Youtube Shorts - who likes short shorts?

My first attempt at making a youtube short failed



Apparently, it needs to be a vertical format and is best if made on the smartphone (something I do not have)



Here's their tutorial: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/10059070

But it is a really neat idea.  It seems to be youtube's attempt to compete with Instagram and facebook's short video stories.  This means, if youtube thinks this will help compete with their biggest competition, they must be giving more SEO love for anyone who makes shorts.  

Anyone tried making shorts?  

It took me about 3 hours from the initial idea to fully published.

That includes finding the footage
finding the music
finding the keywords
and editing the footage.  

That's not great for a 40-second video.  But that's actually really good time by my standards.  

So maybe this is something I can do for one or two videos a month?

Did it work?

Not sure if it will qualify as a "short" but it was fun to make and the video does answer a specific question (ASQ).  ASQ is a big thing for making relevant youtube videos.  

I don't ever watch youtube on a cellphone, so I can't speak to that. But I far prefer a video that has the pertinent information and that's it. In the words of my husband, "Dear youtube, please stop talking" (he's very frustrated by long videos that 5+ minutes of the person chatting about their life before they actually get to the point of the video).

I think there's something to be said for "vlogs" or that sort of thing where the video creator chats for a long time in their video. Those sorts of videos are for the people who've bonded with the creator and just want to know how their life is. But, for me at least, it takes a lot of really good videos from that person before I want to hear them ramble about stuff. It's information-dense videos that get me "hooked" to a channel, and I'm far more likely to click a video that's 10 minutes or less from a new channel, than I am to pick a longer one.

There are two different kinds of youtube videos I watch. The 'vlogs' in which someone shows and tells about the things he/she did last week/month (most of those are about textile handcrafts, some about gardening or both together) or a bicycle trip/tour he/she made, and the 'tutorials' in which something is explained as short and as clear as possible. The 'vlogs' I use to do some craft myself (knitting, crochet, spinning) while watching.

OK, that wasn't an answer to your question. My answer: no, I don't watch 'short shorts. And I don't watch youtube on my phone. I use my laptop on a table at the right height to watch comfortably (while doing other things with my hands)

This might help.  Putting it here for me for later.

this is promising



I was procrastinating doing other things, so I spent half an hour putting together a possible short.
Now to figure out how to label it correctly for youtube.  

If this works well, I think it would be fun to make a short for every week I don't have a proper video.  

My latest attempt at making a short

I did a 1x1 format as youtube says this will work.  Added #shorts to the title and I changed up the thumbnail a bit so my regular watchers will know it's short.  



I wish I could have figured out how to make the end of the film be like the end of a reel in the old movie style.  But that's something to aspire for in the future.  

I figure shorts should either be educational or silly fun, so I went with fun for this one.

Let me know if it worked.  We'll find out in a week or so if youtube thinks it worked.  

It looks like the sock video just hit the shorts shelf.  I'm starting to get shorts views rolling in!  

and my first thumb down on the video :(  (if you want to fight the battle and help give some thumbs up, I'm not above asking for help)

Shorts, as far as I can tell, this watch time won't count towards my monetization status, but it might bring in some new susbscribers.  

Happy I finally figured out how to make a short.  I'm going to play with this some more.

Another interesting thing is that my other account didn't get a notification of the upload.  I'm guessing shorts don't count.  

Short, but fun! That flapping reel would be awesome, there! Someday!

Some day.

So interesting things I learned.  
shorts don't get the bell notification.  They don't show up in the channel home page.  They don't show up in my feed on my other account.  I don't know if they turn up in search.  

Lots of views, but very little engagement from the audience.

It hasn't been up long enough to know if I got any subscribers.

BUT this means that I don't have to worry about my regular subscribers getting annoyed if I choose to publish a flurry of shorts.  

FYI - I subscribed to you a while back and the short was in my subscription feed.

I noticed a few of the channels I follow started posting shorts and then it appeared as though they stopped. I just went and checked and sure enough, I’ve actually missed most of the shorts they published.

I think you could post a ‘long’ short on just the sockmaking machine - I imagine it would be quite hypnotic and better than watching paint dry!

Edward Norton wrote:FYI - I subscribed to you a while back and the short was in my subscription feed.

I noticed a few of the channels I follow started posting shorts and then it appeared as though they stopped. I just went and checked and sure enough, I’ve actually missed most of the shorts they published.

