Ad revenue is still the income line most YouTube creators see first, but for some channels it is no longer the only one. YouTube’s own earnings guidance names several creator routes beyond ordinary video ads: YouTube Premium, channel memberships, Shopping, Super Chat and Super Stickers, and Super Thanks. Creators also earn from brand sponsorships, subscriptions on outside platforms, and merchandise. Each route has different payers, different conditions, and different ways it can stop, so they are best compared individually rather than bundled into a single “diversified” income figure.
Why the ad metric understates the picture
Most creators check RPM, which stands for revenue per mille, meaning estimated earnings per thousand views. RPM covers certain YouTube revenue, but it leaves out brand deals and sponsorships. YouTube Help puts it plainly: “RPM is a useful monetization metric for creators, but it can’t tell your whole revenue story.” (YouTube Help, “Understand ad revenue analytics”)
That gap matters. A channel can earn substantial sponsorship or merchandise income that never shows up in its ad analytics, so a falling RPM does not necessarily mean a falling business. It also means that a single number cannot tell you how dependent a channel is on ads.
Platform-native routes
These routes are paid through YouTube features. Eligibility, geography and terms vary by feature and change over time, so check the current official requirements before planning around any one of them.
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YouTube Premium
YouTube’s partner earnings overview lists Premium subscriptions among the ways creators may earn. The overview establishes Premium as a creator earnings route; it does not make the amount predictable for any channel, and this article does not describe how a creator’s share is calculated.
Channel memberships, Super Chat, Super Stickers and Super Thanks
These are the fan-funding features. Channel memberships give viewers a paid tier with perks the channel chooses to offer. Super Chat and Super Stickers let viewers pay to highlight messages during live chat, and Super Thanks lets viewers tip on videos. YouTube’s earnings guidance lists all of these (partner earnings overview).
In its 2025 CEO letter, YouTube reported a more than 40% increase in channel memberships over the preceding year. That is a platform-wide trend reported by the company. It does not show that any individual channel grew at that rate, and it does not show that memberships are on track to replace ad income for most creators.
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Shopping and product tagging
YouTube’s blog lists Shopping among its ways to monetize on YouTube. Shopping and product tagging are conditional program features, and the rules for YouTube Commerce products are set out in YouTube’s commerce monetization policies. Check your eligibility and whether the feature is available in your country before building a plan around it.
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According to the partner earnings overview, payments for sales through a channel shop come directly from the creator’s official merchandise retailer or platform. In other words, the money comes from the merchandise seller rather than from YouTube’s payouts, and the creator’s own merchandise operation sits behind that sale.
Off-platform and commercial routes
These routes depend on relationships outside YouTube’s payment system. They can earn more per transaction than a platform feature, but they require more active work.
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Brand deals and sponsorships
Sponsorship income sits outside RPM by design, as noted above. The payer is a brand, and the creator must negotiate the deal, produce the integration, and deliver it on the agreed schedule. Income depends on sponsor budgets and on how well a sponsor fits the audience. This is the most common route that requires negotiating skills and time rather than only a good audience.
Third-party memberships
Fans can also pay through outside services. TIME’s 2022 reporting on creators who diversify describes a creator who paired Patreon subscriptions with merchandise (TIME, April 14, 2022). Treat that as an illustrative example from 2022. It is not a current description of Patreon’s pricing, fees or terms, and you should check those on the service itself before comparing it with platform features.
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The same TIME report presents merchandise as one of the income streams creators use. Running a merchandise line means developing products, managing demand, handling fulfilment and answering customer support. Those are the ordinary operating demands of any merchandise business, and the report gives examples rather than measured outcomes.
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Comparing the options
Three questions make the routes easier to compare: who pays, where the relationship sits, and what the creator has to deliver. The table below applies those questions to each route described above.
| Route | Who pays | Where the relationship sits | What the creator must deliver | What can change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ad revenue (baseline) | Advertisers, through YouTube | YouTube | Videos that carry ads | Ad demand, RPM and monetization status |
| YouTube Premium | Premium subscribers, through YouTube | YouTube | Not stated in the partner earnings overview | Program terms and how the share is calculated |
| Channel memberships | Fans, through YouTube | YouTube | Perks the channel offers to members | Member retention and feature terms |
| Super Chat, Super Stickers, Super Thanks | Viewers, through YouTube | YouTube | Live chat or video engagement | Viewer willingness to pay and feature terms |
| Shopping | Shoppers, through YouTube product tagging | YouTube, conditional on eligibility | Tagged eligible products | Eligibility, geography and Commerce policies |
| Brand sponsorships | Brands | Direct agreement between creator and brand | Negotiated integration, delivered on schedule | Sponsor budgets and audience fit |
| Third-party memberships (example: Patreon, per TIME in 2022) | Fans, through an outside service | Outside service | Ongoing perks for subscribers | The outside service’s own terms, which the cited reporting does not describe |
| Merchandise | Customers, through a retailer or platform | Creator’s own or third-party merchandise seller | Product development, fulfilment and customer support | Product demand and sales volume |
The sources differ in what they can support. YouTube’s documentation establishes which features exist and how RPM is defined. TIME’s 2022 reporting provides individual examples. YouTube’s company-level figures describe the platform as a whole. No available source gives a representative breakdown of how creators split their income across these routes.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the platform-scale numbers show
YouTube reported that its ecosystem contributed $55 billion to U.S. GDP and supported more than 490,000 full-time jobs in 2024 (YouTube’s 2024 U.S. impact report). These figures cover the whole ecosystem of creators, businesses and workers in the United States, as YouTube measured it. They describe the size of that ecosystem and say nothing about what a typical creator earns or whether any particular mix of income works.
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Why researchers and YouTube both point to diversification
Zoe Glatt, an LSE researcher who studies the work and businesses of YouTubers, told TIME in 2022: “Content creators are required to diversify their labor and income streams across many platforms and projects if they hope to build sustainable audiences and careers.” (TIME, April 14, 2022)
The same TIME report quotes a YouTube spokesperson, whom TIME does not name: “These creators are true businesses and they’ve added to the creator economy in significant ways so we would expect them to diversify their revenue streams.” Read this as the company’s own position on creators as businesses, not as independent evidence that diversification works.
Quick Recap
A practical way to assess a second income route
- Locate the dependency. Decide whether the income sits inside YouTube, where terms and eligibility can change, or with an outside service or buyer, where the terms are different.
- Identify who can stop paying. Ad rates, sponsors, subscribers and product buyers each change for different reasons. Note which of them can withdraw quickly.
- Estimate the operating load. Count the ongoing perks, the negotiation and delivery work for sponsors, and the fulfilment and support for merchandise.
- Track income outside the ad dashboard. Because RPM excludes brand deals and sponsorships, keep a separate record of those payments.
- Recheck terms before each decision. Feature eligibility, geography and outside-platform terms change, so confirm them in the current official documentation before acting.
What the evidence does not establish
- It does not measure what share of YouTubers depend on each route.
- It does not show that creators in general are leaving ad revenue behind. The evidence supports the narrower claim that some channels add these routes.
- It does not show that diversification reliably stabilizes income. Diversifying adds operating work and new dependencies alongside the benefits.
- The TIME examples date from 2022, and the company statistics come from YouTube’s own reporting. Current terms for every route should be checked directly with the platform or service.
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