How to make money using AI on YouTube

YouTube is fast becoming the world’s entertainment system, with almost 1 billion forecasted regular users by the end of 2024. Not just a place to share and engage with your favorite creators, YouTube is also a powerhouse of the digital economy, offering unique earning methods for creators and brands alike. 

The development of AI technology is opening up this revenue stream even more, offering unparalleled opportunities for creators to generate revenue quickly and anonymously through faceless YouTube channels.

But how can you tap into this economy for yourself using AI? Is it really possible to earn money through AI-generated content on YouTube? And how exactly can you make the most from your channel and content?

This ultimate guide to making money on YouTube using AI will answer all these questions. Let’s get started!

What is AI content?

Before we begin, what do we mean by AI-generated content?

AI-generated content is content created using artificial intelligence software — not humans. AI content typically includes text, images, video footage, and voiceovers.

Whereas in the past, a blogger might have written all their blogs individually, nowadays, blogs can be written with the help of tools like ChatGPT or WordHero. In this vein, YouTube videos can be generated using AI voiceover tools, like ElevenLabs, and AI image generators, like Midjourney or DALL-E.

AI makes the content writing and creation process a lot easier than doing it manually.

Take AI voiceover generation, for example. Before the advent of AI technology, the process of generating a voiceover involved auditioning and hiring an expensive voice actor, buying or renting expensive recording equipment, and spending hours recording and re-recording to get the perfect flow. Got background noise? Then, expect to pay for an editor to iron out the issues.

However, voice generation using the latest AI technology involves just a few clicks. Simply paste your script into a text-to-speech converter, and then choose a voice from an extensive library of options. 

Then, click ‘Generate,’ download the audio file, and that’s it! You’ve generated an accurate, detailed voiceover in the perfect format you need, costing you almost nothing. There is no need for expensive equipment, no hour-long recording sessions, and no need to hire professionals. 

Can I really make money with AI content?

If it’s this easy to generate AI content, is monetizing it really possible?

Well, the answer is complicated. While generating blogs wholly using ChatGPT is unlikely to get significant traffic online, using ChatGPT to help you write more content and streamline your writing process can help you monetize faster.

The same principle applies to generating AI YouTube videos. 100% AI-generated content might be fast, but it’s unlikely that an audience will sit through a factually incorrect video or is generated with a robotic-sounding free AI voice.

As with all things, monetizing content requires quality, and content creators shouldn’t expect miraculous results if they don’t spend time investing in quality content, using the best tools, and investigating a great niche that could offer rewards. In addition to these factors, it’s important to consider the originality of your content, its accuracy, and its compliance with local and federal copyright laws.

Here are three things you should consider when looking to monetize your AI-generated content to increase your chances of making money:

Generate top quality content

Generating an AI presentation and uploading a simple text-to-speech voiceover is not enough in YouTube’s policies to get monetized. Instead, your content should be original, unique, and interesting to your target audience.

This also means that each video you generate must be different in some way from the others on your channel. Simply duplicating videos to increase your watch time will not improve the chances of being accepted for monetization.

YouTube has specific guidelines on the type of content allowed, which is quoted below.

When a channel’s content consists of similar content, it can frustrate viewers who come to YouTube for appealing and interesting videos. [...] Your channel shouldn’t consist of content that’s automatically created or produced using a basic template.

Examples of what’s not allowed to monetize (this list is not exhaustive):

Similar repetitive content or mindless content with low educational value, commentary, or narrative

Templated, mass-produced, or programmatically generated content

Image slideshows or scrolling text with minimal or no narrative, commentary, or educational value

Finally, while a video may technically be allowed to be monetized using poor-quality visuals and a robotic, mechanical-sounding voiceover, it might not attract the attention you need for monetization to be worthwhile.

Using top-quality tools, such as ElevenLabs, to generate your content is one way to improve the overall quality of your content, using realistic, human-sounding voices that are easy to listen to. The good news? High-quality tools are not always expensive (ElevenLabs starts from just $5 / month).

Carefully consider your niche

On top of the high quality of content you generate, it’s also important to consider the type of content. 

Some niches on YouTube lend themselves well to AI content generation, such as narrative videos, storytelling, documentaries, or research-based presentations. Others, however, might not stand out well. Reaction videos, for instance, often require a big personality behind them, which is hard to do via AI technology.

