How To Make Money On YouTube – Sell Products or Merch

There are plenty of products to sell that can help you make money through your YouTube channel. Selling merchandise—t-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, snapbacks, you name it—has a benefit beyond revenue. Plus, if you don’t have the desire or means to create and ship the products yourself, you can look into dropshipping options. 

Merchandise increases your exposure by putting your online brand and personality out into the offline world and deepens the relationship between you and your fans as they literally “buy” into what you’re doing.

Roman Atwood sells a variety of merchandise in his store under his Smile More brand.

Selling branded swag is easier than it might seem at first.

You can order affordable designs tailored for specific products, like t-shirts, using freelance sites such as Fiverr.

And when it comes to handling orders, you can integrate your store with services such as Oberlo or one of the many print-on-demand providers that take care of shipping, fulfillment, and customer support, letting you reap all of the benefits of a print-on-demand business that demands less effort on your part. With this route, you don’t need to worry about ​​how to get money from YouTube directly.

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Alternatively, merchants seeking how to make money off YouTube can partner with an existing merchandising network for creators, such as DFTBA (Don’t Forget to Be Awesome). However, you’ll be competing with other YouTubers and have less control over adding products, offering discounts, integrating your content, and all the advantages that come with owning your own ecommerce site.

You can even go a step further by manufacturing and selling your own unique products and powering your business through your YouTube channel, like Luxy Hair did to sell its hair extensions with hair-related how-to video tutorials.

As a YouTuber who’s already earned an audience, you’ll have two advantages from the start that other store owners would be jealous of:

1. A content engine that consistently drives traffic to your store
2. Your audience’s trust, which you’ve earned by regularly serving them your own brand of content for free