I remember very clearly when YouTube Shorts was first released. They were first only available in India back in the Fall of 2020, as a response to India’s ban of TikTok, and then suddenly everyone wanted in on the action. It wasn’t until March 2021 that Shorts were officially available in the U.S. and then globally later that same year.
Not only are Shorts a sure hit now, but this bite-sized format is giving creators brand-new ways to cash in and a whole new way for creators to get creative on the YouTube platform.
Image Credit: YouTube Blog
YouTube opened up revenue sharing for Shorts a year ago. As a creator, being accepted into the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) is sort of the first big goal you have. For all that hard work making videos, creators want to get paid fairly when their work does well. However, traditionally most of the YouTube money has been found with long-form content, or so we thought.
Well, according to statistics released by the platform, a ton of creators (over 25% of them) who are in the YPP are also earning money just from Shorts. Additionally, Creators who crush it with Shorts often start earning with all those other YouTube features – ads on long videos, subscriptions, all of it! YouTube says that over 80% of creators making money from Shorts also get paid through other stuff.
This Shorts thing is just the start, but it’s obvious that it’s becoming bigger than any of us thought possible. Long videos will always be the bedrock of YouTube, but Shorts are definitely bringing a whole new vibe and is opening up new ways for creators to earn from their creativity. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea and some downright hate seeing these short videos pop up and spam their YouTube feeds. However, unless the tide shifts, it’s obvious that Shorts will be part of YouTube for some time, and as more creators jump in, the Shorts money train might just get bigger.
