The Shorts Fund, ad revenue split, and the strategies that actually work
YouTube Shorts now shares ad revenue with creators (since 2023). Top Shorts channels earn $0.02–$0.10 per 1,000 views — modest, but with viral upside.
Finance, business, real estate, tech reviews — high RPMs ($1–$5 per 1K views even on Shorts). Avoid generic motivation/quotes (RPM near $0).
Post 1–3 Shorts per day. Hook in first 1 second. Loop endings. Use trending sounds. Reply to comments with more Shorts.
Shorts itself pays modest. The real income: long-form upsells, affiliate links, sponsorships ($500–$5K per Short for 100K+ subscriber channels), and your own products.
Shorts are monetised from a shared pool of revenue rather than by ads attached to your specific video, and the per-view payout is a small fraction of long-form. That is not a flaw to optimise around; it is the structure. A Short doing a million views and a long-form video doing a hundred thousand can earn comparably, and often the long-form video earns more. Treat Shorts as the thing that finds an audience and long-form, or something off-platform, as the thing that earns from it.
Distribution. The Shorts feed will show a brand-new channel to a very large number of people, which is something almost no other free channel does. That makes it exceptional for testing which topics land, for building a subscriber base quickly, and for pointing an audience somewhere that pays properly. Channels that convert well run Shorts as the top of the funnel and put the money at the bottom — a long-form video, a product, a newsletter, or an affiliate recommendation that fits.
Subscribers gained from Shorts frequently do not watch long-form from the same channel, because they subscribed to a feed experience rather than to you. That is why channels with large Shorts-driven subscriber counts sometimes get poor long-form view counts, and why raw subscriber numbers are a weak predictor of income. If long-form is the goal, make Shorts that are recognisably from the same channel as the long-form — same subject, same voice — rather than generic viral formats that happen to be posted there.
For most channels: sponsorships, affiliate commissions, and the creator's own products — in that order — with platform revenue a distant fourth. Sponsorship rates depend on niche far more than on view counts, because advertisers are buying an audience with a commercial value. A finance or software channel with 20,000 engaged subscribers can command more per sponsored slot than a general entertainment channel several times its size, which is the single most useful thing a new creator can know and usually the last thing they learn.
YouTube requires a channel to meet Partner Program thresholds before any revenue share applies, and Shorts views count toward a separate threshold from long-form watch hours. Check the current requirements on YouTube's own page rather than a summary, as they have changed several times. On timing: expect months of nothing, then a step change when something lands. It is a poor choice for money needed this quarter and a reasonable one if you can publish consistently without a payout for six months.
Far less per view than long-form, because Shorts are paid from a shared revenue pool rather than from ads on your specific video. A Short with a million views can earn comparably to a long-form video with a fraction of that, and often less.
Yes, but for reach rather than for revenue. The Shorts feed distributes new channels to large audiences for free, which makes it excellent for testing topics and growing subscribers. Put the money at the other end — long-form, a product, a newsletter or a fitting affiliate recommendation.
Often not. They subscribed to a feed experience rather than to a channel, which is why large Shorts-driven subscriber counts frequently produce weak long-form views. Making Shorts that clearly belong to the same channel as your long-form helps considerably.
A channel must meet YouTube Partner Program thresholds, and Shorts views count toward a separate threshold from long-form watch hours. The exact numbers have changed more than once, so check YouTube's own monetisation requirements page rather than a summary.
Tax rules, limits and pay data change. Check the current figures with the primary source before acting on them.