 for creating and discovering Shorts. In addition to the U.S. rollout of Shorts beta – a tool for recording, editing, and posting brief videos – the platform has changed the layout of Shorts, how they appear in search results, and more.

As a creator, you should know what these updates are to better grow your channel. We’ve seen creators 

 but the challenging part is keeping the momentum going.

With recent updates, you may have to think differently about the way you create short videos. The latest Shorts updates have revealed four undeniable truths:

Shorts are appearing in search results, so you should absolutely create them.

If you focus on making unique Shorts that go viral, subscribers will find you.

Musical Shorts may contain trends or dance challenges, which means you should research topics and songs before you press record.

We go into detail about each truth in the video below, so give it a watch:

Now that you have some background knowledge, here are four tips to grow your channel with YouTube Shorts.

1. YouTube Shorts are Becoming More Discoverable; don’t Hesitate to Post Them!

Are you familiar with the Shorts shelf? This display area for short, vertical videos has been on the app's homepage for months. Now it’s also appearing 

 If you’re posting Shorts to YouTube, this is a new opportunity to get your content discovered.

Viewers can find your Shorts via search results but not in the traditional, topic-based way. Follow these steps to understand how they appear on YouTube:

Next to your profile icon, click the magnifying glass at the top right corner of the screen.

Type a channel name into the search bar and tap the appropriate result when it pops up.

Scroll down past the first few results – the icon that takes you to the channel, latest posts from the channel, and regular, horizontal videos – until you see the Shorts beta shelf.

When we search for vidIQ, a shelf filled with 

 appears in the results. This contains some Shorts we’ve posted as well as those from other creators who talk about vidIQ.

If you don’t post any Shorts, your channel probably won’t appear on this shelf. But you can easily 

, searching for your channel, and seeing if the shelf appears. Our suggestion has always been to upload Shorts because you never know what YouTube is going to do with them. In this case, it’s a new display area we’ve never seen before.

What About Topic-Based Searches for YouTube Shorts?

There is one downside to this feature, though. Performing a topic search instead of a channel search doesn’t return the same results. There’s no Shorts shelf when we type the word “Minecraft” into the search bar, for example. The shelf only appears in search results when we type a channel name.

If you’re a how-to or educational creator making Shorts, this is something to keep in mind. Viewers won’t find your Shorts by searching for a topic, but that’s OK. Channels like 

 are still getting millions of Shorts views from other display shelves.

2. Accept That Views, Not Subscribers, Are the Immediate Benefit of Creating Shorts

If you’ve struggled to gain subscribers from Shorts, that might intensify in the future. YouTube made some layout changes to the Shorts player, and the subscribe button is less prominent than it used to be.

In the old layout, the subscribe button was red and higher up on the player. Now the button is gray and very close to the bottom of the screen.

It seems like YouTube wants to take the emphasis off of subscribers, at least for Shorts. We’re not sure why. What we do know is that views, not subscribers, have always been the biggest reward for posting Shorts. Some creators get millions of subscribers, but that’s usually because they’re posting unique content that’s hard to duplicate – like 

Jake Fellman’s animated Among Us Shorts

. Those videos attracted 4.08 million subscribers so far.

For now, create the best Shorts you can possibly make. Make them so entertaining that people deliberately search for the subscribe button, even if it’s harder to see.

3. Use Pinned Comments to Drive Viewers From a Short to Additional Content

Shorts are similar to TikTok; viewers watch them quickly, swipe to the next video, and repeat the process as they cycle through content. It’s hard to get people to slow down, but when they do, you should give them something to look at.

The comment section is a good place to do this. Because subscribers are harder to gain with Shorts, you should 

make sure each video has a pinned comment.

 You can highlight additional content – a playlist, a Short that serves as a part two, whatever you like – and encourage people to explore your channel. If people like what they see, they may hit subscribe.

The pinned comment is your best tool because Shorts don’t have info cards or end screens for suggesting content. Even the video description is hidden behind a two-tap journey.

4. Do Some Research to Make Unique, Music-Driven Shorts

Music helps videos go viral. That’s what’s been happening on TikTok and even older platforms like Triller and the unforgettable sensation that was Vine.

