As the YouTube community continues to grow, channels that get accepted into the Partner Program also become larger. Besides being able to use AdSense, making partnerships with advertisers has proven to be a great way to monetize videos. Below, NewMediaRockstars has provided several basic guidelines on how to sell your channel to potential advertisers.

1. Solidify your target demographic: YouTube conveniently provides analytics on the audience that views your channel. Facebook Insights is also a great resource to analyze your demographic as well.

2. Find a company with the same target demographic: This is outlined in our previous post about how to analyze value of brand partnerships using Quantcast. Quantcast is a great resource to find the relative audience demographic for a specific site. Remember, the more your demographic aligns with a potential advertiser, the more you can potentially charge, as it makes your channel much more valuable.

3. Compile your statistics and potential reach: Open up an Excel document and list out all of your online media, along with statistics. This is the most important step because your advertisers want to see numbers that will be able to tell them how much exposure they will be getting through your channels.

4. Make it easy to find you: Always make sure your business email is easily displayed on all of your online media channels. You never want to miss out on an opportunity to work with an interested advertiser.

5. Have an appealing pitch letter: Create a professional letter you can easily tailor to specific companies. This will increase the chances of a potential advertiser taking you more seriously, as well as help sell your channel better.

6. Create a media kit: Having a media kit is a perfect way to pitch yourself to potential advertisers. It is a visually appealing document that includes your history, information about your channel, demographic as well as statistical reach. If you have the resources, creating a pitch-book would be a great addition to your arsenal. You can also Google “media kit templates” to save time.

7. Speak their language: A common misconception made by advertisers is that channels with a high viewer numbers translates into dollar signs. This is far from the truth, you need to make sure that you both share the same target demographic. Remember, in the end, it is not about how much traffic you can drive to their site, it is about how high their conversion rate (amount of sales divided by impressions) is relative to the traffic you drive. For more information, read our previous post about common misconceptions of social media in business. Also, in order to produce high quality and brand friendly content, you want to make sure your online brand coincides with your potential advertisers target audience (i.e. might not be a good idea to pair FreddieW with a make-up company). It’s not unheard of for YouTube personalities, with quality content and less than 10k subscribers, to be able to sell their channels to major brands.

8. Connect with a third-party company: Companies like Big Frame and Makers Studios specialize in talent management and promotions. If you feel like you have built enough awareness online, and are confident in your work, contacting these companies for possible partnerships is a great idea, as it will allow you to direct more focus on your craft.