YouTube Shorts Monetization: How to Earn from YouTube Shorts

Vertical short-form videos have become immensely popular in the current social media scene and contrary to what we think, TikTok is not the only reason for the popularity. Instagram and YouTube also have equally popular and successful short-form video programs.  In fact, as far as ROI is concerned, short-form video usually has it on the higher side, with much more engagement than most other kinds of content. As a result, this form of content has become rather lucrative for brands as well as content creators, and as expected, the form is here to stay and gain even more popularity all over the world. In this article, let us delve deep into its secrets and discuss exactly how to work on YouTube Shorts monetization. 

Can You Monetize YouTube Shorts?

Although the YouTube Shorts were not originally a part of the YouTube Partner Program or the YPP, much to the delight of the Shorts Content Creators, the announcement regarding monetization of the shorts was made by the platform in late 2022. So of course, since then the content creators working on shorts have been able to monetize their YouTube shorts and earn money from their work. 

YouTube Shorts Monetization Requirements

YouTube Partner Program or the YPP is indeed one of the best ways to monetize your content. Once you join, you will be able to access all the relevant tools on YouTube used to make money. This includes the ability of using ads on your videos or use the facility of fan-funding. 

There are 2 different ways in which you can join the YPP program. You can choose any one to suit your convenience. 

• Fan-Funding Only

• Reach 500 subscribers
• Upload as many as 3 public videos in the last 90 days. 
• In the last 365 days, the public watch hours should be as much as 3000 hours or in the last 90 days, there should be as many as 3 million public Shorts views

• Ad Revenue as Well as Fan Funding 

• Reach 1000 subscribers
• In the last 365 days, there should be 4000 watch hours in public long-form videos, and in the last 90 days, there should be 10 million public SHorts views.

4-Step Process to Monetize YouTube Shorts Through Ads

Earning money from YouTube Shorts is not quite similar to earning it from YouTube Longfom videos. In these short-form videos, there is a distinct differentiation between 2 parties – the creators creating these videos and the party who is responsible for providing music to these videos. 

Let us take a look at the 4-Step Process:

1. YouTube creates a pool of all the Shorts ad revenue on it
2. Depending on the views and usage of music across all the short-form content, YouTube makes a calculation of the amount that is supposed to go to the creator pool. The other part of the money is distributed directly to music partners
3. The platform then distributes the revenue to the monetized creators of Shorts by allocating a definite percentage starting from 5% going through 10%, 15%, 20%, etc. depending on the total share of the creators’ views
4. Creators get to keep 45% of their revenue share.

Source – (YouTube Shopping affiliate programme)

How to Opt-in for YouTube Shorts Monetization?

If you are now wondering how to even start this process of monetization, here are a few steps that you should find helpful. 

1. Click on Sign In on YouTube
2. You can see your profile picture on the top right. Click on it and after that, click on YouTube Studio
3. On the left menu, you will find an option that says “Earn”.
4. If you have already met the requirements to be eligible, you will be able to see the “Apply” button. If not, you will see a button that says “Get Notified.” Click on the option you see
5. Next, click on the “Start” option so that you can review and accept the basic terms and conditions
6. After this, you can link your AdSense account if you already have one. Otherwise, you can click on “Start” for a new account”
7. Next YouTube will review your application. This may take up to a month;
8. Once the platform approves you, go back to the “Earn” option of YT studio and accept the module of YouTube Shorts Monetization

Can You Monetize YouTube Shorts Without 1,000 Subscribers?

If you are one of those who are only just starting on YouTube, you can quickly earn 500 subscribers and join the YouTube Partner Program to monetize your shorts. Although you won’t be able to earn the ad revenue, you can still monetize most of your Shorts content through the fan-funding tools that we have already talked about. 

How Much Money Will You Earn from Shorts?

Well, even till a year back  YouTube Shorts Monetization did not look very sustainable and could not generate a very decent revenue. For example, a short with 468500 views would fetch you as little as $16.61. 

However, there have been a lot of updates on advertisements and the RPM (Revenue per mille) on shorts have impressively increased by a whopping 150%. The same entity who earned the initial meagre amount can now see the RPM of $0.10 on their shorts, with the other factors remaining constant. 

So on average, creators may expect to earn somewhere between $0.03 and $0.70 for every 1000 views on the YouTube Shorts. 

