In this day and age, you can't ignore short content. That's why we have to talk about YouTube Shorts and why you can't ignore them.
In the last two weeks, I've been asked more about creating content for YouTube, but mainly about the deal with YouTube Shorts.
Today, I'm diving into the behind-the-scenes of our new YouTube channel for "Camping with the Fam" and sharing the insights I've discovered with you.
Not only will you walk away from this episode with a fresh perspective on short content, but you'll also understand the importance of video SEO. So, let's dive in.
In this day and age, you can't ignore short content. That's why we have to talk about YouTube Shorts and why you can't ignore them.
In the last two weeks, I've been asked more about creating content for YouTube, but mainly about the deal with YouTube Shorts.
Today, I'm diving into the behind-the-scenes of our new YouTube channel for "Camping with the Fam" and sharing the insights I've discovered with you.
Not only will you walk away from this episode with a fresh perspective on short content, but you'll also understand the importance of video SEO. So, let's dive in.
This happens every year, at the beginning of the year, there is a lot of push, and a lot of people asking about new channels for content. It's kind of one of the reasons why I didn't talk too much at the end of last year about creating new content. Because I think that whenever you do that, first of all, it's what all the content strategist and content creators and people that teach this stuff, it's what they're all talking about. And what I wanted to do today is focus more on why you should be adding this to your content, if you haven't already, and give you some of those benefits now that it doesn't feel so overwhelming, because I mean, I'm recording this. It's January, we're mid January already. I can't believe this. But I didn't want to put that kind of pressure on you in December. Because I feel like there was a lot of pressure in December, there's always like, okay, we can hurry up and wrap this up before the end of the year, I have to have this started, I have to have it launched on January first. Otherwise, I'm a failure. I'm a loser and blah, blah, like I mean, maybe it's just me, maybe these are my own hangups, my own thoughts. But today, I'm sharing with you about YouTube shorts. So specifically, we're talking about YouTube shorts, not just creating a brand new YouTube channel, which we'll talk a little bit about that. But I really want to focus in on shorts, because I did put that kind of pressure on myself to launch a brand new YouTube channel. It's for a family. I'll talk about talking about all the details in a second. But I have learned so much about YouTube shorts, and they just cannot be ignored. And I have so many cool things to share with you about it. But I've had a lot of people reaching out in this community that have been asking me about YouTube for such a long time. Whether it's transitioning from a blog or a podcast to YouTube or just trying to understand how it all works together. I get a lot of questions I do. When since I recently launched our new YouTube channel. And I started brand new, like brain, edit and rebrand a new channel like I started from scratch. I wanted to share with you what I've learned and how you can apply those same learnings, mistakes, all the things. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the Prophet podcast where we teach you how to start launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we?
YouTube Shorts:Alright, so we are just gonna dive straight into YouTube shorts. Like I said, this is what we're talking about today. It's the highlight of YouTube. And it has been for a while. So I want to come out and say that like it's not something that's brand new, it's just come on the scene, like shorts have been around for a few years. And I actually had a great conversation with ash Borland, so I'll link to his chat that we had about YouTube shorts and what he was trying and I think that it's really noteworthy to look at some of those same strategies because I still think that they're always get this word mixed up, is it applicable, applicable, you know, it's people say that different tomato, tomahto, whatever, but it still applies today.
