watch of their video. But that all changed in January this year, when Google announced they would be raising the standards required to have ads shown on your channel.

Now, you need to be part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), which means you need to have met certain minimum criteria before you can start benefitting from ads. These include:

• Having 4,000 or more watch hours
• Securing 1,000 or more subscribers in the last 12 months

This means that, before you can even consider being a part of the YPP, you’ll need to knuckle down and grow your subscribers. There’s lots of helpful tips out there on increasing subscriber numbers, but it all boils down to creating excellent content. As they say, ‘if you build it, they will come’, so work on creating new and exciting content for your channel to get where you need to be.

Should you join YouTube partner or not?

Meeting the minimum requirements of the YPP is crucial to starting to host ads, but even when you’ve hit the 1k subscribers and 4k hours viewed, should you be monetizing your channel right away? Put it this way; in order to make any money from ads, you’re going to need a lot of views and loyal subscribers, which means your focus needs to be firmly on creating content rather than complying with advertising rules.

Sometimes it’s actually better to hold off for a while when you’re early on in your YouTube journey. This will mean that, rather than being distracted by the question of how to earn money from YouTube, your energy is targeted at what matters most, which is building up a library of awesome videos instead.

How to Join the YouTube Partner Platform?

1. Go to your Account Settings and, under Channel, select Status and features.

2. Click on Enable next to Monetization.

3. In the next screen, click the blue Enable my Account button.

4. The YouTube Partner Program Terms will pop up. Compared to a lot of the “Terms” you are asked to read and agree to when signing up for things online the Partner Terms are fairly short and readable.

5. After reading the terms there are three boxes you will need to check to proceed. The first is to confirm that you read the Terms. The second box is a promise not to click on the ads in your own videos to try to create profits artificially.

The third box requires you to promise not monetize content that you do not own. The most extreme version of this would be stealing somebody else’s video and trying to monetize it on your channel. However, using a song or sound effect in your video you do not have the rights to also counts. There are a lot of places you can get free music to use in your monetized videos, and YouTube’s own Audio Library is one of them.

6. After you have checked all the boxes and moved on you will see a pop up explaining how to monetize your individual videos.

Your channel is now monetized, but you will not be able to earn money until you have linked your channel to your AdSense account.

7. There will be a reminder to link your channel and your AdSense account in the next screen. Click on the Link my account button. Or, go to Google.com/adsense and click Sign Up Now. Either method will take you to the Welcome to AdSense page.

8. Click Sign In to sign in to your Google account, which is the same as your YouTube account.

9. After you have signed in it will show you your channel url next to My website and give you a chance to change your language. Click Continue.

10. The last step is to fill out all your contact information before you submit your application. Your approval should come within two days.

11. Go to your Video Manager and check the boxes next to all the videos you want to enable ads for.

12. Click on Actions and then select Monetize.

13. In the window that pops up you will be given a chance to choose what kinds of ads you want to allow in your videos. You must also specify here if you have included paid product placement in your video.

14. Wait for the review process to finish and ads to start appearing in your videos. If you are using any licensed, royalty free, content (like a music track) then YouTube may ask you to prove you have the rights to it.

How much you can get from Ads

The ad revenue generated on YouTube is split between Google and you. You’ll get 55 per cent and Google / YouTube will take the remaining 45 per cent. This means that, if an advertiser spends $200 on your channel, you could be earning $110 directly. You’ll earn both for ‘impressions’, which is the number of views the ad received, and ‘click throughs’, which is when someone clicks on the ad for more information.

Be aware that, in order to get paid, your audience will need to have viewed at least 30 seconds of the ad, or to have clicked through to the advertiser. As a rule, around 15 per cent of viewers will convert into ad revenue, so you can start to calculate just how much your video could be worth.

To give you an example, if you enjoy daily video views in the region of 3,000 views per day and achieve click through / view rates of the average 15 per cent, you’d be earning $0.85 - $1.40 per day or $25 - $43 a month for that one video. If you could increase your views to 5,000 per day, your monthly earnings would rise to $41 - $70 per month.

When working out how to make money on YouTube, keep in mind that every single video has the potential to earn you money. Although one video might only make a dollar a day, imagine when you’ve got 10 videos performing to the same standard, or 100. As you build up your library of content, you have the potential to earn exponentially more as time goes on.

Want to know how much you can get from Ads? Check this YouTube Money Calculator

How to optimize your video to attract advertisers

There is, understandably, a good deal of competition for hosting advertisements on YouTube. In order to get more and better brands advertising in your space, you’ll need to make sure you’ve done all that you can to make your channel attractive to them.

1. Target a specific demographic

Your advertisers want to place their products in front of a very specific audience, so the more embedded in your niche your videos are, the more likely you are to attract investment. If you try to be all things to all people, advertisers are going to see that you’re a risky prospect and will move on to a channel that’s more targeted.

