How to Repurpose Videos for YouTube Shorts

Even if you’re not creating them yet, you’ve likely heard about YouTube Shorts by now. The feature is essentially YouTube’s answer to TikTok, and it allows users to create short-form, vertical videos. And if you’re not leveraging YouTube Shorts yet, it’s time to start! Shorts are a fantastic way to promote your regular channel, get more views, and grow your subscriber count. 

The best part about YouTube Shorts? Because it’s focused on short-form, vertical video content, it’s easy to take videos you created for other vertical video platforms (like TikTok or Instagram Reels) and repurpose them on YouTube Shorts. And it’s especially easy when you use Zubtitle! Just follow the steps below… 

How to Repurpose Videos for YouTube Shorts

1. Pick your original video

When you’re picking a video to repurpose on YouTube Shorts, you’ve got a couple of options to choose between. You can post videos up to 60 seconds long on YouTube Shorts, which means you could take any video that’s 60 seconds or less that you shared on TikTok or Instagram Reels and repurpose it for Shorts.

Keep in mind that if you download a video you shared on TikTok, you’ll need to remove the TikTok watermark in order for your video to perform optimally on YouTube Shorts. We’ve shared four ways to do that here.

Your second option is to take a longer video that you’ve posted on your regular YouTube channel and repurpose it for YouTube Shorts. All you have to do is break your longer video up into “micro” videos. To create micro pieces of content like this, it’s best to choose a video that has a few obvious points, so that it’s easier to naturally break up.

If, for example, you take a video with 5 main points, you can then divide it into 5 separate videos to cover each point and post them at different times. That’s 5 new YouTube Shorts that you just created from a single YouTube video.

2. Duplicate your video for YouTube Shorts

Now here’s where Zubtitle comes in! Once you’ve chosen your video, you’ll likely want to keep an original copy and then have your edited version — possibly even multiple edited versions, if you’ve chosen one long video that you’re going to split up into multiple videos. The best way to accomplish this is with Zubtitle’s state-of-the-art editing software! With our new Duplicate function, you can create as many copies as you want of your original video, eliminating the need to upload the same original video over and over again. 

All you have to do is sign up for a free account (or log in to your account, if you already have one) and upload your original video. The first screen that you’ll see is a place to trim your video. You can skip that for this time and move onto the next screen. There, in the upper right hand menu, you’ll see an option to duplicate. You can use that button to duplicate your original video as many times as you want. For example, if you’re taking a longer video that you want to turn into five micro-videos, go ahead and duplicate that original video five times. Now you can trim and edit those duplicates and keep an original, unedited copy, all in one place.

3. Trim your video for YouTube Shorts

Once you’ve duplicated your video (however many times you need), you can start editing your duplicate(s). Take your first one, for example, and trim it down to just the section you want for your first micro-video. Just use our simple point and drag editor to quickly trim the front and back end of your video until you’ve got the exact clip you need. When you have the exact section you want, move on to the next screen.

4. Resize and optimize your video for YouTube Shorts

Now that you have your trimmed video, all you have to do is resize and optimize it so it performs well on YouTube Shorts. And you can do it all in just a few clicks with Zubtitle! With Zubtitle, you can edit your automatically transcribed captions, customize your video with your logo, brand colors, and fonts, add animated captions, include eye-catching elements like a headline and a progress bar, and much more! 

5. Download your new video(s)

For each video, simply select the download button in the upper-right hand corner to render your video and download it to your computer or device. Now you’re ready to repurpose your video for YouTube Shorts!

Are you ready to repurpose videos for Instagram Reels with Zubtitle? 

Just log in! If you don’t have a Zubtitle account and you’re ready to start creating for FREE, sign up today!

And if you want to learn about increasing your video watch time, check out this video (and our Instagram):