How to Make Money with YouTube Shorts: 6 Creative Ways to Boost Your Low Revenue Sharing Income

February 15, 2024

How to make money with YouTube shorts:

  1. Promote affiliate links and cost per action marketing tactics.

  2. Seek brand deals and sponsorships.

  3. Dropship merchandise of your personal brand.

  4. Promote your own business on your videos.

  5. Promote videos on other platforms.

  6. Monetize through YouTube Shorts directly.

How to earn money from YouTube Shorts with revenue sharing: The most obvious way of making money with YouTube Shorts is monetizing. But, there’s a reason it’s last on our list- the amount a YouTube creator can earn is tiny, especially starting out. Plus, you need 1,000 subscribers to make money on YouTube. To get paid, you need at least 10 million Shorts views within 90 days. You need 4,000 video view hours on YouTube to make money with Shorts. Keep videos short, around 15 seconds. Include hooks, and an eye catching title and thumbnail. You should post shorts a few times a day, or at least 3 times a week at minimum.

While YouTube Shorts doesn't pay you without 1000 subscribers, you can monetize your videos without them. Affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and selling merchandise are just some ways you can do this. It's crucial for creators to make YouTube Shorts because it offers the chance for your affiliate links, businesses, the brand you promote, or your own personal brand to get in front of millions of viewers every day.

Still, YouTube Shorts won’t be the ultimate source of passive income for you. If you can get monetized, you will only bring in a small amount of money each month, while spending hours of time creating and uploading these videos. With local lead generation, you won’t have to spend much time at all on your websites as soon as they are ranked and bringing in leads, and your income can be far greater.

How to Make Money with YouTube Shorts 2024: 6 Creative Strategies

1. Make Money with YouTube Shorts through Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an online business model where you promote unique affiliate links for certain products or brands that fit with your niche. For instance, if you are creating videos in the outdoor or camping niche, you might find an affiliate program that will give you a commission when you promote the gear you use in your short videos.

The best affiliate links to promote are CPA links, or cost per action links. CPA marketing and affiliate marketing are very similar. Traditional affiliate links require the person who clicked to make a purchase for you to get a commission. With CPA, however, the person who clicked only needs to perform a specific action, like clicking on the link itself or even just interacting with the target website. 

2. Make Money with YouTube Shorts Through Brand Deals

Brand deals and sponsorships often come directly from the brand itself, typically as your YouTube Shorts channel grows. These deals are like affiliate marketing on steroids. You will be paid to promote the brand upfront by posting content about them and their products or services. Your income from this will not depend on whether a customer clicks a specific link, but through the posting of sponsored content.

3. Make Money with YouTube Shorts Through Dropshipping

Dropshipping is an ecommerce business model where you list an item on one platform, purchase it at a lower price from another platform when a customer buys, and ship to them directly. 

One of the most effective ways of selling dropshipping products is by using short form content, especially if you have a shocking or interesting product that needs to be demonstrated to be understood. Imagine you’re selling a unique trinket that mixes your coffee for you in the morning or a giant bubble machine. A short video of these items working will catch a lot of eyes and push traffic to your listing.

You can also dropship your own merchandise that promotes your brand. Some websites, like Printify or Bonfire allow you to design your own shirts and sell to customers without having to house your own inventory.

4. Make Money with YouTube Shorts by Promoting Your Own Business

Your YouTube Shorts can also promote your own business. Here are just a few businesses / items you could promote:

  • Your Amazon FBA store

  • Your Shopify store

  • An online course

  • An Amazon KDP eBook you wrote or outsourced

  • Your Airbnb listing

  • Your digital marketing service

  • Art and graphic design services

  • The quality of videos you offer to clients for their own use

  • Your podcast

Consider YouTube Shorts a commercial for your other bigger income streams.

5. Make Money with YouTube Shorts by Promoting Your Videos on Other Platforms

Take your YouTube Shorts videos and diversify to other social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. Re-using the videos you’ve posted on YouTube will increase your reach and potentially get you more sales if you’re promoting your own business, more clicks if you’re doing affiliate marketing, and more money through those other platforms.

How Does Monetizing YouTube Shorts Compare to Other Platforms?

Platform

Built-In Monetization on?

Creator Fund

Ad revenue model?

Channel Memberships

Donation accepted?

Approx. $ / view

YouTube Shorts

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

$0.0000333

TikTok

No

Yes

Yes

Paywall

Yes

$0.02-$0.04

Instagram Reels

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

$0.00027

Facebook Reels

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

$0.0004

6. Make Money with YouTube Shorts Directly by Monetizing Your YouTube Channel

YouTube Shorts Monetization Rules 2024

The new YouTube Shorts monetization requirements for joining the YouTube Partner Program are:

  • 1,000 subscribers and 10 million eligible public Shorts views in the last 90 days. (aka 111,111,111 views every day for 90 days)

OR

  • 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 valid public watch hours from long-form videos in the last 12 months.

Videos must follow YouTube’s Originality Policy, either showing completely unique or adequately transformed videos. These policies are inline with Google AdSense program policies, YouTube's Copyright, Terms, and Community Guidelines. You will also need to accept the terms within the Shorts Monetization Module to receive Shorts feed ad revenue.

There is no particular length required to monetize a video, but YouTube Shorts in general cannot be longer than 60 seconds. In fact, YouTube recommends that YouTube Shorts be 15 seconds long. Also, there is no limit to how many shorts you can post in a day. But if you post over 3, your subscribers will get no more notifications from you for the next 24 hours.

