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There still seems to be some misinformation going around about shorts, so I would like to take a moment to make some general clarifications about YouTube Shorts videos. It seems a little confusing and some people seem to be getting the wrong impression about these videos, how they work and what they do for your channel. So let me take a few minutes to clarify what Shorts videos are...
Last summer India put a ban on Tik Tok, which left a gaping hole in a proven market that was very similar to that which YouTube already had some stake in. So YouTube jumped at the chance to take over some of that Tik Tok ground by creating the option to do Shorts videos. Shorts videos (and yes, it is plural and requires the 's' at the end) are much more simple to make than you think. You do not need to follow a different process or use a different uploader in order to make a Shorts video. You simply need to make your video with the following criteria;
1. The video must be UNDER 60 seconds in length
2. The video SHOULD be published in a vertical format
3. The title or description should include '#Shorts'
The reason for adding the #Shorts hashtag is because it helps YouTube to track these videos for research purposes... it isn't necessary but because it helps with visibility I would highly encourage doing it. And that is all you need to do. Some users have access to a dedicated camera option on their phone that will record and upload a video specifically as a Shorts video, but neither that nor the actual Shorts shelf are universal for all users at this time. Don't let that confuse you though; if you follow the above mentioned criteria your video is in consideration for the Shorts Shelf.
The Shorts Shelf is where the magic happens. If you have ever seen the YouTube Stories 'Shelf' you have seen the horizontally-scrolling short videos by creators. The Shorts Shelf has it's own 'shelf' just like it and for some users the Stories and Shorts shelves are combined into one. When your video hits one of these shelves the impact is immediate and dramatic; you experience a massive amount of views in a very short amount of time as viewers scroll quickly through the shelf. Because fewer people are making Shorts video there is less competition and it is far easier to get your video in front of a large audience that is consuming a large amount of content. For most users this drastic jump in views often ends just as quickly and within a a day or two it dies completely. There are cases where the videos continue to produce traffic, though at a far less pace.
Now because of the nature of these videos the metrics are going to appear far different than your regular longform content. It is far easier to keep a viewers attention for under sixty seconds than say a ten minute video, so Shorts videos often see Average View Duration that can be several-hundred percent. This is due to viewers going back and re-watching the video, and this should be the desired result. Don't be fooled; everyone is getting AVD's with astronomical values. So just because you managed to pull a 250% AVD doesn't mean you are automatically outperforming all the other videos that you are competing against.
Another difference that you are going to see is your Click Through Rate. Shorts videos do not feature your thumbnail on the Shorts shelf and instead will be seen with a screen grab from your video. For smaller creators this is good because it provides a level playing field for all. It is also a total roll of the dice; you can not affect the screen grab YouTube uses. Because of this it is again a coin flip whether the screen shot YT uses is going to work well for you or not.
Does this mean you should not create a custom thumbnail? Absolutely not! You need to treat your Shorts videos like regular videos. Once they have left the Shorts shelf they still have a second life as a regular video and should be treated like a regular video in that regard. Custom thumbnails, SEO, descriptions, translations etc are all still valuable tools to help this video to be a continued performer for your channel.
In order to get the most out of these videos there are a couple things you need to know in order to maximize the value that you get out of them. For starters these massive amounts of views that you get are largely for vanity sake. They do not play ads on the Shorts shelf, so you are not going to be collecting astronomical amounts of ad revenue. And the watch time that you garner is also for vanity's sake; it does not count towards your 4,000 hours for monetization. The value of Shorts videos is in the exposure they provide. It is very easy to get in front of a large amount of viewers that you had not previously had access to. As such this is a tremendous opportunity for earning subscribers. This is why it is absolutely critical that your Shorts videos fall in line with your regular, longform content. If you are an amazingly-decent fishing channel and you start posting Shorts videos about your cat then the audience is not going to be interested in your content and is likely not going to subscribe or worse; they will subscribe and will not watch your videos (sending a negative feedback signal to YT that maybe your content isn't worth sharing out). Find a way to compress your regular content into these shorts and be sure to include a valuable proposition for the viewer to subscribe and these Shorts videos can provide well.
