Niche RPM Tracker

Make Money Online / Affiliate Content

Real RPM $9-17 · competition: high

The niche about niches. The viewer is already primed to click an affiliate link, so affiliate income from the tools you mention often beats the ad RPM outright. 20-40% recurring on the tools reviewed.

Monetisation angle: AI tools, hosting, courses, affiliate networks

Typical content: side hustle reviews, AI tool reviews, affiliate breakdowns, "how I make money online"

Scored

Competition	5/10
Monetisation route	Affiliate + ads
Production cost	5/10
Shelf life	8/10

Viewer country changes everything

Tier	Countries	CPM	RPM
Tier 1	US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany	$15-$50	$8-$25
Tier 2	Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, UAE	$5-$15	$2-$8
Tier 3	Most of Asia, Africa, Latin America	$0.50-$3	$0.20-$1.50

How to use this number

RPM is what you receive per 1,000 views after YouTube's 55% cut, ad-blockers, and non-monetised views. Plan against RPM, not CPM — a niche advertising at $20 CPM typically lands $8–12 RPM once everything is subtracted.

Two things routinely break the maths:

Your viewer's country. A video pulling mostly Tier-1 views out-earns the same view count from Tier-3 viewers several times over. Targeting English-language, US-relevant topics is the single biggest RPM lever that costs nothing.
Volume, not cleverness. At $8 RPM, $1,000/month needs roughly 125,000 monthly views. At $2 RPM it needs 500,000. The niche decides how much upload volume your target income demands.

Also see the Claims Lab for the difference between a niche that pays and a headline that does not.

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