Now YouTube wants to create the same appeal on its mobile app. On March 18, the platform unveiled a feature for 

. The best part? You won’t be penalized for violating copyright rules.

As more creators get this tool, you should research which songs are appearing in certain videos. Then you can 

 after seeing what others posted, hopefully making your content stand out.

To start researching, look for the icon below. If you see it, that means the creator added a song from the Shorts camera tool.

Tap the icon to see more Shorts using that song. This is where your research will really take off as you discover how the song is being used, if there’s a challenge associated with it, and more. At the top of the page, you can also see the original YouTube video for the song.

YouTube is slowly rolling out these features. You may not be able to do all the things in this post, but it’s good to know what’s coming. When the tools arrive in your app, be sure to do what we’ve mentioned in this blog. Upload Shorts without hesitation, make them entertaining, use pinned comments, and do your topic research.

YouTube is adding more updates to Shorts beta. If you learn how to use the features, you can grow your channel with short, vertical videos.

4 Tips to Grow Your Channel With YouTube Shorts

Real-time subscriber counts are fun to watch. As the numbers tick up and down, for a few seconds, you can imagine what it feels like to reach your next subscriber milestone.

 a few years ago, but now it’s back. There’s a new page for viewing live subscribers, which feels like a nod to the old feature and an expansion at the same.

See a timeline of your subscriber count over the years

Want to see how many subscribers you have right this second? Keep reading to discover how.

How to See Your Live YouTube Subscriber Count in 2021

As with many YouTube features, you’ll find the live subscriber page in the YouTube Studio.

Look for the real time section on the right side of your screen. This section shows your live subscriber count, but to see a bigger, streamable screen, click 

Watch our video tutorial to get all the steps right:

Here’s what our live subscriber page looks like in the YouTube Studio:

As you gain or lose subscribers, this number will tick forward or backward to display an accurate count.

Below the live counter, there’s a graph showing your subscriber history. This is a cool feature because you can use the period selector to see how many subscribers you had at any point in your YouTube journey. Selecting the 

option gives you a complete numerical history, as shown above.

Public Subscriber Counts Are Still Abbreviated

Remember when YouTube decided to abbreviate public subscriber counts? Well, that rule still applies if you have more than 1,000 subscribers. Eight hundred seventy-seven subscribers will appear as 877 on your channel. Three thousand forty-six subscribers will be displayed as 3.4K.

YouTube’s new subscriber page is simply an add-on. That means the public count, unfortunately, will still 

There’s a positive side, though. If you miss the old days of live streaming your subscriber count, now you can relive those moments. Simply identify your next milestone, plan a live stream, and celebrate the win alongside your viewers.

Are you about to reach 1,000 subscribers? 10,000? 100,000? If so, it's time to live stream your big moment with YouTube's new, updated subscriber page.

How to See Your Real-Time YouTube Subscriber Count

What if we told you the ideal duration for a Fortnite video is 9 minutes, 50 seconds? And that no matter how good your content is, trying to exceed that limit will cause hundreds of viewers to click off the video?

Immediately, you’d wonder two things about that mysterious claim:

Let’s start with number two. The length of your videos matters because viewers have a wide range of intentions on YouTube. Some are searching for quick answers to everyday questions, such as how to tie a necktie. Others want to know things that take several minutes to explain. They’ll watch a 30-minute video about building a gaming PC and still have the stamina to view more content.

Knowing which type of viewer you’re dealing with makes all the difference. You can plan better content and film videos that are long enough to appease your audience.

Want to learn how it's done? Keep reading to find the best YouTube video length for your content.

Method 1: Calculate the Average Length of Top-Performing Videos

Producing videos at the right length is easier than you think. All you have to do is:

Perform a search for the topic/title you’re interested in filming.

Copy the video length of the top four or five videos.

Paste the values into a time calculator, such as 

 - you’ll get the average length of top-ranking videos for that search term.

For visual instructions, watch our recent video, “How Long Should Your YouTube Videos Be?”

This isn’t the most scientific method, but it’s a good way to capitalize on what works. With this strategy, you at least know that thousands of viewers - maybe even millions - have watched specific content at a length they could stand.

You only have to do a few searches on YouTube to see how eye-opening this data is. For example, run a search for “how to tie a tie.” The average length for the highest-performing videos is 3 minutes, 10 seconds. Why? Because it’s a 30-second task and people searching this query want a fast solution.