To understand this better, let us consider a case:

• A creator manages to get a million views on a video that he uploaded from the United States
• Let us assume that the total number of views on monetized shorts in the United States for the concerned month is 400 million and the pool that YouTube creates from the ads on these shorts is $200,000
• So the million views of the creator amount to 0.25% of the month’s total number of monetized Shorts
• So YouTube gives $116,400 to the fund for creators based on the distribution logic discussed before
• So the share of the creator is .25% of $116,400 i.e. $291. He finally gets 45% of the amount i.e. $130.95

Repurpose your short-form content, then schedule it in Buffer

Considering everything, if you are already creating long form videos on YouTube, adding Short-form and vertical videos to the list will be a great way to monetize your videos. This would also help in boosting the reach of your content according to the YouTube algorithm.

Want to make your shorts more productive? Just create one short-form video on YouTube and then you can repurpose it in Buffer so that you can use them in all the short-form video platforms that you are a part of. This will not only make your presence in the YouTube platform consistent, but also increase your reach to a great extent.

Other Ways to Monetize Your YouTube Shorts

The whole process of  YouTube Shorts Monetization may seem a little overwhelming and you might end up thinking that you won’t be able to finally monetize your content and live up to the YouTube Shorts Monetization requirements list. But fret not, there are also other ways to monetize your content.

YouTube has declared that about 80% of those people who have joined the YPP monetization scheme on meeting the YouTube Shorts Monetization requirements of YouTube Shorts, are also earning through other monetization features of YouTube.

Let’s take a look at some of the features:

Join an Affiliate Program

Based on how popular your channel is and your location, there are 2 ways through which you can earn money with the affiliate program.

YouTube Shopping Affiliate Program

The YouTube Shopping Affiliate program is a great way to earn money, at the same time enabling your followers find the products they want. It is no different than regular YouTube Shopping really. All you have to do is tag the product in your content and with the help of a CTA (Call to Action), you can inform your viewers about where to shop the product from. The scheme also helps your content reach more brands and more people, and when fans buy, you can also get a competitive commission. 

External Affiliate Programs

If you have joined an affiliate program directly, you can also use YouTube as a medium to promote it. For this, you will not require any fixed number of subscribers or view time.

The only thing you have to do is find an affiliate program in relation with the products you talk about in your shorts. After that you will be earning an affiliate commission for all the sales that you direct to that particular retailer. In this case, the payment will not be done by YouTube, but by the retailer itself, who is running the affiliate program.

Work With Brands

If the affiliate system sounds too complicated, you can opt for the direct approach and work with the brands directly. If your followers are considerably high in number, the brands may start reaching out by themselves.

If you are an influencer working with brands directly, you will also know about the occasional free products offered or the fees paid for creating and posting content specific to that particular brand.

Patreon

Remember the reference to patrons in the world of art in Renaissance Europe? Patreon does a similar kind of job. It helps content creators to monetize the content they create through paid subscriptions.

As far as Patreon is concerned, the top format is video and so  it is a perfect fit for monetization of your YouTube Shorts.

The benefits of using Patreon is that, firstly you don’t need any minimum number of subscribers or view time for signing up. Once you are done with that, you have to do some research on which program suits your needs the best and why.

Use Shorts to grow viewership for long-form videos

This may not be the direct way of monetizing your short videos on YouTube. But if you are calculating the ROI for shorts, you have to remember this part of the story as well.

The YouTube Shorts may not make spectacular payments to you, but it would surely help you build a bigger and better audience, which in the long run would also prove beneficial for your long-form videos and fetch you more ad revenue at a higher RPM.

How Do I Receive Payments for my YouTube Shorts Earnings?

For  YouTube Shorts Monetization, YouTube typically processes payments through AdSense. You’ll need to set up an AdSense account and link it to your YouTube channel. Payments are made based on your earnings threshold (usually $100) and can be received via direct deposit, wire transfer, or checks, as per the Adsense guidelines.

Wire Transfer: If you prefer direct bank transfers, you can set up wire transfer details in your AdSense account. This method allows for faster payments.

Make Your Videos more Lucrative With Music from Hooper

Whenever you create a video content, it is imperative that you also add suitable music to your videos to make them more interesting and ensure engagement from your audience. But as we all know, finding music free of copyrights is a difficult task in itself and unless you do the research and end up using copyrighted music, you also run the risk of getting your videos taken down. So consider using the huge library of non-copyrighted into music from Hoopr and make your videos more lucrative. Once you have found the perfect music, suitable for the tone and content of your video, you will automatically attract more traffic. 

This was all that you had to know about how to monetize your YouTube Shorts and what steps you could take to make the process more effective, even for your other type of contents. Wait no more and start to discover the world of vertical short-form videos and get paid for all your hard work.