Is Making YouTube Shorts Profitable?

BY: Pankaj Bansal, Founder at NewsPatrolling.com

While YouTube Shorts may not make you an instant millionaire, it has various other benefits that cannot be overlooked

With easy accessibility, high entertainment value and social sharing features, short video formats have become hugely popular. Some examples include TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and Snapchat. YouTube Shorts was launched to take on TikTok and the strategy seems to be working well. But the question arises – Is making YouTube Shorts profitable? To answer that, here are some important things to understand.

Monetizing YouTube Shorts – Significantly lower earnings

As compared to standard long-form YouTube videos, earnings from YouTube Shorts are significantly less. In YouTube Shorts, there is no provision for pre-roll or mid-roll ads. Instead, the ads are randomly placed between various Shorts videos in the Shorts feed. The revenue thus generated is transferred to the creators’ pool. And creators are paid proportionately, as per their views and engagement.

Data revealed by some content creators shows that earnings from YouTube Shorts can be around $0.01 and $0.06 per thousand views. This is significantly lower in comparison to long-form video content, where earnings could be $1.25 to $2.5. As a result, one will need millions of views to generate decent revenue from YouTube Shorts videos.

YouTube Shorts – Benefits beyond monetization

Even though YouTube Shorts may not give you high profits, it can still be quite useful. Here is how.

Support for the main YouTube channel – A study by Tubular Labs showed that people who watch Shorts videos are likely to visit the creator’s main YouTube channel. The percentage of such people can be up to 70%. Due to this, YouTube Shorts works as an effective traffic generator for long-form YouTube channels.

High virality – The chances of a YouTube Shorts video going viral is significantly higher in comparison to standard long-form videos. As such, YouTube Shorts can be a great way to promote your main YouTube channel or your brand or services. It is quite common to see creators posting short versions of their long-form videos on YouTube Shorts. And the short versions often have a much higher visibility than the long-form videos.

Brand collaborations – If you have the ability to create viral content, YouTube Shorts can be a great way to increase your income via brand collaborations. Overall earnings will depend on the level of engagement and the size of the audience. Even micro-influencers with around 10k to 50k followers can easily make around $100 per sponsored YouTube Shorts.

Affiliate marketing – When talking about any specific brand or services in your YouTube Shorts, you can think about harnessing income opportunities via affiliate marketing. You can collaborate with the brand and include their links in the video description. You can earn commission of around 5% through affiliate marketing via your YouTube Shorts videos.

As is evident, relying solely on YouTube Shorts will require millions of views to generate a decent income. It may be relevant in specific cases, when there is a high possibility of the short video going viral. But in general, YouTube Shorts can work better when used in combination with the brand’s primary long-form YouTube channel. To get better results from YouTube Shorts, make sure you post regularly and actively engage with your audience via comments and community discussions.