Monetizing Your Facebook Page: What You Really Need To Know About It
Everyone can safely say that nobody can ever live normally these days if he or she doesn’t own a Facebook account. Every now and then, people post all sorts of things on their social media walls – it’s a habit that all of us can’t seem to get enough of. If this is an undeniable fact, then maybe we should exploit our beloved site’s monetizing potential too.
What you’ll learn here:
- Why Facebook’s monetization might be better than Youtube’s
- Facebook vs Youtube monetization requirements
- Best kinds of videos to post on your Facebook page
- How your Facebook page can actually make money
For sure, you have heard about social media marketing, and all the other whatnots that web entrepreneurs do to bring people to their sites or buy their products. But what we’re trying to get to here, is the very act of monetizing your Facebook page, the way bloggers and vloggers do their thing.
Why you should consider posting videos on Facebook instead of Youtube.
Many Youtube vloggers are getting insanely rich – it’s probably the best reason why you’re itching to be a vlogger yourself. But here is something that you should highly think about before hopping into the Youtube money-making bandwagon. The Fortune website published an article with the following statements:
“New research out of Germany billed as among the first to review the chances of making it in the new Hollywood shows a vanishingly small number will ever break through—just like in the old Hollywood. In fact, 96.5 percent of all of those trying to become YouTubers won’t make enough money off of advertising to crack the U.S. poverty line.”
“Breaking into the top 3 percent of most-viewed channels could bring in advertising revenue of about $16,800 a year. That’s a bit more than the U.S. federal poverty line of $12,140 for a single person.”
Of course, what’s applicable in the US can’t always be applicable to other parts of the world. But the above quotation should be something that you should highly think about before investing a lot of your time in becoming a Youtube vlogger.
Here’s the truth about becoming a Youtuber today: the platform is becoming too saturated, especially for you, if you’re thinking of a niche that everybody else is doing so well already. If we have this understanding, then maybe posting videos on Facebook is a better alternative since video monetization is not too crowded yet, at least for the time being.
Earning on Facebook by Posting Videos
This is an act that many Youtube vloggers are so well-versed already, they earn by means of letting their ads run along with their video posts, or by allowing those ads to insert themselves in the middle of their vlogs. Such an endeavor is now available on Facebook too – something that many believe to be a threat to Youtube’s popularity.
Facebook vlogging might just be the next biggest thing in terms of posting video content and for that, you should brace yourself to take advantage of its being new and fresh to internet users. Before doing the actual thing, let us first do some reconnaissance.
For those of you who may have not known it yet, you can’t just post a series of video posts on Youtube, and expect to make some money out of them. There are guidelines and qualifying factors that you need to attain first, so that you can start earning with your channel.
The same thing applies to Facebook as well. Let’s compare Youtube and Facebook in terms of eligibility for monetization.
Youtube monetization requirements:
1,000 subscribers – the number of people who have clicked the subscribe button of your channel, or have clicked that notification bell icon so they can be informed of your new posts.
4,000 watch hours for 12 months – the total number of duration that your videos have accumulated as people view them. Such a total of watch time should happen within a year. So if you haven’t reached that many views for 12 months straight, the counter will be reset again for the next year.
Facebook monetization requirements:
10,000 followers – people who clicked the follow button of your page. You have to bear in mind that likers and followers are not the same. Likers are those who chose to be your fans but don’t really get to be informed always if you’ve posted something on your page. With followers, they will be immediately notified if you have new content.
30,000 1-minute views for 2 months – This means that for each of your video posts, there has to be at least a minute of viewing time made by people. If we’re going to calculate that, it also means that you need to be watched for a total of 500 hours for 60 days.
In addition to that, you have to make sure that your videos are a minimum of 3-minutes in length because FB monetization doesn’t count those 1-minute viewings if your videos are shorter than that.
Another set of requirements for Facebook is that you need to specify your bank account and your Tax Identification Number in which you can declare yourself to be someone who works online as a freelancer or someone who creates web content.
For Youtube, the requirements are basically the same if you apply as a blogger that shows Google Ads. You will also be prompted to give a bank account and a real mailing address, so they can mail to you real paper documents whenever necessary.
