How to Monetize YouTube Shorts

Making money from YouTube Shorts is no longer just a possibility - it's a real, effective strategy that thousands of creators are using to build businesses. To get there, you need a smart plan that goes well beyond just waiting for ad revenue. This guide will walk you through the exact steps to qualify for monetization and dive into the diverse, profitable strategies you can use to turn your short videos into a steady income stream.

First Things First: Getting into the YouTube Partner Program

Before you can earn ad revenue, you need to be accepted into the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). YouTube offers a specific pathway for Shorts creators, making it more accessible than ever. Here are the requirements you'll need to meet:

• Subscribers: You must have at least 1,000 subscribers on your channel.
• Views or Watch Time: You need to meet one of the following two thresholds:
  • 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days.
  • 4,000 valid public watch hours on your long-form videos in the last 12 months.

For most creators focused on short-form content, the 10 million views target is the one to aim for. The term "valid" is important here. It means the views must come from your own original content. Shorts that use unedited clips from movies, TV shows, or other creators' content without significant modification won't count. Once you meet these criteria, you can apply for the YPP through the "Earn" tab in your YouTube Studio.

How YouTube Shorts Ad Revenue Sharing Really Works

Monetizing Shorts through the YPP doesn't work like traditional YouTube videos, where ads run before or during your content. Instead, YouTube runs ads intermittently between videos in the Shorts feed. The revenue from these ads is pooled together and distributed to creators each month. It might sound complicated, but it breaks down into a simple four-step process:

1. All Ad Revenue is Pooled Together

YouTube collects all the revenue generated from ads shown in the Shorts feed. This creates one large pot of money.

2. The "Creator Pool" is Calculated

Before any creator gets paid, YouTube first pays for music licensing. A portion of the total revenue is deducted to cover the costs of the popular songs you can use in your Shorts. What's left over is what YouTube calls the "Creator Pool." This is the money that will be divided among all monetizing creators.

3. Your Share is Determined by Your Views

YouTube then allocates the money from the Creator Pool to individual creators based on their share of the total Shorts views for that month. If your channel received 1% of all views on monetized Shorts across the entire platform, you are allocated 1% of the Creator Pool.

Example: Let's say the Creator Pool for the month is $2 million. If your Shorts accounted for 0.1% of all total views that month, you'd be allocated 0.1% of that $2 million, which is $2,000.

4. You Keep 45% of Your Allocation

Of the money allocated to you, you keep a 45% share. The remaining 55% goes to YouTube. Following our example above, you would keep 45% of your $2,000 allocation, resulting in a monthly payout of $900 from Shorts ad revenue.

While this is a great starting point, the real money from Shorts often comes from leveraging your audience in other ways. Ad revenue is just the beginning.

Monetization Beyond the Partner Program

Relying solely on ad revenue is leaving a lot of money on the table. Successful creators treat Shorts as the top of their marketing funnel, driving viewers toward more profitable opportunities. Here are the most effective ways to do that.

1. Affiliate Marketing: The Low-Hanging Fruit

Affiliate marketing is the practice of promoting another company's products and earning a commission on every sale made through your unique link. It's incredibly powerful for Shorts creators because it doesn't require you to have your own product.

Actionable Advice:

• Use Pinned Comments: Since you can't place clickable links directly in a Short video, your pinned comment is the most valuable real estate you have. Always direct viewers there.
• Feature Products Naturally: Create Shorts that review, demonstrate, or style products that are relevant to your audience. A creator focused on home organization could make a Short about "3 Amazon finds that decluttered my kitchen," with affiliate links in a pinned comment.
• Create a Link Hub: Use a service like Linktree or Beacons to create a single landing page with all your affiliate links organized by category. This makes it easier for your audience to find exactly what they're looking for. Simply tell them "link in the description" and have your link hub URL there.

2. Selling Your Own Products or Services

This is where you move from earning a small percentage of a sale to keeping 100% of the revenue. Your Shorts become a direct pipeline to your personal business.

Common Products and Services to Sell:

• Digital Products: E-books, video courses, workout plans, Lightroom presets, or project templates. These are highly profitable because you create them once and can sell them infinitely.
• Physical Products: Branded merchandise (t-shirts, hats), custom art, books, or specialized tools related to your niche.
• Services: One-on-one coaching, consulting, freelance work (video editing, graphic design), or public speaking.