Higher Reach Than Regular Videos:Some of that same content about putting more shorts out there and the higher reach but I think that with the popularity of all the platforms that are focusing on short form, you have tick tock Instagram, you know, Facebook has all these I'm sure there's 1000 other social media platforms that do this and I don't even know about but short content is really what people are focusing on today. And right now, today as of me recording this shorts have like, I mean, it's a 10x return more than that, like it's just it's ridiculous. Like let me give you a comparison. I was talking about this in my weekly newsletter. So if you if you're on my weekly newsletter, you probably saw me talking about this, but there are two videos that are published. They're shorts, okay, so that means they're less than 60 seconds. I think one of them is like 40 seconds and the other one might be closer to a minute. Super short. They have over 1200 views a piece both of these videos. Now mind you, my channel hasn't even been around for a month at this point one I'm recording, and it's been around for a little over two weeks. And there's two videos already that have 1200 views. Now for comparison, the videos, the longer form videos that I created, like the actual ones that are the traditional YouTube videos, their exact same topic. Some of them are even clips from that video, they only have seven and 19. Seven, like single digit seven, and 19, while the other shorts have over 1200 views. So what is that? What is happening here? Why is this going on? So the algorithm is giving preference to shorts. So this is where so many YouTube subscribers are hanging out and watching content these days like, again, this is no surprise, this has been kind of the upward trend for the last three years is short form content, how can we make something real impactful in a short amount of time? And if you're listening to this, and you have YouTube right now, then this is specifically for you. Because I don't want you caught in the will this is how I've always done it. So I'm just going to continue to do longer videos. Because the truth is, we need to change things up. We do we do. Because I was in this mindset for a long time. I'm like, I don't need to do that. Like it's, you know, just my longer videos work. They work for SEO, and they were we're gonna talk about SEO in a second. I was just stuck in this like, No, this is just the same thing. And this is me, I am a creature of habit to a fault. Like to a big fault. I get stuck in my like, this is the routine. This is how it's done, that sometimes I don't branch out and try new things. And this is one of those things, I can tell you that I regret it. I regret not doing more shorts whenever I had that first conversation with ash. And we talked about all the different things that he was trying and getting on board with it then. But you know what Hindsight is 2020. Now I'm telling you today that you should be focusing on shorts. But let's go back to everyone that has an existing YouTube channel right now I'm gonna talk to brand new ones in a second. But if you have a YouTube channel, because I have Amy in our community reached out to me and said, Hey, I really want to focus on YouTube this year. And she already has an existing channel. She's like, I want to grow it, I want to do some acid, you have to do shorts, you have to do shorts, and I don't want it to be something that's overwhelming. I had this conversation with my mom, who also has a YouTube channel, I'll link to both of their channels in the show notes. But she said, I really want to get back into YouTube. I'm filling it. She said I don't want to feel like this is too much for me to handle.
Create Shorts from Existing Content:And I said okay, well this is the great thing about YouTube today is you can create shorts, like the short clips from your current videos. So from your existing content, you are able to create short, so you don't have to say oh my gosh, I'm going to commit to creating, you know, just hours and hours of all these short videos, no, go work with the content you already have. And this is what I told Amy, I was like, go back look and see if there's anything that you can create these shorter form videos from your current content. So if you have a current YouTube channel, all you have to do is go to the YouTube mobile app. So this does not work from your desktop. I don't know why this is one of those frustrating things right about tech, it's like, well, you can only do it on your phone app, but not on your desktop. This is one of those things. But you have to go to a video that you want to create a clip from on your phone on your mobile app. And then from there, there is a remix button that allows you to create a short from your longer video. So you could just pick whichever section of your video that you want to turn into a short and it's super, super simple to do. But what's even cooler about this is that the traffic that you reach with these types of shorts that are created from this longer form video can redirect them back to your original content, which is super cool. Like you don't really get that on any other platform where you could make like a short tic tock and then it's going to redirect you to a longer one or on Instagram like this is one of the only places where I've seen that and this is what I call the spiderweb effect and this is something that I teach inside radical repurposing, but it's giving you the ability to to really have someone walk into your content, and then they click on it, and they kind of go down this rabbit hole of learning more about you and getting caught in your spiderweb of content, because then they can continue to consume all the different things that you've created on your channel, whether they're short or longer form videos. So super, super cool. I love this feature for anybody that has an existing YouTube channel, this is what you should be doing ASAP. And then you can start thinking of ideas for other shorts. But alright, if you don't have a channel currently, or you do have one, this applies to both of you.
Treat Shorts with the Same SEO Love as You Do Longer YouTube Videos:But I want you to treat shorts with the same SEO love as you do longer videos. Now, I'm not a YouTube expert, I'm not going to claim to be a YouTube expert. But I will tell you that SEO is one of those things that I love so much about YouTube, because I can choose like, where I want to really focus, like for our new brand, for example. So it's called camping with the fam, it's all about camping and hiking, and fishing and doing outdoor activities that are with the family. Like that's what our niche is, like it's camping is the higher category. And then the niche is with your family with kids. And the power of SEO really lies in doing this correctly and with the right types of things. So I'm gonna give you an example in a second. But with the right touch, you can create YouTube shorts that are specific to a topic that you know, your audience wants to hear about. And the reach can just be far greater than it would be on other social platforms. So that's really the power of SEO, is I could go into creating a short and tag it and do all the things you're supposed to do for a YouTube video. And it could potentially have more of a reach than just a regular video because the algorithm is giving it preference. But also it is tagged and key worded in a way that it's going to show up in the search engine, like the YouTube search engine. And I don't know, and this is probably something I should have researched before I started recording this. But I don't know if today if shorts are appearing in people's