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How Shorts Stack Up for Creators

Last week, business creator Paddy Galloway and YouTube analyst Chris Gileta released a YouTube Shorts study designed to answer some big creator questions: How long should Shorts be? How do Shorts help with growth? And of course, how much money are people making with Shorts?

The sample size: 5,400 Shorts from 33 YouTube channels across different niches.

What they found: Shorts aren’t a silver bullet for growth (at least not compared to their longform counterparts), but they can still be worth it for certain creators. Some main takeaways →

Like channel videos, Shorts should aim to hold the viewer’s attention as long as possible. Longer videos tend to do that best.

• Most creators make Shorts between 20–40 seconds, but Shorts between 50–60 seconds perform the best, averaging 1.7 million views in the study.

Longform videos convert subscribers better than Shorts do.

• Longform videos converted 22.7 subscribers per 10,000 views while Shorts converted 16.9 subscribers.

• But the inverse is true for creators with over 1 million subscribers. Why? Galloway’s theory: “These channels are making better Shorts on average that reach more viewers, and are using better call-to-actions inside those Shorts.”

The average revenue per 1,000 views (aka RPM) is 6 cents for Shorts.

• Length isn’t really a factor. Videos lasting anywhere from 10–60 seconds all hovered around a 6-cent RPM.

• Those RPMs are small, but Galloway noted that YouTube’s new monetization system for Shorts is paying creators on average double what the previous Shorts fund paid. “Shorts definitely aren't money makers (yet). However, let's give it time, I expect this RPM to rise over the next 12 months,” Galloway said.

Kick Paying Amazon to Use Twitch Video System

Last week, an ex-Amazon engineer revealed that Kick, the controversial streaming platform that has become known for turning a blind eye to issues like copyright infringement and porn, is paying Amazon to use the same video system as Twitch—effectively “subsidizing Twitch” at “8-10x cost,” according to the ex-engineer.

Zoom out: Kick is growing quickly. It tallied 58 million site visits in March, up from 14 million in January, according to SimilarWeb. One esports broadcaster noted that as Kick grows, “so will the checks they have to write to Amazon” for hosting video through Amazon Web Services.

Some other recent Kick news…

• Kick teased contracts with six top streamers, including chess creator Hikaru Nakamura.

• Aaron “Ac7ionMan” Travis claimed he earned a $38K payout in his first month on Kick, despite having only 7,000 followers. The gaming streamer estimated he would’ve needed 16,000 followers to earn the same amount on Twitch.

FYI: It was confirmed in March that Kick is majority owned by Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, the cofounders of online cryptocurrency casino Stake.com (a company with its own fair share of controversies).

The duo told The Australian Financial Review last month that they’re surprised Kick has gone from a “total joke” to contending with a mega-platform like Twitch.

Creators Offer Support for MrBeast Cast Member

Longtime MrBeast cast member Chris Tyson recently shared that they identify as gender non-conforming.

Some creators—including SunnyV2 and xQc—have published content suggesting Tyson’s gender identity could be a “liability” for MrBeast, something that MrBeast has vehemently pushed back on. “Chris isn’t my ‘nightmare,’ he’s my f**ken friend and things are fine. All this transphobia is starting to piss me off,” he said in a tweet.

Since MrBeast’s outspoken support, more creators have publicly backed Tyson, including Ludwig, D’Angelo Wallace, and Hasan Piker.

👀 Creator Moves

• Tanya Khanijow is hiring a video editor for her travel YouTube channel.

• LockDownLife is looking for a Minecraft video editor proficient in Premiere Pro and After Effects.

• Airrack is looking for a Los Angeles-based video editor to join his team.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Instagram Reels created a central hub for trending hashtags and audio.

• This is Mark Rober TV show debuts on Discovery Channel.

• Montana lawmakers vote to ban TikTok in the state.

• Beauty creator Jackie Aina signs with Digital Brand Architects.

• Emma Chamberlain is on the cover of Rolling Stone's Creators Issue as "Miss Internet."

• Casey Neistat makes an AI-generated vlog.

• Nathaniel Drew interviews Johnny Harris.

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