To check demographics, YouTube has everything already there for you. In the YouTube Studio, you’ll find the exact demographics of your audience profile, including age, country of origin and gender. You can see how appealing your videos are to the people you are targeting by checking the spread of representation here.

1. Pay attention to your video metadata

YouTube metadata is an often-overlooked element of content that is actually incredibly important, both for advertising revenue and for views in general. What we mean when we talk about metadata is your tags, title and description of your video, all of which should make use of high traffic keywords that you’ve researched as being relevant.

YouTube’s own keyword suggestion tool can be a great place to start finding those golden keywords that will get you noticed. Advertisers often use your metadata to locate videos that their customers are watching, so SEO is crucial here. Not only that, but when viewers are looking for new videos to watch, the SEO of your metadata will define where in the search results you fall, so putting some time and energy into this can get you more views too.

1. Avoid dodgy video content

There are some types of content which are just not a good idea for YouTube. In fact, the platform could exclude you from advertising altogether if your content is found to contain any of the following:

• Sexually suggestive content: This includes making jokes based around sexual topics, as well as partial nudity of anyone in the video.
• Violence: This ranges from topics of extremism to videos of people sustaining serious injuries, as well as threats and suggestions of violence.
• Inappropriate language: Even the most popular YouTubers have started bleeping out their profanities, so avoid vulgar language or anything that could be construed as being threatening.
• Drugs: Promotion of the use, sale or abuse of drugs and other controlled substances is forbidden.
• Sensitive subjects: This includes references to wars, race crimes, natural disasters, political conflicts, even if you don’t show images of the situation itself.

When you’re considering how do YouTubers make money, you should recognize that those who make the most money avoid creating content that breaches any of these rules. YouTube does notify you if it feels your video is in breach of ‘advertiser friendly’ policies, and you’ll have the chance to contest the ban, but if you steer clear of dodgy content in the first place you shouldn’t run into any issues.

Make money on YouTube without ads

Of course, life is not all about ads, and with YouTube continuing to tighten its criteria around advertising it can be a good idea not to have all your eggs in one basket. Add to this the huge viewership you’re going to need in order to make serious money, it’s worth investigating other methods of making money on YouTube. Here are some of the best ideas.

1. Work with brands

Influencer marketing is big business right now, and brands all over the world are investing in individuals who have secured the loyalty and trust of their target demographic. Sponsored videos might feature product placement, promoting a product from your sponsor, or you may be asked to produce a particular piece of content to support their campaign. Check out influencer marketplaces like Famebit, Grapevine Logic and Crowdtap to see what’s available to you. If you want to make work with brands, you can check out InflueNex , a powerful influencer marketing platform, which will help you to build good relationship with brands.

1. Selling products or merchandise

Selling ‘merch’ is a great way to discover how to earn money from YouTube. T-shirts, tote bags, mugs, hats…whatever fits with you and your brand can become an amazing source of revenue for your business. Not only does this increase your exposure as a brand by putting it out there into the non-YouTube world, it also gives your fans a way to literally buy into what you’re doing.

1. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing doesn’t have to be hard work or complicated. Registering with big sales platforms such as Amazon is often as simple as filling out a couple of forms. Once registered, you can use your own special links to hook your viewers up with a product that you would recommend, and you’ll get a proportion of the final sale value. It’s not only Amazon who offer affiliate programs; most major brands will offer some kind of sales commission, so if you’re in a niche that calls for specialist products to promote, do contact brands directly to find out what they can offer.

1. Crowdfund

If you’ve got an amazingly creative idea but lack of funds is stopping you from putting it into action, crowdfunding could be the way to go. Crowdfunded projects can use the money they make to buy better production equipment, hire people to work on the project, pay for props, anything really. A good way to get started with crowdfunding a particular idea is to create a ‘trailer’ or sneak peek that gives people a better idea of what you want to do. Make sure it gets them so excited that they can’t help but donate to your cause!

1. Renting out your video

You have the ability to rent out individual videos for cold, hard cash, just like a pay per view service. The options for this are in the Creator Studio, where you can set the amount you want to rent it out for as well as creating an enticing trailer to encourage people to buy. Choose to either sell your video permanently, letting the person view it whenever they like, or rent for a limited time, usually 24 to 72 hours.

1. License your content to the media

If you’re lucky enough to make a video that goes viral, you can make serious bucks by licensing it to the wider media. From online news sites to TV shows, there are loads of other content creators out there willing to pay good money to use your amazing clip, and may will reach out to you directly with offers. You can also proactively offer your content for sale via sites like Juken Media, where others can find it and purchase it directly.

Now you know how to earn money from YouTube, what are you going to try? Let us know how you get on and which ways make money for you!

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett