Make $100 Per Day On YouTube Without Being Monetized

What if you could get a PayPal deposit for your YouTube channel before a single dollar of ad revenue ever hit your account? That is not a hypothetical. Alston received a payment from his YouTube work before he reached monetization on May 11th, 2020. The method behind that early income is affiliate marketing, and in this post you will see exactly how to replicate it with a free YouTube account and a free Amazon Associates account, starting today.

Most people assume the only way to earn from YouTube is through the YouTube Partner Program, which requires 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. That ceiling cuts off hundreds of thousands of creators who are sitting on a real income opportunity they have not touched yet. This guide walks through every step Alston laid out in the video so you can skip the wait and start collecting commissions regardless of your subscriber count.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A clear explanation of affiliate marketing and why YouTube is one of the best distribution channels for it
The exact four-step process Alston outlines for getting from zero to your first commission
Real product examples, including commission math, so you know what to expect per sale
Evidence from actual small channels with under 300 subscribers already in the game
An honest look at the drawbacks of Amazon Associates and why the commission rate matters
A framework for choosing products that give you the best shot at meaningful income per sale
A tool to help you figure out which online method fits your current situation: finder.platformproof.com

The PayPal Screenshot That Changes Everything

Alston opens the video by showing a PayPal payment he received for creating YouTube videos. The key detail he points to is the date: the payment came in before May 11th, 2020, which is the date he was officially accepted into the YouTube Partner Program. He had not earned a single cent in ad revenue at that point. The money came from somewhere else entirely.

That somewhere else is affiliate marketing. And if it worked for Alston before he had monetization, it can work for you right now, whether you have 50 subscribers or 500. The subscriber count is irrelevant to the affiliate model. What matters is whether you are creating content that sends people to a product link.

What Affiliate Marketing Actually Is

Affiliate marketing is recommending other people’s products and services. When someone clicks your unique affiliate link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. You do not handle shipping, returns, customer service, or inventory. You make the video, add the link, and collect a percentage of every sale that flows through your content.

YouTube is one of the strongest places to run this model because people search YouTube specifically to see products in action before they buy. A viewer who types “KitchenAid stand mixer review” into YouTube is already in buying mode. They want someone to show them the product, confirm it is worth the money, and tell them where to get it. That is exactly the content you will be making.

Step 1: Create a Free YouTube Account

If you do not already have a YouTube channel, this step takes about ten to fifteen minutes. Go to YouTube, sign in with a Google account, and set up a channel. You do not need a fancy name, a logo, or a brand identity to get started. The channel is just a container for the videos you are about to make.

The channel gives you a URL you can reference when you sign up for affiliate programs. That URL is important for the next step, so make sure your channel is created and you have the link to it ready.

Step 2: Sign Up for Amazon Associates

The second step is creating a free account with Amazon Associates, which is Amazon’s affiliate program. Go to affiliate-program.amazon.com and click the sign-up button. The process takes about ten to fifteen minutes.

During the setup, Amazon will ask for a website or URL. This is where you paste your YouTube channel URL. That is all you need. You do not need a blog, a website, or any other platform. Your YouTube channel counts as your primary web presence for the application.

Once you are approved, you will have access to product links for virtually every item Amazon sells. You can generate a unique affiliate link for any product, and when someone clicks that link and buys within 24 hours, you earn a commission on the sale.

Step 3: Find Products Over $100 Already in Your House

This is the step most people overthink. Alston’s recommendation is straightforward: walk through your home and take an inventory of products you already own, use regularly, or recently purchased. Kitchen appliances, blenders, televisions, standing desks, video game equipment, anything that sits in your home and that you genuinely use qualifies as a candidate.

The reason he emphasizes products over $100 is the commission math. Amazon’s commission rates run between three and ten percent depending on the product category. On a $30 item, you might earn ninety cents. On a $100 product at ten percent, you earn $10. On a $346 product, the math gets much more interesting.

The example Alston uses is a KitchenAid stand mixer. It retails for around $346 and ships on Amazon Prime. At a ten percent commission rate, that is approximately $34 per sale. One sale per day would put you within reach of $100 in daily commissions. Two or three sales and you are past it. Compare that to promoting a $20 item at three percent: you would need dozens of sales daily to hit the same target.

He also walks through the blender category as a second example. Searching Amazon for blenders over $100, he lands on a Ninja Mega Kitchen System Blender as a strong candidate. The process is the same: find the product, grab the affiliate link, and create content around that specific item. Once you have one product working, you move to the next appliance, the next kitchen gadget, the next item in your home you could make a video about.

