Get Paid for Watching YouTube Videos (An In-Depth Guide)

If you are looking for ways to earn extra cash online, you may have seen people promising that you can earn a lot of money by watching YouTube videos.

This is, however, something you need to be careful of because most of them are scams.

If you see claims that say you can earn hundreds of dollars per day just by watching YouTube videos, then that’s probably a scam. And later on, I will explain why.

Now, the question is, is this a valid way of earning? Can you get paid for watching YouTube videos?

The short answer is YES. But there’s more to it than that.

I’ve tested hundreds of ways to earn online, and have made this in-depth guide about this kind of earning opportunity, so you will know what to expect. I’ll also give you a couple of examples of where you can find this kind of earning opportunity if you find out it is for you.

Is this kind of earning opportunity ethical?

There are a few aspects you first need to know about earning by watching YouTube videos. And the first one we will tackle is whether it is ethical or not.

If you search the internet for how to earn by watching YouTube videos, many of the results displayed will show you sites that involve shortening links. The way these sites work is that you shorten links, find relevant videos, and post the shortened links on those videos.

Then, you will earn every time a person clicks that link. It’s a borderline spamming strategy because when people click that shortened link, it will take them to a website with a lot of spam ads. So, it will be a terrible experience.

Hence, I would consider it a very unethical way of earning because you are actively promoting spam links. Plus, this kind of site doesn’t pay well. So, it’s just a waste of time, in my opinion.

But there are ethical ways to earn money by watching YouTube videos, and later on, I will discuss these methods.

Another kind of method that will allow you to earn by watching YouTube videos is sites that will ask you to comment on or like YouTube videos. What these sites do is promote certain videos by YouTubers who pay them for their service.

These sites will ask you to like or comment on a video in exchange for a small reward. Again, this is not an ethical method since it is considered fake engagement. And as shown in the photo above, YouTube doesn’t allow anything that artificially increases the number of views, likes, comments, or other metrics.

So, it’s another unethical method of earning because you are promoting YouTubers who, in my opinion, don’t always really deserve it. That’s because a YouTube channel has to grow organically. That means all the engagements and reactions must be done naturally without any help from a tool or a service.

Plus, YouTubers who use this kind of service often don’t have good content to offer. That’s why, in my opinion, this kind of method isn’t worth doing.

Outright scams you need to be aware of

Earlier, I mentioned that there are actual scam sites that offer a way for you to earn by watching YouTube videos. It’s very important to learn how to identify these scams so you won’t have to waste your time doing them and then later find out that they are just scams.

One of the best ways to find out if a site is a scam is to check how it pays its members. If a site isn’t very clear about its payment system, it almost always is a scam.

In my experience, legit sites are pretty transparent about their payment system. So, you will immediately know how you can withdraw your earnings even before you become a member of the site.

A good example I can share with you is a site called Wintub. This site claims you can earn by watching short videos. You will earn rewards for working on their earning opportunities. However, their payout threshold is unusually high. While that isn’t the best indication of whether a site is legit or a scam, the rewards you will earn will be very low.

And the longer you keep watching videos, the lower the rewards you will earn. So, it will take a lot of time before you can withdraw your earnings, and you will eventually lose interest. You get the feeling that they designed it this way so that they won’t have to pay their members, and I have never heard of anyone managing to get to the payout threshold and getting paid.

Another thing you need to look out for is when a site is not transparent with its payment system. If you see a site that won’t explain how you can withdraw your earnings, then you should be wary of these sites.

In my experience, legit sites are very transparent with how they pay their members. They don’t have any hidden requirements to withdraw your earnings. The problem with this kind of issue is that it will usually be too late when you find out. You’ve already spent a bit of time working on the site, since you will only experience this when you’ve earned enough rewards to withdraw your earnings.

What will happen is that when it’s time to withdraw your earnings, they will make up several excuses that will say you can’t withdraw your earnings unless you meet a certain kind of requirement.

When you complete that requirement, there will be another hurdle you need to clear, and the cycle goes on. In the end, you will not get paid. This kind of scam isn’t only prevalent on sites where you can earn by watching YouTube videos. It is also present in other Get-Paid-To (GPT) sites.

Their strategy is to frustrate the member until they give up trying to withdraw their earnings. So, they are essentially getting free labor from members who were duped by their scam.

But probably the most glaring thing that will help you identify if a site is a scam is the amount they claim you can earn from them. Let’s just make it clear. You won’t be able to earn hundreds of dollars per day just by watching videos. That’s a fact. If that were true, people would quit their day jobs and just watch videos all day.

