Why Newsletter Creators Should Make YouTube Shorts
Why I'm considering YT Shorts
Hello everyone,
I am travelling so not really here at the moment but something occurred to me. Newsletter creators can now diversify into short mobile video as well. If you are not a fan of TikTok’s style and vibe my feeling is YouTube shorts would give you more flexibility.
Sorry but I don’t have much hope in Instagram Reels, as Meta as a company has a poor trajectory into the so-called Metaverse.
Create a YouTube Channel
Experiment with YouTube Shorts
Get good at it before 2023, when it will be monetized.
Learn from TikTok and Instagram Reels but focus on YouTube for better long-term discoverability.
There is the chance TikTok will be banned between 2023 and 2030 in the U.S. and Europe. I’d rate it as a significant risk, in the area of 60-70% likelihood.
If as a Creator you are going to diversify Instagram is on the decline and TikTok has too much app ban risk if you ask me.
Since you can put your Newsletter link in your YouTube page banner, it could lead to more value for your audience.
How-To
YouTube Shorts are short, vertical videos created using a smartphone and uploaded directly to YouTube from the YouTube app, like Stories.
Here’s how it works:
You can make YouTube Shorts by accessing the YouTube app on your phone and using the feature to record brief videos.
YouTube Shorts is a new feature in beta testing that allows you to record video shorts up to 60 seconds in length.
You can record in 15-second intervals with several tools to edit your videos.
If you can make some good evergreen YT Shorts, I think they may have long-term long-tail traffic that will show up more in YT Search. It’s not just TikTok mobile search that’s gaining traffic over Google, it’s actually YouTube search, already the world’s 2nd best search.
I believe in order to survive, many “authors” and indie Newsletter Creators should also continue to evolve in podcasting, video and short video formats. Diversifying formats is fairly important to reach a younger and more mobile audience as older audiences churn from places like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and other “web2.0” platforms. More and more people are opting out from the older internet that has become more toxic, smaller or more full of spam, fake profiles, deepfakes and scams.
I’m not sure TikTok while dominant, will be a reliable CTR for indie Creators who are niche. I think over time YouTube search could factor more into additional traffic. There are some good YouTube creators who have included a Substack to monetize their traffic even better, and it’s worked out way better than Instagram native creators moving to Substack or having both.
I think what I notice is the ease of adoption: I mean it’s literally this simple:
Using your smartphone's camera, you can record brief videos and upload them immediately. The default length is 15 seconds and you can add more time in the app, up to a minute.
This means your YT Shorts will be competing against a lot of other content. Which will give you analytics feedback very well as audiences are funneled towards YT shorts more in 2023.
This is optimal for a Creator.
Many Substack Creators aren’t edutainers by nature, that is at the intersection of entertainment and education, heck some are neither. But mobile video will depend upon both of those factors. Then there’s the music!
Using YouTube’s built-in creation tools, you can capture, edit, add music from major labels (including Sony, Universal, and Warner), add animated text, control the speed of your footage, and edit together multiple 15-second video clips to create your Shorts.
Viewers of your Shorts can share, comment, like, dislike, or subscribe to your channel while viewing the video. The dislike button is important, it helps you with a valuable signal.
YouTube also has a $100 million fund to support creators who help build the Shorts community.
In the pop-up, tap Create a Short, which has a camera icon next to it.
Why YT Shorts is Better than Stories
The content doesn’t disappear and remains on YouTube, unlike other short-form video apps like Instagram Stories and Snapchat. Stories are being displaced by short form video.
Instagram Reels is a wasteland, so don’t go there. Meta’s stock is on a death-spiral and its Earnings of late 2022 could be significantly bad.
TikTok is at risk of bans for their abuses of privacy and data sharing with third parties.
Google’s leverage of YouTube is global, thus making it the ideal stomping ground for a Creator who already writes and makes podcasts - video is essential, both short and long-form.
This is my current rational of why investing in YT shorts could make sense, although it may not make sense for your vertical or personal brand.
YouTube shorts recording length defaults to 15 seconds. By tapping on the number "15" above the record button, you can change it to 60 seconds.
Everything seems fine, but checking the timing of the text pop-ups can be a bit annoying for me at least. For the record, I think YouTube Shorts will only really take off later into 2023, don’t expect TikTok like engagement there yet.
What do you think?
As Creators we are entering the most challenging environment the subscription economy has ever seen. So try to get over the hump while learning a thing or two.
Thanks,