How to Make Money on YouTube Without Showing Your Face

This article is still being updated. Some content may not be complete or accurate.

Here is your complete guide to making money on YouTube, even without showing your face.

Some people think you need to show your face to make money on YouTube. But don’t worry: there are many successful YouTubers (or YouTube creators) making money who have never shown their faces to anyone. Good examples are Bright Side, Code Bullet, and Daily Dose of Internet. So, whether you want to show your face or not, this article is for you.

YouTube is the second most-visited website on the Internet, according to SimilarWeb. It receives an average of 32 billion visits per month. (And obviously, the number includes repeated visits as there are only 8 billion people.) With that many visits, YouTube gives content creators like you a huge opportunity to earn money.

In this article, I’ll guide you through everything you need to know about YouTube:

How YouTubers are making money on YouTube
How much money you can make with YouTube
How to start a YouTube channel step-by-step
How to set up your YouTube channel
What you need to monetize your channel
The tools you can use to create YouTube videos
Where to find photos and clips for your video
How to upload and promote your videos
How to design YouTube shorts
Questions you might have about YouTube

And now, let’s learn how you can make money as an influencer on YouTube!

Quick Navigation

How Making Money on YouTube Works

How YouTube Works

You probably know most of this, but let’s review how exactly YouTube works.

YouTube is a platform where video creators from different walks of life come together to share content with like-minded followers. They usually brand their channel and create content around a topic that they are passionate about.

Obviously, the most common way to share content as a creator is by uploading videos. Creators also use YouTube to share posts with their followers in their channel’s Community tab as well as upload YouTube Shorts, which are videos similar in format to TikTok, among other things.

If you’re not sure exactly how to set yourself up for YouTube, don’t worry. I’ll explain step-by-step what you need to do later on.

What YouTubers Do to Make Money

As you might have guessed, there are several different ways to make money on YouTube. These ways of making money on YouTube can be divided into two types: making money within YouTube and making money outside of YouTube.

Ways to Make Money Within YouTube

Creators on YouTube make money within YouTube by joining the YouTube Partner Program. YouTube uses this program to determine which channels are eligible for monetization based on viewer engagement. To make the most out of YouTube, you need to join the YouTube Partner Program. Later, I’ll explain what you need to be eligible and how to sign up for it.

So, what are the ways you can make money in the YouTube Partner Program? The YouTube team wrote this article on How YouTube Creators Earn Money. That article lists the following as ways to make money on YouTube through the Partner Program:

Advertising: running ads on your videos that are visible to viewers without YouTube Premium
Channel memberships: selling special YouTube perks through monthly donations
Super Chat and Super Stickers: receiving donations from participants of live streams
YouTube Shopping: selling merch through a third-party storefront such as Teespring
YouTube Premium subscriptions: earning a commission for every viewer subscribed to Premium

Ways to Make Money Outside YouTube

YouTube creators can also make money outside of YouTube using ways like these:

Patreon: a website where you can share exclusive perks with people who donate to you every month
Selling products on your own website or online store, such as handcrafted items or online courses
Doing affiliate marketing by advertising someone else’s products and earning a commission for every sale you make

Later in this article, I will explain how you can make money through any of these strategies.

How Much Money Can You Make?

As I said earlier, YouTube creators make money in two ways: within YouTube and outside of YouTube. I’ll give you an estimate of how much money you can make in each of these two ways.

How Much Money Within YouTube

First, let’s talk about how much creators make just from within YouTube. Influencer Marketing Hub found out that established YouTube creators, on average, make over $1,000 per week (or about $50,000 a year). And for every 1,000 views on a video, they make about $18.

Influencer Marketing Hub also has a YouTube earnings calculator you can play around with. That way, you can get an idea of how much you could make from views and engagement on your YouTube videos.

If you’re curious about how much money your favorite YouTubers are making, a website called Social Blade can estimate that for you. There, you can look up your favorite YouTube creator and check out many different stats, including how much money they might be making.

How Much Money Outside YouTube

The answer to this question depends on what strategy you use and how big your audience is.

Let’s start with Patreon. In one of their blog posts (which has been deleted), Patreon stated that the average creator earns between $315 and $1,575 per month on their platform. But remember, the higher your membership tiers and the bigger your audience, the more money you can make from Patreon.

It’s hard to estimate how much creators get paid from selling products or doing affiliate marketing. Earning from selling depends on multiple factors: how expensive the product is, how useful the product is, how attractive the advertising is, and how much audience they have.

How to Start a YouTube Channel

Now, you know how YouTube works and how people are making money with it. In this section, let’s get started with your own YouTube channel! If you already have one, feel free to skip this section.

It’s easier than ever to start a YouTube channel. Here are the steps you need to take:

Go to Google.com and sign in to your Google account by clicking Sign In. If you don’t have a Google account, click Create Account at the bottom of the sign-in page.
Create a YouTube channel here.
Enter a name and handle for your YouTube channel. Later, I’ll show you how to brand your channel, so you might need to change your name and handle. Just pick a temporary name for now.
Add a channel picture if you like. Then click Create Channel. (Remember you are subject to YouTube’s Terms of Service.)

And that’s it! After just a few easy steps, you now have a YouTube channel. It’s time to learn how to set up your YouTube channel for success!

How to Set Up Your YouTube Channel (5 Steps)

Now that you have a YouTube channel, you’re ready to establish it as a brand. This is an important step before you start making money on YouTube. In this section, I’ll show you how to find a niche, how to brand your channel, and how to make your channel presentable.

Here are the steps we’ll cover in this section:

Pick a niche you are passionate about.
Figure out your content genre.
Select a name for your brand.
Design your logo and channel art.
Introduce yourself and add resources.

