There is, was and will always be several ways to make A LOT of money off of youtube.
I've converted tons of CPA offers without ever actually creating a video. I used to do a lot of comment voting w/ ringtones offers on music videos, and would sometimes make upwards of $500 / day doing that. (avg was about $150) That strategy died for me though, as it became more and more frustrating to overcome the youtube spam filters w/ regards to comment voting, and ringtone offers started becoming more scarce and regulated. Some people still make quite a bit of money doing comment voting, though. I'm not sure how they do it so consistently. I've observed quite a few Blackhat comment marketing strategies on popular videos, where people are promising access to really high-demand content, behind a content locker. I would bet some of these folks are making a killing... thousands per day, even.
I'm pretty much done with the comment voting strategy though. I've found a couple of more discrete strategies for converting things on youtube. In the last couple of days, I've carved out a strategy that is landing me 2-3 $20+ clickbank sales per day, so far, without any costs. Again... I have not created one video to make any of this money on youtube.
So yea, I'm not going to get into specifics, but I'm just here to tell you that yes, there is money in youtube. A lot of it. I've tasted it myself, and intend to make far more.