So, you need to be wary of these exaggerated claims. Always ask yourself, Is this too good to be true? Because if it is, then it’s most often a scam.

Realistically speaking, you can earn around $5 to $10 from this kind of earning opportunity in a month, at most. That’s the amount you can expect from legit sites.

5 Realistic ways to earn from watching videos

Now that you know how to spot scam sites and you know the unethical sites you need to avoid, it’s time we talk about the realistic and ethical ways you can earn from watching YouTube videos. These are the two options I’ve found that are worth your time, in my opinion.

I will keep updating this guide if I find new ways, so make sure to bookmark this page and check on it from time to time for new opportunities.

#1 – Timebucks

Timebucks is a GPT site you can join from all countries. It has a lot of different ways to earn, and one of them is to earn by watching videos and ads.

To find these tasks, you need to go to the content section inside the member area.

Here, you can find options both in the “Content” section and sometimes also in the “Tasks” section.

There are not that many videos available to watch here, but you earn more by watching videos here than you do on many other platforms.

#2 – Pawns

Pawns is not a platform where you can make money by watching videos directly on the platform. However, you can earn from it while watching videos.

You will earn by sharing your unused internet whenever you are online. You just need to install it on your computer or phone, and then you will earn in the background.

That means that you can earn even when watching YouTube videos, so it is an easy way to earn a bit extra.

#3 – PrizeRebel

One of the best ways to earn just by watching videos is to join PrizeRebel or other similar Get-Paid-To sites.

This is one of the most popular GPT sites out there. The reason why it’s very popular is that it offers a lot of earning opportunities, including watching videos.

However, just keep in mind that you won’t necessarily be watching YouTube videos. The videos you can watch will mostly come from Hideout.TV, which is another video hosting site.

The thing you need to remember with this earning opportunity is that it doesn’t pay that well. But you can have fun watching the videos since some of them are about fun and interesting topics. The good thing is that the site also offers plenty of other ways to earn.

So, you can just boost your earnings by working on the other earning opportunities it offers.

You can also check out this list of the best sites to earn by watching videos. Many of these work similarly to PrizeRebel, so you won’t necessarily be able to earn by watching YouTube videos, but just videos in general.

#4 – Opinion Edge

Opinion Edge is a survey site that will let you earn rewards by answering surveys, but it also offers another way to earn, which is called Campaign Offers. For this opportunity, all you have to do is watch YouTube videos and shorts.

It doesn't offer high rewards, but it's a way to earn by watching videos. It pays via PayPal, or you can also convert your rewards to Tango gift cards.

Opinion Edge is available in many countries (34 countries), but most of the opportunities will be for people who live in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, and Mexico.

#5 – Brave

Brave is a browser that will let you earn rewards if you use it. This feature is called Brave Rewards. When you use this browser, you can just go to YouTube and watch videos.

Then, the browser will sometimes show you ads. You have to watch the ads to earn rewards. However, you need to take note that the rewards you will earn from Brave will be a form of cryptocurrency called BAT (Basic Attention Token).

You won’t be earning real money. But the good thing is that BAT can be exchanged for cash on crypto trading platforms. So, you can still convert all your earnings to cash. You will just need to use a crypto wallet.

The one thing you have to keep in mind with Brave is that it is an ad blocker. So, you will potentially hurt YouTube creators because fewer ads will be shown. And that is really the main source of income for most YouTube creators.

Now, if you support YouTube creators or even website owners, not blocking their ads is the best way you can support them. So, Brave isn’t the ideal option to go for, in my opinion. Brave does realize this, so they provided an option where you can leave a tip for the creator.

It’s not much, but it’s a nice gesture on their end, in my opinion, and something you should consider using to support your favorite creators if you decide to use Brave.

Final thoughts

To conclude, while there are a lot of sites that claim you can earn a lot of cash by watching YouTube videos, they are mostly sites you need to stay away from. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t realistic ways to do that.

As explained above, there are a few realistic ways to earn by watching YouTube videos, and I suggest you use several of them since it won’t take too much of your time. I will keep updating this guide if I find new opportunities, so make sure to bookmark this page and check on it from time to time.

Now, if you are looking for other ways to earn extra cash regularly, I recommend you check out the top survey and GPT sites in your country instead. The sites on this list all have good earning potential, and all of them are legit and free to join.

If you have any comments, questions, or have any experiences on how to get paid for watching YouTube videos, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.