Actionable Advice:

Your Shorts should provide value that naturally leads into your product. If you're a business coach, create Shorts with quick tips on productivity. In the pinned comment, say "For my full system on doubling your output, check out my course..." If you sell custom art, create mesmerizing time-lapses of your process. This shows off your skill and gets people invested in the final product.

3. Securing Brand Deals and Sponsorships

Once you've built a dedicated audience, brands will pay you to present their products to them. Sponsorships can range from a simple product shoutout to a fully dedicated Short video. This often becomes a creator's largest source of income.

Actionable Advice:

• Build a Professional Media Kit: A media kit is a one-page document that includes a bio, channel statistics (subscriber count, average views), audience demographics (age, gender, location), and your rates. You can find this data in your YouTube Studio analytics.
• Be Proactive: Don't just wait for brands to come to you. Make a list of companies that perfectly align with your channel's values and your audience's interests, and reach out to them with a concise email and your media kit attached.
• Keep it Authentic: Only partner with brands you genuinely believe in. Your audience trusts you, and promoting a bad product will damage that trust instantly. The best sponsored Shorts feel just like your regular content.

4. Building a Funnel to Your Long-Form Content

Shorts are fantastic for discoverability, but long-form videos are a monetization powerhouse. The ad revenue (RPM, or revenue per mille) on videos over 8 minutes long can be 10x to 50x higher than Shorts revenue. Use Shorts to get viewers hooked and then drive them to your main content.

How to do it:

• Create a compelling Short that acts as a trailer or a condensed summary of a longer video on your channel.
• At the end of the Short, use a voiceover or text overlay that says something like, “I break down the entire process in my full video - check it out now.”
• YouTube has a built-in "Related Video" feature that lets you link a Short directly to one of your VODs. When a viewer taps your channel name, your linked video will pop up, ready to be watched.

5. Leveraging YouTube's Other Features: Memberships and Super Thanks

Once you are in the YPP, you get access to other monetization features directly on YouTube's platform:

Channel Memberships: This allows your fans to pay a recurring monthly fee (you set the tiers) in exchange for exclusive perks like custom badges, emojis, behind-the-scenes content, or member-only videos.

Super Thanks: This is a tipping feature. Viewers can purchase a "Super Thanks" on your Short to show appreciation. When they do, an animation plays over the Short and their comment gets highlighted in multicolor in the comments section. It’s a great way for your most dedicated fans to support you directly.

Your Content Strategy Is Your Monetization Strategy

None of these monetization methods will work without a solid content strategy driving them. People don't follow you to be sold to, they follow you for entertainment, education, or inspiration. Monetization is the natural byproduct of doing that well.

Define Your Niche and Audience

Why is this critical for making money? Because a targeted audience is valuable. Brands don't pay for just "views", they pay for access to a specific type of person - DIY enthusiasts, new parents, vegans, small business owners. When you know exactly who you're talking to, you can create hyper-relevant content and attract partners who want to reach that exact demographic.

Create Value First, Sell Second

Follow the 80/20 principle. Around 80% of your Shorts should be purely for your audience - giving them awesome content with no strings attached. The other 20% can be where you integrate an affiliate link, a product pitch, or a brand sponsorship. If every single video is a hard sell, viewers will tune out. Build trust by giving more than you take.

Consistency Fuels the Algorithm (and Your Bank Account)

Shorts is a numbers game. You need a steady stream of content to stay relevant and maximize your chances of a video taking off. Aim to post at least once a day, if not more when you’re starting out. More content means more data on what works, more opportunities for views, and more "at-bats" for capturing affiliate clicks or sponsor-worthy engagement.

Final Thoughts

Monetizing YouTube Shorts is a marathon, not a sprint. While the YPP ad revenue is a good foundation, the key to truly thriving is to diversify. By combining affiliate marketing, brand sponsorships, and your own products, you can build a robust business where your content works for you 24/7.

Creating and posting content consistently across several platforms is a huge part of this strategy, but it can get overwhelming. We built Postbase because we knew there had to be a simpler way to manage the modern creator's workflow. Since we've designed our platform with a focus on short-form video, you can use our visual calendar to plan your Shorts, Reels, and TikToks side-by-side a month in advance, and our scheduling works reliably every time. It’s all about helping you keep up your momentum without burning out.