The Ultimate Guide to Creating YouTube Shorts – A Step-By-Step Tutorial for Beginners

Unlike longer videos, shorts can be up to a minute long. They can be uploaded or recorded by anyone on YouTube.

Viewer retention is crucial to a successful short. Crafting a captivating title and description helps boost discoverability and engagement. Aligning your content with prevalent challenges, trends, or memes can enhance visibility.

Recording

With TikTok grabbing so much attention from GenZ, YouTube has hopped on the short-form video trend with its new YouTube shorts feature. These 15-60 vertical-second videos are designed to captivate the audience’s attention in an even shorter period.

While the format is incredibly flexible, it is essential to remember that a YouTube short needs to provide value. If your viewers don’t find your content helpful, they won’t continue to engage with it. It’s essential to keep this in mind and aim to provide valuable, informative, and engaging content.

The first step in making a YouTube short is recording your footage. You can do this from your phone or a desktop program.

Creating a script for your video is a great way to ensure you capture all the key points you want to say. However, be sure to use a loose script so that your video feels more natural and authentic.

Once you have your footage, it’s time to start editing. You can add clips, text, and other overlays to your video using the timeline. You can also choose from a library of copyright-free music tracks to give your video a professional edge. You can also use audio effects to edit your video’s sound, making it more dynamic and exciting.

Adding Music

Adding music to your YouTube shorts is one of the steps in the right way to make a YouTube short even more engaging for viewers. You can use royalty-free music from the YouTube library (including various genres) or upload your audio. YouTube also has a feature to help you select the best music to fit your video.

If you want to add music to your YouTube short, tap the checkmark button at the bottom right of the camera screen. Once you’ve done that, you can adjust the music volume and move forward with your video clip.

In addition to music, you can also add voiceovers and text overlays to your video. When you select these options, you’ll see a preview of what your video will look like with them included. You can also scroll through the timeline frame-by-frame to make any necessary adjustments.

Using music and voiceovers can help you create a more polished video. However, it would help if you remember that authenticity is the key to creating a successful YouTube short. It would help if you captured your audience’s attention and naturally evoked emotions. Too many fancy effects can overwhelm your audience and make them less likely to engage with your content. Instead, focus on creating videos that are both entertaining and informative.

Editing

If you’d prefer not to shoot a whole video from scratch, you can upload preexisting video clips to your YouTube short. Tap the gallery icon and select your desired footage. If you add a clip longer than the allotted time, you can trim it or string together multiple clips to fill out your required length.

Ensure your short is engaging and accessible for viewers to follow, and ensure your video has a clear and concise script. Then, use editing tools to retouch your video footage and ensure your visuals are in sync with the audio. This includes adjusting the level of your soundtrack and adding video transitions to create seamless, smooth videos.

Another great way to enhance your video is by adding a striking background. You can choose from various beautiful backgrounds, from beach sunsets to bustling cityscapes. Just remember to pair your background with a fitting song that will match the mood and theme of your short. For example, suppose you’re creating a photo montage of beautiful vacation photos. In that case, you can add a classically-inspired track from your library or check out an incredible catalog of royalty-free bangers.

Once you’ve finished editing your video, it’s time to upload and publish. Be sure to include a title and the hashtag #shorts in your video’s description, as this will help your short get discovered by the YouTube algorithm.

Publishing

YouTube shorts are a great way to build your brand and engage with viewers. They’re a quick, easy-to-make alternative to long-form content and can be used to promote your main channel or specific videos. They’re a great way to reach a new audience and build your subscriber base.

Whether sharing a funny joke, giving a product demonstration, or just showing off something extraordinary, a short-form video can be an excellent way to capture your viewers’ attention. They can help you grow your subscriber base, boost engagement on your channel, and even drive more traffic to your website or social media pages.

To create a YouTube short, first, you’ll need to select or record footage that meets the criteria for uploading to YouTube. Once you have a video ready, click the’ Upload Videos’ button highlighted in blue at the bottom of the screen. Then, choose your video from the ‘select files’ or’ drop and drag file’ options.

When you’re done, add a video description and relevant tags to improve your video’s searchability. And remember to tag the correct audience to ensure you get your video pushed in front of suitable viewers. Finally, if you want your video to be age-restricted or child-appropriate, check the boxes corresponding to those settings.