How to monetize YouTube videos without the Partner Program

You can make money from YouTube videos without the Partner Program by earning off the platform: affiliate links, brand deals, selling your own products and paid memberships on other sites. None of these need a subscriber minimum. The Partner Program only controls YouTube's own payouts, such as ad revenue and memberships, so you can start earning from your first video.

What the Partner Program actually requires

It helps to know what you are working around. As of October 2026, YouTube's Help Center ("Overview of the expanded YouTube Partner Program") lists two levels:

The lower level is only offered in countries where the expanded program is available, which YouTube lists as more than 100 countries and regions, including the US, UK, Canada, India and Australia.

The bar is going up. YouTube's Help Center page "Changes to the YouTube Partner Program" and its August 2026 blog post say that from February 1, 2027, new applicants for ad revenue will need 1,000 subscribers plus 8,000 qualified watch hours in the last 365 days or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the last 90 days. Creators already in the program are not affected by the new entry bar, and the fan funding and Shopping thresholds stay the same. That makes earning outside the program even more relevant for new channels.

1. Affiliate links

Affiliate links are the most common way small channels earn. You recommend a product, link to it with a tracked link, and the retailer pays you a commission on sales.

• Where to start: Amazon Associates, or networks such as Impact, CJ and Awin, which run affiliate programs for many brands.
• Where the link goes: long-form video descriptions, a pinned comment and your channel's profile links. YouTube's "Sharing links with your audiences" help page says clickable external links in descriptions and comments need your channel's advanced features turned on, and that links in Shorts descriptions and Shorts comments are not clickable at all.
• What works: videos where the viewer is already deciding what to buy. Reviews, comparisons, "what I pack" and setup tours convert far better than vlogs.

Once you are in the Partner Program and live in an eligible country, the YouTube Shopping affiliate program adds product tags inside YouTube. Until then, external affiliate links do the same job.

2. Brand deals

Brands pay for mentions, dedicated videos or integrations. Small channels with a clear niche can get deals because the audience is specific. A channel about ultralight backpacking with 4,000 subscribers can be more useful to a tent brand than a general vlog with ten times the views.

To get them:

1. Keep a short media kit with your audience, average views per video and past results.
2. Pitch brands whose products you already use on camera.
3. Ask for a flat fee plus an affiliate link, so you are paid for the work and for the sales.

YouTube requires you to tick the paid promotion box in YouTube Studio when a video contains a product placement, sponsorship or endorsement. That adds a label to the start of the video. You still need your own disclosure in the video itself.

3. Your own products

Selling something you made keeps all the margin, minus payment and platform fees. Common options for video creators:

• Digital downloads: presets, templates, guides, packing lists, training plans.
• Courses or coaching calls.
• Merch through a print-on-demand shop.

Your own product does not need YouTube's Shopping feature. A link in the description to your store works at any subscriber count.

4. Memberships on other platforms

YouTube channel memberships need the fan funding level. Until you reach it, you can offer the same thing elsewhere: a paid community, bonus videos or early access on a membership site, or a paid newsletter. Check each platform's pricing page for its fees before you choose. When you do qualify for YouTube memberships, you can run both and see which your viewers prefer.

5. Know which video earns

Most creators can see which videos get views. Very few can see which videos make money, because the sale happens on Amazon or a brand's site, days after the viewer left YouTube.

The fix is to give each video its own tracking. Affiliate networks let you add a sub ID to a link, so a sale reports back which link was used. If every video uses a different sub ID, you can match commission to videos.

Here is what that looks like for a channel with three videos linking to the same product:

These are illustrative numbers, not data. The point is that the video with the most clicks earned the least. Without per-video tracking, you would make more trip vlogs. See how earnings per click works for the math.

How Vyrl helps

Vyrl is a link-in-bio page built for this. You give each video a word, such as vyrl.at/yourname/storm, and say it on camera or put it in that video's description. Every click and sale from that visit is credited to that video, through network postbacks for Impact, CJ, Awin and Everflow, and through the Earnings report upload for Amazon. The dashboard shows commission and earnings per click by video, by link and by where you posted. The free plan covers unlimited links and click analytics, and revenue per video is on the Creator plan. The guide on which video made the sale walks through the setup.

A simple plan for a new channel

1. Pick two or three products you already use and join their affiliate programs.
2. Make one buying-intent video per product: a review, a comparison or a setup tour.
3. Give each video its own tracked link and disclose the affiliate relationship on camera.
4. After a month, look at earnings per click by video and make more of what earns.
5. Apply for the Partner Program when you qualify, and keep the affiliate income running alongside it.