Hey everyone, it’s been a long time since I’ve been active on the forum.
I’m feeling inspired today, so I thought I’d share my step-by-step process for growing with YouTube Shorts—for anyone looking to earn a bit extra with just 2–3 free hours in the evening.

I chose to focus on Shorts instead of long-form videos because YouTube has recently changed how views are counted. In short, Shorts are now getting significantly more views, while the revenue per view hasn’t changed much.

Alright, let’s dive right in while the mood’s hot!

STEP 1: SETTING UP YOUR CHANNEL
Getting a YouTube channel monetized isn’t too difficult. If you want a quick start, you can invest in buying a pre-approved channel. But if you're not in a rush, building one from scratch is totally doable—fastest in about 2 weeks, or up to a month to meet the monetization requirements.

Each channel should have its own separate email, and you only need to connect it to one main Google AdSense (GA) account. Since there are already tons of detailed guides on Google about setting up a channel, linking AdSense, and verifying everything, I won’t go into too much detail here. Newcomers can easily look that up so we can keep this post short and to the point.

STEP 2: FINDING A NICHE / CHOOSING A TOPIC
There are endless topics you can create Shorts about. But if you're just starting out, it can be overwhelming trying to pick a direction.

So here’s how I usually go about it—feel free to tweak or adapt it however works best for you:

1. Main Topic:
   Let me use AI as an example. So in this case, the main topic would be AI.
2. Subtopics:
   From the main topic, I break it down into smaller subtopics to make it easier to explore more focused content. For example: AI in Gaming, AI Graphics, AI Tools, AI Videos, AI 3D, AI Software, Learning AI, AI Tutorials, How to Build AI, etc.
3. Micro-Niches:
   Once you’ve picked a subtopic, you can narrow it down further into micro-niches.
   For example, under AI Videos, you could explore niches like:
   How to create AI videos, AI video tutorials, smooth AI video examples, AI videos made from images, AI animation creation, AI video editing, and so on.
4. Detailed Keyword Research:
   Let’s take the micro-niche “AI video creation” as an example. I would search for more specific and related keywords. This can be done easily using YouTube search, Google, or tools like vidIQ. For instance:
   how to make free AI videos, generate endless AI videos, bulk AI video creation, cat AI videos, AI city videos, etc.
5. Content Filtering:
   After gathering keywords, I start browsing YouTube or TikTok using those keywords. I usually watch 5 to 10 videos per keyword to get a sense of the typical content, editing styles, and production ideas.
6. Keyword + Content Organization:
   Once steps 4 and 5 are done, I recommend creating a Google Sheet to keep track of everything.
   List out your keywords along with content ideas so that when you manage multiple channels, you have a central file for quick reference and planning.

STEP 3: CREATING VIDEO CONTENT
If you already know some basic video editing, this part should be fairly easy. If not, I recommend spending an hour or two getting familiar with CapCut—it's quick and user-friendly.

For the content itself, you can base your videos on what you found earlier during your keyword and topic research. If you want something fast and catchy, you can also use CapCut templates, vlog-style edits, or flashy effects—whatever suits your theme. The only downside is that these templates are super common, so a lot of people use them already.

To make Shorts quickly, I usually combine a few key elements:

• Images,
• Short video clips (even reuploads under 5 seconds are usually fine),
• Text overlays,
• And AI voiceovers to narrate in the background.

STEP 4: UPLOADING THE VIDEO
Right now, it's best to upload directly from your phone. That way, you can choose music from the YouTube Shorts library (if your edit syncs with trending audio), and you can also customize the thumbnail more easily.

For example, adding a catchy thumbnail image—something like an attractive visual plus a bold, attention-grabbing title—can really boost clicks

Uploading from PC is still pretty limited, especially for Shorts.

As for tags, descriptions, etc.—you can mostly skip them. They don’t matter much anymore. Just make sure your title includes a relevant keyword that clearly reflects your video’s content.

And that's it. Simple, clear, and straight to the point.


Here is one of the many channels I've built. Once you get one channel running well, you can start scaling it up to 3, 4, or even 9 or 10 channels without much trouble.
The process is pretty much the same. After a while, you'll get used to it and making videos becomes very quick.
For example, on one of my niche channels about water topics (like oceans, freshwater, etc.), I can create a full video in just 10 minutes in the evening.
If you manage to keep up with 5 channels each month, that can become a nice extra source of side income.

NOTE: Be sure to read YouTube’s Policies and Copyright Guidelines carefully on the YouTube Help page (https://support.google.com/youtube) before creating content. This will help you avoid losing your channel or having your monetization disabled unexpectedly.

Wishing everyone happy earnings and much success ahead!