Are you looking for ways to make passive money online from the comfort of your home? There are tons of ways through which you can achieve that. In this article, I will share how to make passive income on YouTube in 2025.
When it comes to passive income ideas, there are a few platforms that have great potential and YouTube is one of those platforms. With over 2.49 billion active users each month, it has transformed from a simple video-sharing site into a space where its creators can make a huge amount of money every month.
In this guide, we’ll talk about how to make passive income on YouTube, using both active and passive ways. By the end, you will learn everything from traditional ways to make passive income on YouTube without making videos.
Table of Contents
Understanding Passive Income
Before we dive into different ways to make income on YouTube, we need to understand the scope of passive income. It is any kind of income that is from an initial investment and requires minimal to no active maintenance with time. It is about creating a system that will continue to earn money over time even when you are not actively working.
Why YouTube is an Ideal Platform to Make Passive Income?
We all are well aware of the kind of income one can make through YouTube. It has a massive user base and a sophisticated algorithm that is designed in a way to promote engaging content. It provides its creators with a global audience.
When a creator publishes a YouTube video, it will continue to earn long after the content is published. Videos that were posted months or even years ago will continue to attract views, make money through ads, and drive sales, without any additional input from the creator. This feature for long-term visibility and income makes it the best option for those who looking to make passive income on YouTube.
Benefits of Passive Income Compared to Active Income
The major advantage of YouTube’s passive income is its time leverage. While active income requires us to make continuous efforts to make money, passive income allows us to set up a stream of income once and earn repeatedly. This can provide a person with financial freedom, more time for other things, and reduce their stress from relying on a single active income source, especially during this time of high inflation.
If you are looking for some other ways to make passive income besides YouTube, here are the best passive income ideas that can bring a good amount of money every month.
Traditional Ways to Make Passive Income on YouTube
Following are some of the ways that you might already be aware of but these are the most basic ways to create passive money on YouTube.
1. AdSense Revenue
One of the most well-known ways to earn passive income on YouTube is through AdSense revenue. AdSense works by displaying ads before, during, or after your videos. YouTube will share a portion of the money with you that it made through these ads displayed on your channel.
To start earning, your channel will need to meet YouTube’s eligibility requirements which is at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the past 12 months.
How to optimize videos for higher CPMs:
- Try to make content for high-paying niches, such as finance, technology, or real estate, as advertisers tend to bid more for these topics in comparison to other niches like beauty, vlogs, etc.
- Try your best to retain your audience to help increase watch time, as longer engagement often signals to YouTube that your content is being valued and people want to see your videos, leading to more premium ads being displayed on your channel.
2. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is another great way to make passive income on YouTube. All you need to do is promote products or services in your videos and earn a commission for every sale made through your unique affiliate link.
After choosing an affiliate program of your choice that best suits your channel’s niche (such as Amazon Associates, ShareASale, or niche-specific programs), add the links in your video descriptions.
You can create reviews or tutorials for those products or services to promote affiliate sales. Your videos should naturally show the product as it works best for affiliate marketing. Tutorials, how-to guides, and comparison videos are also great as they answer queries and encourage viewers to click on the links to learn more or make a purchase.
3. Merchandise Sales
If you already have a good following on YouTube, you can make more passive income by selling your merchandise. You can merge a merch store directly into your YouTube channel as this will allow your audience to support you by purchasing custom products from their favorite creator.
You can use YouTube’s merchandise shelf feature if you have more than 10,000 subscribers to show your products under your videos. On the other hand, you can also link to an external store which works well for smaller channels.
Popular tools for merchandising:
You can use Teespring, Printful, and Merchbar which make it easy for creators to design and sell custom products without holding any inventory. These print-on-demand services will handle everything from production to shipping, making the process seamless without you having to hold any inventory or deal with shipping, production, etc.
4. Channel Memberships and Super Chats
Channel memberships are another great way and provide the creators with an option for their subscribers to pay a monthly fee to get access to exclusive perks, such as member-only videos, badges, and live chatting with you.
To earn money through this, you must have a channel where you do live Q&As, gaming, or share real-time tutorials.
When you do live streams, the Super Chats will allow your viewers to pay to have their messages highlighted. Although this is a unique way if you have a massive following and people are crazy about talking to you, they will pay to have a conversation with you.
5. Sponsored Content and Brand Deals
Now you might think that this is the old traditional way but this is not the case. Ever since the rise in e-commerce all across the globe, brands have been looking for ways to advertise their products besides the traditional ways which usually involve putting up billboards or making a commercial.
One of the most profitable ways to make passive income on YouTube is by making sponsored content and doing brand deals. You can partner with companies that go well with your niche to create videos that promote their products or services. For example, if you make videos in the finance niche, you can make sponsored content for different trading apps and software, etc.
If your channel has a strong viewership, you can easily charge thousands of dollars for one single sponsored video. Just aim at creating an ever-green video that will remain relevant and continue to get views over time.
Topics such as tutorials, product reviews, and how-to guides are best for sponsored videos and will keep generating traffic over time, thereby continuing to promote the brand long after the initial campaign and increasing your chances of getting work from the same brand in the future.
In this article, you will get a detailed guide on how to get sponsored on YouTube in 2024.
6. Sell Digital Products
This is another great way to make passive income on YouTube with minimal overhead. Digital products can be created once and sold repeatedly without incurring any production costs.