Google search engines, because remember, YouTube is owned by Google. And that's why SEO is incredible. And it's so sophisticated on YouTube, far more than on other platforms. But I do know that it is something that you just cannot ignore. So not only can you upload awesome content and great shorts on your channel, but you can't ignore SEO whenever you're uploading these. So I know the questions coming. Well, what do I need to focus on? What are the SEO things that I need to do? So there's four things that I focus on, on every single video no matter if it's a short or a regular, long form video. And the first one is the title, right? The title is everything. So I use keywords everywhere. This is the plugin that I use on Google on YouTube that tells me how often people are searching for things. And fun fact, behind the scenes. The reason why we call our channel camping with the fam, is I found that there are over 20 million searches every single month with the word camping in them. That's a pretty big deal. Like that's a pretty significant audience. Right? So camping, and then camping with the family is the niche that we decided on. So the title of our channel was very intentional, but also the title of our videos. So for example, one of our videos is about how to whittle wood with a pocket knife. So I started looking at the YouTube different populations or the different categories and titles that would populate whenever I was looking at whittling and it wasn't as high as carving wood. And so what I ended up doing here actually, I want to read you the whole title right here because it does make a difference. Okay, so I ended up calling the video how to carve wood whittling, for beginners, that's the actual video name. And then the short that I created from it is how to whittle with a pocket knife. It was very, very specific, but I wanted to have the two options out there to see which one performed better and on Basically, I need to go back and change the other title of the longer video because the shorter one is just outperforming it like crazy. So that's, that's the first thing. So titles are super important. I use Keywords Everywhere I talked about that and then to Buddy is the other app or plugin that I use on YouTube, that just saves my sanity, because you all I don't have all this SEO technical knowledge that you couldn't also have as well, I just know the tools to use to help me have a better experience and to Buddy is just totally worth it. I am an affiliate, I'll have a link in the show notes for you to check out to buddy. But that is one that I like, absolutely swear by. It is incredible. Also Keywords Everywhere. What I love about Keywords Everywhere is one of those that you just buy credits for it, and then you just use it, it's not a monthly expense. So that's fantastic. We always love it when it doesn't cost us a ton of money every single month. Okay, so we're going back to the most important SEO features for shorts. The number one was title. Number two, your description. So this is where you can go into a little bit more of a detail. Think of it like your caption that you would have on Instagram or Tick Tock, your description is also being read by the algorithms. So you want to have some keywords in there, that makes sense. You can also put hashtags in there, this is number three. So you have your title, your description, hashtags is something that I will put in the description, sometimes I put them in the title, if it makes sense. And it's going to fit within, you know, the title character limit. But hashtags are also something that I've been playing around with on shorts and on my other videos. And I think it's super cool that you can add a ton on there, and we're gonna play with it and see, but I use all the SEO features that I can to help me really boost everything in the algorithm. And then the last but certainly not least, the fourth thing to consider for SEO is your tags. Now tags are where it's at, okay, like, this is one of those things that can really help you rank higher in. I was gonna say Google in YouTube, because this is something I figured out a long time ago. And again, I use to buddy for my tagging, I actually have the mobile app for to buddy. So if I think of an idea, or with camping with a fam, I already have existing videos and content from our previous camping adventures. So when I find a subject or topic, I will go and start playing around with tags and say, Okay, what are the best tags that I should use for this type of content? And for example, going back to the whittling with a pocket knife. That was one where I was like, Okay, how to whittle, oh, this has great search volume, people are already looking for this and there's not a ton of competition. Okay, I'm definitely going to use that tag, then I would find other ones for woodcarving. That was a little bit more competitive, and it had higher search volume. But it also had a ton of people putting out that type of content. This is a good news, bad news situation. The good news is people are looking for this. The bad news is we're such a new channel that we probably won't rank for it. But that doesn't scare me away, I'm still going to put it into my video. So tags super, super important. can't ignore those. But I want to talk about like we're gonna switch gears, right because I could talk a nerd out on SEO for a long time. So if you have any other questions about SEO, let me know hit me up on Instagram.
Can Create and Schedule Videos (Unlike Other Platforms):But the thing that I want to talk about when it comes to shorts that I love so much is the ability to create and schedule videos. Unlike other platforms like this is a really big deal because one of my biggest gripes and complaints about Instagram reels for a long time long, long time was that you needed to create them. And then you couldn't schedule them to be published later within the app. Like you had to make a bunch of drafts and hope that you don't lose them all. And some phone update or some other weird tech glitch, like did this happen to anybody else. I actually had someone that said they spent like hours creating so many reels, and they couldn't schedule them to be published. So they just left them there were like 20 drafts in their Instagram app. Then there was some weird tech glitch and then they were all gone. I was like, Oh my gosh, like I can't even imagine like that just makes my stomach hurt. And I'm sure there's somebody listening right now that it happened to you and you're just like, Oh, don't even remind me crystal like that's a sore subject. Don't bring it up again. But this kind of stuff happens. So I personally on Instagram, don't create a ton of content and then leave it there as a draft because I'm scared, it's just going to disappear. And what I love about YouTube shorts is you can schedule them, you can schedule as many as you want to, you can create them, you can create them from your existing content, schedule them for the future, you can create brand new ones, schedule them for the future. So this is another perk, I would call it to creating YouTube shorts over other types of content is that you can create them and then schedule them and then forget about them. I mean, obviously you don't want to forget about them forever. But you know what I mean? Like, it's not something that's like weighing over you. You're not like setting schedules on your phone, that's like, Okay, I created this draft on Instagram. Now I have to go back, I have to make sure and I publish it at 10am Tomorrow, like there's none of that you just create it, schedule it and boom, like it's, it's done like, check, check that off your to do list, you're good to go.
