I noticed something interesting while I was doing research for my previous video, Top 10 Dumbest Side Hustles on YouTube (which I’ve since renamed Top 10 Worst Side Hustles 2023).
The “Make Money Online” channels were trying to convince viewers that a certain channel that posts nothing but YouTube Shorts was earning long-form money. Of course, this is definitely not the case.
Social Blade is a revenue estimation tool that uses publicly available data about video views and applies a low-end RPM range to predict how much any given channel is earning.
BUT … as of right now, Social Blade does not distinguish between long-form revenue and short-form revenue.
This is important because revenue on YouTube Shorts is literally PENNIES per 1,000 views. Long-form content, on the other hand, tends to pay dollars.
Regardless of content type, RPMs can range pretty widely, but there’s no way that a Shorts channel is earning even the low end of long-form money.
I’m really happy with how this video turned out. It’s not getting a ton of views yet, but I think it’ll do well once it starts getting recommended on some of the videos that inspired it.
There are a lot of videos that claim you can make a fortune by make “300 YouTube Shorts in 30 minutes,” and those are the ones that all point to Daily Facts Worth as an example of how you can make THOUSANDS of dollars with Shorts.
You certainly can make thousands of dollars, but you have to get tens of millions of views per month. Most people aren’t going to reach that point, and I seriously doubt that they’ll make that kind of money if they’re mass-producing Shorts with AI.
Here’s my original thumbnail for this video when I was still calling it “This is what YouTube Shorts REALLY pay.”
I decided to change the title and thumbnail to be about Daily Facts Worth because that’s really what a lot of the video focuses on.
Here’s my script for this video.
This is what YouTube Shorts REALLY pay
Main points
- YouTubers are pointing to channels that are demonetized
- YouTubers are showing Social Blade stats that don’t reflect shorts revenue
- Examples of real shorts revenue
- How much those shorts channels would really be making if they were monetized
- Shorts quantity vs. quality
NEW INTRO
Guess which one of these YouTube Shorts channels is currently making the most money.
Daily Facts Worth, 308k subscribers, nearly 4k videos
Nature Lens, 679k subscribers, 266 videos
PS EDIT, 840k subscribers, 150 videos
Respect Earth 999, 3.98 million subscribers, 179 videos
I’m going to reveal the answer to this question in just a little bit, but feel free to comment your guess down below
— Tell them now you jerk
Uh first I think I need to explain why this video is even necessary
— Weirdly I agree, this video IS necessary
When I was doing research for our last video, Top 10 Dumbest Side Hustles on YouTube, I noticed that all of the Make Money YouTubers were doing what they always do, showing Social Blade stats to demonstrate how rich YOU’RE going to get from making 300 shorts in 30 minutes.
— But then Michael realized that all of those channels are full of shit
Ok apparently now Larry is telling this story.
— The channels that YouTubers were talking about are all channels that post Shorts and little else. Anybody who actually makes YouTube videos knows that Shorts pay close to nothing per 1000 views. Yet this is what YouTubers were saying about Daily Facts Worth and other shorts channels
(play clips of saying $1000s)
— It should now be clear that anyone who has been showing Social Blade stats as proof of shorts revenue is lying to you
Thank you Larry, that was shockingly cordial by your standards.
— Should I have said lying douchebags instead
NO … no, you did great. So to help you understand all of this, let’s take a very quick look at RPM, or revenue per 1000 views. Without turning this into math class
— True story, Michael sucks at math despite being Asian
That is accurate, thank you Larry, but this math is super simple.
Let’s look at the channel called Break It Yourself.
This guy got $768 for 10,000,000 views. First let’s divide the views by 1000, and we can do that by just knocking off the last three numbers. And here’s what the math looks like
768/10,000 = .0768, so his rpm is 7.68 cents, but it looks like YouTube just rounded up his rpm to 8 cents.
— In other words, each time his video was viewed 1000 times, YouTube paid him 8 cents.
Pretty sweet right?
