You can monetize YouTube outside AdSense through brand sponsorships, affiliate commissions, merchandise sales, and direct follower payments. These streams are paid by brands, retailers, customers, or followers rather than YouTube ad revenue. You do not need YPP membership, although individual programs and platforms may impose approval, geography, age, audience, or account requirements. Tips let followers send a one-time thank-you, with nothing for you to deliver and no membership for them to join.
This is one part of our full guide to making money on YouTube, which compares platform-paid and follower-paid options. Here, the focus is income that does not come from ads: how each method works, what it can cost, and how to add it alongside—or before—AdSense.
Why should you build income outside AdSense?
YouTube does not pay a fixed amount per view. For ads shown on the Watch Page, YouTube currently pays eligible creators 55% of net advertising revenue (YouTube Help).
Actual ad earnings vary with advertiser demand, viewer location, seasonality, monetized playbacks, and the ad formats shown. A video receiving limited ads or a decline in advertiser spending can therefore reduce revenue even when the underlying content has not changed.
Sponsorships, affiliate commissions, merchandise sales, and direct follower payments are not calculated from YouTube ad rates. Building one or more of these streams can reduce the share of your income exposed to changes in advertising demand—advertiser budgets for creators are themselves shifting toward direct deals, with U.S. creator-economy ad spend projected at $37 billion in 2025 (IAB 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report). Bloggers face a similar dependency on ad networks, and much of the same diversification logic applies to how to monetize a blog without ads.
For YPP eligibility and revenue-share details, see our guide to how much YouTube pays and what it requires.
What are the four main ways to monetize without AdSense?
| Income stream | Who pays you? | Useful benchmark or cost | Main requirement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand sponsorships | A brand or agency | U.S. creator-economy ad spend was projected to reach $37 billion in 2025, up 26% year over year (IAB) | A relevant audience, a clear offer, disclosure, and either outreach or inbound interest |
| Affiliate marketing | A retailer or affiliate network | Amazon’s published U.S. category rates range from 0% to 10% of qualifying revenue (Amazon Associates) | Program approval, compliant links, buyer intent, and disclosure |
| Merchandise | The customer buying the product | Printful cites roughly 20%–40% as a good print-on-demand profit-margin range | Designs, pricing, a storefront, and fulfillment |
| Direct follower payments | The follower | 8% when a follower pays for work; 5% on tips and goals pricing | A payment page, a clear offer, and payment-account onboarding |
These are benchmarks and published fee schedules, not income guarantees. Your results depend on audience fit, conversion, pricing, costs, geography, and the terms of each program.
How do brand sponsorships work?
A brand sponsorship is a negotiated payment for a dedicated video, an integrated segment, a product mention, or another agreed deliverable, paid by the brand or its agency rather than by AdSense. U.S. advertisers directed an estimated $37 billion to creators in 2025, up 26% from $29.5 billion in 2024 (IAB 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report), so sponsorship budgets are growing even where a channel is not YPP-eligible.
There is no universal sponsor rate set by YouTube. Brands may consider average views, niche relevance, audience location, usage rights, exclusivity, production work, campaign length, and expected conversions. A smaller specialist channel can therefore be more valuable to a closely matched advertiser than a larger but less relevant channel.
Use a media kit with recent average views, audience demographics, past results, deliverables, usage terms, and contact details. A simple “Work with me” intake form that asks for the brand’s budget, timeline, and requested rights can filter unsuitable inquiries before a call.
You must also follow YouTube’s paid-promotion requirements when a video contains a paid product placement, sponsorship, endorsement, or another commercial relationship (YouTube Help).
How does affiliate marketing work?
Affiliate marketing pays a commission when a viewer completes a qualifying purchase or action through your tracked link. Amazon’s U.S. standard commission schedule, for example, lists category rates from 0% to 10% of qualifying revenue (Amazon Associates).
Rates, cookie periods, qualifying actions, geographic availability, and approval rules vary by program. Amazon Associates, for instance, pays commission only on items added to the cart within 24 hours of a click on your link (Amazon Associates), so a viewer who buys days later through a saved link generates no payout. Affiliate marketing is usually strongest when a video already serves purchase intent, such as a review, tutorial, comparison, setup guide, or product demonstration.
Affiliate links should recommend products that genuinely fit the content. They also require clear and conspicuous disclosure of the financial relationship under FTC guidance (FTC disclosure guidance); placing an ambiguous label only at the bottom of a long description is not sufficient.
How does merchandise work?
Merchandise turns audience affinity into purchases of apparel, prints, accessories, or other branded products. Print-on-demand services can produce items after an order is placed, reducing the need to buy inventory in advance. That still leaves a design and a storefront to build before the first order can arrive. A Brillay paid request can go live once you publish what you’ll do and when you’ll deliver it—before the work itself exists.
Printful cites roughly 20%–40% as a good print-on-demand profit-margin range, while noting the result depends on product, market, and costs. Calculate margin after production, platform fees, discounts, returns, taxes, and any shipping costs you absorb—not from the retail price alone.
Merchandise normally works best when a channel has a recognizable identity, recurring phrase, visual style, or community reference that viewers want to display. Fulfillment reach differs by provider—Printful, for example, operates seven in-house fulfillment centers across Europe and North America—so check production location, shipping times, and country coverage before committing to a storefront.
How do direct follower payments work?
