How Much YouTube Paid Me in My First Year | Golf Channel Earnings & Monetization Breakdown
about a year ago I uploaded a video explaining exactly how YouTube pays its creators back then my channel had just been monetized and I had no idea how things would turn out fast forward 12 months and I now have a full year of data to share with you guys in this video I’m going to explain exactly how much money I’ve earned from YouTube what I’ve Learned about YouTube and the algorithm and I’ll explain what mistakes I’ve made along the way to make it fun I’m gonna break this video into 10 attempts at a hole in one at Augusta and with each shot I’ll share a new lesson from my first year of being monetized on YouTube if you’re an aspiring Youtuber or you’ve thought about creating your own YouTube golf channel stick around cause there’s some nuggets in this video that gonna help you kick start your YouTube career let’s get into it right then shot No. 1 and let’s start with the juicy stuff how much money did I earn in my first year of being monetized on YouTube for the first 12 months I earned 4,000 let me check four thousand three hundred and fifteen pounds and twenty five pence that is nowhere near the hole that is going straight in the water go that is a terrible start at the time of filming my channel has 5,330 subscribers and over the last 12 months I’ve had 817,000 views so that should give you an idea of how big your channel needs to be and how many views you need to be to be earning that kind of money now don’t get me wrong it’s not quit your job and buy a Ferrari type of money but considering I’m filming golf content something I really enjoy and considering that I’m only putting about 10 hours of effort in per week it feels like a pretty good side hustle and the channel and the viewership and the money is going up every single month so if you’re wondering if it’s possible to make money from a small YouTube channel yes it absolutely is now for shot No. 2 let’s break down how that money is given to you cause it’s not one flat rate from YouTube it’s actually a little bit complicated come on gotta get closer than last time that first shot was terrible oh Christ that’s come apart it’s a good shot but it’s going left get in the bunker this is annoying you’re gonna have to live with that gap I’ve got a new golf simulator enclosure turning up today so that’s good if you’ve already started looking into this topic you’ve probably heard the terms CPM and RPM CPM is what YouTube is charging advertisers for space on your content RPM on the other hand is how much you actually get paid per thousand views over the past year my average CPM has been thirteen pounds and seventy two pence but my RPM the actual number that matters is six pounds and three pence per thousand views in other words I make about 44% of what YouTube actually charges advertisers so here’s your takeaway when you’re trying to forecast how much money you could earn from YouTube use the RPM number it’s much more accurate and much more realistic because it’s actually what you’re gonna get paid right shot No. 3 now this is where it gets interesting YouTube shorts are huge for growth but they don’t pay very well shot No. 3 I haven’t even hit the green yet come on that is so far and I don’t know I need to aim right that is so bad for my long form videos like I said my RPM is six pounds and three pence per thousand views but for shorts it’s just 16 pence per thousand views that’s basically almost nothing so here’s the strategy use shorts to grow your audience it’s quite easy and economic to get views on shorts so it’s a very easy way to get eyes on your channel but if your goal is to make money from YouTube then you’re gonna have to progress into long form videos so if you can focus on videos that are gonna be longer than 3 minutes anything shorter than 3 minutes YouTube defines as a short think of these shorts as a free sample to your long form videos and long form videos is where you can actually make some money now shot No. 4 and tip No. 4 there are a couple of ways that you can increase the RPM as in the amount of money you make per thousand views on YouTube and the simplest way to do that is by increasing the length of your videos right come on I gotta hit one close at least last year when I did this I hit some pretty good shots Ho ho ho ho that’s the worst one yet Christ should have warmed up before this video shouldn’t I here’s why you make more money with longer videos once you’ve created videos that go past 8 minutes YouTube gives you the option to add multiple ad slots into those videos and simply put the more ad slots the more money you make if your videos are shorter than 8 minutes then there will be a maximum of one ad space on that video sometimes you won’t even get a single ad space that’s why from the very start even before I was monetized I was putting out videos that were longer than 8 minutes and this is the first major tip for any of you guys watching if from day one you can start uploading videos that are longer than 8 minutes then by the time your channel becomes monetized you will be earning money from those first ever videos you uploaded even before you were monetized my very first video on YouTube is nearly 2 years old and it’s still making money today and that’s the power of creating longer form videos from day one a simple but effective tip for making money on YouTube another simple way to increase your RPM on your videos is to do product reviews I’ll get into more detail with this in a second but this 5th shot has to go on the green come on not going this whole video hitting bad shots every time come on nope oh my God this is horrendous god I’m finding it really difficult this year I can’t even hit the green