COMING SOON! Monetization in February 2023:Alright, the last thing I really wanted to talk about for YouTube shorts is the fact that monetization is happening in February 2023. Now, you can already today monetize with or hang on, let me say this correctly, because I don't want to get like a slap on the wrist for not saying it right. You currently can monetize shorts. But it's not the only way for you to get into the YouTube Partner Program. So if you're not already monetized on YouTube, let me explain a little bit about what that means. So you can earn money with your content. And you know, you can have several opportunities to have ads shown because that's how you make money on YouTube, you have AD show on your channel. But there are a few things that you need to know. So when you're logged into your account, you can head over to the Earn tab e a are in right you're in. Yeah, that's right. I was looking at it weird. I'm like that looks weird. No, this is spelled correctly. This was called monetize or monetization for a long time. They recently changed it to earn. And you can look at it from your desktop, mobile phone, your YouTube Studio app like this is you can see this anywhere. But you can see what is required from your channel before you can start earning money from ads. And when you go to the Earn tab, you scroll down to where it says how do I join, like this is the section on the page. It will give you the requirements that your channel needs to start making money. So for camping with a fam, we're currently we only have 23 subscribers like we don't have it's not a huge channel, right? Because we just started. But we need 1000 In total, before we can apply for the YouTube Partner Program. So we're at 23, we need 1000. So I know it's a long way to go. But we'll eventually get there I have every confidence in the world that that's going to happen, then, and this is newer, okay, this is the new part that it didn't want to like flub up and say it wrong. For a long time, you had to have 4000 public watch hours, which is what I met whenever I started monetizing on my crystal profit channel in December 2020. So I had to have at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 public watch hours like those are the two requirements. Boom, I met them I started making money. Well, now they are adding in, you have to have 10 million that's million with an M public views on shorts. to monetize, like, these are the options I'm given today. So when I look at camping with a fan that says okay, you have 23 subscribers, you have a little over 3.4 1000 views on shorts, and you need 10 million. And I know that to be like, Oh my gosh, that sounds so impossible. That sounds like it's such a big deal. Like, because 4000 public watch hours previously to 10 million. That sounds like it just sounds bananas, doesn't it. But I also know that that means they're going to continue to give preference to shorts. Otherwise, I think that they would have upped the public watch hours a lot higher if they wanted to raise those requirements. So if you are only doing shorts currently, and your channel isn't monetized, just know that it's coming, that that's going to be the option for you. You're going to be able to monetize with just shorts, you won't have to have longer form content if you don't want to. But all of these changes, excuse me are really rolling out in February 2023. So all good news. All good news, I think With that, like to summarize everything today, it's really the fact that short content is here to stay. It is it's here to stay, we can't ignore it. If you're already creating content like this on Instagram, Tik Tok somewhere else, then I really encourage you to do it on YouTube, specifically, because I think that the lifespan of content is going to outweigh other channels, or sorry, other channels, other platforms, because there's still the SEO component that other platforms aren't focusing on, that they don't have. Who knows, if shorts are going to eventually be in Google, you're going to Google something, and boom, there's going to be a short that pops up that has the exact information you need and less than 60 seconds, instead of a 20 minute long YouTube video. That sounds pretty nice. Right? Sounds pretty great. So I think that if I were to do like a prediction that's going to be coming in, who knows, maybe it's already on their roadmap to be released.
Outro:But that's something I would love to see in the future. So if you're going to do YouTube, you have to be open to both types of content, long form and short form. And I actually heard someone say in a group recently that they grew their channel up to 20,000 subscribers in one year, just by doing YouTube shorts for probably 12 months. So we as creators can recognize that short form content, and its impact can be huge for the rest of your content. Don't ignore it, check it out, go look at shorts, go go look at my channels. I'll have everything linked in the show notes if you want to see exactly what I'm talking about. But I think this is exciting. I think it's super fun. But that's all I have for you today. So make sure you hit that subscribe or follow button wherever you're listening to this podcast. And as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.