To make money by selling digital products, offer downloadable resources such as eBooks or courses. Just think about your expertise and how you can create value for your audience through digital products like eBooks, online courses, printables, or templates. For example, if you have a tech review channel then you can create a guide on “Top Camera Settings for an iPhone to Film a Video”.
Once you have made your product, introduce them naturally within your videos. Just mention how they complement the topic you are talking about in that video, or just add a brief call-to-action at the end of your video. Add the direct links to purchase in that particular video’s description and pinned comments to make it easy for viewers to access them and make a purchase.
7. YouTube Premium Revenue
YouTube Premium offers an additional way to make money for creators. This lets the subscribers watch ad-free videos while providing creators with a portion of the revenue based on the watch time of their videos.
When a YouTube Premium member watches any of your videos, you will earn a share of their subscription fee. This is perfect for channels with long-form content, as increased watch time will translate into higher earnings.
Although the income may not be as huge as it would be in the case of ad revenue or sponsored content, it is still better as a person is not watching any ads on your videos.
How to Make Passive Income on YouTube Without Making Videos?
If you are interested in making passive income on YouTube without creating any videos, then the only way is to use existing resources and outsource the work of making videos. By doing this, you will be able to build a profitable YouTube channel without filming yourself.
Following are some ways through which you can make money without making videos:
1. Use Creative Commons Videos
Creative Commons (CC) licenses provide the opportunity to legally use and use videos for a different purpose without making an original video. These licenses allow creators to share their work with others after certain conditions are met.
Creative Commons licenses come in different forms, such as CC BY (attribution is required here) and CC0 (no attribution is needed here). If you are using CC-licensed content, it is important to follow the specific terms set by the original creator, which may include crediting the source.
You can find these videos on YouTube, under the Creative Commons filter. Some other websites like Pexels, Pixabay, and Videvo also offer access to CC-licensed videos. You can easily source the content from there and compile it to create unique videos that can attract views without the need for creating footage from scratch.
2. Outsourcing Content Creation
If you want to use a hands-off approach, then outsourcing content creation will be best for you. You can hire a team to handle the different sides of video production, such as scripting, editing, and voice-over.
To do this, you can hire freelancers such as video editors, voice-over artists, and graphic designers who can be easily found on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr. This will let you create videos without having to focus on the management of your channel.
3. Faceless Video Ideas
You must have seen YouTube channels with faceless videos but still getting millions of views. These channels focus on niches where on-screen presence is not required.
Popular niche ideas for faceless videos:
You can create videos around meditation and relaxation music. Just focus on developing long, looping audio tracks and use simple visuals that are easy on the eyes and let a person relax.
Compile motivational speeches. You can easily combine public domain or licensed voiceovers with inspiring visuals which you can get by using an AI tool.
Create videos that feature ambient soundscapes, providing calming background audio for sleep or concentration, such as nature sounds or white noise.
Try to maintain a consistent posting schedule using tools like YouTube Studio’s scheduling feature or any third-party tools like Buffer and Hootsuite. This automation will ensure that your channel remains active and visible without constant manual uploads.
You can use AI to make money easily. This article talks about 10 different ways you can use to make passive money using AI.
Recommended Tools That Can be Used
Video Editing Software:
Having quality videos is very important to make a good amount of money on YouTube. Here are some video editing software that you can use to edit your videos:
Royalty-Free Music and Images Sites:
You should use royalty-free music and images to avoid any copyright issues on your channel. You can consider the following:
AI Voiceover Tools for Automating Narration:
If you are looking to create faceless videos or automate narration, the following AI voiceover tools can be a game changer for you.
Some Examples of YouTubers Who Are Making Passive Income
Many YouTubers have turned their channels into literal money-making machines. Graham Stephan is a financial YouTuber who has made a good amount of money in passive income by combining AdSense revenue, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and course sales.
Another example is Ali Abdaal. He shares educational content and productivity tips on his channel. Besides AdSense, he earns passive income through affiliate marketing and selling online courses. Some other popular names include Roberto Blake, Matt Par, Pat Flynn, Venessa Lau, etc.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to make $10,000 per month on YouTube without making videos?
To make $10,000 per month on YouTube without creating any videos of your own, use royalty-free footage or public domain sources content and make videos. Select a monetizable niche like tech reviews or motivational content, and outsource tasks like editing and voiceovers through platforms such as Fiverr. Make sure your videos are SEO-optimized and maintain consistency with uploads. You can also your diversify income through affiliate marketing and sponsorships while adhering to YouTube’s content policies to avoid demonetization.
How to make passive income on YouTube without investment?
To make passive income on YouTube without any investment, start by selecting a niche that doesn’t require costly resources, such as educational, storytelling, or compilation videos using public domain or Creative Commons content. Then use free editing tools and create voiceovers with your smartphone or free software. Use engaging thumbnails that you can make through Canva. Be consistent in posting to grow organically, meet YouTube Partner Program requirements, and explore different affiliate marketing programs or ad revenue to generate passive income.
Conclusion
In this article, we have talked about all the ways to make passive income on YouTube. You will have to actively work till creating and posting the video, after that if your video is being watched, then you will continue to make passive income even when you doing absolutely nothing.
Making money on YouTube is not hard. If you are comfortable sharing your daily life with people, you can start making vlogs. They are proven to attract audiences from around the globe.
The tip to make passive money on YouTube is just to be consistent at the start and focus on building a community. Once you can retain an audience, then even if you put one video a week, that will be enough to make you money depending on your watch time and the ads being displayed.