Just like all the other social platforms, YouTube has been leaning nonflexible into short-form video content, with a Shorts tab on the main menu and a prominent Shorts full-length on the watch page. So, it’s no surprise that YouTube Shorts reached two billion monthly logged-in users as of July 2023.

In this post, we talk specifically well-nigh YouTube Shorts monetization, a.k.a. how to make money from your YouTube Shorts. If you’re looking for a increasingly unstipulated primer on this format, trammels out our blog post on how to make YouTube Shorts.

Can you monetize YouTube Shorts?

Yes!

It’s been possible to monetize regular long-form YouTube videos for increasingly than 15 years now. In that time, creators, artists, and media companies have earned increasingly than $50 billion from their YouTube content.

But Shorts are a much newer format, and they weren’t originally part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). Fortunately for all those who found themselves wondering, “When will YouTube Shorts be monetized?,” the platform spoken YouTube Shorts monetization options in late 2022. Since then, creators who focus on YouTube’s short video format have been worldly-wise to earn money from their work.

How does YouTube Shorts monetization work?

YouTube Shorts monetization is, well, a little complicated. The sources of monetization are:

• YouTube Shorts ad revenue sharing
• YouTube Premium subscription revenue sharing for Shorts
• YouTube Shopping
• YouTube fan funding

YouTube first launched Shorts monetization through the YouTube Shorts fund in 2021. It was a $100 million fund intended to encourage the adoption of the new format by rewarding Shorts creators who made the most engaging content. It was unchangingly meant to be a stopgap measure while YouTube worked on a long-term model for monetizing Shorts. This fund was discontinued when the Shorts ad revenue sharing model launched in February 2023.

YouTube Shorts ad revenue sharing

In this method of seeing your YouTube Shorts monetized, you get a share of the revenue generated from ads between videos in the Shorts feed. Your share is based on a four-step formula.

1. YouTube adds together all the revenue from ads shown between videos in the Shorts feed.
2. YouTube calculates how much of the revenue associated with Shorts is needed to imbricate music licensing for tracks used in Shorts. That money is paid directly to music partners. The rest of the ad revenue goes into the Creator Pool
3. YouTube allocates a percentage of the total Creator Pool to each monetizing creator based on their share of total views in each country.
4. YouTube applies the revenue share formula: They take 55% of the allocated revenue and you get 45%.

YouTube Premium subscription revenue sharing for Shorts

Like ad revenue sharing, this method of seeing your YouTube Shorts monetized allocates payments based on your share of views within your country. In this case, the formula only applies to subscription Shorts views.

Here’s how YouTube describes the formula:

“YouTube will pay 45% of the net revenue from YouTube Premium that is allocated to monetizing creators for Shorts. A portion of YouTube Premium revenues are allocated to help imbricate financing of music licensing.”

You can see your unscientific daily Shorts Feed ad revenue in YouTube Analytics.

YouTube Shopping features

In wing to revenue sharing from ads and Premium subscriptions, you can monetize your YouTube Shorts using YouTube Shopping to promote your products.

If your Short features products, you can tag them during the upload flow. A product overlay will then show on your content, which allows users to scan and purchase your products without leaving YouTube while standing to watch your Short.

YouTube Fan Funding

Once you turn on YouTube monetization, you’re eligible for all YouTube fan funding options, including:

• Super Thanks
• Super Chat
• Super Stickers, and
• Channel Memberships

The most relevant to creators focused on YouTube Shorts are Super Thanks and Waterworks Memberships.

Formerly known as Viewer Applause, Super Thanks is a way for your biggest fans to show appreciation for your content. Through Super Thanks, a viewer purchases a one-time volatility that only they see over the top of your Short. They moreover get to post a customizable and colorful scuttlebutt in the comments section of the Short.

Super Thanks is misogynist at four price points, ranging from $2 to $50. You get 70% of the Super Thanks revenue without taxes and fees.

Meanwhile, waterworks memberships is a fan funding program that allows you to reward paid members with perks like badges, emojis, sectional content, and live streams.

You can set your membership tiers as low as $0.99 and as upper as $499. You can have up to five tiers with variegated monthly price points and perks. Creators alimony 70% of that amount, while YouTube takes a 30% commission.

Who is eligible for YouTube Shorts monetization?

To be eligible for full YouTube Shorts monetization, you need to have a minimum of 1,000 subscribers. You moreover need to have either 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days or 4,000 valid public watch hours of long-form videos in the last 12 months.

Public watch hours from Shorts in the Shorts Feed don’t count towards the watch hour threshold, so the Shorts views requirement is the largest target if you focus primarily on Shorts.

Can you monetize YouTube Shorts surpassing you hit these thresholds? Yes, but in a limited way. In June 2023, YouTube launched an expanded program to indulge newer creators and those with a smaller pursuit to monetize through YouTube Shopping and fan funding.

However, you will not have wangle to Shorts ad revenue sharing or YouTube Premium subscription revenue sharing.

To wield for this expanded program, you need to have 500 subscribers. You moreover need three valid public uploads in the last 90 days and three million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days. (Or 3,000 valid public watch hours of long-form videos in the past year.)

For both programs, you must also:

1. Understand and comply with the YouTube Waterworks Monetization policies.
2. Live in a region where the program is available. (The expanded program is for now only misogynist in these countries.)
3. Ensure your waterworks doesn’t have any zippy Community Guidelines Strikes.
4. Turn on 2-step verification for your Google account.
5. Have wangle to advanced features on YouTube based on your waterworks history or by verifying your identity (not workable for the expanded program).
6. Have an zippy AdSense account.

You can log into YouTube Studio at any time to see how tropical you are to eligibility, and request notification when you’re eligible.

