YouTube Shorts Monetization
How to Earn Money on YouTube in 2023
Going into 2023, YouTube Shorts monetization is offering huge income potential to creators.
These days, Shorts is one of the hottest features on YouTube. Shorts boast over 30 billion daily views, with 1.5 billion users flocking to short-form content every month.
For video creators, Shorts has been offering one main income opportunity so far: The YouTube Shorts Fund, which paid out $100M to creators in 2021 and 2022. Depending on engagement on their Shorts, creators could see bonuses between $100 and $10,000.
Moving into 2023, though, YouTube Shorts monetization is changing. YouTube is not just tweaking the Shorts algorithm, but also its Partner Program, and will soon shift to revenue sharing for Shorts.
Here’s all you need to know.
Report: YouTube Shorts will join the Partner Program, finally monetizing the TikTok clone for creators
YouTube Shorts has been a resounding success so far in becoming a clone of TikTok, and now YouTube is really opening the floodgates. Soon, YouTube Shorts will join the Partner Program, making monetization of the short-form video easy for creators.
Update 9/20: YouTube has made this news official.
YouTube Partner Program expands with Shorts revenue sharing; the ‘Creator Music’ catalogue coming. As first reported by The New York Times, YouTube Shorts will be joining the Partner Program “early next year,” giving creators a shot at the money generated through advertising around these videos.
The YouTube Partner Program has paid out to creators for years now and has relatively easy requirements for entry. The minimum requirements for eligibility include at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the course of one year. 10 million views on Shorts within 90 days will also be a part of the qualification.
YouTube is also opening up new options that will help creators monetize their Shorts without being in the Partner Program. This includes paid channel memberships and “Super Thanks” tipping, but YouTube hasn’t yet disclosed what the requirements will be for unlocking these options.
Payouts for Shorts will be slightly different, though.
YouTube as the platform will retain 55% of funds generated, while 45% will be distributed to creators – it’s the opposite for regular YouTube videos. Apparently, part of the reason for this is so that creators can use music in Shorts without worrying about rights, as they would on other platforms as The Verge points out.
YouTube Shorts first debuted in 2021, and have quickly grown in popularity.
The platform reported over 1.5 billion users as of this June. Prior to this change, Shorts had only been monetized through “Creator Funds” as well as independently obtained sponsorships and deals, which can make it difficult for smaller creators to profit off of their videos, even if they manage to get millions of views.