What about “how to build a gaming PC?” As a creator, that’s going to cost you about 26 minutes, 39 seconds. Why? Viewers know the task is complicated and will watch a longer video to get the information.

Method 2: Analyze the Average View Duration on Your Channel

There are other ways to glean your ideal video length on YouTube. Instead of calculating average video lengths, you can follow the steps below to see how long viewers watch your content.

Below the graph showing channel views, Watch Time, subscribers, and revenue, click 

On the next page, you’ll see a row of tabs near the top of the page. Click 

. If you don’t see this option, you may need to expand the menu by clicking 

This will show you a graph of views, segmented by subscribers and non-subscribers. Be sure to 

 at the top right corner of the page to get at least a month of data.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see your channel's average view duration.

Here’s what this page looks like for the vidIQ channel:

Here you can see the impact of your subscribers, and generally speaking, how long they watch your content. 

On the vidIQ channel, subscribers watch our content for an average of 3 minutes, 21 seconds. So at the very least, we know our audience is willing to stick around for 3 minutes. That doesn’t mean we’ll make videos at that length, but it gives us a benchmark to follow and a time frame for presenting the most valuable information in a video.

Also, where people discover your content on YouTube influences how long they’re willing to watch - and that’s powerful information to have. So you can check the 

 tab on this same page (below) for a deeper understanding of your average view duration.

For example, look at the two highlighted areas below.

Our average view duration from suggested videos is 3 minutes, 59 seconds. That’s significantly higher than the 2 minutes, 7 seconds we receive from YouTube search.

So for people who watch content like ours, they see a suggested video from vidIQ, click on it, and watch for nearly four minutes on average. 

Looking at this chart, we may decide to not make videos shorter than four minutes.

Turning casual viewers into fans is a great indicator of success. That’s why you should analyze your subscriber growth to see if making longer or shorter content is a good idea.

To get started, return to this page (below) in the YouTube Studio.

On this chart, pay close attention to the percentage breakdown of views earned from subscribers versus non-subscribers. As you can see, 85% of our views come from non-subscribers. Our goal is to convert these casual viewers into loyal fans.

That’s why you have to keep returning to this page. Keep watching the percentage split, and make note of increases or decreases trending in either direction.

If views from subscribers are growing, increase the length of your videos and see where that takes you.

 If the opposite is true, and you’re losing subscribers, don’t worry about making longer content. You should figure out 

Viewer Intent Should Determine the Length of Your YouTube Videos

At this point, we’ve shared three options for choosing an ideal video length. You can:

Calculate the average length of similar, top-performing videos.

Analyze your average view duration for certain traffic sources.

Determine whether your subscriber count is rising or falling, then make adjustments to your video time limit.

These are great strategies, but don’t forget about viewer intent. 

You should determine how much information will best serve your audience, then make a video long enough to achieve that goal.

 After satisfying this requirement, you can make adjustments to your video length strategy.

And when you finally do, don't become attached to one video length. Some topics require a bit of creative license, especially when you’re telling an emotional story. If you have a magnetic personality and excellent storytelling skills, you can be flexible with the length of your videos.

Our only recommendation is to never make videos less than two minutes long. So far, we haven’t seen a video that short reach meaningful success on YouTube.

If your video is less than two minutes, you might 

. This new content type has the potential to go viral and introduce your videos to millions of people on YouTube.

There's no perfect length for a YouTube video. You have to find what works for you, so here are three tips to jumpstart the process.

3 Ways to Find the Best YouTube Video Length

When you first set up your YouTube channel, its web address won’t be a snazzy URL of your choosing. The default address will actually include your channel ID - a 24-character “name tag” that helps certain apps identify your channel.

In 2021, a 24-character URL is way too long. Fortunately, YouTube lets creators choose a custom address for their channel. It comes in handy nowadays, especially if you want to build a recognizable brand on the platform.

Creating a custom URL is quick and easy. But before we show you how, you should know whether you meet the requirements to do so. If you’ve completed these three steps, you should have no problem setting up a custom YouTube URL:

Have a channel that’s at least 30 days old.

