YouTube Shorts Monetization Requirements for 2023

Table of Contents

What are the YouTube Shorts monetization requirements?
What was the YouTube Shorts fund?
How much can you earn from YouTube Shorts
Brand partnerships and sponsorships
How YouTube Shorts monetization works
Conclusion

Not only can creators earn ad revenue from long-form content, but YouTube has also made it possible to earn an income through short-form content, known as YouTube Shorts. 

In this blog article, you will learn everything there is to know about making money from short-form content and to ensure that your channel meets all the necessary requirements for YouTube Shorts monetization.

As a bonus, we’re sharing an alternative way to earn money from YouTube Shorts other than through the YouTube Partner Program.

What Are the YouTube Shorts Monetization Requirements?

To be eligible for YouTube Shorts monetization, you channel needs to meet one of these criteria:

• Have at least 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views in the last 90 days.
• Have at least 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours on long-form YouTube content in the last 12 months.

Source: YouTube

As you can see, you need at least 1,000 subscribers for both of these criteria to be met, so it would be wise to do some reading up on how to gain that first 1,000 subscribers if you haven’t already done so.

Furthermore, YouTube has some very specific criteria to ensure that eligible Shorts add value and aren’t a rehash of content that has already been created. Channels that engage in the following actions will be ineligible for YouTube Shorts monetization:

• Using clips from movies or shows you don’t have the rights to.
• Uploading another creator’s content and saying that it is your own. 
• Uploading compilations without adding your own original content.
• Paying for automated or fake views.

Creators that want to monetize their YouTube Shorts also need to be part of the YouTube Partner Program, which has its own set of requirements:

• Meet YouTube’s channel monetization guidelines
• Have no strikes against your channel
• 2-step verification turned on for your Google account
• Reside in a region where the YouTube Partner Program is available to creators

What was the YouTube Shorts Fund?

Back in 2021, YouTube launched the Shorts Fund which was a pool of $100 million dollars that was distributed to creators from 2021 to 2022. 

This was when YouTube Shorts just got launched and the fund was Google’s way of competing with TikTok. 

Creators didn’t need to be part of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) to have been eligible for compensation through the fund. 

Fast forward to 2023 and things have changed a bit. The fund has closed down and creators now need to belong to the YPP to be eligible for YouTube Shorts monetization. 

How Much Can You Earn from YouTube Shorts

Making money from Shorts is incredibly difficult. You literally need thousands of views just to earn a small percentage through the YPP. 

There’s no standard amount that creators can earn from their YouTube Shorts since it depends on a number of factors including how many people actually viewed the ad. 

Some people say you can get paid up to $3 per 1,000 views, while others say you can get paid $0.04 per 1,000 views. However, there’s nothing concrete from YouTube themselves about this figure. 

But, if Shorts are just as popular as long-form YouTube videos, then we know that you will need a lot of views before you can earn any meaningful income from Shorts.

Now, working towards earning money from YouTube Shorts through the YPP could be something worth doing. But there’s another better way to monetize your YouTube Shorts outside of the YouTube Partner Program.

Brand Partnerships and Sponsorships

There’s going to be a lot of money and focus flowing into short-form video in 2023 and beyond. In fact, according to Hubspot’s Marketing Strategy and Trends report, 90% of marketers will increase or maintain their investment in short-form videos. 

This is because marketers believe that short-form content has some of the highest ROI figures compared to other marketing trends.

As a result, one of the best ways to monetize your YouTube Shorts outside of the YPP is through brand partnerships and sponsorships.

A brand partnership is when another company sponsors a product or pays you to advertise one of their products in your videos. 

You don’t need millions of views and thousands of subscribers for this to be successful. To land a sponsorship from a brand you need a loyal audience and an established YouTube brand. 

This means you need to focus on building a community by creating a lot of content that is highly relevant to your target audience. 

Of course, this also means making use of all of YouTube’s features to build your community, including YouTube posts, playlists, YouTube memberships, and Shorts.

How YouTube Shorts Monetization Works

YouTube Shorts monetization works differently compared to earning money from regular YouTube content. 

This is because of the music component of Shorts content. 

Because Shorts tend to feature music from other musicians, the revenue generated from each video is split between the creator and the music publishers who have the distribution rights to the music used in each Shorts video.

Source: YouTube

YouTube pays the music publisher based on how often their music is used in Shorts videos. 

If a Shorts video features 3 music tracks, then 75% of the revenue generated from that clip is paid to the music publisher. 

Whereas if only one song is used in a Shorts video, then the revenue is split 50/50 between the creator and the holder of the distribution rights for that particular song.

If a Shorts video features no music tracks, then the creator keeps all the revenue generated by his/her video. 

YouTube explains that there are 4 steps in the YouTube Shorts monetization process:

• All revenue generated from ads between Shorts are added together in a pool.
• Music publishers get paid their cut based on the number of times their intellectual property was used in Shorts content.
• Then, revenue is distributed to monetizing creators based on their share of total views from Shorts in each country.
• Lastly, 45% revenue share is applied for each creator regardless of whether they used music or not.

Shorts earnings are based on three main factors, these being the amount of views you get, the region you live in, and the number of music tracks used in your content.

Conclusion

Meeting the YouTube Shorts monetization requirements is actually quite possible. 

In my opinion, smaller channels that are just starting out should aim to meet the second requirement we shared; having 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours for long-form content over the last 12 months. 

Although meeting these requirements isn’t a monumental task, earning good money from YouTube Shorts is no small feat. 

If you want to make money through YouTube Shorts, whether that be through the YPP or other methods like sponsorships, you’ll need to focus on building a loyal audience of subscribers.