So many social media opportunities not tapped into in Africa and we are even losing money we don’t know in the process. Google started YouTube monetization years ago and many in Africa have not tapped into this lucrative business for self employment income. The Punch newspapers, Nigeria’s leading daily reported that I made $25,000 on my YouTube channels in 2011. I monetized two channels, posted my videos and depending on how many views I got, I was paid a few to a lot of dollars. The dollar is very strong in Nigeria and one could make some lucrative cash.
Monetization of your YouTube channel is easy. Set up your account, fill every single area with your information and then start uploading videos. Most of my videos on my current channel YouTube.com/HNNAfricaTV are watched mostly in Australia and India according to analytic figures I have access to. YouTube gives you analytics access to see who’s viewing your videos in what country around the globe. What you consider as ordinary footage may be premium footage in another country. My cooking Akara (fried bean cakes) or juicing a watermelon in my backyard may be of interest to someone else. My American friends say they like my videos in the outdoor markets speaking to people about issues in the community.
Many Africans are videotaping car accident scenes, funny events, cooking and more and they just upload it to show it off and have no knowledge that it can earn them serious cash. If you get 1000 views on a video you may earn as much as $10 in some cases. What about the music artists who get a million views on Vevo, YouTube’s premium platform? They earn extra cool cash when they monetize their portals. Once your channel is set up, click the button that says monetize after uploading a video. YouTube reviews it promptly and a green light indicates you have been cleared to monetize your video. You must setup an Adsense account so that you will receive your earnings which are in US Dollars. Answer a few questions and link it to your bank account. Like I said earlier with the dollar rate in Nigeria, you could be raking in some big cash.
A Korean woman in New York cooks her lunch daily in her kitchen and many are glued to the Korean food and ingredients used. She made $250,000 one year and I was one of those viewers. There are comedians and even “Vloggers” who have video blogs and do personal videos daily for their fans. Time is of the essence. While these days I don’t have much time to do much personal videos, I still manage to show my cooking and health tips under my #VitaminKemi playlist. Many of you upload videos to Facebook, Vimeo and other platforms that don’t reward you by monetizing your videos, just make sure you duplicate them on YouTube and get that one platform working for you. Happy monetizing!