To know if your YouTube Shorts are eligible for monetization:

  1. Go to YouTube Studio to view YouTube Analytics.

  2. Click on analytics to see the watch hours of your videos (swipe left).

  3. Click on the graph to study how many watch hours you have.

  4. Swipe again and you’ll see subscribers.

  5. Back in YouTube Studio, click Monetization. You’ll see two graphs that visually countdown to when you will be eligible. (You can see this in the YouTube app, too.)

youtube shorts

Can I Earn Money from YouTube Shorts?

Yes, you can earn money from YouTube Shorts. And, as of February 2023, you can earn through YouTube monetization and ads. This is because the YouTube Shorts Fund has been disbanded, meaning that you can now join the YouTube Partner Program to be paid, just like long form videos. YouTube Shorts pays monthly.

How much does YouTube Shorts pay for 1 million views? YouTube Shorts pays between $1000 and $20,000 for 1 million views, but this number is actually closer to $405 because of revenue sharing and the Creator Pool. For this YouTube Shorts creator, it was only $50.pa

YouTube Shorts pays eligible creators a 45% cut of the gross shorts ad revenue and/or YouTube Premium revenue, which for 1000 Shorts Feed views is about $0.04- $0.06.

YouTubers with $100K subscribers make between $2400 and $4000/month in 2024.

For 100K views, YouTube Shorts pays $3.33 total. So, you would need about 3,003,0003 views every day to earn $100/day on YouTube Shorts, following this formula:

100000 = 3.33

X= 100

0.0000333 x X = 100

100 / 0.0000333

You would need about 2,002,002 views each day to make $2000 a month of passive income on YouTube Shorts.

Idealistically, you can earn around $100 dollars a month from making YouTube Shorts through ad revenue sharing alone if you have a relatively popular channel.

How to Get 10 Million Views on YouTube Shorts

To get 10 million views on YouTube shorts, follow these tactics:

  • Change up playback speed. Slowing down or speeding up adds emphasis and catches both the eyes and ears.
  • Test a ton of different videos and produce more of what works. Consider promotions of your upcoming content, “how-to” content, and FAQ content.
  • Use hashtags and effective titles to optimize YouTube SEO.
  • Create commentary or reaction videos using a green screen effect.
  • Use music. Try to use royalty free sounds to avoid copyright issues across platforms.
  • Create seamless transitions to encourage replays.
  • Create shorter videos so viewers don’t get as tired.
  • Get emotional in titles and brief intros.
  • Add a hook every 3-5 seconds.
  • Engage with viewers as much as possible.

10,000,000 views each day on YouTube Shorts can earn $333 per day, or a solid 6 figure salary of $121,545 a year. Even 9,000,000 views a day will clinch your 6 figure goals.

Why are My Youtube Shorts Not Getting Views?

Your Youtube Shorts may not be getting any views because you may:

  • Have poor YouTube video quality
  • You’re uploading horizontal shorts video rather than vertical 
  • Have no unique or interesting audio
  • You have no hook 
  • YouTube doesn’t notify subscribers of your Shorts unless they typically consume this content
  • Aren’t posting enough
  • Using the incorrect hashtag #short instead of #shorts
  • YouTube algorithm changes
  • You haven’t waited long enough (some videos can take a month to get any following).
  • Thousands of long form video creators clipping their content into short form video and becoming YouTube Shorts creators
  • You posted over 3 videos in one day, maxing out the amount of notifications your subscribers can receive within a 24-hour period

The key is to get the audience to engage, because YouTube drives videos and traffic according to what their audience likes and interacts with. But first, you’ll have to have your account monetized before making money solely through YouTube’s platform.

What are the Requirements for Uploading a YouTube Short

  • 60 seconds or less

  • Original content or changed content

  • 9:16 aspect ratio

  • 1920 pixels x 1080 px or 2160 pixels x 3840 pixels or 1080 by 1080 (black bars will go above and underneath

How to Make Money with YouTube Shorts Without Making Videos

  • Find videos that are popular or already viral.
  • Ensure that they are not protected by copyright, and provide your email in your profile in case anyone wants to request the removal of a video.
  • Repost these videos on your YouTube Shorts channel. You will not be able to monetize these videos because it is not original content.
  • Add affiliate marketing or dropshipping links to the videos.

Or, you can outsource your own video editing to a freelancer or VA.

The only way to make $10,000 per month or more on YouTube Shorts without making videos is through affiliate marketing or dropshipping other brands’ products. 

NOTE: There are tons of YouTube videos out there saying that you can simply repost other creator’s videos and build your audience with already viral content. However, with the new way that YouTube pays out, this is no longer possible. Yes, you can continue to post other people’s content, but no matter how many views you get, you will not bring in YouTube Shorts revenue directly.

Is YouTube Shorts Worth It?

YouTube Shorts is worth it to build your audience for other online businesses and income streams. The disadvantages of of Shorts on YouTube include:

  • Small payout

  • Hefty requirements

  • No income consistency

  • Not passive

  • Limit on daily notifications for subscribers

Finally, any views you get as you make YouTube Shorts video will not count towards your view hours you need to collect for monetization. So, if you can’t get 10,000,000 views within 90 days, start making long form YouTube videos and hope to clock 4,000 watch hours there.

CONCLUSION

To make money with YouTube Shorts in 2024 you can monetize your account through extreme requirements, find brand deals, dropship, or promote affiliate links, your own business, or other videos you own on other platforms. With the small YouTube Shorts payout in 2024 it's best to consider YouTube Shorts a form of free advertising for your other businesses.

This free advertising will cost you a lot of time for creation. Not every business does this. Local lead generation involves setting up a website and ranking it on Google, so if you enjoy being a content creator, it keeps that aspect. But, once this site is running, it will only require periodic maintenance. And, local lead generation brings in more money than YouTube Shorts videos by far.

Related Articles on YouTube Shorts

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