— LOL that sucks balls
— Let’s hear about real Shorts revenue
(play clips of real shorts rev reports)
Now let’s look at everyone else’s RPMs for comparison
And as we can see, most people have an rpm between 3 cents and about 7 cents per thousand views
- TubeBuddy, 744k subs, 01-06 … $50 for 1 mil views (rpm .05)
- Vidiq, 1 mil views, $58.23 (.06)
- Jake Bore, 400k subs, 1 mil views, 70.56 (.07)
- Ranftevan, 1.1 mil views, $56 (.05)
- Caffeinated Blogger, 428k subs: 1.2 million views, $31.70 (rpm .03)
- Jessie’s Drone Adventures, 28.3k subscribers
1.5 mil views, $108, (.07)- Macerly, 864k subscribers
5 mil views, $341, (.07)- Break It Yourself, 81.6k subscribers
10 mil views, $768, (.08)- Silicon Valley Girl, 1.17 mil subscribers
14 mil views, $64 (never grown as fast) (.005)- Fares Ksebati, 838k subscribers
16 mil views, $105, (.006)— Suddenly 8 cents is looking pretty good
Ok well based on this, let’s imagine that we’ve got a shorts channel, we just got monetized, and our rpm is 5 cents. RPM is obviously not the same for everyone, but base on what we just looked at, 5 cents seems like a good average.
— Hey you still haven’t said which one of these channels makes the most money
Trust me, we’re getting to that! Also, could you please like this video and subscribe? Seriously we’re not monetized and we need all the help we can get
BREAKING NEWS — A middle aged Korean man is openly begging for money on YouTube. Koreans everywhere are horrified. Even North Korean state media is calling him a loser
So let’s say we get the same views as Daily Facts Worth. Social Blade says that channel got 7.8 million views last month. Let’s just round that up to an even 8 million.
LARRY, with an RPM of 5 cents, how much would we get paid for 8 million shorts views?
— LOL $400
But that’s impossible. Social Blade says this channel is making at least $2,000 per month, and maybe as much as $31,000.
— Dumbass, that’s because Social Blade is guessing at revenue based on the low end of long-form rpm estimates. Long-form pays way more than shorts. It’s not even close.
Oh no! So the YouTubers who said this channel is making all that money … they were LYING?
— Either that or they’re completely clueless.
Probably a little of both. And remember, 5 cents is just a guess. Maybe you could get $600-$700 for those 8 million views. Or maybe you’ll be lucky to make it to $200.
— Let’s take this mathematical shitshow even further. 8 million shorts views might get us $400. In order to make $4000 per month, we would have to get 80 million views.
80 million? Well that sounds like an awful lot of views. That’s over 2.5 million views every single day. But hey, if you believe in yourself, anything is possible. Right Larry?
— We both know that’s a load of crap.
All right, well at the beginning of this video, we asked you to guess which of these four channels is making the most—
— It’s Nature Lens
Ok but none of those other three channels are monetized.
And this means that every YouTube channel that has shown you Daily Facts Worth as evidence that you can get rich from Shorts
— is totally full of shit. Even if Daily Facts Worth was monetized at the time that they recorded their videos, they still flat out lied about how much that shorts channel could be making. Once again, those channels are full of shit.
How to actually get rich from YouTube Shorts
- Start a YouTube channel where you teach fake strategies for making money
- Pretend that you don’t know how much shorts really pay
- Lie your ass off to people who actually need to make money
- Also Michael sucks
OLD SHITTY SCRIPT
Intro
Guess which one of these YouTube Shorts channels is currently making the most money.
Daily Facts Worth, 308k subscribers, nearly 4k videos
Nature Lens, 679k subscribers, 266 videos
PS EDIT, 840k subscribers, 150 videos
Respect Earth 999, 3.98 million subscribers, 179 videos
If you guessed Respect Earth 999, you are incorrect.
— LOL dumbass
I’m … sorry about her.
— Hey Einstein, the correct answer is Nature Lens.
Yeah I was getting to that.
Here’s what we’re gonna do. First we’ll look at exactly how Nature Lens is out-earning a channel that has nearly 5 times as many subscribers.
— The answer is so dumb it’s funny
It really is. And then we’ll look at real examples of YouTubers who have revealed their earnings from shorts, and finally we’ll talk about what that means for creating YouTube shorts as a side hustle.
— Michael, have any of the YouTubers we roasted in our last video threatened to kill you yet?
Ignore her.
According to Social Blade, Respect Earth 999 is bringing in AT LEAST $590,000 per year, and maybe as much as $9.4 million.
Nature Lens has a range of a measly $99,000 to $1.6 million.
But here’s the kicker.
Daily Facts Worth, PS EDIT, and even Respect Earth 999, with those millions of subscribers, all have one thing in common. None of these channels are currently monetized.
— LOL I told you this was stupid
Maybe they were at one time, I don’t know. But right now, they are making nothing.
