Tag: shorts

What Are YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts are short, vertical videos that play in a dedicated, swipeable Shorts Feed across the YouTube app and website. Launched globally in 2021 to take on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram Reels, Shorts has since become one of YouTube’s most important formats.
Any video that is vertical (or square) and under three minutes is treated as a Short. They appear on the Shorts shelf on the home page, in the Shorts tab, on your channel, and in search — giving even brand-new creators a genuine shot at being discovered by millions. If you’ve ever fallen into a “just one more” scrolling session, you’ve experienced exactly why YouTube leans on the format so heavily.

YouTube Shorts by the Numbers (2026)

The scale is hard to overstate:

For any creator, that’s an enormous discovery engine sitting inside the platform you’re already on.

How to Make a YouTube Short

You can create a Short in two ways — film it in the app, or upload a vertical video you’ve already made:

1. Open the Shorts camera — in the YouTube app tap Create then Create a Short. Or simply upload a vertical video under 3 minutes.
2. Record or upload your clip — shoot in segments in the app, or bring in footage from your phone.
3. Add music, text and effects — pull a track from the music library and add captions to hold attention.
4. Hook fast and loop — open with your best moment; a satisfying loop earns replays.
5. Title, add #Shorts and publish.

Now that Shorts can run to three minutes, you’ve got room for proper storytelling too:

Clean sound still matters even in short vertical video — see recording clean audio.

YouTube Shorts Dimensions & Specs

Get the format right and your Short fills the screen instead of sitting in a letterboxed box:

Why Make YouTube Shorts?

Even with low per-view pay, Shorts are worth the effort for one reason above all: reach. A single Short can be shown to people who’ve never heard of you, which makes the format one of the fastest ways to grow a new channel. The benefits stack up:

• Discovery. The Shorts Feed pushes your content to brand-new viewers, not just your subscribers.
• Growth. Consistent Shorts can grow subscribers far quicker than long-form alone.
• Low barrier. A phone and an idea is all you need — no big production.
• A funnel. Shorts bring people in; your long-form videos keep and monetise them.
• Cross-platform. The same vertical clip works on TikTok and Reels — repurpose once, post everywhere.

How the YouTube Shorts Algorithm Works

The Shorts algorithm behaves very differently from the long-form one, and understanding that difference is the key to getting views. Long-form YouTube leans heavily on click-through rate and watch time; the Shorts Feed is far more like a slot machine of quick tests. Here’s what actually drives it:

• It tests small, then scales. YouTube shows your Short to a small batch of viewers first. If they watch, rewatch and engage, it shows it to a bigger batch — and so on. Strong early signals are everything.
• Watched-vs-swiped-away is the core signal. The percentage of people who watch rather than instantly scroll past tells YouTube whether to keep pushing it.
• Subscribers barely matter. Unlike long-form, a Short from a tiny channel can reach millions — the feed is built for discovery, not loyalty. That’s what makes it so powerful for new creators.
• Loops and rewatches count. A Short people watch twice sends a stronger signal than one they watch once, which is why a clean loop is worth engineering.
• Each Short is judged on its own. One flop won’t sink the next one, so consistency and volume let you take more swings.

In short: nail the first two seconds, keep people watching, and the algorithm does the rest.

Can You Monetise YouTube Shorts?

Yes — and this is the single biggest change since this format launched. Since February 2023, Shorts earn ad revenue through the YouTube Partner Program, replacing the old fixed Shorts Fund. Here’s how it works: ads that run between videos in the Shorts Feed are pooled each month, a portion covers music licensing, and the rest is shared out to creators based on their engaged views. Creators receive 45% of their allocated share.
To earn it, you need to be in the Partner Program and accept the Shorts Monetization Module. The thresholds:

You only need to hit one of the paths. For a deeper dive, see can YouTube Shorts be monetised and my guide to the YouTube Partner Programme.

How Much Do YouTube Shorts Pay?

Here’s the honest part. Shorts pay very little per view. Typical Shorts RPM in 2026 sits around $0.01 to $0.07 per 1,000 views, with higher-value niches reaching a little more. In plain numbers, one million engaged views often earns roughly $10 to $70 — a fraction of what the same views would earn on long-form video.

7 Ways to Make Money From Shorts (Beyond Ads)

Because ad revenue is small, the creators who profit from Shorts stack income from several sources:

• Brand deals — paid sponsorships, which work from day one with no subscriber minimum.
• Affiliate marketing — earn commission on products you mention or link.
• Digital products & merch — sell your own presets, templates, courses or merch.
• YouTube Shopping — tag products directly in your content.
• Channel memberships — recurring support from your fans.
• Super Thanks & Super Chat — direct tips from viewers.
• The long-form funnel — the big one: send Shorts viewers to your higher-earning long-form videos.

That last point is the whole game. A Short that earns pennies but sends one viewer to a long-form video — or a discovery call — is worth far more than its RPM suggests.

Shorts vs Long-Form: Where Should You Focus?

This isn’t either/or — they do different jobs, and the best channels run both:

The winning formula for most creators: use Shorts to get found, and long-form to get paid.

YouTube Shorts Strategy Tips

Common YouTube Shorts Mistakes to Avoid

A few avoidable errors quietly kill most people’s Shorts. Steer clear of these:

YouTube Shorts FAQ

The Bottom Line

YouTube Shorts have grown from a curious experiment into a core pillar of the platform — longer, bigger and, at last, monetised. They won’t make you rich on ad revenue alone, but as a discovery engine they’re unmatched, putting your content in front of millions who’ve never heard of you. Make them consistently, hook fast, keep them vertical and under three minutes, and always give viewers a reason to go deeper. Use Shorts to get found and long-form to get paid, and you’ll have the format working exactly as it should — as the front door to everything else you do.