What are the best monetization methods BESIDES AdSense?

ozimm

BANNED

Apr 29, 2026

1

0

• May 19, 2026

• #1

YouTube AdSense can be properly hit or miss depending on the niche and where your viewers are coming from.
If you were starting a faceless channel today and wanted to maximise revenue from the get go, what monetisation methods would you focus on first?
Affiliate marketing, digital products, sponsorship maybe something else entirely?
Keen to hear what’s actually working for people these days, not just the usual “make good content and it’ll sort itself out” advice
What genuinely moves the needle and brings in proper income?

Thanks in advance!

 

D

DataPhreak

BANNED

Oct 27, 2024

133

71

• May 19, 2026

• #2

yeah i would go with CPA but for this you need to build a community or have enough subscribers to have a portion of them going to your affiliate link

You can also create a shop.

 

moltentomb

Registered Member

Dec 1, 2022

50

32

• May 19, 2026

• #3

I will recommend you create a dropshiping store then you can make more as you are not only redirecting traffic to other offer but instead you convert your own traffic so if you take the right products you should make more

 

hiddenloops

Registered Member

Aug 5, 2025

70

16

• May 19, 2026

• #4

From my opinion Affiliate marketing is generally one of the best besides Adsense. sponsorships, selling digital products, paid communities nd email marketing also work really well if you have audience.

 

oliviarhodes

Junior Member

Jr. VIP

Jun 8, 2025

142

17

• May 19, 2026

• #5

The best option is to sell your services; affiliate programs are another option

 

tianzhihen1223

Newbie

May 19, 2026

6

2

• May 19, 2026

• #6

This is exactly what I need.

 

TopOneYouTube

Regular Member

Jr. VIP

Mar 31, 2026

226

146

• May 19, 2026

• #7

For a faceless channel, Affiliate Marketing (CPA/RevShare) and Digital Products are lightyears ahead of AdSense.
If your niche is finance, crypto, or software/SaaS, find a high-paying affiliate program (like ClickBank, Digistore24, or direct SaaS partnerships) and build your content around solving a specific problem. One good lead can make you more than 50k views worth of AdSense money.
Selling your own cheap digital products (Notion templates, e-books, or guides via Gumroad) is another goldmine because you keep 95% of the profit.

 

ads studio

Elite Member

Jr. VIP

Mar 2, 2021

4,059

1,193

• May 20, 2026

• #8

ozimm said:

Thanks for the replies, I’m mainly focused on making a living from faceless channels, so I really need a solid strategy behind it
If anyone could go a bit deeper on how they’d build one from scratch, would appreciate it heaps.

Click to expand...

If I were building it from scratch, I’d start by picking a niche with strong buyer intent first (not just high views), then map content around problems people are already searching for rather than trending topics. I’d push volume early with simple faceless formats, but focus hard on retention so the algorithm has something to work with.

 

Venusaur

Elite Member

Premium Member

Jul 13, 2024

2,037

5,658

• May 20, 2026

• #9

Affiliate and sponsors

Dropshipping, print on demand, digital products and this kind of stuff can be a pain in the ass, you need to deal with payment processors, clients complaining, delivery something and handle delays (about physical products, ofc), chargebacks...