— If this comes as a surprise to you, you’re not alone. Daily Facts Worth has been shown in many videos about mass producing YouTube Shorts. YouTubers who present themselves as experts have been using this channel as an example of how much you can make from YouTube Shorts.
Larry’s right. If you’ve been watching videos about how to make 300 YouTube Shorts in 30 minutes, Daily Facts Worth probably looks very familiar to you.
But why isn’t this channel making any money? I have no idea, but I’m quite certain that using AI to mass produce hundreds of shorts will land you in the same boat. YouTube is not interested in paying ad revenue for low quality, mass produced content.
— Just wait until we get to how much money Daily Facts Worth would really be making if it were monetized.
Yeah, that’ll be near the end of this video. It’s honestly kind of shocking.
But right now, let’s look at how much real people are making from short-form videos.
These five YouTubers have all revealed how much they got paid for shorts ranging from about 1 million all the way up to over 160 million views. Let’s watch a short clip of each, and we’ll also keep a tally going so that we can sort it out afterward.
Also, RPM is how much the YouTuber got paid per one thousand views.
- Caffeinated Blogger, 428k subs: 1.2 million views, $31.70
- TubeBuddy, 744k subs, 01-06 … $50 for 1 mil views (rpm .05)
- Jake Bore, 400k subs, 1 mil views, 70.56
- Ranftevan, 1.1 mil views, $56
- Vidiq, 1 mil views, $58.23 (.06)
- Jessie’s Drone Adventures, 28.3k subscribers
1.5 mil views, $108, RPM about 7 cents- Macerly, 864k subscribers
5 mil views, $341, RPM also about 7 cents- Break It Yourself, 81.6k subscribers
10 mil views, $768, RPM closer to 8 cents- Silicon Valley Girl, 1.17 mil subscribers
14 mil views, $64 (never grown as fast) RPM of less than half a cent- Made by Edgar, 225k subscribers
166 mil views, $6,600, RPM of about 4 cents— Wow, YouTube Shorts don’t pay shit.
Very true. In terms of RPM, Silicon Valley Girl got paid the least by far.
— LOL less than half a cent
Which is pretty amazing, but not in a good way. To figure out RPM, divide the dollars earned by the total views. Then multiply by 1000.
— Or just move the decimal three spaces to the right.
Sure. Or that.
The channel Break It Yourself earned the highest RPM of about 8 cents per thousand views.
— How is any of this helpful if I’m thinking of starting a YouTube shorts side hustle?
Excellent question, Larry.
If you want to be able to predict your future revenue, we need to reverse the math and also guess at the RPM. RPM isn’t the same for everyone, but let’s be REALLY optimistic and say you’re on the high end at 8 cents.
— So for 1,000 views, I get 8 cents? In other words, basically nothing.
Welcome to the world of YouTube shorts. So yes, if your short gets 10,000 views, that’s 10 x 8 cents, so you would get 80 cents.
— And 100,000 views would get me $8.
Based on an RPM of 8 cents, yes. And 1,000,000 views would get you $80.
— What a load of crap.
Your dissatisfaction is noted. Let’s wrap this up by looking at how much Daily Facts Worth WOULD be earning if that channel were actually monetized.
According to Social Blade, Daily Facts Worth has gotten about 7,584,000 views in the last 30 days. Knock off the last three zeroes, which is the same as dividing by 1000, and we get 7,584.
— 7,584 x 8 cents is $606.
And what have those YouTubers been saying about this channel’s earnings?
(show clips)
— So basically a pack of lies.
Correct.
If you start a YouTube channel that’s all shorts all the time, you can apply for monetization after reaching 1,000 subscribers and 10 million shorts views within 6 months.
And if you reach the level of views that Daily Facts Worth is currently getting, what we just showed you is probably the HIGH end of what you can expect to be making. So if you’re just doing it for fun, great. Do it!
But if you’re really looking for a side income, you’re probably better off making long-form YouTube videos. Those do take more effort—
— Unless you just use AI for everything
… which I would NOT recommend if you want to get monetized. But however you make your videos, once you reach the long-form monetization threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours within a year, you will be getting dollars instead of pennies.
But don’t totally forget about shorts. Listen to what these YouTubers have to say about how shorts have helped their channels grow.
(play clips)
— The shorts you’ve posted recently haven’t done so hot.
That’s because the shorts I’ve made so far kinda suck.
— Is there anything you don’t suck at? LOL