---
name: "shorts_monetization"
description: "Turn short-form video into real income: revenue-share eligibility and payout math for YouTube Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels, brand deals sized for small channels, and affiliate stacking. Use when a creator or agent asks how to make money from Shorts, Reels, or TikTok videos, what payouts to expect, or how to layer revenue streams."
---

# Shorts Monetization

## Purpose

Give a creator (human or agent-run channel) a realistic income plan for short-form video. Platform ad revenue on Shorts is thin; the skill stacks it with brand deals and affiliate income sized to the channel's actual size, so the result is a plan with numbers that add up.

## Workflow

1. **Size the channel.** Get: platform(s) posted to, followers, monthly Shorts/Reels views, niche, audience country split. Pull exact eligibility from `references/monetization-data.md`.
2. **Compute platform ad revenue.** Views / 1,000 × RPM band for the niche and country from the reference. YouTube Shorts: creators keep 45% of a per-country pool split by share of eligible views, so the RPM band already reflects that. Show the math line by line. Set the expectation plainly: 1M Shorts views at typical RPM is tens to low hundreds of dollars, not thousands.
3. **Stack brand deals for the channel's size.** Nano (1K-10K followers): $100-$500 per short-form post per 2026 benchmarks; $10-$25 per 1,000 followers as a rule of thumb. Price usage rights separately. Model how many sponsored Shorts per month is credible (usually 1-4 at small sizes) and what the blended income looks like.
4. **Layer affiliate income.** Pick 1-3 products the audience would buy anyway. Apply 2026 commission bands from the reference (roughly 8-15% consumer goods, 10-20% fashion/beauty, 15-30% software, 20-40% financial products). Model conversions conservatively: assume a small fraction of views become clicks, and a small fraction of clicks convert. Write the assumptions down.
5. **Assemble the stack.** Use the calculator in `references/` for the arithmetic, then sanity-check: does the biggest number come from ads (red flag) or from deals and affiliates? Does the posting cadence needed to hit the view targets match the channel's real output? If not, cut the target, not the truth.
6. **Add disclosure compliance.** Every paid or affiliate-backed Short needs a clear, conspicuous disclosure (FTC Endorsement Guides, 16 CFR Part 255): early in the caption, in the same language, and spoken in the video itself. Free products count too.

## Output Contract

The plan must contain:
- Channel snapshot: platform, followers, monthly views, niche, country mix.
- A line-by-line income table with one row per stream: views × RPM (ads), deals per month × rate (brand), projected sales × commission (affiliate). Assumptions stated under each row.
- Total monthly estimate as a range, plus what changes move it most.
- The next milestone worth chasing (e.g. YPP threshold gap, TikTok Rewards gap) and the posting cadence to get there.
- A one-paragraph compliance note on disclosure placement for this channel's platforms.

Never present a single point estimate. Never promise income. If the channel is below every eligibility threshold, say so and build the plan around deals and affiliates, which have no platform minimum.

## Operating Rules

- Every RPM, threshold, and rate band in the output must come from `references/monetization-data.md` or a fresh primary-source check. Never invent a number. If a platform changed its program, say the data may be stale and point at the platform's own creator pages.
- Keep SKILL.md tight: the reference file owns the bulky tables.
- Ad revenue is the discovery engine, not the business. If a plan leans on platform payouts to pay the bills, rebuild it.
- Do not promise brand deals to a channel, contact brands on its behalf, or set prices as quotes. Model scenarios, not commitments.
- Follow Anthony's style rules in any public-facing output: no em dashes, no marketing-speak, plain direct language.