Monetize Your Video: How To Make Money With Videos?

Learn More About Monetization

This blog helps you to understand how to make money with videos effectively in 2026 with proven strategies like subscriptions, ads, rentals, licensing, and more.

Videos open the door for enterprises, broadcasters, and content creators to communicate, train, and engage people. A common goal for all three entities is to make money from the videos. 

Consistent monetization of videos is what every entity wants to achieve. It encourages the production of high-quality videos, making video creation a full-time hustle, or urges to create a subscription streaming service for endless possibilities!

But with so many options, how do you monetize the videos in a sustainable, long-term way?

There are several ways to do it, from third-party advertisements to affiliate marketing, and from selling merchandise to receiving donations. Let’s start with a beginner’s guide on the basics of video monetization.

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Why Should You Monetize Video Content?

Video monetization opens up unprecedented opportunities to maximize your revenue. Monetizing videos is important for recurring revenue, brand visibility, and fostering long-term creativity. Let’s explore why monetizing videos online is essential:

1) Sustainable Revenue Stream

Monetizing videos online guarantees a sustainable revenue stream, either through subscription models, ad partnerships, pay-per-view/rental options, or a hybrid approach. Instead of relying on one-off payments or sporadic freelance projects, building video libraries for monetization becomes an appreciating asset. 

2) Gain Creative Freedom

When you explore how to make money with videos and figure out the ideal revenue stream, you are set free from creative restraints.

Consider the journey of Roger, an educational content creator/owner, who used video monetization to enhance his educational video content, including an AI-powered LMS (Learning Management System), new content formats, and advanced technical infrastructure, allocating investment where it was absolutely needed!

3) Audience Validation

The audience’s willingness to pay for your content reveals a great deal of confidence in your expertise. This validation goes far beyond what analytics data reveals. You figure out what the audience wishes to pay for, which in turn, helps optimize your content strategy. This approval uplifts your morale and acts as an impetus to create high-value content.

4) Grow Your Brand Authority

Successfully monetized videos attract brand sponsorships and partnerships, elevating your personal brand and expanding your influence. When you consistently create easy-to-monetize videos/content, you gain organic viewers and brand mentions, which eventually enhances the brand authority.

Different Ways to Make Money with Videos

No matter what type of videos you create or own, there are various ways that you can monetize videos (and earn consistent revenue!).

Whether you run a full-fledged video business or want to monetize live streaming, let’s look at the following ways to get the wheels turning

1) Subscription or Membership Site

With a subscription or membership site, you can monetize videos with the mandate of a subscription fee (most often, a monthly recurring fee), backed by a robust paywall system.

It’s a great way to earn consistent revenue, especially if you create informative videos. For example, American real estate YouTuber Graham Stephan started with free YouTube videos. Then, created ‘The Real Estate Agent Academy’: a subscription-based course platform offering in-depth training for aspiring agents.

When launching a subscription video platform, be sure to optimize videos with metadata tagging, categorization, search visibility, and so on.

2) Sponsored Advertisements

Sponsored advertisements allow you to partner with brands that pay you to feature their products or services in your videos. Unlike traditional ads managed by platforms, you negotiate these deals directly with brands, giving you control over pricing and creative execution.

Also called in-stream advertising, brands and content creators agree upon the placement of the ads: either pre-roll video ads (before the video), mid-roll (during), or post-roll (after the video). 

3) Brand Sponsorships

With brand sponsorships, you collaborate with entities that align with your content and audience interests. It’s an ideal model for creators with a loyal following or niche audience, as brands are always looking to reach engaged viewers through authentic content partnerships.

For instance, fitness creator Pamela Reif often partners with wellness and lifestyle brands like Puma and Foodspring, seamlessly leveraging brand collaborations while maintaining her channel’s natural tone.

4) Sell Merchandise or Product

Selling your own merchandise or physical products is another powerful way to monetize your video platform. You can promote branded items like apparel, accessories, or digital goods directly within your videos, transforming loyal viewers into paying customers.

For example, popular YouTuber MrBeast built a massive merchandise integration through his Beast Apparel line, integrating product promotions seamlessly into his content and leveraging audience loyalty to drive sales.

