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Tik Tok Creator Fund
Tik Tok Pulse
YouTube Shorts Monetization

Highlights

• YouTube discontinues the Creator Fund in favor of an ad revenue-sharing model.
• Tik Tok’s Creator Fund still pays between $0.02 and $8 per video to eligible content creators.
• Tik Tokers continue to complain about the low monetization capabilities of the app.

In recent years, platforms like YouTube and Tik Tok have been slow on the uptake when it comes to fair and equitable monetization. The main reason is that short-form video monetization has some serious challenges. You can’t monetize in-stream ads in short videos as you can with longer content.

Only now, video platforms haven’t figured out how to share ad revenue, and creators on apps like Tik Tok have struggled to make a living without relying on sponsorships.

Tik Tok has tried to come up with better solutions. Last year, it launched the Tik Tok Pulse advertising initiative, available to creators with over 100k followers.

But, if you don't qualify as a top creator, you’re stuck with the Creator Fund– a model many have consistently criticized for low earning potential.

As a content creator, there are several options for monetizing your content on Tik Tok and YouTube. Let’s look at some of them—including the new ad-sharing option introduced by YouTube in February, the TikTok Creator Fund, and TikTok’s creator-advertising initiative, Tik Tok Pulse.

Tik Tok Creator Fund

How To Monetize With Tik Tok

Before February, YouTube and Tik Tok paid creators via the Creator Fund for short videos. That is until Youtube discontinued its Creator Fund, opting for an ad revenue-sharing model.

Tik Tok’s fund is still active, and though it's hard to say how much you could earn, reports range from $0.02 to as much as $8 per video. To qualify, you’ll need a minimum of 10,000 followers and 100,000 views over the past 30 days.

According to Tik Tok, fund allocation depends on a few different factors. “The number of views… the authenticity of those views, [and] the level of engagement on the content” could all affect your earning potential.

Tik Tok also claims there is also no upper earning limit on the fund.

Unfortunately, this usually isn’t enough to make a living. According to Insider, an influencer with over 2.4 million followers earned just $1,664 between January and March of 2022; meanwhile, creators with a fraction of the followers struggle to make money on the platform.

Tides could be turning, however, as YouTube and Tik Tok compete to attract talented people to make their platforms great. With YouTube's new ad revenue-sharing model, we'll have to wait and see if Tik Tok will feel the pressure and provide better compensation for its creators.

Tik Tok Pulse

Earning Potential and Eligibility

Tik Tok has started providing better solutions for its creators, and last year marked an important milestone with the launch of Tik Tok Pulse. This initiative allows advertisers to place their ads alongside content from top creators in the app, allowing those with over 100k followers to apply and receive a portion of the revenue from Pulse ads.

What are the eligibility requirements for Pulse?

• Have 100,000 followers or more.
• Post five videos in the last 30 days.
• Be 18 years or older.
• Follow the Community Guidelines.

This is a potentially viable pathway to more revenue on Tik Tok. But the program has gotten mixed reviews from creators.

According to a recent Fortune article, “seven Tik Tok influencers, all of whom had followings of at least 100,000, all shared confusion about their enrolment in the program, and none reported earnings exceeding $5.”

YouTube Shorts Monetization: How Google Pays Creators for Shorts

Can I make money from YouTube Shorts? The simple answer is yes and creators take 45% of the allocated revenue from Google.

According to Google, allocated revenue is determined by the proportion of YouTube Shorts views that your channel contributes to the total number of YouTube Shorts views. If your channel accounts for 1% of all YouTube Shorts views and Google generates $1 million in ad revenue from YouTube Shorts, your allocated revenue would be 1% of $1 million. Your take-home income will be 45% of your allocated revenue.

We all know the standard YouTube take-home percentage is 55%. So why 10% less?

Because YouTube takes 10% to cover music licensing costs.

So, how does music usage affect my revenue share?

The short answer is, the more music is used, the less revenue is left to share. However, as an individual creator, this is not something you can control.

What really matters is how many creators use music in their Shorts, which determines the size of the creator pool. Unlike using licensed music from YouTube Creator Music in long-form or standard YouTube videos - read more about the monetization of YouTube Creator Music here, individual use of music in YouTube Shorts doesn't directly affect creators' earnings. If every creator chooses not to use music provided for YouTube Shorts, the pie is larger for everyone. On the other hand, if more monetizing creators use more tracks, the pie becomes smaller, resulting in less revenue for each creator.

So how can I make more money with YouTube Shorts?

Keep in mind that the No.1 factor directly determining your income is still the percentage of view counts of your Shorts. So, while music licensing may affect the overall pool of revenue available to creators, it's important to continue creating quality content that resonates with your audience thus gaining more views to ensure the best possible revenue share.

Youtube Premium Subscriptions Revenue

So, what about YouTube Premium? YouTube has also announced that it will apply the 45% net revenue share to YouTube premium subscriptions. Since the Youtube Premium subscription offers users ad-free viewing, downloads, and background playback to paying customers, YouTube will pay 45% of the Shorts allocated revenue to creators after covering a portion of music costs to compensate creators.

Eligibility Of YouTube Shorts Monetization

To qualify for YouTube Shorts monetization, you’ll need a minimum of 1,000 YouTube subscribers and 10 million Shorts views in the past 90 days.

YouTube won’t take into account views of Shorts that are ineligible, which include:

• Unoriginal Shorts. Including unedited clips from movies or TV shows or content that has been reuploaded from YouTube or another platform.
• Compilations with no original content added
• Artificial or fake views generated by automated click or scroll bots
• Shorts that do not adhere to advertiser-friendly content guidelines.

Looking to Monetize Your Short-form Videos? Join Slip.stream Collabs

Let's be straightforward if you are not a top creator, it will be hard to monetize with either YouTube Shorts or Tik Tok. Both platforms have minimum follower and views threshold.

Slip.stream offers a monetization opportunity called Collabs for creators of all sizes: start earning from 500 views on either Tik Tok or YouTube Shorts. As soon as you hit 500 views, you are guaranteed to make $10. The most a creator can make is $500 for a single video! If you want to monetize YouTube Shorts or monetize Tik Tok, sign up at Slip.stream and stay tuned with the next artists collab!

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