In this post I want to briefly explain how much money YouTubers make, from the ad revenue, and other sources of income the content creator might add.

So right now I run a tech channel on YouTube by the name NextTimeTech.
I've been creating content since June 2016 and before I started creating I researched everything that there was to know about YouTube. I'm still no expert, but I want to explain to you the basics of how us YouTubers get paid.

Google AdSense:

So one of the main income streams for your YouTube channel is Google AdSense. This is Googles own ad network that you can sign up for after surpassing 10,000 total views on a channel. This puts ads on your content as long as it is appropriate enough to follow their guidelines.
With Google Adsense you can expect to make anywhere from $1-$10 per 1,000 views on a monetized video. The average for me consistent has been about $3 per thousand (after YouTubes 40% cut) This amount earned is often called your CPM (cost per thousand, M=Thousand)
So here is an easier breakdown of how much you could earn;

Views / 1000 * CPM = Your Ad Revenue

Example:
Video has 2,000,000 views and the channel has a CPM of $5.00 (this is a high CPM)
2,000,000 / 1000 *5.00
2,000 * 5.00 = $10,000.00
$10,000 in your pocket

That is after YouTube takes their cut of 40% and you get paid monthly, usually around the 21st of the month.
CPM's can fluctuate depending on the time of year, country you live in, type of content, and a few other things.

Affiliate Marketing:

Although there are many different affiliate marketing sites, the one I mainly use is Amazon Associates.
Yes Amazon has their own affiliate program where they give you special links that you can promote on your website or YouTube channel.
For me since I have a tech channel, if I am reviewing a product or simply think it is relevant enough I will link that product in my description using my special amazon affiliate links. When someone clicks that link and shops on amazon for anything within the next 48 hours I receive a commission on what they bought.

The commission can range between 4% and up to 10%, but a channel my size usually receives about 6%

The more you sell the more you earn!

Brand Deals/Sponsorships

A brand deal is when you work with a brand or company to create a video that will benefit both parties.
You can either contact the company yourself or as you get bigger companies will contact you!

Brand deals can be as small as just receiving one of their products for free in the mail for you to review, or it can be something as an all expense paid trip around the world and big sacks of cash to carry with you

For a channel my size (around 50k subscribers) I usually will just be compensated with one of the companies products and maybe a small payment to go with it (usually like 50-100 dollars) But I know I could get more if I haggled with them.
The big YouTubers are the ones getting the crazy brand deals, but you can make a good bit of money as a small youtuber especially if you have a very targeted niche.

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That is just 3 most commons income streams for a regular YouTuber like me, of course there are probably 100s more (ebooks,merchandise,donations,etc...) but as a 1 man army right now it gets complicated to juggle that many things at once and still produce quality stuff.

Fun Fact: PewDiePie has a net worth of about $61 million USD as of 2016.

I hope you learned a little bit, make sure you click the up-vote ^ button to show some love,
thanks for reading.

-NextTimeTech