5) Crowdfunding & Donations

Crowdfunding & Donations work on a straightforward mechanism: if viewers find your content valuable, they’ll never mind paying one-time or recurring donations through dedicated platforms.

Also called ‘monetization hub for community-driven creators’, donations build a sense of belonging and appreciation among loyal followers.

You can see numerous content creators receiving ample donations that bolster their larger picture; for instance, filmmaker and educator D4Darious uses Patreon to fund his filmmaking tutorials and independent projects.

6) License or Syndicate Your Content

Licensing or syndicating your videos allows other platforms, broadcasters, or publishers to legally use your content in exchange for a fee or royalty. Essentially, you’re giving them the rights to distribute or showcase your videos while retaining ownership.

For example, independent filmmaker Casey Neistat has licensed portions of his creative footage to media outlets and brands for use in campaigns and features, making money with videos beyond his YouTube uploads.

When licensing content, ensure clear agreements are in place, specify country rights, duration, and language rights. You can integrate a video content management system with built-in DRM (Digital Rights Management) to protect your intellectual property and track where your content is being used.

Types of Monetization Models to Make Money with Videos

Various factors are involved in choosing a profitable video monetization model, as you need to analyze your content niche, understand audience behavior, decide on content types, choose a video content management system platform to upload and earn., and then select a revenue model that aligns with your content, such as advertising, sponsorships, brand deals, affiliate marketing, or selling products and online courses.

1) Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD)

SVOD model follows a straightforward approach: viewers pay to access the content library. While trying to sell videos online, this model could prove a direct and efficient method to maximize video assets. For content creators, this creates a recurring, consistent relationship with their viewers.

However, SVOD has its own share of hurdles. You need to have a handful of content libraries, because you can’t persuade viewers to subscribe to a few videos. Moreover, you need a pre-planned strategy to tackle churn rate. The average churn rate stays at 1–5% for the video streaming services. 

2) Transactional Video On Demand (TVOD)

TVOD operates on a pay per view model: viewers purchase access to specific content or events, including movie rentals or specific event streaming. If you want to know what is TVOD, the beauty of this model lies in its low barrier to entry. Unlike SVOD, which wants you to own extensive content libraries, TVOD allows you to start monetizing with just one high-quality, engaging video.

However, TVOD has its share of hurdles. You cannot relish the predictable revenue like one could with the SVOD model. The profitability depends entirely on the individual video performance. The key here to monetize videos is delivering consistent, r al value in the content to persuade viewers. 

3) Advertising Video On Demand (AVOD)

AVOD operates on an ad inventory model: accommodating ads of third-party advertisers with content (pre-roll, mid-roll, etc.) while offering free content access to viewers. If you’re a budding content creator just starting, this model works like a charm with the top AVOD platforms to build a large audience base without charging ’em a penny!

Creators have to bear certain challenges while offering free content with ads. Viewer experience might take a hit when ad frequency is higher than the bearable limit. Balancing ad-based video monetization with focus on user experience requires careful ad placement strategy.

4) Premium Video On Demand (PVOD)

Premium video on demand places a direct emphasis on those who want to monetize videos, creating an early-access window with urgency and exclusivity that persuades viewers to pay for early access. However, it is not that easy earning a community that wants to prioritize accessing your content first.

For this reason,

“Build a community or dedicated fans for your content that values being first.”

Most content owners leverage early-release content before it is released in theaters. You will achieve the best value by delivering quality, watchful, premium video streaming services.

5) Video Paywall Systems

Paywall video monetization is more of a restricting mechanism that puts all of your content behind a paywall, offering content access only when the viewer pays. 

The paywall approach gives you complete content access control. You’re not dependent on ad revenues fluctuating with market conditions or platform algorithms determining your reach. Every viewer who watches your content has directly compensated you for that access, a process made even more efficient with reliable VOD hosting, which ensures secure and seamless delivery of premium content.

6) Catch-Up TV

The concept of catch-up TV is a little different from other models. It works in such a way that when a broadcaster has streamed their episode of that particular series, it is later viewed by the subscribers.

