Shorts From Every Video

Why Shorts from the main video

You can make Shorts from scratch, and some creators do. But for a one-person channel, the easiest Shorts come from footage you already have.

Your Shorts bot

You could give this job to your packaging bot from Chapter 2, but I'd make a separate bot. One bot, one job.

Finding the moments

Give the bot the final transcript of the finished video, not the raw footage. You want moments that made the cut.

Hooks

The first second or two of a Short decides whether someone keeps watching. That opening is called the hook.

Captions on screen

Most Shorts get watched with the sound off, at least at first. So most creators put words on screen.

The vertical crop

Your main video is probably wide. Shorts are tall.

Titles and descriptions for Shorts

Shorts need titles too. They're shorter and more direct than long-video titles.

A posting schedule

Five Shorts dumped on one day isn't as useful as five spread over a week. The bot can suggest a schedule, like one a day starting the day after the main video, and keep track of which clips have gone up.

Reusing Shorts elsewhere

Vertical clips also work on other platforms. You can post the same clips elsewhere if that suits you.

What you're left doing

After setting this up, your part of Shorts looks like this. You get the list.

Checking what works

Be careful with the answer. Twenty Shorts is a small sample.

Walkthrough: from list to scheduled Shorts

Here's the Sunday evening routine at Patch and Mend once the Shorts bot is set up.

What went wrong: the spoiler

One week, the bot picked the before-and-after reveal as the best Short, and the owner scheduled it for the day before the full video came out. The Short did well.