Using YouTube Shorts to grow your channel

YouTube Shorts are the best new way for Creators to grow their channels.

How do Shorts work?

Shorts are a new vertical video format on YouTube, similar to TikTok and Instagram Reels. This video format is meant to be shot, edited, and uploaded from your mobile phone.

Growing your channel with Shorts

Shorts are a great way for smaller Creators to get discovered quickly. Unlike regular YouTube videos, viewers are given a feed of random videos to watch, meaning Shorts are more likely to be shown to new audiences. It also makes it easy for viewers to subscribe by including a subscribe button at the bottom of the screen. Repurpose your longer videos or create a teaser to what your channel can offer, and hook them into watching your regular YouTube videos.

On top of that, YouTube is trying to compete with other platforms that offer this video format. Now is a great time to take advantage of Shorts while YouTube is promoting it and pushing this onto viewers.

Do Shorts pay?

For now, Shorts itself won’t generate much money—but they will direct viewers to your channel. It’s a great way to grow your audience, and that larger audience will pay in the long run!

YouTube recently announced the YouTube Shorts Fund, a $100 Million fund that will reward thousands of Creators who receive the most engagement. The program is not limited to YouTube partners, so any Creator is able to participate. YouTube plans to launch the fund in the next few months, and continue to build a sustainable monetization model for the new video format.

Get started with Shorts

Everyone knows that the YouTube algorithm is constantly changing, but it’s pretty apparent that Shorts will be pushed pretty heavily for the short term. Take advantage of this opportunity to experiment with a different content style and increase exposure to a new audience.

Here’s a quick way to get started:

• Take your most popular video of the last 90 days
• Find a 60–90 second clip of that video that is the most engaging
• Cut that out and edit in a caption at the bottom
• Make sure your video is square or vertical and under 60 seconds so YouTube’s system will recognize it as a Short
• Upload your video
• Track your Shorts analytics and how it impacts your overall earnings growth across the next 30 days.

Otherwise, you can use the Shorts recorder itself and make brand new Shorts content by clicking on the shorts section in the YouTube app!

Have you experimented with Shorts yet? Leave a comment and let us know how it worked for you!