How to Monetize a Physical Therapy YouTube Channel

Facebook Member Question: “How do you actually get paid to do this? Do you get a check from youtube? Do you have a certain type of account? Are there specific points (amount of subscribers, views, etc) you have to reach before you even monetize? Just curious on the logistics.”

Why Monetize a Physical Therapy YouTube Channel in 2022

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. When a physical therapist answers a question in the clinic there are likely thousands if not millions of other people who would benefit from the information shared in that answer.

“Should I use ice or heat on my painful shoulder?”

If a therapist only answers that question for the person in the clinic, the therapist is only getting paid once for that information. But if you monetize a physical therapy YouTube channel you can record that answer and share it with the world.

As a result that physical therapist will continue to be paid for the next several years for answering that simple question.

Click this link to learn more about increasing physical therapy profits without treating more patients.

How do you actually get paid from YouTube?

Once your YouTube channel satisfies the monetization requirements and you create your Google Adsense account you will receive direct deposit payments monthly for the money your physical therapy YouTube channel earns.

YouTube Monetization Requirements

Monetizing your physical therapy YouTube channel starts with satisfying two basic criteria:

1. 4,000 hours of watch time in the past 365 days
2. 1,000 subscribers

How Much Money Does a Typical Physical Therapy YouTube channel Earn?

Once your physical therapy YouTube channel is monetized and ads are turned on, YouTube will pay physical therapists (creators) 55% of ad revenue. (Source)

What this means is that for every dollar an advertiser pays YouTube, the creator is paid $0.55.

CPM – Cost per mille

According to YouTube Creator Studio:

“Playback-based CPM means effective playback-based cost per mille and tells you how much advertisers paid per thousand monetized playbacks.

To calculate your playback-based CPM, the total revenue from ads is divided by estimated monetized playbacks. An estimated monetized playback happens when a viewer sees at least one ad impression when watching one of your videos.”

RPM – Revenue per mille

“RPM means revenue per mille and tells you how much you earned per thousand views. To calculate your RPM, your estimated revenue is divided by your total views in the same time period.

Your estimated revenue includes revenue from ads, YouTube Premium, memberships, Super Chat, and Super Stickers. This is the actual revenue you earned after YouTube’s revenue share.

Total views is defined as all views, including views that weren’t monetized. It doesn’t include views in the YouTube Shorts player.

Because RPM is calculated with your share of the revenue and includes views that weren’t monetized, it’s typically lower than the playback-based CPM.”

In the screenshot below you can see that my most successful video is 8 minutes and 9 seconds in duration. It has accumulated 156K views. YouTube has paid me $1,627.74. This video was originally published on May 3, 2019, and it continues to gain views showing 335 views in the most recent 48 hours.

If you divide $1,627 by 156,000 views the actual amount paid to me per view is $0.01 per view or $1 per thousand views. * Note: this video was published before the channel was monetized. 

How to Start A Physical Therapy YouTube Channel

Identify Your Niche

I found that there was a huge gap in the YouTube market for total knee replacement specific content. There were already lots of channels talking about low back pain, but post-surgical total knee replacement is relatively untapped.

Years ago, channels could be broad and general.

Channels like Ask Dr Jo or Bob & Brad could talk about physical therapy in general and generate millions of subscribers. Today, however, the algorithm is delivering more targeted results and a person who had a total knee replacement isn’t interested in seeing videos about shoulder pain.

The 2022 strategy for creating a YouTube channel is to pick a specific topic niche like “Rotator Cuff Repair” and go deep into that topic.

1. Recovery Time
2. Home Management
3. What to Expect
4. Return to Work
5. Complications
6. Return to Driving
7. Sports After Rotator Cuff Repair
8. and so on…

Understand the YouTube Algorithm

While nobody truly understands the YouTube algorithm, it is helpful to have a general idea of what YouTube is trying to achieve. We believe the YouTube algorithm is designed to provide viewers with recommended videos the viewer is most likely interested in watching.

YouTube rewards watch time. Channels that produce videos with the highest viewer retention and engagement are recommended more frequently.

As a side bonus, more watch time means more advertisements are shown, more ads mean more revenue for both the creator and YouTube the company.

To Create Your First Physical Therapy YouTube channel

1. You will need a Google Account
2. Sign in to YouTube on your computer
3. You will click on your profile picture where you may choose to “create a channel”
4. Watch the video below for more details.

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