There’s never been a better time to be a content creator, with more ways to find an audience and better ways to monetize content than ever before. Still, to maximize how much you make from your video library in 2023, you may have to go beyond posting content and waiting for your own or third-party distribution platforms to monetize with ads. In general, as a digital business, it’s wise to get familiar with key marketing tactics like upsells, cross-sells, and down-sells, which can boost your bottom line significantly even if your customer base doesn’t grow.
5 Video Monetization Tips for 2023
For some inspiration, here are five of our best video monetization tips you can use to make more money in 2023.
1. Leverage Affiliates and Sponsorships
If you're an influencer or on-camera educator, it’s likely you already regularly mention products you love in your videos, and some of your audience probably buys because of your recommendation. You can quickly monetize this by setting up affiliate accounts with your favorite brands or with platforms like Amazon. Instead of just mentioning a product, link to it using your affiliate link.
Affiliate marketing is a natural entry point to traditional sponsorships, where brands pay you to mention them or endorse them in your videos. If you have a large following, brands will start to seek you out, but you can be proactive and go to them first too.
2. Add New Subscription Tiers
The subscription-based video-on-demand model (SVOD) is an optimal and effective way for video business owners to grow revenue. In fact, 83% of U.S. consumers used SVOD services in 2022. If you’ve got a subscription-based video business up and running, you can generate more income by adding a tier or two. Give more exclusive access or goodies to your top fans for a premium price. You’d be surprised how many people would love to take you up on it.
3. Offer Merchandise
If you’re not offering merch to fans, you’re leaving money on the table and missing an opportunity to provide value for fans. So create relevant merch if you haven’t already. Some of the most popular merchandise for viewers includes apparel (shirts, hats, bandanas, socks), books (lyric books, artbooks, behind-the-scenes, instructional), small items (stickers, magnets, buttons, keychains), and digital merchandise like phone backgrounds, ringtones, and NFTs.
4. Implement Paywalls for Premium Content
If you don’t have a subscription program, you can start one, or you can simply use a transactional video-on-demand (TVOD) model where certain premium content sits behind a paywall. Perhaps you have helpful content available for free on YouTube, but you dive deeper with premium content. This is a great model for educational channels — you can even build your own online video course.
5. Sell Ad Space
Selling ads is the easiest video monetization trick. Host platforms like YouTube do this for you, but you can increase ad revenue by selling product placements or endorsements to relevant brands. Zype can help you here with innovative services like in-program native product placement — part of our TripleLift service. You’ll need to let your host platform know about this (especially if it’s YouTube). Of course, selling ad space directly will be a key factor in monetizing your channel if you've built your own platform.
Make 2023 Your Best Year Yet
Implementing even one of these new monetization techniques into your content business could make a big difference for you in 2023. You can get started yourself right away, but if you’re ready to get really serious and take your game to a whole new level, Zype can help. Request your free Zype demo today.