Did you know top YouTubers earned in the millions? Find out how it works

Indian music label T-series is the most subscribed channel in the world with 106 million subscribers beating YouTuber PewDiePie.

Data via Vidooly

If you have a channel that is different, entertaining and engaging, and if you put in the hours, there is potential for monetisation.

How much do top YouTubers earn in India?

Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, has not been releasing its revenue numbers separately for the company. Due to lack of disclosure, there is only a guess that YouTube rakes in $16-$25 billion annually (around 20 percent of Google's revenues) from the video hosting platform. Similarly, there is no data on how much YouTube earns from the Indian market.

But how much money YouTubers can earn depends on the region, the reach and the frequency of their posting videos. India's Bhuvan Bam is believed to earn Rs 3,00,000-4,00,000 from each of his BB ki Vines video on average, as per reports.

How does the model work?

Apart from YouTube's premium subscribers, all the content that is being uploaded and viewed on YouTube is free for its audience. This is the perfect example of ‘If you don’t pay for the product, you are the product.’ Advertisers pay for the number of eyeballs on their ads, and if you happen create some viral content, you can join the league of those earn a living making YouTube videos.

Based on an ad revenues, YouTube has different models. You will either be paid per view or per click if the YouTuber (above 18 years) is subscribed to AdSense, and make 50-60 percent of amount the advertiser has paid.

The rest is YouTube's cut for being the video-hosting platform. Apart from the money that comes directly from YouTube, sponsored videos, brand integration and collaboration videos are another source of income for professional YouTubers. Most of the product un-boxing and review videos on the latest gadgets happen to be paid for.

But there are reports that YouTube might stop showing the exact subscriber count from August 2019. Although, there is yet to be a clarification on the changes it will bring to its partnership programme.

Data via Vidooly

What are the minimum views/subscribers needed to be eligible for monetisation ?

YouTube has many partnership programmes with varying eligibility criteria in terms of minimum subscribers, views and hours of content. Each channel is individually reviewed after you apply for the partnership program.

Channel membership usually requires a minimum of 30,000 subscribers. But if you happen to have a minimum of 4,000 hours of content in terms of watch-time with 1,000 subscribers, you can apply for a partnership by clicking on account settings and accepting the monetisation agreement that pops up.

Image via Vidooly

How to set up a successful YouTube channel?

A channel will have a genre and a theme. But the most important thing is a YouTube channel's recall value. The first thing that is a name that defines the channel and stays with the viewers.

Next is the channel's level of engagement with the audience. T-series in music, Patanjali in FMCG, ChuChu TV in kids category are some of the most viewed channels on YouTube in India . Although YouTube doesn't tell you what to upload, there will be guidelines in terms of what you can not upload.