as soon as I got monetized I noticed very early on that advertisers were paying more for space on my content when it included a high value product so in my niche of golf and more specifically simulator golf reviewing products like launch monitors really helped boost the RPM on my videos let me show you a comparison in the money earned from two different types of videos video No. 1 is less than eight minutes long and there are no products at all in this video it’s basically just an opinion type video and I’m earning about £3 per thousand views on that video compared to this video which is over 8 minutes long and includes a high value product that is being reviewed the RPM is over £7 50 which is way over double the other video so if your niche allows for it sprinkle in a couple of little product reviews to help increase your RPM and if you can make sure that that video is over 8 minutes long you’ll have more ad space on those videos and a much higher earning potential now let’s talk about some milestones that get people excited that very first paycheck from YouTube but before we do that we need to get a hole in one come on tap that’s more like it has that got a chance if you know this green well it goes up that slope and then comes down towards the flag come on keep coming oh that’s a good shot that’s a good shot it’s not a hole in one but finally we’ve hit a good shot again if you’ve researched this product you probably know exactly what the requirements are to be monetized on YouTube you need 1,000 subscribers and you need 4,000 watch hours over 12 months now for me the 4,000 watch hours was quite easy because I committed to uploading videos longer than eight minutes from day one all I needed was two or three videos to do really well and I was already hitting that 4,000 Mark the more challenging aspect for me was getting the 1,000 subscribers but hopefully this little stat can help explain how exponential growth can be on YouTube my channel’s been monetized for one whole year and like we said to get monetized you need 1000 subscribers so it took me nearly one whole year to actually get to a thousand subscribers and in my second year I gained over 4,000 subscribers on a month by month basis I’m seeing more subscribers come to the channel I’m seeing more views and I’m seeing more money so even if you get a bit of a slow start don’t lose faith one video can change the course of how everything’s going for you so keep at it once you start to see that exponential growth you’ll notice one new thing happening to you your email inbox will suddenly start filling up with opportunities come on that was a really really good shot that’s probably about two or 3 foot away see if we can use that slope again there’s no slope in the water is there go ugh water again god I’ve hit most of these balls in the water Christ fairly early on before I was even monetized I started noticing emails coming up with these opportunities one of the very first emails I had was from someone who was claiming that they could help me improve my thumbnails now thumbnails are really important they’re essentially an advertisement to your video if you have a good thumbnail people are gonna click on your video and watch it so I was dead keen to understand how this guy could help me and after a couple of replies back and forth I started getting email alerts from Google saying that my account is being breached it was terrifying it was inconvenient and most of all it was embarrassing I felt like a bit of a boomer clicking on a spam link I had to ask my wife to help me understand what the hell was going on and it was a big wake up call for me and here’s the lesson I wanna pass on to you guys there are tons of scam artists out there looking to exploit small and enthusiastic YouTube channels you’ll get emails from companies saying that they can 10 x your viewership now some of these emails might have been true some of these emails might have actually helped me grow on YouTube but I bet most of them were trying to con me out of money so after that first mistake I made I decided that I was gonna be patient and wait for some more realistic opportunities to rear their heads and after showing a bit of patience vetting all of these opportunities properly I now have some affiliations that I’m extremely proud and excited about setting up affiliations with reputable companies is an amazing way to make extra money from your content if you’re patient and you wait around for the right opportunities you’ll be able to start creating partnerships with reputable companies and earn money through affiliation right three more shots to go I need at least one more look at the hole that six shot looked like it was going in for a little bit and I want that feeling again come on is that a little bit too far right it’s coming back it’s just a little bit short isn’t it ah it’s annoying it felt like that was actually a good one in the air now one of my goals for my second year of Youtubing was to set up at least one affiliation with a good golfing company and by chance in the last couple of months I have set up two affiliations Shot Scope and the Sports Screen shot scope make affordable golf tech like sensors range finders and GPS units those products really help me out on the golf course but one of the most important things to know about this affiliation is that I actually bought their products before I was affiliated with them I already trusted their products and I already used their products and if you have faith in these companies and what they produce then you can create a really strong and lasting relationship or at least I hope so I’ve only been affiliated with them for a couple of months so you know still early days they might hate me after