The common denominator for the 2 platforms is that of course, you have to abide by their posting regulations which could be summarized as: “no plagiarism, no nudity, no pornography, no racism, etc.”
What are the best kinds of videos that you should post on your Facebook page to make money?
Since Facebook is a social media hangout where people of all ages and various cultural backgrounds habitually converge, any video content should accumulate some viewership, provided of course that your posts are interesting and engaging.
There are no strict guidelines as to what kind of video content should you post, as long as they meet Facebook’s community standards. To give you a basic push, the following kinds of videos are the ones that people really like to see on social media sites:
Life hacks and How-to’s
These are videos that are about making things easier in our everyday activities such as household chores and hobbies. If you can make videos that can accomplish tasks in half the time, nobody would ever ignore them.
Videos of this kind also extend to those that pertain to making artistic outputs with everyday objects that are often ignored or rejected. Recycling and converting stuffs that are headed for the trash bin are really attractive for people within the social media communities.
Travel and tourism
Your adventures as you visit places within your neighborhood or from other places in the world are among the most watchable items on Facebook. Since a great number of people can’t really travel to places they dream of, they would really want to live out their fantasies as you provide videos that they can just watch.
Post a video of you walking or riding through a great place you trek upon, or you can just post a detailed video slide show of high-definition photographs. People will always be very interested in watching content in which they can also appear to travel along with you.
Performance Videos
Singing, dancing, and magic tricks are among the hottest types in this category. If you are a musician, a singer, or someone who loves to perform with those golden skills of yours, social media addicts will surely dig your posts as well.
As evidenced by the popularity of reality TV shows, watching someone perform his or her talents on video is something that people will never get tired of witnessing. You can make your Facebook page your own reality TV channel. Viewers will certainly be hooked into it.
Pranks and Comedy
A good laugh is something that nobody would ever ignore. So if you can come up with something that can amuse people or make viewers smile, you should post them as well. Nobody would ever want to log on to their social media accounts with the intention of being sad, so by default, the comedy will always be attractive to netizens.
Humor is an element that is always included in all forms of media. Be it in print or audio-visual, laughable elements are always in demand. Facebook could also be a platform where people look for comedy as well.
Interviews and FAQ
In most cases, people really like to see and hear about what really are the details around a particular event. Because this is so true, you may want to consider making a question-and-answer type of video, or one in which you are interviewing someone so that people can get to have a clear idea about a topic they are very interested in.
A video series of this kind should be easy for the reason that you can just stress out your own opinions. But “easy” is closely related to “boring” that’s why you have to come up with really catchy explanations in expressing your opinions and self ideas.
Live Videos
If something happens on the spot, and while people are actually viewing at the moment, such a kind of video is just priceless. The thrill of witnessing an amazing event firsthand is a temptation that nobody can resist. As such, you should take advantage of Facebook live too, to make the most out of your fans and followers.
An attractive Facebook live video could pertain to travel and performing, or to almost any topic you could think of. Just bear in mind though that conducting a live feed with the purpose of monetization is a bit hard considering that there has to be very little room for mistakes.
The aforementioned video types are among the most popular on Facebook, as well as on other social sites. Does it mean your videos must only revolve around those niches so you can get high viewership? Not really.
The best kind of videos you can make are those that you are most passionate about and those in which you can go on discussing for many hours without ever burning out.
In providing content of any kind online, any topic that’s captivatingly explained and elaborated will gain viewers – this is a solid rule that all successful internet businesses are religiously executing.
Making A Truly Attractive Facebook Video
Regardless of the type of videos that you plan to upload to your page, you should know that a great majority of Facebook videos are viewed with no sound. That may appear to you as a surprise, but Digiday, a popular technology website has this to say:
“As much as 85 percent of video views happen with the sound off, according to multiple publishers. Take, for instance, feel-good site LittleThings, which is averaging 150 million monthly views on Facebook so far this year. Eighty-five percent of its viewership is occurring without users turning the sound on.”
“Similarly, millennial news site Mic, which is also averaging 150 million monthly Facebook views, said 85 percent of its 30-second views are without sound. PopSugar said its silent video views range between 50 and 80 percent.”
