How to Make a YouTube Shorts Video

In this article, we are going to discuss, How to Make a YouTube Shorts Video because some of you are still a little confused about how YouTube shorts work and that’s okay. YouTube still is not doing a very good job of communicating YouTube Video Shorts. YouTube Shorts is still in its beta stages. Anybody can make YouTube Short Video right now.

You could start a YouTube channel today with NO subscribers or NO views and this will not be a problem. As long as the video created is in a vertical format and it’s less than 60 seconds long. It does not matter what device you use, it does not matter how you upload, it does not matter even if you include shorts in the title or the description, it qualifies as YouTube Shorts. Now whether it appears on YouTube as a Shorts video is an entirely different question.

Just to note on making this article everything is correct as of 2021 because in 2022 YouTube Shorts may look a lot different. Many users on YouTube are still waiting to get their hands on this button in the YouTube mobile app that will allow creators to make 15-second videos with a multi-segment camera, music speed controls similar to that of TikTok.

YouTube Shorts is currently only available in certain countries such as India, the United States, and a few other countries at the moment.

People who don’t have access to the YouTube Shorts tool on their mobile app can still create the YouTube Short video everywhere and anywhere apart from the app but it could all change in the future. At present, you can create, edit and upload your videos using any device. 

This is how you can make a YouTube Shorts Video put very simply there are no minimum creator requirements. You don’t need any views or subscribers, you could create a channel today and make a YouTube Short Video and upload it now.

Yes, you can make videos on a mobile device and upload them as normal videos to YouTube. Basically, it does not matter how you make the video, it just needs to meet these two requirements to qualify for a YouTube Shorts Video:

1^st Requirement: the video must be less than 60 seconds in length. To play it safe, make it no longer than 55 seconds. Also, the minimum length of a YouTube Shorts video has to be more than 5 seconds long.

2^nd Requirement: the YouTube Shorts Video size must be in a square or vertical format. A YouTube Shorts Square format video with a resolution of 1080 by 1080 or 1:1 ratio. However, most people will record in the vertical video because they would be using their mobile phones in portrait mode. The best YouTube Shorts resolution will be 1080 by 1920 which has a YouTube Shorts Video ratio of 9:16 (youtube shorts resolution).

A frequency asked the question “Do Youtube Shorts count towards watch time?” and the answer is Yes. YouTube Shorts videos count towards your watch time on YouTube.

You can include hashtag shorts (#shorts) in the video Title or Description but it is optional. There is some confusion here because YouTube customer support seems to imply that this is mandatory whereas, a creator who is very close to the internal YouTube teams has suggested in a Facebook post that hashtag shorts have no bearing on their discoverability on the platform. It is for internal YouTube tracking only. What we can tell you is that we’ve uploaded videos as shorts but did not include the hashtag shorts (#shorts) and they’re still identified as YouTube Short Videos. 

Once you’ve uploaded your video, how do you know whether it qualifies as a YouTube Short Video? Well on the desktop on your YouTube Studio, go to the “Customization” screen and on the layout, screen click “Add Section”. You can add a Short Video section to your channel.

So logically the next thing you want to find out is whether or not your videos are being viewed as YouTube Shorts and that’s where we need to go into the analytics. It’s good knowing that your video qualifies as a YouTube Shorts but not that many people go to channel pages on the YouTube mobile app. For your videos to get many views as YouTube Shorts, they need to start appearing in the Home Feed, the Subscription Feed and as Suggested Shorts on video watch pages.

Go to the Analytics page of the YouTube Studio click the “SEE MORE” button to bring up advanced analytics and then click on “Traffic Source”. This will show you at a channel level how many views you are getting as YouTube Shorts.

Now let’s talk a little about YouTube Short and Monetization. First of all, if you’re working towards monetization any subscribers gained from YouTube Short Videos do count towards 1,000 subscribers however not all watch time from YouTube Short Videos count toward 4,000 hours of watch time for monetization requirements. To explain this in more detail if a viewer watches your YouTube Short Video through the regular YouTube watch page even if it is a short video this counts as a regular view. So you do earn monetization watch time however if the same video is watched through the YouTube Shorts watch page the watch time does not count towards monetization.

Conclusion 

This is the complete beginner’s guide to uploading and checking your YouTube shorts if you do not yet have the YouTube Shorts button in the YouTube mobile app. This YouTube tool is in a constant state of flux; it will eventually turn up. If you follow all of the requirements as laid out in this article, your video has a chance of being viewed as a YouTube Short Video.

Visit our YouTube Shorts Video Channel.

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