Last summer India put a ban on Tik Tok, which left a gaping hole in a proven market that was very similar to that which YouTube already had some stake in. So YouTube jumped at the chance to take over some of that Tik Tok ground by creating the option to do Shorts videos. Shorts videos (and yes, it is plural and requires the 's' at the end) are much more simple to make than you think. You do not need to follow a different process or use a different uploader in order to make a Shorts video. You simply need to make your video with the following criteria;
1. The video must be UNDER 60 seconds in length
2. The video SHOULD be published in a vertical format
3. The title or description should include '#Shorts'
The reason for adding the #Shorts hashtag is because it helps YouTube to track these videos for research purposes... it isn't necessary but because it helps with visibility I would highly encourage doing it. And that is all you need to do. Some users have access to a dedicated camera option on their phone that will record and upload a video specifically as a Shorts video, but neither that nor the actual Shorts shelf are universal for all users at this time. Don't let that confuse you though; if you follow the above mentioned criteria your video is in consideration for the Shorts Shelf.
The Shorts Shelf is where the magic happens. If you have ever seen the YouTube Stories 'Shelf' you have seen the horizontally-scrolling short videos by creators. The Shorts Shelf has it's own 'shelf' just like it and for some users the Stories and Shorts shelves are combined into one. When your video hits one of these shelves the impact is immediate and dramatic; you experience a massive amount of views in a very short amount of time as viewers scroll quickly through the shelf. Because fewer people are making Shorts video there is less competition and it is far easier to get your video in front of a large audience that is consuming a large amount of content. For most users this drastic jump in views often ends just as quickly and within a a day or two it dies completely. There are cases where the videos continue to produce traffic, though at a far less pace.
Now because of the nature of these videos the metrics are going to appear far different than your regular longform content. It is far easier to keep a viewers attention for under sixty seconds than say a ten minute video, so Shorts videos often see Average View Duration that can be several-hundred percent. This is due to viewers going back and re-watching the video, and this should be the desired result. Don't be fooled; everyone is getting AVD's with astronomical values. So just because you managed to pull a 250% AVD doesn't mean you are automatically outperforming all the other videos that you are competing against.
Another difference that you are going to see is your Click Through Rate. Shorts videos do not feature your thumbnail on the Shorts shelf and instead will be seen with a screen grab from your video. For smaller creators this is good because it provides a level playing field for all. It is also a total roll of the dice; you can not affect the screen grab YouTube uses. Because of this it is again a coin flip whether the screen shot YT uses is going to work well for you or not.
Does this mean you should not create a custom thumbnail? Absolutely not! You need to treat your Shorts videos like regular videos. Once they have left the Shorts shelf they still have a second life as a regular video and should be treated like a regular video in that regard. Custom thumbnails, SEO, descriptions, translations etc are all still valuable tools to help this video to be a continued performer for your channel.
In order to get the most out of these videos there are a couple things you need to know in order to maximize the value that you get out of them. For starters these massive amounts of views that you get are largely for vanity sake. They do not play ads on the Shorts shelf, so you are not going to be collecting astronomical amounts of ad revenue. And the watch time that you garner is also for vanity's sake; it does not count towards your 4,000 hours for monetization. The value of Shorts videos is in the exposure they provide. It is very easy to get in front of a large amount of viewers that you had not previously had access to. As such this is a tremendous opportunity for earning subscribers. This is why it is absolutely critical that your Shorts videos fall in line with your regular, longform content. If you are an amazingly-decent fishing channel and you start posting Shorts videos about your cat then the audience is not going to be interested in your content and is likely not going to subscribe or worse; they will subscribe and will not watch your videos (sending a negative feedback signal to YT that maybe your content isn't worth sharing out). Find a way to compress your regular content into these shorts and be sure to include a valuable proposition for the viewer to subscribe and these Shorts videos can provide well.