Step 4: Create the Content and Add Your Link

The fourth step is the one most people delay because they assume YouTube content requires professional equipment, a polished presence, or years of experience. The evidence Alston shows in the video makes that assumption hard to hold onto.

There is a video in the stand mixer search results that has 576,000 views. The creator does not show their face. It is a simple video showing the mixer in use, running for about two and a half minutes. That is it. The person filming it likely never appeared on camera at all. The video simply demonstrates the product and points viewers to a link.

The types of content that work for this model include product reviews, how-to videos showing the product in use, recipe videos that feature the appliance, and unboxing videos where you open the product fresh out of the box. All of these video types serve buyers who are already close to making a purchase decision. You are simply the last piece of information they needed before clicking buy.

For title, thumbnail, and description: include the product name exactly as it appears on Amazon. If someone types “Ninja Mega Kitchen System Blender review” into YouTube, your video needs those words in the title to show up. Alston shows this live in the video: paste the product name directly into the YouTube search bar and watch how many results appear. Those are your competitors, and many of them are small channels doing exactly what you are about to do.

Once your video is uploaded, add your Amazon affiliate link in the video description. That is the only call to action you need. Viewers who want the product will click the link, buy on Amazon, and you collect the commission.

Not sure which online income method fits your situation right now?

Answer a few questions and get a personalized match at finder.platformproof.com.

Real Channels Leaving Money on the Table

Alston pulls up several real YouTube channels during the video, and the missed opportunity is striking. One channel has 74 subscribers and has accumulated nearly 12,000 views on an unboxing video for a blender. In the video description: no affiliate link. Alston does the math out loud. If just ten percent of those 12,000 viewers clicked on an affiliate link and bought the product, the creator would have made hundreds of dollars. Instead, they made nothing from the affiliate angle because the link simply was not there.

He shows a second channel with 69 subscribers and 18 views, and a third with 290 subscribers and 417 views, who appears to be using the opportunity. The subscriber counts are not the point. The point is that people are searching for these product videos every day, watching them, and buying. The only question is whether your affiliate link is in the description when they finish watching.

An unboxing video Alston clicks through is under three minutes long. The creator is not on camera. They are simply opening a blender box and setting items on a table. And it is getting views from people who want to see what comes in the box before they order. That is a completely achievable video for anyone with a phone and a product to open.

Honest Drawbacks of Amazon Associates

Alston is direct about the limitations of this approach, which is worth paying attention to because most online income tutorials skip the downsides entirely.

Drawback one: Amazon does not pay affiliates particularly well. While the program advertises up to ten percent commission, most popular product categories pay between three and five percent. If you are promoting electronics, for example, the commission rate is on the lower end. The stand mixer example at ten percent is on the higher end. You need to check the commission rate for your specific product category before building a content strategy around it, because three percent on a $100 item is only $3 per sale.

Drawback two: You will eventually run out of relevant products to promote. If your entire channel is built around the items in your kitchen and living room, you will reach a natural ceiling on content ideas. You can research additional Amazon products and buy a few to review, but the strategy of exclusively using what you already own has a finite horizon.

Drawback three: Competition from established channels. The stand mixer search results Alston shows include channels with hundreds of thousands of subscribers that have been creating this content for years. Getting your video to rank above theirs in search requires attention to SEO, compelling thumbnails, and consistent uploading. It is not impossible for a small channel, but it takes time to build the authority needed to compete at the top of those results.

The Commission Math: What to Realistically Expect Per Sale

Understanding the numbers before you start helps you pick the right products and set honest expectations. Here is how the math shakes out using the examples from the video:

KitchenAid stand mixer at $346 with 10% commission: approximately $34 per sale. You need about 3 sales per day to hit $100 daily.
A $100 product at 10% commission: $10 per sale. You need 10 sales per day.
A $100 product at 3% commission (more realistic for popular categories): $3 per sale. You need about 33 sales per day to hit $100.
A $346 product at 3% commission: about $10.38 per sale. You need roughly 10 sales per day.

The lesson from these numbers is that product selection matters enormously. You want products that sit in higher commission categories AND carry a price tag over $100. Kitchen appliances, beauty tools, outdoor gear, and select home goods tend to sit in that range. Electronics carry some of the lowest commission rates on the platform, so a $400 TV might pay you less per sale than a $200 stand mixer.

One more thing to know: Amazon’s affiliate cookie window is 24 hours. If someone clicks your link and buys within 24 hours, you earn the commission. If they come back two days later and buy without clicking your link again, you earn nothing. This is why video content tends to outperform blog posts for Amazon affiliates: a viewer who watches your review and immediately clicks your link is more likely to buy within that window than someone who bookmarks a blog post and comes back later.