Whatever you decide to create, it’s also worthwhile to examine the competitors in this space and see what they do well and what they do not. Look at the issues that they face, and see how you can overcome them. 

Finally, consider that your monetization depends not only on the content you produce but on the audience that you build. It’s not sufficient to simply generate content that doesn’t attract viewers. Instead, you need to create videos that are interesting, unique, and detailed enough to mean that your viewers will sit and watch the whole video and come back for more.

Comply with YouTube monetization policies

Don’t let your content get demonetized at the last hurdle! 

Be careful to comply with YouTube regulations and guidelines, including on copyrighted material, suitable subject matter, and appropriateness for children. When you upload your video, take care to complete the relevant fields appropriately, and never use copyrighted materials in your videos (including background music or extensive clips from TV shows or movies).

Find out more information about YouTube’s monetization policies here.

How to make money using AI on YouTube

Now that’s out of the way, let’s get to the important question — how exactly can you use YouTube to generate money?

Youtube partner program

The first and most obvious answer is through the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). This is YouTube’s own way of sharing ad revenue with creators, allowing them to monetize their videos on the platform. 

However, becoming part of YouTube’s Partner Program isn’t as simple as signing up. To join the program, creators must meet certain eligibility requirements, including having at least 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views in the past 12 months and 1,000 subscribers. 

Once this criteria is met, video creators earn money through various monetization features such as ads, channel memberships, merchandise shelves, Super Chat, and YouTube Premium revenue. This means you will receive money in your AdSense account, which you can then withdraw and spend.

Affiliate sales

Beyond YouTube’s Partner Program, video creators can earn money from affiliate sales. 

This involves content creators promoting products or services within their videos and including special tracking links or codes provided by affiliate programs. When viewers click on these links or use the codes to make purchases, the content creator earns a commission. 

Affiliate sales are a great way to boost earnings, especially if your channel has a large audience or if it specializes in a related, profitable niche. For instance, a golf tips channel created using AI could review and promote golf-associated products. 

To start making affiliate sales, you must first build an audience and create your channel. Then, once you have an engaged audience, you can reach out to brands directly. Some businesses, like Amazon, have an affiliate program that you can automatically join. Others, like smaller, niche businesses, may be happy to create an affiliate program for you if you present them with a good business proposal.

Remember, many national laws prohibit affiliate sales without explicit disclosure, so always make sure you clearly label your affiliate links. 

Sponsorship & brand deals

Building on an affiliate program, YouTubers can generate revenue from sponsorship and brand deals.

It’s a misconception that brands only want to work with influencers who show their face online. Instead, brands are open to working with content creators and video creators who are specialists in their niche — using AI to generate videos will not be a problem for many brands.

Again, this revenue stream does rely on the success of your niche and the type of content that you generate. Earning money in this way requires a big audience and a specialist type of content, although some brands, like Hello Fresh and Casetify, are open to working with various types of creators to reach wide audiences.

Patreon & other fan sites

Finally, creators can make use of fan sites such as Patreon as another revenue source. Patreon works by selling memberships to your audience, who pay to have access to exclusive content, messages from the creator, exclusive access behind the scenes, and shoutouts.

Again, AI-generated content can still make use of this way of earning money. To tap into fan-based revenue streams, however, having an engaged audience immersed in your content is critical. This might mean building content around a specific niche that you’re interested in or creating a personality that works behind your AI content that attracts loyalty and builds relationships.

Final thoughts 

Overall, there are many ways to earn money through YouTube, including by the YouTube Partner Program, but also by affiliate sales, brand deals, sponsorships, and fan memberships. 

What all these revenue streams require, however, is high-quality content that engages and satisfies the audience, bringing viewers back to your channel again and again. This is critical — poor-quality, unoriginal AI content will not bring you views and will prove difficult to monetize.

If you’re looking to generate revenue from YouTube, you need to rely on the best tools to do so. For AI-generated voiceovers, the number one tool on the market is ElevenLabs. With hyper-realistic, human-sounding voices and incredible localization features, ElevenLabs is the only voiceover technology that can pass as really human.

Try ElevenLabs today for free, and experience for yourself the power of AI-generated voices.

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