How to start monetizing YouTube Shorts

Here’s how to wilt part of the YouTube Partner Program and start monetizing your YouTube Shorts.

1. Sign in to YouTube.
2. Click your profile picture in the top right and then click YouTube Studio.
3. Click Earn in the left menu.
4. If you’re eligible, you’ll see an Apply button. Go superiority and click it. If you’re not yet eligible, click the Get Notified sawed-off to come when and finish the process once you meet the requirements.
5. Click Start to review and Accept the Base terms.
6. Link your existing AdSense account, or click Start to set up a new one if you need to.
7. Wait for YouTube to review your application. (This usually takes well-nigh a month, so be patient.)
8. Once you are approved, go when to the Earn section of YouTube Studio and winnow the Shorts Monetization Module.

Note: These are the instructions for applying from your computer. The specific instructions are slightly variegated for Android and iOS, but in both cases, you start by opening the YouTube Studio app and tapping Earn in the marrow menu.

To start monetizing with Super Thanks fan funding, go to the Earn tab in YouTube Studio and click Supers. Click Get Started and follow the prompts.

For Waterworks Memberships, go to the Earn tab, then click Memberships and Get Started.

How much can you earn through YouTube Shorts monetization?

Unfortunately, the earnings from YouTube Shorts are – at least so far – not spectacular. The consensus among YouTube Shorts creators is that revenue per thousand views (RPM) is coming in virtually $0.05 to $0.07. That’s well-nigh $50 to $70 for a million views.

For those of you curious well-nigh YouTube Shorts monetization updates, here is Feb2-Feb 8th earnings from approx 35 Million views. pic.twitter.com/kMyjW6KB0b

— Zach King (@zachking) February 10, 2023

YouTube Shopping revenue will depend entirely on how well you promote your products and the price point of those products. Alimony an eye on Revenue in your YouTube Analytics to see how much you earn through your YouTube Shopping tags in Shorts.

Likewise, Super Thanks will depend on how much your fans value your content, and how tropical a connection you form with them. Super Thanks is, without all, like a digital tip.

So: Are YouTube Shorts monetized? Yes. But, the earnings are not going to replace what a creator would typically earn from long-form YouTube videos.

However, as you’ll see below, the YouTube Shorts monetization features are not the only way to earn money with your short-form content on YouTube.

4 other ways to make money with YouTube Shorts

1. Join an unite program

There are two ways to make money on YouTube Shorts with an unite program, depending on how big your waterworks is and where you live

YouTube Shopping Unite Program

If you have increasingly than 20,000 subscribers and are based in the United States, you may be eligible for the official YouTube Shopping Unite Program. This program allows you to use YouTube Shopping to promote products from other brands in your Shorts and earn a commission.

Just like regular YouTube Shopping, you can tag the products directly in your content and use a undeniability to whoopee to let viewers know where to shop. You can moreover request product samples from select brands to help you plan and develop future YouTube Shorts.

External unite programs

You can moreover use YouTube Shorts to promote unite programs that you join directly. There’s no set number of subscribers for this, or any required value of watch time.

You simply find an unite program that relates to products you mention in your Shorts, and then earn an unite legation for sales you refer to that retailer. In this case, you get paid by the retailer that runs the unite program (or their unite network), rather than by YouTube itself. So how do you unquestionably uncontrived viewers to your unite link?

This YouTube creator uses a pinned scuttlebutt on his Shorts to uncontrived viewers to his profile for links to specific products. Think of it as the YouTube Shorts equivalent to an Instagram link in bio.

He is promoting products using the Amazon Associates program. Since this is one of the largest unite programs out there, we’ve got a whole blog post on everything you need to know well-nigh Amazon Associates.

Shorts that include unite content must follow Google’s Ad Policies and Community Guidelines. You moreover need to unroll that there is paid promotion in the Short. During the upload workflow, tap Yes, it includes paid promotion, then tap Yes.

Your Short will then show a label to let viewers know that the video includes paid promotion.

If you’re interested in this tideway to YouTube Shorts monetization, trammels out our post on how to use unite marketing.

2. Work with brands

Rather than applying for unite programs, you can reach out to brands to work with them directly. If you have a large unbearable following, brands may plane start to reach out to you.

Working with a trademark as a YouTube Shorts influencer could midpoint anything from self-ruling products to getting paid a fee to create and post brand-specific content.

As with unite marketing in YouTube Shorts, you need to unroll the trademark relationship using the paid promotion disclosure option in the upload workflow.

3. Patreon

If you were an versifier living in Renaissance Europe, you’d likely have a patron to fund your work. Patreon brings this concept into modern times by permitting content creators to monetize their content through paid subscriptions.

Video is the top content format on Patreon, so it’s a good fit for monetizing YouTube Shorts. You could use Shorts to share an excerpt of a deep-dive video and let viewers know the full story is misogynist through one of your Patreon membership tiers.

Or, you could use the Polity tab on Patreon to yack with your patrons and develop a community.

So, what’s the wholesomeness of using Patreon over YouTube waterworks memberships? First off, you can create a Patreon with no minimum subscriber or watchtime threshold.

Beyond that, you’ll need to explore each program to see which makes increasingly sense for your specific situation and the perks you want to provide.

For increasingly ideas, trammels out our full blog post on how to earn money with Patreon.

4. Use Shorts to grow viewership for long-form videos

While this is not strictly speaking a uncontrived form of YouTube Shorts monetization, it’s an important thing to think well-nigh when calculating ROI for your YouTube Shorts.

Sure, the YouTube Partner Program payouts for YouTube Shorts are not spectacular. But, expressly for new YouTube creators, Shorts can be the one of fastest ways to build your audience. You can then create and monetize regular long-form YouTube videos, which earn ad revenue at a much higher RPM.