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Looking to turn your YouTube hobby into a full-time source of income? Shorts present an excellent opportunity to quickly achieve YouTube content monetization without spending a lot of time and effort.
In order to monetize content on YouTube, creators need to put out extremely high quality content for a long time with no guarantee of success. That’s because most newcomers have to compete with top channels who have entire media teams and big budgets at their disposal.
About 10 years ago, you could easily get organic views even if your video was low quality. But ever since the creator economy matured, competition on all social platforms especially YouTube has become very difficult to overcome.
That’s why YouTube introduced Shorts that work on a different algorithm than usual long-form content.
Understanding the YouTube Algorithm
YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google. It’s more of a search engine than a social network because videos on YouTube are shown to people who are searching for a particular keyword. Videos that show up on the homepage are from popular channels that you’re subscribed to or similar popular channels that you might be interested in.
Which means that all videos from new channels get unnoticed unless their video titles or description matches the search query of a user. This makes it very difficult for new content creators to get noticed, since a keyword could have millions of results. In most cases, videos from top channels are prioritized in search results. New creators have to keep putting out content and slowly build their subscribers until their channel has enough authority to be shown in top search results.
Google Search works in a similar way – websites with more “authority” get shown first in search results. Building subscribers on YouTube can be an excruciating process depending on how competitive your niche is. And as the creator pool on YouTube continues to grow, the barrier of entry is becoming harder and harder to overcome on a daily basis.
So, as a new channel, how can you quickly grow your views and subscribers without spending money, time, and intense effort? The key is to use YouTube Shorts.
How Do Shorts Work?
Ever since TikTok became popular, the way people consume content on the internet has changed completely. People now want to consume a lot of content in a very short amount of time.
That’s why short video algorithms (YouTube Shorts, TikTok, IG Reels etc.) constantly boost videos to people’s feeds so they never run out of content.
This is an excellent opportunity for creators because this levels the playing field for everyone. Shorts from a new channel have an equal chance of going viral as short videos even from channels with millions of subscribers.
The only criteria is that the video should be engaging and should stop people in their tracks before they scroll away to another video.
How Shorts Help You Grow Fast
Organic reach on usual long-form content continues to stagnate, and it can take a very long time before you can pass YouTube’s monetization requirements.
Shorts can easily be incorporated into your current YouTube strategy to boost growth, so you can quickly achieve monetization in YouTube shorts. This gives you some income to spare that can be used to grow your channel faster.
Here are some of the advantages of Shorts that you don’t get with usual content:
1. Shorts have very aggressive organic reach.
Organic reach is an internet metric that shows the number of views on your video from users who are not subscribed to your channel (also known as unique users). People who find you “organically” don’t come across your content after seeing an ad or promotion. They get shown your video by YouTube either as a suggestion or as a search result.
Shorts have much higher organic reach because YouTube readily promotes highly engaging short videos so users never run out of content to consume. That’s why Shorts generally get much more views than usual content.
With Shorts, the amount of subscribers you have doesn’t affect your chances of going viral. This allows you to get a lot of views and send traffic your way, free of marketing costs, even if your channel is new.
2. Shorts are cheap and easy to create.
Most Shorts are 10-60 seconds long. They require less planning, editing, and can easily be produced even on a smartphone. This allows you to create a lot of Shorts in a very short amount of time.
Frequency is very important when it comes to content marketing. If you have a constant stream of fresh content, you’ll keep popping up in user feeds, encouraging them to visit your channel and eventually hit the subscribe button.
3. You can easily repurpose other content and turn it into Shorts.
You don’t even need to record Shorts separately. If your goal is to promote long-form YouTube videos on your channel, you can simply take short clips out of your primary content and repurpose it into Shorts.
These short videos act as a funnel, giving a sneak peak into what your channel offers. People who find your short videos interesting will be encouraged to check out the full videos. Since Shorts get more views, your long videos get much more views as compared to what YouTube's algorithm can do for you on its own.
4. Shorts can easily be repurposed.
The end goal is to grow your subscribers and monetize your YouTube channel. It doesn’t really matter where your subscribers come from, as long as you can build a steady stream of traffic to your channel.
All social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok have their own version of short videos, with the exact same content format, and the same algorithm. This means you can easily repost Shorts on all platforms to maximize the traffic that you send to your primary YouTube channel.
YouTube Shorts Strategy to Quickly Achieve Monetization
To become eligible for monetization, YouTube requires you to have:
- At least 1,000 subscribers.
- At least 4,000 watch hours (on usual content) in the past 1 year, OR;
- 10 million Shorts views in the past 90 days.
Remember: if you correctly use Shorts to promote your channel, you can quickly get up to 4,000 watch hours on your primary content and start monetizing content on YouTube.
Here are 3 tips on how to get the most out of YouTube Shorts:
1. Create a plan and Shorts calendar
Since Shorts are quick and easy to create, you can create and post a lot of content in a very short amount of time, sometimes even several times a day.