With Custom Work, a follower can pay upfront as a guest—for example, $25 for a channel review—and you deliver the defined work later at the price and delivery time you set. The payment depends on the value of the interaction rather than YouTube views or advertiser demand. The same logic applies on social platforms too, where Threads creators can earn from engaged followers without relying on viral reach. For creators using X, the same diversification mindset applies to earning there without platform revenue sharing.
Brillay has no follower minimum or monthly fee; Custom Work is a one-time purchase; Brillay charges 8% when a follower pays for Custom Work; and creators can receive payouts in 41 countries. Payment onboarding and availability requirements can still apply through Stripe and the creator’s location.
A small channel can start with one clearly scoped Custom Work offer, such as a $25 portfolio review: the follower pays upfront, and you deliver the review within the delivery time you set. On a $20 tip through Brillay, the 5% platform fee is $1, leaving $19 before Stripe's card-processing fee.
Where does Brillay fit among these options?
Brillay, the tool that publishes this guide, is one option for the "direct follower payments" stream above—not the only one, and disclosed here as the publisher's own product. One Brillay link can hold Tips, Paid Questions, Personalized Videos, Custom Work, and Goals, so viewers can choose how to support you or buy a defined piece of work. Explore the available offer types on the features page.
Stripe handles payment processing separately—typically around 2.9% + $0.30 for U.S. cards—and payouts go to the connected bank account through Stripe (how it works). Other link-in-bio and follower-payment tools charge differently—some add a monthly subscription, a flat transaction fee, or a percentage that steps down at higher tiers—so compare fee structure against your expected payment volume before choosing one; the creator-platform comparisons cover several alternatives side by side, and how it works covers the Brillay details in full.
The creator places a Brillay link in permitted channel locations, where interested followers complete the request and payment as guests.
Do you need to be in the YouTube Partner Program?
No YPP membership is required to receive an independently arranged sponsorship, use an approved affiliate program, sell merchandise through a third-party provider, or accept direct payments through Brillay. However, brands, affiliate programs, marketplaces, merchandise providers, payment processors, and countries may impose their own eligibility or approval conditions.
YouTube currently describes two relevant YPP access levels in eligible countries and regions:
| YPP access level | Current threshold |
|---|---|
| Earlier access to fan funding and selected Shopping features | 500 subscribers, 3 valid public uploads in the previous 90 days, and either 3,000 valid public watch hours in the previous 12 months or 3 million valid public Shorts views in the previous 90 days |
| Ad-revenue sharing and additional YPP benefits | 1,000 subscribers and either 4,000 valid public watch hours in the previous 12 months or 10 million valid public Shorts views in the previous 90 days |
These thresholds, along with channel-review, policy, account, and country requirements, are documented by YouTube Help.
If you are already earning AdSense revenue, the four outside streams can sit alongside it. If you have not qualified, were removed from YPP, or live somewhere the relevant YPP level is unavailable, these methods do not route through AdSense—but their own providers may still have separate restrictions.
How can you get started this week?
- Choose one offer that matches existing viewer demand. Look for repeated questions, product requests, requests for advice, or interest in supporting a project.
- Start with the lowest-friction suitable stream. A direct follower offer may be faster to launch because it does not require sponsor negotiation, affiliate approval, or a physical product.
- Place links where YouTube permits them. Relevant locations may include descriptions, pinned comments, channel profile links, and verbal or visual calls to action. Follow YouTube’s external-links policy.
- Explain the value clearly. Tell viewers what they receive, how much it costs, and any response or delivery conditions before they pay.
- Disclose commercial relationships. Sponsorships, gifted products, and affiliate commissions should be identified clearly and prominently.
- Add other streams gradually. Layer in affiliate links, sponsor outreach, or merchandise after the first offer is operating.
- Continue pursuing YPP if it fits your goals. Non-ad income can complement AdSense rather than replace it.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need YPP membership to use these methods?
No. Sponsorships, third-party affiliate programs, external merchandise platforms, and direct follower-payment services do not require YPP membership simply because they operate outside AdSense.
Individual providers can still impose approval, age, geography, payment-account, content, or audience requirements. YouTube also requires compliance with its channel, content, disclosure, and external-link policies.
Will outside income replace AdSense revenue?
It can supplement or eventually exceed AdSense for some creators, but there is no guaranteed outcome. Sponsorship income depends on negotiations and campaign availability, affiliate income depends on qualifying conversions, merchandise depends on margin and demand, and direct payments depend on whether viewers value the offer.
The main benefit is diversification: a greater share of your earnings can come from sources that are not calculated from YouTube ad demand.
Can brand deals or affiliate links affect AdSense eligibility?
Earning sponsorship or affiliate income does not automatically disqualify a channel from YPP, but the way it is promoted still matters. Creators must follow YouTube’s YPP requirements, paid-promotion disclosure rules, and external-links policy.
Creators must also comply with applicable advertising law. In the United States, the FTC says material connections should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously (FTC disclosure guidance). In the United Kingdom, the ASA similarly requires ads to be obviously identifiable.
How much should I charge for a custom request?
Start with a fixed price for a clearly defined result—for example, $25 for a channel review or $50 for a custom thumbnail package—then raise it if the work takes longer than expected or demand grows. On a $25 order, Stripe’s typical U.S. card-processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 adds approximately $1.03 (Stripe pricing), and the 8% platform fee on this custom request is $2.00, leaving approximately $21.98 before any other applicable adjustments.
No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate.
Ready to give viewers a way to pay you directly, with nothing tied to ad rates? Set up your free Brillay link and start earning outside AdSense today.
Keep reading
New in the library
Ready to get paid for the interactions you already get?
Create your free Brillay link