Since the above statements are solid facts, you have to make sure that the Facebook videos you wish to monetize must be:
Embedded with comprehensive subtitles
Even on Youtube, subtitling is a major element utilized by famous vloggers. This is because captions that users can read along as they watch a video can really enhance the user experience.
This is also to further reinforce your point in cases where there is a problem with the users’ computer audio, or whenever they are incapable of understanding the language you’re using as you explain something in your videos.
Short but on point
People are pretty impatient these days, and their attention spans are really quite short. Because of that, videos that appear to be a drag, and project some delaying tactics just to extend the length of a presentation are often dismissed easily by viewers.
To address this problem, make your videos as short as possible, without compromising on the quality of information that you want to provide to your viewers.
Captured with proper lighting and angling
High-quality content is really the bread and butter of every website. In your planned Facebook monetization page, you should also condition yourself into providing videos that are properly captured with proper angles and lighting effects.
Thankfully, due to the advanced features of today’s affordable cameras and cellphones, all you need to have are just really some basic videography skills, and videoing common sense.
In capturing your videos, make sure you have a stable tripod or a steady hand, in addition to your “natural light sensibility” so that your videos can appear to be as clear and as crisp as possible.
If you make certain that these 3 traits are present in your videos, then they should be a few notches higher in terms of being attractive among Facebook video viewers… even if sound is absent, and is not accessible, even though it is a very important element in all kinds of videos.
Facts you need to know in getting paid with Facebook monetization
In your FB page settings, you will need to configure your “payout settings” in which you will specify information about your bank account – it is where your earnings will be funneled into. Furthermore, you need to be aware of the following:
There is a minimum threshold of $100 – If your earnings don’t get to reach this amount, you will not be allowed to withdraw anything from your bank account yet.
Tax info is required – While this is not a requirement for Youtube and Google Ads, Facebook requires this. Basically, all you need is just your Tax Identification Number.
Address verification is not required – in contrast to Youtube requiring you to verify your exact location, Facebook doesn’t really need it.
You’ll get paid every 21st day of the month – Youtube pays every 21st to 23rd, not much of a difference there, although some minor differences could also arise depending on the bank you are attached to. In connection to this, how much can you possibly earn with your monetized page?
If you reached that 10K follower baseline, and if you consistently upload videos on a daily basis, your expected average earnings should be around $200 a month. That figure is of course dependent on the quality of your posts, and how good you are at interacting with your fans and viewers.
How your Facebook page can actually make money
Fan subscription – This is where you can earn by the recurring visits of people that follow your page. In this method, you can provide digital services such as consultations, digital services, tutorials, and direct, one-on-one conversations.
Brand collaboration – In blogging and traditional vlogging, this is called “affiliate marketing.” In this aspect, you can reach out to some companies so that they can find out how their products can be marketed and promoted on your page, and for each of your posts. The good thing about brand collaboration is that you only need 1,000 followers to be eligible for this.
In-stream ads – Like any other web business, the monetization that happens within your Facebook page revolves mainly around advertising. This means that you have to expect that your videos will be played with some ad inserts as they are viewed by your fans. Since this method is popular on Youtube, Facebook also employs the same method and is actually the most preferred by social-media monetizers today.
Live-stream videos – Since this has already been mentioned above, let’s just discuss how to qualify for this. You need to have at least 2,000 followers and must have accumulated at least 300 viewers for a live video you have broadcast in the past. In such an act, an ad will only show up if you have been live for 4 minutes already. Ads are usually 20 seconds in length.
Setting up your page shouldn’t be really that difficult because there are lots of tools that are provided within the settings of Facebook pages themselves. To keep track of your performance, your page’s settings have an insights tab in which you can monitor information about how many views you’re getting, and how many viewers from specific age brackets are visiting your page.
Such a feature can really help you improve on the kind of content you’re giving because you can identify the possible points of your viewers’ likes and dislikes based on their gender and age demographics.
Youtube is too crowded with so many vloggers already. Why not try Facebook vlogging for a change? Establish a difference by making money with your Facebook account and take advantage of the monetizing opportunity that not too many people are exploiting just yet.
Before you leave, can you please share this with your friends?