A Simple Starting Plan

If you want to put this into motion after reading, here is the sequence that matches what Alston outlines in the video:

Create a free YouTube account if you do not have one. This takes 10-15 minutes.
Go to affiliate-program.amazon.com and sign up for Amazon Associates using your YouTube channel URL as your website. This also takes about 10-15 minutes.
Walk through your home and list every product you own that costs over $100. Kitchen appliances, tools, fitness equipment, and electronics are all fair game.
Search each product name on Amazon and check the commission rate for its category before committing to a content series around it.
Search the product name on YouTube to see how many videos already exist. Read the view counts. Look at how old those videos are. If channels with under 500 subscribers are getting views on that topic, you have a realistic chance to do the same.
Film your first video: a review, a how-to, a recipe, or an unboxing. You do not need to show your face. Keep it under 10 minutes. Use the product name in your title, thumbnail text, and description.
Add your Amazon affiliate link in the video description. Mention in the video that the link is there.
Repeat the process for the next product. Create 5-6 videos about a single product from different angles before moving to the next one.

Find Your X

Amazon Associates on YouTube is one path to online income without waiting for monetization. But it is not the only path, and it is not the right fit for everyone. The commission rates have limits. The competition in popular product categories is real. And if you are looking for income that scales past $100 per day without depending on dozens of product sales, there are other models worth understanding.

If you want to figure out which online income method actually matches your current situation, your available time, and the skills you already have, start at finder.platformproof.com. Answer a few questions and get a specific recommendation instead of working through every option yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to be monetized on YouTube to make money with this strategy?

No. Affiliate marketing through Amazon Associates has no connection to the YouTube Partner Program. You can earn commissions on day one with zero subscribers, as long as your affiliate link is in the video description and viewers are clicking it. Alston explicitly received a payment through this method before his channel was monetized.

How much does Amazon Associates actually pay?

Amazon advertises up to ten percent, but most popular product categories pay between three and five percent. Kitchen appliances, home improvement, and some beauty categories tend to sit toward the higher end. Electronics and video games are on the lower end. Before building a content series around any product, check the current commission rate for its category on the Amazon Associates website. Rates do change.

What kinds of products work best for this strategy?

Products priced over $100 in higher-commission categories give you the best return per sale. Kitchen appliances, blenders, stand mixers, fitness equipment, outdoor and garden tools, and home office gear all tend to fit this profile. The other factor is searchability: the product needs to have people actively searching for reviews and how-to content on YouTube.

Do I have to show my face on camera?

No. Alston shows multiple examples in the video of creators with hundreds of thousands of views who never appear on camera. A two-and-a-half-minute video showing a stand mixer in use, filmed from above a counter, generated 576,000 views. Unboxing videos that show only hands and a table work. Screen recordings with a voiceover work. The product is what viewers came to see, not the creator’s face.

How long do the videos need to be?

Short videos work. Several of the examples Alston pulls up in the video are under 10 minutes, and some are under 3 minutes. The goal is to answer the viewer’s specific question: does this product work, how do I use it, what comes in the box. Once you have answered that question, the video is done. Padding runtime to hit an arbitrary length target hurts watch time and retention.

When does Amazon pay out affiliate commissions?

Amazon pays commissions approximately 60 days after the end of the month in which the qualifying purchase was made. This accounts for the return window. So a commission earned in January would be paid in late March. The 24-hour cookie window means you earn the commission on anything a buyer adds to their cart within 24 hours of clicking your link, not just the specific product you linked.

Can I use affiliate programs other than Amazon for this same YouTube strategy?

Yes. The core strategy of making product review content and adding affiliate links works with any affiliate program. Other programs often pay higher commission rates than Amazon. Some direct-to-brand affiliate programs pay 10 to 30 percent. The YouTube content creation approach Alston describes works with any affiliate link, not just Amazon Associates. Amazon is the easiest starting point because the sign-up is free and the product catalog is enormous.

What if I do not own any products worth reviewing?

You have a few options. First, look harder: most households have kitchen appliances, cleaning tools, personal care products, or home office gear that exceeds $100. Second, buy one product specifically to review it and treat the cost as a business expense. Third, research products on Amazon and make comparison or research videos using publicly available specs and existing reviews. You do not always need to physically hold the product to create useful content around it.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “Make $100 Per Day On Youtube Without Being Monetized,” YouTube, https://youtu.be/tQr4bRaDJJw
Amazon Associates Program: affiliate-program.amazon.com
Amazon Associates commission rate schedule (rates vary by category and are subject to change)