If you’ve already done these things, congratulations! You’re ready to brand your YouTube channel with a custom URL that’s catchy easy to read.

First, find YouTube’s customization page in the YouTube Studio. This is where you’ll be able to adjust the layout, basic info, and branding on your channel.

Follow these steps to reach the selection page:

On your channel’s homepage, click your profile icon and select 

 tab. Scroll down until you see the Channel URL header.

Need a visual tutorial? Watch our video below for more guidance:

At this point, you’ll see two custom URL options. The first will be a default URL that closely matches your channel name. Of course, it's not always possible to claim this URL. Your channel name may be the same as someone else, which means they've already claimed the URL you want.

If that’s the case, use the second URL option. This will let you type in a custom URL that best represents your channel, as shown below:

 to save your changes and confirm ownership of the URL.

If you make a mistake when choosing your custom URL, don’t worry. You can always remove it in four easy steps:

Return to YouTube’s customization page and make sure the 

Scroll down until you see the Custom URL header. Click 

 right below the text box showing your current URL.

The next thing you’ll see is the About Me page on your Google account. In the about section, click the icon beside your current URL.

 and follow the steps in the previous section to create a new URL.

To clarify, creating or removing a custom URL doesn’t replace the random URL you’ve always had. This collection of characters is your channel ID, and it will always be attached to your account. Setting up a custom URL just keeps it from appearing in your channel’s web address.

Also, you may see /c/ in your URL from time to time, but don’t worry about it. You don’t need to include it in your address when sharing it online. Simply typing YouTube.com/yourchannel works just fine!

In 2021, a custom YouTube URL can set you apart from the competition. Other creators may choose to keep their alphanumeric address, but they won’t have the advantage of full branding. After all, no viewer wants to hear, “Subscribe to my YouTube channel at YouTube.com/xTCyaRn56LrjSsY12145TyBq.”

Are you ready to give your YouTube channel a custom URL? Here are the requirements to do so, plus a quick tutorial to help you get it done.

How To Get a Custom URL For Your YouTube Channel [2021 Update]

So far, there are two undeniable truths about making a YouTube Short. For YouTube to recognize a video as such, it needs to be less than 60 seconds long and in a vertical format.

However, YouTube hasn’t shared much information about the specifics of tall video content. This technical restriction is relatively new, so creators may be curious about the best aspect ratio for making YouTube Shorts.

As YouTube educators, we need that information too. It'll help us answer specific questions, such as, “

 Are we talking about an aspect ratio of 9:16 or a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels?

To find the answer, we did a test using the 

 channel. For more details about how we did that, plus a curious look at what may be the skinniest video ever, press play below:

By testing the bounds of vertical content, we discovered which videos YouTube considers to be Shorts, and thus, which videos make it to the 

. This featured section gets millions of views, so every creator should learn the technical requirements to appear there.

Do This One Thing To Get More Views With YouTube Shorts

Before we dive into our YouTube Shorts test, consider creating a featured section for the Shorts on your own channel. This creates a controlled environment of content where you can easily see all your Shorts. It’s almost impossible to know when a Short will be featured on the discovery shelf, so this is a crucial step in ‘tracking’ your progress.

To quickly create a Shorts featured section, read our guide, “

How to Get More Views with YouTube Shorts.

Once you've added this feature, you’ll see a section that automatically shows all of the YouTube Shorts on your channel. Or more importantly for this experiment, the videos YouTube 

But remember, enabling this section doesn't mean your video will appear on YouTube’s prized discovery shelf. It still has millions of other short videos to compete with. The only thing you’ll know for sure is which videos meet the requirements to be considered a YouTube Short.

Most creators understand the concept of making a video that's less than 60 seconds, but what does vertical format actually mean? We’ve seen several examples of square videos appearing as YouTube Shorts, so we decided to test the bounds of vertical content.

To do that, we created a video with an aspect ratio of 1:1 and 1080x1080 resolution - in other words, a perfect square. When we checked the video’s analytics, 12.6% of views came from the YouTube Shorts traffic source, as shown below:

This confirms what we already knew, especially after seeing the evidence on other YouTube Shorts. You can, in fact, make square videos classified as YouTube Shorts.