a while but still it’s an easy way to earn extra money from the same content that you would put out anyway I mentioned earlier that I’ve got a new golf simulator enclosure turning up and that’s the product that the sports screen is sending me to review and affiliate with so that’s a bit of a new partnership so I haven’t got too many details on that one just yet for you now when you set up an affiliation with a company you’ll get paid between 5 and 15% of every sale now obviously these sales have to be made by clicking on a link or using your coupon code but it’s a very real and easy way to make some extra money the difficult part is actually setting up these affiliations but like I said earlier once you’ve got something set up that you trust and you’re advertising products that you would genuinely use yourself then it’s an easy way to make extra money on the exact same content that you would upload anyway all you need to do is be patient and wait for the right opportunities on top of earning money with every sale with affiliations there are actually benefits for your viewers shot No. 9 come on this has been an awful attempt at a hole in one challenge come on ah it’s okay but I think it’s gotta go again bounce big hop forward go go I mean you’d take it on the course wouldn’t you but I’m trying to get a hole in one here it’s not quite close enough usually when you’ve got an affiliation setup you’re gonna be given a discount code that you can pass on to your viewers for example with Shot Scope my viewers get a whopping 15% off anything they buy on the website so when you start receiving these affiliation opportunities in your inbox or even if you go out looking for some affiliations when you’re talking to these companies always find out what’s in it for your viewers shot scope have products that range from 60 to 300 pounds and 15% off is a big saving that I can give to my viewers it’s not all about you and how much money you make at the end of the day your content is for your viewers and I think that’s the most important lesson of all so where does that leave me after one whole year of being monetized on YouTube I’m gonna hit this one last shot and it’s gonna go straight into the hole we’re gonna all leave a like on this video and say well done tap in the comments come on come on just go in the hole up that slope straight down to the flag oh my God is this actually got a chance no oh for a second there I thought that was tracking straight towards the hole but yeah that’s a teasing little slope there on the 16th isn’t it now the affiliations I’ve been talking about they’ve only been set up for a couple of months so I’m not seeing a huge amount of income from those yet but the money I have made from those videos is already surpassing the ad money that I was making on YouTube so with any luck in a few months time I’m gonna start seeing more money coming in from those avenues but right now as it stands after one whole year I’m making around £600 per month from YouTube ad money and if things keep going the way they are hopefully I’ll see some exponential growth every single month but I didn’t get into YouTube for the money I got into YouTube because I enjoyed making golf content as much as I’ve hated hitting golf shots for this video here’s one last little bonus hole in one shot come on go in the hole go in the water guys thank you so much for watching this whole video it’s not the type of content I usually do usually it’s a lot more golf oriented but hopefully this has given some insight to other aspiring YouTube golfers if you have enjoyed this video make sure you hit that like button and if you’re still here and you’re not subscribed hit that subscribe button and I will see you next week for another video
In this video, I reveal how much money YouTube paid me in my first 12 months of monetization running a golf channel. If you’ve ever wondered how much YouTubers earn from AdSense, this is a full breakdown of my YouTube revenue, CPM, RPM, watch time, and subscriber growth after one year.
I’ll share exactly how YouTube pays creators, the realities of ad revenue in the golf niche, and the mistakes I made as a small creator trying to grow my channel. Each lesson is paired with a golf shot at Augusta — 10 attempts at a hole-in-one, each representing a key takeaway about YouTube monetization, growth, and content strategy.
If you’re an aspiring YouTuber, thinking about starting a golf YouTube channel, or just curious about how much small creators really make, this video will give you clear, realistic insights.
I also use Shot Scope golf performance tracking devices to improve my game and help me create engaging golf content. If you’re looking to grow on YouTube while tracking your golf stats, Shot Scope is a game-changer.
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Products I recommend!
Flightscope Mevo Plus: https://flightscopemevo.co.uk/
Golf Simulator Software: https://gsprogolf.com/
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Tomecodes;
0:00 – Intro | YouTube Monetization & Golf Channel Journey
0:45 – Shot 1: My First Year of YouTube Earnings (Golf Channel Ad Revenue)
1:57 – Shot 2: YouTube Algorithm Lessons for Small Creators
3:17 – Shot 3: RPM & CPM Breakdown | How Much YouTube Paid Me
4:25 – Shot 4: Mistakes I Made in My First Year of Monetization
5:58 – Shot 5: Growth Strategies That Actually Worked on YouTube
7:28 – Shot 6: Views vs. Revenue | The Reality of YouTube Golf Content
9:08 – Shot 7: Why Niche Matters | Golf YouTube Channel Insights
11:06 – Shot 8: The Power of Consistency for YouTube Monetization
13:19 – Shot 9: Advice for Aspiring YouTubers Starting a Golf Channel
14:33 – Shot 10: Final Lessons, Takeaways & Shot Scope in My Journey
16:11 – Outro
