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How to Use YouTube Shorts to Gain Views
YouTube Shorts can provide great benefit for smaller channels
What are YouTube Shorts?
YouTube Shorts are a direct reaction to the explosion of TikTok in the last year or so. Anyone can upload a vertically oriented video that is 58 seconds or less to YouTube and it can be considered a “short”. It helps if you include the hashtag #shorts in your title or your description if you don’t have the uploader.
Shorts can show up in your channel in their own section and there is a specific section that shows up on the YouTube homepage that shows just shorts. This is called the “short shelf”.
Why Should Small YouTubers Consider Using Shorts?
For the most part, shorts are easier to create. They are obviously shorter and require less prep time and editing. You can also repurpose some of your longer content and pull out smaller snippets to create shorts.
The main benefit that you will get from shorts is increased views. If your short video happens to get on the shelf, you can see a huge spike in views. In a Facebook group that I am in dedicated to shorts, we share statistics when our shorts hit the shelf. I have seen spikes that typically range from 300–3000 views in a few…