So, when a particular subscriber has missed one episode of the series, then he/she can view it later through this innovative service.

7) Coupons & Promotions

Coupons & Promotions don’t offer direct monetization with your videos; however, they drive you more paying subscribers towards your video content. Working with coupon firms benefits your content while driving ample traffic to their platform as well: it’s a win-win scenario for both!

Ad-placement services can be used by online coupon distributors to offer advertising space on their video-on-demand websites.

8) Third-Party Ad Integration

Associate with a variety of additional third-party ad vendors to maximize the platform’s flexibility, interoperability, and customization.

You can place any type of advertisement on your channel and track how well it performs. Enjoy maximized flexible means to monetize videos with varied mediums of ad collaboration.

9) Server-Side Ad Insertion (SSAI)

For those wondering how to make money with videos, leveraging dynamic ad insertion works like a charm! A combination of manifest manipulation, ad server communication, ad bitrate & resolution normalization will help to stitch advertorials into a single stream.

Since ads are stitched directly into the video streams, SSAI circumvents ad blockers, enhancing the delivery of ads to the intended audiences.

 

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Different Platform Categories to Monetize Videos

Understanding monetization models is just the first step. Executing those models requires choosing platforms that support your strategy while balancing factors like audience reach, revenue share, technical control, and operational costs.

1) Social Video Platforms

Social video platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok represent the most accessible entry point for video monetization. However, social media video monetization operates primarily through revenue-sharing arrangements. 

Some popular revenue-sharing programs are:

1) YouTube’s Partner Program

2) TikTok Creator Fund

3) Facebook Content Monetization Beta

Social video platforms work better for audience building, content idea generation, and passive income from your videos. Blend the social media reach with your own online video platform to engender a resilient, sustainable creator business.

2) Video On Demand (VOD) Platforms

Unlike social video platforms, VOD platforms support multiple monetization models simultaneously. You can offer SVOD subscriptions for your content library, sell individual videos via TVOD, and implement PVOD early-access windows, either in a standalone model or a hybrid model.

VPlayed, a white-label VOD Platform, seamlessly integrates 10+ monetization models into its infrastructure and content workflow. Most importantly, the platform allows you to retain 100% of the generated revenue, eliminating the need for any revenue-sharing arrangements.

3) Membership & Fan-Support Platforms

If you’re interested in diversifying income from your videos, you can deploy membership videos. Strive to create exclusive content that helps you build long-term relationships while generating ample revenue.

Take Patreon, for example, which empowers creators with membership features to turn casual visitors into loyal membership/subscription holders. 

While you can start off with Patreon, it is advisable to launch your exclusive membership video platform with integrations for Discord, X (formerly Twitter), and website embed for effective membership management. 

4) Educational & Course-Based Platforms

Leveraging your expertise while searching for how to make money with videos is the right thing to do. For that, educational course-based platforms play a vital role, allowing students and learners to access video on demand from anywhere at any time.

You can offer a one-off virtual masterclass (for instance, how to master content creation), slash tiered pricing on your content library, or build an e-Learning course platform that offers extensive courses with LMS integration.

5) Sports Streaming Platforms

From PPV events to subscription-based access and sponsorship integrations, sports streaming platforms open up multiple revenue streams for content owners and broadcasters. In addition to event broadcasting, sports streaming platforms offer interactive features like live chats, highlights, and multi-angle viewing that enhance fan engagement and boost viewership.

 

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Conclusion: Making Money with Videos

Making money from your videos takes time, but knowing the nitty-gritty helps you gain a consistent, sustainable revenue.

Focus on what matters most: choose the ideal way to monetize videos, create a video on demand website, and hone your skills to create high-quality videos that resonate with your target market.

And companies that do it well may earn a lot of money through adverts, subscriptions, and pay-per-view transactions. When it comes to monetization, it becomes quintessential to give audiences what they are in search of.

Now that you know how to make money with videos, why not pair it with an online video platform. Plenty of content owners, broadcasters, and media companies build a unique video platform with VPlayed!

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