1. Pick a niche you are passionate about.

A niche is a way of life that interests a group of people, including yourself. Examples of niches on YouTube include technology, gaming, fitness, music, business, cooking, and travel. Other niches include what I call the trivia niche (where you share information and fun facts) and the “slice of life” niche (where you vlog about your day-to-day life).

On YouTube, there are channels dedicated to all kinds of niches. I’m sure you are subscribed to channels of one niche or several niches. That’s because you are passionate about those things just as your favorite creators are.

So, pick one niche that excites you and use that for your YouTube channel. Once you select your niche, your brand and your videos need to stay focused on this one niche. That way, people who love the same niche you do will enjoy your videos and eventually subscribe to you.

2. Figure out your video genre.

In addition to a niche, every YouTube channel has one or a few video genres. This is the type of video that viewers can expect from your channel. There are several different video genres you can pick from. Here are just some of the many YouTube video genres:

Reference videos provide information in a niche to educate viewers. These include documentaries, crash courses, trivia, history lessons and stories, and much more. For example, Bright Side provides mostly reference videos on all sorts of random facts.
Review videos show reviews of products for those looking to buy them. A good example is Versus which makes review videos on all sorts of gadgets.
Vlogs allow the viewer to experience life from the host’s perspective. Kara and Nate are an example of a channel dedicated to vlogs.
Tutorials provide step-by-step instructions on how to accomplish something.
Entertainment videos include skits, viral videos, and content intended to entertain viewers.
Gaming videos include Let’s Play and game walkthroughs.

You can pick a few good genres for future videos on your channel. Just make sure the genres you pick are appropriate for your niche and your audience. However, try not to pick too many genres because doing this will make your videos unpredictable and thus frustrate some viewers.

3. Select a name for your brand.

Keep in mind that your channel name is your brand, and it’s how your audience will identify you. So, when picking a name for your channel, make sure it’s a name you really like.

Here are some tips to help you pick a name:

Think of the niche you have chosen. What words would describe your channel’s niche in a way that is easy to remember? For example, if a guy named David used his YouTube channel to show how to fix computer problems, he could call his channel “David’s Tech Fixes.”
A self-branded YouTube channel is a channel named after the person running it. While a self-branded channel can work, I recommend being a bit more creative, especially if you want to avoid showing your face. Think of people who aren’t familiar with your channel. How can you use your channel’s name to tell them what they can expect from your videos?
Try to find a really unique name that is available as a YouTube handle. That way, people can search for you easily and your YouTube link will be easy to remember.

You can change your YouTube name and handle in the Customization section of YouTube Studio. For help, check out Google’s article on how to manage your YouTube channel info.

4. Design your logo and banner.

Another part of YouTube branding is design. Now that you have a name, you need to design that name into two things: your logo and banner. Your logo will appear as your channel icon and it can also appear as a watermark in your videos. Your banner appears at the top of your channel’s homepage and lets you provide extra information about your channel, such as the type of videos you make and visuals that best represent your niche.

It’s easy to design a good YouTube logo and banner with Canva.com. Canva is a free website that helps you design graphics using templates, fancy text, and cool special effects. If you’re not sure how to use Canva, check out Canva’s Design School.

If you’d rather pay someone to design it for you, you can find a graphic design freelancer who specializes in YouTube art. You can find freelancers on sites like Fiverr and Upwork.

For help uploading your channel logo and banner in the Customization section of YouTube Studio, see Google’s article on managing your channel branding.

5. Introduce yourself and add resources.

To introduce yourself on YouTube, you should add a channel description, which will appear on your channel’s About page. This helps provide detailed information about your channel and what type of videos you make. It also helps people decide whether they would be interested in following you.

Also, make sure to add a few resources to your channel so people have other places to go to besides your channel. Examples include:

Links to your social media profiles (Facebook, X, Discord, etc.)
Links to websites you use as sources for your videos
Featured YouTube channels in your niche that you recommend

You can add your bio, your social media, other website links, and featured channels in the Customization section of YouTube Studio. Here are some relevant help articles from Google:

How to Create Videos for YouTube Without Showing Your Face

At this point, you now have a YouTube channel set up as a brand and ready to host videos. In this section, I’ll show you a few tools you can use to help you make awesome YouTube videos, all without showing your face. I’ll also show you how to use these tools step by step.

Here are the topics we’ll cover in this section:

Use TubeBuddy to give you video ideas.
Use Prism Live Studio to film experiential videos.
Use Canva to edit your video and design YouTube art.

Use TubeBuddy for Video Ideas

TubeBuddy is a browser extension that lets you analyze the popularity of topics and video tags on YouTube to give you topic ideas. TubeBuddy is free to use, but there are limits to how much you can search. For just a few dollars per month, you can see more search results and get unlimited searches with TubeBuddy’s premium plan.

To get started, go to TubeBuddy’s website and click the button on the top-right corner of the page to download and install the browser extension. Then, go to YouTube, and at the top of the screen, sign in to TubeBuddy using your Google account.

Here are the steps to using TubeBuddy to find video ideas:

Search a video topic that interests you on YouTube’s website.
Once you see search results, look for “Search Explorer” at the right-hand side of the page.
Check the Keyword Score. Avoid keywords with an overall score of Poor or Fair.
Scroll down to see at least three related topics and popular video tags.
Repeat these steps for every topic you are interested in doing a video on.

Use Prism Live Studio to Film Experiential Videos

Prism Live Studio lets you film and live stream high-quality videos from your mobile device. If your smartphone has a good camera, this app will keep you from spending on a GoPro. It is a great app for filming or streaming experiential videos like walking tours, vlogs, train rides, and more.

You can download Prism Live Studio for your preferred app store here:

Then follow these steps to start using Prism: