- Here's the short answer.Forgive the pun.Anybody can make aYouTube Short right now.You can start a YouTube channel today,not have any subscribers or views,as long as the video ismade in a vertical formatand is less than 60 seconds long.And it does not matterwhat device you use.It does not matter how you upload it.It does not matter even if you include,#Shorts, in the title or the description,it qualifies as a YouTube Shorts.Wherever it appears onYouTube as a Shorts videois an entirely different question.And now for the long answer.(upbeat music)So, I'm making this videobecause some of you arestill a little confusedabout how YouTube Shortswork and that's okay,I don't blame you.YouTube still aren't doing a very good jobof communicating Shorts.So vidIQ is stepping in to help out.Now the one thing I willstress before we go into thisis that everything is correctas of time of recordingat the end of 2020, because in 2021YouTube Shorts may look a lot differentand this is why.That's because most of us arestill waiting to get our handson this button in the YouTube mobile app.This will allow creatorsto make 15 second videoswith a multi-segment camera,music, speed controls and more.Basically, it's a TikTok camerafor a TikTok video platform on YouTube.But as of time of recordingthis feature is currently only availablein certain countries, such as India.And here is the irony.I've been talking aboutYouTube Shorts for monthsand I still don't have accessto the tool on my mobile appwhich is why I'm creatingthem everywhere and anywhereapart from on the app.But it could all change in the future.It may be, that at some point in 2021,everybody has to create YouTubeShorts from the mobile app.That is to be determined.And I'll let you know allabout that in the future,if it does change.So, to clarify, if youcurrently don't have this buttonthis is how you can make a YouTube Short.Put very simply, there are nominimum creator requirements.You don't need any views or subscribers,you could create a channeltoday and make a YouTube Short.How do we know this?Well, we created a brandnew Shorts channel,started making Shortsand they are being viewedon YouTube as Shorts.What do we mean by a Shorts view?Well, as promised, we turnedthe intro to this videointo a short video.But if we watch the videothrough the normal YouTube playeryou can see that we can swipedown to see the commentsand over suggested videos.This would be a normal YouTube view.However, if we watch thissame video as a Short videoas seen here in the featuressection of the channelthe play controls change of it nowwhen we swipe up,the next Short video plays,instead of seeing commentsand suggested videosand so on and so on.This is class as a Shortsview in traffic sources.And how significancewhen we start to talk about monetization.Next step, you can create,edit and upload your videosusing any device.How do we know this?Well, I made the intro tothis video using this camera,editing it with this programand uploading it through adesktop computer to YouTubeand it is classified as a YouTube Short.Yes, you can make videoson a mobile deviceand upload them asnormal videos to YouTube.Basically, it doesn't matterhow you make the video,it just needs to meetthese two requirements.The video must be lessthan 60 seconds in length.To play it safe, make itno longer than 58 seconds.Also to play it safe,make it longer than at least five seconds.Secondly, the video must bea square to vertical format.So, this will be a square format video.Let's say the resolution is 1080 by 1080.If it is a pixel wider than it is tallerthen the video won't beclassed as a YouTube Short.Now this is a vertical video.Most people will record in vertical video'cause they're basicallyusing their mobile phonein portrait mode.If you go any thinner than thisthen it may not beconsidered a YouTube Short.And to be honest, itjust looks ugly on screenand it's not worth doing.How do we know all of this?Well, we did a massive teston the aspect ratio of YouTube Shorts.And you can watch it over here.And finally, you can include #Shortsin the video title ordescription but it is optional.There is some confusion herebecause YouTube customersupport seems to implythat this is mandatory whereas a creator,who is very close to theinternal YouTube teamshas suggested in aFacebook post that #Shorts,has no bearing on itsdiscoverability on the platformand is for internal YouTube tracking only.What I can tell you isthat we've uploaded videosas Shorts but not included #Shortsand they're still identified as Shorts.Wow, that's a lot ofShorts in one sentence.On the other hand, wehave seen one channelthat included #Shorts inevery single video titleand they've got half abillion views in three months.For the full story on that onecheck out the video over here.Okay, once you've uploaded your videohow do you know whether itqualifies as a YouTube Shorts?Well, in the desktop YouTube Studio,go to the customization