I think you could post a ‘long’ short on just the sockmaking machine - I imagine it would be quite hypnotic and better than watching paint dry!

That's good to know.  Thank you.
Got to get my machine fixed (which means money for parts), then I can do some longer videos.  

I find filming at the festival difficult.  A lot of people were cool with me filming when I asked, but acted awkward.  Others aggressively asked me if I was THE OFFICIAL photographer.  Then required me explaining that I have a small youtube channel and do they have a webpage or logo I can link to if I use the footage of their stall.  Some were good, others weren't comfortable with me filming their wares, which is fine too.  It's important to respect their comfort level.

It was a strange atmosphere.  The sound of the crowd was joyful and excited to be gathered together after so long apart, but the individuals were nervous.  

But yeh, I only got a few seconds of the machine in action this time.  Next year - if I'm not selling at a booth - I hope to spend the day taking video.  

I've got my next normal video coming out on the 1st of Oct.  

I've got two shorts finished and waiting to publish.  Enough footage for one or two more from the festival.  

I'm trying to figure out if I can get away with publishing another short (or two) this week.  I don't want to spam the content, but the fibre festival stuff probably should go out within 10 days of the festivle.  

Maybe instead of individual shorts, you could do them together in one, as a sort of video medley?

The thing about shorts is that youtube is promoting channels that make them.

It also seems to be a good testing place for future topics.  Are people interested in this or that?  It only takes about 3 hours to make a short, opposed to 20+ hours to make a normal size video.  

Ahh... ok.

Latest short video about fulling (finishing woven cloth)

This attempt is to provide a lot more information rather than just a bit of fun.  

I'm going to leave the shorts alone for a while to see how they both perform.  Give them a week or so before posting shorts again.  

So the first two shorts got a lot of views.  The shorter short got more.

https://youtu.be/kZIEYLWFLjM
https://youtu.be/4GA8Dk2hToY

But now they have fallen off the shorts shelf, so they are getting almost no views at all.  

Neither brought in any subscribers.  

Both had low viewer interaction.

I'll make a few more to play with this feature in the future, but I don't think it's worth a huge time investment.  

My latest short is just over 30 seconds long

I tried to make it 50 seconds but decided to keep the concept as simple as possible.  I'm guessing most shorts viewers aren't textile viewers.

I made this in a hurry as apparently today is World Cotton Day - whatever that means.

It's lovely, though some might not understand the paintbrush. Permies, homesteaders, & gardeners probably will mostly get that it's for pollination, but I'm not sure others would. I didn't realize just how pretty the flower is!

So far this is my worst performing video for the first 24 hours of being up.  



I suppose it makes sense.  It's not the kind of video I really want to be making but I thought maybe experiment with shorts to see if they work.
It had a brief stint on the shorts shelf with one view, then nothing.  

I'm going to spend less effort on shorts and work towards the videos I want to make.  

This one is one of my favourites so far.
Just a bit of B-roll that didn't fit into another video but people wanted to see more cute animal.



But I am surprised it didn't do better in the first day.  It got a couple of views from the short shelf, but then nothing.  I thought cute videos were the ideal thing for that.  ah well.

r ranson wrote:This one is one of my favourites so far.
Just a bit of B-roll that didn't fit into another video but people wanted to see more cute animal.

But I am surprised it didn't do better in the first day.  It got a couple of views from the short shelf, but then nothing.  I thought cute videos were the ideal thing for that.  ah well.

Shared to Facebook, but not sure that means much.

Carla Burke wrote:

r ranson wrote:This one is one of my favourites so far.
Just a bit of B-roll that didn't fit into another video but people wanted to see more cute animal.

But I am surprised it didn't do better in the first day.  It got a couple of views from the short shelf, but then nothing.  I thought cute videos were the ideal thing for that.  ah well.

Shared to Facebook, but not sure that means much.

That means a whole bunch!  Thank you!  

Here's a short I made to test how things are doing now - and as a teaser for a regular video I'm working on

https://youtube.com/shorts/YQ7vjPT9L0M?feature=share

It spent about 2 hours on the shorts shelf then fell off.  It will be interesting to see how well it does longterm.  I like the idea that it might be a gateway to people watching the longer videos on this topic... but I have doubts.

It's also interesting the way youtube is changing the link system to reduce the ability to embed short videos.