Ironically though, there’s both an advantage and disadvantage of doing that:

 YouTube Shorts weren’t designed with square videos in mind. That means the video will have an unsightly black bar at the top and bottom of the frame.

 On the flip side, square videos leave the bottom of the screen empty, and viewers can easily see your channel name, video title, and subscribe button.

YouTube Shorts: Can They Be ‘Wider’ Than Perfect Squares?

For our next YouTube Shorts test, we wanted to see if we could make one wider than a square. So we uploaded a video that was just 10 pixels wider than it was tall, and as we expected, the video didn't appear in our featured Shorts section. So by YouTube’s standard, that video was not considered a Short.

This test confirms a very important benchmark. 

Now we know the widest YouTube Short you can make is a square video. If the video is wider than it is tall, it won't be considered a YouTube Short.

Here’s another rule to follow: Don’t make a video skinnier than what you’d shoot on a smartphone. We created a video with a resolution of 360x1920 pixels, and while it can be viewed on YouTube, it didn’t appear on the Shorts shelf.

There’s no reason to upload a video thinner than what a smartphone produces, but hey - we just wanted to have a little fun. 

Ideally, vertical video is shot on a smartphone, and that's your safe zone. If you go any thinner than that, your video may not be considered a YouTube Short.

Can you make square videos and still get featured on YouTube's highly-viewed Shorts shelf? Let's find out.

YouTube Shorts: What Is a 'Vertical' Video?

To say 2020 has been weird is an understatement! So as we round off the year and head into the final quarter of 2020, what should we focus on as YouTube creators?

While it's easy to be despondent, you can easily double-down on the skills you have and still finish this year on a high note! In this episode of TubeTalk, we're joined by YouTube mastermind Benji Travis. As one of the guys behind the influential 

, he knows a thing or two about YouTube success! In this episode you will learn:

Important lessons for creators from the 2008 recession

That you have skills that businesses need

Want to Know the Five Big Mistakes YouTubers Make?

Benji has joined us before on TubeTalk to talk about the top five mistakes YouTube creators often make. These mistakes can often block their path to success. 

TubeTalk has been the #1 podcast for video creators and marketers since 2014. It's one of the most respected and listened to podcasts in the online video industry, so don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to TubeTalk on your favorite podcast app so you never miss an episode!

You can also find the complete list of all the 

2020 has been a very challenging year, but YouTube creators can still end the year on a successful note. Find out how in this episode of TubeTalk.

What YouTube Creators Need to Focus on for the Rest of 2020

Have you ever filmed a promo encouraging viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel? Without setting a custom URL for your page, the web address probably looked like this: 

So let’s put an end to long, alpha-numeric addresses. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to set a custom URL for your YouTube channel.

How to See If You’re Eligible For a Custom YouTube URL

Before we dive into the tutorial, let’s check your eligibility for custom URLs. Here’s how you do that:

Go to the YouTube Studio. You can reach it by clicking your channel’s profile image on a desktop screen.

Click ‘Settings’ in the left navigation bar.

Once the settings pop-up appears, click ‘Channel’ in the left navigation bar.

In the uppermost menu, click ‘Feature Eligibility’.

At the bottom of the screen, click ‘Status and Features’.

Next, you’ll see an older-looking YouTube page. If YouTube hasn’t updated it before you read this, you should be able to scroll down and see if you’re eligible for a custom URL, as shown below:

Need a visual breakdown of these steps? Watch our video tutorial to make sure you’re doing everything correctly:

Who’s Eligible For a Custom YouTube URL?

If you’re eligible to set a custom URL, congrats! You can enable this feature in the same ‘Status and Features’ page you’re currently in.

However, if you’re unable to set a custom URL, don’t worry. That just means you have some requirements to meet before turning on the feature, which includes:

Growing your YouTube channel to at least 

Reaching the 30-day milestone for having a channel.

If you haven’t satisfied the last two requirements, you can upload these items to your channel by moving your mouse over the channel icon or channel banner. When the camera button appears, click it to upload your banner/icon art.

Finding the Custom URL Screen In YouTube Studio

Now, if the ‘Status and Features’ page no longer exists, there’s another way to reach the custom URL feature. Simply do this instead:

If your YouTube channel’s URL contains random characters, it’s time to update that web address. Here’s how!

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