With content monetization being one of the biggest social media trends of 2023, YouTube has stepped up its game and is giving creators the chance to earn money through their shorts.
The evolution of YouTube Shorts
When YouTube first announced that they were getting into short-form content they also introduced the YouTube Shorts Fund — a $100 million fund to be distributed to creators over the course of 2021-2022. In addition to the fund, creators could earn money through Super Chats and shopping integrations, similar to TikTok’s monetization options.
The news was exciting for content creators looking to bring their shorts over to YouTube while offering them money for their work.
And while creator funds have become common across social media apps, they’re not sustainable. Creators can only make a limited amount of money through these funds, and the more creators that get involved, the smaller each individual’s payout becomes.
Now that the soft launch of YouTube Shorts has ended, what’s next for short-form creators on the platform?
The YouTube Shorts Fund has been closed, but there’s a new option for monetizing short-form content. The initial rollout of YouTube Shorts provided limited options for advertisers, seeing as shorts inherently don’t allow for pre or mid-roll ads, as is the practice with longer-form video content.
However, as of February 1st 2023, advertisers can pay to have their content shown between shorts — a move that will really set YouTube Shorts apart from their competitors.
How to monetize your YouTube Shorts
In an exciting development in short-form content monetization, all of the advertising revenue for shorts will be shared among eligible creators on the platform. Any creator with over 1000 subscribers and over 10 million shorts views within 90 days prior to their application will be able to sign up for the monetization program. They’ll then receive a share of the total revenues based on performance.
It’s early days for the program which may mean lower initial payouts, but YouTube is confident that as things grow and develop, creators should see bigger returns.
No matter what kind of content you create, now’s a great time to start pivoting into short-form content on YouTube. Not only is it an ideal platform for expanding your audience and building a strong community around your work, it’s fast becoming the best option for creators who want to make a career out of their content.
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