If you’re looking for unorthodox ways to make a little cash, then YouTube is where you need to go! Millions of people are starting up channels and putting up content that is making them thousands of dollars on a monthly basis. You can do the same thing, but the only question is, can all YouTube videos (including shorts) be monetized?
YouTube shorts, like any other YouTube video, can be monetized, but making money off shorts is a lot harder to do. This is because shorts are often organized on a different “shelf” from other YouTube videos. They also have to be produced much more frequently to get any traffic on a channel.
So yes, YouTube shorts can be monetized, but it’s probably not going to be as simple and easy as you might currently think. You need to understand the significant differences between shorts and normal YouTube videos and which one you want to stick with if income is your goal. Here are a few tips that might help you along the way!
Do Shorts Make Money?
Yes, YouTube shorts can make money, but that does not mean they are what you should rely on to bring home the bacon. YouTube shorts are often categorized by YouTube into different and often smaller areas than other videos, which means they aren’t going to be a prominent piece of your channel.
YouTube shorts are often a fantastic way to get viewers’ attention. So, if that’s the case, how come they aren’t great moneymakers? The fact of the matter is that shorts are simply an unreliable form of moneymaking. Because YouTube shorts are, well, short, they have to be created quickly and in larger numbers.
If you want to create a channel with shorts on it, that is completely fine, but if that is the case, you will need to do one of two things:
One, you could create a separate channel for your shorts. Even if it doesn’t make too much money, a shorts channel is a fantastic way to get traffic and direct that traffic and attention toward your regular channel.
Two, you mix a few shorts in with the rest of your content, but you don’t make it your regular form of content. If you are wanting to make shorts a regular occurrence on your channel, you’re going to have to work a lot harder to crank them out much more regularly and in larger quantities. You need to understand that it’s going to take a lot of effort with possibly not much reward in return.
Creating Shorts: The Pros and Cons
As you can see, there’s a bit more to creating YouTube shorts than just filming yourself for 30 seconds, posting it, and hoping you earn a million dollars from doing so. If you’re planning to put shorts on your channel regularly, there are a couple of pros and cons that might be somewhat helpful to know. Here are a few of them:
Pros
Shorts are short and fairly easy to put together. You can film pretty much anything and have it edited in not very much time at all. They can be put up on YouTube quickly and in great numbers too. You still have to put work into the process, of course, but it’s pretty simple in comparison to making other videos.
Shorts, for the most part, are quite entertaining, which means people are more likely to click on one or two. As said earlier, it’s not a bad idea to have a separate channel for shorts, or at least a few shorts on your regular channel to draw attention. They are great ways to bring traffic to your channel.
Cons
Unfortunately, shorts have some flaws too. For starters, they have to be mass-produced if they are to bring you any sort of income. Especially if shorts are your main form of content, you are going to have to crank out multiple shorts per day, which will take a lot of time and effort. If you’re up for it, then great! But if not, you might want to rethink making any.
Shorts are not a guaranteed method that you can use to make money. According to Channel Makers, YouTube began a fund not too long ago that would award money to the makers of fun, unique shorts. The problem is that you’d have to get thousands of views on videos monthly to make even a dollar. This means you could be spending a lot of effort and time on shorts but not getting worthwhile results.
Watch the video below to learn more about monetizing shorts:
Using Shorts Correctly
Now you know the pros and cons of making shorts. The question we’re left with now is can shorts be profitable at all? If done so correctly, there are a few good benefits to having shorts on your channel. Here are a few tips on how you can be successful with YouTube shorts in the future!
You first might consider doing as instructed above and either dedicating a separate channel to shorts or carefully mixing them in with your regular content. If you have a separate channel, you can work to put shorts on it on a regular schedule. However, you should probably use that channel to direct viewers to your regular channel because this is where the real revenue lies.
If you’re looking to generate some real attention surrounding your shorts, then the word you need to be keeping in mind is “entertainment.” Because shorts are not lengthy, they are often utilized for a moment’s laugh or a short snippet of something else entertaining. If you can somehow manage to harness that kind of vibe, you are likely to be quite successful with your shorts.
At the end of the day, you’re going to have to accept that there are a few risks that come with investing time and energy into creating shorts. As long as you have another form of content to rely on, you should be fine. But if you want to broaden your horizons, sometimes using shorts is the best way to do that.