However, this means that other creators can also do the same. Shorts get a staggering 50 billion views every day and some creators even post 5-6 times a day so their videos can make it past the noise created by competitors. You don’t necessarily have to post that much as long as you have a solid strategy in place. This is where a Shorts calendar comes in handy.
A Shorts calendar plans video ideas and time of posting weeks or even months in advance.
The biggest hurdle with creating Shorts is having a constant stream of fresh ideas. By creating a calendar first, you get to sit ahead of time and brainstorm new ideas. Not to mention it also allows you to post consistently because you’ll always have backup content available.
2. Standardize video length
Standardization allows you to organize your work and even hire an assistant to help you create videos at a faster rate. The time limit on Shorts is up to 60-seconds. However, with current attention spans, 60 seconds might be too long for most audiences. According to Facebook, the average attention span on mobile is just 1.7 seconds. This means that you must hook your audiences in the first 1.7 seconds before they scroll away to the next video.
Try to deliver as much value and excitement as possible in the shortest amount of time. However, you could go up to 60 seconds depending on the nature of your content and audiences. For example, Minecraft YouTuber BlockFacts creates Shorts under just 30 seconds:
On the other hand, science and education channel Kurzgesagt posts Shorts up to 60 seconds, and gets equal levels of engagement:
If you notice, both creators jump directly into the content in the first few seconds to keep the viewer’s attention. Kuzgesagt even does perfect loops in the end so people stay and watch the video more than once.
3. Make click-worthy thumbnails
A good thumbnail not only ensures that people click your videos but also encourages them to watch the rest of it. Shorts are shown one after another as people scroll through videos suggested by YouTube.
Suggestions are based on interests, so you might be wondering: what’s the point of having good thumbnails if the algorithm just shows the video to the right audience and plays it automatically on their screens?
The thing is, Shorts can also be viewed as regular clickable videos on your channel or on the YouTube homepage.
Grow As a YouTuber Using Third-Party Monetization Platforms
YouTube pays out 90% of its ad revenue to the top 1% of content creators. The average income of most non-celebrity content creators on YouTube is around $4,616 a month.
So unless your last name ends in Kardashian, you might have a hard time growing your channel with YouTube ad revenue alone. To join the upper ranks, you need to have a lot of cash to support content creation for a long time.
That’s where monetization platforms like Paysenger or Patreon come into play.
What’s Paysenger?
Paysenger is a social marketplace designed for creators to easily turn their content into money. Using its built-in cryptocurrency known as EGO token, Paysenger maintains a tokenized economy that rewards creators for producing high quality content and users for giving likes and comments.
In addition, it allows sponsors or idea makers to claim ownership over internet content (or parts of content through NFT technology) by staking EGO coins or any other currency. The highly complex economy is designed to reward all participants including creators, sponsors, idea makers, and even their audiences.
Here are some of the features:
- On-demand content: As a creator, you can take requests from users or sponsors to create exclusive videos for them. This could include sponsored videos, shoutouts, or even viral video ideas from other people. You get paid each time you fulfill a request.
- Subscriptions: By offering exclusive content to a closed community of subscribers, you get a guaranteed source of revenue at all times even when YouTube ad revenue fluctuates. On Paysenger, you can offer both one-time subscriptions and recurring subscriptions to your followers.
- Paid messaging: Every exchange on Paysenger is paid, including direct messaging. Your followers can send you a message at any time and pay a fee to get your attention. This means you’re always a message away for people who are willing to pay the fee.
By combining these monetization tools with YouTube, you get to diversify your income sources without spending any extra effort. All content you produce on YouTube can be repurposed on Paysenger. Since Paysenger is a relatively new platform, it has low competition so you’ll build a following quickly for creating great content.
It’s available on iOS, Android, and Web.
What’s Patreon?
Patreon is one of the oldest subscription platforms that’s used extensively by content creators especially YouTubers. On Patreon, you can offer recurring subscriptions to a closed group of loyal fans. This allows you to raise finance independently without relying on YouTube ad revenue or sponsorship deals.
However, this means you’ll have to work more to produce exclusive content in addition to free content on YouTube. Creators generally offer behind-the-scenes footage, one-on-one sessions, and personalized merch to their loyal subscribers.
If you don’t have the resources to produce extra content, you can always use Patreon to ask fans to pledge a small amount of money every month just to support you. This could be anything from $1 to $5 a month.
Another way is to use a small one-time payment platform like Ko-Fi or BuyMeACoffee so people can easily say thanks to you without even creating an account on the platform.
Conclusion
Building a following on YouTube and monetizing your content takes time and effort. However, by using Shorts and diversifying your income sources, you can achieve monetization faster.
Money that you earn through third-party platforms can be reinvested into content and promotions, but most importantly it allows you to turn your hobby into a full-time business.
If you’re looking to grow as an internet content creator, sign up as an early adopter on Paysenger. The platform allows you to monetize from the get-go so you can build a following not only on Paysenger but also on other platforms like YouTube.
Sell on-demand content, earn money for going viral, get paid for creating content that gets engagements and views, and find sponsors to collaborate with.