In an effort to compete with short-form video giants like TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube has joined the club with its own short-form video platform. YouTube Shorts was officially launched in 2021, and today it has overtaken TikTok's user base, with over 1.5 billion users tuning in every month.

The platform's quick growth has presented massive opportunities for content creators, with some garnering hundreds of thousands of new subscribers overnight.

With more and more people using YouTube as a search engine and a source of entertainment, the ability to become a niche leader is more accessible than ever before.

However, creators should still be strategic when approaching YouTube Shorts. Below, we'll explain why YouTube shorts work and how to add them to your content strategy to win big.

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What are YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts are a new way to tell stories on YouTube. They are short, shareable videos that you can use to promote your channel or brand. They are mobile-first, like TikTok, but are accessible from any screen.

Shorts are less than 60 seconds long and comparable to TikTok videos or Instagram reels. They're shot in a vertical format and are primarily meant to entertain and capture a viewer's attention quickly.

The difference between a short and a full-length video is that they're more concise and very focused on one idea or topic. By keeping it short, you can keep the average attention span engaged for longer. After all, the ideal video length is between 15-30 seconds long!

What are the Benefits of YouTube Shorts

Like most tech giants, YouTube is competing for users' attention with YouTube Shorts. Because of the high stakes, YouTube's algorithm is rewarding creators by pushing Shorts content to hundreds of thousands of potential subscribers every day. This is a game changer for YouTubers because their content can be promoted to new viewers every single time a short is published.

So, what does this mean for you as a content creator?

More Views

As I mentioned earlier, one of the main benefits of YouTube Shorts is that they can increase your video views. This means more money in your pocket! If you've been publishing long-form videos to your channel and are monetized (congratulations!), then you know how important it is to get as many views as possible in order to earn money from ads on your channel.

More Subscribers

The second benefit of YouTube Shorts is that they can help grow your subscriber base really quickly. Because of the quantity of content and constant user engagement, you get from shorts, you can scale 5x faster than with long-form videos.

More Money

Did we mention that you can also turn on monetization on YouTube Shorts? Yup! You can have YouTube ads run on shorts and increase your channel revenue. There is a 45-55% revenue split with content creators!! The amount a creator can make from Shorts is based on the number of views, geographical location, and how many music tracks are used in the Shorts.

In terms of revenue sharing, music publishers receive a portion of all Shorts revenue based on how often their intellectual property is used within Shorts. If a creator uses two music tracks in a Short, 66% of revenue goes to music publishers, and 33% goes to the creator. If they only use one music track, revenue is split 50/50 between the creator and the music publisher. If no music tracks are used, creators keep all revenue from their share of the creator pool. Overall, monetizing creators keep 45% of their revenue share from the creator pool.

While monetizing YouTube Shorts is easier than ever before, it's still challenging to make significant money from Shorts. Our clients are seeing an average of $0.09 per 1,000 views. It's still necessary to make viral Shorts or have a strong YouTube resume to secure brand deals and sponsorships.

YouTube Shorts Strategies for Fast Growth

YouTube Shorts are effective at engaging your audience, driving traffic to your website, and building your brand. They're also a great way to promote your channel and can even lead to monetization if you're not there yet. Remember -- all you need to monetize your channel and start making money as a creator is 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours.

But what if you don't have the time or budget to create custom YouTube videos? Are you doomed?

Not at all! You can still optimize your time to make dozens of YouTube shorts a week that are valuable and entertaining! Here are our tips:

1. Repurpose Your Long-Form YouTube Videos

"Repurposing" is the practice of taking content you've already created and recycling it into a new format.

Repurposing long-form content into bite-sized pieces is one of the easiest ways to keep the content machine going while promoting your YouTube channel.

If you have a 20-minute video, but there are three or four different points that really resonate with viewers, use those to create separate, 60-second videos that each share a single point.

For example, if you have a video about how to make your own facial serum at home, cut it down into three parts:

The ingredients and where to buy them
How to mix the serum together
The results

Remember to add the link to your full YouTube video in the description and encourage viewers to subscribe with a call to action.

Get into the habit of cutting up your long-form videos into 3-7 shorts while you're editing. It'll make creating content that resonates so much easier while saving you time.

We love helping creators maximize the impact of their videos with a repurposing strategy that delivers results! Contact us today to learn how we can help you grow while saving you time!

2. Keyword optimize Your Tile, Description, and Tags

Just like with long-form content, SEO optimization is essential for YouTube Shorts.