screenand on a layout screen,click, add section.You can add a Short videosection to your channelwhich only appears onthe YouTube app versionof your channel page and looks like this.Essentially, these are allof your YouTube Shorts.Seven, if you followall of the requirementsas laid out in this video,then your video has a chance,and let me stress this,has a chance of beingviewed as a YouTube Short.So, logically, the nextthing you want to find outis whether or not your videosare being viewed as YouTube Shorts.And that's where we needto dip into the analytics.It's all well and goodknowing that your videoqualifies as a Short.But not that many peoplego to channel pageson the YouTube mobile app.For your videos toexplode as YouTube Shortsthey need to startappearing in the home feed,the subscription feedand as suggested Shortson video watch pages, as you can see hereto accrue millions of views.So, on the analytics pageof the YouTube Studio,click the see mode button, tobring up advanced analyticsand then click on, traffic source.This will show you at a channel level,how many views you aregetting as YouTube Shorts.(gentle playful music)Next step, if you wantto review the performanceof an individual videofrom the video list on the content screen,mouse over a video andclick the analytics icon.You can do the same advancedanalytics here if you want tobut on the right hand side,you get a real time view countincluding your traffic sources.So in this example, the videois doing exactly as intended.It's being watched as a Short video.You'll also start to get an understandingof how YouTube Shorts draw in viewers.Nothing for days after publishingand then all of a sudden a surge of views.And now, courtesy of vidIQ,here's another little bonusshot analytic, free of charge.If you use vidIQ,you're probably alreadyfamiliar with our channel,Real time Stats Barshowing you views per hour,subscribers and so on.Well, mouse over it nowand you'll see a new analytic,YouTube Shorts viewsover the last 48 hours.So if you add that to the stats bar,we can now see thatover the last 48 hours,half of the views on ourYouTube Shorts channelcome from YouTube Shorts views.We're currently at trialing this tool.So feedback is welcomein the comments below.Now then, YouTube Shorts and monetization.Let's quickly talk about this.First of all, if you'reworking towards monetization,any subscribers gained from YouTube Shortsdo count towards 1000 subscribers.However, not all watch timefrom YouTube Shorts videoscount towards 4,000 hours of watch timefor a monetization requirement.To explain this in more detailwe need to go back to this demonstration.If a viewer watches your YouTube videothrough the regular YouTube watch pageeven 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 watchedthrough the YouTube Shorts watch page,the watch time does notcount towards monetization.(buzz)I'm not surprised if you'rea little confused right nowas I said, YouTube havenot done the best jobin communicating all ofthis stuff to the creators.We know all of this because when we lookat the traffic sourceson our Shorts channelwe can see the total watch time hoursdon't match up to the watch time hoursaccrued towards monetization.The difference between these two figuresis roughly speaking, the watchtime from YouTube Shorts,which aren't counted.And if you think that's complicated,wait until you get monetized.That's because, get ready for this,yes, you can upload videos to YouTubeand turn on monetization.But if it's a Short videoand it's viewed as a YouTube Shorts,adverts do not play in the Shorts playerso they will not earn anyad revenue from that source.Again to put that into a practical examplemy vidIQ colleague, Dan,has a gaming channeland he's experimentingwith YouTube Shorts.This is a very popularShort on his channelwhich has three quartersof a million views.But notice we didn't see an advertbecause we watched it as a YouTube Short.However, when we play the same videothrough the regular YouTube watch pagewe see an advert to kick things off,which does earn Dan alittle bit of revenuefor this Short video.So, depending on how aviewer watches the same videodetermines whether the creatorearns any ad revenue from it.To put that into context,the channel I mentioned earlierthat we have done a case study onhas earned over half a billion viewsfrom making Short videos.But almost 400 million of those viewscome from YouTube Shortsthat can't be monetized.And as another colleagueof mine might say,"That's savage."As it stands, this is thecomplete beginner's guideto making, uploading andchecking your YouTube Shortsif you do not yet havethe YouTube Shorts buttonin the YouTube mobile app.This YouTube tool is ina constant state of flux.So if you want to keep up to datewith all of the latestYouTube Shorts news,make sure to subscribe and checkout the playlist over here.Thank you very much for watchingand enjoy the rest ofyour video making day.