The best way to optimize your videos for search is to choose the right keywords that attract your target audience. A keyword is just a word or phrase that describes something or answers a specific need. For example, "pizza," "dinner," and "cookies" are all keywords. A more specific keyword could be "pizza recipes." When someone is searching for this, they are probably searching for food-related videos they can learn from. There are three main areas where incorporating your keywords will make a massive difference in your video's searchability:

Video Title: The title of your video is one of the most essential elements. It’s your short's first impression, so it needs to be keyword-optimized and descriptive. You can use up to 100 characters in the title field, so take advantage of that space by including your main keywords and a catchy, interesting CTA that will encourage people to click!
Video Description: The video description is another critical part of your video marketing strategy for YouTube Shorts. Use this space to include your videos' keywords and information about what people should know about your video — why it’s valuable and how they can benefit from watching it. Keep it brief (between 150–300 words) and include links back to other content on your website if relevant (these will help improve search engine rankings).
Video Tags: Tags are used by YouTube to identify videos as well as connect them with other similar videos that might interest viewers (e.g., someone searching for “dog tricks” might also be looking for "dog collars"). We recommend installing Tube Buddy, YouTube's SEO optimization tool, to help you find relevant tags with high search traffic! This tool will help a ton when selecting the right tags for your videos.

3. Align your Content with Trends

Another tried and proper strategy that works exceptionally well on YouTube Shorts is aligning your content with trending topics. Once you know what people are talking about, you can very easily turn those conversations into short videos that are current and relevant!

You can use tools like Buzzsumo, Semrush, Google Trends, etc., to identify popular words and phrases. Once you find some keywords, you can add them to your list of potential topics.

Here's where things get fun. As soon as you think of a topic, write down the keywords associated with that topic. Then, look for similar keywords. Keep adding new keywords to your list until you feel like you have enough ideas.

Here's another way to generate ideas: Go to Google Trends and type in your keyword. If you see a spike in interest, that's probably a good idea. If you don't, try a different keyword.

4. Post Daily

This strategy has been used by huge creators like Casey Neistat, PewDiePie, Logan Paul, and more. Daily content can have a massive impact on how fast your channel grows.

With long-form videos, this task can get daunting pretty quickly, but by repurposing your long-form content, you can get daily content from one weekly long-form video easily.

If you can't post daily right now, that's ok! Each time you post and audience engagement grows, your monetization opportunities grow right along with it. Brands will start to notice you if they see high engagement and consider you reliable and professional. Consistency is key to building long-term relationships with your fans and potential sponsors.

So, as long as you keep to your schedule, your growth will be steady.

5. Engage with other Creators in Your Niche

Creator collaborations are popular in the YouTube community, and for a good reason!

Collaborating with others within your niche can be beneficial to both parties involved due to increased exposure and audience engagement. Branding partnerships can also be formed between you and fellow YouTube creators. By working together, you can expand your audience and create new opportunities for each other.

Short-form videos make this process much simpler than traditional collaboration agreements. Responding to a creator's short can often lead to a request for a longer version, a remix, or an invitation to collaborate on something else. You may not realize how much interest there is in creating new content, so take advantage of these opportunities. Don't get discouraged if you aren't getting any responses right away; it takes patience and persistence to build relationships with others online.

6. Add Captions

According to a survey by Verizon Media, over 90% of U.S mobile users watch videos with no sound at all. This is one of the reasons why adding subtitles to videos has become commonplace in most creator communities, but the benefits don't end there!

Including subtitles in your videos can increase your engagement rate. If viewers can't figure out what's being said, then they won't watch. Subtitles increase the likelihood that someone will click through to view the video because they're curious about what was said. This means you'll probably get more views, likes, comments, shares, and subscribers.

Adding captions to your video can also improve search engine optimization (SEO) and help with driving traffic back to your channel or website. Search engines like Google may not be able to watch videos as we do, but they can certainly analyze and index text. When you add subtitle transcripts to your videos, it makes it more likely for Google to index them properly.

Finally, captions make your videos more accessible. They can help viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing understand what is being said in your video. This is especially important if you're using audio narration.

With transcription services like Rev.com, adding captions takes no time at all! These services make it extremely simple to add transcription files to your YouTube videos and shorts. All you have to do is submit your video link, pay the upfront cost for transcriptions, and upload the S.R.T. file to your YouTube video once it's ready. That's really all it takes to increase your reach and engagement on your shorts.

Conclusion

We think it's safe to say that YouTube Shorts will impact not only the future growth of millions of creator channels but also the way users consume video content as a whole. This is why we highly recommend you invest time in creating a shorts strategy that works for you! It's an exciting opportunity, and one we expect will grow exponentially in the next year.

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